The Westar – the band formerly known as Vic Kingsley – formed at the University of Miami in 2007. Recently reduced to a duo, Vic Garcia and Ethan Carlson are relocating to Los Angeles, where they’ll face the challenges of breaking into a treacherous industry while maintaining their independent dignity. Have a listen.

How did things begin?

Ethan Carlson: Kingsley started out with Vic [Garcia] and myself collaborating on recording seven songs in the summer of 2007. It started out that Vic was strictly the songwriter and I was the producer, but as the summer progressed and show opportunities came up, I joined the band, and Luke [Moellman] who recorded drums on the album became a band member too. The line up was rounded out by Jon Draper later in the fall and the band Kingsley was formed.

Eventually the lineup switched to having Jorge [Balbi] on drums as Luke continued with school and other musical projects. At this point Vic and I are moving out to L.A. to continue with the band there, and Jon has moved to Nashville to pursue music there. Jorge is staying in Miami.

Is Vic Garcia “Vic Kingsley?” Or just in the same way that Darius Rucker is Hootie?

EC: Well after some web browsing, there appeared to be a band in L.A. by the name of Kingsley so we were forced to adopt a new name, and since we were pretty sold on the Kingsley part we opted to add Vic’s name to make it Vic Kingsley. Although Vic’s name was in the name of the band, he is still Vic Garcia and the band was Vic Kingsley.

So the band came together as a result of the recording of your album “These Frequencies?”

EC: The album began just as songs that Vic had written and wanted to record. After the first seven songs were record in the summer, we recorded another four songs in the fall once the band was together. Finally by April 2008 we released the album in its entirety.

The album has enough cohesiveness considering how much it seems to have been pieced together.

EC: Since everyone in the band has either school or other jobs, it takes quite a while to get everything done. The drums and bass were tracked at Dungeon studios in North Miami and the guitars, keys and vocals were recorded at my house.

Did being in school make the album difficult to fund as well, then? Did you shop record labels before the recording, or after, or intend on going strictly DIY?

EC: There was always the expectation at the beginning that we would put the album together and promote it on our own. We were fortunate to have or first manager help finance getting the CD’s printed up, and we hired people or had friends who took pictures, did graphic design and put together our first music video for “B for Breaking My Heart”.

I think we were all really happy with how the album turned out and with all the promotion. We had a great CD release party at the Gibson Showroom in Miami. People were impressed at how well we had created a ‘package’ as a local band with a sound and image and style that all made sense together.

When I heard “These Frequencies” the first couple times, it seemed like every ten seconds there would be something – a production technique, vocal inflection, chord progression, whatever – that reminded me of more and more different artists. Do you aim to sound like anyone specific, and are there any strange or offensive similarities you try to avoid?

EC: We have a lot of bands that we’d love to sound like – Coldplay, Mute Math, Travis, As Tall As Lions, Radiohead, Wilco… Vic is famous for finding an album, falling in love with it and having that inspire him to write a couple new songs. But even with our influences I feel that we’re taking the parts we like from bands and incorporating that into our style rather than just sounding like one band. Some people have told Vic he sounds like Elvis Costello… but overall we do hope to remain unique and bring something new to the table.

Are there any other main sources of inspiration?

EC: Aside from music, Vic studied creative literature at University of Miami and that has been a big influence on his style of writing lyrics. The city of Miami has definitely influenced some of the music, although it has been more of the parts that we don’t like about the city rather than the fun and sun.

How has the band, as a creative unit, treated the situation of being unsigned?

EC: Starting a band is extremely difficult. Finding enough time to devote to the project, while also being able to make money to pay the rent, and then using what money you do have to promote, get to shows, produce CD’s… At the beginning everything is an expense and any money made by the band goes right back into paying for another expense. Of course it would be lovely to have a record company hand us a bunch of money…. but with that comes a lot of complicated issues that can destroy a band if not handled carefully.

Do you actively try to find a deal?

EC: Well at the end of the day, most bands that make money are signed to a record company, so of course that is what we’d like. However, this is such a passion and dream for us that we are not going to wait for a record company to sign us and we want to make sure that we’re ready for a record company before we try to sign with them. The more of a history we have and the more music and fans we have, the more leverage we would have with signing a deal so that’s what we’re working on now. And if by some chance we are able to make enough fans and money without a label by doing what we’re doing, then all the better.

Is there glamor in independence?

EC: Bands who are independent and make enough money to survive deserve a lot of credit. It’s all about what is the best fit for the band whether being completley independent, on an indie label or on a major label.

What have you found to be the best methods of marketing and self-promotion? Do you feel you’ve been able to fairly well accomplish what a record label and its associates would otherwise do for you?

EC: Independently we’ve been able to market through magazines and online, book shows around the country, make a music video, release a CD physically and online and most importantly make fans. At this point one of our most limiting factors is having the budget to do those things on a larger scale, which a record company would be able to do.

