As a big fan of both music and video games, the Rock Band series of video games by Harmonix is something that I naturally gravitate towards. I love having the chance to sing songs by many of my favourite artists. In addition to hit songs spanning the last four decades of music, the games also feature a number of "bonus tracks", most of which are from bands formed by Harmonix employees or from bands near Harmonix's headquarters in Massachusetts. One of the bonus tracks in Rock Band 2 is "A Jagged Gorgeous Winter" by The Main Drag.
A few of my coworkers and I have fallen in love with this song after having played it a few times, so I decided to look up The Main Drag to check out some more of their music. To my surprise, they actually have several tracks that can be downloaded for free, which I naturally checked out. Based on what I've heard so far, The Main Drag is a band that seems to defy categorization, but I absolutely love what I've heard so far. Their mixture of electronic, electric, and acoustic elements creates a very fresh sound that is quite unlike anything I have ever heard before.
3 songs are currently available on the band's website at RPL Audio (with a promise of more to come), including the RB2 Remix of "A Jagged Gorgeous Winter". This song is currently one of my favourites. The lyrics evoke beautiful imagery of my favourite time of year, and are a perfect fit for the upbeat, frosty sounding music. Also currently available here are a cover of LCD Soundsystem's "All My Friends", which features some very nice guitar work and goes through a few changes in its 7+ minutes, and "Love During Wartime", which has music that sounds like a quieter, darker version of "A Jagged Gorgeous Winter". It seems that there are 2 slightly different versions of this website, differentiated only by an underscore in the URL; the other one can be found here. I'm not sure why this is so, but in any case, the latter version features a newly recorded song called "Falling Forwards".
3 more songs can be found on the band's iLike page. Of these, I really like "Consequence", which is a beautiful acoustic guitar and piano-driven ballad, and "I'll Drink to That", a waltz with an upbeat, bouncy Beatles feel to it. "North Shore, Music Therapist" features some very nice dynamics and a dramatic feel that seems to be present in many of these songs.
That's all I've managed to find from this band so far, but it has certainly whetted my appetite for more. The Main Drag is a band that should be heard by anyone who loves music that is dynamic, carefully crafted, and thought provoking. I would highly recommend checking each of these sites so that you can hear this excellent music for yourself. Happy listening!
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