Smashing Pumpkins' plans to release their long-discussed album Oceania on June 19 seem a bit firmer. Tracklist and artwork can be found here.

Paramore just entered the studio to start work on their first album since the Farro brothers (guitarist Josh and drummer Zac) quit the band. Singer Hayley Williams reports there's no timetable, and the set my not see release until 2013.

The Offspring will release their next album Days Go By on June 26. You can hear the title track below. The song is more rock than punk, and reminds me of Foo Fighters' "Times Like These." What do you think of it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON1clZqmRUs

Damon Albarn disputes previous reports that his two highest profile projects Blur and Gorillaz are not over but merely inactive. Stereogum reports:

Albarn calls the Guardian interview “an interesting take on a very long conversation.” He’d said that Blur had no future planned out after their show in London’s Hyde Park this August, but he tells Metro, “I don’t know how we’ll feel when we play Hyde Park [for the Summer Olympics in London]. Some days I feel one way and other days I feel the other. If you don’t see something as a career but as an important part of your life, you don’t know how you’re going to feel about it. We want to put on a great performance, but nothing’s been said between us about the beginning or the end.”

As for Gorillaz, a group that seemed doomed because of some beef between Albarn and co-creator Jamie Hewlett, Albarn says, “When Jamie [Hewlett] and I have worked out our differences, I’m sure we’ll make another record… We’ve been through too much together for it to be that big of a mountain to climb. We’ve just fallen out like mates do sometimes. I’m not the only person to fall out with mates and then make up again — everyone does it.”