There is a growing connection between the up and coming grunge rockers out of New England and a select few New York City bands.  Artists like Krill, Ovlov, and Pile have been taking and doling out influence from and to NYC bands like Bluffing, Big Neck Police and the focus of this review, The Gradients.  The last time I saw The Gradients was at the Living Gallery in Brooklyn last summer, so when I witnessed the solid crowd of followers that the band had amassed at Hot 97.4 this past weekend I was excited to see how their sound had evolved.  Indeed The Gradients have come a long way; their songs contain powerful, driving melodies complete with an exciting, New York City-themed frustration.  Their use of lazy harmonies is especially effective on their new single, "Growing Pile," where the chorus becomes layered in raspy vocals of that good, sweet teenage angst we all know and love.  You can check out The Gradients next week on July 29th at Palisades with Washer, Palm and The Doozies.  - Jake Saunders

It looks like the 1.21 Gigawatts crew managed to grab every single decent to good to great indie rock band that’s up and coming in Brooklyn today for their upcoming 4 day yearly festival at Radio Bushwick on July 17-20: Bluffing, Big Neck Police, Infinity Shred, Sunflower Bean, Shark?, Tonstartsbandht, Celestial Shore, The Gradients, hell they even got Fiasco on the bill?! I remember listening to Fiasco in high school wishing I was cool enough to go to their shows, but back then I wasn’t in it for the music as much as trying to find an identity in this fucked up city we call home (calling all high school indie rockers: don’t be ashamed, you may not be old enough to drink yet but you are allowed to fuck up as many times as you want, so go to these shows, maybe you’ll get lucky and they won’t draw the X’s on your hand too deep!)

There will be also teen indie folk talent and recent Deli Record of the Month Frankie Cosmos. I could keep going, but the bottom line is that 1.21 Gigawatts is having a fun party with lots of talented NYC artist - I'll be there! - Jake Saunders

Bluffing is exactly the right way to deliver solid indie rock anthems. Fast, dirty, and as big as possible. This Brooklyn band is a whirlwind of stormy distortion and muddled vocals (Olivia Drusin and guitarist/singer J. Boxer) coming at you from all directions at once. Sorta like NY's recent locust storm... but much, much prettier. I'm looking forward to more of these tasty little nuggets when the band releases more singles soon from upcoming EP "sugar coated pills of wisdom." - Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

This band submitted their music for review here