I saw Bear Hands at Club Midway during CMJ, and enjoy them I did. Having been prithee to these hands of bears before, I selected to see them specifically because their music warms my heart so. A throwback to Slanted and Enchanted Pavement with the lazy half-hook grunge alternating with Weezer circa Pinkerton. This band is getting a lot of buzz with labels so expect to see them come out with a full length within the next few years. Their stage presence left a little to be desired towards the beginning, but they were so impressively tight and clearly enjoying themselves that it didn't matter much. - Andrew Spaulding - website

There comes a time in the life of the experimental(-ish) indie musician to flirt with pop music. I say (-ish) because - in the indie field - musicians, afterall, are never really really experimental. They are in most cases exploring ideas that others - their older collegues and other artists belonging to the avant-garde scene - have already tried years before them. Rock artists experiment like kids do, trying things, discovering possibilities by toying around with their instruments, without that deep, almost scary intellectual effort produced by the true experimental genius (think Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson or John Cage).
Their effort is rather a search for a defining quality, a new exciting recipe that has the gift of originality.
Eventually though, experimental(-ish) rock artists realize that originality not supported by great songwriting isn't that interesting.
"Strawberry Jam" marks Animal Collective's final surrender to songwriting, and therefore their achieved maturity and artistic fullfillment. Of course, we still get the full caleidoscope of quirky sounds and voices the Animals got us accustomed to. But try and strip down these songs of all those crazy frills: what you get are really good, engaging, structured, original songs you can (almost) whistle to. You can try a similar experiment with the Beatles songs from their psychedelic era - the ones from the "Strawberry Fields Forever" period. These Strawberries might be out of season now but they are sure darn good! - PGD - website

From the moment the neanderthalic opening of chanting and panting on “I Still Make” blows out your speakers -- to the elegiac chorus and Johnny Marr inflected guitar lead later in the song – it’s clear that Brooklyn by way of Atlanta’s The Press are a force to be reckoned with. Their live shows are a loud, awe-inspiring performance full of jagged guitar riffs and drunken sing-a-longs. Their occasionally sarcastic vocal delivery that smack of Mark E. Smith, and the intricate, totally weird song arrangements represent this band's signature. While it’s pretty clear that the Press is influenced by modern indie-rock and maybe some punk, there’s so much going on in their songs that no similar bands immediately come to mind, which is a good thing. This means originality, and who couldn’t use a healthy dose of fresh lately? -Bill Dvorak - website

Pterodactyl has the potential to become the band that made the NYC DIY scene expand beyond its DIY boundaries. The reason for this is simple: these guys write incredibly good songs, and while keeping faith to the DIY aesthetics, they don't dismiss the idea of surpassing them or integrating them with pop elements. Besides the messy, fast, somewhat tribal drum sound, the screeching guitars and often screamed vocals, besides the always welcome unexpected twist in the arrangement department and the oh so necessary spastic live attitude, Pterodactyl also cares about song structure, tension and release, and catchy melodies. The opener track Polio (check out the video) sound like Jane's Addiction on speed - and the references to Perry Farrel's band seem recurrent throughout the album. "Three Succeed" is organic, experimental, wild and gorgeously pop at once. The magic happens again with "Esses", song reminiscent of the the intricate vocal plots of Animal Collective's Sung Tungs. "Safe Like A Train" is an industrial mantra that shifts in volume and tension. Lovers of pure DIY madness shouldn't despair though, as the infectious pop virus doesn’t spread to too many tracks in this record. website - buy it now

Patience. Constraint. What made Elliot Smith a better singer/songwrither than your average strumming sad guy? Tension. And a sense of where and when to release pressure . All of the best artists have it.
Hula takes windchime guitar melodies, George Harrison lapsteel, and restrained but punctual drum patterns to grip your arm and pull you to fireworks on the beach at night. One standout track, As For Hell, shifts like shapes in clouds; it's sparse like Whistler's "Nocturne in Black and Gold" and just as pregnant with emotion, detail, eloquence. "Fallout" is the sinister flipside to As For Hell's coin: it spits with reverb and distortion in a breathless minor key beneath troughs and gullies of ocean waves in a squall. Placement of the album is important as the songs wouldn't fare well under the sunniest of circumstances; its not party music. But the gorgeous niche that Hula fills is one that hasn't been performed successfully in quite a long time. by Andrew Spaulding - website - buy it now

Battles' "Mirrored" is a sharp and aggressive sonic onslaught, like if the cold, hard machine-like feel of the 21st century was synthetically crystallized into sound. The tension between instruments has each pushing inward; the progressive riffage held up by the snapping elasticity of the bass, supported by the punishing drums. Every piece of this apocalyptic puzzle presses with such pressure that with one slip, the entire monument would collapse into experimental rubble. Yet the mathematic exactness of Battles' electricity finds warmth in a perpetual groove that rolls alongside dueling instrumentation. There are no traditional vocals on the album. Tyondai Braxton's larynx - as if hardwired through the city's power-lines - emerges here and there as a chopped and screwed vocoder cackle, like the loops of a mad scientist. When "Atlas" implodes with its counter-beat and affected, robotic whine, it's like War of the Worlds - but scarier. Meanwhile, the cardio workout of the drum-work might just throw us into an irregular heartbeat and leave our muscles sore just from listening. Around ex-Helmet drummer John Stanier, it's as if the rest of Battles reached bare-handed into an electrical box and ripped out fist-fulls of live wire showering sparks and buzzing with electrical current -- these are the machine-like, futuristic space-sounds of Mirrored -- like TV on the Radio for tech-heads and astronauts. - Joe Coscarelli . website

