While few details have been unveiled so far, Apocalypse will arrive in stores on April 19 via Drag City.

In 2011 Obama still hasn’t asked Bill Callahan to help the country and return to the singer-songwriter’s Smog moniker. So Callahan continues to record under his government name. Apocalypse is his third album credited to himself, not counting his 2010 live album Rough Travel For A Rare Thing. In keeping with the spontaneous spirit of that record, Apocalypse was recorded live with “No cuts!” and leaving in “Delectables and guts!”

The confident and confrontational Art Brut return with their new studio album “Brilliant Tragic!” on May 23rd. The first single “Lost Weekend” is released the week before on May 16th.

Again produced by Black Francis but unlike its predecessor “Art Brut vs. Satan”, which was recorded in under two weeks, Brilliant Tragic’s writing process was a lot more intense than usual, as Eddie Argos explains “with the last album we met up every couple of months and wrote three or four songs. This time we got together in the second half of the year and wrote whenever we could 2 or 3 times a week. We had more time in the studio this time too (about a week more) so Black Francis had time to teach me how to sing.” and “I’m very proud that I sing on it. Only took four albums to start singing, not bad.”

Tuneful and truculent Art Bruts albums have always gone for straight forward titles “Bang Bang Rock And Roll” did what it said on the tin, “Its a Bit Complicated” was a bit complicated, On “Art Brut VS Satan” we had a fight with Satan. This one follows the same pattern it is a Brilliant! Tragic! record. If it was a TV show you’d define it as a Dramedy.”

When asked how Brilliant Tragic differs from previous opus’ the eradite Eddie Argos explains “Well I sing on this one, Ian has a new pedal, Fred sings backing vocals for the first time and we let Jasper play a guitar solo (only on two strings though). Also, with the writing for the last album I really enjoyed writing about mundane things trying to make them exciting. There were songs about riding buses, summer jobs and having songs trapped in your head. This time the album is more about how I think I’m psychic, songs for my funeral, the principality of Sealand and Axl Rose. Weightier topics I think. I’m also sexier now”…..” Also with the last album we’d just remembered we were a punk band again so it was all four to the floor rock out. This time there are a few songs to let you catch your breath so when we do rock the fuck out again it hits home harder.”

Even with the benefit of having years to immerse oneself in the wondrously harmony-rich, endearingly rustic indie dad-folk of Seattle’s justifiably praised Fleet Foxes, it’s still difficult grasping the idea of a bunch of twenty-somethings being behind the band’s impeccably crafted patch-work of mountain-men hymns, CSNY and the Beach Boys.

“Helplessness Blues”, the first single and title track to the band’s forthcoming sophomore full-length, does a fine job at driving home this fact, though, tracking an all-too-familiar young adult existential crisis gorgeously dressed in the band’s signature earthen musical template.

“I was raised up believing I was somehow unique/ Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes, unique in each way you can see,” opens frontman Robin Pecknold, his delicate, reverb-soaked tenor supported by only quiet guitar strums urgently plucking beneath him. The entire rest of the song consists of that line-following “…but” that you can sense from a mile away, Robin and his bandmates suddenly revving to life and coloring up all traces of space with soul-warming male harmonies (and more and more strumming) as he rattles on and on through the epiphanic uncertainties stricken upon him from getting older, recurring promises to “get back to you someday” when he figures things out sprinkled all in-between.

By song’s end, his mind has drifted into the clouds with fantasies of working himself sore in an orchard and “someday [being] like the man on the screen”. Is he only setting himself up for future disappointment by putting so much emphasis on emulating his Hollywood-perfected idol? Possibly, but knowing that Robin may still be a long ways off from being settled in understanding his place in the world only adds to the song’s tender beauty.

Be honest: if a song with the words “and I need you and I forget that you’re young” were being sung by a man, it would be eminently creepy and borderline inappropriate – if not wholly inappropriate.  But with Sharin Foo of The Raveonettes singing them, the song loses some of its pedophile-like sheen.  ”Forget That You’re Young,” the first single off of the Danish duo’s recently announced fifth full-length album, is an aching example of their dreamlike pop.

In support of the release, the pair has a six week US tour lined up, starting at the end of March and stretching into early May.  You can pre-order the new album – set to be released on April 5 through Vice – in various formats and with various goodies on the band’s website right now.  Get their tour dates at their website as well.

Last night, Lips frontman Wayne Coyne Tweeted that he was dropping off copies of the collaborative 12″ EP at the Oklahoma City record store Guestroom Records. He’ll also drop off more copies tonight at 7 p.m. at the Dallas record store Good Records.

