Breaking

The Band: Listenlisten
The Buzz: Finally, a band name we can believe in! Mysterious and borderline un-Googleable Houston collective proves expert at putting the ghosts back into Goth-folk. Their upcoming full-length, Hymns from Rhodesia, is a spellbinding collection of country-gospel songs haunted by loneliness and loss. It’s the kind of music cowboys might hear in the distance as they stagger dumbly to their doom. And because they use a bevy of instruments, piling on piano and trumpet and violin, Listenlisten manage to be a four-person group that sounds like a 12-person group.
Listen If: You’ve given up hope on that Neutral Milk Hotel reunion, or are looking for an even spookier version of Will Oldham.
Key Track: “Safe Home, Safe in Port,” where a baleful trumpet clears the way for decidedly somber sentiments.

The Band: Ramona Falls
The Buzz: Brent Knopf of celebrated indie rockers Menomena branches out — a far cry from the organized chaos of his main gig, Ramona Falls make strange, small, spooky songs — zero-gravity compositions perfect for floating in space. Despite its lost, lonely sound, the project was collaborative, built from impromptu recording sessions with friends and acquaintances.
Listen If: You’ve got a lifelike NASA pod in your bedroom and are dying for the perfect soundtrack.
Key Track: The tense, terrific “Russia,” where Knopf’s high, hazy voice floats lazily over a tight acoustic strum like an astronaut cut loose from his shuttle.

The Band: Neon Indian
The Buzz: A collaboration between Alan Polomo and visual artist Alicia Scardetta, Neon Indian gained early buzz by successfully keeping their identities a well-guarded secret. Over time they were outed, but that didn’t quell the hype. A seamless integration of Palomo’s heavy-lidded junk-fi techno and Scardetta’s trippy visuals, Neon Indian are perfecting a kind of dance music for the lazy. One of their songs is called “Terminally Chill,” which actually describes their sound perfectly.
Listen If: You know, you’re terminally chill.
Key Track: Blog breakout “Deadbeat Summer,” a 900-ton piece of electropop that’s fantastically sluggish — the sound of dance music doused with cough syrup and fronted by a guy who sings as if he’s distracted by the television.

Who: Birmingham, Alabama’s Maylene and the Sons of Disaster come by their thunderous, southern-fried hard rock honestly. Frontman Dallas Taylor honed his roar with Christian metalcore outfit Underoath before splitting with that band in 2003. Noting he was “ready for a change,” the singer left his hometown of Ocala, Florida, and headed to Birmingham, where a chance hang at his roommate’s band practice planted the seeds for MATSOD. “I didn’t think I’d pay music for a long time. I just wanted to have fun for the evening,” Taylor says. But the one-night stand became a committed relationship, one born in classic rock, tempered in metalcore and screamo and boasting a deeply spiritual core. Taylor weaves tales of redemption, justice and final judgment into the band’s lyrics, but with a light touch. “We have our beliefs, but we’re not out here to ram them down people’s throat,” Taylor says.

Sounds Like: After cutting their teeth on heavier fare, Taylor and his Maylene mates were keen to get back to their roots for latest album, III. “We wanted to do something that was different from us, from what we’d done,” Taylor says. “I grew up on classic rock, country and southern rock, so we said let’s take all that and start a band around it. It was almost showing respect to our childhood. When you’re younger, you try to run from it, but the older you get, you end up going back to the things you grew up with.” The result is a bluesy, boozy brutal mix that’s part swagger, part scream — modern swamp rock — that earned the band supports slots with Clutch, P.O.D., Throwdown, Zao and Taylor’s former mates Underoath. Despite the old school leanings of their sound, MATSOD still bring the intensity of their past hardier, heavier gigs to the stage. “When you play heavy music, you can just let everything loose. You can act like a kid. I think that’s something I’ll never want to lose,” Taylor says.

Vital Stats:

• The band charged into Tennessee’s Buffalo River to shoot the “Deliverance”-themed video for “Step Up.” “It was the real deal,” Taylor says. “We hit some rapids actually tipped over. I had to kill a water moccasin at one point. … They were always around where I grew up around them, so I was used to it.” Keep an eye out for Crazy Horse canoe rental in the clip as well.

• MATSOD recorded its latest at Synchromesh Studios in Birmingham, Alabama. “It might be the creepiest studio in America,” Taylor says. The converted store housed the headquarters of the KKK in the ’30s and ’40s, and many claim the building is haunted. “That place has a lot of bad history,” Taylor says. “You get that feeling like you’re not alone. We always had a bit of adrenaline going when recording.”

• The band draws its name ૼ and a good bit of its inspiration — from the infamous Ma Barker and her offspring, the Barker-Karpis Gang. “She was gunned down in my hometown,” Taylor says. “She was a Bible thumper. She would pray for the boys safety when they would go out to commit robberies. In her mind, she thought they were doing the work of God. She thought she had a higher calling, and it was actually the exact opposite. It’s divine justice. It’s that kind of story that intrigued me.”

Get It Now: III is in stores now on Ferret Music. Click above to watch the video for “Step Up.”