Artist Making Waves: Whitney - "No Woman", "Golden Days", and "No Matter Where We Go" [indie rock / alt-country / soul]

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About a year and a half ago, Chicago indie rock band Smith Westerns announced their breakup after penning three solid albums together. Since then, the band's frontman Cullen Omori has released a solo record on Sub Pop while guitarist Max Kakacek and drummer Julien Ehrlich (ex-Unknown Mortal Orchestra) have gone on to form the band Whitney, subsequently signing with Secretly Canadian.

Ehrlich and Kakacek share songwriting duties in Whitney, crafting warm, melancholic songs layered with jangly acoustic guitar, Kakacek's signature twangy guitar leads, triumphant horn sections, and topped with Ehrlich's soulful, unassuming falsetto. They recorded with a full band in California with Foxygen's Jonathan Rado, which makes sense seeing as both band's songs sound like they could have come from the late 60s.

Whitney will be on tour for the next couple months in support of their debut album Light Upon The Lake. Go out and catch a show and pick up a copy of their record when it hits shelves June 3rd. Check out the first two singles from the album that have been bringing Whitney lots of positive attention, "No Woman" and "Golden Days", plus their first demo, "No Matter Where We Go".

Just Rolled In: Idiot Glee - "Baby (I Could Be Your Bone)", "I Don't Feel Right", and "Evergreen Psycho" [psychedelic / synthpop / experimental]

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Lexington, Kentucky's experimental pop artist James Friley has been making music under the name Idiot Glee since 2009. His newest release, a self-titled full-length out on the label he co-founded, Hop Hop Records, and produced by the composer of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, hit shelves a few weeks ago and he's currently on tour with his band to support it.

I had the pleasure of seeing them play at a DIY venue called The Smell in Los Angeles last weekend. Unfortunately, my prior knowledge of Friley's music was limited to his 2011 debut Paddywhack (a unique lo-fi pop album rightfully characterized as post-doo-wop), but seeing him perform live nearly five years after that release gave me a quick lesson on how his progression as an artist has taken his music in a new direction, a direction away from doo-wop and lo-fi and more toward 70s synthpop and psychedelia.

Idiot Glee's sound may be hard to put a finger on, seeing as there's nothing really out there right now that compares (maybe Islands or Adult Jazz?), but it's easy to say that his soulful croon, hypnotizing vocal harmonies, and dextrous piano and synth playing are the defining elements of his music. On Idiot Glee, Friley's influences (namely Brian Eno, John Cale, and Scott Walker) are evident and there's a noticeable improvement in production, which gives the record more of a full band sound than his previous releases. Needless to say, it's a fantastic album.

My top three picks from the album are "Baby (I Could Be Your Bone)", "I Don't Feel Right", and "Evergreen Pyscho". Stream them below to get a better idea of what Idiot Glee is all about and catch them on tour in a city near you! Stream and purchase the album here. It plays great on vinyl!

holaTUBE: Unknown Mortal Orchestra - "Multi-Love" [psych pop / indie rock / soul]

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Five years have passed since Ruban Nielson's first song as Unknown Mortal Orchestra, "Ffunny Ffrends", first infiltrated and spread like wildfire throughout the interwebs. After living up to the first adjective of his moniker by actually remaining anonymous for some time, forming a band, and gaining a huge following for their first two full-lengths of lo-fi polychromatic psych pop (the second of which made holaOLA's list of the best albums of 2013), the Portland-based Kiwi is back with a third, Multi-Love, which hits shelves May 26 via Jagjaguwar and, interestingly enough, was influenced by his recent experience with a polyamorous relationship.

UMO's first two singles (the lead-off title track and "Can't Keep Checking My Phone") set the bar high for the new album, not straying too far from the feel of their previous recordings but enriching their unique sound with noticeably higher fidelity production and the addition of other instruments and sounds that give their songs new depth and texture (especially on the latter track).

Hear it for yourself in the psychedelic music video for "Multi-Love" below and stream their funky second single "Can't Keep Checking My Phone" below that.

Purchase a physical copy of Multi-Love here or download it on iTunes.

Swell Album: #1 Dads - About Face [indie rock / soul / experimental pop]

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Tom Iansek has been featured on holaOLA before, but as half of the award-winning Australian duo Big Scary. Now, the Melbourne songwriter is back, further proving his excellent musicianship, songwriting, and vocal skills as the force behind #1 Dads, his solo project, which recently released the beautiful record About Face on Pieater Records.

