[50 bands] Youth Lagoon tonight @ Great Scott

Every summer the Boston Phoenix music team comes up with the 50 best new bands across our great land's 50 states. The penthouse polities -- New York, California, Massachusetts -- are easy as pie, with a wealth of bands to draw and debate over several heated hours until you can't tell the difference -- or choose not to, anymore -- between Beach Fossils and Beach House.

But then there are those "problem states," the barren-land flyovers, and a collective eyeroll sweeps across the worn-out powwow as we aim to find that one legit chillwave act in Wyoming, that about-to-blow-up post-hardcore band from Hawaii, or something... anything... even remotely ...tolerable ...from West Virginia.

In previous years, the otherwise great state of Idaho fell into the problem category. But not in 2011. It was maybe the quickest decision we made on that never-ending series of 50 Bands 50 States meetings; perhaps because we found a proper nominee from the Gem State, or, closer to the truth, we all immediately agreed that YOUTH LAGOON fucking rule.

Trevor Powers hits Great Scott in Allston tonight (on a bill with California's Gardens & Villa, who played our Craft Spells show over the summer), so here's what Liz Pelly wrote about the Lagoon back in July:

BAND: Youth Lagoon
CITY: Boise
SONG TO DOWNLOAD: "Cannons"
WHY THEM: Youth Lagoon is the dreamy lo-fi soul-pop project of Boise State University student Trevor Powers. For an artist with only two tracks on Bandcamp, he's deservedly received an unprecedented amount of love from fans who are anxiously anticipating this month's release of his debut full-length record. It's perfect timing — if the buzzed-about MP3s are an accurate indication, the record will be full of sun-soaked, reverb-heavy tracks, ideal for summer. Of his tracks to surface so far, "Cannons" is the more mesmerizing: it starts small, with minimal delicate vocals, building slowly to the 50-second mark, where it bursts into a colorful soundscape of drums, keys, vocals, guitars, claps, tambourines. All the while, it's lyric-heavy, but even when Powers is shouting it sounds as if through a tin can. With the momentum Youth Lagoon's gained thus far, a more solid means of production seem in the not-too-distant future.

Cannons by Youth Lagoon