I was really heartbroken when I came to sense I couldn’t possibly make it to this year’s Coachella Festival. I’ve always been a fan of this wonderful weekend musical extravaganza, even though a lot of people have been a bit disappointed with this edition’s lineup. Dudes, Coachella is still Coachella, no matter what bands play it. Anyway, one of the bands that played there, this last weekend of 25-27 April, was none other then Cansey der Ser Sexy, possibly the most vibrant and feel good electropop quintet you could ask for. As always the band pulled out an awesome performance (so, I’ve read *sigh*), unleashing 45 minute worth of pure sexy indie music to the unsuspecting masses. During all the mayhem the Brazilians sneaked by a new song as well, titled “Rat Is Dead (Rage),” off of their new and upcoming album “Donkey“. The song is uber fun, with a catchy bass line and groovy hooks, oh and Lovefoxxx does some cool rave-like vocals. Donkey gets out on June 22 via Sub Pop Records.

Elika is a Brooklyn based indie duo, that has caught my eye recently, thanks to their beautiful blend of eclectic music. I’m not even quite sure how to describe them, but if I were to label them somehow I’d say they’re somewhere between ’80s glam pop and modern day underground electronica. The two, Evagelia Maravelias (vocals, keyboards, drums) and Brian Wenckebach (guitar, keyboards, programming), hold a really powerful musical chemistry together, that can be sense a mile away. I can only think of how their live shows sound like. Their debut LP “Trying Got Us Nowhere” is out now worldwide and can be ordered from here.

I’ve always had a thing for the Brazilian feel good vibe and culture. Music and dancing there is viewed as a celebration of life, which can be best seen during Carnivals. While over the years the Brazilian musical scene has delighted us with beautiful arrays of diverse genres and influences like the samba, bossa nova, funk carioca or one of my personal favorites, capoeira music, it’s now time for electronic music to make its presence felt in the tropical landscape. Actually, since the beginning 21st century it seems that electronic music has rapidly begun to gain more and more ground, becoming a global phenomenon.

Télépathique is an emerging electro-rock band from São Paulo, made up of a singer (Mylene) and DJ/producer/drummer (DJ Periferico), who has remixed songs featured on the “City Of God” remix soundtrack album, and has produced such Brazilian acts as Otto, Trio Mocoto, BiD, and Sidney Magal. The two form a extremely powerful electro groove duo, with Mylene often taking MC duties, mixing in their sound the flavour of jungle music as well as house music.

After “Eu Gusto” (”I Like It”) is a stunning Portuguese sung electro anthem, packed with robo synths, a haunting background and a distorted chorus. Eu Gusto is off Télépathique’s from their latest EP “Love & Lust,” out March 18 via The Control Group.

For as long as I can remember The Breeders have been subjected to unworthy ignorance and ill recognition of their efforts. Truth is people don’t know what they’ve been missing all these years, seeing as this alternative quartet has been coughing up quality, magical pieces of music since 1988. Odds are, that Mountain Battles, the band’s latest album, will suffer the same lack of appreciation, which is too bad considering how many great moments there are to uncover in this record. Shortly put, it’s a really good album; their best in 15 years. Yes, I know there have only been two in that respective time frame, but still it rocks.

Musical style-wise Mountain Battles is a bit strange, meaning it employs a very varied array of influences and tempo shifts. For example some are more clear-cut pop songs, such as “Bang On” and “Walk It Off,” while othe a lot more different like the ethnically centered “German Studies” and “Regalame Esta Noche,” which are sung in German and Spanish, respectively. There’s also a middle eastern flavored track in the form of “Istanbul” and even a little try with experimentalism in the title track Mountain Battles.

