Acid House Kings ~ A Little Dancing

Hooray! Acid House Kings are back with their first single in a decade. And it's a cracker! ✨💃

Acid House Kings · A Little Dancing

Westkust ~ Cotton Skies

With the UK's seemingly interminable Covid lockdown restrictions apparently lifting by June, for once I feel cautiously optimistic about the summer, and the prospect of getting out to see some bands again. This blissful noisepop song by Westkust makes me feel at once hopeful and nostalgic, if that's possible. Hope in a song. 

Kitty Kat Fan Club ~ Dreamy Little You

Hailing from San Jose, California, Kitty Kat Fan Club are a garage-twee group who make nothing but love songs about cats - I mean, how could I resist?! The track Dreamy Little You is from their debut album of the same name. 

File under: Tiger Trap, Talulah Gosh, Cub. 

Favourite Magnetic Fields covers

For many years now, I have collected covers of Magnetic Fields songs - I have nearly 100 mp3s! - and so without further ado, may I present the countdown of my top five. 🎧🎶

To kick things off, at number five it's Nallo and their wonky fuzzpop version of When My Boy Walks down the Street. 

Nallo · 69LS: When My Boy Walks Down The Street

At four, perhaps better known as front woman of 90s indie-pop group Suddenly, Tammy!, Beth Sorrentino and her lovely piano-led rendition of 100,000 Fireflies.

Third, The Shins' summery take on Strange Powers.

At number two, this is Kotomi's (composer and producer Lauren Hillman's) electro-cool reworking of All the Umbrellas in London. 

Finally, my favourite one of all: Tracey Thorn and Jens Lekman's sublime duet on Yeah! Oh, Yeah! 🔥🔥🔥

One thing that struck me whilst compiling this list, is the quality of the songwriting - it's so exceptionally good, that I daresay a Merritt cover would be pretty hard to mess up. 

Pale Blue Eyes ~ Motionless / Chelsea

I'm blown away by Pale Blue Eyes's debut, a double A-side by the name of Motionless / Chelsea: two tracks worth of mesmerising, motorik shoegaze-pop. Such promise! 

Why not buy it today, Bandcamp Friday, when 100% of the revenue goes to the artist. ✊

 

Corvair ~ Sunday Runner

Corvair are a Portland, Oregon-based group comprising of Heather Larimer (Eux Autres) and Brian Naubert (Ruston Mire), who between them have recorded or performed on more than twenty different albums. This terrific slice of retro pop is a taster from their forthcoming self-titled LP, largely conceived in isolation during the Covid shutdown of spring 2020. Releases 19th February '21 on Wiaiwya in the UK, and I can't wait!  

The Blue Herons ~ Go On

Reminiscent of Club 8's early singles or Red Sleeping Beauty (the band), this was an enchanting find: fresh and sweet janglepop. 

   

The vocalist, Gretchen DeVault, sounded very familiar, so I did some digging: turns out she was a member of indiepop's The Icicles, whose Snowman Song is one of my favourite wintry-themed tracks of all time! ☃️❄️