Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania:

Reading Rainbow

PHOTO: KIRSTIE SHANLEY

CITY: Philadelphia
SONG TO DOWNLOAD: "Always on My Mind"
WEBSITE: readingrainbow.bandcamp.com

WHY THEM: Reading Rainbow make perfect garage pop — blown-out, heartwarming, and honest. To date, the guitar-and-drum duo (Sarah Everton and Rob Garcia) have released five seven-inches and two LPs, Mystical Participation and Prism Eyes (the latter via the excellent Hozac label). Everton and Garcia's music is sweet but not lacking a punk-rock backbone, made clear by the way Reading Rainbow was born: the two were in another band together, when their previous drummer suddenly announced that he couldn't go on a tour. They improvised and created a new band they could tour with — Sarah took a floor tom and snare and taught herself to play drums. With that stripped-down set-up they've created some of the best pop songs we've heard this year, including "Always on My Mind," recorded at Philadelphia's Miner Street Studios during a session of Weathervane Music's video series "Shaking Through." | ALSO CONSIDERED Balam Acab — Reading Rainbow's polar opposite, a super-slow gloom-pop project associated with "witch house" and Tri Angle Records.

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