[Elevator 2012] :: Bands On The Rise

A recurring feature of music journalism this century is the mindless prediction of who will "blow up" in the following year. This always feels a little odd coming from mainstream outlets like Rolling Stone, Spin and the BBC. A little like Fox News complaining about the "mainstream media", you think, but you are the mainstream media. If these artists are appearing in your pages, Spin Magazine - let's shatter the fourth wall here - they are already "blowing up". In fact, you're helping that happen. Which means, the only people you can trust on the eve of the 2012 calendar year are relatively small publications with no specific skin in the game and no control of the outcome. That's us. See how we did last year and with regard for the bands that might just make it real this year, in no specific order, your Elevator Bands of 2012 after the jump.

[Elevator 2011] :: Bands On The Rise

As is the custom in the indie rock universe in this coming second decade of the 21st century, it is not simply enough to know about something, you must know about it first. Furthermore, you must make outlandish predictions regarding the future success of said thing. In this case, it is music. In this case, it is 2011 and our predictions for the bands and artists who will be taking off wildly in the coming year. After the jump in no order, with regard for your future listening and the wisdom of the crowd, your Elevator 2011 bands.

[Elevator] Get People :: "Odyssey"

London's Get People are the next in a line of artists to tap into our barely understood yet completely non-negotiable affection for the 1980s. In this case, the source material is the shimmering international pop made briefly popular by Men At Work's "Down Under" and Duran Duran's "Rio." On "Odyssey," Get People share certain stylistic methodology with contemporaries Egyptian Hip Hop, taking us on an amorphous and profoundly digital exploration of something vaguely exotic. They urge us to follow them, to find truth out there in the wild, to "play with time." Consider the final impulse the best one as we screech into reverse through twenty-odd years to some clearing in the middle of time and space where people are dancing to the beat and pounding out their hopes and fears on a drum pad.

[Elevator] Computer Magic :: "Electronic Fences" and "Teenage Ballad (High School)"

Brooklyn's Computer Magic is about to blow doors off with the hurricane force of taking chillwave to its final, logical, ground-down When In Rome/Human League conclusion. That is a compliment. An adorable, and yet not without depth, series of loops and bright synths provide the backing for longitudinal, strung-out meditations passing in the night as arrangements. On "Electronic Fences," Computer Magic spins like a anti-authoritarian pinwheel before a clap-clap track finds a chorus in the cold meds. Personal favorite, "Teenage Ballad (High School)" almost evokes the melody from Rilo Kiley's "Execution Of All Things" before the arrangement gets serious, insisting blithely, "I wanna be really mean." It is one of those washed out anthems for a John Hughes movie that never got made, kids in Wayfarer glasses and drinking straight from the hose. Computer Magic are on the edge of blowing up, like Chairlift songs played by Ernest Green or like an all-nighter slowed down to 45bpm, blurry, spinning stars and warm summer evenings.

"Electronic Fences"

Electronic Fences by Computer Magic

"Teenage Ballad (High School)"

Teenage Ballad (High School) by Computer Magic

[Elevator] Sunvisor :: "Sky Dive"

Sunvisor, a new two-man outfit from New York are spitting the kind of chill-wave that eats people for breakfast or, more accurately, soundtracks meaningful, deep-thought moments on late afternoon car rides. Like a hybrid of Washed Out and Toro Y Moi, Sunvisor drenches "Sky Dive" in reverb and washing vocals and synths. The difference emerges as a repetitive, and infectious hook, real melodies hiding in all the cough syrup; like the 6pm sunshine on the longest day of the year, existing as a surprising and brilliant moment. With only one song in the can, but a debut EP on the way, Sunvisor should prepare to set the cruise-control and drift to the top.

Listen :: Sunvisor - "Sky Dive" [Send Space]

[Elevator] GROUP :: "Colours"

From the outset GROUP's lead singer, Christian Zucconi, is insistant that he is just like you. This is the final couplet of an opening lyric that describes himself as "a man, man, man/up, up, up in the air." Zucconi is slicing a little bit of magic realism as he tells a story where he gets to fly with the planets and still ask for understanding.

Tweaking like a late Modest Mouse record, or at times like a more acoustic, folksy Silversun Pickups, GROUP deliver a propulsive, stomping, instantly catchy anthem with "Colours." The song has two distinct movements, with an E-string bridge in the middle, the second-half relying on the lyric, "We call it ... life." Zucconi, over-layed with a delicate female vocal, wails into the sky before reinsisting, "yeah, we call it ... LIFE!" It's one of those, "this is everything" moments where you, quite reasonably, feel like your heart might pop. GROUP pleads they're just like us but they suggest something different - a place in the sky where elevation is just part of the process. It really ain't that bad. We call it life.

