Wolf Parade - Expo 86

As if this year for awesome releases from awesome bands couldn't get any better, new Wolf Parade due in late June or early July according to this great Pitchfork interview with Dan Boeckner.

Tour dates, too:

04-03 Halifax, Nova Scotia - Paragon Theatre *
04-04 Fredericton, New Brunswick - The Market *
04-06 Kingston, Ontario - Ale House *
04-07 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix Concert Theatre *
05-06 Pecs, Hungary - Europe Mania Festival
05-07 Krems an der Donau, Austria - Donau Festival
05-08 Leipzig, Germany - Pop Up Festival
05-09 Prague, Czech Republic - Matrix
05-11 Salzburg, Austria - Rockhouse
05-12 Bologna, Italy - Lokomotiv
05-13 Torino, Italy - Spazio 211
05-16 Brussels, Belgium - Le Botanique
05-17 Brighton, England - Concorde 2
05-19 Glasgow, Scotland - Oran Mor
05-20 Dublin, Ireland - Vicar Street
05-21 Manchester, England - Club Academy
05-22 Utrecht, Netherlands - Tivoli
05-25 Lubijana, Slovenia - Menza Pri Koritu
05-26 Zagreb, Croatia - Teatar & TD
05-27 Milan, Italy - Salumeria della Musica
05-28 Gallen, Switzerland - Palace
05-29 Dudingen, Switzerland - Bad Bonn
05-31 Paris, France - Nouveau Casino
07-08 Montreal, Quebec - Le National
07-09 Montreal, Quebec - Le National
07-11 Portland, ME - Port City Music Hall
07-12 Boston, MA - House of Blues
07-13 New York, NY - Terminal 5
07-15 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom
07-16 Newport, KY - Southgate House
07-18 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
07-19 Winnipeg, Manitoba - Garrick Center
07-21 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - Louis (University of Saskatoon Campus)
07-22 Calgary, Alberta - Republik
07-23 Edmonton, Alberta - The Starlight Room
07-25 Vancouver, British Columbia - Vogue Theatre
07-26 Seattle, WA - Showbox
07-27 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
07-29 Santa Cruz, CA - Catalyst Club
07-30 Oakland, CA - The Fox
07-31 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern
09-15 London, England - The Forum

* with We Are Wolves

Thanks to MrMushnik's post, I've been listening to Apologies to the Queen Mary again and again. He's so right. Sounds better than it ever has.

Two songs from the new album (due out on June 29th), 'Ghost Pressure' and 'What Did My Lover Say?':

Bam.

More meat on the guitars this time around, but I'm not amazed or anything. Hopefully growers.

Tracklisting:

01 Cloud Shadow on the Mountain
02 Palm Road
03 What Did My Lover Say? (It Always Had to Go This Way)
04 Little Golden Age
05 In the Direction of the Moon
06 Ghost Pressure
07 Pobody's Nerfect
08 Two Men in New Tuxedos
09 Oh You, Old Thing
10 Yulia
11 Cave-o-Sapien

Album cover (sooooo much better than the cover art for At Mount Zoomer):

Leaked.

Dan Boeckner is once again the MVP. His songwriting is improving album to album, and his work in Handsome Furs has only fine-tuned his focus.

'Palm Road', 'Pobody's Nerfect', and 'Yulia' are making me droooool.

It's no Apologies (don't think they'll ever top that album in terms of freshness and amazement). More like a mix of the first two albums. It has the bounciness and fluffiness of Apologies meshed with Zoomer's sparseness and quirkiness.

That said, I loved At Mount Zoomer. Those that didn't will probably find the new album as somewhat of a comeback.

I'm pretty mixed on the new disc. Don't hate it, don't love it.

I really, really love Zoomer. The new album seems like an apology (no pun intended!) to those that didn't. But that magic that was there in spades with their debut is terribly gone for the most part.

I think this is a band that already reached their peak and likely don't have much of anything to say. Much of the new material just drones on forward.