It’s a big day for releases with new ones out today from Broken Social Scene, the Hold Steady and the New Pornographers, whose fifth album, Together, has been crystallizing beautifully in my head over the past couple of weeks.

I didn’t quite envision a Brazilian martial arts/dance routine as a visual accompaniment, but the new video for Your Hands (Together) seems to match the song’s power-pop punch. The group’s synth player/multi-instrumentalist Blaine Thurier directed the clip and tells Spinner:

“It’s 100 percent real. There’s no camera trickery. They are doing Capoeira. It’s this Brazilian mix of martial arts and dance. It was developed by slaves and because they had their hands shackled, they could only kick and use their legs.”

I had little hesitation choosing to see Japandroids on Monday over Beach House after our Frightened Rabbit plans were derailed by that damn volcano. And now I’m starting to think Mother Nature intended for me to be at the Japandroids show all along because it was a pulsating performance, already my favorite concert of the young year. (Now if Frightened Rabbit reschedules for Phoenix, then I’ll get the best of both worlds.)

I didn’t keep a setlist, but I’m almost certain the Vancouver duo – playing their first show in Phoenix – tore through all of Post-Nothing and then some, including Darkness on the Edge of Gastown, Art Czars and its 7-inch B-side, the Big Black cover of Racer X. (I took some video, but I think my digital camera’s feeble audio capabilities were completely devastated by the volume levels.)

Three days before the Phoenix show, the guys stopped by KCRW in Los Angeles for a session on Morning Becomes Eclectic in which singer/guitarist Brian King explained the not-so-subtle secret to success as a two-man band: “The amps, especially their size and quantity, is what it’s all about.”

Here’s the KCRW setlist:
1. Crazy/Forever
2. Sovereignty
3. Art Czars
**Interview**
4. Rockers East Vancouver
5. Wet Hair
6. Young Hearts Spark Fire

I recommend watching the entire session, but KCRW also uploaded Art Czars to its YouTube channel if you just want to watch that (and, man, I love this song):

Lost in my excitement about new material from The National is the first preview of the forthcoming album from Band of Horses, Infinite Arms (out May 18 on Brown/Fat Possum/Columbia).

The band released this video for Compliments last week, and my guess is the kaleidoscope-like visuals seemed way cooler after the first few hits, duuuudes. You can download the video (but not an mp3 … weird) at the Band of Horses site and pre-order the album at Fat Possum.

Is there a better band to feature on Opening Day than one that calls itself The Baseball Project?

Just in time for the new season, the side group that features Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate, Steve Wynn and the Miracle 3) and Scott McCaughey (The Minus 5, Young Fresh Fellows, R.E.M.) has teamed up with ESPN’s The Life to chronicle the 2010 season by writing/recording a song each month until November, making them available as part of a package called Broadside Ballads – songs about specific events that happen during the season.

I loved The Baseball Project’s 2008 debut, Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails, an album steeped in baseball’s rich history and quirky characters. And this new idea of a rolling soundtrack for the season has amazing potential.

The first track, released in March, is called All Future and No Past, a song that captures the misguided hope and delusions of grandeur that spring can bring. (As a Cubs fan, I know a little something about this.) “At this point, everybody has a chance,” sings McCaughey, inspired by a quote from Indians Hall of Famer Lou Boudreau, who once said, “On Opening Day, the world is all future and no past.”

ESPN says a new song will be ready for release around Opening Day, so we can expect the second installment very soon. Until then, I’m renewing my dreams of a Cubs victory in the World Series.

• The Baseball Project | All Future and No Past

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There were hints of a Far reunion last year, and now — at long last — we have tangible evidence in the form of cover art for the forthcoming album, At Night We Live.

According to the band’s site, the album is due out May 25 (on Vagrant) and it would serve as the never-thought-this-was-coming-out follow-up to 1998’s amazing Water & Solutions.

A cover of Ginuwine’s Pony notwithstanding, I’m eagerly awaiting new material. The closest we’ve got is an acoustic/live version of a track below (along with the Pony cover).

UPDATE: If you sign up for the band’s mailing list at its Web site, you’ll be directed to a page to stream the new single, Deafening.

• Far | Pony (Ginuwine cover)

The Besnard Lakes made their television debut Tuesday night on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, performing And This is What We Call Progress, one of the more rocking tracks on the new album, The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night.

Fear not: They brought the fog machine. This has me pumped for the band’s May 14 show at Sail Inn in Tempe. Just don’t expect me to be flailing my arms and pumping my fists like the doofus behind drummer Kevin Laing’s right shoulder. Trust me, you can’t miss him.

Manchester SceneWipe puts the camera to Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchison for a nighttime/canal-side acoustic version of the new track Swim Until You Can’t See Land from the excellent new album The Winter of Mixed Drinks.

The band will be fully plugged in for its April 19 show at the Clubhouse in Tempe. Buy tickets. Speaking of, The Middle East is now listed as the opener, dashing my dreams of a combined Japandroids/FR bill on a busy night in the Valley.

If this new video for Workin’ Hard is any indication, I have to see Retribution Gospel Choir live very soon.

I’ve seen Alan Sparhawk perform live with Low – and this is nothing like that at all. Who is this mutton chopped, shirtless rock star? He’s playing the guitar with his teeth, for crying out loud! But seriously, I love this song, a blue-collar rocker that’s probably my favorite off RGC’s new album, 2. (By the way, Sub Pop’s catalog is now on eMusic. REJOICE!)

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