Thursday, May 10, 2007
Well, I'm a zillion weeks behind on my I&E series, but that doesn't mean I won't try to make it up somehow. This week we will cover the band Owen. It turns out that the band Owen is just one dude, but his name isn't Owen (it's Mike Kinsella, go figure). The band is really a solo project for MK, who was previously in a bunch of smaller indie bands that all faded to the background.
Owen's sound is actually quite different from MK's earlier projects - he's transitioned to almost a folk singer, most of the songs are just him with his guitar playing these soft, intimate ballads - telling entrancing stories, usually without distinct-sounding choruses (or sometimes choruses that come across more like bridges).
I came across Owen more of less by accident while browsing around at other bands from Polyvinyl. I wasn't familiar with his non-solo work, but as Owen, MK has been sort of releasing a lot of great music that seems to have stayed under the radar and that makes him a perfect candidate for my little series - even if only a couple more people might hear about him as a result. I got his latest album (At Home with Owen) for Christmas from Judi and they also included this awesome panda sticker, which I promptly scanned and made into an avatar for some of the forums where I post.
There's a ton of music available to check out for free; Owen was recently on Daytrotter and Polyvinyl has several MP3s, so you can definitely get a good idea of what he is like.
Downloads:
Bad News
She's A Thief
In the Morning, Before Work
The Ghost of What Shouldn't Have Been
Places to Go
More Songs @ Myspace Site
Even More Songs @ Daytrotter
Labels: music
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