Hilarious, cute, and quite often catchy — just what you’d expect from a young bedroom pop maestro with a quivering voice who choses to go by The Mathletes instead of Joe, covers Boards of Canada, and openly admits to stalking Cat Power. (Thanks, Gabba Pod.)
Olympic Hopefuls
If you’re still searching for a summer single, you won’t do much better than “Holiday,” an emphatic anthem with a pinch of despair that is the perfect male answer to the Go Go’s “Vacation.” There are a couple more pop gumballs from these Minneapolis jogging suit aficionados that’ll make you want to rock the Slip’n’Slide until mom makes you go inside and eat your fish sticks and tater tots.
French Kicks
The latest from these fashionably flip young men takes on a new-wave polish that accentuates the hooks and speeds the rhythm section to heel-popping precision. Precious, but in a savagely catchy way.
Noise for Pretend
Sultry bossa nova noir… Mysterious and enchanting, and not just because frontwoman Esperanza Spalding is barely 18 years old.
Sam Bisbee
Bisbee’s unflinching romanticism and grandiose sampler symphonics beg for a John Hughes soundtrack to call home.
Guided by Voices
Lord only knows if the Ohio basement legends are still relevant, and only the same lord knows if relevancy is still relevant. Alls I know is that the adventurous stew of riffs, hooks, and twee vocals will cause an involuntary reaction from me as long as my feet can tap and my head can nod. There are a ton of archived MP3s at both Matador and gbv.com, so stick around for a while.
A.C. Newman
The New Pornographers resident pop auteur lead singer guy puts together his own set of finely polished gems that have the get-up-and-go (“Miracle Drug”) of his best efforts with the “supergroup” and the jaded sunshine (“Drink to Me Babe, Then”) of the late-great Zumpano. A few more like these from Newman and Ben Folds will have to work harder to get our attention.
Royal City
I stumbled upon these tracks (if one can call a mis-click of a mouse a stumble). Of course, you can’t be without their great cover of The Strokes, “Is This It?” — but that’s no fluke. More pop than country, more lemonade than bourbon.
Azure Ray
Not just for fans of “Felicity.”
Meow Meow
Christopher O’Brien’s gently wilting vocals find uneasy peace around screechy, scratchy, scrunchy sounds from a guitar that, like a good cowboy, just canít be tamed. Fans of dissonance, Meow Meow give you a twister-full of noise. Fans of pop craft, Meow Meow give you the bittersweet sunny day after the storm.