The Bitter Tears are definitely an odd bunch. It’s hard to completely follow the abundance of wacky antics burning through your laptop speakers. It’s also hard not to love these guys! This Chicago-based band of merry men seem to be a few sparks away from big bass insanity. And their sophomore release, Jam Tarts In The Jakehouse, proves to be the asylum in which said insanity shall be housed. God only knows how a madhouse like this will turn out. But it sounds so damn good.

Kenron is a very eccentric yet calm character. He boasts his music to be “emotionally charged pep talks.” This is about as accurate of a description as anyone could foster up. He writes songs that are intoxicating and oddly comforting to the heart and body. Though simple in nature, these are the type of songs you may want to know of when looking for lyrically charmed examples of the sometimes horribly written book of life.

On the rarest of occasions, I’ll actually reach out to a band and express interest in covering them. One such band was Paisley & Charlie, and they were gracious enough to send me a few tracks. The music is entrenched in 60s pop, and features a common trait: sampled intros that lead into Belle & Sebastian like melodies.

We are all subject to influence from our surroundings; those things that we grew up on or fell in love with at a young age craft who we are more than we wish to believe, even if only in our subconscious. I’ve always been a fan of The Beach Boys and The Zombies, and at first listen, it appears Greater California was as well.

Great Northern’s new wave sound deserves comparison to the highest point in a drunken night. It is everything you want to remember. Rachel Stotle’s inspiring vocals are an uplifting and obviously intriguing delight. Remind Me Where The Light Is, the band’s second full length album, is a grand continuation of their critically acclaimed debut release, Trading Twlight For Daylight. And as one would hope, or expect, they have improved greatly.

“Dreaming Of You” was a track off War Tapes‘ self-titled EP, which hit via Sarathan Records sometime last year. Well, it appears again on the upcoming War Tapes release The Continental Divide. The song is an excellent snippet of the sound War Tapes encompasses.

Countless are the artists that dabble in classical, but it is virtually a given that included will be an added genre or two. Rare is the modern composer that edges above and makes classical music cool, yet Ólafur Arnalds does so with grace and simplicity. Arnalds’ latest were simultaneously written one per day, recorded, and released as aptly titled Found Songs.

Lost Friends And Newfound Habits finds Doctors & Dealers integrating more orchestration into their songwriting. The last album, Confessions Of A Drunken Mind, for the most part, lacked multiple instruments and instead focused efforts on simplicity. After all, Doctors & Dealers is one woman, Sparrow, who is, as she puts it, sometimes with friends, sometimes without.

Cassie was insistent I catch Velella Velella. Seriously, she said. I think you’ll really dig them. We were hanging out front of King Cobra, a key Capitol Hill Block Party stage a few doors from Comet Tavern. I’m sold, I thought. Sounds good to me.

Yesno is an aptly titled concept album centered around the joining of opposing forces to create a powerful third entity. Filled with fitting portions of eclectic yet mellow instrumentation and filtered experimentation, Juna’s music dawns somewhere between the subtle bedroom evening and the ether of morning dew. It is the joining of folk and shoegaze.