Seriously where is the time going? We are racing towards halfway through 2012 and I can barely keep up, soon it will be summer and then it will be autumn and BOOM christmas and new years- stop it time!! 

Anyway, in an attempt to slow things down let’s all revisit what we loved and listened to in March and April!

—-

We kicked off March by going back and discovering the amazing The Cocteau Twins due to their influence on one Abel Tresfaye and The Weeknd- particularly the sample of The Cocteau Twins “Cherry Coloured Funk” on the fantastic “The Knowing”.

At the moment there seems to be an influx of talented male sometimes folksy singer songwriters and in March we finally got round to listening to the wonderful Ben Howard and “The Wolves”- amazing driven indie folk kind of pop things.

Everyone seems to want to be anonymous and mysterious these days and it has worked wonders for acts like Summer Camp, The Weeknd and now One Room. Part of the Heavy Roc Family (like St. Lucia, Alex Winston, The Knocks) One Room have that lo-fi mysterious sound with hip hop inflections which sound wonderful over tight production on tracks like “Believe”.

March gave us even more upbeat synth pop with Emil & Friends “Crystal Ball” (check out their amazing cover of M83 “Midnight City” too!)

Early this year Daytrotter opened up a studio in London so now there are so many more amazing acts to check out its just getting silly. I’ve been away for two weeks and I have SO much to catch on- until then though check out these amazing sessions from favourites The Naked and Famous and Clock Opera. 

Chillwave impresario St. Lucia has been exciting the ears since he dropped “The Old House Is Gone” last year, finally now there is a debut EP that is perfect for summer. Check out “Closer Than This”

Ever wondered what a cover of Adele’s “Rumour Has It” would sound like recorded live in the kitchen with some tupperware? Questions have been answered with this from The Dolls.

Lots of lovely dreamy indie pop from acts like Wages and “South China Sea”.

Back in March we originally just wanted to post up Aluna George’s fantastic remix of Lana Del Rey’s “Born To Die”- instead I fell in love with the amazingly smooth “You Know You Like It”

March/April were months for brand new things from Beach House, The Temper Trap, Mystery Jets, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Sigur Ros and Marina & The Diamonds

Charli XCX had us, and still does, with the amazing “Stay Away”

Californian indie pop came under our radar in March from the fantastic Lady Danville with “Operating”- check out our interview too!

DJ Roxanne Roll gave us this fantastic remix of SEASFIRE’s “Falling” one of our favourite tracks already of 2012 as did Cruelty.

New discoveries in March care of catching the end of a random TV show with this from Jonathan Seet and “Precious Things”

We went a bit Hunger Games crazy at the end of March (too many times and counting). The soundtrack is very good with standouts from Arcade Fire “Abraham’s Daughter” and Maroon 5 “Come Away To The Water”

Magnificent on her massive collaboration with Gotye on “Somebody That I Used To Know” here’s Kimbra in her own right, making a song from scratch for a spotify session at this year’s SXSW.

New things from Theophilus London featuring Blood Orange “Take It Off”

Something big for 2012 in the shape of The Neighbourhood and “Sweater Weather”

Hoodie Allen released his debut commercial EP on iTunes All American and the response was cray. With number 1 in US, top ten in UK and a tour currently in the works- this self made kid is on FIRE.  

The music world got very excited by southern rock outfit Alabama Shakes and their fantastic debut “Hold On”.

Kanye West and G.O.O.D. Music are doing a very good job of teasing us for the record label’s album- especially with “Mercy”.

Check out our interview with indie doo wop pop outfit Now You See Them

March and April saw 2 of the US’s biggest music festivals come around with SXSW and Coachella- check out our favourite performances from Jay- Z, Bon Iver, The Weeknd, Dre, Snoop and that 2pac hologram.

Getting very excited for the Sade-esque smooth sounds from Jessie Ware on tracks like “110%” and “Running”.

Another of our favourite acts for 2012 is Mikey Mike and the wonderfully honest “Chainsaw Love” EP. We also chatted to Mikey Mike about just life and stuff.

Otherworldy and Arcade Fire-esque- Frankie Rose “Interstellar”

Beautiful icelandic indie pop from Ourlives “We Lost The Race”

disCOVERs- Some fantastic covers over the last two months from Mr & Mrs Fox and their mashup cover of M83 and Simple Minds “Midnight City/Don’t You Forget About Me”, the amazingly wonderful Emily Elbert and her cover of the classic “Crazy” by Patsy Cline, this year’s The A.V. Club’s Undercover Sessions kicked off with this delightful covers of R. Kelly’s “Ignition” by Young The Giant and The Head and The Heart covering Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way”, The Rosebuds released a project covering Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It” and Talking Heads “Road To Nowhere”, Community’s Alison Brie covered fellow castmate Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino with this live rendition of “Some Girls” and Marina & The Diamonds tackled the Biebs with this cover of “Boyfriend”

and finally ITYLTS and Selfish D had our first annual Summer Off.

