Editor's note: Every week, our colleagues at Brand X’s L.A. Unheard column unearth one of L.A.’s best undiscovered acts.

The band: The Sweet Hurt, L.A. musician-about-town Wendy Wang's solo project.

The sound: Rarely has a band name fit a set of songs so well. The Sweet Hurt's music, as you might guess, is full of soft, sad ballads, delivered with the quiet confidence of a caffeinated Norah Jones. The band may be Starbucks-ready, but its elegant chamber-pop arrangements and honeyed melodies will stick to your iPod long after you leave the coffee shop.

The details: The Sweet Hurt plays the Standard on Thursday night, with another show lined up on Feb. 2 at the Hotel Cafe. The band's self-titled debut album is out now.

The rest: Download the Sweet Hurt's "Part of Me" and stream the album in full over at Brand X.

-- David Greenwald

Photo: Musician-about-town Wendy Wang.

After six years, a handful of albums and one censorship controversy, Amanda Palmer wanted a way to call her own shots after splitting with Roadrunner Records in April.

After she claimed the label sought to cut or alter shots of her stomach in the video for the “Who Killed Amanda Palmer” song “Leeds United,” Palmer asked to be dropped in late 2008. As fans bared their own bodies in an online protest dubbed “The ReBellyon,” the singer took to performing a song pointedly titled “Please Drop Me” in concert.

When she finally got her wish, Palmer celebrated by offering a free download of a track titled “Do You Swear to Tell the Truth the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth So Help Your Black Ass,” a decision that probably would have made her former label cringe.

Independence has its virtues.

The Dresden Dolls frontwoman-turned-solo artist has joined a growing number of artists who’ve found a home on Bandcamp, a San Francisco-based website and publishing platform that aims to put musicians in better control of their digital sales and online merchandising.

“We really wanted to do everything quote unquote on our own,” said Sean Francis, Palmer’s director of new media, marketing and promotions, adding that they discovered the site in its infancy. “We always had them in the back of our minds for when ultimately she would get off the label.”

In contrast with a number of rules-clad retailers, Bandcamp offers ease and options: free sign-up; a Bandcamp storefront page to add to an existing site or let stand alone; an array of digital download formats (from hi-fi MP3s to FLAC and Ogg Vorbis files) for customers; physical sales and physical-digital bundling; and, perhaps most important, the ability to set prices, from free to a flat rate to a pay-what-you-want donation.

Editor's note: Every week, our colleagues at Brand X’s L.A. Unheard column unearth one of L.A.’s best undiscovered acts.

The band: The World Record, a power-pop act led by Andy Creighton.

The sound: The title of the group's little-known debut, "Guitars Forever," is pretty self-explanatory: The band offers the instant-favorite choruses and bouncing rock rhythms favored by acts ranging from Big Star to Fountains of Wayne, with a hearty helping of sincere lyricism.

The details: Creighton says the band is "about half-done with mixing" 28 new songs, which will likely arrive as two separate albums. He'll join World Record bandmates Ross Flournoy and Brian Whelan at the Satellite on Feb. 12 for a performance by brother band Apex Manor.

The rest: Download a track from the group and read more over on Brand X.

-- David Greenwald

Photo: Power-pop act the World Record plans to return with a new album (or two) next year. From left: Frontman Andy Creighton and Aaron Ballard. Credit: The World Record

Editor's note: Every week, our colleagues at Brand X’s L.A. Unheard column unearth one of L.A.’s best undiscovered acts.

The band: Dunes, an L.A. trio that finds reformed punks Kate Hall (Mika Miko) and Stephanie Chan (Finally Punk) joining forces with Mark Greshowak (Talbot Tagora).

The sound: Like their colleagues in the current class of fuzzy, beach-obsessed bands (Best Coast, Wavves, Tennis, Swimsuit, Beach Fossils -- the list goes on), Dunes play catchy, fidelity-be-damned guitar pop best absorbed along with sunscreen and psychedelic drugs. Unlike many of their peers, though, they draw as much on mellowed-out '80s post-punk as they do poodle skirts and "Be My Baby."

The details: Dunes is currently recording their debut album, due in 2011; in the meantime, check eBay for the band’s already out-of-print singles.  

The rest: Visit Brand X to download the band's "Little Stems."

-- David Greenwald

Photo: From left: Kate Hall, Stephanie Chan and Mark Greshowak of rising local lo-fi act Dunes. Credit: Ward Robinson

Editor's note: Every week, our colleagues at Brand X’s L.A. Unheard column unearth one of L.A.’s best undiscovered acts.

The band: Kisses, a lovebird duo led by indie-pop act Princeton's Jesse Kivel and fashion blogger-turned-keyboardist Zinzi Edmundson.

The sound: The group's "The Heart of the Nightlife," a set of lo-fi electronica driven by Kivel's Jens Lekman-like baritone, offers of-the-moment disco influences mellow enough for after the after-party -- and romantic enough for a dinner date. Live, the group's surprisingly sample-free set proves the songs work equally well without a laptop.

