The Hawthorne-hailing psychedelically inclined indie-pop outfit known as Dios has just announced the due date of its third LP (and first in 5 years), We Are Dios. Due out February 16 on the recently revived Buddyhead label, the album is currently tracklist-less but a cryptic announcement explains its content in these terms:

THE dios EQUATION: dios do not sing about cars, surfing, and/or high school.

+ dios sing about ridiculousness, illicit substances, and going crazy. CONCLUSION = dios resemble the Beach Boys of Smile, not “Fun, Fun, Fun.”

Both bands hail from the same Southland town, and each, in its own time, has demonstrated a certain affinity for blowing minds oh-so-sweetly, but that doesn't do much to explain what we'll actually hear when February rolls around. Luckily, streams, MP3s and videos abound.

What began as a quick news blurb about a pending release quickly evolved into an exhaustive excavation of all things free and Dios that have happened over the last few months. Fans and frequenters of the Buddyhead site may already be up-to-date, but noobs will find a smörgåsbord of goodies below.

First up, the just-released video for “I Feel Finite,” a strange, low-budg, effects-laden thing that is, nonetheless, fairly awesome, while the song itself seems to split the difference between Mellow Gold Beck and Modern Guilt Beck (this, also, is awesome).

Shortly before that, Buddyhead released Dios' Fourth Quarter Single, two gratis MP3s (including “I Feel Finite”) and apparently the first of a series because “basically Dios write and record so many songs that from now on they'll be giving away a couple songs for free every month to their fans.” Here are those:

Dios – “I Feel Finite” [MP3]

Dios – “Puttin It Down” [MP3]

And then there's all the rest of this. It's not clear which songs will end up on We Are Dios — nor why the group is legally able to return to its original name after it was changed to Dios (Malos) following fightin' words from Ronnie James Dio — but it's safe to assume that some of these sounds (and/or these) will be resurfacing on the LP proper.

Another no-strings freebie:

Dios – “Epileptic Tunnel Visions” [MP3]

The next two are retrievable after you fork over your email addie.

And then there's July's Cosmic Rays EP — completely streamable.

Whew.

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