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The Chevin, you gotta check this band out

PostPosted: Sun Sep 09, 2012 12:30 am
by Rubellan
Rather than just reword it, I'm going to post the review I just put about this new discovery on Amazon. Highly recommended, and from a crabby old man like me!:

I was doing some late night channel browsing a couple nights ago and stumbled upon a band performing on the David Letterman show. I paused to listen because it sounded like days of old. I am a 42 year old man who began to fall in love with New Wave music in 1979. This exploded throughout the early 80's and through my teen years. I was attracted to the vast style and subject that New Wave and Classic Alternative provided. I loved the sound of the original analog synthesizers and the non-traditional chord changes and progressions, and the endless variety of unique voices and found sounds. In the early 90's music was destroyed by Grunge and all of the other forgettable dreck that was being pumped out. Digital synthesizers even made electronic music boring. I was both disappointed and offended that the music that I loved so much was gone. I took time in the 90's to research and discover a vast array of lesser known Alternative artists from the 80's, and was able to expand my knowledge and collection extensively, but there's still only so far you can go.

About a month ago, I kept hearing a quirky song that sounded like it came out of 1981 art school. I finally found someone who knew the name of the song and it turned out to be "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye. I don't pay attention to modern music so the only time I hear something is in passing. But sometimes things seem meant to be. Even though that song hit about a year ago, it just now came to my attention for a reason, and I was very excited by it. Even the music video had a retro flavor, ala Visage "Fade to Grey". By listening to The Chevin perform "Champion", I was startled, speechless, and very excited. When the broadcast was over I immediately went to YouTube and watched the music video. The most appropriate way to describe the song is breathtakingly stunning! I literally had tears in my eyes at how powerful this song is, and the retro style cannot be denied. I immediately thought of very early Simple Minds and very early U2. I played the video over and over and continued to have the same reaction, which I don't think I've had in countless years. The video also had some retro flavor in the form of several slow motion scenes and a lot of blank white background. All they needed to be totally early 80's was to shoot it on soft focus videotape, as opposed to film.

I looked up The Chevin on iTunes and found the "Champion" ep. I bought it, both on iTunes and on CD from Amazon UK because I love physical product, despite my reliance on my iPod. I just like to hold the item in my hand. I guess that's retro in itself. I see the band have a full length album titled "Borderland" coming soon. I listened to the samples and heard many other sounds, styles and structures that I fell in love with all those years ago, and that should have never gone away. I will snap up this album on release and will pay very close attention to what this exciting, young band produce in the future. There is something very exciting mixing around in music lately, and I need to start randomly exploring so I don't miss out on any other new talent who may be paying overdue homage to the pioneers from decades ago. I never thought I'd be able to say it but after hearing The Chevin, I've fallen in love again.

PostPosted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 2:09 am
by djcraig
Sounds like OMD mixed with Cutting Crew. Not my cup of tea. But don't let anyone say I'm not supportive of those who take the time to write and read posts about them.

The Chevin- "Champion"
http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Chevin/track/Champion/embed/
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<a href="http://www.djcraig.net/los_angeles_dj">DJ Craig</a>