Karen O - "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys" Video

Karen O FTW this week. Last night her "psycho opera" Stop The Virgens opened at St. Ann's Warehouse and earlier this week Chipotle (yes, that Chipotle) debuted a music video/PSA that Karen O soundtracked to "raise awareness about the economic hardship family farmers face in the increasingly industrialized American agriculture system." KO covers Willie Nelson hit "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys" and the result is quite amazing. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs front woman is know for being pretty out there creatively and very original, but she keeps it classic with this cover. The soft simplicity makes me crave for more stuff like this from her.

Those Darlins - "Screws Get Loose" Video

Those Darlins are on my shortlist for album of the year and they just released a video for title track (and my personal favorite) "Screws Get Loose." The girls and guy look great, but the polished, fashion/catwalk themed video seems a bit out of place when juxtaposed with the raw, jangly song. The awesome part of the video is the close-ups of Jessi Darlin. It's cool to see her signature facial expressions (viewed from afar when attending live gigs) in hi-definition. Her eyes are so big!

Wild Flag - "Romance"

Wild Flag - Romance by MergeRecords

I think I was a little bit too young to get as heavily involved in the Riot Grrrl movement as much as I would have liked, but it seems to be coming back into style in a really big way lately. I'm loving the new Wild Flag album. It's as close as we are going to get to Sleater-Kinney reunion as we are going to get for a while I think. "Romance" has been out for quite some time, but I'm still hitting the repeat button at least one time after it comes on my iPod. Fuck yeah Carrie Brownstein.

Alessi's Ark - "Maybe I Know"

Slowly falling in love with Alessi's Ark, the musical project of Alessi Laurent Mark. Her simple folk songs make me want to pick up my own guitar again, and I absolutely love it when an artist has that kind of effect on me. Her new album Time Travel is full of gems, but my favorite is her cover of Lesley Gore's "Maybe I Know." It's a lovely modernized yet still timeless interpretation of a heartbreaking song...and I love how her British accent never disappears.

Atlas Sound - "Modern Aquatic Nightsongs"

I'll say it. Atlas Sound is so much better than Deerhunter. I'm digging this chillwave-y track from new album Parallax. It's got a bit of a beachy vibe, which makes me wish it came out about four months ago, but Bradford Cox never plays by the rules.

Canon Logic - "Howl In The Night"

I truly know virtually nothing about this band and I am too lazy to fall down a Google k-hole right now. But after being turned onto the Canon Logic EP Rapid Empire by Eric over at The Wild Honey Pie a while back, it's been difficult to move them over to one of my less listened to playlists. Seriously, every track on Rapid Empire is a highlight. They remind me a lot of Ambassadors, a new fave band of mine in that they seem to have been brought up on rock but listen to a lot of hip hop and are working (quite successfully) at fusing the two together. You can grab track "Howl In The Night" for free by entering in your email over at the band's site, but trust me, you're going to want the whole shebang.

Austra - "Identity"

I was a latecomer to Austra, well after they had received much-deserved hype all over the internets. So I'm happy to be at least a little bit on time with this one. Austra's newest single is "Spellwork" and the b-side is new track "Identity." But don't let that b-side designation fool you. "Identity" is well produced and polished, definitely not a throwaway the band dug up and added on to the back of 'Spellwork" at the last minute. So typically Austra-ish (deep bass, high-pitched wind accents, Katie Stelmanis' haunting vocals), "Identity" sits well next to any track from Feel It Break. Catch it streaming over at disco naivete.