The Artist/Album: Mac DeMarco, 2 (Captured Tracks, October 16th)

Why He's Worth Checking Out: Because Captured Tracks has been in need of its own lipstick-smearing, genre-bending Ariel Pink for a while. Don't let the hippy dippy facade of the album art on the following free tracks fool you; there's a prankster lurking beneath dude's immaculate pop hooks, like Ween with a little self control... more »

Nearly four years have passed since Digitalism's debut album, and while Idealism's stylized electro is still going strong with the meathead techno set, it's been all but written off by the underground dance scene that first embraced the German duo.

Good thing their long-awaited second LP (I Love You, Dude, out June 21st through V2 / Cooperative Music/Downtown) sounds like a less aggro version of Klaxons, then, rounded out by at least one Strokes-related appearance (Julian Casablancas' "melodic ideas" in "Forrest Gump"). Have a listen to "2 Hearts" below, alongside more album details and tour dates for this summer's traveling HARD festival.

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