You know that old saying about blinking — like, don’t blink or you’ll miss it, or time goes by in the blink of an eye or some cliche crap like that? Well, shocker: It’s true. Things move fast and now as I quickly encroach upon three decades of personal existence (a mere months away at this time), it seems ever more prevalent a concept. So I decided to take a brief look back at a few bands I should have checked out last year but didn’t for …

Brenda Malvini has this classic, smokey side that make her vocals mystic and mysterious; not entirely unlike those of Jeremy Faulkner, whose similarly unique styling made Ah Holly Fam’ly one of last year’s best releases. North Highlands hail from Brooklyn, rather than a progressive rural Idaho town bordering Washington. Yet listening to songs off their debut EP, Sugar Lips, one gets the impression that their sound wouldn’t be out of place amidst wheat fields and century-old farmhouses.