This page is a continuously updated feed that displays only the best new releases. So, if you’ve missed any of IRC’s weekly Best New Releases MP3 mixes, you’ll always be able to come to this page, and listen to, and download, free and legal MP3s of the best new singles, EPs, and LPs from rising and established bands.

---

Best New Releases – Atlas Sound, Said The Whale, Crystal Stilts, Built Like Alaska, Summer Camp, Kurt Vile, Bear & Moose, ARMS

Last modified on 2011-11-18 06:47:10 GMT. 4 comments. Top.

Deerhunter’s prolific musical genius, Bradford Cox, has been one of our favorite ‘indie’ musicians for years. In addition to his work on his mothership, that is Deerhunter, Cox has lots of other music projects and collaborations, including the most popular of them all – his solo work under the moniker Atlas Sound, a project that has turned out dozens of spectacular singles, EPs and LPs.

This week, Atlas Sound officially released Parallax, an album we are keen to hear right away. What we have heard so far sounds like another fine release from Cox. It is much more stripped down Cox, with a handful of meandering, somber tracks dominated by guitar, vocals and synths. The official lead single from the LP, “Terra Incognita” is a mellow – some might say melancholy – acoustic guitar and vocals dominated composition, and much the same with the more drifty “Te Amo.”

“Terra Incognita” – Atlas Sound from Parallax

Double-shot: “Te Amo” -  Atlas Sound from Parallax (via Rawkblog.net)

One for the Road: “Flagstaff” -  Atlas Sound from Parallax (via Minneapolis Fuc*ing Rocks)

Juno’s New Group of the Year Said The Whale

2011 has been a good year for Vancouver indie folk pop band Said The Whale. In March, the band won the honorary Juno Award for New Group of the Year, and four months later Canada’s CBC premiered a tour documentary about the band’s rise to ‘indie’ fame . Today the band officially released their four-track New Brighton EP, the first offering from the band since their widely-acclaimed 2009 album, Islands Disappear. Here is the title track via the blog Consequence of Sound. Also, listen to a couple of tracks from the March 2012 LP, Little Mountain.

“New Brighton” – Said The Whale from New Brighton EP

Built Like Alaska: Band to Watch in 2012

In kind of keeping with the northern wilderness theme for a bit here, the Oakdale, California band Built Like Alaska‘s new single, “Antique Love,” from their new, and third, album, In Troubled Times, is a perfectly simple folk pop track that really exemplifies not just the musical talent of the band, but also the vocals of lead singer Neil Jackson. We have yet to hear the entire album, but what is clear to us is that 2012 could be the best year yet for Built Like Alaska, just based on the double-shot of “Antique Love” and “John Henry.” BLA are an IRC Band to Watch in 2012.

“Antique Love” – Built Like Alaska from In Troubled Times

“John Henry” – Built Like Alaska from In Troubled Times

Crystal Stilts Drop new EP; Kurt Vile Releases Deluxe of ‘Smoke Ring’ and Summer Camp’s Latest Album

We’ve been fans of Crystal Stilts from the first couple of singles we heard a few years ago, and so we’re always happy when the band releases new material, even if it is only a EP – we’ll take it. Here’s the lead track, “Dark Eyes” from Crystal Stilts Radiant Door EP, out now on Sacred Bones. Plus, a new deluxe edition of Kurt Vile‘s recent Smoke Ring For My Halo is out this week with the lead single, “The Creature,” plus the latest song from Summer Camp‘s new LP, Welcome to Condale.

“Dark Eyes” – Crystal Stilts from Radiant Door EP

“The Creature” – Kurt Vile from Smoke Ring For My Halo (deluxe edition)

“Better Off Without You” – Summer Camp from Welcome to Condale

New Singles from Bear & Moose, A Band of Bees, Shy Mirrors, 13Ghosts, ARMS and Dad Rocks!

Well, here we go with another band name that connotes images of the life in the northwestern U.S. and Canada – Bear & Moose; plus, the title of their new single, “Wear the Wolf,” is just more wild imagery.  Plus, a new single, “I Really Need You,” from A Band of Bees new album reminds us so much of Van Morrison‘s Astral Weeks period – songs that are a cross between R&B, folk and rock, and yet manage to sound so organic and free-spirited at the same time.  Also, new singles from Shy Mirrors, 13Ghosts, ARMS and Dad Rocks!

“Wear the Wolf” – Bear & Moose from Bear & Moose

Double-shot: “I’m Back” – Bear & Moose from Bear & Moose

“I Really Need Love” – A Band of Bees from Every Step’s A Yes

“Breakout” - Shy Mirrors from Sailed Blanks

Double-shot: “Track Changes” – Shy Mirrors from Sailed Blanks

“Dr. Bill” – 13Ghosts from Garland of Bottle Flies

“Fleeced” – ARMS from Summer Skills (self-released)

“Weapons” – Dad Rocks! from Mount Modern

“Sucker Punch” – Jonathan Coulton from Artificial Heart

“Hexagons II (The Flight)” – Esben and the Witch from Hexagons EP

“The Same Thing” – Cass McCombs from Humor Risk

“No Place Like Home” – Owen from Ghost Town

“Movimento Perpetuo” – Carlos Paredes from Movimento Perpetuo

“Stitches”- Polinski from Labyrinths

“Endless Summer” – The Jezabels from Prisoner

“The Vision (Let Me Breathe)” - Joker with Jessie Ware & Freddie Gibbs from The Vision

“Facing the Sun” – Treefight For Sunlight from A Collection of Vibrations For Your Skull

“On Call” – Zambri from Glossolalia EP

“Crazy Clown Time (download) – David Lynch from Crazy Clown Time

In Dee Mail Releases of the Week: Vanasprasta & Adam Hoffman Revival

If you listened to last week’s Best New Releases, then you know we had a lot of releases sent to us directly by artists and bands themselves. In fact, we covered more new releases from DIY bands than any other major ‘indie’ site on the web, highlighting not only the bands that get profiled on nearly every blog and music site, but many artists that get zero, or near zero, coverage by music bloggers and especially not mainstream sites like SPIN, Rolling Stone, Spinner and others.

The first band is Vanasprasta is an unsigned Silver Lake-L.A. experimental rock band released the long awaited debut album, Healthy Geometry, on Nov. 1st to much less fanfare then we think it deserves.  Just for perspective, however, Vanasprasta are not exactly unknown. The band has been featured   blogs such as Consequence of Sound, L.A. Weekly, and Purevolume.

They have shared the stage with artists like Free Energy, Young The Giant, Yuck, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and Linda Perry’s Deep Dark Robot. Vanasprasta have been compared to Mars Volta, Kings of Leon, the Killers and Jeff Buckley. On Healthy Geometry, Vanaprasta have culled all of their influences, ranging from Modest Mouse to Pink Floyd, into a sound that can only be described as their own.

“Nine Equals Nine” – Vanaprasta from Healthy Geometry

Up next is piano-led from Sandwich, Massachusetts band,  Adam Hoffman Revival, who released their new album, You’ll Get There, on Nov. 10th, featuring the lead single, “You & I.” It’s not hard to see why they include Ben Folds and The Beatles among their biggest influences. You can check out more songs and other band information at the band’s Facebook page.

“You & I” – Adam Hoffman Revival from You’ll Get There – Nov. 10th

Album Releases for the Week of Nov. 8, 2011

Atlas Sound – Parallax
Birdy – Birdy (U.K.)
Brian Eno – Panic of Looking
Brooke Fraser – Flags (Deluxe Edition CD/DVD)
Built Like Alaska – In Troubled Times
Caithlin De Marrais – Red Coats
Camille Bloom – Never Out of Time
Cass McCombs – Humor Risk
David Lynch – Crazy Clown Time
Edward Rogers – Porcelain
Fay Wolf – Spiders
Garrett Anderson – Within and Around (11/11)
High Highs – Ivy (11/11)
Hussey-Regan – Curios (Covers) (UK)
Jonathan Coulton – Artificial Heart
Laura Veirs – Tumble Bee/Folk Song For Children
Lissie – Covered Up With Flowers (Covers EP)
Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood – In Case the World (Live)
Meshell Ndegeocello – Weather
Nils Lofgren – Old School
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – S/T (U.S.)
Ólöf Arnalds – Ólöf Sings (Covers EP)
Owen – Ghost Town
Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here (Deluxe)
Rascal Flatts – Live
Rush - Time Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland
Said The Whale – New Brighton EP DC
Sigur Ros – Inni (Live CD/DVD)
Summer Camp – Welcome to Condale
The Bees – Every Step’s A Yes (US)
Thea Gilmore – Don’t Stop Singing (Lyrics: Sandy Denny)
Young Statues – S/T

---

Best New Releases – Rich Aucoin, Jupe Jupe, AM & Shawn Lee, The Beach Boys, Hundred Days, Girl In A Coma, Air Review

Last modified on 2011-11-06 11:29:00 GMT. 5 comments. Top.

Halloween is over (if you missed the Halloween mixes go here) , and the holiday season (is it too early for Christmas mixes?) is revving up. Isn’t it crazy that 2011 is almost over? In addition to the holiday season, this is the time of year when ‘best of’ lists; see IRC’s Best Songs of 2011 series. In fact, right now, volume three will be posted on Monday.

We are really excited by this new-to-us band, Jupe Jupe, and have listened to the following two tracks about eight times apiece. If you’re old enough to remember bands like Depeche Mode and OMD, then you might just feel like you’re going back in time to the alternative goth rock sound of the late 1980′s and early 90′s, right before grunge busted out of Seattle with Nirvana in the forefront. We expect to hear more from Jupe Jupe in 2012; maybe they’ll even be one of our Bands to Watch in 2012.

But first, we have to kick off this week’s Best New Releases with the cool new track by Rich Aucoin, “It,” from the just-dropped album, We’re All Dying to Live. Aucoin is a rising Canadian musician and songwriter who has criss-crossed The Great White North a number of times on tour, including one time by bicycle. Aucoin has performed on stage with artists like Dan Deacon, Girl Talk, Deerhoof, The Weakerthans, The Golden Dogs, Holy Fuck, The Constantines, Dirty Projector’s and others. We don’t think it was an accident, however, that Aucoin’s album cover art is strangely similar to Sufjan Stevens‘ brilliant, and classic ‘indie,’ LP, Illinoise (shown below for comparison). From the font choice to the inclusion of Superman. Hmmmm.

“It” – Rich Aucoin from We’re All Dying To Live

“Once Around the Sun” – Jupe Jupe from Reduction in Drag

Double-shot: “Suspicion” – Jupe Jupe from Reduction in Drag

For More: JupeJupeMusic.com

Also, this week Fallon Cush released their self-titled, debut album, AM & Shawn Lee continue their collaboration with the release of Celestial Eclectic, plus listen to The Beach Boys’ The Smile Sessions via Spinner.

“Disintegrate” – Fallon Cush from Fallon Cush

“Dark into Light” – AM & Shawn Lee from Celestial Eclectic

Stream The Beach Boys’ The SMiLE Sessions via Spinner

If you’re a fan of Jesus and the Mary Chain, and The Beach Boys, you’ll probably want to hear the Mary Chain’s cover of the Boys’ “Surfin USA.” The track is from an site we like a lot called Cover Me Songs, where there are also other J&TMC covers of Pink Floyd, The Temptations and Jerry Reed. While we are featuring Beach Boys’ cover songs, might as well throw in a great new one – My Cousin, The Emperor covering The Beach Boys’ “Girl Don’t Tell Me.”

“Surfin USA” (The Beach Boys) – Jesus and the Mary Chain

“Girl Don’t Tell Me” (The Beach Boys) – My Cousin, The Emperor

Earlier this year, we featured an advance single from the Dallas band Air Review, and the track received a good response. The band’s music is masterfully composed, performed and produced indie folk pop, as clearly demonstrated on the splendid track, “America’s Son.” In fact, it’s one of our favorite Rarely Heard Songs of 2011 (that series will also be coming out soon; browse past posts). We included both tracks the band sent us from their LP, America’s Son, which was officially released on Nov. 1st.

Without hesitation, Air Review are a band to watch in 2012. Having previously opened for bands like Bowling for Soup, Blue October, Boxer Rebellion and One Eskimo, and after making a name for themselves in the Dallas-Forth Worth area, it’s beyond us to explain why they haven’t received a record deal yet. Perhaps they have, and they turned it down, but when we listened to these tracks for the first time, and the whole album afterwards, it simply did not make sense that a label wouldn’t have signed Air Review by now.

Air Review is just another example of what we always say – there are ten times as many fantastically talented and incredibly promising bands, that are DIY and flying under the radar, than there are popular ‘indie’ and alternative rock bands that are drooled over in some mainstream ‘indie’ blogs and music sites. The second single, “Low Wishes” is unmistakably upbeat, uplifting indie pop song, complete with magnificent choruses – the kind of song that you might want to play if you need a quick shot of inspiration. If we were a label, we’d probably sign this band. In 2009, the band released their debut album, Landmarks.

“America’s Son” – Air Review from America’s Son

“Low Wishes” – Air Review from America’s Son

Plus, we would be remiss not to include the latest new tracks from new albums by rising band, Girl in a Coma, and the now globally-known band, Florence and the Machine. Also, don’t miss standout singles from new releases by Low Roar, The Soft Moon, The Loom and Carter Tanton.

Out of only respect, we are including the new single, “The View,” from Lou Reed and Metallica. Now, don’t get us wrong, we are HUGE fans of Lou Reed, (especially his Velvet Underground days a million years ago), and as far as Metallica, well, not so much. But this single is absolutely dreadful; shockingly so. But we still wanted to include it so that everyone can make up their own minds, but “yikes.” As soon as we heard that Lou was making a single with Metallica, we didn’t understand, and now we can see much more clearly just why that announcement made us skeptical.

“Smart” – Girl in a Coma from Exists & All the Rest

“Shake It Out” – Florence + the Machine from Ceremonials on Island Universal

“Tonight, Tonight, Tonight” – Low Roar from Low Roar

“Under Evergreen” – Shelby Earl from Burn the Boats

“Total Decay” – The Soft Moon (courtesy of Pitchfork) from Total Decay EP

“For the Hooves That Gallop, and the Heels That March” – The Loom from Teeth

“Murderous Joy” – Carter Tanton from Freeclouds

“The View” – Lou Reed & Metallica from Lulu

(click the track to hear the Soundcloud cut)

In Dee Mail Releases for the Week of Nov. 1: Sun Sweet Sun, Hundred Days, The Cocks, The Scales

This section of Best New Releases keeps with our tradition of presenting good and interesting music from relatively unknown to completely unknown signed, but mostly DIY, unsigned artists who sent their music directly to us.  Greenville, South Carolina indie space pop/noise-rock band Sun Sweet Sun, lead by James Noyes, and his brother, Julian, is probably our favorite DIY artist with a new album out this week, Goodbye, Strange World. Julian is the band’s composer and lead vocalist, and James assumes guitar and synth.

The first track, “Planet Earth,” is edgier, fuzzier and noisy than the more spacey, reverb-heavy, predominantly vocal-lead sound of “Even Spacemen Need A Little Love” is charming enough on its own. They describe their music as “Lewis Carrol by way of James Dickey…a broad-ranging home-recording project and also a raggedly enthusiastic live band with a bit of Warholian mythologizing.” Aside from the over-stuffing of adjectives, we like their style – definitely can see why they count The Flaming Lips among their biggest influences.

“Planet Earth” – Sun Sweet Sun from Goodbye, Strange World

“Even Spacemen Need a Little Love” – Sun Sweet Sun from Goodbye, Strange World

Sun Sweet Sun on Facebook

The following handful of tracks are from new releases out this week that are more on the metal to punk spectrum of the musical scale, including London DIY hard rockers, Hundred Days’; another UK band, The Cocks‘ “Turns Around The Corner”; a new single from NYC punk band, The Scales, plus a track from a Russian band, Cape Fligely.

“Suicide Joe” - Hundred Days from Mission Exodus

“Burn In Hell” - Hundred Days from Mission Exodus

“Turns Around The Corner” - The Cocks from Tuesday Morning Hangover

“Day to Day” – The Scales from Brain Food

“Private Life” – Cape Fligely from The Key

Again, these are not songs (and especially not albums) that we are expecting to make a big splash, but since the artists went through the trouble of submitting their music, and because each has a new album out this week, we just felt it is worth including them in the mix. We’re especially interested to know which of this week’s In Dee Mail (for artists that send their music in the mail) artists you guys like the most, so please use the Comments section to do your own critique or review; sometimes we even update the post to include listeners’ comments.

---

Best New Releases – Phantogram, Surfer Blood, Woodsman, Wet Illustrated, Deer Tick, Bear Lake, A Classic Education, The Beets

Last modified on 2011-10-26 18:59:49 GMT. 6 comments. Top.

Surfer Blood return with their first release since 2010′s sensational debut LP, Astro Coast, an album that made them a huge hit in the indie circuits for the past two years. One of our favorite songs so far this autumn is “Don’t Move” from Phantogram; it’s simply a fantastic track that you just can’t but help to move to – even though the song title says not to move. When we featured the song in one of the recent Fresh Tracks mixes, people downloaded and streamed it like crazy. It only makes sense to kick-off this edition of Best New Releases with the hot, new single from Phantogram. (We recommend listening first to last week’s BNR mixtape, which we were late in delivering.)

Following Phantogram is a double-shot from Woodsman‘s new album, featuring two songs that are masterfully arranged and executed. “In Circles,” and especially, “Specdrum,” highlight the band’s raw talent for combining elements of rock, pop, post-punk, electronic, and particularly, in the case of the two tracks below, their capabilities in creating pure jam psychedelic tunes, with impressive results.

Don’t Move – Phantogram from Nightlife

“Miranda” – Surfer Blood from Tarot Classics EP

In Circles – Woodsman from Mystic Places EP

Double-shot: “Specdrum” – Woodsman from Mystic Places EP

Gypsy Town – Wet Illustrated from 1x1x1

Deer Tick returns with a bit more rock in their sound as is apparent with the lead track “Main Street,” that reminds us a lot of the sound of Paul Westernberg and The Replacements, whether on purpose or just as some subliminal influence. This is a nice new maturation for Deer Tick.

“Main Street” – Deer Tick from Divine Providence

It seemed only fitting to follow-up Deer Tick with the new single from Bear Lake (another animal-named band) who just self-released their new album, If You Were Me. Italy’s 2010 breakout band A Classic Education return with their sophomore album and the lead track “Forever Boy,” is a sentimental, slow rock track marked by heavily melodic vocals and choruses, Wavves-style guitar licks and percussion, and an obviously better overall produced sound throughout the album then their 2010 U.S. debut.

“Only War” – Bear Lake from If You Were Me (self-released)

Double-shot: “Scissors” – Bear Lake from If You Were Me (self-released)

Forever Boy – A Classic Education from Call It Blazing (stream album)

Just like other great surprises this week, another new-to-us band, The Beets, add more credibility to the garage rock pop sound of bands like The Vaselines with their new track, “Doing As I Do” from The Beets’ new album, Let The Poison Out, on Hardly Art Records. Even better, we were lucky to find another track from the album, “Friends of Friends,” thanks to Pitchfork.

“Doing As I Do” – The Beets from Let the Poison Out

Double-shot: “Friends of Friends” – The Beets from Let the Poison Out

Incorporating electronic beat pop styling with underlying cinematic, even psychedelic, rock infusions, woven with synth sound effects, violin and guitar riffs, and an assortment of wood blocks and cowbells, the eclectic musicians of the Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble really shine on the track, “Pretend,” where they are clearly not pretending at all – the track is as real as it gets, and an incredibly complex arrangement at that.

Next, another new-to-us band, The Through & Through Gospel Review, offer one of the most memorable tracks of the week – the enchanting, almost carnival-like influenced song, “I Firmly Believe” from their self-titled, debut album. As with other bands in this week’s Best New Releases, this is yet another pleasant surprise, and surely a band that we will keep our ears out for. In fact, we received a complimentary copy of the debut LP, and look forward to listening to it more in-depth later on; it’s just another album added with the dozens and dozens of others in our “To Listen To” playlist in iTunes.

“Pretend” – Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble from Mr. Machine

“I Firmly Believe” – The Through & Through Gospel Review from The Through & Through Gospel Review

“An Arcade From The Warm Rain That Falls” – Comet Gain from Howl of the Lonely Crowd

Although we generally do not post about remastered albums, the fact that Dntel‘s remastered (with bonus tracks)  LP, Life Is Full of Possibilities, is out this week, and features Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie, Postal Service) on vocals for the lead track below, definitely makes it a LP to consider repurchasing, and if you’ve never owned it before, that track, and many others, is reason alone to grab a copy.

“(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan” – Dntel from Life Is Full of Possibilities (remastered with bonus tracks)

The problem is, the sound quality of the track itself. It’s ironic that it is a remastered track but is filled with what sounds like static, and we can only hope it is not intentional, because that would make no sense. We’ve been unable to find any information about why this terrific ‘remastered’ track has static on it. We also tried to hunt down the originally released track, but without any luck. If anyone knows why the track has static on it – especially towards the end – we’d love to hear from you.

Next up is another band name that does not fit at all with the band’s sound and style. Another new-to-us band, Gospel Music, present this semi-quirky track, “This Town Doesn’t Have Enough Bars for Both of Us” that has a clear percussive influence from The Violent Femme’s “Blister In The Sun,” whether on purpose or not.

Perhaps the only blues track in this mix, JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound, deliver the upbeat, and oddly optimistic, “Everything Will Be Fine,” with plenty of gusto and some steller musicianship – especially amongst the guitarist, bass player and drummer. The vocals are clearly influenced by B.B. King’s singing style.

“Black Clouds” – The Gang Violets from Black Clouds

“This Town Doesn’t Have Enough Bars for Both of Us” – Gospel Music from How To Get To Heaven From Jacksonville, FL

“Everything Will Be Fine” – JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound from Want More

Other Tracks Worth A Spin

We add this section to some of the Best New Releases mixtape playlists as a way to indicate that we are not necessarily endorsing the following tracks, but at the same time, we’re also trying to indicate that they are worthy of inclusion. For example the band The Migrant mix New Orleans jazz influences with folk, pop and rock to the appropriately thematic track, “The Hurricane.”  Plus, check out other tracks, including Peggy Sue‘s “Cut My Teeth”; and Russian Circles‘ “Mladek”.

“The Hurricane” – The Migrant from Amerika (self-released)

“Cut My Teeth” – Peggy Sue from Acrobats (stream album)

“Mladek” – Russian Circles from Empros

“Me and You” – The Strange Boys from Live Music

---

Best New Releases – Gauntlet Hair, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, The Trophy Fire, Forest Fire, Brown Shoe, Turf War

Last modified on 2011-10-24 17:37:17 GMT. 11 comments. Top.

Perhaps our favorite album of the week is the debut, self-titled release from Colorado duo, Gauntlet Hair. If you’re a fan of Animal Collective, then it’s likely you’ll dig the sounds of Gauntlet Hair, especially the lead tracks below, “Top Bunk” and “Keep Time.” Following right behind GH is the newest single, “Yellow Missing Signs,” from Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin‘s new LP, Tape Club, as well as new material from radar band, The Trophy Wife.

(Note: We’d like to apologize for being so late with last week’s Best New Releases – we had a server outage and some family issues to iron out – but all’s good. Enjoy)

“Top Bunk” – Gauntlet Hair from Gauntlet Hair

Bonus Track:  “Keep Time” – Gauntlet Hair from Gauntlet Hair

“Yellow Missing Signs” – Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin from Tape Club

“Modern Hearts” – The Trophy Fire from Modern Hearts

This week’s Best New Releases features yet another eclectic mix of lesser-known, radar bands and artists, like Mommyheads, Brown Shoe, Richard Swift, and Forest Fire.  There is a clear theme running through all of this month’s new releases so far – that is, a fairly large collection of terrific music from new-to-us bands and artists who have also made an impression on IRC listeners and visitors (also see Best New Releases for Oct. 11th and Oct. 4th).

