It’s been nearly three years since Arcade Fire have released a new album. After their international explosion of popularity following the release of Funeral (2004) and Neon Bible (2007), the band became Canada‘s most popular indie rock band, and a mentor to dozens of up and coming new artists, not to mention an influence on established artists, and the half dozen or so apathetic attempts to copy-cat the band’s signature sound.

Last week, hints of a new LP – title could be The Suburbs – coming out sometime this summer recently appeared in the form of a postcard on the official Arcade Fire website along with these two very brief teaser track samples (complete with vinyl crackles) for the new songs, “Suburbs” and “Month of May.” Click on the virtual vinyl to flip over to the other teaser track.

The tease strategy has surely created more buzz and anticipation for the official release of a new Arcade Fire album, but it may have been better to tease with a cool ass video of a new song – just our opinion. Either way, the Arcade Fire buzz machine pretty much can float on auto-pilot without much help from the mainstream press or bloggers.

Last year we featured a number of tracks from Opus Orange, the moniker of Los Angeles musician and composer Paul Bessenbacher. The songs, including “Nothing But Time” and “Roll On By”, which was featured on a Johnsonville Sausage commercial , were gobbled up by our readers. After reading some threads on music forums of people asking where and how to get the song from the commercial (“Roll On By”), we did some research, and got an actual MP3 copy of the song, and more.

Well, now we excited to let you know that Opus Orange has two, brand new tracks to share, exclusively on IRC. This is more proof of Opus Orange’s talent and creative abilities.

“The World is Spinning” – Opus Orange

“Shadow in the Light” – Opus Orange

Ethan Lipton and His Orchestra's new album was funded by fan donations

The National’s Matt Berninger recently teamed up with Ethan Lipton and His Orchestra to record a song for the band’s June 29th sophomore album, Honker.

Last November, the band raised the money to produce the album – $12,500 – entirely online through donations and pledges from fans on KickStarter.

The songs of Ethan Lipton & His Orchestra are steeped in American traditions of yore (jazz, blues, country, lounge), but his subjects are thoroughly modern (Internet romance, racism, pets, police), while being humorous and ironic at the same time. New York Magazine nominated the band “Best Lounge Act of 2009″.

“When You Die” – Ethan Lipton and His Orchestra with w/Matt Berninger from Honker

“You Were Right + It’s OK” – Ethan Lipton and His Orchestra from Honker

As one of the most prolific and colorful members of Animal Collective, the immensely talented Panda Bear has also demonstrated his songwriting skills as a solo artist.

Last week, Paw Tracks said that there will be a series of seven inch singles released via various labels. The first single’s two tracks, according to Amazon, are “Tomboy” and “Slow Motion”, due for a July 13th drop (preorder it here).

Yet we still have to wait until September for the LP, Tomboy, to be released. In the meantime, we have a  live samples of an untitled song that will presumably be on Tomboy. This live cut was released via Gorilla vs. Bear. It sounds pretty good, but we’re reserved – it does not sound finished, nor is the audio quality as good as a CD or LP will be.

Preorder Panda Bear's "Tomboy/Slow Motion"

Regardless, the anticipation of getting the album is crazy; hey, Paw Tracks, if you got it ready to go, isn’t the summer the best time to release Panda Bear tracks? We’re just saying….(hint)  If Tomboy is anything like the classic Panda Bear (aka, Noah Lennox) 2008 solo debut, Person Pitch (one of our Top 50 indie albums ever), then we’re all in for a treat; just wish we had it right now.

We heard there are some leaked tracks around on the web, but we’re really not interested in them – we want the pure, verified, proper Panda Bear work on CD and vinyl. In addition to the live track, we also included one of our favorite songs from Person Pitch, plus another track released in March of Four Tet‘s version of “Stick to My Side,” a Panda Bear and Pantha du Prince collaboration.

“Untitled” (Live in Belgium) – Panda Bear

“Stick to My Side (Four Tet version)” – Pantha Du Prince featuring Panda Bear

“Comfy in Nautica” - Panda Bear from Person Pitch

More Songs You Might Like:

“Ghost Pressure” – Wolf Parade from Expo 86 (out June 29; preorder)

“Oversees“ – Friendo from Cold Toads

“A Place to Love” – Grande Roses from Say It To My Fervent Heart EP

“Soft Skin” - Mountain Men from Made The Harbor – out July 20