You Massive Radar – Bands of 2010 part 2
Posted by: nick
Ok so for part 2 of our Bands of 2010 You Massive Radar feature (part 1 here) we’re continuing to steer relatively clear of the more established bands with no doubt impressive releases due this year (Yeasayer, Midlake, Field Music, These New Puritans, The National, Foals, etc). In doing so we’ll hopefully introduce you to a few more unknown quantities who deserve just as much of your attention. We are excited about that Yeasayer album though! Shhh. Here goes. Beep…Beep…Beep…
Dinosaur Feathers are Brooklyn 3-piece, Greg, Duck & Ryan, who play 50′s/60′s inspired pop tunes with West African influences (singer Greg Sullo studied in Mali) and some beautiful harmonies. There’s a slightly crooked, you even get a bit of drum machine and sampler thrown into the mix, but ultimately accessible side to Dinosaur Feathers that we can’t get enough of. Their self-released debut album ‘Fantasy Memorial’ is due out in the States on March 2nd. Pre-order it on import here.
For Fans Of: Panda Bear, Ruby Suns, El Guincho.
(Baltimore, Maryland, USA)
Beach House are Baltimore duo Alex Scally and sometimes Grizzly Bear collaborator Victoria Legrand. They’ve been building a bit of a cult following in the U.S. over the space of two good but not mind blowing albums for Car Park records. Their third effort Teen Dream was out on Monday Jan 25th through Bella Union here and Sub Pop over there (USA). It looks set to bring Beach House to a wider audience with more polished songs and more apparent hooks while holding on to that hazy, dreamy sound that they’ve become loved for.
For Fans Of: Grizzly Bear, Air, Girls.
(Hackney, London)
A Hackney five-piece are lead by frontman Johnny Kenton who have apparently been holed up in a makeshift studio in Hackney recording an album’s worth of demos that everybody is now desperate to hear, including us. Aside from recording Gold Future Joy Machine have been throwing some of the meanest warehouse parties in the East End to hone their live skills which we understand are now considerable.
For Fans Of: LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture, The Longcut.
One of the best live bands we saw last year who also released arguably our most played 7″, the wonderful ‘Nightlife’ backed with ‘Bright Side’. Anyway enough reminiscing as there’s a self-titled debut album to look forward to this year. Delectable!
For Fans Of: The Stooges, The Strokes, The Stones.
(London, UK)
A wonderfully askew electro duo making the creating the most excitingly hypnotic combination of synth, guitar, bass, drums (tsss tsss) and big choruses that we’ve heard in London for a long time. Oh and they know how to make a nice video or two. Be warned the one we’ve chosen is a little creepy. We’re not sure which one is Hook and which one is the Twin.
For Fans Of: Radio 4, The Invisible, Post War Years.
(Battelboro, Vermont, USA)
Kyle Thomas, formerly of King Tuff, wrote one of our tracks of 2006 ‘Sun Medallion’. Since then Kyle’s been keeping busy recording the likes of Vivian Girls’ new single and even playing guitar on its b-side, a cover of The Chantels’ ‘He’s Gone’. He’s also been getting together an album for his new band Happy Birthday whose debut long-player is set for release through Sub Pop in the U.S. in March. His label had this to say: “Kyle needed a band to play his new pop songs because he was too scared to play by himself.” Lovely.
For Fans Of: King Tuff, Girls, Magic Kids.
(London, Hiroshima, New Jersey)
This London based band are still wet behind the ears kind of new. We’ve only heard two songs by them but what a two songs they are! Yuck is a five piece with two Londoners that we think may be something to do with Cajun Dance Party (RIP), a bass player from Hiroshima and a drummer from New Jersey. ‘Automatic’ is a simply stunning Sonic Youth esque heart wrencher and has one of the best lines of the year so far. Quite simply, “I kept my semen to myself”.
For Fans Of: Sonic Youth, Beck (thanks Chris!), The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart.
