Bird of Youth have announced the May 24 release of their debut album, Defender. Fronted by Beth Wawerna, Bird of Youth have spent the past year carving out a space for themselves in the crowded waters of Brooklyn’s indie rock ocean, pairing thoughtful and ornate lyricism with intricate pop songcraft.

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Iceland’s Sindri Már Sigfsson or Sin Fang (formerly Sin Fang Bous of Seabear) has released the first track off his forthcoming sophomore album, Summer Echoes, set for release March 15 on Morr Music.

Chicago’s I Fight Dragons ‘chiptunes-infused post-punk power pop’ has been employed effectively on this fun cover the cult 80s hit, The Power of Love.

On Jenny O’s remarkable new Home EP, you can hear influences as diverse as wide-eyed folk, hip-hop, and 70s pop. The lyrics are irresistibly frank and evocative, especially when sung by her beautiful voice.

Former Hello Stranger frontwoman Juliette Commagere has just released the appropriately colourful video for her tropical, electronic-pop single, Impact.

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Setting Sun’s The Sympathetic CEO is a playful ode to those responsible for the financial predicament in America. Gary Levitt, the creative force behind Setting Sun, wrote the song from the perspective of a CEO who has profited off other peoples’ expense, until the recession hits, at which point he turns inward and becomes introspective about his role in the collapse.

The Poison Tree have a new album out that sonically references everything from A.C. Newman and Paul Simon to Bill Callahan and Leonard Cohen. Nice. Check out the single from it, My Only Friend.

Vincent Minor’s self-titled album is a collection of wryly humorous and troubling tales carried by his tuneful baritone and his lush orchestral production. The album featured the talent of producer Tom Biller (Fiona Apple, Sean Lennon, Where the Wild Things Are), keyboardist Zac Rae (Annie Lennox, My Brightest Diamond), and horn player Stewart Cole (Edward Sharpe, Rachael Yamagata).

Producer Hot Sugar (aka Nick Koenig) creates music with a truly chameleonic sound, as reflected on his debut EP, Muscle Milk.

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We dig this epic acoustic version of the Foo Fighters hit, Everlong, as performed by Liam Bailey and voted on by fans. Bailey releases his second EP — 2am Rough Track Volume 2 — on Amy Winehouse’s label, Lioness Records, on November 29th.

We love the video for the new song by New York-band The Tins, a fun, lo-fi affair showing God as a clerk in an English mini-mart. Well, of course.

We’re loving the new video from April Smith and the Great Picture Show — Terrible Things — which has been released to coincide with Halloween and features Smith grinding her dinner guests into next week’s leftovers. Haha! Sounds like fun.

The Concretes played recently at the Island in the Sun Festival, which takes place on the beautiful island of Jurmo, off the coast of Finland, and performed a brilliant unplugged performance of their song All Day.

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The new single from The Black Whales is Rattle Your Bones and it’s off the forthcoming album which is due out on Portland’s New Canada Records on November 16. This is a live version of the track done at the Doe Bay Festival on August 13.

Producing a string of international hits without releasing an album in the space of four years isn’t the norm for most artists. But Australian electro-pop outfit Miami Horror aren’t your average musicians playing by the rules. The band started off as a solo endeavour turned augmented four-piece live incarnation who incessantly test the boundaries of electro territory. I chatted with founding mastermind Benjamin Plant about their recently released debut album, Illumination

MICHELLE WILDING: Fans have waited a solid four years for debut album Illumination to emerge. How did it come about and what was involved in the creative process?
BENJAMIN PLANT: Our debut album was kind of in the works for the past few years. I started some songs I guess when I was a bit younger and held onto them until now; then we created a whole bunch of songs over the last year while we were touring a lot too. I met Josh, then Aaron and Dan, then joined the band so we essentially influenced and changed the sound to what it is now.

MW: How would you describe Illumination’s sound to somebody who has never heard it?
BJ: it’s hard to pigeon hole it. It’s pretty disco-influenced, a little bit psychedelic and progressive, but mostly inspired by a lot of nostalgic pop artists from the seventies.

