Blog: The Rawking Refuses To Stop!

At the Echo on Friday night, sitting next to a handful of future lung cancer patients, staring at my phone, I was thinking about Azealia Banks. The Harlem rapper/singer is nothing if not a compelling personality; "212," her star-making single after a few embryonic misfires, is her Don Draper carousel pitch. The video offers little more than her ear-to-ear smile, self-consciously silly dance moves and a Mickey Mouse sweater. It is, in a word, fun. Banks, whose Twitter display name is "Yung Rapunxel" and responded to the Huffington Post's police siren article about her bisexuality with the line, "Who came [...]

Promise and the Monster is a Stockholm folk-rock act with a surprisingly frigid style. Compared to Swedish sun-seekers such as Jens Lekman or Peter Bjorn and John, the band might as well hail from Antarctica. Its music, driven by the barbed, breathy vocals of Billie Lindahl, shifts between gothic chamber assaults ("Swim," spooky-girlfriend anthem "Dorothy") and gentler balladry, like the reverb-aided "Sibylle" and "Cory." It's evocative of Marissa Nadler's shadowy catalog as well as the darker sounds of Warpaint or Chelsea Wolfe, though Lindahl's multi-tracked harmonies manage to walk an intriguing line between edge and comfort. (The band also shares [...]

The Softies' Rose Melberg at a solo show / photo by David Greenwald If you're not familiar with One Week One Band , founded by my friend Hendrik Jasnoch, it's grown from a concept - that old music is worth talking about in the flood of Relevant New MP3s - into a sort of weekly blog version of the 33 1/3 books. I'm proud to be writing about the Softies, my favorite band, for the site all week. Here's what's up so far: * The band's other projects and pre-Softies work [...]

Hello, friends. Without breaking too deeply past the blogger fourth wall, I'd like to share some notes from the underground with you. As you may know, my non-Rawkblog hours have been occupied by full-time freelance work in recent months. You can now find my music writing regularly-ish on Billboard , MTV Buzzworthy , the Los Angeles Times , the A.V. Club and eMusic , among others. For the latter two publications, I've been writing album reviews - the work I dreamed of getting paid to do as a snobby 17-year-old writing Coldplay screeds and reading [...]

"I know a place where rent is free," Charles Latham sings in "I'm Moving Back to My Parents' House," but his post-college malaise isn't the satirical Portlandia variety. Instead, the ramshackle folk effort takes a sincere approach strengthened by its '50s pop shoo-bops: "How, how long until things get weird?/Till we're arguing about my curfew, till I'm stealing beer?" Not very long, pal. It's an anthem for our times, as well as a tune that'd charm on any subject. Here more Latham on Bandcamp . I'm Moving Back to My Parent's House by [...]

Judging by "Pennies Found," the Holiday Crowd are St. Morrissey's latest acolytes. Also judging by "Pennies Found," the Toronto band's taking their religious obligations seriously: it's excellent while sounding thoroughly like the Smiths, a tall order for anyone not named Johnny or Steven. The band's debut album is out now on Shelflife and New Romantic . (Via Eardrums )

Photo by _FXR I wrote about Nada Surf's The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy for the A.V. Club : Since 2003 comeback record Let Go , Nada Surf's quietly built one of indie rock's most consistent discographies. The Stars is a reliably crisp, tuneful addition, all racing snare hits, taut power chords, and Caws' emotive tenor... New tricks, however, might be off the menu. And First Aid Kit's The Lion's Roar for eMusic : [...]

• Nada Surf - When I Was Young

For my money, the mega-jams on Hospitality's near-perfect self-titled debut are the gentle "Eighth Avenue" and "Liberal Arts," two twee tracks that give Fred Thomas a run for his King of Indie-Pop crown. But singles "Friends of Friends" and "Betty Wang" come pretty close, offering singer Amber Papini's coyly post-Chrissie Hynde melodic acrobatics and the band's thoughtful, full-bodied arrangements. ("Betty Wang" closes with a downright Nels Cline-y guitar spasm.) Related: would anyone complain if I just posted indie-pop all year? Is there any reason not to? Hospitality - Friends of Friends [...]

This is totally just British Jason Mraz BUT I LOVE IT. Stick around for the synth breakdown at the end. One concern: no Robert Pattinson/water/elephants cameo? Hear more from the band on Rdio or your cloud player of choice and look for a proper debut later this year.

