In our never-ending quest to dig up great bands whose tickets cost less than a corned beef sandwich at Katz’s, we bring you another round of Blips. Blips highlights some great bands that are largely still in their larvae stage, but will soon morph into their beautiful butterfly. In this edition, we have some really cool new music, so take a sec, poke around the bands’ various websites, and see what you think of these two under the radar acts…

Jukebox The Ghost

MySpace / Website

It’s not too often that I get a chance to write about a band that got its start at my alma mater, so I thought I’d seize the opportunity to do just that by telling you about the music of Jukebox The Ghost. The three piece act, consisting of of Ben Thornewill (vocals & piano), Tommy Siegel (vocals & guitar) and Jesse Kristin (drums), formed while students at The George Washington University in Washington, DC during the early aughts. JTG’s name comes from a Captain Beefheart song and a line from the book Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov.

While DC had previously been the epicenter of the hardcore movement in the 1980s, the music of Jukebox The Ghost couldn’t be more different from the aggressiveness of those bands. Blending synth-y, uptempo, piano-pop with bouncy rhythms, the trio sound is influenced by the likes of Ben Folds, The Postal Service and Passion Pit. The band, who released their sophomore full length effort Everything Under The Sun via Yep Rock earlier this month, recently stopped by the Ed Sullivan Theater where they made their network television debut performing the album’s lead single Schizophrenia on Late Night With David Letterman.

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- Jeffrey Greenblatt

READ ON for a profile of J. Roddy Waltson & The Business…

J. Roddy Waltson & The Business

MySpace / Website

There is something immediately cool sounding about J. Roddy Walston & The Business – and that’s just in reference to their name, though the same could be said about band’s music too. Hailing from Baltimore and fronted by the piano pounding J. Roddy Walston – who channels the bawdy swagger of Jerry Lee Lewis doused in whiskey and cigarette smoke. Walston & The Business plays a raucous brand of boozy, barroom rock that is full of Southern boogie and crunchy guitar riffs. Think Exile-era Stones mixed with elements of The Black Crowes, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Led Zeppelin.

The band has earned quite a reputation for putting on high energy live shows thanks in part to Waltson pitching his shattered piano bench into the East River during a Rocks Off boat cruise gig this past summer. Back in July, J. Roddy Waltson & The Business released their sophomore self-titled album, and will hit the road as the support act for both Shooter Jennings and Deer Tick on different legs of their respective tours.

- Jeffrey Greenblatt