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Ponys, Roky, Brightblack, Annuals to Play Noise Pop
Erase Errata, Comedians of Comedy, Dandy Warhols, Malajube, Lyrics Born also on lineup
For its 15th anniversary, San Francisco's Noise Pop festival is doing things big. The event has tacked an avalanche of new artists onto its roster since we last reported.
Lineup additions include the legendary Roky Erickson, the Ponys, Brightblack Morning Light, Annuals, Erase Errata, Comedians of Comedy, the Coup, the Dandy Warhols, Malajube, Langhorne Slim, Lyrics Born, So Many Dynamos, Matt & Kim, the Spinto Band, Trainwreck Riders, the Watson Twins, Damien Jurado, and more.
Sebadoh, Ted Leo/Pharmacists, John Vanderslice, Jolie Holland, Clinic, Will
Sheff (of Okkervil River), French Kicks, Josh Ritter, Macromantics, Richard Swift,
Autolux, Midlake, Earlimart, Vic Chesnutt, Ghostland Observatory, Pop Levi, and
Seawolf will also be there. But you know that already.
Noise Pop runs from February 27 to March 4 at clubs all over San Francisco.
The Swedish American Hall will also house the event's first-ever Noise Pop Expo, a panel/design fair/art installation/poster show scheduled for March 3-4.
Attendees can also look forward to the Noise Pop Film Festival as well, where they'll catch screenings of Who Is Harry Nilsson (and Why Is Everybody Talkin' at Him?), You're Gonna Miss Me (a Documentary about Roky Erickson), Sonic Youth: Sleeping Nights Awake, the David Kilgour documentary Far off Town: From Dunedin to Nashville, and more.
Toto, Spin Doctors, Marky Mark Sign on for Coachella
Internet to Indie Rock Community: "I cannot tell a lie."
Thanks to reader Russell Mills!
Jesus and Mary Chain to Play Coachella!
Man, fuck the Police! This is a reunion we can get behind.
It has just been confirmed that shoegaze gods the Jesus and Mary Chain (who don't even have a real website) will perform at this year's Coachella, joining Rage Against the Machine, Björk, Interpol, Jarvis Cocker, the Arcade Fire, and, like, every other cool band in the galaxy in Indio, California on April 27-29.
We know that the JAMC played Lollapalooza a million years ago, but the idea of these guys performing outside in the sunshine is still kinda weird to us.
Touch and Go Revisit Festival With Video Awesomeness
Chicago got the royal treatment when it came to indie-centric festivals last summer, with more beloved bands gracing our fair city's parks and parking lots than most two-bit hipsters-- and their paychecks-- could handle. But if you made just two festivals last year, hopefully this was one of them (and this was the other): Capping off the delirious festival season, the Touch and Go Records 25th anniversary bash-- held in early September in conjunction with the Hideout's 10th annual Block Party-- provided a hearty share of the summer's best rock memories: Scratch Acid reuniting for a ferocious performance, Big Black teasing us with an EP's worth of songs, Negative Approach whipping the kids into a frenzied whirlpool, the original Man or Astro-man? lineup launching us into the retro-cosmos, and current T&G acts like Calexico, Ted Leo, and CocoRosie serving up their best-- and the list goes on.
Since Touch and Go 50 is a little ways off, why not relive those memories from last September's bonanza in fancy video format? Beginning today and continuing for every Monday for the next 32 weeks or so, Touch and Go will post choice performance footage on their website from pretty much every single performer on the venerable label's festival roster. Today's installment serves as an overview/introduction, including some words from T&G founder Corey Rusk and the Hideout's Tim and Katie Nicholson Tuten, along with a medley of concert snippets-- and let us say, the footage looks fantastic. Tune in next week for Ted Leo, and come back each week to follow for new audio-visual surprises.
In case you missed them, do scope Touch and Go's festival photo gallery and Pitchfork's photo coverage. And don't worry-- while the label is looking back, they're still looking forward too: Ted Leo's previously reported Living With the Living goes live March 20, while CocoRosie's third LP, The Adventures of Ghosthorse & Stillborn, arrives April 10.
Jarvis, Lily, New Pornos, Ghostface Added to Coachella
Also the Rapture, the Good, Bad and the Queen, Peter Bjorn & John, Junior Boys, Sparklehorse, Tapes 'n Tapes, Girl Talk, Grizzly Bear
Just hours after announcing the initial lineup for the desert rock extravaganza known as the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (taking place April 27-29 at Empire Polo Field in Indio, California), organizers have revealed an explosion of further confirmations. And this is apparently just the "preliminary" lineup!
As previously reported, a reunited Rage Against the Machine will headline the festival's final night, April 29, while Björk will headline on Friday, April 27 and the Red Hot Chili Peppers on Saturday, April 28. The Arcade Fire, Interpol, Willie Nelson, the Roots, Manu Chao, the Decemberists, Arctic Monkeys, Sonic Youth, Air, a reunited Crowded House, Tiësto, and Kings of Leon are also playing.
It'll be a field day for Anglophiles, as a mess of Brit gods have just been added to the tally, including Jarvis Cocker, the Good, the Bad and the Queen, Lily Allen, Happy Mondays, Placebo, Hot Chip, Kaiser Chiefs, Travis, Klaxons, the Fratellis, the Kooks, Amy Winehouse, and the Feeling.
Also exciting: the New Pornographers, Ghostface Killah, Peter Bjorn & John, Junior Boys, Grizzly Bear, Girl Talk, Sparklehorse, Tapes 'n Tapes, the Rapture, DJ Shadow, Konono No. 1, LCD Soundsystem, Black Keys, Blonde Redhead, Peeping Tom, Rufus Wainwright, Explosions in the Sky, !!!, Lupe Fiasco, Stephen Marley feat Damien "Jr. Gong" Marley, Peaches, José González, Regina Spektor, CocoRosie, Cornelius, Pharoahe Monch, Roky Erickson, Soulwax, Tilly and the Wall, Andrew Bird, Gogol Bordello, Justice, MSTRKRFT, the Coup, CSS, Digitalism, Erol Alkan, Spank Rock, Tokyo Police Club, Felix Da Housecat, Richie Hawtin, Busdriver, and Brother Ali.
Plus: Faithless, Gotan Project, Paul Van Dyk, Nickel Creek, Damien Rice, Infected Mushroom, Benny Benassi, Jack's Mannequin, Julieta Venegas, Ozomatli, Amos Lee, Brazilian Girls, Fountains of Wayne, VNV Nation, Gillian Welch, the Frames, We Are Scientists, Yeva, Avett Brothers, Circa Survive, the Cribs, Evil Nine, Noisettes, Fields, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, DJ Heather, Mike Relm, Silversun Pickups, Nightwatchman, Bojones, Mika, Pop Levi, Anathallo, and Fair to Midland.
Whew!
Rage, Bjork, Arcade Fire to Play Coachella
Also: Interpol, Decemberists, Arctic Monkeys, Sonic Youth, Air, Roots
OK folks, stay calm. CALM LIKE A BOMB that is, because the only rap-rock band we actually remember (somewhat) fondly is back. That's right, as reported by the Los Angeles Times and confirmed by the festival's organizers, Rage Against the Machine will come out of retirement to play the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, taking place April 27-29 at Empire Polo Field in Indio, California.
Rage will headline the festival's final night, April 29, while Björk will headline on Friday, April 27 and the Red Hot Chili Peppers on Saturday, April 28. (Ugh Why do the Red Hot Chili Peppers always have to come around and ruin these sorts of things?)
