Sometimes you just need some soft acoustic indie pop to set your soul at ease. If you find yourself in that kind of mood right now, or anticipate being in that mood in the near future, do yourself a favor and check out Blind Pilot. They released their debut album, 3 Rounds And a Shot, at the tail end of last year, and it's not nearly as rowdy as you might expect from it's title. In fact, it's downright soothing in a wistful, clouds floating by sort of way.

The band is composed of Israel Nebeker (vocals, guitar) and Ryan Dobrowski (drums), and if I had to make a comparison, another band that came to mind while listening to the album was Page France. While Isreal's voice isn't as distinctive as Michael Nau's, is still conveys that smoothly rollicking folk sound (check out The Story I Heard below to see what I mean), minus all the biblical allusions. They play gently layered melodic tunes that roll by peacefully, with nary a jarring note to throw you off. Also check out I Buried A Bone, whose beginning makes me think of Bob Marley's Redemption Song.