SXSW 2012

Ever since moving operations from his parent’s basement in Tacoma, Washington to Brooklyn, 20 year old Brad Oberhofer has been carefully honing his own brand of bedroom pop, which is as affecting and genuine as it is naively chaotic.
Charmingly skewed and ramshackle, Oberhofer’s classic, melody heavy indie rock sound manages to meld Brian Wilson sized hooks with expansive instrumentation and kooky, unpredictable song structures. The intense production mixes programmed drums with jittering live percussion and centers his exuberant yelps amongst keys, xylophones, whistles and washes of wall of sound guitar.

Incan Abraham was founded in a garage in Rhinebeck, New York, in June 2009. In the fall of that year, the band relocated to Los Angeles, the hometown of three of its members, and Teddy, the only New Yorker, moved out West for the band. Since then, the band has released three EPs, Adult World (2010) and SUNSCREEN (2011), and Ancient Vacation (2011), and maintained a constant stream of live shows in Southern California, as well as more far-flung appearances at CMJ (2010, 2011), San Francisco’s Noise Pop Festival (2011, 2012), and SXSW 2011.

With a sound at once welcoming and exotic, Incan Abraham has received praise from NPR, TIME Magazine, and a number of respected local, national and foreign blogs. Earlier this year, the band launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new series of recordings. The fruit of that effort, a new short-form album titled Ancient Vacation, was released in October 2011. On the strength of this release, Incan Abraham has been able to take its sound to its largest stages to date, including the ASCAP showcase at CMJ 2011, an appearance at the Wiltern with Beady Eye in December, and a month-long residency at Los Angeles' Bootleg Theater in February 2012.

As a weather pattern forms its shape and sound out of the unknown and invisible into something tangible and rare, so does the dirty blues force “little hurricane”. This storm began when CC hung up her chef knives for drumsticks and turned to Craigslist for collaborators. Tone, a songwriter and audiophile could see something different in her drumming and energy. Together they began their musical outlet crafting songs in CC’s living room that within months thousands would relate to and appreciate.

Hmm, where should we start here? The part where Miniature Tigers stay up all night with Neon Indian, fine-tuning the laser-like synths of their new single, “Gold Skull?” Yeah, that sounds about right.

Sensual, provocatively percussive pop comes naturally to Friends. But you may be surprised by “I’m His Girl” – the second single from the Brooklyn newcomers – and just how cool and pop it is. As rapturous as Blondie’s best, and as stylish as Neneh Cherry’s tip-top pop gem “Buffalo Stance,” it’s the finest fusion of lo-fi indie cool and soulful urban textures of 2011.

Pond was born under a mulberry tree in Daglish, Western Australia, by Joseph Ryan, Nick Allbrook and Jay Watson. Under the mulberry tree they conceived the idea of an album of tropical psychedelic idiocy that they performed that night at a friends party in North Perth. That album, recorded in their living room about twenty meters from the mulberry tree, was called Psychedelic Mango, and was released on local label Badminton Bandits in 2009. Two more albums – Corridors of Blissterday (2009) and Frond (2010) – quickly followed.

Miike Snow is – are – in a playful mood. The second, somewhat orchatronic, album by the three-headed-band with the one-man-name and mysterious Jackalope symbol is called Happy To You. Why?

“It’s a sign in the studio,” shrugs tattooed Swedish producer Christian Karlsson. “An old mis-spelt phrase postcard from Thailand. Nothing to do with any of the songs…but it sort of stuck.”

Miike Snow is – are – in a playful mood. The second, somewhat orchatronic, album by the three-headed-band with the one-man-name and mysterious Jackalope symbol is called Happy To You. Why?

“It’s a sign in the studio,” shrugs tattooed Swedish producer Christian Karlsson. “An old mis-spelt phrase postcard from Thailand. Nothing to do with any of the songs…but it sort of stuck.”

Alabama Shakes, Youth Lagoon, Bass Drum of Death, Lee Fields and the Expressions, Father John Misty, DJ Sir Pall McCartney, Nick Waterhouse & the Tarots, more TBA

THEESatisfaction are Stasia Irons and Catherine Harris-White. Stas was born and raised in Tacoma, Cat in Seattle and Hawaii. The pair live/laugh/love/dance and create in Seattle, WA. They write, produce and perform their own material, funk-psychedelic feminista sci-fi epics with the warmth and depth of Black Jazz and Sunday morning soul, frosted with icy raps that evoke equal parts Elaine Brown, Ursula Rucker and Q-Tip. They met by what was clearly cosmic happenstance at the University of Washington and haven’t stopped the flow since.

