In our continuing look back at the Best Songs of 2011, today’s post is all about singles and albums released during the month of May 2011. So far, there has been a huge response to the Best Songs of 2011 playlist and profile mixes.

If you missed any of IRC’s year end playlists, you can go to the end of this post to see the other months’ best songs, both the songs picked by listeners as the top songs for each week of each month, as well as other great songs and videos that did not make the Top 10 lists.

This year we decided to do something different than we’ve ever done before, opting to present IRC’s top songs of the year playlist mixes by the month in which we first posted the song track itself – whether it was a month before, or the month of, the official album release from which the song originated.

The Weekly No. 1 Songs of May 2011

The following are the No. 1 tracks for the month of May based on the long-running Top Ten Songs series. The No. 1 songs are based on tracks that all of you listened to, and downloaded, the most during the month of May. Fleet Foxes‘ new track, “Grown Ocean” easily made the No. 1 spot for the first week of May, followed by The Shivers‘ “Used to Be,” for the second week; Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi, featuring Jack White, for week three with “Two Against One,” and a breakout band of 2011, Foster The People, grabbed the No. 1 spot for the last week of May with an almost iconic 2011 indie hit, “Pumped Up Kicks.”

“Grown Ocean” – Fleet Foxes from Helplessness Blues

“Used to Be” – The Shivers from More

“Two Against One” (featuring Jack White) – Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi from Rome

“Pumped Up Kicks” – Foster the People from Torches

The first week of May was pretty much dominated by the release of indie folk rockers Fleet Foxes‘ sophomore LP, Helplessness Blues, the follow-up to their widely acclaimed 2008 self-titled debut album. Also during the first week of May, we were really stoked to see one of the bands from our 7 Bands You Gotta Hear series, The Golden Dogs, score the No. 2 and No. 3 slots for the week (according to number of listener streams and downloads) in the Top Ten Songs list. The tracks are “Cheap Umbrellas” and “Darkroom.”

“Cheap Umbrellas” – The Golden Dogs from Coat of Arms

“Darkroom” – The Golden Dogs from Coat of Arms

The new-to-us DIY band Rec Centre from Vancouver basically came out of nowhere in 2011 armed with a couple of catchy new songs from their debut EP, Long Weekend. Rec Centre is mostly the work of one-man band songwriter and musician, Eh Jay, who has been writing and playing folk and pop music in his bedroom for years until he decided to switch to programming beats, traded his acoustic for an electric guitar and purchased a vintage Casiotone at a Salvation Army shop.

“I was aiming to make a C-86-sounding indie pop record,” Jay told IRC, “but I think the results probably sound closer to ’90s slacker rock. I’ve been working with a keyboardist and a drummer to turn Rec Centre into a real band, but up until now it’s just been a solo project.” Jay lists his top musical influences as The Velvet Underground, the Jesus and Mary Chain, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, ‘early’ Weezer, Apollo Ghosts, Little Girls, Black Tambourine, The Cure, and Pavement, among others.

“Sleeper” – Rec Centre from Long Weekend EP

Rec Centre’s track, “Sleeper,” ranked No. 4 for the first week of May, and is also one of our favorite Best Rarely Heard Songs of 2011 (playlist mix coming soon). Because the response from the IRC listeners to Rec Centre was strong enough to put him in the Top 5 songs of the week, we’re including this previously unpublished track, “Funner.”

“Funner” – Rec Centre from Long Weekend EP

In addition to Rec Centre, two other unsigned bands that sent us in tracks and were featured in the 7 Bands series – each had both of their song submissions make it into the Top 10 for the first week of May – The Wind and Me and Joan Collins. Listen to those and other tracks for the first week of May after the jump below.

View, listen to and download the entire Top Ten Songs playlist mix for Week One of May 2011.

More Week One of May 2011 Songs from IRC Post Mixtapes

During the first week of May, we also released our annual Songs of Spring mixtape, that included an awesome, uptempo, synth pop cover of The Move’s “Flowers In the Rain” by none other than one of the most popular bands to come out of Leeds, England – the Kaiser Chiefs. The mixtape also includes a bunch of other spectacular tracks, many that we believe most of you have probably never heard before – and all with a spring theme. Listen to carefully chosen songs from Afternoon Naps, Modest Mouse, The Kinks, Pandit, Fireflies, Annuals, The Decemberists, Supertramp, and others.

