Tagged: World Cafe: Next

It's hard to say anything about Guards without eventually bringing up Cults, another band from Brooklyn whose upbeat melodic pop draws heavy influence from the '60s. The two groups share more than just stylistic influences, though: Singer and bandleader Richie Follin is the brother of Madeline Follin, Cults' lead singer. In fact, a handful of the songs Richie Follin has released with Guards began their lives as Cults tunes.

Though the shock value of dropping a sitar into Western pop music has decreased since George Harrison's Hare Krishna days, the metallic, resonant drones of the instrument can still take a normal pop song and twist it into something unexpected. Rishi Dhir, sitarist, bassist and founding member of Elephant Stone, takes full advantage of the juxtaposition.

Fusing vintage garage-rock and pop with modern punk, the San Francisco band The Fresh & Onlys has enjoyed a rapid rise, touring across Europe and North America and performing at its hometown Noise Pop festival.

Led by Tim Cohen and Shayde Sartin, the band recently released the accessibly psychedelic Long Slow Dance (Mexican Summer). Listen to two of its songs on this installment of World Cafe: Next, and don't miss the video for "Presence of Mind."