Today's Hotness: Ringo Deathstarr, Lubec, Occurrence

>>A weekend update from Austin, Texas' celebrated shoegaze/big beat terrorists Ringo Deathstarr tells fans who backed the trio's planned sophomore full-length that the record has been mastered, will be out in September, and will be promoted with a three-month world tour kicking off in August and lasting into December. Album backers will, if everything goes as planned, have the album in hand before the tour commences. No word on a title or any song titles yet, but we will watch for new news vigilantly. Ringo Deathstarr's 2011 full-length debut Colour Trip was one of our favorite records of the year; we reviewed it here and we reviewed the band's cataclysmic Boston show, which transpired a year ago today, right here. Colour Trip wasn't The Deathstarr's only release last year: it also issued the bracing Shadows EP, from which the song "Prisms," embedded for streaming below, is taken.



>> Fans of the Portland, Ore.-based guitar pop heroes Lubec got a do-you-want-the-good-news-first-or-bad-news-first? email from the band last week that we think nets out to a win for fans. Or at least those who had pre-ordered the band's Wilderness Days LP, which readers will recall combines the band's previously issued (and excellent) EP Nothing Is Enough! with previously unreleased tracks. Wilderness Days was to be released July 17, but because of delays with the pressing plant the LP will ship about a month later. That's the bad news. The good news is that Lubec is making it up to fans by sending them a free 7" single featuring the dynamite number "You're A Good Idea." The cut was previously available online last winter -- indeed, we wrote about it here -- when the band was pondering the release of a single for the tune "Riptide" (never released). "You're A Good Idea" was recorded at Tape Op Magazine studio in Portland; you may recall us describing it thusly: "a melodic tour de force of kaleidoscopic guitar, simple cascades of piano and punchy bass playing." The single has already been in production and will now ship prior to the LP, but Wilderness Days will still come packaged with the previously promised array of bonus materials. It will also arrive via expedited shipping courtesy of the band. Everybody wins! Stream Lubec's phenomenal track "Cherry Adair" from the aforementioned Nothing Is Enough! EP via the embed below.



>> Cambridge, Mass.-based electronic concern Occurrence surprised fans a couple weeks back with the surprise release of an instrumental collection Future Strangers, which is available for free download via Bandcamp right here. Stripped of sole proprietor Ken Urban's characteristically harrowing lyrics and received neuroses, the eight compositions of the collection crystallize into some of the most focused and nuanced in the Occurrence catalogue. The beats are heavier and the rhythm more urgent in lead track "Twin Brother Shadow Collective." Closer "Dead Techno (for Marla Gibbs)" -- yeah, you read that right -- is a 14-minute epic that would seem to take inspiration from the horrific grinding that begins The Smiths classic "Meat Is Murder," but slackens into a thoughtful swirl before evolving into serial, aggressive salvos of white noise. The real gem of the set is the penultimate track "False Heart," which achieves a pacific balance among swelling faux strings and the steady mid-tempo beat and pulsing tones that overtake them. The songs were created by Mr. Urban over the last two years with input from regular collaborator Wayne S. Feldman. It's already been a very productive year for Occurrence, which released the full-length collection The Apocalypse Is Postponed in January and capped Clicky Clicky's acclaimed Nofuckingwhere compilation with a stinging re-imagining of the title track to Ride's epochal debut full-length Nowhere (Nofuckingwhere is still available for free download right here). Stream "False Heart" below.