New Arcade Fire single makes me happy.

The absolutely wonderful Arcade Fire have been teasing fans with news of a new single for weeks now. On their website they shared a postcard with fans announcing the new single was finished and was set for a release rather soon. Fans eagerly waiting to hear the fresh new 12" can breathe a sigh of relief because the single is up!

Here's "The Suburbs/Month of May"

Click on "Month of May" to flip the single!

EDIT: head here for the full song!

One of the best covers I've ever heard.

For a couple of white fellas, The Black Keys do blues and R&B right, but we already knew this. I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that when they did a cover of Jerry Butler's crooning classic, "Never Gonna Give You Up", it would be good. Not only is it good, but it's absolutely amazing. It just sounds perfect, even BETTER than the original. Dan Auerbach's voice is brimming with soul in this track. This is going to be in my playing rotation forever. FOREVER I TELL YOU! Please listen to this song if you have a soul, or soul.

New albums out, YAYYYYYYY!

In other brief news, NPR is currently streaming some outstanding new albums by some great artists. Standing out for me is Treats, by Sleigh Bells and Brothers, from The Black Keys. The Sleigh Bells album is a tour de force of sound and one of the strongest debut albums I've listened to in recent memory. For The Black Keys, this is their 6th album. It is also possibly their best work yet. The confidence that exudes from Dan Auerbach's voice is simply wonderful to hear. Definitely give these a listen when you have the time! Let me know what you think.

The Gucci Gucc is freeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Time to put your "Free Gucci" shirts away, white boys. As you folks may have heard, the great southern rapper, Gucci Mane, was freed from Fulton County Jail late last evening/early morning. He served 6 months out of a possible 12 for a parole violation. Before heading to prison, Gucci was just about the hottest rapper out there, and the release of The State vs. Radric Davis just before his imprisonment only helped his cause. He also released the rather decent Burrprint 2 mixtape while IN jail, so we can only hope Gucci will be giving us something to bop our heads to in the very near future. With new stuff from our favorite, iced-out, crack dealing rapper to look forward to, we should only celebrate his freedom with one of his classics. Off his debut album, Trap House, the song "2 Thangs" was the first Gucci song I ever heard. It's hard bumping anthem with bragging Gucci laying down some clever double entendres all the way through.

A band you all should know about.

Phantogram is the best band you don't know about. A duo hailing from Saratoga Springs, New York, Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter create synthy, guitar-riddled hip-hop beats topped with some fairly clever lyrics. It all adds up to something pretty special on the their debut album, Eyelid Movies. They spilt up the singing duties about 60-40, with Barthel's soft, almost erie voice creating an auditory balancing act over the strong beats. She doesn't have the most incredible range, but when she is doing the singing it sounds rather fantastic. When Carter sings it's not particularly good, per se, but he does well with what he has: altering his voice and meshing it into the framework of the songs themselves. All in all, they are an excellent duo who have deservingly started to make a mark on the music scene.

At the start of Eyelid Movies is the single, "Mouthful of Diamonds", an awesome song that has probably already been thrown on the background of some show on the CW. Its good stuff, and I suggest you clowns take a listen. Video is kinda creepy too, so thats a plus.

Time for your pap smear.

Crystal Castles, the loud, in-your-freaking-face electronica duo, have a new album out titled Crystal Castles. This may sound familiar because their debut album was released under the same name just 2 years ago. To prevent confusion we can just call it CC '10. CC '10 starts with a loud and cranky Alice Glass, but on parts of the album she actually sounds like an angelic woman. With a soft, almost soothing sound, she croons over the erratic beat in "Pap Smear". A song seemingly about thoughts on abortion (agree with them or not, the song sounds great), Crystal Castles are at their best here. I know CC isn't for everyone, but this is a very accessible song for a first time listener of the group. Enjoy!

Sunbathing T-rex pimps it poolside.

The video for The Black Keys new single is glorious. Off their upcoming album, Brothers, the track is titled "Next Girl". The video is a simple concept. Lots of bikini clad hoochies vying for the love of one lucky Tyrannosaurus Rex. The singing dino struts his stuff amongst the ladies, while they scratch and claw their way through each other for his attention. It all adds up to a fairly wonderful video. Enjoy.