CLOUD NOTHINGS – Lo-fi, indie rock band from Cleveland, Ohio. Front man, Dylan Baldi started Cloud Nothings back in 2009 as a hobby. The first compilation of Cloud Nothings songs, Turning On, was self recorded in his basement, and released through Carpark records. After having such a great response, and landing a few great shows, Dylan decided to take this seriously…

Cloud Nothings then released a 2nd album (self titled) in Jan 2011 via Carpark… followed by a more recent release, Attack On Memory, also released via Carpark in Jan 2012. You can check out a music video of their most recent single below:

Cloud Nothings “No Future/No Past”

Cloud Nothings – “No Future / No Past” Official Video from Urban Outfitters on Vimeo.

Between putting out tons of music in a span of 3 years, and touring all over North America, Cloud Nothings is ready to move to the next level. They will also be venturing to the UK in May.

“For all of early Cloud Nothings’ fun and fervor, Baldi admits that it never sounded like most of the music he listens to. With ‘Attack on Memory’, he wanted to remedy this anomaly, and in setting out to do so, Baldi and co. have created an album that shows vast growth in a still very young band.”

For music, tour dates and everything else, visit them:
www.cloudnothings.tumblr.com

http://www.facebook.com/cloudnothings

THE BOTS – Woh. These kids are super young, and they play good old fashioned punk rock. I’m not a big fan of just tossing a bio in these features, but this really best describes what you want to know about this band:

Forging their own path in today’s music industry, brothers and band-mates Mikaiah Lei, 18, and Anaiah Lei, 14, are producing an infectious strain of rock and with a style all their own. Known for their fast-paced driving drums, grinding melodies and radical breakdowns, The Bots’ songs have been reviewed as ‘fresh’ and ‘raw’, their deep appreciation for the truth of their music always evident, never over producing and ever exploring a variety different styles and instruments.

The Bots have recorded three albums, two of them singles, and are currently working on their next full length. “Self-Titled Album” (2009), “Black and White Lights” (2010), and “Ladies & Gentlemen” (2011) all available on iTunes. They have put forth an army of videos on YouTube, played (and continue to play) an extensive string of live shows around the L.A. area over the past two years and have played both the Vans Warped Tour ’10 and ’11, the Afro-Punk Tour ‘09 and ’10.

Mikaiah (lead guitar, vocals), was 15 years old and brother Anaiah (drums, backup vocals), was 12 when their band The Bots recorded their first album, “Self-Titled Album” at Paramount Ameraycan Studios in Hollywood, CA in the spring of 2009. It consists of 10 original tracks that the boys co-wrote together and one cover of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s song, “Art Star”.

By the spring of 2010 they were back at Paramount recording a two-track single, “Black and White Lights” that includes their songs “Notre Monde” and “No One Knows”, almost complete opposites of one another in their pacing, structure and attitude but both delivering insightful and often profound lyrics within their haunting melodies. The boys maintain that the words are very much secondary to the emotions evoked by the music itself.

Two months later in June 2010, The Bots were re-united with long-time family friend and front man for the Bad Brains, H.R., after opening for them on the Afro Punk Tour in Brooklyn, NY. They describe the experience as a definite highlight of their career, while articles and reviews hailed their performance as watching the ‘future of punk’.

In the spring of 2011, they linked up with Agent Orange drummer and producer, Dave Klein, who along with the boys produced their most recent single “Ladies & Gentlemen” which includes the tracks “Northern Lights” and “Vanity”.

They put out a video for “Northern Lights”, (a video release for “Vanity” is expected as well this fall) and then were on the road for the 2011 Vans Warped Tour where they played Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, TX, Las Cruses NM, Las Vegas NV, Pomona CA, Ventura CA, Mountain View CA, Kansas, Indiana, Detroit, Chicago, and Minnesota!

The reviews from the Vans Warped Tour included a write-up in RollingStone:

“One of the day’s coolest, most unexpected sets was delivered by the Bots–- two brothers from Glendale, California, ages 13 and 18 – playing tough and melodic punk ‘n’ blues in the Black Keys mode. “I’m pretty sure their mom is out on tour and watching over them,” Against Me!’s Tom Gabel told Rolling Stone backstage, calling the young duo one of his favorite acts on this year’s 44-date tour.”

