Pure pop innocence is sweeping the Midwest (i.e. Mod Lang, Sharp Pins, Soup Activists) and direct from Indy, it's the Good Flying Birds, perhaps the most beloved group of the latest jingle-jangle boom. Good Flying Birds initially began as a recording project for guitarist-vocalist Kellen Baker, but has since evolved into a group over the last year with the current lineup including Susie Slaughter (tambourine, vox), Ari Bales (drums), Luke Corvette (guitar), and Jake Kelly (bass). At its best,...

When we last caught up with Maraudeur, they'd just dropped  Puissance 4 , a jagged, kitchen-sink post-punk record that proved the Swiss-French group had no interest in playing it straight. Three years later, they're back with its follow-up Flaschenträger  (Feel It Records), a live-wired batch of tunes tracked in a Geneva basement and played with the precision that still goes against the current. What started as a solo 4-track experiment has morphed into a six-piece collective spread across...

Direct from Portland, Cruise Control have been making waves this year with both a new record on the Curation camp (Uni Boys, Beachwood Sparks) and recent tour stops alongside Mod Lang and Thee Sharp Pins. On their latest LP  Time Is An Angel , the quartet of Izzy Dupuis (guitar, vox), Lee Butterfield (guitar, vox), Tim Kam (bass, vox), and Penny Olives (drums) channel golden-hour country jangle that's equal parts charm, hard-driving energy, and melodic pop rock 'n' roll intuition brims...