2012's Next "Big" Things: The search is on...

The hottest topic of discussion among music fans around this time of the year is usually which new bands have what it takes to become the next "big" things in the year ahead. Taking motivation from the many lists out there, we've done our research and we've come up with the following shortlist of five new bands that fit the profile of what we'd like to listen to more in 2012. Let's have a listen:

Friends

It's not the first time I'm writing about Brooklyn's five piece funk-pop sensations Friends. Their excellent second single "I'm His Girl" was the subject of this post and it also got them a place in the Top 20 of our Singles Of The Year list. Let's hope that in 2012 the band will be able to live up to our expectations and deliver an album full of goodies like this one:

2:54

This London-based group was formed a couple of years ago by sisters Hannah and Colette Thurlow who used to play in the punk band The Vulgarians. The name of their new band comes from their favorite moment in a Melvins song although their dreamy new sound has more in common with the early '90s shoegazers than with the sludge-rock of Washington State's proto-grungers. Check out the impressive video for the title-track of their recent EP "Scarlet" below, as well as earlier single "Cold Front" which is my favorite 2:54 song so far:

Scarlet

The History Of Apple Pie

If you loved Yuck last year then you should definitely lend an ear to London five piece The History Of Apple Pie. Their debut single "You're So Cool" was released last summer on Roundtable Records and here's the excellent "Mallory" which followed it at the end of 2011:

Milk Music

They come from Olympia, Washington and they make the sort of guitar noise we haven't heard since the SST days of Dinosaur Jr. Do I need to say more? If you know what SST stands for, I'm sure you're already trying to track down Milk Music's self-released debut 12" "Beyond Living". Here's the title track and here's the link to listen to them live on WFMU:

Grimes

Grimes, aka Montreal-based Claire Boucher, has already made waves with her first releases on Arbutus Records. Her recent signing to 4AD and the forthcoming, highly anticipated full-length "Visions" will undoubtedly make her lovely electropop sound known to a much wider audience. Here’s "Genesis" off "Visions", one of her finest songs so far: