U.S.E. has been recording. A new album is close. Drummer Jon E. Rock spoke:

Mr. Rock, when will there be new U.S.E. for the people?
Rock: We are recording at Avast and we have another session to finish up in a couple weeks. Then we will go to our guitar player’s basement studio and finish vocals and vocoder/keys. It’s looking like a late summer release.

How will you all put it out?
We still don’t know how we are putting it out, actually. Maybe an iTunes with vinyl release. So much is up in the air with record companies vs. internet distro these days. It’s hard to know what avenue to take, you know?

Suppose it's time to get a CD mastered - who's the person to go in this town? Who is the actual Audio Master of Seattle? Seattle has several engineers that claim that title, but when it comes to choosing who's going to get your business there can only be one. Like the Highlander. When an engineer has earned the title of "Master," what then sets them apart from other Masters? Price? Efficiency? Ability to master all genres of music with equal skill?

Fleet Foxes have just posted four new songs on their MySpace. Get 'em while they're hot.

They reveal the band's continued infatuations: the Beach Boys, crash cymbals, reverb, nature and natural things, ethereal harmonies, childhood memories that may or may not be true. This is beautiful stuff, weirdly pastoral and wintery. File these new songs between Jim James' solo material and Midlake--more fleshed-out than the former, less analog-electric than the latter. The songwriting on tracks like "Blue Ridge Mountains" and "Ragged Wood"--the upcoming album's namesake--is at once familiar and invigorating, all gilded vocals and shuffling drums. "Red Squirrel Sunrise" and "Oliver James" are sparser, just guitar and voices, folky and intimate.

I'd take Robin Pecknold's majestic croon over Ben Bridwell's nasal yelp any day--vocally, the similarity is definitely there, though BOH rock far harder that the Foxes. More than Band of Horses or Midlake we have My Morning Jacket to thank for this pastoral rock resurgence, and if you want to take it even further back, it's all about Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood Mac. I had to type that a few times to believe it.

Sudden critical favorites Grand Archives have entered the studio to record their debut album. Sub Pop signed the Seattle quintet last fall after a single live performance—a rather assured move, one likely due to the band members’ considerable lineage. For those who’ve been living outside the of country or in hibernation since fall, the band is comprised of guitarist Mat Brooke, who once co-helmed Carissa’s Wierd and later helped pen Band of Horses’ epic debut; bassist Jeff Montano, formerly of the New Mexicans and Crutches (both of which also featured current Band of Horses members Rob Hampton and Creighton Barrett); multi-instrumentalist Ron Lewis (Ghost Stories); guitarist Thomas Wright (the Can’t See); and drummer Curtis Hall (ex-Jeunes); the latter of whom is currently laying down his tracks at Death Cab for Cutie time-keeper Jason McGerr’s Seattle-based studio. Guitars, etcetera will commit throughout mid-July at SODO’s Mysterious Red X studio. Lastly, the members—all five of whom sing—will venture into the wilds of the Cascade foothills to record vocal tracks at Paradise Sound. Archives elected local producer Ben Kersten to produce the record, which has a tentative release date in February. “[Kersten] did our demo, and we really liked working with him,” says Montano. “So instead of paying a lot of money for a big name, we decided to go with someone whose work we knew we already liked and trusted.”

Gosh, how exciting! I just received word from a K Records rep that one of the best side projects ever, the Halo Benders, is busy writing songs right now to record a new album soon! They are playing Sunday and Monday in Boise, where they are presumably trying out the new songs. If you are close, you should definitely go, and I wish I could (anyone up for a Sunday road trip?). There are rumors of them playing more shows soon, though, so let's cross our fingers.

I love the Halo Benders a lot, because when Doug Martsch and Calvin Johnson get together, they complement each other perfectly. I'll wax more poetic about them next week.

Everyone's favorite post-Propaghandi indie folk punk country band, the Weakerthans, are hitting the studio to record their first record in nearly five years, due out in the fall. The band is recording the currently untitled album in the "quiet, tranquil surroundings of Winnipeg" ("One Great City") with its "slaughterhouses, industrial sites, and sub-degree temperatures" as well in Toronto. I'm excited.

Their last record, Reconstruction Site is probably my least favorite Weakerthans record, but that's not saying much, and it has more to do with where I was at when it came out than with the quality of the record itself. It's a winningly ambitious album, containing a touching triptych song cycle about a dying relative, as well as a song written from the perspective of John K Samson's cat and a last-call ode to Antarctic explorer Shackleton.

The only reason it's not my favorite Weakerthans record is because Fallow and Left and Leaving hit me at the perfect post-collegiate, deflated anarchist moment in my life for me to get caught up in Samson's romantic, politically-informed lyricism. I literally hung my Evergreen diploma on my first shitty Seattle apartment's bathroom wall, as per Samson's manifesto, "Confessions of a Futon Revolutionist". I think I lost that diploma in some move or other, but I still have a home-taped cassette of Left and Leaving around here somewhere.

