I’ve been eagerly awaiting word on a new album by The Cave Singers, and the news came today that Welcome Joy – a fine piece of advice, if it’s meant to be that, for a pessimist like myself – will be released Aug. 18 on Matador.

I love the campfire/indie-folk quality of their debut, Invitation Songs, an album whose pretty melodies paired nicely with singer Pete Quirk’s slight rasp.

After hearing Beach House, the first single off Welcome Joy, I have high hopes for what this new album will bring.

• The Cave Singers | Beach House

While my wife can wipe the floor with me in Guitar Hero, I kinda like my chances in the upcoming DJ Hero game. DJ Shadow, who apparently is the unofficial spokesman for the game, launched details for it on his site, along with some screen caps.

In-game characters include DJ AM and, our favorite, DJ Z-Trip, who was mum on details a couple weeks ago in an interview with KCRW but sent out an e-mail blast today:

“The past couple months I’ve been sworn to secrecy, but can now finally speak on it. I’ve been working on the new DJ Hero video game that will be coming out later this year. I’m also going to be a character IN the game! This is a big highlight in my DJ career, as it’s the first game of its kind. DJ Hero is being put together by Activision, the same people who do Guitar Hero, so this thing is gonna be mega!

But I guess we can’t really call ’em the wheels of steel anymore, eh?

• DJ Z-Trip | Work It or Leave It

Just in time for their June 12 show at Chyro Arts in Scottsdale, Sub Pop is offering up a new mp3 from the new Handsome Furs album, Face Control. (Buy your tickets.)

Much as I love Wolf Parade, why would Dan Boeckner even bother when he can pose for press shots like this … or this? Spencer Krug is so jealous.

• Handsome Furs | Radio Kaliningrad

By now, Jay Bennett has been eulogized enough that you hardly need another written remembrance. To be honest, as astonishing/sad as it was to watch the news spread over social networks – especially Twitter – in a matter of minutes, I’m always appalled at how some people can turn the news of death into some trumped-up cry for attention, this odd compulsion to justify sorrow in 140 or fewer characters. Unless you knew him, pay your respects from afar and move on.

So in an attempt to follow my own advice, I won’t belabor the point here. Surely, I’m like most Wilco fans. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Summerteeth rank as my favorite albums by the band, both with Bennett’s fingerprints all over them. Even after watching the documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart several times, I never was completely comfortable picking sides in the Bennett vs. Jeff Tweedy flap. Though Bennett’s recent lawsuit against Tweedy painted him as desperate and exploitative – at least that’s how Pitchfork’s unprofessional editorializing made it sound – there’s just no telling, really. In a way, I feel bad for Tweedy, a broken relationship now never to be repaired.

While I never quite warmed up to Bennett’s solo material, his contributions to Wilco are countless (and probably more valuable than we would know). Poor Places, from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, is one of my favorites.

• Wilco | Poor Places (from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot demos)

While you can subscribe to the great Lounge Act podcast, the folks at WOXY.com are also cool enough to split these sessions into mp3s for individual consumption (which I used to do a lot until people asked me to stop).

The latest Lounge Act session comes from The Walkmen, who are in town tonight (Tuesday) as the opener for the sold-out Kings of Leon show at Mesa Amphitheatre. And I guess I wasn’t the only one who found this pairing a little awkward given the venue sizes of this tour. Singer Hamilton Leithauser makes it sound like the transition was a little tricky for The Walkmen: “We’ve been adjusting … we were a little lost at the beginning, I think, in the big rooms, playing some of our slow songs. It didn’t really translate that well.”

Sounds just fine here.

• The Walkmen | On the Water (live on WOXY.com)

Get the rest of the mp3s here.

If it’s loud, cathartic and Scottish, I’m probably into it. (In all honesty, if it’s quiet, uplifting and Scottish, chances are I’m into it.) Between The Twilight Sad and Frightened Rabbit, I’ve been introduced to a whole different level of anguish through song than I’m used to, a real visceral gut punch.

Few albums in recent memory are as striking in its imagery than The Twilight Sad’s Fourteen Autumns, Fifteen Winters (2007). So I was happy to see Pitchfork unload a new one, Reflection of the Television, the first single from the band’s forthcoming Forget the Night Ahead (Sept. 22).

Reflection isn’t quite as unnerving and intense as the best work off Fourteen Autumns, but it simply feels like the calm before the storm. I’m excited to hear the rest of the album, which singer James Graham discussed with Pitchfork.

• The Twilight Sad | Reflection of the Television