Faded Paper Figures

Faded Paper Figures is an Indie band form Irvine, California whose album, Dynamo, will be released this week. You can download their album on cdbaby now. Faded paper figures is a side project of these three musicians. You may be familiar with some of their previous work. Kael Alden, one of the members of the band, composed a song for a Lexus Commercial. (you can view it here). When I first listened to the album, I wasn't expecting for it to be as good as it is. I had heard about them before, but I wasn't sure whether they'd live up to the hype. They have a similar sound as the Postal Service and Stars, and I wasn't sure whether they'd be anywhere near as good as them. However, it wasn't only as good as I thought it was going to be-it's better. Many songs throughout the album lament on war for oil, societal problems, and pollution. The subject of love is used as solace throughout the album. songs like "North by North" and "Metropolis" are the stronger tracks from the album. I'm fairly certain I've listened to "North by North" somewhere, but I haven't quite remembered where.
While perusing their site for lyrics (www.fadedpaperfigures.com) I found something interesting that they did: on specific words, they put links to several sites that relate to the lyrics. For example, on "North by north", a line goes, "Northern winters start to thaw; to islands on the sea, lands I've never seen. Things will get calmer-follow me". And on "thaw", they put a link to www.climatecrisis.net, as it relates to the line about global warming. I thought it was an ingenious way to give their fans a better understanding of the lyrics and make them aware of a cause that is important to the band (and in other lines, links to sites or videos they enjoy watching or are related to the song in some way or what have you).
their site: www.fadedpaperfigures.com
lyrics
you can listen to their music at their myspace

Blind Pilot

I've now realized that the majority of my posts have been late at night.
I'm not sure what it is, but I seem to want to listen to music and type about it late at night.

Or maybe it's insomnia.

The world may never know.

Anyway, I was browsing the iTunes store earlier, and I came across the free single of the week. I didn't know much about Blind Pilot other than that they're an Acoustic/Indie/Folk duo, who consist of Israel Nebeker (guitar & Vocals) and Ryan Dobrowski (drums) from Portland, Oregon. So out of curiosity, and because I'm too cheap to buy it on my own, I downloaded their single, "Go on, say it". It took me a few plays to really warm up to the song, but it's pretty good. After the first couple of seconds into Israel Nebeker singing, it reminded me a bit of The Beatles. But after a bit, they go off into their own unique guitar strumming, lush strings-backed, brushed drumming path. And thereafter, they seemed to have more incommon with The Shins.
The band, who decided to paint (Dobrowski did the cover art for their album), write, and record their debut album, 3 Rounds and a Sound, in an Astoria Warehouse in 2006, are going to make a second attempt at completing a bike tour through Vancouver, B.C, down to Mexico beginning on August 16th. Their first attempt at a bike tour, which took place last year, came to a finish when their bikes were stolen in San Francisco, California. However, before then, you can catch them at the Aladdin Theater in Portland, Oregon opening for Aimee Mann on July 19th. Download their single, "Go On, Say it" on the iTunes music store before the week ends!
If you want to listen to it before deciding on whether you want to download it,
Here's their single: "Go On, say it"
Their myspace