Quarterlifeparty

Phantogram are from upstate new york, are made up of Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel, and make some pretty damned good moody/dreamy angular-synth-pop numbers (at least the two songs i’ve heard, and you can hear below).  Their debut album Eyelid Movies will be out on Barsuk Records February 9th, and they will be touring the entire month of February; stopping at DC9 on 2/15.

These guys definitely have kind of a bat for lashes/The XX sound going, only not as boring/redundant as the XX (someone had to say it), and these songs (especially “Mouthful of Diamonds”) have me looking forward to hearing the full-length.

Phantogram – When Im Small (MP3)

Even more impressive that it sounds so good live (KEXP):

Tour Dates after the jump:

Tags: , phantogram

It’s been a while since I have heard anything from Serena Maneesh, and the last album was something I got into for a couple months and then completely forgot about. Their music can be a bit grating, but this new song has something going for it, it goes in some crazy directions but has a solid female vocal melody that holds it together. The song has a swirling quality to it that might make some nauseus, but I think sometimes it can be pretty cool when a song invokes a physical feeling like that, especially for the kind of music this band is going for.

Serena Maneesh “I Just Want To See Your Face”

Their new album, S-M 2: Abyss In B Minor, comes our March 23rd and they have some tour dates to go along with it (after the jump)

Tags: , serena maneesh

I must say that I have been really enjoying the new album from Devendra Banhart What Will We Be, it has some really catchy songs on it. I think a lot of people push this guy to the side because of the “Freak Folk” moniker, but don’t sleep on it, the songwriting is really great and usually has this unique mix of Tropicalia in with it. He played a great set of new songs on the World Cafe which includes a sweet, slower version of “Baby” (actually, on most the songs Banhart has changed the songs up a bit.. in a good way).

Tags: , devendra banhart

Prefix Mag has posted another track allegedly from the Daft Punk scored Tron movie called “The Crash”. As they say, who knows if it is for real, it sounds like it would fit perfectly into a movie like that, it sounds like it could be Daft Punk, and if it isn’t.. then it’s still worth the 12 minute listen.

Tags: , Daft Punk