Local Song Pick #4: The Bad Employees- Bad Employee

This is part of a series where I pick out a song from the Tri-State area and tell you as much as I can or feel like telling you about it. More importantly, I will only post something if I can in some way provide you with the means to hear it.

Bad Employees- The Bad Employee

The movie Office Space was a hit because every blue-collar worker crammed in an office cubicle suddenly received mass media justification for their inner frustration.

The Bad Employees, from Huntington, understand the same concept and translated it into a song that makes you feel less guilty, but slightly less cocky than "It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta." The song drives home the concept of the droning office slave buzzing from task to task.

The song is narrated by vocalizations that sound somewhat frantic while they maintain a mechanical and irritated vibe. It's easy to see the frustration behind the artist, but it is their use of electronic big beat that allows the listener to really enjoy the dullness that is the office job.

Don't get me wrong on this one. The music is done well and the beat holds together tightly, but it serves a conceptual purpose by droning on. The vocals are less than polished, but the rawness translates into a forced expression of despair.

It is completely fathomable to imagine that the artist really is fresh off a job that won't "let (him) go." The recording sounds like he barely had time to loosen his tie before turning away from a day of TPS reports and hunting for his stapler.

The Bad Employees are an electronic duo that play music inspired by a diverse set of electronic musicians. Most of their lyrical inspiration is derived from the dismal, but they push it out in a way that makes the music pretty near danceable. They describe it as such:

“The songs serve as outlets for anything that makes us feel helpless: consumerist debt, the corporate system, even small town gloom, but paired with the easily accessible beats and melodies, the whole thing’s not so dismal.”

Check it out:
Bad Employees- The Bad Employee

Past Song Picks

1.) Paul Callicoat- Mama's Grave
2.) Redding Brothers- Chauvet
3.) Benji Taylor - Subways

Local Song Pick #3: Benji Taylor - Subways

This is part of a series where I pick out a song from the Tri-State area and tell you as much as I can or feel like telling you about it. More importantly, I will only post something if I can in some way provide you with the means to hear it.

Benji Taylor - Subways

The third local song pick is from a guy that bleeds emotion and heart all over his recordings and plays it just as powerful on the raw open mic night stage at the V Club.

"Subways" is a powerful ballad by a local singer-songwriter in the vein of Ray LaMontagne or Damien Rice. The music is of a soulful genre popularized and then slightly perverted by John Mayer.

The song is about the loss of someone who is trying to replace the torn narrator who can't stop loving the source of his pain. He seems to know he was doing wrong, but he may have taken advantage just a little too long.

The vocal work is solid and emotionally appropriate. The guitar work is smartly accompanied with electronic elements and delicate string work.

The song is so polished, you may mistake it for a radio favorite, but the raw talents of Benji Taylor are still being trimmed an refined in the city of Huntington.

Benji Taylor is still pushing his first solo record, "The Things Between Us."

Check out his Web site for more information.

Highlights of the Past Week

What a week for music... I have a big show announcement to make of my own, but stay tuned for that information. First a quick recap of some of the great stuff that went down over the week.

The Shamrock proved itself as an upcoming scene for talented young rockers with several groups bringing their rock sound to the Tri-State. Jordan Andrew Jefferson, Attack Flamingo, Sound and Shape, Atomic Johnny, Bad Employees and Given Hatred were just a few of the hot bands that came through the Shamrock.

The V Club also held up to it's standard as a hotbed for music with shows by the highly classy Bob Thompson Quartet, Yo Momma's Big Fat Booty Band, Jeff Ellis and their typically amazing open mic showing.

Woody's Restaurant showcased a local favorite, Shaun McCoy, who plays 90's tunes and originals with another great rocker by the same first name.

Stay tuned for the announcement and a calendar of what will be going down in the Tri-State very soon.