The music of Korallreven is constructed along a simple philosophy: to create sounds that capture both the essence of a spiritual experience and the freedom of experimentation. Born in the South Pacific and illuminated by the changing scenery of constant motion, Korallreven’s music is dynamic and universal, never bound to a single geography. Place is just a state of mind.

They say the world is spinning around
I say the world is upside down

From Austin Powell, The Austin Chronicle:

One of the promising new entries in the indie-folk movement, Caveman paints with pastels, drenching four-part harmonies and hazy guitars in clouds of reverb. Imagine a softer Midlake. Led by former Metropolitan Opera singer Matt Iwanusa, the NYC quintet put out CoCo Beware last year, an effort so fully formed it's being re-released later this month by Fat Possum.

After spending the better part of two years on the road (including festival stops at Lollapallooza, Glastonbury (UK), Sasquatch, Monolith and tours with The Walkmen, Spoon, Richard Swift, The Cribs, White Denim and Tokyo Police Club) White Rabbits hunkered down in their Brooklyn practice space to set about re-envisioning the dark pop of their debut Fort Nightly, while adding new sounds and influences to achieve an original work.

Neon Indian is the brainchild of Alan Palomo, who's 2009 debut record Psychic Chasms not only earned the 20 year-old a spot on numerous year-end lists, but assisted the forming of a genre that, though known by a few names now (hypnagogic pop, glo-fi, chillwave), summoned a very unique and specific electro-mangled sound. Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and SPIN all praised Palomo for his adventurous new sound, and he was tapped to perform at top festivals like South by Southwest, Bonnaroo, and Sasquatch and also scored opening slots for bands ranging from Massive Attack and The Flaming Lips to Phoenix and Chromeo.

L.A.'s Wavves follow up their 2010 skuzz-pop masterstroke King of the Beach with Life Sux, the debut release from singer Nathan Williams' Ghost Ramp label. If the band's previous records were all about one man's self-loathing, this six-song EP takes that sentiment and generously expands it outward, telling the tale of two loathsome characters locked down in Bummertown. What follows is a downward spiral of wrecked cars, impossible dreams and fading faith set to pop-damaged punk and squalling grunge, and featuring collaborations with musical BFFs Best Coast and Fucked Up. Also, it's fucking fun, though in Williams' words, "If you hate yourself and other people, you might like our record." Williams has come a long way from his parents' San Diego pool house, where Wavves was born during a jobless bout in 2008. A series of small-run 7-inches and tapes paved the way to the buzz-building self- titled and semi-self-titled LPs Wavves (Woodsist, 2008) and Wavvves (Fat Possum, 2009). Both were praised for their inimitable brand of experimental surf skronk and lo-fi loser anthems, notably swathed in pot smoke and isolation. King of the Beach, recorded in Mississippi with producer Dennis Herring (Animal Collective, Modest Mouse), kept that blessed spirit alive but displayed a set of fuzzed up, fleshed out confections, and found Wavves expanded to a ripping trio, including current bassist Stephen Pope.
Produced by the band and recorded at Infrasonic Sound in nearby Alhambra, Life Sux picks up where the last
album left off: at that rare intersection where form meets friction. Opener "Bug" is an upbeat bomb lobbed at
any enemies of fun-a thesis statement driven by Dino Jr. guitars and a pop-punk bass line. The blisteringly bright "I Wanna Meet Dave Grohl" offers an arena-sized appeal to everyman excellence, while "Nodding Off" finds
that escape fantasy failing even as Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino coos sweetly over the encroaching grime.
"Poor Lenore" is heavier and darker, awash in wasteland riffage àla Nirvana, and "Destroy" is severe, with
Fucked Up and Wavves teaming up to thrash in vain against a crushing apathy. Life Sux closes with "In the Sand," a longtime touring favorite recorded live at Black Iris Music in L.A. with drummer Jacob Cooper. Surfy, smashy and brash, the song is a fitting finale and despite itself, offers up a near
moral before careening into silence. After establishing his ennui, Williams offers up faintly glimmering hope in
the midst of inertia: "Do what you wanted to do / It's all up to you." Fittingly, the launch of Ghost Ramp embodies this slacker-made-good philosophy. Working with other people's labels was a means to an end. Finished with the red tape, false promises and general bogusness, Wavves is now a movement unto itself, going direct to fans and friends everywhere.

The 25-year old Wichita, Kansas native is a fresh face to the music industry, but has been working towards becoming a household name for nearly 5 years. Currently signed to Warner Bros. Records, since 2006, XV has released over 15 mixtapes and is expected to release his debut album "The Kid With The Green Backpack" in 2012.