New Artist Watch: Fair To Midland

Serj Tankian can do it all. Best known as the frontman for System Of A Down and for his humanitarian efforts, he's releasing a solo album in the fall, "Elect The Dead". And he has his own record label. A recent discovery on such is the quintet Fair To Midland.

I've only heard the lead-off single, "Dance Of The Manatee", but already I have tingles thinking about what this band can do. They rush in like a sonic cross-pollination of Breaking Benjamin, Evans Blue, and Ra. The vocals jump from pretty to a less high Mars Volta to a melodic growl. The growl doesn't even bother me the way that it could.

The band is selling its image now in a sort of fantasy-book way, as evidenced by their amazingly designed webpage and the lead-off video (which can be found on Page 29 - I'm not kidding). The bio section features lead singer Darroh Suderth with a banjo, of which rock needs more (seriously, listen to "Ty Cobb" by Soundgarden and you won't be able to disagree). I'll be keeping a very close eye on this band, and those of you with harder taste should do so as well.

Slanted spotlight on Elbow to come in the near future. StayTuned!