Majical Cloudz - Impersonator

This one's going on the list of favorite records for the first half of 2013.  

Julianna Barwick - Forever

For your daily zen, the first track to hit the interwebs off of Julianna Barwick's new record Nepenthe, out August 20th on Dead Oceans.   

Sam Amidon - As I Roved Out

Ólafur Arnalds - For Now I am Winter

Like fellow Icelandic band Sigur Ros, you could add about any imagery to the sound of Ólafur Arnalds and it becomes steeped in perceived emotional meaning. No exception here, on the official video for "Only The Winds" off of Arnolds most recent record For Now I am Winter.  

Stream the whole record below. If you like this sound, I cannot recommend the label that puts Arnald's music out highly enough.  Check out Erased Tapes here.

Doyeq - Never Back

Really really lovely jazz infused neo-classical beats from Doyeq. Pay what you want for this beauty over at Fuselab's bandcamp page (pay something, it's worth it). The soundcloud link below is a nice sampler of the whole thing, or hit the bandcamp embed and dive a little deeper.   

Steve Gunn - Time Off

One of my current favorite artists, Hiss Golden Messenger (his new record Haw is great, older one Bad Debt still gets me every time), just posted about label mate Steve Gunn on FB, and this song just instantly hooked me with a beautiful take on bluesy psych folk.  Pre-order here, record drops June 18.  

Jim James - Regions of Light and Sound of God

Initially this record kind of missed the mark for me - perhaps the depth of this cosmic swamp party left me grasping at air trying to get a handle on it. A fair amount of background listens made for a nice atmosphere, but nothing that really sunk its hooks into me. Until I caught his set this past Monday at Webster Hall. Holy smokes. James proved himself a true entertainer, running the stage like some kind of evangelical rock'n'roll maniac, with face melting guitar solos and svengali saxophone weird-outs. I think, somewhere during an extended psychedelic jam, I tweeted something along the lines of "Jim James is taking me to the dark side of the moon. Remind me to pick my face up off the floor when this is over". 

The best live shows leave me wanting to return to the recordings, finding new life in them as I relive what the artist was able to breath into the music live. The best live shows prove my initial assessment of an album wrong (i love being wrong, especially when it's because something opened me up and allowed me to hear a record through a new lens). As such, here's a post about Regions of Light and Sound of God, a couple months too late, but what the heck, when it comes to great music, I'd rather be late to the table than never sit at it at all.     

Futurebirds - Baba Yaga

Futurebirds track APO is one of my favorites.  The Athens band is back with a brand new record brimming with their brand of humid and frayed southern rock, this time out on Fat Possum.

Cayucas - Bigfoot

Anticipating this being big for me this summer. Most conversations I've had about this record so far have gone like this: "This sounds like Beck" followed by "Who gives a fuck, Spring is here and this is fucking awesome". Stereogum, who has the full record streaming at their site, insists that this is a sufier / sunier version of Local Natives, which I suppose also works.  Either way, beach season is almost here, and despite my favorite spot being closed for 2013, it's time to start planning playlists for Lil' Thumper to blast to all the bikini clad babes of my imaginary pool party. Pre-order this baby over at Secretly Canadian's website (Deluxe version includes a beach ball!) or pick it up when it hits your local shop this Tuesday the 30th. 

Mark Kozelek and Jimmy LaValle

I'm a big fan of both Mark Kozelek (Sun Kil Moon, formerly of The Red House Painters) and Jimmy LaValle (The Album Leaf). Naturally, I'm pumped to hear what happens when you mix moody atmospheric electronics with moody songwriting. It's gonna get moody up in here! Hits shelves April 30th (pre-order), or you can pre-stream the whole thing over at P4k.