Blood Cultures :: "Indian Summer"

Drunk on its own falsetto, Blood Cultures debut single, "Indian Summer" weaves in lazy figure-eights before unleashing bombastic synth stabs that provide a menacing low end. It is this combination of the lighter than air - synths that feel like they'll float away - and the absolutely crushing - "I'll have to let you go, let you go" - that makes "Indian Summer" one of the strongest debut demos of 2013. It is the Knife's "Heartbeats" gene spliced with Passion Pit, the silky harmonies of bands like Grizzly Bear thrown in for good measure. A&Rs should sit up in their chairs and wonder what it would take to sign this heretofore anonymous New Jersey resident, quite possibly the next big thing to break in 2014.

Modern Merchant :: "Like Minded"

Playing a languid form of the outsider pop that has recently charmed audiences with its deftness and lilting harmonies, Modern Merchant, a Brooklyn four-piece, offer their voice to the chorus on "Like Minded". A bit like Local Natives set in a sultry lounge scene, the band crafts a sparse guitar lick to offset the languorous vocals, eventually soaring with the addition of synthesizers at the edges. The arrangement glides along without obvious friction, a pleasant male-female duet announcing the second movement, a mildly more urgent take on the original conceit, rich and moving harmonies set against a stirring progression. More than just one song, the band's most recent EP, For The Fields, is as good an extended player to come out of Brooklyn this year, offering odes to Grizzly Bear and the aforementioned Local Natives, without feeling a bit derivative.

Night Panther :: "Two Weeks" and "Fever"

Night Panther, the creators of "Snudge", are heirs to the New York City sleek, animal band throne that Tigercity once occupied with divine right panache. Here, the band turns themselves on "Two Weeks", the song that made Grizzly Bear sort of famous three years ago, recast with an emphasis on colliding crystalline vocals. On "Fever," an original composition, the band makes their play for both commercial syncs and a slice of your sensual heart. Full of guitar bursts, a rolling bass line and horn punches, it's easy to see this cast in a national television campaign or on repeat in your iTunes. The central lyric, "you were always in my mind," a wonderful second movement to the sound crafted on "Snudge" and applied to Grizzly Bear's "Two Weeks", making Night Panther a band to watch in the coming months, the east coast's answer to the rapidly increasing animal empire of LA's Wildcat! Wildcat!. Meaning, they'll either tour together or meet in Kansas City to tear the place to bits.



Download :: Night Panther - "Fever"

On The List :: Conveyor @ Glasslands [8.23.12]

Brooklyn's Conveyor was the most verifiable real thing that took the stage at Glasslands this Wednesday evening. Surrounded by cloth flowers of the same vintage as the venue's famous fabric cloud backdrop, the band was further shrouded by a different non-textile obfuscation. The cloud machine below the stage, the one that trades CO2 for fake fog - and not in a metaphorical Cuckoo's Nest sense, this is real fake fog - began belching out its sorry product. It covered Conveyor in a second fake cloud, one around and one behind, fake flowers to stage left and stage right, making the band easily the most intentional object on stage. They had also asked Bill Murray to be their merch guy, a joke that sort of wasn't a joke. This was appropriate for a homecoming show, a very real return for a band who has been out on the road behind their very good, self-titled debut record.

The show was something of a high-wire act: two, three, four and sometimes, five part harmonies hung above sparse and occasionally explosive arrangements. Sounding a bit like Grizzly Bear playing Wolf Parade cuts, and this isn't even entirely fair because Grizzly Bear is about to rapidly redefine their legacy and the better parallel is ARMS, Conveyor opened with "Short Hair," a song about girls with angular hair cuts and bad attitudes. Playing mostly songs from their debut record, the band loaded the back half of the set with, "Mom Talk," "Mukraker," and "Right Sleep" in quick succession, each showcasing a penchant for delicate arrangements and erupting interludes. It was the central lyric of "Mom Talk," the explanatory, "I was away," that soared out over an expectant crowd. It was, after all, a show all about returns.