Bleached - "You Take Time"

Bleached, comprised of sisters Jennifer and Jessie Clavin, has quickly become one of my favorite bands this summer, thanks to snappy and hook-laden garage-punk jams like "Dazed" and "No Friend of Mine." Earlier this month we posted the A-side to their forthcoming Art Fag single, the Misfits-channeling headbanger "Think of You." Now the B-side, "You Take Time," is making it's way around the interweb—and I might dig it even more. Over a gain-heavy chord progression, the Clavins' harmonize the chorus with a "Fox On The Run" recalling-melody that sticks to your ears like a chewed piece of bubblegum on a public park bench. And by that I mean, this is one hell of a catchy track.

Buy the Carter 7"

Bleached - "You Take Time" (from Carter 7")

Bleached - "Think of You" (from Carter 7")

Sand In My Swim Trunks: New Summer Jams

Neon Indian - "Fallout" (from Era Extraña)
Synth-wizard Alan Palomo released the first single from his forthcoming Neon Indian LP, Era Extraña, earlier this week. "Fallout" is a meditative and murky number—the kind of song you might listen to while having a THC-inspired existential crisis as you stare out into the ocean, watching the waves crash and recede.
Pre-order the vinyl via Insound.

Fidlar - "Wake Bake Skate" (from DIYDUI 7")
"Just to hang out with my best friends / Drink a little beer." Fidlar play the best kind of punk rock: simple, fiery and loud, colored with a boatful of attitude. Thank Rollo Grady for this introduction. And thank the gentlemen of Fidlar for cranking out this fuzzy 1:41-long bit of power chord-strummed gold.
Buy Fidlar's DIYDUI 7"

AE003: Stone Darling - "I Stopped Missing You Today" 7"

I've been raving about Los Angeles band Stone Darling since I first heard "All I Wanna Do" back in March. Now, I'm ecstatic to announce this burgeoning rock and roll troupe is releasing its first 7" on our very own imprint, Analog Edition. Pressed on white vinyl in a limited edition of 500, this single is comprised of the hard-hitting, straight-for-the-pop-jugular A Side "I Stopped Missing You Today" and the expansive and harmony-washed slow-burner "Angeline" on the flip side. The front cover photograph is by the amazingly talented Lauren Ward.

You can pre-order the 7" now at Analog Edition. Orders will ship out in late August.

Stone Darling - "I Stopped Missing You Today" (from "I Stopped Missing You Today" 7")

Los Angeles folks: Stone Darling plays the Satellite every Monday in August and the shows are all FREE. The residency kicks off August 1st with help from the Fleet Foxes' J. Tillman.

White Life: Throwback R&B From Baltimore

White Life's debut reeks of 1986: I'm talking Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)," Madonna's "True Blue," and Club Nouveau's "Rumors." Cheesy drum machine patter, air guitar-quality synthesizer solos, and contagious vocal melodies color this Baltimore group's addictive and highly replayable LP. Comprised of Jon Ehrens and his sister Emily, the band breathes heaps of funk and fun into their retro R&B project, cherry picking tones from the late 1980s and early 1990s. The end result, however, is a surprisingly refreshing mixture of sounds that feel unequivocally original, thanks in part to the emotive and entirely unselfconscious singing from both Jon and Emily. If fellow synth-heavy group Washed Out slices with a butter knife, White Life here resemble a freshly honed butcher's blade with sharp hooks that cut deep. If you're not laughing, dancing, or singing-along when you hear this record, you're doing it wrong.

Purchase the LP or CD from Ehse Records. The album is also available digitally via a pay-what-you-want scenario.

White Life - "I Want Love" (from White Life)
White Life - "Flirp" (from White Life)

Summer Camp - "Better Off Without You"

Summer Camp have a debut full-length en route with production by Pulp's Steve Mackey, but the record still needs a bit of a push in the fund department. You can help support its release, which the band is putting out on their own Apricot Recordings, by heading over to Pledge Music now and donating what you can. If you need convincing, try out the new "Better Off Without You"—a typically grand and lovely bit of 1980s-tinged pop fun from the London duo.

