Another arbitrary 365-day cycle has come and gone, offering the music world an opportunity to reflect on the fruits of the preceding year’s toil. Most frequently, these reflections come in the form of innumerable ‘Best Of’ lists, but for 2013, dream pop duo Beach House decided to reminisce the retro way: with an old school home video. The band’s latest video for “New Year,” off of 2012’s Bloom, samples footage from their recording session at Sonic Ranch Studios in Tornillo, Texas. The video is replete with up-close-and-personal shots of the band in action, shakily shot Halloween décor and a well-timed catfight (literal cats, not the kind you need to take your earrings out for) which, as the band writes, “we just thought these moments and the memories they involve fit this song.”

Watch the video above and buy the rest of Beach House’s Bloom, out now on Sub Pop.

Can’t decide what to get your Grizzly Bear fan for the holidays? Buck up! This season send him the gift of the 2012 LP Shields. He already has that, you say? Well of course, any Grizz fan wouldn’t consider his collection complete without it, but all’s not lost. The band has been kind enough to grace us with an epic YouTube video accompaniment to Shields, rearranged song-by-song for smooth jazz piano, solo sax, and Baroque operatics and set to a slideshow of vaguely apt stills that range from card-playing dogs to a preponderance of shrimp cocktails. Now if only I could find something as good to give my mother this year…

STREAM: Grizzly Bear – “Gun Shy”

With his third LP Anything In Return slated for release early next year, Toro Y Moi (legally Chaz Bundick) is in full on promotion mode with a new video for his single “So Many Details.” This time he’s bringing out the big guns: a Dodge Charger, a personal turboprop Cessnea, and a white turtleneck pseudo-striptease. Diverging slightly from the lo-fi, bedroom-ready beats of 2011’s Underneath the Pine, “So Many Details” promises an explosion of what Bundick has termed “sincere pop.” Chazwick shoots with both barrels of his gun, but he bags his game.

It’s worth noting that once the video hits 250,000 views, a second video for the next album single will be unlocked. So get your watch on.

Anything In Return is due out on January 22^nd via Carpark Records and will be gracing the 9:30 Club stage on February 10^th.

STREAM: Toro Y Moi – “So Many Details”

What’s better than Jesse Cohen and Eric Emm? How about two Jesse Cohens and two Eric Emms? Three of each? A stage full of Cohens and Emms? If you’re nodding your head with escalating vigor, salivating at the thought of 14 Brooklyn-based electropopelgängers, each dressed in a different sweater/cuffed jeans/flatbrim combo and sporting a different instrument, then you’ve come to the right place. The latest video for “Not The Same,” from ATG (and personal) favorites Tanlines, features Cohen and Emm (…and Cohen and Emm and Cohen and Emm) building into a crescendo of the band’s characteristic percussion, synths, and cellos that simultaneously underscores and undermines the irony of the song’s title. See, they are the same but they’re not the same… see? See?

Tanlines’ Mixed Emotions is out now on True Panther. The band will be at the Black Cat this Friday, November 30th, and so will we, so see you there.

In the Age of the Internet, novelty is a dying breed. Rarely do we encounter innovation, and even less frequently do we hear any kind of originality paired with quality. For every Justin there are five million wanna-Biebers out there uploading years worth of terrible Glee-covers into the abyss.

Cue mpressof, an esoteric YouTube channel populated with synth-filled, ethereal, one-to-two minute-long sound bites. I apologize in advance for the scare-quotes, but the artist’s unprecedented format must be seen to be understood: each “song” is titled by number—“1” through “15”—and set to a “music video,” what might more literally be described ode to prettycolors.tumblr.com. Wistfully hazy, each track is like an interlude or a bridge to the best part of the best song that I’ve never heard before…but what is the point?

One month since I first stumbled upon this YouTube gem, the answer has arrived in the form of the first-ever single from Empress Of. The woman behind the enigmatic moniker, Brooklyn resident Lorely Rodriguez, elevates the basic idea of “7” to its fullest potential with the single’s psychedelic A-side, “Champagne.” A little bit Dirty Projectors, a little bit Animal Collective, Empress Of’s strange-but-amazing dissonant harmony defies previous conventions, a freshness underscored by the track’s beyond-bizarre music video from Samuel Morris Hamad, which features a split-screen close up Rodriguez’s face as she messily devours a slice of watermelon. Prepare yourself, then watch above.

