Mike Castle has released his new EP "Everything Gold" on his souncloud page. My favorite track was featured in the trailer below and is called "Stop Playing With My Heart". It is a wonderful mixture ’60’s pop and lo-fi garage rock.

You can catch Mike Castle at The Hideout on July 19th with The Donkeys and The Sharrows.

The new album from Lightfoils, Hierarchy, was released this week through Saint Marie Records. The five-piece band creates sonically lush wall of dream-pop. The band formed back in 2010 and this is the follow-up to their 2012 debut self-titled EP.

You can catch Lightfoils at Double Door on August 9th with Withershins, Neiv, and American Cosmonaut.

Joel Coan, Tristan Hammond and Marky Hladish (aka The Felix Culpa) played their farewell show way back in December 2011 and it has been over 3 years since they released new music. Back in May the band resurfaced and announced that they would be releasing new music this year via No Sleep Records. They also announced their upcoming appearance at Wicker Park Fest.

Last week the trip released the first track, "Karma City", from their forthcoming split EP with label mates Foreign Tongues.

The Felix Culpa will be performing at Wicker Park Fest on July 26th.

Flosstradamus has released a fun video for their track "Drop Top" ft. Travis Porter. The single was released back in March via Ultra Music.

Huh is the latest project from Craig Woods of Hot Bagels. Last week he released a new full-length album called it’s all spectacular. It album is filled with lo-fi bedroom pop gems mostly clocking in at under two minutes.

Keith Masters has released new single called "Ghost of Jupiter". The track is a funky collaboration between Master, Lettuce, and Hawaiian producer DRKNSS.

Filligar have released the first single, "Motor Shine", from their forthcoming full-length album and follow-up to 2013’s Hexagon. The band was recently honored by the U.S. Department of State with an appointment as cultural ambassadors as part of the Arts Envoys program, which "shares the best of the U.S. arts community with the world."

You can catch Filligar at Lincoln Hall on July 16th with Carbon Tigers and Carleton Koldyke.

Kosmonaut released their latest EP, Desert, back in May. The duo of Aaron Messing and Charles Mueller play dreamy space-pop and through the four track mini-odyssey futher expand the Kosmonaut world.

The Chicago duo Gold Cult (Blaine Welsh (guitar/vocals) and Mikey Moran (bass/percussion/vocals)) are releasing their new single "Round & Round" b/w "Lafayette" next week. Both tracks will be featured on the duo’s upcoming full-length album due out by the end of the year.

The new album from Braid, No Coast, is being released next week via Topself Records. The Braid formed back in 1993 but only lasted 6 years. In that time however they released thre classic albums. This is the reunited band’s first album in 16 years. The album’s title, No Coast, alludes to the challenge of reuniting. The band has a more rounded and established sound then there emo-punk roots on this new album. You can stream the entire album at NPR right now.

You can catch Braid at Township on July 20th.

Fue released their new album Gray Matters last week. The band’s sound hinges on the pop side of rock and overall is very catchy.

You can catch Fue at Fresh Fire Room in Aurora on July 6th with Rhett Walker Band and at Culture Shock in Aurora on July 7th.

TOOFUNCHILD has been working on their follow up to the 2012 album Good Will Gets Tough for the last year. Recently they released video for a new track "Asi Es La Vida". The video is fun in a haunting way much like the song itself.

The band is fronted by Rahim Salaam who also hosts the podcast "What About Chicago?!".