Out This Week 3/29

You’d pretty much have to be living under a rock not to know the new Radiohead album, The King of Limbs, is out in records stores today. If you can find one of the special newsstands nearby, you can also pick up the Radiohead newspaper, The Universal Sigh (not sold with the album). But theirs isn’t the only highly anticipated album out this week. Whether he’s by himself or with a band, John Darnielle is The Mountain Goats, and the new album, his first on Merge, is produced by Erik Rutan, former guitarist for Morbid Angel and producer of death metal acts like Cannibal Corpse. But don’t expect a totally new direction for the ‘Goats -- while John has long been a fan of the heavier stuff, Rotan is the one here on unfamiliar ground. But together, they succeed magnificently. NY-based indie band The Pains of Being Pure at Heart up their game on their sophomore effort by enlisting veteran sound wizards Flood and Alan Moulder to produce and mix, creating what our Music Director, Don Yates, calls “a more massive, muscular and aggressive take on their fuzzy noise-pop sound, with the band’s beautifully crafted songs blending trebly, distorted guitars, celestial keyboards, tight rhythms, soft, hazy vocals and an abundance of bright, melodic hooks.” And Sweden’s Peter Bjorn and John return with their sixth album (believe it or not!), but lest you think they’re only about the whistling, commercial friendly pop hits, this one rocks quite a bit harder.

Also hitting shelves of record stores is a new EP from Broken Bells, the latest from country-punk trio Those Darlins, the dazzling the sixth studio album by British producer Stephen Wilkinson, a.k.a. Bibio, and an excellent second album by San Francisco’s Moon Duo, who strip down (or at least trip up) some of their psychedelic drone on these Krautrock inspired songs. New Orleans duo Generationals are back with their second album for Park the Van, and Danish group Alcoholic Faith Mission are following their SXSW buzz with a new EP. Seattle’s sister labels Sub Pop and Hardly Art each are releasing a new album today: on the former, garage-y rockers Obits hit hard on their second LP, while on the latter, Hunx and His Punx prove to be, as their press release says, “the first ever ‘girl group’ fronted by a flamboyant gay male whose dream in life is to sound like a girl.” If you like 60′s inspired girl groups, Hunx is for you! And not only is any friend of The Wrens a friend of ours, but Athens, Ohio, band Southeast Engine have a great new album out today and will be live on KEXP at 1:30PM!

There’s a lot more out this week. Check with Largehearted Boy for a full list and sample these tunes below: