Annuals is a six-piece (Indie) band from Raleigh, North Carolina. Their band members consist of Adam Baker (Songwriter/Vocals), Kenny Florence (Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals), Mike Robinson (Bass/Backing Vocals), Anna Spence (keyboard/Piano/Backing Vocals), Zak Oden (Drums/Guitar) and Donzel Radford (Drums/Percussion). Their genre are mostly Indie rock, Alternative rock, Indie pop, Experimental rock. Their first album “Be He Me”, was released when they were just around the age of 19. And according to major music critic from Rolling Stone to NME to Pitchforkmedia, “Be He Me” received incredible positive reviews. Very impressive if you ask me. 
Such a young band, but already so big at such young age. What more would I ask for if I were a part of Annuals!
Such Fun contains a variety of musical arrangement and landscape, from relaxing country to orchestra ballad.
Their title track, “Confessor” starts off with Adam Baker singing “Pack up and leave…” When it comes to the chorus, everything seems so right, Adam sings in a voice that somehow sounds so soft to my ears. And with the delicious music that blend in so well with the vocals, anyone will have to confess to any mistakes/deeds that he/she committed after listening to song. The Guitar of Kenny can also be heard on and off. Wonderful opener from Such Fun!
“Hot Night Hounds” has a cheerful and fun piano sound to it. It kinda reminds me of my sister’s younger days where she played piano in our house every weekend or during her free time. This song can arguably be separated into 2 parts, where the first part is the piano-playing and the second part is the jamming and riffing of the guitar. 2 parts of this song make this song hot and cool!
“Springtime” is a slow and indie pop ballad where it starts off slow and steady. It gradually picks up in the chorus and the tempo of this song suddenly explode and all of a sudden the music background is getting richer, make this song sound so full and rich! Like Annuals are performing at an orchestra show! When Adam is not singing, the rest of the Annuals back it up with “Ba, ba, ba ba ba….” It’s beautiful, and it made me want to sing along!
“Down The Mountain” Wow! This song sounds like a song taken from a Cowboy Motion Picture. When I plugged in my earphones to my ears and listened to this song. I was imagining myself in a cowboy movie where I was riding on a horse and chasing, catching and hunting a group of cows/deers/goats/ or other wildlife. It’s such fun and cute song to listen to. You can bet to play this song when you are having a game of “getting to the seat when the music stops”! It’s just a suggestion. But this song is definitely cute and funny! It made you wanna smile and sometimes, laugh.
“Always Do” made an impression on me that it is a beautiful love song. It’s a love song, but angry love song. It seems that this song recalls the old memory of the love between 2 people. Annuals made an impact by exploding in this song. Remember “Brother” from their previous album, “Be He Me”? Well this song recalls me of “Brother”. Where it started off slow, and gradually picked up and exploded near the end of the song! It’s like building the momentum of this song, or even climbing up to the top of a hill or mountain and screams at his/her peak upon reaching the peak. Those who love “Brother”, will definitely love “Always Do”.
“Talking” is a fast track where the sound of the guitar can be mostly heard throughout the whole track. The chorus is the only part of the song that made an impression on me, where Adam sings, “Don’t let your love decay…” It sounds like Adam is really tired of talking. Honestly, I really think Annuals play and perform perfectly when they are doing a ballad orchestra or in other words, a slower tempo song. “Talking” is a good effort and it ended in a sudden after the riff of the guitar, but if you asked me, I prefer Annuals on indie pop, indie ballad or even indie orchestra if there’s such a genre. 
“Hardwood Floor” This song is just so awesome! And I really mean it! It’s supposed to be a sad song but I can’t help but feeling good whenever listening to this beautiful song. Adam starts off with “I’m so scared I just can’t go anymore, I keep patching my rooftop…” From the first listen, it’s like singing about a wound that hasn’t healed completely. But in reality, after listening to this song, all my wounds are gone, this song is capable of doing so. The part where Annuals sing what sounded to me like, “didn’t told dai yo”, it is one of the best moment on Such Fun. Well, if you asked me what does it mean, frankly I don’t know but it really sound like some African langauge.