Summer Camp - Better Off Without You

Summer Camp - "Nobody Knows You"
Summer Camp - "I Want You"

TV Girl :: Benny & The Jetts EP

TV Girl—the San Diego duo that crafted a delectable pop treat over Todd Rundgren's "Hello, It's Me," and then proceeded to get into a bit of hot water over it—continue to blur copyright lines with a new EP titled Benny and The Jetts, after the Elton John classic. Samples abound in the new four-track EP, but so do the blissful and ear-pleasing pop hooks that make standouts like "Baby You Were There" a welcome addition to any summer playlist.

Download the EP here. Grab the band's previous releases via Bandcamp.

TV Girl - "Baby You Were There" (from Benny and The Jetts EP)
TV Girl - "Benny and The Jets" (from Benny and The Jetts EP)

Twin Sister - "Bad Street"

Twin Sister's "Bad Street," out now as a 10" single on Domino, is a promising cut off the group's forthcoming full-length debut, In Heaven, out September 27th. Sprinkled with twinkling synthesizers, quick slashes of guitar, and a funky bass line, the sexed-up and discoed-out track sounds like it belongs on the set of a sex scene from some low budget 1970s flick: the bell bottoms, big hair, slow motion undressing. If Andrea Estella's lyrics tell the story, the instrumentation here sets the time and place.

Twin Sister - "Bad Street" (from Bad Street 10")
Twin Sister - "You Remind Me Of" (from Bad Street 10")

Tim Cohen - "Daylight Moon"

Tim Cohen, like his Bay Area bretheren Sonny Smith and John Dwyer, is one hell of a prodigious dude. Just this year, he's already put out a solo LP and EP on Captured Tracks and an EP with his band The Fresh & Onlys via Sacred Bones. Now, in celebration of his birthday this past Tuesday, Empty Cellar Records has released a limited edition version of the new album, The Glad Birth of Love—a 45-minute LP comprised of just four epic tracks. Credited to Cohen's four-piece group Magic Trick, the record also features a handful of guests like Dwyer, The Sandwitches' Grace Cooper, and Diego Gonzalez of The Dry Spells. You can sample the shortest song on the album below: the beautiful, psychedelically quilted, 7:26-long "Daylight Moon."

You can snag this edition here, which is limited to just 100 copies and comes with an 11" x 22" poster. The LP will see a wide release on August 23rd.

Magic Trick - "Daylight Moon" (from The Glad Birth of Love)

Diamond Rings - "All Yr Songs"

Toronto musician John O'Regan debuted his solo project Diamond Rings with "All Yr Songs," a straight pop injection that's as playful and fun as it is warm and endearing. Originally released in August of 2009 on his own boutique label Hype Lighter, the song has become a quintessential summer anthem for me with its silly and easy to sing-along lyrics ("Cause in the summer weather, we put sunscreen on together / I would not want your skin to burn") and insistent acoustic strum and drum machine beat. While much of the music that saturates blogs everyday will soon fade into the ether, "All Yr Songs"—a simple pop ditty amidst an abyss of more complicated and more produced music—will be sticking around. It's just a little love song, but it was built to last.

Diamond Rings - "All Yr Songs" (from Diamond Rings / PS I Love You 7")

After the jump, watch O'Regan's equally endearing dance moves and basketball jersey wardrobe.

St. Vincent - "Surgeon"

In one of the more interesting mp3 premiere campaigns of late, St. Vincent used the hashtag #strangemercy and a buzzometer bar to generate and monitor word-of-mouth buzz for her new forthcoming LP Strange Mercy, due out September 13th on 4AD. The promise at the end of the campaign? A new song from the album. And after several days of Tweeting and slowly progressing the bar, we finally get our first taste of Strange Mercy this morning in "Surgeon." The song opens amidst an eerily buzzing symphony of synth pads, as Annie Clark sings, "I spent the summer on my back." What happens over the song's 4-and-a-half minutes is intense, sufficiently far-out, and tough to put into words, but yes, it was worth the wait. And yes, the solo in the song's coda/outro is one of the more fun and funky instrumentals I've heard in years. More please.