Will a scene that has brought to fame artists proposing indie pop interpretations of NYC rock classics like Lou Reed and The Talking Heads extend the same treatment to a band that finds inspiration in the sound of the West Coast's greatest rock band? Although Seasick's references to The Doors are quite obvious, the band - fronted by Persian/Latvian Jasmine Golestaneh - manages quite incredibly to strike that magic balance between dark intensity, creativity, sensuality and powerful songwriting that made Jim Morrison and co.'s music so strangely addictive. Jasmine's voice, with her subtle foreign accent and attitude reminiscent of Nico, has the power to hypnotize and rave. Geoffrey Lee's keyboards and Sam Devin on Drums create the moody, impressionistic soundtrack that perfectly supports her tragic, cosmic stories.
Even if "Devil in her Hands" is probably the best song I've heard in a long time, I wonder if, in today's musical landscape, there is still room for music that is so uncompromisingly intense and subtly powerful. I hope that this incredibly talented trio (who are currently doesn't seem to be gigging) will have the patience to keep at what they are doing, the inspiration to develop a more personal sound, and the strength to build a future for themselves in today's insanely crowded and competitive career path called indie rock music. - by Paolo De Gregorio. website

Sweaty club fiends need subtlety in their dance music like they need conversation in their nightlife; they prefer to just bump and grind. On the contrary, indie music dorks would rather be barraged with sonic intricacies than beaten over the head with thick bass and disco beats that might just get their hips gyrating. Fortunately for the centrist in us all, dance-punk veterans !!! cover all the bases on Myth Takes, combining Funkadelic absurdity and noisy guitars, resting them like a blanket over their knack for pop music. Deep and spastic vocals provide back-up ammunition for a percussive gun show, adding to the wall of commotion including crashing cymbals, thumping bass, and wild tambourine. !!! find the groove like X marked the spot and cause an uproar in the process- both in your speakers and on the dance floor. Myth Takes is far more cohesive than the band's back-catalog; !!! has perfected pacing as hook-laden shout-a-longs link seamlessly with ass-shaking club bangers. Tracks like "Must Be The Moon" could provide the band's launching pad and hint that it may be only a matter of time before the band leaves their contemporaries in the dust. "Infinifold" even supplies the night's final song, a tinkering piano ballad for last call, when the sweaty hipsters can grab their special someone by their skinny jeans and (slow)dance the ironic blues away. - by Joseph Coscarelli . website - buy it!

One Ring Zero are the pre-eminent band of Park Slope, Brooklyn, a scene that is noteworthy for its international sound and its polyglot interests. True to form, Joshua Camp and Michael Hearst, who comprise the nucleus of the band (their collaborators are a shifting cast), can play a dizzying array of instruments. And, since they met while studying music composition, they are also gifted at writing incredibly interesting melodic parts. The result is one part postpunk, one part prog, one part circus music, one part pop brilliance, with a dash of country, jazz, and Tin Pan Alley for good measure. They are often referred to as the progenitors of the genre known as Lit Rock, meaning, it seems, that, among other things, they have set lyrics by contemporary writers. The new album, WAKE THEM UP, has a bit less star power in terms of lyric writers—at least when compared to the excellent prior CD AS SMART AS WE ARE—in that they wrote all the words themselves. - by Rick Moody. website - buy it!

Sometimes a record is just not enough to showcase a band's talent, in particular when the band is rather loud... Dub Trio intrigued us with their latest album, a mostly intrumental mix of metal riffs and dub experimentation. But they simply blew us away with their live show at The Mercury Lounge a couple of weeks ago (yes, we should have checked them out earlier...). There is no doubt these guys are one of the best live act in this city. Sure, you might prefer music with vocals, you might not be into neither metal nor dub but... just go see them live and all this will be irrelevant: great musicians can entertain you whatever they play - and Joe Tomino wins hands down the Deli's award as "Best NYC drummer" of the year. website - buy it!

P.S. The band will be playing two shows at Union Pool on February 19-20, which will be recorded for an upcoming live album to be released on ROIR records. BE THERE!

With no room for sappy love songs, The Love Story’s latest EP is steeped in minor chords and purely phantasmagorical. Evocative of an early-Dolores O'Riordan, The Love Story features Molly Donahue, a seductress of a songstress, whose vocals are doubled-over for ghost-like effect. Angry and unforgiving, the single Such Love feels like your best bitch-fest after your worst breakup. Hot and horny, the song’s fluid melodies, juxtaposed against drums and guitar, perfectly underscore a flirtation with the hot girl at the end of the bar. The Love Story is a rhythmic ménage-a-troi with Molly Donahue on lead vocals, Renn Cheadle on guitar and Jason Trammell on percussion as well as vocals. -megD. website