Spike Jonze commissioned Karen O, frontwoman of Yeah Yeah Yeahs to put together the original score for his big-screen adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are. She soon set about recruiting an army of helpers: fellow YYY members Brian Chase and Nick Zinner are on board, as is Deerhunter/Atlas Sound fellow Bradford Cox, plus Jack Lawrence and Dean Fertita of Dead Weather / The Raconteurs, Liars’ Aaron Hemphill and Lily Allen production fame. Pfew, what a line–up! The result is a beautiful and really sweet soundtrack that can easily be listened to outside the context of the movie.

We’ve mentioned AU before here at Indie Thursday. And we’ve good reason for doing so. The band played a magnificent show at Incubate 2009. From their first note on, it immediately was apparent that AU live is a completely other experience than AU on an album. When playing live, songs tend to be built up around suspense and rhythm rather than melody and atmosphere. What we’re getting at is that the band just released a new EP capturing this live sound. It’s called Versions and it’s a lot more energetic and louder than their other releases, while maintaining their pretty melodies. It’s recommended!

Last but definitely not least are The Renderers. Hailing form Christchurch, New Zealand, this band formed in 1989. They’ve got the whole psychedelic 60’s sound going on, but in an utterly good way! With great songs to match their great tunes, this band already measures itself a cult status, and definitely deserves more praise than they’re getting right now. Make sure to catch their new album, Monsters and Miasmas.

Definitely one of the bands that stood out is The Drums. From their biography: “We only write about two feelings: one is the first day of summer when you and all of your friends are standing on the edge of a cliff watching the sun set and being overcome with all of your hopes and dreams at once. The other is when you’re walking alone in the rain and realize you will be alone forever.” So what does it sound like? Think a very nonchalant New Order, or Kings of Convenience on speed. Hard to imagine, so just listen. They’ve got great hooks.

Girls is a band from San Francisco started by Christopher Owens and Chet “JR” White in 2007. The band’s lead singer, Christopher Owens, is a former member of the Children of God cult. Chris was also formerly a part of Holy Shit with Ariel Pink. How’s that for a biography? Excited? Give them a spin!

Internal conflicts nearly kept Headlights third offering from seeing the light of day. After scrapping the previous sessions and a departure of a member, these Champagne, Illinois indie sensations are slated to release ‘Wildlife’ on October 6th. We’re glad they’ll be doing so, because the album has a great vibrant, soothing feel to it.

Sub Pop founder Jonathan Poneman started the new record label Hardly Art now two years ago. Since then he’s been putting out some great records. Our favorite is Don’t Be A Stranger by Seattle band The Moondoggies. Le Loup is doing a great job on their second LP Family and is topping The Moondoggies with it. It’s containing wonderful indie pop music with sweet melodies. Just like Animal Collective, one of Le Loup’s big influences, they made a record with family as a main topic. The harmonic pop music of Le Loup is extremely recommended to fans of Grizzly Bear!

From Seattle, but not on Sub Pop nor on Hardly Art, is another good indie band Throw Me The Statue. The quartet just released their sophomore album last month. Suprisingly Creaturesque is getting some bad reviews. The main reason is that it’s not as good as their first effort. It’s hard not to agree with that. But still Creaturesque is a record full of very well crafted indie pop songs. It takes some time to really get into the songs, but after a few listens it’s getting better and better. It’s far from brilliant, but a lot better than most reviews tell you!

As you know Fever Ray, Karin Dreijer Andersson of The Knife,  is one of the best things Sweden has to offer. Her new single from her selftitled debut  is called Seven. Just like her previous videos this one is absolutely amazing (via Pitchfork):

With our festival coming next week, we probably won’t have time to look for new indie music ourselves. So for next week it’s up to you!  Which new indie music do we really need to check out?

We started with the amazing record Hard For Justice by Incubate-artist Bronnt Industries Kapital. It’s just one Guy (yes, that is his name!) from Bristol who made the perfect modern electronic krautrock record earlier this year.  Great music for everybody who likes Neu!, Kraftwerk, New Order, Trentemøller, etc.. Tijs from our marketing department said it reminded him of Jon & Vangelis, Alan Parsons Project, Jan Hammer, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Andreas Vollenweider. You can decide for yourself if you agree with him. Listen to some of the songs of one of this years best electronic records via Bronnt’s myspace site.

