Today's Hotness: The Futureheads, Loose Fur, Destroyer

>> Man, we love us some Futureheads but we have to say we're dismayed at the band's deployment of this "secret tour" chicanery, the same bozo move The Strokes pulled late last year. It’s a lame device. Just to be clear: if your tour was truly secret, no one would come and you would not make any money and it is possible you would then starve or become very cold and damp. You wouldn't be able to afford smokes. Also, your van would run out of petrol because you wouldn't be able to feed the machines the oil magnates use to extort money from us. Oh, rue the day your record label talked you into this dumb idea, Futureheads. That said, here's the scoop for people who can't wait for someone else to post the details tomorrow afternoon: go to the Futureheads web site Friday, complete a word search (?) and the dates will be revealed. The Futureheads' sophomore release News And Tributes will hit racks in May.

>> Brooklyn Vegan here points to a video hosted by YouTube for a song from the forthcoming Loose Fur record. The video, for the relatively strong track "Hey Chicken," splices together a bunch of action shots from that old kids show "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers." It's pretty fun. Loose Fur's sophomore release Born Again In The USA streets March 21 on Drag City. We've had our hands on the set for a while and it is not growing on us. It's strongly beholden to classic rock, with some experimental scrambling here and there. We'll give it a couple more chances.

>> The New York Times here profiles Destroyer and mastermind Dan Bejar. The thesis of the informative piece is that Bejar will never crossover and in fact takes steps to willfully sabotage his own prospects for stardom. We liked the rundown of all the self-referential lyrics, as we hadn't realized that was as prevalent in Bejar's writing as it is. It's pretty funny. And lines like this, from the new record's title track, are just sublimely pointed: "Quiet, Ruby, someone's coming, approach with stealth/Oh, it's just your precious American underground, and it is born of wealth/With not a writer in the lot." Stings a bit, eh, indie rock?