shoegaze

With their drum-machine-powered, infectious fuzzed-out goth, Black Math bring to mind the Jesus and Mary Chain (or, if you ask them, Siouxsie and the Banshees), but with more layers to pick apart. Xina’s vocals float like the open sky above dark clouds, and she plays the cello! Jimmy’s synth and sharp drum patterns bring a shadowy dark-wave element, while Andrew’s wall-of-sound guitar harkens back to the aforementioned 1980s shoegazers.

Some boys in Florida making beautiful pop songs. Their sound can be described like Stone Roses taking trip through time with the time machine ending up in swinging '60s. If you like the sound of The Clientele, Beachwood Sparks, The Tyde, Talulah Gosh, Stars, you're in the right place. These Americans are the other sons of Sarah Records, with a sound clearly influenced by Field Mice, or even very similar to contemporary bands such as Air France. Shelflife and has signed for 2009. http://www.myspace.com/horseshoesmusic

Formed in Santa Barbara in 1988, the black watch have released 13 CDs of highly literary, catchy indiepop; as Andy Gill of Gang of Four recently said in The Independent UK, "Los Angeles has not produced a band like this in a long time; they have, in singer/songwriter John Andrew Fredrick, an artist capable of both My Bloody Valentine miasma AND Nick Drake quietness. Pity that they are relying on a tiny label out of Dorset UK to get their latest fine CD, "the hypnotizing sea," heard."

A collective of Blue Mountains folk who record psychedelic music together. Their first ep is available here: http://wheat-fields.bandcamp.com/album/heaven-is-a-place-where-nothing-ever-happens-7