Already proven adept at hook-heavy alt-pop, in their new EP Isadora Deal Casino progresses their sound into more nuanced approaches to pop. New single “Soft Machine” showcases this clearly. While still working in the alt-pop realm, the tempos drop considerably, opening up space for a more atmospheric production where synthesizers challenge the edgy guitar parts, while vocals double up in intensity, for a more mature and powerful listening experience. THe arrangement accentuates melodies with bell-like glockenspiel, and peaks with a chorus practically inverted by echoing distorted guitar and a slowed down melody. “Soft Machine” is a strong step for the band toward a more matured sound. Isadora Duncan is out May 18, you can listen to “Soft Machine” below and see the band live at the Asbury Park Brewery on May 20th. – Cameron Carr

San Francisco’s Bone Nest creates music for those disillusioned by the overwhelming prevalence of upbeat, pop-influenced tracks in the electronic scene. His single “Fkbyzantm” (streaming below), which is set to appear on a forthcoming debut LP, features experimental production in the form of a beat that is both warm and a bit abstract. With influences from neo-soul, new-wave, and breakbeat and a perfectly imperfect blend of two sets of vocals, the track keeps the listener guessing. We’re eagerly anticipating what’s to come. – Lilly Milman

In her new EP Kitsch II,  New York avant-pop artist Sur Back – real name Caroline Sans – deeply mines the esoteric, incorporating obscure facets of many different genres into the record’s four tracks. It’s part baroque-pop, part new wave, and extremely avant-garde. It’s sweet and melancholy, with unconventional string orchestration and an abundance of compelling, unexpected melodic twists. Listen to "Valentino" below and see them live at Baby’s All Right on Saturday June 2nd, opening for Chaos Chaos. – Ethan Ames

After honing their skills via two self-released EPs, Brooklyn trio Language is set to release their new EP Plymouth via Good Eye Records on May 18th. The five tracks show the band developing a hybrid sound falling in a space between prog and industrial. “Where To” is a short burst, under minute and a half instrumental displaying the band’s impressive chops. Angular rhythms and sharp cuts emerge from precise placement of drums, bass and guitar . “Game Piece” ramps up the tempo adding shouted punk style vocals over the shifting progression underneath. Title track “Plymouth” emerges out of jagged guitar textures that lead to a softer lyrical center followed by a Zappa-esque extended psyched-out coda. “Into and Out Of” (streaming below) pairs emergency broadcast signals with triple-time high-hat flutters before the full band throttle explodes into a throbbing onslaught. Final track “Square Winds” bring vocals back over an equally hyperactive rhythmic undercurrent. The band will play their release show at Baby’s All Right on 5/16 with label mates Russian Baths, plus Grooms and Mezzanine Swimmers. – Dave Cromwell

Nandi Rose Plunkett’s singing is deliberate. Her voice moves slowly, with seeming ease, as if each line is a response in real time, never rushed but carefully thought out and confident. The music Plunkett makes under the Half Waif moniker is equally precise, particularly on the group’s latest album, Lavender. Though often meditative in its ambience and melodic complexities, Half Waif flexes a knowledge of pop that brings the music to sweeping highs. Throughout, Plunkett contemplates womanhood and the distance accompanied by travel, perhaps best summarized in the opening track’s description of a visit with her grandmother. Both musically and lyrically, Lavender makes for a thoroughly engaging and ambitious addition to the Half Waif catalog. – Cameron Carr

Sofar Sounds has released EZI‘s performance of "Anxious", a track from her debut EP Afraid of the Dark. The songstress — whose real name is Esther Zynn — released the EP at the beginning of the year, having written the songs during what she calls the lowest point in her life. However, with her powerful voice and catchy synthpop arrangements rife with gripping and vulnerable lyrics, things are looking up for EZI; she’s the first signee to Steve Madden’s 5Towns Records, and she’s played shows all across the country over the last few months. In a recent Facebook post, she says she’s the happiest she’s been "in forever." Take a listen to her recent video for single ‘Redemption" and to the Sofar performance of "Anxious" below. – Will Sisskind

