Sasquatch and Of Monsters and Men

Anyone who has talked to me for any extended length of time over the last week or two probably knows that I am going to the Sasquatch Music Festival in George, Washington this May. These same people may very well be sick of me talking about it already. The festival is one that I have wanted to attend the last 3 or 4 years, but I've never been able to find someone to go with / actually pull the trigger and just do it. Fortunately, this year I finally did both of those, and I could not be more excited. The festival takes place over 4 days Memorial Day weekend, and as of right now there are 121 musicians and comedians slated to perform. A whole bunch of them are people I've heard before and love. However, with a list that big, there are a great number more who I've heard of but never listened to, or who I have never even come across. I dedicated a whole post a while back to how I discover new music, but this festival has already become a HUUUUUGE source of new discoveries. I've been going through and trying to listen to at least a couple of these new artists each day. Some of them aren't really my cup of tea, but there are also plenty that I can't believe I've never heard before (and that I am insanely glad I now have heard)! Because of that, I'm getting a big backlog of posts that I want to write, so (time permitting) I'm really hoping to start posting a little more regularly to talk about some of these artists.

Alright, now that that (far too) long-winded intro is out of the way, onto one of my new discoveries, a band from Iceland called Of Monsters and Men. I feel like I had seen the band name around, but for one reason or another I never actually listened to their music. Part of the reason is probably that, to date, they've released only a 4-song EP here in the states. However, that's due to change later this year, with their full-length set to drop in April. I'll actually be pretty surprised if they don't blow up somewhat and get pretty popular (and it may already be happening). I've got it on good authority from a friend in the Twin Cities that they are in fairly heavy rotation on The Current right now.

The lead track from their EP, Little Talks (watch/listen below), will get stuck in your head. That's almost a guarantee. The verses feature a playful sounding back and forth between the two lead singers reminiscent of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (especially in their exceptional single Home). The lyrics seem to tell the story of a woman losing her mind after her husband dies while his ghost watches over her. Or who knows, maybe it's about something completely different, it's hard to say with lyrics. Other parts of the song have sort of a Florence + The Machine vibe to them. Combine these aspects with some catchy horn playing (ALWAYS a plus in my book) and group singing/shouting leading into the chorus, and the song becomes pretty hard not to sing along with or dance to when it is on.

The rest of the EP is solid too, although Little Talks is definitely the stand-out. I'm eagerly awaiting hearing the LP in April, and in just a day or two, Of Monsters and Men has gone from a complete unknown to one of the artists I'm most looking forward to at Sasquatch.

Stream "Little Talks" or watch the video below: