Former Babies tagged themselves with five different cities (Oakland, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Francisco, and San Diego), but they’re really worth listening to, so I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt, Phoenix, and tell you about this great lo-fi pop band.
The Young Friends are very poppy. These beats are fast, and it reminds me quite a bit of The Drums. This is new wave pop, and all of these tones are really excellent.
The titles of these songs are great! They’re short and extremely to the point. Examples include, “Bummer”, “I Fell Asleep”, and “Shut The Door”.
Read more about Phoenix Pop!
I love the way the background vocals operate texturally, almost like an extra synth line, on this track off of The Young Friends's Hello LP.
Read more about The Young Friends - 'In Limbo' 
I haven’t written about a good ambient band in a while. Joshua Carro is doing a really great job. The release date for his album “From Water” on Bandcamp is set as March 12, 2012, but you can stream it all right now. He’s making some of the coolest electroacoustic impressionism around. There are much more complex beats and dissonance than you’d usually expect from somebody who labels themselves as minimalist. This is really good and really interesting.