Measure This: The Pica Beats

By: Spacelab Research Staff

Fresh out of nothingness and into somethingness comes The Pica Beats. Even though the Ryan Barret has been making music for four years as the Pica Beats, the band is still relatively new ... they just played their first live gig this year. And yet they've already been signed to Seattle's Hardly Art Recordings for the release of their new album Beating Back the Claws of the Cold.

Combine a sitar with a pop song, throw in the occasional oboe or horn and you have The Pica Beats. Multi-instrumentalist bedroom pop, indeed. There's a definite Americana vibe that runs parallel to bands like Nuetral Milk Hotel.

Also check out the sitar-laden Hikikomori & the Rental Sisters, with its ability to merge a great pop song writing skill with south asian sounds and make them sound like natural counterparts.

The Pica Beats' Beating Back the Claws of the Cold comes out on Hardly Art Recordings on September 23rd.

 MP3: The Pica Beats - Poor Old Ra