Artist Spotlight: Kyla La Grange
The raspy-voiced 27 yr old Kyla La Grange is a former Cambridge philosophy student who honed her chops singing during college open-mic nights. After releasing the singles “Walk Through Walls” and “Been Better” she signed on with Sony UK. Her debut full-length album Ashes was released on the 30th of July.
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Artist Spotlight: Yuna
Yuna, aka Yunalis Zarai, is a Malaysian singer-songwriter who rose to prominence after promoting herself via MySpace. After becoming very popular locally, she was signed to FADER’s music label out of New York and released an EP titled Decorate. Her full-length American debut was released in April of this year and she is currently touring.
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Artist Spotlight: Poliça
Formed only last year, Polica is made up of Gayngs members Channy Casselle and Ryan Olson, along with drummers Ben Ivascu and Drew Christopherson, and bassist Chris Bierden. They have one LP to their name, Give You the Ghost, which they mixed with Jim Eno (Spoon). Their songs would soundtrack graveyard dreams. You especially want to check out the single “Lay Your Cards Out”, which features Mike Noyce of Bon Iver.
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Artist Spotlight: Class Actress
Class Actress consists of Elizabeth Harper, a dramatic LA-based vocalist, and her appointed producers Scott Rosenthal and Mark Richardson. Together they serve up glitchy synthpop that sounds like they’ve got an 80s new wave time machine in the basement. Their debut 2011 LP was titled Rapprocher.
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Artist Spotlight: Alpine
Alpine (not to be confused with Alpines or the Alpine) are a band of six hailing from Melbourne, Australia. The ladies Phoebe and Lou share lead vocal duties. So far they have a 2010 EP titled Zurich, and their full-length debut album is said to be released later this year.
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Artist Spotlight: Sóley
Sóley Stefánsdóttir performs in both Seabear and Sin Fang, and has her own solo piano-pop project. The music she makes is both supple and hypnotic. So far she has released two albums, the 2010 EP Theater Island and last year’s We Sink.
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Artist Spotlight: Vanbot
Vanbot is Ester Ideskog, a biking synthesizer-loving Swedish pop musician. She writes the songs and Sebastian Forslund (Loney Dear, I Break Horses) produces them. She has one full-length self-titled LP under her belt, and her latest single, released in late Feburary, is “Got to Get Out”.
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Artist Spotlight: Lianne La Havas
Lianne La Havas is a young British singer-songwriter with an emotive voice and wonderful control. She sings over a lot of stripped-down, acoustic songs and wisely lets her vocal chops take center stage. She recently released an EP called Lost & Found, and also has a live EP you can legally download for free (I highly recommend it!) Her full-length debut album is coming in July; in the meantime she is touring and opening (by request of Justin Vernon) for Bon Iver.
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Artist Spotlight: Haim
Haim is a sister trio based in LA composed of Danielle (who has toured with Jenny Lewis and Julian Casablancas), Alana, and Este Haim. They began as a family band with their mom on guitar and their dad on drums, doing covers of various rock songs. Eventually the sisters decided to branch out on their own and experiment to develop their Blues/Folk/R&B sound. Their first release, Forever, was available for download in February of 2012 on their website which consists of the following 3 recommended songs.
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Artist Spotlight: Lissy Trullie
Elizabeth McChesney, better known by her stage name, Lissie Trullie, is a former model taking on the world of music. Her sound ranges from a mix of post-punk to upbeat pop. Trullie debuted her sound with her 2009 EP Self-Taugh Learner, and just this April she released her first full-length, self-titled album.
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Artist Spotlight: Sleep ∞ Over
Sleep ∞ Over is the project of Stefanie Franciotti based in Austin, TX. In 2010 it started out as a band consisting of 2 other members. They caught the attention of the label Night People who released their collection of demos as a self-titled EP on cassette. The debut album, Forever - a combination of lo-fi, electronic, witch house, and dream pop sounds - was released in September 2011.
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Artist Spotlight: Widowspeak
Widowspeak is headed by Molly Hamilton, whose voice has already been compared to the likeness of Hope Sandoval. Her songwriting style, however, is all her own. While she has a soft spoken stage presence, Hamilton draws you in with her enticing melancholy vocals, which are backed by the band’s multifaceted guitar lines. The band released their self-titled debut in August.
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Artist Spotlight: Frankie Rose
Frankie Rose is a former founding member of Dum Dum Girls, Vivian Girls, and occasionally provides drums and vocals for Crystal Stilts. In 2009, she began releasing solo material—single “Thee Only One” and the self-titled lo-fi/shoegaze/garage rock album in 2010 under the moniker Frankie Rose And The Outs. Dropping The Outs, she released the lo-fi/dream pop album, Interstellar, in February of 2012.
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Artist Spotlight: Little Scream
Little Scream, the moniker for Laurel Sprengelmeyer, is a multi-layered one woman band. Emerging into Montreal’s music scene, her first album The Golden Record, was released in 2011. Little Scream manages to mix folk, pop, and art rock into songs that vary from simple, acoustic numbers driven by her enticing lyrics to highly orchestrated ones, backed by her rotating band.
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Artist Spotlight: Veronica Falls
Veronica Falls is a lo-fi indie pop band from London. The music consists of Roxanne on guitar and lead vocals, with other members, Marion, James, and Patrick all providing backing vocals while playing their instruments, bass, guitar, and drums, respectively. Their self-titled debut album was released in September of 2011. “My Hear Beats”, a non-album single is to be released in April of 2012.
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