| ARTISTS |
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ALLO DARLIN' London, UK Performing SUNDAY MAY 20th
Allo Darlin' are a fan's band. They are close friends who found each other and the music they make in London.
Elizabeth and Bill are from Australia, Mike and Paul are from Kent. They've only been playing seriously
as a band since January 2009. Their debut album was released on Fortuna Pop in June 2010 to widespread critical
acclaim. They spent much of 2010 on the road in the UK, Europe and America. The band will release their follow-up album in 2012.
BURNING HEARTS
Finnish indie pop stalwarts Jessika Rapo and Henry Ojala teamed up to form the shambly, synthy duo Burning Hearts in 2006. Burning Hearts’ debut full-length, Aboa Sleeping, was released on Shelflife in early 2009. Aboa Sleeping received a warm welcome and made it to the top albums of 2009 on many music blogs. Rapo and Ojala followed up the album’s release with a passel of live shows in Hamburg, Berlin, Stockholm and New York City.
After releasing two singles in 2010, “Night Animal” (featuring A Peasant’s Dream Jori Hulkkonen remix) and a cover of Arthur Russell’s “The Letter”, the duo decamped to the Finnish countryside in Ostrobothnia and recorded a four song EP, Into the Wilderness, which was issued by Shelflife in June of 2011. The video for title track “Into the Wilderness”, based on a documentary about Alaskan grizzly bears, spread quickly over the blogosphere receiving a most warming welcome. The song was featured as mp3 and video of the day on spinner.com, and received several reviews giving praise to the EP. In July Burning Hearts was signed by Finnish Solina records who, together with Shelflife would release the forthcoming album.
In fall 2011 the band took a small break from the work, and Johan Ekström and Niko Kivikangas joined the group as the live line-up was renewed. Burning Hearts played in Stockholm, Tallinn and did a few shows in Finland, only to return to the recording process.
The second full-length album, “Extinctions”, was released in February 2012. All nine songs were written and recorded in the Ostrobothnian environment proven to be inspiring. If Aboa Sleeping was a collection of early songs that were not intended to end up on an album, Extinctions was written as a consequence of many tragical stories that in a way or another touched the band. Quite a few of the songs are dedicated to persons or creatures that no longer exist. Even if human tragedies inpired the writing and death is present in nearly all the songs, the sound remains vivid and full of hope.
http://burningheartsmusic.com/
CATNAPS
Catnaps are an indiepop band from Philadelphia. They like to write silly love songs and we want to feel alive - with charming lyrics sprinkled on top of cute melodies. Let them capture your heart!
http://facebook.com/pages/Catnaps
COLA JET SET
Cola Jet Set were one of a number of hyper-sweet indie pop outfits to grace the roster of Barcelona, Spain's Elefant Records in the early 2000s. Similar to labelmates La Casa Azul and Fitness Forever, the outfit's breezy, bouncy sound gave a heavy nod to zany bubblegum acts like the Banana Splits, the Archies, and the Monkees. Cola Jet Set formed in 2001, following the breakup of Los Fresones Rebeldes. The group was initially comprised of former Los Fresones Rebeldes members Felipe (guitar), Aarón (bass), and Cristina (guitar), in addition to Roge (drums) and La Monja Enana's Ana (vocals, keyboards). Cola Jet Set's debut single, Cosas Que No Se Olvidan (the first of the band's recordings to be produced by Guille Milkyway) was released on Subterfuge in 2002. The band's debut full-length, Contando Historias, followed in 2004; the album garnered favorable reviews, and the band rounded out the year on tour, sharing the stage with the likes of indie pop veterans Comet Gain and the Legends. Aarón left the group soon after the album hit stores, prompting Cristina to take the reins as Cola Jet Set's bassist. Murcia's Sol took Cristina's place on guitar for a few months; she was ultimately replaced by Sant Cugat's Allicia. Following a brief hiatus, Cola Jet Set returned to the studio in 2006 and recorded a new single, Suena el Teléfono, which was released on Subterfuge the following year. The band underwent several major changes during this time: Roge amicably split with the band soon after the single was released; Barcelona's Joan came on board as Cola Jet Set's new drummer; and the band ultimately left Subterfuge, citing differences regarding the band's career. Elefant snapped up Cola Jet Set before 2007 came to a close. The following year found Cola Jet Set making their first bid for the Eurovision Song Contest; their entry, "El Sueño de Mi Vida," made it to the preliminary stages of the competition in Spain. The band rounded out the year with a flurry of live shows and an album's worth of new recordings. Their second studio full-length, Guitarras y Tambores, was released on Elefant in early 2009.
