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Best New Releases of the Week: Fang Island, Shout Out Louds, Shearwater, Holly Miranda, Blood Feathers, Quasi and More


This is a blockbuster week for music releases as evidenced by the sheer number of tracks featured in this post. Brooklyn‘s prog-rock quintet, and grads of the Rhode Island School of Design (which has also given us The Talking Heads, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Les Savvy Fav), Fang Island, belt out punk inspired pop with spirited vigor, triumphant harmonies, riff-heavy jams and uplifting tempos.

The Shout Out Louds return with their third album, Work, that will be followed by an extensive European and North American tour, including a sold out show next week at New York‘s Music Hall of Williamsburg. Shearwater are back with a new album, The Golden Archipelago, and the featured track, “Black Eyes.”

Denmark‘s experimental pop band Efterklang released their new album, Magic Chairs, and will kick off a U.S. tour next week. The recently disbanded The Fate Fictions dropped their final album today, and the long-awaited new album from San Francisco’s Brian Johnstown Massacre also dropped today. Another San Francisco band, Man/Miracle, released their new LP, Shape of Things, today. The band will perform tomorrow night as part of the city’s 18th annual Noise Pop festival.

We also have new singles from fresh releases from Blood Feathers, Wolf People, Toro Y Moi, We Are Wolves, Holy Fiction, Xiu Xiu, Quasi, Holly Miranda, The Exhibition and others. Enjoy.

“Life Coach”Fang Island from s/t debut
“Daisy”Fang Island from s/t debut
Fang Island on MySpace

“Walls”Shout Out Louds from Work
Shout Out Louds official website

“Black Eyes”Shearwater from The Golden Archipelago
Shearwater official website

“Hot Sprawl”Man/Miracle from Shape of Things
Man/Miracle official website

“Modern Drift”Efterklang from Magic Chairs
Efterklang on MySpace

“Parallel World”The Fake Fictions from Magic Infinity EP
The Fake Fictions official website

“Let’s Go F**king Mental”Brian Jonestown Massacre from Who Killed Sgt. Pepper?
Brian Jonestown Massacre

“Don’t Know You at All”Blood Feathers from Goodness Gracious
Blood Feathers on MySpace

“Repulsion”Quasi from American Gong
Quasi on MySpace

“October Fires”Wolf People from Tidings
Wolf People on MySpace

“Blessa”Toro Y Moi from Causers
Toro Y Moi on MySpace

“Gray Death” Xiu Xiu from Dear God, I Hate Myself
Xiu Xiu official website

“Iron Eyes”Holy Fiction from Hours From It
Holy Fiction on MySpace

“Colors” April Smith & The Great Picture Show from Songs For A Sinking Ship
April Smith & The Great Picture Show

“Waves” Holly Miranda from The Magician’s Private Library
Holly Miranda on MySpace

“Rapture”Elaine Lachica from I Think I Can See the Ocean (feb 23 via
Elaine Lachica on MySpace

“Half Truth” Dead Leaf Echo from Truth
Deaf Leaf Echo on MySpace

“Bright New Worlds”The Exhibition from s/t EP
The Exhibition website

We realize that all of this music is a bit overwhelming, but it would be a disservice to our regular visitors, subscribers and new visitors to exclude certain tracks for the sake of creating a smaller list of releases – we feel all of the tracks we represent are worth the space they consume. While we do filter which tracks from new releases to present to you all (many do not “make the final cut”), we also try to be as thorough and eclectic as possible, and let you decide which songs you like the most in an effort to help you decide which albums you want to purchase for your music collection.

Reminder: You can stream continuously all of the songs in any of the playlists featured on IRC – while you do other things – just by clicking on the first song.

Next Week: Rogue Wave, Dinosaur Feathers, Portugal. The Man, The Whigs, Butterfly Explosion, Ted Leo and The Pharmacists, Peasant, Kiki Pau and more.

Previous New Releases Mixes

2/16/10: Music Bear Hands, Local Natives, The Hush Now, Field Music, Son Lux, The Good Listeners

2/9/10: Music Showstar, Yeasayer, Hot Chip, Galactic, Vinca Minor, Drew Danburry, FM Belfast and More

2/2/10: Music from Midlake, The Album Leaf, King of Prussia, Seth Augustus, The Heligoats and More

1/26/10: Music from Beach House, The Magnetic Fields, No Through Road, Woodpigeon, Retribution Gospel Choir, Citay, Boy Genius and More