YouTube Rodeo: Thunder Power's "Home Office"

Our confidence that Omaha-based Thunder Power would finally write another song we really like has finally been rewarded. Two years ago the quintet popped onto our radar with the superlative, Belle & Sebastian-esque strummer "Take A Hike" [video here]."Home Office" touts the same winning formula which pairs Kacynna Tompsett's affecting voice and able indie pop backing, and the track is from a split 10" the collective is promoting called Hearts Intersect. You can buy the EP from distributor Saddle Creek right here; the split -- which carries three songs from The 1959 Hat Company on the b-side -- was released in May by Slumber Party Records. In case you missed "Take A Hike" when it was all the rage in 2008, here's a stream scraped from SoundCloud. Thunder Power is currently on tour in the midwest and you can see the dates at the band's MySpace wigwam right here.

Thunder Power's "Take A Hike"

Today's Hotness: Thunder Power, Answering Machine, Abbey Lounge

>> Keeping up with the Omaha/Saddle Creek indie rock scene seems complicated and difficult. Or at least it seems that way from a thousand miles away. So many projects, so much overlap in personnel, all of it makes our head spin, and as a result we don't really pay too much attention. However, there is a new EP out today titled Love Yourself released by an Omaha sextet called Thunder Power that certainly warrants consideration. The jewel of the EP's five fizzy pop tracks is "(Why Don't You Go) Take A Hike?" [video embedded above]. The light bounce of the tune -- the acoustic strummery of which reminds us of If You're Feeling Sinister-era Belle And Sebastian -- is counterbalanced by the weary, melancholy vocal of fronter Kacynna Tompsett. Ms. Tompsett's singing voice carries an unplaceable accent and is cradled in a close reverb on these recordings; combined those two things give her lyrics a timeless, yet otherworldly quality. Slumber Party Records, which is distributed by the aforementioned Saddle Creek, releases Thunder Power's Love Yourself EP today. The band already has another release in the pipeline in the form of a planned split EP Friend Ships, which also includes music from British singer-songwriter Alessi Laurent-Marke. That EP will be issued sometime this winter on Laurent-Marke's Zooey Records. Thunder Power was cool enough to allow us to post an MP3, so here is "Take A Hike."

Thunder Power -- "(Why Don't You Go) Take A Hike?" -- Love Yourself
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[buy the Love Yourself EP from Saddle Creek right here]

>> The Answering Machine will likely sign a record deal with the small indie Heist Or Hit, according to a recent blog post from fronter Martin. The fledgling label is based in either Ashford or Middlesex, England -- we don't really understand how British addresses work, we're afraid to admit. Or it is based in London, according to the label's MySpace hacienda. Heist Or Hit's only other signing at the moment appears to be San Francisco-based dream pop quartet LoveLikeFire. As we reported here last week, Manchester-based The Answering Machine is currently recording its debut full-length, whose title is Another City, Another Sorry.

>> We don't know much, but we do know that we are not happy that soon we will have to live in a world with no Abbey Lounge. We've seen a lot of great bands there over the years, including The Kickovers and Neptune and The Farmhands. Sadly, the club will close its doors Nov. 28. More at On The Download here.