Helio Sequence ‘October’
Sounds like a cross between The Walkmen and Beach House, but with frontman Brandon Summers’ distinctive vocals.. Taken from their forthcoming fifth album Negotiations (their second on Sub Pop).
[Helio Sequence]

Band of Horses ‘Knock Knock’
From forthcoming fourth album Mirage Rock.
[Band of Horses]

Wye Oak ‘Spiral’
Very different from what this Baltimore duo usually play, this is weirdly prog-like and available for free as part of Adult Swim’s Singles Program.
[Adult Swim Singles Program]
[Wye Oak]

TEEN ‘Electric’
All female Brooklyn indie band featuring three sisters and their friend deliver a post punk / new wave vibe.
[TEEN]

Tall Ships ‘Gallop’
This song from the Falmouth band totally lives up to its name. From their forthcoming debut album Everything Touching.
[Tall Ships]

Dinosaur Jr ‘Watch The Corners’
Typical indie slacker brilliance from the re-united Dinosaur Jr, taken from their forthcoming album I Bet On Sky, their third since re-uniting the original line up.
[Dinosaur Jr]

Tame Impala ‘Apocalypse Dream’
More superior Beatles-y psychedelia from the band’s forthcoming second album Lonerism.
[Tame Imapla]

The Peoples Temple ‘Looter’s Game’
Garage-blues-psych-pop from Lansing Michigan.
[Peoples Temple]

Outer Minds ‘We Are All Stone’
Nearly featured this Chicago band back in April with ‘Gimmie A Reason’, but this time their retro fuzz rock nails it.
[Outer Minds]

Passion Pit ‘Constant Conversations’
Another track from forthcoming album Gossamer.
[Passion Pit]

Frank Ocean ‘Sweet Life’
While I was aware of FO, I hadn’t paid him much attention until I heard The Afghan Whigs cover of ‘LoveCrimes’. Polished R&B with a classic feel, a real grower.
[Frank Ocean]

Lockah ‘The Sour Drink From The Ocean’
Aberdonian DJ producer with retro bleeptronica.
[Lockah]

The Kills ‘Dreams’
Fleetwood Mac cover version from the tribute album Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac.
[The Kills]

It almost seems like there’s been a concerted effort to squeeze out a bunch of great songs in the last week of the first half of 2012. The return of Stars, Matt & Kim, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion another new Yeasayer track plus a Cars cover version. Plus plenty of swooning, jangling, grooving indie and lazy psych pop, Norwegian space disco, folk and krautrock influences etc.

jj ‘Times’
Blissed out indie pop from Sweden. Download the whole of their ‘High Summer’ EP for free.
 “Beer, Cigarettes, You and Whisky”.
[jj]

Matt & Kim ‘Lets Go’
Exuberant dance-pop from the Brooklyn based boy/girl duo.

[Matt & Kim]

Divine Fits ‘My Love Is Real’
Indie ‘supergroup’ featuring Spoon’s Britt Daniel, Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade / Handsome Furs) and Sam Brown (New Bomb Turks). This sounds very much like a cross between Daniel and Boeckner’s other bands.

[Divine Fits]

Stars ‘The Theory of Relativity’
Literate indie with 80s electronic pop vibe from the Toronto band’s forthcoming. Download for free on their website.

[Stars]

Mungolian Jetset presents Jaga Jazzist vs. Knights of Jumungus ‘Toccata’
Norwegian space disco.

[Mungolian Jetset]

Alpine ‘Gasoline’
Easylistening synth-pop from Melbourne six-piece follows up the more strident ‘Hands’ (featured back on ITP #4).
[Alpine]

Yeasayer ‘Longevity’
Second track to be lifted from the band’s forthcoming third album ‘Fragrant World’. Minimal, lots of autotuned vocals, some north African flavoured strings and a few synths over an insistent rhythm.

[Yeasayer]

Dark Dark Dark ‘Tell Me’
The sound of Regina Spektor meeting Beach House from Minneapolis band who have previously blended a folky Americana sound with New Orleans Jazz.
[Dark Dark Dark]

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion ‘Black Mold’
It gladdens the heart that JSBX are still making explosive garage blues rock n’ roll records over 20 years down the line. This one is from their first new album in eight years, the forthcoming ‘Meat & Bones’
[Jon Spencer Blues Explosion]

Thee Oh Sees ‘Lupine Dominus’
Here the veteran San Francisco psych pop band sound like Can playing a freeform version of ‘My Sharona’.

