Sounds of the Summer: 2010

It’s been a hot and itchy summer here in New York, luckily it’s almost over. The good thing about this summer is there’s been some great music to come out. Most of which has that summertime feeling. So here’s a list of songs and descriptions with links to download them. Do what you please with them. Make a playlist, stream them, play them while you’re having hot, sweaty, nasty sex in your Bushwick loft. Do whatever, just don’t send me a picture of the latter.

The first song is an upbeat feel good song from up and coming husband-wife duo Tennis called “Marathon” that by summers end I still might consider my favorite song of the summer. The vocal melody will be stuck in your head for days and if this song can’t make you feel good, then you might want to go see a shrink, because you got some serious problems bro. The song is the B-side off the 7″ released by Underwater Peoples. The A-side is a great track named “Baltimore”. You can download both of those songs via Right Hear Media by clicking the links below.

Tennis – Marathon
Tennis – Baltimore

If you haven’t heard this next track by Best Coast by now then you probably haven’t listened to any new music since MGMT was cool, if there was ever a time like that. “Boyfriend” is either about Bethany Cosentino’s cat Snacks or that skiddish dude from Wavves who she’s dating. It doesn’t matter either way because it’s a great pop song that will probably end up earning Best Coast a good bit of mainstream airplay. I’ve heard people that don’t know a damn thing about music talking about Best Coast. You might want to hop on this train while it’s still cool to be on it. The song is her first single off her debut LP Crazy For You released on Mexican Summer. Download courtesy of Gorilla vs. Bear.

Best Coast – Boyfriend

Crocodiles are back with a new LP coming out September 14th on Fat Possum. The title track “Sleep Forever” is a fuzzed out pop song with a few “La-La’s” and it’s a perfect summertime track. I wrote about it for Impose and that can be found here. Download courtesy of Impose.

Crocodiles – Sleep Forever

This next song is so catchy it’ll stick to you like a dingleberry. Did I take that too far? Oh well, it’s fucking true! Philadelphia’s SLUTEVER is a pretty unknown band with some damn good songs. “So Prone” is off their EP Sorry I’m Not Sorry which can be downloaded for free right’chere! If you don’t want to hear the whole EP, check out this song with it’s “Ooo Ooo” yumminess.

SLUTEVER – So Prone

Dude, this song right here is recorded on a cell phone. Actually the whole goddamn EP is. How hip is that?!? Hip as shit, but it really is an awesome lo-fi electro pop song. The name of the band rocks too! GAY BOIZ are a guy-girl duo who apparently like to get fucked up. At least that’s what their song “Disco Banger” tells me. It’s off their EP 429-2649. Get it, it’s a cell phone number. Ha! As with the song before, you can download the whole EP here. Or you can just download “Disco Banger” below.

GAY BOIZ – Disco Banger

Panda Bear is from Animal Collective, duh! He came out with a 7″ this summer, another duh! Here’s a good track off of it. Download via Stranger Dance

Panda Bear – Slow Motion

Zola Jesus is a hot broad from LA that makes weird, atmospheric, electronic pop that’s as beautiful as her. This song is probably her best effort. Peep this shit dawg!! Download courtesy of RCRD LBL.

Zola Jesus – Sea Talk

Total Slacker is a band from Brooklyn made up of a boyfriend and girlfriend, they are super cute too! They make stoner garage pop with some great vocal harmonies. Like only a couple can do. They have a 7″ out right now on Impose Records and this is the A-Side. Tucker totally shreds live too, he goes ape shit dude, watch out when he takes off his glasses. Some crazy shit is going to go down when he does that! Download courtesy of Impose.

Total Slacker – Crystal Necklace

Prince Rama is another band from Brooklyn. The trio was raised on some sort of Hari Krishna place in Florida and boy does it show in their music. Tribal chants, crazy tribal drums, psyched out synths. What the fuck dude?!? This shit is bangin’ though. Seriously. I wouldn’t lie to you. Avey from Anco loves them too. He even signed them to Paw Tracks. That’s who’s releasing their latest LP. Blogs be buzzin’ yo! Don’t sleep on this, you’d be considered lame if you did. This track is called “Lightning Fossil” and is off the aforementioned album titled Shadow Temple due out September 14. Download courtesy of Pitchfork.

