Glory be to my new friend Kip of Pains of Being Pure At Heart. Yesterday I got I got an email from him (it is just serendipitous luck that we posted the review of his band's EP 10 hours later) catching me up on some bands he’s enjoying and looking forward to seeing (which is so rad since he’s got the city of NY as his playground!).

During the course of our discourse, he reminded me of the Glasgow duo Strawberry Whiplash. I apologize I keep getting distracted whenever I go to blog about them. Thank goodness for Kip for reminding me again that they rock it way cute. All four of the songs on their MySpace are great, so you might as well start with the first one (“Summershine”) and work your way down the list.

Geeking out over Strawberry Whiplash reminded me that I need to gush about The Electric Pop Group too! Oh, dear reader, how distracted I’ve been. Apologies!

Both bands are recent signees to the ever-delightful Matinee Recordings record label (home to our favorites like The Lucksmiths and Math and Physics Club) and both groups have new releases on the calendar with Strawberry Whiplash’s debut EP releasing in October and The Electric Pop Group releasing a full album in early 2008 (which feels like a long way away, so go to their website to MP3-freely).

Thanks for the check-in Kip! What bands / MP3s are you all geeking out over? Please share!