Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Heads Will Roll”

Directed by the brilliant Richard Ayoade (Garth Marenghi, Mighty Boosh, IT Crowd)

Pitchfork gives the new Grizzly Bear album, Veckatimest, a 9.0.

Yeah, Veckatimest sounds worked-over, but in the best of ways; carefully embellished, stripped bare when applicable, full of the joy of sounds colliding with other sounds. Grizzly Bear was once Ed Droste's band, but no longer; it's a family affair, and only four guys so completely serious about music-making could come together to make an album this labor-intensive sound so airy, so natural.

The 12-track album is on sale at Amazon MP3 for $3.99.

Drowned in Sound also reviews the album.

The whole thing is, at times, a little like being trapped inside a ‘real world’ version of Secret Of Mana (if you’re too young to know what a SNES was, lookie here) – all shimmers and sweeps alongside percussion that never unnecessarily intrudes, ethereality expressed via studied execution.

DOA also reviews the album.

Time Out Dubai interviews Art Brut frontman Eddie Argos.

PopMatters reposts a 2006 interview with the recently departed Jay Bennett.

Drowned in Sound interviews former Grandaddy frontman Jason Lytle about his solo career.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune profiles a 12 year-old music blogger.

Field Middle School student Max Timander, 12, has taken blogging's egalitarian spirit to a new height, despite his lack thereof. He runs areyourockin.com, a reviewer-centric rock blog covering a smart mix of hot albums (the new Green Day "is so addicting," he says) and "retro" discs -- by early-'00s acts such as the White Stripes and David Gray.

I know you’ll find it hard to believe, but there’s lots more good stuff out this week in addition to Veckatimest! I mean, there’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix for one… and the City Center LP for another. I also highly recommend checking out the new full-length from Sharon Van Etten — we’ve made it easy by giving you a full Listen@MBV stream of Because I Was In Love. And I mentioned last week that both the new Blank Dogs and the new Tyvek could be picked up at Midheaven, but they’re widely available this week (i.e. Amazon and such should have them now).

Apollo Ghosts – Forgotten Triangle (5/27)
MP3: Apollo Ghosts – “Palm of My Hand”

Apollo Ghosts – Hastings Sunrise (5/27)
MP3: Apollo Ghosts – “Dobermans/Land of the Morning Calm”

Bachelorette – My Electric Family

Bats – Guilty Office
MP3: The Bats – “Castle Lights”

James Blackshaw – The Glass Bead Game

Blank Dogs – Under and Under

Black Moth Super Rainbow – Eating Us

The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Smoking Acid

City Center – s/t

Glasser – Apply

Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
MP3: Grizzly Bear – “Cheerleader”

A Hawk and a Handsaw – Deliverance

Lewis and Clarke – Light Time
MP3: Lewis & Clarke – “Petrified Forest”

Lindstrom & Prins Thomas – II

The Paper Chase – Someday This Could All Be Yours Vol. 1
MP3: The Paper Chase – “What Should We Do With Your Body (The Lightning)”

Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
MP3: Phoenix – “1901”

Sir Richard Bishop – The Freak of Araby

Sparks – Big Beat SHM-CD

Sparks – Indiscreet SHM-CD

Sparks – Kimono My House SHM-CD

Sparks – Propaganda SHM-CD

Sunn o))) – Monoliths and Dimensions

Tyvek – s/t

Sharon Van Etten – Because I Was in Love
MP3: Sharon Van Etten – “For You”
Stream: Full album via Listen@MBV

Viva Voce – Rose City
MP3: Viva Voce – “Octavio”

Wand – Hard Knox

Vinyl/Vinyl Reissues

Heartless Bastards – The Mountain

Public Image Limited – The Flowers of Romance

Public Image Limited – Second Edition

The debut LP from Brooklyn’s Sharon Van Etten is out on Language of Stone this week. I’ve been an admirer of Sharon’s work for some time now (her lovely voice has graced more than one Forest Fire recording), and I’m hopeful that she’ll find many, many new fans with this new record. And to that end, we’ve put together a Listen@MBV player for Because I Was In Love– please enjoy!

Joan of Arc - “Explain Yourselves #2” Joan of Arc have written songs with groovy beats in the past, but “Explain Yourselves #2″ is different — there are no odd tangents, and a minimum of intentional awkwardness and tension. There’s a stillness and peace at the core of this song that makes me imagine a cool, clean, air-conditioned place to rest while the rhythm grinds mechanically outside. Tim Kinsella can’t keep himself from sounding anxious, but even that gets toned down a bit in this track, in favor of conveying broader sense of yearning for safety and stability. All together it sounds like a realization: The world around him cannot be ignored, but somehow recedes into the background as he focuses his mind on what he wants and what he needs.

Buy it from Polyvinyl Records.