http://elefant.com/bands/cola-jet-set
COMET GAIN
Led by guitarist and vocalist David Feck (aka David Bower and David Christian), Comet Gain are a British indie pop band whose music is a freewheeling, literate fusion of folk-rock, twee pop, garage rock, R&B, punk, and any number of points in between. The first edition of Comet Gain was formed in 1992; Feck initially conceived the group as a trio with bassist George Wright and drummer Phil Sutton, but the band truly found its sound the following year, when Jax Coombes replaced Wright on bass and singer Sarah Bleach and guitarist Sam Pluck came on board. This lineup recorded the group's debut album, 1995's Casino Classics, which was released by the U.K. indie label Wiija. In 1997, Wiija issued Comet Gain's second album in Great Britain under the title Magnetic Poetry, while it came out in the United States via Beggars Banquet in expanded form as Sneaky. However, months after the sophomore album arrived in stores, Feck's bandmates walked out on him, and he assembled a new version of Comet Gain from scratch, featuring Rachel Evans as female vocalist, M.J. "Woodie" Taylor on drums, and former Huggy Bear member Jon Slade on guitar and bass. The new version of Comet Gain cut the 1999 album Tigertown Pictures, which was released by Kill Rock Stars in America and Fortuna Pop in the U.K. While Evans, Taylor, and Slade (and bassist Kay Ishikawa) have frequently played with Comet Gain since, Feck remains the only constant from the band's many personnel changes, and in a 2009 interview he claimed that 66 different people have been members of Comet Gain since the group's formation. Comet Gain's relationship with Kill Rock Stars resulted in two more albums, 2002's Realistes and 2005's City Fallen Leaves, while in 2008 Feck assembled Broken Record Prayers, a 20-song compilation drawn from the group's many single releases and compilation appearances. Released in 2011, Howl of the Lonely Crowd found Comet Gain receiving some production assistance from one of their heroes, ex-Orange Juice leader Edwyn Collins, while Ryan Jarman of the Cribs also contributed to the sessions.
http://www.facebook.com/cometgain
DEAR MARJE
Formed in early 2011, Dear Marje is three buddies in Brooklyn playing twee pop influenced by 90’s pop bands like Tiger Trap. Kyle Gilbride (big soda, swearin’), Allison Crutchfield (p.s. eliot, swearin’ & bad banana), Sandra Alayon are into coffee, summer jams, sweetsy pop, blouses and year long shorts. Their name is a reference to a Gymslips song.
http://www.facebook.com/DearMarje
DOT DASH
Dot Dash is a pop/punk band from Washington, DC on Canada’s TBM record label. Their full length debut came out in August 2011 on TBM. Prior to that, the band released a CD single in 2010 on German indie label Edition 59. Dot Dash include former members of Julie Ocean, swervedriver, Youth Brigade and many others.
THE ELECTRIC POP GROUP
Brothers Martin and Erik Aamot formed the Electric Pop Group in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2005. Formulating a shambly, jangly, supremely laid-back sound that nodded to old-school twee pop groups like the Field Mice and the Orchids, the duo's self-titled debut was released in the winter of 2006. Jimmi Thunholm and Gustaf Murman were brought into the fold soon after in order to round out the group's live sound. The Electric Pop Group were snapped up by Matinee soon after the band's first album emerged, and their debut EP on that label, Sunrise, came out in the spring of 2008.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Electric-Pop-Group/7732117097
HABIBI
Habibi is the brainchild of Rahill Jamalifard and Lenny Lynch. Together, the two Detroit natives started the all girl, Brooklyn based project in the spring of 2011. Growing up with the harmonious sounds of Motown and the punk attitudes of Quatro and Iggy, their music invokes the same simplicity and fiery spirit.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Habibi/217078085001144
HEAVEN'S GATE
Heaven’s Gate is an indie/shoegaze band from Brooklyn, NY, who arose from the ashes of Sweet Bulbs.
