Music

In anticipation of The Black and White Album, The Hives — the self-proclaimed “greatest band in the world,” who also claim to be “your new favorite band” — did not record a new disc and then head out on tour in a display of humility.

In choosing a moniker suggesting frailty and vulnerability, Glasgow’s Frightened Rabbit may open themselves to misguided speculation about being “twee” or something far less exciting. Their sound may not be as beastly as countrymen Mogwai, but these upstart Scotsmen are more Bugs Bunny than whimpering hare.

It’s round two for Austin-based stoner metal band The Sword, as the foursome announces the release of their second album with Kemado Records. The still unnamed disc arrives early in 2008 and follows a nationwide tour in December.

The good news and the bad news is that 100 Days, 100 Nights sounds just like any other Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings record. If you’re looking for a change of pace, some hint of modernization or innovation, you’re out of luck.

With a swell of warm strings and warbling woodwinds, the Hollywood Bowl reverberated with the familiar — too familiar — strains of Bright Eyes’ “Hot Knives” on Saturday. Staggering and enrapturing, yes, but the indie folk band’s collaboration with the Los Angeles Philharmonic echoed their latest album, Cassadaga, with frustratingly rigid precision.

Sir Richard Bishop doesn’t write music so much as he channels it, intrinsically arranging pieces with slapdash whimsy. Hence the eleven works that make up his aptly titled Drag City debut, Polytheistic Fragments, are more like thoughts and feelings than songs.

Just a few weeks in advance of Halloween, post-jazz/electro-rock luminaries Tortoise will be preparing something special for their home town of Chicago: an aural accompaniment to Nosferatu, F.W. Murnau’s famous and unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

After a seven-year respite from solo albums, the iconic sounds of rapper extraordinaire Del the Funky Homosapien are returning. The founding member of Hieroglyphics is breaking his silence with a new full-length, titled The Eleventh Hour, set for release with Definitive Jux in early 2008 and following a collaborative tour headed by Del himself.

Good news if you live in or around Chicago: Shellac will play six shows in four nights at The Hideout in December. Since the band’s last album, Excellent Italian Greyhound, the metallic-toned minimalist trio is sticking to its usual routine of casual and relaxed touring.

Sam Beam is a powerful and poetic songwriter who benefited greatly from the stripped down, simple production of his early recordings. His words and music could stand on their own, without the need for artifice or embellishment.

Though its name is now substantially less appropriate, instrumental rock outfit Dub Trio have prepared significantly heavier material for Another Sound is Dying, the group’s third effort and first for new home Ipecac Recordings.