Therapies Son: Touching Down

FEELINGS – FEELINGS

FEELINGS – HEY

By: Stephanie Glass

Lower Dens: Dear Betty Baby

What is it about Baltimore that keeps churning out amazingly beautiful bands? (Perhaps it is the Domino Sugar sign seen for miles) Regardless Lower Dens is keeping Charm City on the map of amazing new music with the release of their seven-inch Batman. The title track’s snazzy drum beat, wonderful vocal harmonies, and just a generally feeling of warmness this track is like flowers bursting forth from the soil after a long hard winter. The B-side provides a hauntingly beautiful cover of Mayo Thompson’s Dear Betty Baby. The track begins with a somber piano and then the poignant tenor of Jana Hunter kicks in, taking the listener on a soulful journey of lushness and longing. An instant classic.

A girl and her guitar… le sigh. Emily Arin is a folk songstress whose voice and lyrics are on an entirely different plane than the one we know here in this world… and with each syllable and note your heart is reminded of your own humanity. She delicately moves through her new album, Patch of Land, with the grace of a barely earth-bound nymph: whimsical and evoking, lyrical beauty suspended against a wall for all to admire.

Art Museums-Darling Are You Out of Your League Again

.San Francisco/Santa Cruz based Art Museums’ band camp page employs the tag “desert disco” to describe their sound. Although their music is more refreshing like a day in the shade as oppose to the hot sun their fun, 80’s laced bouncy sound certainty is dance worthy. The group’s 7-inch Shopping was released this New Year’s and packs two great jams, but Feel Like Dreams pulls ahead as the one to put on constant repeat.

Nervous: Pikachunes

Medication: Farewell Letter

New Zealand is churning out the indie pop makers like it’s the 1980s all over again. 2010 has seen a bevy of New Zealand bands making an imprint on the American indie scene from light-hearted beach infused rockers Surf City to ambient electronic duo Wet Wings. Looks like 2011 will continue the trend with the November release of Grey Headed Ghosts by Auckland pop rockers Hussies. Hussies are comprised of Casey Latimer and Jackson Hobbs with some help from Sam Bradford of Sharpie Crows and Rifles’ Thomas Brown.

Seapony- Dreaming

I’ve always associated Seattle with dreary rain and Black Hole Sun type melodies, but dreamy, surf-pop, happiness perfection Seapony are the lexapro Seattle has been craving. Fronted with sweet female vocals  (think Best Cost (but less fuzzed out) or She & Him (but a little less sickening sweet)) and straightforward rock-pop drums and guitars, Seapony is a warm summer day coming through your speakers (something the Vikings’ Metrodome could probably use right now).

Phone Tag- Let it Go

As 2010 wraps up, everyone is busy analyzing the past year with top 10 to top 100 lists being complied. Although 2010 was certainly a stellar time for music (ushering shoegaze back to the forefront and the whole chill wave phenomenon) I prefer to focus on the future, and the December 6th release of Phone Tag’s EP Look and Feel makes me very hopeful for 2011. The core of Phone Tag is Gryphon Graham (Bodhi Landa and Eliza Walton are brought into the mix for live performances) and his tenor faintly recalls Small Black, but Graham posses a sweeter, more ethereal quality to his voice.

Wild Nothing-Your Rabbit Feet

2010 proved an excellent year for newcomer Wild Nothing with the release of the critically hailed debut Gemini and judging by the recent released EP Golden Haze, 2011 is looking bright as well. Wild Nothing, the brainchild of Jack Tatum hails from lower Virginia but his dreamy, swirling sound places him in a more other worldly locale. Golden Haze follows Gemini its chill wave flavoring, but Tatum keeps himself from being one-note with thoughtful and well-crafted lyrics and beats.

Trust

One of the downsides of living that whole “faux bohemian my apt has a with rat” lifestyle is in the inability to afford heat during this chilly mid-atlantic winter. So thank you New Orleans’ Generationals for bringing some of your southern warmth via my headphones in your charming indie pop. Ted Joyner and Grant Widmer first appeared on the scene back in 2009 with the release of Con Law and they’re back (with the addition of drummer Tess Brunet) with their snazzy new EP Trust and a (free!) five track sample that features three remixes of Con Law’s When They Fight, They Fight.

