After several delays, it’s been officially announced that Mojave 3 will release their fifth album, Puzzles Of You, on June 20. You can take a look at the album art here. Neil Halstead talked to Billboard about the new record and says that it’s more of a pop record than the relatively drifting and gauzey Spoon And Rafter. Halstead also says the band is planning to tour North America in September (yay) and that he will record a second solo album later this year (double yay).

The album will be preceded by a single on May 29 in the UK for “Breaking The Ice” which will be accompanied by a video that has already been shot. 4AD has posted some photos from the video shoot. Is that a beard, Neil? The video should be posted online for your viewing pleasure any time now. But in the meantime, enjoy the fact that a bunch of M3 shows are now available to download from Archive.org and once again, I direct you to a demo version of a Puzzles Of You track that the band graciously made available on their website a little while back.

MP3: Mojave 3 – “Big Star Baby” (demo)

Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene discusses the importance of community with The Independent. The Olympic Island website has been updated with some details of the BSS-curated festival being held there on June 24. Apparently there is one more act that is waiting to be confirmed for the show.

Sigur Ros keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson discusses the band’s futility at being rock stars with The Japan Times. The band will re-release their “Hoppípolla” single on May 1, thanks to the song’s use in the BBC’s Planet Earth television program. The band will be at Massey Hall with string-wielding compatriots Amina on May 13.

Ireland’s Event Guide discusses the lifespan of Low with Alan Sparhawk. This link and many of the above courtesy of Largehearted Boy.

Dose talks to Calexico’s Joey Burns about shifting sytylistic gears on Garden Ruin.

One of The Big Takeover’s bloggers thinks it’s just a matter of time before MP3 blogs get made an example of for their/our constant copyright infringement. It’s interesting that the tone of the piece seems to be eagerly anticipating the day that sites like Fluxblog gets the smackdown. I find it a little puzzling that someone writing for BTO would have such a conservative view of enforcing copyrights and support for the record industry’s big hammer tactics towards dealing with online media.

np – Decoder Ring / Fractions