Yesterday brought forth the full site and expanded line-up for SoundLand 2011 – the latest incarnation of Next BIG Nashville. While the big names – Foster the People, M. Ward, Ghostland Observatory – will certainly bring people in I’m actually more impressed with the locals they’ve managed to cobble together. JEFF the Brotherhood, Those Darlins, Paper Route, Tristen, Madi Diaz, Caitlin Rose, Uncle Skeleton, Keegan DeWitt, The Cadillac Black, The Apache Relay, Mikky Ekko and By Lightning! among the first batch to be announced. It’s possible that by having more national acts coupled together with local artists that the original vision of highlighting the greatness emerging from the Nashville area might be closer to being achieved than one would suspect.

The Features
Wilderness
Available now
Lotsa formats: Vinyl | CD | MP3

I recall hearing The Features when I was a senior in high school. This wouldn’t be a remarkable statement if it weren’t for the fact that I was a senior in high school in 1997. Fourteen years later and the band is still going strong. Granted, there were a few lineup changes and other dramatic occurrences in that time but they persevered. Wilderness finds the band leaning more towards their Rock tendencies than their Pop tendencies (as did Exhibit A but this is much more effective) but they never lose sight of their basics… catchy songwriting. I’ve always felt they deserved to be one of those bands on the level of a big indie – ala Spoon – and this record just proves they continue to deserve it.