Meet The Gregory Brothers

I'm back... mostly. Not much has been shakin' in the couple weeks that The Musically Inclined has been dormant. Apple released the new batch of iPods. All I can say is that it's cruel not to include a video camera on the iPod touch.

In any case, several weeks ago, a friend of mine showed me this web series called Auto-Tune the News. Basically it's a group of twenty-somethings editing together clips from various news shows, green-screening themselves in, and Auto-Tuning the mind-numbing banter and punditry into some seriously catchy, witty hip-hop tunes that are grounded in real musical ability. Check out the one below and try to dislodge it from your brain.



So after watching all 8 episodes over and over again, I looked up who exactly who was responsible for making Katie Couric bearable.

Meet the Gregory Brothers-- which happens to be the title of their EP.

It's three brothers from Brooklyn-- Michael, Andrew, and Evan, plus Evan's wife, Sarah. I don't really know what I was expecting from their MySpace other than more tongue-in-cheek songs with plenty of digital tinkering, but the Gregory Brothers' music very different. It's equally solid, but soulful and bluesy-- no politics or angry gorillas.

Take that talent and apply it to more serious material, and the result is truly impressive. The Gregory Brothers are not only brilliant but versatile. "Don't Give up on Me" is a good example of their slow soul sound. Rich and intriguing, with a subtle hint of Sam Cooke or something in there with a bit of Continuum era John Mayer. "Bad Habit" is more jazz-tinged, with smart, cool lyrics.

Anyway, they released their EP in May. You can find it here and on iTunes. Do check them out. Let's hope we'll be seeing an LP sometime in the near future.