Next Big Thing: Sunglasses

If you know anything about Savannah, GA-based electropop group Sunglasses, you know The Video. It’s embedded below, and is perhaps the best video I’ve seen since Sledgehammer. And it’s pre-viral, poised for breakthrough brilliance whenever Pitchfork or Stereogum discover the joys of watching a pasty, mustachioed bad dancer strip off his retro gear – and get the girls! But that’s not all Sunglasses are about, as their two so-far-released Passion Pit-meets-Animal Collective tracks have caught the attention of hipster label Lefse Records (home of Neon Indian and Phasone). Future’s bright…

Sunglasses: Whiplash
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Next Big Thing: Javelin

I’m loving everything about Brooklyn-based duo Javelin: their Odelay-chillwave-hip hop sound, the fact they share a name with both a Japanese goth band and a 1970s New Jersey rock group, and for sure the videos of a couple live performances embedded below. On a sour note, I just found out that they’ll be in Toronto on the same night I already have tickets to see the Toro Y Moi / Ruby Suns show, so I’m not sure what I’ll do, because as you’ll see from their videos, their live shows look like they’re a blast. And so is their music, a blast from both a Kurtis Blow past and a PlayStation future. “Oh! Centra,” from an album coming out next month on Luaka Bop, shows off their groovy, wilder side, complete with Salt-N-Pepa hook. Oh!

Javelin: Oh! Centra (from Pitchfork)
from the upcoming CD No Mas
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Next Big Thing: First Aid Kit

First Aid Kit, a duo of startlingly talented and young sisters from Stockholm, show that Swedes not only do pop best, but they also kill at folk music. Take a look at the video of their acoustic cover of Fleet Foxes’ “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” and tell me it doesn’t take your breath away (especially when backup sister Johanna Söderberg comes in). And “I Met Up With the King” (downloadable below, and also on JeffMix2010.02.21), with Klara’s feisty, world-weary vocals, lives up to the motto on their MySpace page: “We aim for the hearts, not the charts!”

First Aid Kit: I Met Up With the King (courtesy Wichita Records)
from the CD The Big Black & The Blue
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Next Big Thing: MNDR

Caps-locked NYC-via-L.A. DJ/singer MNDR (real name: Amanda Warner) has been steadily building a Lady-Gaga-meets-Santigold buzz for her smart beats and blow-’em-away live sets. Details and tracks are scarce on her MySpace page, but “Fade to Black” (as can be heard on JeffMix2010.01.24) and the slowed-down, brilliant left turn “I Go Away” (promo video below) show huge, OMG upside.

MNDR: Fade to Black (from Pitchfork)
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Next Big Thing: Nottee

The Lykke Li / Robyn comparisons are inevitable, so let’s get those out of the way right now. Yonge, blonde, Swedish, eccentric, minimal dance-y Björk-influenced pop – it also describes the provocatively named Nottee (née Nova Drougge), who, on the strength of only two tracks on her MySpace page (one of which is featured on the latest, influential Kitsuné compilation) is quickly gathering buzz. I was kind of hoping “Control” was a cover of the Janet Jackson classic, but Nottee’s track is just as jamming. Nice.

Nottee: Control (from NME)
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Next Big Thing: Joy Orbison

2010 is shaping up to be a joyous year, with big things planned from both The Joy Formidable and UK garage-dub DJ Joy Orbison, aka 22-year-old South Londoner Peter O’Grady. His first single, “Hyph Mngo” snuck onto several year-end lists (just missing out on mine) with its mix of soulful grace and powerful beats. A new EP, streaming here, is more ambient and makes me wonder if Joy Orbison will be less a mainstream sensation than an underground hero. No matter – a joy formidable, nonetheless.

Joy Orbison: Wet Look (from NME)
from the “Hyph Mngo” single
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Next Big Thing: The Joy Formidable

Of the bands poised for breakout years in 2010, UK trio The Joy Formidable, a band that out-Yeah-Yeah-Yeah all other newcomers, tops my list. They’re certainly not new to the scene – I first played their first single “Austere” on my JeffMix Podcast back in April 2008 – but a full debut album (the brilliant eight-track A Balloon Called Moaning is being labelled an EP) is set for June, and their first across-the-pond live dates are set for NYC in January (opening for 2009 breakout stars Passion Pit). Who else will have a big 2010? Mumford & Sons, Two Door Cinema Club, Toro Y Moi, Chiddy Bang, Fenech-Soler and Chew Lips (all featured in this space) are also acts I’m hoping we’ll hear lots about in the new year. See you then!

The Joy Formidable: Austere (from The Joy Formidable official site – sign up for their mailing list)
from the CD A Balloon Called Moaning
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Next Big Thing: Chew Lips

It’s been a good year for electro-pop, Owl City notwithstanding. Miike Snow, Passion Pit, La Roux, Little Boots, Little Dragon – and you could even include bands tilting that way, like Phoenix and the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But enough name-dropping – here’s the next electro-pop sensation, London three-piece Chew Lips. No album yet, but the few songs popping up on the Internet are absolute charmers, including “Solo” (included on JeffMix2009.04.30) and the aptly named “Slick,” available below. Yeah yeah yeah.

