Ume, Amazing Baby, Hatcham Social, Starlight Mints

No excuses… just right into a quick post to get some momentum back.

This here is Lauren Larson.

But don’t peg her as the next cute Swedish pop songstress highlighted by djeddieo.com.   Lauren is the lead singer and guitarist for Austin-based Ume, and she brings to mind J Mascis more than Lykke Li.  So if heavy guitar driven riffage is what you like, check out The Conductor, which surpasses any hard rock “hit” on the airwaves today.

I don’t know much about Brooklyn’s Amazing Baby, but a quick listen to their new album (streaming here – albeit one song at a time) promises a varied landscape.  From psych-folk of The Narwhal, to the dancier Deerripper, and more straight-up indie like Smoke Bros.  But Headdress (video below) is their pride with an atmospheric feel that actually has some bite and a real pop catch. 

I feel like I’m going to beat djeddieo to the punch on Hatcham Social.  Slick, throwback indie Brit-pop.  So So Happy Making feels like it could have come out anytime over the last 25 years.  Something about the guitar strumming on this tune reminds me of Will Sergeant on any number of Echo and the Bunnymen songs.

Finally, the Starlight Mints have released a new album.  The first track released, Zoomba, is a summer party kind of song… no wonder I first heard it on a KEXP Music that Matters podcast called ‘Summer Songs’.