On Discovering a New Band

I have odd listening habits.

Take, for instance, the BBC’s Scotland Introducing podcast, which plays music from unsigned Scottish bands. I’m not sure how I found this podcast, but it’s the kind of thing I’d be interested in. Scottish bands like Travis are just really my kind of thing.

On the latest episode, Vic Galloway played a song by a band that, obviously as I’m not Scottish, I’d never heard of.

The band? Q Without U. The song? “The Deficit Model.”

And I liked it.

It was poppy. It was catchy.

It was exactly what I was looking for.

From their website, Q Without U’s entire first album, Shut Up! I Invented You! is available as a free download. It’s a bit Snow Patrol-like, from the days when I liked Snow Patrol because they were edgy. (The Final Straw days, basically.)

They also sound a bit like a band I knew and enjoyed a great deal back in college, who put together one album, played a couple of gigs in the Richmond area, and then disappeared into the great chasmous fate that greets so many bands.

I quite like Shut Up! It has a raw, unpolished quality to it. There’s energy and verve to it. I’m keeping this one around, and I’ll be checking back, hoping to hear more of this band.

Discovering one good band makes listening to oddball podcasts worth it. 🙂