Frank YangA little time off can be nice, but as much as I was enjoying the very unusual but welcome two-week break from show leading up to SXSW this week, it was also making me a bit antsy. Thank goodness for the Young Prisms in-store at the new Kensington Market location of Sonic Boom, in advance of their show that evening at The Drake. It would give me a quick, convenient way of scratching the live music itch and also let me pick up some LP sleeves. Everybody wins.

I saw the San Francisco outfit last February opening up for The Radio Dept., and while their dream-pop tended more to the murkier side than I’d like, they were a charming crew and so young that they could have grown plenty in the elapsed time. After all, In Between – the follow-up to their 2011 debut Friends For Now – was already done and coming out in a few weeks; it seemed highly unlikely that they would still be the same band as they were a year ago.

Turns out that was true in the literal sense – they were now a five-piece with the addition of guitarist/vocalist Ashley Thomas to the mix, and while her presence didn’t totally invert their sound, it made a difference. They still sounded very much like My Blood Valentine mixed with morphine – the opiate, not the band – being loud and fuzzy yet not especially aggressive, but the tunefulness that they previously seemed to prefer buried was now being allowed to surface. The second guitar was able to pick out melodies overtop of the churning bed of glider guitar and pounding rhythm section and when Thomas and lead vocalist Steph Hodapp harmonized as they did on new song, “Four Hours (Away)”, well it was clear that Young Prisms had a potent new instrument at their disposal.

Based on a few songs, it’s hard to say too definitively how far Young Prisms have come – the new record isn’t out until March 27 – but it sounds as though they’re mixing some Slowdive romanticism into their MBV sonic stew, and that can only be a good thing. And if these reference points have no meaning or interest to you, then you’d best just move along.

NYCTaper is sharing a recording of the band’s show in New York last week.

Photos: Young Prisms @ Sonic Boom (Kensington) – March 10, 2012
MP3: Young Prisms – “Floating In Blue”
MP3: Young Prisms – “Sugar”
MP3: Young Prisms – “Weekends And Treehouses”
Video: Young Prisms – “Floating In Blue”
Video: Young Prisms – “These Daze”
Video: Young Prisms – “Breathless”
Video: Young Prisms – “Sugar”

Rot Gut, Domestic – the new album from Margot & The Nuclear So & So’s – is out March 20 and a new MP3 is available to download. They play The Garrison on April 5.

MP3: Margot & The Nuclear So And So’s – “Shannon”

NPR is streaming a complete Shins concert in New York last week while JAM and The Line Of Best Fit share interviews with James Mercer; their new record Port Of Morrow is out March 20 and they’re at The Molson Amphitheatre August 4.

eMusic talks to Bowerbirds. They play The Garrison on March 27.

Le Blogotheque has posted a Take-Away Show with Perfume Genius; he plays The Drake Underground on April 8.

Billboard and Rolling Stone talk to M. Ward about his new record A Wasteland Companion, due out April 10.

J Tillman has released a new video from Fear Fun, his debut under the Father John Misty marque. It’s out May 1 and he is at The Horseshoe on May 14.

Video: Father John Misty – “Nancy From Now On”

Ramona Falls, aka the side-project of Menomena’s Brent Knopf, will release their second album Prophet on May 1 and follow it with a show at The Drake Underground on June 8.

MP3: Ramona Falls – “Spore”

Hey, remember Garbage? They certainly hope so. They’ve got a new album called Not Your Kind Of People coming out May 15 and will be embarking on a short tour that ends at The Phoenix in Toronto on May 28.

Video: Garbage – “Vow”

Class Clown Spots A UFO – the second album of the reunited Guided By Voices era is coming in June and the first sample is available to stream. It’s gorgeous. Details on the release and Bob Pollards new solo record – of course there’s another new Bob record – are available at Pitchfork.

Stream: Guided By Voices – “Keep It In Motion”

Pitchfork reports that Bob Mould has signed to Merge records for his next solo record, due out this Fall.

Greg Dulli talks to Rolling Stone about rediscovering The Afghan Whigs – just in time for their reunion this year.

Interview has an interview and NPR a World Cafe session with Sharon Van Etten.

Billboard and Spinner talk to Jay Farrar about the New Multitudes Woody Guthrie project; the project also stopped in at Daytrotter for a session.

Patterson Hood reflects on the making of Drive-By Truckers’ 2001 masterpiece Southern Rock Opera to Boulder Weekly.

Shawn BrackbillHow to follow up a career-defining record is hard enough question for most bands fortunate enough to find themselves in the position of having to do so. For Austin’s Shearwater, it’s triply difficult as they released not one but three interlinked albums over a span of four years – the so-called “Island Trilogy” of Palo Santo, Rook and The Golden Archipelago – which transformed them from Okkervil River sidebar into one of America’s finest, if still underappreciated, art-rock bands.

