Kevin Bronson on August 12th, 2009

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A friend recently pointed me in the direction of Maryland’s Cotton Jones – the nom de tune of Michael Nau and Whitney McGraw. How I’d missed their disarmingly beautiful throwback pop before I’ll never know, but their debut, 2007’s “The Cotton Jones Basket Ride,” and their two 2008 EPs were great revelations. Now the duo is working on a new EP, “Rio Ranger,” out Sept. 8 from Quite Scientific Records (the first 1,000 copies will be issued as an illustrated booklet). Their first full-length, “Paranoid Cocoon,” was released in January.

||| Download: “When You Stop for a Minute”

||| Live: Cotton Jones performs Sept. 26 at Spaceland.

Frequent SoCal visitors Hopewell recently released their latest album “Good Good Desperation” on Tee Pee Records, and the New York-based quintet just got word they’ve been picked to play the Flaming Lips-curated All Tomorrow’s Parties festival the second weekend of September. Hopewell’s thunderous, vaguely neurotic psych-rock has never been more powerful.

||| Download: “Island”

Hopewell photo by Alexandra Marvar