So we’re way into this. It’s dark, it’s jazzy, it’s got those foreboding garage type tones and of course that great original Kimbra vocal. Let Beni’s remix of “Two Way Street” be your 2 AM lights-turnt-way down laptop-noir soundtrack.
Kimbra – Two Way Street (Beni Remix)Beni 
(Facebook)
Rating 8.1
Timbaland sure has traversed quite the varied and extensive path. From Timbaland & Magoo (what up, Magoo!) to popping up on this Ian Carey-helmed dance pop track, the Man from the Big VA has pretty much genre done it all (We’re still mad about that Chris Cornell record, Timbo). So how about the track? It’s a solid electro-style pop song that given the right push/airplay/promo could make a dent in the UK and even the 90’s Real McCoy-house dominated U.S. charts.
Ian Carey – Amnesia (Feat. Rosette, Timbaland & Brasco)Ian Carey 
(Facebook)
Rating 8.2
Breton are one of our favorite emerging bands. Anything new we’re able to get our hands on from them is always cause for celebration. This free “The Blanket Rule” EP features four new tracks, including our pick from the set, the excellent “Ordnance Survey”.
Breton – Ordnance SurveyBreton 
(Twitter) (Download at Facebook)
Rating 8.2
By Chris Gedos
Is there anything the Swedes can’t do right? Sexy crime fiction, metaphysical art-house flicks, even paid paternity leave from work when the momma has a child! Simian Ghost’s first single off the forthcoming Youth LP, entitled “Wolf Girl”, is an absolute delight and sure to perpetuate Sweden’s post capitalistic superiority. The crisp production values (#lovethefadein) set the stakes, but the arrangement is solid with lyrics considerably more fluent than those coming from some native Anglophone acts. The music video runs with the trippy, baroque-twee vibe and even throws a pillow fight into the mix. The Sebastian Arnström (of Aerials) project is sure to have many in Sweden thinking spring.
Simian Ghost – Wolf GirlSimian Ghost 
(Facebook)
Rating 8.3
Jacques Greene is our dude and his new track for “Arrow”, which features another fav b3sci artist Koreless, is really good, beautiful, sublime, engrossing, all that stuff. Jacques is poised for a big 2012 and a track like “Arrow” is a great first step.
Jacques Greene – Arrow (Feat. Koreless)Jacques Greene 
(Facebook)
Rating 8.2
Rose, where have you been all our lives? This is the sound of January 16th, 2012. “Hanging Around” is excerpted here from Ms. Dougall’s (who is a former member of Brit buzz band The Pipettes) just released “Distractions” EP. The EP’s got an interesting mix of sounds of influences, particularly its blend of classic American pop and more far off shoegaze tones. So we’re definitely listening now, and we’re eager to hear more. To the bandcamp links:
Rose Elinor Dougall 
(Facebook)
Rating 8.0
“#1 in Heaven” is somewhat a monster of a song. It’s near commercial caliber feel gets you moving and will have you singing. To us, it can be as much “We Found Love” as it can be “Love Fool” at moments. On repeat:
MNDR – #1 in HeavenMNDR 
(Facebook)
Rating 8.4
“Shiny Things” is a catchy and up-tempo number previewed from the forthcoming and sophomore LP, Rooms Filled With Light, by UK lads Fanfarlo. Check out the rhythmic gymnastics themed video for the song below and be sure to catch the band on tour as they gig though Spring 2012 with a culminating set at Coachella in Indio, CA.
Fanfarlo (Facebook) (Pre-Order)
Spring 2012 Dates:
2/22 – Leeds, UK @ The Wardrobe
2/23 – Glasgow, UK @ Stereo
2/24 – Newcastle, UK @ Cluny
2/25 – Liverpool, UK @ Static Gallery
2/27 – Bristole, UK @ Thekla
2/29 – Brighton, UK @ Tiger Club
3/01 – London, UK @ Scala
3/05 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
3/06 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
3/07 – Wahsington, DC @ U Street Music Hall
3/08 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
3/09 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
3/10 – Atlanta, GA @ Vinyl
3/13 – Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald’s
3/14 – Dallas, TX @ The Loft
3/15-18 – Austion, TX @ South by Southwest
3/19 – St. Louis, MO @ Blueberry Hill
3/20 – Nashville, TN @ Mercy Lounge
3/22 – Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar
3/23 – Ann Arbor, MU @ The Blind Pig
3/24 – Toronto, ON @ Mod Club
3/25 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls
3/27 – Columbus, OH @ Skully’s
3/28 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
3/29 – Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
3/31 – Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theatre
4/01 – Kansas City, MO @ Record Bar
4/03 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird
4/05 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
4/06 – Boise, ID @ Neurolux
4/07 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
4/09 – Vancouver, BC @ The Biltmore
4/10 – Seattle, WA @ Crocodile Cafe
4/15 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
4/17 – San Francisco, CA @ Slim’s
4/22 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
Rating 8.1
Contributed by Chris Gedos
Hey every band from the past thirty years! Josef K called! They’d like their royalty check now! How fitting that fellow Scots Franz Ferdinand would be indebted right down to a name similarly lifted from the dawn of modernism. It’s impossible to do Kafka justice, but Josef K sure gives it a good shot on their only album, The Only Fun In Town. “It’s Kinda Funny” was recorded, according to frontman Paul Haig, in the shadow of Ian Curtis’s death. It’s one of the few albums from the period which can go toe-to-toe with the Mancunians.
Josef K – It’s Kinda FunnyRating 8.85
“Golden Isles” new off Portland band Grandparents’ FUMES is GREAT. Sure it’s a little bit derivative (see if you can pick some of the influences out yourself.) but any of that derivative-ness (derivaty?) is of things we really like. It’s jangly, but it’s also sort of surreal sounding, it’s poppy (there are some excellent melodies from chorus to verse) but it’s also dark. Get familiar below.
Grandparents 
(Facebook)
Rating 8.6
“Young Heart” comes from new Brooklyn collective Fast Years. The track goes near polar-throwback in it’s tendencies towards nostalgic Garage and Pop. Especially for those letting a renaissance of bands like The Vaccines still sink in. Fast Years will be opening for Howler in their hometown later this January.
Fast Years – Young HeartFast Years (Facebook)
Rating 7.9
One of the standout tracks on Q’s just released Habits and Contradictions mixtape, “Hands on the Wheel” features A$AP Rocky and is that sort of fist-pumping-in-the-air making-it-rain-every-night-of-the-week victory rap that puts proper punctuation on the sort of run that Schoolboy Q is in the middle of right now.
Schoolboy Q – Hands on the Wheel (Feat. A$AP Rocky)Schoolboy Q 
(Facebook)
Rating 8.4
