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On August 14th singer-songwriter Jillette Johnson releases the smoldering and passionate debut EP Whiskey & Frosting (Wind-up Records). It's an intimate and boldly emotional five-song collection of stately pop from a unique and unflinchingly honest artist. Johnson's commitment to her distinct vision is thorough and uncompromising, from her willingness to explore the raw and controversial in her lyrics, to her unwillingness to give into tempting hot ticket-career opportunities. Johnson audaciously declined a high-exposure spot on the television talent show The Voice to keep her creative autonomy. "I realized those paths would be inauthentic to me. I know how to write my own music, and I want a say in my career," Johnson explains.

Whiskey & Frosting is one of those rare and revelatory debuts where you experience a young songwriter with a highly mature sense of artistic self. The NYC-based singer-piano player wrote all the songs on the EP, and her upcoming album. The piano-based songs unfold with honeyed drama and grandeur, showcasing Johnson's soaring vocals which manage to both be comforting and spiritually rousing. "Two of my favorite things are whiskey and frosting," Johnson says laughing. "The title came directly from an impromptu birthday party with friends where I ate the frosting off cupcakes and drank whiskey. I was telling my producers about the night when I realized how similar those two things were to my writing style. I don't write happy songs without some melancholy feelings in there. I like to paint an entire emotional picture.

There is depth, sorrow, and overly sweet tones. Many of the songs are about living as a young person in New York City, living irresponsibly and exploring consequences." The bravely vulnerable "Cameron" explores the struggle of a transgendered person and transpires a universal anthem for staying true to oneself. Johnson sings: Cameron's in drag, makes his father mad / Since he was a little boy / He always felt more comfortable in lipstick / These days the world is full of aliens / The world is full of aliens, but you are a human / You're not an alien / You are a real live human / Aren't you, Cameron? At its fundamental core, "Cameron" is about making tough choices to be authentic; a definite thematic thread in Johnson's life. . "I didn't know I was going to write about a transgendered boy, the words just came out and I thought, 'Oh, this is about someone trying be someone they don't appear to be,'" she reveals. "There is a sensation I get when I want to create. I have energy coursing through my veins, and I just let my hands fall and run with it. I don't always know the initial reference point, but then I go back and make sense of what I'm saying. It's pure subconscious inspiration and relentless editing. 'Cameron' ended up being inspired by a transgendered kid I'm close with, but the song also captures the need to feel at home in your own skin." Jillette Johnson got signed to Wind-up on the strength of "Cameron." "That song was a turning point. Talent makes people notice you, but songs bring people to action," she figures.

Inking a deal was the culmination of many years of steadfast pursuit of her ideals and her dream to be a professional musician. "I was convinced by the age of 4 I was going to be a rock star," she says with a smile. At 6 Johnson began taking piano lessons, and by 8 she was writing her own songs. Her formative influences were the Les Misérables Soundtrack and artists such as Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Carole King, and Sarah McLachlan. "I learned song structure from those beautifully articulate songwriters. Joni said so much with quirky lyrics, Carole had a way of simplifying-those two parallels formed me as a lyricist."

At 18 she left her small town of Pound Ridge, New York, population 4,000, to move to NYC's vibrantly creative Loho neighborhood. From 12-18 she had been making migratory visits to soak up the city's buzzing inspiration, but her move cemented a creative relationship between her youth, the city, and her soulful compositions. The EP also features highlights like the elegant and stirring "When The Ship Goes Down," and the buoyant and heartfelt "Torpedo." "Pauvre Coeur" juxtaposes gorgeously spare classical-flavored piano against bluntly confessional lyrics about a dried up romantic relationship. It's one of the most arresting moments on the EP. Here Johnson sings: If I recall it was a Friday / Gentle hum before the war / You were high and watching poker / And I had just walked in the door / You started screaming at the TV / Saying, make a play you filthy whore / And I was trying to make you see me / Like the way you did before. "I wrote that from a perspective of strength. I haven't been in a lot of relationships-the longest has been my music career. Music comes first, anything that got in the way suffered. This was about my first serious adult relationship. It became emotionally abusive as it reached the end, and I lost myself. When I rediscovered myself, I found the strength to leave," she reveals.

The EP and the upcoming album, were produced by Peter Zizzo, widely respected for developing Vanessa Carlton and Avril Lavigne, and Michael Mangini, esteemed for his work with Joss Stone, Bruce Hornsby, and David Byrne. The duo's innate understanding of Johnson's singular vision, and respect for her fully-formed compositions helped them enhance the power and dynamics of the music. "They maintained the spirit of the songs-they still are a 100% my songs-they're just turned way up on the amp," she says. Reflectively, Jillette Johnson says: "I have a specific point of view and I follow my instincts. My sensibility has been in tune with my emotions. I'm always honest with what I feel. I'm passionate with my songs to a fault."

