
The Veils (Sun Gangs)
The Letter In 2004 The Veils released their debut album, The Runaway Found . From it, a wonderful song titled Lavinia caught my attention. Finn Andrews' haunting vocals, the beautiful string arrangements and overall awesomeness sucked me in. Not since Lavinia has a song from the Veils truly caught my attention, until I heard The Letter from this months Rough Trade release, Sun Gangs . It almost sounds like they compiled two songs into one; powerful chorus taking over light melodies and the trademark Andrews vocals blending it all together. I also recommend Three Sisters from the Sun Gangs album and not because I myself have three sisters, that's purely a coincidence. Listen Buy – Amazon  Empire of the Sun (Walking on a Dream) Walking on a Dream I commend anyone who has the guts to be different. If Empire of the Sun ever make it to Denver, I'm there, for both nights, in the front row, wearing my freshly purchased tour t-shirt. Judging from the album covers and press photos, this band is silly. They even refer to their fans as 'Empyreans'. After you take in the costumes, the funny videos and the Labyrinth undertones, the music stands on it's own. This Australian duo has been compared to MGMT, which can be a compliment or an insult if you think they are copying the immensely popular MGMT . They're both from the same island, they both make glossy pop songs and they're both awesome, and if you'd like to split hairs, Luke Steele (vocals for Empire of the Sun) refined this very sound in PNAU , a band that was around before MGMT. End of story. Listen Buy – Amazon Doves (Kingdom of Rust) Jetstream and Kingdom of Rust The Doves are extremely popular across the pond, but haven't caught on here in the states yet. It'll be our secret. The Doves have also been compared to bands like Elbow and Cold Play. It's been a few years since The Doves have released a new album, so needless to say I was psyched when I got the news. I wasn't disappointed in the wait. Kingdom of Rust and Jetstream are two very different songs representing what you might here on the entire album, which I recommend you buy. While you're at it, Black and White Town is also good. If you'd like a complete discography on The Doves, HERE is a link. Listen Buy – Amazon 
  Melpo Mene (Bring the Lions Out) Jedi I found Melpo Mene while browsing IndieRockCafe and this is what they had to say about Bring the Lions Out, "The album is a breath-taking accomplishment of magnificently composed and produced songs featuring piano, guitar, flutes and perfect percussions on songs like the endearing "We Were Kids" and the alt-indie psychopop of the dreamlike "Snakes and Lions". Melpo Mene's music oozes with rich choruses, breath-taking musicianship and tinges of electronica throughout. One intoxicating track after another easily makes Bring The Lions Out one of those must-have albums I sometimes recommend strongly." Listen Buy – Amazon  White Rabbits (It's Frightening) Percussion Gun My Old Kentucky Blog are an invaluable source for great music. For the 2nd week in a row, I've found great music from their blog. White rabbits new album It's Frightening isn't out until May 19, but you can listen to some of the songs over at the MOKB site. I'll update you all via Twitter, Myspace and Facebook when the album releases. If you haven't yet, make sure you join me on any of the above mentioned social networks to get some fun posts. Listen – Preorder It's Frightening The Tremulance (Polaroids) Dance Trap I'm recommending The Tremulance for a number of reasons. Lonely Robot Records is the first label to contact me via Twitter to consider an artist for the newsletter. That's a milestone that I thought would take a lot longer than it did. But putting that little geeky aspect aside for a moment, The Tremulance are a great band. A couple of the stand-out tracks are Dance Trap and 1901 a Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix remix. Some of their influences are, "discovery! fresh beats! justice! dancing! ed banger records! youthfulness! big headphones! laptops! v-necks!" Polaroids is available for preorder thru Lonely Robot. Hopefully we'll see their music available through iTunes and Amazon soon. I'll keep you posted. Listen – Preorder 
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