Starting from a place of pastel-soft fantasy, moving at times to hard-bitten reality, chanteuse Alexa Wilding paints an evocative and haunting self-portrait on new record ‘Coral Dust.’ Striking notes familiar to fans of Feist, songs ‘Fire’ and ‘Movie’ provide a churning momentum pulled over a whirlwind of detail supplied by producer Tim Foljahn’s deft slide guitar and keyboard outlines. Check out her new video for first single ‘Painter’ below, where the singer play with balloons and swings in a loveseat in a world painted pink, and see her when she plays Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2 on Monday, October 1st. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Here’s to the start of a sweet day for The Denzels; on this September 11th they’re taking part in the first steps of a new Brooklyn-based record label, Admirable Traits, whose first release will be their second EP ‘Easy Tiger‘. Revealed in January, the five track-set of fuzzy garage-pop romance floats quite casually between surfing harmonies and noise, working its best moves right at the heart of this gap, where young love tales stay away from cheese, and dramatic synth lines can come glistening through without any of it feeling too nostalgic or too.. gleeful. Taking the release celebrations to the stage, they’ll be opening for The Vaccines this evening at The Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Brooklyn based trio The Gypsy West will be tearing up the stage once more at the Bowery Electric along with Jody Porter (guitarist from Fountains of Wayne) & The Black Swans and Baby Wolves. Known for their wildly energetic live performances and complicated instrumentals, the psychedelic/ grunge rock group has been picking up steam with a successful show at Bowery Electric last August and an impressive performance at the Northside Festival in June already under their belt. Break out your war paint this Saturday, September 15th for what’s sure to be a raucous time!! Get your tickets here. – Chelsea Eriksen

Things are getting sexy in the world of The Peach Kings, whose debut EP Trip-Wop was sure sensual but not half as spicy as the mix of their ‘Handsome Moves’, which they dropped as they were beginning a short series of NYC shows. On these six tracks, we get to hear Page McClain’s sultry soul voice wrap around doo-wop, dragged-out blues lines, hip-shaking percussions, some of that smoking indie rock a la Kills, etc. There’s just enough tease and attitude to keep things interesting the whole way through. Heading back to the West Coast, the duo will be playing The Roxy on September 26th.

Commando, streaming below, is the recent music video by Brooklyn’s hard-hitting trio EndAnd, first off their ‘Adventures of Fi In Space‘ album. In line with the spirit of the record’s artwork, it sends you on a trip into a loud-as-f* rock and roll fantasy filled with a solid riffs and guitar solos shooting ’round every corner, ‘Maximus Rockous’ on a mission in space. Fuelling their engine with a rather refined blend of grunge-noise-alt-rock influences and disturbing emotional intensity, they released Hi-Fi & Lo-Fi In Space – the two EPs that form the album – in June; now headed towards a second full-length ‘Mechanics and Energetics of Stilt-Running‘ – for which they’re raising funds – EndAnd will be playing a show at Brooklyn’s Union Pool on September 29th. 

With a second album quite a stretch from the first, they’re a bit of a tough act to pin down. Based between New York and Boston, Win Win is a multimedia project which brings together producer XXX Change, DJ Chris Devlin and DJ/video artist Ghostdad; they introduced themselves last February with a self-titled trippy electronics album and are now previewing their new full-length ‘Double Vision‘ (to be released October 16th via Vice Records), on which they’re adding a cheerful touch of indie rock to the mix. Streaming below is Salt Days +, first single off ‘Double Vision’ , which reveals some of the of the good cards they had hidden in their sleeve, amongst which a surge of vocals and guitars – just enough to probably add quite a few heads to their followers. Building up to the release, you can catch them at Pianos every Thursday throughout the month of September. 

This Tuesday night (9.11), the Glasslands Gallery is certain to be transformed into a Factory (Records, that is) atmosphere. Brooklyn darkwavers Black Marble promise a brooding salad of chilly synths and warm melodies, introducing material from their new record, A Different Arrangement (some of which was debuted last week during a show at Ritual). The band has reconfigured their traditionally post-punk transmissions adding dreamy hooks and more prominent vocals, landing somewhere closer to art-centric New York Noise this time ’round. Opening sets by local new-new-romantics, Warm Ghost, and Vancouver indie-synth band, Cosmetics. 289 Kent Ave, Brooklyn. – Brian Chidester

Exciting news for The Vandelles! Having released a couple of weeks ago a new album, ‘Strange Girls Don’t Cry‘, the Brooklyn-based shoegazing surf-rock band just announced that it will be concluding its summer season by opening for The Jesus and Mary Chain over a series of six East Coast dates on its Glaswegian post-punk favourites’ extra shows. This being The JAMC’s first US tour in four years, chances are tickets will be selling out fast, but get on it quickly enough and you may be able to catch one of the NYC performances, scheduled for September 13th and 14th at Manhattan’s Irving Plaza. Find more info here. 

There’s a perfectly hummable sentiment somewhere in Friend Roulette’s “Sailing Song” that keeps working its way back to the surface, but only after first progressing through all manner of uneven meter changes, brass fanfare and incidental thematic adventure. At times stepping boldly into a space usually exclusive to the imagination of score composers like Danny Elfman, the group essentially writes baroque pop pieces for an imagined Brechtian musical, casting its talented singers/songwriters Julia Tepper and Matthew Meade as the show’s unlikely protagonists. They will be performing at Bushwick’s Delinquency next Friday (9.14). Meanwhile, read Mike Levine’s interview with the band here.

XNY have that rare kind of chemistry that must make other bands wonder what they’re doing wrong. It isn’t every day that you hear something so large and well thought out, channeled through such piecemeal instrumentation. On their new record ‘Through the Wall,’ the band’s production has increased in scope, but the songs maintain a deeply felt relationship between these old friends. Make no mistake. With just two members, XNY have managed to build a world larger than most ensembles plenty times their size. They’ll be headlining a show next Friday (9.14) at Bowery Electric. Read Mike Levine’s interview with the Brooklyn duo here. 

Past a first round of late 70s references de rigueur, Petty this, Thunders that, what you’re left with is not a trio of hopeless retromaniacs, but a young rock and roll band looking for an adventure – like every other young rock and roll band before them. Through bits and pieces from personal archives, that’s the side of Nude Beach we get further acquainted with on their new video, released yesterday, with a peak into the junk-eating, drink-downing routine of a trio having a laugh on the road, playing for new crowds and watching America pass by the windows of a van to the rolling beat of their nostalgic ‘Radio’ (off sophomore album II).

As of next week, Nude Beach will be heading off for a series of West Coast shows before catching up with Texan legend Roky Erickson whom they will be touring with throughout the month of November. If that ain’t an adventure.. 

Oh, technology. It appears you have crept up and surprised me yet again. Because of you, a lot of my favourite bands never even have to break up anymore! Take Jones Street Station for example. After recording two great records in Brooklyn, their members decided to scatter around these United States and take up residence in cities ranging from Chicago to Boston. But is this any reason to break up? No way.Thanks to filesharing sites like dropbox and Evernote, the band has not only decided to make a long-distance writing relationship work, but have made up their minds to actually increase their output.

They now have a new mission: to release a song a week for the next year. That’s right. 52 tracks in so many weeks, and they’re hoping to take all the proceeds this hype generates, and donate them to 12 different charities. An ambitious project, that’s for sure… I’ll be watching/listening/downloading throughout the year to see what happens. Keep your browser pointed to their site to find out more and listen as the band starts releasing material. Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)