The video for "Stick To My Side" is the same-it's that final shot (I won't spoil it) that hits the heart and marrow of Black Noise-an album made from stretches of aloneness that make the not-alone that much more beautiful.

This remix from Walls (who will be releasing an album later in 2010 that will hopefully sound JUST LIKE THIS REMIX) comes on like a wave, but then chooses to bubble underneath and take the song's base components with it. Panda Bear's drowned, the song's percussive drive is drowned, but in the end it's the haze that remains. I fucking love this, but with a different part of my heart than I love the original.

Pantha Du Prince: Stick To My Side (Walls Version)

The entirety of Black Noise is a journey I'm still taking...which is to say, how do I feel about the whole album? Dunno. Haven't reached the bottom yet.

Sore Loser — allegra gellar

Here's the single! It's called "Flash Delirium"! And it sucks! (Catch a listen over at Spinner, if you're brave enough.)

Taking the worst parts of The Flaming Lips and Of Montreal, this lobotomized track has nothing going for it. The vocals are shrill and piercing; lumbering through "Flash Delirium" only to eventually throw up on your front lawn at the track's conclusion with a Tourette's-like outburst.  There's even a breakdown two-thirds of the way through that rips off "A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger".

And if you're waiting around for a hook of any kind (a la "Kids" or "Time to Pretend") to magically appear on this track, I'll save you the time: there isn't one.

If this single is any indication, American Apparel will certainly run low in its supply of hipster headbands this spring.

I haven't listened to it yet but this, F-Ow covering Mariah Carey's "Fantasy", is a classic for all times.

I've basically been salivating for new music from Scottish quartet (now quintet) Frightened Rabbit since I first heard their last album, 2008's "The Midnight Organ Fight," and quickly became obsessed. At long last, they've returned with "The Winter of Mixed Drinks," which comes out today.

Don't be fooled by the jaunty first single "Swim Until You Can't See Land" (video above). "Winter" is the type of record that plunges you into icy waters (oceanic metaphors abound), and then pulls you out and wraps you in a warm blanket. It has more than its share of heartbreaking ballads, and that's where the band's strength really lies. Many of the songs are structured like waves - building slowly, with guitar reverb or a muted keyboard note, before they come crashing down in a cascade of emotion.

I really took a close listen to the record for the first time a couple weeks ago - on a day when I was holed up in my apartment, looking out the window at the massive blizzard I was avoiding outside. It was the perfect setting, with this music providing ample comfort.

Kristin talked to Marley for about an hour about Salem Friday Feb 26.  It was crazy. The original schedule of the chat/listening party was only supposed to be three songs. It didn’t work out like that, which the girls suppose is often the case with SALEM. Once you start learning about their mythology and hearing the music, you get oddly sucked into their web. Below, you can listen along with Marley and Kristin. Draw your own conclusions, but you’ll definitely be as mystified as they were.

Marley: ok. so we're going to listen to SALEM!

Kristin: Here we are. About to listen to Salem. What shall we start with?

Marley: Russ tells me we're going to start with When You Sleep

  and then move on to Skullcrush

  and for dessert, Trap Door

  i'm being instructed to get a drink.

Andrew Jackson Jihad have a name that makes people look at you funny when you recommend them, but that's not going to stop me.

AJJ consists of two beardy dudes (Sean Bonnette and Ben Gallaty), a guitar, and a standup bass. They have a comforting sincerity and simple songs packed with witty lyrics in a folk-punk style, but whereas some folk punk makes me roll my eyes, these guys just make me smile. They make me write in run-ons. I plan to invite them to play at some basement in my city eventually.

This song is from the Pink Couch Sessions, by If You Make It (dotcom). The YouTube channel attached to the Pink Couch Sessions is well worth looking through.

If you like "Sense, Sensibility" (no, it has nothing to do with Jane Austen), then start off your journey with how I stumbled upon them: the album People Who Can Eat People Are the Luckiest People in the World. Go directly to the song "Brave as a Noun." Once I heard this, I was hooked.