[Thee Oh Sees]

Foxygen ‘Waitin’ 4 U’
Remember that terrible cover of ‘Dancing In The Street’ for Live Aid? Instead, imagine that Jagger and Bowie had collaborated back in 1971 when they were both at a creative peak. It might have sounded a bit like this.

[Foxygen]

Dignan Porch ‘Sad Shape’

Lo-fi psych-tinged indie with a lazy vibe and some laidback acid guitar soloing
.
[Dignan Porch]

Chris Cohen ‘Caller No.99’
More of that 60s-refracted-through-the-80s shambling indie psych-pop from sometime Deerhoof multi-instrumentalist.
[Chris Cohen]

Cold Showers ‘Double Life’
A cover of the track from The Cars’ ‘Candy-O’ album by this Los Angeles band with a fondness for the darker side of early 80s new wave.

[Double Life]

Barbara Morgenstern ‘Spring Time’
Veteran Berlin-based electronic musician sings in English on this slice of electronic pop with (given the title) a suitable pastoral medieval folk motif at its heart.

[Barbara Morgenstern]

The Antlers ‘Drift Drive’
Chilled out indie with mournful horns and Hawaiian guitar.

[The Antlers]

Today’s second cloudcast brings it up to date with the 16 best new tracks I’ve heard over the last couple of weeks. Superchunk have a killer summer anthem, Cat Power returns with the best track she’s done in years, The New Pornographers cover Fleetwood Mac and there are healthy doses of electronica, indie, dreampop, 80s influenced pop, 60s influenced pop, and more Canadians than you can shake a stick at.
  

Superchunk ‘This Summer’
Indie rock of the highest calibre from Chapel Hill’s finest. Although it’s pretty much winter here in Australia, there’s always time for a great summer song. And this is one of the greatest – certainly my favourite summer lyric.
[Superchunk]

Cat Power ‘Ruin’
This is the Cat Power that I love, idiosyncratic and not trying to be anyone but herself. Back to her Moonpix / You Are Free peak. Some great guitar playing, an insistent piano riff, driving percussion and that voice with a refrain you can’t get out of your head.
[Cat Power]

The New Pornographers ‘Think About Me’
Carl Newman and co take an OK Lindsay Buckingham Fleetwood Mac song from Tusk and turn it into power pop brilliance. Can’t wait to hear the rest of this Fleetwood Mac tribte album featuring the likes of Lee Ranaldo w/ J Mascis, The Kills, St Vincent w/ Craig Wedren, Tame Impala and Best Coast
[New Pornographers]

Wild Nothing ‘Shadow’
Lush pop with an 80s textural rock feel – almost like something from The Church circa Heyday.
[Wild Nothing]

Heavenly Beat ‘Tradition’
John Pena from Beach Fossils side project. Very polished catchy 80s pop.
[Heavenly Beat]

Weird Dreams ‘House of Secrets’
This is the other side to the split 7” with Girls Names’ A Troubled See that was featured back in In The Pharmacy #9. A much more laidback beast from this London band.
[Weird Dreams]

Opossom ‘Blue Meanies’
A shuffling ‘Young Folks’-like beat on this none more 60s tune from New Zealander Kody ‘Mint Chicks / Unknown Mortal Orchestra’ Nielsen’s psych-pop outfit.
[Opossom]

Levek ‘Black Mold Grow’
The 60s vibe continues with this utterly charming baroque / sunshine pop meets Mercury Rev tune from Gainesville, Florida native David Levesque.
[Levek]

Dirty Projectors ‘Dance For You’
No polyphonic female vocals but plenty of handclaps, west-african influenced guitar noodling and a touch of Brian Wilson from David Longstreth and co. Understated and a real grower.
[Dirty Projectors]

Matthew E White ‘One of These Days’
Hints of Bon Iver, The National and even The Beta Band, plus a definite New Orleans vibe on this track from this Richmond, Virginia based artist. You can tell it’s something special straight away, but it’s appeal grows with each listen as you begin to notice everything that is going on in this wonderfully arranged tune.
[Matthew E White]

Daydream Vacation ‘Dare Seize The Fire’
Bright and shiny electro pop from Dave Einmo of Head Like a Kite and Asya formerly of Smoosh.
[Daydream Vacation]

Purity Ring ‘Fineshrine’
Second In The Pharmacy appearance from the Montreal based electronic duo after April’s Obedear appeared in ITP #8. This manages to be both sweet and creepy. Their debut album is due out on 4AD in July.
[Purity Ring]

LOL Boys ‘GetClose to Me’ ft Angelina Lucero
Another Montreal-based electronic artist to go with that? Certainly. Jerome Potter and Markus Garcia are the terribly named LOL Boys and this is their insanely catchy new single featuring Chicagoan chanteuse Angelina Lucero.
[LOL Boys]

Eaux ‘No More Power’
Synth minimalism with a lovely bassline. This is the b-side to the London based three-piece’s debut single ‘Luther’.
[Eaux]

Port St. Willow ‘Amawalk’
This is just fantastic. Dreamy, layered ambience with a little bit of The National at their most melancholy reaches from Brooklyn based Nick Principe. There’s a whole album of his stuff over on Bandcamp.

