Bands to Watch: 2009 Edition
The SiS Preview by Rusty Roberts & Dany Sloan

Just as 2008 is like every other year now - in the past - we have nothing left to do but look to the future, in the form of this year's sure bets for success. Dany and I spent our holiday time assembling our picks for who will be the big band's everyone will be talking about 12 months from now. Maybe you will agree and maybe you won't, but at least we know our job of pointing out the obvious to you has been done.

Cymbals Eat Guitars
One of the biggest bands on the blogdar [that’s shorthand for blog radar] is this New York based group. If Pavement took an afternoon to reconvene and decided to make some brand new epic monsters you would get Cymbals Eat Gutiars. Fronted by one Joseph Ferocious, the band teamed up with engineer Kyle Johnson (of Modest Mouse and the Hives fame) to make their debut, Why There Are Mountains. If the six-minute disasterpiece “And The Hazy Sea” that streams on their MySpace is any indication, this band is definitely on to something. I predict they’ll be the it band of the music conference and festival circuit this year. Plus, the name is just so awesome.

Grammatics
If Cursive were from West Yorkshire, this is very well what they might sound like. These guys aren't all cellos and emotions though -- they have a musical depth that combines cosmopolitan pop music with the ebb and flow of big rock. They are the results of well laid plans and a band whose stock should increase considerably with the release of their debut album.

Here We Go Magic
Maybe the name Luke Temple sounds familiar to you, because it should. After two solo albums, Temple has gone the route of band with the first Here We Go Magic album. Though Temple is still the only man behind every last instrument and innovation on their self-titled debut, he’s rounded out by Peter Hale on the drums and Baptiste Ibar on the bass for live purposes. The songs are minimal and they are not: hypnotic acoustic swirls fill out the uber accessibility of tracks like “Tunnelvision” and “Fangela”, while the closing “Everything’s Big” is equal parts vaudeville as it is Wainwright. Leading up to the release of Magic in February via Western Vinyl, the band will open a few dates for Department of Eagles which is sure to gain them some exposure and attention. Here we go, Temple.

Hot Lava
These friends from Virginia got together once to record their debut album, Lavalogy. They played a few shows. Then Bar None got a hold of their modern day electro-pop opus, signed them up and released the album last fall. I can only say that these guys are destined to be big. With “Apple+Option+Fire” being my pick for Song #2 of 2008, all they need is for that track to be in a commercial for Tide or Target and they’ll be megastars. Maybe Apple can throw them a bone in exchange for helping them sell an iPod or two as well? The band has plans for their first ever nationwide jaunt come this spring, so make sure you see them when they come around.

The More Assured
If you search this London band on Youtube, you will find countless videos, from fan shot live clips to one of their three professionally shot promo videos. Look for "I Want Your Despair," which is excellently directed by Jacob Perlmutter, because it perfectly encapsulates this band. There is a certain style that you can't put your finger on, matched up with their take on post-Libertines jangle. According to the band, we can expect a debut album sometime this year which will no doubt increase the size of their cult across the capital and beyond.

Pull In Emergency
The best bands are those that force you to forget about the hype or any of the details to just focus on the music. With two singles under their belts, this five-piece outfit do just that by creating music that is better that the rubbish produced by bands ten years their senior, and what's even better, they add to their arsenal with each new song.

White Lies
The fact that White Lies was formed so its members could play dark, brooding
post-punk that would sound good in stadiums may put some off, but maybe
those people need to get over themselves. This outfit formed a few years
ago under the name Fear of Flying, released a couple singles on the
venerable London indie Young and Lost Club, but in late '06 decided to
reboot and refocus. The band's upcoming debut album is everything they
wanted it to be, reclaiming the sound that Interpol absconded off with in
the early '00s.

Wild Light
I had no idea what I was getting myself in to when I saw the first of several performances this New England group did at CMJ this year. The five life long friends from new Hampshire took the stage, start tickling the ivories and I was hooked right in. The song in question? “Call Home”, easily one of the best songs of 2009 already and only one of the many strong songs on their debut, Adult Nights, which will see release via StarTime International/Almost Gold in March. The songs are easily accessible, light and catchy pop songs that haven’t been so easy to get in to since the Beach Boys. And they use a mellotron – that gets them 50 points in my book. The band, who won a Boston Music Award late last year, also has the coveted honor of opening for Tapes ‘n Tapes on their next North American jaunt this spring. So, you’ve see T ‘n T enough, but do go if not just for these guys.

Wintermute
Bloc Party may not have been the band to signal England's seachange into dance rock, but Silent Alarm is arguably not just the scene's best album, but one of this decade's best. In the months leading up to that record, I could sense something pretty special was around the corner, and now I get that same feeling with Leeds' Wintermute. The band's debut album is tentatively scheduled for late April and it will include tracks from their shelved EP Fun With Wizard Stencils. They can really take the city and the whole country.