The Head & The Heart cover Fleetwood Mac

It’s a tough act to follow. Anyone covering Fleetwood Mac and a song from their unstoppable Rumors album has to have some cajones to make it right and do it well. Summer Camp did it with their cover of “Everywhere” and The Head and the Heart just did it on “Go Your Own Way” for The A.V. Club’s Undercover 2012 live cover sessions. 

I haven’t done one of these in a while but thought I probably should get back into it. Also, how is it March already, anyone else a little surprised how that crept up on us? A little sneaky, I think.

Anyone, let’s do this. Here is what I liked, and thought you’d probably like, in January/February. Huzzah!

First off the bat, you should probably check out ITYLTS Best of 2011 series. This was our big rundown of 2011 including our favourite songs, covers, remixes and what we want to be big in 2012. 

January also sadly saw the end of one of my favourite TV shows, Chuck. One of the reasons I loved Chuck so much is the music it has introduced me to since I began watching it. To honour the wonderful music supervision on Chuck have a look at Chuck vs the Music, a playlist dedicated to my favourite music on Chuck. After you’ve listened to that, take a look at this interview I did with editor/director/sometimes music supervisor on Chuck, Matt Barber as we chat about music, directing, desert island discs and more. 

Now onto the songs! (after the jump)

The Shins- The Shins have a new album out Port of Morrow and they’ve let us listen to upcoming tracks “Simple Song” and “September”. Port of Morrow is due March 20.

Jay-Z- Hov and Bey welcomed their baby girl, Blue Ivy, into the Carter-Knowles family in early January. Days after her birth, Jay-Z released this track “Glory” onto the interwebs. Produced by Pharrell and featuring none other than Blue Ivy, it’s a heart warming song from a very very proud pops. 

Seasfire- Bristol boys Seasfire started off 2012 very well with a great show at the Communion night. Their track “Falling” is getting heard in all the right places and I chatted to the boys about the comparisons to The Weeknd and Radiohead in this interview. 

Adam Barnes- This Oxford singer/songwriter also started the year off very nicely with his signing to LAB Records. Currently on tour in the US, the futures looking bright for Barnes, especially with songs like this “She Will Stay Beneath The Moon”.

Emeli Sande- Sande’s eagerly anticipated debut album Our Version of Events was released in February, and I have to say it is amazing. Stand out tracks for me are “Mountains” and “Next To Me”.

The Head and the Heart- The Head and the Heart must have got a major boost when their beautiful song “Rivers and Roads” was used in the closing moments of the Chuck finale. Along with this, they also released the video for the equally beautiful “Down In The Valley”. 

Gotye- Gotye’s viral smash “Somebody That I Used To Know” was voted in at the number one spot on Triple J’s Hot 100 and it has refused to leave ever since. Helped in part by this unique cover by Walk The Earth, five people-one guitar.

The Antlers- Hey! Look! I did an interview with Michael Lerner from The Antlers! We chatted about influences, recording processes and what’s happening next. (w/ The Guestlist Network)

Miike Snow- Miike Snow have a new album out Happy To You. They’ve already let us listen to “Devil’s Work” and now here’s “Paddling Out”. Happy To You is due March 27.

Ghost Society- Lo-fi glorious sounds with Ghost Society’s “Your Hands”

Kidda- Infectiously fun synth pop Kidda with “Together Again”. If you like The Go! Team, have a listen. 

The Bullitts- If you haven’t seen the video for The Bullitts’ “Supercool” yet, do it now. Jeymes Samuel + Rosario Dawson= Hilarity. 

Jack White- The White Stripes frontman, Jack White has finally released some of solo material and properly solo this time, not under any other name but Jack White, “Love Interruption”.

Busby Marou- Sweet folk pop from aussies Busby Marou and “Biding My Time”

Work Drugs- One of our favourite artists from last year, Work Drugs have given us a taster of things to come on the new album with “License to Drive”.

The Griswolds- Aussie infectious indie pop courtesy of The Griswolds and “Mississippi”. If you like Vampire Weeknd or GIVERS, give this a try.