Chew Lips: Slick (from NME.com)
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Next Big Thing: Fenech-Soler

When I was a kid, the constructs of pop music were much simpler, and if you heard an amazing song on the radio, like “When Doves Cry” or “Wishing Well,” there was a good chance it would go to Number One on the charts, or at least place. (Even Depeche Mode’s “People Are People” was a Top 20 hit in the U.S.) No longer, as evidenced by the failure of brilliant track “Lies” by UK buzz band Fenech-Soler to even come near the pop charts, despite the fact its Phoenix-meets-Calvin Harris sound is supremely radio-friendly. (That said, NME Radio, which is my main Internet radio choice, has been playing the track non-stop.) Check out “Lies” on my latest JeffMix podcast, or sample “I Need Love,” one of just a few songs they’ve released so far, and tell me they don’t deserve better.

Fenech-Soler: I Need Love (from RCRD LBL)
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Next Big Thing: Little Dragon

Occupying the space somewhere between Massive Attack and Saint Etienne, Sweden’s Little Dragon may not be new (they’ve got two albums under their belt, including last year’s not-iTuned-yet Machine Dreams), but the electro foursome, helmed by vocalist Yukimi Nagano, is not big yet. I think it’s because not enough people have heard their completely haunting 2007 single “Twice,” a candidate for a hipster indie movie soundtrack if I’ve heard one (hello New Moon people!). “Blinking Pigs” (downloadable below) is a bit poppier than their other more downtempo tracks, but still remains slick and cool. Someone let me know when it appears in a car commercial, okay?

Little Dragon: Blinking Pigs (from RCRD LBL)
from the album Machine Dreams
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Next Big Thing: The Middle East

You know a band is Next-Big-Thing material when you play the first song you hear from them about a dozen times in a row. That’s what I did with Australian band The Middle East and their newly released track, the stunning and slightly menacing “The Darkest Side” (which sounds a bit like a Thom Yorke track, without the bleeps and adding a female co-singer). The song, along with four others cast from the same bare-bones folky, slow-building mould, make up a new EP, the well-titled Recordings of The Middle East (which can be purchased for $1 at Think Indie). It also, along with the acclaimed new record from The xx, makes me wonder if we’re at the dawn of a new genre, one I’ll call The New Simplicity (or glacial rock?), a counter-movement against the over-produced lofi beachrock that has been so prevalent lately. You heard it here first...

The Middle East: The Darkest Side
from the EP Recordings of The Middle East
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Next Big Thing: The Drums

Every time I hear The Drums’ music, especially first single “Let’s Go Surfing” (and other leaked tracks “Don’t Be a Jerk, Jonny” and “Me and the Moon”), I think it’d be perfect in a John Hughes film. The NYC-by-way-of-Florida duo has cleverly taken the lo-fi beach-rock template and given it an early-’80s spin: a little more boppy, a little more aching, and a little more synth-y. More OMD, if you will. It’s only a matter of time before someone tries a lo-fi Simple Minds sound…

The Drums: Let’s Go Surfing (from RCRD LBL)
from the EP Summertime!
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Next Big Thing: Get Back Guinozzi!

Get Back Guinozzi!’s exclamative sound is so tough to describe that their label invented a whole new term to describe it (or at least I’ve never heard of it). They call it “quirky, outsider pop.” The quirky I totally get. A half-French, half-London duo with new wave-soaked influences (Talking Heads, The B-52’s, The Specials) with the sonic chaos of The Go! Team (with less shouting and more Yoko Ono style murmuring) – I get this feeling John Waters would love them. Check out their MySpace page for a streaming version of their current single “Low Files Tropical” (riiiight), backed with their cover take on “Police and Thieves” (download below). Wild, man.

Get Back Guinozzi!: Police and Thieves
from the upcoming CD Carpet Madness
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Next Big Thing: exlovers

I’ve got another lowercased band to highlight, this time the London-based exlovers, and the wistful indie-pop quintet are definitely one to watch. At the very least, they’re working with the right people: after forming about a year ago, exlovers have already toured with Pete Doherty, Emmy the Great, and Pete and the Pirates; and their next EP, You Forget So Easily, is produced by Stephen Street, of The Smiths and Blur fame. Not bad. And the music? Sweet, jangly, Belle-and-Sebastian-ish tunes, perfect for a rainy day and a hot cup of tea. PG Tips, I think it is.

exlovers: Just a Silhouette
from the 7" single
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Next Big Thing: Olivia Broadfield

When a song has been played 500,000 times on MySpace and has already been featured on MTV’s The Hills, it’s not much of a revelation to say Olivia Broadfield is going to be the Next Big Thing. But it is still early days for the UK singer-songwriter with the charmingly thick accent and huge crush on Imogen Heap. Admittedly, her soft electro-pop sound is not the most innovative — it falls firmly into the whole Frou Frou / Dido / Beth Orton camp. But “Don’t Cry” is an undeniable gem of a song. Half a million people would agree.

Olivia Broadfield: Don’t Cry (from Spinner)
off of the album Eyes Wide Open
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Next Big Thing: Toro Y Moi

I was introduced to Toro Y Moi just last week (via Pitchfork, of course) and have been playing the music from his MySpace page every day since then. It’s blown me away. So what better way to start a new Next Big Thing section – I’d be willing to bet the house on Toro Y Moi. How to describe it? I keep thinking something improbable: Wavves meets Prince with a bit of Animal Collective (and maybe Beck?) thrown on top. Crazy good. Influences everywhere. Groovy and aloof. And the book is just starting to be written about the guy so not much is known (or has been said) about Toro Y Moi, real name Chaz Bundick, 23 years old, from South Carolina. Multi-instrumentalist? Avid photographer? Just signed to tiny Carpark Records. “Blessa,” the track below, is a new single to be released later this year, but it’s just a taste of what Chaz can do. Check out the tracks on MySpace and be prepared for more.

Toro Y Moi: Blessa
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