Steve Benjamins’ vein of downtempo indie-pop is lush and immediately pleasant, his sonorous voice – described by Indie Shuffle as “a little bit like Justin Vernon and Michael Stipe” – shifting between

Shmohawk by Shmohawk When I stumbled across Shmohawk a little over a year ago, the group’s sky-high potential was very evident. For some songwriters, churning out devastatingly catchy and memorable hooks is like

Crisp-clean production and a predictably fun structure help guide “Shooting Star”, which introduces a fantastic chorus around 01:20 that touts The Separators’ overall sound and potential — with a stylistic arsenal that

“Absences” is a stellar track from Ninth Floor Mannequin that features crisp guitars and a bustling post-punk bass line beautifully complementing the hazy vocals throughout. I’m particularly fond of the bridge around

Long Island-based quartet The Vigilance Committee shows their impressive ability to alternate between trickling melodic power-pop and dexterously forceful math/prog-rock throughout “Set the Pacific On Fire”, the first track off their new