Lanterns On The Lake :: "Another Tale From Another English Town"

A miasma of grey English austerity, Lanterns On The Lake's, "Another Tale From Another English Town", from second LP, Until The Colours Run, represents a model of restraint and contained eruption. Really a song in two halves, the first initiates the cold expanse of the band's power, eventually building to crashing conclusion, a meditation on a regional claustrophobia, singer Hazel Wilde's silent alarm vocal intoning, "It's getting hard to breathe round here, to think round here." The second half is markedly more muted, Wilde washing over and over on the same lyric, "We don't want to fight, we want the quiet life." Both pretty and spare, "Another Tale From Another English Town" fades into a hammock of guitar fuzz and chimes.

Happy Hollows :: "Galaxies"

One of the best bands coming out of LA over the past few years, Happy Hollows return in advance of their next record, Amethyst, with "Galaxies", backing the already riveting and retrofitted "Endless". The band's new sound features a more synthesizer-heavy backdrop coupled with strong baselines and the beautiful hurricane of singer Sarah Negahdari's vocals. Negahdari, most recently playing bass on tour with Silversun Pickups, charms at the top of the room on "Galaxies", leaning into the duet as a sea of swirling guitars spin around her. The Fleetwood Mac influence - and Negahdari confirmed this isn't just critical speculation - is less easy to spot on "Galaxies" than it is on "Endless", but the guitar acrobatics give a mild hint, discrete objects held aloft, a spinning infinity. If modern rock and alternative radio producers have an ounce of vision, "Endless" will be at radio by the end of the summer and Amethyst will be making its case for one the best independent rock records of 2013.

Misterwives :: "Coffins"

If there is still power left in independent music, it is surely in moments like the opening to Misterwives' latest release, "Coffins". Vocalist Mandy Lee sets herself as both brittle and resolute against a tiny keyboard progression. A nondescript tragedy in slow motion, "Coffins" opens its lens in a sort of broad elegy, sorrow in strings, melody and lyrics. This represents a useful counterpoint to some of the band's upbeat electronics on previous single, "Kings & Queens", Lee here turned from the dance floor to the pulpit on lyrics like, "How do you soften / the thought of carrying coffins."



For New Yorkers, the band plays Mercury Lounge this evening.

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.

Keebo :: "Follow"

A fuzzed-out, mid-tempo jam, Keebo's most recent offering "Follow" sounds exactly like what you might think. The chorus, relying heavily on the title lyric, chases itself between lead and backing vocals. Glittering lead guitar is offset by a feedback heavy low-end, a sum-total that sounds like Beth Cosentino trying to cover "Cut Your Hair"; and this is more of a compliment than it might sound.

Lolo :: "Weapon For Saturday"

With a brashness usually reserved for rap music and the wide-screen bombast of the title sequence of a Bond flick, Brooklyn's Lolo rips the doors off the industry with debut single, "Weapon For Saturday". Channeling dense visual metaphor - other than the title lyric she suggests she is, " the baddest car in parking lot", "the house that fell on the bitter witch", "the corporate guy with the biggest tip", "the fastest horse in the Derby race", and this doesn't even address Lolo's most reaching comparative lyric, "I'm only the face of every woman" - the singer manages to tangle with a restless becoming, the attempt to be everything menacing at once. It works. A bit campy, to be sure, the surging strings and the 3am Adele impression, but "Weapon For Saturday" is that rare piece of major label pop you hear before it becomes major label pop. If this proves to be the path for Lolo, this will be the sound of the takeover before the takeover.

Wise Blood :: "Alarm"

Chris Laufman, the keyboard mastermind behind the bedroom jams of Wise Blood, settles the listener into an immediate claustrophobia on "Alarm". The first lyrics, "I can't think/Someone's sitting right in front of me/I need some personal space," become the hook, a modern dystopia full of crossed fingers, local news reports about arson, tense and dissonant woodwinds in the bridge. For an artist that digs obfuscation (see every promotional photo ever) as much as illumination, it makes sense that a song that sounds this breezy would cover such terribly anxious ground. "Alarm" has the potential to unsettle at a gut level, though a saxophone loop and Laufman's laconic vocal indicate that all isn't lost, even if the walls, ceiling and floor appear to be closing in.