50. Purity Ring – Shrines

Purity Ring make Cocteau Twins­-style dream pop by way of Salem’s hard-hitting witchhouse on an album more notable for its smooth blending of related genres than for its actual songwriting, but they’ve got a sweet sound nonetheless.

 

 

49. Cold Showers – Love & Regret

Cold Showers’ short and sweet debut heralds the arrival of a great new L.A. band, beaming shoegaze guitars over darkwave synths and goth-style vocals. (Read my review of Cold Showers' show here.)

#1 Chromatics - Kill For Love
(Italians Do It Better)
I have been waiting for this album for 6 years! I was a huge fan of their last album in 2007. Both Night Drive by Chromatics and Beat Box by Glass Candy made it into my top 50 that year. That was also the first year of the Amoeblog and my first top 50 for Amoeba. Glass Candy will have a new album out in 2013. But in 2012 we got a brilliant new album by Chromatics. These guys are from the beautiful town of Portland. They have been around for about a decade. But really became a different kind of band back in 2007. Another perfect album of dreamy electronic love songs. These songs are seriously breathtaking and they make it seem so easy. These guys can do no wrong and always manage to create exactly what I need from them.
Listen to "At Your Door" by Chromatics...


#2 DIIV - Oshin
(Captured Tracks)
The band formerly know as Dive is now called DIIV. This was another album that I was highly anticipating this year. Captured Tracks has done it again this year and released another group of amazing albums. They had two albums in my top ten last year and they have two more in my top ten this year. DIIV is Brooklyn based Zachary Cole Smith of the band Beach Fossils. I actually like this project more than Beach Fossils. DIIV is exactly what I have come to expect from this label. This is shoegaze and dreampop in the year 2012. It brings me right back to the early 90s. I never really wanted to leave that period of music. So I am happy to revisit if often.

Back on Monday night, I checked out The Raveonettes’ show at The El Rey Theatre. Although I like their latest album, Observator, more than some critics did, I admit I mostly went to check out opener Melody’s Echo Chamber, my favorite new band of the moment. The young band came out quietly, two girls and two guys dressed in paisley apparel befitting their swirling psych sound, akin to Broadcast plugging in with Tame Impala, whose Kevin Parker produced their excellent self-titled record (as well as his own new album, the amazing Lonerism, seriously check out both of these albums now if you haven’t yet). They played most of their sole record, starting with standout “Endless Shore,” which reminds me of Lush as much as any other artist, putting them firmly in line with classic shoegazers. Even without a drummer, piping in those titanic drums found on the record, the quartet played through most of the record pretty flawlessly, once stopping a song when a loop didn’t come in right or something like that. While witnessing the music press try to make sense of this hot new band, I’ve realized that a lot of times describing a new female-fronted band becomes an exercise in naming other well-known female-fronted bands from the last 20 years — there are only so many, given the tendency for female artists to be presented as solo artists society’s favoring of male-fronted bands — and that tends to be limiting. Melody’s Echo Chamber are a very good band; they do sound a bit like Broadcast and Stereolab, and if you have a problem with that, you’re nuts.

Allah-Las – “Don’t You Forget It”
 
The natty L.A. lads in Allah-Las premiered a new track today called “Don’t You Forget It,” from their upcoming self-titled debut full-length, due from Innovative Leisure Sept. 18. Dig the way the drums come in halfway through and make the bonfire jam into a dance party. They’re on tour this fall with Nick Waterhouse, whose own Time’s All Gone came out earlier this year, and both will play FYF Sept. 1-2.










Dum Dum Girls – “Lord Knows”
 
I’m among those who will pause to listen any time San Diego’s Dum Dum Girls release music. So it’s with great joy that I hear “Lord Knows,” a knockout, mid-tempo ballad that shows lead singer Dee Dee’s growth as a songwriter over the bands couple of albums. The song will appear on the End of Daze EP, due in the fall.
 


 

The Deadly Syndrome – “Whatever Comes Our Way”
 
This first taste from Los Angeles’ The Deadly Syndrome’s third album, the self-released All in Time, due Aug. 7, sounds very L.A. — get up, go to work, traffic, in bed by 10. The song has a way of humanizing an increasingly inhuman existence. Maybe that’s just what I’m drawing from it, but for relatively unassuming indie rock, it’s pretty affecting.
 

The Deadly Syndrome - Whatever Comes Our Way from The Deadly Syndrome on Vimeo.

I have been patiently waiting for this new album by DIIV for the last couple of months. It is finally out this week! DIIV is the band formerly know as Dive. Dive released a couple of 7"s on Captured Tracks before deciding to change their name. DIIV is Zachary Cole Smith of Beach Fossils. I have loved almost everything Captured Tracks has released the last couple of years. However I didn't really fall for that Beach Fossils ablum like I did the others. I loved Craft Spells, Wild Nothing, Soft Moon & Blouse. Even though I did not love the Beach Fossils album I really do love this new DIIV album. I might need to go revisit the Beach Fossils. I am not alone I am sure in my love for DIIV. Billy already mentioned his love for it earlier this week on his blog.So I don't want to bore you too much with my endless love for all things Captured Tracks. But this new album does deserve your time. Any fan of all things jangly dream pop and shoe gaze will love this album. It came out on CD this week. The official regular LP will be out on 7/10. But at Amoeba Hollywood we just got some copies of the limited edition blue vinyl! We don't have that many left. So I suggest picking it up now if you want it. I do love that colored vinyl. I just like to take it home and stare at it.

Listen to "Doused" by DIIV from the new album Oshin...