Broken Bells is the new alt-rock project of Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse) and James Mercer of the Shins. By now you’ve probably heard their single ‘The High Road’, taken from their self-titled debut album released in the UK last week (on 08 March).

I am totally digging their sound that recalls the expansiveness of the Eagles, psychedelia of the late ’60s, the great falsettos from ’70s disco, and even ’80s video game blips. The two met at Roskilde Festival in 2004 and discovered they were fans of each other’s work. They worked in secret on new music until September 2009, when they finally revealed their new project.

Here’s a live performance of their groovy ‘The Ghost Inside’ on American telly’s ‘Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’ earlier this month. It even features trippy lighting!

Broken Bells’s self-titled debut album is available now from Columbia Records.

If you’re a fan of electropop and NOT a fan of JLS, then you’ll love Hot Chip’s hilarious new video for ‘I Feel Better.’ The video takes place at a gig for a boy band that looks an awful lot like JLS, and is pretty straightforward until a man in a white robe floats in and starts shooting lasers from his mouth…don’t ask me to explain, I don’t get it either. I’m not usually a fan of music videos that put sound effects over the song, but it works in this case. Directed by actor/comedian Peter Serafinowicz, it’s as entertaining as it is random. Check it out below:

‘I Feel Better’ is the second single from Hot Chip’s latest album, ‘One Life Stand.’ Check out Mary’s review of the album here.

French band Phoenix are on a roll. Earlier this year, their latest album ‘Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix’ won the Grammy for Best Alternative Album, handily beating out albums by David Byrne and Brian Eno, Death Cab for Cutie, Depeche Mode and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. They quickly sold out an April date at D.C.’s Constitution Hall – not bad for a band that played a small club the last time they visited our fair city. And they’ve already announced a handful of summer festival appearances, with more on the way I’m sure.

Check out the band’s recent live performance ‘Lisztomania’ at Los Angeles’s Wiltern from American late night programme ‘Last Call with Carson Daly’.

I’ve slowly fallen in love with Oxford’s Stornoway over the past year. Jess first introduced them, and then I caught them live and interviewed them at Swindon’s Big Weekend last May. Now they’re gearing up to release their debut album ‘Beachcomber’s Windowsill’ on 24th May, and this is the (rather ace) video to accompny the first single.

Watch, enjoy, and have an amazing weekend. We’ll be back on Monday.

(PS: Looking for something to spend some money on this weekend?! Buy yourself a Blog Off! Ticket – they’re rapidly selling out, and it’d be ace to see you there – they’re only £5 in advance, and you get to see the aceness of Starlings, Jazica and Victoria and Jacob. What are you waiting for? Go book yourself a ticket or get more info here)

Other than Lady Gaga’s new video for ‘Telephone,’ it seems the biggest buzz in the music world this week is around the new MGMT teaser track, ‘Flash Delirium,’ off of their forthcoming album, ‘Congratulations,’ due out 13th April 2010. Some seem to think that it’s a fantastic new direction for the band, while others don’t like it because they think it sounds nothing like MGMT. I fall somewhere in between: I was not, shall we say, particularly whelmed by it at first, but it’s growing on me. It has none of the catchy hooks of the singles off of ‘Oracular Spectacular,’ but that reflects an intentional move by the band away from singles and towards albums. As the band told NME, the album is “a collection of nine individual musical tours de force sequenced to flow with sonic and thematic coherence,” and they want it to be appreciated as a complete album. Ben Goldwasser of MGMT said to the magazine, “There definitely isn’t a ‘Time to Pretend’ or a ‘Kids’ on the album. We’ve been talking about ways to make sure people hear the album as an album in order and not just figure out what are the best three tracks, download those and not listen to the rest of it.”

They have, however, made ‘Flash Delirium’ available for free through their website, so head on over and download it now!

If you’re anything like me, the breathtaking song ‘Blood’ from Australian folk-pop band The Middle East will stop you in your tracks. After hearing it on NME Radio as Chris Martin’s Track of the Week, I haven’t been able to take it off repeat. Tailor-made for fans of Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes, it is both delicate and powerful, subdued and joyous. With its gorgeous harmonies, tinkling bells and whistling, it’s impossible to come out of listening to it without a smile on your face. As their official bio says, ”after 5 minutes and 27 seconds of Blood you’ll be jumping with joy and brimming with excited energy, dreaming that life is all about smiles and sunshine (and great entertainment).”

