New Music Report: BLK JKS, Girls

September 2nd, 2009 by Rolling Stone Leave a reply »

In this week’s roundup of vital upcoming releases, Rolling Stone’s Kevin O’Donnell sizes up the new album from South African band BLK JKS (a recent RS Artist to Watch). Their debut ">After Robots is an awesome prog-rock odyssey, and the Johannesburg outfit spice up technically demanding songs with horns, African chants and sparkling Afropop guitars. If TV on the Radio aren’t adventurous enough for you, this may be what you’re after.

And there’s Album, the LP from Girls. The band’s frontman Christopher Owens has a nutty back story: he was raised in the Children of God cult, escaped at age 16 and survived on the streets for several years. But his songs aren’t gloomy — his album is packed with gorgeous uptempo tunes that range from Buddy Holly-style rock & roll to massive folk-rock epics and strummy prom-night ballads.

>>Watch every episode of our weekly New Music Report video podcast by subscribing via iTunes (when prompted, click “Launch application”). Every Tuesday, a new episode will be delivered to your iTunes. [If you don’t have iTunes, download it here.]

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Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily
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