Rock and Roll certainly hasn’t stayed static as a music style during its still rampant run. In fact (Don’t throw things!), it could be said that music these days is far more expansive in a million more ways than they were during Rock’s younger years. Of course, the music of the ’60s and ’70s, the ’80s and ’90s, were vastly different than each other, and definitely different than what the new century has brought us in its 17 years! But these days, there are great bands pushing the envelope as much as the envelope was pushed back in the those previously mentioned decades. I’ll always love the music of those earlier time frames. But I easily fall in love with excellent new bands as well. One of them is a band known as Bent Knees.
I don’t recall how I stumbled across this band. But I know that once I heard their “Leak Water” track (hear below) from their Say So album, issued in 2016, almost a year ago (May 20), I was hooked. Unlike a lot of bands, this one employs the use of several genres of musical styles like Prog Rock, Pop, Avant-Garde, blended with traditionally classical influence with the use of violins, cellos, and others. As a result, they are tough to classify as a specific band producing a specific type of music. You’ll be challenged…but you like challenges, right?!
Bent Knee is a six-member band, They were formed in the famed Berklee College of Music in 2009. They self-released their first two, both of which I am enjoying on Spotify (Bent Knee – 2011, Shiny Eyed Babies – 2014). Their Say So album is hosted on Bandcamp only (here). The songs are excellent. I’m particularly fond of the vocal work of Courtney Swain, who also works the keyboards for the band.
On June 23, the busy Bent Knee band will release their next album, Land Animal. This new album will feature ten new songs with a bonus of two remixed tracks, both included on the standard CD release. The album will also be released on white vinyl LP (with CD), and several formats of Digital (FLAC, MP3, WAV, and other high quality digital issues). If you go to their Bandcamp page (here), you can even find a CD/Tee bundle as well as a limited edition digipak CD.