Philadelphia, PA
RIYL: Neon Indian, Toro y Moi, The Shins and Beach House
"Philly-based singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Kenny Vasoli is best known as the lead singer/bassist for the pop-punk outfit the Starting Line and member of Say Anything... Vacationer's 2012 full-length debut Gone features Vasoli's particular mix of psych and sampledelic indie-pop. This is dreamy, lightly funky, and always tripped-out pop that brings to mind a mix of such similarly inclined contemporaries as Beach House and Animal Collective." 3.5 stars - All Music Guide
"The songs on the debut album from Vacationer move like musical Rube Goldberg machines. Slow-rolling percussion topples tiny blips of guitar... gently swiveling guitar trigger Christmas-light synths... and a tumbling electro-harp kicks open the door to let in a ghost choir... At times, the music recalls the wistful indiepop of The Shins, but Vasoli is more forlorn and his music is crammed with more tiny details." 3.5/5 - Rolling Stone
Los Angeles, CA via Sweeden
Vains of Jenna will resonate with fans of Guns n Roses, Motley Crue and Buckcherry.
RIYL: Medeski, Martin & Wood, Drums & Tuba, Galactic, James Brown and Herbie Hancock
Vampyros Bonobos combine funk, jazz, and elements of acts like Medeski Martin and Wood and Galactic with a mod '60s sound that can only be described as groovy. While Vampyros Bonobos is a new band, they are not new to the Tucson scene. Their members have played with Michael P., Tommy Larkins, Ozlo, and The Infernal Racket among others.
RIYL: Cracker, Whiskeytown, Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers and The Rolling Stones
Van Christian, a former member of Friends of Dean Martinez and Naked Prey, plays his solo material with a backing band. Van is one of the earliest and most celebrated of Tucson's "Desert Rock" scene.
RIYL: Incubus, Muse, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sublime and 311
Van Gogh Rescue blend elements of progressive rock, funk, and alternative music. Drawing influence from such divergent acts as modern day rockers Red Hot Chili Peppers and Incubus to timeless songwriters like Pink Floyd and The Beatles, it is hard to pigeon-hole Van Gogh Rescue into a specific genre.
Phoenix, AZ
RIYL: Eliott Smith, Jolie Holland, Portishead and Jeff Buckley
Vanessa Atlanta performs beautiful dark acoustic music.
Austin, TX
RIYL: Lhasa, Cordero, Alison Krauss and Ani DiFranco
Vanessa Lively blends an eclectic mix of alternative folk music bringing together a variety of stringed and percussive instruments, balanced by expressive lyrics in both English and Spanish. Vanessa’s musical voice blossomed while she lived in Salinas de Guaranda, Ecuador, where the thin cold air and bare conditions strongly influenced her songwriting.
“Missing a Vanessa Lively live show will make your life a shade sadder. You must go see her! Like exercise benefits the body, Vanessa Lively’s performances do wonders for the soul.” - The Austin Chronicle
Columbus, OH
RIYL: Von Iva, Metric, The Donnas, Le Tigre and Girl In a Coma
"Vanity Theft may be all-female, but this foursome definitely isn’t your average girl group. With catchy guitar riffs, an in-your-face sound, and lyrics that are, ahem, straight to the point, this band is determined to set themselves apart from a sea of frilly pop." - Nylon
"Vanity Theft transcend genre trappings and showcase excellent songwriting abilities, while many other bands think style over substance is acceptable, and that stealing the sounds of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark or the Pet Shop Boys make them exempt from thinking about melodies, hooks, or innovation. So, let’s applaud Alicia, Brittany, Elyse, and Lalaine... (who) recall the darker synth-pop of Depeche Mode and New Order in a refreshingly modern, not at all plagiaristic fashion, with spot-on vocals and a chorus that kills." 8/10 - Pop Matters
"Vanity Theft’s Get What You Came For has earned a spot in my summertime rotation when I can sing it on the top of my lungs while driving to the beach with the top down. Is it July yet? *sigh*" - The Owl
"Vanaty Theft... (create) perfectly constructed little three-minute nuggets... It may not be life changing, but it's pop music with a youthfully naive tough girl sneer, and if it worked for The Runaways and Tegan & Sara, then why not for Vanity Theft?" - Ink19
RIYL: Ella Fitzgerald and Rod Stewart
Vannessa Lundon has a NYC roots influence over her pop-folk girl rock. Simple guitar and piano stylings paired with gutsy lyrics. Nice.
