Track Marks: How Via Audio Became This Week’s Biggest Band In The World

noah | November 13, 2006 12:36 pm

Welcome to another edition of Track Marks, where your Idolators perform an autopsy on the latest MP3-blog sensation.

Artist: Via Audio Hometown: Brooklyn, NY, via Boston Album: Say Something, 2006 First blog mention: A track posted to Sixeyes in April. The Build-Up: Mentions over the summer from Ear Farm and 5 Acts, then radio silence until October, when Largehearted Boy included them in his “Daily Download” section. The Dam-Break: CMJ gave Via Audio’s blog profile a boost; the band played two shows during the festival, as well as a post-party in Connecticut, and, in a pretty ingenious move, they sent tracks out to bloggers around the time of the festival. That led to a mini-explosion of raves for the indie-pop outfit, and many of them–like The Yellow Stereo’s mention–name-checked the band’s fans in Death Cab For Cutie and Spoon. “We Can Be Good” and “Modern Day Saint” are sitting in the elbo.ws top 10. Odds of Backlash: 6-1. Having your album produced by a member of Spoon = a good way to get people listening. Are They Worthy?: We’re usually wary of anyone who trumpets their Berklee pedigree, Brendon Small excepted. Thankfully, Via Audio don’t go the arpeggios-and-pentatonics route; unfortunately, their sleepy, electro-tinged pop songs aren’t much to rave about, although we do dig the dark, echoing coda at the end of “Developing Active People.”

Via Audio – We Can Be Good [MP3, link expired] Via Audio – Developing Active People [MP3, link expired] VIA AUDIO LOVES YOU [Official site]

Tags: ,