When I'm With You

If you were to ask Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast which is the best coast, the answer is obvious: it's the west. Hailing from Los Angeles, Best Coast's new album, Crazy for You is an ode to sunny LA and it's boys.

While lyrically, the songs sounds like a page out of a 16 year old girl's diary, the fuzzy l0-fi surf-rock with girl group vocals makes it work. A little retro with some modern cynicism, it's a hazy summer sound that can just transport everyone in the Western world to a time in their lives when it was all about lounging around and dreaming about boys (or girls).

Best Coast - Boyfriend (mp3) (itunes)

F*** You!

Along the lines of "Song for the Dumped" by Ben Folds Five, but only more explicit, the Cee-Lo half of Gnarls Barkley is releasing a CD in October titled "The Lady Killer". His latest single is making the internet rounds at an incredible rate. Be warned, it's super catchy. Oh, and there are swear words (gasp).

Business Casual

Montreal duo Chromeo's third studio album, Business Casual is set for release September 14, 2010. Featuring first two singles "Night by Night" and "Don't Turn the Lights On." According to P-Thugg, it's got more sexytime tracks on it than Fancy Footwork.

Chromeo - Don't Turn the Lights On (mp3) (buy)

Goodbye Bad Vibrations

I have been obsessed with surf pop lately. Oakley, CA's Dashing Suns has got that vibe that makes you wanna get out your swimsuit, bottle of SPF and go eat junk food by the nearest sandy shore. It's garage rock that's poppy, jangly and slightly fuzzy with reverb.

Their LP, Really Like You, will be released on August 24, 2010.

Dashing Suns - Future Thunder (mp3) (iTunes)

Civic Holiday... um, Simcoe Day!

It's the August long weekend here in Toronto. Widely known as Civic Holiday, it is beloved for breaking up the dog days of summer. But it's also known as Simcoe Day in Toronto, Mountie Day in North York, Colonel By Day in Ottawa, George Hamilton Day in Hamilton, British Columbia Day in British Columbia, Heritage Day in Alberta, as well as various other names in other provinces and municipalities (Wikipedia told me so). Oh Civic Holiday, why didn't we just stick to one unifying name?

In celebration of this holiday that seems to have an identity crisis across Canada, I present Broken Social Scene's new video for their single Forced to Love. Awesome song, trippy video. I generally dislike describing something as "trippy" because really, what does that mean? But this video is what I imagine hallucinating would be like.

I also highly suggest picking up the CD (Forgiveness Rock Record). It's short-listed for this year's Polaris Music Prize for a very very good reason! You can stream this entire record at their website.