DecoyMusic.com

The Brooklyn party-rock trio Fang Island are about to return with their new album Major, the follow-up to their self-titled 2010 breakout. And “Asunder,” the first track we’ve heard from the album, is a triumphant riff-rocker that sounds like a pure sugar-rush rendered in musical form. Download it and check out the album’s tracklist below.

http://stereogum.com/1032932/fang-island-asunder/mp3s/

01 “Kindergarten”
02 “Sisterly”
03 “Seek it Out”
04 “Make Me”
05 “Never Understand”
06 “Asunder”
07 “Dooney Rock”
08 “Regalia”
09 “Chompers”
10 “Chime Out”
11 “Victorinian”

Gaza look to be eyeing a July 31st release date through Black Market Activities for their long-awaited new album “No Absolutes In Human Suffering“.

Woe, Is Me have confirmed their studio plans for their next album. The group are set to enter Chango Studios in Orlando, FL with producer Cameron Mizell (Sleeping With Sirens, Memphis May Fire) on May 22nd to begin tracking the outing.

A trailer for Animals As Leaders‘ forthcoming”Weightless” music video can be seen over at Altpress.com. The full clip is due to premiere online shortly.

Live footage of Thrice frontman Dustin Kensrue performing an acoustic cover of Tom Waits‘ “Down There By The Train” has been posted online at Altpress.com. The footage comes from a recent secret show he played in San Diego, CA.

Shadows Fall‘s “Blind Faith” is the latest song from the bands new album “Fire From The Sky” to hit the web.  Check out the song here.

Check out With Life in Mind's new song "Deafening." For fans of Life in Your Way, Hundredth.

According to Rolling Stones, Tom Gabel of Against Me! will be pursuing a sex change. For more info, head to Absolute Punk as the story unfolds.

If you're out of the loop, Feist and Mastodon released a split 7" for Record Store Day, in which the two artists covered each other. The result is god-damn-glorious, and if you haven't heard Feist's cover of "Black Tongue" or Mastodon's cover of "A Commotion," head to the comments pronto.

Check out Night Verses's new song, "Be Happy With Yourself, I'm Staying Here in Hell" from their upcoming EP Out of the Sky, which will be available for free on midnight of the 15th.

Click here to hear Giles from Great Cynics take on The Menzingers's "I Was Born."

Brooklyn-born rapper was diagnosed with cancer in 2009 and was unable to attend April induction into the hall of fame.

Rapper Adam Yauch, a third of the trailblazing hip hop act the Beastie Boys, has died aged 47. Yauch, who performed as MCA, had been in treatment for cancer since 2009 after discovering a tumor in his parotid gland.

Initially dismissed as a trio of jokers who scored a fluke novelty hit with Fight for Your Right (To Party) on their 1986 debut Licensed to Ill, the Beastie Boys would grow into one of the most ambitious and influential acts of the 1990s.

The densely layered followup to their jokey and spare debut was 1989's Paul's Boutique, a postmodern hip hop masterpiece that was largely ignored at its release. Today the Dust Brothers-produced record is considered a seminal album that would hint at the genre-bending direction 1990s pop was heading.

Subsequent records Check Your Head and Ill Communication found an instant foothold in the mainstream, however, propelling the band to stratospheric stardom.

Their lyrics were packed with goofy couplets, in-jokes and pop-culture references. And each of the Beasties cultivated distinct personas and vocal deliveries that meshed well together and could stand alone.

Yauch's voice was mellow, gravelly and gruff – sandpaper and warm beer – allowing him to play both the shady drifter (Paul Revere) and loveable buddy ("My man MCA's got a beard like a billy goat").

The Brooklyn-born Yauch co-founded the Beastie Boys in 1981, originally as a punk rock outfit with Mike "Mike D" Diamond, drummer Kate Schellenbach and guitarist John Berry in 1981. The group got its start playing underground clubs around New York and released an EP later that year.

Schellenbach and Berry would leave the band, though and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horowitz, a third middle-class Jewish kid from New York, came on board.

After eschewing punk for an exaggerated fratty b-boy posture, the trio would go on to become the unlikely first white rap group to achieve massive mainstream success – to the initial chagrin of hip hop purists.

After poorly received tours opening for Madonna and Run DMC, the band released Licensed to Ill in 1986, which struck a surprise chord: the Rick Rubin-produced album was fastest-selling debut in Columbia Records' history, selling more than 750,000 copies in its first six weeks.

The Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April, but Yauch was unable to attend due to his health. His cancer treatments also delayed the release of the group's most recent album, Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2.

In addition to his career in music, Yauch was a film-maker and passionate Buddhist and defender of Tibetan rights. Yauch directed many of the band's music videos under the name Nathanial Hornblower, including "So What'cha Want," "Intergalactic" and the more recent "Make Some Noise."

Yauch, who is survived by his wife, Dechen Wengdu, and their daughter, Losel, wrote a letter to his bandmates and fans for last month's hall of fame induction: "I'd like to dedicate this to my brothers Adam and Mike," he wrote. "They walked the globe with me. It's also for anyone who has ever been touched by our band. This induction is as much ours as it is yours."

Portland, Oregon band Icarus the Owl has released a new track from their upcoming debut album Love Always, Leviathan, which will be released on June 21st.  You can stream the track below in the comments or on the the band's Bandcamp page.  (RIYL: Slightly progressive post-hardcore in the vein of Lovehatehero, Fully Down, or pmtoday)

Jack the Radio, a southern-indie rock band from Raleigh, NC just released their first single and music video for "Carolina Mud". Check it out here. Full length album, "Lowcountry", available online (iTunes, Amazon, Bandcamp, Bigcartel) May, 15th. For fans of: Spoon, The Avett Brothers, The Black Keys, Dr. Dog, The Raconteurs.