Besides love, I’d bet the survey says loneliness is the runner up for most popular song themes. Maybe it’s a grass-is-greener phenomenon, maybe it’s envious curiosity, but I always am a little jealous of the people who seem to be content to attend concerts +0 or dine solo at fancy restaurants sans iDistraction. Historically, it seems like the coolest people are out wandering lonely as clouds, not worrying about who they’re going to take to see Steve Harvey’s live comedy act because they really want to go and damn all you naysayers out there.

With a (somewhat ironic) jump on the bandwagon, Tame Impala has joined the ranks of all the loners of and by whom we gregarious folk are constantly in half awe and half bewildered. Their new release, Lonerism, is not a totally unexpected follow-up to their well-received 2010 debut, Innerspeaker, with tracks like “Why Won’t They Talk To Me?” running in a vein of wistful, yet somehow enviable, isolation. Pairing depressing lyrics like “Destined to be / Lonely old me… But I don’t really care anyway” with a neo-psychedelic, playfully moody soundscape that seems to proclaim downplayed self-assuredness, Tame Impala has distilled the cool kind of loneliness, recorded it in the physical form of Lonerism, and will sell it to you on October 9^th via Modular Records.

STREAM: Tame Impala – “Why Won’t They Talk To Me?”

The worst thing—perhaps because it is the only bad thing—about ∆ (the mysterious and promising British band, pronounced “Alt-J”) is trying to explain their name to the layperson without sounding like a Hipster Runoff article. However once you get past the initial language barrier (for instance having to explain computer keyboard shortcuts to my doctor this morning) you’re golden, because the band’s sound speaks for itself.

Last week we posted the video for “Fitzpleasure” off the band’s Mercury Prize-nominated An Awesome Wave (now out on Canvasback), and so to follow up here is the latest video treatment for “Something Good.” A gory yet nostalgic tour around a Spanish bullfighting ring is as aesthetically pleasing as it is aurally satisfying and perfectly apt for this ethereal album standout.

Fresh off a stop at the Rock N Roll Hotel, ∆ will continue to tour through mid-October, so if you missed them while they were here make sure you find your way to see them soon before they get too big and don’t want to see you.

STREAM: alt-J – “Something Good”

If the Greek letter “∆” evokes memories of a 10^th grade math test or your alma mater’s blondest chapter, it’s time to readjust your brain dials. The British alt-pop band ∆ (pronounced Alt-J and referring to the command used on a Mac keyboard to achieve the Greek letter “Delta”) has been making music since its members met at Leeds University in 2007, but the release of their debut album An Awesome Wave has taken the group from GarageBand to rock stars at a startling speed.

Their video for “Fitzpleasure” is as intense and eccentric as the band’s stylistic influences. Set in an otherworldly gothic church, two white-sheathed creatures interpretive dance their way through the intricate web of trip-hop basslines, indie quirk, heavy synth, and atmospheric bhangra that ∆ has melded and established as their trademark sound.

An Awesome Wave is out now on Infectious, and will come stateside via Canvasback on September 18^th. Until then, check out the Jim James remix of “Fitzpleasure” that we posted on yesterday.

STREAM: alt-J – “Fitzpleasure”

Upon reading the headline for this post, you may be thinking to yourself, “wasn’t, like, there just a post on POP ETC coming to play an ATG show, like, last month?” Don’t adjust your cookie settings, dear reader/valley girl because it’s true: the Berkley/Brooklyn-based band will be in town Thursday to headline our latest All Things Gold showcase at U Street Music Hall. I won’t go into all the nitty gritty details (you can check out our ATG One Year Anniversary Preview for all that jazz), but imagine the intense awesomeness of POP ETC’s performance at the 9:30 Club last month and magnify it by the sublime awesomeness of a raucous UHall style dance party, and then ask yourself “why the heck haven’t I, like, bought my ticket yet?” Good question, here’s the answer:

TICKETS: Ticketfly
RSVP: Facebook

STREAM: POP ETC – “Keep It For Your Own”

The Postelles’ music screams three things: New York, high school nostalgia, and rock ‘n’ roll. It’s not surprising then to learn that three of the four members of the NYC-based band played in the Postelles’ forerunning band, the Blend. High school coffeehouse-style performances led to residencies at NYC venues and soon enough, the Blend became the Postelles. The would-be recent college grads have grown up quickly as their precocious musical appreciation reaches towards the past. Citing early legends Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry as influences, the Postelles combine new with old to create a fresh, timeless sound.

In a recent interview with NYLON, singer Daniel Balk described the group’s latest track, “Running Red Lights” as “an ode…to whatever you’re doing in your life that you probably shouldn’t be, but you just can’t stop.” According to their home page, the band will hit up the Howard Theatre on October 28^th, so buy early and we’ll see you there.

STREAM: The Postelles – “Running Red Lights”