Today's Hotness: Young Adults, Yuck

>> There is a new, noisy Boston-based indie rock band out there. OK, there are like 10,000 of those, newly minted just about every September. But fledgling post-punk trio Young Adults -- only in its fifth month of band-ness -- is building a profile on the back of a demo recorded with Dan Gonzalez at Boston's Esthudio in January. To borrow a phrase from our beloved Varsity Drag, the Young Adults demo sounds a bit like it was recorded in a metal shipping container, but the scritchy, swaggering tracks shine through a low-hanging haze of white noise and reverb because of undeniable melodies and infectious energy. Actually, to say "shine through" suggests that the white noise and reverb are an impediment, but in fact the opposite is true -- not unlike as with the great Minneapolis duo Red Pens we wrote about here last month. Young Adults was cool enough to let us offer an MP3 from the demo, so below you will find the tune "Annulation." The band has two shows coming up in the next several weeks, which shows you can read more about at the band's MySpace dojo right here.

Young Adults -- "Annulation" -- Demo 2010
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>> We've got It's Getting Boring By The Sea to thank for introducing us to Yuck, although we don't have a lot of hard information to share about the band. We think it is a duo, as we've seen photos including either a guy or a gal. And we think that they are based in London, although the band's MySpace shack helpfully also offers New Jersey and Hiroshima as possible locales as well. There are three Yuck tunes rapidly winding their way through the internerds like a burning fuse right now: a spare piano ballad titled "Automatic;" the flanneldenimcigarettesSSTsoggyweekend strummer "Sunday," which is a jangly revelation; and the uptempo, tambourine-appointed rocker "Georgia," which suggests a steady diet of Yo La Tengo and Teenage Fanclub. The latter track will be released as part of a split single March 15 by Transparent Records; the single will be limited to 300 copies and is Transparent catalog number TP11. We haven't a clue how you order/pre-order the "Georgia" split single, but we expect if you refresh the Transparent MySpace page enough times a buy link will appear at some point. To help you maintain what should be a very substantial level of excitement about Yuck, we're posting the version of "Sunday" we scored from It's Getting Boring By The Sea.

Yuck -- "Sunday" -- Demo
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[keep clicking this link until you can figure out how to pre-order the "Georgia" split, then buy it]

Today's Hotness: Red Pens, Calories, The Labor Daze

>> Delightful Minneapolis-based noise pop duo Red Pens have it, and they are about to share it, and it is great. The act's full-length debut Reasons has a high anthem quotient and is packed with fizzing pop songs constructed out of drums, guitar and vocals. And then the whole shebang is swathed in dense, "Sister Ray"-ish fuzz. And while using The Velvet Underground as a reference point these days has sort of lost all meaning (ditto for Sonic Youth and The Beatles: virtually meaningless, people), it isn't entirely off-base either. Red Pens' limited personnel -- the band is guitarist and lead vocalist Howard W. Hamilton III and drummer Laura Bennett -- imbues its songs with the sort of primitive vibe of certain Velvets material. A fleshy embrace of grimy distortion, smart vocals and blissful melodies also recalls The Manhattan Love Suicides, for those of you hip to the now sadly defunct Leeds noiseniks. Album opener "Hung Out" is a clear winner, and we're sharing the track below. We also highly recommend the brooder "Weekends," which is slotted midway through the record and touts a big dynamic chorus. Reasons will be issued by Grain Belt Records Feb. 18; it appears the set was previously released in one form or another Sept. 15, 2009.

Red Pens -- "Hung Out" -- Reasons
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[buy Reasons from Grain Belt Records right here]

>> A helpful commenter points us to pre-order information for the forthcoming split single from Calories and William, which is slated for release Feb. 8. As big Calories fans, and as especially big fans of the Birmingham, England indie rock trio's tune "Drink The Potion," it is their side of the single we are primarily excited about. In addition to "Drink The Potion," Calories' plane also includes the track "Mortal Boys;" William's tunes are "Dilettante" and "Lustreless." The split is being issued by Tough Love in a limited edition of 500, and it is apparently the label's second in a series of double A-sided singles. According to the Piccadilly Records pre-order page for the single, William apparently sounds like 1/3 D. Boon, 1/3 straightedge and 1/3 Stinson brothers, which sounds incredibly enticing to us. Pre-order the single here.

>> Peppy, North Jersey-based indie foursome The Labor Daze is the latest act to send us a surprisingly good unsolicited submission. The band's five song Laika EP overcomes opaque production with solid songwriting somewhat reminiscent of the now sadly defunct, Michigan-based indie pop geniuses Rain Is Wet. Laika succeeds with its earlier, scritchier tunes "Introduction" and "Whitebread Standard," but slumps a bit when The Labor Daze delves into the heavier riffage elsewhere. It's probably too early in the band's career for it to have fixed on a signature sound, so it is anybody's guess whether the lighter pop will triumph over the cockier material in the long run; more optimistically, perhaps The Labor Daze will find an exciting way to meld the two. No matter, there are some nice moments on the EP, and the entire thing can be downloaded via a link at the band's MySpace dojo. We're posting "Whitebread Standard" below.

The Labor Daze -- "Whitebread Standard" -- Laika EP
[.M4A file; right click and save as]
[download the entire EP via the band's MySpace]