Fans of Half Waif or SZA will enjoy the nu-soul of duendita, whose mesmerizing voice and beats will take the stage at C’mon Everybody on June 6th. Anyone who follows Princess Nokia’s work might have already heard duendita’s tracks; for the uninitiated, the artist has three new songs on her Soundcloud available for streaming now. The songs — titled "i’ma get you", "pray", and "yikes!" — all deliver intoxicating harmonies and instrumentation which blend the organic with the electronic. The three provoking tracks give a taste of what’s to come on duendita’s upcoming debut EP, titled direct line to My Creator. At C’mon Everybody, duendita will share the stage with fellow soul artists Zenizen and Cherubim. Listen to "pray" below. – Will Sisskind

Lola Pistola – real name Arvelisse Ruby – is a force to be reckoned with. On her most recent release, 2017’s Curfew, Lola’s songs are brash, ballsy and seething, with abounding post-punk vibes. In her video for "Carroll St.," she paints a bleak picture of life in New York through a series of disjointed, vignette-like images of herself in various city locales: a dimly-lit music venue, the docks, a stark apartment inhabited by barely-clad sleeping men, outside a storefront gate. Her knowing smirk and unsettling visage, complete with death-like makeup and hypothermia-blue eyeshadow, pops through each mundane setting like blood seeping from pale skin. However, for all her brash tongue-waggling, Lola Pistola also dabbles in the subtly sardonic. On "Wild, Rich and Loose," she takes aim at idly wealthy lifestyles, croaking, "We’ve come to feed on open wounds/Take all you want/I’m wild, rich and loose." Lola Pistola is playing at Northside Festival on June 9th at The Knit. Watch the video for "Carroll St." below! – Ethan Ames 

The artwork for Glass Slipper’s 2016 demos is a photo of the band, but only of one pair of feet. It’s fitting, yet not. On one hand, the group’s sound is obscured, guitars hidden in fuzz, vocals distorted in that special, half-busted dive bar sound system sort of way. On the other hand, Glass Slipper is totally in your face. Everything is loud, compressed into a bundle of fiery garage rock with drums banging incessantly and voices never dropping below a snarl. Though the band hasn’t followed up that three track demo, they’ve kept busy and buzzing with bookings including the recent Pizzafest V and the upcoming Northside Festival. Take a listen to Glass Slipper’s demo below. – Cameron Carr

Handsome Hound will be taking the main stage at Black Cat May 18^th to premiere their new album. Supporting acts include Dupont Brass and Lauren Calve.

Urban folk-rock, is that a thing? Probably. The young professionals in Handsome Hound certainly seem committed to making it work. Their latest track, “Carina”, from their upcoming album Mountain on Fire is the latest intentionally rural sound to come from DC’s young professionals. The tune’s wholesome, folksy vibe places it in the category of other DC artists perhaps inspired by the city’s geographical proximity to both the grinding urban centers of the east coast and the somewhat idealized rural population centers that lie not too far south of the DC line.

The song itself is quite well constructed. A lyrically clever song about a failing relationship, the tune drives inexorably towards its end, refusing to get bogged down in the somber tropes which typically define songs on this subject. Twangy guitar arpeggios keep the energy moving through the warm singing on the verses. Bridges and choruses are punctuated by energetic horn stabs and drum fills, with the bass steadily holding it all in place.

In all, an energetic song start to finish. To learn more about the band, and some of its more existential aspects, I spoke with lead singers Cuchulain and Claire.

1. One of the biggest things that appeals to me about your music is the singing. When did you guys first start singing for fun? When did you start to take it more seriously?

Claire and Cuchulain both started singing in organized settings (i.e. outside the shower) for the first time in groups in college. Singing together and writing songs has always been a big part of our relationship, either just the two of us, or with other people in a group. After we had written a handful of tunes that we liked, we decided that we wanted to record them and put them out into the world. That’s how our debut EP, I Guess We’re Doing Alright came to be, and following it’s release, that’s how Handsome Hound became a band. That’s when we started getting serious about singing and producing music.

Many of our favorite musicians use tight vocal harmonies – Johnny Cash and June Carter, Fleetwood Mac, Shovels and Rope, The Head and The Heart, etc. Perhaps you could call us vocal harmony "enthusiasts." In the process of making our forthcoming LP, Mountain on Fire, our album co-producer Chris Freeland said some of the harmonies on this track "Carina" reminded him of barbershop quartets, which might not be surprising because Cuchulain has sung in barbershop quartets in the past.