“Mtns Are Mtns” – Forest Fire from Starting at the X

“Hello Friends” – Mommyheads from Delicate Friction

Double-shot:  “Another Crowded House” – Mommyheads from Delicate Friction

“Colt Rider” – Brown Shoe from The Gift Horse

Double-shot: “Late Nights” – Brown Shoe from The Gift Horse

“Whitman” – Richard Swift from Walt Wolfman EP

The following mix features more singles from last week’s Best New Releases. In the interest of time, we’re going to just throw them up and let you guys decide which are your favorites. Again, sorry about being so late with the latest Best New Releases – a new BNR will be up in a couple of days. Enjoy.

“This Is The End” (Haste Edit) – Springtide from single release only

“Everbody Breaks” – Garrett Pierce from Everybody Breaks

“Brute Neighbors” – Moholy-Nagy from Like Mirage

“Thunder and Lightning” – Brown Bird from Salt to Salt

Double-shot: “Fingers to the Bone” – Brown Bird from Salt to Salt

“Cheers to the Years” – Turf War from Years of Living Dangerously

Double-shot: “Summertime Booze” – Turf War from Years of Living Dangerously

“Reaching Through To The Other Side” – My Brightest Diamond from All Things Will Unwind

“Sophistructure” – Rob Crow from He Thinks He’s People

“Love and Light” – Sandro Perri from Impossible Spaces

Alternative rockers The Supreme Dicks re-released a number of remastered albums this week, among them, The Unexamined Life and Breathing and Not Breathing. The following features two tracks from the former album, and one track from the latter. Admittedly, we haven’t included much about the band over the years, and it’s all the same reasons

“In a Sweet Song” – The Supreme Dicks from The Unexamined Life

“Jack-O-Lantern” (Pavement) – The Supreme Dicks from The Unexamined Life

“Jack Smith” – The Supreme Dicks from Breathing and Not Breathing (remastered 4-CD box set)

---

Best New Releases – Tribute to Buddy Holly, Black Whales, Beirut, Handsome Furs, Pillars & Tongues, The Night Beats, Quiet Lights

Last modified on 2011-07-01 20:29:53 GMT. 10 comments. Top.

Our favorite release of the week is not a new album from an artist or band, but instead a tribute album of cover songs titled, Rave On Buddy Holly.

Among the terrific tracks on the Buddy Holly tribute LP are covers of many of his best songs from a diverse range of artists and bands like Paul McCartney (“It’s So Easy”), Modest Mouse (“That’ll Be The Day”), Lou Reed (“Peggy Sue”), Julian Casablancas (“Rave On”), The Black Keys (“Dearest”), Cee Lo Green (“(You’re So Square) Baby, I Don’t Care”),  She & Him (“Oh Boy”), and many others (see album cover to left).

“Rave On” – Julian Casablancas from Rave On Buddy Holly

Buddy Holly was one of the most influential rock songwriters and performers of all time – a 1950′s cultural icon who died much too young at 22 in a plane crash (as told in the classic song, “American Pie” by Don McLean). But Buddy left the world with a collection of timeless classics that people in every corner of the globe have enjoyed for a half century-plus. If there’s a time capsule somewhere with a playlist of American classic rock, there’s got to be at least one Buddy Holly song on it or it doesn’t representative – plain and simple. You can listen to the stream of the LP via NPR.

“It’s So Easy” – Paul McCartney from Rave On Buddy Holly

NPR music critic Stephen Thompson wrote of the tribute album: “…Rave On Buddy Holly does more than just throw big names against the wall over the course of a generous 19 tracks. It also adds up to an impressively diverse collection of takes on the innocence of another era.”

Seattle band Black Whales tops this week’s Best New Releases, and is officially a Band to Watch, thanks to their totally new DIY release, Shangri-La Indeed.  We liked the band from the first time we heard their Origins EP in 2009, but like them even more thanks to their newest album. One of the band’s strengths is the fine fusion of styles like garage rock, psychedelic rock, and jangly indie pop (with tinges of country and rolk).

The lead single, “Lately,” has the elements of a perfecct summer indie hit – with it’s upbeat tempo, reverb vocals, shimmering guitars, thumping bass and solid drumming. In fact, don’t be surprised to see it pop up on one of this year’s Summer Music Mixtapes.

“Lately” – Black Whales from Shangri-La Indeed

The title track of the album really has that rock show classic sound to it. And if you love Wilco, the track “The Wild One” is very much reminiscent of the Chicago band, but with the BW’s own special touch – not a copy or rip-off at all, just that we wouldn’t be surprised if Wilco isn’t in their record collection. But you may also hear some Arctic Monkeys in the BW’s sound, especially on the 8-minute track, “Serpent in the Water.” (Listen to that track, and the others not included here via BW’s Band Camp page).

“Shrangi-La Indeed” - Black Whales from Shangri-La Indeed

And then there are other awesome tracks like “Rattle Your Bones,” a fantastic blues, psychedelic rocker that has that raw feeling that Top 40 radio will never go for – which makes us like the former even more. Black Whales are talented and have a splendid diversity of styles infused into their sound.

When we first heard the Black Whales in 2010, we knew they’d be a band we’d be interested in hearing more from, and we’re really glad to have heard Shangri-La Indeed. If you like uptempo indie rock, we think BWs might just end up on your bands to listen to (again and again) too.

“Rattle Your Bones” – Black Whales from Shangri-La Indeed

Some other BW reviews you might want to read include a recent post in the blog When You Motor Away

With the anticipation building for the August 30th release of Beirut’s newest album, Rip Tide, there’s plenty of buzz on indie blogs and mainstream music sites worldwide.

We actually have a little bit of a surprise regarding the album that will announce in the next few days, so make sure to check back. In the meantime, however, Beirut do have a new cover song out this week on the second volume of Red Hot + Rio, a compilation of various artists performing Latin music, both traditional and modern.

“O Leãozinho” (Caetano Veloso) – Beirut from Red Hot + Rio 2 via DayDreamStationMusic blog

As has been the case for the last couple of months especially, there are many artists and bands with impressive singles out this week that we dig within the new-to-us realm, and who are definitely at the least worth inclusion in this week’s Best New Releases. We don’t expect everyone to agree, but hopefully you’ll hear a couple songs you like and add a few albums to your summer music listening list because of this mix.

For some of the albums below, we’ve listened to more than one track, usually on an embed song, or via album streams, usually from Spinner, but for the most part, many of them we are just going on the singles. We’ve also included those stream where applicable.

One of the first new-to-us artists that caught our attention was Chucha Santamaria Y Usted, who  dropped their self-titled debut on Tuesday, with the lead track below, “Fiebre Tropical.” We have also taken note of  followed by  DMA‘s industrial/electronica track, “Riding Holiday,” from their new album, in addition to Shabazz Palaces.

“Fiebre Tropical” – Chucha Santamaria Y Usted from Chucha Santamaria Y Usted

“Riding Holiday” – DMA from Drem Reb

“Infinitum” – Shabazz Palaces from Black Up

Also, there were a fair, but lesser, number of artist and bands that we are familiar with that released new albums this week, including Montreal indie pop band Handsome Furs, who released their third album this week since signing to Subpop in 2006. This is the lead single “Repatriated.” The sound is definitely heavy on electronica and new wave synths and dance beats.

“Repatriated”- Handsome Furs from Sound Kapitol

On the other side of that perspective is the indie band King Louie’s Missing Monuments, who definitely have potential, but they could use someone to help them better hone their sound, and add a bit better mixing for their tracks to bring out the instruments more and work on the vocals and choruses. We’d love for a great producer to mentor KLMM, because there is talent  there – it’s the execution that needs the work.

“The Girl of the Nite” – King Louie’s Missing Monuments from Painted White

“We’ll Never Work In This Town Again” – Paul Dempsey from Everything Is True

“Crushing“ – Blithe Field from Two Hearted

“The Making Graceful” - Pillars & Tongues from The Pass and Crossings

“Hermit Crab” – The Island of Misfit Toys from Bear Hair

“Ain’t Dumbo“ – The Night Beats from The Night Beats

“Simple Mechanics” – Quiet Lights from The Big Fear EP

“The Woods” – Small Sur from Tones (self-released)

“Tunguska” – Wax Museums from Eye Times

Other Releases We Don’t Necessarily Endorse

We include this section because some listeners may enjoy these songs more than we do. We don’t think they’re terrible, just not preferred songs, in our opinion (certainly don’t expect everyone to like our ‘tastes’ in music, if you will. LOL)  Anyways, we’ll watch the number of plays and downloads to see which we were wrong about.

“Same Mistakes” – The Echo-Friendly from Same Mistakes

“Like a Coat” – Efren from Rise On Up And Melt

“Quantum Leap” – John Maus from We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves

“Why Did We Have To Part” – Marianne Faithful from Horses and High Heels

“I Forgot the Fall” – The Fruit Tree Foundation from First Edition

“Queen of the Minor Key” – Eilen Jewell from Queen of the Minor Key

Note: For those of you who enjoy our Best New Releases because you could click on album titles and buy them right away from Amazon, we’re sorry to inform you that Amazon has ceased allowing sites in California to sell their music because of a new law in the state that will place a sales tax on Internet sales. After being big Amazon fans for years, this feels like a stab in the back, and the reasoning they gave for this decision falls a bit short of the over-ridding responsibility to allow publishers easy access to sell albums online through Amazon.

June 28

America – Back Pages
BoDeans – Indigo Dreams
Dave Stewart – The Blackbird Diaries
David Cook – This Loud Morning
Eilen Jewell – Queen of the Minor Key
Jill Scott – The Light of the Sun
Jolie Holland – Pint of Blood
Marianne Faithful – Horses and High Heels (U.S.)
Mighty Clouds – Mighty Clouds
Various – Rave On Buddy Holly
Various – Red Hot and Rio 2

---

Best New Releases, Part Two: Butcher The Bar, Centro-Matic, Bobby, Wonderful, Rubblebucket, Grown-Ups, Diva, Priory, Grieves

Last modified on 2011-06-26 12:00:13 GMT. 9 comments. Top.

Because there are so many noteworthy releases out this week, we divided up what would otherwise be one long post into two different playlist mixes that feature lead single MP3s (free and legal to download) from an exciting and diverse range of artists and bands who dropped new albums this week.

Just as we did for Part One of this week’s Best New Releases, we’ve listened to the mix below (Part Two) between three and four times all the way through. Naturally, we placed some of our favorites at the top of the mix, but really, we think all of the tracks below are worthy of inclusion, especially considering that, just like many of you, we’ve never even heard of most of these artists until this week.

Although we don’t have the time or resources right now (there’s just so much material coming from so many talented bands) to research, review and write up about all the promising bands and artists in this mix, we will definitely take note of the artists and songs that get played and downloaded (as well as hearted in Hypem) the most.

Along with Part One, it is likely that some of the songs from this mix will end up on the Top 10 Songs page, and some of the top bands – according to your ‘votes’ – will be featured in subsequent posts, and perhaps even end up on a Bands to Watch feature.

After listing to this mix a number of times in the cafe before deciding on which songs would make the final cut for Part Two (and combined with part one), we can say definitively that this is one of the best weeks of 2011 for terrific new singes from mostly new-to-us artists and bands, including Butcher The Bar (recommended for fans of Sufjan Stevens), Centro-matic,  and Bobby.

“Bobby” – Butcher The Bar from For Each A Future Tethered

“Only in My Double Mind” – Centro-matic (courtesy of Aquarium Drunkard) from Candidate Waltz

“Sore Spores” – Bobby from Bobby

Indie newbies Wonderful deliver bliss pop unabashedly; the White Hills rock out; the Grown-Ups go to “Business School;” Rubblebucket demonstrate great potential their terrific new album. Plus, Cassettes Won’t Listen (who were featured in Part One) got us to listen, by sending another track to share from their album Evinspacey. The album was originally titled Kevinspacey, but the actor sued the band to stop them from using his name. That’s a little bit of interesting music trivia for 2011.

