How Dan Reed will save Rock and Roll one song at a time

WXPN’s Dan Reed is on a mission: to save Rock and Roll. This week on his weekday Top 5 at 5 feature on XPN, Dan will presents five new discoveries each day.

Indie rockers Cloud Nothings is the work of Cleveland’s Dylan Baldi, who turned his punky and poppy indie rock bedroom recordings into a full fledged band experience. They debuted in 2010, and since then have been churning out increasingly accessible collections of songs that gallop along at a highly charged guitar rock punk-pop pace. Cloud Nothings release their new album Life Without Sound on Friday, January 27th. Listen to “Internal World” from the album.

Philadelphia singer, songwriter and guitarist Ron Gallo (formerly of The Toy Soldiers) split the city in 2015 to find the heart of his rock and roll spirit in Nashville. On February 3rd, Gallo releases his solo debut album, Heavy Meta, on which he more than delivers on the promise of the RAWK. Watch “Put The Kids To Bed,” a song from his album, below, performed for a Audiotree Live session. Ron and his rock and roll trio make a homecoming this Friday for WXPN’s Free At Noon. You can RSVP here.

The Darts are keeping the spirit of psychedelic, garage rock alive and kicking. An all-grrrrl group that came together with two members of Arizona’s garage rockers The Love Me Nots (Nicole Laurenne and Christina Nunez) and Los Angeles musicians Rikki Styxx (The Two Tens, The Dollyrots, Thee Outta Sites), and Michelle Balderrama (Brainspoon), the band remind us that with playing as hot and convincing as this, the classic sounds of psych-garage rock are timeless.

Remember The Godfathers? The UK rockers may have missed the punk explosion toward the end of the Seventies, but they hit it big with their 1988 classic album, Birth, School, Work, Death. They stopped performing and making records together in 2000, however in 2008 made a comeback and in 2013 released Jukebox Fury. With their twin guitar attack and singer Peter Coyne at the helm, The Godfathers release their new album, A Big Bad Beautiful Noise, on February 10th.

More women, more rock! Ex Hex are from Washington, DC, and are a power trio fronted by guitarist Mary Timony and includes drummer Laura Harris and bassist Betsy Wright. When they released their album, Rips, in 2014, they visited World Cafe. Listen to the full interview and performance below, and watch them peform “Waterfall” from the session.