Other awesome artists confirmed to play Coachella: the Arcade Fire, Interpol, Willie Nelson, the Roots, Manu Chao, the Decemberists, Arctic Monkeys, Sonic Youth, and Air. Other debatably awesome artists confirmed to play Coachella: Crowded House, Tiësto, and Kings of Leon.
And although the festival hasn't officially announced it yet, !!!, LCD Soundsystem, and Lupe Fiasco are also playing Coachella, as we've gathered from previous news stories.
Cat Power, Seu Jorge Become Works of Public Art
Chan performs at art "Happening"
My, Cat Power, how you've changed. Just a year ago you were breaking down at shows, mumbling, weeping, and skittering off stage prematurely. Now you're looking like the bee's knees on the cover of the latest Magnet, hawking Chanel, and projecting your likeness onto the sides of buildings! It's a new leaf, and we're all about it.Chan "Cat Power" Marshall joins musician/actor Seu Jorge and silver screen stars Tilda Swinton, Donald Sutherland, and Ryan Donowho as part of multimedia artist Doug Aitken's new installation piece sleepwalking. A large-scale video projection, sleepwalking graces an outside wall of New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) for a whole freaking month, "enlivening the building's architecture with the nocturnal journeys of five city dwellers" (thus spake the press release). Indeed, you can see it right now, or tomorrow afternoon, or anytime before February 20.
Aitken-- whose name you might recognize from videos for Interpol, Fatboy Slim, and Sponge(!)-- will host a museum "Happening" celebrating his piece on February 2, featuring a performance by Cat Power herself. The event is part of the MoMA and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center's PopRally series and also includes live music from street drummer/sleepwalking co-star Ryan Donowho (with Hishan Bharoocha), storytelling by Melissa Plaut, a public viewing of sleepwalking, and more surprises. Tickets go on sale January 22 and attendees even receive a swank poster designed by Chicago-based Bird Machine artist Mat Daly.
As previously reported, Cat Power plays both the Langerado Music Festival in March and the Dirty Three-curated All Tomorrow's Parties shindig in April. [MORE...]
Slint Rock Spiderland at Primavera Sound Festival
Joined by Modest Mouse, Low, Built to Spill, Grizzly Bear, Band of Horses, Dirty Three, more
Holy great mother of music festivals, do we have a lineup for you. Barcelona, Spain's Primavera Sound just announced the first round of performers for its 2007 event-- going down May 31 and June 1 and 2 at Barcelona, Spain's Parc Del Fòrum-- and it's enough to make a scrawny young hipster want to start swimming across the Atlantic Ocean right now.The bands here, chosen in conjunction with All Tomorrow's Parties (whose own Dirty Three- and fan-curated fests rock England in April and May), need no introduction: Slint, Modest Mouse, Built to Spill, Low, Grizzly Bear, Dirty Three, the Durutti Column, Isis, Band of Horses, Brightblack Morning Light, Death Vessel, Oakley Hall, and Pelican. Well okay, maybe the last four are a little lesser known, but regular Pitchfork readers should be all over that stuff.
Best of all: post-rock titans Slint will play their magnum opus, Spiderland, in its entirety. Slint! Spiderland! Exclamation points!!
And that is, as they say, but the tip of the iceberg: Primavera Sound intends to announce loads more acts in the weeks leading up to the festival.
Special thanks to Pop Muzik's Xavi Guasch for the tip-off.
Yo La Tengo, Walkmen, PB&J; Head Laneway Fest
Love Is All, Camera Obscura, Archie Bronson Outfit also scheduled to appear
Preparations for the St Jeromes Laneway Festival, scheduled to strike Melbourne, Australia on February 24 and 25, Brisbane on March 3, and Sydney on March 4, are in full swing. The two-weekend, three-city event recently finalized its lineup, and man, is it an indie pop bonanza.
Yo La Tengo, the Walkmen, Peter Bjorn & John, Camera Obscura, Love Is All, the Sleepy Jackson, Archie Bronson Outfit, Youth Group, Love of Diagrams, the Bellrays, Bumblebeez, and more are lined up for at least one Laneway stop each. Head here for the full roster.
Kanye, Gnarls, Girl Talk Take on Jackie Chan, China
Lupe Fiasco and Spank Rock vs. Supergirls
What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas most of the time, but not in the case of Fusion, which-- according to its website-- is a "funky and internationally fresh" concert event taking place February 13 and 14 at the Las Vegas Aladdin Hotel and Casino's Theatre of the Arts. Hunan TV will broadcast the event in mainland China with the purpose of getting "the biggest names in music from China and the United States [to] converge on one stage" in celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year (apparently "the world's most celebrated holiday").
The first night is dedicated to the Chinese artists, which include Jackie Chan (!), A-mei, Mayday, Zhang Zhen Yue, Shin Band, and SupergirlsTM. On the second night, Kanye West, Gnarls Barkley, Lupe Fiasco, Spank Rock, Girl Talk, Tigra, and Berko will take the stage.
Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse must be pumped to be part of an event "staged in the mythical world of legendary China [with] a spectacular blend of live music, dance, and dazzling special effects." Bets are being placed now as to what their costumes will be, and odds are four to one on a Mulan theme.
PB&J;, Patrick Wolf, 120 Days Head Dutch Fest
Also: Loney, Dear, Planningtorock, Digitalism, Magic Numbers, Poni Hoax, Ed Banger acts
There's never been a better time to discover Groningen, Holland than this coming weekend. For three days, beginning Thursday, January 11, the Dutch city that isn't Amsterdam or the Hague plays host to a pair of music events that should whet your whistle for all things European and up-and-coming.First up: EuroSonic, going down January 11 and 12, brings together an impressive crop of the latest and lamest (namely, Uffie) acts blowing up the old countries in the new millennium. For those two nights, venues across Groningen will play host to Swede-pop luminaries like Peter Bjorn and John, Loney, Dear, and Hello Saferide, dancefloor-divebombers like Digitalism, Datarock, Styrofoam, Lo-Fi-Fnk, and several Ed Banger cats (SebastiAn, Krazy Baldhead, the afore-dissed Uffie), and genre-benders like Patrick Wolf, Planningtorock, and Tunng.
Also of note: an orgy of UK buzz bands including the Magic Numbers, Hot Club de Paris, Duke Special, Humanzi, Larrikin Love, Shitdisco, and Young Knives, Finland's Islaja, France's Poni Hoax, UK folkie James Yorkston, Swedish songbird Anna Ternheim, and Norwegian studs 120 Days.
The evening after, January 13, 20-year tradition Noorderslag whips the locals into a frenzy over the hottest Dutch talent. These bands are so damn hot we haven't heard of a single one of them (that's a different Boris), but who knows, perhaps nestled amid 16 Bit Lolita's, Hospital Bombers, and De Nieuwe Vrolijkheid is the next Golden Earring.
Check out the complete artist list and venue info here.
Xiu Xiu, BARR, Grouper Get Artsy-Fartsy
As do Lucky Dragons, Woelv, This Song Is a Mess but So Am I
The lord above must have graced Xiu Xiu with an abnormally
large creativity gland, nestled somewhere in the base of Jamie Stewart's spine
("there's a buzz in my backside," see), because how the hell else do you
account for the trio's superhuman prolificacy of late? LPs, EPs, tours, Polaroids,
videos, photo books, and now-- Ches Smith drum-roll please-- art.
According to Xiu Xiu historian and archivist David Horvitz, the band contributes a "sound sculpture" to the Horvitz-curated art show "Is That All There Is to Fire?", running from February 24-March 31 at Los Angeles' High Energy Constructs space. The show, like many art shows before it, celebrates boredom-- only deliberately.
