Murder By Death, Amigo The Devil, Samantha Crain

Imagine you're traveling throughout the South, possibly traversing the rural country side of Georgia or Alabama, and you stop for refreshments. As you walk into the convenience store, you notice some music coming through the rusted speakers of the market. The singer's haunting, baritone croon is fairly morose sounding and the downtempo nature of the band's instrumentals highlight an unusual instrument that is rarely used to its full potential in rock bands: a cello. The music is perfectly suited for the Southern Gothic situation you currently find yourself in and you begin to disappear into the scene. Though it's highly unlikely to hear a song by the Bloomington, Indiana based indie rock troupe Murder by Death in such a way, it's slightly comforting to think that the band's musicians create music specifically for scenes like this. The band makes music that is rather languid and baneful, but its also quite uplifting due to the deeply intelligent compositional style and lyrics.