The details: "The Heart of the Nightlife" arrived on label This Is Music earlier this month. The band won’t be joining Lekman, as was previously announced, for a DJ session at the Swede’s Mondrian SkyBar concert on Saturday, but keep an eye out for future dates.

The rest: Visit Brand X to download two tracks from the new album.

-- David Greenwald

Photo: Kisses far away from home in Manchester, England, moments after their debut U.K. performance at the In The City festival in October. Credit: David Greenwald

Editor's note: Every week, our colleagues at Brand X’s L.A. Unheard column unearth one of L.A.’s best undiscovered acts.

The band: Lord Huron, the project of Michigan native-turned-Angeleno Ben Schneider.

The sound: The band's self-released "Mighty" EP is full of lush acoustic guitars and Midwestern-accented harmonies as warm as a winter fireplace, but it's the Caribbean-influenced percussion that fans Lord Huron's folk sound into flame.

The details: The "Mighty" EP, the band's second effort, was released earlier this month. Lord Huron will  play a number of shows in the coming days, including an opening gig Friday for fellow locals Avi Buffalo at the Echoplex, an in-store at Origami Vinyl on Sunday and another show at La Brea's Tar Pit bar on Monday.

The rest: Click over to Brand X to download the title track of "Mighty."

-- David Greenwald

Photo: Ben Schneider of L.A. folk-rock act Lord Huron. Credit: Benji Schneider

Editor's note: Every week, our colleagues at Brand X’s L.A. Unheard column unearth one of L.A.’s best undiscovered acts.

The band: Evan Voytas, Los Angeles' new chillwave champion. 

The sound: With his pop melodies, woozy electronics and synth-heavy beats, Voytas is Los Angeles' top (and perhaps first) addition to the burgeoning, blogosphere-touted chillwave scene led by artists such as Washed Out and Toro Y Moi. Unlike some of his peers, however, Voytas' whispery vocals add a seductive edge to his slow-dance grooves. 

The details: The singer will wrap up his free October residency at the Echo on Monday, with aid from San Diego's dreamy Lesands and the unfairly charming British twee-pop newcomers Allo Darlin'. His "Tomorrow Night We'll Go Anywhere" EP is out this week digitally and will get a physical release in November courtesy of new local label Cascine.  

The rest: Download and stream Voytas' "Tomorrow Night We'll Go Anywhere" over on Brand X.

-- David Greenwald

Photo: Chillwave artist Evan Voytas. Credit: Stephanie Seeley

Editor's note: Every week, our colleagues at Brand X’s L.A. Unheard column unearth one of L.A.’s best undiscovered acts.

Funny thing about Matador at 21: After three days and dozens of diverse bands, it turns out everyone was pretty much there to see Guided by Voices. The '90s lo-fi heroes, who reunited to play the festival (and stop in L.A. Monday night), headlined the event's final night, hitting the stage around midnight and playing past 2 a.m. -- to a nearly capacity crowd. If Matador at 21 were a game, Guided by Voices would've won -- they earned the most encores, the most fist pumping, the most singalongs, the most pushing against the stage and the most chanting of the whole weekend. 

Pop & Hiss contributor and Brand X blogger David Greenwald is in Las Vegas to take in the three-day anniversary party for New York's Matador Records. Here's his take on Night 2.

The appearance of Come, a group led by Thalia Zedek, marked the event’s first full-time female lead singer. The long-absent act’s Zedek seemed determined to make up for lost time, leading the group’s guitar assault with a voice as gravelly and punishing as a rock slide.

Music fests being a marathon already, handling one in Vegas requires extra attention to the basics of survival/sanity, which meant, for this writer, the aforementioned nap and room service during the sets of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and 2010 blog favorites Perfume Genius, a keyboard duo who snuck in a quick handful of songs in between the vintage acts.

Pop & Hiss contributor and Brand X blogger David Greenwald is in Las Vegas to take in the three-day anniversary party for New York's Matador Records. His middle-of-the-night dispatch from Night 1 is below.

About an hour outside of Las Vegas, at an anonymous rest stop notable for a selection of chocolate fudge-related desserts, “Hot Tub Time Machine” actor Rob Corddry was spotted taking a break from the freeway on Friday afternoon. Inconsequential, perhaps, but a fitting omen for a weekend in Sin City serving as an unexpectedly surreal journey to the past.

Matador at 21, a thee-day celebration of the New York indie label’s drinking-age birthday, descended on Vegas on Friday night, bringing an influx of bespectacled, buttoned-up indie kids (some, if not most, deep into their 30s), many of whom seemed to avoid rubbing shoulders with the standard-issue glammed-up nightclubbers.

Music geeks, after all, were once actual geeks too. Before American Apparel, iTunes and the life-changing developments of "Garden State," all of which helped bring indie to the masses, the music released by labels such as Matador was outsider stuff, the kind unlikely to be blared from casino loudspeakers.