Communist Daughter is back July 10 with “Lions and Lambs,” a 6-track EP that a press release says is “a collection of deeply personal songs about addiction, regret and redemption.”

It’s no exaggeration to say “Lions and Lambs” has vaulted to the top of our list of the most anticipated releases of the summer.

Photo by Stephanie Colgan

In other words, Turbonegro is back. The Norwegian dirtbag rockers return June 13 with “Sexual Harassment,” their first album since 2007′s “Retox” and first without former singer Hank von Helvete, who displayed a knack for over-the-top homoeroticism in his lyrics and his antics on stage.

New singer Tony Sylvester, known to his friends as the Duke of Nothing, seems to have picked up where the newly sober von Helvete left off, judging by first single “You Give Me Worms.” It’s a loud, scuzzy mix of hard rock and punk that, like all of Turbonegro’s best stuff (“Don’t Say Motherfucker, Motherfucker,” “Just Flesh” and so on), revels in a certain gutter-level debauchery. Welcome back, you reprobates.

LISTEN
Turbonegro — “You Give Me Worms”

The alt-country band, formed in 1997, managed two LPs and an EP before the musicians went their separate ways in 2002, doing things like playing in other bands (including Interpol and Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti), earning degrees and working for IKEA’s environmental recovery division. No, really.

But seemingly no split is permanent anymore, and a version of Beachwood Sparks reunited in 2008 to play Sub Pop’s 20th anniversary party. That went well enough that the seminal lineup — singer/guitarist Christopher Gunst, singer/bassist Brent Rademaker, singer/multi-instrumentalist Farmer Dave Scher and drummer Aaron Sperske — figured they might as well make a new album, with help from auxiliary members Neal Casal, Jimi Hey, Dan Horne and Jen Cohen.

The band admirably recaptured the hazy, laid-back vibe of its earlier records, judging by free song “Forget the Song,” which is full of low-key vocal harmonies and swells of pedal guitar. Check it out:

The song comes from the trio’s chaotic self-titled debut, and the video was shot in the style of one of those late-’60s acid-trip videos: it’s gritty, washed out and totally awesome.

Curiously, “Uncle Bad Touch” is available on vinyl now via Infinity Cat Recordings, with a digital release coming soon.

It’s as true now as it was then, judging by the first single from Sea of Bees’ second album. At its core, “Broke” is a compact indie-rock tune, anchored by acoustic guitar and adorned with punchy, overdriven guitar, swooping electronic effects and riveting double-tracked vocals.

As she did on the first album, Baenziger played most of the instruments herself, though we’ll have to wait entirely too long to hear the rest: “Orangefarben” isn’t due until May 1 on Team Love.

“Norfolk and Western has been dormant for a couple of years now,” singer Adam Selzer writes in a newsletter sent out early Friday morning. “I honestly don’t know if we’ll record or play anymore shows in the future but I guess I’m not ready to say never.”

Seems the various members of the band are busy with other projects: Selzer is now part of the Alialujah Choir, which releases its self-titled debut Feb. 14. Drummer/singer/multi-instrumentalist Rachel Blumberg is focusing on visual art, and recording music under the name Arch Cape, and bassist Dave Depper has been playing in other bands, including the Fruit Bats, and, for some reason, doing a complete re-creation of Paul McCartney’s album “Ram.”

Anyway, though Norfolk and Western has no plans to release any new music, there’s plenty of old music to enjoy. The band’s 2009 release, “Dinero Severo,” is available here on LP and CD. “The Unsung Colony,” “A Gilded Age” and “Dusk in Cold Parlours” are available here on CD, and you can grab the first two here on vinyl.

First, if we’d known whiskey farmer was a job, we never would have started with this writing bullshit. Second, holy crap, these guys are good.

Frontman James Low has vowed to make a video for each of the eight songs on the album, which he describes as the story of a guy who has “always done things kind of right — did OK in school, went to a generic college, racked up a shitload of debt and got a job to pay off the debt. He drinks to forget. He alienates the ones who love him best, and just cannot believe that this is all there is to life.”

Cheerful? Not so much. Beautifully wrought and desperately heartbreaking? Yes, and yes, thanks to Low’s steady voice on wearily resigned lyrics, over dusty, Western-style accompaniment from the rest of the band. “Thinkin’ California,” the fourth song, gets the first video, and it’s, well, it’s perfect.

‘Thinking California’ from James Low on Vimeo.

The first video

The group has not been idle since then. In addition to opening for Twin Sister and Gold Panda, the fivesome found time to record “Pet Storms, Ancient Clouds,” a 6-song EP due Dec. 5. Morning Claws is streaming “Fight for Your Friends,” a song less electro than flat-out epic, with a towering column of swirling electric guitar, atmospheric keyboards and downbeat male-female vocals. It’s a huge-sounding tune, fit to be heard in vast spaces.

If you happen to be in Belfast, you can score a copy of the EP Dec. 1 when Morning Claws peforms at the Menagerie. Otherwise, well, Dec. 5 isn’t so far off.

LISTEN
Fight For Your Friends by morningclaws

While Farrar plans to include some of the new Guthrie songs on a solo-acoustic West Coast tour starting today in Bellingham, Wa., the foursome will debut as a group Jan. 25, 2012, at Celtic Connections in Glasgow.

The album is due Feb. 28 on Rounder to help mark the centennial anniversary of Guthrie’s birth, though there’s no word yet on a title or track list. UPDATE: Rounder announced Jan. 4 that the album is called “New Multitudes.”

There is a little bit of a weirdness factor here, in that Farrar’s ex-Uncle Tupelo mate Jeff Tweedy already recorded two albums of Guthrie songs: the “Mermaid Avenue” volumes that Tweedy’s band Wilco released with Billy Bragg in 1998 and 2000.

All the same, the Guthrie project fits squarely into the Americana framework Farrar has worked in for more than 20 years, from the Carter Family title track to Uncle Tupelo’s debut “No Depression” to collaborating in 2009 with Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard on “One Fast Move or I’m Gone,” an album of songs built around text from Jack Kerouac’s “Big Sur.”

Farrar’s West Coast tour itinerary is here. Here’s the track listing for “New Multitudes”:

1. Hoping Machine
2. Fly High
3. My Revolutionary Mind
4. VD City
5. Old L.A.
6. Talking Empty Bed Blues
7. Chorine
8. Careless Reckless Love
9. Angel’s Blues
10. No Fear
11. Changing World
12. New Multitudes

Photo by Spring Waugh

We’ve already posted a song from the album, which has been pushed back to November. We can only assume Beck’s people have already been in touch with Jeff Beck.