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After having released their critically acclaimed debut Native Speaker in 2011, BRAIDS have returned with a new 12" single In Kind // Amends. Out June 11th on Arbutus Records, the 12" features two singles from their forthcoming sophomore album, as well as two exclusive b-sides.

The first single "In Kind", hits the pinnacle of the group's songwriting as a four piece. Written live, it is a layered and emotionally raw saga. The second single, "Amends", is a strong contrast, and shows the group's exploration into electronic and dance music. Filling out the 12" are two exclusive tracks that explore the textured and atmospheric side of the band ? the subtly percussive "Near Enough" and the mesmerizing "A Dawn in Me".

Case Studies is the musical project of Jesse Lortz, a prolific Seattle based musician. His lyrics wax and wane with truth bare tales from his life. Melodies surface as lines hummed in the in-between times. These easy melodies coat the heavy subject matter of suicide, heartbreak, grief and regret. As with his previous project, The Dutchess and the Duke, listening to Case Studies feels like taking part in an exploration of sentimental landscapes. They appear and fade like dark light lingering on the horizon. The meandering verse journeys to seek comfort in loneliness and vulnerability. Through the twisted subconscious, dawn breaks, breathing its light on both the joyous and dismal occasions that mark life's milestones, each song a continuation of his story, each song a probing examination of motivation and consequences.

Half Of Where You Live is the second album by Berlin-based electronic musician Gold Panda. The follow up to his award winning Lucky Shiner released in 2010, his new album is a distillation of that which that made his previous work both loved and acclaimed, and also displays an evolution of his sounds, stylings and methods. Half Of Where You Live is the culmination of three years of touring and intermittent experimentation in his self-builtstudio, the time between records was well-spent; each track is informed by the experiences of his trips through Asia and beyond. Shows and weeks away forming personal experiences that ultimately became the thematic basis for each track on the album.

While it's true I did endure a terrible break-up at the beginning of writing this record, this is not a break up record. Dagger Beach is a put-me-the-fuck-back-together record. The break up came in late 2011, after endless months of White Wilderness touring. I returned home to an empty house, and, as that's pretty unbearable when you're not quite right in the head, I decided to set out walking. I hiked the Lost Coast (36 miles of off-the-grid splendor in Southern Humboldt County), I hiked the entire 150-mile trail system of Pt. Reyes, I hiked for days, deep, deep in the woods, usually alone.As I walked and walked, listening to records on repeat, I started obsessing about music again. As the experience changed me, it changed the record. Dagger Beach is looser, weirder, and more free because of it.

Written over the course of their summer vacation and recorded in three days, The Weight of the Globe is a musical snapshot by teenaged sisters Lily and Madeleine Jurkiewicz at a pivotal moment in their lives.

Each song on The Weight of the Globe was written as a discrete, self-contained folk-pop statement, but due to the real-time circumstances of recording it, the EP holds together like a collection of interconnected short stories. Taken as a whole, the songs chart a journey from love to disillusionment to heartbreak; the narrator's weariness in "Tired" persists into "Things I'll Later Lose" ("I've been hearing things, and I've been losing sleep"), while the words to "Back to the River" seemingly return to the same mythic river that flows through "In the Middle."

There's nothing calculated about The Weight of the Globe. As sincere as it is precociously sophisticated, it marks the auspicious debut of a strikingly talented musical family.

On Perfect View, Swedish producer Hannes Norrvide returns with his third full length and it?s warmer and more inviting than any of his previouswork. The album is composed of largely instrumental pieces, focusing more on beats, samples and general ambiance than its predecessor, last year?s Growing Seeds. Tracks like ?Breaking Silence? and ?Barcelona? highlight this shift in direction and overall mood, while tracks such as ?Another Day? and ?Vibrant Brother? stay true to Norrvide?s signature form. Overall this album ventures more towards rave than no-wave and this is perhaps most evidenced by witnessing their live show where Norrvideis joined by Vår frontman Loke Rahbek.

The band will embark on their first European and us tours this spring and summer, joining Chelsea Wolfe in Europe this April/May and touringthe US in late May beginning with the Chaos in Tejas festival and ending with Brooklyn?s Northside festival. They will be joined on the US tour by fellow Sacred Bones roster artist, Pharmakon and Body of Light from Arizona. LFY will also be hitting the west coast for the first time in mid June.

"Cause & Effect" is a 3 x 7" release featuring an influential, trend-setting solo musician on side A, and a current, fully-formed band on side B who follow in the musical tradition set in motion by the side A fellow. Cause & Effect. The RSD-release features three separate 7" records:

Thurston Moore b/w Talk NormalDavid Yow b/w Child BiteLou Barlow b/w Dumb Numbers

All three 7"s are sold together in one super elaborate package, pressed on deluxe multi-colored vinyl.

?Empty Estate? is the follow-up EP to the critically acclaimed ?Nocturne?, which received several year-end accolades including album of the yearin Under The Radar and iTunes. The 7-song EP was recorded in Brooklyn at Gary?s Electric by Al Carlson in January.

Beacon's debut album The Ways We Separate both consolidates and develops these ideas. The album focuses, as the title suggests, on the idea of separation -- both within the context of relationships and in a more intimate, psychological sense. As Thomas Mullarney explains, "The narrative contained inside The Ways We Separate deals with two kinds of separation: one where two entities grow apart, and the other where we grow apart from ourselves. Over the course of a relationship, the two sometimes happen together, one being the result of the other."

David Wingo is a busy man. In the years since the release of his last record as Ola Podrida, he's written and recorded soundtracks for several movies including Take Shelter (winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2011), MUD (starring Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon), and Prince Avalanche (starring Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch and co-composed with Explosions In The Sky), both of which are seeing wide release this coming spring/summer. When he had time in between films, Wingo assembled a live band featuring Colin Swietek on guitars, Matt Clark on bass, and David Hobizal on drums and began to bring his new songs in to the band. A first for Ola Podrida, the new album Ghosts Go Blind was recorded to tape in a proper studio, mostly live, with the full band. The resulting songs are energetic and accessible, while Wingo's abstract narratives are more personal and intimate than ever.

The Shivas are friends and sweethearts who grew up playing music together, launching Kickstarters for a tour van and then coming of age driving that van around the country. Having played literally hundreds of shows together just after high school, The Shivas? joy and serious performing chops set them apart from other surf-pop bands in the swarming Portland music scene. Like their Burger Record cassette-mates Thee Oh Sees before them, The Shivas? sweet harmonies and sun-baked sound harkens back to the origins of surf rock, and are too compelling for the physical senses to refuse. Jared Molyneux (guitar; vocals), Kristin Leonard (drums, vocals), Eric Shanafelt and Robert Mannering are tight, precise, and deliciously fun Their sweet, reverb-laden LP Whiteout! (KLP243) debuts on K this spring,