Ironically, this boredom-influenced showcase should be anything but. In addition to their sound sculpture, Xiu Xiu will perform live, as will Creepshow partner in crime Grouper, sing-talker BARR, Freddy Ruppert (aka noise terrorist This Song Is a Mess but So Am I), and trippy Californians Lucky Dragons. Geneviève Castrée, aka Woelv, aka Phil Elverum's French Canadian wifey, will contribute a vocal recording.
Art comes courtesy of folks like BARR's Brendan Fowler (who contributes a "text piece"), Uta Barth, Krysten Cunningham, Ken Ehrlich, Zack Houston, Brandon Lattu, Lindsay Ljungkull, John Sisley, Mia Nolting, Miya Osaki, Mylinh Trieu, and Horvitz himself. Barth, Ehrlich, and Horvitz share writings on boredom as well, as do Linda Theung and Lia Trinka-Browner.
Horvitz is still looking for donations and sponsors for "Is That All There Is to Fire?", so if this sounds like something you'd like to be a part of, drop him a line or a few grand at the link here.
Ponys, Flosstradamus, Bound Stems Rock Schubas Fest
Also: French Kicks, Dirty on Purpose, Dr. Dog, Benjy Ferree, Headlights, All Smiles
So traditionally this chilly time of year brings blanket
upon blanket of dirty snow to smother Chicago's right-angled streets, but this
particular January-- whether due to global warming, the atmosphere's whimsy, or
Mayor Daley paying off Mother Nature-- we Chicagoans are puzzlingly drenched in
rain.
That doesn't, however, make the impetus behind Schubas' latest annual Tomorrow Never Knows festival any less valid. Easily one of Chicago's finest intimate live venues-- and now refreshingly smoke-free-- Schubas put the fest together again this year to celebrate choice acts from afar alongside the brightest local talent for five nights of rock-away-your- winter-woes goodness.
Leading the charge for the 2007 fest, which kicks off January 10, are local heroes the Ponys (who just signed to Matador and have a new LP on the way March 20), DJ phenoms Flosstradamus (who whipped up an afternoon dance party at the Pitchfork Music Festival) and Bound Stems (whose "Western Biographic" made Pitchfork's Infinite Mixtape). Other highlights include New York stalwarts French Kicks, Domino-signed DC dude Benjy Ferree, Philly blues rockers Dr. Dog, New York dream-poppers Dirty on Purpose, Polyvinyl pop-dreamers Headlights, ex-Granddaddy guy Jim Fairchild's All Smiles, and Indiana-spawned orchestral mopers Margot & the Nuclear So and So's.
Chicago acts on the rise like Office, Mucca Pazza, Skybox, and a pair of M's side projects (Brooklyn Bridegrooms and Sano) round out the action-packed bills while the Second City's top crop DJs (including Flosstradamus) work the decks at after-parties. Those with insatiable rock appetites can even check out several all-ages afternoon events featuring performers from Paul Green's Chicago branch of the School of Rock Music, an actual school of, you guessed it, rock music.
Get yr tickets here and check yr umbrellas at the door. [MORE...]
Modest Mouse, Shellac, Books Join Fan-Curated ATP
In the greatest fight of summer 2007, it's looking like everybody's a winner. As previously reported, All Tomorrow's Parties' May fiesta boasts the knock-down, drag-out matchup of ATP Versus You (the Fans). Half of the festival's lineup is being curated by attendees, using a handy online voting system. The other half is chosen by All Tomorrow's Parties themselves.
So far, the bill is pretty great. Modest Mouse, Shellac, the Books, Apples in Stereo, Micah P. Hinson, and Youth Movie Soundtrack Strategies have been added to the previously announced squad of Built to Spill, the Notwist, Sparklehorse, Echo & the Bunnymen, Akron/Family, Do Make Say Think, Brightblack Morning Light, and Death Vessel.
As we type,
Pavement, Björk, Interpol, the Shins, Mogwai, Sonic Youth, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, PJ Harvey, Iron & Wine, and Belle and Sebastian head up the fans' wishlist. The Shins, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Sonic Youth, and Pavement (duh) are all unavailable, as are the Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, Ween, and Silver Jews.
ATP Versus You (the Fans) runs from May
18-20 at Butlins Minehead in Somerset, England.
Meanwhile, the curating of the
first ATP of the year, which takes place at the same venue from April 27-29, remains in the gnarled hands of the Dirty Three. Newly
revealed artists for that festival include Joanna Newsom and White Magic, in addition to previously reported performers Cat Power, Bill Callahan, Spiritualized, Low, Nick Cave and Grinderman, and many more.
Stooges, Interpol, Bloc Party, Lily Allen Play SXSW
Matt & Kim, Cold War Kids, the Watson Twins also on board
Struggling to find vacancy
at a convenient Austin hotel for South by
Southwest 07? It's no wonder. Tucked away in a handy brochure offering hotel information on the festival's
website is the fest's star-studded initial lineup.
The Stooges, Interpol, Bloc Party, Lily Allen, Matt & Kim, the Watson Twins, Cold War Kids, Devin the Dude, Hoodoo Gurus, Ghostland Observatory, Stax 50th Anniversary Soul Review, Ozomatli, and Turbonegro are slated to play the music portion of the mega-event, which runs from March 14-18 (the full extravaganza, including film and "interactive" festivals, runs from March 9-18). As previously reported, Under Byen are also scheduled to perform.
Following the announcement is a line of small italic text reading, "everything subject to change," and while we hope nothing changes, we're letting you know anyway.
In addition, Pete Townshend will appear as the keynote speaker for SXSW's Music Conference. Following the keynote, which takes place on March 14, Townshend and "Attic Jam" partner Rachel Fuller will put on a March 15 show featuring some special guests. Other SXSW speakers and interviewees include David Byrne (with his presentation "Record Labels: Who Needs Them?"), Emmylou Harris, Gilberto Gil, Terry McBride, Rickie Lee Jones, Booker T, and Joe Boyd.
Moore, Ranaldo, Chatham Head Experimental Fest
Also: Tony Conrad, Christina Carter, Sir Richard Bishop, Loren Connors, Zeena Parkins
New York I love you, but you're bringing me down. And that's mostly on account of the enormous distance between your culture-paved streets and the geometric avenues of the Second City-- and the fact that you're constantly getting kick-ass-to-the-max festivals like this one.The Independents festival kicks off January 4 in Brooklyn and runs through the end of the month, bringing together pretty much anyone who's anyone in boundary-pushing music these days, and tossing in some film and poetry for kicks. All experiments in sound and vision go down at the Issue Project Room, which will host showcases all month long from a number of respectable labels, including Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace, Locust, Table of the Elements, Tompkins Square, XI, Pogus, and Family Vineyard.
Among the performers: Bark Haze (featuring Moore and Andrew MacGregor, aka Gown), fellow Sonic Youther Lee Ranaldo, guitar composer Rhys Chatham (performing with his "Guitar Trio All-Stars"), drone violinist Tony Conrad, Charmalambides' Christina Carter, Sunburned Hand of the Man (scoring some films), Ira Cohen (reading poems), mad drummer Jonathan Kane's February, crazed harpist Zeena Parkins, Sun City Girl Sir Richard Bishop, Loren Connors/David Daniell/Greg Kelley, No Neck Blues Band, MV+EE, Lau Nau, Function, Lichens, Ethan Rose, and Badgerlore. Scope the complete lineup and schedule here.
You're also highly encouraged to check out Leif Inge's SXSW smash "9 Beet Stretch", which elongates Beethoven's 9th Symphony out into a 24-hour drone mindfuck.
