Made In America - WINTER BEAR, "Take It Back" 7" (2014)

A fresh addition to your 2014 summer mix comes from Milwaukee's Winter Bear. Winter Bear is the latest project from Erin Dorbin (Cave Weddings, No Bueno). Along with Amelinda Burich, Ryan Bollis, and Stacy Zwirlein, Winter Bear has to date churned out two summer surf classic singles. The first, Jump In The Fire, was released to copious fan fare through Hozac Records last year, and the latest, Take It Back, is now out via the Selfish Agenda label.

Take It Back will take you back with a tasty blend of 60's surfy garage-pop and doo-wop. Teeming with reverb-soaked guitar riffs and classic girl-group harmonies, the single is definitely worthy of heavy rotation honors through the rest of your summer and beyond.

Made In America - CRETIN STOMPERS, "Looking Forward to Being Attacked" (2014)

Billy Hayes (The Barbaras, Wavves, The Jay Reatard Band), Big Muff (Big Muff Radio, The Delay) and Alex Gates (The Barbaras, Wavves) make up Cretin Stompers, a new band currently based in Staten Island, New York. The band has roots that span the width of the U.S. with Wavves in Los Angeles, The Barbaras out of Memphis, and Big Muff Radio operating out of New York.

This national influence allows Cretin Stompers to deliver a delicious mixture of psychedelic power-pop, glam-rock, and straight up garage-punk straight to your ear holes.

Made In America - Heavy Times, "I'm Single" 7" (2013)

I like to think that I have a decent handle on new music but in this day and age with so many bands self-releasing music on the internet sometimes good bands just slip through the cracks. Chicago's Heavy Times are one of those bands that I completely missed the boat on, and shamefully so because they are right up my ally.

Lo-fi garage rock with pop tendencies is as close as I can get to describing Heavy Times whose sound really doesn't fit into any one category and you can't do a band like this justice by pigeonholing them. If I had to draw comparisons to other bands I would immediatly go to Guided By Voices and Husker Du who share two common traits in their songs, melodic driving guitar riffs and monster choruses that will eat you alive.

Heavy Times released their debut album Dead on Rotted Tooth Recordings in 2010 and their breakout record Jacker, released on Hozac Records, the following year. Their latest, I'm Single, a three song 7", also out on the Hozac lable, defines their sound nicely and keeps you believing that Heavy Times are destined for something bigger. The closing song "Bath Salts" just might containg the catchiest guitar hook I've heard in years. Listen to it and you'll be instantly addicted like I was.

Heavy Times - Skull Hair - From the album Jacker