Electric Wire Hustle

Above, you will see my new pictorial masterpiece that I believe perfectly describes
this band I just heard.

Right about now, you're probably wondering, "Ashley, what kind of drugs are you on?" And the answer would be that I just finished reading my Psychology homework and I am high on life. As you may have guessed, Psyc 001 didn't really do the trick for me but Electric Wire Hustle sure did. The reason it took me approximately 10 hours to complete 30 pages of reading, simply comes down to the fact that I was distracted by their myspace.

When I listen to Electric Wire Hustle, I hear an amazing Motown vibe coming from this group of three charming men. People use the term-neo soul quite often but EWH really has something authentically old school about their sound.

So, now you're probably wondering what these pictures have to do with EWH.
Well, I will tell you.

The Roots: EWH has the same hip-hop soul vibe of Philly-favorite, The Roots. Also, an admirable quality that both groups share is that....(drum roll please) they both play their own music- crazy isn't it!

Marvin Gaye: As I said before, there is something authentically old school about this group that I can't really put a finger on. Once you have a listen, though, I'm sure you'll feel it- very reminiscent of Marvin Gaye. Listen to "They Don't Want"- featuring a little Mayfield influence as well (on myspace)!

Kiwi: And finally the big mystery of my pictorial tapestry-- the Kiwi. Despite their soulful, Motown-esque sound, EWH is from none other than New Zealand! Crazy, right?! I mean, I can't name any musicians from New Zealand (although I admit that this is because of my ignorance of New Zealand's culture and not because of the quality of their music). But when you listen to these guys, I'm sure that you, like I, would never guess that they were Kiwi's (and rather ripe looking if I may say so myself).

So here's an actual picture of Electric Wire Hustle

And here's their video for, "Perception." Check out their myspace for more!

Don't Look Down

For the long time supporters of Muse Sickly Challenged, you know that I love singer-songwriters. David Ryan Harris has been popping up all over the singer-songwriter world for the past couple of years, but it seems like it's still relatively unknown. I first heard of Harris through the ill-famed myspace "music networking" site. Two of my favorite singer-songwriters, Dave Barnes and John Mayer, both had David Ryan Harris on their top friends so I figured he must be pretty legit and low and behold- that he is!

As far as sound- many singer-songwriters sound alike, but there are acute details that make them appeal to different people. I guess DRH is like a fusion between John Mayer and Marvin Gaye (more of Mayer, for this song). Harris, in fact, performed with Mayer and Barnes, abroad the 2008 Mayercraft Carier.

Don't Look Down- David Ryan Harris