The Stepkids - Suburban Dream

The Stepkids release their self-titled album officially on 27th September and it is well worth getting it on to your iPod or cd player.  Take a listen to one of the tracks, Suburban Dream, here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwbR8ubfHtY    This has been likened in one review to something that might have come from Dark Side Of The Moon.   Steely Dan, Can, Sly & The Family Stone and Yes have also been mentioned.  Bits of these bands and more can be heard in this album but they also sound refreshingly original.   The Stepkids produce, engineer and record themselves on a reel to reel and the sound can perhaps best be described as a mixture of classic soul and funk, 60s psychedelia and jazz.   The band members are all singer/songwriters whose creative input is equally distributed so any track could be written or sung by any of them.  All have played in other bands in the past and when they finally got together they simply decided to extract all the best bits from their favourite music over the years, from the 60s up to today.   And it all works surprisingly well. 

Two excellent singles have been released earlier this year (Legend In My Own Mind and Shadows On Behalf)  and the buzz around them continues to grow.  They are currently touring The States but sadly there is no sign of them coming to the UK in the near future.

http://thestepkidsband.com/