FYM PRESS PLAY: 2011 ARTISTS ON THE HORIZON

2010 is mere days away from expiring, and whether or not you've had a good year or a forgettable year, hopefully you reveled a bit in some of the breakout bands of 2010. Some of the better musicians to find success for the first time included Best Coast, Janelle Monáe, The Black Keys, Delorean, Nicki Minaj, and, depending on who you ask, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti.

Today, for Young Moderns looks ahead to 2011 and provides you with a list of some of the potential artists aiming to blow up next year. Enjoy prophesying:


Active Child
HQ: Los Angeles, California
Notable Release: Excellent 2010 EP Citrus Lane
The Details: Active Child is the creative output by Los Angeles musician Pat Grossi. Grossi employs a variety of tools, including an electric harp and and synthesizer aided by a laptop, to create his unique and vast soundscapes. Grossi's signature choirboy falsetto rising over the icy musical landscapes gives his sound a definite dreamlike quality rarely heard elsewhere. You can't miss the strange video for "I'm In Your Church At Night", in which Grossi cooks up his own hypothesis about where babies come from:




The Coathangers
HQ: Atlanta, Georgia
Notable Releases: Self-titled 2007 LP, 2009 LP Scramble
The Details: Back in March 2010, for Young Moderns attended the Waved Out Festival at the Echoplex in Los Angeles, expect good sets from favorite such as Best Coast and Moon Duo. While those aforementioned bands indeed played solid sets, we walked out of the show with one (well, four) things on the mind: THE COATHANGERS. Atlanta's The Coathangers came out of nowhere and completely killed, and we've been hooked ever since. They're a four-woman, complete rock & roll party, and their third full-length album is due sometime in 2011. Check out a live performance of their song "Tonya Harding":





Cults
HQ: New York City, New York
Notable Release: 2010 Daytrotter Session
The Details: Cults, now based in NYC after originally ailing from San Diego, created quite a stir in 2010 even though, to date, they have officially released a mere four songs. Three on their Bandcamp page, and one via a promotion through Adult Swim. With only four songs garnering so much attention, it's going to be a pretty big deal when their full-length debut drops sometime in '11. Check out the adult Swim-affiliated video for "Oh My God":




Gauntlet Hair
HQ: Denver, Colorado
Notable Release: 2010 single "I Was Thinking..."
The Details: Denver has always been a pretty great city, but never have there been a lot of great bands to come out of there (though, Pictureplane and The Apples in Stereo come to mind). Gauntlet Hair take big, delayed, fuzzy guitars that seemed to be favored by a lot of bands these days, but add their own unique explosiveness, especially when it comes to the pounding percussion and soaring vocals. It's kind of like lo-fi Best Coast sound meets Sleigh Bells' over-the-top heaviness. We like it. Check the very Coloradan video for "I Was Thinking...":





Happy Family
HQ: Baltimore, Maryland
Notable Release: Split EP Banana Split with Run DMT
The Details: Happy Family are a pretty mysterious, little-known-about Baltimore music collective affiliated with the Wigflip Records label in Baltimore. Their sample-heavy, insanely catchy, psychedelic pop number "Youtube" (which you can listen to just below) got some pretty serious plays here at FYM for a good part of 2010. Most Happy Family-related released tend to be very lengthy noise and ambient pieces (nothing wrong with that), but here's to hoping we can hear some more of this pop flavored material again in their near future:

Heavy Hawaii
HQ: San Diego, California
Notable Release: 2010 EP HH
The Details: We covered Heavy Hawaii and their perfectly crafted surf-psych jam "Teen Angel" on our Best Songs of 2010 list last week, and judging by this song and their HH EP, they easily have the potential to blow up a little bit like their fellow San Diego musicians Wavves and The Soft Pack. Listen to "Teen Angel" right here:

La Sera
HQ: Los Angeles, California
Notable Release: Self-titled debut album due the day after Valentine's Day
The Details: La Sera, the new project from Vivian Girls singer Katy Goodman, fits wonderfully in the Los Angeles scene in which its risen from (Best Coast, Wavves, Abe Vigoda are all affiliated with La Sera in various ways). Goodman is a master of catchy melody and has a voice to match those skills. Expect La Sera's self-titled debut to be the soundtrack of your sunshine-y days in 2011. Check the video for "Never Come Around", in which Goodman plays the most adorably demented serial killer ever in a video that pulls off both cutsey and sadistic:




Matthew Friedberger
HQ: Brooklyn, New York
Notable Releases: The entire incredible Fiery Furnaces discography, plus a 2006 solo double album
The Details: Matthew Friedberger is probably the most established musician on this list, as he is half of The Fiery Furnaces, who may be the best and most under-appreciated band of the past decade, but his goals for 2011 are absolutely noteworthy. Aside from working on a new Furnaces album or two (one of which may be only sold in form of only its sheet music -- as the band claims that people don't buy music anymore, so they can make it themselves), Friedberger is about to launch a series of eight solo albums, each to be released every other month in 2011, and all only available on vinyl as part of a subscription service through Thrill Jockey Records. Friedberger will focus on one musical instrument for every album, and the series will be concluded with some bonus music featuring collaborations with other musicians. The whole project is quite the spectacle and should be paid attention to by people who truly appreciate a talented and ambitious mind. The first of the albums is the piano-centric Napoleonette, which will feature the song "Shirley":

Memoryhouse
HQ: Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Notable Releases: 2010's The Years EP and a slew of fantastic singles
The Details: This Canadian duo rode the chillwave fad into 2010, but by the end of the year, they established their own identity apart those bands overdosing on lo-fi synths. Memoryhouse's sound has a melancholy, dreamy feel to it that simply isn't present in the respective sounds of other synth-pop bands out there today. their eagerly-awaited full-length debut album is due soon. Here's the video for the Eternal Sunshine-borrowing"Lately":




The Middle East
HQ: Townsville, Queensland, Australia
Notable Release: 2008 album The Recordings of the Middle East (reissued as an EP in 2009)
The Details: The Middle East may be one of the best bands of 2011 that we're lucky to even have around these days. After putting out their debut album in 2008, The Recordings of the Middle East, the Australian band broke up for a while before wisely reforming and hitting the road on some very noteworthy tours in 2010. They started out the year opening for Pavement's triumphant reunion tour, and For Young Moderns were blown away by their phenomenal opening set at what was already a grand occasion even without them: Pavement's first North American show since 1999. After stunning crowds across the States with Pavement, The Middle East brought their excellent live act on tour opening for Mumford & Sons, where presumedly they killed it every night, making Mumford & Sons look like cheap Middle East knockoffs. The Middle East are expected to finally drop their second album in 2011. Expect something along the lines of an Australian Arcade Fire album, with a live show just as good. Check out a live performance of "Blood", from their debut album:




Zola Jesus
HQ: Los Angeles, California
Notable Releases: Stridulum II, an album made of of two EPs
The Details: For Young Moderns has been raving about the wonderfully haunting music of Zola Jesus for some time now. There was no debate that, even though she was a prominent fixture for our ears in 2010, she deserved to be recognized for potentially dominating in 2011 as well. She'll likely be coming off an excellent year with another full length album, which we will be anticipating feverishly. Check out the video for "Night":