Elizaveta - Meant

Favorite lyrics: If silence can kill, I know it can heal.

There's a Florence and Pierces combination in Elizaveta's voice that makes a sultry, bittersweet song out of Meant. Elizaveta actually studied opera; her music style doesn't suggest it strongly, but you can hear a hint of soft power in her vocals that's fitting, as if her musical studies were only unconsciously included. That makes it both theatrical and modern, like something you could listen to either on a movie score or through your car speakers. Each of her songs has a different contradiction, between soft vocals and loud bass or high notes and hand claps, her album Beatrix Runs is a varied mix of both bold singing and hurried whispers.

GP rating: 71% contagious

If you want to listen to the whole album, you can find it streaming on soundcloud here.

Console Warriors - Vicious Fishus

This song is contained chaos. If you poked a hole in it, it would be full Cage the Elephant crazy, but it has a more organized sound amid the disorganization, like someone that's barely being held back from a fight. And the breakdown is much more mellow, like the melody is pacing itself for another round of bruises. It's rough with a sexy bass line, memorable vocals, and good vibrations.

Rating: 65% contagious

Hey Rosetta! - Red Song

There couldn't be a more appropriate music video for Red Song, because watching it is just as captivating as listening to it; the combination of both music and visual is stunning. So, watch it. And listen.

Favorite lyrics: In the black I feel you
In the black I sense
Somewhere in the red, the colours end

You can feel this song on your spine, those warming chills that only happen when something rare hits you. It's an infinite melody of a sound that's both loving and mournful, something with complete resigned passion in it. It's like a numbing acceptance, but with a long history of intensity behind it that's only to be settled to burning coals. The song cuts off just at the right time, so that the loss of the guitar is as haunting as the loss in the lyrics. It makes your lungs unconsciously stop breathing in anticipation and hope of more music that isn't there, causing the ghost of the song to still play in your head.

Glitter Pox rating: 92% contagious

Hope you catch it,
The Glitter Pox

San Cisco - Awkward

Favorite lyrics: I wouldn't have gone to dinner if I knew that you'd agree with everything I say.

This song is a mix of humor and hormones. It's light and comical, but at the same time completely spot on and passionate in both annoyance and obsession. The two voices are really different in style, but having two perspectives in this song is what makes it so catchy. It's not a duet, but more of a vocal version of a dance-off, with a simple melody as the backdrop. It's a fast song, like a good piece of candy that melts on your tongue with immediate short-lingering flavor.

Glitter Pox rating: 70% contagious

Hope you catch it,
The Glitter Pox

Okkervil River - The Valley

Listen here: The Valley

Favorite lyrics: It's just a busted up body in the dust of the last road out of the city, when the city explodes.

Listening to The Valley is kind of like sitting in the sun too long and having sand caught in your throat. It sounds a little bit like desire, like wanting a drop of water and not getting it until the last note. It has a continuous loop of music and hand claps that sounds like you're pushing through something that's barely giving. The end is really intense, when the lyrics overlap in a rush, words about death being sung over others. That overlapping ending is when you finally get your water, right before you pass out from exhaustion. It all has a kind of Middle Class Rut sound, nonstop gravel-voice and continuous music that doesn't let up until the very end.

Glitter Pox rating: 73% contagious

Hope you catch it,
The Glitter Pox

Cowboy & Indian Interview

Cowboy & Indian is probably one of the best folk bands we've discovered this year; there's this quirky, charming feel to their songs that's not replicated by any other band. The members each have different musical backgrounds that bring something entirely different to the group as a whole, and it makes your ears really, really happy. We asked Jazz Mills, talented singer and member of Cowboy & Indian, a couple questions.



Where do you get the ideas for your music videos, if they were envisioned by you, and what was it like working on them and making a visual of the music you play?

