In one of the best late night talk show performances in the last few months, Cults completely nail their performance of “Abducted” on Jimmy Fallon, from the debut album “Cults”.

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Listen to and download Felix And The Volcano!‘s new song “Son Of Sam” below.

One of the most exciting groups that I got my ears on this year is Felix And Volcano!, the synth-pop duo from Dover, New Hampshire who have been teasing with single, remix and EP releases since 2010. So when Sam Ueda tweeted last month that the band would release a new single around the turn of the new year, I was overjoyed and when he posted on Tumblr that the band would put out an album at the end of January, I boiled over with adrenaline.

Anyone familiar with the group’s last single or two will be surprised to hear not Ueda, but Sydney Bilodeau’s lovely voice break the the mid-tempo groove, as their new single “Son Of Sam” gets rolling. Her first appearance since rejoining the group, it’s like that old friend you haven’t seen in years, but when you two get together neither misses a beat. Bilodeau does not miss a beat. Her unhindered, undisguised voice is the secret weapon in this charmingly minimalist pop single. It’s a sound both light and bold, floating in an aerial sphere of blips and hand claps.

My favorite thing about Felix And Volcano! is the nuance of layers that can easily go unnoticed amidst all the fun physicality of their sound. “Son Of Sam” veers slightly to the left of what I expected because it’s not only stripped down, but slowed down, hinting at something bigger. The songwriting retains an ominously peachy demeanor that’s Cults-worthy, while instrumentally, I catch myself recalling parts of Little Dragon‘s “Ritual Union”. My mind has been going nuts imagining what track would follow it on the album.

Here it is, the premiere of Felix And Volcano!‘s new single “Son Of Sam”. Enjoy.

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Felix And Volcano! – Son Of Sam

In many cases, band names can be misleading (I mean, come on Girls…). 1 Minute Miracles, however, is not one of these cases. The one-man-band from Toronto, who prefers to keep his name a secret, has a real knack for putting together beats that keep it just right: short and simple.

In complete honesty, maybe his name should have been 1 Minute And Something Miracles, as most tracks go past the one-minute mark, but I’m not really complaining. The variety of sounds and samples used and the shortness of the beats make for an incredibly enjoyable listen over a long period of time, especially in today’s seemingly ADD filled world, since there’s so many direction changes it’s hard to get bored with any one thing. In fact one of the reasons for the tracks’ length is admittedly the creator’s short attention span.

To add to the man’s undeniable musical (well at least mashup) abilities, he also proved to have a kickass personality. As the Christmas season was approaching, he collected all the songs he’s released to date, as well as the unreleased remixes he did of the Death Grips album from this year, burned them on a CD, titled it “Greetings” added a card and sent them out for FREE, via snail mail (!!!) to people all over the world (myself included).

One of my personal favorite remixes he’s done is the take he did on Cults’ “Go Outside”, which he’s warped to the point where it’s practically unrecognizable. It reminds me a bit of the take on  “New York City Cops” Heems did for the Stereogum The Strokes compilation put out earlier this summer. The beat hits hard and things are choppy in just the right way. He manages to leave the original’s “ooooh’s” in the mix, possibly the only connection between the two.

1 Minute Miracles cites Motown Records and Stones Throw Records as some of his influences, and his beats are infused with the soul and good vibes that has made the two labels. Some of the other ones, which don’t come off as much, but are always good reference points to have include Brian Wilson, Daniel Johnston or Lou Reed, among others.

Personally, I’m really interested to see where 1 Minute Miracles takes his music from here. The formula is there, and makes for a great listen. As long as the tracks are this good, I’m coming back for more.

Check out a few samples below, and if you like what you hear head over to Noisetrade to download stuff for free, and give him a tip for all his hard work.

