For the second year in a row, the artists at Spring Sing have blown me away. For those of you that don’t know, every year SAA grabs the top talents around UCLA and we have a school-wide talent show on steroids. Pauley Pavilion sells out, people camp out for hours just to get tickets, and it’s one of the most looked forward to events of the entire school year. A capella groups, clubs, bands, duos, soloists and fraternity/sorority pairings turn in some of the most incredible performances each year, that always leaves the crowd saying “Wow, there is an incredible amount of talent here at UCLA”. Past winners of Spring Sing include Maroon 5, Tyrone Wells and Sara Bareilles. So you never know just what may come of Spring Sing. Here’s my top 3 acts from the 2010 edition:

#3 Los Dos-Our Youth.

They were super interesting and unlike any other Spring Sing act. Usually you get a ton of singer-songwriter/piano pop but this guy brought the indie/techno aspect that is blowing up in the music scene right now. The singer also played an electric harp looking thing while the other guy had a beat pad that he was doin serious work on.

They have some elements that remind me of The Postal Service and Owl City with vocals that remind me a lot of Mike Posner. Weird cross I know, but they were great musicians, risk takers and an intriguing act. Almost MGMT like.

#2 The Trees-Barefoot in the Promised Land

I also think I was so drawn to this group because they are so different than any of the other performances all night. They were really entertaining, coming out in some of the most hippie-d out outfits of the night. They stood out. And on top of it one of the singers was a character in Dorm Life, the extremely popular youtube mini-series done by UCLA students a couple years ago.

Anyway, these guys are a really polished sounding folk group that reminded me a ton of folk artists Conor Oberst & Jenny Lewis.

God damn, I love the way I am.

#1 DJ Harper-I Call It Love

I’m definitely not alone in thinking that he was the best act of the night. DJ swept the awards winning top solo act, viewers’ choice and the celebrity judges’ choice. On the other two choices in the top 3, I kinda went out of the norm  with a folk group and an electronic/techno duo, but DJ was just too good. His voice was flawless, his song was really well written and his catchy and cute lyrics appealed to everyone in the audience. He truly won over an entire arena Friday night.

Anyways, DJ is an extremely talented singer-songwriter who clearly has tons of potential. I don’t mean to sound cliche but his music is refreshing and very likeable even at first listen. It’s happy music; music that makes you smile. His voice most reminds me of Howie Day in terms of pure vocals but in terms of the notes he’s hitting, it reminds me a lot of acoustic/pop heartthrob Jason Mraz. The music itself is very Mraz-like, but also triggers memories of Jon Foreman (of Switchfoot)’s upbeat, solo stuff. As you can see, it’s difficult to classify him exactly however you could just say its really good music.