Streets, Lily Allen, Killers, Lupe Play Big Day Out
Diplo, Muse, Spank Rock, Drones, Hot Chip, Tool also set for Australian fest
At Pitchfork HQ, scarves and shivers pretty much make up January and February's forecast, but for occupants of the Southern Hemisphere, it's bikinis and sweat.
Early next year, Australia and New Zealand will celebrate their summer with the 15th annual Big Day Out festival. The event will travel to Auckland on January 19, Gold Coast on January 21, Sydney on January 25, Melbourne on January 28, Adelaide on February 2, and Perth on February 4.
Big Day Out boasts a boatload of both touring and select-show-only acts, including the Killers, Tool, Violent Femmes, the Streets, Peaches, Muse, Lupe Fiasco, Lily Allen, Diplo, Spank Rock, Hot Chip, Macromantics, Kasabian, Justice, the Presets, the Drones, the Vines, the Sleepy Jackson, and more. For a more complete lineup, head here; local acts can be found on each city's roster page.
Clinic, Hella, Okkervil's Sheff Added to Noise Pop
Black Angels, Macromantics, French Kicks also new to lineup
Although San Francisco's Noise Pop festival has a ways to go before completing its 2007 lineup, quite a few new artists have made their way on to the event's roster.
The six-day party, now in its 15th year, will run from February 27-March 4. In addition to previously reported performers such as Sebadoh (in their reunited original lineup), Ted Leo/Pharmacists, John Vanderslice, and Jolie Holland, the following are slated to play the festival: Okkervil River's Will Sheff, Clinic, Hella, French Kicks, Josh Ritter, the Black Angels, Macromantics, Richard Swift, Autolux, Midlake, Earlimart, Vic Chesnutt, Ghostland Observatory, Midlake, Pop Levi, and Seawolf.
More information on the (currently incomplete) artist list here. Badges for the festival go on sale today. [MORE...]
The sixth annual Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival has a lot to live up to, as artists who have performed at the Tennessee fest in the past include Radiohead, Sonic Youth, Modest Mouse, Beck, My Morning Jacket, Joanna Newsom, Cat Power, Devendra Banhart, and many, many more.
Bonnaroo 2007 will run from June 14-17 on the same 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee as last time around, but its lineup remains under wraps for the time being.
High rollers can purchase pre-sale tickets here on the morning of December 13.
Thurston Moore's ATP Festival Launches Tonight
Sonic Youth, Stooges, Deerhoof, Gang of Four, Dinosaur Jr., Nurse With Wound play this weekend in England
All Tomorrow's Parties are happening today. And tomorrow (December 9), and the next day (December 10).
ATP's Thurston Moore-curated Nightmare Before Christmas fest (taking place at Butlins Minehead in Somerset, England) has finally rolled around, and if you a) live in the UK, b) are in your right mind, and c) already bought a ticket (since it's sold out), you're probably boiling over with excitement right about now.
As previously reported, lineup standouts include Sonic Youth (duh), Iggy & the Stooges, dkt/MC5 feat. Mark Arm, Deerhoof, Dinosaur Jr., Melvins, Sun City Girls, Six Organs of Admittance, Nurse With Wound, Be Your Own Pet, Wolf Eyes, Jackie-O Motherfucker, Wooden Wand, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Bardo Pond, Charalambides, Magik Markers, Negative Approach, Prurient, No Neck Blues Band, Flipper (with Krist Novoselic!), and the newly added Bark Haze (a collaboration between Thurston Moore, Gown, and Pete Nolan), Comets on Fire, Mats Gustaffson + EYE (that would be EYE Yamataka of Boredoms), and more.
So basically, every noise-rock band ever.
For the full lineup, head here. [MORE...]
Joanna Newsom, Smog, Bro. Ali Play Madison Pop Fest
Kudos to the University of Wisconsin for putting on a college show without the likes of Jason Mraz, Jack Johnson, and Kill Hannah.
The college's Madison Pop Festival, which runs from December 8 through 9, boasts a lineup including Joanna Newsom and her 11-piece orchestra, Bill Callahan (the man formerly known as Smog), Brother Ali, Ambulette, Hockey Night, and more. And did we mention that the entire thing is free?
The fest is set to take place at various venues around campus. For a full artist roster, head here.
New Pornos, Cat Power, Hold Steady to Play Langerado
Also My Morning Jacket, Cut Chemist, but we couldn't fit their names in the headline
The fifth annual Langerado festival has got to be fucking with us at this point. Is it a coincidence that while the staff at Pitchfork HQ Chicago is dreading an oncoming 25-degree temperature drop, a press release rolls in for the fest (which is located in-- I kid you not-- Sunrise, Florida) hyping all its cool new bands and not-so-cool (literally) weather? Nope. It's damn fine marketing, and it's working.
As previously reported,
Langerado 2007 will run from March 9-11 at Sunrise's Markham Park. Lineup additions since
last time include My Morning Jacket, the New Pornographers, Cat Power, the Hold Steady, and Cut Chemist.
As a reminder, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, Girl Talk, Band of Horses, Four Tet and Steve Reid, Blackalicious, Toots and the Maytals, Explosions in the Sky, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Apollo Sunshine, and a boatload of jam bands/acts (Widespread Panic, Trey Anastasio, moe., Béla Fleck & the Flecktones, O.A.R., the Disco Biscuits...) will also be present. View the full roster here.
Tickets are on sale this Friday, December 1.
Cat Power Assembles New Band, Plays ATP
Dirty Three's ATP lineup expanded
As previously reported, Cat Power has a show tonight in Seattle and one in Vancouver tomorrow, and it seems they will be her last gigs with the Memphis Rhythm Band with whom she has been touring this year.Chan Marshall has recruited Dirty Three's Jim White, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's Judah Bauer, the Delta 72's Gregg Foreman, and Lizard Music's Erik Paparozzi to accompany her on the rest of her tour dates this year, under the appropriate band name of "Dirty Delta Blues". Four of those dates feature White and Bauer as the opening act and two will be in California for New Year's celebrations with Gnarls Barkley and the Flaming Lips.
Speaking of White and Dirty Three, Cat Power has just been added to lineup for the All Tomorrow's Parties festival curated by the Australian group. Spiritualized, Bill Callahan, A Silver Mt. Zion, Mick Harvey, Conway Savage, Shannon Wright, Devastations, Felix Lajko, and Josh Pearson have also been added since our last story. The festival will take place April 27-29 in Somerset, England. [MORE...]
Spoon, Peaches, Prefuse 73 Play FunFunFun Fest
Black Angels, Dead Meadow, Whitey, Quintron and Miss Pussycat also on board
No Fun Fest, you have finally met your mortal enemy. FunFunFun Fest, taking place in Austin, TX's Waterloo Park this Friday (December 1), is a one-day event where attendees are practically obligated to have a triple-good time.
Artist highlights include Spoon, Peaches, the Black Angels, Lucero, the Octopus Project and Dead Meadow on the "Indie Stage", Circle Jerks and Negative Approach on the "Punk Stage", and on the awkwardly named "Austin Fuzion VJ/DJ Stage", Prefuse 73, Whitey, and Quintron and Miss Pussycat. For a full lineup, click here.
Antony Goes Shakespearean, Orchestral
Antony has always been pretty theatrical, but he's about to take it to the next level. According to NME.com, Mr. Hegarty,
along with Natalie Merchant, Gavin Friday, and former Cocteau Twin Liz Fraser,
has composed music for a two-part project themed around Shakespeare's sonnets.
Antony's creation will be performed by an eight-piece chamber orchestra from Opera North as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Complete Works Festival.
According to the festival's website, the show is scheduled to run in Stratford-upon-Avon, England on February 24 and 25. NME says that it will then tour Nottingham, Manchester, Gateshead, and Leeds, England in March.