One of the things we love about putting together special mixtapes like this is that we can choose to feature songs from any genre and any area – much different than our usual concentration on indie and alternative rock songs from the current year. Hear a few more of the tracks from Sounds of Spring, Vol. 1 (listen to, and download, Vol. II) and listen to, and download, the entire mixtape at any time.

“Flowers in the Rain” – Kaiser Chiefs, unreleased cover of The Move

“Worms vs. Birds” - Modest Mouse from Sad Sappy Sucker (2001)

“Argyle Spring” – Afternoon Naps from Sunbeamed (2009)

Among other mixtapes from the first week of May included the very popular post, 7 Bands You Gotta Hear, that features profiles of bands we choose from hundreds of submissions sent by bands around the U.S., Canada and the world, including two bands that made the Top Ten Songs list – The Golden Dogs and Rec Centre (featured above), as well as bands like Smoke & Feathers, Boogie Monster, The Wind, El Santo Nada, M&JC. Check out the 7 Bands mix now.

“Hathor” – The Wind from Harum-Scarum

“Gallinas Y Lagartos – El Santo Nada from Tuco

Also during the first week of May, we published the weekly Best New Releases that featured three terrific singles from Fleet Foxes excellent new album, Helplessness Blues, and a couple of tracks from the Beastie Boys‘ Hot Sauce Committee, Vol. 2. Plus, there were noteworthy singles from new albums by all kinds of artists and bands.  Click the link in the first sentence to stream the entire mix.

“Helplessness Blues” – Fleet Foxes from Helplessness Blues

“Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win” (featuring Santigold) – Beastie Boys from Hot Sauce Committee Pt 2

Week Two of May 2011 – The Shivers, Okkervil River, Other Lives, The Antlers, The Cars

For the second week of May, as demonstrated at the beginning of this post, we were a little bit surprised to see the veteran Austin indie rock band, The Shivers’ newest lead single, beat out new tracks from Okkervil River and The Antlers, among others, to top the charts and take the No. 1 spot. The Shivers’ spectacular single, “Used to Be,” which reminds us somewhat of The Strokes mixed with The Stone Roses.

The song is definitely one of the surprise No. 1 songs of this past spring – and deservedly so; it’s simply a great track, and the album, More, is, well, more of the same. Even though they’ve been active in various incarnations for the past decade, many people heard of The Shivers for the first time thanks to “Used to Be,” which, again, was so popular (in the numbers of streams and downloads) that it surpassed Okkervil River, The Antlers, Manchester Orchestra, Other Lives, Here We Go Magic and other well-known bands. You can read more about The Shivers in our upcoming Breakout Bands of 2011 (don’t miss the Break-Through Bands of 2010 mixtape series).

“Used to Be” – The Shivers from More

As a bonus, we decided to add another track from More to present listeners with a bit more perspective of the band, their style and their impressive latest recording.

“Irrational Love” – The Shivers from More

Following The Shivers’ top spot were fresh tracks from more well-known bands, such as “Wake and Be Fine” (No. 2) from Okkervil River’s I Am Very Far , and “I Don’t Want Love” (No. 3) from The Antlers’ newest album, Burst Apart.

In addition to The Shivers, Okkervil River, and The Antlers, there are standout singles from 2011 releases that came from this one Top 10, including new albums from bands like  Other Lives, Manchester Orchestra, Here We Go Magic, The Sea and Cake, The Cars, Cassettes Won’t Listen and Craig Wedren with Conor Oberst and Janet Weiss. Can you imagine how fast tickets would sell out if that was the line-up for a festival, benefit concert, or other special musical event?

Other Lives’ eponymous debut album was produced and recorded by drummer/engineer Joey Waronker (Walt Mink, Beck, R.E.M.) and released in late 2008. After getting a boost by having songs appear on Grey’s Anatomy, the band released its second album, Tamer Animals, in May of 2011 for TBD Records.

The Stillwater, Oklahoma band Other Lives made a splash in the music world back in late 2008 with their eponymus debut album produced and recorded by drummer/engineer Joey Waronker (Walt Mink, Beck, R.E.M.). The band got a precious boost in their popularity after some of their songs appeared on Grey’s Anatomy. The band also went on tour opening for none other than Bon Iver.

