WAVVES – Mickey Mouse

WAVVES, the much-hyped and divisive San Diego trio, fronted by the highly contentious Nathan Williams, are known for their abrasive, confrontational odes to boredom and alienation. It's three chord punk drenched in reverb that gets the crowd moving, as demonstrated by the swelling mosh pit at their recent Lee's Palace gig. However, their recent forays into hypnotic programmed beats and complex song structure suggest that they'll need to re-think their relatively primitive live setup (two guitars and a drum kit) in order to accommodate these experimental tendencies. It would be for the best, as currently they sound more interesting on their albums than at their shows. Songs like last summer's "Cool Jumper" and "Mickey Mouse," a track that channels Feels-era Animal Collective from WAVVES' soon-to-be-released album, King of the Beach, constitute their most promising material to date. The band show their detractors, and there are many, that any effort to write them off as another burned out blog band would be premature. It's just a shame they haven't integrated these gems into their live set yet.–Sean MacKay

Kathryn Calder - Arrow

It would be naive to say that Kathryn Calder's career hasn't received a boost because she happens to be the niece of Carl Newman, the de facto leader of Canada's most beloved supergroup, the New Pornographers. But upon listening to "Arrow" from her solo debut, Are You My Mother?, it's completely justifiable to say she could have easily risen through the indie rock ranks coasting solely on her vocal and songwriting skills. Though she's released music as a member of the B.C. indie pop group, Immaculate Machine since 2003 and she's recorded three albums since 2005 with her uncle's band, Are You My Mother? promises to solidify Calder's status as an artist whose talent deserves to be recognized independently from her other projects. "Arrow" possesses a distinctly somber quality in both tone and lyrical content that is absent in her work with Immaculate Machine and the New Pornos. Understandably so, as the tracks on her debut were written and recorded while Calder was caring for her terminally ill mother. Instrumentally, the track is quite minimalist. Her beautiful yet simplistic vocal melodies are accompanied only by a few calming piano chords and some light bass. For Calder, it's a mostly unexplored style that she pulls off flawlessly. – SM

Das Racist – You Oughta Know

“So blipster translates into black hipster, huh?” This is where I began my internet research on the Brooklyn art-rap duo Das Racist. In a recent interview, member Himanshu Suri candidly addressed the label they’ve adopted by the media, “Those types of classifications of people don’t do anything positive. It was an article on black people dressing like white people that dress how black people dressed in the ’80s but didn’t address the cyclical nature of it and basically stood to further alienate an already alienated group. And I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m not black.” Politics aside, Das Racist released their mix tape, Shut Up, Dude this past April and “You Oughta Know” is an incredibly catchy track that relies heavily on nonsensical, repetitive and incomprehensible rapping. You can download their mix-tape from their website free of charge.–Navi Lamba

Best Coast – Boyfriend

With their new album Crazy For You set for release July 27th, Best Coast has been attracting attention. Following their contemporaries (Dum Dum Girls, Pains of Being Pure of Heart) they have a formula that is undeniably appealing. And their opening track “Boyfriend” has the exact melodic hooks and vocal harmonies that audiences have been craving. The way that Bethany Cosentino sings the words on the track is commendable; I immediately looked up the lyrics so I could follow along (if I had a vocal distortion pedal readily available, I would attempt a sing along). The band will be making a stop in Toronto on September 25th with Male Bonding. -NL