Beardy dudes + sincerity + clever lyrics = win.

I first heard Plex Plex in Atlanta back in '08 when they performed with a friend's band. No insult to said friend... but they owned the entire show.

Word from singer Amanda is they've finally recorded and mixed their first official release. They're pre-streaming three songs from the CD on their website (here) starting with my favorite, Star by Star.

This new Goldfrapp album has pretty much split soldout. There are those of us, myself included, who think everything that's popped up from Head First pretty much should've been aborted (get the joke there? get it? I can explain it if you need, feel free to drop me a note in the comments), as Alison's eschewed her dark, coke-eyed, glassy come-hither AND her forest-clothed woodland sincerity for jumpkicks and spandex. Maybe Will and Alison were never the most sincere, but they sure fucking played it as such. Even on Felt Mountain's love song for clone wars, "Human", Goldfrapp seemed to give a shit.

Now, well...uh....

70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L'Ogre on Vimeo.

“It hardly looked like a novel at all; I hardly look like a hero at all.”

I woke up late today, so today’s Sunday Morning is really more like Sunday Afternoon, and suitably a little more stirring. Franco-americain group Hold Your Horses!, comprised of seven official band members, stole my heart upon waking with this curious little clip for their song “70 million.” These poor kids don’t even have a Wikipedia page yet. If you type in their name, you are treated to an explanation of the idiom “hold your horses.” I know the phrase well; my family employed it all the time. I have never been very good at holding my metaphorical horses.

Good lord, I love gang vocals. This song is now stuck in my head, likely for the rest of the day. Sweet accent tinged vocals totally invading my mind. This video is also a game (what pieces of art can you identify?) tempered by some extremely pale boy near-nudity.

They have delightful MySpace band member bios (ex: ”Florence plays the drums, the guitar and sings. She uses alcohol as a crutch and dreams in Frenglish.”) Some other song names from the page: “Now I shall go to overtake that killer,” “Patience while tantrums of waterfalls.” It’s nice to see some effort to bring some personality to a MySpace page, but I still can’t wait until bands feel like they don’t have to have an entry on that terrible, glittery mess of a social network.

I hear a “mon dieu” at the end of this video and this charms the hell out of me.

We're sort of falling back into SALEM because the music keeps poisoning,flowering, that deadly type of reblossoming. We'll also be stalking them at SXSW this year. Are you quiet when u sleep?

You Say Party! We Say Die! "There is XXXX (Within My Heart)" from the album XXXX. from Paper Bag Records on Vimeo.

Are you thinking, this is really great, but where have I heard it before?

That would be here -- Robin S's "Show Me Love," from 1993 (a.k.a. one of those ubiquitous early '90s one hit wonder dance jams that are indistinguishable from one another but all rock in their own way. See also: Snap!, Corona, La Bouche).

So, while that keyboard line is blatant thievery, YSP!WSD! are definitely high on my 2010 radar. The rest of the songs on their album "XXXX" (sensing a theme?), which was released earlier this month, are equally hooky but less derivative.

You Say Party! were tapped to play two shows at the Olympics this week, as a warmup for their March tour. Dates after the jump.

Pop etheral lovelies Sunny Day in Glasgow kick off their Spring 2010 tour this Friday at The Mercury Lounge. See their blog for tour dates, and watch a sneak peak of their live performance in the video above, shot last December in NYC.

Ever wondered what it would look like if a giant Funfetti cake exploded in a warehouse? Then check out the latest video from Massachusetts synth-mongers Passion Pit, for their song "Little Secrets."

The clip has a kaleidoscopic dream quality to it. The creepy vibe early on (am I the only one who's freaked out by the paper bag masks??) quickly gets lost amidst the song's whimsy, and the video eventually swirls into an exuberant hipster dance party, with bright confetti and silly string to boot.

It's fun -- and a great teaser for the group's live shows, which will likely be coming to a city near you this spring. Dates after the jump.