A lot has happened to Hellogoodbye since the Huntington Beach, California-based act released their breakthrough album Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! back in 2006. Over the past four years the band have parted with their old record label, retooled their lineup, released a handful of EPs and performed everywhere from the Philippines to living rooms. All of these cumulative experiences play into the band’s new album Would It Kill You? a collection of perfect pop gems that not only proves that Hellogoodbye are still relevant but affirms that if anything, they’ve sharpened their musical edge over the past few years—and looking back, the band’s frontman Forrest Kline sees the past few years as an amazing opportunity to hone his craft without pressure.

Gold Motel, it’s always summer, the bags are always packed, and the car is always running. Beneath tight pop hooks and warm melodies, Gold Motel’s songs are infused with joyous exuberance as well as sweet melancholy. The ten tracks on Gold Motel’s debut album SUMMER HOUSE are snapshots of dreaming, transient youth in constant motion – driving down desert highways, watching fireworks from the boardwalk, wandering the city in an endless summer but in the end always searching for the safety of home, friends, and love.

The Chicago-based quintet originated in warmer climates, Los Angeles in the summer of 2009. Greta Morgan (The Hush Sound) returned from a year in Southern California to her hometown of Chicago, bringing with her what would become the five song Gold Motel EP. Collaborating with her friend Dan Duzsynzski (This Is Me Smiling), recording began on a set of sharp, sunny pop songs with a decidedly West Coast outlook.

Is this band unhinged? It’s a fair question. The songs of You, Me and Everyone We Know seem to emerge from the shadows, alternating monologues of spite and discontent with rhapsodies of inordinate joy. But peer through the veil of havoc, and it’s clear this band seeks a new, if unnerving, way to rock its way to the truth. “A lot of the stuff is a mix of what sits in the back of your head,” says singer/songwriter Ben Liebsch. “We’re insistent on really weird wild things to put in the songs.” Until recently, the band was seriously DIY, releasing a self-made indie CD and touring the eastern half of the country, especially in and around their homebase of Washington, D.C. But happily, drive-thru records’ co-founders Richard Reines and Stefanie Reines heard them, loved them and offered to manage them. And with their CD, “Party for the Grown and Sexy,” impressing fans and critics alike, You Me and Everyone We Know is getting pretty well-known themselves.

Don’t let their name fool you, Now, Now Every Children might be kind of short, and kind of adorable, but their music is of the larger-than-life variety.

Back before Now, Now Every Children was just a name, then-children Cacie Dalager (vocals, guitar) and Brad Hale (drums) started writing songs together after marching band practice in Blaine, Minn. Their first work of art well-wished a graduating friend from high school, but their musical queues were much more than greeting card salutations. Dalager and Hale began recording demos in their suburban basements, posting them on MySpace and gaining fans before they even played a show.

After signing to Afternoon Records in 2007, Now, Now Every Children released two EPs to critical acclaim: “Not One, But Two” and “In the City.” Their lo-fi recordings in combination with Dalager’s heartbreaking voice championed the attention of some of the harshest critics of all, their peers, earning a spot as “Band of the Month” on Paramorefans.com.

“Cars,” Now, Now Every Children’s first full-length album is all about life on the highway. Rerecording 3 of the singles off their first two EPs plus 7 more brand new tracks are a series of poignant moments written by Dalager and Hale, mostly over the last year. Since then they’ve ventured outside their Midwestern routes and played a select west coast tour, as well as shared the stage with some of their idols including Mates of State and the Rosebuds.