St. Vincent - "Surgeon" (from Strange Mercy)

Moss of Aura :: Wading

The good folks over at Friends Records in Baltimore are gearing up to release a string of albums by synth extraordinaire Gerrit Welmers. When not writing for and playing with Baltimore buzz band Future Islands, Welmers creates instrumental pop under the moniker Moss of Aura. On tracks like "Peat" and "Titan," Welmers utilizes washes of synthesized fuzz and playful drum machine percussion to create dynamic and ambient soundscapes. The songs don't simply play, they transport: from concrete cities and plastic cubicles to tropical paradises aglow with psychedelic-altered skylines and cool transparent waters. Along with Moss of Aura's first vinyl LP, the new 11-track Wading, Friends Records has converted 5 long sold out CD-R entries from Welmers' back catalogue to cassette tape. The LP is limited to 500 copies and the tapes to 100 a piece.

Snag Moss of Aura's entire catalogue here.

Moss of Aura - "Titan" (from Wading)
Moss of Aura - "Peat" (from March)

Girls - "Vomit"

"Looking for love," sings Girls' frontman Christopher Owens over a soaring vocal harmony and heavy crunches of guitar fuzz. If Girls were once the little band you kept in your back pocket, the brand-spanking new "Vomit" suggests a stadium might make a more appropriately-sized fit for the San Franciscan's forthcoming second full-length together, Father, Son, Holy Ghost. From the organ play to the spectacular lead guitar and gospel-tinged backup vocals, "Vomit" is an epic track in just about every way. Who would have ever thought the band that wrote "Lust For Life" would one day generate comparisons to the likes of Pink Floyd? Well, it's happening.

Father, Son, Holy Ghost is out September 13th. Pre-order it here.

Girls - "Vomit" (from Father, Son, Holy Ghost)

Dum Dum Girls - "Coming Down"

The Dum Dum Girls have been churning out stellar garage pop fuzz for a few years now, but the group's music has never quite hit me or held my attention like the brand-spanking new "Coming Down." A slow-burner of the highest order, "Coming Down" sways into a groove of giant snaps of bass and snare drum, rippling tremolo guitar, and a wall of reverb that lead singer Dee Dee Penny beautifully weaves through in perhaps her strongest vocal performance to date. Part Hope Sandoval in her Mazzy Star days and part late 70s Chrissie Hynde, Dee Dee digs deep here and delivers a truly masterful and nuanced performance. "Coming Down" is serious middle school dance-quality make-out material: epic.

The Dum Dum Girls' forthcoming LP Only In Dreams is out September 27th on Sub Pop.

Dum Dum Girls - "Coming Down" (from Only In Dreams)

JEFF The Brotherhood - "Something In The Way" (Nirvana)

SPIN may not know how to put together halfway decent album art, but the magazine has been known to compile an entertaining tribute album (see the Purple Rain tribute featuring Sharon Jones and Mariachi El Bronx). Today, the magazine released it's ode to the 20th anniversary of Nevermind with a collection of covers by groups like Surfer Blood, Jessica Lea Mayfield, and Telekinesis. While there are some serious duds on the album, there are also some clear winners, like Charles Bradley's funkification of "Stay Away." No entry however is more convincing than JEFF The Brotherhood's take on "Something In The Way." The Orralls recorded their rendition to cassette tape with a hammering of guitar fuzz, giving the track its proper muddy 90s rock sound. Or as Jake put it: "The idea was to take the least heavy song on Nirvana's least heavy album and give it the JEFF treatment -- make it real doomy. That's all we know how to do!"

Download the entire album for free at SPIN's Facebook page.

