I Can Barely Hardly Wait

The Delta Spirit's blend of roots influenced rock caught my ear in 2009 with their full length debut from a year earlier "Ode to Sunshine".  Matt Vasquez's current yet timeless songwriting sung and sometimes yelled over a well integrated mix of guitar, piano, and some unorthodox percussion give songs like "Trashcan" and "People, C'mon" an urgent yet open feel.  The songs manage to be catchy enough to be the right kind of anthemic, without being preachy or cliched.  The everyman appeal of Vasquez's writing has expanded even farther on this year's "History from Below", after Vasquez was introduced to Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States".  Zinn's retelling of history from the viewpoint of the people rather than the powerful is required reading for anyone who is even moderately willing to consider that the history you learned in high school social studies may not be the whole story.  

Check out a couple of video's that I love of the Delta Spirit performing "Trashcan" and "People C'mon" in an impromptu set for La Blogotheque's Take Away shows on a San Francisco cable car.  The Take Away Shows feature lots of great artists performing unannounced shows in unconventional locations.  So you get Bon Iver following what look to be some uninterested listeners around the streets of Paris or the Arcade Fire in an elevator using a phone book to help keep the beat.  Really great stuff both for the concept and the performances.  

Delta Spirit - Trashcan from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.