Magic Man are building up a lot of momentum in anticipation for their 2014 debut album, Before the Waves, due out on July 8, 2014.  The indie pop group has spent 2013 wetting our appetites with a few tracks off their first EP, You Are Here.  With the brand new record only weeks away, let’s focus on “Paris,” the track that started it all.  The debut single is an indie pop burst of energy with the dramatic verses leading to catchy, volcanic hooks that explode at every chorus.  Now that Magic Man have taken us to “Paris,” I can’t wait to see where they take us next.  Enjoy.

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Sometimes we just want our music to be fun.  The Colourist delivers that in spades with their single, “Little Games.”  The Cali based quartet just released their debut album this past March and every inch of it is bursting with indie pop, summertime goodness.  “Little Games” is packed with the youthful harmonies of Adam Castilla (vocals, guitar) and Maya Tuttle (drums, vocals), the sunbursts of guitar chords and a stuck-in-your-head chorus.  “Little Games” is simply a good time so put that moody music aside for a minute and enjoy.

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Quality indie rock is hard to find these days.  With electronic based pop music dominating the scene, indie rock has a harder climb to get to a height where it can be seen.  Animal Years seems to have made that climb with the driven, emotionally charged “Leah.”  From the Brooklyn-based quartet’s recently released debut album, Sun Will Rise, “Leah” is introspective and reserved one second, then erupts like a volcano the next.  Lead singer, Mike McFadden, dominates every inch of the track and provides enough fuel to send this track into the stratosphere.  Bordering on folk rock/Americana, “Leah” still has that good ol’ hometown feel making Animal Years that familiar friend you want to welcome into your playlist.  Enjoy.

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The Antlers have announced Familiars, the follow-up album to their spectacular 2011 release, Burst Apart.  With that album release has come several new singles, including the most recent, “Hotel.”  Very similar to what we’ve heard on Burst Apart, Hotel is subtle magnificence, painfully slow at times but having us crave more.  Never overdoing the production, The Antlers rely on the weight of their words and the emotions behind them.  The end of the track is injected with a (unique for The Antlers) guitar groove that gives us a sweet little reward for our patience.  Enjoy.

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You can sense all the international flavors Pepa Knight sprinkles into his debut solo track, “Rahh!”  A surprisingly cheerful title, “Rahh!” is the first of many songs Pepa Knight is in the process of recreating after accidentally deleting an album’s worth of music he made over a two year period while traveling in India.  This first recreation, “Rahh!” is a masterful eclectic collection of sounds and rhythms, soaring at times and spiritual at others.  For Pepa Knight, looks like the second time’s a charm.  Enjoy.

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What a shock.  Another post about Glass Animals.  But when they come out with amazing tracks so consistently, can you blame me?  The group’s combination of psychedelia and R&B is unlike anything out there and always mesmerizing.  Their recent single, “Holiest,” featuring the alluring vocals of Tei Shi, is anything but holy.  It’s slow, seductive and meant to be heard with the lights off.  Glass Animals recently released their new EP, Gooey, and my anticipation grows for their debut album, whenever that may be.  Enjoy.

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Taking a break today from posting new indie goodness.  This weekend, I was watching one of my favorite movies, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and was reminded that it has an insanely legit soundtrack.  The highlight of the soundtrack is “Black Sheep,” a song by the underrated Metric.  Blessed with the ability to marry pop friendly melodies with darker themes and emotions, Metric’s sound is consistently unique and engaging.  “Black Sheep” keeps Metric’s streak alive, balancing a catchy tune with less than friendly lyrics masked by Emily Haines’ pixyish voice (Hello again, friend of a friend, I knew you when/Our common goal was waiting for the world to end).  Perhaps the best part of the track is at the 3:40 mark, where the guitar solo kicks in.  While not complex, the solo amplifies the song’s emotions and closes it out perfectly.  Enjoy.

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I finally had an opportunity to absorb Wake Owl’s debut album, The Private World of Paradise, and am still trying to wrap my head around what a huge leap forward (and in a completely different direction) the soft rock album is from the backwoods, folksy Wild Country EP released over two years ago.  The song that caught my attention the most and has been trapped inside my head for days is the exotic, Middle Eastern influenced “Desert Flowers.”  The winding, hypnotic guitar riff opens up the track and then fades while Colyn Cameron calmly whispers over synths that seem to ebb and flow forever.  At just two and a half minutes, “Desert Flowers” is painfully brief, leaving us clamoring for more.  I’m assuming that was WO’s plan all along.  Enjoy.

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Polyenso is something special.  Formerly named Oceana, the band disbanded, reformed, changed names, changed the lineup, and emerged as something far greater than what we could have expected.  Polyenso is an alternative rock outfit whose latest album and first under their new identity, One Big Particular Loop, immediately draws comparisons to the later releases of Radiohead.  Lead singer Brennan Taulbee has many Yorke-esque qualities to his vocals and the tracks have dark tones and off kilter, sputtering beats that are clearly influenced by the Kid A era (and beyond).  “Always Ending in You,” one of the best tracks on the album, and one of the best tracks I’ve heard in a while, has Taulbee’s pained voice begging for someone over tribal beats and a fragile melody that fades into a surprisingly fitting trumpet solo.  Definitely give Polyenso your attention because its groups like these that get us excited about being music fans.  Enjoy.

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Let’s start off the new year with one of the songs I fell in love with at the end of the old year.  “Los Angeles,” by Memoir, who hail from the song’s namesake, launches us into 2014 with enough soul to last us until 2016.  Memoir is the kind of band you wouldn’t be surprised to find playing at a smoky bar in NYC’s seediest neighborhood or under the red glow of some secret Hollywood club.  There’s a shadowy nostalgia to “Los Angeles” as the band bittersweetly embraces the pains and the pleasures of the past.  Dena Deadly adds gravity to the track with a voice as confident as any that has pumped through a set of speakers.  Frontmen be damned.  Enjoy.

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