Cloud Nothings is the brainchild of 18 year old Cleveland resident Dylan Baldi. Late in 2009, he started recording a bunch of catchy indie rock songs on his computer in the basement of his parent's house. Dylan wasn't so concerned with them being lo-fi. But since he only had his simple computer and a crappy microphone that's the way they turned out. Almost immediately praise was bestowed upon young Dylan, and as new songs were unleashed, the online excitement only…

Bass Drum of Death is a band from Mississippi. John plays guitar and sings and Colin plays the drums. Together they make blown-out, blazing songs. They are set to release their debutLP GB City on Fat Possum Records. John was Fat Possum's worst employee 3 years ago. He wrote and recorded the whole record himself using just a drumset, a guitar, a usb microphone, a computer, and a shitload of talent. The songs are about drugs, trying to make it…

With Whistle Tips, Brooklyn, NY quartet Dinosaur Feathers flee from the tropics of their debut, 2009's Fantasy Memorial, and push themselves into hitherto unexplored and ultimately rewarding new territories. Once tethered to a drum machine, the addition of drummer Nick Brooks provide new-found forcefulness and flexibility; the clean melodic basslines of Ryan Michael Kelly often grow into dynamic leads without abandoning the low end; and where acoustic guitar once engendered laid-back vibes and folk misnomers,the electric guitar of vocalist Greg…

There is a powerful harmony in Grimes. It is a project which is both musical and visual, embodying the arts of 2D, performance, dance, video and sound. Claire Boucher weaves these together to a strong rhythmic effect, "the marriage between the voice of a human and the heartbeat of a machine" . Boucher, born in Vancouver, Canada, came to Montreal in 2006. Her experience as a performer is deeply embedded in the illegal DIY loft culture of Montreal, where Grimes…

Cults' twinkling experimental pop arrived in a shroud of mystery early in 2010, when the group posted three songs on their Bandcamp page. One of those songs was "Go Outside," which mixed dream pop haze with girl group harmonies (and, fittingly, samples of Jonestown leader Jim Jones) and earned the band acclaim from publications including Pitchfork and NME. Eventually, Cults' core duo was revealed as guitarist Brian Oblivion and vocalist Madeline Follin. Later in 2010, Cults released Go Outside as…

Jarvis Cocker says Jeffrey Lewis is the finest lyricist of his generation and coming from him that's quite an accolade. We're inclined to agree and really it's quite undeniable when you hear him explain the history of communist China or being sexually assaulted on a train by Will Oldham through song with an ease that makes you forget he's being limited by rhythm and rhyme. Jeff's the product of loving beatnik parents who raised him in New York's Lower East…

The project of Deerhunter guitarist/vocalist Lockett Pundt, Lotus Plaza recalls some of his other band's shoegaze-tinged hazy experimentalism and bursts of lucid guitar pop, but takes those sounds in directions influenced by '50s and '60s pop and '80s post-punk. Though he played in several groups during high school, Pundt wasn't in any serious bands until he met Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox in college and joined the fold. Pundt began recording as Lotus Plaza in 2007, playing most of the instruments…

The K-Holes speak at once of the mystic and the cosmopolitan, the primal and the urbane, the earthen elements and their synthesized cousins. But unlike their contemporaries, the K-Holes' sound is not of the grinning, gregarious panderer. Nor is it of the bored or at-ease. Rather, it's the sound of escape. Escape from the concrete scrabble of New York, that moneyed parking lot for the cynical and privileged; escape from the vulgar materialism sung from the metropolitan mouth; escape from…

In March of this year, XL Recordings released Titus Andronicus' epic second album THE MONITOR. The band's leader, Patrick Stickles - introduced the album at that time with a letter to the media. It is below, in its original glory. You should know however, that since its release, it's been heralded as one of 2010s top albums, and the critics fell immediately in love with it. Dear distinguished members of the press, The New Jersey indie rock band Titus Andronicus…