Running Like a Man

What is in New Zealand’s air that makes this tiny island continuously produce superb and innovative music? Wellington’s Wet Wings can defiantly be added to the cannon of stellar New Zealand music thanks to their debut EP Skin to Soil (Infinity Tapes), a hauntingly breathtaking collection of atmospheric indie electo-folk goodness. Wet Wings’ core contiues the trend of male/female harmonies, and the looping blends of Lucy’s soprano with Darian’s tenor creates a richly full and intimate sound. The instrumentals vary from more electronic, bass heavy tunes like Keep it Together to stripped down electro-folk on Whisper Always (which brought to mind traces of Animal Collective’s Campfire Songs), but the theme of dream-like strangeness threads throughout each of their six songs.

Girls-Heartbreaker

When San Francisco’s Girls emerged on the indie scene back in 2009, they created an explosion of buzz due to their sun-drenched, tightly executed pop debut Album. After spending some time touring in Europe and America, the band is back with a new EP, Broken Dreams Club. The EP shows that Girls have not lost their talent in making straightforward, catchy indie pop, but Broken Dreams Club displays a softer, less surf-punk sound. Owens’ vocals have a more mature element to them (which popped up on Album), and he’s eliminated the cheeky, youthful snarl heard on songs like Lust for Life. The adult sound comes through as well in the EP’s lyrics, which trace heartbreak and general melancholy as the instrumentals provide a tropical lounge pop sound of the 50’s and early 60’s.

Although Bad Books’ self-titled debut album is barely a month old, and the band, itself, is less than a year into its existence, the members are old souls on the indie music scene. Since 2002 native New Yorker and one of Bad Books’ front men, Kevin Devine, has been releasing solo albums… in fact, between 2002 and 2009 he has released five studio records, and several more EPs and live albums. Now with Atlanta-based Manchester Orchestra’s Andy Hull in the picture, the result is the band Bad Books. When you take two very confessional and eloquent songwriters, combine their music history, and add four more talented musicians you get the type of debut album that Bad Books has created.

Trying to categorize Jef Barbara is near impossible. Not only does he flip between singing in English and French; but he’s also somewhere entangled in disco, pop, electronica, synthesized-loops and vocals, and even the occasional guitar riff that sounds like it’s straight out of 1987.

Contamination, the new album from Montreal-based musician, Jef Barbara, is a mish-mash of sound and lyrics; with no two songs sounding the same. In fact, each one is so unique to the one before and the after, the album sounds more like a compilation than a streamlined record by the same artist.

The Radio Dept. is what I hear playing in my dreams. Their blissful shoegaze pop is equal parts haunting and mesmerizing, and this is just how things have always been with their albums.

With only three full-lengths since their formation in 1995, it’s in the area of EPs that The Radio Dept. is constant in not only their output, but also in their sublime musical efforts. The beginning of this month saw the release of yet another EP (their eleventh so far, and second this year alone); Never Follow Suit – a synthesized parade of loops and melodies.

It’s been five years since Sufjan Steven’s last full-length album of original songs, 2005’s Illinois. His new effort, The Age of Adz, is like Stevens opening the diary contained within his heart… and from the very first song, he is revealing in his words: “It’s been a long long time since I memorized your face/It’s been for hours now since I wandered through your place/And when I sleep on your couch I feel very safe/And when you bring the blankets I cover up my face/I do love you/I do love you…” From this very first stanza, the listener is once again drawn back into all the reasons why they fell in love with Sufjan Stevens in the first place.

Like a patient bunny, I’ve been waiting for Pepper Rabbit’s debut album, Beauregard to release. Finally, the time has come – as of October 26^th, the world will be able to get their hands on this gem.

Pepper Rabbit is comprised of Xander Singh and Luc Laurent – friends and clearly musical soulmates – they compliment each other like a fine wine and cheese, perfectly giving and taking when appropriate song after song.

I’m a child of the 1980’s. When I was little I wanted to grow up and be just like Molly Ringwald: have her affinity for pink and dance the way she did in The Breakfast Club. I like to pretend I’m almost there; I just need the red hair and Jake Ryan, of course. If you missed that pop culture reference, then I weep for you. Thank god Summer Camp and I are on the same page.