“Rainbow Colors” -  Wonderful from Wake Up To Dreamland

“The Condition of Nothing” – White Hills from H-p1

“Business School” – Grown-Ups from Stopped Caring

“Worker” – Rubblebucket from Omega La La

“The Night Shines” – Cassettes Won’t Listen from Evinspacey (Stream)

Plus, we are also enjoying note-worthy songs from  Diva, Priory, Barn Owl, Chelan, Grieves, Helms Alee, The Mast,  Motorboater, Superhumanoids, Through The Sparks and Barbie Hatch. We are so interested in which songs and bands you guys and gals like the most, so please leave Comments. Your feedback is much appreciated and available to be viewed by 30,000 people a day, not to mention it helps us in deciding what to cover in the future.

“Glow Worm” – Diva from The Glitter End

“Shadowland” – Barn Owl from Shadowland

“Towers” – Chelan from Towers

“Lady of Late” – Priory from Priory

Bonus: “Kings of Troy” – Priory from Priory

“Bloody Poetry” – Grieves from Together/Apart

“Elbow Grease” – Helms Alee from Weatherhead

“Wild Poppies”- The Mast from Wild Poppies

“Chisel and Pick” – Through the Sparks from Almanac (MMX) Year of Beasts

“Lessons” - Motorboater from Sport

“Mikelah” – Superhumanoids from Mikelah single

“Stars” – Barbie Hatch from Hypertrophic Heart

7931

---

Best New Releases – Bon Iver, 1,2,3, Iceage, JEFF the Brotherhood, Paleo, Ty Segall, Viva Voce, Cassettes Won’t Listen, FM Belfast

Last modified on 2011-06-26 22:07:10 GMT. 5 comments. Top.

This is the week of Bon Iver. From the top music sites and blogs, to airplay on various television shows and movie soundtracks, and an appearance on Comedy Central‘s The Colbert Report Monday night, the band have been on a roll for the past four years, and have performed at some of the biggest musical festivals, including Bonnaroo, Sasquatch and many others, including fests in the U.K.

Bon Iver is the moniker of musician, singer and songwriter Justin Vernon. In 2007, he self-releaesd the fantastic debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, and became almost an instant ‘indie sensation.’  Interestingly, Bon Iver’s new album, which officially dropped yesterday, is self-titled. Ordinarily, artists and bands use the self-title treatment for a debut album. Perhaps it’s a statement from Vernon, the artist – a deliberate and clear message to indicate this album is what he considers to be his true debut as an artist and musician. During a brief interview before his performance Monday night on The Colbert Report, Vernon told Stephen Colbert that he secluded himself for three months in a remote cabin in the Wisconsin wilderness to write the songs that ultimately became the tracks for his two albums. Bon Iver’s other members are Michael Noyce, Sean Carey and Matthew McCaughan.

Bon Iver is available for streaming via Spinner for a limited time, and can be purchased from Amazon (#2 on Amazon charts) as a 320kps MP3 download. It’s definitely one of our top albums of 2011, and we won’t be surprised to see it listed in Top 10 albums of 2011 on music sites and blogs later this year. Here is the excellent lead single, “Calgary.”

“Calgary” – Bon Iver from Bon Iver

But, first, we want to introduce you to two bands that is on our list for break-through bands of 2011; they are 1, 2, 3 – a Pittsburgh duo who dropped their debut album this week. The second band is a group of teens from Copenhagen who call themselves Iceage, and they are raising eyebrows in Europe as well as the U.S. They will be featured in an upcoming edition of 5 Break-Out Bands of 2011. Iceage dropped their debut album, New Brigade, this week. And the prospects keep piling up – another band that is new to us in 2011 is JEFF The Brotherhood; if you haven’t heard of this band in our previous posts this year, check them out. They are on fire, especially after packed performances at SXSW in March. Plus, don’t miss the new track from the latest album by Ty Seagull, who recently released an EP of T. Rex cover songs, titled Ty Rex.

“Work” – 1,2,3 from New Heaven

“Riding Coach” – 1,2,3 from New Heaven

“Broken Bone” – Iceage from New Brigade

“White Rune” – Iceage from New Brigade

Here’s the title track via Soundcloud: “New Brigade” – Iceage from New Brigade

“Mellow Out” – JEFF the Brotherhood – from We Are The Champions (Stream)

You Make the Sun Fry – Ty Segall from Goodbye Bread

There are many other great albums out this week that we either have already approved internally, or that we’ve put on our Summer Music Listening List (we’ll be sharing the list soon), including terrific bands like Witches, Cassettes Won’t Listen, Dananananaykroyd, FM Belfast, Yacht, Paleo, Viva Voce, and Gomez. The albums further down in the mix are simply listed because we like the lead single, but, we have not heard them, and will probably not have time to listen to (got to draw the line somewhere:). Also, make sure to check out the In Dee Mail section, which includes new releases that were sent directly to us through the submission form by the artists themselves.

“Creature of Nature” – Witches from Forever

“Perfect Day” – Cassettes Won’t Listen from Evinspacey (Stream)

“Muscle Memory” – Dananananaykroyd from There Is a Way

“New Year” – FM Belfast from Don’t Want To Sleep

“Dystopia” – Yacht from Shangri-La

“In the Movies” – Paleo from Fruit of the Spirit

“Analog Woodland Song” – Viva Voce from The Future Will Destroy You

“Options” – Gomez from Whatever’s On Your Mind

Albums to Stream and links to purchase albums

(don’t miss Part II of this week’s Best New Releases that will be posted in the next couple of days)

- 1,2,3 – New Heaven
- Blood Orange – Sutphin Boulevard EP
- Bobby – Bobby (Stream)
- Bon Iver – Bon Iver (Stream)
- Cassettes Won’t Listen – Evinspacey (Stream)
- Digitalism – I Love You, Dude (Stream)
- Gomez – Whatever’s On Your Mind
- Grieves – Together/Apart
- JEFF The Brotherhood – We Are The Champions (Stream)
- Laurel Halo – Hour Logic EP
- Liam Finn – FOMO
- LMFAO – Sorry For Party Rocking
- OK Go – 180/365 (Live)
- Seun Kuti – From Africa With Fury: Rise
- Skrillex – More Monsters and Sprites
- Ty Segall – Goodbye Bread
- Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Unknown Mortal Orchestra (Stream)
- Viva Voce – The Future Will Destroy You (Stream)
- Weird Al Yankovic – Alpocalypse (Stream)

---

Best New Releases – Vetiver, Woods, 13 & God, Thee Oh Sees, Sebadoh, King Post Kitsch, Joel Plaskett, Sebadoh, The Qualia

Last modified on 2011-06-19 22:14:57 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

As summer approaches, you’ll see a spike in posts and playlists on IRC, not to mention plenty of new releases. This week’s Best New Releases, don’t contain any big 2011 anticipated drops, but there are still some terrific singles and albums from bands like Vetiver, Dark Mean, PlanningtoRock, Woods, and many others.

But, first, we wanted to kick off this edition of Best New Releases by recommending new albums from a few bands that we featured years ago, before they broke out, and who are still satisfying; in fact, they’ve only gotten better. For example, Vetiver, who we are excited about kicking off this mix with a doubleshot of new singles from their sophomore album, plus we are digging Dark Mean‘s new DIY release. The official CD release of Woods‘ new album, Sun & Shade (just in time for summer), is out this week.

Next up, is a band we featured not long ago called PlanningtoRock (but, they’ve gone beyond planning, we should say), followed by a free EP download from Junior Boys, and the standout title track, “The Fox” from Niki and The Dove‘s new album, and loving the dream pop of 13 & God’s “Old Age” very much here in the cafe. Plus, listen to and download new tracks from Thee Oh Sees, chill out with Brice Randall Bickford and get all tranced with Botantical Bullets.

Also of interest are some fresh tracks from albums by bands that are new to us, such as the catchy electro-pop/psychedelic rock track “Walking on Eggshells” by King Post Kitsch from The Party’s Over, and the almost equally awesome new-to-us artist Joel Plaskett presents “When I Go’ from the impossibly long titled album (see name believe). Plus, there are other great singles from new releases in today’s mix that we hope you enjoy.

“Can’t You Tell” – Vetiver from The Errant Charm

Bonus: “Wonder Why”- Vetiver from The Errant Charm

“Happy Banjo” - Dark Mean from Dark Mean (self-released)

“Pushing Onlys” – Woods from Sun and Shade

“Doorway” - Planningtorock from W

“A Truly Happy Ending” - Junior Boys from It’s All True EP

“The Fox” – Niki and the Dove from The Fox

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

“I Need Seed” – Thee Oh Sees from Castlemania

“Songstress” – Brice Randall Bickford from Brice Randall Bickford

“Fantastic Romantic” – Botanical Bullets from We Bleed Fluorescent (self-released)

“Rebound” – Sebadoh from Bakesale (Deluxe Edition)

“Panutup” - Diskjokke from Sagara

“Walking on Eggshells” – King Post Kitsch from The Party’s Over

“When I Go” -  Joel Plaskett from EMERGENCYs, false alarms, shipwrecks, castaways, fragile creatures, special features, demons and demonstrations

“Guess I Lied” – The Qualia from Memorial Gore (self-released)

“The Same Way” – Grace Sings Sludge from Last Year’s Friend

“Dark Allies” – Light Asylum from In Tension EP

June 14 – All Releases with Links to Artists’ Sites

Allie Moss – Late Bloomer
Andy Grammer – Andy Grammer
Blackie and the Rodeo Kings – Kings + Queens
Book of Knots – Garden of Fainting Stars
Emmy the Great – Virtue (U.K.)
Foo Fighters – Back and Forth (DVD)
Jackie Evancho – Dream With Me
Jill Scott – Just Before Dawn/From the Vault I
Junior Boys – It’s All True
Ledisi – Pieces of Me
Madeleine Peyroux – Standin’ on the Rooftop
Marc Broussard – Marc Broussard
Marcus Foster – Nameless Path (U.K.)
Marissa Nadler - Marissa Nadler
Owl City – All Things Bright & Beautiful
Pat Metheny – What’s It All About
Peter Bradley Adams – Between Us
Smoke Fairies – Through Low Light and Trees
Various – Red Hot and Rio 2
Vetiver – The Errant Charm

---

Best New Releases – Black Lips, Arctic Monkeys, Cults, F*cked Up, Dawes, Hooray For Earth, The Postelles, Givers, Battles, Oneida

Last modified on 2011-06-13 11:18:16 GMT. 12 comments. Top.

It’s another strong week for new indie rock releases with fresh albums from the Black Lips, Arctic Monkeys, Cults, F*cked Up, Dawes, Hooray For Earth, Almost Free, Hospital Ships, Givers, and many others. There’s no shortage of great indie releases this week, so we hope the singles will help you decide which albums you want to add to your collection.

We liked the Cults the first time we heard them, but here’s where the proverbial ‘indie question’ comes into play. Now that the Cults have signed to Columbia – one of the major record labels (considered for years as the ‘enemy’ by some musicians and music lovers, and as result, helped spawn the indie, or ‘independent,’ music movement, even though few people agree nowadays exactly what is and isn’t ‘indie’) – some fans are not exactly happy with the band’s decision.

The same question can be applied to so many bands. The Decemberists started out really indie, if you will, and then signed to Capitol.  But some people still consider them to be ‘indie,’ while others have called them ‘sell-outs.’  It is a bit hard to ignore the fact that one of the most popular indie bands of the past decade have signed to a major record label.

That aside, here are the top 25 MP3 singles from new releases out this week. It must be said that we are not really ‘feeling’ the new Arctic Monkeys‘ of recent years – we absolutely love the old guitar-blazing riffs, roaring drum playing, excited bass thumping and overall rawness of AM pre-2009 back. Also, the album cover for The Coathangers‘ new album is definitely likely to turn some heads and get people talking, but we’d rather not showcase it prominently because it is a bit scandalous. If the band or label intended to do so to create some chatter regarding the band, then, kudos to them.