Listen :: GROUP - "Colours" [mediafire]

[Elevator] Blair :: "Heart" and "Hello Halo"

Every year SXSW yields a few bands who walk away with some real momentum. Of course, this over simplifies a process that includes many outstanding bands, label executives punishing their expense accounts and a ton of glad-handing and back-slapping. Ultimately, for all the business discussions and networking, we are left with the few bands who get to use this Brokedown Palace-business model to their advantage. Last year, we suggested that Local Natives would come storming out of SXSW. This year, meet Blair.

Blair is one of those trans-continental stories, new to Brooklyn, from New Orleans, spent some time in LA. Her music is cute without being cloying, managing to deal in enough heartbreak to evoke a more modern and less slutty Liz Phair, or a substantially grungier Leslie Feist. "Heart" turns into a massive, whirring pathos, after a beginning of shabby 90s guitars and bright keyboards. The haunting pre-chorus, repeating, "it's different, I mean it, wake up, it's different," will stay with you well past the song's slated running time of just under four-minutes. The more straight-forward "Hello Halo" is a little slice of uptempo, lo-fi, showcasing Blair's vocals and a hook that unapologetically indicates, "Got a radio in my head." You absolutely have to believe her. Our radios are in our chests, and we're in love with this. Let's check back in December, but this is her year now.

Listen :: Blair - "Heart"
Listen :: Blair - "Hello Halo"

[Elevator] The Shimmer :: "No Surprise At All"

One the most hotly tipped bands out of the UK this winter is The Shimmer. The brother-sister duo storming out of a small town on Britain's eastern coast circulated a series of demos before being snapped up by Hit Club, home of Egyptian Hip Hop and Wolf Gang. "No Surprise At All" isn't a complicated affair, a wide-open, straight-ahead rock cut with driving guitars and 4/4 drums. By the final twist, where the band repeats the lyrics, "on and on," you can almost see heads nodding and lead-singer, David Hanks, improvising a yell, "comeonletsgo!" before screaming and falling away from the mike. In all the forward movement there are hints of darkness here; the lyrics address the perils of achieving some dream life where the reality is less rosy. Regardless, "No Surprise At All" is the best rock song we've heard this year.

Listen :: The Shimmer - "No Surprise At All" [zshare]

[Elevator] Dominant Legs :: "Young at Love and Life"

Out of my top 20 favorite acquaintances, less than ten percent are in committed relationships. You could say this involves a troubling trend where the 90s grunge generation found that mastering disaffectedness came with terrifying consequences. Our ability not to be wowed by anything, to be made angry by little cultural slip-ups, to judge-first-lest-we-be-judged has left us strikingly alone. Our one skill: being unimpressed. Oh Love? Yeah, we saw them live a couple years back. They weren't even that good.

And yet, something else is at work. It is not simply a lost generation of youth reacting to over-stimulation, an intellectual community obsessed with post-modernism and a neo-romanticism that mostly involved things like Sex in the City. We aren't bad at love, we're just younger than you think. We will live far longer than we are comfortable with. In fact, it is possible we will see 105. Shot backwards through this space-time, we've been allowed infantalization longer and longer until we devolved into being these mostly taller children. We aren't bad at settling down. We are just young at love and life. Sounding a bit like Belle and Sebastian, Dominant Legs will bear this out for us. We might not remember how to be impressed, but I can assure you that this is impressive.

Listen :: Dominant Legs - "Young at Love and Life"

Elevator :: Wolf Gang

Maybe 2009 is the year for Wolf Gang. Given how roughed around the demos are, it could be 2010 by the time anyone really hears this but for now, let's call it: This band is going to blow up. Define that? I'd bet you dollars to donuts (hard to say where this phrase comes from) that this band signs with the indie imprint of a major in the next 12-months. It's just going to happen. If Wild Light can end up on Columbia, where the hell could this band go? I mean, this is actually good.

What do they sound like? A little Arcade Fire, a little TV On The Radio, and a little Kate Bush (a male-fronted version). We've got one song, "Night Flying" that runs on a rough-shod guitar progression and some group vocals in the chorus. It's hard to picture now, but close your eyes and try anyways; richer production, maybe some strings, a real clean vocal mix, and those piano peel-offs in perfect crystaline hi-fi. It's hard to envision but the framework is there. I Promise.

