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This Week at CMJ: Voxtrot

Voxtrot are an indie pop act hailing from Austin, Texas.  Despite the band’s mid-western pedigree, the Smiths-recalling single “The Start of Something,” got the east coast Hipsterati interested back in 2005.  The band will be hitting CMJ’s Brooklyn Vegan-approved showcase tonight (10.16) at the Bowery Ballroom along with Rosebuds, Dean and Britta and others.

Voxtrot built up its rep with a series of EPs over two years (one of which was called "...a stunning mini-collection of John Hughes-heyday paeans, twitchy pop, and surging, Strokes-y dancefloor fillers" by SPIN), finally releasing a self-titled debut LP (above) earlier this year.  While this disc downplays the twee and nudges closer to the twitchy rock riffs of the aforementioned The Strokes on tracks like “Kid Gloves,” the simple production and delicate touch still keeps the band’s “indie” cred in tact, despite increasing notoriety.  But if we had to guess, these guys are searching for the anthemic grandeur of Springsteen’s buddies the Arcade Fire.  It should be interesting to see how they carry themselves on stage tonight.

Check out Voxtrot's MySpace page for selected tunes and the band's official podcast here.

This Week at CMJ: Soft

As if ya'll didn't know, this Tuesday marks the beginning of CMJ07!  This year, in honor of every Big Apple-dwelling music geek's favorite five favorite days on the calendar, we'll be highlighting one band each day from the festival roster that you might not have heard about yet, but if the SS swammies are right, soon will.  So, without further ado, our Sunday shout out goes to Brooklyn five-piece Soft, who's debut LP Gone Faded will hit stores on 10.23 via Academy Fight Song Records.

Soft is probably the first great shoegaze act we've heard in 2007, and believe us, we've looked.  Blending  lush, layered guitars with pitch-perfect vocals on tracks like "Higher," "Droppin" and "Dumb Blood," the band recalls the best of early 90s Brit rock, without sounding like imitators in the least.  No small feat.

Give "Higher" a listen below, and grab the mp3 if you dig.  Then you can check out a few more track at the official site, and of course over at MySpace.

Download: Soft - "Higher"

Soft has three gigs during CMJ week.  Check one out, and you might end up going back for more:

Tue 10.16:  Official CMJ Showcase @ Delancey  10:30 PM   $5 without badges/FREE with badges
Fri 10.19:  Crashin’ In Party @ Galapagos  2:00 PM   $5
Fri 10.19:  Soft Showcase @ Zebulon  9:00 PM  FREE  w/ My Best Fiend