Ryan McGinleyThough Bat For Lashes were certainly due to release a new record this year – 2009’s Two Suns feels like it came out forever ago – it was certainly a relief when Natasha Khan officially announced last month that her third album, entitled The Haunted Man, would indeed be coming out this Fall.

But cognizant of the fact that simply knowing it exists will only keep fans happy for so long, some more specifics about the record have been released. Exclaim has the tracklisting and a look at the album art, which with its stark, black-and-white photography is quite a far cry from the fantastical imagery that graced her first two records. Considering how well that art reflected the records’ contents, it does raise some questions about what album three has in store. Questions which are answered somewhat by the first single from the album – also just released – which is a gorgeous but very spare piano-led composition suffused with longing, an emotion excellently articulated in the accompanying video. Those who prefer Khan’s trippier, sonically adventurous side to her inner balladeer may hope that the new record doesn’t turn away from those completely, but an album entirely of songs that hit as hard as this one does is fine with me.

The Haunted Man will be released on October 15 in the UK and come out a week later on October 23 in North America.

Video: Bat For Lashes – “Laura”

Their self-titled debut finally getting a domestic North American release on September 25, Django Django have put together a short North American tour to support it – they’ll be at Wrongbar in Toronto on September 29, tickets $14.50 in advance. They impressed at SXSW so if you’re curious, it’s worth the ticket. Drummer David Maclean talks to NPR about their just-released new video.

MP3: Django Django – “Default”
Video: Django Django – “Hail Bop”

Rolling Stone gets some details on The Joy Formidable’s second album from frontwoman Ritzy Bryan. She won’t spill on the title but it doesn’t look as though it’ll be released until early next year at the soonest. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel also has an interview.

The Vine talks to Romy Madley of The xx about making their second album Coexist, due out September 11. They’ll preview the new album at The Phoenix this Saturday night, July 28.

The Guardian talks to Mica Levy of Micachu & The Shapes about their just-released new album Never, from which they’ve just put out a green screen-empowered video for every song. I’m linking them all – hit up DIY for the complete viewing experience.

Video: Micachu & The Shapes – “Never”

The Guardian has an interview with Kate Nash.

Ryan Jarman of The Cribs chats with Clash.

Hot Chip have released their second new video from In Our Heads in a week.

Video: Hot Chip – “How Do You Do”

Spin catches a moment with Two Door Cinema Club, whose new album Beacon is out September 4 and will be followed by a date at The Sound Academy on October 5.

Light Of Lost Worlds talks to Alisdair Mclean of The Clientele and Amor de Días, the former of which remains on hiatus while the latter prepares to release their second album in January of 2013.

Mojave3online.com submits a stack of fan-sumbitted questions to Neil Halstead about his new record Palindrome Hunches and the status of Mojave 3 (playing occasional gigs, sans Rachel, but without any plans for a new record at the moment).

Stevie Jackson discusses the need to go solo once in a while with DIY. He also lists his five favourite Belle & Sebastian contributions to MTV Hive.

Pet Shop Boys have released the first official video from their new album Elysium, out September 18.

Video: Pet Shop Boys – “Winner”

Drowned In Sound talks to Jens Lekman about I Know What Love Isn’t, out September 4. He’s at The Phoenix on October 4.

The Raveonettes have released a video from their new record Observator. It’s out September 11 and they play The Phoenix October 2.

Video: The Raveonettes – “She Owns The Streets”

Interview talks to Lætitia Sadier about her just-released new solo record Silencio. She plays The Drake on September 18.

Mono are streaming a track from their new album For My Parents, out September 4.

Stream: Mono – “Dream Odyssey”

Miss ManagementWith her debut album Jewellery, Surrey’s Mica Levi – professionally known as Micachu – was responsible for one of 2009’s most unique albums – a clattering, noisy, collection of songs that sounded like they were created by a rummage shop collapsing on itself but was still unquestionably pop – albeit on the fringes – and compelling. Three years later, Levi has returned with a follow-up in Never, due July 24, and the whole thing is currently available to stream courtesy of The Guardian.

