Maybe it’s because it’s been three years since they released their debut LP, Manners, but we all kinda forgot how much we liked Passion Pit. We’re playing the hell out of Gossamer, their just-released sophomore record, though! Check out the band’s new video for one of our favorite tracks from the album, “Constant Conversations”. Gossamer is out now on Columbia.

Flying Lotus has a new album coming out in October, and listening to this new track from the guy makes it sound like he’s retained the space-travelling sound that’s made his past three LPs such visceral experiences. Only on this new track, FlyLo seems to have brought along some eager new space cadets. “Between Friends” finds Odd Future star Earl Sweatshirt and Captain Murphy (whom Pitchfork theorize might actually be Tyler, the Creator) trading raspy verses over some interstellar beats and jazzy keyboards that sound like they might be beamed through space in an attempt to contact aliens, or played by the long fingers of some extraterrestrial creatures themselves. It all makes for more evidence in the compelling case that nobody does collabs quite like Flying Lotus. “Between Friends” apparently won’t be featuring on FlyLo’s new record, but be sure to keep a look out for Until the Quiet Comes, dropping October 2 on Warp.

The xx just unloaded a ton of new info about their upcoming album Coexist, which is due out September 11. You can even hear the album’s first single, “Angels”, which features more of the ominous intimacy that the band proved so adept at producing on their 2009 self-titled debut. Check after the jump for Coexist’s track list and a bunch of upcoming tour dates.

Coexist:

1. Angels
2. Chained
3. Fiction
4. Try
5. Reunion
6. Sunset
7. Missing
8. Tides
9. Unfold
10. Swept Away
11. Our Song

Tour Dates:

07-23 Los Angeles, CA – The Fonda Theatre
07-25 Seattle, WA – Showbox at the Market
07-28 Toronto, Ontario – Phoenix Concert Theater
07-29 Montreal, Quebec – Metropolis
07-31 Boston, MA – Wilbur Theatre
08-02 New York, NY – Terminal 5
08-09 Sibenik, Croatia – Terraneo Festival
08-10 Budapest, Hungary – Sziget Festival
08-11 St Pere, France – La Route du Rock
08-18 St Polten, Austria – FM4 Frequency Festival
08-19 Biddinghuizen, Netherlands – Lowlands Festival
08-31 Laois, Ireland – Electric Picnic
09-07 Isle of Wight, England – Bestival
10-05 Vancouver, British Columbia – Vogue Theatre
10-06 Seattle, WA – Paramount Theater
10-07 Portland, OR – Roseland Theater
10-10 Las Vegas, NV – The Pool at the Cosmopolitan
10-11 San Diego, CA – Soma
10-12 Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium
10-13 Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Forever Cemetery
10-14 San Francisco, CA – Treasure Island Fest
10-16 Salt Lake City, UT – The Complex
10-17 Boulder, CO – Boulder Theater
10-19 Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
10-20 Chicago, IL – Congress Theater
10-21 Milwaukee, WI – Pabst Theatre
10-24 Quebec City, Quebec – Imperial De Quebec
10-25 Boston, MA – House of Blues
10-28 Bronx, NY – Paradise Theater
10-29 Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory
10-30 Baltimore, MD – Ram’s Head Live

Here’s the first full track from Victoria Bergsman’s upcoming Taken by Trees record, Other Worlds. Sounds a little more electronic than her last outing, the Pakistani-influenced East of Eden (which is still one of our favorite LPs of 2009) but the guitar work is classic TbT dreaminess. Pretty fitting that the track is called “Dreams” then, isn’t it? Other Worlds is coming October 2, but in the meantime look out for the “Dreams” 12″ – which apparently features “extended instrumental and dubbed out remixes by Henning Fürst of the Tough Alliance” – out soon via Secretly Canadian.

Dirty Projectors have been around for a while now. They’ve actually been kicking around Canada for about a decade, releasing records with terrible album art and covering entire Black Flag LPs from memory. However, it wouldn’t be entirely untrue to say that their last LP, 2009′s Bitte Orca, works as a fresh start for the band, encapsulating most of the good stuff that came before it and repackaging it as the most listenable and rewarding material the band’s ever released. Needless to say, expectations have been high for Bitte Orca‘s follow up. Fortunately, Swing Lo Magellan serves as a worthy successor to the Projectors’ break out LP, offering the same quality songwriting and fun arrangements while simultaneously pulling back on a lot of the bombast that might have turned some away from the band in the past.

While Orca was characterized by big guitar indie rock numbers, on-repeat summer jams and uh, German whale chants, the predominating tone on Swing Lo Magellan is one of rustic tranquility. Most tracks fall closer towards the “Two Doves” side of the spectrum than say, the one where you’d find tracks like “Cannibal Resource”. As such, the Projectors have crafted an album that sounds like it would be perfect softly humming from your stereo as you try to navigate your car down the backroads of a forest, searching for the hidden road that will lead to your family’s old Summer cabin, or something. Much of the mood is provided by frontman David Longstreth’s guitar playing; the acoustics on songs like the title track, for instance, sounds like Longstreth’s had Dylan’s John Wesley Harding on repeat. Meanwhile, “Just from Chevron” features handclaps that sounds like the band might be playing paddy cake, and some of the sweetest vocals on the entire record, while “Dance for You” and “Impregnable Question” manage to achieve almost a zen-like state in their poetic and innocent declarations of devotion.