One of our favorite bands ever is Silver Apples. These pioneers made their first electronic record back in 1968! They were a big influence on both krautrock and electronic music. One of the most amazing efforts of Silver Apples was their use of “nine audio oscillators piled on top of each other and eighty-six manual controls to control lead, rhythm and bass pulses with hands, feet and elbows”. Brilliant music, far ahead of its time!

Some other great records we played today are Monster Movie by Can, Neu! 75 by Neu! and Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To by Spacemen 3.

Is it just us, or are there more good records by female singers this year? Soap&Skin, Fever Ray, Micachu & The Shapes, jj, Laleh, St. Vincent, Bat For Lashes, just to name few. Another really good one comes from English singer Florence Welch with her band Florence + The Machine. Only 23 years old, she made a pretty good and diverse record. We would call her the younger and more interesting sister of Ida Maria. She may be a little bit less rock ‘n roll by also showing her sensitive side, but that’s particularly what is so adorable about Florence + The Machine.

There’s one woman we like even better this week. You know her from the great Swedish indie band The Concretes and also as the girl who sings on Young Folks by Peter, Bjorn & John. Victoria Bergsman’s solo project is called Taken By Trees. She is known for her cover version of Sweet Child O Mine. That one is quite good, but not as great as her take on Animal Collective’s My Girls. She sings it as My Boys. It’s on her new album East Of Eden, that she recorded in Pakistan with local musicians. Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox can also be heard on the song Anna. Food for lovers of sweet indie pop with some uncommon instrumentation!

That’s the female music for this week. Time for some ‘masculine’ music now! The 15th In The Fishtank release is coming on september 15th:

In The Fishtank is an ever ongoing project of Konkurrent, independent music distributor in the Netherlands. In this collection Konkurrent invites musicians to whom they feel strongly related to record. They are given two days studio time and freedom to do whatever they like musically.
The Fishtank offers a space for expression and experimentation, results may vary but are always surprising.

Newest In The Fishtank release will be the collab of Sparklehorse and Fennesz. The record is containing typical instrumental Fennesz-pieces, but also the beautiful Mark Linkous song If My Heart, to which Christian Fennesz adds his awesome sounds. In The Fishtank 15 is a great collaboration of two of the best artists from the last 15 years.

So that’s what you’re gonna do at  friday night, but for you indie fans there’s a lot more going on. Especially in the X-Ray there’s gonna be some really cool acts. These are some of our favorite indie acts on Lowlands:

HEALTH
American fourpiece no wave and noiserock band. The best band in the Motel Mozaique festival earlier this year.

KNALPOT
The only band on Lowlands that is also playing Incubate in september. Amazing Dutch noise and electronic improvisation duo.

GRIZZLY BEAR
One of the best bands on the Haldern Pop festival in Germany last week. Experimental folk pop of the highest quality, with three amazing singers.

WILCO
Biggest name in this list. As indie fan you already know Wilco, cause they´re making important records since 1995. Their new record called Wilco (The Album) is another great effort.

GANG GANG DANCE
One of the most interesting bands on the festival. Coming from the Brooklyn-scene, where they used to share a practice space with Black Dice and Animal Collective. Psychedelic noise combined with hiphop, eastern and african influences. Awesome band!

MICACHU & THE SHAPES
Young girl called Mica Levi, makes very experimental pop music. She’s using all kinds of selfmade instruments for her raw yet poppy songs.

FANFARLO
London based band combining indie and folk in a good way. They’re not only using the basic instruments but also mandolin, banjo, sax, clarinet, melodica and singing saw.

FEVER RAY
Fever Ray is the solo project of Karin Dreijer Andersson from The Knife. Her show was also one of the highlights of Motel Mozaique. It’s not just the music, the visuals are also marvelous. Dark electronic pop music as it should be.

ROLO TOMASSI
Posthardcore / screamo from Sheffield. Fans of Blood Brothers and At The Drive-In really have to check this band out. Amazing female singer by the way!

CRYSTAL ANTLERS
Psychedelic stoner, hardrock, punk, soul  and experimental garage rock. That’s what the great Crystal Antlers bring! There’s only one problem: they’re playing at same time as the mighty HEALTH.

And there’s some more great stuff! How about bands that played ZXZW before? Kap Bambino, The Madd, Ceephax Acid Crew and Elle Bandita for example. Have fun at Lowlands and make sure you’ll be there on friday: Lima 23.00!

