Rather than thinking of it as 2011 being halfway over, I prefer to see it as we're all halfway to my birthday {December 24th if it's not on your calendar already}. To celebrate, and take stock of this year's releases thus far, I've put together a mix of my favorite songs of 2011 {so far}.

This year has brought some predictably great albums from friends such as Mountain Goats, Okkervil River, BOAT, Matt & Kim, Telekinesis, Bright Eyes. I feel like I've been waiting for a fresh batch of songs from Brown Recluse for years. I love every note they play and having a two hearty releases in one year {Panoptic Mirror Maze and Evening Tapestry} makes me overjoyed.

Other bands, like When I Was 12 and Dangerous Ponies, I am thankful for crossing paths with for the first time this year.

And then there are the folks that have left me wanting more more more (I'm looking at you Oregon Bike Trails and Forbidden Friends)! Huge thanks to You Aint No Picasso for bringing Oregon Bike Trails to my attention. OBT fellow, singer/songwriter Zach Yudin, from Santa Monica, Ca., is quite the mysterious dude - only having a cassette tape release earlier this year (hand painted, limited to 50!) and a couple other MP3s swirling around the web.

Forbidden Friends, a side project by Thermals frontman Hutch Harris (with Michael Lerner of Telekinesis on drums and fellow Thermals Kathy Foster and Westin Glass backing him up), is still in the 7" only phase, and needless to say I'm counting down to a full album of FF stuff.

In short, I can't recommend the below songs and full releases enough. To help convince you of their brilliance, I made a virtual mix cd!

The tracklisting of my {hopefully very convincing} mix cd is:

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So, call me a luddite or whatever, I'm always a bit behind the times on technology crazes. I didn't get a facebook or a twitter til last year, and though I have an iphone, I use it for very simple tasks, like checking my e-mail. So, I may sound a bit like a certain local NPR host when I say that I love Band Camp. If you haven't seen it, it's basically the new best way for bands to share music.

Case in point, yesterday I came across this, Pet Milk, a brand new band out of Philadelphia, featuring Herbie from Brown Recluse. Looking at their Band Camp page, you can stream their entire demo cassette, see the full artwork, download the entire thing for free, buy a copy if you really like it, and easily post a link to any of your social networking sites. It's like myspace on steroids for its music sharing capabilities.

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{photo via last.fm page}

There are few things I love more than taking indie pop related trips, and thankfully, Slumberland Records have gifted me with the perfect indie pop daydreamer's vacation complete with bands I never thought I'd get to see. To celebrate their 20th anniversary, they're throwing two identical shows, one in San Francisco and one in LA at with some of my favorite bands ever.

March 27th - The Rickshaw Stop, San Francisco/March 28th - The Echo, LA

Henry's Dress
The How
Go Sailor
Brown Recluse
Summer Cats
Pants Yell!
Devon Williams
Neverever
Brilliant Colors
Boyracer

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Mark the holiday of St. Valentine with some of the finest fresh and new indie-pop in the blogosphere!

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My favorite Philadelphia band, Brown Recluse Sings, has announced their second release, entitled selected hymns (of the evening tapestry) will be an eleven song cassette released on Dead Format.

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Planning on being on the East Coast in early November or looking for a reason to pack your bags and head there? The schedule for the New England Popfest has been announced and it's four-packed bills of bands from up and down the East Coast sprinkled with a couple British, Swedish and Nordic cuties.

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Remember when I had my happy spring day pop freakout about Philly band Brown Recluse Sings last week?

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The NYC Popfest folks have announced their 2007 line-up and HOLY COW is it fantabulous! IT MAKES ME WANT TO TYPE IN ALL CAPS!
Behold - I'll post the line-up now and comment more once I gather myself.

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Brown Recluse Sings more than satisfied my sunshine-induced hankering for sparkling pop perfection.

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