Twin Sister - "Stop"

Twin Sister's capacity for unearthing vintage and occasionally cheesy tones and reworking them into compelling contemporary pop frameworks is incredible. This is a band that clearly belongs in the studio. Sure, the band's songwriting is ace, but it's their creative sonic palette that really separates and elevates Twin Sister's music into real fad-free unstuck-from-time originality. "Stop," one of the more inviting and instantly accessible cuts off the band's debut LP In Heaven, features guitarist Eric Cardona taking a turn on lead vocals with Andrea Estella providing harmony over it's killer chorus. But what really stands out here is the sincere soft-rock quality of the instrumentation: emotive and melodramatic strings, pillowy keyboards, silky smooth guitar lines. Yet these tones never once feel contrived or out of place. While fellow soft-rock purveyors like Washed Out tend to blend their different instruments into one mass of sound with fistfuls of reverb and echo, every melodic line and synth-produced sheen in "Stop" is as clear as a perfectly focused photograph. Now that's refreshing.

Twin - "Sister" (from In Heaven)


Stream the entirety of In Heaven—out 9/27—after the jump.

Twin Sister - "Bad Street"

Twin Sister's "Bad Street," out now as a 10" single on Domino, is a promising cut off the group's forthcoming full-length debut, In Heaven, out September 27th. Sprinkled with twinkling synthesizers, quick slashes of guitar, and a funky bass line, the sexed-up and discoed-out track sounds like it belongs on the set of a sex scene from some low budget 1970s flick: the bell bottoms, big hair, slow motion undressing. If Andrea Estella's lyrics tell the story, the instrumentation here sets the time and place.

Twin Sister - "Bad Street" (from Bad Street 10")
Twin Sister - "You Remind Me Of" (from Bad Street 10")

Distractions - "Money Is Ugly"

Originally released on a limited run of cassettes via Plus Tapes, the debut from Chicago's Distractions is now set for wider consumption thanks to some remastering and remixing by Twin Sister's Udbhav Gupta and the good vinyl-loving folks at Infinite Best Recordings. The dimly lit, eight-song, jazz-inspired pop of Dark Green Sea thrives on a mercurial and eclectic construction that mixes feverish garage rock with baroque ballads and meditative Tom Waits-like odes to the far corners of the universe. The heart of the record however lies in the topical soul ditty "Money Is Ugly," which finds baritone singer Tom Owens stretching his luck on a brilliantly catchy falsetto-laden refrain. It's beautifully weird pop music.

Dark Green Sea is out January 18th—pre-order it here.

Distractions - "Money Is Ugly" (from Dark Green Sea)

Video: Twin Sister - "All Around and Away We Go"

Some serious creativity and finesse (not to mention hand shadow choreography) went into Twin Sister's fantastically low-budget first video. You can glimpse at some of the hard work that went into making it over at singer Andrea Estella's Tumblr.

Twin Sister - "All Around and Away We Go"

Live, the Cults are the real deal

Tuesday night I watched the Cults, Twin Sister, and Morning Benders perform at Portland's Doug Fir Lounge. With the widespread use of computers and electronic effects in modern pop, I find it especially interesting to see how bands transfer their sound to a live format—and that interest is magnified even more so when it's three of the most buzzed-about bands of the year. While Twin Sister was plagued all night with high-pitched buzzing from the monitors and barely audible vocals—due in part to the sound engineer and the fact they simply had too much going on instrumentally—the Cults set the room abuzz with their small but infectious repertoire of songs. Comprised of couple Brian Oblivion and Madeline Follin and a few supplemental long-haired guitarists, the band's sing-along Supremes-esque choruses matched perfectly with their "we're just happy to be here" smiles and stage presence. It's amazing their only real release so far is a 7". And the Chris Chu-led Morning Benders? At this point they're savvy veterans, casual between songs and energetic during, nailing every riff and vocal line throughout the night to that squishy faux-Doug Fir wall.

Cults - "Oh, My God" (Daytrotter)
Twin Sister - "Meet The Frownies" (Shaking Through)
Morning Benders - "Virgins" (La Blogotheque)

Twin Sister - "Meet The Frownies"

Twin Sister, whose Colour You Life EP has easily been one of the year's finest releases, recently recorded a new song over at the Weathervane Music studios as part of the nonprofit's Shaking Through series. You can thank Mark Schoenveld of YVYNYL for organizing the collaboration.

Twin Sister - "Meet The Frownies" (Weathervane Music session)

Twin Sister - "All Around and Away We Go"

Andrea Estella of New York's Twin Sister has one of those voices that takes a few measures to get used to. But once you do, it's impossible to turn off. Her deep-throated hush my not be the most natural of tones, but it's also undeniably original and surprisingly captivating. For the next week, you can download the band's entire Color Your Life EP for free via their home page. Here's "All Around and Away We Go" to entice you—a spaced-out funky update of that whole disco craze.

Twin Sister - "All Around and Away We Go" (from Color Your Life EP)