Lo-fi noise and weird pop one man band Daniel Francis Doyle has been making music for almost ten years, both solo and with his band When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth. His third solo record We Bet Our Money On You came out earlier this year on We Shot JR. It’s containing lo-fi pop songs that fans of Jonathan Richman, Pavement and The Robot Ate Me probably would like. The main instrument of Daniel Francis Doyle are the drums, to which he adds some guitar loops and vocals. His remarkable songwriting does the rest.

From the north of Sweden comes this nice little record label called Häleri. Their goal is to release good indie music from local acts. In case you didn’t know: in Sweden there are a LOT of great local acts. One of the first releases on Häleri is Lars Ludvig Löfgren’s second record called Heterochromia. Löfgren sounds like an indierock Neil Young, or a more jangly Evan Dando. His music isn’t really edgy, but the songs are well crafted and make you want to listen to them over and over again. Download one of the songs of Heterochromia for free at Bandcamp.

Today we’ve got some big names in  indie music for you! How about My Morning Jacket’s singer Jim James, who calls himself Yim Yames on his new record? He provides us with beautiful stripped down versions of George Harrison songs on the EP Tribute To. This is how we like Yim Yames the best. Sober, intense and fragile. We can’t believe how My Morning Jacket changed in the years. From the fantastic The Tennessee Fire and At Dawn to the rather poor Evil Urges from last year. Since Tribute To was recorded in 2001, the sound of it can be compared to At Dawn from the same year.

Another famous indie musician who made a solo record is Interpol’s Paul Banks. He thought he was so famous that he needed an alter ego. Under the moniker Julian Plenti he recorded eleven songs that might even be appreciated by people who were annoyed by Interpol’s unchanging sound. The songs on ‘Julian Plenti is … Skyscraper’ are very different from each other. It results in a somewhat unbalanced record, that has it’s few moments of beauty.

We’re also listening to the ‘new’ Modest Mouse record today, that is characteristically named No One’s First and You’re Next. Although we haven’t heard these songs before, you can’t really call them new, since they’re some leftovers from their last two records We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank and Good News For People Who Love Bad News. Fortunately it doesn’t sound like a leftover album. In more than a half hour you get 8 pretty good Modest Mouse songs.  Modest Mouse isn’t as great as in their early days, but we don’t think anybody counts on that anymore since Good News For People Who Love Bad News. The late Heath Ledger directed an animation video for the song King Rat

Today we’re listening to new stuff from the great band Caspian, that will perform on Incubate at september 20th. Caspian are one of todays best post-rock bands. Mainly because they break away from some of the cliches post-rock is about nowadays. Still they’ve got these amazing atmospheric tracks that slowly take you and get heavier and heavier. The new Caspian record called Tertia is coming out in august, look forward to it,  it’s really good! Check out the new tune ‘Of Foam and Wave’  here. People that know the trick of google, might find a (crappy sounding) leak of the album.

Another band we’re really proud of to have them on Incubate is Blues Control. Blues Control is Russ Waterhouse and Lea Cho, who make some very delicate psychedelic music on their fantastic new record. Third album ‘Local Flavor’ came out last week. In only four tracks, together lasting thirtyfive minutes, they take you on a trip with some ambient, krautrock and lo-fi electronics. They sound like some band from the seventies residing in Germany, where Cluster, Tangerine Dream, David Bowie and Popol Vuh made some of the best records in history. For Blues Control, it’s their most accessible record to date. Go check ‘em out on Incubate!

The last band we’ve got for you is more the indie you’d expect when reading the word indie. The popular combination of indie and folk music, that’s dominating some parts of the mainstream music press. The band Noah and The Whale has been compared to a lot of bands that do this. Belle & Sebastian, Okkervil River, Beirut and Bill Callahan to name a few. Noah and The Whale’s sound is bit lighter and catchier than some of these bands though. With temperatures like this, the music on their just leaked record ‘The First Days of Spring’ comes in very handy.

One of the most amazing bands coming from New York is the collective called Zs. Since 2000 they’re making avant-garde records with both no wave, free jazz , noiserock and krautrock influences. Their sound might be somewhere between James Chance, Zu, Terry Riley and Can. The band is both known for their chamber music and their wilder, sometimes unmerciful sound. Nowadays they are a trio and they have just put out a 12 inch called Music Of The Modern White, on which you can hear their more drony and noisy side. Check this cool footage of one of their recent live performances.