JEFF The Brotherhood - "Something In The Way" (from Newermind)

Peach Kelli Pop :: Peach Kelli Pop

This past spring, Infinity Cat Records re-issued the debut LP from Peach Kelli Pop: the solo project of Allie Hanlon. Hanlon, who also plays drums in Ottawa punk band White Wires, has nestled herself here in a cozy niche of lo-fi and 50s-inspired girl group pop and rock that's as hilariously simple as it is fearsomely addictive. Originally put out by Ontario’s Going Gaga Records, the repressing from the Nashville-based and JEFF The Brotherhood-run Infinity Cat imprint should deliver this static-ridden and crackly work of bubblegum art to a deservedly larger audience. From the steam-rolled, carefree punk of "Do The Egg Roll" to the ukulele-strummed closer "Eenie Meenie Minie Moe," Hanlon will have you singing and bobbing along in no time.

Order the LP from Infinity Cat.

Peach Kelli Pop - "Doo Wah Diddy" (from Peach Kelli Pop)
Peach Kelli Pop - "Do The Egg Roll" (from Peach Kelli Pop)

After the jump, watch the perfectly-executed video for "Do The Egg Roll."

The War On Drugs - "Come To The City"

After releasing the methamphetamine-dosed locomotive chug of "Baby Missiles," Philadelphia's War On Drugs have let loose "Come To The City," a slower-paced dance of snapping snares, warbly guitar lines, and humming waves of reverb, feedback, and organ. And is that a saxophone I hear in the intro? I hope so. The second taste off the forthcoming Slave Ambient LP finds Adam Granduciel walking down a darkened sidewalk in a thoughtful, stream-of-conscious, light-headed state: "I've been drinking up all the sweet tea / I've been rambling / I'm just drifting." While the lyrics lend an air of intimacy here, the production is absolutely grand. If this leak was meant to rev up anticipation for the album's August 16th release date, well, mission accomplished.

Nab the vinyl over at Secretly Canadian.

The War On Drugs - "Come To The City" (from Slave Ambient)
The War On Drugs - "Baby Missiles" (from Slave Ambient)

Future Islands - "Before The Bridge"

Baltimore's Future Islands have something most dance- and synth-oriented bands don't: a powerful and unique vocalist. All the effects and sampling in the world can't replace the potent and raw power of a voice, and Future Islands have a hell of an instrument at their disposal in southern gentleman Samuel Herring. Atop frisky disco and new-wave inspired bass lines and warm wafts of keyboards, Herring harnesses a character that is at times crazed, unstable, and always in the thick of his emotions. That almost-falling-apart and edge-of-the-cliff balance paired with a tone that is both deep and resonant creates a charismatic and exciting force that has over the course of a handful of singles, EPs, and LPs unequivocally become a must-listen. Dig into the trio's latest single, the masterful and massively appealing "Before The Bridge," below.

Vinyl fans: the "Before The Bridge" 7" is out of stock online, but you can still find it in local record shops. Head over to Friends Records for an excellent 7" with Everybody Taste favorites Lonnie Walker and Thrill Jockey for a handful of other options.

Future Islands - "Before The Bridge" (from Before The Bridge 7")

I Break Horses :: Hearts

"I break horses / Doesn't take me long / Just a few well-placed words / And their wandering hearts are gone." — Smog

It's unclear whether Stockholm band I Break Horses is named after the aforementioned Smog song or simply the metaphor of training a wild animal. What is clear is that like the Bill Callahan-penned track, the music of Maria Lindén and Fredrik Balck is fiercely heartbreaking. While Callahan strikes with words, this Swedish duo's weapon of choice is a dense sonic blanket of swirling keyboards and synths, thick gain-fueled guitars, and heavy crashing drums. Cutting through that wall of shoegaze-inspired sound is the beautiful singing of Lindén, whose voice often appears like a hit of sunshine in a journey deep into the darkened woods. I Break Horses' songs don't simply play, they slowly build and climb up into the stratosphere, only to come back down at the end of each track in a daze of tweaked emotions, often leaving this listener asking, "What just happened?" The group's debut, Hearts, is out August 15th via Bella Union.

I Break Horses - "Winter Beats" (from Hearts)
I Break Horses - "Hearts" (from Hearts)

Watch the gorgeously shot video for "Hearts" after the jump.