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Artist: Cults
Hometown: New York, New York, USA
Members: Brian Oblivion, Madeline Follin
Formed: 2010
Released: 2011
Genre: Indie, Pop
Label: Columbia
Singles: “Go Outside”, “Abducted”

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Cults’ debut, released in June, is one of my favorite albums of the year. The New York duo share a lot of common traits with Colorado band South Of France, so understandably, I’m really digging their debut, “Kings EP”.

The band’s origins revolved around music, as the duo, long time friends multi-instrumentalist and producer Jeff Cormack and singer Emily Ashley would sit around, listening to music and making CDs for each other. That is, until the day Emily brought a song she had written to Jeff that she wanted to him to produce. The song impressed the producer, who, after completing it decided that it would fit nicely amongst the songs he was working on and the two decided to form a band.

The result is the second track on the EP, “Reflections and Shadow Casting”, a tune that, after a seemingly upbeat opening, turns sombre for a small intro and then hits its stride just past the 30 second mark, when the drums kick in and both voices sing in unison. Musically, it sounds like something Cults’ might have put together, with male-female interplay and voices slathered in reverb and noise that evoke the sounds of the ’50s and ’60s while sounding very much present day.

The strength of the EP comes in its consistency. At just three songs, all roughly the same length, the songs flow incredibly well, and have just enough variation to keep things interesting. Opener “Kings” comes is much more upbeat than the other two, presenting a straight-up pop song in which voices trade off until the chorus, where Cormack takes charge, leaving his female counterpart to background “oooh’s” which add just the right amount of color.

The closing track “Ghost Rider” opens with a guitar riff that becomes a motif for the song and would not be out of place on a surf-pop record (in fact, it reminds me of a song that I can’t quite place). The song is layered with handclaps, the noise/reverb combination I mentioned earlier, and incredibly catchy melodies that make the tune hit all the right spots.

One thing the band should keep in mind for the future is to let their own voice shine through, because the EP’s biggest fault is that it teeters on the copycat line at times. The tunes are good, but are sometimes lacking in a bit of originality, considering how recent the Cults album is.

The band’s influences strike me as varying from the usual clichés up-and-coming artists usually name (note to those seeking coverage: classics are great, but they’re overdone, seek something new), and list Peter, Bjorn and John, Arcade Fire, Beach House, Cults, Sleigh Bells or Tame Impala as such.

A common factor among those bands is that they all created and insane amount of buzz when they started and were able to follow through with solid debut efforts (I personally don’t like Sleigh Bells, but our editors considered it the best album of last year, so that’s saying something). I’m just hoping South Of France’s debut, which will be completed by the end of January, follows suit. I’m looking forward to it.

Connect with South Of France – Facebook | Bandcamp | Soundcloud | Website

South of France – “Kings”
South of France – “Reflections and Shadow Casting”
South of France – “Ghost Driver”

Listen to and download the new Guards song “Do It Again” below.

Guards are one of those bands there seemed to be a lot of in 2010.  They came out of nowhere with ass-jammin’ music with very little information to go on and impressed almost everyone who heard them.

As time progressed it became known that lead singer Richie Follin is the brother of Madeline Follin from Cults, which is how I heard about the band late one night when she tweeted a link to their Bandcamp page. Fast-forward a year or so and they’ve played their first live show and a bunch since, released EPs and singles, videos and whatnot, and as we jump into 2012 they’ve dropped their last new song of the year.

Being released via White Iris, “Do It Again” is their new 7″ single backed with “Feels Like That”, and below you can hear the lead track from the single. If you’re into buying vinyl (get started if you haven’t already) then up the wax from White Iris.  I just bought it on sexy blue vinyl and it only cost me $9 with a free download of both songs!

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Guards – “Do It Again”

Listen to “Bad Things” by Cults featuring Freddie Gibbs below.

Usually if an Indie band say they’re going to be reworking their critically-acclaimed debut album into a Hip-Hop mixtape, I’ll just let out a hearty guffaw and move onto the next humerous piece of news that awaits me.

