"Other songs on What Hearts are just as fascinating in riding the line between autobiography and fiction; revealing and teasing—Vitells’ songs are as clean and narrow as nature slides seen through a View-Master. (Her sister is a recurring character—but only sometimes, she explains, is her sister really her sister.) She does credit one strong influence, ex-Portland quartet A Weather, for shaping that songwriting style." Read on at Willamette Week!

"Pure Bathing Culture, a wonderful band who make wonderful music, have little to do with Vernon's choices, other than the fact that their latest song, "Silver's Shore Lake" shares a certain aesthetic sensibility with "Beth/Rest". Its echoes are glossy and the style is from more than two decades in the past. But, like "Beth/Rest", "Silver's Shore Lake" possesses song-writing of a quality to render some of these questions of derivation completely irrelevant. When the singer pleads, "I wish my heart was deep enough, so deep that I could keep you, love" the debate of acceptable use of the 1980s becomes asinine and you'll wish your heart was a little deeper too." Read on and listen at 32 FT Per Second.

"Can a song that's about the fragility of life and the struggle to survive make you want to bounce around merrily? Somehow the Spinto Band's new song, "The Living Things," does just that. The song's lyrics that on their own could seem depressing — "true to life and in the flesh / though hanging on by just a thread" for example — are pushed aside by the jangly afrobeat-like melody. It's a song that, even though lead singer Nick Krill's voice wails about how he'll "be no good," leaves you with your toes tapping and a smile on your face." Read on and watch the video on NPR.

The San Francisco duo Billy & Dolly return with their latest LP, Dally Bon Idyll, recorded with producer/musician Jason Quever (Papercuts). Honing their straightforward, yet pitch-perfect pop melodies, Billy & Dolly are singing with a new stride on Dally Bon Idyll. More relaxed, confident, even playful, the duo soar above their earlier material with catchy riffs and harmonious vocals as much as with their intimate and immediate songwriting. Please feel free to share their latest video for their single "Oh Yeah" directed by Andres Ramirez right here.  

"From the fine tastemakers at Father/Daughter Records, Portland’s redolent 80′s pop duoPure Bathing Culture will release their S/T EP next Tuesday, and we think you have all reason to be excited." Listen to “Silver Shore’s Lake” on No Fear Of Pop here.

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