I’m not usually one to lavish copious quantities of effusive praise upon bands or albums or songs, but in this instance I feel I have to make an exception. I’ve never heard anything quite like this.

African American National Biography Project is, I can almost promise, the best band of which you have never heard.

And, as luck would have it, their newest album, “Sucked Into Jet Engines” is quite possibly the least listened to piece of sonic joy and goodness of 2008 (yes, I know, we’re only a couple weeks in, but I have a gut feeling about this one).

Formed in 2006 by four ambitious African American men and one woman of unclear Asian descent (all from Iowa), AANBP has recently been playing to standing room only crowds across the greater Des Moines metropolitan area.

Critics have praised their unique sound as “ephemeral,” “effervescent,” and “a rock your nads right off hybrid of old school and back to the future with a bit of Touched by an Angel. Booyah. Can’t touch this.”

No faint praise, that.

The band consists of Gary Turner (vocals, yodels), Eugene Henderson (guitar, e-bow), Larry Stevens (bass, honky tonk piano, didgeridoo), Bruce Thompson (drums, screeches, bellyaching), and Changchang Cheung (sowing discord among band members).

Be sure to check out the other acts on their record label, such as:

Pormestarin Tytaer
Factsheet Five
Hoplite
Robin Byrd
The Oval

Curious what the hell this is all about? Check out Factsheet Five for where this round began, but here’s the scoop:

How to Play:

1. Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random - The first article title on the page is the name of your band.
2. Click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 - The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.
3. Visit http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/ - The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4. Use your graphics program of choice to throw them together, and post the result. And then ask someone else to play.

So, if anyone else wants to play, be my guest - let me know and I’ll link you up.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 11th, 2008 at 7:50 pm and is filed under Blogroll, Movies and Music and Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.