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It’s Wednesday, and that means it’s time for Nick Courtright’s weekly first glance at music discovered in the last seven days, whether it be just-released, just-leaked, or some long-lost gem that has remained under the radar. Click here for other recent editions of Hot Off the Press, featuring acts such as of Montreal, Vivian Girls, Bodies of Water, White Denim, Conor Oberst, The Walkmen, The Bug, Lackthereof, and Grizzly Bear.

Department of Eagles – In Ear Park
To be released October 7 on 4AD
Report Card: B-
It’s not hard to get excited about the potential behind Department of Eagles. After all, the band’s frontman is none other than Daniel Rossen, Grizzly Bear extraordinaire, and of late it’s seemed that anything Grizzly Bear touches turns to gold. And while the deeper-voiced Ed Droste is perhaps Grizzly Bear’s most recognizable member, Rossen is a big reason for the band’s Midas-touch, as he sings lead regularly, and got the ball rolling on the band’s assault on the most-anticipated-album lists with his stirring “While You Wait for the Others,” the first post-Yellow House track the band released. And if that wasn’t enough, Rossen’s cover of Jo Jo’s “Too Little Too Late,” a mostly terrible song in its original incarnation, kicks ass. So yeah, it’s easy to get excited about Department of Eagles, where presumably Rossen would be able to differentiate himself from his Bear brothers, not to mention giving the music world another class A release.