http://heavensgate.bandcamp.com
THE HOLIDAY CROWD
Self described as minimal and stripped-down, The Holiday Crowd's sound and lyrics arise from all manner of experience- summer afternoon camaraderie’s, introspective reveries and a few shapely ‘inspirations’ along the way. The Holiday Crowd are a bunch of idealists that want what everyone wants, everything... in the most stylish, well mannered and humbling way possible.
http://www.facebook.com/TheHolidayCrowd
THE LADYBUG TRANSISTOR
The Ladybug Transistor is a Brooklyn-based indie pop group associated with The Elephant Six Collective.
Started in 1995 by Gary Olson, Edward Powers and Javier Villegas, the band quickly released Marlborough Farms on Park N' Ride records, adding and subtracting a couple members and going on an international tour. With Jeff Baron and Jennifer Baron added to the lineup, they released Beverley Atonale in 1997, this time on Merge Records. Powers left the band, and the remaining members, with San Fadyl and Sasha Bell of The Essex Green and solo act Finishing School, embarked on a United States tour.
With a more stable lineup, the band released The Albemarle Sound in 1999, as well as added violinist and bassist Julia Rydholm (The Essex Green, Jens Lekman) to the lineup. In 2001, Argyle Heir was released. In 2003 the band recorded a self-titled album at Wave Lab Studios with engineer Craig Schumacher in Tucson, Arizona. In 2006 the band contributed heavily to the recording of Kevin Ayers' album The Unfairground which Gary Olson produced. In April 2006, Fadyl began fighting serious asthma attacks. On the 26th of April 2007, he died due to one such attack.
The band released their sixth album, "Can't Wait Another Day", on June 5, 2007. This line up included Kyle Forester (Crystal Stilts) and Ben Crum of Great Lakes.
For their seventh album Clutching Stems, Olson, Forester, and Rydholm gathered new recruits Mark Dzula (The Magic Caravan, Jukebox Radio), Eric Farber (The Lisps), and Michael O’Neill (MEN). The album, recorded at Marlborough Farms (studio) and Sunset Cottage, Poconos, was released on June 6, 2011, by Merge Records.
http://theladybugtransistor.com/
LISA BOUVIER
Lisa Bouvier took the brave leap into the pop world 2007, having grown tired of compromises in various band formations. She quickly made a name in southern Sweden as its most frisky popstar with handclaps, vocal harmonies and a bloodied guitar that could get any pop club or living room dancing along to her catchy songs.
In Lisa’s music the melodies form the center. Melodies that sticks like flypaper and are backed by equally deliberate handclaps, naive pop that push rock riffs and occasionally a beautiful singer / songwriter calm.
The MARSHMALLOWS
The Marshmallows are an indie/pop band, formed in Brooklyn, NY in 2009. Kelly Lynn, Crystal, and Jen play music for mathletes.
http://themarshmallows.bandcamp.com
ORCA TEAM
ORCA TEAM is a 1960s Post Punk Beach Party from the confusing waters of the Pacific Northwest. They make the music of a punk trio if everyone in the band decided to keep their volume low and their tones clean. Each song is short, sung with a lonesome croon, equipped with a melodic bass line, and drenched in reverb. Influences include The Flamingos, Pylon, Jan & Dean and The Smiths.
http://www.facebook.com/ORCATEAM
OUTERHOPE
Outerhope was created in the summer of 2004, when siblings Michael and Micaela Benedicto started working on songs made sparingly with a guitar, an electric piano, and a lot of vocal harmony. They were inspired by stacks of old children’s records, lost tales and limericks, and songs of folk artists from the 60s. Their first studio recording was the album Strangely Paired, released independently in 2005 and re-released by Terno Recordings in 2006. Outerhope’s second album, A Day for the Absent, was released in October 2009.