I was a bit skeptical on the success of the comedy folk duo’s tv show, because at first I found the premise a bit uninteresting and well … downright terrible, involving a foreign rock duo trying to making it big in New York. What a cliche. However I’ve been hooked ever since the show premiered on HBO, thanks to the New Zealanders striking good humor and spontaneity. Actually I think Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement may just be geniuses, because they simply bring to the table a refreshing creativity that makes life much more fascinating. Anyway, while I do enjoy HBO, I actually prefer listening to music and returning to the matter at hand, on April 28 Flight of the Conchords (Bret + Jemaine) will release their first full length album, in the form of a self titled release via Sub Pop.

“Business Time” is one of the 15 tracks featured on the upcoming album. And let me say it’s 4 minutes of pure sex! Now this song is simply brilliant, I could help myself laughing though the whole song. Hungry for more. Eagerly awaiting April 28.

The Irish quartet, after releasing three smashing LPs in the Eire and gaining a massive following by doing so, are set to attack the US market as well. They’ve already gained a bit of attention lately with some of their songs being featured on popular TV series like The O.C. or Grey’s Anatomy and their third album, Flock (platinum in Ireland) has just been released in the US. Look out for Bell X-1 on airwaves and TV, cause they’ll be huge anytime.

The rockabilly duo that formed the ’80s cult act Flat Duo Jets is clearly one of the most underrated bands in rock’n'roll history. The blue-garage duo paved the way for similar bands and influenced a great deal of artists through out the ‘90 and 2000’s like R.E.M. or Catpower or the most clear example The White Stripes. Sadly the band disbanded in the late ’90s, but fans can finally rejoice at hearing new material from the band as the release of Two Headed Cow, the soundtrack to the 2006 documentary of the same name, has just recently been announced. The disc contains seventeen unreleased tracks recorded in 1986, ranging from early FDJ favorites (“My Life, My Love”, “Mexicali Baby”) to jaw dropping cover tunes (The Collins Kids’ “Hoy Hoy”, Ray Charles’ “Mary Ann”). Rawhide is my favorite from the bunch, a scorching neutron bomb of demoniacally energetic rockabilly that detonates on impact leaving nothing but scorched earth for miles around.

mr. Gnome (notice the lower cased ‘m’) is a emerging Cleveland duo, that’s been getting some pretty high profile attention lately and righteously so. Their style is a bit hard to center, ranging from art rock, to pure punk, to some kind of prog metal, but whatever label their music might carry these two are definitely a talented bunch. On May 6th, after two well received EPs, mr. Gnome will release their much awaited debut full length album “Deliver This Creature.” “Pirates” is the LPs first single and boy does it rock. It’s a eclectic mix of PJ Harvey, Massive Attack, Death From Above 1979 and Cat Power in Nicole Barille’s vocals, all in one place. The end result? Check it out for yourself bellow.

One of last year’s most anticipated hip-hop releases 8 Diagrams from behalf of the legendary Wu-Tang Clan, left a lot of people disappointed, not because it was trash or anything, but because it was down right mediocre and didn’t deliver little to no real beats. This was probably the album’s main setback: beats, a department that clan leader RZA has always mastered well, as it can clearly be seen on “You Can’t Stop Me Now,” a 8 Diagrams reject, that ended up getting listed on RZA’s forthcoming solo album. The song’s great, better then anything the clan or its members released last years, even then The Big Doe Rehab, offering some pretty solid, pure beats, alongside a nostalgic guitar lick, as RZA and Inspectah Deck spit out rhymes. RZA’s forth solo album, “Digi Snacks,” will be released in the summer of 2008.

My favorite release for this week, is “Saturnalia“, the debut album from behalf of two of the finest musicians of the ’90s: Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees) and Greg Dulli (The Afghan Whigs), that together form The Gutter Twins. The two met for the first time in 1989, but it took them almost 15 years to make music together, as recordings for Saturnalia began at the beginning of 2003. Now, five years later, the album brings back a fresh dose of nostalgia-alternative and punk, to the overly dull contemporary rock scene. “Idle Hands”, perfectly summarizes the album’s whole vibe, starting off with a odd chorale intro and a string arrangement, before exploding into a epic chorus. Saturnalia is out now via Sub Pop Records.