Also on Antony's live horizon is a March 9 appearance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with accompaniment from the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra. [MORE...]
Coachella Sets 2007 Dates, Announces Country Festival
One weekend a year, the California desert is packed with sweaty fans of the latest and greatest in indie and alt-rock, hip hop, and electronic music, as the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival takes over Indio's Empire Polo Field. In 2007, come extra prepared for the triple-digit-degree weather, because the fest has expanded its schedule; taking cues from Lollapalooza, it will run over a three-day weekend, spanning from April 27-29.
But that's not all the news for next year. Billboard.com
reports that Coachella promoters Goldenvoice
will kick off a currently untitled country music festival, also in
Empire Polo Field, the following weekend, May 5-6.
Artists scheduled to perform at the event include Emmylou Harris, George Strait, Willie Nelson, Kenny Chesney, Lucinda Williams, Sugarland, Nickel Creek, Ricky Skaggs, Earl Scruggs, and Sparrow Quarter featuring Béla Fleck. Four stages, most notably "outlaw" and "storytelling" areas, will be erected for the party, with Garrison Keillor and Texas poet Red Steagall performing on the latter.
Coachella, as has become tradition, will keep us in the dark with regard to its lineup until late January or early February. According to Billboard, so far, only Mexican duo Rodrigo y Gabriela have confirmed their participation.
Built to Spill, Notwist, Sparklehorse Play Fan ATP
The second All Tomorrow's Parties festival of 2007 will take place May 18-20 at Butlins Minehead in Somerset, England, and the first bands on the lineup are Built to Spill, the Notwist, Sparklehorse, Echo & the Bunnymen, Akron/Family, Do Make Say Think, Brightblack Morning Light, and Death Vessel. (As previously reported, the first ATP is the Dirty Three-curated one, happening April 27-29, and featuring Dirty Three, Low, Nick Cave's new band Grinderman, Bill Callahan [formerly Smog], Shannon Wright, Papa M, the Drones, Faun Fables, Devastations, A Silver Mount Zion, Magnolia Electric Co., and many more.)
The biggest announcement, however, is the curators of the festival (or half of it, anyway): the fans. When festival-goers purchase their tickets, ATP will give them directions to a website where they will list the ten bands they would most like to see play. ATP will tally the votes and list them on their website in order of popularity. The bands at the top of the list will receive invitations first, which means earlier votes will have more impact than later ones. If these bands accept their invitations, they will form half of the festival's lineup. The other half will be chosen by ATP (as in the case of Built to Spill et al.).
Voting begins on November 24, and because they do such a good job of explaining the specifics themselves, here are the official rules, via the ATP website: [MORE...]
Bert Jansch, Charalambides Head Three Million Tongues
Spires That in the Sunset Rise, Burning Star Core, White/Lichens also scheduled
Chicago
owes the Empty Bottle and Galactic Zoo Dossier a big thank you for
presenting the Three Million Tongues festival-- which follows up last year's Two Million Tongues and the original Million Tongues-- and
for managing to reel in headliner Bert Jansch for his last scheduled U.S.
performance of the year. The legendary folk singer announced only a handful of U.S. gigs in 2006, so that diamond
in the rough alone is incentive enough to attend the three-night Windy City
event, slated to take place this weekend, November 17-19, at the aforementioned
Western Avenue club.
Other
festival highlights include Charalambides, Smegma, Spires That in the
Sunset Rise, Michael Yonkers with the Blind Shake, Burning Star Core, no fewer than two projects featuring 90 Day Man and Bottle bartender extraordinaire Rob Lowe (Dreamweapon and the Lichens and White/Light hybird White/Lichens)
and, of course, a premier booze selection.
To ensure you get your money's worth, the fest features a "sideshow" stage-- which, in past years, has been the corner next to the sound booth where the gear is stashed-- to squeeze in extra acts during set changes. That means, count 'em, at least seven different tongues each night. [MORE...]
Malkmus, Girl Talk, Band of Horses Play Langerado
Also: Four Tet, Explosions in the Sky, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, jam bands
The fifth annual Langerado Music Festival has just made its first lineup announcement, so while you're out buying the warmest coat you can in preparation for the winter, take comfort in knowing that what is quite possibly the first big festival of 2007 will take place March 9-11 at Markham Park in Sunrise, Florida. Here's a look at the lineup: Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, Girl Talk, Band of Horses, Four Tet, Blackalicious, Toots and the Maytals, Explosions in the Sky, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, and the usual outdoor festival jam band fare (Widespread Panic, Trey Anastasio, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Medeski, Martin & Wood, O.A.R., etc.).
Photos: Tanned Tin [Castellon, Spain; 11/09-11/11/06]
As previously reported, the Tanned Tin festival hit Castellón de la Plana, Spain this past weekend, treating the city's citizens to five consecutive days of indie rock goodness, mostly of the folksy and/or experimental variety. Pitchfork reader Jeff Harvey was lucky enough to partake of the festivities and kind enough to share a few photos. Looks to have been a fabulous time.I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness [Teatre Principal; 11/09/06]
David Thomas Broughton [Casino Antiguo; 11/10/06]
[MORE...]
Photos: NovemberFest [Columbia, SC; 11/06-11/12/06]
All photos by Jen RayNovemberFest at the (Art) Garage was something Columbia, South Carolina-- a city resigned to being passed over by touring bands-- very much needed. Indeed, having the Slits, the Mountain Goats, Jennifer O'Connor, Richard Buckner, the Apes, Venice Is Sinking, Two Dollar Guitar, and others play in the same week at the same venue was almost too much for our overlooked town. But if anything, the DIY vibe that swept through the festive week gave us a sense of spirit and, hopefully, identity.
The Slits / The Apes [11/07/06]
The Apes rampaged the room, while the Slits-- who said it was their best show in seven years-- nearly emptied it. [MORE...]
Report: Be the Riottt! Festival [San Francisco, CA; 11/11/06]
With sparsely-attended Veterans' Day festivities underway in San Francisco's Civic Center plaza (because nothing pays tribute to our esteemed men and women of war quite like a high school drill team in miniskirts and garters performing LeAnn Rimes' "Can't Fight the Moonlight"), the city's young and adventurous began lining up outside the nearby Bill Graham Civic Center for the inaugural Be the Riottt! festival.
Put together by burgeoning music/art/culture website Riottt.com, Be the Riottt! basically united those two towering bastions of underground music: white dudes with guitars and black dudes with microphones and turntables-- with a few laptops and ladies tossed in for good measure. By genre statistics, however, the fest boasted a pretty diverse lineup, with heavy doses of indie rock (the Rapture, the Wrens, Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, Metric, Tokyo Police Club) and hip hop (Clipse, Living Legends, Zion I, Sage Francis, P.O.S.), a few sprinkles of dancier stuff (Girl Talk, the Presets, Weird Science), and a couple random screamo bands snuck in for no apparent reason (Fall of Troy, Heavy Heavy Low Low).
Riottt! birthed this baby with a bang, and was kind enough to treat Pitchfork to a Frisco trip to witness the blood, the sweat, and the joyous tears of that birth live. A quiet Riottt! this most certainly was not.
[MORE...]
Trail of Dead, PGMG, Blood Brothers Play Anti*Pop
So do Bob Mould, the Elected, Dosh, Saul Williams, Celebration, and more
Heads
up, Backstreet Boys-- take a cue from *NSync and vanish before round two of the Anti*Pop Music Festival barnstorms your hometown. From November 13-19, a swarm of indie
artists will move in on several of Orlando, Florida's finest venues to bring the indie rock goodness that this latest generation of youngsters craves.
