This LA band has quietly amassed one of the more consistent catalogs in all of ’10s left-coast Americana, steadily putting out one very good album every year or two for the past decade. The forthcoming release Passwords (due out June 22nd) starts off on a ham-fisted note with the political number “Living In The Future,” but the rest of the album thankfully is in the vein of “Crack The Case,” a spare, synth-accented folk-pop number that ruminates on fake news and the value of forgiveness. Presented as a retro-future lyric video with its storyline scrolling across a space-race era computer console, the track appears to be asking one very big and very current question: “How can we all get along?” With delicate piano and acoustic guitar strains, ethereal steel-guitar runs and light synth accents – plus front man Taylor Goldsmith’s typically-poetic vocal delivery – the band comes to a compassionate conclusion.
Fans of Springsteen’s Tunnel Of Love period will want to pay special attention.
The Fat Angel Sings 
I’ve really liked these guys ever since I heard “When My Time Comes” on a Paste Magazine sampler back in 2009 or ’10 (not sure exactly). One of my old friends in college toured with them a few years later (Teen Daze… maybe 2013?) From all I’ve heard, they are great people as well.