Delta Spirit: "People C'Mon," "California," and "Trashcan"

Today's jam comes from Delta Spirit, a seven-year-old rock band from San Diego that I'd never heard before today. The first two videos (above and below) were recorded at SXSW in March. While searching for videos of this band, I was struck most by their stripped-down live sound, in which lead singer Matt Vasquez sounds like he's holding nothing back, either vocally or on the guitar. His bandmates contribute solid vocal harmonies, making the songs sound rich and satisfying. I'm convinced, and you can be damn sure I'll be in the front row on Friday of Lolla.

Here's another performance from the same show, a little more calm -- they're sitting -- but just as emotional, as Vasquez howls about a failed long-distance relationship in "California." I've already gotten this one stuck in my head for the day.

Delta Spirit released an EP in 2006 and then toured with the likes of Cold War Kids and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, favorites on the Indie rock circuit. They've cut three full-length studio albums, most recently a self-titled album released this past March. In the Lolla website's write-up of Delta Spirit, the band stresses that this third album is more in tune with their identity as a band, as opposed to earlier records that fans dubbed "twangy folk." Vasquez explains: "We found the sound that we've been looking for, that we've been growing into, and as soon as we hit on it, we ran with it...That’s why it’s a self-titled record, so we could connect our identity with the album, because this album is what we think Delta Spirit is. People make records for their time and we wanted to make one for our time. Just like novelists want to write the Great American Novel, we wanted to make a Great American Record. Not one about yesterday, but one about right now.”

Judge for yourself -- if you sign up with your email address on the band's website, you can download six free songs, including the studio version of "California" off the new album.

But will the sound translate to the bigger stages of Lollapalooza? It already has. Below is a video from Lolla 2009, in which the band performs "Trashcan," which appeared on their 2008 album Old to Sunshine and features a trash can lid lashed to a tambourine. It also features Vasquez pounding out some Ben Folds-worthy chords on the piano. And after standing on his keyboard to incite the crowd, he's unable to get the mic back on its stand, so he holds it in one hand and pounds the keys with the other. Hello, rock star.

Tune in to Daijams all summer to preview artists performing at Lollapalooza 2012, held August 3-5 in Chicago.