Los Angeles noise band HEALTH are set to release their sophomore album, Get Color, September 8. The nine song album comes to fans via Lovepump United and includes the recently released single “Die Slow.”

The boys have a short run of dates this summer, including Toronto, Brooklyn and the Sled Island, Pukkelpop and Lowlands festivals. We can’t guarantee they’ll hit the road again with Nine Inch Nails, but a tour to support the brand spankin’ new music will surely follow.

Good thing the band wasn’t born in another era. They’re doing just fine in the here and now.

Let’s all take a moment to channel our bitchiest inner diva. Got her? Good. It’s time for Flashion Forward! Each week we pluck a recently added interview from our warehouse of current clips and try to read between the artist’s sartorial lines. Today, we’re giving Ed Harcourt the squinty-eyed treatment.

But blithely skimming the sartorial surface with singer-song writer Harcourt is kind of like paging through the New Yorker for fashion tips. It just can’t be done. He’s played with R.E.M., Patti Smith, Marianne Faithful, Erik Truffaz and Feist. His music’s orchestral, electro-poptastic, dramatic and according to many critics, “genius.”

But his impressive, dark, soul-searching oeuvre is handily matched with his impressive, dark, soul-searching gaze, Byron-esque otherworldly aspect and penchant for wearing funereal suits.

Harcourt discusses the creative process that went into one of his lighter ditties, “Beneath the Heart of Darkness.” “Beneath the heart of darkness/Lies an old machine that’s reeling/Forgotten dust and sunlight/Silent and removed from feeling/The peace in my mind is drowning, fading down/There’s nothing left burning, it’s all out.” It makes my brain hurt and my heart heavy. Apparently, watching Francis Ford Coppola’s epic war tour de force Apocalypse Now inspired him to read Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness, which in turn prompted him to pen “Beneath the Heart of Darkness.”

Heavy, man. Heavy.

If you’re in denial that it’s actually semi-summer in most parts of the northern hemisphere, perhaps one thing will prove it: official festival season is here. There’s guaranteed to be at least one going down every week from here on out, from little street fairs going on down the block to blockbusters charging $12 for a beer.

The latest is Chicago’s Pitchfork, to be held July 17-19. Hitting the stage are Flaming Lips, Built to Spill, the National, Grizzly Bear, M83, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Yeasayer, Thermals, Final Fantasy, Bowerbirds and Cymbals Eat Guitars. Uncensored Interview artists in the lineup include Matt & Kim, Plants and Animals, The Mae Shi and Vivian Girls.

We also have to give the haterrific site props for creating a night where fans can vote to determine set lists from Built to Spill, The Jesus Lizard, Yo La Tengo and Tortoise. That’s right. Now you can geek out en masse!

But here’s one fest Plants and Animals hope they don’t play anytime soon.

After a five-year break and one tragic close call, Blink-182 are reuniting for an extensive summer tour. The band will play nearly 50 dates across the U.S., with Weezer and Fall Out Boy–headliners in their own right–as openers. Also along for the ride are Panic at the Disco, All-American Rejects, Taking Back Sunday, Asher Roth and Chester French.

Tickets range from $60-$20 and go on sale May 30. The guys kick things off July 24 in Las Vegas and criss-cross the U.S. to land in Altantic City, N.J. by October 3.

Many thought the band would never get back together after a nasty separation in 2005. Two groups formed from the split–+44 and Angels and Airwaves–and members subsequently addressed the rumors about each other in the press. But the plane crash drummer Travis Barker and DJ AM survived, coupled with the death of Blink producer Jerry Finn, brought the boys back together.

After the tour, the band has plans to hit the studio to record a new album. And if you’re the type who takes none of the aformentioned bands seriously or, conversely, you feel a tinge of guilty pleasure for reading this far, you’re in great company.

Get out your broom ’cause we’re busting through the dust bunnies today with Flashion Backward, a feature that’s the spiritual cousin of Flashion Forward. Here, we rifle through our treasure trove of interviews to fish out a vintage gem–the better to explore the strange vortex in which fashion and musicians meet. Ah, spring cleaning; what gleaming, fresh gem have you wrought today?

The Dirtbombs are old-timey (they’ve been playing together for 15 years) Motor City rockers known and loved for seamlessly blending a motley crew of sounds, from punk to glam rock to soul. They’ve got a changing cast of characters (a who’s who of scene rock, from Jim Diamond to Ko Melina) and know how to shock the hell out of cynical music critics.

And really, these guys are about as chill as you can get (how many aggressively scruff-ified bands would include what appears to be the world’s most adorable and Lilliputian stuffed animal in a publicity shot)? Also, it must be noted that their current diverse lineup (ethnicities, hair colors, various gradations of facial hair cultivation, wildly divergent degrees of fashion flair and genders) are all equally represented. It’s a breath of fresh air in the all-too-often boring ass black and white world of music. Just don’t call their music garage rock, mkay?

And while I’m confident the ’Bombs haven’t let all of their snazzy success go their heads, they do seem to garner an unusual degree of joy in pretending they’re the Second Coming. (To be fair, blondie does kinda look like J.C.). Check out their debate over the merits of the various Commandments, and which one they’d 86 if, you know, they were God.

Ciara tweeted about it first, claiming the deets had already been leaked, and now Hova’s people have confirmed the news: Jay-Z is hitting the road in July for a series of shows across the U.S. Jay will have a full backing band and Ciara will open. Though the full official dates have not yet been confirmed, Jay-Z and crew will have stops in Las Vegas, Chicago, Connecticut and Atlanta.

And should the Marcy son ever need a one-man band for live shows, we can put him in touch with multi-instrumentalist and producer Cassettes Won’t Listen. Jason is an old-school hip-hop head well-versed in its many sampling possibilities. So maybe he can’t rhyme, but he knows Jay-Z is one of the few contemporary rappers truly holding it down.

Uncensored Interview is always finding cool new ways to interact with our favorite artists and the fans who love them. From funny video interviews to Twitter chatter on all the latest trending topics, we like to stay informed on all things music and hook our friends up with what we’ve learned. Now, we’re very proud to announce a new series of podcasts titled “Uncensored Discussions.”

Host Courtney Smith sits down with Miranda Lee Richards in our inaugural podcast to discuss one of Richards’ favorite topics: The Beatles. In this two-part series, you’ll learn first about The Beatles as a band, and later about John Lennon as a solo musician.

Singer-songwriter Richards has friends in all corners of the music world, including Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Jesus and Mary Chain and Tricky. Her debut, The Herethereafter, was a hit in the film and television world, and she has a new follow up, Light of X, that just came out in February.

Listen now to Richards and Smith swap thoughts and stories on The Fab Four.

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