Last year I wrote a series of posts about bands I discovered that year, they were The Mysterines, Dream Wife and The Big Moon. I quite enjoyed writing that series, so I decided to repeat this for 2021 (and if I discover three good bands again next year I’ll aim to have one in 2022 as well). The first one for this year was new to pretty much everyone, as they had their breakthrough this year: Wet Leg. They burst on the scene this summer with this song with a famous movie quote and more:

This was followed up by another song with a video filmed at the same location and weird lyrics and references:

It doesn’t come with a full fledged video (yet?), but I also quite like this recently released song:

And finally, they also perform brilliantly live, as shown in this Tiny Desk (Home) Concert for NPR:

I hope you’ve enjoyed Wet Leg, for the next band we’ll travel across the Atlantic to Chicago and something beach related (kind of). Planning to publish that post on Friday.

That went quickly, the third and final entry of this short series is already here. After The Mysterines, Dream Wife we last but by no means least come to The Big Moon (Wikipedia entry) from London. Of these three bands I believe they’ve been around the longest, so I’m rather late to the party. They certainly make brilliant videos. Let’s start with one where they play every single role, Sucker:

They get rather colourful in Cupid, must have been fun making that, despite the mess:

Silent Movie Susie is a beautiful stop motion video with dolls taking on all roles. There’s also a cameo of the band, both as dolls and real people. Can you spot the previous video they are quoting?

From their second album is Your Light. With lots of cycling. And puppets. What more could you want?

To close a cover version. I discovered The Regrettes via their appearance on The A.V. Club, interesting to see that The Big Moon also played a cover at The A.V. Club, Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler from 1983:

I hope you enjoyed this little series and maybe even found a band or two you’ll like. Maybe let me know via the comments?

Having started this introduction of bands I discovered for me this year with The Mysterines I’m now moving on to the second band I found: Dream Wife (Wikipedia entry). Formed while at university in Brighton they have since moved to London. Let’s start with Hey Heartbreaker from their debut album:

Also from their debut album is Somebody (with a very memorable chorus line):

Moving on to their second album, released in 2020, with Hasta La Vista:

Another one from the second album is So When You Gonna…. with a quite interesting video:

To close a live performance mixed with an interview on KEXP:

Again I hope you enjoyed the music, I love the variety in Rakel’s singing and Alice’s guitar play, brilliantly supported by Bella’s bass. The third and last band in this series to follow tomorrow.

Over the last two years the two main new bands I listen to were (and still are) The Regrettes and Skating Polly. In addition to them I also discovered Jade Bird. A few weeks ago I decided to go on a hunt for a few new bands (new to me, not necessarily new to the scene) I might like. That hunt turned out very successful as I’ve found three bands (all British) that have been on heavy rotation since and I expect will remain for some time. So I thought I share some of their music, starting with The Mysterines from Liverpool (introduction in the NME), opening with Take Control:

Moving on to Love’s Not Enough:

A quite fast version of Gasoline:

To close just Lia Metcalfe on her own with an acoustic guitar (incl a much slower version of Gasoline):

I hope you enjoyed the music, more in the second part to follow tomorrow.