Fear of Men

The wistful 60's pop revival continues (think Cults, Tennis, etc.) with this lovely new jam from London's Fear of Men.  The "Green Sea" 7" is due in June from Sexbeat and will probably disappear quickly.  Listen below.

The M Machine

Don't know much about San Francisco's dancey The M Machine, but i totally dig the 80's pop inspired "Glow."  Listen below or watch the video featuring a girl and her killer robot.



And the video:

Supermoon Made Me Want To Pee

Growing up and watching MTV (for hours and hours a day when i was a kid), my favorite videos were usually the animated ones.  That hasn't changed.  Check out the intense new video for The Flaming Lips/Prefuse 73 collaboration, "Supermoon Made Me Want To Pee."

Azealia Banks & Lana Del Rey

Here's a pretty cool jam featuring two of our favorite ladies from 2011...and the dudes from Foster The People.  Apparently they have a DJ project called Smims&Belle.  Check out their remix of Lana Del Rey's "Blue Jeans" featuring a new verse from Azealia Banks.  Let's get freaky.

Blues Control

I don't even know how to describe the music made by New York's noisy, avant garde duo Blues Control.  They sound like a cut and paste soundtrack to a comic book TV show composed by a mad scientist in the throws of an absinthe trip.  Listen to "Iron Pigs" below and look for the upcoming "Valley Tangents" LP from Drag City in June.

Ty Segall Band

Ty Segall is having a busy year, a 3-album kind of busy year.  Earlier this week, we got the awesome collaboration with White Fence, Ty's got a solo record in the works for later this year, and in June we get the first release from the now named Ty Segall Band, featuring his usual band of misfits.  Screaming, sludgy garage rock.  I love it.  And i love the contender for best album cover of the year as well.  Listen to "Wave Goodbye" below and look for the "Slaughterhouse" LP from In The Red on June 26th.

Cadence Weapon

Everyone's favorite Canadian rapper is finally back with a new proper LP after 2008's excellent "Afterparty Babies."  Cadence Weapon's latest, "Hope in Dirt City," keeps with the rapper/poet's style of smooth flow over indie dance floor beats.  Check out the crawling, groovy "Conditioning" below, and look for the record in May from Upper Class Recordings.

LA Vampires & Octo Octa

Early 90's house club jams are alive and well on the latest in a string of collaborations from LA Vampires, this time around featuring blissed-out producer Octo Octa.  Listen to the dance floor anthem "Wherever, Boy" below and get the "Freedom 2K" record from 100% Silk in May.

Heady Fwends

It's hard to pick a favorite from all the good stuff that came out over the weekend: covers galore, some unearthed Lee Hazlewood, Dinosaur Jr as an 80's synth band, St Vincent gone industrial, and on and on.  I will say that whatever press went to The Flaming Lips collaborative project, "Heady Fwends," was well deserved.  It's an awesome follow-up to 2009's "Embryonic."  Listen to the sprawling, droney cover of "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" featuring Erykah Badu on vocals below.  It's like soaring through space.

Lower Dens - Nootropics

Baltimore's Lower Dens are set to release their new album "Nootropics" on May 1st from Ribbon Music.  You've already heard the throbbing, slow burning "Brains," but now check out the more ballad-y, hazy "Lamb" below.  Jana Hunter and crew are perfecting the art of melting you into the floor.  Bravo.

Record Store Day 2012

Oh Record Store Day.  You came.  You emptied my wallet.  And you broke my heart just a little bit by letting some other asshole grab the last "Feistodon" 7" before i could get to it.  Until next year my love.

Liars - No. 1 Against the Rush

Check out the video for new Liars track "No. 1 Against the Rush" from the "WIXIW" LP due out in June from Mute.  It's pretty reserved for a Liars song.

Anhedonist

Every so often, we like to take a break from tripped out drone, 80's soundtrack inspired synth jams, and garage rock madness, to venture into murkier territories.  And so, we have Seattle doom merchants Anhedonist.  Sludgy, doom metal at its most triumphant and joyless.  New album "Netherwards" sprawls and moans and wails in despair, a soundtrack for a Gothic cathedral set ablaze.  Listen to "Estrangement" below.  It's a little intoxicating.  Get it from Dark Descent Records.

Peaking Lights - Hi Lo

Here's a brand spanking new jam from Peaking Lights' upcoming new album "Lucifer."  "Lo Hi" continues the duos forays into warped, droney, dub territory, the perfect soundtrack for the upcoming heatwaves sure to commence this summer.  Look for the record from Mexican Summer in June and listen to the track below.

Sebastien Tellier

Nobody does sleazy weirdo pervert and gets away with it quite like the French.  And thus, we have Sebastien Tellier.  On his follow up to 2008's "Sexuality," which was produced by half of Daft Punk, new album "My God Is Blue" loses some of the airy 1980's soft rock feel for a more gay club anthem feel.  Even if you're not into gay clubs or the anthems therein, it's still pretty fun.  Listen to "Cochon Ville" below.  Look for the album hopefully sometime this month.  I'm not sure on an American release date.

Death Grips - The Money Store

We just posted about Death Grips' new jam "I've Seen Footage" last week, but now the brilliantly noisy rap act  are streaming their new album "The Money Store" in its entirety.  That makes me a happy panda.  Listen below, and look for the LP later this month from Epic.  Hooray!