[Port St. Willow]

Willits + Sakamoto ‘Completion’
Instrumental from San Franciscan guitarist/ electronic musician Christopher Willets and legendary Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto “tranquil ambience, lush piano chords and beautiful, elongated guitar tones”.
[Willits + Sakamoto]

The first of two Cloudcasts I’m uploading today, #10 recaps the best songs I heard back round the beginning of June.  This one starts off with a track that encapsulates the best of that certain NYC sound circa 78-82, a healthy dose of electronic and groove based music, some classic feel indie pop, indie rock, power pop, and influences from folk, blues, shoegaze and more. As usual. I always try and link to the artists official site or somewhere you can legally download the track.

Friends ‘Home’
This is my favourite track so far from these Brooklyn hipsters. This manages to sound very now while still shamelessly tapping 30 year old influences (specifically, ESG and Tom Tom Club). Recommended if you like the former two bands or LCD Soundsystem.
[Friends]

Beat Connection ‘The Palace Garden 4am’
Neat segue! This Seattle band are presumably named after the LCD Soundsystem single. This is a nice slice of feel good electronica which should appeal to Friendly Fires fans.
[Beat Connection]
 
Matthew Dear ‘Her Fantasy’
This is the second In The Pharmacy appearance for Matthew Dear (he featured back in January with ‘In The Middle’). To these ears, this has a lot of late 80s / early 90s influences in it’s use of samples, beats and an almost Electronic Body Music / light industrial feel (esp. in the dispassionate vocals) but mainly it sounds like an Andy Weatherall production circa-Screamadelica.
[Matthew Dear]

Mozart’s Sister ‘Don’t Leave It To Me’
retro electro-pop from Montreal’s Caila Thompson-Hannant. Clearly inamoured of Prince’s 80s productions, especially ‘When Doves Cry’ (no bad thing).
[Mozart’s Sister]

Moons ‘Bloody Mouth’
Sounds very French; like a moodier, dreamier Phoenix – but actually the work of Atlanta based Patrick Canaday who I believe previously recorded as Music Mountain.
[Moons]

Family Band ‘Moonbeams’
Don’t know much about this Brooklyn-based bad but love that this dreamy tune reminds me of a folkier, Tresspassers William.
[Family Band]

Seapony ‘What You Wanted’
That’s a fairly indie name right there. Classic bright 80s influenced indie-pop from the Pacific North West
[Seapony]

Eternal Summers ‘Wonder’
Their track ‘Millions’ was featured only a couple of Cloudcasts back, but this mix of female voiced indiepop and early Cure resonates with a man of my vintage. A little bit of magic in under three minutes.
[Eternal Summers]

Young Guv and the Scuzz ‘Heal Over Time’
I’m a sucker for power pop when it’s done this well. Ben Cook of Fucked Up is the Young Guv (previously Young Governor) in question and this is just joyous.
[Young Guv]
 
Redd Kross ‘Researching The Blues’
Reunited with their Neurotica / Third Eye-era line up featuring Robert Hecker on guitar, this is the title track of the band’s forthcoming album, their first in 15 years. Crunching, post-grunge garage pop.
[Redd Kross]

Grizzly Bear ‘Sleeping Ute’
This manages to connect with so many touch points and still sound cohesive. A few hints at the the sort of primitive electronica that so many other acts on the Warp label reference but mainly post-rock with a strong current of Led Zep blues/folk (although Edward Droste’s vocal is a million miles away from Robert Plant’s). A real grower and just the right side of massively pretentious.
[Grizzly Bear]

Laetitia Sadier ‘Find Me The Pulse of The Universe’
I haven’t been following the progress of Laetitia Sadier since Stereolab went on hiatus a few years back. This though, seems to be Sadier distilled down to her essence. The instrumentation and arrangement is faultless, the vocals all warm but slightly aloof in the way only a francophone singing in English can be, and less than three minutes long.
[Laetitia Sadier]

Calexico ‘Para’
The Veteran Americana duo went from their home of Arizona to New Orleans to record their forthcoming album Algiers. This is slow bluesy number with Joey Burns vocals at their most brooding.
[Calexico]