A while back I stumbled upon the orchestral, indie-pop gem “Promethean Eyes” from The Breezes, and in celebration of their newly released record the group has put out a video for the single. Despite the carefree and sunny attitude of the track, the video takes a darker, more leathery turn. The video will definitely have you wondering if there is something a bit more sinister behind “Promethean Eyes”… but let’s be honest this is pure, feel-good indie pop done right.
-PK
If you’re a college student (or were a college student in the past 4 years or so), you probably encountered that “alt” girl who would play the ukulele in your hall all day with those five songs she could play out of the three chords she knew (no offense to any “alt” girls who like playing ukulele… feel free to send disgruntled emails). What I’m trying to get at here is that the ukulele has been placed in the poor position of being that instrument that everyone can play that is different, and “cooler”, than the guitar. Jonti’s “Saturday Night” is a breezy, ukulele led tune that probably shouldn’t be very good. No matter how much I wish I could scoff at this ukulele ballad, “Saturday Night” is summery, sunny and perfect for the 70 degrees we’re getting in D.C. right now. Maybe there still is some hope for the four-stringed children’s guitar.
-PK
I can’t seem to find much info about shoegazey, electro-pop band/project Moon Chair but I do know that a moon chair sounds like the exact kind of chair I’d like to be sitting in while listening to “state the problem as clearly as possible pt. 2″. Setting up the track with a bouncy and minimal electronic instrumental, Moon Chair piles on layers of reverb over his half-sung/half-mumbled vocals to create a gorgeously hypnotic and dreamy soundscape. The vocals initially come across as cold and alien, however, that initial shock wears off as they continue to wrap and bend warmly around the looped instrumental. From this material I really have no idea where Moon Chair is planning on taking his project but I’ll definitely be looking out for new material.
-PK
No matter how hard we try (which admittedly isn’t very hard at all) we can’t seem to keep the genre-bending music of M|O|D and MVSCLES off our front page. ‘sweet n sour’ was an infectious pop jam that took the blogosphere by storm and took traditional indie girl/boy pop to the cosmos. Their second single, ‘where you are’, is a proof of the concept that was done so well with ‘sweet n sour’. If Tennis is making music to go sailing to, MVSCLES is making music to sail spaceships to. Although an entire album of sugary music like this might be too much of a sugar rush, MVSCLES has yet to stumble in their young career.
-PK
When is comes to psyche rock and pop, my favorite outfits always seem to be solo projects (Atlas Sound, Ducktails, Julian Lynch) and that holds true with this new jam from Chris Cohen. This kind of music is always hit or miss for me so it’s no surprise that Chris Cohen, who has worked with the likes of Deerhoof and Haunted Graffiti, is able to make a psyche pop hit. Coming out of Captured Tracks, the same label that put out DIIV’s amazing new album, ‘Caller No.99′ is our first taste of Cohen’s upcoming Overgrown Patch and it leaves an awesome first impression. ’Caller No.99′ hits all the right marks with dreamy lyrics, an ambling pace and a gorgeous spider web mesh of guitar. I’m not sure how an entire album of material like this would sound, but for now ‘Caller No.99′ is one of the better tracks I’ve heard in a while.
-PK
The summer is a time filled with opportunity and for Caged Animals it’s a time to make amends. Despite an incredibly sunny sound, ‘This Summer I’ll Make It Up To You’ contains themes as bittersweet as this non-eternal season itself. Promising to break hearts in the west coast, Caged Animals manage to pack more into the track than just happy images of beaches, sun and young love. It makes the 2 minute track impossible to listen to only once as it gets better every time.
-PK
If, at the slight chance, Dirty Projectors’ upcoming release Swing Lo Magellan wasn’t the hottest item on your soon-to-be-released list, Dirty Projectors have a new reason for it to skyrocket up to number one. ’Dance For You’ is easily the band’s most care-free embrace of pop music to date with a sweet and simple guitar line along David Longstreth’s restrained vocals. All the yelping and crazed vocal dynamics that may have turned people off from their material can’t be found in this track without the band sacrificing any of their uniqueness. It’s hard not to smile when the effect soaked guitar solo comes. Swing Lo Magdellan drops July 10th.
-PK
