TV Girl/Dirty Gold split single

TV Girl and Dirty Gold have just released a split single; you can download the MP3s for free over at TV Girl's facebook page, as well as their awesome EP. The single features the two bands covering each other, with TVG tackling DG's 'Overboard' and DG remaking TG's 'On Land'. The cover of 'Overboard' sees TVG add their characteristic heavy hip hop beats whilst retaining the original's essentially summery flavours, while DG reduce 'On Land' to a more simplistic, shimmering effort than the bombastic original. The collaboration is definitely interesting, both bands usually have similar content in terms of the whole surfy, beachy vibe but make music with fundamentally different approaches, so it's cool to see how well the re-workings slot in with each other.

TV Girl - Overboard (Dirty Gold cover)

Young Dreams

Young Dreams is a big group of musicians from Bergen in Norway; they describe the music they make as 'Tropical Pop'. Their eponymous single 'Young Dreams' is a pretty sweet ode to the joys of being youthful; smooth, jazzy synths filter in over echoey, thin (slightly Brian Wilson-y?) vocals and muted percussion, as well as some really exotic sounding rhythms. The video's really cool too, it plays out a bit like Home Alone but an affluent, Norwegian version with better behaved children. There's another cool track on the single release too, 'Flight 376', which is a slightly more percussion heavy jam, with lots of cowbell action haha. 

Young Dreams - Young Dreams

Young Dreams - Flight 376

Cults

Cults are Brian Oblivion and Madeline Follin from NYC; they had a track 'Go Outside' which Pitchfork were championing a while ago, and they've now got a debut album scheduled for release in May on Columbia/In The Name Of. They're released 'You Know What I Mean' as the first single from the LP; it's brilliantly downbeat navel-gazing, which explodes sporadically into life with bursts of guitar and percussion.

Cults - You Know What I Mean

The Dø

The Dø (pronounced 'dough', apparently) are a French/Finnish band, consisting of singer Olivia Merilahti and

multi-instrumentalist Dan Levy. They had an album out in '08 called 'A Mouthful', and released the follow up 'Both Ways Open Jaws' on March 7th of this year. Merilahti's vocals are really satisfyingly crisp and sickly sweet; Levy lays them over a variety of different sounds and instruments but their music generally tends to keep a tender, folksy vibe, with occasionally more intense emotional undertones and playful lyrics. I've put up 'Too Insistent' from BWOJ as well as 'Stay (Just a Little Bit More)' from AM. 

The Do - Too Insistent

The Do - Stay (Just a Little Bit More)

Ford & Lopatin

Ford & Lopatin is a collaboration between Daniel Lopatin and Joel Ford, with the duo previously being known as 'Games'; they have an album, 'Channel Pressure', out on June 7th on Software Recordings. The first track released from it is the jazz-funk tinged 'Emergency Room', which sounds massively like Depeche Mode circa Master and Servant but with more effeminate vocals.

Ford & Lopatin - Emergency Room

Craft Spells

Craft Spells is Justin Paul Vallestoros; he's just realeased his debut LP, 'Idle Labor', on Captured Tracks and it's pretty sweet. He takes the poppy aspects of New Wave and warps it a little, adding tropical flavour by blending in sun-drenched, jangly melodies and blocky percussion. I really like the twinkling, playful 'After the Moment', which has had an awesome video made by Tyler Williams, the guy who makes a lot of Coma Cinema's videos, and the echoey crooning of 'Party Talk'.

Craft Spells - After the Moment

Craft Spells - Party Talk

Dum Dum Girls

Dum Dum Girls have made an awesome video for their single, 'He Gets Me High' (out on SubPop); it's extremely flowery haha.

Dum Dum Girls - He Gets Me High