"V Lundon and Tell Me Something Good's new album is a needed cool desert breeze for the Tucson desert-rock/folk scene."-Tucson Weekly, Joshua Levine
RIYL: Minus The Bear, Incubus, We Are Scientists and The Killers
Local Band!
Various Hands music is catchy and appealing and will make you want to move your body in a convulsive type of way that might otherwise be considered “dancing” while at the same time brings a fresh energy that is see much less frequently in today’s music industry. Various Hands combines an indie dance rock style of music with singer/guitarist Jeff Nations’ signature "Life-Is-Good" lyric motif. Bassist/vocalist Daniel Strain, drummer Matt Koch and guitarist/vocalist Zach Meier round out a lineup of experienced, seasoned musicians. Their debut EP, This Party Will Be Fun, solidifies Various Hands’ feel good message and upbeat rhythms.
"Various Hands have a certain happy go lucky aura without all the clichés that makes me want to listen to them more. They really do deliver the goods." - Autonomy Music Reviews
"Various Hands' This Party Will Be Fun showcases Jeff and the rest of the band’s musical sensibilities. As an indie dance rock unit, they are beyond compare." - Music Finds
Los Angeles, CA
RIYL: System of a Down, Tool, Deftones and Incubus
Phoenix act recently moved to LA, Vayden is known for a great live set and is getting a lot of industry attention.
Seattle, WA
Velella Velella's indie-electronica sound with hints of funk will resonate with fans of Stereolab, Beck, Four Tet and Parliment.
"By this time next year, expect Velella Velella to be fielding record-label offers from sizable, sage indies. One listen to Velella Velella's The Bay of Biscay album should convince you of this Seattle quartet's special chemistry... VV forge danceable rock filigreed with aquamarine vibes and Rhodes, sunburst guitars, sinuous bass lines, and myriad odd textures... as if Stereolab lost their Continental aloofness..." - The Stranger
"So while Jamie Lidell electronically reinvents soul and Stax, VV respectfully tackles the legacies of George Clinton and the Bee-Gees, blowing up and gutting current indie-dance trends into something's that refreshingly direct and irony-free, but also something that won't sound embarrassing in the year 2020. They're doing that better than anyone else right now..." - Coke Machine Glow
Minneapolis, MN
RIYL: David Bowie, Roxy Music, Bauhaus, The Psychedelic Furs and Placebo
"Standing six-foot plus in heels, and decked in leather, sequins and feathers, you ’d be forgiven for stealing a second glance at Steven Grandell - better known to all but closest friends and family as Venus, a transgender artist, singer and guitarist from Minneapolis. But scratch beneath the surface of lycra, lipstick and suggestive stage persona, and you find a sensitive, softly spoken and immediately likeable person. Often faced with prejudice, hostility, physical abuse and even occasional death threats, Venus came back from the brink of suicide to front artistic dark glam band All The Pretty Horses. Four albums later, the band have toured, been the subject of a documentary by renowed filmmaker Emily Goldberg and have even been interviewed in Playboy." - Power Play
"Venus’ Bowie-esque pipes have been the signa-ture sound of the darkglam-rock band All the Pretty Horses for nine years... When Venus de Mars plays a regular bar, she says, sometimes people don’t know how to react to her feminine look and manly voice. 'I’m not shy about being transgendered. I use that in my performance,' she says. 'But I take my music seriously.' And so do others, like producer Barb Morrison (Debbie Harry, Rufus Wain-wright, Scissor Sisters), who recorded Venus’ solo album" - Phoenix New Times
"Power, Sex, Fashion is Venus' motto... Sexual, visceral and filled with a gleaming amyl nitrate headrush, this is music for some gleeful post-apocalypse, where life is made loud and strange by an absence of governing bodies." -City Pages
RIYL: Jeff Buckley, Travis, James and Elbow
Verdant... while new to the seen, they are creating some nice tunes.
