Some relationships drag on for years, never really going anywhere, before unceremoniously sputtering out. Though it’s impossible to say exactly what the future holds for San Jose indie quartet Get Married, things are certainly looking up.

Formed just last year, the band is already taking things to the next level, inking a one-year deal with Wiretap Records. The L.A.-based label will help Get Married reissue and distribute their excellent debut EP, Four Songs.

The aptly titled four-song set showcases Get Married’s potent synthesis of classic sounds plucked from the recent—and distant—past. Recorded last January at Panda Studios in Fremont, Four Songs is fueled by a nostalgia for early rock & roll and doo-wop, as well as first-wave emo and shoegaze.

Influenced by the likes of late-’80s and early-’90s acts, such Galaxie 500 and Sunny Day Real Estate, the members of Get Married are equally enthralled with the work of Elvis Presley and The Beach Boys. In fact, frontman Jaake Margo started Get Married as an Elvis cover band, before the group started writing their own songs.

Merging a no-frills aesthetic with bright, catchy chord progressions and vocal arrangements, Get Married build songs that ride high on waves of fuzzy guitar tones, shoot the curl through a compendium of doo-wop, swing and rockabilly flourishes, and come out the other end in a glistening mist of Sun Records-style harmonies.

“Grenadine,” which follows a story of unrequited love, feels like a Grace Kelly-starring, malt-shop romance—only punctuated with revved-up guitars and snotty, punk melodies.

This summer Get Married are taking their show on the road, playing a string of dates in the Pacific Northwest before returning home to play the Art Boutiki on July 28. After that, plans are in the works for a national tour and a new EP, currently titled Into the Cosmos.

While San Jose certainly holds a special place in their hearts, looking forward, Get Married have their sights set beyond their hometown.

“We’ve been talking as a band about moving to L.A.” Margo says. “We’re all in our 20s and if we’re going to do this, then we need to be closer to the action.”

Get Married
‘Four Songs’
Various Digital Outlets

It’s the same story every time. A local artist starts to catch a buzz on the blogs, major labels come sniffing around, and then they make the move—to San Francisco or Oakland or Los Angeles.

It’s hard to hate on the decision. After all, San Jose can be a pretty sleepy place and it certainly doesn’t have any kind of national—let alone international—recognition.

It seems that only the weirdest of the weird stay—at least in spirit—regardless of how much acclaim they receive. Stoner metal titans Sleep are still proudly rocking “San Jose” on their Facebook profile.

The same goes for bizarro 408 emcee Antwon, who recently announced he is joining the tastemaking outsider label, Anticon, and has dropped a new single, “Luv,” from his forthcoming EP, Double Ecstacy, slated for an April 1 release. While his publicist says that the hardcore-punk-musician-turned-rapper is currently living in Los Angeles full time, he still reps San Jose on his Bandcamp page.

While Antwon has long been a mainstay on the best-of and most-anticipated lists of hip music publications, such as Pitchfork and The Fader, which debuted his new single, he has yet to garner mainstream acclaim. That may be due to the fact that he is pretty far out there. Although singles like “3rd World” and “Helicopter”—from End of Earth and the Fantasy Beds mixtape respectively—showcased a refined taste for alternative-yet-catchy beats and an infectious, Biggie-esque flow, the rest of his material was far too strange to appeal to a general audience.

But the world of pop music has veered sharply into left field in the past few years—with artists like The Weeknd scoring big hits with dark songs, spun over sinister, syrupy beats. If “Luv” is anything, it’s surely that.

“Show me love/in the booty club,” Antwon flows assertively over a menacing, buzzy bass patch. The song is ostensibly about looking for affection in all the wrong places—namely at a strip joint while high on controlled substances. And the word “love” gets bleeped, as if the concept itself is profane.

It’s grim, to be sure. But it also knocks. In 2016, that’s looking to be a winning combination.

Antwon
‘Double Ecstasy’ EP
April 1, Anticon Records

Cultivating a sound that draws upon a wide range of musical influences, running the gamut from reggae and ska to punk to soul and beyond, the Whiskey Avengers aren’t an easy group to categorize—and that’s just fine with them.

The Avengers—who formed in San Jose in 2006 but are now mostly based in the San Diego area—are more concerned with making good music and connecting with fans than with fitting neatly within the parameters of a specific genre.

“We’re a little bit of everything—a little bit of punk, a little reggae, a little gypsy-pirate music, a little bit of banjo/country/folk,” Stefan Meissner, the group’s singer and guitarist says. “We have a direction. It’s every direction.”

This Friday, Meissner and his bandmates, Clint Westwood and Kevin Higuchi, will be returning to their city of origin for a show at the Back Bar SoFa.

Meissner and Westwood grew up together in San Jose, bonding over their mutual love of music. The pair first joined creative forces in high school, co-founding the hip-hop group Language Arts Crew in 2000.

Six years later—almost by accident—Meissner and Westwood stumbled into creating what would become the Whiskey Avengers. The duo attached a ska song they’d written to the end of a Language Arts Crew album as a secret track and the response was overwhelmingly positive. They recruited Higuchi to play drums and the Avengers were born.

