Calico Horse, The Sess, Red Feathers

Artist: Calico Horse

Song:"Awake in the Clouds" (from myspace.com/calicohorsemusic)

Heard By: Charlie Herlevic, downtown

I liked it very much; it's a very pretty song. It reminded me of a band called Quix*o*tic. It also reminded me of seeing Siouxsie and the Banshees live. I think the girl has a lovely voice. I thought the mood of the song was very "full" and her voice was very complementary to the music. [The song] seemed fairly dark, but I couldn't pick up on some of the words. There's kind of a one-beat drum -- almost like a drum-circle drum and then a keyboard or synthesizer. Some guitar. It was really simple in terms of there wasn't a lot of instrumentation. I don't think it would be huge commercially, but I think they could certainly support themselves as musicians.

Artist: The Sess

Song: "Don't Look Back" (from their debut 7")

Heard By: Dave Sampson, Middletown

It was cool; I liked it. It's high-energy, kind of aggressive, not overly heavy. It actually kind of reminded me of the Jimi Hendrix Experience playing punk. The vocalist has the same quality to his voice that Jimi did. I like punk music where there is some musicianship to it. A lot of punk musicians think being able to play an instrument well isn't very "punk," but [the Sess] are pretty good. Being a good musician isn't a hindrance. I'd listen to it on the radio. Part of what reminded me of Jimi Hendrix's stuff is that they seemed to have '60s production values. I wonder what they're like live.

Artist: Red Feathers

Song: "Monster Inside" (from the Breathe the Cold EP)

Heard By: Willy Hultgren, Mission Hills

The music reminded me a lot of the Decemberists. The guy's voice is kind of wailing, drifting all about -- it's cool. It's the kind of music where you'd want to see it live in a small venue...maybe a hundred people, tops. It's good beer-drinking music. The name of the song has something to do with a monster and he was saying, "move away," so I guess that makes sense. No one wants to be cuddling with a monster. It's very tuneful and everything has a flow to it -- it seemed like a professional gig. I don't see it busting the Billboard Top 40 because it doesn't have that kind of appeal, but I could see them getting picked up by a radio station.