The new EP from Animal Collective, The Painters, has just been released digitally by Domino. The band will tour North America in May … Los Campesinos! has announced the February 24 release of sixth album Sick Scenes via Wichita … New Miserable Experience, the 1992 debut album by Gin Blossoms, turns 25 this year. UMe will honor the occasion March 24 with a vinyl reissue along with the band’s 1996 release Congratulations, I’m Sorry … Modern Harmonic will issue an album of unreleased Sun Ra music 50 years after its recording, Thunder Of The Gods, on April 7 … Also on April 7, Fujiya & Miyagi will issue a self-titled LP on Impossible Objects Of Desire … The 1977 Cornell performance by Grateful Dead will be available as an official release for the first time in honor of its 40th anniversary on May 5. May 1977: Get Shown The Light is an 11-disc boxed set containing the legendary concert, as well as three other previously unreleased performances … John Lee Hooker’s 100th birthday year celebration will begin March 31 with the release of a multi-label compilation album, Whiskey And Wimmen: John Lee Hooker’s Finest, via Vee-Jay … I Can Feel The Night Around Me is the new album from Nightlands, the project of the War On Drugs’ Dave Hartley, will be available from Western Vinyl on May 5 … The Company label will issue the new Chaz Bundick + the Mattson 2 album, Star Stuff, on March 31 … March 3 will see the release of Ed Sheeran’s “÷” (pronounced “divide”) via Atlantic … The debut full-length by R.Ring (featuring the Breeders’ Kelley Deal and Ampline’s Mike Montgomery), Ignite The Rest, is due out from Sofaburn on April 28 … Beans, founding member of Anti-Pop Consortium, will return after a five-year hiatus with three albums and a 226-page book. All three albums—Wolves Of The World, Love Me Tonight and HAAST—are set for a March 31 release via his own Tiger Rawwk label … Delusions Of Grandeur, the latest LP from the Upper Crust, will be available April 7 … Fire will issue a four-LP boxed set featuring the work of Pere Ubu, Drive, He Said 1994-2002, on March 10.
—Emily Costantino