Blog: See What You Hear.com

Band meeting: Yeasayer's Anand Wilder, Ira Wolf Tuton and Chris Keating are hunched around a kitchen table to brainstorm song names. Double-entendres, commercial potential, stealing lines from poetry and revising "cheesy" lyrics are all discussed. "The Children. I mean that's a stupid title," says Wilder, reading the sheet in front of him. "It's not catchy at all," agrees Keating. Woodstock, April 2009: They've been jamming new material constantly, discussing possible comparisons, being their worst critics and best editors. It goes on in the living room, downstairs in the studio, even outside [...]

Beach House - Holy Dances There's a knock at the door. A German-sounding man in his fifties politely asks if Beach House would mind letting two crack-smoking sisters use their dressing room for a while. Tensions are high. It's late 2007 and Baltimore's dream-pop duo are topping a variety bill that has attracted only a handful of people to one of London's smallest venues. For a little-known band, this does not feel like an auspicious beginning. Fast forward a few years: there are more albums, more scars, a different sound [...]

Toro Y Moi - Blessa Chaz Bundick's voicemail makes him sound like the Zodiac killer. It's amusing at first, a stoner having a laugh, but downright creepy by the umpteenth time you've heard it. When he finally picks up, hours later, Bundick asks what day it is and seems unsatisfied with the answer. He sounds nervous; leaving fumbling gaps between his words. This may not sound like someone who has his act together, but Bundick is in the middle of releasing two albums, in different genres, within months of each [...]

Young Man - Just A Growin' Young Man - Heart of Chambes (Beach House cover) Young Man is 20-year-old Colin Caulfield, he of YouTube cover versions fame, previously praised by Bradford Cox for his take on Rainwater Cassette Exchange and featured here for his version of Grizzly Bear's 'While You Wait For The Others' . Well, since then Caulfield has been working on an EP entitled Boy in his Chicago bedroom and even has a gig lined up at one of [...]

Perfume Genius - Learning Every time Chris Garneau attempts a lo-fi recording at home, a chill lends itself to the air and a faint lullaby-like sound can be heard interfering with the tape-deck. The more he strains to hear it, the more he's convinced he's captured an electronic voice phenomenon. What he doesn't know is that his ghost has a name: Perfume Genius. MySpace Photo by kimama , licensed under Creative Commons

No text

Jeans Wilder - Sea You It's a hazy summer evening; your friend takes a photo of you in a car park as the sun starts to dip behind buildings. As you drive home, this song creeps on the radio through some local frequency before slipping out into static. But the photo will trigger that melody in your head, every time, and that day will be remembered as one of the best. Jeans Wilder is worth investigating purely for his mystical link to Best Coast; they split a limited edition 73 [...]

Suckers - Easy Chairs A rousing burst of pop to get the week off to a good start. Pretty hard not to sing along with this one; even harder not to imagine 2010 being a good year for this band. The Brooklyn group recently recorded a full-length record for Gigantic, but in the meantime you can buy this limited edition 73 ( or this one ) and check out the Daytrotter session . MySpace [...]

Natureboy - Heart to Fool Natureboy is a lovely secret. And with sounds like this, a lot of people in New York may want to keep it that way. Natureboy is mainly Sara Kermanshahi (who looks eerily like someone I used to know, but not really, who moved to Brooklyn years ago) with the occasional help of Cedar Apffel and Rory O'Connor from Masterface . Sharon Van Etten is a fan - and what better endorsement is there than that? Check out the self-titled album on iTunes, download a free concert here , or [...]

Golden Ages - Everything Will Be Alright A perfect tune for a Friday night: upbeat, uplifting, with just the right mixture of electronics and melody. Golden Ages are from Philadelphia, they're friends with Candy Claws , and their new album Tradition, which is released through Deerhaus , is worth checking out. myspace Photo by audelising , licensed under Creative Commons

A beautiful moment, filmed in a bunker in Belgium, from Her Name is Calla - a group of hushed-toned experimentalists who gradually creep into shot with an instrument in hand, one by one. Buy a limited pressing of their lovely work here . MySpace Download A Blood Promise

Spirit Spine - Flashes Panda Bear may not be the only one to make a splash with one-man harmonies in 2010. Spirit Spine (Indiana's Joseph Denny) has been steadily gleaming praise from music blogs for the past year, but later this month his new album Jungle Bridges drops, taking that infectious force even further. For the time being you can still download his Surfhunter EP for free (along with the a cappella and instrumental tracks to remix for yourself), while his self-titled debut can be found on iTunes. [...]

• Chicago Public Radio - #18: Liars

Lonely Galaxy - Have a Heart I keep coming back to this track and I can't quite figure out why. Maybe it's because it sounds better when jangling around in your head unexpectedly; maybe it's that faint sense of familiarity, or how it reminds me of Real Estate; maybe it's the chord shift when the song kicks up a gear mid-way through its seven minutes; or maybe it's just an effectively unconventional pop song from London. MySpace [...]

Feral Children - Inside the Night Feral Children are getting 2010 off to a good start. Their second album, Brand New Blood, is warm and well-produced (thank you, Scott Colburn ); their harmonies can pull you in without trying too hard (not an easy thing to do these days); the subject matter is often alluringly dark, while the songs themselves shift subtly, growing and flickering in a way that rewards patience. The album's best tracks can be heard over at their MySpace . [...]

Free Kisses - Drifter Leisure Free Kisses - My Acoustic Heart Wants to Dance With You It's a dreamy, whispered, aching sound and it is infectious. Free Kisses is Karen, from Toronto - and that's it. There is no story; no record either. Just lovely music. MySpace Photo by This Is A Wake Up Call , licensed under Creative Commons

Tom Zé - Dor E Dor What an electrifying bass line. The documentary Manda Bala (Send a Bullet), about corruption and kidnapping in São Paulo, features an excellent soundtrack - but this 1972 track jumps out. Tom Zé was an old cohort of Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso in the '60s but was generally ignored until being rediscovered by David Byrne in 1989, catapulting him to a level of success long overdue. MySpace Photo [...]

I have to see Timber Timbre. I can wait no longer. Just seeing Taylor Kirk playing in the dark with crickets for accompaniment, and that Kirk can an implement a loop pedal into what is already a magnetic sound, has me salivating. There is talk of some shows in Europe this May, so let's hope... Recent Daytrotter session MySpace Label Buy

Total Slacker - Crystal Necklace I've been on a day-long search for a new song that will grab me long enough to make an impression. At one point it took me on a twisting hop through MySpace profiles in various boroughs of Indiana, but it brought me back to Brooklyn and to a band that obviously believe in onomatopoeia. If you're in New York next week, make sure to catch their show with Real Estate. Ouch. MySpace Muxtape? [...]

Seven Saturdays' intricate electro ambiance was originally conceived to score the sensation of feeling trapped in Los Angeles; but a cursory browse through YouTube hints that it must have been made with the BBC documentary series Planet Earth in mind. They are a live band, featuring members and collaborators of M83, St. Vincent and David Bowie; yet also the solo project of Jonathan D. Haskell, formerly of FIRS. A self-titled EP is released next week. MySpace

Sore Eros - Whisper Me Sore Eros is a gorgeously lo-fi bedroom project that began when Robert Robinson, who has previously collaborated with Panda Bear and Ariel Pink, discovered a tape of his old high-school friend Adam Langellotti. They brought in drummer Andy Tomasello as well as guests Kurt Vile and Gary War, and came up with Second Chants - a collection of fractured pop sounds that ebb and flow toward hypnosis. Buy MySpace Photo by [...]