Old Souls

This track has been on repeat for a minute now. Armor by L.A. roommates, Dunes, is a short burst of energy and happiness, of which, I just can't seem to get enough (tries to think of a quip involving blow). It comes off of their sold out 7", Old Souls, released on August 31st on Art Fag Recordings (seriously). Don't worry a repress is coming soon. They also put out an eponymous 12" EP in June on Mexican Summer. Handle is a little more dreamy and noisy.

Undefined

Cobbling together an array of influences, U.K. trio cozimnot!, have formulated a unique sonance exemplified by their latest effort, Before the Post-Hop. The genre-defying EP, is a cacophony of sounds ranging from poppy bits and glitch to darker, droning moments. My two favorite tracks, Day After Darlington and Hero Jack, feature IDM beats and go pretty hard. Cop it for free on their Bandcamp along with last year's EP, Fidelity Street. While you're at it, peep Another Hard Day in the Jungle, yet another free EP over on Last.fm. The second track, Reaching For The Nines, has a dreamy, ambient quality remindful of Toro y Moi or French shoegazer, M83.

80's Baby

Nashville bedroom rockers, girls in the eighties (lack of caps intentional), released a couple of albums earlier this year for free via their MySpace. Information on these guys is sparse but from what I gather, these tracks were all recorded in late 2008 and just now released. As of yet unsigned, they are giving away two LP's and three EP's in the form of mp3's but you can order one of the LP's in compact disc format for the sum of $5, that is if they still have any copies. Anyway, these guys need more exposure or a label, whichever comes first. Download their stuff on their MySpace Blog (make sure to copy the link and paste it in your browser as instructed, the links don't work because MySpace is wack). "Vacation" is by far my favorite and it's featured on both of the LP's, Teenage Royalty and Faceless Sonic Boom (pictured). It's a clashing of noise and pop that lacking the former, could land it on commercial spots or on the Grey's Anatomy soundtrack [shivers].

On Some Voodoo Shit

Straight out of a Pittsburgh cemetary is a tape from Witch House genre newcomer, Wise Blood. The whole thing is under 10 minutes and its pretty brilliant material. Chillwave and hip-hop elements, samples and loops, and just general strangeness make up this offering. The track STRT SRNS even sounds like Animal Collective (I know people get tired of that comparison but I think it applies in this case). Cop the free EP `+` on Bandcamp (yeah, the title of the album is just symbols, check my other post on Witch House last month for more on that).

Bull$h!tt!n

One of XXL's 10 Freshman of '10 and straight out of the D is Big Sean. Dude is poised to take over, at least for a minute. Peep this new tape, Finally Famous Vol. 3, over on Dat Piff. "Supa Dupa Lemonade" and "What U Doin (Bullshittin)", the latter of which rocks a sick dubstep beat, are my favorites so far. Steps back...

Not Shitgaze

Connecticut's Procedure Club is a "bedroom-pop" project started by Andrea and Adam Malec in 2008. They dropped their first full length, Doomed For Ever, in June 2010 after a series of successfull tapes and CDRs. Vermont is a fuzzy twee tune in the mold of c86 bands like Tululah Gosh and The Sea Urchins.

Stereogum’s 40 Best New Bands Of 2010

Stereogum put out a list yesterday that I think people need to take advantage of. They did a lot of leg work and digging to compile this list of up-and-comers from 2010. Peep it on their site, here. You will probably recognize some bands that I have covered on this blog and I have a feeling I will be covering more of these guys in the near future so brush up.

Admittedly, I have not been exposed to several of these bands and I could see how someone could be overwhelmed by such a list. I recommend you read the brief descriptions and see if it sounds like something you would appreciate. Then check the track underneath the verbage. This truly is the year of bedroom pop and programming so there are a lot of Lo-Fi/downtempo recordings in there, just an FYI. (See the comments section below the post to see how contentious this trend in music really is. Haters gonna hate!)

Oh, and they even went ahead and compiled all the tracks (one from each new act) at the bottom of the post in two .zip files that you can download for free. These cats are doing my work for me, getting the new-new to you ASAP.

Make sure you check out the tracks from: Balam Acab, Baths, Braids, Candy Claws, ceo, Cults, DOM, Frankie Rose And The Outs, Givers, Gold Panda, Twin Sister, WU LYF and Zola Jesus.

Herr Oberhofer

Melding together chillwave riffs with chant-like vocals reminiscent of Animal Collective, Brooklyn-based Oberhofer has managed to create a delicate yet energetic sound. Tacoma native Brad Oberhofer has an EP slated to release later this year through Insound but as he is currently unsigned he is giving away said EP, o0Oo0Oo, here. My two fave tracks so far are "I Could Go" and "Away FRM U". Watch for him to blow up the scene later this year as he starts touring outside of NY.