West Virginia

West Virginia:

David F. Bello

PHOTO: ANDY PICKENS

CITY:Morgantown
SONG TO DOWNLOAD: "Barefoot Gold"
WEBSITE: davidfbello.bandcamp.com

WHY THEM: One cool thing about David F. Bello is he does damn near everything. In addition to his albums, he recently received his master's degree in communication (with a focus in human-computer interaction) from RIT, is dedicated to his artwork, and wrote a novel. It only makes sense that his songs are about having no money and not getting girls. So the story continues with Bello's nearly unclassifiable music, cleverly blending Dan Deacon's early experimental noise albums with Daniel Johnston's introverted songwriting. Landlords Dance is Bello's newest and biggest effort yet. Most of the songs are full-band versions of older songs, with lots of added sampling and electronic noise, officially making Bello West Virginia's first and only electronic musician. If this guy has plans other than becoming a mad robotics scientist or whatever you do with a human-computer-interaction degree, hopefully you'll see him come through Boston for a show sometime soon.

ALSO CONSIDERED: J Marinelli — Surprisingly original stuff from the lo-fi/garage/surf genre. This is Billy Idol's dirty, garage-rock fantasy.

By SAM UEDA

Wisconsin

Washington