The Hotness is your daily look at 3 new songs that are amazing, essential, and are sure to make you horny. Ok, the last part isn’t necessarily true. But if you don’t like at least one of these three songs, you need to check 1) Your testosterone levels 2) Your estrogen levels 3) Your hearing.

Let Em Riot has been featured here on Fred Hystere a few times and  I truly believe that he is one of the most gifted unsigned artists that I’ve heard in the last couple of years. Let Em Riot is the recording name of LA-area singer, Alan Oakes, and his music overall is difficult to categorize but tends to fall in either the chillwave, synthpop or new wave genres. The thing that always jumps out to me about Alan’s music is his songwriting, as it’s rare to find an artist that, not only tries so many different styles of music, but also succeeds at every one of them! Every song that Let Em Riot releases is always better than the last and usually totally different, stylewise, than anything he’s done before. You’ll be hearing a lot more of him on this site and I’ll be debuting another new track of his next week. But, for now, have a listen to his brand new gorgeous chillwave ballad, The Glass Moon, and download the song for free and share it with everyone you know!

*The Glass Moon is available to download for free via Let Em Riot’s website.

http://letemriot.com/

 

Let Em Riot “The Glass Moon”

 

 

Austra is a Canadian trio comprised of singer Katie Stelmanis, Maya Postepski and Dorian Wolf. Katie is the chief songwriter for the band and released an extremely underrated gem of a solo album a few years ago. Austra’s music has been called darkwave, synthpop, etc and seems to be heavily influenced by some of my all-time favorite bands like Siouxsie & The Banshees. Their songs have an almost industrial element to them and I love how the band always pulls back at the last minute, while staying true to their synthy darkwave roots. Austra’s debut album is called Feel It Break and I can already tell you that if you’re a fan of dark, mysterious synthpop, you’ll be all over the album when it hits stores on 16 May. My favorite track on Feel It Break is called “The Villain” and has the same Siouxsie & The Banshees/Boys For Pele-era Tori Amos-feel as the rest of the album. Check it out below.

*Austra’s debut album, Feel It Break, is released 16 May on Domino Records.

http://www.austramusic.com/

 

Austra “The Villain”

 

 

Natalie Walker is the former lead-singer of trip hop group Daughter Darling, and is getting ready to release her 3^rd solo album in just a few weeks. Her music fits in nicely with my collection of Sarah McLachlan and Dido albums, as I love the lush sounds-capes and ethereal vocals that Natalie consistently creates. I’ve been listening to her new track, Cool Kids, for the last couple of weeks and have had it in my head more or less non-stop since then. The song has a bigger hook to it than most of Natalie’s tunes; which makes her upcoming album one of my most anticipated summer releases and one that I’m sure to listen to while sitting at the beach relaxing late at night. Check it out below.

*Natalie Walker’s new single, Cool Kids, is available for purchase now exclusively on Beatport and her 3rd solo album, Spark, is out 7 June on Dorado Music.

 

Natalie Walker “Cool Kids”

 

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Today’s Artist Of The Day is yet another amazing Swedish band that you’ve likely never heard of until now, called Little Majorette. I was a big fan of their debut EP, Bite The Bullet, which came out last year, and I’m an even bigger fan of their just-released gem of a debut album, Rifle Heart.

Little Majorette are comprised of singer Zoe Durrant, Petter Winnberg and Nils Tornqvist and I’ve heard their music described as “a more organic version of fellow Swede, Robyn.” While I agree on the ‘organic’ front, I have to say that I think comparisons to Robyn are both unfounded and a lazy because, Little Majorette are one hell of a band on their own, and Rifle Heart is one of the top 10 best debut albums you’re sure to hear all year.

Like most Swedes, they probably write hooky choruses in their sleep, but they also display a really nice variety of musical styles from song to song, including Beatles-influenced pop, 50s-style piano pop, a little tango and lots of synths. Zoe’s harmonizing is gorgeous throughout and, over the course of 13 tracks, Little Majorette are able to keep up the quality in a way most other bands aren’t able to do by their 2^nd or 3^rd album, much less their first. (In fact, the album finishes even stronger than it begins!)

The first single and video off Rifle Heart is called Never Be The Same and features some kid’s vocals in the chorus (which usually makes me want to vomit, but works very well here). My favorite song on the album is called Tic Tac Toe and I’ve also included that below for your listening pleasure. I’m not sure if Little Majorette are planning an American release of Rifle Heart or not, but I’ll be sure to keep you all posted.

*Little Majorette’s debut album, Rifle Heart, is out now in Sweden on Universal.

http://littlemajorette.se/

http://www.facebook.com/littlemajorette

http://twitter.com/#!/littlemajorette

http://www.myspace.com/littlemajorette

http://www.youtube.com/user/littlemajorette

 

Little Majorette “Tic Tac Toe”

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The Hotness is your daily look at 3 new songs that are amazing, essential, and are sure to make you horny. Ok, the last part isn’t necessarily true. But if you don’t like at least one of these three songs, you need to check 1) Your testosterone levels 2) Your estrogen levels 3) Your hearing.