Formed as a way to keep busy creating new material between recording sessions and touring with his more established music project, #1 Dads first made its mark back in May 2011 (as Dads) with the debut release, Man of Leisure. The only real sonic connection that can be made between the two projects is that they both feature Iansek's passionate vocals and experimental pop sensibilities. Comparing #1 Dads' new record with Big Scary's recent genre-defying Not Art LP, Iansek not only mellows down his vocals a bit (albeit without sacrificing any of the soul), but he tones down the music too, favoring subdued piano arrangements and acoustic guitars to punchy keys and percussion. The presence of guest vocalists (Tom Snowdon of Lowlakes, Ainslie Wills, and Airling) on select tracks of About Face also adds a new dynamic to his minimal indie rock, making for an engrossing listening experience that's just as diverse as the list of genres tagged to his previous music.

Stream/purchase the entire album below and hop on over to #1 Dads' BandCamp page to stream and/or buy 2011's Man of Leisure.

Artist Making Waves: Pat Hull [folk / soul / singer-songwriter]

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Originally from Connecticut, singer-songwriter Pat Hull is the son of two classically trained musicians and vocal/piano teachers who fortunately managed to pass on their singing skills and love for music to him. Growing up, Pat picked up multiple instruments like piano, saxophone, and cello, but fell in love with the guitar and starting playing with bands in his college years in New York. After graduating in 2009, Hull moved out to Chico, California for graduate school where he sharpened his skills, recording three albums with the help of other musicians. In 2010, he moved back to Brooklyn where he met and collaborated with Jason Beck and Michael Chinworth on his next two albums, 2011's Light and last year's Shed Skin. Now, Pat Hull resides in Santa Cruz, CA and recently put out his newest record, In The Yellow Room, which is a collection of intimate songs recorded live between 2011 and 2014 with bandmates Mark Robertson and Bob Reynolds at Yellow Room Recording in Portland, Oregon.

As is evident on In The Yellow Room, Pat Hull is one of the few great modern folk musicians with a soulful voice that enraptures you the moment it meets the microphone. My family and I had the pleasure of seeing him perform live on his solo tour this summer in Newburyport, MA, where he played for a small crowd of unsuspecting microbrew aficionados in a local brewery. He played for a few hours, churning out original songs along with a number of classic rock and folk covers that would have slipped by me had my mother not recognized the lyrics and started mumbling along. Everything sounded uniquely his own thanks to the marriage between his alluring singing style and complementary guitar playing. One thing is certain as you listen to Pat Hull play: His impassioned, soothing signature is left on everything he touches.

Jump on over to Pat Hull's BandCamp page to stream all six of his beautiful albums, or you can start below with his two latest records, In The Yellow Room and Shed Skin. Be sure to follow him on Facebook to hear about upcoming shows and releases.

Just Rolled In: Burn Antares - "Crystal Love" [psychedelic / rock 'n' roll / 60s revival / soul]

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The 1960s might be long gone, but luckily enough for us millennials (and nostalgic baby boomers), psychedelic rockers Burn Antares from Sydney, Australia are gracing stages and studios today channeling the soul, melody, and groovy vibes intrinsic to that decade's music. Fronted by the seductive pipes of Grace Farriss, daughter of INXS keyboardist/guitarist/composer Andrew Farriss, Burn Antares manages to catapult us back almost half a century with their psychedelic guitar riffs and solos, jangly percussion, ceiling-busting background vocal harmonies, blazing organs, and of course, Farriss's soulful, energetic vocals, which are quite evocative of those of Stevie Nicks.

Already having released an excellent self-titled debut EP in late 2013, Burn Antares are back with the single "Crystal Love" from their upcoming EP Fur Coat & The Peace Boat, which is being released this October. Check out the track below, followed by their beautiful rework of INXS's song "By My Side" and a full stream of their debut EP.

Swell Album: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Oddments [garage / psychedelic / soul]

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Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have just released their fourth LP, Oddments, in as little as eighteen months. The most impressive part is that each album successfully pulls off something different—the Thee Oh Sees-indebted garage-psych of 12 Bar Bruise, the experimental narrative-led spaghetti western album Eyes Like the Sky, the 60s-influenced psychedelia of Float Along – Fill Your Lungs, and the soulful pysch-pop kaleidoscope of their most recent LP Oddments. Since the first installment of this hyperactive recording series, the Gizz & Liz Wiz have scraped away a good amount of the fuzz signature of any psychedelic garage rock band to let the vocals breathe a bit more and to reveal their more soulful side, making this record the most dynamic and accessible listening experience.

While there's no doubt that garage rockers like Black Lips or Thee Oh Sees have played a part in driving the seven-piece to produce their energetic, and often humorous, brand of psychedelic garage rock, a likening to Unknown Mortal Orchestra is also plausible, especially in the comparably unhurried lo-fi track "Stressin'". The main difference between Oddments and its predecessors is that it doesn't cling too hard to any one idea. Each song brings something different into the mix, leaving us with a melting pot of influences and most importantly, a really fun record, maybe just as fun as saying the band's name—King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard.

Stream the entire album below or listen to it on their Bandcamp, along with the rest of their discography.