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.

No, you didn’t just turn the dial to a Malian pop station. This is Outside, a collective heavily in debt to many of the once regional, now internationally-borrowed styles hailing from Africa’s fertile Ivory Coast. Now among Tanlines and Restless People, you can count Outside among the adherents. With a persistent bounce directing the way forward in summery jams like ‘Solarize’ and ‘Portals,’ Outside’s newly minted EP marks an easy vibe to dance to, with songs large enough to match the energy.

This band submitted their music digitally here.

Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Oh, the things we’ll do for women. Lines like this: "I’ll remember the summer as the summer I was taking steroids cuz you like a man with muscles," speaks to the travails of a man in love, set to a cringe-worthy degree of honesty. But The Front Bottoms make it work on a level of nerdiness that most guys can (sadly) relate to all too easily. Like a cross between They Might Be Giants and Why?, Childhood friends guitarist/singer Brian Sella and drummer-bullhornist Mathew Uychich tear across a range of emotional outbursts on tracks like ‘Father’ and ‘Looking Like You Just Woke Up.’ Their self-titled debut (Bar/None) exposes these ups and downs through a maze of punk and folk influences easy to approach, but difficult to wrap your head around. These competing influences might be best on display in their video for ‘Maps,’ which includes hometown NJ farm scenery, Williamsburg street corners, and the band’s Econoline tour bus, all placed next to one another as fodder for noisy tantrums and undeniably catchy keyboard riffs. Self-destructive and assuredly creative, this band just might be their own steroids. See them at the Knitting Factory April 22nd with The Menzingers.

Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Electro-Rock NYC duo Tiny Victories is throwing a party on April 19th at Williamsburg’s Public Assembly to celebrate the release of the "Those of Us Still Alive" EP (streaming below). The show features some other bright NYC bands, all flirting to some extent with electronic sounds, including North Highlands, Dinowalrus, and Slam Donahue. Get your tickets in advance here and get ready to party the night away! – Amanda Dissinger

Seasons come, seasons go… and Jesse B Marchant (JBM) weathers the storms of them all. After returning from a long tour abroad, Merchant decided to let loose his growing disillusionment with ‘Stray Ashes,’ a sober meditation on winter’s pain in stark contrast to the fireworks of his summery debut, ‘Not Even in July.’ With his chilling baritone and campfire-ready guitar, this record could only have been put together in a cabin in the Catskills, where he built an impressive record of new material with only his instrument, his muse to guide him… And a few hundred geese to keep him company. Songs like ‘Ferry’ and ‘Only Now’ connect his new path to the somber trail he’s carved out so far, and the percussive accents on new single ‘Winter Ghosts’ offer a glimpse at a new direction for an artist discovering a voice built for all seasons. First single ‘Winter Ghosts’ is available now from NPR. Stream it here and see him when he plays Mercury Lounge with Damien Jurado on May 19th.

Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Some artists take years to finally reach a point where they’re ready to handle a headlining tour. But for Rachel Platten, it took the success of just one single, her ultra-catchy ‘1000 Ships,’ to catch the ears of her growing audience. This earned her slots opening for artists like David Cook and The Fray. Now after supporting these big acts in their national tours, Platten is headlining her own sojourn across the states. With the catchy wistfulness of songs like ‘Overwhelmed’ and ‘Nothing Ever Happens,’ Rachel aims to spread the love of her debut ‘Be Here’ over the next several months. Opening will be the mysterious and sensuous Madi Diaz. No New York dates have been announced yet, but she’ll be heading back home in June, so be sure and catch her then.

Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)