Real Estate - "It's Real"

Real Estate's light and dreamy guitar-driven pop gets a beautiful vocal treatment on new single "It's Real" with a waft of ascending "oohs" riding a wave of reverb into the simple and understated chorus: "It's Real." Flanger-effected guitar chords, shimmering leads, and splashy cymbals however lift this track far off the floor of any tangible reality. The track will be released as a 7" with the B-side "Blue Lebaron" on September 27th with Real Estate's Days LP following on October 18th, both via Domino.

Real Estate - "It's Real" (from Days)

Must-Have Vinyl: Bill Baird :: Goodbye Vibrations

Just last month I wrote about Bill Baird's excellent Bandcamp-delivered, woozy, psych-rock single "Wino Strut." Now, the former Sound Team bandmate and Sunset auteur is set to release an 8-song LP August 1st dubbed Goodbye Vibrations. Recorded on 1/2" 8 track and mixed to cassette tape, the album will be offered as a digital download via Bandcamp or on 12" vinyl with handmade cover art. If you dig Baird's music, this an opportunity to procure a seriously rare piece of art, as only 50 are being pressed and each cover comes with its own Polaroid. Take a listen to the first taste of the album below: the intimate finger-plucked "We'll Meet Again Someday, or We Won't."

Sharon Van Etten signs to Jagjaguwar

One of Everybody Taste's favorite artists, Sharon Van Etten, has signed to Jagjaguwar where she will be releasing her forthcoming third LP in 2012 with help from The National's Aaron Dessner. Apparently everyone from your average music fan and blog to indie rock elite like TV On The Radio's Kyp Malone have fully embraced and fallen for Van Etten's stirring, emotive, and incredibly personal brand of musical storytelling. I still remember the first time I heard Van Etten's voice: it was on ET's favorite album of 2009, Survival by Forest Fire—a masterful record that's as brilliant today as it was when it first came out in 2008. Below, check out her turn on lead vocals with Forest Fire via the smoldering "Sunshine City." (via)

Buy Sharon Van Etten vinyl and goodies here. And you can still nab Forest Fire's Survival on vinyl from Insound—you'll thank me later.

Forest Fire feat. Sharon Van Etten - "Sunshine City" (from Survival)

Cheerleader - "Dreamer"

While this vintage photograph of cheerleaders might recall the artwork for noisy Brooklyn duo Sleigh Bells, the similarities thankfully end there. Hartford's Cheerleader have a soft synthesizer-based palette sprinkled with occasionally cheesy but always sincerely applied 80s tones. The duo currently has two songs streaming on their Bandcamp page: "New Daze" and "Dreamer." While "New Daze" dips a bit too much into Cut Copy territory for this fan, the lightly cooing vocals of "Dreamer" won me over halfway through its first verse. Delivering a chorus with a line like "I see a dreamer in you" is no easy task, but amidst twinkling guitars and swirling synths, Cheerleader pull it off with John Hughes-caliber aplomb and appeal.

If you dig, throw the band a few shekels over at their Bandcamp.

Cheerleader - "Dreamer"

New Generationals - "You Got Me"

Everybody Taste's favorite New Orleans band Generationals released a free four-song EP today dubbed Medium Rarities. While the EP's title hints at a bit of summer barbecue flavor, the standout track "You Got Me" is really a work of headphone art. The pulsating keyboard chords and light synth lead purr and bask in perfectly concocted, ear-pleasing tones. In fact, they sound so good, the band didn't even need to write a verse. Instead "You Got Me" consists of a chorus and a few talky samples—and it works. Nobody's reinventing the wheel here, but the Generationals do mix one hell of a fine cocktail. Download the full EP right here in exchange for an email address.

Generationals - "You Got Me" (from Medium Rarities)

ALLAH-LAS - "Catamaran"

Los Angeles's ALLAH-LAS are creators of lost and found, worn and torn, 60s-tinged psychedelic pop nuggets: tracks that deliver in texture and recording style as much as songwriting and technical play. The group's debut 7"—out now on PRES Records—features the surf-oriented A-side groove "Catamaran." The song's immediately transportive, existing in a world awash in dim lighting, wafts of smoke, whispered words, backroom dealings, and the warm, electric, fuzzed-out chug of endorphin-freeing rock and roll.

