Of Montreal Put Finishing Touches On Latest Opus

Indie pop troupe Of Montreal's newest album is finished, according to the band's myspace page. Kevin Barnes, the Athens, Georgia outfit's free wheeling leader, reports that the follow up to 2007's Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer? has been mastered and is set for a fall release. It is tenatively titled Skeletal Lamping.

Barnes apparently did the yeoman's share of creating the new tunes, which he sees as a departure from the band's recent synth pop work. Says Barnes

i am so bored with art that makes sense and "works". i wanted to do somethings that didn't "work". very few things pique our interest while they are working as we expect them to, things are far more interesting when they are not working.

Clearly, Barnes & Co are no strangers to thinking, and performing, outside of the box.

A fall tour in support of Skeletal Lamping is also in the works.

Coldplay's Viva la Vida Streaming, Doesn't Suck

Not to be outdone by the nude Scandavians below, Coldplay is also making its new album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends available for your listening enjoyment prior to its official release.

At the risk of being beaten within an inch of our life (or at least publicly berated) by all of the "serious" music folks out there, we dare say that Viva la Vida ain't half bad. The Brian Eno produced LP moves beyond the territory charted on A Rush of Blood to the Head and largely retread with X&Y, reaching a continually modern sound.

Dont get us wrong; no one will be confusing these guys with Radiohead anytime soon and their perpetually sappy frontman, Chris Martin, is certainly no Shakepeare. We also agree that the chart topping sales, darling fanfare and general sillyness surrounding Coldplay is largely unwarranted and, at times, even down right aggravating. That said, we never really understood why their mass fan appeal requires the band's work to be examined under such a high powered microscope.

The album will be properly released on Tuesday. Check it out for yourself while its free and let us know what you think.

Sigur Ros Previews New Album

(Sigur Ros blissfully gallop across the hillside in search of Bjork's Reykjavík lair.)

Icelandic space rockers Sigur Ros are celebrating the release of their latest album by making it available to fans for free on the band's website. Free, that is, at least for the time being.

Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, the foursome's fifth studio LP is currently available at sigurros.com/main/streaming.asp. On first listen, it is abundantly clear that the album, loosely translated to With a Buzz in Our Ears We Play Endlessly (forgive us, we only minored in Icelandic), is a bit more upbeat than long time listners might expect. It is set for release on June 23.