From time to time, there will come along someone a little younger, a bit more talented and better looking. In 1993, Leonardo DiCaprio blew us away on the silver screen. 2005, Christiano Ronaldo scored in his opening game for Manchester United. In 2010, Urban Cone entered our world and nothing will ever be the same again. Just scratching the surface, you’ll find kind of “perfect” pop music. Go deeper and you´ll discover something very unique.

Urban Cone chose a surprisingly “old school” route to success, sending their demo to a record company, Universal Music, in early 2011. After that, things started happening quickly. The label showed up backstage after a show in Stockholm and shortly after, the band was in a studio recording its first EP, with a well renowned producer.

After recording the first EP, the band chose to record and produce themselves instead, literally, in Rasmus Flyckts living room. The main reason was a strong wish to maintain complete control of their music. The same reasoning led to the band designing their own logotype and creating their own artwork. They even take turns driving the tour bus. The summer tour visited clubs and festivals all over Sweden, but also included shows in France, Germany and Canada.

Two successful EPs later it’s time for a new chapter of the Urban Cone saga. The debut album “Our Youth” is made up of songs written during the often difficult teenage years and brings up topics like city life and alienation. The album sums up a phase one might look back on with some nostalgia, but is happy to be over and done with.

Musically, it is a journey through past and present, never losing track of the melody. Raw lyrics full of heart and soul are combined with many layered, thought-through musical landscapes.

Where a lot of other bands might wing it, Urban Cone is meticulously thorough. Nothing is left to chance. At the end of the day it’s about creating music they just as happily would have liked to hear from others. But if nobody is up for it – better do it yourself. There are no shortcuts if your plan is to become the biggest band in the world.

“Come Come,” the debut single from the L.A. duo Hot As Sun is a sweetly blissed-out reverie, built on a simple Omnichord line, that conjures up the entirety of the 1980s going by in slow motion. It’s the first step toward a four-song EP for collaborators Jamie Jackson and Deborah Stoll. Jackson is a multi-instrumentalist who once worked at Electric Lady Studios in New York; Stoll is a writer whose work has appeared in the Economist’s online mag, LA Weekly and Slake. The EP will come with an animated video by Mark Steger — who directed the video for “Come Come,” above, featuring the slick moves of Kenan Peters. Bring it on. --BuzzbandsLA