St. Patty’s Day marked my final day in Austin. Although I forgot to wear green, I still maintained a festive attitude as I headed “uptown” to the Victory Grill for an outside show hosted by Sol Collective, highlighting several multi-cultural artists, including Zuzuka Poderosa and Los Rakas. A very far walk to the Auditorium Shores, I arrived to see the final half of Shiny Toy Guys. Following the dance-pop troupe, Austin’s infamous funky dance-blues group,The Bright Light Social Hour, had the honor of supporting legendary act, The Cult, who are still churning out music that channels the energy of their classic sound. Heading back to the downtown chaos via pedicab, I caught Brooklyn’s rising success story, rowdy party rockers, Semi Precious Weapons (and Deli cover band back in 2008), who shook the venue with mostly new music from their upcoming third full length album, set for release on Epic Records. Finishing my evening and my SXSW, I squeezed into the Treasure Island Pirate Bar for Peelander-Z (pictured), a Japanese punk/metal band based in NY. Their highflying energy, Evil Knievel helmets/outfits, and humorous antics were the consummate elements to tie up 2012’s festival. –Meijin Bruttomesso

Now that McCarren Park looks like it’s finally re-opening the pool this summer, we should all start thinking of its soundtrack, and Strange Shapes might be a good place to start. The power pop group are practically engineered for board shorts and sunglasses, keeping their pop numbers simple and clean, and sounding all the warmer for it. Especially ‘Moment Kept Arriving’ from their first EP, where light keyboards and open string guitars provide the perfect breeze to lift up singer Ezra Tenenbaum’s floating vocals. Get your spring started right, and see the band when they play this Friday with Banned Books at Big Snow Buffalo Lodge. – Mike Levine

There are streaks of Vashti Bunyan in Sharon Van Etten‘s lulled, willowing voice, and Will Oldham in her dimly lit recordings. No effects, no tricky vocal lines or harmonies. The raw power of Etten’s dark melody — the way she holds the sad notes and sighs them out like a line of twisting cigarette smoke — is stunning. A patient guitar and harmonizing vocals shuffle along underneath Etten’s prayerful ascending voice and then lilt back down like leaves. Just a few days following her highly lauded performances at SXSW where she played the NPR showcase and headlined the Jagjaguwar showcase, Sharon Van Etten will play Conan tonight (Tue March 20). Check out the video of the single "Leonard" below, and download the free single "Serpents" here. – Andrew Spaulding

In San Francisco’s Mission District, the most “Brooklyn” neighborhood in the city, Matthew Dear represented his borough at Public Works on Feb. 24 as part of the Noise Pop Festival. Co-founder of Ghostly, which just put out the new School of Seven Bells, Dear represents the darkest sound on his label, dwelling in the purgatory between new wave and no wave.
In his 2010 album Black City and his latest Headcage EP, Dear’s composition feels entirely electronic. Featuring a five-piece band with Dear on guitar, his live sets reinterpret the polished original recordings into live percussion-and-horn driven chaos, more warehouse party in the 1980s’ Lower East Side than a multi-storied nightclub. A few songs off Black City were nearly unrecognizable, while newer tracks “Headcage” and “In The Middle (I Met You There),” with their simpler pop structures, rendered closer to the original tracks.
Shy and brooding, Dear spoke little during the nearly two-hour set, sweating into his guitar work and focusing on leading his band. Working almost as hard as Dear was his drummer, often seen sans sticks, gripping the cymbals with his hands to control the timing and perfect the noise.
The packed show swelled into a pulsing pit of fans crowding the stage and demanding an encore from Dear who humbly delivered two more songs. Unlike previous tours, Dear’s recent live performances have received glowing reviews and his DJ sets consistently deliver. Don’t miss him on the last leg of his North American tour, dates listed on his website. – Whitney Phaneuf – photo by Graham Hommel

I’m currently working on our NYC B.E.A.F. (Best of Emerging Artist Fest, here’s last year’s poster) and going through all the artists that made our Best of NYC Poll. I’m now in psychedelic territory (a land I dig, in case you didn’t realize) and wanted to highlight a group I never blogged about before: Young Boys. This (judging from the pictures) is a fairly young quartet that plays top notch drone-rock in the tradition of The Jesus and Mary Chain, but with an interesting attention to sonic details. Besides the obvious guitars and vocals drenched in reverb, their sound also involves a fair amount of synths – mostly droney and distorted, of course! The song "Fell from Grace" (streaming below) is a glorious psych rock ride – don’t miss their show at Glasslands on April 11. – PDG

Hunters is our favorite NYC emerging noise rock band, and they are playing The Mercury Lounge on Thursday March 22. If you like your indie rock tense and noisy like we do, you don’t want to miss this one.

