Band of the Week: The Muslims

[September 15 - 21]

The Muslims
Sounds Like: Indie-Pop / Garage Punk
Drinking Buddies: The Sess, Tapes n' Tapes, The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys

Synopsis: Retro punk stylings for the modern age.

Makes You Want To...: Rock out; Dance; Sing
[Myspace]

One week, one band. You know the drill.
This week, the featured artist is The Muslims.
[3/12/09: They're now called The Soft Pack]

New music is wonderous. You have to listen in awe of the amazing, unique, new sounds that musicians can still manage to pull out of their creativities and their musical instruments. The whole process - of making as well as discovering - new music is a real experience, and takes a lot of talent. For the individual bands, they have to create something that seperates them from the entire crowd, and attempt to prove why you, the music listener, should be listening to them instead of the endless stream of music flooding our fine world. As a listener, we must educate ourselves on music to fully appreciate everything we hear: not only must we know what contemporary artists are playing, following the latest trends or underground stylings of those in the music scene, but to know where they came from, and where these contemporary artists got their inspiration.

New music is great, but new music that emulates old styles is a real treat. There's as much of a draw to progression as there is to nostalgia, and that fact remains constant concerning the music we listen to. There's certainly a market for musical retrospection; from Arctic Monkeys, The Vines, The Mooney Suzuki, and Hellogoodbye, who truly draw from past musical styles, prove that we not only enjoy past styles, but we want to hear more of a modern version of them as well.

Which takes us to a little city in Southern California. This country town happens to be called San Diego, and here we find a quaint little quartet. The Muslims are from the heart of this west coast city, and are playing a retro-styled take on punk music.

Even if you're not trying to start a scandal or contrive a connection via the symbolic naming of a band, if you name yourselves after an entire culture of Islam, you're definitely going to have represent, and representing themselves is what The Muslims are all about. Low fidelity, crisp, and raw, The Muslims bring a dated style, with a modern perspective, to our fair music scene. They are about high energy, strumming some vibrant, catchy tunes with wild riffs and catchy beats. They blend the lines between new and old, not neglecting their predecessors, but rather, embracing them so effortlessly that the lines between old and new blend together as if they were never drawn in the beginning. The Muslims bring their style - unique to them - and represents it with eclectic enthusiasm; they cordially present to you are some catchy tunes, some sweet beats, and some fun, enthusiastic songs. Stereo Pills says it best: "What they do is rock music, catchy, immediate and without any additives, the kind of stuff that never goes out of fashion."

The Muslims are currently playing shows here and there in Southern California, rockin' their hearts out in San Diego and Los Angeles. This is after some excessive touring, which followed in the wake of SXSW. They released their self-titled EP on 12" vinyl recently - completely riddled with bullet holes (yes, I did say bullet holes... long story) - which is currently on sale from their website (if I'm not mistaken). The EP is also available on Insound, where it was named the Insound Staff Pick - 2008; not bad, eh?

Word has it that The Muslims intend to be fairly prolific with their material as well. I don't know the specifics, but word has it these boys are releasing two more albums, both on 7", on Sweet Tooth Records and Art Fag Recordings. They also recorded a session at Rainydawg Radio up in Seattle, where they lay down quite the nifty performance. And of course, The Muslims have a Myspace, where they offer tons of their nifty songs for free download as well.

Summer may be ending, but shall we end it with a bang? Or a party? Or tons of fun? Well, I'm sure you know what I'm trying to say. Happy Autumn Equinox, reader! Have a nice week.