For the last five years The Mo-Odds have been one of the sweatiest, nakedest, rawest, and funnest rock n' roll acts in Los Angeles County. The band christened their signature sound in their first demo Los Angeles Rock and Roll, a no-nonsense garage release with roots in the punk and soul that has been worrying parents and shaking hips for six decades.

The LA Weekly describes The Mo-Odds as, "equal parts fuzz and soul, drunkenly crash-landing somewhere between the high-energy Detroit rock of the Bell-Rays and the high-personality Detroit R&B of the Gories."  Owl Mag describes the Mo-Odds as "chaotic, dirty, dangerous, nasty, and alive." Mainstays of the Silverlake Jubilee Festival, their over-the-top shows earned them a reputation.

The Mo-Odds' Soto was Produced, Engineered and Mixed by Eric Palmquist (Aloe Blacc, Wavves, and No Age), and Mastered by Pete Lyman at Infrasonic Studios in Los Angeles. Together they have crafted a 4 song EP that has housebroken the signature frantic energy of the band with a tight studio sound based around big vocals and sharp woodwinds.

When people say 'they're good live, I just wish they had a recording that sounded like it', pretty sure this is what they mean. From the immediately catchy riffs of It's My Heart to the infectious rhythms of Lights Go Out to the confrontational lyrics and unrestrained vocal delivery of Smoke & Fog; with equal measure energy and fidelity, this is The new Mo-Odds, Soto.

Everything about Canadian power-duo Indian Handcrafts seems to defy possibilities: a two piece that's louder than a hundred bands, kicking out one of the year's most riff-rollicking albums that was recorded while the guitarist had a broken hand! They're two friendly, soft-spoken Canadian guys sounding like the Funkadelic Mothership crash landing on top of the Planet Caravan in Interstellar Overdrive.

Indian Handcrafts' well honed, massive melodic heft seems to belie the simplicity of instrumentation between drummer/vocalist Brandyn James Aikins and guitarist/vocalist Daniel Brandon Allen. While their songs feature hints of heavy, technically skilled bands like Big Business, Hella and Tweakbird, there are also strong melodies and a vocal intensity inviting comparisons to artists ranging from Death From Above 1979 to Jack White. Top that all off with a rhythmic groove reminiscent of a hybrid of ZZ Top's Tres Hombres and Funkadelic's Standing On The Verge of Getting It On and it's clear that Indian Handcrafts are much, much more than the sum of their parts.

Bursting out of Barrie, Ontario this pair of charming gentlemen immediately impacted the world with a self-released 8-song debut album in 2011. Cathy Pellow of Sargent House quickly took notice and signed the band on to management and the label. Shortly thereafter, Civil Disobedience For Losers was recorded in Los Angeles with Kasai and featuring special guest appearances by Melvins drummers Dale Crover and Coady Willis. Even with such superfriends assisting the proceedings, Indian Handcrafts prove their own exceptional strengths throughout the album.

"The doctor said if you go and record that's your problem if it gets worse," Allen explains of recording with a broken hand. "It was a little painful some days, but because of being there in the surroundings it was easy to get around that. It healed fine." Overall, the duo says the recording came together very quickly under Kasai's guidance, but it's the bond between Aikins and Allen that gives Indian Handcrafts its lean, ferocious personality. "We first started this band when playing in another band that was pissing us off," Aikins says. "We were the two who always got along. I can't ever see us having anyone else in the band. Unless Toshi played tambourine."

All Hail Bright Futures could be taken as both an ethos for the album and the band at this point in time. There is a new color scheme in place: new textures, emotions, sounds and voices. The 12-track, 43 minute album is dominated by a sunnier disposition, a positive uplift that more closely matches the euphoria the Northern Ireland trio has been instilling in audiences through their music in a live setting for the last five years.

There are moments of tropical guitar pop ("Rats On Rock"), percussive bleeping song foundations paired with infectious vocals ("The Stay Golden"), a trumpet arrangement ("Young Brave Minds"), an orchestral interlude ("Trails"), singalong mantras ("Big Things Do Remarkable"), harmonic hooks ("Like A Mouse"), a flute melody ("Mend And Make Safe") along with cutup vocals and handclaps ("Ka Ba Ta Bo Da Ka"). All of these new additions to the ASIWYFA sound are underpinned by their trademark guitar riffs that bliss the musical brain, complemented by the colossal and increasingly expressive rhythm section that comforts as much as it bludgeons.

