A 2014 Year-Beginning List: A Few Artists to Look Out For

2013 is so over.  Instead of looking back, let’s look ahead to a few artists you’ll be hearing quite a bit about as the year goes on.

Cerebral Ballzy

Brooklyn’s Cerebral Ballzy has the second-most attention grabbing band name in modern punk and an attitude to match.  I first caught them opening for Trash Talk and Keith Morris’ OFF! back in 2011, and was impressed by their mix of classic, thrashed-out punk with a more laid back approach than some of the more activist bands of New York hardcore’s past.  Songs like “Insufficient Fare“, “Cutting Class” and “On the Run” off of their 2011 self-titled debut make it seem like this is what Parquet Courts might  sound like if they were on speed and skating instead of stoned and starving.

The handful of tracks released by Ballzy this year show them branching out a bit more, as “Another Day” could pass for a lost Bad Brains demo, and “Better in Leather” at times sounds like the Black Lips borrowing somebody else’s instruments.

Whatever it is, Ballzy has the potential for some crossover appeal, something that Strokes frontman (and my spirit animal) Julian Casablancas surely recognized when he signed the boys to his label Cult Records in late 2013.  And when someone as historically cool as Julian fucking Casablancas calls a band like Cerebral Ballzy “Probably the coolest band in the world at the moment” and makes a point to cameo in their music video for 2013’s “City’s Girl” (see if you can spot him), you better listen up.

Expect lots of touring and hopefully another full-length from Cerebral Ballzy in 2014.  Based on what we’ve heard last year, it should show the kind of artistic growth that could propel them to a larger audience.

FUN FACT: Frontman Honor Titus is the son of rapper Dres, one half of legendary hip hop duo Black Sheep 

Despot

At this point, Despot’s debut album is basically the Chinese Democracy of hip hop.  While he’s been rapping on record since 2001 and has released a few notable tracks produced by Ratatat, the world is still waiting on Despot’s proper debut almost 13 years later.  While most serious rap fans approach any announcement from Despot with a healthy dose of skepticism at this point (something he acknowledged when I saw him on the Run The Jewels tour this past summer), there seems to be new evidence suggesting that the world will finally hear his long-awaited opus sometime in 2014.

Part of what’s held Despot up is his reputation as a perfectionist, which translates into some pretty dense wordplay and memorable punchlines.  Fans of former Def-Jux labelmate Aesop Rock will feel right at home working their way through a track like the Ratatat-produced “Look Alive” and “House Made of Bricks” .  And with recent high-profile guest verses on Blood Orange’s critically-acclaimed album as well as a remix of Vampire Weekend’s “Step” alongside Heems and Danny Brown, it looks like Despot is stepping into the spotlight at the right time.

In “Look Alive”, Despot declares that “30’s the new 20// Dead is the new 30″.  And if his friend Danny Brown was able to rise to stardom on the dark side of 30, there’s no reason to think that Despot can’t  do the same (finally) in 2014.

FUN FACT: Despot co-owns  NYC venue/party hard headquarters Santos Party House with Andrew W.K

Isaiah Rashad

Top Dawg Entertainment has become all but synonymous with LA rap over the past year thanks to the meteoric rise of Kendrick Lamar and undeniable potential of  labelmates and friends Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul and Jay Rock.  So more than a few people were left scratching their head when TDE signed a deal with Chattanooga Tennessee’s Isaiah Rashad midway through 2013. But gradually, confusion gave way to curiosity with the release of “I Shot You Down” and Rashad’s appearance  in the setup spot for King Kendrick on TDE’s Cypher at last year’s BET Hip Hop Awards.

In many ways, what makes Isaiah Rashad so appealing is that he brings much more to the table than your stereotypical southern rapper. He hits you with the force of his words rather than the boisterousness of his delivery.  It makes sense, then, that he’d have to look to the west coast to find his kindred spirits.  Now in the orbit of like-minded rappers, one hopes that his skills will flourish.

While his Soundcloud is sparse, it can only mean one thing: Rashad is hard at work on a mixtape or album that will garner significant attention in 2014.  Come for the inevitable guest verses from Kendrick, Q, Soulo and Jay Rock, stay to hear the emergence of an artist with the potential to defy the musical stereotypes associated with his birthplace.

FUN FACT: Isaiah Rashad does not have a Wikipedia page

Cloud Nothings

Almost as a reaction to the Alt-Js and Vampires Weekend of the indie world, late 2013 saw the declaration of an “emo revival” by much of the musical press.  The idea of what modern emo is has not crystallized yet.  But there are plenty of bands who prefer earnest songwriting over irony and distance, and the kind of honest-to-god rock that has been missing from college radio for years.

In 2012, Cloud Nothings’ Dylan Baldi left his bedroom behind and headed into Steve Albini’s  studio with his touring band.  The result was ‘s Attack on Memory, which has been held up as one of the key texts of this revival.  The album’s opening tracks “No Future, No Past” and “Wasted Days”  struck me as ‘dark’ when I first heard them, but only because I wasn’t used to hearing something so starkly honest and musically ferocious billed to me as ‘indie rock’, with the possible exception of older Titus Andronicus.  Over the course of the whole album,  Baldi’s fears of growing up and growing unimportant are matched perfectly by guitar playing that manages to sound both angsty and artful.

The follow-up Attack On Memory is due sometime in the next few months.  Based on a brief preview of the album that the band teased last month, it sounds like we might hear a more expansive effort that manages to generally preserve the level of energy that set the last Cloud Nothings album apart.

FUN FACT: Cloud Nothings are from Cleveland, which may explain why their music isn’t always happy

Be sure to keep a lookout for each of these artists so you can tell all your friends that you were listening to  them first!  After all, isn’t that what being a music listener is all about?