(Austin, Texas, USA)
Texas bbq sauce covered rock’n'roll/punk 3-piece Harlem come complete with catchy 3 chord guitar lines, surf tinged bass lines, melodies and a much appreciated sense of humour. We loved their self released 2008 album Free Drugs but their first for Matador due out in early April, titled ‘Hippies’, promises to be even more of a riot. But a good kind of riot. Like that Tomato throwing one.
For Fans Of: The Clash, The Strange Boys, The Ramones.
(London, UK)
Trailer Trash Tracys released their debut single, the gorgeous dream pop Candy Girl through No Pain In Pop last year and are another band that promises to do big things if their album can live up to initial output. A support date with last year’s London sensations The xx at the 3000plus Shepherds Bush Empire couldn’t hurt either. Could it?
For Fans Of: The xx, Small Black, Beach House.
(Manchester, UK)
WU LYF is an acronym for World Unite; Lucifer Youth Foundation. A name that’s probably not going to get them into a Wall Mart store anytime soon but who cares? WU LYF are another one of these mystery bands that have been popping up over the past few months or so (see Summer Camp and Neon Indian). All we really know is that they’re from Manchester and they play ‘Heavy Pop’ which is also the name of a pretty awesome song of theirs below.
For Fans Of: Pixies, Modest Mouse, Ariel Pink.
(Reading, UK)
Tap Tap are lead by Pete and The Pirates frontman Thomas Sanders and not Thomas Trustfund as the mightily bitter Wiki might have you believe! Thomas’ vocals are instantly grabbing and the acoustic driven music soars and dips at all the right moments. Fanfarlo could have a scrap on their hands for best mini Arcade Fire. Tap Tap released their debut album Lanzafame through bloggers label Catbird in 2006 in the U.S. and then in 2007 through Stolen Recordings in the UK. The follow up ‘On My Way’ came out in September of last year, also through Stolen, and that’s what we’re basing our new found love on.
For Fans Of: Arcade Fire, Belle & Sebastian, Strange Death Of Liberal England.
(New Jersey, USA)
Real Estate don’t have the Sunny Day in their name but ironically that’s exactly the sort of time you’d want to listen to this beautiful, blissed out guitar music. Jangly guitar chords build slowly and creep up on you until you’re completely immersed in the warm sound of this New Jersey four piece. For some this won’t be immediate enough but for us it’s well worth the wait. Their self-titled debut LP came out toward the tail end of last year but with their first UK tour imminent and an extensive U.S. one after that we hope they’ll have a great 2010.
For Fans Of: My Morning Jacket, The Feelies, Yo La Tengo.
(Perry, Georgia, USA)
Washed Out’s Life Of Leisure 12″ was one of our favourite releases of last year and his remix of Small Black’s Despicable Dogs made an already impossibly good song better. That’s big praise as we love that original! Anyway the boy from Georgia just needs an album of tip top quality to hopefully pull a Neon Indian and start grabbing headlines. His music is certainly comparable to that of Mr Palomo’s and it too fits into what some people have been calling glo-fi. Hazy, AM fuzzed, acid drenched, electronic pop is what we call it. That rolls off the tongue much better now doesn’t it!
For Fans Of: Neon Indian, Toro Y Moi, Memory Tapes.
(LA, California, USA)
Last but not least. Maybe most in fact. No we’re not saying that! But this blonde bombshell duo from California are set to stir things up this year. Pearl Harbor might be what The xx would have sounded like if they got some LA vitamin D. We love the guitar riffs and the stoned vocals of Piper and Skylar, the core Pearl Harbor duo. The girls are two peace loving LA natives and are bloggers themselves. Their debut EP Something About The Chaparrals was out at the end of 2009 on Mexican Summer and promptly sold out.
But there is hope in the form of a new 4-track cdr which you can buy direct from the ladies themselves. Listen to California Shakedown below and all the rest of the tracks over on their MySpace - Silvers Of You demo is a current favourite round here.
For Fans Of: Washed Out, The xx, Real Estate.
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