Former Bauer vocalist Sonja van Hamel's second solo album, Transcendental Man, was produced by JB Meijers and Ken Stringfellow. A pop purist and keyboardist extraordinaire, Sonja composes and arranges lush soundscapes that swirl around her gorgeous singing.

The four members of Spanish Prisoners found each other in the winter of 2009, when the streets of Bushwick were covered with grey, fading snow. Songwriter Leo Maymind had just begun working at the largest nightclub in New York City; squeezing through crowds of thousands of drunken revelers that were caught in a breathless pursuit of everything wrapped in nothing, going down in celluloid history. He began scribbling down things he overheard in dark corners, fragments of personal violence from characters filled with self-doubt and nostalgia. During the empty 4AM subway rides he took to his Bushwick apartment, he stock-piled musical ideas, putting the pieces together like some long-lost cosmic puzzle with no map or guide.

Caged Animals is a Lo-Fi / Synth-Pop project of Vincent Cacchione, frontman of Soft Black.

Sea Lions formed in 2007 with just Adrian Pillado singing and playing guitar backed by his best friend on drums. Something new was starting to happen in Oxnard's DIY punk scene: a group of young kids had been listening to a lot of K, Postcard, Sarah, Creation and (naturally) Slumberland records. The early days of Sea Lions were a learning curve, the duo crashing and bashing their way through songs, often stumbling upon beauty in the process. Still, something was missing. They were always just teetering on the edge of something great, but then came that greatness came one night at cooler-than-cool LA indie club Part Time Punks. They had recently added a second guitarist and a bass player... and they killed. Pillado had really grown as a songwriter; the songs were still shambolic, but they were also assertive and direct. They thrilled the full-time punks in the crowd with a cover of Black Flag's “Nervous Breakdown,” and wowed the Northern Soul junkies with a downright saucy take on the Freda Payne classic “Band of Gold.” It was the exact point at which one could say, “Ladies and gentlemen, Sea Lions!”

The Spivs are back with their second album in November, following their debut from 2010 the critically acclaimed Taped Up . Black And White Memories was recorded in East London at Gizzard studios with Ed Deegan at the controls over the summer, it features 14 new tracks. This album shows how the band have progressed and matured over the last year, alongside storming garage & 77 Punk tracks like the lead single TV Screen and Flicking V s there are even a couple of ballads! The band recently played the MOJO awards gigs at London s 100 Club alongside the Jim Jones Revue and they are heading back over to Europe for another string of dates in late October. Thee Spivs are Ben Edge (Git/Vox) Dan May (bass) and Steve Coley (drums) Rock N Roll hasn t been this much fun for years, give it a try, you might like it!