Invasion highlights include: ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, the Blood Brothers, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Saul Williams, Peanut Butter Wolf, the Elected, Margot and the Nuclear So & So's, Dosh, Celebration, Earl Greyhound, Whispertown 2000, Paper Cranes, Yip Yip, She Wants Revenge, and, er, Kasabian. You may view the full day-by-day lineup here.
The fest will also feature panels held throughout Saturday, November 18, and flaunting topics like "The Brat Pack", "Music & Marketing for the iPod Nation", "Social Responsibility in Music", and "Anti*Keynote - Bob Mould" (at which the Hüsker Dü/Sugar man will chat and perform an acoustic solo show). A series of free parties goes down as well, at which everybody will rock their bodies to the tune of free Pabst Blue Ribbon and Jack Daniels, as well as some delicious Whole Foods fare.
Mountain Goats, Slits Play Novemberfest
As do Richard Buckner, Jennifer O'Connor, Two Dollar Guitar
Columbia, South Carolina residents Jason and Amy Caffee are revamping the concept of both the garage band and, uh, the garage. Opened in 2004, their (art) Garage shoots to provide an affordable venue for local creative souls to put on shows. Since its inception, the space has broadened its horizons and is now housing artistic productions of all mediums, music included.
This week, the (art) Garage is holding one of the biggest tiny venue events we've ever been made aware of. The week-long spree of shows, coined Novemberfest, kicked off yesterday and runs through November 12. Highlights include the Slits and the Apes (tonight, November 7), the Mountain Goats and Jennifer O'Connor (tomorrow, November 8), Richard Buckner (November 9), a local band showcase (November 10), a garage sale and Venice Is Sinking (November 11), and Two Dollar Guitar (which features Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley) and Chris Brokaw (November 12).
Well, it's all over but the ringing in our ears. As Pitchfork recovers from five days and nights of rock and roll in New York City, here's a brief rundown of what we saw at the 2006 CMJ Music Marathon.
Tuesday: The Rapture were a graveyard smash
Wednesday: Professor Murder killed; Figurines charmed the crowd waiting to see Girl Talk; Girl Talk went shirtless and covered Nirvana (as usual); Dr. Dog, Cold War Kids, and Tapes 'n Tapes flaunted their moment in the sun; the Knife blew minds; Lupe Fiasco partied with zombies; the Twilight Sad inspired goo-goo eyes; Beach House mesmerized; the Slits disappointed; 120 Days taught the indie kids to dance [MORE...]
CMJ Report: Saturday [Brandon Stosuy]
All photos by Jane Lea.MGR [Sin-é; 11 p.m.]
MGR is Mike Gallagher of Isis on solo, pedal-pushing guitar. During his suitably oceanic set-- giving an indirect nod to the Zodiac's water bearer via a well-tailored Aquarius Records t-shirt-- a friend turned to me and said, "he's definitely in Isis." True.
Made Out of Babies [Sin-é; 11:45 p.m.]
Double-timing vocalist Julie Christmas yowls for Made Out of Babies and Battle of Mice; if you close your eyes and take the Pepsi Challenge, it's easy telling them apart: Think coiled Am Rep rock for the former, layered blue-lit Isis (and, say, Slint-y Godflesh) the latter. A pivotal ingredient: Battle of Mice's guitarist/bassist/keyboardist, Josh Graham, also vibrates six-strings in Red Sparowes and dreams Neurosis' art direction. MOoB's more straight-up blisters were best exemplified during their Sin-é set when the bassist, Cooper, started a story with lumberjack guitarist Brendan Tobin, but Christmas opted to slice to the chase, interrupting with her screaming "Silverback". A two-man pit immediately spilled backwards.
Unfortunately, every action wasn't so whopping. They also performed "Proud to Drown" (more water), which finds Christmas boasting, "I can feel your insides shake." Judging from the band's sophomore album, Coward, that's what I was expecting; oddly though, as if showing deferential homage to the festival's close (the downward arc of a denouement?), the club's sound was anti-climactically quiet.
CMJ Report: Saturday [Amy Phillips]
All photos by William Kirk.
CMJ ended with a bang Saturday night, as Clipse flattened the Knitting Factory with a too-brief set of pure fire. From the opening "Virginia" through the closing "Mr. Me Too", Pusha T and Malice gave the overjoyed crowd everything we wanted...except previews of songs from their excruciatingly delayed forthcoming album Hell Hath No Fury. Other than the singles ("Mr. Me Too" and "Wamp Wamp"), I'm pretty sure Clipse didn't play anything from Hell, instead concentrating on "classic" material like "What Happened to That Boy?", "Cot Damn", "Pussy", and, of course, "Grindin'". As Pitchforker Jessica Suarez wondered, maybe they're so afraid of a leak they won't even let the songs touch the air outside of an extremely controlled environment? Clipse also didn't play "Zen", which was made doubly frustrating by the fact that the DJ spun it directly following their set. What a tease!
Not that any of that necessarily mattered when Pusha and Malice were on stage; we were happy to take whatever we could get. The pair, joined for part of the set by fellow Re-Up Gang members Ab-Liva and Sandman, maintained an intensely high level of energy and focus throughout their performance, feeding off of the crowd's enthusiasm. Pusha has one of the most expressive pairs of eyes in hip hop, lending his threats and boasts the gravitas to elevate them even above their recorded power.
Clipse [Knitting Factory; 1:00 a.m.]
CMJ Report: Saturday [Marc Hogan]
The Fall [Hiro Ballroom; c. 9:15 p.m.]
If you're at all familiar with Mark E. Smith, you sort of expect him to fuck with you. So it wasn't entirely disappointing when, around the time Smith and the current incarnation of the Fall were expected to take the stage at the Hiro Ballroom, some guy with a laptop came out instead and poked big-screen PowerBook fun at easy targets-- Tom Jones, fat Elvis, Barbra Streisand-- in the guise of avant-garde audiovisual.
By the time Smith took the stage, the band's rhythm-heavy post-punk assault was well overdue. Though the whole thing was over in five or six songs (only the guys with video cameras know for sure), Smith's typically inscrutable persona and the solid grooves (two bass guitars, after San Francisco-based openers the Ohsees didn't even have one!) made for time well spent right through to a bristling cover of the Move's "I Can Hear the Grass Grow". And then it was all over, despite vain, half-hearted efforts to get the clever bastard back out for an encore.
CMJ Report: Friday [Brandon Stosuy]
All photos by Jane Lea, except Grubbs et al by Brandon Stosuy
David Grubbs and Steve Moore with Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley
of Sunn 0))) [Rockstar Bar; 5 p.m.]
I live in Brooklyn, but the TV Eye/Southern Lord event at Rockstar Bar was the first of this year's CMJ-related shows I attended in my own borough. Wait, I thought Manhattan's cultural life was dead? I'd planned to see Fucked Up tear through that Avail-bating Toronto hardcore at Northsix, but the kids were stuck at the Canadian border (I checked their blog to make sure), so I didn't trek to the Jade Tree showcase.
No worries: There was free beer (thanks) and the wooden mermaid centerpiece at Rockstar to keep me company and help me drown those sorrows. The musical focus of the evening was Greg Anderson and a freshly shaven Stephen O'Malley joined by Earth's Steve Moore (on trombone, Korg) and David Grubbs (on guitar) for a set of drone with additional details.
