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Friday Five: Usonia debut a new dance jam, Big Cats! chills out, more

by Andrea Swensson

November 30, 2012

With the holiday last week, it's been a while since I've had a chance to round up the latest songs, videos, and other random tidbits for the Friday Five. But the wheel never stops turning here in our little corner of the music world, and I ended up with so many new odds and ends to post today that I could barely squeeze them into one post. You're getting the best of the best this week—and unfortunately that doesn't include the new video Prince released; you can watch that boring little gem on YouTube of all places.

Have a great weekend, and hope to see you out at one of the many shows happening tonight through Sunday!

1. Usonia debut "How Does it Feel"

Dance-rockers Usonia are just wrapping up their next full-length album, What's Fresh, and today, we get the first taste: "How Does it Feel," an infectious, poppy, and funky jam that sounds like a cross between Free Energy and Apollo Cobra. What's Fresh will be released in February 2013.

2. Big Cats! goes to Barbados

Here's your moment of Zen. Ready? Deep breath in, deep breath out, and suddenly we're in Barbados with filmmaker Isaac Gale, floating atop the waves of Big Cats! track "Five."

3. Leisure Birds go to space

In keeping with their transition from psych-rockers to spacy prog purveyors, the latest Leisure Birds video is chock full of creepy, old-school sci-fi imagery. "SETI Signals" is a track off of their latest LP, Globe Master.

 

4. Night Moves channel the late '70s

Speaking of spacy imagery, the latest Night Moves video looks like it could pass for something Godley and Creme put out during yacht rock's heyday. Woah.

5. Mike Dreams takes us back to where it all began

Have you gotten on the Mike Dreams train yet? There's something about his energy—so positive, so pure—that I just can't get enough of. This song, "Born in 1988," is off his latest full-length, Millenial.

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