Canopies

Canopies is a psychedelic-pop/rock band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Download the debut EP: Nothing beats a surprise, especially when it comes in the form of a fully realized, fully loaded new band. Take Milwaukee’s Canopies: On the band’s recent self-titled debut EP, the synth slingers burst out of the gate with five tracks of terrific, infectious electro-pop. It’s an album clearly indebted to a proto-new-wave past full of murky ’80s dance clubs, but still shot through with a spirit of post-millennial dance parties. John Marston and Nolan Treolo form the band’s core and, along with drummer Craig Leren, already seem to be a notch above the current chillwave high-water mark. The group’s songs are anything but gauzy, unfocused psychedelia. Lead-off track “Rebels” is effortlessly stuffed with dreamy, straight-up pop hooks, and “Strangers Glare” does well by a driving, insidiously catchy chorus. - A.V. Club