Today's Hotness: The Sea And Cake, Assembly Now, Evangelicals

>> Head over to Noise For Toaster and get yourself a listen to the three The Sea And Cake tracks posted right here. It is the most "rock"-oriented stuff we've heard from the long-running indie pop quartet since 1995's The Biz, one of our favorite records of the '90s. Band fronter Sam Prekop says as much about the new record, Everybody, in a blurb about the record at the Thrill Jockey site here. Observe: "It’s a rock album,” says Prekop, though its certain that only The Sea And Cake could make a rock album like this. Sam cites rock’s standard bearers The Kinks as an influence on this, “the most straight ahead, even ‘rootsy’ record we’ve ever made." So that excites us. Everybody will be released May 8. Thrill Jockey is taking pre-orders now, which will arrive on your proverbial doorstep with a poster. Cool.

>> Assembly Now, an indie rock quartet operating out of London, has posted two recent singles for download at its web site here. We picked up the first one as MP3s from one blog or another, perhaps our recent favorite Another Form Of Relief? Ah, yes, here it is. The two-year-old act released its first single, "It's Magnetic" backed with "Out On 24s," in August as a pressing of 1,000. It smokes, particularly the first cut. And as it turns out, the second single, which -- if we are reading the site correctly -- is sold out despite only having been released Jan. 29, is also several different kinds of awesome. So we are posting links to its sides "Leah-On-Sea" and "Tenement" for your enjoyment. Really, between Assembly Now and Johnny Foreigner, we're beginning to think we were born on the wrong continent and in the wrong decade. Oh well. Have at the tracks, they're dynamite.

Assembly Now -- "Leah-On-Sea" -- Label Fandango single (sold out)
Assembly Now -- "Tenement" -- Label Fandango single (sold out)
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>> Oklahoma-based psych poppers Evangelicals have signed with new label Dead Oceans, a recently unveiled joint venture of Secretly Canadian, Jagjaguwar and former Misra label manager Phil Waldorf. The trio's sophomore set The Evening Descends, will be released on the new imprint, whose signings also include Dirty Projectors, Bishop Allen and Iran (which counts TV On The Radio guitarist and singer Kyp Malone as a member). The new Dead Oceans page here has posted a previously unreleased Evangelicals demo "Snowflakes," which we link to below. We previously reviewed Evangelicals' debut So Gone here, and their tour stop in Cambridge, MA right here.

Evangelicals -- "Snowflake (Demo)" -- Previously Unreleased
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