The Ledbellies (Hurt my Pride) was shot on our very first tour in Chicago. We had only been a band for about 2 weeks and decided to tour from San Francisco to NYC and back to Austin. A friend of Daniel's named William Cabral was a huge fan of Leopold and his Fiction and heard about this new band and asked if he could come to Chicago to shoot a video. Ledbellies was 1 of like 5 songs we had at the time. Trouble Tracks was created by Daniel and his friend Sarah Wilson and shot in Joshua Tree during our 5th tour. Both videos were really fun to make but really different. With William, we basically just walked around the city while he filmed us and I found randomly places objects at each place we stopped and picked them up. There is a common theme in each item that I found on the street, but no body has seemed to notice that yet. When we showed up to the set of Troubled Tracks...I actually had scene notes, wardrobe, make-up etc. I am not an actress by any means so it was more difficult, but I love Sarah and don't mind doing what she tells me.

What have you learned from being on stage, performing, that you wished you'd known before?

I have learned how important it is to stay focused and appreciative onstage no matter what I may be going through off the stage. It is important to me that the audience feels connected and appreciated for being there and listening. There have been times when I was sick or upset and I basically just waltzed up onstage and did "my job" and afterwards heard people say things like...."I really enjoyed the show, but you seemed really disconnected or upset." I want people to know that I love them for being there and I if I am having a bad day offstage that I am still only up on the stage for them. It was a lot harder than I thought.

Which one of your songs did you spend the most time working on, and why?

We haven't spent a ton of time [on] just one song. Daniel and Jesse write very quickly, but a lot of our songs will be written piece by piece when we are all in different states and then when we get together....we put the pieces together.

What song would you like to hear before and after yours on the radio?

I would like to hear Name in Stone by Dead Man's Bones before and Love is All by The Tallest Man on Earth [after.] Actually either order.

If a (Glitter) Pox epidemic were to break out, apocalypse-style, what would the title of your last song be?

I would do anything to cover I'm Going Back Home by Nina Simone.

And lastly, what's coming up for you guys? Album, tour?

Our first full album is finished, but the release date is TBA. We will be releasing more singles and videos soon though.

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Seriously excited for that album. While we wait, Jazz Mills is working on a solo EP for the newest member of Cowboy and Indian - her baby Ava. You can be a part of the process by pledging, and you can get signed EPs, tshirts, posters, and swaaaag, all while being a part of something great. Check it out here. We pledged, and if you like the music, pledge with us.

Little Hurricane - Haunted Heart

Favorite lyrics: I'll be your thief in the night so I can steal you.

Haunted Heart has a solid, blood-pumping bassy beginning topped with the calm simple-toned voice of the lead singer. There is something really sensual about this song; the lust in the lyrics is also portrayed in the music and the tempo. It's a desirous tangle of music, like each note is a footfall of someone languorously walking toward you. It's a nonstop beat of a mind that wants everything to do with only one person.

GP rating: 71% contagious

Hope you catch it,
The Glitter Pox

Clare and the Reasons

Clare and the Reasons incorporate a lot of different sounds and instruments to give each song a different musical vibe, but Clare's voice brings it back together into one grounded album. She can range from jazz-y to sultry to soft candlelight high notes, but it is consistently a unique blend of vocal notes that strings it all together.

We checked out a stream of their music and thought it was an experience to share. 'Pluto' is comical but serious, like swan lake. 'All the Wine' is almost a little nonsensical and lazy, like if you were drunk on something sweet. 'Ooh You Hurt Me So' has heavy bass mixed with cheery holiday-like music; it has some mad jinglebell action, but with heartbreak in the bells. 'Under the Water' makes you feel like you're literally understream, with a beginning filled with nature sounds and vocals that sound like you're sifting through honey. There's a perfect setting set with each song, like it's an entire play being acted out in front of you. You can sit back and be transported into musical versions of space, drunkenness, and synchronized swimming inside one album.

Glitter Pox rating: 78% contagious

Hope you catch it,
The Glitter Pox

Oberhofer - Heart

Favorite lyrics: I don't know what you think while you're sleeping, I hope soon I'll dream with you

This song is musically everywhere; it switches between depressing and uplifting, string and xylophone. It's like a choir of angels, a black-and-white cartoon, romance, innocence, passion, pain. It's remembering and forgetting. Involving everything and nothing. An experience instead of sole sound.

Glitter Pox rating: 85% contagious

Hope you catch it,
The Glitter Pox