Honestly the best way of marketing has been playing shows and making sure to talk with fans so they will come back and bring their friends back to the next show. Aside from that it’s spending hours on Myspace sending freind requests. We send our music out to a bunch of podcasts around the world which helped expose our music to places that we don’t have the opportunity to play at this point.

How has your association with University of Miami affected things?

EC: Being a band from there has enabled us to play a lot of shows for the college crowd on campus and has actually helped us book shows elsewhere in the country where graduates have relocated. We met our manager from a connection at UM. So far it’s been great to have all the connections associated with a university of that size.

So you’re fairly spur-of-the-moment deciding to pick up and move to Los Angeles. What are your goals and expectations for life on the West Coast?

EC: At this point we’re planning to move because we feel that we have a better opportunity to play meaningful shows and develop a larger fan base out there. So far our strongest point has been developing a sound and a style, but what we need to work on are having amazing songs and building a strong fan base.

L.A. means having a lot more competition, but we’re confident that we have the work ethic and talent to compete out there. We’re beginning to record another album, but we’re still waiting on seeing what the right time and direction is to make it really count for us.

Dan Auerbach: Keep It Hid

On Keep It Hid, Dan Auerbach is a gritty modern bluesman mired in traditions ranging from Southern gospel, Roy Orbison meets mid-70s era John Lennon, modern folk, and Mississippi Delta blues. Auerbach’s songs are soulful and rootsy, but maintain a modern sophistication. Auerbach’s natural voice, delivery, and songwriting create a distinctive brand of indie-blues-rock. Those familiar with The Black Keys will find Keep It Hid to be a bit more accessible and succinct, but certainly not lacking in interesting content.

Keep It Hid was written partially while on tour in support of The Black Keys’ 2008 release Attack & Release, and was recorded at Auerbach’s home studio in Akron, Ohio. It is truly a solo project, with most instruments being played by Auerbach and whichever friends or relatives had stopped by that particular afternoon for a cup of coffee. Bit-crushed drums and crunchy guitar riffs give the songs a gravelly backbone, creating a general framework for the occasional guest upright bass, vocal harmonies, and even vintage drum machine.

The production on most tracks is a reverbed retro sound that suits Auerbach’s tenor timbre. The few most notable departures from this overall feel are When the Night Comes, which features mellotron strings, female vocal harmonies, and fingerpicked acoustic guitar, and the melancholy closing track Goin’ Home, with a 2-feel mandolin and acoustic guitar accompaniment.

The lyrics are much better than they would have to be for an album of its type. Pangs of regret, loss, and longing are a common thread. Auerbach’s loyalty to traditional stylings make the quality of the lyrics and overall song construction very noticeable; Keep It Hid is a demonstration of a truly gifted songwriter augmenting his roots to create something noteworthy.

Visit Dan Auerbach’s Myspace or official Nonesuch Records site.

Anathallo: Canopy Glow

2008 was a pretty damn good year for music, considering recent history. Instant classics were released by artists like Fleet Foxes, The Tallest Man on Earth, MGMT, Sigur Ros, Conor Oberst, Death Cab For Cutie, Coldplay, The Raconteurs, TV on the Radio… but Anathallo’s Canopy Glow was my favorite album of 2008. Even though 2009 is more than half over, I needed to put Anathallo somewhere on this site.

Anathallo are a young seven-piece chamber pop ensemble that plays in odd time signatures with vast instrumentation – brass quartet, mallet and auxiliary percussion, multi-part vocal harmony, in addition to bass/drums/guitar/piano. Although this could very easily lead to an art rock wank-fest, Anathallo performs carefully crafted songs ranging from lush musical landscapes to intricate chamber music. The band’s three previous full-length releases have shown a distinct development from a slightly punky teenaged thrash into tight cohesion, and Canopy Glow truly puts the cherry on top of this development.

Lead singer Matt Joynt has a young and fresh voice, but it is not lacking in refinement or skill. It is a pretty common thing for Anathallo to be mentioned in the same breath as Sufjan Stevens. Anathallo is clearly a collaborative unit that admirably takes many sometimes-minimal elements and incorporates them into a singular well-oiled mechanical operation, each individual contribution fitting and blending perfectly. If Sufjan Stevens is a nice gold watch, Anathallo is a gold Swiss precision timepiece.

On the ten-track Canopy Glow, Joynt’s voice is frequently complemented by that of Erica Froman. The songs have memorable melodies that are both intricately rhythmic and broadly sweeping. Any of the songs can stand on their own two feet, but the album is best taken in as a complete work. The flow from one track to the next is impeccable, as is the ebb and flow of energy and dynamics. Every time I hear it, which is in the hundreds by this point, I hear a new countermelody, harmony, or instrument; Canopy Glow will hold my attention for years to come and will be hard to top. Of course, that’s what I thought about 2006’s Floating World.

Visit Anathallo’s website, blog, and Myspace.

…the hosting service I was using was hacked by a delightful Saudi Arabian fellow; luckily I have everything saved and will be back up and running in a jif.