Beyond singing in harmony, we’ve also learned a lot about singing melody. Singing a song you’ve written over and over again really forces you to figure out how to make form support function, or how to use the way you’re singing underline the message you’re trying to communicate. We think that comes through in a lot of songs on Mountain on Fire, in particular the title track.

2. I’m not sure if it’s the lack of distortion in the guitars, or the subject matter of the songs, but it really seems like you guys are unusually wholesome. Thinking about the groups that are playing around town, most of them seem to be focused on trying achieve an edgier image, at least to a certain degree. And of course when you take a look at who’s dominating the music market more generally, it’s people like Mark Ronson or Cardi B. People who only express vulnerabilities in small doses, and only after they’ve built up pretty substantial credibility as being cool or tough. How do you guys keep focused on the sound you want to make? Do you ever feel a certain pressure to change your sound?

As musicians who have full time day jobs, we’re pretty much constantly struggling to find time, and it would be hard to both make music and create a carefully crafted image for ourselves that’s different from who we actually are. Music is our opportunity to say something important to us, and it would be a waste to put on an act or try to be something we’re not. Plus, a lot of our inspiration also comes from musicians who manage to capture honesty and candidness in their lyrics without self-aggrandizing, and we try to emulate that in our music.

That’s not to say we haven’t felt pressure to be "cooler." We’ve definitely seen a bunch of musicians perform, locally and nationally, and walked away from their concerts thinking "damn we wish we were that cool."

3. Of course there has to be a limit to how vulnerable you want yourselves to be. As songwriters, how do you manage the balance between opening yourselves up and not putting too much out there?

Admittedly it’s a tough balance to strike. Songwriting for us is partially confessional, like we’re getting something out of ourselves that we need to work through. It helps us process. A lot of the songs on this album, Mountain on Fire, deal with serious issues – loss, isolation, anxiety, the difficulties of growing up – but we try to poke fun at those topics by holding them at arms length and laughing at them. We tend to approach serious subjects in our songs with a tongue-in-cheek tone.

This song Carina is a good example: at its core, Carina is a lovesick lament about a breakup. The protagonist has been left by Carina for one reason or another and is proclaiming, rather loudly, how badly they want Carina back. Losing love sucks! This song could’ve been super slow and sappy. But we opted to make it upbeat and danceable with a big brass section and an occasional reference to Greek mythological characters.

Another thing we do with our songwriting is to write someone else’s story as if we were in their shoes. Neither Claire nor Cuchulain were going through a breakup when writing Carina, but by writing about the experience from a third party’s perspective, we’re able to have a little fun with it. Other songs on this album do that even more so, like Austin, which is available on Bandcamp with a pre-order of Mountain on Fire.  

The Misters just unveiled their self-produced single called "Make It Better". It’s the first release from the often-glistening band since last year’s debut EP Complicated People, which earned them a spot at Northside Festival. On "Make It Better", vocalist Michael Nitting delivers a performance that channels his live presence; you can imagine him singing in front of you, shirtless and shining in glitter, as the band’s semi-samba rhythms and smooth harmonies sear your eardrums with their raw heat. The single marks guitarist Jim White’s first foray into production; he captures the visceral experience of a Misters show in the studio recording. Catch one of those bombastic shows at Paper Box on May 17th. Until then, stream "Make It Better" below. – Will Sisskind

Like the mesmerizing blur of the world passing by as seen through a car window, Von Sell’s newest single “Digital Sleep” swirls with detail faster than we can understand. In a flurry of voices, delayed and warped into the dominant texture of the track, “Digital Sleep” urges us towards attention while never offering a chance to focus. Von Sell says, in an interview with Atwood Magazine: “I think we’re all constantly struggling to see what’s right in front of us. Being glued to your phone certainly doesn’t help but it’s probably the human condition to begin with.”

The track plays true to the idea of short-sightedness but also acknowledges its own investment in the beauty of so much sensory content, constantly veering in new directions, collaging together seemingly unlinked sections. The effect, particularly Von Sell’s production of his vocals into an ethereal backing, is dazzling. Though no concrete date has been released, the single will be part of an upcoming Digital Sleep EP, out this summer. Listen to the track below. – Cameron Carr