For a band so steeped in pop music history, this group has moved forward quite a bit over the past two years. Coming from their heavier roots, We Can’t Enjoy Ourselves have mellowed out quite a bit for their latest record ‘Make A Mess of Sacred Ground.’ Now they seem to both enjoying themselves more, while finding themselves even more frustrated by various bastards, Winsome William and the ones you love (their words, not mine).

The band dabbles in the music providing the soundtrack to that jangle house party found in the block between Echo and the Bunnymen and Vampire Weekend. Definitely a good time… and all the more reason to doubt these people are able to enjoy themselves. Check out the new record on their bandcamp, and be sure and make it to the end. Because the closing track, “Devil in the Old Folks Home,” is such a good time you’ll want to play the whole thing again. Check out the band at Glasslands Gallery on November 27th with Tony Castles and Kissing Is A Crime– Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

"Less is more" – they say – and Brooklyn’s Graph Rabbit have definitely learned that lesson. The band’s dream folk is so ethereal and sparse it can almost be mistaken for the random sounds of nature – should we call it ambient-folk then? This is music with supernatural powers: lull yourself to a deep and satisfying sleep with "Only Fields" (streaming below) or stare at your best friend right in the eyes until you can read his/her mind, with "Make it Stop" (video here). Stressed out New Yorkers should go see Graph Rabbits live at The Mercury Lounge on November 25 at 6.30 pm.

Congrats to Dynasty Electric – who headlined our Electronic CMJ Stage 2012 this past October – for landing a song placement for "Just Like That" (streaming below) on an upcoming Victoria’s Secret commercial. Of all the things your band’s music can be used as a soundtrack for, I think (sexy) women’s underwear is probably on the top 3 of my personal list (I’m a dude of course). Let’s just say top of the list. 

Over a year’s passed since their debut album, and already The Babies are way past the sticky status of ‘side project’ – so as we welcome this new full-length, here’s to meeting up with a band on the rise, a fair few hundred miles on the counter, hungry for seconds. But no more sunbaked lethargy, merely a touch of nonchalance; no more Mr. Lo-Fi, yet still textures in plenty. Where they would have been smothered, the vocals throughout the entire record come out clear as ever. Is it bye bye to the Babies we knew? Definitely not. They’re simply opening up to a new facet of their sound, one they’d merely approached on the last album, and are finally pushing forward. What happens when The Babies leave the warm, fuzzy, crackling comfort of the womb? ‘Our House On The Hill’.

By far more ‘polished’ than the past releases (tighter too), the band’s sophomore album takes us to a space filled with nostalgia, where we meet the best of two worlds coming together. The stripped down sounds of a lulling folk song – that’s "That Boy" for you, or unexpectedly sparse "Mean." Looking for that narcoticly catchy steady-beat? Check out "Moonlight Mile" (streaming) and "Slow Walkin." And oin these twelve tracks, there’s still plenty of time for both these extremes to meet in the middle and rejoice in some raw sounding garage pop songs like "Mess Me Around." So, sure, those who swear only by colliding parts and the aesthetics of confusion might prefer the ‘oldies‘; but for the rest of us, it was sure worth the wait. – TM

Trends come and go, but some styles seem to always stay relevant. It’s true with Spirit Family Reunion, from whom you can expect a classic kind of Americana performed by musicians who know how to pluck a banjo the right way. But what really makes this band stand out is that they don’t sound like they’re re-inventing anything. When you see them live, the sound is all their own, and the soulful yelps and gospel harmonies in jams like ‘I am Following the Sound’ and ‘On That Day’ should convince you of what you’ve been missing. After a sold out show at Mercury Lounge last Friday (probably also caused by recent coverage on Rolling Stone), the band will be soon leaving for a 2 week East coast tour. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

I don’t see how anybody could posibly try to describe Von Haze‘s music without using the word "trip" somewhere in the sentence. In their new video for the single "Mother Mountain," band members Travis Caine and Katherine Kin’s voices sound high as kites, to the point of challenging his highness Tricky’s levels of stonedness. Now back in NYC after on year spent in London, Von Haze plays minimalistic electro-trip-goth that carries a bagagge of dark, decadent influences ranging from Suicide to Joy Division, from Velvet Underground to Dead Can Dance. The Lynchean video looks like a hopeless and bleak celebration of irrationality shot in the middle of nowhere in the US (also referred to by us as "Tea Party-land"), but the band’s other material can be more uptempo and slightly less depressing (see "His Love is Fine, streaming below). Von Haze will celebrate the vynil release of their album ‘Kar Dee Akk Ake’ at Glasslands on 11.19 (tonight).