• Happy Trendy – “YWGY”

    The mind behind Happy Trendy belongs to Dylan Khotin-Foote, who also makes music under the Kumon Plaza moniker. QRO reviewed Kumon Plaza’s Cliff back in 2010, and we loved the clean crisp strokes of 64-bit electronica. So much so it landed in my year end list. Dylan’s adventure as...
  • STRFKR – “Astoria”

    First heard of Starfucker (also STRFKR) via righteous San Francisco-based blogger Indie Rock Girl of the OCMD (Obsessive Compulsive Music Disorder). Their songs are instant party-starters, danceable electronic squiggles and ticks, peppered with rock n roll textures. Kind of Passion Pit-west, minus the helium-drenched nasally vocals. Before their new...
  • Golden Girls – ICICLE (Can’t Sleep)

    Just saw the new Marky Mark movie last week, The Fighter, and the soundtrack (you know, the one with the Breeders and White Snake) reminded me how badass the Massachusetts music scene is. There’s something about the Bay State that effortlessly mixes avant indie with beers-n-chipz metal. I don’t...
  • Kohwi – “rem”

    I met Cory Levinson of Kohwi at Glasslands Gallery during the 2010 CMJ Music Festival. The dude was wearing a bright-ass flourescent orange snow cap, so it was hard not to notice him. And when he took the stage early in the night (before some outstanding sets including Cool...
  • Loyal Divide – “Near Native”

    Before I moved to Chicago the band Loyal Divide loomed large in my mind as particularly impressive representatives of the local indie music scene- now I live in the Windy City fulltime, and Loyal Divide still looks like one of the best things going. The band takes two genres...
  • Hands & Knees – “Close Your Eyes”

    I caught Hands & Knees playing the back of Rosebud Diner in Somerville (MA), splitting a bill with Girlfriends. The stage was cramped between diner booths, pool tables, jukebox- the typical diner detritus- and the band sounded great against the ruby-red pleather backdrop. The Boston-based four-piece does a lot...
  • Beat Radio – “Golden Age”

    One of my favorite Kickstarter success stories lately has been the vinyl release of Beat Radio’s Golden Age. The gorgeous golden LP (that’s my personal copy at right) has all the jangly Americana pop wisdom QRO loved from the previous LP Safe Inside The Sound with a few extra...
  • Dinowalrus - Phone Home From the Edge

    Dinowalrus – “Phone Home From the Edge”

    When Brooklyn’s Dinowalrus came out with % (QRO review) at the beginning of 2010, the impressive slice of kraut/psych/rock/and more needed one thing: a single, as the band got a little too deep into the journey they were creating.  Well now, at the end of 2010, after adding Anton...
  • Keith Canisius - This Time It's Our High

    Keith Canisius – “The Beach House”

    On his latest album, American-born, Copenhagen-residing Keith Canisius develops a wash of electronics and melodies that swirl in harmony like a whirlpool with a force stronger than gravity. He combines shoegaze, bedroom dubstep, and psych-pop elements in a fury to give it a strongly magnetizing force worthy of an...
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