  If it’s a band with the talent to soar from songs full of catchy hooks, powerful vocals, toe-tapping rhythms, dashes of scathing polemic wit and lyrical prowess to soft-spoken, beautiful ballads you’re after, San Diego’s Delta Spirit are the band for you. Their second full length studio album, History from Below was released at the start of June, and certainly does not disappoint.
I’ll admit to being a relative newcomer to their music; I was recently introduced to their previous album Ode to Sunshine (2008) and spent a good few days obsessing over it – tracks like “People C’mon” and “Trashcan” defining their sound for me – different, upbeat, vibrant, but I know this is a band I will be listening to for a long time. History from Below launches into brilliance with the more politically charged “911″ KEEP READING →→
  Seattle’s Minus the Bear are back with the follow up album to 2007’s Planet of Ice with Omni, a record that, despite its uber catchy melodies, I’m in two minds about. To put it totally bluntly: I just don’t get it.
I know this review will probably sound schizophrenic, but I can’t help it. I’m divided. I also know this is Positivexposure, and I’ll get to the positivity, I promise, but on the one hand, I have to be honest. With Omni, I feel that the band have morphed into a more generic direction – rather than taking the opportunity to refine their individuality and take a more unique step, Omni is kind of faceless – at one point I really began to doubt if I’d bought the right record. KEEP READING →→
If you’re a fan of Harvard, you should already know some things about Jesse Clasen. To name a few, he has an incredible voice and knows how to use it, he plays piano, and occasionally, he will play some horns. What Firewood immediately teaches us is that Jesse had a hidden talent up his sleeve. Sure, he played acoustic guitar on The Inevitable and I, but the guitar on Firewood is much more intricate and it draws you into the song immediately, catching your interest and allowing Clasen to do, well…all the other things he does really well. Don’t come here looking for the pounding drums, groovy bass lines, or dizzying guitars that can be found when listening to Harvard. Just sit back and introduce yourself to the truly one of a kind talent that is The Bear Romantic. KEEP READING →→
Mountain Man start their unique debut album, Made the Harbor, by asking you to ‘follow, follow follow’ and indeed, the voices of Amelia Meath, Molly Sarle, and Alex Sauser-Monnig, like the three sirens of Greek mythology, seem to grab you by the hand and lure you into their ethereal, beautiful world; their songs seduce and enchant you.
When listening, there was nothing to do but lie in silence, to be active felt as if I was doing the music a great disservice, and by the third track, I was utterly enthralled and in love. Like waves, Made the Harbor washes over your mind and pulls you to its depths. KEEP READING →→
 Click to see more! Owl City, the musical brain child of Adam Young is a tribute to the power of the internet. From uploading tracks recorded in his parent’s basement late at night when he was suffering from insomnia on his Myspace page in 2007, to scoring a #1 single on both the Billboard 100 and UK charts, his uber catchy songs have led to a viral success which most musicians only dream of. The first time I came across his Myspace page, sometime in 2008, the only live photos of him seemed to be at small parties with teenagers. Tonight, it’s a different story. The O2 Academy in Oxford is packed with a variety of people, ages ranging from 12 to 50, all excitedly awaiting the night’s music. Due to a variety of inconveniences, from traffic to ticket issues, I show up just before the support act, Lights hits the stage, and battle my way to the front, which I can assure you is no easy task!
Canadian native Lights is the perfect opener to Owl City. Unlike some concerts where support acts’ genres clash horrendously with the headliners, her fun synthpop music really gets the crowd going and is a brilliant lead up. She is pretty and charismatic, rocking a keytar while smiling excitedly and talking about her first UK radio interview earlier in the day. The crowd seem to love her, some members calling out things like ‘Don’t go home!’ ‘You can stay at my house!’ ‘You can stay in my bed!’ to which she laughs bashfully. The mood is happy and buzzing, and when she asks who’s looking forward to Owl City the cheer is deafening. Her set is relatively short, but her music is uplifting and her voice sounds great. You can tell she is really enjoying herself, and her enthusiasm bounces through the audience. KEEP READING →→
9:55pm, October 9th. In the Oxford O2 Academy, the atmosphere is electric, as excited fans surge towards the stage. It’s almost time for the headlining act of the Eastpak Antidote Tour, which is travelling across the UK this month featuring Ghost of a Thousand, Four Year Strong, Anti-Flag and, the real reason I’m there: Alexisonfire. After the fast paced, politically charged set of Pennsylvanian punk-rockers Anti-Flag, (which included helping audience members on-stage to sing and dance, bringing the drummer, Pat Theic and his kit down into the pit, and a circle pit which consumed most of the floor) everyone is definitely in the mood. Chants of ‘Alexis! Alexis! Alexis!’ echo around the venue, which, with a capacity of just over 1000, is packed from wall to wall. The stage becomes dark, and the crowd is turbulent as pink and green lights start to flash and music begins to play, marking the imminence of the band’s entrance.
KEEP READING →→
My name is Emma, I’ve been very kindly invited by Sunny to be a contributing writer on positivexposure, and I am really looking forward to…well, contributing in the future!
For many of us, all of the ‘important’ steps of our lives have been documented by proud parents, relatives and friends, all bearing cameras in their excited hands as we took our first steps, stood by the front door on our first day of school and on the stage at our graduation. A video, which hit YouTube in July entitled ‘The PEN Story’ does just this. It depicts, in stop motion format, fifty years in the life of a man in photographs, however, with an imaginative twist- it is a stop motion within a stop motion. We watch as the photos revealing the boy’s life travel in paths around a house- even floating up the stairs in a hot air balloon before parachuting back down to the floor. Their journey mirrors those that he takes through the years of his life. As he travels through the frames, he grows up, marries, has a child- all in the space of a few minutes and hundreds, perhaps thousands of images. We see the world evolve around him as the years pass- from hippies in the sixties to a party celebrating the millennium. It is an impressive piece of film, and despite being made to market the latest Olympus Digital camera, is an incredible achievement which has captured the imaginations of over a [...]
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positivexposure is a digital magazine that features music,
art, activism, and creativity- exposing what we like, not criticizing things we don’t. We believe that creativity is a community, not an industry. We look forward to continue building this from the ground up with you, not in spite of you.
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