Something completely different than Zs, but just as intriguing, is the weird sound collage pop outfit The Bran Flakes. Their two main members are Otis Fodder and Mildredd Pitt, but they’ve contributors from all over the world. Just like someone as Girl Talk, The Bran Flakes’ music is making heavy use of samples from very different sources. Mainly old tv shows, video games and old music. Since 1998 they’ve been putting out music. Their current record I Have Hands is the first one on Illegal Art, the label on which Girl Talk puts out his mashup records. Even more fun than the songs of The Bran Flakes are their astounding videos. Check this one out and some more on their youtube-channel!

After two some slightly strange bands it’s time now for some real indie music. On their new record Time To Die that leaked last week The Dodos is getting more accessible than on Visiter. After seeing one of their shows last year, we could already expect that. They hired a third guy, resulting in a more full sound. Plus, their new songs are more pop than ever, with some really catchy melodies, but still with the interesting percussive elements. It proves, that it’s always good to have a metal drummer in an indie band. You can stream the new Dodos album at Timetodie.net.

Sun Araw, consisting of Magic Lantern guitar player Cameron Stallones, just released one of the best records of 2009 so far.  Just like Magic Lantern, Sun Araw is heavily influenced by Spaceman 3, Faust and Amon Düül II. This third record Heavy Deeds isn’t exactly suitable for the average indie kid, but if you like psychedelic and drony music like Sunburned Hand Of The Man and Pocahaunted you MUST check out Sun Araw.

Here at the Incubate office we are big fans of Will Oldham. Some of us at least. But when he released his new record ‘Beware’ under his Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy moniker earlier this year, we were a little bit disappointed. It’s not the masterpiece we were hoping for. But look, there’s Jason Molina’s band Magnolia Electric Co. with an album that’s a lot better. The record called Josephine, coming out in two weeks, isn’t a masterpiece either, but it’s definitely worth a listen. It’s a bit more intimate than some of the earlier work of Magnolia Electric Co., but it also has a richer instrumentation. Songs available for free download: Josephine and Little Sad Eyes.

The last two years in indie music are dominated by Pitchfork favourites like Beirut, Andrew Bird and Arcade Fire. A band that combines the sound of these artists is the London based Fanfarlo. On their debut album Reservoir, recorded with Interpol producer Peter Katis, you can hear a broad instrumentation containing among others mandolin, banjo, sax, clarinet, melodica and singing saw. Reservoir was available as a download for only 1$. Sad news though: the experiment is over. Now you have to pay 6 bucks for the dowload, or only 8 for the cd. Make sure you get to know them before Pitchfork does, cause if they do, we guess the prices will rise.

Portugal. The Man is a typical indie band. Sweet melodies: check! Some Arcade Fire-like drama: check! Dreamy vocals: check! Folk influences: check! So why do they call their new record The Satanic Satanists if they’re indie as fuck? Maybe it’s just that they’re from Alaska? Also a very good reason of course, to name their band after Portugal. Nowadays though, they’re living in the capital of indie music: Portland. You can hear that. If you like bands like Modest Mouse, The Shins, Fleet Foxes and Arcade Fire, make sure you’re gonna check out Portugal. The Man on the free Metropolis festival this weekend.

Speaking of stupid record titles. The new record of Danish band Mew is called:

No more stories
Are told today
I’m sorry
They washed away

No more stories
The world is grey
I’m tired
Let’s Wash away

Pretentious, isn’t it? We’re glad they’re putting out an EP now, with a much shorter name. It’s just called No More Stories and contains 5 new songs including 2 songs that will make their forthcoming LP with the dubious long title. Don’t worry Mew, that long name is okay, as long as the music on it is as good as the progressive yet poppy indie music you give us on this EP.

Last but not least, a band on one of our favourite labels: the LA based In The Red Records. The label is known for it’s excellent taste in good garage bands, such as Jay Reatard, Black Lips and The Dirtbombs. One of their newest signings is Blank Dogs, a guy called Mike Sniper from Brooklyn, New York. On his great record Under and Under, Blank Dogs combines the noisy garage pop of his labelmates Vivian Girls (doing some background singing) and Crystal Stilts (playing some notes) with the sounds of postpunk and new wave.

Got any other indie tips for us? Please comment!

