WU LYF is playing tonight and tomorrow night in New York City. The UK band has been one of the most buzzed about, cult bands of the last year. Their anonymity (until recently) has cloaked them in a shroud of mystery, not to mention their cryptic name which stands for World Unite Lucifer Youth Foundation. Their self described “heavy pop” sound is an interesting mix of shoegaze walls of sound layed over bombastic beats. The most striking feature of the band is their lead singer’s distinctively gruff and aggressive vocal approach. It seems as if their mission is to urge people to revolt against whatever it is that suppresses them or prevents their happiness. Watch the video for “DIRT” below.
Mac DeMarco is a Vancouver singer/songwriter, by way of Edmonton, who traffics in strange indie pop that nestles somewhere in between Girls and Ariel Pink. His self proclaimed “jizz jazz” style mixes references to occult, nudity and social satire into a fuzzy, garage rock influenced pop sound that has been the driving force of the Pacific Northwest for the last few years. Watch the artsy, NSFW video for “Only You” below.
For those of you living in NYC, go check him out tonight at the Cameo Gallery in Williamsburg.
If you sleep on these girls, you’ll be kicking yourself later. This is a pair of songs from their CMJ performance this past October at Bowery Electric in New York City’s East Village.
Haim is three sisters who have grown up playing in a band with their parents. They have now stepped out on their own and judging by one of their sets at SXSW a few weeks ago, it seems as if they’re ready to take over the Indie Rock scene. Their balance between thoughtful, artsy pop and balls to the wall, visceral rock is truly a triumph. Read a more thorough analysis of the band courtesy of Albert Barabas over at The Wild Honey Pie.
Also, watch their feature on Last Call with Carson Daly below.
Here is a track that is over two years old now, but comes from some former members of Dirty Projectors as I noted in the previous post last Friday. Vampire Weekend broke out in early 2008 with a really complete statement for a debut with their self titled album Vampire Weekend. Their self-proclaimed “Upper West Side Soweto” style mixes chamber pop, 80′s new wave/reggae and African hi-life to produce what at the time seemed like a truly new sound. Their 2010 follow up, Contra, took the sound the band had created and expanded upon it just enough to satisfy old fans and win new ones. All the same familiar influences were there, but the songs seem more fleshed out and the added touches of electro throughout the album do not detract from their sound, but add just enough of a twist to make the album a definite step forward, instead of a retread. Watch “Giving Up The Gun” below, and take note of the protagonist’s opponents, the umpire and her coach.
We’ll conclude the week with another banger from a group with a strong female presence. Just like St. Vincent, tUnE-yArDs and Yukimi from Little Dragon, the vocals sung by Dirty Projectors‘ Amber Coffman on “Stillness Is The Move” are heavily influenced by 90′s R&B. Even the beat is distinctly influenced by R&B and Hip-Hop from the 90′s, but when juxtaposed with Dave Longstreth’s inventive West African tinged guitar riff the result is shockingly strange yet mesmerizing. When Talking Heads frontman, David Byrne, is your #1 fan you know you’ve stumbled upon something brilliant. Former members include Rostam Batmanglij and Ezra Koenig of current Vampire Weekend fame.
The band recently announced they’ll be touring the U.S. this summer, with dates in 33 cities. See the dates here.
