I caught You Can Be A Wesley at last night’s Boston-to-Austin event at Great Scott and after two of my other favorite acts in Boston, Old Jack and Aloud, tore up the stage. The event was a promo for the Boston-to-Austin party at this year’s South By Southwest in Austin, and is featuring some really great bands.

At the show two things happened:  1) I fell in love YCBAW‘s lead singer,  Saara Untracht-Oakner, and 2) I found another awesome new local band to rave about on my blog.

YCBAW play a really nice stripped-down sort of indie-pop. It’s upbeat and fun, but still maintains a touch of rawness/lo-fi fidelity that too many others in the genre are lacking. Check out the new video for ‘Old in Florida’ below, and also make sure you listen to ‘Creatures’ to hear Saara belt it on the chorus.

“Old In Florida” by You Can Be A Wesley from loroto on Vimeo.

Pitchfork has been kind enough to let us stream the new album ‘Angles of Darkness, Demons of Light II’ from the seminal drone/dark instrumental band Earth. Listen below:

Earth: Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light II by pitchfork

Boston Garage rockers The Fagettes have a new video out for their track ‘When I’m with You’ which you can check out below (via BostonBandCrush):

The Fagettes – When I’m With You from Peaches on Vimeo.

Finally, and I have no idea how I ended up linked to this, Bachelorette is an electronic artist from Christchurch, New Zealand who has been absolutely blowing my mind this week. Check out the video for ‘Polarity Party’ here:

**Update** Mark from the comments notes that the unusual spelling of ‘I Fink You Freeky’ likely stems from the fact that Afrikaans doesn’t have a ‘th’ sound. You learn something new every day, huh? Thanks Mark! 

Check out this avant-pop/electronic album by Boston-local band The Craters:

Check out the video for ‘You’ll See’ by French Indi-pop group Baden Baden:

The stirring video from Feist‘s ‘The Bad in Each Other’:

Electro-pop artist Class Actress‘s video for ‘Keep You’:

First, things first, stop whatever you’re doing and go listen to Porcelain Raft. The project of Mauro Remiddi, who hales from London via Italy, is an interesting mix of experimental rock and solid indi-pop. The day after the show, pitchfork posted a review of Porcelain Rafts’ debut record, ‘Strange Weekend’, giving it a solid 7.4, and RSL blog posted a highlight piece, and I felt thoroughly scooped. The music is seriously beautiful, and it wasn’t long after the set that I was already texting most of my friends obnoxious and incomprehensible things like “OMG!!! PORCELAIN RAFT.” Check out ‘Put Me To Sleep’ below, and keep your ears open for them because I predict they will be one of the next-big-things of 2012.

Put Me To Sleep by Porcelain Raft

Bleached play a spunky straight-up garage pop lead by two chick singers (one with a phenomenal-looking top-of-the-head blonde ponytail) and some kid who can play the drums like a motherfucking riot (sorry). Twitter friends with Bethany Consentino of Best Coast for obvious reasons, these kids put on a set that was just plain fun. Check out the music video for the infectious jam ‘Think of You’ below:

Finally, Smith Westerns, came out and rocked the house. I’ve been listening to Smith Westerns for a while now, but this is the first time I’ve seen them play live. They played a tight set with some interesting moments, though the lead singer, Cullen Omori, was clearly fucked up to appropriately rock-star levels. Their sound is tight, clear, and sophisticated garage pop. I’m happy to see that they’ve made the transition from lo-fi wunderkind to serious (musically if not emotionally) rock stars without too much trouble. Definitely worth checking out live, and give ‘Smile’ off their new record ‘Dye it Blonde’ below:

[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/smith-westerns/smile[/soundcloud]

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

Friday January 27

The Hood Internet, mashup kings of the internet, are playing Middle East downstairs. Tickets are $15, and available here.

Saturday January 28

The sweet and soft-singing Coeur de Pirate, wonderfully french/Canadian, will be at Brighton Music Hall. Tickets are $15 and can be obtained here.

Monday January 29

The next big thing in rap, A$AP Rocky, is playing Middle East Downstairs on Monday. This is going to be a pretty wild show so come early and wear clothes you don’t mind smelling like weed for the next 6 weeks. Tickets are $20 and surprisingly haven’t sold out yet. Get one here.

‘Sprawl of Glass’ by The Hood Internet is probably my favorite mashup of all time.

GREAT COVER by Coeur de Pirate

Even better news: First Aid Kit  are playing Coachella on Sunday and I plan on annoying the hell out of my friends to make sure we’re up early enough to catch them. Check out the title track from their new album below!