The Flaming Lips' new album The Terror dropped in the UK on Monday, two weeks ahead of its scheduled April 16th, 2013 Stateside street date. You can pre-order it now from Amoeba Music in both CD and double LP vinyl versions. 

The Terror is the band's 13th full-length album and was produced by the Lips' long-time collaborator Dave Fridmann at Tarbox Road Studios. I recently got to hear the nine track release thanks to a label advance streaming of the album and have to say that I like it a lot and consider it their best work in years as it evokes a really powerful, hypnotically dark, grimy feel. "Bleak, disturbing" is how the band's own Wayne Coyne described the record, posing and answering his own question: "Why would we make this music that is The Terror?… I don't really want to know the answer that I think is coming. Maybe this is the beginning of the answer." Down in Austin at the recent SXSW festival, the band hosted two events includig a first-ever live performance of Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, the band's 2002 gold album, in its entirety. Reportedly, the show was filmed live by NPR for a future broadcast. For their other SXSW show, they performed the new album The Terror at the large scale Auditorium Shores venue where Jim James (of My Morning Jacket, who opened the show) joined the band on-stage for a charged version of "Do You Realize??". Last night in NYC, the band was on The Late Show with David Letterman to perform the new album track "Look…The Sun Is Rising" (video above), and over the next couple of months they are playing a handful of select US shows that will include a performance at the NorCal Bottle Rock Festival in Napa on May 10th. In the meantime, you can pre-order The Terror CD and/or The Terror double LP version.

Record Store Day 2013 takes place April 20, featuring new releases, reissues of out-of-print albums and other rarities. I’ve pulled out 10 titles or sets of releases that jumped out to me personally. If it’s anything like last year, you’ll have to get here early to get those in-demand releases (check out last year’s coverage here).

You can view a listing all of the releases that will be made available that day here and find more information on Record Store Day's official site. Check out my picks below.

 

The Bats – By Night

The debut release by The Bats, part of the Flying Nun clan of New Zealand jangle-pop bands. The Bats are fronted by Robert Scott, sometime bassist of The Clean, a band whose cult infamy has helped lead to their brethren being rediscovered by a new generation. I haven’t heard By Night, but having quite enjoyed 1987’s Daddy’s Highway, I’m sure their debut is just as chockfull of jangly delights. Seriously, I want to just jump on an airplane slash time machine and live in New Zealand in the ’80s and listen to awesome bands like The Bats, though they’re still around making fine records today.

 

 

So much great stuff was released today. First of all, Ty Segall Band's Slaughterhouse is blowing my mind right now. When I talked to Ty Segall earlier this year, he said he’d be releasing an album with his backing band that would sound like “totally heavy, fuzzed-out Sabbath, Blue Cheer-like noise rock kinda stuff.” Turns out that was no bullshit; Slaughterhouse, the second of three planned releases this year from Segall, is a pure blast, and might be his best record yet. Opener “Death” starts out with squealing feedback like Nirvana’s “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter” or The Vaselines’ “Son of a Gun” before tearing into a yes, very Nirvana-esque blast of heavy, melodic guitar pop. You’re just going to want to track back and listen again the second it’s over. It’s just so much fun to listen to because Segall knows just when to unleash, firing furious riffery at the very end of “I Bought My Eyes.” His keen sense of what works and what does extends past the concepts of hooks and choruses, as the minute-and-a-half screamery of the title track is one of the most memorable pieces on the album. But you’ll still be humming the weird melodies of songs like “Tell Me What’s Inside Your Heart” and “Muscle Man” because they find something fresh within seemingly well-worn territory. (The CD is out now; preorder the LP, due July 17, here.)

It’s June! That means Summer is here (it isn’t, but who cares). Which means it’s time to pretend you don’t actually still have to work and have responsibilities and all of that and just spend all your money on records and all your time listening to them. It’s as good a time as any to do so, as there are a number of big releases coming down the pipe this month.

First of all, there’s the new album from A Place to Bury Strangers, Worship, out June 26th. I’ve been a huge fan of these guys since frontman Oliver Ackermann formed Skywave in the early 2000s and have enjoyed their progression from an industrial-shoegaze band to augmenting their sound with elements of coldwave while retaining their core sound. There’s basically no better band from which to get your extra loud dream-pop guitar fix than APTBS. Check out the video for the album’s first single, “You Are the One.”
 

There’s a lot of buzz around Diiv (formerly Dive), who release their debut, Oshin, also on June 26th, and why shouldn’t there be, as the band is fronted by Z. Cole Smith, who also is a member of Beach Fossils, who to me are easily one of the best guitar bands around. Similarly to BF, Diiv delivers intricate yet poolside-ready guitar goodness but also lacquers on some Creation Records era sound blankets. Just listen to “How Long Have You Known?” and tell me you’re not hungry for more.
 

Record Store Day 2012 is upon us. The devoted started lining up at Amoeba Hollywood as early as 2:30 in the morning for a chance at picking up a number of exclusive releases, with doors opening at 10:30 a.m. The line outside stretched around the block all morning, with customers cooling themselves off with Amoeba fans and the Coffee Bean providing free coffee and goodies for those in line.  

Amoeba is silk screening the winning designs of its Record Store Day T-Shirt Contest, and at 1 p.m. Broken Social Scene's Brendan Canning will begin DJing (see a full list of the day's events here). Though some releases have already sold out, a number of high-profile releases were still up for grabs as of 11:15 a.m. (including the much-touted new release from The Flaming Lips, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, featuring Bon Iver, Ke$ha and a whole lot more folks in between). There's still time to come in and grab any number of Record Store Day releases. Come in, hang out, buy some records, get a gift bag, get an exclusive T-Shirt, and hang out and listen to DJs spin. (Click here for a full list of releases; check out my picks here.) And if you can't make it out, follow Amoeba on Twitter for ticket giveaways, and check Amoeba.com tomorrow when leftover Record Store Releases will be put up for sale — can't guarantee you'll get what you want, since these things are going, going fast today.