These four are too cute. And I don’t mean that in the they’re too cute way you might squeal if you saw this, but that this feels dishonest. That little dude second from the left, dressed in his Dad’s clothes? There’s a good chance he’s done commercial work in Britain before, selling digital cameras or potato “crisps” and “biscuits” and laundry detergent. (Expect a YouTube follow-up on that soon.) That said, this all starts at the top. James Mercer: stop being cute.

Broken Bells’ debut LP, The High Road, is streaming in its entirety at NPR at the moment. It’s bedtime music.

If we were NYU film school grads, that headline would be an asshole thing to say. But we’re not! Just regular assholes! And director Sophie Muller should be jazzed to hear such a compliment: her clip for “The High Road,” the James Mercer/Danger Mouse collaboration’s first single, feels like it was modeled after a lot of the highway footage that bound Fargo and No Country For Old Men together. Just without the nun-tight dialogue and giant pools of blood.

A discussion in our offices arose about who would be putting out the Danger Mouse, Mark Linkous (of Sparklehorse) record Dark Night Of The Soul. Turns out no one is, and the packaging won’t even come with music.

A little digging led us to ask some friends at Waxploitation, who gave us the official low down. Specifically, that a spokesperson for Danger Mouse had this to say:

“Danger Mouse’s new project Dark Night Of The Soul consists of an album length piece of music by Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse and a host of guest vocalists, along with a collection of original David Lynch photography inspired by and based on the music.

The photographs, which provide a visual narrative for the music, are compiled in a limited edition, hand numbered 100+ page book which will now come with a blank, recordable CD-R. All copies will be clearly labeled: ‘For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.’

Due to an ongoing dispute with EMI, Danger Mouse is unable to release the recorded music for Dark Night Of The Soul without fear of being sued by EMI.

Danger Mouse remains hugely proud of Dark Night Of The Soul and hopes that people lucky enough to hear the music, by whatever means, are as excited by it as he is.”

This would explain both the packaging, and the fact it’s already starting to pop up on pirate sources. This is an exciting way to make your music available to the masses, yet another sad reminder that intellectual property is simultaneously highly coveted and disregarded so easily. Regardless of what you may think of the music, a record of this magnitude should not have to resort to strategic tactics to have a monetary value.

So after we posted the album details of the Danger Mouse / Mark Linkous collaboration with all those special guests, someone commented, “Google it. The damn thing is already on the pirate networks. So you do have another price-point: $0.” Lucky for our consciences we don’t need to steal it to hear it.

NPR has the album streaming in its entirety, and you can also hear the individual tracks for those of you with short attention spans. All you have to do is go here.

The first time we were tipped off to the Danger Mouse and Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse collaboration, it came via a poster. This time it’s coming from across the pond.

As we told you, Danger Mouse and Linkous have written a 13-song album called Dark Night Of The Soul that features, among others, David Lynch, The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas, Iggy Pop, Frank Black and The Flaming Lips‘ Wayne Coyne.

Now, as revealed to NME, the album has a full track listing, release date (or approximate at least) and some special packaging.

Dark Night Of The Soul will be released sometime in June and will come packaged with a book of David Lynch photographs to accompany the music. It will retail at £38.99 (so, like twice as much in the U.S.) and be limited to 5,000 copies. And get this — there are no plans to release the album as a legal download or on any other formats. We assume that means the physical release will be on wax (or better be).

An exhibition will run in the Los Angeles Michael Kohn Gallery from May 30, showcasing the photographs alongside the music. Danger Mouse is also producing Beck’s follow-up to his 2006 album The Information.

Dark Night Of The Soul track listing
01. Revenge (featuring The Flaming Lips)
02. Just War (featuring Gruff Rhys)
03. Jaykub (featuring Jason Lytle)
04. Little Girl (featuring Julian Casablancas)
05. Angel’s Harp (featuring Frank Black)
06. Pain (featuring Iggy Pop)
07. Star Eyes (I Can’t Catch It) (featuring David Lynch)
08. Everytime I’m With You (featuring Jason Lytle)
09. Insane Lullaby (featuring James Mercer of The Shins)
10. Daddy’s Gone (featuring Nina Persson)
11. The Man Who Played God (featuring Suzanne Vega)
12. Grim Augury (featuring Vic Chestnutt)
13. Dark Night Of The Soul (featuring David Lynch)

Former Grandaddy frontman Jason Lytle just won’t get off our radar lately — yesterday it was his collaboration with Explosions in the Sky, today it’s even more collaborations, tour dates and a solo album.

Lytle’s solo debut, Yours Truly, The Commuter, is set for release May 19. But why rest on your laurels, or your highly anticipated album? Lytle also recently contributed vocals to the forthcoming album Divided by Night by The Crystal Method (scheduled for release May 12), on the Dark Night of the Soul album, a collaboration between Danger Mouse and Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse and the critically acclaimed M. Ward album Hold Time.

And no busy musician’s schedule would be complete without a little love for the fans — Lytle will be heading on the road for a few days in June to support labelmate Neko Case.

06.04.09 – Seattle, Wash. (Paramount Theatre)
06.05.09 – Portland, Ore. (Crystal Ballroom)
06.07.09 – Eugene, Ore. (McDonald Theatre)
06.09.09 – San Francisco, Calif. (Warfield)
06.12.09 – Los Angeles, Calif. (Greek Theatre)

Gorillaz have released their new documentary, Bananaz, for free on Babelgum. The hour and a half documentary sheds a light of reality upon the cartoon band, and tracks the creative process behind the minds of Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett between 2000-2006.

The documentary follows the conceptualization behind Gorillaz, showing the formation of the band from the start of the very first drawings, music and animation behind the successful cartoon rockers. Giving fans insight behind the mysterious mentalities that created their favorite music, the documentary also features guest appearances from the likes of Danger Mouse, De la Soul and D12, who all aided Gorillaz in the creative process. Bananaz made it’s theatrical debut at the Berlin Film Festival, as well as showing at SxSW.

Along with the free stream, Babblegum has also launched a Gorillaz channel on their website. The new channel gives an even more in depth look at the band through footage of live concerts, as well as videos, games and exclusive clips.

The highly anticipated Gorillaz documentary Bananaz, set for a global online premiere April 20 through Babelgum, will be screened tonight at the New York Soho Apple Store followed by a Q & A session with director Ceri Levy.

If you can’t make it out tonight, you’ll have to wait ’til April — but take solace in the fact that you’ll be part of the first-ever global online film premiere. Internet TV platform Babelgum will host the film, which goes behind the scenes of the virtual cartoon band Gorillaz and into the real inner-workings of Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s creative process.

From the press release:
From 2000 to 2006 director Ceri Levy filmed alongside the creators behind the scenes, from first drawings, animations, music and the musicians, through to the faces behind the voices of Murdoc, 2D, Noodle and Russel Hobbs. Made with the spirit of collaboration and madness that is Gorillaz, Bananaz also has appearances from many of those who occasionally pass through this virtual band: Dennis Hopper, De la Soul, Ibrahim Ferrer, Dangermouse, Dan the Automator, D12, Bootie Brown and Neneh Cherry.

The film will receive a theatrical release following the online premiere, and has already achieved a bit of cult status after screenings at the 58th Berlin Film Festival, SXSW and Edinburgh.

Babelgum will also be launching a Gorillaz channel featuring live concerts, videos, games and exclusive Bananaz clips. In the meantime you can catch the trailer below and here.