Meet the Swedish offspring of Blur and the Stooges. (I meant that musically, you perv.)
Langhorne Slim
Sly, absurdist bluegrass from the borough of Brooklyn (natch). How can you not smile at a couplet like, “But when she danced/The monkey filled her pants?”
!!! (chk chk chk)
Post-punk disco dub replete with bongos and sleigh bells. Nothing new about the concept, but the execution sure is fresh.
Joel RL Phelps and the Downer Trio
While the band’s name has always been a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, the new single shows off Phelps’ range and energy with a brazen and emotive Paul Westerberg-style number.
Anna Oxygen
Bouncy, new wave stream-of-consciousness — as catchy as it is fleeting.
Libretto
Libretto’s thundering, street-savvy flow trades blows with gritty funk breaks — similar to the Lifesavas (whose Jumbo the Garbageman guests on “Volume”) or Michael Franti on some gangsta shhh…
Read Yellow
[Insert Fugazi comparison here.] But seriously…call it a perfect storm of blistering energy, precision angst, and angular hooks; call it just what I need to make it through the news these days.
Dios
Modern Americana blues from Hawthorne, CA — home of Black Flag and the Beach Boys, though these guys sound more like Grandaddy.
Thavius Beck
Collages of stuttering breaks and swirling samples, along with extended doses of “spoken word” culled from the underbelly of American pop culture. A potentially played-out formula turned downright entrancing.
Weevil
Lonely, loping folktronica with a healthy shoegazer sheen.