Leslie and the Badgers

http://www.myspace.com/leslieandthebadgers

http://buzzbands.la/2009/06/29/leslie-the-badgers-mark-their-smokin-new-release/

http://cdbaby.com/cd/lesliebadgers

http://www.laweekly.com/events/leslie-and-the-badgers-the-chapin-sisters-olin-and-the-moon-eagle-winged-palace-616696/

 

So this is how I came to find Leslie and the Badgers…well, let me start with this… My obsession with 140 characters to tell the world what I am doing. Period.

davepal @robiart Check out Leslie and the Badgers on iTunes. They have an EP there. New full-length comes out today. I think you'd really like 'em!

Now @davepal rarely steers me wrong, so I filed this for a few days in the back of my “to do” list.  I feel I owe some explanation, I rarely get to my “to do” list, so some things get neglected easily. But for some cosmic reason yet to be determined…this one moved up towards the top one morning.

My other vice/obsession (Starbucks – shhh I know its bad), has me venturing into the coffee shop that sees me every morning like I’m a character from Cheers and goes “Morning Jenny - iced nonfat chai latte with a pump of sugar free hazelnut?” This morning took a bit longer than usual, so I take out my iPhone and open the app twitterfon and see @davepal’s message again. What the heck! $4.95 later I am the proud owner of the Leslie and the Badger’s EP.

That night, on my hell commute home (which is where I mainly get lost in music), I turn the new tunes on.

I start out with the song “Old Timers”. She definitely has a great voice, but I get a little grumpy at first…sounded like I was listening to a new Jenny Lewis album. Now don’t get me wrong, NOTHING wrong with hearing a Jenny Lewis Rabbit Fur Coat - like band, but I was hoping for a bit of something NEW. But I didn’t stop the album (thankfully). By the end of the song, the lyrics have grabbed me.  Screw first impressions!

Now, again, with fairness, I am a sucker for lost love type songs. But there is a sweet yet sadness to the line “we'll be together 'til they call us old timers”

Where to move on from here? Tracks keep coming…Shoulder to cry on up next.

Then I get to the blues-ish (is that even a word?)  sounding song “torture” and keep moving, getting more and more involved. All my prejudices of sound-a-likes and such are now out the window. I love when I find a cd or band, where the musical genre is preserved in each song, but each song has it’s own “flavor”. I found the perfect example with this EP.

With my parents originally from Pikeville, KY, I have always had a love for country music. When I was little, I may have been the only 5 years old that knew all the lyrics to Dolly Parton’s Jolene (disturbing, yes, but I wear it with pride like a badge on my chest). So with that being said, I am a very critical judge of what some call “modern country”.

Here is how I judge this new twang called Modern County... Does it have heart? Does it have soul? Can I tap my toes? Can it make me remember hot humid summers in the Cumberland Mountains of the Appalachians? And more importantly, can it make me feel like I am anywhere but Los Angeles (simply, can it take me away)?

Success!

The proof came when I got to the song “That’d be fine”. I listened to this song probably 6 times in a row and all those key elements feel into place. Now again, let me remind everyone that everyone finds love in music for various random reasons, these are just mine in this one particular genre. But BAM it was a hit.

LAWeekly stated it best…” Leslie & the Badgers are quietly turning into one of the city’s best quiet bands.”

I find that this album is on repeat a lot over the past few weeks while stuck on the 405 dreaming of where the song can take me way to. The voice meets music mix has that heart I was looking for. I find myself (although I am horrible keeping tempo) tapping my fingers on my steering wheel and pretending my voice can actually hit the notes she hits. My head continues to rock…then I see the man next to me watching me from his beat up Toyota like I had just escaped from the looney bin, so I give him a wink. Drums and bass take over, a little guitar, and the voice takes hold again.

“and if you can not sing, then I will, and if you can not sing, then I will…if you can not sing your final dieing song…I promised you baby that I will”

Yep. Best $5 I have spent in awhile. And now I am hooked.

Thanks @davepal for the suggestion. I’m off to get the full length on the 7^th when it hits iTunes.