Lord Cut-Glass is the new vessel of Alun Woodward, formerly singer of Scottish band The Delgados. His first solo album is released this week on Chemikal Underground. If you’ve heard The Delgados earlier, this one will probably strike you as more upbeat and cheerful than its predecessor. Lord Cut-Glass is an album full with rich arrangements and nice pop tunes.

Scuzzy noise-rock three-piece Future of the Left features members of Mclusky and Jarcrew. When both these band fell apart, FOTL was born. Their debut album Curses was released in the fall of 2007. A live album, 2008′s Last Night I Saved Her from Vampires, became the band’s 4AD debut; early the following year, the single The Hope That House Built signalled Future of the Left’s heavier attack on their second album, Travels with Myself and Another, which arrived a little while ago.

White Denim is a bluesy, garage-rock trio, hailing from Austin, Texas. Their new album Fits fuses together garage rock, dub, soul, country, post-punk, blues, psychedelic and folk with home-based recording, intense looping work and unusual song structures. A very inventive threesome, Fits is an album you should really hear, definitely one of the best surprises this week.

Tinkering about somewhere between the earthy and the ethereal, Sweet Billy Pilgrim scrape strings and tap away at laptops trying to make beautiful things with steady hands and empty pockets. A track of their latest album, Twice Born Men, was already featured on the Wire Tapper 21, and this is probably indie at its best. Ian Mathers of Stylus wrote, “Sweet Billy Pilgrim’s debut album has swallowed me whole.” That’s even more likely with Twice Born Men, a richer, sadder, and even more engrossing experience.

Conceived in San Francisco in 1998, Iran began as the four-track bedroom-recording project of singer and multi-instrumentalist Aaron Aites. Aites released Iran’s self-titled debut in 2000, and after that Kyp Malone (TV on the Radio’s guitarist) became a member of this band. The pop songs lying underneath all the noise have been polished up a lot better (probably also thanks to the production of TVOTR’s David Sitek). The new album, Dissolver, was released earlier this year and we took it for a spin a couple of times this week. We suggest you do so too.

Thanks to the great Bolachas Grátis blog, we’ve discovered the Daytrotter Sessions this week. Check this out: “Daytrotter is a recording studio with a website. We invite musicians to our studio, record their songs, and give (give, as in “for free, no strings attached”) them to you, from our website. Simple. Of course, if you’re here you probably already knew that. Please tell your friends. There are plenty of songs for everyone.” And if you don’t believe that last part, take a look at their impressive archive. It includes bands like Akron/Family, Fleet Foxes, Fucked Up, Grizzly Bear, The National, Spoon etc. etc. etc. That’ll get you through the rest of the week!

Got any other indie tips for us? Please comment!

Oneida’s Rated O is another massive indie release from the great Jagjaguwar label. And by massive we mean MASSIVE. It’s a triple album and the second instalment of Oneida’s much-anticipated “Thank Your Parents” triptych of releases. In August of 2008 Oneida released the first instalment, Preteen Weaponry, and now, Rated O, the centrepiece of the “Thank Your Parents” trilogy, has been bestowed upon us. It’s full of experimental and spherical songs, some them reaching up to 10 or even 20 minutes. Take your time for them, it’s an experience. Expect a lot more great releases from Jagjaguwar the coming months, they’ve also got Dinosaur Jr., Sunset Rubdown and Lightning Dust coming up.

Richard Swift just released his fourth album, The Atlantic Ocean, but it somehow managed to escape our attention. We do want to spend some attention to it, though, because the album consists of great Beatlesque pop songs. This time ‘round, Swift seems to have experimented with some other instruments like organ and electronics.

And of course we wouldn’t want to forget old favourites Rancid. They just released their new album Let the Dominoes Fall, and it’s great so see they’ve still got the magic. The album is loaded with straightforward energetic punk anthems. Check it out, for old times sake.

Deastro (Randolph Chabot Jr.)’s new album Moondagger is truly great. It combines a nice synthypop sound with great songs that get stuck in your head immediately. You could maybe compare it with acts like MGMT and School of Seven Bells. All the music is made in Randolph’s Detroit basement with the help of sampled children’s toys and synthesizers.

Bowerbirds are Beth Tacular, Phil Moore and Mark Paulson from North Carolina. They make leafy folk-pop with guitars, accordions and violins. Not sure this is indie as you’d probably expect from us in this section, but it’s just beautiful. Bowerbirds are set to release their second album, Upper Air on Dead Oceans this July.

