Already The Essex Green, Elf Power, and The Instruments have released albums this year, and if you're an Elephant 6 fan, you also have more Great Lakes, M Coast, Circulatory System, The Apples in Stereo, The American Revolution, Of Montreal, and Summer Hymns releases to look forward to. Chris Riser of Summer Hymns has posted an update on the progress of their new record at Townhall. Rather than summarize, I'll just quote:

"About half the new record is mixed. A few by David McConnell (Elliott Smith, Folk Implosion, etc.), and four so far by Marky Nevers (Lambchop, Will Oldham, Silver Jews, etc.) who also recorded and mixed Clemency, the last Summer Hymns full-length. Mmmm, they sound good. The last of the songs will be mixed on June 1-2, and the album will be mastered on June 5th for a fall release on Misra. We can't post finished mixes online, but we'll post some live versions of new stuff over the coming months on our MySpace page. And of course, you can always come hear the stuff live too - like on Friday, May 26th at the 40 Watt with The Low Lows (the new incarnation, sort of, I guess you could say, of Parker & Lily). It's gonna be a good one. We'll also be on the AthFest outdoor stage on Friday, June 23rd."

And Andy Gonzales of M Coast (formerly Marshmallow Coast, but now transformed by the substantial contributions of teammates Derek Almstead, Sara Kirkpatrick, and Emily Growden) has blogged on the band's MySpace page that their "newest and GREATEST record will be out in the fall, we are negotiating with a couple of labels to get the right support." You can listen to some of their new music on MySpace right now, or read our interviews with Andy and Derek for more information. Andy talks about M Coast and upcoming Marshmallow Coast reissues, and Derek chats about parting ways with Of Montreal and working on the new M Coast and Circulatory System albums.