May 20, 2013 – Gold Lake are busy sorting out release details for their recently completed, Phil Ek-produced debut album, but in the meantime, the Brooklyn-by-way-of-Madrid trio plans to drop a two-song single on June 18. One of the tracks featured on that upcoming release is “We Already Exist,” an airy reverie that also bears Ek’s fingerprints, a woodsy, driving rhythm that’s bolstered by singer Lua Rios’ vocals, which sound like the stuff of Divine Inspiration. Hear it below.

May 20, 2013 – "We just wanted it to be bigger." That's what Roomrunner frontman Denny Bowen says he and his bandmates hoped to achieve with their full-length debut, the soon-to-be-released Ideal Cities. On May 28, the Baltimore wrecking crew — rounded out by bassist Dan Frome, drummer Bret Lanahan, and guitarist Jeff Byers — will follow up their two EPs (2011's self-titled effort and last year's Super Vague collection) with nine tracks of meaty, feedback-gnarled noise rock.  Bowen recently spoke with SPIN about the record’s inspirations — Hot Snakes, Drive Like Jehu, Sebadoh, the Foo Fighters’ The Colour and the Shape, to name a few — and offered a track-by-track breakdown of the foursome’s first LP.

May 17, 2013 – SPIN named the 15 Must-See Acts at Hangout Music Fest 2013 — Stevie Wonder, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Kendrick Lamar, the Breeders, Public Enemy, and Best Coast all made the cut — and now, thanks to the miracle of the Internet, you can see a good chunk of the talent at the annual Alabama showcase from the comfort of your own home. MTV is live-streaming a number of the best sets all weekend.

May 17, 2013 – To put it lightly, former New Order bassist Peter Hook doesn't have the friendliest relationship with his ex-bandmates. In the acknowledgements section of his 2012 memoir, Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division, Hook swiped at his onetime comrades by writing "In memoriam, rest in peace . . . New Order," despite the fact that New Order are still very much active without him. Hook, who left the band in 2007, has also gone on record as saying he's "determined to fuck New Order over in any possible way." At last he's found a way. Hook announced Friday (May 17) that he'll perform New Order's first two albums — 1981's Movement and 1983's Power, Corruption & Lies — in their entirety, plus singles and B-sides from that time period, during a North American tour with his current band, the Light.

May 17, 2013 – MS MR have had a lot of firsts lately. Last week, the New York-based electro-pop duo became the first band to participate in the new Myspace's even newer live performance video series, Live at the Log Cabin; earlier this week, MS (singer Lizzy Plapinger) and MR (producer Max Hershenow) released their first full-length album, Secondhand Rapture; and Thursday night, they made their network television debut on Late Show with David Letterman, playing "Hurricane," Secondhand Rapture's darkwave lead single. Plapinger's steady vocals anchored the performance, enveloped by a drum-synth blend. Watch it above, and head over to Myspace to see MS MR play Secondhand cuts "Hurricane," "Dark Doo Wop," and "Salty Sweet."

May 17, 2013 – German psych-prog unit Okta Logue just introduced themselves to the U.S. via their stateside debut, the recently released Transit EP. The ambitious four-piece previously shared a cinematic video for the short-player's title track earlier this year, and now they've offered a more intimate clip for "Let Go," the EP's swaggering second song. For a peek at Okta Logue's life on the road — strolling city streets, shopping for clothes, riding boats and buses, skateboarding, driving through European countryside, and, of course, playing shows — watch the clip above. Okta Logue's Transit EP culls material from the Frankfurt-based outfit's two studio LPs, 2011's Ballads of a Burden and this year's Tales of Transit City (released in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria today). The five-track collection is currently streaming at the Wall Street Journal. 

May 17, 2013 – Finally, Italians Do It Better released After Dark 2, the follow-up to 2007's compilation on Friday (May 17). The 15-track collection features material from several acts associated with synth virtuoso Johnny Jewel — including Chromatics, Glass Candy, Desire, Symmetry, and Mirage, among others — and it's on iTunes right now. Jewel previously shared one of Chromatics' three contributions, the typically sleek "Cherry." Fans looking for a second taste can sample Mirage's nine-minute "Let's Kiss" below. Robo-vocals, nocturnal atmospherics, and mechanical drums abound. Giorgio Moroder would be proud.After Dark II track list:1. Glass Candy - "Warm in the Winter"2. Desire - "Tears From Heaven"3. Mirage - "Let's Kiss"4. Appaloosa - "Fill the Blanks"5. Chromatics - "Looking for Love"6. Symmetry - "Heart of Darkness"7. Chromatics - "Camera"8. Twisted Wires - "Half Lives"9.

May 17, 2013 – This fall, the international All Tomorrow's Parties festival series will bid farewell to its longtime U.K. venue, Camber Sands' Pontins Holiday Park, with two final events. The showcases, dubbed "End of An Era" parts one and two, were already set to feature performances from Television, Thurston Moore's Chelsea Light Moving, Dinosaur Jr., Dirty Beaches, and reunited art-rock band LOOP, among others. Now added are Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mogwai (who curated the first ATP event at Camber Sands), Low, Ty Segall, Tortoise, White Fence, and Har Mar Superstar.The lineup for "End of An Era" part one (November 22 to 24), which is being curated in collaboration with Spain's Primavera Sound festival, so far includes: Television performing 1977's Marquee Moon, Godspeed You!

May 17, 2013 – Snoop Dogg's latest album, the reggae-heavy Reincarnated, was recently slapped with a Worst New Music label from SPIN. Reviewing the first release under Snoop's new "Lion" moniker, Keith Harris wrote, "A pimp can have a midlife crisis too, you know." So it's welcome news that Calvin Broadus is returning to his Dogg tag for a new track titled "Take Yo Panties Off." Please pardon the sleaze — the upcoming song is set to feature on the official soundtrack to This Is The End, an apocalyptic comedy starring James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, and Craig Robinson.Either way, "Take Yo Panties Off," the soundtrack's only original contribution, features guest vocals from ex-Office castmember Robinson. Franco also appears on the collection, by way of "Love in the Old Days," a recently remixed single from the actor's band, Daddy.

May 16, 2013 – Peals, the instrumental duo of Future Islands' William Cashion and Double Dagger's Bruce Willen, recently performed at Baltimore's Emerson Bromo-Seltzer Tower as part of an art exhibit. The installation featured four stop-motion videos directed by local filmmaker Zoe Friedman; the shorts, which use inanimate objects and materials (oranges, milk, seashells) to explore notions of time, decay, and rebirth, were simultaneously projected onto the walls of the space as Peals played their set.Those videos have now been edited and repurposed to serve as the official clip for "Belle Air," a fragmented tune that appears on Peals' just-released debut album, Walking Field.