Right now, details on the record are sparse. According to another Coyne Tweet, that image above is involved in the record’s art in some way. There’s no word yet on whether the record will get a wide release. But we do know the tracklist, since Lips visual guy George Salisbury Tweeted what looks like the back cover last night. And according to the band’s publicist, the 12″ is printed on special colored vinyl, with Wayne Coyne picking the colors and no two copies looking exactly the same.

Below, we’ve got the EP’s tracklist and the Lips’ video for “The Sparrow Looks Up at the Machine”

The Flaming Lips with Neon Indian 12″:

01 Is David Bowie Dying?
02 Alan’s Theremin
03 You Don’t Respond
04 Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want the Truth Part 2

April 18th / 19th (US) marks the release of the second album from Merrill Garbus’ tUnE-yArDs. Entitled w h o k i l l, the album was recorded shortly after Garbus transplanted herself from Montreal to sunny Oakland, California having extensively toured debut album BiRd-BrAiNs through 2009 and 2010.

w h o k i l l retains the honesty of the lonely bedroom confessionals of her early work, but with the addition of the fangs, claws and dented metal of her new surroundings. Indeed, Oakland’s particular landscapes serve as primer for what you hear on the album, with the city’s unique vitality fuelling the brightness of w h o k i l l. By applying the tUnE-yArDs live approach to her studio work for the first time, Merrill’s added more buttons and joints to those already being used – one essential new joint is dexterous bass member Nate Brenner, who co-wrote a few songs.

Produced by Garbus herself and working with engineer Eli Crews, they show there’s no substitute for a good microphone, and the sonic nuances that can only be achieved through masterful recording techniques can be heard in each drumbeat and vocal line. Speaking to Pitchfork about the new record, Garbus explains:

“People kept saying, “Oh, I wish your recordings were more like your live show.” But the stubborn, contrarian impulse in me wanted to rebel against their desires a little bit. I have no interest in making a live album. But, at the same time, I wanted to record it better than I had been able to record the last album. So I went into a real studio with a real engineer and real microphones.”

In a year full of bail-outs and bank failures, Secret Cities found themselves fortunate to occupy the basement of a recently abandoned bank in Kansas City, Missouri. Complete with bulletproof glass, functioning pneumatic tubes, and a giant vault, this space served as the band’s studio as they recorded their sophomore effort, “Strange Hearts”. After recording their debut at a glacial pace over five years, Secret Cities decided to try something radically different. Working against a self imposed deadline, Strange Hearts was written and recorded within three intense, creatively fertile (if sleepless) months. The effort paid off with a taught pop record, crystallized like coal under enormous pressure.

Filtering the classic romanticism of Dusty Springfield and the Shangri-Las through their own kaleidoscopic aesthetic, these songs pulse with an alluring mixture of melancholy and hopeful innocence, as warm and inviting as they are elusive and peculiar. While carefully crafted, the album possesses a newfound brevity and directness rooted in the excitement of creation. Ultimately, “Strange Hearts” is the sound of a young band testing its limits and finding that it hasn’t hit them yet.

After recording their debut at a glacial pace over five years, Secret Cities decided to try something radically different.  Working against a self imposed deadline, Strange Hearts was written and recorded within three intense, creatively fertile (if sleepless) months.  The effort paid off with a taught pop record, crystallized like coal under enormous pressure.  Filtering the classic romanticism of Dusty Springfield and the Shangri-Las through their own kaleidoscopic aesthetic, these songs pulse with an alluring mixture of melancholy and hopeful innocence, as warm and inviting as they are elusive and peculiar.  While carefully crafted, Strange Hearts possesses a newfound brevity and directness rooted in the excitement of creation.  Ultimately, Strange Hearts is the sound of a young band testing its limits and finding that it hasn’t hit them yet.

Western Vinyl (who have released celebrated records by Balmorhea, Dirty Projectors, Here We Go Magic, J. Tillman, and more) will release Strange Hearts, the sophomore release by Fargo, ND’s Secret Cities, on March 29, 2011.

Nearly four years after their last album, Places Like This, Architecture in Helsinki are finally back with a brand new record. The Melbourne-based electro indie outfit, which made their debut in 2003 with the  pop-infused Fingers Crossed, recently announced that they would release their long-awaited fourth studio album in April in Europe and May in the US.

Architecture in Helsinki’s new full length, entitled Moment Bends, was recorded over the past two years in the band’s own studio and according to band leader Cameron Bird it reflects AIH’s obsession with pop music and their desire to get lost in an album that encapsulates all their feelings and emotions.

Originally comprised of three childhood friends Cameron Bird, Jamie Mildren and Sam Perry, AiH became a hobbyist combo in the year 2000, and has morphed through as many as six different line-ups during its tenure, always centered around the songwriting and singing of Cameron Bird. The band currently consists of Cameron Bird, Kellie Sutherland, Sam Perry, Jamie Mildren and Gus Franklin.