Today's Hotness: Favours For Sailors, Los Campesinos!

>> [EDIT: sorry for the typo in the header all day. Weak brain last night. -- Ed.] After tips from the sadly defunct Beatcast and Exitfare we downloaded from EMusic Favours For Sailors' terrific EP Furious Sons. The set was released earlier this month and it totally delivers. Folks are bandying about Pavement comparisons, but we think the London-based foursome hews more closely to the quirky pop sound of Weezer and The Cars. The video above is from Favours For Sailors' triumphant November 2008 set at New Slang in Kingston, England, and it features what will likely be the act's breakout song, "I Dreamt That I Dreamt That You Loved Me In Your Dreams." That said, we've come to the startling realization that the tune is not even the best cut on Furious Sons. That accolade goes to the "Erode My Empire," a track that has apparently been kicking around for a couple years (and back when the band was apparently a trio?). Needless to say, we think you'll be hearing a lot more from Favours For Sailors in the coming weeks and months. Sadly, Beatcast.tv folded earlier this month, so you can no longer check out the fabulous full set it was streaming in glorious full-screen video. But hit up YouTube for more video-y goodness.

>> Hey, did you know Welsh indie-pop superlatives Los Campesinos! are currently in Stamford, Connecticut, USA, in a recording studio working on their Nth album, where N equals the total number of records the band has recorded, plus or minus the exceptional 2008 set We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed that the band was unwilling to deem an "album?" It's true, according to the band's rejuvenated blog. As of Thursday, at which point the band was 10 days into the first extended session, Gareth Campesinos! reports, there are "7 songs in various states of completion. Four or five completely done bar vocals and violin, which knowing myself and Harriet, we’ll leave until the very last moment. One song is very nearly complete at least though, and is pretty exciting I think. It’s called "Straight In At Number 101." There’s a bit where I thought I sounded like Harriet’s Jonas Brothers impression, but apparently it wasn’t anything to worry about. The Welsh septet is working with producer John Goodmanson and recording its new set in the same studio where Pixies' earth-shaking Doolittle was tracked. The band has two recording sessions planned in North America, and plans to have the record mixed by the end of June. Fans may recall that Goodmanson helmed the sessions for the aforementioned We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, which gives us high hopes that its successor will be equally excellent. Los Campesinos! resume their American tour this weekend, and you can peruse all of their pending engagements at their MySpace yert here.

>> These true facts in from noise pop superheroes Johnny Foreigner: the band's sophomore set "is pretty much done," save for what sounds like some rough mixing to be done by Alex Newport. Mr. Newport and the band have been tracking the as-yet-untitled record for the last few weeks in Brooklyn; we expect there will be a third-party that will do the final mixing, but we are entirely speculating. Let's revisit Mr. Newport's CV and see what mixing credits he has, shall we? Well, we stand corrected -- we see now that Newport has mixing credits out the wazoo, and so it wouldn't be unusual for him to do the final mix as well. So there, people. What else can we tell you? Well, there are apparently guest vocals on the new set from Justin Meneguar, which is awesome, because Meneguar is super top-serious awesome band. Other guest vocalists include members of the inimitable Dananananaykroyd, as well as folks from Fight Like Apes and Sky Larkin. This seems like as good an excuse as any to post this awesome fist-banger:

Meneguar -- "The Temp" -- I Was Born At Night
[right click and save as]
[buy Meneguar records from the band right here]

>> So you can now pre-order Dinosaur Pile-Up's forthcoming second single "Traynor" from various places on the Interwhatsitz now like Rough Trade. We're not crazy about the track, frankly, as it is remarkably cock-rocky -- the band's love for Foo Fighters is very apparent. We are far more enamored with the demos we've heard for quieter, more subtle tracks like the blissful, sublime "Let's Get Up," the hypnotic "Love Is A Boat And We're Sinking" and others. So we're hoping the band hasn't lost its affinity for that sort of material, because if it is all going to sound like "Traynor" from here on out, we're not sure if it is our cup of tea. You can stream the track at the U.K.-based trio's MySpace dojo right here. Dinosaur Pile-Up's debut single "My Rock & Roll" was released December 8; it contained the original demo of "Our Live A Boat And We're Sinking" on the flip.