PALE LIGHTS
Pale Lights is P.J. Sutton (Comet Gain, Kicker, The Soft City, Cinema Red And Blue), vocals and guitar, Lisa Goldstein (Knight School), drums, Andy Adler (Crystal Stilts, Cinema Red and Blue), guitars, Maria Pace, bass, and Brooke Watkins, keyboards. They started Autumn 2011, and have a debut EP, produced by Gary Olson (Ladybug Transistor), out May 2012, on the Calico Cat label.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pale-Lights/201978093217248
THE POOH STICKS
The Pooh Sticks were rock's most inside joke, a monumental yet affectionate prank on the very mythology of pop music itself. Cloaked behind ridculously-overblown marketing schemes, made-up histories and cartoon-character images, the Welsh group punctured the industry's myriad excesses, freely pilfering from the entirety of pop's past by shoplifting titles, lyrics and melodies at will; wrapping their barbs in cotton-candy sing-a-longs, their subversions worked on many levels -- postmodern cultural criticism, retro-irony, slavish imitation, and power-pop manna among them -- to forge an identity as high-concept as it was low-brow.
The Pooh Sticks were led by frontman Hue Pooh (born Hue Williams, the son of former Man and Dire Straits drummer Terry Williams), who in October 1987 teamed with Swansea-area schoolmates Paul, (guitar), Alison (bass), Trudi Tangerine (keyboards) and Stephanie (drums) -- no last names, please -- and debuted with the single "On Tape," a witty jab at indie-rock fanboy mentality released on manager Steve Gregory's Fierce label. Alan McGee -- an ironically lavish box set comprised entirely of one-sided singles including the famed "I Know Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Alan McGee Quite Well," a nod to the Creation Records chief -- followed in 1988.
The Pooh Sticks EP, a streamlined collection of the box set material, appeared later in 1988, trailed by Orgasm, a set "recorded live...in Trudi Tangerine's basement" including the wonderful "Indie Pop Ain't Noise Pollution." The 1989 mock-bootleg Trademark of Quality was next, compiling live material from a pair of recent club dates including a cover of the Vaselines' "Dying for It" as well as an early rendition of the group's semi-original "Young People." In 1990, they even finally recorded a proper studio LP, Formula One Generation.
In 1991, the Pooh Sticks added Talulah Gosh and Heavenly vocalist Amelia Fletcher to their ranks; the resulting LP, The Great White Wonder, was their masterpiece, a collection of ace pop songs built entirely around other people's ideas, from the Neil Young "Powderfinger" guitar solo at the heart of "The Rhythm of Love" to the liberal use of Stephen Stills' "Love the one you're with" credo right down to the record's title, borrowed from a legendary Bob Dylan bootleg. 1993's sublime Million Seller took the same path; Optimistic Fool followed in 1995.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Pooh-Sticks/108177365873434
PUSHY PARENTS
Pushy Parents was born as a project which was created exclusively for the studio and not for live performances. It was a special type of laboratory experiment, with a super band comprised of four musicians with an array of experiences in other groups, where some even worked as composers, producers and DJs for other respectable artists. Amanda Aldervall always proclaimed herself as a big fan of Amelia Fletcher and she demonstrated that with Free Loan Investments, and then later with The Busy Band and currently with her solitary project, The Andersen Tapes, which just released, “As I Write ‘Today’ Ten Times”. Roger Gunnarsson is another key figure in the current twee pop scene, as he was an important member of the Free Loan Investments, The Happy Birthdays and The Garlands. If we had to highlight just one aspect of the career of Gunnarsson,it would be his solitary project, Nixon, with various albums released, increasing their fan base tremendously, within the indie pop world, and of course, with the compositions and productions for Cloetta Paris and Sally Shapiro. The third member in question is Daniel Jansson, former member of The Consequences but better known for playing and composing songs with the reputable Swedish singer, winner of various Swedish Grammy Awards, Anna Ternheim. Finally, Le Prix has been known throughout the music world for productions and remixes, as well as compositions for artists such as Kylie Minogue and Sally Shapiro.
