A while back, Beck said he’s planning a new release for this year, but he refused to give further details, other then he’ll be collaborating with a famous producer.

According to a recent press release the alleged famous producer, is non other the Danger Mouse and Beck’s, still untitled upcoming album, will get out much sooner then most of us thought, namely in the summer, maybe even in June. The record will be 10 track strong and spanning at a bit under 30 minutes.

The album will be released on Interscope in North America and on XL Records in the rest of the world, although no official street date has been announced. Speculation abounds that the album could appear at any time, in a similar fashion to the way the Raconteurs released Consolers of the Lonely in March.

If you’re wondering how the followup to 2006’s Information sounds like, here’s a snippet from the press release:

The result [of Beck and Danger Mouse’s collaboration] is a tightly assembled group of songs that range in lyrical tone from introspection and social commentary to off-the-cuff wordplay and lighthearted humor.

Musically, the album’s ten tracks vacillate between economy and experimentation, hybrid and pop classicism, while consistently manifesting Beck and Danger Mouse’s shared interest in psych-rock, folk, electronic minimalism, and orchestration.

Also back in last year’s August, Beck released a lone single in the form of Time Bomb on iTunes; chances are pretty favorable it will get included in the forthcoming record. As for a tour, Beck already mapped a summer European/North American tour. Check out the dates after the jump.
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I was really heartbroken when I came to sense I couldn’t possibly make it to this year’s Coachella Festival. I’ve always been a fan of this wonderful weekend musical extravaganza, even though a lot of people have been a bit disappointed with this edition’s lineup. Dudes, Coachella is still Coachella, no matter what bands play it. Anyway, one of the bands that played there, this last weekend of 25-27 April, was none other then Cansey der Ser Sexy, possibly the most vibrant and feel good electropop quintet you could ask for. As always the band pulled out an awesome performance (so, I’ve read *sigh*), unleashing 45 minute worth of pure sexy indie music to the unsuspecting masses. During all the mayhem the Brazilians sneaked by a new song as well, titled “Rat Is Dead (Rage),” off of their new and upcoming album “Donkey“. The song is uber fun, with a catchy bass line and groovy hooks, oh and Lovefoxxx does some cool rave-like vocals. Donkey gets out on June 22 via Sub Pop Records.

Elika is a Brooklyn based indie duo, that has caught my eye recently, thanks to their beautiful blend of eclectic music. I’m not even quite sure how to describe them, but if I were to label them somehow I’d say they’re somewhere between ’80s glam pop and modern day underground electronica. The two, Evagelia Maravelias (vocals, keyboards, drums) and Brian Wenckebach (guitar, keyboards, programming), hold a really powerful musical chemistry together, that can be sense a mile away. I can only think of how their live shows sound like. Their debut LP “Trying Got Us Nowhere” is out now worldwide and can be ordered from here.

A while backed we listed the dates for Plants And Animals’ brief tour, in support of their debut full length album, Parc Avenue. Now, the fun continues as the Canadian indie rockers have added a string of new tour dates, including West Coast venues. This the first time the band will play on the West Coast. Tour dates after the jump.

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Constantines are back in full force, after subsequently releasing a new record a few weeks ago in their northern homelands, in the form of Kensington Heights. “Hard Feelings” is the record’s first single, a hard stumped rocker, in all the power of the word. On the actual video is really cool, being a mixture of Sin City-like noir cinematography and Kaiser Chief’s cityscape Ruby. Kensigton Heights is out now in Canada and 4/29 in the US via Arts & Crafts.

The Last Shadow Puppets are Miles Kane (from The Rascals) and Alex Turner, the famous Arctic Monkeys frontman and lead guitarist. Very close friends ever since Arctic Monkeys toured with Kane’s previous group, The Little Flames, the eclectic duo felt so great jamming together, that they decided to devise a cunning plan.

