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Ex Cops - Ken

Clicked for the name, stayed for the music. Ex Cops is a duo out of Brooklyn that specialize in Weekend or Deerhunter-esque low-fi, pilled out drone zones. Throw on this to get you through the winter and then let it blast your right into the spring. Their debut album True Hallucinations comes out today.

Desert Sharks - I Know What I Want

I first saw Desert Sharks last July when they were the opening band for Diarrhea Planet at Shea Stadium. I had no idea who they were prior to their taking the stage, but once they did I couldn’t stop watching. They were so self-assured, so together, and insanely catchy; not things many opening bands can cop to having. After the show, I immediately downloaded their demo, and it has been on constant rotation for the better part of the last six months. As such, I was hotly anticipating their newest EP Sister Cousins. “I Know What I Want” is the first track off the album, which was released earlier this week (I forget when). The track finds Desert Sharks doing what they do best: catchy surfy riffs over love-lorn vocals. Take a listen and then go buy Sister Cousins over at their bandcamp.

Masked Intruder - Why Don’t You Love Me In Real Life

Don’t ask. Just listen to this amazing, fun piece of indie pop-punk creeper gem. Their facebook bio is “The Best pop-punk band you hope never gets out of prison.”  If that doesn’t sell you, I don’t know what will.

Titus Andronicus - Upon Viewing Oregon’s Landscape With The Flood of Detritus

Hey all! Your FESTAPALOOZA headliner’s released a new single a few weeks back, and it’s a killer. Judging from this song and their new ones they played live, Titus Andronicus is delving into some weird experimental punk trip. I couldn’t be more excited. Check it out, and then see them on APRIL 20th at FESTAPALOOZA.

BUY TICKETS.

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.