World didn’t end after all.  Ball’s in your court Mayan calendar.

Brazilian artist Luciano Nakata Albuquerque, aka Curumin, has one of the most diverse backgrounds and unique styles in music today.  Born to Spanish and Japanese parents, he grew up in São Paulo and was influence by the sounds of Jorge Ben, Tim Maia, Bebeto, Run-RMC, and the B-52’s.  At only 8 years old, he formed his first rock band and he hasn’t looked back since.

♩Curumin – Selvage [from Arrocha]

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2012 was a breakout year for Electric Guest.  The Los Angeles-based indie pop duo released their debut studio album Mondo (produced by Brian Burton, aka Danger Mouse) and played a handful of the year’s biggest music festivals, including SXSW, Bonnaroo, Sasquatch, Montreux, Outside Lands, Splendour in the Grass, and more.

♩Electric Guest – This Head I Hold [from Mondo]
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San Francisco’s Geographer is one of my favorite new discoveries.  They’ve been making music since 2008, when Michael Deni (vocals, guitars, synthesizers) moved from New Jersey, but it wasn’t until Paste premiered “Life of Crime” last December that I took notice.  With a self-described sound as being “soulful music from outer space”, the trio has been hard at work the last couple of years and it’s certainly paid off.

♩Geographer – Life of Crime [from Myth]
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Islands is one of my favorite bands of the last ten years.  The band’s latest album, A Sleep & a Forgetting, was released early in 2012 and inspired by the end of frontman Nicholas Thorburn’s marriage.  “This album is far more personal than any I’ve made before,” Thorburn explains. “I left New York after the end of a relationship and came to Los Angeles. There was a piano where I was staying and that’s where I wrote these songs. This record deals with loss, with memory and forgetting and with dreaming. I started writing it on Valentine’s Day and it’s coming out on Valentine’s Day.” (via ANTI-)

♩Islands – In A Dream It Seemed Real [from A Sleep & a Forgetting]
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“The string pop music that Los Angeles-based Princeton has conjured up is reminiscent of Ra Ra Riot, but whereas the latter band has a frantic sense of urgency, the members of Princeton are content with laid-back tunes that mesh with the Southern California lifestyle.  One full length and a handful of EPs later, Princeton is back with their second LP Remembrance of Things to Come that showcases the weaving of East Coast prep school pop and sunny California road trip jams.” (via Paste)

♩Princeton – Remembrance of Things to Come [from Remembrance of Things to Come]
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