How is it fair that in addition to preternatural good looks and universal health care, the Swedish population is also blessed with an uncanny ability to write great pop music? I’m not sure myself, but I mean come on, there’s no denying the unlimited hooks and sugary singalongs crammed throughout the back catalogs of any of these extraordinary Swedes: I’m From Barcelona, Jens Lekman, Peter Bjorn and John, The Shout Out Louds, The Cardigans, ummm, ABBA?

And though it smacks of sonic profiling, we just had a hunch that Marching Band could up the depleted stores of pop serum in EF headquarters once we realized they were from Sweden. And deliver they did. Read more

Black Swan Green is a new shoegazery dream pop band from Brooklyn that’s going to immediately score points with fans of music that blends the textural adventures of Atlas Sound with soaring vocals à la James and the wandering guitar melodies you’ll find in bands like Interpol and Ride. Frankly, there should be music listener shorthand for bands like this Read more

Wild Years is a folk-rock influenced indie-pop band out of Ann Arbor, Michigan that also doubles as a performance art troupe, building computers and microwaves in underground pools filled with yellow jello. Wha?? More on that in a bit. First, the band. The band is a project of Alexander Itkin that’s been gaining a small amount of buzz in the Ann Arbor and southeast Michigan music circles. Itkin provides all of the instrumentation and songwriting and lists Wilco, Will Oldham, Grandaddy, and M. Ward among his influences - all of which are apparent upon first listen, but there’s something extra-coustic about the music of Wild Years. Grandaddy in spirit, but something more than that… Read more