Continuing the unparalleled pace at which they've been touring for over five years now, ASIWYFA have taken their uplifting sound to places other bands could only imagine. Since the release of 2011's second album Gangs (also on Sargent House), the band have added China, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus to their already considerably stamped passports. As well as these far-flung, seldom played places, the band have gigged all over North America and Europe, bringing their total show tally close to 500.

A band can't play 500 shows worldwide without a fanbase and ASIWYFA have a legion. And you can't build a legion of fans across the world without great songs. Gangs earned the band a second Choice Music Prize nomination for Irish Album of The Year 2012 and they recently signed to Sargent House worldwide (home to Omar Rodriguez Lopez, Boris, Fang Island, Chelsea Wolfe and more) for management and label -- which will release the band's third album All Hail Bright Futures in March 2013.

All Hail Bright Futures is ASIWYFA's first recording done as a three-piece following the departure of Tony Wright. The band will head back out on the road as a four piece with their new full time member Niall Kennedy. The album was recorded with Rocky O' Reilly at Start Together Studio in Belfast. It is their boldest statement yet, an album bursting with a positive vigor that states a renewed case for a magnetizing band at their best.

Ignoring the cliched trappings of antiqued rural fetish that seem to make tired the modern folk movement, and the urban love-fest which holds the majority of indie-culture enwrapt, Frontier Ruckus instead celebrates and insulates itself within a world that is obsessively suburban- childhoods realistic and recent enough to remain vividly smoldering with intense memory and graphic personal mythology. The world of oversized 90s obsolescence, pinning down weighty love and familial weirdness-elephantine copy machines in the home offices of the briefly affluent parents of grade-school friends, VHS cassettes rotting sun-bleached on early bedroom shelves, tragic birthday parties, aggressive soccer coaches, grandmothers' oxygen tanks and daytime-TV-time crosswords, porn stashes found behind Taco Bells.

Defender 1 was created out of late night recording sessions at the Belafonte Research Center. Dylan Silvers left the conventional practice space to dig deep into his comic book and film influenced roots in order to create a comprehensive narrative that's much larger than just the music. Inviting Hightower to join once things were in motion to add his unique style of bass playing that the songs needed, and filmmaker Ryan Hartsell to help bring the songs to life in cinematic form. The music ended up picking up where Dylan's former band [DARYL] left off in its early synth driven noise pop haze it created in 1999-2004.

After sending rough mixes to friend and producer Dave Trumfio (Wilco, Built to Spill, Granddaddy) of The Pulsars, Dave immediately became interested in helping Silvers finish Defender 1, becoming a 3rd studio member in the process. Silvers went to L.A. in the spring of 2012 to finish up additional tracking, mixing and a bottle of Gusano Rojo's finest Mezcal with Dave at his Chateau Studio.

Silvers has always had a affinity for analog keyboards, the 77 punk scene, and noisy Pixiesesque / Kevin Shields guitar feedback swirl. Defender 1 blends those 3 key elements seamlessly with simple infused analog beats and repetitious pop hooks. Adding Silvers raw yet melodic vocals to make this unmistakably his own, Silvers wields the early post punk energy of bands like the Police, The Clash, Missing Persons, Joy Division, but is also very influenced by the art and production of Brian Eno's ambient undertones and films such as Tron, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Crow, Batman, The Watchmen, and artists like Alan Moore, Frank Miller, and John Mueller.

Going beyond just the music, These Machines Are Winning takes on a full emersion of creative expression combining narrative film making, photography, and graphic art. The goal is to create a mythos that encourages further exploration of the material. Silvers draws lyrically from this concept, teaming up with long time friend Ryan Hartsell To shoot, direct and co-create with Silvers this comic vision. having the first two cinematic videos out of their four part mini series completed for Defender 1, taking their vigilantes to new extremes.

After forming Wampire, Rocky Tinder and Eric Phipps steadily began to make a name for themselves in the same Portland, OR, scene that has produced labelmates STRFKR as well as Unknown Mortal Orchestra.

It makes sense, then, that Wampire came to Polyvinyl's attention when the duo opened for STRFKR at a hometown Portland show and that UMO's bassist Jacob Portrait produced Wampire's debut full-length, Curiosity.

The choice of Portrait was a natural one, with both Tinder and Phipps believing he'd be able to contribute almost as much to the record as they would.

And so, in mid-August Tinder and Phipps each brought fragments of song ideas into the studio, before deconstructing, re-arranging, and fitting them back together piece by piece -- at times lyrics and melodies were thrown out, brought back from the dead, or improvised on the spot.

