7" of Separation

I’m liking this song by Portland’s YACHT. You might too:

I do find the dude behind YACHT to be pretty pretentious, though. But, most indie-beat-pop artists are.

On her new Taken by Trees album, East of Eaden, Victoria Bergsman takes on the Animal Collective’s “My Girls,” slightly transforming the song into the bouncy, Euro-pop “My Boys.” Bergsman used to front the Concretes, who had some stellar songs a few years back.

Check out the unofficial video below, and then ignore the lackluster visuals and let the song make you smile:

Guess who’s back? Carter’s back. And attending hipster concerts on the Brooklyn waterfront, to boot.

I’m glad Jay-Z’s back, though. Blueprint 3 leaked, and it’s killer, packed with smart, rapid-fire pop-culture references. It’s also full of Jay’s apparent disrespect for all songs Auto-Tuned, despite featuring Kanye’s heavy production work and guest raps.

And while Jay may be down on the ol’ A-Tune, he’s more than happy to take to the trend of having Rihanna sing the hook.

Also, I’m rather taken by The xx, and their new album, xx. These Londoner, 20-somethings play deliriously hook-based slow-pop.

I’ve listened to the new Antlers album, Hospice, about 100 times in the last three weeks. The Brooklyn-based band fills the same appetite that calls for Arcade Fire, but they mix in a little bit of OK Computer and Low to craft some beautiful slow-core.

Ellyn and I took to top 40 hip-hop on the honeymoon… and now Kid Cudi has come along and crammed all our favorite lines into one self aware video:

The new Modest Mouse ep is one the way in August. I’m a big fan of the Mouse. They capture a hopelessly Pacific Northwest state of being with their tunes. So perfect.

Here’s a video for the first track:

Out of Portland, Oregon, The Blow are an über-indie supergroup of sorts. Khaela Maricich has long been releasing albums under the Blow name, most recently a collection of soft and affecting folk songs. Also, she has a made quite a carrier out of performance art. So, it was fitting when Jona Bechtolt, the man behind Portland’s YACHT, joined the team. YACHT is not instantly digestible, with beats turning back on themselves and Atari-like clicks, but using YACHT beats as solid backbones to Blow lyrics is like pie for the ears, digestible all the way down.

Paper Television is the band’s latest and it brings together the earlier released ‘Pile of Gold’ (find an early version on the PDX 2005 comp) with nine new songs, all of which have strong moments. Not all songs are as dancey as ‘Pile’ but the disc starts out strong and pulls together strongly at the end for three closing tracks that make any drive a joy. This disc is short, only a drop over 30 min., but it is worth it.

Check out the videos:

Check out the tomlab 7″ as well.