New York City-based dream pop outfit Dream Diary formed in 2009 around the talents of Jacob Danish Sloan, Madison Farmer, and Alexander Iezzi. The Brooklyn trio’s melodic blend of retro shoegaze, twee pop, and indie rock owes as much to veteran romancers like the Smiths and the Pastels as it does more recent acts like the Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Frightened Rabbit. The band unleashed its first collection of breezy, self-described “cardigan rock,” You Are the Beat, in 2011 on Kanine Records. ~ James Christopher Monger