Hello all…after a relatively sleepy January 2020 the labels and acts have really stareted to wake up in February 2020. Here are a few tracks/acts that really grabbed my attention from the multitude of submissions this week.

I hope you enjoy these acts and if you do that you remember to throw a few shekels or social media love their way…in doing so we keep our favourite indie acts around for longer

 

Howard

Track: Waiting in the Garden From: Extended Play (EP) Label:  Self released Out: Now

With the laconic intro and vocals of the Big Thief / Nap Eyes aesthetic, this track / EP develops into the sort of buzz/fuzz melodies that the likes of Hanemoon and A Certain Smile bestow upon the world…the fact this project of Howard Feibusch sits so easily with such luminaries, is high praise indeed.

 

The Crystal Furs

Track: Too Kind To Be Cruel From: Too Kind To Be Cruel (single) Label:  Self released Out: Now

After moving across the U.S. to the Pacific North-West, The Crystal Furs have ended their musical impasse to bring us this luscious slice of jangly, indie pop that stops just short of sophisti-pop, but never short of their usual brilliance…this is the first flyer single of two EP’s they will be releasing in 2020.

 

Away Forward

Track: Always From: Catching The Sun (album) Label:  Self released Out: Now

Toronto based duo layering Mazzy Starr style vocals over swirling dream-pop textures and fluttering The Field Mice jangle. A wonderful single and the prime example of why singles are still relevant.

 

Port Juvee

Track: Desert Moon Palace From: Desert Moon Palace (single) Label:  Garment District Records Out: Now

Jangling like Wake In June but adding the spacious intensities of RGV and DIIV type bands, Port Juvee somehow manage to create beautiful jangly late 80’s post-punk machinations out of the most disparate of ingredients.

 

Anytime Cowboy

Track: Chrome Angels From: Anytime Cowboy LP (album) Label:  Third Coming Records Out: Album out 28.02.20

The notes for this release describe this sound as “Anytime Cowboy is jangly weirdo post-punk that crawled out of a time capsule from the 80s’ …I’d go along with that and add that for anyone who is into the darker, more bass oriented side of The Flying Nun early catalogue, then this is the sort of jangly post-punk you will love

 

Charmpit

Track: Wild Wild Westfield From: Cause a Stir (album) Label:  Specialist Subject Records Out: Album out 03.04.20

B52’s style jangly alt rock, mixed with the retro playfulness of a band like Parsnip and all held together with the sort of punk meets power-pop attitude that only the best of female-fronted acts can/have ever really pulled off.

 

Classy Joanzy

Track: Swim From:  (album) Label:  Self Released Out: Now

Milwaukee based solo act Classy Joanzy, take late 80’s R.E.M stylistics and course  Men Without Hats awkward, stuttering indie-pop through it’s very core. This is something very different to appease those that insist upon a sense of new.

 

 

Pickle Darling

Track: Mouthful From: Bigness (album) Label:  Z Tapes Out: Now

OK, I am really stretching the concept of ‘new’ here, but it’s new to me and wondefully so, as somehow Lukas Mayo (aka Christchurch based Pickle Darling) has eluded me until now.

I cannot work out whether this is twee / bedroom pop or some other manner of ‘whatever’. All I know is that this and indeed the entire 2019 album grabs your attention like the best of lo-fi insists on doing!

 

 

Jacques Labouchere

Track: Lost Goals From: Lost Goals (single) Label:  Never Grow Up Records Out: Now

Connecticut raised, Gothenborg based, Labouchere takes the base Americana of smoke filled bars and slides psyche and jangled stylistics under it, to act as an unlikely foundation that produces a sound that is gloriously hard to pigeon-hole. 

 

Meyru

Track: At Some Point From: At Some Point (single) Label:  Self released Out: Now

5-piece New Yorkers Meyru, play a sort of slow burning indie rock that hints at The Cars and Interpol in equal measures, but with the added benefit of imbuing luscious jangled melodies into the epicentre of their sound. This track is destined to be a classic.

 

Brigt

Track: It Won’t Be Me From: It Won’t Be Me (single) Label:  Never Grow Old Records Out: Now

Oslo based Brigt restores this listeners faith in the current pop rock scene, with an originality that I have not heard in a while. Twisting the best parts of pop and power-pop, Brigt is one part The Beatles and 11 parts simply refusing to be! 

 

Jon Crouse

Track: Matches and Paintbrushes From: Matches and Paintbrushes (EP) Label:  Never Grow Old Records Out: Now

From the tenderest reaches of the slightest of power-pop, Crouse runs his beautiful vocals through melodies that can stir even the most long lost of pop sensibilities into life.

 

Tiarnie

Track: I’m Fine From: Consistently Inconsitent (EP) Label:  Self Released Out: Now

Track opining the niceties of her rural upbringing compared to her new found city life…this grumbles and jangles with a distictly un-rural attitude amid the slightest, most beautiful essences of melancholy malaise.