American Princes
Little Spaces
(Yep Roc Records)

"In a town with so few people, how could anyone not say I love the way things work out here." – American Princes, "Little Spaces"

American Princes are from Little Rock, Arkansas. That's not nearly as important as their music, but it's a good place to start. Behind a great band, there's usually a tight musical community. It nurtures inspiration, pushes friends to try to blow each other's minds, and gives them something to fall back on when reality doesn't quite match ambition. To appreciate the excitement spilling out of American Princes' new album Little Spaces, you need to know they're from Little Rock.

American Princes, the short version, goes something like this: three New Yorkers seek to relocate. They want to live as cheaply as possible and focus every waking hour on making music. They point their van south, cross the Mason-Dixon line, and eventually end up in Little Rock. They quickly fall in with the small but vibrant local music scene, recruit a few of their new friends to join them, and get signed to Little Rock's own Max Recordings. Little Spaces, originally released in 2004, shows off just how successful the plan was. Thanks to Yep Roc's re-release this past summer, the rest of us get to enjoy one of Little Rock's secrets.

Little Spaces has a certain pureness to it. It sounds better the louder you play it. It trips over itself with excitement and loses its voice with raw-throat emotion. It easily skips back and forth between triumphant stomps and tender swoons. It has a few missteps along the way, but they only serve to make the album more endearing. It has all the signs of a band making music for the love of it rather than for all that other stuff that gets denied.

I need a band like American Princes once in a while to remind me that out across this wide country there are countless bands making amazing music in relative obscurity, just waiting to be discovered. Occasionally they may bubble up into the national spotlight and impress us all. But even if they never make it out of towns like Little Rock, they invigorate local scenes and inspire others to give it a go. This is how the faith of rock and roll gets kept.

- Adam Lauridsen

October 30, 2005