11 Rising Bands To Listen to in 2019

It's an exciting time for music. The barriers to entry are lower than ever and technology has made music-making tools accessible to young people with an internet connection, wherever they live. While much of the conversation in 2018 and 2019 has focused on solo stars and rap music's rise to pop culture's driving force, there are great things happening in bedrooms and garages across the world, and across genres.

These 11 bands are all at different stages in their musical journeys—some are just getting started with buzz-building early singles and others are multiple albums and tours deep—and their music ranges from indie rock to punk, jazz, grunge, and everything in between. However they're approaching making music, each of these bands should be on your radar in 2019.

Inner Wave is a band from Inglewood, California and they're part of an exciting wave of fast-rising Chicano artists who made a mark on music in 2018. The five-piece has been playing together since 2013 and it shows—their chemistry both live and on record is palpable as they seamlessly blend influences from rock to hip-hop to Latin beats.

The band followed up their 2017 album Underwater Pipe Dreams with Underwater + in 2018, a collection of songs they worked on between 2013-2017. "We're hoping this will serve as a nice palette cleanser before we release our full length album next year," singer and lead guitarist Pablo Sotelo explained, and as much as Underwater + serves as a transitional release, it also includes some of their most direct and immediately catchy songs to date, including "Whoa" and "2031."

Latino representation has been sorely lacking in indie-rock, and Inner Wave will continue to lead the charge as they release a new album in 2019.

Oakland band Hello Yello band is made up of Dylan (22, vocals and guitar), his younger brother Jaden (20, bass), and their friend Martin (20, drums). Over the course of just three songs the trio have already proved their versatility, launching with the warm, laid-back haze of "Feel That Again" and taking a sharp left turn with the squealing guitars and sharp edges of "Sins," which arrived with this energetic studio performance video. 

Although Dylan already has experience producing for other artists, Hello Yello is emerging as a creative and exciting new band which is built on friendship, brotherhood, and wide-ranging musical tastes. Their next single is "I Don't Care," a powerful, grungey track with a video that captures both the restlessness and the raw energy of youth. 

"I Don't Care" comes from Hello Yello's upcoming EP Love Wins, out March 15.

Montreal’s Men I Trust has been building steady buzz for years with warm, romantic tunes that draw you in with surprisingly high-wattage melodies. The trio hit upon a winning formula, with grooving bass lines wrapped in shimmering keyboard chords that serve as a perfect backdrop for singer Emmanuelle Proulx’s candid lyrics.

Unlike many indie pop bands who seem to thrive on ambiguity, Men I Trust sets itself apart with frank, unequivocal stories of love, longing, and nostalgia on standouts like “Lauren,” “Show Me How,” and the recent single “Say, Can You Hear.” The band has been releasing a steady stream of tracks ahead of their upcoming Oncle Jazz album, and remains fully in control of their enterprise; they record, mix, and master all of their own work.

Big Thief has been making music for a few years now, but the Brooklyn band's 2017 album Capacity was a big step up and quietly one of the year's strongest projects. It's intimate folk rock with a touch of electricity, and songs like "Shark Smile" feel like a fairly straightforward, Bruce Springsteen-inspired slice of Americana, but the lyrics describe tragedy with devastating force, especially in the catchiest part of the song.

The band is building the old-fashioned way, with touring as an essential element and real-life connections taking priority: “Not just something blowing up on the internet and going viral, and all this hype created," lead singer Adrianne Lenker told SPIN. "To me, it’s a slow build of handshakes and hugs and moments of awkwardness, all experienced together with hands so that every person who comes into contact with the music–creating an actual relationship that’s not based on an image, or idea, or intangible thing.”

On a given song, Show Me the Body could be incorporating hip-hop, electronic music, or even emo, but they always do so with a raw, primal energy and hissing, kinetic vocals from Julian Cashwan Pratt. The three-piece boasts significant New York rap ties, having worked with Princess Nokia and Tony Seltzer, but they’ve also crossed into the more mainstream indie world by touring with King Krule.

Even if hardcore music isn’t your wheelhouse, SMTB’s mixtape Corpus I is packed with such gritty, urgent tracks like “In a Grave’ and “Trash” that you’ll find yourself drawn into their world somehow. Their album Dog Whistle is on the horizon, and single “Camp Orchestra” is a white-knuckled punk anthem with fuzzy guitars and a jittery start-stop motion that keeps you guessing what the next bar will bring. There’s nothing rarer than listening to music that truly offers the unexpected, but that’s exactly what Show Me The Body can provide.

