Southern California label Art Fag Recordings–most notably responsible for last year’s Summer anthem:  “Sun Was High (So Was I)“–is the latest home to the native Heavy Hawaii.  If you remember their breaking-out with incredibly catchy “Sleeping Bag” featured on Bathetic’s eternally awesome Summer Bummer (Get Laid, Get Wasted) compilation (which is long gone), then you’re already aware of the hammocked lazy-day vibes radiating from their tunes.  “Teen Angel”, one of many highlights from their upcoming proper EP, highlights HH’s uncanny vocal harmonies and is near perfect timing as these Summer days are beginning to dwindle.  As mentioned, these tracks will be available via Art Fag towards the end of the month.

Heavy Hawaii – Teen Angel

Aside from the video for their “Moonlighting”, it’s almost been exactly a year since we’ve heard anything new from Navajo Bixby.  Like their earlier tracks, “Down Under” is built around sunkissed-loops deeply rooted in 50-60’s beach pop and a walking guitar riff that is dripping with Summer tones.  While they have some similarities to the (hate to say) chillwave sound, this duo’s creative approach puts them at the head of the class.  What we’ve been getting from these guys are undeniably catchy pop tunes….consistently.

Navajo Bixby – Down Under

Just watch.

We were asked to participate in Rubber Gloves’ FREE WEEK right as everyone gets back in the school vibe and to handpick a few bands to showcase at our show September 4th. Mind Spiders are an obvious one–side project of one of local punk legends Marked Men, we’ve already been shoving in your face for awhile now. Sunnybrook and Melting Season are both associates of Denton musical ensemble Sleep Whale–both bands run the gamit of soundscapes, with Sunnybrook’s songs being much more blown-out with thick-set contruction and foggy electronic samples while Melting Season is more instrumental with story-bookish and immersive murals accompanied by jolting soundbytes. Lastly but not least we’ve incorporated the psychedelic-seizing pop of Land Mammals, a band new to my ears whom I caught wind of through their hallucinogenic-house show performances that are seemingly constant in Denton these days. That is what we’re bringing on our side, now I expect all of you reading this to show up and have fun, because after all its FREE. Here is the fbook event page.

Mind Spiders – Dirty Secrets
Sunnybrook – Lobby
Melting Season – The Cliffs
Land Mammals – Poprocks

Unouomedude (you-know-you-owe-me-dude) draws more than a few similarities to Toro Y Moi, both using their musicianship to create melodic looping-pop-rubies, though with Unouomedude there is less glitching and more pitching harmonies. Currently you can download his newest collection of songs titled Marsh via bandcamp and as always you can test the waters below with his infinitely-catchy gleeful-jam “Buildings”.

Unouomedude – Buildings

Our Rhode Island blog-brother Salad Fork has put together a good-natured Compilation for World Hunger which includes an abundance of of emerging artists. Seeing as we’ve given a whole-buncha-lovin to Craft Spells in the past and Emily Reo has sprung up recently as well, we thought we’d re-feature their track on the comp. The song is a call-and-return 80s fog-machine ballad in which you can practically flesh out in your mind a garishly overdone video accompaniment–carnal street corner stares, neon signs and the whole kit and caboodle. You can download the entire Salad Fork Compilation here. Check out the Craft Spells/Emily Reo instant-repeater below.

Craft Spells & Emily Reo – Love Well Spent

Been hearing a bit about this band lately and finally had a chance to listen to them, they hail from the essentially untapped musical market of Japan that either strikes gold or not, Ice Cream Shout seems to be the former. They bring back that sense of the late 80s–early 90s where artistic music was figuring out what to do with itself post-new-wave and before the shoegaze gates busted open, bands like Yo La Tengo or Sonic Youth come to mind.

Ice Cream Shout – Tattooed Tears

Here is a video crafted and edited by Jordan Smith of We Denton Do It from our show last week with Naomi Punk, Sundress and Masters & Johnson at Dan’s Silverleaf. Turn this one up loud. Check out the original track below and the three other videos from the show on the We Denton Do It Vimeo.

Naomi Punk – The Sun

Continuing with their constant churning of (multi)repeatable tunes, Weed Diamond come back with a couple demo recordings of their newest visions.  These tracks may explore different moods from one another with “Chalice” as a slow-burning grower and “Field on Fire” being a long-lived pop marathon (5+ miuntes!), but both are soaking with lovely 90s lo-fidelity.  With no mentions of a label or release info, it is still unclear of what their intentions are with these.  Still, I’d rather have the mp3s than nothing at all…

Weed Diamond – Field on Fire
Weed Diamond – Chalice