3 minute entry: Ola Podrida

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{I've been down with a serious case of blogger's block(is that what we call it now?) so although, my mind can't find the right words to describe a band, my ears still work and this band is nothing short of perfection.}

Sometime back in December, Ola Podrida's forlorn piano keys collapsing on one another in "Pour Me Another" took my breath away. There was something arresting about David Wingo's voice, its huskiness and soft, whispery parts were unforgettable. Now there is something we can hold in our hands and spend an evening sitting beside the stereo. The Brooklyn band's debut album was released this Tuesday with a tracklisting of 11 folky-Americana songs.

The self-titled album is old-fashioned, it's made carefully with nimble, beautiful acoustic finger-picking creating a lush landscape, but don't let it fool you. Some songs will start out ever so quietly, but wind up slipping in a backdrop of guitar noise underneath trailing "ooooohs" like in "Cindy". With "Jordanna", it begs me to give in and drop Okkervil River as a reference, but the climactic parts of the song are more toned down than Will Sheff's idea of a good time.

It walks about your room with a helplessness that you can't help but stop whatever you're doing and listen as a concerned friend would, it's hard to ignore when someone is singing "Some folks just don't give a damn/whether they're coming or going/Hey man/take a stand/When you're up put yourself back in place" or "Here we go/I don't know/If there's any point to it all/but I sure love hearing your voice". "Instead" is likely to hush and silence the honking horns during morning commute and the only problem left would be making sure you don't fall asleep on the wheel. They re-recorded "Pour Me Another" with a fuller piano sound, but other than that everything else is still left unchanged.

Right now, it seems there are only two dates up and both are in Brooklyn, but if there is good in this world, there will be more dates. To sample the album, Vice is offering five full-length tracks available for streaming.

Tracklisting:




Ola Podrida (self-titled)
(Plug Research Records)

1. The New Science
2. Jordanna
3. Instead
4. Cindy
5. Photo Booth
6. Run Off The Road
7. Day At The Beach
8. Lost And Found
9. A Clouded View
10. Pour Me Another
11. Eastbound

Stream + Download + Purchase:

Jordanna| Ola Podrida

Instead| Ola Podrida

Links:

>>> Ola Podrida's Official MySpace
<<< Purchase self-titled album
>>> Stream five full-length tracks from Vice

~anne