Even though The Teen Age‘s recently released EP ‘Bad Seed’ was written as an “ode to growing older,” single “Backwards” feels emotionally rooted in the now. Under the production eye of Jason Finkel at Converse Rubber Tracks studios, the band makes the most out of immediately catchy guitar riffs and a joyously propulsive rhythm. While the verses may bring to mind early days of The Strokes, the chorus serves to elevate the track into an instant classic.  With its pairing of a guitar line melody with the vocal hook “I don’t want to live without you – I just keep on falling backwards,” the song is bound to woo fans of the heart-tugging surf-pop of Beach Fossils. This week the garagey quartet is playing two consecutive nights at Rough Trade: the first show is tonight (03.31) with Slaves,  the second one tomorrow (4/1) with two other Deli NYC favorites Celestial Shore and Monogold. – Dave Cromwell

Vundabar serves as a breath of fresh air out of the tidal waves of folk and hardcore rock that swamp Boston’s music scene. With indie rock at the core of its DNA, Vundabar infuses pop melodies and jangly guitar riffs to create their infectiously energetic sound. Often times switching up the tempo and rhythm mid-way through a song, these sudden changes of direction give their songs a welcomed air of unpredictability and a sharp edge to dance along on. What Vundabar manages to do wonderfully is probably how they take quiet moments in their songs and blow it up with bursts of jagged electric guitars and ragged vocals seamlessly, shocking you with currents of effervescence. The only thing that rivals their sound is their live performances, so catch them at Great Scott on April 30 and take listen below. – Adriana S Ballester

Almost effortlessly, ‘How Strange It Is To See’ by Brooklyn folk act Adeline Hotel (aka singer/songwriter Daniel Knishkowy) compels the listener with its quiet power. Bookended by the drum-clasped “Everything Is Going To Be Fine” (streaming below) and the ambling, Wilco-recalling title track, the brisk EP tackles such eternal themes as the passage of time with both gentility and passion, refinement and wildness and, consequently, makes for an instantly memorable listen. Ahead of the release of Adeline Hotel’s forthcoming effort, ‘It’s Alright, Just The same’ on May 13th, Knishokwy will play several upcoming shows including Union Pool on 4/2 and Baby’s All Right on 4/24. – Zach Weg

Portland’s Jackson Boone is the latest in a long line of Syd Barrett acolytes going back to David Bowie and Marc Bolan. Boone, in fact, works past much of Barrett’s tension en route to spaced-out oddities as dramatic and modern as they are retro. Check out single Runaway from his latest LP Natural Changes. (This blurb was featured on the latest SXSW issue of The Deli Magazine, dedicated to psychedelia)

Comprised of David Perlick-Molinari (French Horn Rebellion), Deidre Muro (Savoir Adore, Deidre & The Dark), and Derek Muro (Love Like Deloreans), Violet Sands plays a brand of atmospheric, melodic synth pop that absorbs and reorganizes in often bizarre ways influences ranging from R’n’B to hip hop. The band’s debut EP Strange Attractor is set for release on May 6th via Ensemble Records, check out below their latest single Coming Back,  and – if you dig – also the more uptempo previous single No Matter What. 

We’ve been following harpist Pamela Martinez’s project Teletextile for a while now (check out this interview from 2009), and it’s great to see good things happening for an artist that has always been pushing the envelop and trying new things. Pamela recently started performing in British songwriter Chad Valley’s band, and joined him on a tour spanning from the Philipines to Austin for SXSW, and to Europe later in the spring. Just before the tour, Teletextile released an EP entitled The Lark, accompanied by a series of videos, the first one of which we are premiering below. Expect more music and videos from this project later in 2016.

Blending the classic post-hardcore guttural screams with an epic, often tense, but always intelligible wall of distorted guitars reminiscent of shoegazer, Brooklyn emerging band DRIFTOFF (born from a rib of Boston’s Junius) comes across as brutal and ethereal at once. The band has just returned from a five week long tour that took them from New Haven’s Bar on February 10 to the Tiefgrund in Berlin on March 17, with in-between dates in NYC (Bowery Ballroom), Island, the Netherlands and Italy. Now, that sounds like a pretty awesome vacation! No local shows in sight for them at the moment.