“Hair Don’t Grow” From the beginning to the end of this song, Kenny’s guitar is awesome! Again, it resembles “Down The Mountain” as if it were taken from a Cowboy Motion Picture. But only this time, “Hair Don’t Grow” sounds packer, heavier and louder. It’s best when you play this song when you’re watching some Cowboy movies when the good Cowboys are fighting and shooting against the bad Cowboys. And oh yes, this song would be perfect when Annuals perform them in a gig or concert. The guitar, bass, drum, hand claps and some whistling instrument (Maybe it’s violin) just blend in and got together so well and tastefully. Don’t blame me if you find yourself nodding your head or tapping your foot away when listening to “Hair Don’t Grow”.
“The Tape” After listening to this song, I can’t help but think that this song is kinda cute and can be used to replace the old and somewhat boring “Silent Night” Christmas Song. A picture of a man playing piano in front of the Christmas tree and his family came to my mind when I listened to this song. Or is it because of the Piano-playing that made this song embraces the atmosphere of the Christmas Season. Not only that, “The Tape” is well accompanied by a number of musical instruments which can be found in a brass band. On second listen, “The Tape” can be a wonderful song for children’s brass band.
“Blue Ridge” Yet again, another beautiful song. 
It begins with a man talking and whispering to a baby. Reminds me of fatherly love. Forget Barney! Let your baby listen to Annuals’ “Blue Ridge”! Throughout the journey of this song, the music and vocals fit in so well. When Annuals sing together, “To be first in the Sun, to be cursed it might be fun, such fun…” The music that comes along will blow you away. It’ll melt you away like a box of chocolate. The violin is brilliant. I wish this song can be longer..
“Wake” started off somewhat in a creepy way. But it continued with a cheerful and happy note. The chorus is a very happy one and the backup vocals done by the rest of the Annuals suits in just well. It also kinda reminds me of the Arctic Monkeys’ “A Certain Romance” where it ended on a strong and powerful note! Wonderful indie pop rock song (If there’s such a genre).
Rating: Compared to their previous full length album , “Be He Me”. “Such Fun” showed that Annuals are evolving as an indie band/artist. They tried to venture into new musical landscape and sound in “Such Fun” while “Be He Me” was somewhat very consistent in their landscape and sound. Overall “Such Fun” was a really good ride. No kidding! It garnered a rating of 7.5 out of 10 from me.
Stand-Out Tracks (My Picks): Springtime, Hardwood Floor, Hair Don’t Grow and Blue Ridge.
Cheers!
Darren Tan
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About Author
Darren Tan is a huge avid fan of indie music, indie bands and indie artists. Since he was 17 years old, he started to fall in love with the indie music scene. It was a total turning point in his life for him as he no longer look at the indie music industry the same since.
With http://www.indiesurf.com he wants to share his thoughts, comments, reviews and opinions on the latest (and past/old) indie music, indie bands and indie artists with the world and you.
Indie music is shit. Sung by talentless musicians with repetitive poor melodies, stupid pretentious monotonous working class accents and no soul whatsoever. Soon this awful ‘rock’ music will be gone with the new decade and hopefully some real musicians with soul will appear again like before the 2000s
to say the truth not really everyone wants to hear peeps on record labels all of the time some of us want to hear some of the unsigned bands with there own original sound yes its repetitive but most more famous bands and artists are too example: JUST ABOUT ALL RAP MUSIC
i will list some bands and my favourite songs by each
Kings of Leon – The Bucket, King of the Rodeo, Mollys Chambers
Bloc Party – Like Eating Glass, The Prayer, Two More Years
The Strokes – Someday, You Only Live Once, 12:51
Arcade Fire – Wake Up, Keep the Car Running, Rebellion (Lies)
If you are interested in lyrics, you cant go past these two (these bands also have really good musical sounds aswell) i love both these bands at the moment the most out of any.
