Whether droning madly, spiraling into cascades of infinitely echoing vocals or kicking back with their blissed-out take on classic Americana rock, Sleepy Sun are a band that demand your attention. Formed in Santa Cruz and now based in San Francisco, this intense sextet of twenty-somethings released their breathtaking debut album, Embrace, in May 2009. It’s one of those rare slabs of rock and roll that will wake you up in the morning, and send you off to sleep at night. Their brand of West Coast psychedelia is embellished with a throbbing rhythm section, swirling sea of guitars, and dreamy, haunting duet vocals; the word dynamic is a severe understatement. Tellingly, this unique band’s catchphrase is “Let’s Get Weird.” Though the press is quick to rifle off a laundry list of rock’s greatest ghosts to describe their sound, one live show is all you need to know Sleepy Sun have stumbled upon something very much their own.

UPDATE: We are super excited to announce that joining Sleepy Sun on stage for a portion of their headlining set at the IODA SXSW Opening Day Bash will be the Austin’s Children’s Choir!

Artist Website

@SleepySunMusic

ATP Recordings

Bear in Heaven have trapped echoes, tremors, winds, and fading light. They’ve redefined time, and folded it. They’ve unbuttoned sound, and realigned it. Growing from a seed planted in the Southern US years ago (all members hail from Georgia or Alabama) Bear in Heaven began as the musical arm of Jon Philpot in 1998. Time eventually brought in a slew of players, like rickety scaffolding, that grew the sound and guided the group to morph from a 6-to-5-to-4-piece. Freely acknowledging the importance of the number four, the album Beast Rest Forth Mouth (think “East West North South”) was a conscious product of the four compass points, of the four makers, and the mixing crossroads. Preceding Beast Rest Forth Mouth is 2007’s Red Bloom of the Boom, a 7-track, 43-minute exploration that crosses the streams of psychedelia and prog. Pitchfork called it “a true cohesive work in an era when the album-as-art form appears to be slowly dying” (7.8), and The Onion found it “a powerful, functional mix of This Heat, ’70s soft rock, early Genesis, and oddly, later Pink Floyd.”

Artist Website

@BearInHeaven

Hometapes

Sonic Youth collaborators and Beijing’s hottest export, Carsick Cars, are racking up critical praise for their genuine, youthful, and empowering brand of garage rock. In June of 2009, the group released its second album, You Can Listen, You Can Talk, on the Maybe Mars label, with songs in both English and Mandarin. Less aggressive and angsty than the band’s self-titled debut album of 2007, You Can Listen is sophisticated and well-produced. The influence of the late-’80s, early-’90s postpunk/ alternative from groups like The Pixies and garage/punk bands like Nirvana is apparent. “There’s something I know, that perches in my soul,” frontman Zhang Shouwang sings in a voice that these days sounds a lot like Lou Reed. Carsick Cars’ first hit and the current “anthem” of the Beijing underground, “Zhong Nan Hai,” shares a name with the Communist Party’s central headquarters. But it’s also a brand of Chinese cigarettes, and Zhang maintains the song is about tobacco. The album solidifies Carsick Cars’s status as the leaders of the Beijing rock scene, which now has a fast-growing following among the capital’s university students.

Artist Website

Maybe Mars Music

Founded in late 2007 as means for front man Neil Fridd to yell about his romantic mishaps, The Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt! has blossomed into a real juggernaut of epic dance floor revelation. It’s sort of dance-soul music (like synthed out Otis Redding covers on fast forward), a kind of dance music with too many cooks in the kitchen, but in a good way. That is to say, there are sweet beats mixing with four vocal parts and two horn lines as well, making for a unique, dense, dance floor throw down that’s suitable for both club rock outs and secluded headphone listening.  And if listening to this band on your iPod makes you feel alive, seeing them live will set you on fire. Terror Pigeon live is sometimes four people and sometimes forty, but it doesn’t matter, because you won’t know who’s in the band anyways. Everyone dances, everyone gets a costume, everyone sings. It’s like Halloween and junior prom and new years and Christmas at once. The New York Times, New York magazine, NME, Nylon and more have praised their musical explosions. Their debut album will be out in March on Luaka Bop Records.