One of the members of Sunset Rubdown is Spencer Krug. You might know this guy from bands like Frog Eyes, Swan Lake and/or Wolf Parade. They’re all great bands. And so is this one. The new album, Dragonslayer, might take some time to sink in, but it’s definitely worth it. Very ingenious indiepop with catchy hooks (as you might expect).

Another thing swarming the internet is Animal Collective’s Animal Crack Box that’s been talked about for years. It’s a vinyl-only box set limited to 1000 copies. The Animal Crack Box covers different live performances from the band from 2000 till 2003.

Got any other indie tips for us? Please comment!

Hi there & welcome to another post of the best indie tips you can get anywhere! Think you can beat this? We’d like to see you try! This week’s indie favourites at the office are:

Named after the main character of a novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk called Karakter, Katadreuffe were truly one of the best surprises this week. Musically, Katadreuffe incorporates elements from post-hardcore, noise, shoegaze, post-punk and pop. And they’re from Amsterdam. Always nice to discover some new home made indie. But the fun doesn’t stop here. Their first EP entitled Quel Gargantua! is available as a free download right here. If you love it, buy it though, because the physical CD release comes packaged in a really nice handmade sleeve.

BLK JKS is a four-piece from Johannesburg. They call their music ‘afro avant noise rock’, which paints the picture pretty well. Formed in 2003, early BLK JKS shows and recordings we remarkable for their stacks of guitar drone and head nodding beats. In June 2007 BLK JKS released a handful of songs as a limited edition CD EP that was quickly snapped up by hardcore fans and knowing collectors. Lakeside is an excellent EP. First released in November 2007, it is now being reissued by Secretly Canadian.

Interpol’s singer Paul Banks will be releasing a solo album later this year. We were not really sure what to expect when we first heard about it. We do like Interpol, but the different side-projects of the members of the band (like Magnetic Morning) didn’t really convince us. This week a first song of Julian Plenti (Banks’ alias) was posted and it doesn’t sound all that bad, actually. To be honest, it sounds a lot like a younger, more playful brother of Interpol. Find the song called ‘Fun That We Have’ here.

Lastly, Sleepy Sun seem to be the media’s new favourite. And for a reason. The debut album Embrace from this young San Francisco sextet can be summarized as West Coast hypnotic and psychedelic rock. They even have an ‘interpretative dancer’ (remember them?) onstage, being singer Rachel Williams. It’s a combo between Black Mountain, Black Sabbath and The Doors. If that doesn’t get you listening, we don’t know what will.

See you next week!

Wilco will release 30 June his new album titled: ‘Wilco’. But you can already listen to it here!

Recommended on this Indie thursday.

(via)

Grimy, goth-tinged punk rockers The Horrors just released their second album, Primary Colours. They seem to have left behind the obvious common garage rock of Strange House, sounding a bit shoegaze, yet more urgent than ever. They also seem to have found a golden combination, hauling in Chris Cunningham and Geoff Barrow from Portishead as producers.

We thought it was an April 1st joke when Pitchfork reported of a mysterious collaboration between Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse and David Lynch. Turns out it wasn’t. Titled Dark Night of the Soul, it’s a lot more than just an album, having to do something with a book and an art installation. Anyway, there are a lot of cool names featured on the album, like Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne, Iggy Pop, Frank Black, the Strokes’ Julian Casablancas, Jason Lytle, and James Mercer of the Shins. It’s a beautiful piece of indiepop.

We suggested Dirty Projectors to you a couple weeks ago. Angel Deradoorian is one of their members, and she is set to release her mellow EP Mind Raft this week. Finally: you’ve probably already heard the new Grizzly Bear album, called Veckamist. We just have to take a moment here to say it’s one of the best albums of the year. That’s it.

Any other suggestions? Please comment, we can’t get enough of the good stuff!

As long as we’re waiting for that new My Bloody Valentine record, we’ll keep ourselves busy listening to the new Japandroids album. It’s called Post-Nothing, which is of course an über-cool name. Japandroids is a two piece band from Vancouver, BC. Like you guessed, it’s shoegaze, it’s noise, but it’s melodic. As their Last.fm page says: “They call it garage rock. They don’t care what you call it, as long as it’s not minimal.”

