Bands Under The Radar (BUTR)

Miss Li may be one of the biggest artists you have never heard of. She’s a Swedish singer-singer who’s singles have been featured on all your favorite TV shows (Weeds, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy) and in commercials for Apple’s iPod Nano 5G, White House Black Market, and the popular UK furniture store DFS.

It’s hard to belief she didn’t start making music and playing the piano until 2006, and since then has released 7 full-length albums! Known for her jazzy, uptempo pop sound, Miss Li has that God-given talent for writing infectious hooks that will urge you to put the song on repeat. Her single “My Heart Goes Boom” released in Sweden in 2012 became an instant hit.

Watch the video below and get the single on BUTR Vol. 8: Songs About Love & Seduction. Look for Miss Li on tour this spring and hitting the summer festival circuit.

Get all 15 songs on  Amazon, and BUTR Store.
Stream all BUTR albums on Spotify, Rdio, and Beats.
Download the BUTR app for free here.

To say that Cousin Dan is a unique individual is an understatement. He was born a full grown man with a mustache that makes the ladies weak in the knees. He’s a white R&B singer/gunshot survivor that can usually be seen around town wearing jorts and ripped off sleeveless shirts. His sound is on the borderline of brilliant fusing new wave, auto-tune funk, and electro pop in a way that only inspires greatness.

Utilizing his own personal dance floor equipped with fog machines and lights, Cousin Dan sings, plays, and creates killer beats while shooting lazers from his fingertips and bouncing them off of his mirrored codpiece that compliments his leopard skin leggings. 

My favorite song is called “F Bomb” and it available on BUTR Vol. 8: Songs About Love & Seduction. Watch the video below to get a taste of how ridiculously awesome he is. Cousin Dan may just be one of the most interesting men in the world.

Get all 15 songs on  Amazon, and BUTR Store.
Stream all BUTR albums on Spotify, Rdio, and Beats.
Download the BUTR app for free here.

Jamestown Revival is made up of Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance, two close friends who grew up together in the small Texas town of Magnolia. From a young age, they shared a love for music as well as the outdoors.

At the age of 22, they moved to Austin and began to craft a sound of their own. Deeply rooted in harmony, they merged the sounds of the South with classic American, and Western rock. Looking for adventure, as well as a change of pace, they eventually made the decision to head west and make the move to Los Angeles, CA. There, the duo wrote the songs that would become their full-length debut, UTAH.

In order to capture the spirit of the music, the two found a log cabin high within the Wasatch Mountains of Utah. The pair, along with their band and engineer, set out to convert it in to a temporary recording studio. With wild moose right outside the window, and aspen leaves spinning in the wind, they tracked the 11 songs that comprise UTAH.  Performed live, with no headphones, and entirely to tape, the process captured the moments in the room.

Jamestown Revival are excited to announce a run of headlining tour dates (Sons of Fathers, The Wind + Wave and Kris Orlowski supporting) beginning in May and will also be performing this year at major festivals, including Bonnaroo and Hangout Fest. Check out the band’s killer performance on Conan of the single: “California (Cast Iron Soul)” and listen below to one of my favorite songs “Revival” and get it on BUTR Vol. 9: Americana for Hipsters I.

Get all 15 songs on  Amazon, and BUTR Store.
Stream all BUTR albums on Spotify, Rdio, and Beats.
Download the BUTR app for free here.

Sam Doores + Riley Downing & The Tumbleweeds are a New Orleans-based country-soul, swamp-boogie band that recently changed their name to The Deslondes. In their writing as well as their lives, The Deslondes three principle songwriters—Sam Doores, Riley Downing and Cameron Snyder—endeavor to carry on the traveling country-troubadour tradition of their heroes Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams, Townes Van Zandt, Blaze Foley and John Prine. With the help of bassist Dan Cutler and pedal steel-fiddle player John James, the band’s musical production and vocal arrangements are inspired by the rhythmic, high energy, and harmony-driven sounds of their other heroes, The Band and Allen Toussaint.

Sam & Riley released their debut album, Holy Cross Blues, in the fall of 2012 and were the opening act on the spring 2013 Alabama Shakes tour. Riley also performed as a solo act supporting Alabama Shakes on their fall 2012 tour. Riley wrote “This Morning’ I Was Born Again” based on a Woody Guthrie lyric sheet.  It’s a crowd favorites at Tumbleweeds gigs. Listen below and get it on BUTR Vol. 9: Americana for Hipsters I.

Get all 15 songs on  Amazon, and BUTR Store.
Stream all BUTR albums on Spotify, Rdio, and Beats.
Download the BUTR app for free here.

Smooth Hound Smith is a foot stompin’ folk-blues duo comprised of singer/multi-instrumentalist Zack Smith and vocalist/percussionist Caitlin Doyle. With their fuzzed-out, finger-picked guitar patterns, foot percussion, warbled harmonicas, distorted vocals, and tasty harmonies, they are able to create a modern interpretation of early blues, soul, and rock-n-roll music that harkens back to the traditions of hazy front porch folk songs as well as raucous back-alley juke joints.

By the end of 2013, Smooth Hound Smith had played over 200 shows and dropped their self-titled debut album produced by Raymond Richards (Local Natives, honeyhoney, The Parson Red Heads). Currently they split their time between Nashville, Los Angeles, and their tour van. Listen to Crazy Over You which was just featured on the season finale of MTV’s The Real World: Real World: Ex-plosion and get it on BUTR Vol. 9: Americana for Hipsters I.

Get all 15 songs on  Amazon, and BUTR Store.
Stream all BUTR albums on Spotify, Rdio, and Beats.
Download the BUTR app for free here.