You know, this whole social media “sharing” thing is a mixed bag, most of the time you have to sift through all this stuff people feel is worth sharing, separating the crap from the gems, but occasionally the gems are so totally worth it.
This morning I came upon this tweet by a longtime favorite musician of mine, Aimee Mann…
https://twitter.com/#!/aimeemann/status/166432643720806400
…I immediately fired up Spotify and now I can’t thank Aimee Mann enough for turning me on to this great album by Fruit Bats.
As I then explored some of their earlier music, I have to admit that I tended to agree with some detractors who found that Fruit Bats sounded too similar to The Shins, another band I like a lot, to be overly interesting, even though I’ve known about and loved their 2003 single When U Love Somebody for a while now.
But as I made my way through their catalog, I started picking up on their particular vibe, the really, REALLY good songwriting by frontman Eric Johnson (who, ironically, was a member of The Shins for a while), the nice blend of folk-rock and pop that they spin, they’ve evolved nicely, sounding more and more unique, and by their 2011 album Tripper I no longer see any point in the comparisons with The Shins.
Anyway, here’s a great song from Tripper via KEXP.org:
Fish & Bicycles 