New Band Alert : Flasher

Flasher is a Washington, DC three piece featuring Taylor of Priests/ Young Tyrnas, Emma of Big Hush/Young Tyrnas, and Daniel of Bless/Trouble. They are little bit goth, a little bit post-punk, and the best new music I heard all last week.

They have a debut EP coming via Sister Polygon Records on cassette  April 8th.

Sauna Youth, the Other SY

Screw you dark morning sky, daylight savings, and Mondays in general. At least I have some good news to cheer me up. Sauna Youth's 2012 release Dreamlands has been reissued on vinyl via Gringo Records and is out now.

SY (not to be confused with Sonic Youth) are an outstanding artful post-punk 4 piece from London who put out one of my favorite records last year, Distractions.

RIYL Looper and Wire.

2015 Favorite : Dirty Ghosts

This San Francisco group released a single earlier this year called "Cataract" that just might end up as my favorite song of the year. Their new wave Pop hooks are undeniably catchy. Growing up in the '80s my passion for alternative music started with artists like Nik Kershaw, Thomas Dolby, Devo, Howard Jones, and The Flirts so I find the music of Dirty Ghosts to be a modern variation of these earlier groups. Their songs are melodic yet they carry an undercurrent of melancholy and angst. Their new album Let It Pretend came out in October on Last Gang Records but consider yourselves warned. Many of these songs have earworm like tendencies so be prepared to have them stuck in your head for days at a time.

Polyphonic Size

Almost exclusively produced by Jean-Jacques Burnel from The Stranglers, check out this synth wave band from Belgium that has been making music on and off since 1971. The line up has changed many times over the decades but they almost always had at least one woman in the band.

Throw Back Thursday : Pylon

It doesn't get much better than this '80s Athens, Georgia band fronted by Vanessa Briscoe Hay. Their music is like brittle sticks snapping under rhythmic punches. There are guitar melodies but even the vocals accent beats as if they too are a percussion instrument. There is nothing extracurricular about their songs, every note and beat is measured and executed with a dancing precision. Imagine a small and powerful motorboat skidding through choppy, rough waters. This is what their pioneering sound reminds me of.

Their unique version of post punk was inspired by (and peers to) bands like the B-52s, Gang of Four, Television, and Talking Heads but in a decades time would become an influence to the next generations of bands like: R.E.M., Sleater Kinney, Deerhunter, LCD Soundsystem, Wedding Present, Life Without Buildings, Fire Party, and Love of Diagrams to name just a small handful of the artists.

2015 Favorite : Desperate Journalist

It has taken me decades to find a band that gives me that same kind of feeling in my chest that I had the first time I heard The Smiths. Desperate Journalist are a 4 piece band from London that features two women and two men and are named after a legendary Peel Session where The Cure sound off about a member of the press who gave them a less than positive review.

I have watched this video for 'Eulogy" ten times already today and I am excited to discover they are as good live as they are on record.

And here are a few other videos by them to enjoy.