SATURDAY LOOKS GOOD TO ME
Born as a basement recording project in the year 2000, Saturday Looks Good To Me brought together the jubilant fun of Motown and Northern soul with a decidedly indie approach. Songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Fred Thomas poured generations of influences ranging from the Beach Boys to Guided by Voices into dusty pocket symphonies recorded on four track cassettes.
Enlisting friends from a community of musicians for one-time recording sessions was easy enough, but soon the band started performing live and the membership became a little harder to pin down. Rather than commit to one permanent lineup, Thomas opted for a revolving door style with the live group, and players and vocalists often changed from tour to tour.
This made for dramatic changes in sound, too. It wasn't uncommon for SLGTM to show up in a town for the first time as a gentle chamber pop ensemble and come back a year later doing the same songs in a garage rock style with all new band members.
This constant shifting and experimentation was reflected in the group's records as well. Between 2002 and 2007 the group released four proper albums and mountains of 7"s, compilations, tour only releases and the like, ranging in tone from the lo-fi sunshine pop of 2003's critically lauded All Your Summer Songs to the cathartic atmospheric howling of 2007's Fill Up The Room.
The band also toured constantly during this time, playing several European tours and traversing the US more times than could be counted. Despite the frequent line-up changes, Thomas was joined on most of these tours by key players in the band-family, including keyboardist Scott Sellwood, vocalist Betty Marie Barnes and drummer Ryan Howard.
The group ended a summer tour in May of 2008 with a show in London and promptly vanished into a vague hiatus. The extended SLGTM family worked feverishly on various new projects including Sellwood's rugged Americana folk band Drunken Barn Dance and Thomas and Howard's spectral indie duo City Center.
In early 2012, just as out of nowhere as the band's disappearance, we're happy to announce their return. Joined by new vocalist Carol Gray, Thomas and a stable of familiar friends return for a summer tour playing material from the band's beginnings to songs written last week. A new album will follow in the fall and the almost crushing amount of beautiful possibilities in the world come into focus once again.
SEAPONY
Seattle Washington’s Seapony, comprised of Jen Weidl (Vocals, Guitar), Danny Rowland (guitar), & Ian Brewer (Bass).
Their first release was the 3-song Dreaming single followed by their debut album, Go With Me
(released by Hardly Art) which puts Jen Weidl’s youthful melancholia and yearning on display and wraps
it in a blanket of twee/surf/jangle pop.
http://www.facebook.com/seaponyband
SLEUTH
Sleuth hail from the wilds of Vancouver's surrounding towns and cities.
They take art, pop music, cherry coke, comics, jokes, films and mid-century literature very seriously.
SPEEDMARKET AVENUE
Speedmarket Avenue are a Swedish indie pop group whose freewheeling, infectious sound, rooted in old-school indie pop acts like Orange Juice and Comet Gain, places them in the same sparkling territory as Saturday Looks Good to Me and the Shout Out Louds. The band formed in Norrkoping, Sweden, in 2001 when multi-instrumentalist Johan Angantyr was introduced to longtime bandmates Isak Klasson, Thomas Holm, Magnus Lundin, and Tom Wilkstrom. Adopting the name Speedmarket Avenue, the quintet wasted no time in churning out four songs for a vinyl release on Modesto Records, 2002's Is Anything Ever Done? The following year found one of that disc's tracks, "I Can Tell by Her Eyes," going into regular rotation on the Swedish radio station P3; the track generated quite a bit of favorable critical buzz, notably from Sonic Magazine, and paved the way for a German tour and various high-profile Swedish gigs. Speedmarket Avenue's debut full-length, I'm Going to Let My New Swiss Army Knife Answer to That, was released on the Stockholm-based indie label Fickle Fame in 2004. Amid the critical accolades for its debut, the band underwent some significant lineup changes; vocalist Sibille Attar was welcomed into the fold and bassist Lundin went on to be replaced by Jesper Klein. Having spent a couple years touring and collaborating with other artists (notably, Attar and Klassan recorded backup vocals for Camera Obscura's Let's Get Out of This Country), Speedmarket Avenue returned to the studio in 2007 to record their second full-length album with the help of Jari Haapalainen. Way Better Now was released on Spain's Elefant Records the following year.
