Pop music seems to infiltrated by fake-hard rappers and limp voiced acoustic guitar jammers.  If that’s not enough, you have to deal with manufactured mainstream shooters too well known to mention here.  That’s fine.  There’s room in this great big world for everybody.  But when I want to hear some authentic pop music, I don’t have to look no further than Empress Hotel.  They’ll be at SXSW this year and I will use them as my replacement for the 5-hour Energy Drink.

It’s going to be warm soon, so to better help realize how fresh ‘Here Comes the New Challenger’ sounds, I’m going to recommend listening to this at a temperature of at least 70 degrees.  The keys are almost Victorian in sound and the cadence brings me back to the playground where this fat, chunky kid’s claim to fame was a rugby toughness.  Hey kids play and they play hard.  Empress Hotel plays just as hard.

[audio:http://146.190.132.255/audio/Empress_Hotel-Here_Comes_the_New_Challenger.mp3]