I’m catching up with a million things I couldn’t deal with while in Austin at SXSW, and working at the speed of light (or so it feels). I stumbled upon an email from this band called Landlady. They are pretty friggin’ rad, and their email presentation is fun,  so I adapted it for mass consumption: Landlady is an adventure-pop group based in Brooklyn and led by Adam Schatz behind the farfisa and the lead mic. As a saxophonist and keyboardist  he’s been lucky enough to collaborate with Little Joy, Twin Shadow, Hospitality, Sleigh Bells, and Those Darlins to name a few. Don’t miss these guys at Big Snow Buffalo Lodge with Strange Shapes (also an interesting Brooklyn band) on March 23. – PDG

The penultimate day of my fourth SXSW was definitely the longest in my history of SX’s. Arriving at 10:30am at the Elvis Presley-themed Beale Street Tavern to host a show, I was out on the town for 16 hours to follow. Opening the morning, Austin’s Indie-meets-retro rock quartet, Ghost Bunny, and solo, blues-rock multi-instrumentalist and loop-master, Walker Lukens, got the ball rolling. Most attendants woke up and arrived for a bevy of Brooklyn bands: Black Taxi, The Courtesy Tier, and The Click Clack Boom. The string of East Coasters was broken by LA- born Vas Defrans (pictured), who put the sound system to the test with pounding drums and intricate instrumental layering. A laid back local favorite, The Naturals, contrasted with the strobe- light and projection illuminated, electro/dance-rock quartet, Kid Savant who followed suit. NYC’s Hollis Brown closed the afternoon with straight up great blues rock and Southern rock sentiments. Yet another Tex-Mex decompression resuscitated me for an extensive evening of street performances. Renegade rocker, Tom Morello, brought the aggressive music of Black Top Demon, Outernational, Anti-Flag, and Wayne Kramer outside the Swan Dive as part of Occupy SXSW. Morello himself marched into the crowd of hundreds for a finale while police swarmed the area. All ended without any blood shed, but it was an night/early morning to remember! –Meijin Bruttomesso

Ski Lodge – who placed on #6 in our recent best of NYC poll for emerging bands – is the very new indie pop project of Andrew Marr – previously known as The Clementines. After releasing his first EP under the new moniker via Dovecote Records in September, Marr put together a band and started performing as a quartet. Their self titled debut EP is chock full of jangly indie pop gems with a nostalgic retro vibe. Songs like “A Game” and “I Would Die To Be” are instant pop classics, lighthearted and full of "mid-fi" character. Andrew’s songwriting and vocals might recall the simple magic of early The Smiths, while the band’s sonics are grounded in the Brooklyn glo-fi sound of the new decade (think Beach Fossils), with occasional tropical references. Though Ski Lodge has only been performing together since September, they’ve instantly become one of the NYC music scene’s favorite live bands, and are planning on releasing a full length of their bouncy pop later in 2012. See them live at The mercury Lounge on April 24. – Read Amanda Dissinger’s interview with the band here.

Producer and musician Bosco Delrey crafts unheard new versions of rock’n’roll that sounds like Memphis blues music mixed with a variety of other influences including church hymns, dance hall, lo-fi and southern hip hop. After signing with the well-known Mad Decent label, he released his 2010 album "Everybody Wah," a work full of catchy pop drenched in rockabilly old-timey production. Like a “garbage can Elvis” from New Jersey, Bosco brings back the nostalgia of the rock music we love, with a modern edge. – Read Amanda Dissinger’s interview with Bosco here.