A Round of Sound

I love my subscription to Paste Magazine, not only because it’s a great read, but also for the sampler CD they include with every magazine that features some new music.  I usually just pop it in my car’s cd player and keep it on repeat for times when I don’t have my iPod with me.  On average I’d say there’s about 10 artists included in each CD that I haven’t heard of, and with usually 2 or 3 of those sticking out to me.  And every now and there’s one that intrigues me enough to do some research and find out more about that artist.  On the Issue 59 (Dec ’09/Jan ’10) sampler, buried all the way at the very end is a track from a group called Oberhofer called “Away FRM U” that immediately stood out to me.  When I first heard the song, and the vocals came in I assumed it was a new project of Frog Eyes frontman (and Swan Lake member) Carey Mercer.  But then I thought, wait no, this isn’t nearly weird enough.

Turns out Oberhofer isn’t really a band as much as it is just 19 year old Brad Oberhofer.  Originally from Tacoma, Washington but now based in Brooklyn (of course), Oberhofer is another one of those bedroom artist that records his own stuff and hopes the internet can help him along.  So far, so good.  The guy has been showing up all over the blogosphere recently, and Paste Magazine included another one of his songs as part of the Issue 60 Sampler bonus tracks.  As I said, his voice certainly compares to Carey Mercer and Spencer Krug of Frog Eyes/Swan Lake/Wolf Parade/Sunset Rubdown fame.  Those are British Columbia based groups so I’m sure there’s a bit of influence from those guys considering Tacoma’s close proximity to BC, and musically you can hear a little bit of that.  I would, however, compare Oberhofer quirks and sweetness a little more with another Canadian band, Islands (although not from BC).  His stuff is absolutely infectious and it’s been stuck in my head for weeks.  What’s also cool is that he’s giving away his 7 song EP for free!  Originally, if you signed up for his e-mail list you were sent to a link where you could download it, but after some technical difficulties, he ended up just providing this link via his myspace page.  So go there, and grab the EP.  It’s free…what do you have to lose?  I can’t wait to hear more stuff out of this guy and I’m betting he’ll be blowing up the indie world sooner rather than later.

[“Away FRM U” – o0Oo0Oo]

[“o0Oo0Oo” – o0Oo0Oo]