While pointing out some of the artists I'd discovered during online forays a few weeks ago, I highlighted "In My Arms Again" by the Minneapolis-based pop band Spencer McGillicutty as one of my favorite new tracks.
A couple of weeks later, Ryan Smith, the band's guitarist/vocalist e-mailed me to ask if I'd like a copy of their sophomore album, "Games," to get a broader picture of the band. Never one to turn down free schwag, I agreed.
When it arrived, I was blown away by the band's brilliantly nouveau take on late '50s/early '60s doo-wop. Song after song features pristine vocal harmonies and infectiously orchestrated melodies that would have sounded at home at an "American Bandstand" sock hop. Also, co-lead vocalist Brittany Miller is scarily reminiscent of Carole King, whom I love.
I'm admittedly a fan of brainless electro-pop artists such as Dragonette and Shiny Toy Guns, but I have more respect for bands such as Spencer McGillicutty, who avoid using technological crutches like Auto-Tune.
Bands like that are musical anachronisms. They produce new music that, by dint of evolutionary momentum, should sound completely outmoded. Instead, they're so completely vested in paying homage that they manage to be simultaneously familiar and fresh, which is simultaneously obnoxious and illogical.
Here are some other examples of musical anachronisms and the styles they revisit:
* The Carolina Chocolate Drops (antebellum Piedmont string-band music)
* The Darkness (stadium rock/glam metal)
* Christabel and The Jons (swing jazz)
* Bug GiRL (hard rock)
* Justin Townes Earle (Hank Williams-era country)
Listening to these artists, you end up feeling a bit like Marty McFly, since these new releases would probably resonate with your parents or grandparents. Then again, they say fashion is cyclical, so why not music?
If you can think of any other prominent examples of musical anachronisms, shoot me an e-mail.
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Internet music catch of the week: The New Pornographers' "Crash Years."
This track is off the Pornographers' fifth studio album, "Together," which was released last week. I defy you to keep the whistled chorus from becoming stuck in your head.
E-mail Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com.