“Modern Art” - Black Lips from Arabia Mountain

“Don’t Bother Me Now“ – Almost Free from In/Out (self-released)

“Trailer Park Boneyard “ – The Coathangers from Larceny & Old Lace

“Abducted” - Cults from Cults

“123 Stop” – The Postelles from The Postelles

“Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair” – Arctic Monkeys from Suck It and See

“The Other Shoe” – F**ked Up from David Comes To Life

“Blacklight Horses” – Matt Bauer from The Jessamine County Book of the Living

“Two Matchsticks” – The Wooden Birds from Two Matchsticks

“Satellite” – Brute Heart from Lonely Hunter

“Activate!” – Atari Teenage Riot from Is This Hyperreal?

“Fragilebird” – City and Colour from Little Hell

“Up Up Up” – Givers from In Light

“Ice Cream” (featuring Matias Aguayo) – Battles from Gloss Drop

“Woods – The Rosebuds from Loud Planes Fly Low

“If I Wanted Someone” – Dawes from Nothing Is Wrong

Hundreds of Sah-Weet MP3s: View, listen to and download from all the latest Best New Releases and Fresh Tracks posts.

“Everything Must Spin” – Ryan Driver from Who’s Breathing?

“No Love” – Hooray For Earth from True Loves

“Love or Death” – Hospital Ships from Lonely Twin

“Prisoner of Love (featuring Antony Hegarty)” – Jessica 6 from See the Light

“There Is No Safe Side But The Side Of Truth” – Jóhann Jóhannson from The Miners’ Hymns

“Clutching Stems” – Ladybug Transistor from Clutching Stems

“Deceptacon” – Le Tigre from Who Took The Bomp? Le Tigre On Tour

“Left Side Rock” – Brian Olive from Two of Everything

“Horizon (edit)” – Oneida from Absolute II

“Dracula’s Casket” – The Poison Control Center from Stranger Ballet

“Grampa Carl” -  The Warped 45s from Matador Sunset

Best New Releases Listing for Week of June 7

Arctic Monkeys – Suck It and See
Battles – Gloss Drop
Bedouin Soundclash – Light the Horizon
Black Lips – Arabia Mountain
Bruce Hornsby – Bride of the Noisemakers/Live
Cults – Cults
City and Colour – Little Hell
Daniel Isaiah – High Twilight
Dawes – Nothing Is Wrong
Diane Schuur – The Gathering
Duncan Sheik – Covers 80
Esmerine – La Lechuza
Frank Turner – England Keep My Bones
Garland Jeffreys – The King of In Between
Givers – In Light
Grayson Capps – The Lost Cause Minstrels
Jill Andrews (The Everbodyfields) – The Mirror
Joe Ely – Satisfied at Last
Lauren Shera – Once I Was A Bird
Mary Bragg – Tattoos and Bruises
Matthew Barber – S/T
Mechanical Bride – Living With Ants (U.K.)
Nick 13 (Tiger Army) – Nick 13
Patrolled By Radar – Be Happy
Paul McCartney – McCartney I, II (Expanded)
Paul Simon – Expanded Catalog Reissues
Peter Murphy (Bauhaus) – Ninth
Ronnie Dunn – Ronnie Dunn
Sam Phillips – Solid State
Sheryl Crow – Miles From Memphis: Live @ The Pantages Theater (DVD)
Sisters 3 – Coruscate at the Meadow Gate
Sondre Lerche – Sondre Lerche
Tedeschi Trucks Band – Revelator
The Farewell Drifters – Echo Boom
The Ladybug Transistor – Clutching Stems
The Rosebuds - Loud Planes Fly Low
The Vines – Future Primitive
The Wooden Birds – Two Matchsticks

---

Best New Releases This Week – The Vaccines, Kids on a Crime Spree, Mando Diao, Robert Pollard, Seapony, Miwa Gemini, Son Lux

Last modified on 2011-06-09 04:59:33 GMT. 18 comments. Top.

Between returning from the trek up to Sasquatch in central Washington, and catching up with everything since then, we are a ‘lil late with this week’s Best New Releases. Apologies on that. That said, of all the week’s new releases, The Vaccines‘ What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? is definitely our top album pick, and one of our favorite LPs of 2011, so far. We’ve already spun the whole disc about five or six times. The Vaccines are one of the biggest breakout bands of 2011, and their debut album, out now, proves over and over again why that is so true.

And, there are some really excellent singles this week from new releases by Kids on a Crime Spree, Mando Diao, Robert Pollard, Seapony, and others. Plus, don’t miss new releases this week from artists and bands you’ve probably never heard of before. Each of the artists featured in the In Dee Mail section sent their music to us directly via our submission form. We think you might be surprised at how good some of the music that you probably haven’t heard before really is. :)

“If You Wanna” – The Vaccines from What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?

“Norgaard” – The Vaccines from What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?

“Sweet Tooth” – Kids On a Crime Spree from We Love You So Bad

“Dance with Somebody” – Mando Diao from Give Me Fire!

“In A Circle” – Robert Pollard from Lord of the Birdcage

“Dreaming” – Seapony from Go With Me

Double-shot: “Blue Star” – Seapony from Go With Me

“Goodnight Trail” – Miwa Gemini from Fantastic Lies of Grizzly Rose

“Circuital” – My Morning Jacket from Circuital

“Pirata” – Ocote Soul Sounds from Taurus

“Rising” – Son Lux from We Are Rising

In Dee Mail Releases

When applicable, we include new releases from relatively unknown artists and bands that we like who specifically sent us their music via the submission form on the About page. It will be interesting to see how listeners react to the songs below. We’ll be looking at the number of downloads to gauge which of these bands people seem interested in, and please definitely leave some comments. The artists below, including Nashville’s I Believe In Hotpants, San Francisco band Charlottesville, Swiss band Costa, Inc., that get the largest overall response will be featured in upcoming posts of In Dee Mail.

The first thing we thing we thought of was Arctic Monkeys when we heard the following two tracks from Manchester rock band The Stand. Could be a band to watch?

“Waiting for a Sign” – The Stand from The Green Room
Double-shot: “Inside Your Mind” – The Stand from The Green Room

“Is That You, Fr. Payeras?” – I Believe in Hotpants from The Teenage Pregnancy Party

“An Outclassed Song Title” - I Believe in Hotpants from The Teenage Pregnancy Party

“A Hundred” – Charlottesville from The Heron That Taught Us

“In Recollection” -  Charlottesville from The Heron That Taught Us

“Spring” - Costa, Inc. from Our Little Parallel World

---

Best New Releases – Fleet Foxes, Beastie Boys, Vandervelde, Les Blanks, Jason Forrest, Dave Depper, Freelance Whales

Last modified on 2011-05-05 16:29:53 GMT. 6 comments. Top.

The long-awaited Fleet Foxes‘ follow-up LP to their widely acclaimed 2008 self-titled debut officially drops today, although there have been plenty of leaks of the album online over the past month or so. Either way, Helplessness Blues, is one of May’s most anticipated releases. It will be interesting in the coming weeks to see what the consensus is among critics, bloggers and fans.

“The Plains/Bitter Dancer” – Fleet Foxes from Helplessness Blues

“Grown Ocean” – Fleet Foxes from Helplessness Blues

“Helplessness Blues” – Fleet Foxes from Helplessness Blues

* Thanks to DailyBeatz for “The Plains/Bitter Dancer”

It seemed like a lot of critics, even some bloggers, pretty much wrote off Beastie Boys some years ago. But the die-hard fans didn’t, they just learned how to eventually embrace, and celebrate, a band that was maturing and changing. They’re definitely not the break-through white boy rappers now they once were, but it’s fair to say, at least from our perspective, that their long anticipated new album, Hot Sauce Committee, Part 2, is a welcomed treat.

While it is still too early to know how we feel about the album overall (need more spins because there’s so much happening), there are definitely a good number of stand-out tracks that we liked right away – the most impressive among them being “Make Some Noise,” the album’s opening track, which would have likely been a hit record for the band some 20 to 25 years ago. The only criticism is that we think the cowbell, especially towards the end, is out of place. “Make Some Noise” was first released as a special limited edition 7-inch vinyl last month on Record Store Day.  You can stream Hot Sauce II now via Spinner, for at least a few more days, or click on the album title below to buy it now.

“Make Some Noise” – The Beastie Boys from Hot Sauce Committee Pt 2

*Track via Antiquiet.com

The track that is perhaps more likely to be a hit nowadays is the reggae dub groove, “Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win,” featuring Santigold; as MixtapeMaestro.net put it, the song boasts “…an enslaving light island-ska gallop, some mighty fine Santigold B-girl toasts, and the Boys offering their old-school-laced wordplay wizardry usual under a muffled gauze. ” Although there are varying opinions, Hot Sauce Committee, Part 2, is probably the Beastie Boys best album since 1998′s Hello Nasty.

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

We are also really digging the new double single from David Vandervelde, an artist that we’ve definitely heard of before, and recall making a mental note to add him to the eventually-to-listen-to list, which if you’re a real music fanatic is a perpetually growing list. (See end of this post for more on the dilemma of a music fanatic.) Therefore, these two new songs, one brand new this week, and the second from his 2008 LP, Waiting For Sunrise. On the Secretly Canadian website, and the new album cover, it looks like he’s dropping his first name from his official artist name to instead go by Vandervelde.

“More Than You Can Feel” – Vandervelde from More Than You Can Feel

“Someone Like You” – David Vandevelde from Waiting for Sunrise (2008)

This first week of May (that has come so fast) also brings us new releases from Architecture in Helsinki, Les Blanks, Det Vackra Livet, Dave Depper, The Jolly Boys, Dead Rider, and artist Jason Forrest who’s magnificent instrumental track, “Raunchy,” has a trademark 1960′s surf rock feel to it, a track that could be cool on the soundtrack of Pulp Fiction 2 (which is unlikely to be made at this point).

“Contact High” – Architecture in Helsinki from Moment Bends

“Straw Man” – Les Blanks from In Country

“Viljan” – Det Vackra Livet from Det Vackra Livet

“Raunchy” – Jason Forrest from The Everything

“Dear Boy” (Paul McCartney) – Dave Depper from The Ram Project

Double-shot: “Oh Woman, Oh Why” (Paul McCartney) – Dave Depper from The Ram Project

“Emmanuel Road” – The Jolly Boys from Great Expectation

“Stop Motion” – Dead Rider from The Raw Dents

“Lament” – Mount Moriah from Mount Moriah EP

The Franz Ferdinand Covers EP officially dropped this week, featuring some amazing covers from Stephin Merrit (Magnetic Fields), LCD Soundsystem, Peaches and the track, “Live Alone,” featuring FF with Blondie’s Debbie Harry. You can get the EP on vinyl via Amazon.

 

Franz Ferdinand – Covers EP by DominoRecordCo

Freelance Whales Release New EP for Japanese Disaster Relief Initiative

Freelance Whales recently reached out to Sweet Relief Musicians Fund to offer support in their ongoing fundraising campaign for the Japan Disaster Relief initiative. Their collaborative efforts resulted in a new Freelance Whales’ Benefit For Japan EP. 100% of the funds raised from the EP will be donated to the Japan Society Earthquake Relief Fund. The Benefit For Japan EP will be available for purchase starting Tuesday May 3rd, on the official Freelance Whales’ website.

Listen to Ra Ra Riot‘s remix of Freelance Whales’ single, “Hannah.”

