Headlamp is a four piece from Brooklyn that plays great indie songs held together by the vocals/song writing of Chuck Criss and some banjo(?). It's like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah turning out a wicked sweet hoe-down.
Headlamp's music contains elements of indie/folk/rock/pop that blend together into banjo arpeggiated and piano heavy songs focused on interesting structure and melodic ideas. Lead singer Chuck Criss's voice is unique and recognizable and his lyrics of youthful optimism and pessism help round out there sound. - The Deli Magazine
Brooklyn singer/songwriter Chuck Criss has a name that could have been that of a character from "The Goonies" or an admiral in the KISS Army, but the music that he makes glistens with highly bouncy bubblegummy-ness that aligns with some of the great basement/bedroom troubadours – Owsley, Bart Davenport, Devin Davis, Self -- who all have made tunes cursed by anonymity, but which are no less spectacular. They make you think – ice cream's ice cream – and a good song is a good song even if no one wants it or can't get it on iTunes. "Same Old Situation," a song from Criss' album featuring what appears to be a mutated, aviator koala bear on its cover, has been hanging in the top five of OurStage's indie rock rankings for the majority of the month of April and that can only mean good things as strangers have to be voting for it to stay there. We know this because Criss has just 149 friends on his MySpace page. He's getting adopters to his piano and banjo-loaded tune about magic in modern times – which perhaps is just his way of describing optimism and effort, going for things that wouldn't normally be tried. Criss comes off sounding like the friend you'd call up to get you out of the dumps. He'd come over, you'd order in, he'd bring the beer, he might play you a new song he's been working on and then you'd watch movies you've seen too many times already. He's a chum and he writes music you can be friends with.
Rock music has always been associated with electric guitars. that's why I found Headlamp to be a very courageous and extremely interesting band. You see, Chuck Criss, the main man behind Headlamp, decided to make a rock album without the use of an electric guitar. Instead he simply recorded banjo, acoustic guitar, piano, bass, and drums which sounds great altogether. Without the presence of an electric guitar, the tunes are much more piano driven, which is always a good thing for piano suckers like me. Criss and the rest aren't signed yet, but that doesn't stop them from working hard and preforming all over Manhattan. - 8hands.com
