A band's popular appeal is usually discernible from its singles, but b-sides usually say a bit more about the its depth. For Chicago-based duo Coltrane Motion (nope, no jazz here, i'm afraid), it's the b-side to their upcoming 7" single that speaks loudest for the sound the band stands for. In contrast to more well-known contemporaries in the dance rock scene (read: DFA), Coltrane Motion relies a whole lot more on shoegaze and digs deep to remind us of how dancey noise can be too. With 'Maya Blue', the band provides a perfect balance of hazy guitars, simple harmonies and a slower beat that still manages to force you out of your seat somehow. With this track, the haze has been let out of the room for the great outdoors, and it's never felt more refreshing. For those not in the know, Coltrane Motion is the sound of Matt Dennewitz's 60's garage fuzz guitar storm and Michael Bond's powerhouse drum loops, synthesizer, and soaring organ riffs blended into a frenzied dance groove. Their new The Year Without A Summer single continues their string of excellent releases. The A-Side is a driving rocker punctuated by a dark, somewhat sinister sounding synth hook, while The B-Side, Maya Blue, slows it down a bit for a more rhythmic psychedelic feel. Get it now on super cool colored vinyl 7" and break in those new dancing shoes for when they hit your town. Bands have been pillaging 60's pop music, from girl groups to The Beatles to Phil Spector, for decades, turning what could the most down right sunny tunes of the past 50 years into a provocative, avant-garde reinterpretation where feedback and noise all but drowned out the faintest structure of melody and themes brimming with sex, violence and drugs were standard. The Velvet Underground could probably be the most significant, and most likely first, example of this post-modern tendency in rock music, turning the jubilant and dense melodies of girl groups like the The Ronnettes and The Crystals into curiously harmonic walls of drone, complete with ironic lyrics about life in the city, heroin addiction, and transvestite hookers.

Coltrane Motion, however, are careful not to fall in line with Velvet Underground disciples like the Jesus and the Mary Chan and The Magnetic Fields, by pumping up the fucking fun quotient to 11, keeping the bouncy rhythm sections fast, and giving ample space for both the innocent and the haunting to invade their songs.

This Chicago duo, comprised of Michael Bond on synth and vocal duty and Matt Dennewitz on guitars, have more dancey hooks and rock swagger than they know what to do with. Their latest 7" single "Maya Blue/The Year Without Summer" boasts two solid documents of their jangle drenched sound that is their first record out put since 2007's Songs About Music. "The Year Without Summer" splashes along happily as a wail of guitar drone tips the synth riffs back and forth to sound almost off key, transforming what could be a standard summer anthem into a day spent at the beach after sniffing glue. "Maya Blue" shuffles along beautifully with cymbals crashing and a quiet tambourine efficiently keeping time. The wall of guitar noise is still there, but maintains its pitch through the spacey guitar coda that leads the song out in the closing seconds..

It's exciting to see a young band stroll into town with with a set of tracks that I wouldn't mind blasting from my car stereo in June, especially after this Pittsburgh winter doesn't seem to end quick enough. And even while the cover of their latest single looks like it could have easily been an alternative record sleeve for A Love Supreme, Coltrane Motion make music that is a far cry from cool jazz. With a sound that illuminates like rich, melancholic sunshine, this Chicago duo sing loud enough for a year without summer to have at least one heatwave. We've been big fans of the Datawaslost crew out of Cincinnati for nearly a decade now. They've kept a lower profile over the last few years, but Chicago-based conspirators Coltrane Motion have been keeping busy. Building off of last year's spastic lo-fi/psych gem, Songs About Music, they're dropping a superb 7", The Year Without a Summer, on March 24. While we totally fell for the hyperactive synth-laden A-side, the hypnotic drone of the B-side, "Maya Blue", kept this one on repeat... Take Matt & Kim, mix in a little Silversun Pickups, then sprinkle a little 60's pysch on top, and voilá, you have yourself an awesome "electronic noise-pop duo", who's main goal seems to be to get you off your butt and dancing. Chicago's Coltrane Motion plays the kind of electro-pop that doesn't sound like electro-pop. Sure there are synths, samples, and drum loops, but their songwriting pulls the duo out of the polished and cold feelings that often accompany computer-generated music.. When singer/composer Michael Bond and guitarist Matt Dennewitz relocated from Cincinnati (where Bond helped helm the still-in-operations datawaslost collective/label) to Chicago a few years back, the Indie music world was just beginning to show more of a whole-hearted interest in danceable, electronic sounds. It was perfect timing for the admittedly more adventurous and noisy duo – perhaps best described as Indie Dance Punk — which has seen many of its releases fervently frothed over by the tastemakers of the music blogosphere. In fact, when the group's full-length, Songs About Music, came out in 2007, it was ranked alongside some of Indie's heaviest hitters as one of the most written-about new releases of its time. And the reviews were almost universally positive.

"The Year Without a Summer" is fairly classic Coltrane Motion, with a dissonant mix of Dennewitz's creative guitar, churning organ/synths and epileptically propulsive beats. Bond's nasal, distorted voice is an acquired taste, but within the lo-fi bombast of songs like "Summer," it's hard to imagine any other vocalist being nearly as fitting. Side B's "Maya Blue" is a hypnotic blend of organ drone and faint and hazy melodies, like early Dandy Warhols with the energy levels pushing the needle into the red.

The group's live show is highly recommended, as Bond and Dennewitz make like a sonic Tasmanian Devil whenever they take over a stage. You'll sweat or be sweated on. And you'll like it.