San Francisco’s Weekend takes your favorite post punk fuzz pop sound and infuses it with a deep, dreamy shoegaze on their track “Coma Summer”. Now, I’m not sure if all of Weekend is like this, as I have yet to hear anything else from their LP Sports, but the epic distortion that fills this song is more than enough to spark immense curiosity. It’s based around experimentation and packed with dark, heavy vocals. This is precisely the type of track and style of band you’d expect to get turned onto by a label like Slumberland Records.

There are moments where the guitars block out the world and everything becomes dark, making “Coma Summer” a quite fitting name. In a way, the sheer presence of distorted guitar can be likened to The Legends’ masterpiece Over And Over, but where joyous pop reigned through the fuzz on that record, the darkness matches fuzz toe to toe here. Head over to Slumberland to grab this LP. I did.

Download: “Coma Summer” by Weekend

One of last year’s top bands is at it again with a new single out next month on Slumberland Records for their new song “Say No To Love”. To mark the occasion, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart also given us a video of the recent dream pop single “Higher Than The Stars”. The video starts out in black and white, with the sole addition of the color orange, but switches to full color in the middle. From Dylan Mulick, the video gives TPOBPAH a playful side to their typically moody music.

Above photo courtesy Annie Powers.

Download: “Higher Than The Stars” by The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

As a treat, they’ve given us “Dark Days” to consume to our heart’s delight. The song is packed with upbeat Swiss noise pop. Listening to it, I can’t help but think of all the modern bands that have this sound — Lichtenstein, Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls… the list goes on. In even more squeal-inducing news is that the album is vinyl only (with, of course, an accompanying digital download).

Download: “Dark Days” by Chin Chin

In their new single “The Back Of My Mind” off the forthcoming Flashbacks LP out later this month, The Lodger takes a slightly different approach to the sunny pop they’ve released over their past two albums. The song is less bouncy and vocals echo across a backdrop of a consistent drone of jangle guitar. In comparison to highlight tracks like “Many Thanks For Your Honest Opinion” off Grown-Ups and “The Good Old Days” off Life Is Sweet, the song can almost be called mopey and emotive. In that respect, it opposes the insanely upbeat tracks The Lodger has been pumping out for years with great results.

Thankfully the results are great here too. “The Back Of My Mind” may not be nearly as upbeat, but it is totally worthy of praise. The Lodger maintains its indie pop sensibilities while enhancing their sound; it’s still smart, nerdy pop but now it has greater depth. If Flashbacks is packed with songs as powerful and honest as this, it’ll easily be the band’s best album yet. Like the band’s past two releases, Flashbacks will be released via Slumberland Records.

Download: “The Back Of My Mind” by The Lodger

With select bands, especially in the arena of indie pop, you always know what you’re going to get. And with these bands, you know that what you get will be good. They’re trustworthy in that manner – you see it with artists that have longevity on their side; ten, possibly even fifteen years. The Bats beat them all out, spanning close to three decades.

Their latest single closes in on EP status, fitting a full four songs onto 7 glorious inches of wax. Don’t You Rise, out now on Slumberland Records, concludes with “Face Inside The Sun” and that song alone is proof that this New Zealand band hasn’t lost a hair of ability. They’ve been around – that over the course of 28 years, in which they’ve given us 7 albums and completed 4 world tours, this band retains all its original members is an insurmountable feat.

“Face Inside The Sun” will make fans want to dig deep into their collection for oldies by this band, and new fans swing by their local record store for a history lesson on one of the world’s premier pop bands.

The Bats: Face Inside The Sun [mp3]

Mixing the psychedelic pop of the 60s with a more orchestrated baroque sound, The Soft Skin is four sunny tracks by Philadelphia’s most promising pop band in quite a while. Brown Recluse began as duo Timothy Meskers and Mark Saddlemire, and ultimately grew to six individuals. Within The Soft Skin, you’ll hear the plush instrumentation, from a focus on keys and jangle guitars in opener “Rotten Tangerines” to the trumpet feature in closer “Contour And Context”.

