Today's Hotness: Dinosaur Jr., Mobius Band, Joy Division

>> Happy Dinosaur Jr. release day. Haven't heard Beyond yet? The record is streaming at the legendary indie rawkers' MySpace cave here. In other news, Dinosaur Jr.'s Hand It Over and Without A Sound, two Lou-less (and perhaps Murph-less, we don't feel like digging them out and inspecting the liner notes right now) albums from the mid- and late-'90s, are now for sale at ITunes for the first time. If you're of a certain age you'll remember the single "Feel The Pain" from Without A Sound, and we seem to remember the first line to the tune coincidentally appearing in or just being lifted from Kurt Cobain's suicide note. But anyway, our point is there are actually several hot tunes on the record, "Grab It" being our favorite. You can stream the cut for free at Rhapsody right here. And did you see the band on Letterman last night? Awesome. They played the new record's lead cut "Almost Ready." We just so happen to have the MP3 from the album right here:

Dinosaur Jr. -- "Almost Ready" -- Beyond
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>> Speaking of rock originating from Western Massachusetts, word from futuristic rockers Mobius Band is that the band finished mixing a forthcoming new record Sunday night. The trio plans to master the record next week. No word on a title, release date or label, but we'll try to contact the chaps and extract some information from them sometime soon. After releasing several EPs, Mobius Band issued its debut full-length The Loving Sounds Of Static on Ghostly International in 2005. Prior to that the band issued the City Vs. Country EP on Ghostly. The band released a version of the EP's title track through its site or MySpace that is slightly different from the one that ended up on the official release. The tune has a few of those classic world-weary Mobius Band lyrics, and it has been the highlight of more than one of the many shows we've seen the band play. Check it out:

Mobius Band -- "City Vs. Country" -- Website Download
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>> Pun Canoes reports here that the reissue of ska-core heroes Operation Ivy's Energy we reported about here last month has been delayed. The set was to have been issued today on Rancid Records; the new release date is July 10. As one commenter at PunkNews quipped, "chicks who carried lunchboxes as purses and wore babydoll dresses with doc martens in the early 90s, and who are now mid-30s bored housewives are stoked." Well, we're stoked, too, since this gives us a reason to actually buy a proper version of the CD for the first time.

>> Pitchfork reported here yesterday that the Ian Curtis bio-pic "Control" will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival May 17. Can't wait to see this one -- the book upon which it was based, Deborah Curtis' "Touching From A Distance," was really very interesting. Not surprisingly, Joy Division Central -- which is pretty much the end-all, be-all on the Internet as far as the band is concerned -- has more information. The site states that the film will likely be released in the U.K. in September. OK, that wasn't a lot more information. But it's something.

>> Three Imaginary Girls reports here that the sophomore full-length from Canadian indie luminaries Wolf Parade won't be released until the first half of 2008. The information is attributed to Sub Pop, so we imagine they'll be releasing the record as they did the debut.

>> Here's a hot news tip that just slid under the wire: the new Karl Hendricks Trio record we mentioned here last August? It's finally out. We're tracking down more information and hope to get a review copy in the near future. Watch this space. Well, not this space, but a space that will look a lot like this one.