If It's Too Loud...

Mad Caddies are ska punk legends and will be celebrating thirty years next year. The band just released a new single that defies your typical ska or ska punk sound. "Baby" starts off more in the vein of country rock, kind of like the more country side of Supersuckers or Social Distortion. And then the horns kick in. Once they do kick in, the song just launches into a whole different direction and energy. As much of a soft spot as I have for ska, the genre can get pretty stale after a while, so it's great to hear legends mixing up the sound in unexpected ways. Singer Chuck Robertson says of the new single: "This is a super fun country Rock song shining light on the golden era of this style of music. It reminds me of Elvis with the production, and how the horns came out. When I first started dating my girlfriend and we fell for each other. I just told her to call me baby and not say my name. I think you get the point." You can listen to "Baby" below. Arr...

Photo by Ian Wayne The upcoming album from Brooklyn's Ian Wayne is filled with intense grief. While on tour, Wayne found out his three year old nephew had been diagnosed with leukemia. He was gone two weeks later. That intense sorrow that I can't even begin to imagine can be physically felt in the first single from that album. "Baby" starts off as a modern Americana flavored song that slowly moves into some of the most heartbreaking indie rock guitar solos you've ever heard.  "Baby" is about a different loss for Wayne. He explains:  “'Baby' is about an imagined longview of life in love. I think love can make us blind to our loneliness, and at other times, in our loneliness, we miss one another by inches. I believe that love is guided by optimism, which makes the gnashing of teeth along the way even sadder. I think this will be true for all of us, in some respect, at least once. “Baby” is written from this perspective." You can list...

Photo by Saskia Baden "25, Alive," the previous single from Olympia, WA's Oh, Rose is a fairly straightforward indie rock song with loud/quiet/loud parts and lots of fuzzy guitars. The follow up, "Baby," is a completely different type of song. It's still an indie rock song, but it's almost an indie rock meets jazz standard song. The focus is completely on singer Olivia Rose's vocals, which are powerful in their own way. At least, that's how the song goes for the first half. After that, the rock breaks in and turns this into an almost grunge power ballad. Rose's vocals are still the focus, even with the louder instrumentation. This upcoming album could be a sleeper album of the year contender. You can listen to "Baby" below. While My Father Sleeps, the upcoming album from Oh, Rose, will be out on August 23 via Park the Van. You can pre-order the album here . For more on Oh, Rose, check out their Facebook and Twitter .

I'm having the hardest time describing the newest song from Australia's Gabriella Cohen. The only word I can think of using is "cool." "Baby" has this amazing groove throughout. Cohen has crafted this amazing pop rock song, leaning more heavily on the rock side. Her voice has this great 90's slacker vibe in the style of Evan Dando and Courtney Barnett. It includes an almost ska guitar throughout, and is just this super chilled out song reminiscent of a less jokey Pavement. Plus, it's a positive, upbeat song about heartache, so we're pretty sure you'll become as obsessed with it as we are. (Not to spoil it for you, but it has one of the greatest false endings of all time, one of my personal favorite elements in a song.) You can watch the video for "Baby" below. Gabriella Cohen's new album, Pink Is the Colour of Unconditional Love , will be out June 1 on Captured Tracks. You can pre-order it here . For more on Gabriella Cohe...