More Vedera… because you know what? They’re awesome.

Technically this is my third blog post ever about Vedera.  (See blog post 1 from my short-lived “Astoria Basement” blog here and this week’s post about their free download here.)  I don’t consider myself a total fanboy… but the facts are kinda stacked against me on this one.

…I’m okay with that.

This morning, my girlfriend told me to check out Vedera’s cover of Beyonce’s “Halo”.  While on YouTube, I noticed that the band had also posted some professional live recordings of a couple songs from their new album, Stages…

Short diversion here:  I work for Sony and Vedera happened to be signed to the label in probably 2008.  They recorded a version of Stages that was supposed to be released in late 2008.  The album got shelved for a year and in that time, the band re-tooled a couple songs and re-recorded a couple more.  My friend at Epic sent me a watermark of the first iteration of the album so I was able to “Before/After” the whole thing a little bit.  The three songs that they added, “Even I”, “Goodbye My Love” and “Loving Ghosts” were powerful additions to an already beautiful album (the latter being my favorite).

…Ok so back to this morning:  One of the live videos was  for “Loving Ghosts”.  I listened to it and then I listened again… and then I listened again.  It’s a real treasure when bands can recreate a studio recording in a live performance.  It’s an even rarer talent to be able to improve a song while performing it live.  I’m probably geeking out a little bit – but it’s subtle vocal changes and the stripped down instrumentation that really give this version a nod over my favorite album track.  Kristen May is one of the best front-women in rock music.  Her voice is so cute, it just kills me.  I just had to post this video today.  Let me know what you think!

***Update*** You can buy their whole album for $5.99 on iTunes right now.  Click here.  (Do it!)