What I would’ve given to come across this impromptu jam session in L.A.

Lykke Li – Official Site | MySpace | Wikipedia | Last.fm | Amazon

Bon Iver – Official Site | MySpace | Wikipedia | Last.fm | Amazon

“High School Drama” – Montt Mardié

With all that caked-on make-up, the lad here looks uniquely sub-human in this video. Is he real? Is he a robot? And the leading lady’s not so attractive, either, looking incredibly awkward throughout the whole sequence. And since I have your attention, friends, allow me to rant about the use of speaking parts in songs: unless you’re Tom Waits you can’t pull it off, and you’re going to do a good job at making me cringe. The pointless high-school banter in this song is totally cringe-worthy, whether it’s done tongue-in-cheek or not. I’m scared.

However, let’s look past the awkwardness of this video and the spooky spoken word bits and let’s just get down to the dancing and the pure bubble-gum goodness of this song. For that, I’m willing to forgive.

Sweden’s got me again. Guh. I’m so predictable.

Montt Mardié – Official blog | MySpace | Last.fm | eMusic

The first day of summer usually calls for lemonade, patterned shirts reminiscent of grandma’s dining room tablecloth, and specially crafted mix CDs full of boys singing in their best breezy falsettos. Swede Emil Svanängen’s basement recording project Loney, Dear has saved me on many mixes in honour of this summer already (and it’s barely begun). Check out “I Am John” (courtesy of SubPop), and you’ll be aching to don your shades, jump into a convertible and take a extended road trip with the windows rolled down.

Have a happy first week of summer, kids. It’s gonna be a good one.

Loney, Dear – Official site | MySpace | Last.fm | SubPop