This week’s Best New Releases mixtape spotlights new albums and singles from Portugal The Man, Crystal Castles, Sun Airway, Young Buffalo, Brilliant Colors, Floating Action, Future Islands, and many others. These bands have put out some superb new albums and singles, from well-known indie bands, plus, newly rising, breakout indie bands. Plus, simply by happenstance, this mix could double up as a summertime mix, and for much of the country, the summer of 2011 is making itself very apparent.

“Sleep Forever” – Portugal The Man from In The Mountain In The Cloud – (stream album)

During the past year, Philadelphia duo Sun Airway has generated considerable acclaim as one of the hottest new inductees into the world of hazy, synth-glazed, lo-fi heavy, reverb-draped “chillwave” rock.  In fact, we were so impressed the first time we heard Sun Airway, that last December we designated the duo as one of the top Breakthrough Bands of 2010 based on their superb debut, Nocturne Of Exploded Crystal Chandelier. The duo’s latest new single, “Wild Palms” reaffirms their position as one of the best new duos of the chillwave craze that has permeated the indie rock movement worldwide during the past couple of years.

“Wild Palms” – Sun Airway from Wild Palms 7″

Bonus Track: “Put The Days Away” – Sun Airway from Nocturne Of Exploded Crystal Chandelier – released October 2010

The new lead track, “Summer Solstice,” from California’s Crystal Antlers, fits perfectly as a follow-up track to Sun Airway’s “Wild Palms” 7-inch single. In fact, the more times we spun this mixtape (which we do in attempt to highlight just our favorite tracks from our favorite albums of the week), the more we enjoy this mix. That’s why we encourage you to stream it as many times as you wish – it’s the kind of listening experience that truly gets better with each spin – the true sign of a stellar mixtape.

Anyways, back to Crystal Antlers. This popular indie rock/neo-psychodelia band from Long Beach, California, is like a good mixtape – they just keep getting better with each new experience. Therefore, if you dig the lead track, chances are you will love their new album, Two-Way Mirror which you can grab from iTunes store by clicking the album title link below. This album is a true blitz of psychedelic rock from start to finish, and easily on our list for the top albums of 2011.

“Summer Solstice” – Crystal Antlers from Two-Way Mirror

Young Buffalo is a musical trio from Oxford, Mississippi that entered our airspace earlier this year thanks to a friend who sent us a link to some of their tracks. We were immediately impressed by the band’s tape mixing, attention to melodies and harmonies, and the brilliant infusion of guitar, synths, bass, drums, vocals and sound effects. Young Buffalo is not another ‘chillwave’ band, but instead take their art to another level with infusions of unified vocal harmonies, treble-heavy percussions and clear influences of the Afrobeat indie pop that was popularized in 2007 and 2008; their wonderfully crafted sounds and textures remind us of bands like Local Natives, Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah and, dare we say, even Vampire Weekend (just less, well, cutesy, if you will).

And the three young men – who range in age between 19 and 21 – first broke through early this year with the release of their debut seven-inch single, “Catapilah,” that easily put them on the Bands to Watch list. That debut single, complete with remarkably fast guitar playing and an uplifting noise-pop chorus that makes it nearly impossible to forget, and is clearly one of the best debut singles of 2011. The lead track, “Only We Can Keep You From Harm,” from their debut album, Young Von Prettylips, is refreshing, uptempo and yet somehow calming – and yes, we gotta say it, another great track for a Beach Mixtape; therefore, don’t be surprised if this or other tracks from the band’s accomplished debut shows up in upcoming installments of the Summer Songs Mixtape series, which is similar to already published mixtapes like Songs for Fourth of July, Beach Songs,and the Songs of Summer 2010 mixtape series (still, from what we can see, the best and most extensive collection of mostly indie songs that have some theme related to summertime.

