TOP FIVE ARTISTS OF THE WEEK:

JOYCE MANOR: An American punk rock band from Torrance, California, Joyce Manor, named after an apartment building, was formed in 2008. Recommended if you like Tiger’s Jaw and The Front Bottoms, Joyce Manor’s raw sound and two minute hype songs have kept their fans asking for more. Cody, their fourth studio album, is their most professional-sounding effort yet and for the first time, a Joyce Manor album includes an acoustic track and a song over four minutes. It also features guest vocals from singer/songwriter Phoebe Bridgers and Fun.’s Nate Ruess.

TOUCHE AMORE: Formed in 2007 in Los Angeles, California, Touche Amore, back on the TOP 5 for another week, blends jangly post-hardcore with emotionally raw screamo to create their unique sound. The band has a plaintive and emotionally intense sound that blends the influence of bands like Jawbox and Converge into something strangely coherent. Stage Four is Touche Amore’s fourth studio album.

THIS WILD LIFE: Returning to the TOP 5 is indie acoustic alternative rock duo, This Wild Life, and their second album, Low Tides. Hailing from Long Beach, California, Kevin Jordan, vocals and guitar, and Anthony Del Grosso, guitar, this duo is most well known in the pop punk scene and the Warped Tour circuit. According to Becky Kovach of Chorus.FM, “The band skyrocketed to popularity with their 2014 debut Clouded. The album is a hard act to follow; however, their latest effort, Low Tides, manages to avoid the dreaded sophomore slump with grace and finesse. The album is soothing, sincere, and expands on many of the qualities fans came to love on Clouded.”

THE RAMONA FLOWERS: TOP 5 alumni, the Ramona Flowers, named after the lead girl with the supercharged, seven evil exes in the movie Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Her name has been adopted by today’s five-piece from Bristol. They are an indie rock band who use electronic elements, and have been compared to U2 and Radiohead. Part-Time Spies is their second studio album.

THE FLESHTONES: The Fleshtones, back on the TOP 5 for a second week, are an American garage rock band from Queens, New York formed in 1976, debuting at CBGB. Often tagged as garage rock revivalists, the Fleshtones mix the fuzz guitar and Farfisa organ sounds of that genre with rockabilly, ‘50s and '60s R&B, and surf into a potent retro stew the group likes to call “super rock.” And in 2016, the Fleshtones celebrated their 40th anniversary as a band with an album named for one of the group’s mottos, The Band Drinks for Free.

Check back next week for more “Top Five”!