Imagine a hip-hop producer taking the reigns on recording an indie rock band--and no, it's not another one of Snoop Dogg's random projects. No need to mess yourself over the endless consequences, because Las Vegas band Imagine Dragons has already gone down that slippery slope and came out on top. The four-piece group made up of front man Dan Reynolds, guitarist Wayne Sermon, bassist Ben McKee and drummer Daniel Platzman has mind-melded indie rock with just enough bits of other genres to create a unique, rallying-cry sound that has us (and apparently music-buyers as a whole) flying, like on the wings of fantasy beasts.
Their rousing brand of indie rock incorporates everything tinkering guitars to epic crescendos to full-on dubstep breaks, almost like a melange of elements that seems to be crowding the Grammy ballots, thankfully without scraggly beards or half-shaved heads. Figures since Imagine Dragons were plucked out of obscurity by producer Alex Da Kid, who has worked mostly in the hip-hop and R&B world (if his own name hadn't clued you in on that already) with huge names like Nicki Minaj, Dr. Dre and Eminem. The band's impressive-to-the-point-of-randomness range has paid off: Imagine Dragons' first album Night Visions debuted at #2 on the Billboard chart and at #1 on the Top Digital Albums chart last week, on top of receiving a VMA nomination for Best Rock Video for "It's Time" this year.
Note: Apparently "Imagine Dragons" is an anagram for the first name the band considered, but they won't reveal what it is. A quick search in an anagram generator brought up oh, only 107,143 possible options. At a glance, my guesses are "Garaged Minions", "A Smearing Dingo", and "Mini Gaga Drones". I think I've got a good chance of getting it right!
The boys of Imagine Dragons recently stopped by Y! Music to regale us with a short and sweet acoustic set with three acoustic guitars and a violin. You know me, I'm a sucker for classical accompaniment to rock, so I was just swooning my behind off.
Check out their unplugged renditions of "Destination" and "It's Time":
