Another week, another Mercury music section. This week is supersized—there is a LOT going on this week—and the theme is La, La, La, He, He, Hee. (You can Google that if you need to.)
Prince is coming! Prince is coming. Prince... is coming? Prince is coming! PRINCE. IS. COMING.

The Thermals have a new album! It's about killing. (Note: The Thermals did not actually kill anybody during the making of this record. That they told us about.)

LISTEN: The Thermals - "The Sunset"
Bat for Lashes makes spooky music that's just flat-out great. Get ready to be haunted.

LISTEN: Bat for Lashes - "All Your Gold"
Speaking of great, the Veils—good lord, there are a lot of good shows this week—are exactly that. They're just great great great. And really dreamy, too... ahem, sorry, what were we talking about?

LISTEN: The Veils - "Through the Deep, Dark Wood"
Telekinesis' Michael Lerner joins the ranks of singing drummers including Micky Dolenz, Phil Collins, Don Henley, Andy Sturmer, and that guy from the Barbarians who had a hook for a hand.

LISTEN: Telekinesis - "Ghosts and Creatures"
Filthy gay bear rapper Big Dipper wants to fist you. (If this teaser doesn't grab you, nothing will.)

LISTEN: Big Dipper w/Rica Shay - "Summertime Realness"
Ryan J. Prado wrote something a teensy bit critical about Tera Melos a few years back, and the fans called him a piece of "human garbage-shit." Tera Melos have a great new album. So what's Ryan gonna say about them now?

LISTEN: Tera Melos - "Tropic Lame"
You will have noticed this is a ridiculously overstuffed music section, but there is so much going on this week that we didn't even have room in the paper for one of this week's biggest stories: Sparks is playing Portland, and if you know Sparks, you are hyperventilating. We have a complete Q&A with Sparks' Russell Mael—read it here!

LISTEN: Sparks - "The Number One Song in Heaven [live]"
Plus the usual batch of Up & Coming shows.