http://www.speedmarketavenue.com/
SWEARIN'
Swearin’ is from NYC and Philly! Swearin’ is Allison Crutchfield, Kyle Gilbride, Keith Spencer, and Jeff Bolt. Some of their other musical endeavors include: PS Eliot, Big Soda, Bad Blood Revival, Bad Banana, Big Eyes, Dear Marje, and countless others. You can hear the influences of these bands in Swearin’s sound along with bands like the Breeders or the Rentals. All of Swearin’ has come up and been involved with with the DIY scene for a long time. Not much has changed with this band, they record their own songs, make their own merchandise, and self released their first tape “What a Dump”. Early summer of 2012 will find them with a full length LP (on Salinas Records) in their hands just in time for a 9 week full U.S. tour.
THE WAVE PICTURES
The trouble with the neo-Brit-pop explosion of the last half of the first decade of the 2000s, whatever one might call it, is that far too many of the bands have taken either the Kinks and the Who or Blur and Oasis as their conceptual starting points, ignoring all that came in between. The Wave Pictures, however, start with the tongue-in-cheek confessionalism of the Smiths and solo Morrissey on the one hand and the scrappy D.I.Y. aesthetic of the C-86 school on the other, and take it from there. The Wave Pictures originally formed in 1998 in their hometown, the tiny rural village of Wymeswold in northern Leicestershire, in Great Britain's East Midlands. Heavily influenced by both their parents' classic rock record collections and John Peel's indie-centric radio show, the teenage trio consisting of lead singer and guitarist David Tattersall, bassist Franic Rozycki, and drummer Hugh J. Noble was originally saddled with the remarkably naff name Blind Summit, until a name change to the Wave Pictures coincided with Noble's university-bound departure from the band.
Eventually, the Wave Pictures took their final form with the addition of drummer Jonny "Huddersfield" Helm. For the first eight years of their career, while the three members attended different universities, the Wave Pictures were a part-time affair that stuck strictly to the D.I.Y. circuit, eventually recording a total of six albums that were self-released in tiny CD-R pressings sold at gigs and traded with likeminded artists like Herman Düne, the Mountain Goats, Jeffrey Lewis, and Darren Hayman (ex-Hefner), all of whom the Wave Pictures collaborated with live and on record. In 2006, with Tattersall, Rozycki, and Helm all out of school, the Wave Pictures moved to London and signed with the indie label Moshi Moshi Records, which released the trio's first proper album, Sophie, the same year. The Wave Pictures' second album, Instant Coffee Baby, followed in 2008.
http://www.thewavepictures.com
WHITE TOWN
The "band" White Town consists of Jyoti Mishra, who writes and records the music almost entirely on his own, with occasional help from other musicians. Although best known for the fluke 1997 hit "Your Woman," White Town's mix of musical, political, and social influences makes Mishra one of the more intriguing, although frustratingly inconsistent, musicians in '90s indie pop.
WILD MOCCASINS
With a collection of songs that web male-female vocals of couple Zahira Gutierrez and Cody Swann, as well as pop-infused percussion and string work, Wild Moccasins, a quintet of 20-somethings from Houston, TX, offer a sound that balances a musical guile beyond the band’s years.
Wild Moccasins are perhaps best known in their native Texas for their uncanny ability to sell-out live shows. The mere release of their EP, Microscopic Metronomes & then Full Length, Skin Collision Past, actually resulted in some significant amount of press noting how they are one of the few local acts that have no trouble selling out a show.
The explanation behind their passionate fan base can be found in the one aspect of Wild Moccasins that is most prevalent: their energy. The passion for music that all five members emit both in the studio and on the stage is one to marvel at.
http://www.facebook.com/wildmoccasins
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