Today's Hotness: Grown Ups, She Sir, E.R.

>> [PHOTO CREDIT: Ryan Bach] You don't need us to tell you one of the biggest stories in the musical underground this summer is the Cap'n Jazz reunion shows. But it is worth reminding indie rock fans that the seminal second-wave emo band's exuberant and angular style of indie rock has been embraced by many contemporary disciples. One such act is Chicago/Indiana-based emo superlatives Grown Ups, whose new full length More Songs is the maiden U.S. release of the rock-solid, U.K.-based label Big Scary Monsters. More Songs, which Big Scary Monsters released May 18, contains newly recorded versions of four songs from the band's 2009 Songs EP, alongside six brand new anthems. One of the new tracks, "Pears," began streaming a couple months ahead of the release of the new record, and the band's publicist has given us the exclusive go-ahead to post the track here. "Pears" surfaces from harsh feedback and sinewy, tangled guitar lines and blossoms into a composition that cycles through jitters and crescendos. It's a fist-pounding, crowd shouter. It's the summers of your youth in convenient pill form; if you are living through your youth now, well, turn this up.

Grown Ups' "Pears"
[buy More Songs from Big Scary Monsters right here]

>> Austin-based shoegaze geniuses She Sir disclosed here early this month that tracks from its jaw-dropping full-length debut Who Can't Say Yes and from its recently released Yens EP are being collected on a forthcoming set titled Ev'ry Thing In Paris. The material from She Sir's Who Can't Say Yes has been remastered, and Ev'ry Thing in Paris also contains a re-recorded version of the 2006 tune "You Can't Change A Thing." Sadly, the collection will initially be available only in Japan and Asia on Happy Prince Records, which releases the record July 14. A European release is in the works, and a limited number of copies of Ev'ry Thing In Paris will be set aside for sale to American fans, presumably through the Internerds. Japanese fans or those brave enough to try to buy something through a web site written mostly in Japanese will be able to buy the record from Nature Bliss right here. If you find that too daunting, don't despair: the entire thing has been posted for streaming at Last.FM right here. Make sure to click here to look at the sweet packaging.

>> Beatings co-fronter and solo rocker Eldridge Rodriguez returns this month with a new EP titled There's No Gray Area, No Middle Ground... You Are a Thief. The four-song release was recorded between sessions for The Beatings' triumphant sixth full-length Late Season Kids and the forthcoming E.R. full-length You Are Released. We've only listened to the EP a couple times so far, but fans are going to be very pleased. It's hard not to dub "They Do It In Spite Of Us" the hit of the EP, what with the lyrics concerning monkeys throwing feces, and the giddy piano and (we presume, faux) maniacal strings. Great stuff. Midriff Records releases There's No Gray Area, No Middle Ground... You Are a Thief June 29.