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Remember when every band on earth had a really cool or hilarious story to tell when asked how they formed? Well that is one more thing the Internet killed. It doesn’t really matter as most of those stories were made-up anyway, but you know a page is turned when a band has the honesty to simply say: “We met on Facebook”, and thank the website for its help in the band’s creation. And indeed, thank you Facebook if you took any part in this.

“Dog Physics” is the title-track from Plaid Dragon’s debut EP. The gentle, guitar-driven indie ballad builds on Inge Chile’s touching vocals. It finally blossoms in an explosion of instrumental dreaminess that fully demonstrates the Missouri band’s artistic scope.

From California’s Bay Area to Boston’s Berklee College of Music, this young singer-songwriter’s trajectory immediately implies very diverse musical influences – a fact at once confirmed by his music. Describing himself as an urban/indie singer doing “good artistry”, Sid Sriram recently put out the first half of a two-part EP series: West Coast Nightfall Part 1: Before Dusk.

Featured on this EP is “Winter Mind”. R&B choirs and a heavy pounding beat back up Sriram’s soulful vocals. It builds up to incorporate electronic elements and a deep wah-wah, bringing the track onto a new dimension, a place where Depford Goth or Autre Ne Veut would feel right at home.

Doesn’t it seem a bit bold for a brand new band to put up a single song, and then name check James Blake, the xx and Jeff Buckley in the ‘Influences’ box? Not if that act manages to pull off the kind of sound that not only fits well in those muses’ lineage, but also has its own twists and character.

Imagine the xx’s minimalistic instrumentation, Jeff Buckley’s crooning melancholy and James Blake’s soaring production all combined in a powerfully melodic, yet smoothly constrained track.

Founded by neighbors (‘and rivals’) Ben Fletcher and Tom Higham from Lancaster, Aquilo recently made the blog world shiver with their first-ever track, ‘Calling Me’:

Even in the days of the internet, geography and language can sometimes makes it harder for sounds to travel.

Ásgeir Trausti started shaking the Icelandic music scene last summer with his single ‘Sumargestur’, followed by a very promising debut album, Dýrð í dauðaþögn. American singer-songwriter John Grant is now helping to create an English version that, while depriving us of the melodic beauty of the Icelandic language, will probably make it easier for Ásgeir Trausti to reach new horizons.

Try to picture Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon as an outgoing Icelandic musician, hanging out with James Blake every weekend and hooked on playful synths. And if you find it too hard, have a listen below:

A trip to SXSW is always fun but you never end up seeing as much as you wanted to. You see the obvious, the less obvious, and from time to time something fresh and irreverent that reminds you why you were there in the first place: to witness something that brings music to the forefront.

We loved Half Moon Run (who we championed months ago), Flying Lotus, Alba Lua, High Highs, and of course our very own China Rats. But one of our highlights were a bunch of precocious teenagers from Chicago brought up on Jay Retard records, Twin Peaks. We loved them and can’t wait to see what they do next.

While many were sipping free beers in sunny Texas, some were still drifting on icy patches and slaloming among London’s acidly cold snowflakes. And what better cure for an itchy throat and a sunlight shortage than a song –one that some already call the jam of the summer?

Hailing from the outskirts of Los Angeles are experimental-pop duo holy child. Somewhere between Tegan & Sara, Sleigh Bells and Little Daylight, there is a house full of glitters where jazz breakdown squeezed into a hyper-energetic pop song echoes in a weirdly appropriate manner.

Check out the said-house in the video for holy child’s ‘Best Friends’ below:

A rather strange name for a rather cool band, Gung Ho are an indie-pop trio based in Brisbane, Australia. Taken from their debut EP, ‘Strangers’ is the band’s latest single.

Combining classic indie pop ingredients, echoing harmonies and punchy drumbeats, the track could well be the missing piece between Real Estate’s indie melodies and Beach House’s dreaminess.

While proving that melancholy can be expressed with a ray of light, the track comes with a much darker video that’s definitely worth a watch:

Precisely ten years ago, the American congress took a drastic decision, removed ‘French fries’ from its cafeteria menu and replaced it with ‘freedom fries’. We’ll skip the politics of that event and jump to its brightest outcome: a cool band name.

The greasiest band to emerge since Hot Chip, Freedom Fry is composed of Marie Seyrat (from France) and Bruce Driscoll (from the United States). Based in Los Angeles. The duo now follow their country influenced debut album with a brand new track “Friends and Enemies”.

The track brings the band back into the indie-pop realm with its enchanting choruses, catchy bass line and sleek simplicity. Soon it will be stuck in many people’s heads…

Formed as recently as last November, IYES is a (brand) new indie-electronic duo based in Brighton. It only took Josh and Melis a few weeks to attract the blog world’s attention with ‘Lighthouse’, a first track that immediately generated mass comparisons with the xx. Yet it only takes 40 seconds for their new track, ‘Glow’, to blow those comparisons away – and our minds with it.

Layers of synths and hard-hitting drums turn every chorus into a devastating, euphoric explosion; a blasting energy balanced by the smooth intimacy of Melis Soyaslanova’s vocals (and the continuous twinkle of an unexpected xylophone).

Surfing on the buzz surrounding them, IYES will play their first two gigs in London next month: The Shacklewell Arms on March 2nd and Village Underground (with the Wave Pictures) on March 26th.

The release of his first full-length studio album gives us the perfect excuse to introduce Winston Yellen’s musical outfit, Night Beds. Born in Colorado, now based in Nashville and signed to Indiana label Dead Ocean, the singer/songwriter has spent a lot of time on the road, and his music sounds like it.

A four-minute descent into magnificent melancholia, ‘Even If We Try’ was the first single to be revealed from Country Sleep, Night Beds’ new album. Imagine if Jeff Buckley had lived a little bit longer, had hung out in Justin Vernon’s cabin in the woods, and then gone back to Tennessee to record a song written by the Fleet Foxes… Wouldn’t it sound just like that?