Benefit for Japan EP Tracklisting
“Hannah” – (Peter Wade of MNDR Remix)
“Hannah” – (Ra Ra Riot Remix)
Killer Whales – (Darby Cicci of the Antlers Remix)
“Generator^First Floor” – (Aislyn Remix)
“Hannah” – (Lightwaves Remix)
“Ghosting” (Daytrotter session)
“Location” (Daytrotter session)
“Broken Horse” (Daytrotter session)
100% of the net proceeds go to Japan aid through Sweet Relief

Sounds Under Radio Continue to Roll; Release New LP

Sounds Under Radio, we think, could turn out to be a Band to Watch in 2011; they sure have a sound that reaches out to the masses, and we wouldn’t be surprised if you start to hear much more about them in the months to follow. Recently, Entertainment Weekly declared: “I don’t know who these Sounds Under Radio folk are trying to fool, but that is a big-time rock ‘n’ roll band masquerading as some unsigned indie-emo whatsits.” Since 2007, the band’s music has been featured in film and TV, including Spider Man 3, The Wolfman, and CW’s  The Vampire Diaries.

While the band’s style is definitely not indie rock, but more alternative/emo rock, we still think they’re worth mentioning in this week’s Best New Releases based on the few songs we’ve heard from their new album, Where My Communist Heart Meets My Capitalist Mind.

“Sing” – Sounds Under Radio from Where My Communist Heart Meet My Capitalist Mind

A tribute album was released with cover songs of the Sex Pistols, The Damned and The Clash from bands that most people haven’t heard of. The album’s lead single is nothing special, but we’re including it anyways.

“Melody Lee” (The Damned) - Leatherface from No Future: A Tribute To The Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Damned

 

The Dilemma of a Music Fanatic

(continued from top of post)

At some point you get to a place where you wish you could just clone yourself three times, and then maybe, maybe, you’d be able to keep up with all the terrific music coming out all of the time – and that’s just speaking to the music that is basically “known.” But then there are always the albums and bands that you’ve never heard of before that end up – through one means or another – on your list because you heard a song or two. It’s the opposite of a drug addict who’s always running out of dope. The music addict has more “dope” than he or she can ever consume. Geez, hope that didn’t sound too cheesy. (It did? Well, please accept our apology).

And also unlike the dope head, we love music because we love to share it with people. That’s why our posts are usually long and loaded with music, and then there are all the songs we hear that we only post to Twitter and Facebook in order to get them out faster. So, we hope to keep in order to share it with othersand now are imprinted in memory as “newmust have more. music; we come across the “unknown” great music all the time and do our level best to get it out somehow – via a post, one of our mega MP3 playlist mixes, Twitter or Facebook, for as many people to hear as possible.

And then of course if you add in all the music you love from your music collection dating back years, maybe particular bands or albums that you haven’t heard in ages, it’s overwhelming. But there’s just something special and refreshing about hearing good new music from bands and artists you’ve never heard of before.

---

Best New Releases – Times New Viking, Painted Palms, Of Montreal, Golden Dogs, The Globes, Girls Names, Ezra Koenig

Last modified on 2011-04-29 11:55:00 GMT. 4 comments. Top.

Today’s mix is a really interesting and impressive assortment of fantastic singles from new releases out this week that we’ve put together as part of the weekly Best New Releases mix tape series. There’s such a wonderful variety of known, but mainly relatively obscure, bands and artists with new releases this week. We think you might just see what we mean by first streaming this entire playlist mix uninterrupted (by clicking on the first song and letting the auto Y! Player run).

Among our favorite releases this week are new EPs and LPs from bands like Times New Viking, Painted Palms, Of Montreal, David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights, Matt Pond PA, Julian Lynch, Should, An Horse, Antony and the Johnsons, and many others listed throughout this post. We’re especially interested by the rising status of the relatively new electro-pop/chillwave/Panda Bear-sounding band Painted Palms. They are definitely one of our Bands to Watch in 2011. There are a few other bands in today’s mix that are at the very least blips on our music radar screens, including bands like Should.

“Ever Falling In Love” – Times New Viking from Dancer Equired

“Black Lion Massacre” – Of Montreal from thecontrollersphere

“Sex Karma” – Of Montreal from thecontrollersphere

“All of Us” – Painted Palms from Canopy EP

Double-shot (via IGuessImFloating) -“Canopy” – Painted Trees from Canopy EP

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

* Check back tomorrow – we will be featuring The Golden Dogs as one of our ten favorite new, or new-to-us,  relatively unknown artists and bands for the In Dee Mail series. This series is specific to highlighting usually obscure artists and bands who send us music and other details using our submission form. We really like this band, and we think you’ll also like the other nine artists as well, including Rec Centre, Smoke and Feathers, Me and Joan Collins, and others.

“Diamond Mine” – David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights from Left By Soft

“Love To Get Used” – Matt Pond PA from Spring Fools EP

“Trains and Tracks” – An Horse from Walls

“Terra” – Julian Lynch from Terra

Note: Album title links are clickable to make it easy to purchase an album and get the MP3s, plus free storage on the Amazon cloud. We use Amazon because they have the best prices, are easiest to use, and have many extra services like the cloud.

Also this week are plenty of notable debut releases, including the long awaited debut album from Seattle indie rockers The Globes, and check out the new single (via Altered Zones) from Belfast lo-fi, shoegaze rock trio Girls Names, who dropped their debut album this week. And the interesting music duo, Thao & Mirah, featuring Thao Nguyen of the Get Down Stay Down and pop artist Mirah, have an album out this week as well.

“Stay Awake” – The Globes from Future Songs

“Seance On A Wet Afternoon” – Girls Names from Dead to Me

“How Dare You” – Thao & Mirah from Thao & Mirah

The more you dig into this week’s new releases, the more you find plenty of notable releases from new and DIY bands this week. Dag for Dag are getting buzz from their hot single from the new album, BOO, followed by Jookabox, Jason Forrest, Police Teeth, The Bynars, and Explosions in the Sky. Another great block of rock.

“I Am the Assassin” – Dag för Dag from BOO

“Drops” – Jookabox from The Eyes Of The Fly

“Raunchy”- Jason Forrest from The Everything

“Who Wants to F*ck a Millionaire” – Police Teeth from Awesomer Than The Devil

“How Does It Feel to Be in Love” – The Bynars from Today is Your Day

“Postcard From 1952″ (Live, Pittsburgh 4/8/11) – Explosions in the Sky from Take Care

Get Other EITS fresh tracks:
“Trembling Hands” – Explosions In The Sky
“Let Me Back In” – Explosions In The Sky

The Fresh & Onlys, Fu*ked Up, Ezra Koenig, M.T. Bearington

Here are new singles from The Fresh & Onlys’ latest EP, Fu*ked Up‘s new album, David Comes to Life, plus a Paul Simon cover song from Vampire Weekend‘s lead vocalist and guitarist Ezra Koenig, a great track, “Dark Night,” from an artist that is new-to-us, M.T. Bearington.

“Do You Believe in Destiny” – The Fresh & Onlys from Secret Walls EP

“Papa Hobo” (Paul Simon Cover) – Erza Koenig from the Ceremony soundtrack – see film trailer.

“Dark Night” - M.T. Bearington from Love Buttons

Kingston and Young God Pair Up; Great Singers and Songwriters; New LP from Poly Styrene (RIP) Day After She Passes Away

Producers Kingston and Young God, aka, Blue Sky Black Death, return with a new album of hip hop and instrumental music. Plus, check out the double-header of new singles from terrific folk singer songwriters Cass McCombs and Chris Bathgate, and Seattle indie duo Thousands. The former X-Ray Spex lead singer, Poly Styrene, sadly passed away from cancer on Monday, the day before her solo, self-titled debut album was released.

“And Stars Ringed” – Blue Sky Black Death from Noir

“County Line” – Cass McCombs from Wit’s End

Double-shot: “Dreams Come True Girl” – Cass McCombs from Catacombs (2009)

“No Silver” – Chris Bathgate from Salt Year

* Songs from via Potholes in my Blog, ThanksCaptainObvious, PrettyGoesWithPretty

The Donkeys’ Release Debut LP with Sweet Lead Single; Baltimore Band Should and Others

Ya know, it takes some donkey-sized balls to decide on naming your band The Donkeys. Others would say it has nothing to do with bravery. Seriously, such a name is an open invitation to endless ridicule and jokes, not exactly easy for publicists and marketers to plug the band, but some others would say it’s good just for that reason. Well, alright. But, at the end of the day, most people could give a sh)t what a band’s name is – if they’re good, genuine and have something important to contribute – that’s really all that is important, especially to their most loyal fans. Based just on this single from their new album (and the Soundcloud link too), all we can say is that we are interested to hear more from this band.

“Don’t Know Who We Are” is a chill, lofty track with a neat little rhythm and melody to it that begs for subsequent spins. Sounds like some influences here are Modest Mouse, Sonic Youth and a bit of Pavement. We really dig this track, and can’t wait to listen to the rest of it. Don’t be surprised to hear more about The Donkeys in the future, because we think they’re going to prove to be more than just typical jackasses.

“Don’t Know Who We Are” – The Donkeys from Born With Stripes (exclusive version)

Stream Born With Stripes (we’re spinning it next) via Spinner.

The Baltimore indie band Should dropped their first album in 13 years this week, titled Like A Fire Without Sound. As a gesture to fans, and those who’ve never heard of them before, the band has offered two spectacular free tracks for download via their Band Camp page.  The first song, “Turned Tables,” left us a bit awe-struck with its melodic, dreamy pop and gorgeous vocals.   mellow second track, “Glasshouses,” is not as engaging, but still a great song dripping with melody and romanticism. Keep an ear out for this band

“Turned Tables” – Should from Like A Fire Without Sound

---

Best New Releases from The Head and The Heart, Tuneyards, I’m From Barcelona, High Llamas, Heavenly States, O’Death, Bombino

Last modified on 2011-04-21 10:41:08 GMT. 1 comment. Top.

Unlike many week’s this year, this would have to be one of the most insignificant in comparison as far as new music releases.  There are simply no “big” releases this week as we’ve seen for other weeks over the past few months – like Radiohead, The Strokes, Panda Bear, Foo Fighters, The Decemberists, Bright Eyes, R.E.M., and so many others, which you can view and listen to from the Best New Releases page.

That said, there still are some definitely note-worthy releases, including The Head and The Heart, I’m From Barcelona, The High Llamas, Tuneyards, Head and American Babies. There are also releases we’re liking from bands that are new-to-us, including Heavenly States, O’Death, The Unthanks, American Babies, and more.

Tuneyards gets things really moving with the uplifting African music inspired track, “Bizness,” that takes you to another place. The relatively new band, Futurebirds, definitely got our attention with the excellent single, “Dirty D” from their debut, self-titled EP.  Plus, a marginally known indie band, I’m From Barcelona, that we’ve liked for years, has a new album, as does the electro swirly-pop band The High Llmas. And Dengue Fever has the silly titled “Cement Slippers” from their new LP, which you can stream here.

20 Gigs of Free Space on Amazon Cloud:  Click the album titles for any release you want to buy from Amazon, and you’ll get 20 free gigs of space on the new Amazon Cloud, meaning you’ll be able to access up to 20 gigs of your music from anywhere and with any device that can connect to the web.

“Bizness” – Tuneyards from Whokill

“Dirty D” – Futurebirds from Futurebirds EP

“Get In Line” – I’m From Barcelona from Forever Today

“Fly Baby, Fly” – The High Llamas from Talahomi Way

“Cement Slippers” – Dengue Fever from Cannibal Courtship

Although Record Store Day (last Saturday) is over, there’s still plenty of buzz that came from it, and in some cases, there were releases that were dropped – but in limited edition vinyl, for the most part – three day earlier than standard Tuesday release date that traditionally most new albums are issued on.

One of those was from the sort of new Seattle band, The Head and The Heart, who released their self-titled debut album this week. We’ve only heard a few songs from the band so far, including the tracks below.

“Lost in My Mind” – The Head and the Heart from The Head and the Heart

“Chasing A Ghost” (Chapel Session) – The Head and the Heart from  The Head and the Heart

Also get “Lost In The Valley” from the band’s website for free.

On first listen, we kind of like their sound kind of, but it’s one of those things where we’re not sure yet. It could turn out to be a good album, or one that we forget about, especially compared to all of the other releases that have come out, and those still yet to drop. Pitchfork panned The Head and The Heart’s debut, slapping it with a 3.5 (out of 10) rating.

