First, may we present "Carolina Liar". Surprisingly, most of the band are from Sweden. I don’t mean that Sweden doesn’t produce great bands, Abba, Roxette and The Cardigans being the obvious examples, but the name "Carolina Liar" and the sounds emanating from the lead singer, Chad Wolf, sound totally American. That could be because Chad IS American, and indeed from Carolina, but the band was formed in Sweden and the other members, namely Johan Carlsson, Jim Almgren Gândara, Rickard Göransson, Max Grahn and Erik Hääger hail from there.
Chad Wolf had moved to Los Angeles where he was writing songs and became an intern to famed writer Dianne Warren. Wolf then met Swedish producer Max Martin who was impressed with Chad’s writing and singing skills and persuaded him to fly to Stockholm where he recorded with a group of Swedish musicians. All went well and the band was formed, naming themselves "Carolina Liar" and a debut album, "Coming To Terms" was issued in 2008 on Atlantic Records.
Several of their songs have been used in American TV shows, and the band performed their first single "I’m Not Over" on 90210 in February this year. Other songs, including "California Bound" and the very impressive "Show Me What I’m Looking For", the current single, have been featured on "Gossip Girl". They've also had songs played on "Army Wives" and several on "The Hills". Read more about the shows they are featured in here.
Keep a look out for them on other TV shows and try and catch a live performance. This group is destined for big success.
The other group we are featuring this week is "
". These
indie-rockers from Los Angeles have a stunning single in "Sometime
Around Midnight", probably my favorite song of the moment. The song
starts with smooth violins then slowly develops into a smoldering
rocker and reached 33 in the UK singles chart. Indeed the band have
toured the UK and Europe, supporting such groups as The Kaiser Chiefs,
Franz Ferdinand and The Fratellis. They were formed in 2006 and have
already performed live on three top US talk shows, "Conan O'Brien",
"David Letterman" and "Jay Leno."Their self-titled debut album was released in February 09 and has 10 tracks, eleven if bought through iTunes, and the UK release has two bonus tracks! "
"
are Mikel Jollet, lead-singer, Steven Chen, Noah Harmon, Anna Bulbrook
and Daren Taylor.They are destined for very big things!