Straight away off the heels of their blogosphere smash “Zimbabwe” Aussies New Navy ready the “Uluwatu” EP (from which “What Was Golden” is excerpted). The boys’ unique mix of pop songwriting, indie musicality and electronic references make them a band you definitely want to keep a close watch on.
New Navy – What Was GoldenNew Navy 
(Official) (Facebook)
Rating 8.5
Class! “Weekend” is the latest from BK’s Class Actress. The track features one of indie 2011’s better chorus hooks. We’re already humming along see…. “Bring It On the Weekend”. And we can’t wait! ….Cause this weekend means FREEFEST! We’re psyched. See y’all in Baltimore!
Class Actress – WeekendClass Actress 
(Facebook) (Tumblr)
Rating 8.2
Alex Clare’s “Up All Night” is one of our fav songs thusfar of 2011. Here dub heavyweight Skream takes “Up All Night” to the coldest most remote reaches of the ice age; the darkest, furthest throws of deep space (basically somewhere really cold dark and remote lol). Listen.
Skream 
(Facebook) (Soundcloud)
Rating 8.0
Rae could rhyme over something like a 9th beat in his sleep. Fortunately, The Chef is focused on “No Pretending” and brings his A-Game. Big Remo slips in a tight 16 to close the track. Look out for 9th’s The Wonder Years LP, due Sept. 27.
9th Wonder – No Pretending (Feat. Raekwon & Big Remo)9th Wonder 
(Official) (Twitter)
Rating 8.0
Opinions on the rest of Aerosmith’s catalogue aside, “Dream On” basically was the power ballad prototype and has, at least for me, existed sort of separate from Aerosmith’s other songs (in that its actually listenable). Still we love ya ST!
GRiZ 
(Soundcloud) (Facebook)
Rating 8.0
“Champion” by recent Fierce Panda signees and Leeds UK natives The Chevin sounds of a track destined for heavy Radio 1 rotation. Hit the track while we get Zane Lowe on the phone now.
The Chevin (Facebook) (Bandcamp)
Rating 8.1
Last week we spotlighted an original track from Germany’s Weekend Wolves. Here’s a look at a sample of their remix work on this version of Telekinesis’ “Dirty Thing”
Weekend Wolves 
(Soundcloud) (Facebook)
Rating 8.2
The Drums released Portamento last week and after a few spins through the record we got to admit it’s definitely a step up in terms of writing, arrangement quality, etc. “Maturation” or something like that. The well-harmonied “Days” is a favorite deeper track. Give it a spin below.
The Drums (Official) (Myspace) (Facebook)
Rating 7.5
“Thorn Castles” is a fave track from one of our fave albums of the year thus far from Santa Barbara band Gardens & Villa’s s/t debut. The tune stops spits and starts, that syncopation framing a hooky melody that will have you thinking “CALIFORNIA” in no time, that or “GREAT SONG” or something like that, we don’t know, we have many talents but we’re not mind readers! Hit the track.
Gardens & Villa 
: (Myspace) (Bandcamp) (Facebook)
Rating: 8.0
Here’s a little something new to bounce to from Paper Diamond. “Can We Go Up” is a nicely layered slice of electronic music that cuts across dubstep, edm, and maybe even a little moombahton. Into it.
Paper Diamond – Can Go We UpPaper Diamond 
(Official) (Facebook)
Rating 8.0
We’re pretty big fans of Kathleen Edwards so when we learned a little bit ago that she had been in the studio working w/ Mr. Vernon we were positively geeking out. The beautiful “Wapusk”, the song named for a remote area of Northern Manitoba is a gorgeous bit of that goosebumps-up-and-down-your-arm sort of folk that Bon Iver and our girl Kathleen have built their careers on creating. Do not miss this one. (SVB)
Kathleen Edwards – Wapusk (Feat. Bon Iver)Kathleen Edwards 
(Official) (Myspace)
Rating 8.8