Azure Ray- A little late to the game to this duo, but “Seven Days” sure is beautiful. 

Bon Iver- Some live music for you from Bon Iver. First off a special session recorded live including stripped back versions of “Hinnom, TX”, “Wash.”, “Beth/Rest”, “Babys” and “I Can’t Make You Love Me”. Secondly, here’s Justin Vernon and The Roots on Jimmy Fallon doing a r&b tinged soulful reworking of “Perth”.  

disCOVER- A lot of lovely covers for you here. Emil & Friends put their unique spin on M83’s “Midnight City”. Warsonic brought synths to Mumford & Sons “White Blank Page”. The Weeknd’s “The Morning” got the cover treatment from Eliza Doolittle and Saskatchewan. Silverswans brought even more mellowness and melancholia to Lana Del Rey’s “Video Games”

Remix, Baby- To bring in 2012, remix extraordinaires RAC have done an amazing remix of some of the best tracks of 2011 for Hypemachine, called RAC vs The Hypemachine. One of my favourite remixres, LEANN GRIMES turned his attention to “Knees” by Peter and Kerry with the remix “Held Hands Coming Apart”. Dark Dark Horse brought lo-fi broodiness to Fossil Collective in his remix of “Without A Fight”.

It’s been a while coming but The Head and the Heart have released a video for the beautiful Down In The Valley. The video is footage of them travelling all over the states touring and having fun showing them “on their way back to way they started”. Beautiful song, beautiful video. 

The Head & The Heart: Website…Twitter…Facebook

Even though I did post on this track, Rivers and Roads a few months ago on ITYLTS since its use in the series finale of Chuck over the weekend it’s pretty much been on repeat. Rather than do a straight re-post of the wonderful song, here’s a live performance of Rivers and Roads by The Head and the Heart on KEXP. Rivers and Roads is beautiful song about change, growing up, saying goodbye, reminiscing and most importantly getting back.

The Head & The Heart: Website…Twitter…Facebook

Over the weekend NBC’s Chuck came to an end after five seasons. It was bittersweet because it was time but it always sucks to say goodbye to something you love. Chuck was a great show full of heart, good times and great characters. It was also full of some absolutely great music selections introducing me to artists such as The National, Frightened Rabbit, Band of Horses, Local Natives, The Antlers, Blitzen Trapper, Clock Opera, The Naked and Famous, Freelance Whales, Telekinesis to name a few. Oh and it also re-ignited my love and appreciation for Bon Iver (and we all know how much I love them).

Now I know this is a music blog but I want to pay tribute to Chuck and its influence on my music tastes that ultimately filter into what I choose to contribute to ITYLTS. So here’s some of the music that made this show great.

We kick the list off with the stellar “Short Skirt, Long Jacket” by Cake, Chuck’s opening theme…and then enjoy the rest of it.

And if you haven’t ever heard of or watched Chuck just try the pilot…and see how you go from there…

Here is the brand new video for The Head and The Heart’s Cats & Dogs. You can download it here.

The Head & The Heart: Website…Twitter…Facebook

Staying on the remix vibe for now, here’s another up coming mash up DJ worth giving a few listens to. LEANN GRIMES is Shane Conerty who, inspired by the songs he found on music blogs, made an album remixing his favourites ones. Over 14 tracks, LEANN GRIMES remixes The Head and the Heart, Local Natives, The Decemberists, CAKE, Deerhunter, The Morning Benders, Kings Of Convenience, Dr. Dog, The Strokes and The Tallest Man On Earth to name a few. We were mighty impressed from track 1-14, so here’s the whole album for you to stream (and then download cause it is FREE, just click on that download button, k)

Leann Grimes: SoundCloud//Twitter//Bandcamp//Facebook

Its July, so we’ve just passed into the second half of the year, HIGH FIVES. And with that milestone, every blog seems to be coming out with a best of the year so far list, so we thought we’d do the same. This is based merely on what ITYLTS thinks has been great this year. The only requirements to be on the list is for the track to either be released this year or to have ‘emerged’ this year, and it’s one song per artist. This basically covers songs that have been around maybe since last year but only have been released this year all official like. So here it is and in no particular order: 

Let us know if we’ve missed any out…

New from The Head and The Heart ,River and Roads a song about the pain of reminiscing and missing. It starts off slow and beautiful and then builds into something big and beautiful.

Rivers and Roads - The Head And The Heart - Produced by Alan Matley

The Head and The Heart: Website//Twitter//Facebook//iTunes