Matt Amis reports:
After fighting the law, public indifference, and a serious neurobiological disorder (!), Australian Nirvana obsessives the Vines are on the comeback trail. The group is prepping for the release of Vision Valley, their third album, due out on April 4 via Capitol Records.
Decorated and unintelligible bastions of the 2002 "The" bands craze, the Vines were once Rolling Stone cover boys, but fell upon hard times by 2004, due mostly to frontman Craig Nicholls' erratic behavior, but also to the fact that their sophomore LP, Winning Days, sucked.
That year, Nicholls was handed assault charges after an onstage incident at Sydney's Annandale Hotel, which also led to bassist Patrick Matthews' exit from the band. Matthews is now a member of popular Alphaville cover band Youth Group.
As previously reported, Nicholls was later diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism which affected his judgment in social situations and his ability to cope with change.
But drummer Hamish Rosser and guitarist Ryan Griffiths stuck with Nicholls to record the stripped-down Vision Valley, which was recorded in Sydney with producer Wayne Connolly (of You Am I). "Don't Listen to the Radio" is the album's lead single and "Anysound" is expected to follow suit in May.
Tracks, mate:
01 Anysound
02 Nothins Comin
03 Dandy Daze
04 Vision Valley
05 Don't Listen to the Radio
06 Gross Out
07 Take Me Back
08 Going Gone
09 Fuk Yeh
10 Futuretarded
11 Dope Train
12 Atmos
13 Spaceship
Given Nicholls' condition, the band has no tour dates planned for the immediate future, and it's questionable whether they'll ever embark on a full-on tour again. But we all saw the footage of the autistic high school hoops player draining threes in Rochester. If the Vines can rock a crowd anything like that kid, they'll be back in business in no time.
Enjoy.
I suppose, but I actually think I like Winning Days and Highly Evolved equally 
for The Vines!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!