TONIGHT I'LL GET THE STORY RIGHT.

You know when you swing by a friend of a friend's house for an hour but end up staying all night? That's San Antonio's Wild Party in essence, who take you to their best friend's house on LP highlight "Outright", going 'round the roundabout with rambunctious guitarlines, venomous vocals and pithy drums that ensnare you as the night wears on. The perfect midpoint between the striking wiles of The Wombats and Two Door Cinema Club, this is the sound of (twenty thir)teenage angst in the here and now.

MP3: "Outright" - Wild Party [exclusive]

POPSHOP WEST: OFFICIAL TWO DOOR AFTERPARTY

Remember when we hinted at a very special guest for our next Popshop West? Well the time has come to finally draw the curtains and announce our special DJ headliners for the night: TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB. We're going full nocturnal and throwing Two Door's official afterparty following their headlining gig at the Palladium, as the boys come over to shut it down on the decks alongside the stellar lineup we announced last week - Goldroom, Ghost Beach, and Carousel. We also have a very special, very free Cutty Sark whisky open bar for the first hour to get things started right. It's all going down at The Echoplex at 10pm sharp for only $10 advance HERE / $12 day of show, or a special $8 reduced entry with your Palladium ticket stub. Get involved.

STREAM: "Sun (Gigamesh Remix)" - Two Door Cinema Club

WE GROW APART.

This Club, a four piece out of Dublin, arrive on the scene like the Robin to Delphic's Batman, but raised on a healthy diet of vocal acrobatics and mental gymnastics. The intro to "I Won't Worry" cuts in like the counterpoint to "Doubt", leading to cries of palpable emotion with optimistic (almost idealistic) synth throws and mega guitar riffs, elements kindly borrowed from the Two Door Cinema Club school of pop. But there's also a heavy tropical influence somewhere between Fela Kuti and The Holidays that allows This Club to add up to far more than just the sum of its parts. Basically it's another summer staple for your headphones, complete with an epic breakdown that begins as a handclap-laden hook before being completed by a twisting bassline and shouting harmonies. This won't bring the people to the party, this will bring the party to the people.

MP3: "I Won't Worry" - This Club

GOLD026: POLARSETS

We are pleased to announce our next release, featuring the Newcastle dance-pop trio, Polarsets. We've been holding off on a full-course Polarsets education until now, but rest assured, class is now in session. Already veterans of the Neon Gold stage after supporting Walk The Moon at our last London showcase earlier this year and each of their infectious Ibiza-channeling singles are further proof that they are masters of crafting hip-popping island vibes. The A-side, "Morning", serves as a wake-up call to all the conservative indie pop bands out there - from the first cowbell strike, the single moves like a flashdance assembly line that picks up tropical steam with each added high hat and steel drum. It's an idiosyncratic mix of Delorean and Two Door Cinema Club that pops you in the jaw with grand aplomb. Once it jumps back into the middle eighth and snaps back to reality, it's all about the bass drum thumps and massive vocal hooks because Polarsets are now officially the big fish in a small pond.

The flipside, "Sunset", plays like a musical anagram of "Morning". The trademark cowbells emerge unscathed and still intact even after Polarsets laid siege to the A-side. The intro to this redux is a welcome respite from their full-frontal onslaught of frantic drum kicks and serves as a seamless segue into a bouncy castle chord progression that gets along so well with Rob Howe's angelic pipes. The tension builds with multiple drums feeding off each other, working in conjunction towards achieving the final dream. The release feels like a full day spent watching stars burning out and being born anew, all the while sitting on top of the world adjacent to the one who matters most. It just feels right. Out August 8th and available now for preorder from the Neon Gold Shop and flaunting heart-stopping art direction from the never not brilliant FRAU GRAU, this is one "Morning" you won't want to sleep through.

COUNTING CRYSTALS.

We admit we slept on this one. But as usual Kitsuné - our bedfellows from across the Atlantic - were there to pick up the slack and we have them to thank for introducing us to the delicately crafted pop gems of Nightbox. The group of Irish transplants come to us via Toronto (where they picked up some slick production from Death From Above 1979's Al-P and Sebastien Grainger), and lucky for us they sound exactly like a five-piece from Ireland by way of Canada would. It’s like lucid dreaming at a Two Door Cinema Club meets Winter Gloves kind of costume party, and all of a sudden there’s a “no need for small talk” song that does away with any false pretenses and jumps headfirst into the great unknown with you. Then, just as the pre-chorus burns slowly towards the explosive bass-driven climax on the chorus, you're thrust back to reality and the dream is over. So wake up.

MP3: "Pyramids" - Nightbox

FEELING DEBONAIR.

Just touched down in Londontown and it feels oh so good to be back, and what better way to celebrate than throwing down big style at our Notting Hill Arts Club showcase tonight? We come bearing future superstars as Walk The Moon make their UK debut on our Neon Gold stage tonight, but we're every bit as excited to see Newcastle three-piece Polarsets make their London debut in the main support slot. They first graced our radar late last year with their massive hooks and blissed-out electronic pop sound and have since rapidly become one of our absolute favorite new bands in the UK. It's a beautiful lineup, a beautiful day and with tickets at the low low price of only £6, you're not gonna want to miss this.

