Two Ridgewood Acts Named NJ Musicians to Listen to

Two village groups are among the twelve NJ bands you should be listening to, according to Paste Magazine.

-connected and his lo-fi pop tracks have drawn acclaim, earning him spot #8 on the magazine's list of the best Garden State musical acts. Lynch has three albums to his credit – with Terra following Orange You Glad and Mare – and a PhD in ethnomusicography from University of Wisconsin at Madison.

"Over the course of three albums, he’s developed a real sense of mood and melody in his woozy, lo-fi bedroom pop," Paste wrote.

(Check out his MySpace, Bandcamp and Last.fm pages. Three YouTube videos of Lynch's songs are available at the right of this article.)

Dream pop clearly looms large in 07450, and apparently in Paste's book too.

Village band Spook Houses also made the cut, checking in at #10 on the mag's list.

is comprised of Dave Benton, Alkis Meimaris, Colin Alexander, and Andrew Wade, who all grew up Ridgewood and return every summer. In June they joined Real Estate to .

"A certain rawness permeates Spook Houses’ music. Like many of its New Jersey musical brethren, the band straddles the line between shambolic lo-fi noise rock and poppy punk melody," the Paste wrote. "Plus it can never hurt to use a photo of a cute dog as your album art."

(Check out Spook House on Myspace, Bandcamp and Last.fm. Their new LP, Trying, dropped in July. Two songs on YouTube are available at the right of this article.)