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Waxahatchee - grass stain.

The singer/songwriter paradigm is almost always a crap shoot no one wants to fall into. Many try to lay out their emotions over a single acoustic guitar, and nearly everyone fails. Waxhatchee (P.S. Eliot’s Katie Crutchfield) manages to sidestep every “singer / songwriter” pitfall on her debut LP American Weekend. Instead of a sappy, self-pitying mess, Crutchfeild lays out her flaws as if music was her penance. It’s never self-aggrandizing or blaming. “Grass Stain” is such an beautiful bummer, and it was the track that introduced me to Waxahatchee. American Weekend will be out in January on Don Giovanni Records.

Feist: How Come You Never Go There (Beck Remix)

It pretty awesome!!

Class Actress - Love Me Like You Used To

Rapprocher (2011)

With an 80’s synth-pop sound, Class Actress elicits a time when pop music could be loved by the same people who also loved the underground scene. This is the type of music that gets stuck in your head and doesn’t leave. “Love Me Like You Used To” is simple with dense keyboard and the catchiest hook since the plague(I even created a dance for it). Try to listen to this song and not love it. I dare you. 

Snowing - Pump Fake

Snowing broke up earlier this year, playing their final show a few weeks ago. I didn’t have the funds to make my way down to Philly to see them, which I’m a little bummed about, but as a result I’ve been listening to a ton of them lately. “Pump Fake” was the first Snowing song that clicked with me. The lyrics are tight, the guitars are jangly as hell, and the production is as shitty as I like it. Too bad this song isn’t on the 7” of Fuck Your Emotional Bullshit. Oh well.