New Music Monday picks for January 18, 2016

Your New Music Monday selections for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day include indie icons, pop-tastic gems and some local love.

 

We couldn’t be happier knowing that the trio who stopped by for one of our favorite Live Sessions from last year will release their first new album in 15 years on March 4. Violent Femmes frontman Gordon Gano sifted through over 20 years’ worth of material on old demos recorded on cassettes and in notebooks, and together with co-founder Brian Ritchie and new drummer Brian Viglione, yielded the band’s ninth studio album, We Can Do Anything. Believe it, and behold the lead single “Memory,” in which the band’s signature stripped-down aesthetic and sense of angst-infused hilarity remains firmly intact.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tUKV87I0xGk&autoplay=1

Had Mass Gothic been around during the heyday of the Brill Building, Noel Heroux’s name would be right up there with Boyce & Hart or Carole King and Gerry Goffin. He takes some of the sweetest elements of the American pop tradition – girl group harmonies, booming beats and sweeping choruses – and commands your attention with “Every Night You’ve Got To Save Me,” the highly addictive second single from their February self-titled debut out on Sub Pop.

Cowtown quintet War Party promises to bring out your inner sludge-lovin’ garage freak with “Jellyfish,” this howler of a gem from their January 27 release, To Love And Fear It. Help them celebrate the new album at The Under Where on January 30!

Another band who came in for a standout KXT Live Session in 2015 has a new track that’s worthy of your time and ear. Prepare to fall in love and dig on “Throw Down Your Guns,” from the sibling-fronted Chicago outfit Wild Belle!

XOXO

Gini.