Every week, Hit or Hype wades through the most buzzed-about bands all across the Internet. This week: a few choice picks from the charts at BlogFreshRadio.
The Band: Santogold
The Buzz: Philly by-way-of-Brooklyn vocalist reinvents '80s pop, garners repeated and inexplicable M.I.A. comparisons.
Listen If: You wish Siouxsie & the Banshees had occasionally killed time with King Tubby.
Key Track: "Lights Out," where bright, skating synths provide the support for Santogold's aching falsetto.
The Band: M83
The Buzz: French producer makes 70mm songs for John Hughes movies yet to be filmed.
Listen If: You like Daydreaming about New Order covers of Kate Bush songs — or vice-versa.
Key Track: "Graveyard Girl," which somehow turns Joy Division's "Atmosphere" into a bright summer pop song. If you're not pumping your fist by the spoken word section ("I'm fifteen years old, and I feel it's already too late to live"), you probably have never had an unrequited teenage crush.
The Band: No Age
The Buzz: L.A. outfit rides chaotic live reputation to create droney, lo-fi albums that restore much-needed scuzz and atonality to the increasingly (and depressingly) polite world of indie rock.
Listen If: You think melody is optional (we do, too) and prefer volume to structure.
Key Track: "Eraser," which boasts serrated, detuned no-wave guitars, sloppy, off-tempo percussion, hollered vocals and buckets and buckets of charm.