Artist: Happy Birthday

Hails From: Brattleboro, VT

Musical Style: Indie Pop, Lo-Fi, Alternative Pop/Rock

For Fans of: Apples in Stereo, Beach Boys, Of Montreal

Subiminal Message

Why you should check them out:

Sometimes a band’s success hinges on a certain alchemy amongst its parts. In the case of Happy Birthday, all it took was three friends getting together a handful of times before scoring a record deal with Sub Pop and subsequent international acclaim. The band’s auspicious 2010 debut is filled with well-constructed, fuzzed-out, and slightly tweaked indie pop gems.

Background Check:

I used to work in a record store in Brattleboro, Vermont—Happy Birthday’s base of operations—where lead man Kyle Thomas was a daily fixture. He would shuffle around downtown with his sketchbook, chatting up locals and composing songs in his head. Oftentimes he would share his latest home recordings: his own personal takes on whatever he was into that month: T. Rex, Fairport Convention, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Norwegian Black Metal—you name it. And they were always good.

After releasing some tunes under the moniker King Tuff, and turns in psych folk outfit Feathers and the J Mascis metal side project Witch, Thomas formed Happy Birthday along with friends Ruth Garbus and Chris Weisman. After just a few shows, the band found a home for their seemingly effortless blend of pop, psych, and garage on Sub Pop Records. Tasty sonic layers worthy of the Beach Boys or Of Montreal combine with great melodies and interesting production on standouts like “Girls FM” and “Pink Strawberry Shake”—radio hits for/from another dimension.

Where you can find them in cyberspace:

myspace

On Tour:

jambase

Artist: Toro Y Moi

Hails From: Columbia, South Carolina

Musical Style: Indie Pop, Electronic

for fans of: MGMT, Neon Indian, Animal Collective

Blessa

why you should check them out:

At the forefront of the chillwave scene, Chazwick Bundick, aka Toro Y Moi, is poised to have a promising 2010 and beyond while helping to turn the lo-fi sound into a reason to stop staring at your drink and get on the dancefloor. With one well-layered track after another, his music eschews worry, and practically begs you to relax and have a good time.

Background check:

Born in Columbia, South Carolina, Chaz formed the indie-rock outfit, The Heist and The Accomplice, in 2004. After the release of their album, Connections Work, he started his own project, Toro Y Moi. Along with friend and contemporary, Ernest Greene (better known as Washed Out), Chaz helped usher in the chillwave, or glo-fi movement. With the release of his album, Causers of This, in January, 2010, and remixes of songs by Washed Out and Tegan & Sara, his style of filtered vocals over highly-textured production has earned him some growing critical acclaim. With the upcoming release of the 7″ “Leave Everywhere” on Carpark Records, and a summer tour of Europe set to get underway, the future looks bright for Toro Y Moi.

–Dylan Macturk

where you can find them in cyberspace:

Website

Myspace

on tour:

Jambase

Artist: Real Estate

Hails From: Brooklyn, NY

Musical Style: Indie, Pop, Surf

For Fans Of: Yo La Tengo, Velvet Underground, Animal Collective

Beach Comber

Why You Should Check them out:

It goes without saying that any band even remotely influenced by the surf rock genre can’t help but conjure up images of sunny trips to the beach, and for the Brooklyn quartet Real Estate such associations fit their bright, water themed songs perfectly. Drenched in reverb and carefree atmospherics, Real Estate may not follow too closely behind many of the old school surf greats, but they’ve definitely got the summer feeling right.

Background Check:

Playing together since high school, New Jersey natives Martin Courtney, Matthew Mondanile,
Etienne Duguay, and Alex Bleeker played in a number of projects before Real Estate fully materialized in the summer of 2008. With a tour alongside fellow lo-fi pop artists Girls later that year in support of their debut 7″ Suburban Beverage, Real Estate gathered momentum culminating in their 2009 self-titled full-length. It was these ten tracks that awarded Real Estate widespread attention, situating the band on countless best of ‘09 lists and earning them a place among the top 50 albums of 2009 by Pitchfork Media.

And while seaside pop has been making the headlines recently with the like of Best Coast and Surfer Blood, Real Estate’s songs are set apart with their fluid and dream-like quality at once buoyant and carefree and yet somber enough to tread in dark waters. While jangly leads segue into slide guitar backgrounds, it’s the echoing vocals from singer Martin Courtney that offer a comforting subtly to the quartet’s surf backed dynamics, further pronounced on their five song followup Reality, released in November ‘09. With summer now in full swing, what better way to enjoy the long sunny days than with the bright and breezy harmonics of Brooklyn’s Real Estate–with a full catalog of songs sure to tide you over until their highly anticipated next release.

–Anne Ostrowski

Where you can find them in cyberspace:

myspace
wikipedia

on tour:

jambase