This is the Indie Track of the Day Giveaway. It's just like it sounds—every day we spotlight a song from an indie band/artist and we let you keep the track to do with whatever you like (within the limits of the law).
The song is part of our podcast, so if you want it (you do), search on iTunes for the ExploreMusic.com podcast, or just scroll down to the bottom of this page and click the links.
Vancouver band Parlour Steps has at various times evoked comparisons to artists as diverse as XTC, Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, and The Pixies.
Released in October, The Hidden Names is the follow-up to 2008's Ambiguoso, which was the band's first album to get a U.S. release—their first three albums are available as part of this package along with other rare audio and video.
“If there is an overall theme to be distilled it would be of the never-ending search for meaning and connection in today’s world,” singer/songwriter/vocalist/guitarist/producer Caleb Stull says of the new record.
“The confidence on The Hidden Names comes from the rather successful experiments in pop simplicity of our work on Ambiguoso,” Stull continues. “The emotion is closer to the surface. We feel less and less concerned with coming off as cool and calculated and have decided, instead, to just write simpler pop tunes.”
Also, The Hidden Names is the first album to feature keyboardist Alison Maira joining Stull, bassist/vocalist Julie Bavalis, guitarist Rees Haynes, and drummer Robert Linton.
Listen to "Little Pieces," and click here to check out Parlour Steps' MySpace page.