“For 12″ – Other Lives from Tamer Animals

“Wake and Be Fine” – Okkervil River from I Am Very Far

Bonus Track: “Wake and Be Fine” – Okkervil River from I Am Very Far

“I Don’t Want Love” – The Antlers from Burst Apart

Manchester Orchestra snatched the No. 5 spot with the quasi-epic post rock title track from the album, Simple Math; Here We Go Magic delivered the fantastically minimalistic, atmospheric synth pop track, “Hands in the Sky”; The Sea and the Cake, a veteran Chicago indie band we have thought for years has been under-rated, came in at No. 7 with “Up On The North Shore”; The Cars revved it up with one of their best singles in some time; plus, Cassettes Won’t Listen and Craig Wedren with Janet Weiss and Conor Oberst. Listen to all the tracks for this Top 10 list.

“Simple Math” – Manchester Orchestra from Simple Math

“Hands in the Sky” – Here We Go Magic from The January EP

“Up on the North Shore” – The Sea and Cake from The Moonlight Butterfly

Listen to and download all of the Top Ten Songs for the second week of May.

Also during the second week of May, we posted volume 2 of Sounds of Spring mixtape, featuring The Beatles, The Morning Benders, Annuals, Sufjan Stevens and many others – all songs somehow relevant to spring time, renewal, rebirth.

“Springtime” - Annuals

“Something New” - The Airborne Toxic Event

Plus, we had fun with the following story, where Kevin Spacey and the world of indie collided in an unlikely, but fascinating, way:

Kevin Spacey Serves Cassettes Won’t Listen With Cease and Desist Order

– Indie electro band Cassettes Won’t Listen renamed their new album that contained Kevin Spacey’s name in it after a cease and desist letter from Spacey’s lawyers; plus, band offers up two free advanced tracks.

Music Month in Review:

- Best New Releases, April’s Top 20 Songs, Coachella Mix, Record Store Day, Sounds of Spring, Time Travel – In May, we put together an in-depth month-in-review post for April. That led to the idea to do the same type of review for each month of the year, but instead to wait until the end of the year because by that time, people will have forgotten so much great music, but also so that there could be an emphasis on both the top rated songs (as determined by IRC listeners via the weekly Top Ten Songs mix. That’s exactly what this post is, as are all of the installments of the Best Songs of 2011 Vol. One (January); Vol. Two (February); Vol. Three (March); Vol. Four (April), and this post, Vol. Five, IV.

The other post for the second week of May was the weekly Best New Releases, that included new albums from Okkervil River, The Antlers, Wild Beasts, Man Man, and The Sleepy Viking, among others. Already, that post has received over 2,600 Stumble Upon hits. The following are some of our favorite tracks – that did not make the Top 10 – from that week’s new releases.

“Albatross” – Wild Beasts from Smother

“Amylee” - Michael J Epstein Memorial Library from Volume One

“Knuckle Down” - Man Man from Life Fantastic (via SeizureChicken)

“Ballad of a Hungry Mother” – Phil Cook from Hungry Mother Blues

“Parentheses” – The Antlers from Burst Apart

Listen to the full mixtape here.

Plus, there were so many new releases from the second week of May that we had to create a Part Two, something we rarely need to do.  Part Two includes tracks that made the Top Ten for the week, including those by Here We Go Magic, The Shivers and Other Lives, all of which are featured on this page. So, here are a few other great tracks from the post, such as singles from Sloan, Sleepy Rebels, The Sewing Circle and Sam Roberts Band.

“Follow the Leader” – Sloan from The Double Cross

“You Can Make the Sunrise” – Sleepy Rebels from Yellow Tree

“Lead Star” – The Sewing Circle from I Saw Stars

” Longitude (with Elizabeth Powell)” – Sam Roberts Band from Collider

Listen to Part Two best singles from new releases for the second week of May.

Week Three of May 2011: Danger Mouse, Falling Andes, Thee Oh Sees, 13 & God and More

The third week of May saw the new single, “Two Against One,” from Danger Mouse, and featuring Jack White, take the No. 1 spot (see beginning of this post), followed by the up and coming San Francisco outfit Falling Andes‘ newest single, and smash indie hit, “San Francisco.” The band’s debut single definitely puts them on our radar for 2012.

