* Kent’s Beaten Awake, now a four piece consisting of Jon Finley (vocals, guitar, keys, drums), Ryan Brannon (drums, guitar, bass, keys), Tom Raichel (bass, keys), and Gabe Schray (baritone guitar), will be releasing their second full length, Thunder$troke, October 13th on Fat Possum Records. It was recorded at Arkon’s Audio Eagle Studios with Patrick Carney (of The Black Keys) and Jeff France and at Woolly Mammoth Studios with Tim Gerak (Six Parts Seven). The title track is streaming now at Myspace.

* In other local release news, this Friday night’s show at the Cleveland Matinee will double as a CD release show for local throwback rockers, The Suede Brothers, and the Scene’s DX Ferris has some rather nice things to say about their second album.

* Pitchfork recently interviewed Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson of Sunn O))), and it is a must read for fans of the heavy, heavy, slow, slow stuff.

* Speaking of Pitchfork, you can now see live videos from the 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival including The Thermals covering Green Day’s “Basket Case,” Fucked Up performing “Crusades,” and The Jesus Lizard’s “Nub.”

* I’ll be the first to admit that had Sufjan Stevens been the one to announce an album where all the tracks were named after bible verses, that I would have been calling bullsh*t on such a pretentious bullsh*t move, but, since it’s The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle whose new album, The Good News, which has the abundance of biblical references I’m more than willing to give it a listen, starting with “Genesis 3:23,” which is available now as a free download from the Mountain Goats website.

* The Arctic Monkeys, you know that one band from England that never quite caught on here like there, have a new album on the way with production help from Josh Homme of QOTSA, and a new video for the first single, “Crying Lightning.”

* Lastly, while I wouldn’t necessarily recommend downloading or purchasing the entire, two disc, Love and Rockets tribute, No New Tales to Tell, there are a couple tracks worth snagging from that comp — A Place to Bury Strangers’ shredding take on “The Light,” and the Flaming Lips’ wild remake of “Kundalini Express”