Shoppers

This actually came out at the end of last year, but apparently we were busy.  To make amends, we must impel you all to take a listen to the "Silver Year" LP from Syracuse's Shoppers, two girls and a guy making a lot of noise-rock-art-punk stuff.  It's delightful.  Listen to "I." below, and then head over to Feeble Minds Records to buy the album (you can also download the whole thing for free from the label - Hooray!).

Ami Dang

Baltimore's Ami Dang is a singer, producer, and sitar player who combines elements of electronic music, pop music, and vibes from her Sikh background to create something new and awesome.  She calls it Bollywave.  I call it entrancing.  Listen to some demos below.  Groovy tunes.

Cabin In The Woods

My expectations are exceedingly high...So, let's not disappoint.

New Order - Elegia

New Order's full 18 minute version of "Elegia," a tribute to Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis is finally available on vinyl for the first time in all it's 18 minute glory.  Get it at Dope Jams, and listen below.

Saitam

Hailing from Portugal, i can only really describe the music of Saitam as the cosmic, feel-good jams of a blissed out deity still reeling from that last tab of something...

Listen to and download "Union" below.  The beats of the gods.  You can also stream the whole "West East" EP here.

Laurel Halo

Here's a new track from Laurel Halo's upcoming release "Quarantine" on Hyperdub.  Here's what our favorite synth-songstress had to say about the new album:

“I started out with a ton of echo and reverb on the vocals, but it sounded supremely boring to me, so I was curious how they’d sound dry in the arrangements and got rid of most of the wetness…It was tempting to use autotune but I decided against it because there’s this brutal, sensual ugliness in the vocals uncorrected, and painfully human vocals made sense for this record.”

Excellent.  Listen to "Light + Space" below, courtesy of Gorilla Vs Bear.

Dean Blunt & Inga Copeland

As part of the team behind Hype Williams, Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland are no strangers to the avant garde. They recently teamed up to release new LP "Black Is Beautiful" on Hyperdub.  You can sample the whole thing here, but check out the cityscape video for the warped and dubby "The Narcissist" below.

Sand Circles

LA's Not Not Fun Records has been pretty damn consistent for the last several years when it comes to releasing awesome, left-of-center ambient, synth, psych, or drone jams.  The newest "Motor City" cassette release from Sweden's Sand Circles continues the tradition.  Think of it in the same vein as the "Drive" soundtrack or the recent releases from Italians Do It Better.  Seems everyone's into the 80's driving soundtrack these days...and that's actually a good thing.  Listen to "Endless Nights" below and buy the album here (if there are any left).

New Death Grips

New Death Grips track!  New Death Grips track!  New Death Grips track!  Listen to and download "I've Seen Footage" below and look for "The Money Store" LP later this month from Epic.

Solar Bears - Cosmic Runner

Here's another new jam from Irish electronic duo Solar Bears from their forthcoming new album (no word yet on a release date).  2010's "She Was Coloured In" was one of our favorite records of that year, and the synthy kraut rock seems to still be in full effect.  Fantastic.  Listen to "Cosmic Runner" below.

Easter

Happy Easter people.

Quakers - Russia With Love

My favorite record of late is the superb release from Quakers (Portishead's Geoff Barrow) on Stones Throw.  41 tracks of excellent hip hop featuring a plethora of guest rappers all over the place.  Check out the video for "Russian With Love" featuring Coin Locker Kid below and grab the record here.

Dive covers Kurt Cobain

In a move that surprises nobody, Brooklyn guitar rock janglers Dive (also known as that group of kids that made me feel really old at SXSW this year) recorded a cover of a song by Kurt Cobain.  What is surprising is how obscure of a track they chose to do.  "Bambi Slaughter" was an unused demo recorded by Cobain back when the dream of the 90's was still alive.  Listen to the cover here.  Dive's debut LP is due from Captured Tracks on June 26th.

New White Denim

Time to dim the lights, light some candles, and get sexy smooth with this new jam from Austin's own White Denim.  Listen to "Get Back To Love (Street Joy)" below.  Aww yeah.

Polica

Minneapolis is home to a number of awesome things besides Prince.  The experimental R&B magic that is the musical collective Gayngs comes to mind.  That being said, Gayngs mastermind Ryan Olson helms the boards for the first release from art-rock group Polica.  It's moody, slow burner type stuff.  My favorite description i came across online was like "Fiona Apple fronting TV On The Radio."  I was intrigued.  Listen to "Wandering Star" below and get it from Totally Gross National Product.

Black Moth Super Rainbow - Spraypaint

Not quite sure how some screwballs from Pittsburgh create such sun-drenched, swirly synth-pop jams, but the boys do us proud on new track "Spraypaint."  Maybe a new album in the pipeline?  Come on guys.  It's been forever.  Listen below.

Lana Del Rey and A$AP Rocky?

Brooklyn production duo The Kickdrums are set to release their "Follow The Leader" mixtape tomorrow.  You'll be able to get it here.  Interestingly enough, the tape combines the talents of internet wrath-incurring songstress Lana Del Rey and Austin riot-inducing rapper A$AP Rocky.  Should be some pretty good stuff.  Check out the trailer for the mixtape below.  Yes, their are trailers for internet mixtapes.

Xiu Xiu and Dirty Beaches

Record Store Day has unveiled its list of releases for this year, and the usual batch of 7" cover records abound (Mastodon covering Flaming Lips and Feist anyone?).  Particularly interesting is the Xiu Xiu/Dirty Beaches split.  Xiu Xiu tackles Erasure's "Always," and Dirty Beaches cover Francoise Hardy's "Tu Ne Dis Rien."  Listen to both below.



Check the full list of releases here.