You read the headline! Now go read the details from each band below!
Death Cab for Cutie
While we wait for their seventh album's potential first single, "You are a Tourist," grab your calendar and mark a big ol' heart on May 31. Scribble Death Cab for Cutie in the middle of that beating organ and you'll have successfully reminded yourself that Codes and Keys comes out that day. Hooray!
Bassist Nick Harmer talked with Stereogum a couple months ago and had this to say about the upcoming release:
There are definitely guitars on this record. There are just less of them than before, and we're using them in different ways this time. Ben was really inspired by writing on acoustic guitar and on a piano, so often those parts become voices or keyboard lines, rather than guitar parts. We really experimented with piecing the songs together in different ways and using the studio differently, so this a much less guitar-centric album than we've ever made before.
Outside of Sasquatch! involvement, DCFC is also playing a few shows in May:
05.24 Edmonton, AB @ Shaw Conference Center
05.25 Calgary, AB @ Stampede Corral
05.27 Bend, OR @ Les Schwab Amphitheatre
05.28 George, WA @ Sasquatch! Music Festival
Phoenix
Per an interview with Pedestrian.tv, Phoenix is in Australia working on their fifth album, which may have some foundational elements changed from their previous format. Thomas Mars and Deck D'Arcy reported that their working with an orchestra to lay down some drum beats, and Mars elaborated on why in the video interview:
I think ’cause we do a lot of music with drum machines and we blend a lot [of] drum machines and real drums, I think for us, it’s a way to escape that… You know, there’s something a little frustrating when you do pop music. And drums are the DNA of our music, ’cause we’d like to go somewhere else, we’d like to change that DNA.
No word on when or where the LP will be released or what it will even be called, but as the cliche goes, only time will tell.
The Black Keys
Apparently the best way to celebrate winning a Grammy is to go record a new album. I certainly agree, and so do The Black Keys. They're currently testing out their brand new studio in Nashville, where they plan on writing, producing and letting loose a new LP this fall. In speaking with Cleveland.com, Dan Auerbach reflected on his writing process:
I'm still listening to the same weird [expletive] and searching for different sounds, same as I've always done. All that stuff influences me, probably more than my surroundings. I'm good at just living in my own little world. That's probably why it's easy for me to go from one town to another, because I put my headphones on and it really doesn't matter where I am.
Whatever gets those juices flowing, boys.