Perhaps following The Hold Steady approach to fighting leaks, and perhaps to take advantage of a relative dry period in album releases, Deerhunter has put their third album, Microcastle, on iTunes well before the album's scheduled October 28 release date. It looks like the piracy angle is more likely, as Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox has been running into numerous problems with leaks accessed from his public MediaShare folder.

The folder included demo tracks from both the rumored Microcastles bonus disc Weird Era Cont. and the second Atlas Sound album, Logos. The Atlas Sound material was much rawer, and according to Gorilla vs. Bear, Cox has decided to scrap the material entirely, saying, "fuck this shit. I can just make another album. It's not finished and now it never will be."  [Pitchfork]

[Download Deerhunter's Microcastles here]