The Ampersands, ‘Try This’ – Free MP3 Download

Today, we have a brand new single from the Ampersands, the New York studio project led by veteran musicians Aaron McQuade and Jim Pace, who have been making music as a duo for more than half their lives. In what seems like a lo-fi nod to one of my Kansas City favorites, Casio keyboard-toting bedroom-pop heroes Reggie & the Full Effect, the two skip through 'Try This' with a 2/4 beat, a tambourine and a Moog lead that sounds like it came out of an infectious children's' song.

The dual male-female vocals are doused in effects, and the hook, "Why don't you try this, or you'll never know?" will stick in your head for days.

McQuade tells Diffuser.fm, "'Try This' was initially meant to be a sarcastic song about people who are more concerned about fitting a mold than contributing positively to our society, but I've realized it could also be taken more literally. Perhaps as encouragement for the narrator of one of our other songs ('October') who doesn't ever think he is good enough."

What better way to package such an important message than to place it in a song that may never leave people's heads after the first time they hear it?