I was riding the bus the other day to drop off my “unlawful rent increase petition” to the SF Rent Board, as my landlord is trying to raise our rent to “market value,” which happens to be a whopping 25% increase. WTF! Thanks San Francisco. So as I’m standing there on the bus holding onto a pole, I turn to see a 20 something year old bro, who also happens to be a midget, walk on and hoist himself into a seat. A mini bro! He was jamming out to some tunes, swinging little his legs back and forth with his arm casually laying across the top of his seat. Of course my staring problem kicks in and I have to tell myself to act civilized, but suddenly out of the corner of my eye I spy this thin, weathered looking guy in his 40s who I can already tell is beyond mental. He’s twitching, swallowing hard, blinking quickly and staring intently at mini midget bro. He starts to frantically wave his hands back and forth in large circular motions at the midget and yell, “HELLO!” “HELLO!” as if mini bro is blind and/or deaf. Mini bro takes his ear buds out and gives the mental guy a flat and surprisingly low, “YO.” The mental guy points at the midget and wavers, “You know… I want to ask you something…” At this point, the entire bus is dead silent, anxiously waiting in anticipation for what craziness he’s going to unleash. He points at the midget and sputters with utter concern, “Say, how many meals a day do you eat?” I immediately turn my head to conceal the burst of laughter and utter delight I’m ensuing. Mini bro looks at him blankly and replies, “Uh… I eat a lot,” then puts his ear buds back in. I step down, push through the doors at my stop and let out a loud burst of laughter. Of all things to ask a midget?

So in conclusion to this story, I give you 5 jams I’ve discovered recently that’re so fresh I think even the mini-est of bros and/ or mental maniacs would most def dig:

1) The Irrepressibles is a 10 piece performance orchestra lead by composer/artist Jamie McDermott. Arrow is a magnifying, melody-pop jam that’ll be featured on their upcoming album, Nude – released in October. The vocals, intrumentals + the video are intense, sensual, and totally electrifying.

The Irrepressibles – Arrow (video is prob NSFW)


2) Idris Vicuna aka Eyedress hails from the Philippines and honestly, I wish there was more about him on the interwebz. He does have a blog and a Twitter, so go follow him, then come back tell me more about him. Hah. This is his new shoegaze jam that I can’t get enough of:

Eyedress – Teen Spirits

Okay so I’ll admit, these next three songs aren’t really that new (2011, gasp!), but I’d only even heard of these bands (New Moods, Autre Ne Vuet and Gatekeeper) until the last couple of weeks, so if I haven’t heard of them, then maybe you haven’t fuckin’ heard of them either?…! Plus their catchy jams are so full of synth-electr0-goth-pop greatness, you’ll dig them like a mental guy and a midget should:

3) New Moods consists of Billy Jones from Other Passengers and Melati Malay from Young Magic. They only have two songs, but you can download both of them on bandcamp. Weeee!

New Moods – Playtime

4) There’s like, nothing written about Autre Ne Vuet except an old Pitchfork album review (reviewing older jams) stating that the one-man act behind the “vagina” looking Body EP cover wants to remain anonymous. I bet he’s a midget bro. Regardless, his jams are dancy fancy and “I really want it.”  The article says he “shares qualities and a scene with acts like How to Dress Well, Games, and, less directly, soul-aspiring indie bands from Bon Iver to Yeasayer.” Interesting. Now get down!

Autre Ne Vuet – Your Clothes

5) Someone tagged Gatekeeper as “skull disco” on last.fm. HAH. I can see that. I discovered this band because Claire aka Grimes had mentioned them in an interview. She said she saw them in Mexico and it was the best live show she’d ever been to, so of course I had uncover this greatness as well. They’re an electronic duo hailing from Chicago and/or NYC and this song was released on their 2011 EP titled, Giza. They’re dark, experimental, gothic-y and undeniably addicting:

Gatekeeper – Giza