“San Francisco” – Falling Andes single, released 5/17/2011

The established indie band Thee Oh Sees took the number three spot with the track “I Need Seed,” followed by another artist who sent his music directly to us, 13 & God‘s “Old Age”; plus, at No. 5, was Bahamas‘ new single “Already Yours.”  The bottom five singles for the third week of May (May 15 – May 21) were from Chad VanGaalen, Bachelorette, another Bahamas‘ song, plus, a wonderful acoustic track from Zachery Cole, followed by No. 10 single, “Billy Cruz” by Metal Mother.

“I Need Seed” – Thee Oh Sees from Castlemania

“Old Age” – 13 & God from Own Your Ghost

“Already Yours” – Bahamas from Pink Strat

Listen to, and download, all Top Ten Songs for the week of May 15 to May 21.

For the final week of May, breakout band of 2011, Foster The People‘s single “Pumped Up Kicks,” took the No. 1 spot. Following close behind was Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore‘s top 2011 single, “Benediction,” from the album, Demolished Thoughts. Ranking at the No. 3 spot for the week was “Live Those Days for Tonight” off of the Friendly Fires‘ current album, Pala. Coming in at No. 4 and No. 5 were new singles from David Bazan and Art Brut. Listen to, and download, the bottom half of the Top 10, which includes tracks from a bunch of ‘really’ indie bands like Yourself and the Air, The Devil Whale, Fan Modine, Bird Call, and Bird of Youth.

Other Posts and Mixtapes from May 2011

Aside from the Top Ten Songs lists for May, there was plenty of other great music that was published and which we covered in almost two dozen post mixtapes, including the weekly Best New Releases and special mixes like two volumes of Sounds of Spring, Fresh Tracks, Songs for a Rainy Day, and our special coverage of the 10th Annual Sasquatch Music Festival in Washington state.

Sounds of Spring, Vol. I – Featuring Keiser Chiefs, Fredrik, Animal Collection, Jesus and Mary Chain, Modest Mouse, Tuneyards – May 4, 2011

Fresh Tracks – Fuc*ed Up, Here We Go Magic, Tape Deck Mountain, Crystal Antlers, Thurston Moore, YACHT, Ming Ming – May 12, 2011

Songs For A Rainy Day – The Jesus and The Mary Chain, Jonquil, The Apples in Stereo, Atlas Sound, Modest Mouse, Sonic Youth – May 15, 2011

Best New Releases, Part I – Danger Mouse, Bahamas, Chad VanGaalen, Thee Oh Sees, Glasvegas, 13 & God, Metal Mother – May 19, 2011

Best New Releases, Part II – Justice for Unicorns, Falling Andes, The Oxygen Ponies, Pop Smear, Amor de Dias, Almost You, Glorie – May 21, 2011

Best New Releases – Thurston Moore, Foster The People, Art Brut, Friendly Fires, Yourself and the Air, Bird Call, David Bazan, Boris – May 25, 2011

Wilco & The Decemberists Close Out 10th Annual Sasquatch Festival, Plus Surfer Blood, Best Coast, Guided By Voices, Wavves – May 31, 2011

Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes released one of the best albums of the year, Shell Games

All Best Songs of 2011 Mixtapes to Date – Jan. through May 2011

In case you missed any of the previous installments of the Best Songs of 2011, here is each month we’ve completed so far – January through May, including this, Vol. V. Stay tuned for volumes VI – XII. There is so much great music in this series of the Best Songs of 2011 mixtapes that it’s simply not to be missed – don’t forget to Tweet this post, add it to your Facebook Wall and share it with friends. You can also, of course, download all of the tracks to your computer, phone or MP3 player.

Since we don’t always have control over how long some tracks are available to stream and download, you may come across a couple of no gos, but we do our best to check all of the tracks in case a link expired or what have you, and we fix them. If you find a track that is definitely no longer available, please let us know in the Comments box at the end of this page.  Rock on.

January 2011

- Best Songs of 2011, Vol. I – Bright Eyes, Cage The Elephant, The Radio Dept., Cold War Kids, The Decemberists, Delorean

February 2011

- Best Songs of 2011, Vol. II – Yuck, Radiohead, Panda Bear, Real Estate, Datarock, Fleet Foxes, The Go! Team, Generationals

March 2011

- Best Songs of 2011, Vol. III – Beady Eye, The Strokes, The Dodos, Beach Fossils, Papercuts, Starfu*ker, Thom Yorke + Four Tet

April 2011

- Best Songs of 2011, Vol. IV – The Kills, The Raveonettes, Panda Bear, Times New Viking, Scattered Trees, I’m From Barcelona