It’s not usual that a band on the Sub Pop roster is creamed by PF, but there it is. Then again, we really think it’s up to everyone to make their own decision. We’ll know by the number of times the songs are played and downloaded what songs IRC readers like the most, as is evident on the Top Ten Songs page.

Also, on Record Store Day, French Horn Rebellion, which The New York Times recently called “the next big thing”,  streamed their debut album on MySpace, although it was officially available this week. There is a free sampler of the album available on their MySpace page for your email, and currently on sale via Amazon for only $7.99, which also gives you free access to all of your music on the Amazon Cloud, with a total of 20 gigs of space.

“This Moment” – The French Horn Rebellion from The Infinite Music of The French Horn Rebellion

This week’s other interesting new releases come from talented artists and bands that we – and imagine many of you – never heard of before and some of which we can say are now, at the least, on our radars, including talented indie bands Heavenly States and The Unthanks, the alternative folk and country rock influences of bands like O’Death and American Babies, and the post rock sounds of Rain Over St. Ambrose. Of course, we’re always interested to see what you guys think. Plus, don’t miss Quiet Parade and Bombino.

“Model Son” – Heavenly States from Oui Camera Oui

“Queen of Hearts” – The Unthanks from Last

“Bugs” – O’Death from Outside

“Dance All Night” – American Babies from Flawed Logic - (listen to album stream)

“DG Gold Paint” – Rose Over St. Ambrose from Rain Over St. Ambrose EP

“I Never Have Wanted Love Like That” – Quiet Parade from Please Come Home (We Hate It Here Without You)

“Tar Hani (My Love)” – Bombino from Agadez

---

Best New Releases – Panda Bear, Foo Fighters, Crystal Stilts, Holy Ghost, Mazes, Beat Connection, Meat Puppets, Elbow

Last modified on 2011-04-15 10:22:30 GMT. 11 comments. Top.

This week marks one of the most significant week’s for Best New Releases so far this year. In addition to the regular Tuesday drops that we sift through each week of the year (so you don’t have to) to bring our readers what we think are the cream of the crop, there is an added benefit this week, and one which can overshadow, in different ways, the regular releases for this week

Saturday will mark the fourth annual Record Store Day, which is recognized around the world at hundreds of participating record stores. Yesterday, we put together a gigantic and comprehensive feature – IRC’s Record Store Day 2011 Music Guide to recommended releases – highlighting a dozen limited edition vinyls we hope to get our hands on Saturday. By the time it’s all completed, we will have recommended our top 50 RSD Vinyls, as well as provided information about many other releases.

In the meantime, there are plenty of worthy brand new regular full releases out this week that you don’t want to miss out on, including albums and EPs from Panda Bear, Crystal Stilts, Holy Ghost!, Mazes, Skull Tape, Agnes Obel, Hammer No More The Fingers, Elbow and many others.

Following a couple of changes to the release date of his long-anticipated follow-up to the 2007 classic Person Pitch, Animal Collective member, Panda Bear (aka, Noah Lennox), officially released Tomboy today via Paw Tracks. This is Panda Bear’s third solo album. In 2004, he released Young Prayer.

Of the three or four advanced singles released over the past six to eight months, we’ve liked them all, but the one that stands out the most is “Last Night At The Jetty. ” While listening to this track, we can imagine gently sailing over the beautiful California coastline on a gorgeous summer day. When an artist is able to invoke time, place, emotion and imagery through his music, then he/she is close to – if not already – a genius.

“Last Night At The Jetty” – Panda Bear from Tomboy

So far, in our opinion, Tomboy is pure ‘chillwave’ perfection in classic Panda Bear style, with layers of dreamy, soaring synthesizers and vocal harmonies, creating ‘that sound’ which has just about laid the foundation for the so-called lo-fi chillwave or haze pop sub-genres (although there are various names for this style of music) . In addition to his stellar work with one of the first big indie electro pop groups of the new millennium, Animal Collective, and his widely acclaimed solo work, Lennox is simply one of the most talented, prolific and influential musicians of modern times. And he brings it once again with Tomboy. Whether it is as good, or better, than his classic 2007 debut, Person Pitch, will take more time to parse.

Flashback Track: “Comfy in Nautica” - Panda Bear from Person Pitch (2007)

For comparison, and for recent Panda Bear converts not familiar with his earlier solo work, we’ve also included one of the best singles from Person Pitch (one of the best solo LPs of the 2000s) and Young Prayer. The latter was Lennox’s 2004 debut that has the unusual distinction of all every track being titled “Untitled.”  Learn more about the album via Jason Nickey‘s All Music Guide review of Younger Prayer.

“Untitled: Track One” – Panda Bear from Young Prayer (2004)

Although we are not as much interested in remixes as we used to be (except for the occasional Feetz to Da Beatz mixtapes, which were even highlighted on NPR), mostly because, in our opinion, the whole remix craze has gotten way out-of-hand.

We have enough of a challenge just keeping up with all of the original new music coming out all of the time to stay up on the oodles of remixes that come out every month. But, every once in a while, a remix surfaces that we have to post. Such is the case with the electro band Actress‘s remix of Panda Bear’s new track, “Surfer’s Hymn” that dropped via Compakt Records in March.

“Surfer’s Hymn” – Panda Bear from Surfer’s Hymn single

“Surfer’s Hymn (Actress Remix)” – Panda Bear

Crystal Stilts Drop Anticipated, and Terrific, Sophomore LP

As so other CS fans, we hitched our wagon onto the Crystal Stilts train back in 2008 with the release (finally) of their debut album, Alight of Night. And since then, as they catapulted to indie – and beyond – star status, embarked on successful tours, and began working on new material for their follow-up to Alight of Night. This new single from In Love With Oblivion, “Through The Floor” is easily one of the best singles of the first half of 2011.

“Through The Floor” - Crystal Stilts from In Love With Oblivion

Digging Foo, Caught Up in Mazes, Feeling The Beat Connection, Meat Lollipops, Growing Ponytail

Not surprising, on of the most anticipated new albums out this week is the Foo Fighters‘ LP, Wasting Light, and what we can say from listening to the free Spinner stream is that it could be the Foo Fighters’ best album to date. Since they formed out of the ashes of the demise of Nirvana following the death of Kurt Cobain in 1994, Foo Fighters, lead by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, have slowly cut out their own well-sized piece of the rock cherry pie in the past 15 years (yes, it’s been that long), starting with the hit release of their four-start, self-titled debut album in 1995.

In fact, writing for the fabulous music guide, AllMusic.com, rock critic Stephen Thomas Erlewinek, remembers Grohl’s demo tapes in 1994 and 1995 were receiving quite of bit praise from influential musician, composer and producer Greg Dulli (who played guitar on Foo Fighters debut). In recalling Dulli’s praise, and the general feeling at the time, Erlewinek wrote: “…few suspected that these homemade tapes would launch one of the biggest modern rock bands of the post-grunge era. As it turns out, that’s exactly what Grohl’s Foo Fighters became, perhaps the one band of the alt-rock revolution to enjoy continual success on the charts and on the road without a dip in popularity.”

“Back and Forth” – Foo Fighters from Wasting Light

All these years later, Erlewinek is hailing Wasting Light as “their best collection of songs since [1997's] The Colour and the Shape, the kind of record they’ve always seemed on the verge of delivering but never have.” And it’s not just the critics, the band’s fans – the true fighters of foo – apparently agree. In fact, Wasting Light is the No. 1 album on Amazon and iTunes as of Wednesday evening.

“Everlong” – Foo Fighters from The Colour and the Shape

If you like Wasting Light, and never owned The Colour and the Shape, it’s on sale right now on Amazon as a special edition.

 

Watch the nearly two-hour special concert (above) as the Foo Fighters belt it out on the stage at the Ed Sullivan Theatre in NYC April 12th. The band played the entirety of their new album, and also paid homage to The Beatles (by wearing similar suits The Beatles wore on the same stage in 1964, when they made their U.S. television debut).  Only one of the songs from the 109 minute show – that is available for streaming above from start to finish – made it on the broadcast of Late Night with Letterman telecast.

Mazes is a Manchester-London band that have a sound that is hard to pin down, but it woud basically be considered indie rock and electro pop. They’ve made a name for themselves in their local cities, and have recently starting to get notice other than adoring blogs, with The Independent comparing them “to ‘the holy heights of The Clean, The Vaselines and Television Personalities’, whilst Marc Riley, on their recent BBC 6 music session called them a “sort of really garagey Kinks.”

“Vampire Jive” – Mazes from from A Thousand Heys

The new Seattle band Beat Connection released this week probably the first album that serves as a contender for the indie surf rock soundtrack of summer 2011. The album is awash in synthesizer-drenched pop majesty, complete with layers of soaring vocals and sing-along choruses, dance beats, plus Caribbean infusions and tropical pop on addictive songs like “In The Water,” “Sunburn,” Silver Screen” and others.

We predict that if you’re not the one playing it, you’re likely to hear others, especially enthusiasts of the surf rock/tropical pop, and fans of Animal Collective, spinning Surf Noir in the coming weeks and months. Beat Connection have been getting a lot of attention in Seattle over the past half year, and ten to attract fans of bands like The Drums, Vampire Weekend and Beach Fossils. But at the same time they do not copy these bands at all. Only by listening to Surf Noir a few times might you really understand that statement. Either way, we’re happy to say that Beat Connection are one of IRC’s Bands to Watch in 2011.

“In The Water” -Beat Connection from Surf Noir

The band also shows their talents in more than just dance-drive, blissful, synthed-out anthems, they also have a chillwave, laid back and soak up the sun kind of offerings as well, as demonstrated on the track, “Same Damn Time.”

“Same Damn Time” - Beat Connection from Surf Noir

Last month, before the release this week of Surf Noir, Beat Connection released a spacey, unreleased track called “Space Vacation” along with the terrific track, “Silver Screen,” and a number of remixes.

“Space Vacation” – Beat Connection from Silver Screen extended single

We didn’t even know that the Meat Puppets – who were basically made famous from Nirvana doing a cover of their track “Lake of Fire” back in 1993 during Nirvana’s famous MTV Unplugged show – were still together. But they are and they released their 15th album, Lollipop, this week. Since 1982, the Meat Puppets have been knocking out hard core rock mixed with punk.

Ponytail are one of those bands that have slowly grown on us over the past couple of months. In 2008, the Baltimore art-punk made it on the indie map with the spectacular debut LP, Ice Cream Spiritual. After a long hiatus from the band to work on side projects, band members dropped their  follow-up LP, Do Whatever You Want All The Time, which you can stream in full here.

The first new single, “Easy Peasy,” starts out somewhat incomprehensible, and then bursts into a forward-driving, almost jubilant march characterized by splashes of pop mashed with punk – an almost fitting swirl of jubilation that beckons the approaching springtime transition.

“Easy Peasy” – Ponytail from Do Whatever You Want All The Time

Holy Cow, it’s Holy Ghost’s Debut

If you haven’t heard of the band Holy Ghost! yet, now is your chance. We’ve been one of who knows how many people waiting for the release of Holy Ghost’s self-titled debut album, after a series of singles that trickled out over the past four years, most especially late 2007′s “Hold On.” But the band didn’t really pop onto most people’s music radar until the release last April of the EP, Static On A Wire. We have yet to hear the entire album, but you can stream Holy Ghost! via Spinner.

“Do It Again” – Holy Ghost! from Holy Ghost!

Alan Sparhawk of the Duluth, Minnesota indie band, Low, said of the LP was “recorded in an old church in Duluth, MN and mixed in an apartment in Hollywood, CA.” Interesting mix of locales there. Their 2007 album, Drums and Guns, was a protest against the war in Iraq, but the band has shifted gears for C’mon, as Sparhawk explained: “With the last couple of records, we were grappling with something outside of ourselves. This one feels more like, ‘Well, forget that. I’m looking in your eyes right now, and we need to figure out how to get through the next moment, together, as human beings.’”