Grubbs is a much busier, less patient player than Anderson or O'Malley, often adding arpeggios and contra chords to their sustain. He was also the most expressive-- rocking and rolling and picking like slow-mo Townshend. O'Malley offered ecstatic faces here/there; Anderson kept his back to the audience. Moore fell somewhere between O'Malley and Grubbs. The lights went out for a few seconds, and I welcomed that veil of black. Choreographical analysis aside, Anderson and O'Malley are clearly the essential nucleus in any Sunn 0)))-related outing; additions are fun, and the band has always explored collaboration, but Grubbs's Gastr Del Sol-nimble fingers felt unnecessary. The band's amazing when working with the right vocalists-- á la Malefic and Wrest-- but when you have instruments as heavy as theirs, why bother adding a noodling guitar? There was even a moment when things sorta fell apart.
That said, a small dream of mine is a collaboration between Sunn 0))) and Tony Conrad. The Rockstar set, though not revelatory, seemed like a revelatory step in the right direction. Check the equation: Grubbs has worked with Conrad and now Sunn's done stuff with Grubbs. We can solve it with the transitive property, or something, I think.
The Drones [Mercury Lounge; 8 p.m.]
Bought some pretzels to counter the free beer and then headed into the Mercury Lounge in time to catch Drones drummer Michael Noga telling a story about finding cocaine and used condoms in a room at the Carter (he joking pronounced it with an English accent-- hard "r"-- after noting that nobody knew what he was talking about otherwise).
I've especially dug this rabid, Australian quartet since last year's Wait Long by the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By, and am happy to report that new offering, Gala Mill, is even better. So, uh, why the hell haven't they caught on in the States? Who knows...makes no sense to me.
They went from story hour into a superbly ragged rendition of "Shark Fin Blues". Frontman Gareth Liddiard looks to be about 7' tall (from my vantage) and yet puts his mic a bit above his head, forcing himself to look upward as he snarls and spits. They shredded another great song from Wait Long by the River and showcased some new material. The Drones are forever coming apart at the seams-- they start from the simplest element (say a repetitive bass line) and slowly add layers and swagger until it seems the song will lose its stitching. By the end of the set, the drums had literally fallen apart, but Noga kept banging the cymbal mercilessly.
I noticed that more and more impeccably dressed folks were pouring in, but couldn't understand why; after the set, I went outside and saw Albert Hammond Jr. penciled in for the headlining set. That guy can draw a crowd, but the Drones can't? What the fuck...
American Heritage [Ace of Clubs; 9:30 p.m.]
I was too late to see Unearthly Trance, sadly, but did catch the Atlanta/Chicago trio American Heritage. They've been around close to a decade (during which time they did a 2003 split 7" with Mastodon) and have gone through various flavor shifts, but have never hooked me. Accordingly, I've been on the fence about their recent Translation Loss full length, Millenarian; it's brutally relentless and tight, but lacking in personality. Well, live they bring the personality. Hell, I should've known that a band with a song titled "It's Like Fucking a Napkin Full of Toenails" and who list "Snappily-dressed throngs of fascists marching dutifully off a cliff, tumbling past doe-eyed unicorns who look startled for a moment but soon go back to grazing on four-leaf clovers and blue diamonds" under "influences" on their MySpace page would have good between-song banter. For instance, a story about punching butts and the "brown light district" sorta went well with a discussion about the brown note the night prior.
Dysrhythmia [Ace of Clubs; 10:30 p.m.]
Not only did they have the sweetest sound check all festival ("That sounds fantastic, thanks"), the proggy Brooklyn guitar/six-string bass/drum trio Dysrhythmia forced me to catch my breath twice. Their arty instrumental metal is Don Caballero for people who hate Don Caballero. And maybe for those who like Shellac? Not since I saw Albini and co. years ago has a bass lacerated my eardrums so fully. Earlier, the slightly nerdy drummer, Jeff Eber, was seen practicing his rat-a-tat-tat, as great drummers are apt to do. My girlfriend got into a conversation with a woman in the audience who was there to see her nephew. I'm guessing it was guitarist Kevin Hufnagel because she didn't stop snapping photos of him. Man-- technically sick metal and family? Heaven. Their most recent Relapse full-length, Barriers and Passages, came out in May.
CMJ Report: Friday [Marc Hogan]
All photos by Marc Hogan
Excepter [Hiro Ballroom; 6 p.m.]
Last time I saw these Brooklyn experimentalists, their equipment malfunctioned, New York's most prominent recently fired rock critic was yawning in the corner, and another semi-prominent, notorious rock riffer kept assuring me they were usually actually awesome. At the Maritime Hotel's tony Hiro Ballroom, Excepter were in excellent form, their electro-kraut-noise improv living up to their surprisingly coherent full-length, Alternation. In fact, for all the megaphones, dentist-drill noises, shamanic seriousness, and incongruously goofy headwear, I realized these guys can also be as twee as they are avant-garde. No, for real: One of their more bizarre instruments is a toy monkey with cymbals, John Ryan Fell was totally the only person actually wearing his badge around his neck (so lame it's...cool?), and at one point I swear I heard someone singing, "One boy for you/ One girl for me." If my job is to articulate why I like or dislike certain music, perhaps one reason I so enjoy Excepter is because they never let you off easy.
The Decemberists [Hammerstein Ballroom; 9 p.m.]
It was a thrill just to see the Decemberists playing in front of so many people, i.e. more than 3,000 if you believe the internets. Colin Meloy and his merry madrigalists were a little blown away, too-- "We're going to do our best to pretend we're playing at the Mercury Lounge right now"-- but they ultimately used the increased scale to their advantage, much like they did on The Crane Wife. Fans on the floor and two balconies indulged the theatrical PDX popsters by participating in Meloy-encouraged dance competitions, sing-alongs, vocal warmup drills, and the "Myla Goldberg" shoutout to NYC. For an encore, members of the band marched into the crowd to reenact "The Charge of the Light Brigade". The final song, "I Was Meant for the Stage", took on new meaning in Hammerstein's vast setting-- yes, Meloy was meant for this stage, too. But it's still a fucking trip.
The Big Sleep [Pianos; 11 p.m.]
I always imagined the whole point of events like CMJ was to discover music you hadn't heard before, but my luck hasn't been too good the past two years. Pulling into Pianos as part of the Frenchkiss showcase, The Big Sleep were my pleasant surprise of the night. The Brooklyn-based trio banged out muscular avant-rock textures with a totally bonkers Mick Fleetwood bugeye drummer who did those Zep things Dom Leone loves and a guitarist as content to hash out blues riffs (over bassist Sonya Balchandani's teutonic drone) as ear-splitting electronic noise. It would've been next to impossible to buy beer in this sardines-packt crowd, so at least the music was pretty kickass.
CMJ Report: Friday [Ryan Schreiber]
All photos by Ryan Schreiber, except Mew by William Kirk
Lavender Diamond [205 Bar; 5 p.m.]
With more than a year's worth of under-the-radar critical adoration behind them (but still no album), Los Angeles four-piece Lavender Diamond have quietly signed with a high-profile U.S. indie label (plus, Rough Trade in the UK!), and deservedly so: "You Broke My Heart", the lead track off their 2005 self-released The Cavalry of Light EP, guaranteed that alone. Opening the Chicago-based Windish Agency's four-artist bill at Chrystie Street's 205 Bar, frontwoman Becky Stark projected just the right balance of charisma and flighty eccentricity, her sheepish banter hinting at a charming if possibly slightly cracked personality behind the rapturous voice. Even more than that song, that voice is what revellers are quick to mention; strong yet somehow serene, Stark's carefully trained alto is Lavender Diamond's most striking characteristic. But as compelling a character as Stark makes, their stage show could stand some development. I mean, we know the backing dudes are getting on in years and everything, but you know, just for the audience, it kind of rules if the band is standing up.
Loney, Dear [205 Bar; 6 p.m.]
