Nurses

From Lastfm:

To immerse yourself in Nurses' Apple's Acre is to delight in a certain mental unraveling. These are songs where the vulnerability of pop with its heart on its sleeve engages in a double-dutch jumprope match with the euphoric surrender-to-the-weird that is essential to psychedelia. And Nurses is a band that scavenges beauty and wonder, uncovering Technicolor where others see somber hues. Their off-kilter psych-pop is driven by ever-swelling vocal harmonies, adventurous electronics, some serious wheelin' and dealin' on the Rhodes piano, and the kind of new-primitivist percussion that may or may not involve a standard drum kit.

An encyclopedic list of musical influences and sound-alikes won't necessarily cozy up your brain to the Nurses experience. Their compositions revel in the unexpected, and it creates music that's endlessly fascinating. Part of the allure is that the songs of Aaron Chapman and John Bowers--the cosmic troubadours and longtime best friends behind Nurses--are in a constant state of motion, as if they're evolving while you listen. Perhaps it's no surprise, since Chapman and Bowers themselves have spent the past five years in a state of transience, as friendly nomads who gave up the comforts of normalcy for the deeper satisfaction of total devotion to making music. If the two aren't rambling in their own sonic imaginations, they're not satisfied.

Luckily for Portland, Ore., they settled down there for a while and unpacked their exhilarating playfulness in the attic of a Victorian house. It was in their attic fort that they recorded much of Apple's Acre. Now that the pair call Portland home, they have expanded to a trio and are joined by percussionist and visual artist James Mitchell.

Apple's Acre is a record full of dysfunctional, hushed love, laced with elegance and grace and without angst and regret. But the plain courage of their songs is the secret ingredient that's already turning heads and blowing minds all over the Northwest--and if you think about it, in pop music, courage is always at a premium.

From Wikipedia:

Nurses is a Portland-based indie rock trio composed of Aaron Chapman (vocals, guitar, keyboard), John Bowers (backing vocals, keyboard), and James Mitchell (percussionist & visual artist). Their sound is often categorized as psychedelic pop, folk rock, and experimental. Nurses started as a quartet from Idaho which moved to Southern California where, in 2006, they recorded and independently released their debut album, Hangin' Nothin' But Our Hands Down. Sargent House Records re-released Hangin' Nothin' But Our Hands Down on June 6, 2007. Chapman and Bowers then moved on to Portland, Oregon where they met James Mitchell. The trio joined Dead Oceans Records on May 21, 2009 and released their sophomore album via Dead Oceans on August 4, 2009 (August 24 in the UK). Nurses second album, Apple's Acre, has been described as a shaggy younger sibling of Animal Collective or Grizzly Bear with the sound of dreamy harmonies, carnival organs, slightly out-of-tune pianos and basic percussion from a lone snare or tambourine.

Nurses is currently touring with the Swedish folk musician The Tallest Man on Earth.