The video for Mates Of State’s “Sway” chronicles the budding romance between a woman who falls into an alternate world and a creature she meets there. Budding, because he’s a plant! Or something. Then they go to her prom where they’re the only two attendees, apparently, and Mates Of State is the house band. This does not speak my experience with proms or alternative dimensions. Check out the video after the jump.

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Name: Mates of State
Progress Report: Indie-rock’s most reliable pop twosome readies the release of Mountaintops.

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Connecticut-via-Kansas boy/girl duo Mates Of State return this fall with their seventh LP Mountaintops, the follow-up to 2008′s Re-Arrange Us. This time out they’ve enlisted the support of indie-oriented studio all-star Chris Coady (Gang Gang, Beach House, YYYs, TVOTR, etc.) who lent his ear to the mixing process. Otherwise it’s all Mates, and their apparent love for all of the VHS oriented imagery/’80s analog synth sounds that also attended some of last year’s bigger internet phenoms. To wit here is “Maracas” in song and video form, directed by Jimi Patterson and Emmy Pickett. The directorial duo say they captured MoS with band on “vintage 1982 VHS home camcorder in order to pay homage to the performance based rock television shows of the ’80s and late ’70s.”

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We first glommed onto the A.V. Club’s covers project via Owen Pallett’s take on Guided By Voices’ “Game Of Pricks”; in the subsequent weeks more bands have entered the studio and chosen songs from a finite list, leaving one less option for the next band around. The project’s nearing completion, but since that Pallett day I’ve checked religiously, waiting patiently for someone to take on this Replacements Let It Be classic. So when Mates Of State answer the question “why did you chose ‘I Will Dare’” with “Because we didn’t have many options!” at the top of this video, it’s a classic woof moment. But you can understand their hesitation — they’re a tad too cutesy and squeaky clean and married for the ‘Mats raw boozed jangle, and Westerberg’s hopeful uncertainty in “I Will Dare” is pretty untouchable for such a stable pair. So they don’t really try: Peter Buck’s guitar handled by a trumpet, the iconic hook shifted into 3/4 time, a cutesy bop to what the ‘Mats made feel a reckless one, Todd Barry on drums (looking good, Todd)  — an attempt, at least, to mask a fundamental disconnect with the tune. Watch it, but then spend the day with Let It Be please.

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Mates Jason Hammel and Kori Gardner’s Crushes…, their first album since 2008′s Re-Arrange Us, includes covers of 10 fairly diverse artists. There are links between a couple — say Tom Waits and Nick Cave — but the jump from Girls to the Mars Volta to Belle & Sebastian is unexpected, to say the least. Why a covers album?

We’ve been talking about doing a covers record for a long time.  We’d hear a great song at 2 AM while driving the straight line from one part of Texas to the next, and all we’d want to do is play that song as if we had written it.  There are so many artists we considered, some for the mere fact that they wrote a perfect song, some for nostalgia’s sake, some because more people need to hear them, some for the challenge, and some to shed a whole different light on a song: Our light… make it a duet, more optimistic or maybe less traditional.

It’s the only full-length they’ve recorded themselves, maybe to recapture that 2AM straight-line vibe. See what they selected and listen to their shiny M/F take on Album‘s “Laura.”

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Indeed, this year’s Virgin Mobile Festival was totally free, and Richard Branson’s attempt to “put a smile on people’s faces” totally worked. Aside from those grumbling about the long lines for admission, because everybody loves complaining about something. The day featured sets from a reunited Blink-182, Weezer, Wale, and made for some fantastic scheduling when Chuck D and Flavor Flav’s set gave way to the National’s. (Said Berninger: “We do the same sort of thing as Public Enemy.”) Being free meant abundant branding at every turn, but there were attractions to divert attention from corporate slogans by way of vaudevillian psychics, street performers, and the traveling hipster roadshow that is a Girl Talk set. Here are some sights of the scene at Merriweather Post Pavilion, most by Graeme Fleigenheimer.

Yo Gabba Gabba!, the kiddie show that grabbed our attention with original music from Cornelius and the Shins, has booked lots more bands to appear in season two. Ladytron, MGMT, Mates Of State, Datarock, Hot Hot Heat, the Roots, Jimmy Eat World, the Ting Tings, and Mixmaster Mike have all been invited by DJ Lance Rock to share educational tunes for tots. The fun started earlier this week with the Ting Tings singing Altered Images’ “Happy Birthday” to Brobee (AKA the green monster). Jimmy Eat World appear on today’s episode performing “Beautiful Day” atop flying cats and dogs. We have both clips after the jump in case you don’t TiVO much Nick Jr.

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It’s time to brave the ferry lines for another day in Jersey, but first: pretty pictures via the eye of Abbey Braden. As mentioned, things got off to a slow start, but from thereon the day belonged to Gregg Gillis, “Born Slippy,” and the talented Mr. Yorke. Time is tight, so we’ll have more from the grounds tomorrow. For now enjoy some fan vid, shots of the consummate hipster dance party that is a Girl Talk fest set, Lovefoxxx’s latest outfit, and a spread that will make you wish you could live inside Radiohead’s stage show.

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The new Mates Of State video is set in a hipster clothing store, following a day-in-the-work-life of an employee and married bloggers Kori and Jason stuck in display cases that are slowly being filled with colorful balls. The theme: “Oh, it’s my only offer / stifled copies of myself / as someone else.” Among other themes (suburban emptiness, the bourgeois routine). When we wrote about “My Only Offer” the first time, we mentioned that despite the glockenspiel and chirpy harmonies, it wasn’t as instantly memorable as spunkiest Re-Arrange Us standout “Get Better,” but this version has more balls.

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On first blush we all agreed Sasquatch! pulled together one of the lineups to beat of this glutted summer festival season, which is why we’re psyched that, despite not having made the trip ourselves, we were able to send photog Chona Kasinger in our stead to capture the Lips/Mouse/R.E.M. & M.I.A.-heavy lineup. Rainn Wilson was there, people got arrested for mushrooms, the Lips had naked women onstage … but the following photo set is Schrute and ‘shroom free, and also totally SFW.

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