High fives all around! Let’s get stoked for summer! Its really close! Here in LA we’re currently experiencing what they call ‘earthquake weather’. Honestly, I’m not sure what that is. Is it weather that rocks? If so, then Batwings Catwings are the perfect sound for the season. (Thats like a terrible dad joke, isn’t it?) Anyway, born from the ashes of two other LA bands, Puppy Dog and TPF!, this troupe is fierce and friendly, punk and refined, happy and angry and all those contradictions that add up to the rock n’ roll spirit.

Batwings Catwings – Gold to Black

These guys used to be on meth or pcp or something and must have opted for a more chemical solution to kicking the old habit, cuz they have been on the slo-road to sloop-gaze for a few years now. Their latest is slicker than ever, and the spell cast will make its way up your vulnerable spine with ease. Slime bubble toms and gurgling tadpole vocals are ready to seduce you into the murk. Wear scuba gear. Knight Rider love you on glug side of the bloodbow.

Knight Rider – Advanced Talking

Canadians are not known for their anger, but Montreal must be a tough place to live or something. The home of AIDS Wolf now has spawned another intense fuck-you band for you to love but never tame. Dead Wife. Are they your friends or will they make you cry in public? Oh wait, maybe these kids are just having fun?!!?! In any case, you get what you deserve. Try to enjoy it and be thankful they gave you anything at all.

Dead Wife – Gentlemen Rapist

If you want to hear more, their new 7″ is on Psychic Handshake / No Vacation. And the sweet drawing of the band by Lisa Czech.

Just to make sure you are fully rocked out for summer, here is an epic fizzer from No Age. Everything you know them for, distant dreamscapes, uplifting currents, and punk peace twirls all exist here in a single gentle hurricane. This track was released a couple years ago as a split cassette w/ Abe Vigoda (like two cute otters holding hands) on the Deathbomb Arc Tape Club. Long OOP, this track is too awesome for people not to hear. So not hear it no longer.

No Age – Brett Shultz Himself

HEALTH are playing one out of three dates in Brighton tonight, and the mighty Cold Pumas support. 20jazzfunkgreats shall we playing some records in between the shows. Get down to Audio, it’s going to be one of the shows of the year. More info here.

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Some lovely sounds from Los Angeles this time, both of the ragamuffin sort and the prim and proper. Although both camps represent a distinctly working class, far beyond Hollywood, urban pop mentality.

The duo that suddenly demands love after years of screaming awkwardly in your face is Knight Rider. While these dudes usually don’t present an aesthetic so close to their namesake, this pimped out smoothin is still creepy enough with the falsetto vocals and “look at my sick flowing pants” faux harpsichord sounds. Perfect for scaring away blind dates or even worse? I did hear of these guys first through Erin Allen of Child Pornography.

Just saying. LA rulez.

Knight Rider – I Love You

On the other hand, if you grow up in Hawthorn (the extremely industrial city that the Beach Boys grew up in) it is nice to know that you can be a smooth operator as well. Although, in this case, it is much more of the cutesy kind. Since I love derogatory descriptions of music I love, this one by We are Dios is like Beach Boys meet Coldplay. So romantic, and without an ounce of irony. Just the type of ish that the ladies like, and apparently me as well. I’d let these dreamy sounds woo me any day.

We Are Dios- Epileptic Tunnel Visions

Doods aren’t the only ones stealing my heart these days though. The most played album around my house these days is Tammy by 0th. Ladies from San Francisco that do the seduction thing way more evolved and way more f’d up than the dudes. The Slits in a K hole? Metalux without all the weed? 70′s avant rock vibe with virtuoso bass, slow-tribe drums, and all the psychedelia to keep it in the brain stew we love.

0th-Flutterfingers

Not all love is the tender kind though. There is a little American thing we cherish called “tough love” and no one dishes it out better than your own homophobic, black hearted daddy. Father’s Day from Phoenix are a hardcore band focused entirely on being bad dads that hate their wives and kids but for some reason sing their hearts out about it. Their first music video ends in an epic scary shot of front man and mastermind Ryan Avery (a west coast punk hero) letting you know with his eyes just how disappointed he is in you. Take that one to bed and cry on it. No supper.

Click here to view the embedded video.