“Only We Can Keep You from Harm” – Young Buffalo from Young Von Prettylips

Bonus Track: “Catapilah” – Young Buffalo from debut 7″ single – Feb. 2011

“How Much Younger” – Brilliant Colors from Again and Again

“Before the Bridge” – Future Islands from Before the Bridge 7″

And to keep the summer-themed, beachy sounding surf pop mixed with garage lo-fi rock hurling towards the sun, the two follow-up tracks from Tomorrow’s Tulips and Floating Action (even their band names sound ‘summery’) fit perfectly in place after Crystal Antlers and Sun Airway. While we have heard Floating Action before – and like their sound and previous work a great deal – this is our first memorable experience listening to Tomorrow’s Tulips.

Furthermore, while we are streaming their new album as we write, we’re liking them more and more, making them easily another Band on the Radar for 2011. Perhaps after listening to Teenage Eternity a half dozen more times, we might come back and say they are in fact a Band to Watch in 2011-12. We don’t throw around that crown unless a band is really standing out from the hundreds of other new bands we, and our regular visitors, become familiar with every month.

“Eye of a Needle” - Floating Action from Desert Etiquette

“Eternally Teenage” – Tomorrow’s Tulips from Eternally Teeneage

“Can’t Keep Johnny Down” – They Might Be Giants from Join Us

Roadside Graves is another band that we liked right from the start when we heard their debut album in 2010. Also, check out a double-shot from the new-to-us band Delicate Cutters, who, just based on these two tracks are most definitely pretty bright blips on our heavily populated ‘indie radar screen’, so to speak.

Love Me More “ – Roadside Graves from We Take Care Of Ourselves

Los Angeles alternative pop band, Of Veronica, sent us two new singles from the band’s latest album, . The band have made a name for themselves in the saturated ‘underground’ alt music scene in Lala Land over the past couple of years, and we suspect their new LP will grow their fan base even more, and perhaps across the country. They’ve been featured on MTV and Hits Magazine as an unsigned band to watch in 2011.

Sole & The Skyrider Band team up with Xiu Xiu for the track, “Napolean,” a song with an identity crisis – is it a dark hip hop track or a sinister electronica track? The fact that the track tries to be both at the same time left us baffled, and we’re already forgetting all about this track, especially when it’s compared to the other terrific tracks in this mix. We can only imagine diehard fans of each band taking out their wallets to buy this trakc, or the LO. However, to be fair, we’ve not heard the rest of the album, and don’t intend to, considering the dozens upon dozens of other 2011 releases we are eagerly attempting to make room in the crazy busy schedule to listen to.

“Napolean” (w/ Xiu Xiu) – Sole & The Skyrider Band (via Brooklyn Vegan) from Hello Cruel World

Warm Beer and Sympathy” – Delicate Cutters from Some Creatures

Double-Shot: “Chisel and Pick” – Delicate Cutters from Some Creatures

“A Meal Can Be Made” – Prurient from Bermuda Drain

Tessellations“ – Richard Youngs from Amplifying Host

“Post Physical” – Pictureplane from Thee Physical

“Psychic Driving” – Soft Metals from Soft Metals

Other New Singles Out This Week

The following are new singles from new releases out this week that, for one reason or another, didn’t rise to the level of the tracks in the top of this mixtape. This is not to say we hate or don’t like the songs – if that were true, they wouldn’t be included at all; however, there just not must-hear tracks in our view.

We wouldn’t be surprised if some of you disagree, and we actually would appreciate if you told us in the Comments section below why you disagree and about which of the artists below. We’re always intrigued what others have to say about a song, band or album.

“Annals Of Animals” – Strong Killings from Strong Killings

Ha Ha” -Serengeti from Family & Friends

“On the Rebound” – Dave Cloud and the Gospel of Power from Practice in the Milky Way

New Bad Teeth - Singer from Mindreading

“Dark Into Light” -  AM & Shawn Lee from Dark Into Light 7″

“Getaways” – Big Talk from Big Talk

“The Sheriff of San Miguel” – The Piney Gir Country Roadshow from Jesus Wept

“I Walk I Talk” – Carlos Forster from Family Trees

Blackbird – Carol Kleyn from Love Has Made Me Stronger (remastered)

“Keep the Horse” – Las Kellies from Kellies

“Outtacontrol” – LDFD from Outtacontrol EP

“Night Gallery III” - Eternal Tapestry & Sun Araw from Night Gallery