Initial impressions are that nothing’s happened in the past three years to temper Levi’s sense of sonic adventure – Never is maybe a bit sleeker rhythmically, but it’s no less wonderfully odd than its predecessor. And the fact that it’s credited to Micachu & The Shapes is no cosmetic detail; whereas only half of Jewellery was recorded with the assistance of her band, Marc Withasee and Raisa Khan’s contributions are much more at the fore on Never, both in vocal contributions and the fact that you can’t make nearly this kind of racket with just one pair of hands.

It took me a while to figure out if I liked Jewellery, and my setting on “yea” was certainly helped out by their live show. With Never, I’m going to just sit back and enjoy. I’ll still scratch my head at it, but I’ll enjoy doing it.

MP3: Micachu & The Shapes – “OK”
Stream: Micachu & The Shapes / Never

Florence Welch talks to Rolling Stone about the vocal injury that sidelined Florence & The Machine for a few dates earlier this month; she should be back in action in time for her August 2 show at The Molson Amphitheatre.

Pitchfork reports that Ride’s back catalog, which has already seen Nowhere get remastered and reissued, will have the rest of their catalog including their best-of compilation reissued on August 20. To mark the occasion, they’ve made a remix of the lead track from Carnival Of Light remixed by Portishead available to download, and while I usually disdain the remix… it’s Ride and Portishead. The complete video of the 1992 Brixton Academy show that will come with the deluxe Going Blank Again is also available to watch.

MP3: Ride – “Moonlight Medicine” (Ride On The Wire Mix)
Video: Ride @ Brixton Academy, London – 27th March 1992

Cate Le Bon has made a track from her new record Cyrk II available to download. It’s out August 21 and she’s at The Rivoli on September 18.

MP3: Cate Le Bon – “What Is Worse”

Rolling Stone talks to Kele Okereke of Bloc Party about the process of recording the band’s new record Four, due out August 21. They play the Danforth Music Hall on September 10.

Elbow might not have any new music out this year besides whatever they’re composing for the Olympics, but they’ll still have a new album out – on August 27, they’ll release Dead In The Boot, a collection of b-sides and rarities collected from across the entirety of their career. Details on the release are available at Exclaim.

Having just announced that their new album Beacon will be out September 4, Two Door Cinema Club are making the first single available to download for free for 24 hours – grab it at their website, stream it below, and see them at The Sound Academy on October 5.

Stream: Two Door Cinema Club – “Sleep Alone”

Jens Lekman talks to Stereogum about his new record I Know What Love Isn’t and stops in at The Guardian where he explains how he wrote the song and plays it for a video session. Lekman is at The Phoenix on October 4.

Artrocker cahts with The Raveonettes. Their new one Observator is out September 11 and they play The Phoenix on October 2.

eMusic talks to Sweden’s Holograms, in town at The Shop Under Parts & Labour on September 11.

The Vaccines have released a new video from their second album, which I’ve been calling No Hope For The Vaccines and saying will be out September 3, but will actually be called Come Of Age and be out on October 2, at least in North America.

Video: The Vaccines – “Teenage Icon”

NPR is streaming the whole of Hot Chip’s show at Prospect Park in Brooklyn from earlier this week.

DIY catches a quick word with Mystery Jets.

Dev Hynes of Blood Orange stops in at KCRW for a session, available to stream at NPR.

FacebookLook guys, some nights you’d rather just toss something together quickly and get back to watching TV rather than hunker down and come up with some original content that hasn’t already been blogged/tumblred/tweeted/Facebooked into irrelevance over the past 12 hours. Last night was one of those nights.

And so I invite you to 150,000th or so person to check out the stream of the first complete and official sample of Coexist, the second album from London’s The xx, out September 11. For those who like the band’s minimalist electro-soul, it’s like manna from heaven; for those who don’t, there’s nothing to hear here. Certainly the band’s formula – which extends to their album art, viewable over at The 405 – will have the legs to get them through the ‘difficult’ second album, and after that? Well that’s their problem, not ours.