“Especially Me” – Low from C’mon

New-To-Us Bands With Releases This Week

“Steam” – Hammer No More the Fingers from Black Shark

“Take Your Picture” – Gypsyblood from Cold In The Guestway

“Trans Anthro” – Skull Tape from The Invisible Hand and The Descent Of Man

Singer-Songwriters That Caught Our Ears

It seems like not since the 70′s have their better so many great new singer-songwriters as there have been over the past decade. Someone could really make a case for that, and as our regular readers who have been folllowing IRC for years know, we regularly spotlight established, emerging and relatively unknown singer and songwriters, especially in on-going feature series like Singer-Songwriter Spotlight and One Man Bands. The later is a bit different than the traditional definition of a singer-songwriter, but most of the indie one man bands that have risen up in recent years, are singer and songwriters by default, and yet are almost amazingly talented multi-instrumentalists.

This week, we are highlighting, more than spotlighting, singer-songwriters whose singles off of new album out this week were good enough to catch our ears. They include Agnes Obel, Alexander Tucker, and James Leg.

“Brother Sparrow” – Agnes Obel from Philharmonics

“His Arm Has Grown Long” – Alexander Tucker from Dorwytch

“Drowning in Fire” – James Leg from Solitary Pleasure

Elbow Builds A Rocket, Sonny Wants to ‘do it,’ but Baby Teardrops Are Heart-Broken

Well, running out of time to write more extensively about this week’s releases in order to get back to working on Part Two and Part Three of our special Record Store Day 2011 Music Guide. Check out Volume One for special releases from The White Stripes, Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Beach Fossils, tribute to Guided By Voices, Flaming Lips, Arctic Monkeys, Of Montreal, and more, including the hard-to-find new single from The Beastie Boys.

“Lippy Kids” – Elbow from Build a Rocket Boys!

Double-shot: “Jesus Is A Rochdale Girl” – Elbow from Build a Rocket Boys!

“I Wanna Do It” – Sonny and the Sunsets from Hit After Hit

“Banged in the Heart” – Baby Teardrops from X is for Love

Note: Check back later on this post as we have a few other cool things that we’ll be adding to this post, including info on special Record Store Releases by some of the bands releasing regular full releases this week, especially Panda Bear and Foo Fighters.

This page is a continuously updated feed that displays only the best new releases. So, if you’ve missed any of IRC’s weekly Best New Releases MP3 mixes, you’ll always be able to come to this page, and listen to, and download, free and legal MP3s of the best new singles, EPs, and LPs from rising and established bands.

How many of our favorite indie albums below do you have in your collection? If you need recommendations of great 2010 indie rock albums, this regularly updated and alphabetized list, has plenty of suggestions – including in some cases, the lead single from the LP or EP. The bolded text indicate albums in the running for our best of 2010, and italics indicates a debut release.

You might also be interested in checking IRC’s weekly Top Ten Songs list, Best New Releases, Artists and Bands, Summer Mixtapes and Anticipated Summer Releases 2010.

Keep checking back as we add songs, links to the best albums of 2010 (so far), and more goodies.  We’ll be updating this page a couple times of week to add more of our favorite 2010 releases from bands you have heard of, and others you haven’t. Get instant access to dozens of the playlist mixes featuring hundreds of songs, album artwork, profiles and reviews, videos and more by browsing in thumbnail format all of the best new releases of 2010 (so far).

Best Albums of 2010 (So Far):

Adam Green – Minor Love – “Castles and Tassels”
Alkaline Trio – This Addiction
Animal Collective – Campfire Songs
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today
Band of Horses – Infinite Arms
Beach House – Teen Dream
Black Tambourine – Black Tambourine
Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record
Born Ruffians – Say It
CoCoRosie – Grey Oceans
Cold War Kids – Behave Yourself EP
Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles
Damien Jurado – Saint Barlett
David S. Ware – Shakti
Delorean – Sk – /
Devo – Something for Everyone
Dinowalrus – %
Dios – We Are Dios
Dr. Dog – Shame Shame
Drake – Thank Me Later
Dum Dum Girls – I Will Be
Eels – End Times
Excepter – Presidence
Film School – Fission – “Heart Full of Pentagons”
Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma
Foals – Total Life Forever
Four Tet – There Is Love in You /

Free Energy – Stuck on Nothing /
Freelance Whales – Weathervanes /
Frightened Rabbit – The Winter of Mixed Drinks
Fucked Up – Couple Tracks
Gogol Bordello – Trans-Continential Hustle
Gorillaz – Plastic Beach
Groove Armada – Black Light
Happy Birthday – Happy Birthday
Harlem – Hippies
Here We Go Magic – The Champ /
High Places – High Places vs. Mankind
Horse Feathers – Thistled Spring
Hot Chip – One Life Stand
Jaill – That’s How We Burn
Jamie Lidell – Compass
Joanna Newsom – Have One on Me
Josh Ritter – So Runs The World Away
LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening
Liars – Sisterworld
Light Pollution – Apparitions
Local Natives – Gorilla Manor
Los Campesinos! – Romance Is Boring
Male Bonding – Nothing Hurts
Massive Attack – Splitting the Atom
Melvins – Chicken Switch
MGMT – Congratulations
Midlake – The Courage of Others
Mike Patton – Mondo Cane
OK Go – Of The Colour of The Blue Sky
Owen Pallett – Heartland
Pantha Du Prince – Black Noise
Parenthetical Girls – The Scottish Play
Paul Weller – Wake Up Nation
Phosphorescent – Here’s To Taking It Easy
Quasi – American Gong
Radar Bros. – The Illustrated Garden
Retribution Gospel Choir – 2
Roky Erickson – True Love Cast Out All Evil
Sam Amidon – I See the Sign
Scuba – SUB:STANCE
She & Him – Volume Two
Shearwater – The Golden Archipelago
Shout Out Louds – Work
Skullflower – Strange Keys to Untune God’s Firmament
Sleigh Bells – Treats
Spoon – Transference
Suckers – Wild Smile
Stars – The Five Ghosts
Surfer Blood – Astro Coast
Tama Impala – Inner Speakers
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – The Brutalist Bricks
The Album Leaf – A Chorus of Storytellers
The Black Keys – Brothers
The Brian Johnstown Massacre – Who Killed Sgt. Pepper?
The Brunettes – Paper Dolls
The Dead Weather – Sea of Cowards
The Delta Mirror – Machines That Listen
The Drums – The Drums
The Golden Filter – Voluspa
The Hold Steady – Heaven is Whenever
The Marching Band – Pop Cycle
The Morning Benders – Big Echo
The National – Violet
The New Pornographers – Together
The Strange Boys – Be Brave
The Whigs – In the Dark
The White Stripes – Under Great White Northern Lights
Thee Oh Sees – Warm Slime
These New Puritans – Hidden
Tindersticks – Falling Down a Mountain
Titus Andronicus – The Monitor
Tobacco – Maniac Meat
Tokyo Police Club – Champ
Toro y Moi – Causers of This
Ty Segall – Melted
Vampire Weekend – Contra
Very Be Careful – Escape Room
White Hills – White Hills
Wild Nothing – Gemini
Wolf Parade – Expo 86
Woods – At Echo Lake
Wye Oak – My Neighbor/My Creator EP
Xiu Xiu – Dear God, I Hate Myself
Yeasayer – Odd Blood
Yellow Swans – Going Places
Zu – The Way of all Animal Powers

If you missed any of our popular playlists mixes, best new releases posts, band profiles, festival updates or best new artists posts, you can find many of them in just a click or two from this page.

Best New Releases - Each week we put together a huge playlist of singles from our favorite new releases, making it one of the most popular on-going series on IRC.

In Dee Mail - The best music sent to us from artists and bands you should hear.

Summer Mixtapes – Access popular, mega playlists mixes of songs that are about summer, remind us of summer, or just seem to fit a summer mix, featuring MP3s from indie rock, classic rock, hip hop, electronica and other genres.

Feet to Da Beatz – We thought it would be cool to have a playlist mixtape series with some of our favorite current dance/electronica/pop songs that make you wanna move your feet.

Recent Releases We Almost Missed – Playlist mix series that focuses on presenting tracks from recent releases that must not go unnoticed but where not previously published on IRC for whatever reason.

One Man Bands – Impressive releases from people who write, play all instruments, record, mix, etc.

Ears To The Music – This was an extremely popular 12 part playlist mix series spotlighting the best indie songs of 2009.

Singer/Songwriter Spotlight Series – Sometimes there is nothing more personal and organic as a magnificent song featuring great lyrics, good vocals and an acoustic guitar.

Songs About New York, Vol 1 & Vol 2 – Almost 50 carefully selected songs related in some way to New York from established, indie and obscure artists and bands.

May 24

Art Brut – Brilliant Tragic
Ben Howard – Old Pine (EP)
Bird of Youth – Defender
Brad Paisley – This Is Country Music
Brendan Perry (Dead Can Dance) – Ark
Carter’s Chord – Wild Together (EP)
Darwin Deez – Darwin Deez
David Bazan – Strange Negotiations
Foster the People – Torches
Friendly Fires – Pala
Johanna & The Dusty Floor – Northern Lights
Joseph Arthur - The Graduation Ceremony
King Creosote/John Hopkins – Diamond Mine
Lady Gaga – Born This Way
Motopony – Motopony
Paul Brady – Hooba Dooba
Ralph Zurmuhle – eQuinox
Ray Manzarek/Roy Rogers – Translucent Blues
Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside – Dirty Radio
Sarabeth Tucek – Get Well Soon
Suzanna Choffel – Steady Eye Shaky Bow
The Good Lovelies – Let the Rain Fall
The Prodigy – Worlds On Fire/Live
Thea Gilmore - John Wesley Harding (Dylan Covers)
Thurston Moore – Demolished Thoughts
White Denim – D

May 31

Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys) – Submarine (EP)
Andrea Corr – Lifelines (U.K.)
Death Cab For Cutie – Codes and Keys
Eddie Vedder – Ukulele Songs
Eddie Vedder – Water On the Road (Live DVD)
Flogging Molly – Speed of Darkness
Heather Nova – 300 Days at Sea
James Torme – Love For Sale
Kate Bush - Director’s Cut
J.D. Souther – Natural History
Julie Feeney – Pages
Katy Lied – Winter Lightning (U.K.)
My Morning Jacket – Circuital
Nerina Pallot – Year of the Wolf (U.K.)
Seapony – Go With Me
The Black Swans – Don’t Blame the Stars
The Sweetback Sisters – Lookin’ for a Fight

Record Labels

- (this is a work in progress)

• absolutely kosher
• alcopop records
• anti
• architecture label
• badman recording co.
• bar/none records
• better looking records
• big orange records
• cloudberry records
• cooling pie records
• EardrumsPop
• eenie meenie
• flameshovel
• goodnight records
• hidden shoal recordings
• hometapes
• indiecater records
• jagjaguwar
• labrador
• lefse
• magic marker records
• matador
• plastilina records
• pocketclock
• the peppermill
• reverb records
• romantic air recording company
• rumraket
• secretly canadian
• svc records
• words on music
• 4AD
• 555 Recordings
• Afternoon Records
• Anorak Records
• Anti-
• Arts & Crafts
• Asaurus Records
• Atomic Beat Records
• Barsuk Records
• Boompa Records
• Cherry Red Records
• Cloudberry Records
• Cosy Recordings
• Dead Ocean Records
• Elefant Records
• FatCat Records
• Fortuna Pop!
• Fraction Discs
• Happy Happy Birthday To Me
• Holiday Records
• How Does It Feel To Be Loved?
• Humblebee Recordings
• Indiecater Records
• Jagjaguwar
• K
• Kill Rock Stars
• Labrador
• Living Room Records
• Lostmusic Records
• Low Transit Industries
• Magic Marker Records
• Matador Records
• Matinée Recordings
• Merge Records
• Music Is My Girlfriend
• Odd Box Records
• Secretly Canadian
• Series Two Records
• Shelflife Records
• Slumberland Records
• Sub Pop Records
• Thee SPC
• WeePOP! Records
• Where It’s At Is Where You Are
• YAY! Records

Sort the above with these:

Indie Record Labels