Well, this sounds amazing. On May 10, the Anti- label — ever stalwart, ever true — will release The Road From Memphis, the new record from Booker T Jones, whose past work you may be somewhat familiar with. Here’s why this record could potentially be incredible.

1. It’s produced by ?uestlove, who is pretty much one of the best people in the universe. My life goal as a writer is to be involved in a three-way conversation with ?uestlove and James Murphy about records. That’s a 5,000 word piece waiting to happen. Just thinking about that conversation makes me excited. ?uest is also a genius at the late-career revival. If you haven’t heard the record he made with Al Green, you need to change that immediately.

2. It was recorded by Gabe Roth, who you may know as the co-owner of Daptone Records and the mastermind behind their amazing records.

3. It was co-produced by Rob Schnapf, who’s no slouch either.

4. It features Jim James and Lou Reed.

5. It features Matt Berninger from the National and Sharon Jones…ON THE SAME SONG. So let’s all take a minute to speculate on what that‘s gonna sound like.

Sometimes I feel like the world is just the internet, only bigger.

I’ve always had a soft spot for this band, I’m not gonna lie, but even I was kind of alarmed — in a good way — at how metal this first single is. Other bonuses: the album was produced by Butch Vig, and a few songs have Krist Novoselic on bass. Which, you know, is kind of significant. As with all things Foo Fighters, this video is tongue-in-cheek and a whole lot of fun. Or maybe I’m crazy. Tell me so in the comments.

Hey! Look who it is! Fleet Foxes! Back to claim the smooth, soothing folk pastures that are rightly theirs, the Foxes return on May 3rd with their sophomore full-length, a record that finds them making a hard about-face and incorporating elements of rave, neo-Goth and Madchester into their sound. Just kidding! If the below title track is any indication, Helplessness Blues will be just as lovely and pastoral as its predecessor. Get your first listen below.

Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues by subpop

Though he’s occasionally broken through to achieve a level of national consciousness (like, for example, that 2003 Grammy win), Raphael Saadiq has mostly avoided the limelight since his early years in Tony! Toni! Toné!, instead racking up a string of impressive collaborators while going about the business of making consistently impressive, smoky throwback R&B records — the kind of music that would fall squarely in line with the stellar Daptone roster, or that John Legend & the Roots record. In 2009 he released the excellent The Way I See It, the leadoff track of which, “Sure Hope You Mean It,” is the best Smokey Robinson & the Miracles song we’ve heard in quite some time.

In March, he’ll release his fifth record, Still Rollin’, and if its first single, “Good Man” is any indication, he’s not changing direction any time soon. Boasting simmering strings, aching female backing vocals and Saadiq’s own gorgeous tenor, the song is a slow-smoldering ode to love done wrong, and how the good guys are generally the first to get burned. You can hear it, and a few others from the new record, on Saadiq’s Facebook Page today. And while we’re generally unenthused about sending out readers to Facebook widgets to hear music (because, you know, it’s not 1987), in this case, it’s worth it.

Chevaux Fous from m m on Vimeo.

First things first: one of our favorite destinations to get the early word on breaking bands is the excellent blog Raven Sings the Blues. His taste is impeccable, and the sheer volume of great music he unearths on a daily basis is humbling.

He’s also great at finding oddball bands operating on their own plane of consciousness. To wit: Lumerians, who will release a full length on Knitting Factory Records in March. I’ll be honest with you: I’m not fully sure what the hell is going on in this video. All I can tell you is that it’s an Osmonds cover, and that their getups remind me of this dude from Disney’s underrated horror film The Black Hole. Psych rock, man. What are they feeding these kids?