I spent most of last night watching Fiona Apple performance videos on YouTube. She's so remarkable live, so intelligent and brave, that the performances shine on despite the long-lost layers of video quality that the clips may have had upon their original airings. Nevertheless, it should be a crime for her Vevo page to carry the official video for "Paper Bag" - directed by P.T. Anderson during their late '90s romance, and featuring adorable choreography, kids in Dick Tracy suits and Fiona Apple smiling - in anything less than 1080p. I'd never seen it; until last night, I [...]

A lovely, Joshua Tree-set video for First Aid Kit's sparkling country homage. Play it as loud as your heartstrings will bear.

LA Font, one of L.A.'s best rock bands - and, obvious full disclosure, friends of Rawkblog - are raising funds via Kickstarter to make their sophomore album. This is the new reality: if you're not on Pitchfork or NPR, no label is going to give your band money to make a record. Surely "Lipsmack" alone has given you more than a few bucks' worth of enjoyment? Watch the band's plea to Rawkblog readers above and give them a hand on Kickstarter . LA Font - "Lipsmack": mp3

I've spent most of the past 18 months obsessing over Standard Fare's The Noyelle Beat , a relationship vivisection as charismatic and emotionally potent as any electric break-up record since Cursive's Domestica . In March 2010 (at SXSW, it appears), Groupee captured the band tearing through a handful of the album's best songs like hungry bears. Please join me in putting these on loop. Bonus points to singer Emma Kupa for the Absolutely Kosher shirt, R.I.P. All the videos after the jump, more goodness on Groupee.com . "Love Doesn't Just Stop," above, and duet "A [...]

Best of '11 supergroup Seeker Lover Keeper's self-titled debut finally gets its U.S. release date on Jan. 17, and the group's generously sharing my favorite track: Seeker Lover Keeper - "Even Though I'm a Woman" : mp3 Previously : First Look: Seeker Lover Keeper - s/t | 2012 Album Release Calendar

For those for whom wounded folk feels like balm upon a wound, you'll find fine medicine in Keaton Henson. The London songwriter's music is almost violently spare, offering just enough melody and feeling to carve his way into your heart. Like Nick Drake before him, he's intensely shy and has decided to avoid traditional forms of performance, opting instead, for now at least, to make performance videos - like this one. (Henson's Dear... is due Feb. 27) Previously : Video: Keaton Henson - "You Don't Know How Lucky You Are"

Photo by Patrick Heagney of Montreal's Paralytic Stalks - the formerly bedroom-bound band's 11th album, by Wikipedia's measure - is a largely successful marriage of frontman Kevin Barnes' psych-pop beginnings with his recent sexy dance parties. New single "Dour Percentage" splits the difference nicely, nodding to Bowie and Supertramp amid the leonine orgasms of Barnes' own inimitable pop ecstasy. Treat yourself below. Dour Percentage by of Montreal Paralytic Stalks is due Feb. 7 on [...]

Allo Darlin' / photo by David Greenwald Without using the word "best," here are eight bands, all new (or maybe new to you?), worth keeping an eye on this year. Mostly indie-pop, because that's mostly what I like. Release dates if they exist. What are you excited about this year? Let me know in the comments or @daverawkblog . Michael Kiwanuka: The UK singer's getting an inordinate amount of hype for sounding like a Platonic ideal Starbucks CD rack option, but if people [...]

• Seeker Lover Keeper - Even Though I'm A Woman

Real Estate / photo by David Greenwald Coachella 2012 will run on two weekends in a row, an expansion that feels like it could backfire: will Radiohead's second headlining set feel as meaningful for those who've already watched the videos on YouTube and Pitchfork.tv? Will the bands, festival paychecks in hand, snooze through their second performance? Or will the divided dates return Coachella to the chill glory of its pre- Hills invasion early years? (More importantly: will someone give me press passes to cover all six days? Do I have enough sunscreen? Will Destroyer's set [...]

Here are my picks for the week in Los Angeles show-going: Monday, Jan. 9 : Princeton's free residency kicks off at the Bootleg with TV Girl; chamber-folk act Seasons' free residency starts at the Echo. Highly recommend catching both bands this month. Tuesday, Jan. 10 : Punk upstarts FIDLAR play the Smell. Thursday, Jan. 12 : Radiohead acolytes Masxs play the Bootleg Bar; Robert Schwartzman (of Phantom Planet) and Princeton spin-off Sleeping Bags are at the Satellite, free; the reasonably charming garage-rockers of La Sera play the Echo. [...]

Organized handily by year with very useful descriptions at World of Bowie . Find more live/bootleg collections right here or over on our blogroll .