One of our memorable artist has returned with a new musical project for all of us. The music has been pouring out of our friend Young Coconut once again, this time in the form of a collaborative project called Vanity Plate.
The Ontario, Canada music scene must be very full with the music that is spilled onto the streets by Dave (aka Young Coconut) and his musical friends. For the Vanity Plate (or Vanity PL8) collaboration he has brought in the vocal talents of Jillian Collins along with some other helpers in Ayaf Thachipsee from Binary Forest and Kyle Gruber from Childebeast. The songs have a funky alternative beat with a kind of romantic indie pop feel.
The last release by Vanity Plate is the full length album Blown To Stardust. The 10 track record explores a wide variety of genres and influences touching on sounds for everyone. The opener “Four Letter Put Down” provides a spacy blues sound offset by Jillian’s funk inspired vocal delivery. The song that stood out to me was “High Maintenance”. There is a definite ska influence that had me flashing back to old No Doubt but without all the horns. The energy is there and constantly pushing forward throughout the 4 minute song. The guitar solo outro shows some true talent. The tone is slowed down on “Land Called Outside” that leads to a head bopping listen. The rock is released on “Tie Down Twins” with its bombastic edge ready to take off at any moment. The album is full of enjoyable listening for anyone that loves good raw music with energy. Get a listen for yourself at: http://vanitypl8.bandcamp.com/
