Delta Spirit

These five guys from California run their band according to the five pillars of Delta Spirituality. Check out the pillars on their official site (scroll all the way to the bottom). My favorite pillar is number V. “Pop is not the enemy”. I have a whole rant about pretentious bands, but they put it way better than I do: “No one was ever original by trying to be original… They just end up weird and self indulgent.” Hear, hear! They’ve been supporting Cold War Kids on their US tour, maybe they’ll tag along when they come our way in three months. Meanwhile I’ll be praying to the Gods of Gig to make it so.

Delta Spirit play socially conscious (not preachy!) indie pop with a southern twang. All four songs on their myspace are absolute gems and they’re so different that it’s hard to pin-point what direction they’re going in. “Children” is just beautiful, it starts with a steady low banging of a single drum, when the other instruments chime in the song seems to rise and rise to something untouchable. I’ve listened to it a couple of times now and it just keeps getting better and better. “Street Walker” is a dancy pop song, it makes me want to bust a move and it sounds happy at a first listen, but then I found out it’s about child sex slavery. Which is when I found out I’m not comfortable twisting the night away on a song about abused children, but it’s a great, catchy song. My favorite song on their myspace is “Crippler King”. It begs to be played in a big barn where all good rockabilly tunes sound best.