San Francisco, CA
RIYL: Devendra Banhart, Akron/Family, The Thrills, Will Oldham and Nick Drake
"Vetiver's music sounds like it was written in midday sunshine, yet longs for a dark bedroom in the dead of night. Andy Cabic's balmy folk songs pull from pert shades of doo-wop and Latin syncopation. But his whispery voice can take on a Donovan-like sultriness, making a song such as 'Sister' far sexier than a song named 'Sister' should be." 3.5 stars - Spin
"Andy Cabic, mastermind behind San Francisco's Vetiver, made his name collaborating with Devendra Banhart, but his own tunes are less freaky and pure indie-folk. The Virginia-raised songwriter's third album of original material is divided between lolling fingerpicked acoustic stunners and tight pop ala the Shins-meets-Spoon." - Rolling Stone
"For a group that’s only been releasing tunes for five years, Vetiver sounds well worn and finely aged. It’s fitting then that their fourth full-length is titled Tight Knit – at this point in their career the band’s rich, polished craft sounds almost familial in its closeness. " - Dusted
Louisville, KY
"Presented by KXCI Community Radio!!!"
VHS or Beta have developed quite a buzz with the release of the second full-lenght album. They will thrill fans of The Killers, The Bravery, Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, and 80s acts like Duran Duran and The Cure.
"With Bring on the Comets... VHS or Beta proves they haven't lost their ability to blend superb pop hooks with dance beats." 8/10 - Urb
"VHS or Beta... one of rock's best new bands" 4 stars - Blender
"like the similarly retro-minded Killers, they have a knack for distilling everyone's favorite new wave/post-punk moments into pop confections." - All Music Guide
"VHS or Beta... (are) akin to an old Cure song in a disco inferno." - Entertainment Weekly
"With dance-pop melodies that recall Duran Duran, this Louisville band sound straight out of London circa 1984... they seem genuinely privileged to kneel at the temples of the Cure and big-suit-era Talking Heads. " - Rolling Stone
"What we've got here is a 1980s pop revival that makes electroclash sound positively progressive. You could mistake this for absolutely any English pop act circa, say, 1984..." 7/10 - Stylus Magazine
"sounds like the best Cure songs never writen." A - Giant
"VHS or Beta songs well up your vision with glitter-strewn nebulae - it's like getting LASIK surgery from a disco ball." - XLR8R
San Diego, CA
"Via Satellite... parts of both early and later Ester Drang, some Album Leaf, and early 90's shoegazer make up Cities Are Temples, one of the best albums I've heard so far this year. It is a seamless album that lulls you in withits delicate piano/keyboard lines, then smashes you over the head with waves of epic post-rock." - Indie Workshop
"Cities Are Temples has enough daring moments both musically and emotionally to firmly establish it as the first truly great album of 2005..." - Pop Matters
"(Via Satellite) has done gone and unleashed a heavy, meditative set of tunes loose on us for no reason 'cept for to turn our heads 'round, make us take notice and jump for joy at the thought of our expanding minds...Great record" - Copper Press
"Via Satellite knows when to lay it on and when to back off, teasing you deeper in with big, rich
melodies... Cities Are Temples is a left-field surprise..." - Music Emissions
RIYL: Saves the Day, Dashboard Confessional and Sunny Day Real Estate
Local Band!
Via Sleep consists of symphonic chord progressions, in-depth percussion, and intellectual lyricism; all spiraling into one original alternative-experimental approach which balances intricate musicianship with structural simplicity.
RIYL: The Aquabats, Less Than Jake, Pepper and Sublime
Local Band!
Vibe Steady is a local reggae/party rock band that have been heavily influenced by the "third-wave ska movement" and bands like Sublime and Pepper as well as more traditional reggae and punk acts.
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