Bands we play: The Defending Champions

We've had several tracks from The Defending Champions' 2013 album "Breakfast of the Defending Champions" in our rotation for a few years now, and just last week got a chance to see them live. We were not disappointed. This seven-piece band puts on a tight, high-energy show, playing jazz- and ska-infused rock.

The Defending Champions (in poor-quality cellphone pic)

They've been playing together since 2007. And in fact, lead singer/trombonist Matt Ryan, guitarist Dean Nevolis and saxophonist Matthew Schoenebaum have been in bands together since their teens. They're joined by drummer Shawn Fichtner, bassist Eric Swiontkowski, trumpeter Jovan Alvarez and percussionist Dave DeRiso in the current lineup of The Defending Champions. (A slightly different lineup recorded the band's debut album in 2010. We're playing a couple of tracks from that one, too.)

The band is currently working on its third album. They previewed a couple of the new songs at the show we caught. We will definitely need that album!

By the way, the show was at a new venue in their home town of Montclair, N.J. -- an auditorium in a 1910-vintage building that's been revitalized by a local group as a performance space called The Old Mogul Theatre.

Bands we play: The Defending Champions

We've had several tracks from The Defending Champions' 2013 album "Breakfast of the Defending Champions" in our rotation for a few years now, and just last week got a chance to see them live. We were not disappointed. This seven-piece band puts on a tight, high-energy show, playing jazz- and ska-infused rock.

The Defending Champions (in poor-quality cellphone pic)

They've been playing together since 2007. And in fact, lead singer/trombonist Matt Ryan, guitarist Dean Nevolis and saxophonist Matthew Schoenebaum have been in bands together since their teens. They're joined by drummer Shawn Fichtner, bassist Eric Swiontkowski, trumpeter Jovan Alvarez and percussionist Dave DeRiso in the current lineup of The Defending Champions. (A slightly different lineup recorded the band's debut album in 2010. We're playing a couple of tracks from that one, too.)

The band is currently working on its third album. They previewed a couple of the new songs at the show we caught. We will definitely need that album!

By the way, the show was at a new venue in their home town of Montclair, N.J. -- an auditorium in a 1910-vintage building that's been revitalized by a local group as a performance space called The Old Mogul Theatre.

New and varied sounds added to our mix

Bern & The Brights

We pick up on new music in various ways. Record companies send out promotional copies. Artists promote themselves through social media. We read reviews and follow music news. But our favorite way to discover music is in person.

Last week we checked out a multi-band show at a new performance space in our home state of New Jersey - the Old Mogul Theatre in Montclair. One of the acts was locally based dream-pop duo Bern & The Brights. They've been making and releasing music - and picking up critical acclaim - since 2008. Their latest release is a 5-track collection called Heart Wide Open. From it, we've added "Beautiful Morning" to our New Releases bin. You'll also hear other cuts from their catalog popping up in our big mix.

Also added to our New Releases list this week:

Haelos

• London electronic-pop trio Haelos with "Dust," from their just-released debut album, "Full Circle."
• "Fire" by British indie artist Barns Courtney, whose career has taken off suddenly since the song was picked for the soundtrack of the movie "Burnt."
• Another track from Wynonna & The Big Noise's self-titled debut: "Ain't No Thing," featuring Susan Tedeschi. Two powerful voices on a fine bluesy rocker.
• From New York "post-power pop" band The Chordaes, "Get the Feeling," the first single from their forthcoming debut album.

New and varied sounds added to our mix

Bern & The Brights

We pick up on new music in various ways. Record companies send out promotional copies. Artists promote themselves through social media. We read reviews and follow music news. But our favorite way to discover music is in person.

Last week we checked out a multi-band show at a new performance space in our home state of New Jersey - the Old Mogul Theatre in Montclair. One of the acts was locally based dream-pop duo Bern & The Brights. They've been making and releasing music - and picking up critical acclaim - since 2008. Their latest release is a 5-track collection called Heart Wide Open. From it, we've added "Beautiful Morning" to our New Releases bin. You'll also hear other cuts from their catalog popping up in our big mix.

Also added to our New Releases list this week:

Haelos

• London electronic-pop trio Haelos with "Dust," from their just-released debut album, "Full Circle."
• "Fire" by British indie artist Barns Courtney, whose career has taken off suddenly since the song was picked for the soundtrack of the movie "Burnt."
• Another track from Wynonna & The Big Noise's self-titled debut: "Ain't No Thing," featuring Susan Tedeschi. Two powerful voices on a fine bluesy rocker.
• From New York "post-power pop" band The Chordaes, "Get the Feeling," the first single from their forthcoming debut album.

Catching up with Faded Paper Figures

As we've said before, there is so much good music out there in the world that it's a challenge to keep up - or catch up. We just recently connected with Faded Paper Figures, an "electro-organic" band that formed in California in 2007.

The band's fourth album, Relics, came out in 2014. Clashmusic.com called it "forward-thinking electro pop, with the glistening production shrouding a chassis which borrows from indie rock songcraft." Paste said "the band’s delightful pop is out-of-this-world yet grounded in self-examination." They followed that in 2015 with an EP called Remnants.
In a sense, FPF is a side project for each of its members - Kael and Heather Alden and R. John Williams. Heather is a medical doctor, Kael writes music for a Hollywood production company and John is an English professor at Yale. With the Aldens based in Los Angeles and Williams in New Haven, theirs is a bi-coastal collaboration.

We've added a few tracks from Relics to our rotation as we continue to explore their other collections. One of them, "Not The End Of The World (Even As We Know It)" is just asking to be paired with its REM antecedent - and we'll certainly do that segue one of these days. But our favorite track, at least at the moment, is "Spare Me." We hope you enjoy hearing them in our mix!