Manchester Orchestra – I Can Barely Breathe, Where Have You been, and I Can Feel a Hot One, Tony the Tiger
Brand New – Millstone, Play Crack the Sky, Sowing Season, and The Boy Who Blocked His Won Shot
Brand New can come off a little emo-ish at first, but just listen to them, you can really hear the singers emotion and his lyrics are great, especially in Play Crack the Sky – i believe he uses a ship going down at see as a metaphor for a relationship he had
Take a look at the music download sites listed on http://www.mp3obsession.com
They are all legal, safe, virus free and work with any mp3 player, including iPods.
They aren't free to download from though, songs are 5¢ each, but you can get some good freebies when you register with them.
Enjoy indie music : )
Then come to youtube . com / machiinate for some of the indie best mixes to come !!
Indie music was originally music that was produced independently. Now, however, times have changed and it commonly refers to music that has a similar sound to those few bands that were “indie” (as the original meaning suggests). Also, Arctic Monkeys and Bloc Party are both bands that are borderline indie. And finally, what difference does it make? I like music, and a lot of it tends to be indie. But I don’t like it just cause it’s cool. I don’t ONLY like indie, and, unlike you, I like music
panda bear. woot, woot.
travis
pantera
the strokes
machine head
arctic monkeys
lamb of god
kings of leon
devildriver
hot hot heat
deftones
the killers
sepultura
white lies
system of a down
bury your dead
megadeth
down
trivium
avenged sevenfold
eighteen visions
biffy clyro
kingdom of sorrow
hatebreed
kasabian
36 crazyfists
in flames
snowpatrol
Toronto
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) is better I think
haha
ralppi1 you are so fuckin stupid. and all other people that say that indie means unsigned bands and shit. indie is a rock genre you stupid fucks! search for indie rock and you’ll see. google is your friend douchebags
Bottom line. Pure Volume http://www.purevolume.com/ has the best indie band info, downloads and ease of use to find new artists and explore new types of music. Check 'em out.
What's the focus of the mag? Networking/promotion, coverage/festival listings, classifieds, subculture identity, etc? With that in mind, you may come up with a more specific name.
Think about this: Say the mag is all about promotion and meeting people and getting the unknown bands known. You got a regular column about grassroots and renegade promotion. One that profiles the best local gig joints nationwide. An article about what to look for in a replacement drummer. You've got dreams of getting an affiliation relationship with well known agencies. You've got extensive well-organized classifieds in the back pages. So what's the name? The Bricks. As in, "hit the bricks, get out of the garage and get some damn gigs." You go to your favorite newstand, "Hey! The latest Bricks come out yet?" Not the most invocative of the music scene, but if the content is quality, it'll be memorable. Think about your focus and go from there.
Of yours, I like:
Amplified – Simple. Telling.
imuse – I like it. Maybe not for an indie music mag per se, but could definitely work.
Mic-life – Direct. You know what you're getting. Lacks a bit of poetry, but it isn't too outlandish either. Even tends to stir the memory of Life magazine, which was a household name for decades, but with a decent bit of individuality as well. Even plays to the subculture identity theory of "if you don't know, I'm not telling" when people who don't know of it say <mick> instead of <mike>.Probably my favorite of these.
Chords – Too specific. Sounds more like a music theory mag.
Retropolitan – good word. not for this mag, though, unless you've got a bent I'm unaware of. Write it down and use it somewhere. Album title, if nothing else.
Other possibilities:
Gignation
Indie Pulse (Edit: Scratch this one. Already used for several properties, music and otherwise)
something with "sharp" or "flat" in it.
Extension Chord
Reverberations
Ear Candy
very carefully.
indie bands generally lay low, so good luck!
My favorites are tilly and the wall and eisley (though some other people put them in different catagories)
because it sounds good, makes me feel good and has true meaning and emotion behind it. “Indie” has absolutely NOTHING to do with how many people listen to it. You make a good point, but don’t be so shallow about the subject
I'm not sure about the "most proven way," but I always try to find the cheapest method possible. You can sell your MP3s at http://www.myfavoriteband.com for free and the only sales money you lose is the % that PayPal takes (which is about 2.9%). You can also sell your cds, shirts, stickers, etc. on that site, too.