In any case, it’s a bit of a taste of what to expect when they hit The Phoenix on July 28 for a sold-out show and for those not lucky enough to get tickets, one can’t help notice that the just-announced Fall tour still has some conspicuous gaps in it… this is not to say that they’ll be announcing another show in a more appropriately-sized venue after The Phoenix show is past, but they totally could.

MP3: The xx – “Angels”

Also dominating one’s RSS feed yesterday was official details on the second album from Mumford & Sons. Rolling Stone has all the specifics as well as notes from bassist Ted Dwane, but the salient points are that it will be called Babel, be out September 25, and probably further annoy a whole lot of people.

The Sun talks to The Vaccines about their forthcoming second album No Hope For The Vaccines Come of Age, out September 3.

DIY tries to pry some info on album number two out of Little Boots, but all she’ll offer is that it will be out this Fall. Clash settles for asking her about her book collection.

NPR has a Tiny Desk Concert with Laura Marling.

Hot Chip have released a new video from In Our Heads.

Video: Hot Chip – “Look At Where We Are”

The B-side of the new Blur single is available to download. The 7″ single on which it appears is out August 6.

MP3: Blur – “The Puritan”

Blur also comes up in this interview with Graham Coxon at Loud & Quiet, but it’s mainly about his latest solo record A+E, whereas this piece with The Guardian, also featuring a conversation with producer Stephen Street, is entirely about Blur and the making of Parklife.

Norman Blake has announced via Twitter that Teenage Fanclub are making a new album this Fall and Joe Pernice has confirmed that the collaboration between he and Blake, premiered at The Dakota last month will indeed be a real thing with recording and touring happening under the name of The New Mendicants.

DIY talks pop with Amelia Fletcher of Tender Trap, whose new album 10 Songs About Girls is due out in September.

DIY also chats with Elizabeth Morris and Bill Botting of Allo Darlin’, the former of whom used to be in Tender Trap. Trivia!

Rolling Stone gets Of Monsters & Men’s thoughts on being remix targets, amongst other topics.

Sigur Rós have premiered another new video from Valtari, and good for you if you noticed it’s a song that they’ve already released a video for. No, they don’t care. They play Echo Beach on August 1.

Video: Sigur Rós – “Ég Anda”

She’s still being coy on details like, oh, a release date, but the lead single from El Perro Del Mar’s new record Pale Fire is available to download. The record is due out in the Fall because, well, it kind of has to be.

MP3: El Perro Del Mar – “Innocence Is Sense”

Niki & The Dove have released a new video – not from Instinct, but for a song that appeared on their mixtape back in April. Someone explain to me what a mixtape is? No actually, don’t. Instinct gets a North American release on August 7 and they’re at The Drake Underground on October 2.

Video: Niki & The Dove – “Dance Floor”

Daytrotter has posted a session with We Are Serenades.

So wait, this is what a post that I am throwing together to go watch TV looks like? Dammit people why has no one staged an intervention yet. Clearly I need help.

TripleJGrizzly Bear specialize in complex, artful folk-rock built around virutostic musicianship and otherworldly harmonies. Hot Chip excel at cerebral yet danceable electro-pop that’s as catchy as it is clever. So naturally when the former covers the latter, the result would sound like… something you’d hear at a coffee house?

Recorded during a radio session in January 2010 for Australian radio station Triple J and seemingly with just Ed Droste and Daniel Rossen representing the Brooklyn band, it seems like kind of a straight strummy cover at first but when the organ comes in and Rossen lends his harmonies on the chorus, it turns downright haunting with still just a minimum of fuss. Okay, coffee houses should be so lucky to have their acts sound like this.

Grizzly Bear have released details of their follow up to 2009’s Veckatimest, targeting a September 18 release date for Shields with accompanying tour date at Massey Hall on September 26. Hot Chip are currently on tour in support of In Our Heads and are at The Sound Academy tonight.

MP3: Grizzly Bear – “Boy From School”
Video: Hot Chip – “Boy From School”

John LindquistPatrick Wolf doesn’t really look old enough to be celebrating a decade of anything save no longer being a teenager but despite having just turned 29 less than a fortnight ago, the dramatic/romantic English singer-songwriter has been making music and releasing records since his debut EP in Fall 2002; his first full-length Lycanthropy followed in Summer 2003.