–RollingStone [ July 5, 2011]

The brothers credit their mother, for her guidance and faith and their father, for his support and inspiration. Their broad span of influences include Black Flag, The White Stripes, Arcade Fire, LA’s Wasted Youth, Circle Jerks, Rancid, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The XX.

Instrumentation
Mikaiah Lei – Vocals/Guitar/Keys
Anaiah Lei – Drums/Backup Vocals

Check these grommets out.

www.thebotsband.com/

DR.DOG – Psychedelic rock band from West Grove, Pennsylvania. Yes. I love this band, always have. Today their 7th studio album, Be The Void comes out via ANTI. These guys have been doing great stuff since 1999; writing awesome records, toured their butts off, played all of the best festivals, as well as a few great TVs, etc…

Music video for “The Old Black Hole”

Track Listing:
1. “Lonesome” – 3:19
2. “That Old Black Hole” – 3:21
3. “These Days” – 2:47
4. “How Long Must I Wait?” – 3:41
5. “Get Away” – 4:01
6. “Do The Trick” – 4:33
7. “Vampire” – 4:27
8. “Heavy Light” – 3:41
9. “Big Girl” – 5:03
10. “Over Here, Over There” – 4:01
11. “Warrior Man” – 4:58
12. “Turning The Century” – 3:50
13. “Exit For Sale” (Deluxe Edition)
14. “Control Yourself” (Deluxe Edition)
15. “What A Fool” (Deluxe Edition)

Dr. Dog is currently on tour with Purling Hiss going all over the states. The band is known for their very entertaining live show that consists of an eclectic number of instruments all surrounded by fake plants, vines, lamps and old rugs. It not only sounds good but feels like home.

Check them out and buy their record!

www.drdogmusic.com
www.facebook.com/Drdog

PHANTOGRAM – American indie pop duo from up state New York. That’s a bit interesting. You would think this was created in some small apartment in Park Slope, BK. Although, two pieces that have known each other for a long time is rather common, it is and will always be interesting. Especially when it is a dude and a chick. In this case, they actually make some pretty rad music, and they look cool doing it.

Observe….

As far as the world of music is concerned, these guys (guy and gal) haven’t been around that long. Releasing their debut album Eyelid Movies in 2009 in Europe and then 2010 in the states. They currently have an EP out Nightlife which came out in Nov of 2011 via Barsuk records.

Listen to a couple tracks here:
Phantogram by kaianne

Looks like the band will be overseas for the month of February, then they are coming home to finish some new music as well as play a few festivals over here. This is definitely worth checking out. If you enjoy indie pop duos, you will like this.

www.phantogram.net

NADA SURF – 90s + alternative = Nada Surf. Bands like this are a huge part of the reason why S*ALT exists. Nada Surf was formed in the early nineties by Matthew Caws and Daniel Lorca. If you were wondering what Nada Surf meant… Matthew explains the meaning of the band name, “it’s actually referring to something much more existential, it’s just surfing on nothing. Being lost in your head or in your imagination but you know, whenever I listen to music I always find myself off somewhere. Somewhere in space. You know, in mental space and it’s a reference to that.” Here at S*ALT, we believe in Nada Surf and what they stand for.

Remember this song??

Nada Surf has a new record, The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy, which comes out today, via Barsuck Records. This is their first album of original songs since 2008′s Lucky.

Listen to and download one of their new tracks “Waiting For Something”:

Along with a new record, the band has some serious tour dates coming up. They will be touring all over North America and Europe.

Old fans, I hope we can remind you how awesome this band is. New fans, welcome to a great alternative band.

www.nadasurf.com
www.facebook.com/NadaSurf

THE NAKED AND FAMOUS – As a developing band, it is necessary to produce and release as much content as possible. Whether it is just a simple 30 second clip of tour announcement to a music video to just live footage. It’s all very important, especially in the world of everything living on the internet. One amazing example of that would be The Naked and Famous…. check out their YOUTUBE PAGE. There is just about 10 music videos that are all brilliant, AND done by the same directors, Campbell Hooper & Joel Kafelia.

