Black Marble is Ty Kube and Chris Stewart, who produce somewhat minimalist synth music. With a synth drum beat, a synth melody, and deep, dark vocals, “Pretender” is a song that is one part Joy Division, one part Craft Spells, and one part its own thing.
The song can be found on the band’s new EP via Hardly Art. It’s called Weight Against The Door and it’s out digitally now and on vinyl Valentine’s Day.
Download: “Pretender” by Black Marble.
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Brooklyn based Lightouts are Greg Nelson and Gavin Rhodes. The duo creates thick and fully developed rock music pulsing with electric guitar solos and clean, rolling harmonies. Progressive and balanced, the band’s sound is reminiscent of 90’s alt rock and 70’s glam rock dance halls; their music just makes you feel good. These guys have a true gift for musicianship, structure, and layering; they know what they’re doing and they do it well. Frivolous, motivated, tightly focused and refreshingly energetic, Lightouts are a welcomed cure for winter blues.

Conversion Party boasts a sound that draws influence from classic indie rock, with squealing post rock guitars backed by clever riffs and fronted by emotive vocals and cunning lyrics. Favors is the band’s new EP, out this past week on Open Kimono. “False Teeth” opens the 4-song EP with those emotive vocals, then we get dosed with multiple vocalists in the anthemic “In The Mountains”. Though these songs are a bit different in style, both are massively good.

Ryan Trott released my favorite 7″ Single of 2010. It wasn’t under the name given him by his parents; instead it was Family Trees’ Dream Talkin’. Trott is back and this time he’s going solo with an eight-song EP dubbed Spirit Home. If you loved the beachy pop Family Trees gave us, and the experimental garage pop of band-mate Son Of Rams, you’ll dig Trott’s solo stuff. Spirit Home is a bit more in the vein of Family Trees, packed with plenty of great lo-fi pop.

“Chandeliers” is a light but moody pop song, crafted beautifully by Summer Fiction. Summer Fiction crafts orchestral pop movements with dreamy vocals blending the pop styling of South America and Europe.

The Twees, whose name sparks memories of Sarah Records and a bad ass song by Tullycraft, are back with a new EP called These Girls. With this new offering The Twees are sounding, well, less twee. This is probably a good thing as they tend to be described as post-punk and their home is Brooklyn (not that the latter means anything in terms of being twee or not being twee).

This video, “Hotel” by Happy New Year, gives the listener/viewer a first-hand experience of what I would assume it feels like to be drunk and tripping at the same time. Nothing is clear; the world is a dizzying, strange place filled with odd, strange people. Colors, too, are at one moment vivid and the next a blur. Things overlap. Happy New Year’s song is a dance-worthy nightmare, filled with pleasant beats and eerie sounds. The vocals of Eleanor Logan, too, are highly uncanny. In …

Callers met in New Orleans before ultimately relocating to Brooklyn. This isn’t necessarily important in their creation of music, merely a statement of historical fact. Well, that’s not entirely true. When I think of New Orleans, I think of a place somehow lost post Katrina and struggling to renew their culture. But it’s different; things are different. So culture has changed. Of course, this is all in my head as I have not been to New Orleans. But in a way, I hear …

One of my favorite singles of the year is Dream Talkin’ by Family Trees. With an old-time, lo-fi pop sound and great melodies and lyrics alike, Family Trees is also among my favorite new artists of the year. Now to round out the list of three — they’ve put out a great video for their song “No One Will Ever Know”. Like the music, the video is simple, lo-fi, and hints at a different time… oh, somewhere in the late 60s to early 70s. It’s a great …

After watching “The Mirror” by Kordan, you’ll probably be thinking precisely the same thing I am — not enough videos feature the layers found within this one. And if they did, they probably wouldn’t be as effective as they are here. Kordan is a Brooklyn-based dream pop trio with moody synth lines and numbing, dark vocals. Like their music, this video is entrancing, filled with enchanting drones and a mysterious personality.