That very plan is The Age Of The Understatement, is an album of 12 full-blooded songs, bold and brassy, full of drama, wit and melody, that source the past but avoid falling into pastiche. Expect this to be a very soulful and thrilling album, after all young blood flows through the two talented musicians, Miles and Alex being 22 and all.

The album was recorded at Black Box Studios near Nantes, France in two weeks during the summer of 2007, James Ford (Simian Mobile Disco) manning both the producer’s chair AND the drummer’s stool. The band then approached Owen Pallett of Final Fantasy to arrange and conduct the orchestration of the tracks, which were recorded by the 22-piece London Metropolitan Orchestra at British Grove studios in London over Christmas.

The Age Of The Understatement is out in the UK & Europe April 21st and in North America on May 6th on Domino. Bellow you can listen and download two mp3s, including the leading single “The Age of the Understatement.”

[MP3] The Last Shadow Puppets - ‘The Age of the Understatement’
[MP3] The Last Shadow Puppets - ‘My Mistakes Were Made For Your’

I was a bit skeptical on the success of the comedy folk duo’s tv show, because at first I found the premise a bit uninteresting and well … downright terrible, involving a foreign rock duo trying to making it big in New York. What a cliche. However I’ve been hooked ever since the show premiered on HBO, thanks to the New Zealanders striking good humor and spontaneity. Actually I think Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement may just be geniuses, because they simply bring to the table a refreshing creativity that makes life much more fascinating. Anyway, while I do enjoy HBO, I actually prefer listening to music and returning to the matter at hand, on April 28 Flight of the Conchords (Bret + Jemaine) will release their first full length album, in the form of a self titled release via Sub Pop.

“Business Time” is one of the 15 tracks featured on the upcoming album. And let me say it’s 4 minutes of pure sex! Now this song is simply brilliant, I could help myself laughing though the whole song. Hungry for more. Eagerly awaiting April 28.

A lot of people have been criticizing singer/songwriter Chan Marshall for her latest covers, from the recent Jukebox, most saying they don’t live up to the originals. I’m not quite sure how to comment this, but Chan’s definitely a very talented artist and I actually thought Jukebox to be a lovely collection of covers. Covers that were at least faithfully renditioned and truly paid a homage to their originals. Well enough with the haters. Cat Power played live yesterday night on Letterman, where they played Moon Pix’s classic “Metal Heart,” fresh after their Leno performance from the beginning of March, when Chan and her backing band played Sinatra’s “New York, New York.” The performance? Solid, but let me tell you there’s something really fishy going one with that laddy’s stage persona. Someone at an indie board (can’t remember which) compared her to “weird confused polar bear.” Definitely awkward, but her voice is pure sex.

For their latest single, the Portland synthpop duo Chromatics, have chosen to make a more darker and creepier video, then those with which they’ve accustomed us with; definitively much more creepier. The video in cause is for the haunting instrumental “Killing Spree,” off of the band’s last year effort “Night Drive“, in which director Johnny Jewel has done a remarkable job at capturing the song’s creepy, haunting vibe on the tube, YouTube actually (bad joke, ok). The video was filmed with a on “a Soviet Pentavax Cinemataire 12 mm camera” (talk about vintage cinematography) in a unknown location and is centered around Ruth Radelet, as she swims about in the water and the next second her body floats around a lake of some sort. The bellow video is the censored version, so we can’t help wondering what happened to Ruth, something violent perhaps ?

I’ve written a bit in the past about one of my favorite indie newcomers, the Canadians from Plants and Animals, but what I failed to mention about the band was their dazzling live shows. While I haven’t personally had the chance to see the band in action, even in the various videos on YouTube Plants and Animals truly feel alive.

Now fresh after their SXSW live performance, the band is set to part on a short east coast tour, in the company of Liam Finn and The Most Serene Republic. Tour dates after the jump.

April 2: Minneapolis, MN @ The Entry / First Avenue
April 3:Chicago, IL @ Schubas

*More dates to be announced soon.