[state of the union] Catching up with Icky Blossoms, White Flashes, Blouse, Fake Natives, Poliça, and a Catnap turns 21

Welcome to State of the Union, your weekly recap of 50 Bands, 50 States happenings, both locally and nationally. In this space every Monday we'll tell you what 50 States bands are in town, releasing new music, or just doing something noteworthy.

-- Nebraska pick ICKY BLOSSOMS released their first self-titled LP last week on Saddle Creek, which was produced by the now-legendary Dave Sitek, and it’s still streaming on Spin. It’s been receiving some good notices, although it was hit with a 6.6 from Pitchfork. That’s only .2 points lower than the grade they gave the whole of music, so I guess they’re doing alright. All we know is that if you’re in the mood for some electro-clash revival sounds to night-drive to, you could do a hell of a lot worse. Look out for a review from our own Ryan Reed in this week’s Phoenix.

-- Iowa pick WHITE FLASHES debuted a new video last week for their single “February 27th, 1974”, which was produced and released by Dreaming Android Films. There are no electric sheep present in the video, but there’s a lot of fantastic and cool imagery set to the ambient, quiet sounds that have come to be synonymous with the home of the Cutthroat Trout and/or alien abductions. Let’s make no mistake, though: the only things that’ll be probed here are your eardrums, and perhaps your eyeballs.

-- In between waiting in long lines for the world’s best brunch and stealing Johnny Marr’s bicycle, Oregon pick BLOUSE found some time to perform several new tracks on the Part Time Punks radio show. The links to “White” and “Videotapes” are up on their soundcloud, and in addition to that, the band sat down with NO CONCLUSION and made us a summer mix for our listening pleasure. Now only if they could get Andy Samberg to mix us up a few drinks while we listen...

-- FAKE NATIVES, our Kansas pick, is attempting an eleven-date tour of the Midwest this summer, and have started up a Kickstarter in order to get by with a little help from their friends. Help ‘em out!

-- Minnesota (and Bon Iver) favorites POLICA are planning on dropping by the Paradise on October 5 to play a show with Gardens & Villa. Go ahead and grab your tickets, because the last time they played in the city, they sold out Great Scott. It’s certainly going to be a lot cheaper than seeing Moz, who is also in town that night.

-- Finally, happy belated birthday to Adrianne Gold of Pennsylvania pick CATNAPS, who turned 21 this past Friday. May you has lots of cheeseburgers to go with all of that boozin’ and punk rawkin’.