Buy the 7" from PRES Records.

ALLAH-LAS - "Catamaran" (from Catamaran 7")

LA Font - "Sharks" 7"

Forget the wash of reverb and cloak of effects most contemporary bands at turns bask in and safely hide behind. Los Angeles band LA Font dish out their music in a straightforward clear-as-day assault of crackling angular guitars and edgy mercurial vocals. The group has one full-length under its belt, The American Leagues, with its first 7" out today on Sister City Records. With lines like "flesh fell from off the bone" sung on top off furiously picked guitar riffs and a crunch of rhythm, LA Font's music is far from pretty—but it's aslo pretty close to great.

Buy LA Font vinyl at Sister City Records.

LA Font - "Sharks" (from Sharks 7")
LA Font - "Lipsmack" (from Sharks 7")

Mixtape #16: Everybody Tastes Like Summer

Elite Gymnastics :: Ruin 1

Minneapolis duo Elite Gymnastics self-released one of my favorite EPs last year in Real Friends. The sound, at first listen, is fairly typical of a contemporary electronic-based artist: samples, drum machines, synthesizers, hushed and effected-vocals. But there's always little touches that hook me: the ferocious bass and sped up vocals on "Is This One Me," the unquestionably 90s vibe on "If U Love Me," the cheesy drum solo in "Real Friends." There's also something endearing about a talented band that never takes itself seriously (see the Real Friends cover art). On the group's 5th release off their own Psychedelic Surf Club digital imprint, Elite Gymnastics have put together another handful of psychedelic nuggets of the chill/beach/coastal variety that rocketed similar artists like Washed Out and Toro Y Moi into promising careers. "Omamori" is one of the band's most promising tracks to date with the vocals taking a rare turn as the most important instrument, sitting atop gurgling bassy synths, a light keyboard, and a hammering snare drum.

Download Ruin 1 completely free here.

Elite Gymnastics - "Omamori" (from Ruin 1)
Elite Gymnastics - "Minneapolis Belongs To You" (from Ruin 1)

Girls :: Record 3 :: Father, Son, Holy Ghost

San Francisco’s Girls are set to release their third record together and second full-length on September 13th, titled Father, Son, Holy Ghost. Girls' core of Christopher Owens and Chet White recorded the album together in a San Francisco office building along with drummer Darren Weiss, guitarist John Anderson, a roomful of amplifiers, and a stack of transistor-based recording equipment. Since dropping their debut Album in 2009, Owens and company have quickly become one of independent pop music's most potent voices with a perfectly balanced arsenal of classic and contemporary rock sounds. File this release under "can't fucking wait."

Girls - "Broken Dreams Club" (Live at KDHX)
Girls - "Lovelife" (Live at KDHX)

Checkout the LP's track list after the jump.

Ganglians - "Sleep"

We've heard "Jungle." Now, today, we get another tasty psychedelic nugget from the Ganglians' forthcoming double LP Still Living in "Sleep." Unlike the typically hazy and ambient tracks about nabbing shuteye, "Sleep" commands serious force. Built around a twinkling and starry-eyed keyboard riff, "Sleep" quickly interrupts its dreamy tone with heavy smacks of bass drum, crashing cymbals, and surges of darkly-toned electric guitar that feel akin to being doused with a bucket of cold water mid nap. One of the more intriguing moments of the song is the coda which commences around the three-and-a-half minute mark with a rich vocal harmony led by Ryan Grubbs, followed by a well-timed key change. The track is one of Ganglian's most dynamic to date and an exciting precursor to one of Everybody Taste's most anticipated albums of 2011.

Still Living is out August 23rd. Pre-order it now via Lefse.

Ganglians - "Sleep" (from Still Living)
Ganglians - "Jungle" (from Still Living)