Back to Polarsets for a minute though, they're the stuff Neon Gold dreams are made of and just absolutely tick alllll the boxes - cowbells for days, layers upon layers of shimmering electronics, meaty bass lines, golden vocals (highly) reminiscent of Two Door's Alex Trimble... you do the math. Someone better sound the alarm because we're on a straight up party anthem high alert over here.

MP3: "Leave Argentina" - Polarsets

REASONS NOT TO END IT ALL IN 2009 PT. I

We've been talking up our hot tips for '09 for a minute now, but we decided it was high time we took action and threw together a proper list. Here are some bands you're going to give a fuck about over the next 12 months.

You can't stop Giantess, you can only hope to contain them. Say what you will about them being an electro boy band or "a less fit version of MGMT", but these dudes can fucking play. "Tuff 'n Stuff" is one of the biggest songs we've ever heard and we're over the moon to be officially dropping it on Neon Gold next month. Enjoy it now before it takes the world by storm.

MP3: "Tuff 'n Stuff" - Giantess

We don't know much about these New Villager dudes, other than that they split their time between Brooklyn and San Francisco and are crafting some of the most refreshing beats we've heard this side of 2009. Their fresh to death debut single "Rich Doors" is out this month on Two Syllable Records and is one of the most exciting things to grace our hi-fi in a minute, bursting at the seams with anthemic energy and just the right amount of good-trip psychadelia.

MP3: "Rich Doors" - New Villager

If one thing's for certain it's that 2009 is the year of the female pop star. Between Little Boots, Marina, Florence & The Machine and now La Roux, '09 is shaping up to be a legendary one for girl pop enthusiasts worldwide. We were all ready to peg La Roux as a future also-ran, but then "I'm Not Your Toy" off her sparsely-circulated sampler rolled up on 18" rims and let us know it had every intention of being one of the best pop songs we've ever heard. That future smash is being kept under wraps by the powers that be for the time being, but "Fascination" sounds like a 21st century electro touch up of "Sweet Child of Mine" and that's pretty damn okay by us.

MP3: "Fascination" - La Roux

We wrote about Two Door Cinema Club's fresh faced brand of upbeat-as-fuck indie and their self-released EP a little ways back, but it's their amazing debut single proper "Something Good Can Work" that hasn't left our speakers since coming across our radar last November. We'd previously been asked to keep the lid on things, but this shit just can't be contained. Sure to go down as one of the finest debuts of 2009.

MP3: "Something Good Can Work" - Two Door Cinema Club

Rounding out this first installment of our finest bets for the new year is Ellie Goulding, who's shaping up to be the darkhorse to outshine everyone else in the crowded race for female pop supremacy in '09. Not since Marina Diamond pirouetted out of our dreams and into our stereo have we been this excited about girls and pop music, and Ellie just might give our Neon Gold homegirl a run for her money in the months to come. If the Frankmusik-produced "Wish I Stayed" wasn't enough to get you all hot and bothered, then try "Guns + Horses" on for size and see if it doesn't rock your world a little bit. Then take a deep breath, hear us when we tell you we've heard some of the newer material coming out of the Ellie Goulding camp and that these tracks are barely the tip of the iceberg, and then start believing in Ellie as the new what's next.

MP3: "Guns + Horses" - Ellie Goulding

MADE IT TO THE TOP JUST TO GET AWAY.

2008 wasn't quite the banner year for UK indie we've seen in the past, but Northern Irish bright young things Two Door Cinema Club are here to make sure that won't be the case in '09. Touted by industry types as Vampire Weekend meets the Postal Service and all manner of other vaguely fitting comparisons, the Bangor three piece aren't easily pigeonholed but bring a high octane brand of electronically-leaning guitar pop that sets them apart from their like-minded indie contemporaries. Our three protagonists all pitch in vocals over top melodic guitar lines and a faithful drum machine, all of which converge to lend their tracks an air of refreshing vitality and frantic energy the likes of which hasn't been seen in quite some time.

"Undercover Martyn" is the standout track from the band's buzzworthy Four Words To Stand On EP and it's accompanying video (above) is a simple yet effective treatment that highlights the band's aesthetic perfectly. The track's being kept under wraps for the moment, but they've been nice enough to sort us with an exclusive demo to make available for download. "Hands Off My Cash, Monty" is a damn fine song in its own right and just another reason these guys are one of our hottest tips for '09.

MP3: "Hands Off My Cash, Monty" (Demo) - Two Door Cinema Club ((exclusive))

Elsewhere, the results are in and the winners of the Passion Pit remix contest have been crowned over at Finger On The Pulse. The third installment of their No Big Deal party series at Glasslands last Friday was out of control and saw Mr. and Mrs. Neon Gold taking professionalism to new heights of dranx'd while Passion Pit played one of their most fun sets to date. Cheers to FOTP and Palms Out Sound for throwing down one of the best parties we've been to all year and be sure to check out the fresh crop of "Sleepyhead" remixes up for download here.

// Brian Phillip Davis //