With this blog we kick off The New Now's free MP3 program. The featured track is "Everyone You Know" by the delightful Minnesota-based duo known as Now, Now Every Children. The song is from the pair's full-length debut, Cars. It features Cacie Dalager's delicate vocals and hypnotic guitar riffs, which build in strength and ferocity as the song progresses, seemingly pulled along by Brad Hale's relentless drumming. You can either stream it below or right click and hit "save as" to add the track to your music library.
Just so you know, every act featured with a free MP3 won't warrant a full blog, but we felt Now, Now Every Children were worthy of the full treatment.
Dalager and Hale first played together in their high school marching band. After band practice, the pair would write and record songs together, but the initial results weren't pretty. "Brad and I started playing together when we were like 16 and made a really pathetic acoustic song for one of our friends who was going away to college," Dalager told PunkDisasters.com. "It's a painfully embarrassing but that's how it initially happened."
Yet the pair didn't let its first failure keep it down. Eventually it recorded and posted songs on MySpace and became part of a new generation of acts that started to gain a following without ever performing live. With two EPs and now a full-length album under its belt, the band has graduated beyond that point. Although Dalager and Hale recorded Cars as a duo, they expand their lineup for performances to include Hale's keyboardist sister, Britty, and number of different bass players. You can check out the band's live lineup in this fan-shot clip below.
You might have noticed that clip was posted by "paramorefans." Not coincidently, paramorefans.com recently named Now, Now Every Children "band of the month." While that's not quite like winning a Grammy, it's not a bad thing for a young band to garner the support of a fan community of a successful, like-minded act. Before Paramore became a platinum-selling sensation, the band got its start on an indie label. Likewise, Now, Now Every Children are signed to Afternoon Records, which issued Cars as well as the band's first two EPs, Not One, But Two and In The City. The band recorded Cars in a tiny Minneapolis studio with Ian Anderson--not the guy from Jethro Tull, but the band's manager and Afternoon Records founder--manning the board. It's a modest effort with a big sound.
Now, Now Every Children has played live with a number of acts, including Mates Of State, a gig that Dalager found particularly rewarding. "That was easily my favorite show we have ever played," she told the Twin Cities' Decider. "In my mind, that was the perfect show, it couldn't have gone any better. I almost fear that it's not even possible being that good again ... And obviously the fact that it was Mates Of State made us want to play really well, and not suck in front of them."
Do you think Now, Now Every Children deserve to be mentioned alongside Mates Of State and Paramore or are they just another young indie band trying to be heard?