The Love Language just released their (self-titled) first album, sounding contemporary but aged at the same time. Probably has to with the lo-fi outfit they tailored themselves into. Their record was recorded, written and produced in a storage space by frontman Stu McLamb alone on an old four-track

We were not sure what to expect from the new Maccabees album. To be honest, we didn’t really think too much of it. The more surprised we were when we heard it. Sound wise, it’s not that original but they’re just really good indiepop songs. Nothing more, nothing less. If you’re interested, they’ll be touring the Netherlands early June.

Another band hailed by Pitchfork (just like Japandroids) is Thee Oh Sees. And Pitchfork was right, writing “It’s a niche piece, and if you don’t have an appreciation for the music Thee Oh Sees are drawing upon, it’s safe to say this won’t be your thing. But if you’re a lifelong garage-rock purist or just enjoy the occasional Jay Reatard track, there’s a good chance you’ll get a lot of mileage out of Help. It’s hard not to: This is like meat and potatoes prepared by a master chef– totally familiar but utterly delicious.”

And last but not least, let’s not forget indie favourites Sonic Youth! Their new album The Eternal is to be released in June, but has leaked already. Again, it’s a lovely record. We’d say: download, love, buy.

First off: man that Dan Deacon record is growing on us! If you haven’t heard it yet, make sure you do. Dan Deacon studied electro-acoustic and computer music composition at Purchase College in New York. His new album Bromst is definitely our cup of tea, very playful and trippy ADHD electro pop mixed with more ambient and experimental pieces. Make sure to check out the track ‘Wet Wings’.

White Rabbits is a sextet featuring two drummers and a piano player. The band refers to their music as “honky tonk calypso”, their new album It’s Frightening being very percussion driven. The band manages to keep their songs unpretentious and accessible, at times sounding a bit quirky. It might take a couple of spins before it hits you, but it’s worth it.

You remember Akron/Family, right? As one of Michael Gira’s followers, signed to the Young Gods label, they are now set to release their new album Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free on the excellent Dead Oceans label. You might know Dead Ocens from releases such as Bowerbirds, Dirty Projectors, Evangelicals and These Are Powers. With this new album, they have managed to somewhat create a new sound, at times sounding like a poppy version of Animal Collective.

Pintandwefall brings punky party music made by four girls from Helsinki. Happy music with light lyrics, sounding a bit like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, only more retarded. In a good way, like Modest Mouse retarded. Zombies and octopuses are occupying their lyrics as well as issues closer to home, like what to wear. These girls follow their own path and that path does not follow the rules. Bad girls. They’ll also play ZXZW, so make sure you catch them there.

mewithoutYou, their new record came out this week, it’s called It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All A Dream! It’s Alright. We love it; it’s very passionate.

Micachu is the 21 year old songwriter/producer Mica Levi. She studies composition at the Guildhall School of Music Drama in London. As well as writing more traditional pieces, she writes electronic pop songs, very contemporary, and pretty DIY. She even uses a vacuum machine as instrument!

Dirty Projectors, led by singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Dave Longstreth. Their last album, Rise Above, was a covers record of 11 tracks of Black Flag’s Damaged, but without having listened to the record since childhood. The new album Bitte Orca is typically Dirty Projectors with weird vocals.

Magic Magic, a band from Boston. They play indiepop full of reverb. Pretty laidback but great melodies. And the cover of the album is amazing.

Last but not least: Pterodactyl, a band of the great Jagjaguwar/Brah label. And The Golden Silvers, especially the song ‘True Romance’. It’s disco!

Do you have any other tips for us? Please comment!

It was Indie Thursday at the ZXZW office yesterday. For a few weeks in a row now, the Glasgow based band Dananananaykroyd is in the top of our playing charts of this weekly celebration of indie music.

Their debut album ‘Hey Everyone’ hit the stores last week and got some really great reviews from renowned e-zines and we really agree to the words written there. They supported on the last European Kaiser Chiefs tour and did a great job. Really a lot of energy and fun on stage, two singers, two drummers and a pretty girl on bass.

Btw, the band name’s referring to the US comedian Dan Aykroyd. Check them out and be impressed. They are going to be THE band of 2009!

Our iTunes playlist includes bands like Danananananaykroyd, Harlem Shakes, Elle Milano, White Denim, Panicphobia and Wavves.

Got some tips? Please comment here so we can add them to have even a better Indie Thursday!