Swing Lo Magellan may find Longstreth and the band letting a lot of light into their songs, but the record is not without its dark moments. First single “Gun Has No Trigger” finds the band locking into a tight groove to produce a sinister sound somewhat reminiscent of the White Album’s more macabre moments. Opener “Offspring Are Blank” might just be the bleakest track on this thing, though, as Longstreth sings of impending darkness, shadows and a “silence that can swallow sound” in between big guitar freak-outs and thunderous cymbal crashes. It’s one of the big, bring-down-the-house numbers that book-ends the LP, the other being “Unto Caesar”. But while “Offspring” starts things off on a dark note, “Unto Caesar” is a fun, catchy, horn and string-drenched jam, with a big shout-along chorus and cleverly captured studio chatter that really makes you want to be right there in the studio with these guys.

“Unto Caesar” is probably the track here most likely to generate the kind of excitement originally induced by Bitte Orca’s stand out moments, but the destination at which the Projectors’ ultimately arrive on Swing Lo Magellan is well represented by the record’s closer, the drifting, folky “Irresponsible Tune”. It features more of the guitars, vocals and harmonies that all help to make Magellan feel like a natural, humbler product than its predecessor, a record that sounds like the Dirty Projectors capturing not only a celebratory high, but the lull of everyday life. And to be honest, a lull has rarely sounded this appealing.

Check out the new Hiro Murai-directed music video for one of our favorite cuts from Port of Morrow, “It’s Only Life”. The clip features James Mercer trapped in suburbia by a bunch of shady-looking monsters and definitely reminds us more than a little of Where the Wild Things Are.

Chances are you’ve already heard “Lots”, the first offering from Dan Deacon’s upcoming LP, America, but now you can hear the album’s second track, “True Thrush”, as well.  Really dig the mellow vibes this one starts out with; kinda strikes me as what might happen if Mark Mothersbaugh recorded the soundtrack for the Wii Shop channel? Check it out for yourself - America is out August 28 on Domino. And if you haven’t already hear it, you owe it to yourself to listen to Dan Deacon’s remix of the year’s most inescapable summer jam.

Frank Ocean began this week by opening up a bit regarding his sexuality, via a breathtakingly eloquent tumblr post, but he’s ending it by giving us another glimpse at his highly anticipated sophomore LP, Channel Orange. “Pryamids” is already one of our favorite jams of the year, and the considerably more up-beat “Sweet Life” proves to be a worthy follow-up. You can download the starry-eyed track straight from Ocean’s Soundcloud, and look forward to Channel Orange dropping July 17 via Def Jam.

Now that July is upon us, Summer is officially in full-swing. To celebrate, we’ve put together a mixtape, full of our favorite Summer jams of the year and optimized for lounging by the pool and drinking lemonade or what-have-you. Check out the track list after the jump, then download it and hit the beach, or something.

COOL COOL SUMMER

1. jj :: high summer
2. purity ring :: fineshrine
3. blood diamonds x grimes :: phone sex
4. azealia banks :: jumanji
5. david byrne x st. vincent :: who
6. dirty projectors :: swing lo magellan
7. a$ap rocky :: goldie
8. death grips :: i’ve seen footage
9. el-p :: the full retard
10. evian christ :: thrown like jacks
11. tanlines :: all of me
12. twin shadow :: five seconds
13. cloud nothings :: stay useless
14. diiv :: air conditioning
15. lemonade :: neptune
16. princeton :: florida
17. big baby ghandi feat. das racist ::  blue magic
18. frank ocean :: pyramids
19. japandroids :: the house that heaven built
20. rostam :: call me on broken glass (carlie rae jepsen x annie lennox)

Damon Albarn has always been one of our favorite songwriters. It should serve as no surprise, then, that we rank Blur right up there next to Radiohead as one of the finest British groups to come out of the 90′s. Unfortunately, though, while Radiohead spent most of the past decade releasing excellent material and redefining what it means to be an alternative rock band, Blur spent most of the 00′s… kind of doing nothing. True, 2003′s Think Tank is a fantastic and underrated LP, but between Graham Coxon leaving the band for six years and Albarn busying himself with other projects, it was a long stretch from Think Tank to the band’s 2010 Record Store Day single, “Fool’s Day”. Now Blur are set to headline the closing ceremony at the Olympic Games in London, alongside New Order and the Specials, in Hyde Park on August 1. Better yet, it would seem they’ve even written some new material for the occasion, in the form of two new songs that were just released yesterday. While “The Puritan” kind of sounds like an outtake from the last Gorillaz album, “Under the Westway” is classic Blur, recalling the melancholic majesty of tracks like “Best Days” and “The Universal”. Really digging the harmonies on this one too; in fact, I’d almost say that Coxon’s vocal support was missed nearly as much as his guitar work. You can download the two new tracks on iTunes right now, or wait for the 7″ to drop on August 6 via Parlophone.