Not that continuing on in the same vein wouldn’t have been a viable option – after all, the marriage of ambitious prog-folk arrangements, nature-centric lyrics and Jonathan Meiburg’s otherworldy vocals had resulted in three superb albums; there’s no reason to think that it couldn’t yield more. But then we wouldn’t have gotten Animal Joy, the band’s just-released seventh album and that would have been an enormous shame.

On one level, Animal Joy isn’t that far removed from its predecessors but on another, it’s a polar opposite. Meiburg’s vocals are as dramatic and bracing as ever and as an ornithologist and scientist, his songwriting will naturally (pun intended) gravitate to certain themes; in that sense, Animal Joy is immediately recognizable as Shearwater. Where it breaks from the band’s catalog is in how it, to put it simply, rocks hard. Each of the preceding albums had its swells of intensity, it’s gloriously jagged moments that grabbed you and shook, but they were balanced by gentle, ethereal moments that settled over the proceedings like a mysterious fog. Animal Joy rarely sits still long enough for that to happen, taking advantage of the leaner arrangements – most everything on the record is the work of the core trio of Meiburg, Kim Burke and Thor Harris – to move quickly and determinedly. It eschews the elegant hollow bones of the trilogy for something more of sinew and blood, and crackles with life.

It’s those with the longest histories with the band who will be most surprised by Animal Joy offers, but also the most rewarded as its raw energy and sense of excitement – even danger – reveals a heretofore unexplored aspect of what Shearwater is. It’d have been understandable if the band had chosen to take some time off or creatively reinvent themselves following a project as massive as “The Island Trilogy”, but coming right back with such an invigorated follow up that may well be one of their very best? That’s better.

77 Square, DCist, PopMatters, Austin 360, and The Other Paper have interviews with Meiburg about the new record and Rolling Stone talks to him about the just-released first video from Animal Life. Shearwater are at Lee’s Palace on February 21 opening for Sharon Van Etten.

MP3: Shearwater – “You As You Were”
MP3: Shearwater – “Breaking The Yearlings”
Video: Shearwater – “Breaking The Yearlings”
Stream: Shearwater / Animal Joy

Speaking of Sharon Van Etten, the press cycle around Tramp shows no signs of abating. There’s interviews at The Stool Pigeon, Paste, Chicago Tribune, The Daily Tar Heel, and Black Book and NPR is streaming a World Cafe session and Le Blogotheque has a Take-Away Show.

Paste gets to know Hospitality, in town at The Horseshoe on February 29.

Spin points at the new video from The Head & The Heart, released just in time for their Winter tour which brings them to The Opera House on March 13.

Video: The Head & The Heart – “Down In The Valley”

Also in town on March 13 – at The Garrison – is EMA, who has released a new video for an anti-bullying benefit single; details at Pitchfork.

Video: EMA – “Take One Two”

Paste talks to Texas pop family Eisley, whose new EP Lights Out was just released and is available to stream. They’re at The Drake Underground on March 22.

Stream: Eisley / Lights Out

The New York Times is the place to go if you want to hear the whole of the new Sleigh Bells record Reign Of Terror before it’s out February 21. The duo are at The Phoenix on March 26 and also The Air Canada Centre on April 27 and 28 supporting Red Hot Chili Peppers.

MP3: Sleigh Bells – “Comeback Kid”
Stream: Sleigh Bells / Reign Of Terror

Daytrotter has a session with Chairlift, who are at The Horseshoe on March 28.

Spinner talks to Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields. Love At The Bottom Of The Sea is out March 6 and they’re at The Sound Academy on March 30.

Put Your Back N 2 It, the new album from Perfume Genius, is available to stream in whole at Spin ahead of its February 21 release and the official bio has track by track annotations from Mike Hadreas. He plays The Drake Underground on April 8 and offers The Quietus and DIY interviews.

MP3: Perfume Genius – “Hood”
MP3: Perfume Genius – “All Waters”
Video: Perfume Genius – “Hood”
Stream: Perfume Genius / Put Your Back N 2 It

DIY checks in with School Of Seven Bells, whose Ghostory arrives February 28. They’re at The Hoxton on May 2.

When Joshua Tillman announced he was abdicating his throne as drummer for Fleet Foxes, it was assumed that he was doing so to concentrate on his solo career as J. Tillman. In fact, he was doing so to start a new solo career as Father John Misty and will be releasing his debut album in that guise, Fear Fun, on May 1. He will be taking said record on the road shortly thereafter and be at the Horseshoe on May 14, tickets $11.50 in advance.

MP3: Father John Misty – “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings”
Video: Father John Misty – “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings”

The Avett Brothers haven’t formally announced the follow-up to 2009’s I And Love And You, but the fact that they’ve booked two nights at The Music Hall for May 15 and 16 certainly implies something will be out by then. Or maybe they just want to visit.

MP3: The Avett Brothers – “I And Love And You”

Lambchop have released a video from Mr. M; it’s out next Tuesday, February 21.

Video: Lambchop – “Gone Tomorrow”

Spin chats with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver post-Grammy win.

Alison Mosshart of The Kills reminisces about the band’s first gig to NME as they celebrate its tenth anniversary.