MW: You guys are now rocking guitars and continue to make melodious, danceable tracks. What’s the art to seamlessly blending acoustic and electric guitars with looping bass lines, horns and synths?
BJ: The idea was just to create something a little more original and different. Those elements often don’t really come together, so it was taking my influences and then Josh’s influences and allowing them to mix a little bit, which at first I was apprehensive about. I was kind of too concerned about it matching another style, but then I kind of realised it had its positives too and we rolled with it to create what we have now.

MW: Who is the wordsmith of the group or is writing lyrics a shared role?
BJ: Lyrics is definitely something that is quite out there for me. I don’t do it very often. On the case of the album, we left it mostly up to Josh and Alan to write. Dan from the band has written lyrics for Sometimes and half of the final track Ultra Violet. I wrote two track lyrics, so it’s a very shared thing.

MW: What was it like collaborating with Melbourne vocalist Kimbra and Neon Indian’s Alan Paloma?
BJ: Well Kimbra is from Melbourne and we knew her through Josh. She recently moved here, so we got her into the studio to do Í Look To You”. She often over sings things quite a bit, so we thought that wasn’t too fitting for this and we worked with her to create this perfect balance of dreaminess for the song. And that was kind of quite easy actually. With Alan, I’ve been friends with him for quite a few years. We got him over from the US to work here for a month. He stayed at my house and finished the new Neon Indian record while working with me.

MW: Overall, your music often fools listeners into thinking they’re actually in the 1970s or 1980s stepping out of a Nintendo game or something. Are you influenced by any notable artists from these eras?
BJ: I don’t think this album in particular had any really eighties influences.

MW: What do you feel influenced Illumination per se? It sounds very French influenced to me.
BJ: The idea of using certain synths and sounds and probably even the production ideas were very French. And then there were the French tracks we were listening to a few years ago which were influenced by a lot of eighties stuff. Now it’s more the seventies which has influenced this album. Right now we’re listening to more AIR, Pink Floyd and Super Trance.

MW: I hear the bonus disk offers neat remixes from some of the best of the international and local circuit like Baby Monster, YACHT, Hook N Sling and Fred Falke to name a few?
BJ: The bonus disk is a selection of remixes from over the last year, so it’s basically just some of our favourite mixes of Sometimes, Moon Theory and Make You Mine.

MW: Is remixing other musicians’ songs just as rewarding as producing your own?
BJ: It’s always fun because you have something to start with which gets the ball rolling quicker. However, writing originals for yourself is much more rewarding.

MW: How does it feel having influenced not only Australia’s music scene with a string of hits in the last few years, but to have gained serious attention on a global scale?
BJ: We’re very happy. We’ve obviously got a lot of European and American influences in our sound, so we were almost in some ways making music that would translate over there better than in Australia potentially. We always had that in my and are very happy to have other interest outside of Australia.

At the risk of sounding like a broken (vinyl) record, they just don’t make em’ like they used to. Rhiannon, Britney and co, the superstars (for better or for worse, with a strong lean towards the latter) of today, couldn’t hold a torch to the dancing divas of yesteryear, as this funkadelic clip from New York group Dee Lite proves.

A nice little mash-up between the lovely Lykke Li and the ever-talented Bon Iver. The original is deeply intimate, whereas this rendition takes the song to the great outdoors and injects vibrant percussion, accompanied by the funky moves of Sweden’s finest export since Bjorn Borg’s mullet.

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I was hooked the minute I heard the captivating opening guitar riff in Ghostwood’s I Am Overcast. It’s got a glitzy Brit shoegaze feel that flirts with psychedelic elements.

I’m hearing a Cobain-style vocal, a little Ride guitars, some My Bloody Valentine in the effects, and maybe even a wee bit of Pixies and Jeff Buckley thrown into the mix. Overall, it’s ace and such a good listen to kill time while these Sydney rockers record demos for a new album. If your ears necessitate more sneak peeks, the guys frequently share demos on their Facebook page.

A little infectious lollipop rock anyone? Feel free to embarrass yourself singing along at the stoplight. If the other drivers give you that look, roll down the windows and spread the love.

I was first drawn to MGMT by the awesome Ausgang album cover for Congratulations, and they did not disappoint. They are like a secret spaceship hidden in your garage waiting to jet you away to world smoothed over with imagination and magic.