This Scott Kiernan-directed video for "Up Is Up (But So Is Down)" off Initiation, the debut full-length for Haunted Hearts, a.k.a. married duo Dee Dee Penny (Dum Dum Girls) and Brandon Welchez (Crocodiles), has us taking scissors to our T-shirts and searching for white mesh gloves. It's a cultish, Velvet Goldmine-meets-Blue Velvet glam-psych-goth extravaganza of melting film and slurred surrealism. Um, thank you, Haunted Hearts and Scott Kiernan! MELISSA GIANNINI
Bipolar Sunshine's latest comes on like cool ocean mist to the face on a midnight beach stroll and has us ready to head hand-in-hand wherever Adio Marchant would like to take us—stretching out on a moon chaise does sound quite nice. MG
On the other hand, if your idea of a dreamy beach date includes visceral guitar shredding and heart-palp-inducing drums, may we suggest checking out the video for White Lung's "Face Down," which finds Mish Way and co. headbanging away down a nearly empty shoreline. MG
If you're planning on being in Australia or New Zealand this June, chances are you've already got tickets for one of White Lung's upcoming shows. We just found out today that they're touring with one of our favorite super-groups of recent years—Upset, featuring former members of Hole, Best Coast, Vivian Girls, and La Sera! Their latest track is a storm of gloriously "pushy" feedback-pop. MG
Sharon Van Etten's vocals creep along hauntingly soft at first in her newest single, "Your Love is Killing Me," but her cries grow increasingly full and anxious as brassy, echo-y instrumentals morph into the melody of soft rock ballad. She's no Taylor Swift, but unfulfilled and torturous love has been a nearly constant theme since the Brooklyn indie-folk rocker's official debut, Because I Was In Love. ALEXA PEARCE