Swell EP: His Clancyness - Charade EP [indie rock / dream pop / psychedelic]

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Born in Ottawa, Canada but living in Bologna, Italy, Jonathan Clancy, who plays in A Classic Education and has made solo recordings as His Clancyness for a few years but now has a full band, has recently signed to Brighton/Brooklyn label Fat Cat Records, which will release his band's debut album Vicious in the fall. Lucky for us, Fat Cat put out the Charade EP cassette (also available digitally) a few weeks ago, which gives us a couple tastes of that upcoming full-length on one side, and on the other, four of Clancy's dreamy songs from his previous bedroom recordings.

All six songs on the EP are outstanding, exploring the sounds of indie rock, lo-fi, psychedelia, and dream pop. The new single "Machines" sounds a lot like psychedelic indie rockers The War on Drugs and lead-off track "Safe Around The Edges" leans toward the indie pop of Say Hi. Although certainly not on purpose, I can't help but liken his voice to a more subdued and mature Darwin Deez. Upon listening to the other 4 tracks, some other musical similarities that come to mind are Kurt Vile, Deerhunter, Ariel Pink, and Lower Dens.

Listen to the latter five tracks of the Charade EP below and get your beautiful hands on the cassette and a digital download here. Look out for His Clancyness's Fat Cat Records debut album Vicious on October 7!

Artist Making Waves: Hibou [tropical pop / dream pop / shoegaze]

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Hibou is the solo project of former Craft Spells drummer and 19-year-old Seattle native, Peter Michel. Seeing as 'hibou' is French for 'owl', it is pronounced quite Frenchly—"eee-booo". Because one of my pet peeves is hearing mispronunciations of another French-based indie band name, Bon Iver, I figured I'd set the record straight so I won't have to cringe hearing things like "high-bow" or "hih-boo". Anyway, my instincts tell me that Michel named his project thus because he considers himself a 'night owl', or maybe he prefers to write, record, and hunt mice after the sun goes down. Either way, his upbeat music is definitely meant to soundtrack a beautiful, sunny day, but it wouldn't hurt to throw it on at your next dance party.

While borrowing the dream pop elements of his old band and mixing in his brand of vibrant surf-poppy guitar hooks and danceable tropical drum beats (see "Hollow") or progressive shoegaze drumming (see "Glow"), Michel produces Hibou—a perfect concoction of hazy beach pop that I would file next to bands like Wild Nothing, Beach Fossils, Diiv, and Kisses. Hell, just sign him to Captured Tracks already!

Hibou's Dunes EP is due out June 13 via Fat Cat Records so grab yourself a copy when it drops. In the meantime, you can listen to a handful of songs below and download them for free or in pay-what-you-want-style by clicking the "Download" or "Name your price" buttons on the players.