British Sea Power – “Who’s In Control” From Valhalla Dancehall, out 1/11 on Rough Trade.

Moondoggies – “What Took So Long” From Tidelands, out now on Hardly Art. The band kicks off their winter tour this week in Bellingham, WA– full dates at the band’s Myspace.

3:AM points out John Peel's documentary Artist Formerly Known as Captain Beefheart.

Crawdaddy interviews Dan Bejar about the forthcoming Destroyer album, Kaputt (out January 25th).

The National's frontman Matt Berninger talks to the New Zealand Herald about the band's unexpected success.

Singer-songwriter John Grant lists his six favorite albums at Aquarium Drunkard.

NPR is streaming last night's Iron and Wine concert.

Destroyer – “Kaputt”

Sarah BowlesIf there’s any upside – and I type this knowing that there’s not – to the fact that the holidays are over and it’s back to the workaday week, it’s that my inbox and RSS reader are once again filling up with interesting news bits (and tonnes of uninteresting ones) rather than lists upons lists and year-end retrospectives. And that includes concert announcements, of which there were more than a few yesterday.

Including a return to North America for the first time in a couple years from Brighton, UK’s premiere electro/indie/hip-hop/dance/rock party-all-over outfit The Go! Team. Their third record Rolling Blackouts will be out on February 1 and while their official tour itinerary only goes as far as the end of March and doesn’t cross the Atlantic, a Toronto show at the Opera House on April 10 has just been announced (tickets $23.50), so expect more dates to be announced in the coming days. Spinner has an interview with chief songwriter Ian Parton about the shift in lyrical direction on the new record, while samples of said album can be had via the video for the lead track and the stream of next single “Buy Nothing Day” – featuring vocals from Best Coast’s Beth Cosentino – over at The Guardian.

Stream: The Go! Team – “Buy Nothing Day”
Video: The Go! Team – “T.O.R.N.A.D.O.”

BBC Sound of 2011 shortlistee Anna Calvi will be releasing her self-titled debut on March 1.

MP3: Anna Calvi – “Jezebel”

Destroyer’s new record Kaputt is out on January 25 and though the tour dates with The War On Drugs are still patchy...

MP3: Destroyer – “Chinatown”
MP3: The War On Drugs – “The History Of Plastic”

They don’t really have a lot in common, but that’s not stopping …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead and Surfer Blood from teaming up for a tour. Trail Of Dead’s new album Tao Of The Dead will be out on February 8 and Surfer Blood will be putting out an EP sometime this year before getting to work on their major label debut.

MP3: Surfer Blood – “Swim”

The new British Sea Power record Valhalla Dancehall is up and streaming in its entirety at The AV Club, one week before it’s January 11 release.

Stream: British Sea Power / Valhalla Dancehall

NPR is streaming the whole of The Decemberists’ new album The King Is Dead two weeks before its January 18 release date.

Stream: The Decemberists / The King Is Dead

There will be a new Strokes record in March. BBC says bassist Nikolai Fraiture says so.

Titus Andronicus have blogged a farewell to their founding bassist Ian Graetzer, who amicably left the band as of this weekend.

bitsandpieces.us

Frederick Squire - “Old Times Past New Times” Let's pretend it's New Year's Day; let's sit with a piece of driftwood on our laps; let's see if we can draw a calendar from memory. Sackville's Fred Squire, the Fred Squire who sang on the best album of 2008, has made a song of recollections, resolutions, "decisions that I've made". Not all of the recollections are true, but our recollections rarely are. It's the resolutions that are truest, that ring cold & solid like horseshoes. Fred makes few of these. He is staying warm, with coat and whiskey, navigating memory, lowering sails, grateful for everything.

[Hero Hill wrote a great, thoughtful review of March 12/buy]

James Leroy - "Wasting Our Time" Set up a frozen puddle in my hall. I invite people over, call to them from the kitchen, Come on in! They hang up their coats and fall on their asses. I slide a fruit-bowl down the floor. This lets them know that I meant well; that this is not a cruel joke. We all sit on the hardwood, beside the frozen puddle, eating clementines. We peel them and put the peels in our pockets. I dream that one day someone will arrive at my door wearing skates.

[buy/via Weird Canada]