Let the good times roll. Like a name that could have come straight from a James Dean quote, Fast Years plays fast, fun music that gets right to the point and stays at that mileage until the end.

Playing through their riffs like a rock mission statement, the Brooklyn quartet shred away on their latest EP ‘Young Heart,’ making it their mission to re-ignite Ramone’s-style party anthems, using their EP as the spark.

See them when they play Union Hall on April 27th.

This band submitted their music digitally here.

Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Friday is upon us, and while many music lovers in Seattle will be packing venues to take in a handful of acts stopping by the city this weekend (Cults, Young the Giant and Sleigh Bells, to name a few), there’s plenty of local talent lined up over the next few days for those of you without big-name tickets. Tomorrow night, the Vera Project will play host to San Franciscan rockers, Ceremony, Olympia’s Milk Music, and the Seattle-based Society Nurse. The trio should provide a high-octane set tailored to the tastes of the city’s hardcore audience, for $11 a ticket ($10 with a club card). Doors will be at 7:30. At the Sunset Tavern, blues-rockers the Grizzled Mighty will take the stage with Strong Killings and Consignment on Saturday night. Presented by KEXP Audioasis, tickets for the show are $8, and doors will open at 10:00. Rounding out the weekend on Sunday night, the Comet Tavern presents folk bard Eric Miller, along with Shareef Ali and the Radical Folksonomy, Judd Wasserman, and Kate Graves. Cover for the show sits at $6.

I guess you really can’t judge a book by its cover. The soft, dreamy vocals in The Record Summer’s jams belie a quiet rage, betraying an inner passion that feels almost at odds with their jams, but only adds to the mysterious intrigue powering this group.

Their debut ‘Race to the Bottom’ moves through singer/songwriter Bret Rodysill purging the wounds of a broken heart in the slow build of ‘Boys and Girls in the Modern Age’ and the ultra-catchy ‘You in an Empty Room.’ For a man with a lot on his mind, this is some fairly cathartic stuff.

This band submitted their music digitally here.

Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Nees and Vos is one of those bands you listen to and wonder why they’re not the biggest thing around. Complete with Andrew Neesley’s trumpets, groove-shaking drums and even a backing gospel choir, this band swoops in and takes care of all your soul food needs.
Songs like ‘Burn Me Down’ and ‘Remember Me’ take care of business just fine, but the relentless cowbell in ‘Build A Fortress’ is all I thought I needed to hear.
And then I heard their epic cover of Gnarls Barkley’s ‘Who’s Gonna Save My Soul,’ and got a better idea of just how much this band is capable of. It’s not an easy chore to fill in for Cee-Lo’s vocals, but singer Chris Vos’s buttery vocals, coupled with the souful barnburner of the backing band, produces a combination more than up to the task. Here’s a group you ought to be paying attention to.

This band submitted their music digitally here.

"Everytime that I sing this f*king song I won’t forget…" – singer Joe Galarraga exclaims in the epic burner ‘Not Over Yet.’ You and me both, Joe…

Big Ups is the kind of fun I used to have with Bouncing Souls and MXPX. It’s nerdcore punk the way it’s meant to be experienced: as an electrically charged current of testosterone and beer bumping through over-charged speakers and car crash drum beats. Galarraga delivers a never-ending cascade against boredom and hypocrisy in songs like ‘Hard to Care’ and ‘Shut Your Mouth.’ But if all this sounds like mere throwback to an earlier era from a relatively young bro quartet, you’re only half right. Big Ups can easily channel first generation hardcore like Minor Threat and Japanther when they want to, but they’re equally capable of reaching the epic heights of At the Drive In when called for.

For a group exalting the glories of couch surfing on their bandcamp, Big Ups also know how to bring the energy to the party.

Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

After a tour down South and back, Brooklyn’s Black Taxi returns to treat their home fans to three Thursday residency shows at the intimate and beloved Rockwood Music Hall. Accompanied by several musical souvenirs, the gig trifecta starts off this Thursday, April 5, as Black Taxi brings back Austin’s energetic space-rock quartet, The Frontier Brothers, along with Albany’s soulful Wild Adriatic. The second show on April 12 features Fort Worth’s garage rockers, The Phuss, and the acoustic meanderings of Joseph King of NYC’s Deadbeat Darling, who just released a new full length. The residency finale on April 19 welcomes Dallas-born, folksy and electronic Ishi and Cleveland’s pop act, The Modern Electric. Pick up tickets before each gig, as they will most likely sell out. Doors are at 9pm each week. www.blacktaxi.com – Meijin Bruttomesso

Lean, mean, hard-drinking machines… Manhattan’s The Split is simply exactly what you want to hear spill over from the garage and to the beer hall. Unlike the cynical boredom characterizing most of the pub crawl circuit, Tim Gray and Charlie Duerr approach most of their material with an unexpected optimism and promise, from ‘Here Before We’re Gone’ to ‘Nobody But You,’ they give an unexpected set of reassurances through their dirty guitar chops I haven’t heard in awhile. The Split just might be a band worth believing in.

Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

 The University of Washington will be celebrating its campus radio station’s birthday starting next Tueday, with three days of live music at the school’s Ethnic Cultural Theater. The Rainy Dawg Birthday Festival was conceived as a way to bring big names into an intimate venue, for an experience that students and local music fans alike won’t soon forget. With headliners like Oneohtrix Point Never, the Thermals and Brother Ali topping the festival’s bill, some other local favourites rounding out the lineup, the mid-week event will provide a unique chance to catch some of the region’s hottest acts, up close and personal. Check out the full lineup here. 

What: The Rainy Dawg Birthday Festival

When: April 10th, 11th & 12th

Where: Ethnic Cultural Theater, University of Washington

Tickets: $10 for students; $14 for the public

– Kate Shepherd

Next Thursday and Saturday (Aprili 5th and 7th), the Deli-sponsored, second annual Brain Cave Festival will light up Brooklyn’s Bell House by bringing the best and brightest of the borough’s DIY scene to the stage for two nights of sonic and visual euphoria, showcasing 25 bands and live art by Peru Ana Ana Peru.

Thursday night’s lineup will feature mostly female-fronted bands – with indie pop, acoustic intrigue and fast-strummed rock from She Keeps Bees, Firehorse, Natureboy, Eula, Shilpa Ray and others. Saturday night sees Brooklyn’s up-and-coming take the stage with Team Genius, Caged Animals, Conveyor, Snowmine, GunFight!, Lost Boy?, Spanish Prisoners, Monogold, Clouder and others bringing everything from indie-punk, to electro-folk to swooping experimental.

Tickets can be purchased through the Bell House ($12 presale, $15 door, $20 for 2-day pass). The fest is presented by Paper Garden Records, CaraBella and (collabo!).

After releasing a solo EP "Live at Rockwood Music Hall" last year, and performing at several high profile shows at SXSW, talented Belgian actor, singer, dancer, and musician Trixie Whitley is back in New York City to finish her solo debut, due to be released later in the fall. In the meantime, Whitley has decided to offer a free download of one of her most popular songs, "A Thousand Thieves," which inspired the stunning nowness.com video (streaming below), directed by Matthu Placek.