Mean Lady are one of my favorite discoveries of the year for sure. In their bio, they simply say: “We are two kids from Delaware who want to play at Bonnaroo.” I fucking LOVE that. While their bio may be simple, their music is anything but. Every one of their songs features the almost Billie Holiday-like vocals of lead singer, Katie Dill, and the variety that she and (sexy) bandmate Samuel Nobles display musically, is eargasmic (to say the least). One minute these guys will remind you of jazzy piano recordings from the 50s and the next you’ll swear you’re on a beach in Jamaica thanks to the almost reggae-ish feel of other songs. Interestingly, my music taste tends to stay pretty far away from the whole jam band-reggae-hippie thing heard at Bonnaroo and, in fact, I don’t think you could even pay me to go to the festival itself..,unless Mean Lady are performing! Katie’s voice puts an instant smile on my face and, with pipes like that, she deserves to heard by everyone. Mean Lady released their debut EP entitled Kid Friendly, last year, and have just released the music video for their new song Far Away. Katie’s vocals don’t kick in till about 2 minutes into the song, but you will be well rewarded after your wait. I promise.

*Mean Lady’s debut EP, Kid Friendly, is available for download via Mean Lady’s page on Bandcamp.

http://www.myspace.com/meanlady

 

Mean Lady “Far Away”

 

 

Cat’s Eyes is the new project by lead singer of (excellent band) The Horrors, Faris Badwan, and Canadian opera soprano, Rachel Zeffira. Their sound is very reminiscent of the girl-group sounds of the 60s and, at times, also reminds me of a darker version of She & Him, thanks to Faris and Rachel’s dueling vocals on some of the tracks. They performed their first show (oddly) at The Vatican back in December and just released their self-titled debut album last month. Their debut single Face In The Crowd is way more upbeat and poppy than the rest of the laid back vibe on the rest of the album, but I’ve become very enamored with the stunning variety that the duo display throughout. While listening to Cat’s Eyes, one minute I envision myself in a moonlit pool in the French Riviera, but the next minute I feel as though I’m trapped in a haunted chateau somewhere or sitting in the middle of a musical scene from Oliver or something. To put it bluntly, the album totally fucks me up (in a good way). I’m a big fan of The Horrors and Cat’s Eyes is a pretty awesome surprise and a total 180 from anything The Horrors have ever done. Highly recommended. Check out the video for Face In The Crowd below.

*Cat’s Eyes’ self-titled debut album is out now on Kooyp.

http://www.catseyesmusic.com/

 

Cat’s Eyes “Face In The Crowd”

 

 

Lovers Electric are a duo from Adalaide, Australia who make lush, gorgeous songs filled with catchy hooks and memorable introspective lyrics. They’ve been around since 2006 and released their debut album in 2008. Eden Boucher takes the lead vocals on many of their songs, but David Turley is also very present throughout the majority of their songs as well. Their latest single is called Love Can Save Us and it’s pretty difficult to ignore just how great of a pop song it truly is. The opening chords to the song remind me A LOT of Shining Light by Ash, while the vocals bring to mind Canadian band, Stars. But the song is pure Lovers Electric and I’m pretty sure that the majority of you will want to hit the repeat button on Love Can Save Us. Check out the video below.

*Lovers Electric are currently recording their 2nd album and I have no idea when it’s due to be released (but will keep you posted!)

http://www.loverselectric.com/

 

Lovers Electric “Love Can Save Us”

 

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Today’s Artist of the Day is another one of my favorite new (and unsigned) artists; a beautiful young woman named Florrie.

Florrie is not new to music geeks like moi, but chances are there’s a good portion of you, here in the states, that haven’t heard of this gorgeous pop pixie. She came to notoriety in the UK as the touring drummer for major pop acts such as Girls Aloud and Pet Shop Boys and was the in-house drummer for production house, Xenomania. But it’s been within the last couple of years that her own star has begun to blossom thanks to a string of pop masterpieces such as Call 911, Panic Attack, You Wanna Start Something and (my #1 most played song of 2010) Give Me Your Love; all available to download for free via Florrie’s website.

On her site, she also has a very honest and insightful piece called “My Plans and Why I Haven’t Signed” which is basically about her reasoning behind self-releasing all of her own music.

Her talent is big and there’s something very special about the fact that she plays guitar, drums etc as, sadly, these days in the world of pop you’re lucky to find someone who actually sings their own tunes, much less plays their own instruments. Her sound is very pop, but there’s nothing remotely obnoxious about her songs whatsoever and, while her music is quite simple on the surface, repeated listens uncover solid lyrical depth and hooks that are more effective than the vast majority of pop acts making music today.

To that end, Florrie’s new single Begging Me took me longer than any of her other songs to get into, but has rewarded me more and more with every spin I’ve given it. Her new EP is due out in a few weeks and I seriously hope you’ll all support her as much as I do.

Take a look at the video for Begging Me, below, and then have a look at her adorable video for Give Me Your Love below that. Enjoy!

*Florrie’s new single, Begging Me, is available for purchase via iTunes worldwide & her new EP will be out this spring.

http://florrie.com/

http://www.facebook.com/florrie.music

http://twitter.com/#!/florriemusic

http://www.youtube.com/user/florriemusic

http://www.myspace.com/florriemusic

http://www.last.fm/music/florrie

 

 

 

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