For all of Austin Anderson's high profile work (he contributed to Frank Ocean's Blonde and Tyler, The Creator's Flower Boy, among others) and the fact that he's been making music with his band since 2013, it still feels as though Slow Hollows are on the rise and 2019 could be a big year for the band.

Slow Hollows' sound keeps evolving as different musicians join the lineup, with Austin Anderson joined by Jackson Katz, Daniel Fox, and Aaron Jassenoff in the current iteration band. 2018 release "Lessons For Later" was the band's sharpest departure from an indie-rock or post punk sound, with strings, horns, and electronic glitches creating a dreamy texture. Across all the Slow Hollows releases, Anderson's unhurried, low-pitched vocals remain a constant, and with new music on the way this year, we're excited to see what 2019 holds for the band.

Philadelphia's Hop Along released their third album, Bark Your Head Off, Dog on April 6, 2018 and it's their best work yet. Drawing equally from grunge, folk, and pop, their songs wield power in their unpredictability. One minute, lead singer Frances Quinlan's voice soars gracefully over a string arrangement, and the next it breaks into a manic yelp over crunchy guitar chops. The hardest part for any band making indie rock in 2019 is to keep things interesting and avoid rehashing ideas from the last decades, and Hop Along never fails. Even when grounded by traditional elements typically associated with a guitars, bass, and drums, their songs wander with a wild spirit. 

London five-piece Ezra Collective are part of an exciting wave of British musicians, bands, and collectives making vibrant jazz or jazz-inspired music. Femi Koleoso (drums), TJ Koleoso (bass), Joe Armon-Jones (keys), Dylan Jones (trumpet), and James Mollison (saxophone) make music that is rooted in a timeless sound but is equally inspired by contemporary genres like hip-hop and afrobeat.

“I think more than anything what inspires us is being true and honest to our home city, London," Femi Koleoso explains. "Being honest to the beauty in the diversity, the city in which you can eat at a Caribbean restaurant, opposite a Turkish restaurant with an English cafe and Vietnamese bar next door. A place where you can hear Afro beat, punk, and dancehall all on the same street."

The band's debut album You Can't Steal My Joy comes out April 26 and will include a previously released collaboration with Jorja Smith and new single "Quest For Coin."

When we made a list of acts to look out for in the beginning of the year, Chicago group Slow Pulp was one of only a couple actual bands included. Here we are again, because Slow Pulp is still an awesome band to look out for. "Being a band is what we’ve always known," they explain on email. "We’re lucky enough to have formed this relationship at a young age. In order to function and create collectively, both emotional and artistic understanding is crucial.” 

They haven't put out too much music yet, but they've already shown an intriguing level of versatility, sometimes all in one song. There's a touch of nostalgia to the band's sound, whether it's classic rock songwriting or alternative rock energy, but it all feels current in execution, and we can't wait to hear what else they've been working on. According to their manager, they've been staying in a cabin on a haunted lake with no cell service, writing and recording their next project, so hopefully things get spooky.

Los Angeles band The Marías' first official release came in 2017 with Superclean, Vol. I, a collection of dreamy, sun-kissed songs that had an unmistakable old-school, jazz lounge flair. Formed after a chance encounter between lead singer María, who sings in Spanish and English, and drummer/producer Josh Conway, The Marías are completed by bassist Carter Lee, guitarist Jesse Perlman, and keyboardist Edward James. 

With a stylish, often retro look to their music videos and a recognizable sound, The Marías followed up their debut EP with Superclean, Vol. II in 2018 and closed out the year with "Drip," a collaborative single with tour-mates Triathlon. The band is heading out on tour again in April and May (see the dates here), and whenever they do release more new music, they have a dedicated fanbase ready and waiting.

Rising precipitously thanks to earworm singles like “Uncomfortable” and “Pictures of Girls,” Wallows’ debut album is due out in March, and this certainly seems like the last chance to be able to brag about knowing them before their breakout. Dual singers Braeden Lemasters and Dylan Minnette have been writing music together since they were just nine years old, and their chemistry shines through when they use a double helix approach to vocals on songs like “These Days.”

They’ve also been expanding their sound from breezy California rock, dabbling in cinematic synthpop (“1980s Horror Film II”) and homespun indie (“Are You Bored Yet?” with Clairo). With major label Atlantic Records behind them, playlist support across the board, and a tour scheduled for April, May, and June, 2019 is undeniably going to be Wallows' breakout year.