PREMIERE: Teton - Strike It Rich

Will Shenton

Bursting to life with all the simmering tension of a late-night '80s chase scene, Teton's debut single, "Strike It Rich," is a compelling track on every level. Richly textured with synths, relentless percussion, and an array of distinctive vocals, it grabs your attention and holds it to the very end.

A trio consisting of Elizabeth Lovell, Sam Klickner (Wei Zhongle), and Jef Hill, Teton takes its inspiration from wildly disparate sources, including everything from Kate Bush to medieval choral music. Their respective backgrounds range from classical piano to the DIY scene of the American midwest, and that eclectic blend of old and new makes for a unique, enrapturing sound.

Slightly off-kilter throughout, "Strike It Rich" is emblematic of the group's forthcoming debut, Candy Spelling, which asserts itself with similar explorations of self-described "contrapuntal art-pop." Keep an eye out for the album, which drops 7/21 on Portland, Maine label Pretty Purgatory.

VIDEO PREMIERE: Room Thirteen - Roccopulco

Roccopulco from Room Thirteen on Vimeo.

Laura Kerry

The debut album of the band Room Thirteen came out this past winter, but its spirit season has arrived just in time for the New Orleans-based group to release the video for the title track, “Roccopulco.” A mix of dreamy vocals, bossa nova guitar, and jazzy horns, the song sounds like a vision of the ‘60s imagined while drifting off to sleep on a bright-colored towel at the beach.

The video combines this retro tone with more contemporary touches. Set on a dark stage, it features a blazer- and moustache-sporting saxophonist playing an impassioned solo and backup dancers moving slowly in unison as the song cycles through shimmering harmonies. But the dancers contain elements of both go-go and American Apparel, one of the many ways in which the old-timey and tropical touches don’t take themselves too seriously. Fish dissolve into psychedelic patterns; the sax solo breaks into a cheesy split-screen; and a collection of fruits, leafy plants, and a mysterious glittery “D” appear on stage in the beginning and end before confetti rains down, a delightfully odd way to illustrate their equatorial party vibe. Theatrical, sultry, silly, and as mesmerizing as the song, the video for “Roccopulco” is the perfect way to reimagine Room Thirteen’s summery music.

REVIEW: Hoops - Routines

Laura Kerry

While listening to Hoops, you might at first be tempted to play a game of musical analogs, obsessively identifying what artists they sound like in a given moment. Rife with the familiar sounds of ‘80s synths and contemporary jangly guitars, the Indiana-based band provides plenty of fodder for such an activity. In the past, they’ve been compared to everything from Real Estate and Wild Nothing to Tears for Fears. But for the most part, the game never finds a satisfactory conclusion; a perfect match never settles. Above all, you will find, Hoops just sound like themselves.

That sound is something they’ve developed over a series of popular cassette tapes from the last few years, a 2016 EP, and finally, in their debut full-length, Routine, out on Fat Possum. The band’s history extends further back, though. The three core members—Drew Auscherman, Keagan Beresford, and Kevin Krauter—have been friends since the sixth grade. Hoops began with guitarist Auscherman as a solo ambient music project that he produced in his Bloomington bedroom. Drawn to the same music, the trio soon joined forces to form a casual band that eventually turned serious.

Listening to Routine, the band’s guitarist-led origins come as no surprise. Throughout the album’s 11 well-honed pop tracks, the guitar carries as much weight as the vocals. In songs such as “Rules,” “On Top,” and “Management,” the singer’s voice is subdued, subsumed by shoegaze fuzz, but the guitar is shimmering and bright as it weaves through catchy riffs. In others like “All My Life,” the voice and guitar share and trade the melody, shifting dynamically as they come together and pull apart. In “Benjals,” guitar serves as the only melody in an all-instrumental track, but the concise song still manages to latch on with its version of a verse-chorus structure.

But Routines doesn’t function on wordless catchy melodies alone; just as important to Hoops’ breed of pop are the stories at the foundations of their songs. As they said in an interview, the trio listens as much to Nick Drake as they do Michael Jackson and Sade. And in many of their songs, these contemplative origins show. “Still remember the clothes you wore,” they sing in a song about moving past feelings, “On Letting Go”; the line in the chorus, “All my life keeps getting away from me,” gives “All My Life” its title; and in the optimistically titled “Sun’s Out,” they sadly sing, “Meet me in the sunlight / Meet me where the moon shines / I can never be the one you want.” Reflecting on time and the anxieties of past love, screwing up love, and potential love in unadorned but expressive lyrics, Routines sometimes feels like New Order (here’s that game resurfacing) and other ‘80s new wave bands that couch sad-sack sentiments in sparkling synths and danceable beats. Bright and sunny but with the right touch of wistfulness, Hoops’ new album is the perfect mix to accompany us into the summer.

PREMIERE: Bryson Cone - Color Of Love (feat. Cat Hoch)

We think it's safe to say that the '80s are, at least in our circles, back in full swing. Retro-styled synths abound in our music, beloved childhood films are receiving homages to match our nostalgia, and everybody seems to be wishing the worst politician we had to deal with was Reagan. It's led to some fantastic, intentionally referential art, the latest installment of which is Bryson Cone's single, "Color Of Love (feat. Cat Hoch)."

Blending synthesizers and soaring electric guitars both venerable and modern, this is a track that embraces the melodrama of decades past. As the male and female vocals alternate, occasionally harmonizing, it's not hard to imagine yourself wandering down a dark city street, awash in faded neon lights and melancholy—essentially, a scene from every moody '80s film ever made. And yet, thanks to Cone and Hoch's chops in both songwriting and execution, "Color Of Love" is more than just a timely tribute. It's a song that stands on its own as great pop, regardless of the year.

PREMIERE: Remote Places - Over My Head

Kelly Kirwan

Justin Geller has had a few renaissances over the span of his career. His band, Pink Skull, metamorphosed from low-key electronica to psych-inspired krautrock, and then ultimately leveled out along a branch of “druggy analog” to produce that mind-altering experience with a modern-day stitch. A steeping stone in his solo career came in the form of a friend’s request to add a song to the fractured-family drama The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, released in 2013. Now, three years later, DJ, producer, and genre cut-and-paster Geller has released a new EP, Nights and Weekends, under his independent moniker, Remote Places. It has a heavy backwards glance to the '80s, particularly on the single “Over my Head”— with its deep, far-off vocals acting as the rudder amidst swirling rock riffs and cameos of intergalactic synth. 

It’s a song that could’ve been superimposed over scenes of Duckie in the 1986 Hughes classic Pretty in Pink—the shafted suitor that could never break free of the friend zone. “Your heart wasn't ready / But it was ready enough for someone else,” even vocals observe between resonating guitar notes, “All of the times I waited on you ... All of the times you strung me along.” It’s a banger and an open, love-scorned letter that still keeps its cool. Tightly arranged with just the right amount of vintage inspiration, “Over My Head” is enough to bring back the flock of seagulls haircut and pass it off as suave, while giving the cast-aside their well-deserved limelight.