At their best, on the aforementioned tracks and ones like the elevating "Watermark", the New Order biting "Wellington's Wednesdays", and ballad "My Favorite Chords", the Weakerthans are transcendentally sappy, pairing Samson's soft-spoken poetry with tumbling power chords or weepy steel guitar as fits the mood. Solid mixtape gold.

Reconstruction Site was little older, and perhaps a little more uneven than either of the previous Weakerthans records, but it's still a fantastic album, and it resonates with me more as time goes by. A new record from the Weakerthans is great news.

Glitchy electro jokers Modeselektor will be releasing the third volume in Bpitch Control's Boogy Bytes mix series, due out April 23rd. Here's the tracklist:

1 Intro by The Panacea
2 Siriusmo - Wow
3 Detroit Experiment - Vernors
4 Flying Lotus - 1983
5 Spank Rock – Rick Rubin
6 Paul Kalkbrenner – Gia2000 (Modeselektor rmx)
7 James Holden – Idiot
8 Bobby Peru – Erotic Discourse / Audiojack rmx - (Xtremely Touched by MDSLKTR)
9 C'hantal – The Realm (Acapella)
10 Nathan Fake – Charlie’s House (Apparat rmx)
11 Errorsmith – Free For All
Robag Wruhme – Papp Tonikk
Female – Cally2
Krause Duo - Tigerbett
12 Skream – Midnight Request Line
Angelo Battilani - Empty
13 Rhythm & Sound W/Bobbo Shanti – Poor People Must Work (Carl Craig rmx)
14 Burial – Southern Comfort
15 Jean Jacques Perrey & Luke Vibert – Moog Acid (Plasticman rmx)
Philipe Cam - Karine
16 Various Production – Lost
17 Fillin # 1
18 Siriusmo - Discosau
19 Fillin # 2 feat. Teki Latex
20 Modeselektor feat. TTC – Une Bande De Mec Sympa
21 Clatterbox – Collision Detection
22 Mr. Oizo – Half a Scissor
23 Marcel Dettmann – Just Do It
Errorsmith - A1/ERR001
24 u-Ziq – u-Ziq Theme
25 Phon.o – Ridin Dirty
26 Radiohead - Idioteque
27 Outro by Modeselektor

That is one hell of a tracklist, but anyone who saw them rock rebar not too long ago knows they're up to it. (Hat tip to Resident Advisor)

According to an article on Billboard.com, long-in-the-tooth b-boy provacatuers the Beastie Boys have announced a new album, due this summer.

No title has been given, but we're suggesting Bigger and Deafer or It Takes a Bottle of Metamucil to Hold Us Back.

Here's some good news from that pasty dude in the Raconteurs.

From a post dated 2/28 on the White Stripes website:

"Hello to all the Candy Cane Children in the land, the White Stripes have completed the recording and mixing of their sixth album. It is entitled: 'Icky Thump'."

The awfully clever post goes on to list a few song titles, including

Catch Hell Blues
Little Cream Soda
Monkeys Have it Easy (Discarded)
Rag and Bone
Clicky Bump (retitled into something pleasant)
Blue Orchid (relocated to previous album)
and
You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You're Told)

The duo apparently spent more time than ever in a Nashville studio (that being a whopping three weeks) and intimate that "your favorite White Stripes type songs may not be your favorite (pronounced favaright) White Stries type songs for long."

Ah, anticipation.

The White Stripes play Bonnaroo in Manchester, TN on June 17.

If you are looking for a recording studio or a mastering studio, the illustrious Jack Endino has put together a database for you:

Recording Studio Search

Good interview on BET.com with Marc Mac and Dego of U.K. nu jazz masters 4Hero (yeah, it surprised me, too). The duo have a new album, Play With the Changes, on the way later in the month.

One of the revelations to come out of the interview:

BET J: One of my favorite songs on the new disc is the title track. I understand that you worked with the legendary Larry Mizell on that. How did that collaboration come about?

Marc: Well, I was in England and Dego was in the United States. He met up with Larry Mizell and took it from there. Dego worked on that track much more than I did. He has a story that goes along with the whole meeting. I was in London, when I got a phone call from Dego saying that we could possibly work with Larry. I said, “Whatever you have to do, just make it happen.”

Very cool. 4Hero has always had a knack for paying homage to styles of the past while keeping their music purely forward-looking. Now they're taking the next step and and enlisting the talents of one of the true giants of soul-jazz. Looking forward to hearing this one.

Very soon we'll be regaled with a live web broadcast of a Police rehearsal from the Whiskey in L.A. If last night's Grammy cameo was any indication, it's worth checking out:

http://www.thepolicerehearsals.com/

Unfortunately I missed the whole thing. Anybody catch it?

Holy shit! As Pitchfork reported today, everyone's favorite little shapeshifter Björk's new album will feature collaborations with Antony, Timbaland, Lightning Bolt, Konono No.1, and more. While I've enjoyed her work with the ever-stupefying Matmos, I can't wait to hear what kind of awesome mess results from this diverse a guest list.