Artist Website

Luaka Bop Records

@LuakaBop

As a member of psychedelic/electronic indie pop outfit Black Moth Super Rainbow, enigmatic Pennsylvania-based artist Tobacco cast summery spells with analog synths and tape machines. As a solo artist, Tobacco employs many of the same styles and strategies that fuel his work with the band, but with a darker, more fractured edge. Integrating elements of hip-hop, electro, and experimental rock, he released his full-length debut album, Fucked Up Friends on the Anticon label which featured a guest appearance by Aesop Rock. The album was recorded using entirely analog equipment. Rolling Stone said of the album, “one of the year’s best stoner-rock records – only it’s powered by synths, hip-hop beats and vocoders instead of guitars.” Exclaim! called it “worthy of obsessive listening.” Think of Tobacco’s solo work as Black Moth’s cool cousin who embraced a dark, sleek hip-hop style and pulled it off ever so well.

Artist Myspace

Graveface Records

anticon records

Summer Cats play upbeat pop songs in a Stereolab-meets-Go-Betweens style, replete with distorted keyboards, feedback guitars and hook-laden basslines, all accompanied by Scott Stevens’ distinctive vocals. They are best played loud, in your bedroom, while your parents are out. The Melbourne five-piece really know how to write addictive pop songs with just a hint of ’60s garage edge. Catchy as hell, they have already shared sides of wax with similar modern day pop groups like Eux Autres and Slumberland labelmates The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and are set to keep the momentum going with the upbeat, danceable 33 minutes of fun that is their full-length debut, Songs for Tuesdays.

“While the Pains of Being Pure at Heart seems to have monopolized much of Slumberland’s recent focus, Summer Cats’ kinetic debut is an overlooked addition to the label’s roster that deserves far more attention than it has received.” – Pop Matters

Artist Website

@SummerCats

Slumberland Records

Zeus was born from the musical friendship of Mike O’Brien and Carlin Nicholson. The two Toronto-based musicians have been living on the road for the past few years as the backing band for singer/songwriter and Broken Social Scene member Jason Collett. As astute students of the history of rock n’ roll and purveyors of a sound that cross-references the British Invasion with ‘70s southern U.S. rock, Zeus’ music demonstrates a band with an innate ability to create powerful and infectious music and do so as though it’s an entirely natural process. Their new record Say Us was recorded and produced by O’Brien and Nicholson in their Toronto studio and mixed by Robbie Lackritz (Feist). As a four piece, they draw upon classic influences to craft timeless songs, complete with fuzzed out guitars and shimmering harmonies. Another great indie band via Arts&Crafts records!

Artist Website

Arts & Crafts

With the release of their new LP, Ashes Grammar, Philadelphia’s ambient pop outfit, A Sunny Day In Glasgow, are continuing to dazzle and amaze with new material and exploration into uncharted musical grounds while consistently providing their fans with the dreamy, ethereal comfort their highly loved previous material was heralded for. Their former record, Scribble Mural Comic Journal, was a showcase of textures and soundscapes characterized by walls of fuzz, overdubbed and heavily effected guitar lines, and vocals with Grand Canyon sized reverb. The result was a shoegaze journey through everything from psychedelic wonder to even tender moments. The album received rave reviews from all sorts of different outlets, notably an 8/10 from the notoriously difficult-to-win-over Pitchfork.com. Drowned in Sound gave it a “9/10″ and called it a “contender for album of the year.” Ashes Grammar does not disappoint in the slightest. Sunny Day in Glasgow’s second album presents a band more confident with what they do best: create beautiful, happy dreams via layers and layers of noise mixed with endearing, subtly positioned melodies.

Artist Website

Mis Ojos Discos

Les Shelleys is a partnership of two top Los Angeles artists, Tom Brosseau and  Angela Correa.  Enamoured by field recordings and making unique new arrangements of songs they loved, the two recorded  in Tom’s Echo Park bungalow with a mini-disc recorder given to Tom by a friend.  You can hear dogs barking from a neighbor’s yard or a man coming down the street with a cart full of bottles to recycle – and the catch of pure and simple moments.  Their debut album will be released on Fat Cat Records.

Artist Myspace

Fat Cat Records