The Soft Skin is good all around, but where Brown Recluse shines brightest is on the sunnier, more upbeat tunes like “Night Train” and “Rainy Saturday”. The former capitalizes on a echoing delay in the guitar and also features a trumpet. The latter is the album topper, entirely cheerful, yet laid-back enough for warm summer afternoon – or, better yet, a rainy Saturday afternoon indoors by a warm fire.

Brown Recluse, like many bands on the Slumberland roster, shows immense promise. And, true to these artists, they already have a few great releases under their belt. The Soft Skin is yet another to fit this categorization.

Brown Recluse: Night Train [mp3]

Slumberland Records [12" Single, 2009]

1. Rotten Tangerines
2. Night Train
3. Rainy Saturday
4. Contour And Context

Downbeat pop is often a dangerous realm in which to work. Yet Pants Yell! begins their latest album, Received Pronunciation, in this area with the catchy tune “Frank And Sandy”, and they continue it off and on throughout the album. It actually works very well. These songs are simple and, despite being recorded/performed using electric guitars, they often have the subtle traits common in acoustic pop. Even a hard-hitting song like “Rue de la Paix” has that open, personal sound. And despite three members, the music of Pants Yell! gives the impression of singularity.

Simplicity also finds a home in the lyrics; this is far from a bad thing thanks to unforgettable vocal melodies and easy-to-sing phrases. As the album continues, it slowly builds and grows. It’s not until the final moments of “Spider” that the others join in with back-up vocals, and on “Someone Loves You” and “Marble Staircase” the percussion finally adds a more dominating presence. The diversity within Received Pronunciation demonstrates this band’s great ability in crafting pop songs – one moment quiet and introspective, and another moment loud and raucous.

Pants Yell!: Cold Hands [mp3]

Slumberland Records [12" LP, 2009]

1. Frank And Sandy
2. Rue de la Paix
3. Cold Hands
4. Got To Stop
5. Spider
6. Someone Loves You
7. Marble Staircase
8. Not Wrong
9. To Take

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart is definitely one of this year’s biggest hype bands, and it’s obvious why: their fuzzy pop is undeniably catchy and not overly drowned in the forced underproduction that can often plague the sub-genre. After a wildly successful self-titled debut LP, they return with Higher Than The Stars, an EP whose title track matches the best tunes in the TPOBPAH library thus far.

In all actuality, “Higher Than The Stars” is more reverb than fuzz, though its overabundance almost gives the impression of a fuzz presence. The reason becomes apparent when you dissect the song — replacing the massive distorted pop guitars are synths. Instead, the guitars take a lighter, cleaner jangle effect. They use similar traits in “Falling Over”. Oddly enough, these are the two tracks where The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart shine brightest.

“103″ and “Twins” both return to the fuzzed out guitars so loved by fans of the band, but they lack much of the luster of those found on the LP. It’s almost as if they’re the b-sides to to the “Higher Than The Stars” and “Falling Over” a-sides. Whatever the case may be, this 12″ EP is well worth every moment. Higher Than The Stars continues to cement The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart as an up-and-coming band with absolute staying power.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart: Higher Than The Stars [mp3]

Slumberland Records [12" LP, 2009]

1. Higher Than The Stars
2. 103
3. Falling Over
4. Twins

Summer Cats‘ new LP, Songs For Tuesday, is backed with lovable indie pop gems like “Lonely Planet”, “Hey You” and “Super”. After dropping a video last year for “Lonely Planet”, Summer Cats now do the same for “Super”, one of the more infectious songs off the Australian pop band’s latest. Where “Lonely Planet” merely featured people dancing around, this one has more of a storyline. There’s plenty to love here, from people with cat faces (just paint), to the exquisite French car, to the adorable kitten at the end.

Then, of course, there’s the song itself; one of Summer Cats’ best tracks to date. “Super”, as noted before, can be found on Songs For Tuesday, out now on Slumberland Records.

Summer Cats: Super [mp3]

Summer Cats: Hey You [mp3]