Prince Rama – Lightning Fossil

What’s that, you don’t know who the Magic Kids are? What the fuck? You’re slippin’, are you still listening to Neon Bible or something? The Magic Kids are out of Memphis and released what might be my favorite album for the summer. It’s called Memphis and it’s full of bubble gum pop music that’s straight bangin’! I couldn’t really pick just one song off this album so I’m posting 3. Downloads courtesy of Impose.

Magic Kids – Summer
Magic Kids – Good To Be
Magic Kids – Hey Boy

Who is Hanoi Janes? That’s a good question, his label Captured Tracks doesn’t even want you to know. Apparently he’s some guy from Dresden, Germany who records on an 8-track. That’s cool and all, but who really cares. All I know is this is a great summertime track with a summertime title. Download courtesy of Seizure Chicken.

Hanoi Janes – Beach Kids

My friend told me he heard this next song at a Mellow Mushroom in Alabama, go figure. All I know is somehow Cults, a band who only has like 3 songs is fucking blowing up! This song is really good though, it has the catchiest glockenspiel/vocal melodies too. Props for bringin’ back the glockenspiel yo! I used to play a game where I would play it when I woke up and watch my roommate whistle it for the rest of the day. I think she hates me for that, but it was quite fun at the time.

Cults – Go Outside

Remember that movie about that Jamaican bobsled team with John Candy. Well they made a song to raise money and you can view that on this page. Well apparently they have changed their style completely and lost the accents. Because their newest song is a brilliant little number by COOLRUNNINGS called “I Am You” and call me crazy, but I think it’s a little better than their song from the 90′s about bobsledding. See for yourself!

This one’s pretty good.

COOLRUNNINGS – I Am You (this one’s a bit better)

You know the old saying, “Women, can’t live with em’, can’t live without em’.” Well that’s just silly, Women are a great band and they have a new album coming out in September in America that you can’t live without. But you don’t have to wait till then to hear the first single off of it. Thanks to Impose you can hear it right now. Right here!

Women – Eyesore

So if you’re a regular reader of this blog, which you probably aren’t because let’s be honest, who is? But if you are, you’ve read about Beach Fossils already, you’ve seen me go on and on about them, but what’s a summer list without them. Here’s one of the tracks of their debut LP, which is still in the running for best summertime album. Download courtesy of FADER.
Beach Fossils – Daydream

Dale Earnhardt Jr. might not be having the best season on the track.Off the track however it’s been a great year. He’s seen his song “Vocal Chords” get so much blog coverage it almost makes the whole part of losing his dad seem like not a big deal. Oops, too soon? My bad, but really this band has made a great summertime song and caused a lot of internet buzz.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. – Vocal Chords

Starting off with the sweet sounds of the ocean and having a title like “In the Water”, how could I not include Beat Connection’s summer jam? High pitched voice, angelic “ahhhs” in the background, a nifty little drum beat, and steel drums makes this song a summer time banger. Plus that little synth solo in the middle is pretty nifty as well.

Beat Connection – In the Water

Lost Boy’s track “Fast Burn” is exactly what you’d expect from the title. Clocking in at 2 minutes and full of energy and noise. It starts off with the strum of one chord, gives some space, then kicks in to a fast paced rocker. This boy is apart of the New York garage scene and this song is one of the best songs to come out of that scene this year.

Lost Boy – Fast Burn

Mississippi’s own Dead Gaze released a great song this summer too. It’s hazy and fun, just like summer should be! This song is probably in my top 5 of summer releases though, so make sure you check it out. I saw these guys at SXSW before I had even heard of them and they were very impressive. If you get the chance to see them don’t pass it up. Download courtesy of Weekly Tape Deck

Dead Gaze – We All Belong To You

In case you were wondering, I would say I found out about at least 1/3 of these tracks from the blog Right Hear. In the past 5 months it has become my go to blog for new music. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I highly recommend you do.

For all you computer illiterate readers out there, to download these tracks, right click on the link and click “Save Target As” and for all you hipsters who don’t know how to use a Mac but have one for some reason, you hold control and click on the track and click “Download Linked File As.” Hope you enjoy these 19 artists. I’m sure I left some out, but tough shit. For everyone wondering, Deezer where’s all the hip-hop? Well, that’s for another post, so keep waiting on that one.