Grimey NYC post-punks Young Boys prescribe an enticing dose of new wave inspired synth rock with their latest, “Love Hits”. The band’s aticipated debut LP, New York Sun drops February 26th via Holloweyed Records. Here’s one for your radar.
Young Boys – Love HitsYoung Boys 
(Facebook)
Rating 8.1
Team b3’s favorite crust merchants Dinosaur Jr. are hitting the road in the UK later this month. Along with the tour announcement, the band are releasing a further single from last year’s very nice I Bet on Sky LP, “Don’t Pretend You Didn’t Know”. The new single stays relatively tight to the typical D Jr. lane with maybe a bit more reliance on tighter song structures and syncopations.
Dinosaur Jr. UK Tour Dates: (If you’re not in Manchester or Leeds, sucks.)
Jan 30 Glasgow – Arches SOLD OUT
Jan 31 Leeds – Leeds University Stylus
Feb 1 Manchester – Ritz
Feb 2 Brighton – Concorde SOLD OUT
Feb 3 Bristol – Fiddlers Club SOLD OUT
Feb 4 London Electric Ballroom (NME Awards show) SOLD OUT
Dinosaur Jr. 
(Official)
Rating 8.104
Moodgadget labelmates Foxes in Fiction and Benoit Pioulard connect on the sweeping “Ground Glass”. The track, part of a limited 7″ being released by Wool Recordings, combines the two principal’s love for blending traditional pop song structures and field recorded sounds. The results of the collaboration, as evident here by the dreamy otherworldly warmth of “Ground Glass” are next level. “Ground Glass” is some of the most beautiful music we’ve heard thusfar this year.
Foxes in Fiction + Benoît Pioulard – Ground GlassFoxes In Fiction 
(Facebook)
Benoît Pioulard 
(Soundcloud)
Rating 8.4
“So Good At Being In Trouble”, from the band’s forthcoming II LP due in February, is a pleasant R&B-informed reminder of what made the b3 squad fall in love UMO in the first place. The song is pleasant, yeah, like you could probably put this track on for your daughter, your mom, and your grandmother but there’s both a visceral clarity and a bit of a melancholic quality that underlie it. That sort pleasant/somber juxtaposition certainly isn’t a new trick but on “So Good At Being In Trouble”, it feels so perfectly pulled off.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra 
(Facebook)
Rating 8.5
One the music blogosphere’s original blog rock darlings Southern California’s Cold War Kids return with a definite upside surprise in new track “Miracle Mile”. “MM” amounts to a bit of stylistic deviation for CWK with its four-on-the-floor beat and heavily harmonized chorus intervals; new ground for a band that has made some kind of formula out of singular beefy warbles on top of waves upon waves of syncopations.
Cold War Kids – Miracle MileCold War Kids 
(Official)
Rating 8.3
LULU Londoners fire another winner into the UK indie ether with latest track “Never Let It Go”. Replete with sweeping choruses, anthemic riffs, and enough bounce to keep you interested “Never Let It Go” is another terrific step forward for LULS.
LULS – Never Let It GoLULS 
(Soundcloud)
Rating 8.1045
Minneapolis band Diver Dress’ self-described brand of “lo-fi reverbed-out weirdness” is indeed right up our alley. The band have a cool new 5 song 7-inch out which you can stream HERE. And although our choice track from the project, “Untitled 2”, doesn’t have a titled name; we here at b3sci are always up for taking a liberty or two and so we’re just going go ahead and call the track what for what it is, “Totally Fucking Awesome”.
Diver Dress – Untitled 2Diver Dress 
(Facebook)
Rating 8.0
If we could marry Jagjaguwar we most definitely would. The Indiana-based label’s record is virtually spotless; Sharon Van Etten, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Small Black AND The Besnard Lakes. The potent, focused, gorgeous haze of Besnard Lakes has made the Montreal band big favorites among the b3 crew. “People of the Sticks”, the band’s latest from their upcoming Until in Excess, Imperceptible UFO LP finds TBL dabbling in slightly more muscular more syncopated rhythm and song structures; a stylistic change the band acquits themselves of quite well.
The Besnard Lakes – People of the SticksBesnard Lakes (Official)
Rating 8.1
Punk rockers now turned 80’s-informed dark poppers Merchandise fire off a powerful salvo for the Tampa indie scene with their latest track, the excellent Cult-esque “Anxiety’s Door”.
Merchandise 
(Official)
Rating 8.4
I’d barely heard of Palma Violets until a few months ago when NME Magazine touted them as one of the best new UK bands. By the time NME’s Top Tracks of 2012 was published, “Best Of Friends” was #1 with all of the usual suspects. The band is known for frenetic live shows, and the verdict so far is that this band is for real. You can see Palma Violets live version of “Tom the Drum” below, as played on the BBC’s Jools Holland show. Get ready for these guys to invade shores stateside. You can catch them at SXSW this March. By Bruce Rave
Palma Violets — Best of Friends (Official)
* Check out more from Bruce Rave at his ‘Go Deep’ blog here and be sure follow Bruce on Twitter.
There’s a timeless menace to the Black Soul EP from Gayze. Besides being recorded at a supposed haunted house in seclusion since the 1930s, and with a makeshift studio, the release is as substantave in melody and song as it is garage and grit. We’ll let “Ain’t It Brave” serve as just one example. You can check out more from Gayze here.
Gayze – Ain’t It BraveGayze 
(Bandcamp)
Rating 8.0
UK band As Elephants Are ready sophomore single “Youth Blood”. “Lucifer”, the b/w “Youth Blood” is being given away for free by the band to mark the new single’s release. The excellent “Lucifer” is built on a sort of Slowdive meets Explosions in the Sky meets modern UK indie pop sound of dramatic percussion swells, delayed tremolo guitars and vocalist Ben Stratford Bombay Bicycle Club-esque croon. Give it a spin and see what you think below.
As Elephants Are – LuciferAs Elephants Are (Facebook)
Rating 8.2
