arcade fire debuted two new songs on some british radio show yesterday. they’re available now as a single on itunes, and will be released as a part of the suburbs deluxe edition cd/dvd combo on august 2. which will also feature the ‘scenes from the suburbs’ short film by spike jonze. which by itself is reason enough to get it. i’ll post the second song tomorrow. -d

catchy little track off yuksek’s latest EP ‘On A Train’. it’s got warm summer night swims written all over it. well, summer night swims anyway. -d

*full length due out june 23. allegedly. his official site is mysteriously devoid of any reference to this or any other new music. hm. interesting.

from the ‘personal jesus 2011’ remix EP due out next week. full 3 disc album of depeche mode remixes due out june 7. you can’t wait. -d

to commemorate opening night of blip festival 2011, my favorite 8bit remix of all time. -d

*blip festival is an all 8bit new york city music festival. if, like me, you’re stuck on the west coast this weekend, dailymotion is streaming a good chunk of the performances. as always, i’d recommend checking out animaniguchi.

yet another great album to come out this year without me knowing it. and from someone i dig so deeply. so disappointing. unlike the album, which takes his r&b groove and expands it into all sorts of neo-retro genres. and this track - a sort of bo diddly homage with a nashville edge - is by far my favorite. -d

new friendly fires album released yesterday. not as good as that smashing eponymous album, but still pretty near top of the UK dance game. -d

new bon iver track. released today. after listening to it, i kinda feel how i felt when i first heard ‘month of may’. the sound and spirit are there, but they’re definitely doing something different. i like it. i want to listen to it again. i want to talk about it. and more than anything i want it to end up coming from an album as excellent as ‘the suburbs’ was. -d

*’calgary’ is a free download at boniver.org.

i know, it’s old. and not vintage old. last season old. i don’t care. i’ve attempted mashups in the past, and failed gloriously. they are hard. and this is wondrous. i will whistle it all wheekend.-d

the perfect rebuttal to anyone who naysays 90’s alt-rock songwriting. (we also would have accepted ‘in the meantime’ by spacehog.)

*this came from one of those monster Rhino compilations. this one, ‘Whatever: The 90s Pop & Culture Box”, does an excellent job of capturing the decade in all it’s glory and grody.

*holy crap these guys are still recording. new album due out this year!

i’m pretty smitten with the new okkervil river. it’s a huge, sweeping step forward for these guys. yes, there’s more than a little arcade fire in there. but if there’s one thing the world needs, it’s a little more arcade fire. -d

in which we discuss yet another cover of willow smith’s timeless dance hall anthem that leaves the original so far in the dust it’s hard to remember it exists at all.

also, i adore this trend of actual artists covering top 40 nonsense. i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again: the best way to undermine a crap song is to validate it completely. mocking something stupid by making something wonderful out of it. i’m so glad i was born in a post-modern world.

actually sort of digging the new EP in spite of myself. this is what i wanted the album to sound like. but it didn’t. take 2.

well, basically every other artist i’ve posted this week has been a repeat. might as well keep it going. this is one of those tracks that got lost when the album first came out. too many other big things going on. don’t actually even remember ever hearing it. thank heaven for superfluous re-releases. -d

today is cinco de mayo and luce’s birthday. on the same day! it only happens once every 7 years. best to celebrate. probably with a mexican dance party featuring only songs that have the word luz in it. -d

*love these guys.

they’ve been playing the dickens out of this guy on kcrw lately. he’s the former frontman of the brooklyn-based indie rock outfit elefant. which, incidentally, this solo stuff sounds absolutely nothing like. instead of guitar-driven indie pop, he seems to be tapping back into his roots - specifically 1970s argentina. it’s mellow, lovelorn stuff, tho it seems to lack the commitment of somebody who is truly lost without love. like he’s sad, but he thinks he’s hot ish so he’s not too worried about it. i will say tho: the songwriting is solid. the boy can craft a melody. and this particular track, while sounding unironically readymade for a wes anderson soundtrack, is actually pretty smooth. -d