This loosely structured approach made the process truly collaborative, with producer Portrait occasionally chipping in ideas for lyrics, arrangements, and instrumentation. The resulting nine tracks are instantly memorable, while defying easy categorization. Says Phipps, "We realized the record began to stray away from having a 'sound' and gradually became a platter with an assortment of sounds. The record showcases a flavor we haven't quite dug into before."

The album's diverse combination of sounds ultimately helped give birth to its title, Curiosity -- a word that invokes the listener's wonder at what will greet their ears next, while also describing the overall curious tone the record possesses. First single, "The Hearse" serves as the perfect introduction for those unfamiliar with the band -- its opening notes swelling instantly with electronic organs over a driving drum beat. By the time bass and vocals kick in, you're already hooked.

Elsewhere, "Orchards" weaves an infectiously breezy melody on the strength of vocal harmonizing, tuneful whistling, and undulating guitar lines. In some cases, Wampire's unique rhythms are best described by the band members, as with "Trains," a Motown-meets-Strokes track that Tinder perfectly summarizes like so: "It's sexy, sounds huge, and by all means should be blamed for future babies."

The album concludes with the equally sensual "Magic Light," a song centered around a dark seductive bass groove that sets the tone for Phipps' come-hither lyrics. It's the kind of track that draws you ever further into the record's beguiling clutches, leaving a lasting impression that remains well after its final notes have faded out.

Brighton based Fear of Men is set to release a compilation of singles on marbled vinyl 12" and as a digital set under the title "Early Fragments" on February 12, 2013 via Brooklyn based indie Kanine Records. To date, Fear of Men has released singles on various UK labels, and they are excited to have their first release in the US, to be followed by their first live appearances (including SXSW).

About Fear of Men: Fear of Men, born of an art school project, has turned into one of the most promising bands of 2013. Drawing their inspiration from art and philosophy, Fear of Men deliberately juxtaposes iconic museum imagery and lyrical themes of loneliness and fragmentation with buoyant pop melodies.

While studying for a Fine Art & History of Art degree, Jessica Weiss (vocals + guitar) was exhibiting some of her home recordings of ambient soundtracks to short films when these recordings caught the attention of Daniel Falvey (guitar). The two began swapping mix tapes and started a friendship based on a shared love of melody and an eclectic mix of artists such as The Chills, Grouper, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Magnetic Fields, and The Byrds, ultimately leading to the start of a more pop-focused project which they called Fear of Men.

Starting out, the duo recorded their music on a 4-track and transferred it onto their laptops, which Jess would then use as part of her degree work. They uploaded their songs to bandcamp and immediately caught the attention of UK blogs. Enlisting the help of friends to play drums and bass, Fear of Men approached DIY promoters and immediately began playing live shows.

Fear of Men, completed by Michael Miles (drums) and Robyn Edwards (bass), began releasing singles on DIY and independent UK labels and capturing the attention of Pitchfork, NME, Gorilla vs. Bear, Stereogum, The Fader, Drowned in Sound and topping the Hype Machine charts. For a wider introduction into North America, Fear of Men is releasing "Early Fragments" a reverse chronological collection of their previous single releases, many of which were only available in Europe on limited edition 7" and cassette pressings.

Fans of Broadcast and Julie Doiron will instantly gravitate toward Jess' tender vocals and melodies. The songs are beguilingly sweet while the lyrics are often bleakly nihilistic, meaning that you'll find yourself singing along to these intelligent, well-crafted pop songs while unwittingly sinking deeper into Fear of Men's world.

From its inception, Valleys has been always changing. From the quiet and exploratory preliminary years to the stormy experimentation of recent works, the duo has always had one foot in the pop realm and the other in the dirt. Are You Going To Stand There And Talk Weird All Night? is the result of a year's worth of writing through unexpected loss and spiritual recovery. Working with meditative and spatial elements, Valleys aims to blur the lines between noise, melody, repetition and space results in a dark, mysterious and cinematic quality to their sound.
Recorded and co-produced by Alec "Orson Presence" Dippie from the legendary British post punk group The Monochrome Set, "Are You Going To Stand There And Talk Weird All Night?" is to be released on Kanine Records this spring.

Libraries is the collective faults of Tommy Kitrick and Justin Chillington, 2 young bros who can Bruce Willis a beat and use it to blow the roof off a skyscraper. Their shared music tastes resulted in them forming a duo as they partied and bullshitted their way through 2010. Almost 2 years later, Libraries are wired to smash like global-warming fueled Wilmington waves. Their talents run the full gamut for modern electronic musicians: producing and recording original tracks, remixing other artists, and banging out powerful live performances.