If he decides that it’s occasion enough for a world tour, I’m certainly not going to argue it. Neither his last album – 2011’s Lupercalia nor its companion EP Brumalia – got a proper (read: physical) North American release so his visits to this continent were limited to a mere handful of token US dates last Fall, meaning that Toronto hadn’t gotten a taste of his legendarily flamboyant – and mercurial – live shows since June 2009, circa the industrial-tinged The Bachelor.

This tour will be an acoustic one, featuring Wolf on harp, dulcimer, piano, and other such instruments and accompanied by a multi-instrumentalist, so while it will be interesting to hear how that material translates, it’s near-perfect for revisiting the material of his first two records and should also work well with the lushness of Lupercalia. And it’s also perfect for the setting they’ve chosen for the Toronto stop of the tour, which wil be September 25 at The Music Gallery. Tickets for that will be $25 and go on sale this Friday at 10AM.

And even as much as he’s in a retrospective mood, Wolf continues to look forward – he’s been working on a new record and aims to have it out this year. Twitter implies that more details on that will be coming sooner rather than later.

Video: Patrick Wolf – “The City”
Video: Patrick Wolf – “Together”
Video: Patrick Wolf – “The Falcons”
Video: Patrick Wolf – “Time Of My Life”
Video: Patrick Wolf – “House”

The only thing dismaying about the scheduling of this show is that it means I have to miss Dry The River’s return engagement. I fear I may have cursed them just a little bit as following their Toronto debut at The Garrison back in March, I said that the next time they came to town they’d surely be playing much bigger rooms. Well it turns out they’ll be playing rooms exactly the same size – the exact same room, in fact. They’re back on September 25 for a show at The Garrison, tickets $12, and while their ascent may not have been quite as rocket-like as I’d expected, they’ll still be fantastic. Promise.

MP3: Dry The River – “New Ceremony”

British funk-soul brothers The Heavy will be at Lee’s Palace on September 23 in support of their new record The Glorious Dead, due out August 21. Tickets for that are $15 in advance.

Video: The Heavy – “What Makes A Good Man?”

Having not released a record in six years or so and having cancelled her last scheduled show (and tour) in Summer 2010, it’s about time we heard back from Beth Orton. She’s announced details of a new record entitled Sugaring Season, due for release October 2, and a first video from said record. There’s also a new accompanying North American tour which brings her to the Mod Club on September 30, tickets $25. Yes, that’s the same room she cancelled out of last time. Bygones.

Video: Beth Orton – “Something More Beautiful”

Bloc Party have released the first video from their new record Four. It’s out August 21 and they play The Danforth Music Hall on September 10.

Video: Bloc Party – “Octopus”

NOW puts Hot Chip on this week’s cover in anticipation of Sunday night’s show at The Sound Academy.

Maxïmo Park is interviewed by DIY.

Prefix talks to Charles from Slow Club.

DIY has an interview with Patrick and Roxanne of Veronica Falls.

Friendly Fires clarifies some previously-made comments made about the direction of album number three, currently in progress, to NME.

Sweden’s Holograms are streaming their self-titled debut, out this week, over at Stereogum. They’re at The Shop Under Parts & Labour on September 11.

MP3: Holograms – “Chasing My Mind”
MP3: Holograms – “ABC City”
Stream: Holograms / Holograms

NPR has a stream of the first sample from Taken By Trees’ forthcoming Other Worlds, out October 2. She opens up for Jens Lekman at The Phoenix on October 4.

Stream: Taken By Trees – “Dreams”

That new Raveonettes song from Observator that was made available to stream a couple days ago? You can now download it. The album is out September 11 and they play The Phoenix on October 2.

MP3: The Raveonettes – “She Owns The Streets”

Justice have released a new video from last year’s Audio, Video, Disco and if it’s any indication of what they’ve got in store for their live show, their headlining slot at Historic Fort York on August 4 should be one to remember.

Video: Justice – “New Lands”

Pitchfork gets some insight into the new Tame Impala record Lonerism, due out October 9.