For this weeks additional listening we’d like to point you in the direction of new music from: Fear Of Men, Chris Cohen, Ashley Shadow, Prism Tats, Dilly Dally, Maria Usbeck, Fog Lake, Matt Maltese, Laura Gibson, Last Good Tooth, Steve Gunn, Kyle Craft, Dana Falconberry & The Medicine Bow, Told Slant, Innerspace Orchestra, The Person & The People, and LEW.

5. Don’t Mourn The Storyteller

Catalonian four-piece Mourn’s twitter account describes the band as, “four nerds playing music and shit at the doors of hell.” Whilst perhaps not quite how we’d describe their sound, nonetheless we certainly like what we hear. Their second album Ha, Ha, He is out later this year, and this week they’ve shared the latest track from it in the shape of new single, Storyteller.

Storyteller is a remarkable pieces of songwriting; angular guitars are laced with a slacker-dirge, drums crash in and out of earshot, and vocals drift from sweet and melodic harmonies, into yelped, angsty screams. Imagine a band with the attitude of Hinds and the ambitious songwriting of Kiran Leonard and you won’t be far off. Their album title, Ha, Ha, He, is lifted from a William Blake poem from his collection Songs Of Innocence and Of Experience; rather apt for a band who, as they are still teenagers possess plenty of the former, and if the songs are all this good look set to garner a good deal of the latter as well.

Ha, Ha, He is out June 3rd via Captured Tracks.

4. Reasons To Be Deerful

You may remember a few weeks back we shared Hush Me, one half of Deerful‘s upcoming release which is due out new week through the Where It’s At Is Where You Are label. This week Deerful, aka Emma Winston, has shared the video for the records other side, Moon Maps.

If Hush Me was the contemplative, almost melancholy side of Deerful‘s output, Moon Maps is probably as close to and out and out “banger” as you’re likely to hear from Emma. Moon Maps sounds like the music The Postal Service would have made if they’d not sent the tapes across the pond and stayed staring at the stars and dancing alone in a field somewhere near Cambridge. That in our humble opinion can only be a good thing.

Moon Maps/Hush Me is out April 7th via wiaiwya. Deerful play Scared To Dance‘s gig night at The Shacklewell Arms on April 8th, click HERE for details.

3. Take A Trip Into Outer Space

Baltimore trio, Outer Space have this week confirmed details of the release of their debut album, A Shedding Snake. That record is out next month through New Brunswick label, Don Giovanni Records. This week has also seen the band share the video for their latest single, I Saw You.

Outer Space are a new project for singer Cara Beth Satalino, who previously released music under her own name. This new line up has allowed Cara to expand and reinvent her songwriting style. I Saw You is a winning blend of catchy pop-tinged choruses, and gently-scuzzy guitar lines, whilst lyrically it seems to deal with issues of acceptance and being true to ones self. Cara has described A Shedding Snake as, “a record about moving on, moving past, moving forward, and moving toward” and if this track is anything to go by, it sounds like a giant leap forward.

A Shedding Snake is out May 27th via Don Giovanni Records. 

2. Welcome To The Grand Chorus

American-duo Fascinations Grand Chorus are the coming together of two rival songwriters, Stephanie and Andrew. This week they’ve shared their debut single, Welcome, the first track to be lifted from their upcoming three track EP. Their press release is keen to play up their argumentative tendencies, creative differences and the begrudging nature of their respect for one another, but they can’t hate each other too much, or they wouldn’t have discovered their  shared love of, “The Misfits, 1910 Fruitgum Company and certain antiquated arcade games.”

Welcome builds around Stephanie’s casio-like lo-fi, indie-pop, keyboard sounds, and 1960’s girl group vocals, which contrast neatly with Andrew’s pounding, aggressive drumming style. Fascinations Grand Chorus might see music as a competition, but if it drives them to make music of this quality, then long may they bite, kick and scream their way through the songwriting process, just make sure you both survive until an albums made!

Fascinations Grand Chorus’ self-titled EP is due out…soon!

1. A Sweeter Kind Of Lemon

Fresh from releasing Wabi-Sabi, one of our favourite albums of the year to date, Texan duo Cross Record have this week shared the video to the album’s closing track, Lemon. The track is one of the albums most distinct songs, Emily Cross’ emotive vocal multi-tracked is paired with little more than distorted, synthetic bass. The result is a disturbing, and uneasy sonic world, as if the landscape around you is warping and distorting with the squelching bass.

The Andrew McGlennon directed video draws parallels between the distinct marks of ageing on the lead actors face and the songs lyrical metaphor, that compares emotional strife to the Suns affect on the titular Lemon, “left outside to turn into leather, abandoned.” Like everything Cross Record do, this feels artistic, meticulous and fully realised, it’s surely only a matter of time before a much larger audience realise just how good they are.

Wabi-Sabi is out now via Ba Da Bing Records. US readers can catch Cross Record on tour from the end of April, click HERE for details.