Giddy and experimental

The Tailors is an Americana band that happens to hail from one of Britain's large industrial centers (Leeds/Wakefield area). But you'd swear they're from rural Kentucky or something. The title of the band's song "Giddy & Maudlin" might as well be a statement of purpose--a little good-humored romp, a little melancholy drunk, a little country, a little rock n' roll. What the band has a lot of is debt to Jeff Tweedy, who, more than anyone recently, has made it alright for indie rock musicians to unabashedly embrace roots. I'm no Wilco fan (so shoot me), but I'm happy to come across musicians who, in their obvious admiration for Tweedy, end up making songs this pretty.

Giddy & Maudlin - The Tailors

Your Voice - The Tailors

Diamonds - The Tailors

All We Talk About - The Tailors

Visit The Tailors' Web site or MySpace page.

Hookers Green No. 1 also admits an affinity for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (is that album becoming the touchstone of a generation?), but that's where this transition ends. The Aberdeen, Scotland band has a fondness for Brian Wilson, Duke Ellington and Debussy, too. Sound unbearably pretentious? Not at all. If anything, this jazz/ rock/ electronica fusion is playful and laid back. And while I find a lot of experimental music rather cold and contrived, the band's album On How the Illustrious Captain Moon Won the War For Us, is actually a warm and organic-sounding record in which brass, woodwinds, bells, ghostly piano, voice samples and distorted vocals unfold in a sort of dream narrative.

Love Ballad For the Cold Robot - Hookers Green No. 1

There Is An Equilibrium - Hookers Green No. 1

The band is currently recording their next LP. Visit their Web site and MySpace page.