Oberhofer - oO0OoO0Oo

Everyone's talking about Oberhofer, and with good reason. The *CT-native is poised to be the next big thing. It's trendy, messy indie pop similar to big blog bands Girls and Wavves. Danceable keyboards, buried surf guitar and punk snarls seem to be the trend right now, and this has all that. But where most of those hot bands are lyrically shallow and the music is totally fleeting, songwriter Brad Oberhofer's songs cut much deeper. The over-gained, lo-fi vocals are just icing on the cake to some intelligent, catchy songs. And you can't beat whistling and handclaps.

The first EP is named oO0OoO0Oo, and is great from start to finish. You can download the whole EP on last.fm. This is hands down my pick for Connecticut's release of the year, even though it's only 6 songs.

*Inept update - Oberhofer is not actually from Connecticut, but from Tacoma, WA. WTF/BBQ?