John's New Music Blog

Today's featured band is Brooklyn's Selebrities, a retro-pop three piece that wouldn't sound out of place on the radio in 1983. The band is made up of Maria Usbeck on vocals, Jer Robert Paulin on guitar and Max Peterson on the keyboards. The band describes itself as "voguish, summertime goth" and several reviewers have compared them favorably to a certain Manchester band of the 1980's. I'm inclined to agree and say that their sound is both retro and contemporary in combines 1980's synthesizer lines with modern production values and techniques.

Photo by Lucy Bridger

 Selebrities - Night Heat from Selebrities on Vimeo.

The second track is "Can't Make Up My Mind," from their 2011 full length release Delusions. It's more in the style of The Human League and could have found it's way into a John Hughes, Brat Pack film soundtrack. If you like Summer Camp, you'll love this track.



Can't Make Up My Mind from Selebrities on Vimeo.

"Night Heat" will be out on Cascine on March 20; Delusions is available from Darla Records (12" vinyl or download), iTunes, and Amazon.

Sorry for being away for a while, I've been a little busy, but I'm back with the video for Summer Camp's latest single, "Better Off Without You," a summery tribute to all things Southern California circa 1973. Their debut album, Welcome to Condale, drops on November 8 on Apricot/Moshi Moshi.





Previously: Fresh New Music -- Summer Camp
                 New Single from Summer Camp

Summer Camp, the London duo of Elizabeth Sankey and Jeremy Warmsley (previously featured here), have announced a new single from their upcoming debut album. The single, "Better Off Without You," is a summery '80's ode to breakups that could have come straight from The Human League circa 1983; I hope that the video includes a Rover SD1 (Jeremy Clarkson knows where they can get one cheap, just don't mind the water damage).






Summer Camp is self-releasing their debut album on their label, Apricot Recordings, and you can help bring the album to reality by contributing a few dollars to their campaign (they have all sorts of neat thank you's for pledging). I kicked in £50 towards the effort and if you like the single, you should too. Go to their PledgeMusic page to see what they are offering their contributors.

(H/T: Gorilla vs. Bear and Beachtapes)

Today's featured band is London's Summer Camp, an indie synthpop band that's just dropped a preview of a track from their upcoming summer album. The track, I Want You, is a retro-80's track that lends itself to the inevitable DJ remix version, and will be the hit of the indie summer.