Check out “Young Blood” (which charted in 7 territories) here:

The New Zealand indie rock band has only been running around since 2008, and they have already made a solid impact in not only their home country New Zealand, but as well as Australia, Germany, Canada, United Kingdom and the USA. That is a lot of ground to cover in just over 3 years.


Grab a free download of “Crazy Yes Dumb No” here:

The Naked And Famous
“Crazy Yes Dumb No”

In 2011, the band received six nominations at the New Zealand Music Awards for Album of the Year, Single of the Year, Best Group, Breakthrough Artist of the Year, Best Alternative Album and the People’s Choice Award. They were also nominated for the NZ On Air Best Music Video and won the MAINZ Best Engineer Award and the MAINZ Best Producer Award. I’d say that you should probably check them out.

www.thenakedandfamous.com
www.youtube.com/tnafofficial
www.tnaf.tumblr.com

GOTYE (Wouter “Wally” De Backer) – We usually feature developing artists… well, Gotye is already developed, but he rules so hard.  Gotye, born in Belgium, but raised in Australia has had quite the year. iTunes just rewarded Gotye with Song of the Year and Alt Song of the Year for “Somebody I Used to Know”, as well as Australian Album of the Year and Alternative Australian Album of the Year for his 3rd studio record “Making Mirrors”.

Listen to “Making Mirrors” here:
Gotye – Making Mirrors by Gotye

Also, watch a music video to the award winning “Somebody I used to Know” (Feat Kimbra) here:

Some artists take 15 years to break, and some get lucky enough to pop in their first few months. In this case, I feel that Gotye is gradually turning into “that dude you should know and go see” organically, but in an average amount of time. The record is great, he releases great content, and he seems to be having some fun. Just go check it out.

www.gotye.com
www.facebook.com/gotye
www.soundcloud.com/gotye

FIERCE CREATURES – Fresno, California is raising another great band. I’m not going to lie, there are a bunch of these jingly-jangly bands out there, but when it’s done right, it is pretty rad. Fierce Creatures seem to have a blast writing and playing together. If you watch this video below, you can get an idea of what the band is all about…

S*ALT is a huge fan of Fierce Creatures. Our station manager, Billy, has tossed them on one of our S*ALT Local Shows which is January 27th at The Blank Club with other locals B Hamilton and Bell Thieves. We also, have them in rotation on Noise Control, which is the weekend local music hour.

Have a listen to Fierce Creatures below –
Preview by fiercecreaturesband

Nothing better then watching a great local band develop.

Also, don’t forget to help these guys out by donating money to their kickstarter so they can finish their album.

www.wearefiercecreatures.com

THE BIG PINK – What’s up with this band? I’ve been hearing tons about them lately. Someone told me “they are the British MGMT”. I looked more into it to find out it is 2 dudes from London playing electro-pop with catchy hooks? It’s going to be huge over here, it’s inevitable.

I mean, of course everyone remembers “Dominos”, right? That track is what helped get them some life. Observe –

The Big Pink has a new record coming out in January called Future This that is being released worldwide by 4AD. Great label.

Check out their first single “Stay Gold” -

You can also download the track for free HERE.

Bands like this normally come and go over here in the states, but I think these guys have the tunes and the sand to make some real noise. 2012 will be a good year for TBP.

www.musicfromthebigpink.com
www.facebook.com/musicfromthebigpink

THE GROWLERS – Your favorite band. Because they have the perfect package; just indie enough to stay cool their entire career, just enough rock to be able to tour with the best, they pump out records, AND they always tour in old school buses. Know what I mean?

Listen to their latest record “Hot Tropics”:

Watch their music video to “Someone Something Junior” which was on their first release “Are You In Or Out”:

The Gs have been doing this for a few years now, busting their asses releasing new material and constantly touring. In times like this, that’s all you can do. Release new material each year and tour, tour, tour…

Check out The Growlers when you can. Amazing band live.

www.thegrowlers.com