Indie band Headlights have recently released their album Wildlife. Coming to the mtvU Freshmen from Perth, Australia, quintet Karnivool released their third LP Sound Awake last year. Already receiving press for the charismatic sound, The London Souls continue work on their debut album. A quartet from the Midwest, The Melismatics have released four albums; the most recent is Acid Test. Originally hailing from Dallas, The Party Boyz test a new dance move on their audience.

Headlights

“Love Song for Buddy”

Not only is there some subtle self-promotion involved at the very beginning, but the animated video really is a clever way to soften the blow when a song is dealing with some rather blunt facts about life and death. (My favorite is the little angel bean.) Erin Fein’s sweet voice doesn’t hurt matters either.

Karnivool

“Set Fire To The Hive”

While this might not be the type of music I reach for in my down-time, its raw and emotional and practically bleeding so I have to respect it. Some shots in the video remains me of the early 90s, when it was all about a fairly blank set and a few props and the band giving it their all. Although towards the end it veers more towards total annihilation and general mass destruction. Yowzers.

London Souls

“The Sound”

I can tell the group is trying to mirror classic rock n’ roll values with their work. But I’m distracting by the poor quality of production in this video. It’s shaky and continually out of focus; the blurriness makes it difficult to concentrate on the concept. While I enjoy the song, I would have liked to see a better video.

The Melismatics

“Digging Deep”

Lately I have been paying particular attention to videos that play cool little visual tricks on the viewer, so I really admired the way the rest of the band appeared in the photographs, paintings and through windows behind Ryan Smith. (Did you catch the sign language?) Also, the whole color scheme was quite beautiful. I don’t find the song to be all that interesting, maybe even a little cliche, but it’s wrapped up in a lovely package.

The Party Boyz

“Flex”

I’m not The Situation, so personally, this dance is not for me. I am a little disappointed in this song and video. Sure the dance-move thing is fun for a bit, but at the end of the day it’s just a gimmick. We don’t even hear a verse until we’ll over a minute in. I understand it’s appeal, but I don’t think it has a lasting effect.

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