SIMPLE KID"2"
(Yep Roc, 2007)
"Serotonin"
It's funny sometimes how one artist in a particular sub-genre will "click" with the listener, while another very similar artist won't -- and in my case, I usually seem to gravitate more toward the lesser-known artists (perhaps for the very reason that they're lesser-known, as if they're "my own little secret"). For instance, I've come to like Kristian Leontiou more than Daniel Powter, and Simple Kid more than Beck.
Irish-born Ciaran McFeely is fond of the banjo (but uses plenty of other instruments too), records his music onto 8-track tape, and then cobbles it together on a laptop with samples of his own making, forming a unique and hard-to-pin-down sound, with traces of everything from country to hip-hop to mainstream pop to electronica to swamp rock. Do you remember the Saturn car commercial with that funky, bouncy, banjo-laden ditty with the audible "whoop!" hidden in the rhythm? That song ("Lil' King Kong") is on this album, and together with the track I've uploaded here gives you a good idea of what to expect from Simple Kid.
I'd probably give Beck a try, but I wouldn't hold out a whole lot of hope for liking him ... at least not nearly as much as I like this guy. Those "you might also like..." lists can be very hit-and-miss for me, after all. For now, I'll be quite comfortable with the charmingly slipshod pop of Simple Kid.
