Beats to Look Forward to: June, July + August

I'm pleased to put together this little list of upcoming or already released albums that are particularly dance worthy and in my opinion, should be a pleasurable listening experience.

The self-titled Jaguar Love EP is out now off the record label Matador! and considered experimental rock – it’s not super hard to hear why. I’m not sure of what to think yet, but they have some potential, especially with the track “My Organ Sounds Like…” It’s certainly an interesting direction for vocals; the lead singer imitates front man Bon Scott of early ACDC - on helium - or Claudio Sanchez of Coheed and Cambria.

A full-length album Take Me to the Sea is on its way for August 19 and most likely will contain the three tracks from the EP.


Tilly and the Wall's O: it feels like this album has been out for a while, but the actual release is set for June 17 via Team Love. The album was produced by Saddle Creek’s Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, Rilo Kiley). Apparently they didn’t really care or were being fairly generous when they decided to let their fans pick the album artwork - they ended up calling it “O” because that was the shape encasing the band name on the cover. “Pot Kettle Black” is a fairly fun track, a new style, whereas “Cacophony” is more traditional Tilly- style.



A highly anticipated album lately on this end has been Partie Traumatic by Black Kids. It comes out July 22 and we’ll certainly be scouring the Internets for leaks soon. The new version of “Hurricane Jane” (which can be heard on their MySpace) as a single comes out June 23, though the previous version of the song came out previously on the EP Wizard of Ahhhs. The album will be out via Almost Gold Recordings (UK) and Columbia Records (U.S.) For a quick preview of tracks on Partie Traumatic, you can hear a radio show Black Kids played back on May 16th on WXPN (NPR’s music) World Café Live with labelmates Does It Offend You, Yeah?- you can stream the whole session ( skip to the second half for Black Kids) on the NPR site at the link above the article. I recommend “Look at Me (When I Rock Wichoo)" - it has a pretty sexy bass line and really lives up to accounts that they capture a Motown groove. Props to background singers.


New York, N.Y.'s The Virgins' self-titled album just came out and it feels like the same Turkey hype as when White Williams creation Smoke came out in December– we all like it (I think), but we’re waiting for it to get big. The best track and single by far, “Rich Girls,” is also fairly groovy. There isn't that much more to say other than I’m pretty sure some of this material is going to end up on Mark’s July mixtape.

P.S. You can find The Virgins' Daytrotter session here and download four tracks off the album plus one bonus.


Look at how happy/dazed he is.

Girl Talk's Feed the Animals - not much is really known about this album yet, other than that a bunch of fake “leaks” are floating around the Internet, but there have been bits information here and there that indicate it will be in what we can now call “In Rainbows” or pay-what-you-want format off Gregg Gillis’ label Illegal Art. Gillis has also said that he plans for more over-the-top hits than usual with more “in your face” songs. Feed the Animals is expected to be released digitally in the next few weeks and he’s in the process of planning a fall tour. We’re looking forward to a show if he comes around these parts.

The Virgins Debut Drops Tuesday, Streaming Now

The Virgins' self-titled debut is finally almost here. You can find it in stores or wherever people buy music these days on June 3rd, but before then the band is giving you a chance to test drive the album via MySpace.

I'm a few tracks in myself and really enjoying it so far. They have a good post-punk thing going on. Has that summery feel of Vampire Weekend, but without the Ivy League education (i.e. no afro pop). "Teen Lovers" even feels a bit like a toned down -- in a perfectly fine way -- Hercules & Love Affair.

Wikipedia tells me, "The Virgins have gained popularity recently due to the CW show Gossip Girl featuring five of their songs in one episode." I believe Vice interviewed them/hyped them up a while ago too, but I didn't dig it up in my 5-second Google search.

Finally, the band did a five-song session with Daytrotter. You can read the story and download those tracks over there.