The song serves as the centerpiece of their debut EP, ‘The Recordings of the Middle East,’ which is well worth a listen. Originally self-released by the band in 2008, they re-released it last year after a short hiatus, and are generating quite a buzz about themselves. They will be performing at SXSW before touring North America with Mumford & Sons. Check out the amazing hand-crafted video for ‘Blood’ below – it is the perfect accompaniment to an already fantastic song.

The Middle East will be performing at T in the Park 2010. If you were lucky enough to get tickets, make sure you check them out!

Chris Corner, lead singer of one of my favorite bands, IAMX, is famously a control freak when it comes to his art. He writes, plays and produces everything almost entirely on his own, and then brings in the band to play live. So I was somewhat surprised that he would release an album consisting entirely of remixes and re-workings of IAMX’s third album, ‘Kingdom of Welcome Addiction.’ Due out on 19th March, ‘DOGMATIC INFIDEL COMEDOWN OK,’ includes re-workings by Alec Empire, Combichrist, Terence Fixmer, Black Light Odyssey and more, and only one of the bonus tracks, ‘Church of England,’ is done entirely by Chris himself.

As someone who can find no fault with original album, I find some of the re-workings on this new album underwhelming, but the Alec Empire remix of ‘I Am Terrified’ is certainly not one of them. While the original track is sweeping and melodic, the remix has a more raw, dirty feel (aka a more old-school IAMX feel) to it that only adds to the song. Shot and edited by Chris Corner himself, the broken glass and dimly lit, voyeuristic shots fit the music perfectly. Check it out for yourself.

IAMX will be performing in London at ULU on Saturday, 20th March, 2010. Tickets available through SEE Tickets (16+ only)

‘DOGMATIC INFIDEL COMEDOWN OK’ will be released 19th March 2010, and can be pre-ordered now.

Now based in London, North Wales three-piece band The Joy Formidable have just released the video for their newest single ‘Popinjay’ off of their eagerly anticipated debut album. The track is equal parts rock and pop, with its thrashing guitars and drums and it’s catchy chorus. Directed by Adam Gregory, the stop-motion video features paper versions of each of the band members and lots of flying paper birds. It doesn’t make much sense to me, but it looks pretty cool. Check it out for yourself and let us know what you think!

‘Popinjay’ is available as a digital download now, with a limited run of 500 7″ vinyls out from April 5th.

The Joy Formidable will be touring across the UK in March and April. For more information, check out our ticket alert post.

There has been a lot of buzz around the new Foals track which was first played on Zane Lowe’s radio program March 1st as his ‘Hottest Record in the World.’ At almost 7 minutes long, it is far lengthier and more laid-back than the Foals that we are used to (think ‘Mathletics’ and ‘Red Socks Pugie’), but it’s still pretty damn good. While some people are saying it sounds nothing like Foals, I disagree. It starts off very slow and ambient, highlighting Yannis Philippakis’ surprisingly vulnerable vocals. Subtly and effortlessly, they add layer upon layer throughout the song until it sounds exactly like Foals, albeit an updated version. And in my opinion, that’s what bands should do: they should explore what they’re capable of while retaining at least a little bit of what makes them unique.

‘Spanish Sahara’ is the promotional single for Foals’ new album, ‘Total Life Forever,’ set for release on 10 May 2010.  They enlisted director Dave Ma to create a breathtaking video for the song (watch below). In it, Philippakis sings ”Forget the horror here / forget the horror here / leave it all down here / it’s future rust and it’s future dust,” and the video is so visually stunning with it’s rich colours and its crisp, slow-motion shots that you almost forget the horror that you’re being shown (namely what appears to be some sort of dead animal in a bag). Kudos to Foals for a song and video that are as brilliant as they are unexpected.

Cambridge, Massachusetts electronic band Passion Pit have just released the video for their fourth single ‘Little Secrets’ off their debut album ‘Manners’. When I saw them live last June, this song was one of the highlights of their already epic set and had everyone dancing and singing along, so I’m glad to see they’ve brought a similar vibe to the video. At first it seems a bit eerie, with Michael Angelakos & Co. playing to a dark warehouse full of men with sad-faced paper bags over their heads. But as Passion Pit plays, they quickly “turn those frowns upside down” and a dance party ensues, complete with confetti and glitter. Check it out below and just try not to dance along!

Passion Pit are playing a string of sold out dates in the UK over the next two weeks. A limited number of tickets are still available for their show at Norwich UEA on Monday 8th March 2010, with support from Little Death and Ellie Goulding.