With Lord, San Francisco weirdo youngsters Sleepy Sun blessed us with one of the undoubtedly most beautiful songs of 2009. After last year's wonderful debut Embrace, the six rather frequent weed consumers (just guessing) are already back with their sophomore release Fever, out May 17 on ATP Recordings. Judging from the first single Open Eyes, we can expected another record of sunny 70s-infused psychedelia that will go along with us the whole summer. And if the guys should show up in your town, their live appearance is stunning, too.

Today, Vivian Girls' frontwoman Cassie Ramone has called our kind attention to her very own myspace, via the Girls' pretty chatty Facebook page. There, Cassie presents a few home recorded songs. Rather very brief sketches than actual songs, but they nonetheless prove her wonderful songwriting skills, so I'd recommend you to head over there soon.

Speaking of Cassie Ramone, this gives me the excellent opportunity to give notice to her wonderful side project The Babies, formed last year together with Woods' bassist Kevin Morby and Bossy's drummer Justin Sullivan. By now, the band has added Nathanael Stark as fourth member. As I've said before, it's the year of supergroups, apparently in particular for members of the Vivian Girls.

Until today, the band has released two 7 inches, All Things Come to Pass/Caroline and Meet Me in the City/Somebody Else. They still aren't sure if they're gonna release a proper full-length at all.

I still don't know where this project is gonna end eventually. In any case, the latest single by Mancunian duo Hurts, Better Than Love, is somewhere between midterm Depeche Mode and New Order, with a touch of Soft Cell - in other words, desperately lost in the 80s. The video further exposes their Corbijn-infused aesthetics, with an uber-stylish mis-en-scène that actually achieves to avoid showing a single happy face over the course of the clip's four and a half minutes.

On June 1, Hurts will come for a single showcase in Berlin at Admiralspalast.

Of course. Just when I suggested that the big disco revival ended on December 31, 2009, they just had to prove me wrong. Fine, if the music's compelling enough. So kudos to the folks over at Neon Gold for introducing us to London trio Luxury Living and their mandatory floorfiller. We know next to nothing about them, but that'll sure change pretty soon, and right now it doesn't matter anyway. Oh, and thank goodness they've got subtle hand clapping, too.

Avant-garde. Believe it or not, this used to be a quality attributed to French fashion label Kitsuné and their compilations of up-to-date music for the hip and cool. However, with their first CD of the new decade, called The Petit Bateau Edition and the ninth one in the series, the folks behind the roundup appear more and more to be losing focus - arguably, a Kitsuné Maison Compilation has never been more redundant. Irrespective of his genius, what's the point in including Washed Out's Belong more than half a year after the track first was praised by every relevant blog on the net? And apart from this lost timeliness, even more annoying are all those shabby remixes of otherwise rather fine pop songs, though this aspect in particular has always been a problem of the Kitsuné approach to new music.

Anyway, that being said, of course there still are a few tunes worth mentioning.

The other project on Kitsuné Maison 9 I'd like to highlight is the Icelandic male/female duo Feldberg, their song Dreamin' being three minutes of pure hand clapping pop happiness. Well, though hand clapping feels very naughties, too.

Holy Ghost! - Say My Name (via Pitchfork)

After a Sunday that reminded us of what summers feel like, let's fight the emerging Monday melancholy with two sweet announcements for all you German gorillavsbearcore devotees:

Soon, two of the most adorable among all those upcoming chillwavers, Georgia's Washed Out and Brooklyn's Small Black, are finally coming to Europe on their shared tour, and on June 4 they'll stop by for a single show in Germany, at Hamburg's Indra. But don't feel rejected if you're from somewhere else, as at least Small Black have promised to come back very soon to visit other cities, in any case Berlin, to present their then-finished debut LP.

Another hyped creator of sun-drenched loveliness is Virginia's Jack Tatum aka Wild Nothing, and besides releasing his debut album Gemini May 25 on Captured Tracks, he'll perform in Berlin at Bang Bang Club on August 9, presented by our dear friends from Let's Kiss And Make Up. Up until now, it's the only show announced for Germany, but we can sure hope for more this year.