Listen :: Wolf Gang - "Night Flying" (click through)

[Elevator] Ketch Harbour Wolves

Strange name for a band, Ketch Harbour Wolves, and perhaps, even stranger that they're not more well known. Stranger still that they're giving away their entire record on their website. If you come across a better (adult) alternative value, I defy you to tell me about it. Ketch Harbour Wolves work if you like what The National would sound like if they were fronted by the lead-singer of Editors. This is not meant as a direct affront to The National, who clearly create both slightly poppier and more intricate soundscapes than Ketch Harbour Wolves - it is meant as a closest to accurate comparison. We all do the best we can.

What I will tell you is this: the album has seven songs and there isn't a lead balloon in the bunch. If they were based out of New York and not the far reaches of Canada, I can promise you that you would think of this band as a slightly more credible version of Pela - or a more digestible version of Winterpills. Basically, this is music that people that don't want to spend time knowing about music might like. It's easy to like and that doesn't mean it's bad. In fact, this band could and should end up more famous than they are now. As always, check it up or check it out. It's your world. We just live in it.

Listen::

Ketch Harbour Wolves - Leaves
Ketch Harbour Wolves - Gold
Ketch Harbour Wolves - So Long To The Ground

[Elevator] Matt & Kim :: "Daylight" [Video]

I'll cop to not really liking Matt & Kim. They always seemed like a roughed-around version of Mates of State and, frankly, Mates of State were (until the last album) just rough enough. I remember kind of liking "Yeah Yeah" but mostly thinking how one-dimensional it sounded. Just how far can you go with being cloying and super-elastically bouncy? Welcome to the limit of your own explosiveness.

On the heels of last month's "Good Ol' Fashioned Nightmare," which offered shades of bombast while still wrapping us in the cloak of cheeky piano-plinks and chant-along vocals, Matt and Kim are back with "Daylight." If "Good Ol' Fashioned Nightmare" was indie-rock's toe-dip into the pool of hip-hop beat and head-nodding dub-step, "Daylight" is a good ol' fashioned swan-dive. Same piano-plinks in instantly-memorable repeat, and then, smack, an almost go-go hip-hop drum beat. Maybe you saw it coming and maybe you didn't. Either way.

Shut your mouth and listen. This is going to bang along until it's done. There won't be a question and answer session. There won't be a negotiation. You won't consider your own existence. You won't feel sorry for yourself. Just shut your mouths and listen. It might be the best you've felt all day.

[Elevator] Pretty & Nice :: "Tora Tora Tora"

Pretty & Nice aren't just a band. They're the two platitudes most people end up dating. What's she like? Well, she's pretty and nice. You don't necessarily date hot and dangerous. You might not have a chance with super-attractive and brilliant. You've maybe been down the road with mercurial and batshit crazy. Be honest: You probably settle down with pretty and nice.

The funny thing is, girls and pop songs are never that straight forward. Pretty & Nice have a razor edge you wouldn't expect from a band with a name that connotes sharing feelings and dinner dates at mid-level American chain restaurants. You might not introduce this band to your mother. This song might not feel very comfortable sitting at a dinner table and smiling at the small-talk. This song might say something inappropriate.

"Tora Tora Tora" grabs you by the wrist and tugs you exactly where you want to go. It's garage-pop, if there is such a thing. It sounds like Locksley playing Bikini Kill songs. That is, oddly, meant as a compliment. Rip right along.

Listen :: Pretty & Nice - "Tora Tora Tora"

[Elevator] School of Seven Bells :: "Connjur"

This band is a comer. No question. School of Seven Bells rose out of the ashes of Secret Machines' mercurial flame-out, as guitarist Ben Curtis got tired making of psych-rock and started making Norwegian-flavored, electro arena pop. The first thing that came to mind was, "this is the record The Knife meant to make three years ago." It's big and dark and, at times, really unsettling. But it's incredibly credible. In fact, subtract The Knife's "Heartbeats" (and I understand this is incredibly impossible), School of Seven Bells have a record that is vastly better than Silent Shout.

"Connjur" is the first single off Alpinisms and a perfect example of the dark electronic soundscapes that this band traffics. It's probably not the best song off the record ("Chain" is instantly more satisfying and "Wired For Light" is mas. sive.) but "Connjur" is enough to get you started. There's something almost tribal going on here; like a late-night, northern lights freak-out, where Bjork's catalogue is tirelessly remixed into reverb-heavy 125bpm dance-hits. Or like a downtown, drugged-out rain dance. It's all connected. So pray the Sun God doesn't come out tomorrow and it stays dark forever.

Listen :: School of Seven Bells - "Connjur"