After making a name for themselves in clubs up and down the West Coast, and releasing three full-length albums and one EP, the core trio found themselves making the move to Southern California a couple of years ago.

“We did it for multiple reasons, we were kind of just getting stagnant, you know? Doing the same thing,” says Meissner.

Their time in San Diego has been fruitful. The band has recorded a new EP, “Ballads in the Key of Dub, Vol 2: Ro-Bit,” which they will release at their upcoming San Jose show.

“It’s a fun little project—a little rap/ska mixup,” Meissner says. “We used some old ska tunes, they’ve just kind of been re-vamped and flipped out, and we wrote some extra lyrics to them.”

In keeping with the feel and sound of their first dub EP, the group plays with preexisting instrumental recordings, chopping up the tracks, creating new parts and often adding different effects, such as heavy echo or reverb—“dubbing” over new components to the songs.

Meissner says that the dub series isn’t indicative of a change in direction, adding that fans can expect a new full-length album of original material out some time in the spring or summer of next year.

“We’re almost done,” he says. “We’ve recorded all the music and vocals, and we just have to wrap up some last minute tracks—that’s going to be the real one.”

Since the band moved, they’ve also gained some new off-and-on members—guitarists and keyboardists living in various parts of California and even Arizona that join the core trio at different shows, giving each gig its own flavor.

“It’s fun for us, because it’s always something different,” Meissner says. “We’re always mixing it up, doing different sets. It makes for a unique show every time.”

While the San Diego scene has been providing a supportive environment to gig and write, the members of the Whiskey Avengers are looking forward to coming back home and playing around the holidays—particularly at a space that holds some good memories for the band.

“It’s the back of the old Cactus Club, which is kind of funny,” Meisser says. “That was our old stomping ground, before this band—we were in other bands that played there—that was the best place in San Jose back in the day. Plus I haven’t been up there since February—and all of our friends are in the Bay Area.”

The Whiskey Avengers play Back Bar SoFA on Nov 28, 9pm. More info.

Searching for new and exciting music can sometimes be an arduous task. Most of the radio stations that inhabit our airspace rely on tired playlists that are incessantly repeated ad nauseam. Commercial radio can turn even a good tune into something resembling a flavorless breaded cutlet by constantly repeating the same thing over and over again. Luckily there is hope for music lovers, in the form of a show called “The Modern Things,” broadcasted by KSCU 103.3 and hosted by K-Von.

The three-hour show airs Fridays at noon and features music from up-and-coming artists, along with new tracks from established acts. Besides music, K-Von invites guest likes of Holy Ghost!, DJ Shadow, Dredg, The Limousines, The Velvet Teen and many others for on-air appearances. The show recently celebrated its four-year anniversary.

Currently, K-Von has set his sights on Australian acts such as, Cut Copy, Empire Of The Sun, Flight Facilities, New Navy, Strange Talk, Bag Raiders and The Presets, all of which make outstanding music you won’t hear regularly on commercial radio. K-Von has the uncanny skill of recognizing excellent music way before it makes it into regular rotation on other stations. He recognized the pop sensibility of The Limousines before any other DJ and even released their EP Scrapbook and full-length Get Sharp on 12” vinyl. His limited-edition releases are coveted by collectors and sell out quickly.

Apart from delivering new music to his listeners every Friday, K-Von also indulges in often-charming banter about whatever is on his mind, be it his thoughts on the XL Chalupa or the new Ladyhawke single (both of which fell short of his expectations), K-Von tells it how it is, and it’s often funny.

Most people would think that having a popular radio show, hanging out with famous musicians and getting to DJ all over the place would get to someone’s head. In his case, K-Von says, “No, nothing goes to my head. My friends constantly remind me of how much I suck.”

Maybe that constant reminder from friends is the force that drives K-Von to sit and listen through all the albums coming out. Maybe that is why he’s dedicated himself to searching through countless tracks to find those rare gems that shine above the rest. Maybe, K-Von needs to get some new friends that won’t bag on him constantly. He’s available from noon three every Friday if you want to call into the KSCU studios and let him know he’s doing a good job.

Attendees at the Outside Lands Festival in Golden Gate Park this past August, were lucky enough to catch the new-look Shins perform a couple of fresh tracks featured on their upcoming record, which they recently announced will be released in March.

Significantly more groove-worthy than the whimsical, folk-oriented Shins of albums past, you get the feeling Danger Mouse rubbed off on lead vocalist James Mercer when they collaborated in Broken Bells.

Port of Morrow is the Shins’ first album since 2007’s Grammy-nominated Wincing the Night Away, and features a revamped lineup that includes industry-established musicians such as Modest Mouse drummer Joe Plummer and Yuuki Matthews of Crystal Skulls.

Judging from their first single, we should be seeing the band’s name appear on music critics’ annual lists of “indie darlings” in 2012. You can find a sneak preview here: http://simplesong.theshins.com/