It was complete happenstance that I came across it…I was actually in the middle of setting up a MySpace Music page for myself last night, when I went to the official Beatles Myspace to add them. I was looking at the top friends and I spotted thenewno2, with a rather noticable animated avatar (though freaking Blogger won’t let me post the animated one…pfft). I was like “WTF is that?”, so I clicked and…I couldn’t figure out why they have less than 1,000 listeners on Last.fm and ‘only’ 10,000 friends on MySpace Music (that’s small for that site), being that, in no particular order: 1) Dhani Harrison, on lead guitar, synths, and vocals, is the son of a Beatle, 2) he is also very attractive, 3) their band logo is ambiguous in nature and strangely addictive to look at, 3) “Yomp” is available in RockBand for Xbox and Playstation 2, 4) Their. Music. Is. Effing. INCREDIBLE.

There has been almost zero buzz about them, it’s ridiculous, though there are a few factors involved. Dhani appears to have been fairly low-key about his music; heck, I knew of his existence but had no idea he had been working on any music until just last night. They (him, and this guy Oli Hecks on synths/drums) released EP001 in 2006 (available on CDBaby and streaming on their MySpace), and their first full-length album You Are Here came out on August 1st, 2008. The trouble with the album is that, so far, it’s apparently only available as a digital download and purchase on iTunes…no physical release! Their official website hasn’t even been updated since January, when they were still working on the album. I’ve searched awhile, only to find that absolutely no blogs have put up mp3s (for *cough* ‘evaluation’ purposes, of course) of thenewno2. And that’s the other thing. The band name is completely _blah_. Who would check that out, based on the name alone? I had to be drawn in by a flashing avatar, for heaven’s sake! Someone needs to get on this, PR-wise, ASAP.

As far as what the music sounds like, it’s tricky to describe. There is, naturally, the obvious Beatles-influence, but it goes beyond that. It is not stuck in reminiscent psychedelia, though there may be tinges, and there’s a bit of a rebellious, political undercurrent at times as well. It sounds fresh, and most importantly new. The only other band that sounded this new to me this year was Crystal Castles, but that’s on a completely different side of the spectrum. thenewno2 are self-descibred as Post-Bristol Electro Blues…sounds right to me. Minutes after I tagged “Yomp” as delicious on Last.fm, I read a review description on CDBaby describing their first EP as such, so I guess that’s a dang accurate adjective. :P Go here and listen!