After a long layoff since 2007’s Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge, The Pierces are back with their latest EP, Love You More. Allison and Catherine Pierce continue with the songwriting excellence that made Thirteen Tales a cult classic amongst music lovers. The songs on the EP, which was just released in the U.S. after previously being available in the U.K. are solid reminders of what made the girls popular to begin with. The songs are catchy and punchy, especially…

Modern Skirts, a four-piece from Athens, GA, sure know to groove on a sick pop hook. Gramahawk, Modern Skirts’s latest album, drops today. It’s ten tracks of clattering cymbals, soaring synth and lilting lyrics. The devil really is in the details with Modern Skirts. They manage to produce thrillingly catchy songs that unfold, little by little, with each listen. A detail missed in the first listen will pop out in the next. Based on singer Jay Gulley’s bedroom demos, Gramahawk…

Orange County-based piano songstress Emily Simonian’s is one of the better debut EPs you are going to hear. The singer/songwriter has been carefully crafting Pale Green for some time and the result is one of the early surprises of 2011. Simonian has one of the best natural voices out there. Her songwriting plays to her strengths and on each track, she stays within herself and it sounds good.  With influences as singer/songwriter pop combined with jazz, or as she calls…

When the sun is shining on your day off, it's like a glorious pop song strewn with shimmering promises of long life and love. But not every day is a day off, and on a chilly Tuesday morning mid-January, you might consider Dust Congress' latest full length album Open Your Eyes, the World is Shit. I've seen them live several times, and each time I become more intrigued by the way their no-frills performances captivate audiences into silence. The instrumentation…