BV3K lives.

So I've been a huge fan of Bran Van 3000 since my exploration into my subconscious that I started in the late 90's. Let's just say I wandered a bit after high school, and they provided a very memorable soundtrack to my alternate reality. I was blown away with the genre-meshing of Glee in 1997, and loved the the follow up, Discosis, which was smuggled back for me by a good friend from Europe, since it was unavailable in the states. They had a great thing going in my opinion, but it was definitely not something for mass markets back then, and being on the label Grand Royal didn't help them one bit. After being booted from GR when Mike "D" closed the label, the band was left a free agent, and from what I gathered, on the verge of a break-up. I remember checking their site from time to time in hopes of movement, but after a year I figured they were never going to surface again. I remember feeling a loss as I thought about the mis-timing of their endeavor and how much creativity their songs spread throughout. The market now is so much different, so open ended, so many barriers down thanks to the DIY movements, and the rebirth, yet again, of electro-pop in almost every facet of music. Basically, all the things people didn't like, or get, are now common place: sampling, crossing-genres, random guest vocalists, sound exploration, etc. I was making a mix for a friend and happened to put a BV3 song on it, it made me wonder if their old site was still looming in the digital shadows. I was pleased to find, not only a new site, but new content- and that an album had been completed, called Rosé, and supposedly is to be released, in Canada, in the next few weeks! The track they have on the site from the new album is called "Call Me" and is very much in the same vein as the 1st track off Discosis as in it is a cover-esque song. Knowing them like I do, the rest of the album couldn't be judged by one track anyway, so I'm very excited to hear more. The site is lacking in content, but it does have lingering hope for the future, and after 8 years of silence, that's enough to get me excited. If you've never experienced a Bran Van 300 album, I highly recommend either of their 2 releases to get started and you should really give the whole thing a listen before making too many rush judgements, they tend to bounce around. If you like to dance, physically or mentally, this group is going to move you in every way. Their session-esque songs are community joints that range from electronic to acoustic to hip hop to dance to reggae to whoever drops by, and the end result is great music that cannot be put into any box. I'm so glad they decided to rebirth and wish them all the best this go around. Check out their new online identities and hear at least one new track & several old favorites:

http://www.bv3k.com/
http://www.myspace.com/officialbv3000

Blogged with Flock