Vessels is a UK-based post-rock outfit whose new LP, Helioscope, can be found on Cuckundoo Records. “The Trap”, enclosed below for sampling purposes, treats the listener to sonic soundscapes with rapid, potent percussion and spacey guitars that find a comfortable compromise somewhere between Mogwai and Battles.

I drove down to Seattle about mid-month in January, and in typical form my iPod was on shuffle. I had tossed a bunch of albums on it from my FensePost file, and was looking forward to some new tunes. One band in particular popped up a few times, with interesting synths, clean guitar licks and slightly higher pitched vocals. Each time, the band caught my ear, I had to check out who it was — and it was Jonquil.

What is that glimmering light reflecting off the empty RC Cola can on my window sill? The sun is not shining, but everything seems so bright. That’s when I realized that is was a spirit from an estranged universe shining in and talking to me through my iTunes, its Anja McCloskey singing “Instigate It”. And that is much better anyway! This American-German singer-songwriter and accordionist, who resides in the UK, has a specifically fine-tuned set of vocals that tell of how the heavens can come crashing …

There aren’t many things as enticing as dueling female folk vocals. It’s a form of expression that invokes a sort of spirit that lies in the lowest depths of the canals of history. Storytelling has always been an important aspect of our lives, whether we choose to define it as so simply or not. And a group like Peggy Sue seem to think that storytelling through folk music is the premiere opportunity to let the soul release, as well as dig deep into our own psyche to …

Oh those classy Brits! Their sensational love for pop music is absolutely understandable and with precedent. Especially when they have such an elusive underground filled with a massive amount of genius characters. Andy Botterill is definitely one of these wonderful characters. Paul Stolworthy and Andy Padfield are pretty nice as well. Together they make a swell team of individuals joining forces to creating blissful and bouncy pop music from the heart. Together they are Falling Trees.

Allo Darlin’ is a fairly new band, which is somewhat hard to believe after hearing “The Polaroid Song”. It has the sound of early 90s twee pop artists like, well, Talulah Gosh and Heavenly and Tender Trap. This is no surprise when you learn that they share a member (Elizabeth) with Amelia Fletcher’s Tender Trap. And there are a few other bands in the mix — Hexicon (Mikey and Paul) and Moustache of Insanity (Bill), among others. “The Polaroid Song” is the first single off the …

In fashion we are edging back to the early nineties. The spawn of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore was recently photographed in a flannel shirt. Seattle groups are beginning to look like tailored lumberjacks with their button down, tight fit flannels and lengthy beards. And music is beginning to look to the early days of grunge as we embark on the 20th anniversary of Sub Pop Can you tell yet that this is a repost from 2008?. Spraydog definitely fits the grunge mold, mashing with it …

Sometimes music just sounds better while lying on the floor. To lay in surrender of a song is powerful; in such moments we feel no need to move, the music moves for us. Such is the experience while listening to Treecreeper’s “November 23”. Lengthy tracks are hard to do well and though this one lends itself towards predictability in rhythm and direction, such simplicity does the song well creating for us a rough and raw landscape of emotions and experience.

The name The Half Open Sky Gives Us Hope sounds like a song you’d hear associated with a band like Explosions in the Sky or Thee Silver Mt. Zion, so it’s no surprise that this band also fits that ethereal classically-based and/or instrumental genres to which these two bands are occasionally associated. However, two key elements set The Half Open Sky Gives Us Hope apart; namely, the lack of epic noise from the former, maintaining a calmness to The Explorer, and the lack of folk sensibilities which allows the …

The butterfly is always the easiest and most admired insect to ingest the world of indie rock/pop/whatever with great reason. A butterfly begins its stages as just another creepy, crawly tree dweller before it bursts into the world as a multi-colored miracle floating amidst the very trees it once depended upon to slowly push its existence around. Cue the beautiful girl that strikes her heart and makes an obvious comparison, and you have British songwriter Simon Bish and his wonderfully derived song “Butterfly Girl”. Bish’s tremendously soft …