A Royal Treat

Joan Soriano has been dubbed the “Duke of Bachado”. And he definitely deserves the title. From what little biographical information I’ve gathered, he was born in the countryside of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. He built his first guitar from a tin can and fishing line and has gone on to an amazing career in his native land.

Bachada is an indigenous music of the Dominican Republic and is influenced by music from Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. Soriano’s voice makes you want to get up and dance. Joan has performed throughout N. America and Europe. I missed him the last time around. Hopefully, he’ll make another North American tour again soon.

Hair Band

Braids is another band that I find pretty hard to describe. Their music has been categorized as experimental shoe-gazer. Okay, that’s a pretty fair assessment of their sound. It’s dreamy and has a nice rhythm to it. It also has incredible production values to it. Great layers of sounds and very complex, smart, intelligent music. And the vocalist has a distinctive, crisp, voice. Nice and emotive. And I liked them so much, I actually bought their cd!

New Ages

The band Agesandages is made up of a collective of multi-instrumentalists and is lead by Tim Perry. The band hails from Portland, Oregon and features excellent, cheery vocals and a psychedelic, folky sound. Their first release, Alright You Restless, came out in early 2011 and I highly recommend it. Every tune on it is a gem.