And so that was my reaction to the news that Cults were going to be doing just that. Howevvvveeerrrr…….after listening to the first taste of that album, I’ve changed my mind, this might just be really fucking good.  With a focus on lesser-known rappers the album features the likes of Lil’ B and Freddie Gibbs, the latter of those two features on this track.

“Bad Thing” gets the first reworking  and thanks to Hypetrack you can check it out below. Now I’m actually looking forward to hearing the rest of it. See? People CAN change!

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Relax, folks: Listen Before You Buy hasn’t been bought out by an online shop peddling New Age tat. Sure, Mood Rings might share a name with some of the ugliest rings ever to mal-adorn fingers anywhere, but this time I’m talking about the band. Now, they do sound a touch hippie-dippy at times, but it’s all good – there’s no indication that they’re going to try and push crystal therapy on you alongside that demo CD.

The Atlanta-based four-piece certainly live up to their name in their musical approach, with thick lashings of psychedelia and a thoroughly lo-fi tone making up the most of it. That said, they do occasionally veer into darker territory, “Exorcised Painting” – the B-side to their latest single “Promise Me Eternity” – being something of a case in point. On the whole, though, expect upbeat pop. Upbeat pop that sounds like it was recorded about 40 years ago, and left to bake in the southern sun since then.

I’m reminded of contemporaries such as The Drums, and close relatives Guards and Cults - all of whom seem to have missed the bit where The Beach Boys aren’t the dominant trend-setters in music any more. At times they unleash wordless warbling that’s almost worthy of Jim James, and there’s something of the air of Galaxie 500 about them. It’s all rather nice.

You can download both of “Promise Me Eternity” and “Exorcised Painting” below, and head over to their label Double Phantom Digital‘s Bandcamp for a free download of their debut EP “Sweater Weather Forever”. Genuine tie-dye sweater not included, unfortunately.

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Mood Rings – ”Promise Me Eternity”
Mood Rings – ”Exorcised Painting”

Not sure if it’s because they’ve “gone major” by signing with Astralwerks or not, but the sound of this new EP is leagues away from the DIY erratic sound of their debut EP “Sun Bronzed Greek Gods”.

DOM were more than likely given a chunk of cash that wasn’t at their disposal when recording the initial EP, so it’s probably down to that, but the more polished and coherent DOM seem to have lost a little bit of their edge. Don’t get me wrong, the tracks on this EP are good, they’re catchy and loud and fun, but they just don’t capture the same kind of unhinged psychedelic electro-spunk-indie-juice of SBGG.

Closing track “Some Boys” (featuring Emma….not sure WHICH Emma) sounds like a cut straight from the sessions of the new Cults album, but give it a listen for yourself (you may have to sign in to Rdio to do so, but it’s quick and painless and free and worth it) and let me know what you thought of it.

Connect with DOM – Facebook | Twitter | MySpace | Last.fm | Website | Bandcamp

This pleases me greatly. Greatly,  I tell thee!

Last year the two dudes from Lafayette, Colorado that compromise Gauntlet Hair burst onto the “scene” with the pitch-perfect noise-concoction of debut single “I Was Thinking” and a couple of other jams equally as raucous.  The pair then released the single on vinyl via the newly-minted Forest Family Records label, then another single on Mexican Summer called “Out, Don’t…” along with a new song in the form of b-side “Heave”, and even though I never made a formal list that debut single was in my top 10 of last year.

Last November they signed to Dead Oceans (home of The Tallest Man On Earth) and now after months and months of waiting we finally have news of their debut self-titled full length album coming out on October 18th and below, thanks to Gorilla Vs Bear we have a brand new song “Top Bunk”.  The track soars and swirls atop the cave-dwelling vocals and as Dead Oceans mentioned it’s a “cooled-out, coastal slow-grind”, which if the whole album plays like that I’d be more than happy.

You can grab the track below and be sure to keep your eyes peeled for new stuff from these guys, the album is going to be immense.

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Gauntlet Hair – “Top Bunk”