One the music blogosphere’s original blog rock darlings Southern California’s Cold War Kids return with a definite upside surprise in new track “Miracle Mile”. “MM” amounts to a bit of stylistic deviation for CWK with its four-on-the-floor beat and heavily harmonized chorus intervals; new ground for a band that has made some kind of formula out of singular beefy warbles on top of waves upon waves of syncopations.
Cold War Kids – Miracle MileCold War Kids 
(Official)
Rating 8.3
LULU Londoners fire another winner into the UK indie ether with latest track “Never Let It Go”. Replete with sweeping choruses, anthemic riffs, and enough bounce to keep you interested “Never Let It Go” is another terrific step forward for LULS.
LULS – Never Let It GoLULS 
(Soundcloud)
Rating 8.1045
Minneapolis band Diver Dress’ self-described brand of “lo-fi reverbed-out weirdness” is indeed right up our alley. The band have a cool new 5 song 7-inch out which you can stream HERE. And although our choice track from the project, “Untitled 2”, doesn’t have a titled name; we here at b3sci are always up for taking a liberty or two and so we’re just going go ahead and call the track what for what it is, “Totally Fucking Awesome”.
Diver Dress – Untitled 2Diver Dress 
(Facebook)
Rating 8.0
If we could marry Jagjaguwar we most definitely would. The Indiana-based label’s record is virtually spotless; Sharon Van Etten, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Small Black AND The Besnard Lakes. The potent, focused, gorgeous haze of Besnard Lakes has made the Montreal band big favorites among the b3 crew. “People of the Sticks”, the band’s latest from their upcoming Until in Excess, Imperceptible UFO LP finds TBL dabbling in slightly more muscular more syncopated rhythm and song structures; a stylistic change the band acquits themselves of quite well.
The Besnard Lakes – People of the SticksBesnard Lakes 
(Official)
Rating 8.1
Punk rockers now turned 80’s-informed dark poppers Merchandise fire off a powerful salvo for the Tampa indie scene with their latest track, the excellent Cult-esque “Anxiety’s Door”.
Merchandise 
(Official)
Rating 8.4
I’d barely heard of Palma Violets until a few months ago when NME Magazine touted them as one of the best new UK bands. By the time NME’s Top Tracks of 2012 was published, “Best Of Friends” was #1 with all of the usual suspects. The band is known for frenetic live shows, and the verdict so far is that this band is for real. You can see Palma Violets live version of “Tom the Drum” below, as played on the BBC’s Jools Holland show. Get ready for these guys to invade shores stateside. You can catch them at SXSW this March. By Bruce Rave
Palma Violets — Best of Friends (Official)
* Check out more from Bruce Rave at his ‘Go Deep’ blog here and be sure follow Bruce on Twitter.
There’s a timeless menace to the Black Soul EP from Gayze. Besides being recorded at a supposed haunted house in seclusion since the 1930s, and with a makeshift studio, the release is as substantave in melody and song as it is garage and grit. We’ll let “Ain’t It Brave” serve as just one example. You can check out more from Gayze here.
Gayze – Ain’t It BraveGayze 
(Bandcamp)
Rating 8.0
UK band As Elephants Are ready sophomore single “Youth Blood”. “Lucifer”, the b/w “Youth Blood” is being given away for free by the band to mark the new single’s release. The excellent “Lucifer” is built on a sort of Slowdive meets Explosions in the Sky meets modern UK indie pop sound of dramatic percussion swells, delayed tremolo guitars and vocalist Ben Stratford Bombay Bicycle Club-esque croon. Give it a spin and see what you think below.
As Elephants Are – LuciferAs Elephants Are (Facebook)
Rating 8.2
b3 favorites Generationals namecheck everybody’s favorite Dutch Pantheist on newest track “Spinoza”. “Spinoza” which is excerpted here from the band’s just announced Heza LP maintains the soul and guts of the band’s previous output while dialing up the immediacy of the hooks and tightness of the arrangements. We couldn’t be more into it.
Generationals 
(Official)
Rating 8.3
Brave Baby an indie band out of the beautiful Charleston, SC (seriously, if you’ve ever in that part of the country, don’t pass up a chance at visiting) come up aces with what amounts to an absolute killer of a track. “Magic and Fire” is a HUGE song. HUGE. The writing is crisp, the instrumentals & dynamics perfect, and the vocal performance of singer Keon Masters an A+. The only thing separating “Magic and Fire” from taking over the world is you; get your introduction below.
Brave Baby – Magic and FireBrave Baby
(Official)
Rating 8.4
“Oceans” by Bristol band Coasts starts well enough its opening instrumental and verse sequences pleasant and R1-primed as can be. Good transforms to great, however, at 1:04 when the track’s anthemic, crazy good chorus reveals itself. Expect major Radio 1 airplay for “Oceans” if the track can get into the right BBC hands.
Coasts – OceansCoasts (Facebook)
Rating 8.39075
If you’re anything like us at B3SCI, then at least some of your time every day is spent wondering when the next great guitar band from Britain is going to come along and make you fall in love with rock all over again. On that note, we’d like to introduce you to a band that we’ve had in heavy rotation today. The Dirty Rivers formed in Liverpool in 2011 and will be offering their debut single Black Heart/Filth via the Deltasonic singles club in February. Their darker and bluesy guitars remind us of The Verve and Kasabian in a way that pays homage to decades of their predecessors influences. Treat yourself below and keep these young dudes on your radar.
The Dirty Rivers (Facebook)
Rating 8.4