Another group from Stockholm with fey, introspective lyrics, a self-depricating frontman, and nine members? Awesome. So we know what Sweden's arts council goes in for. It's a nice utopian concept and all, inviting all your friends to be in your band, but that's what you have a MySpace for. The question is, how many of those members do you really need? Recent Sub Pop signing Loney, Dear had the answer last night: One. Just the dude who writes the admittedly pretty catchy songs that I suppose sounded sort of really fantastic amped up to bursting in that cozy, tinfoiled little room. Granted, I might be playing up the nine members thing a bit too much, just because the Windish website describes them as "the one-man band with nine members." Truth is, only five of them were in tow. I guess I'm just crabby 'cause so many of these Stockholm indie pop bands are really obnoxiously great, despite being more or less indistinguishable. So, Sweden, I got this great idea: Put out a record that sucks. Think how fucking leftfield that would be!
Rjd2 & Peanut Butter Wolf [205 Bar; 5 p.m.]
Meanwhile, downstairs, the mellowest DJ set ever was in full force. Like, Bill Withers' "Lovely Day" mellow. It was day four; they knew people would be beat. No one in that room needed another round of Rex the Dog and Jacques Lu Cont remixes. Sometimes sweet-vocaled 70s soul shit is all you need. Don't tell people I said that.
Deerhoof [Hiro Ballroom; 8:45 p.m.]
In the absence of now-departed member Chris Cohen, some might say Deerhoof are just without...something. And I mean something besides a member. But as missed as Cohen's fancy fretwork and creative contributions might be, the band somehow sounded as confident and complete as ever, tightening up arrangements and rocking the classics front to back. Proof positive economy pays. Stockholm, are you on this?
Mew [Bowery Ballroom; 11 p.m.]
Well, it's taken about 30 years, but kids, in 2006, prog-rock's finally made its sweeping, bombastic, pretentious return. And no, it's still not cool, unless you live in Denmark, where apparently Mew are the most important cultural development since uncomfortable furniture. Yes, I felt way too old to be there, and it was at times a bit difficult to look past their self-consciously precious frontman, projected backdrops of kittens playing violins, and a keyboardist with a classic Yankovic hairstyle. But it was also kinda great how every single New Yorker in the room absolutely despised them, and how everyone who'd flown in from, say, the midwest, kind of got into their Built to Spill meets M83 meets Edgar Winter Group vibe. Let me stress again how not cool these guys are. But you know what? Write a song as anthemic and addictive as "Apocalypso"-- and then have the balls to call it "Apocalypso"-- and we'll just go off and be huge nerds together.
Thunderbirds Are Now! [Pianos; 12 a.m.]
CMJ Report: Thursday [Brandon Stosuy]
All photos by Casey McKinney.Shy Child [Webster Hall; 7 p.m.]
The Cake Shop revved Silver Apples' "Oscillations" immediately after 120 Days' Tuesday set. The next day at Webster Hall, we got entropic NYC synth/drum duo Shy Child, whose opener "The Noise Won't Stop" continued the Apples' rattle and late-1960s racket-- albeit well aware of the sad fact that electroclash did exist a few years ago in Williamsburg. Was I the only one who heard some Rapture vocalisms from singing keyboardist Pete Cafarella? Quick fact: He's also in Supersystem.
Whatever-- the people wanted disco. Brighter spotlights and a crowd's collectively bigger smiles welcomed a cowbell's entrance, while the rat-a-tat/whirl-whirl formula grew pretty standardized until a guest saxophonist appeared from the shadows. At one point Cafarella jokingly announced the show as a "dinner set"-- and that he and his drummer compatriot planned to get dinner afterwards. If that's really the case, it's too damn bad because then they missed an absolutely brilliant effort by my favorite NYC crew not named Excepter.
Gang Gang Dance [Webster Hall; 8 p.m.]
What can I say? I've always loved Gang Gang Dance's ability to create real-time collage-- those celebratory switches from a split kaleidoscope soundtracked by Punjabi MC to blood-soaked terror. Take that, Girl Talk. But hell, when did Liz Bougatsos become the city's most captivating front woman? We're talking serious avant-diva action! Injecting some vibrancy into Webster Hall's vast air, she donned a Ghostface Killah t-shirt as dress (fashionable torn shoulder showing), strange weight-lifter pajama pants, and boots. The band's second-best fashion move: Tim Dewitt's high back drums. The quartet opened on an Enya atmospheric tip before digging into God's Money's refracted, cat-and-mouse punk-dub: A slithery beast of fainting steam, tumbling calypso, wicked Björkian balladeering, slinky Greek musicals, and Hot 97 (Brian DeGraw = Timbaland).
Malajube [Mercury Lounge; 9 p.m.]
On a night that felt like –40 degrees, Montreal's Malajube brought the hot rock. The new album, Trompe-L'oeil, is a sweet pop trill; live, I heard Drive Like Jehu (no kidding) tucked inside the fair-trade vocals. You can tell they come from the north: Malajube have the thickest heads of hair ever, the kind where faux hawks occur unintentionally. The five Canadians were wearing a palette of t-shirts, bouncing and sweating through "Le Crabe" et al "for the benefit of [our] ears" while I drank Blue Moons, wondered about the connection between Quebec and keyboards, and realized the especially funny keyboardist/guitarist (pretending to use his guitar as a hammer, etc.) reminded me of the guy on "SNL" who plays the Falconer. Befitting the overall Sassy vibe, girls to my right squealed when the set reached a foaming finale. The last band I saw at the Mercury Lounge who brought the pop so mightily were Malajube's neighbors, Sunset Rubdown.
Wizardzz [Pussycat Lounge; 1 a.m., or so...]
I had every intention of catching Blue Cheer at the Knitting Factory-- my second reunion show in as many nights, god help me-- but the Load/Cock Rock Disco showcase was, as I should've suspected, running behind schedule. Seriously, noise rockers are the biggest procrastinators. But, wanting to check out Brian Gibson's other non-Lighting Bolt band, I opted to accept the fluctuating schedule and overlong laptop drum-n-mace and bask in Wizardzz's glow.
The Pussycat's the ideal noise-show hovel: The second floor of a strip joint, it's outfitted with dirty carpet, a catwalk (perfect for laptops!), a lap dance couch (perfect for laptops!), stars on the walls, a Smog chandelier, black light, mirrors...felt like I was in the church of Quintron. Most of the bands played too long, but when Wizardzz-- Gibson and Bug Sized Mind's Rich Porter-- started smoking immediately following "Welcome to the TerrorDome", they kicked it all professional-like in their silky-ass outfits, never speaking to the audience, just getting down to shredding. The duo's debut, Hidden City of Taurmond, had hints of this sort of thing, so I was pleased to witness them nailing that swampy, psyched Ornette Coleman dervish, especially in a stripper funhouse of color. While I was nodding my head, thinking of Barkley's Barnyard Critters, and trying to figure out Porter's pedal situation, they ended in mid-stride, before anyone expected it. Perfect.
Heading down the stairs and onto the street (where a bunch of guys in suits milled about, though it was close to 2 a.m.), I suddenly felt revitalized, liked I could watch noise nonstop for another ten hours.
CMJ Report: Thursday [Amy Phillips]
All photos by William Kirk
My second CMJ day began at the Kill Rock Stars/5RC party at Mo Pitkin's, with a performance by the astonishing Marnie Stern. One of KRS' newest signings, Stern looks like Kirsten Dunst and shreds like Mick Barr. But unlike Barr and so many other guitar virtuoso dudes, Stern sings while she manhandles her ax, cooing about glass slippers and diamonds as her nimble fingers fly across the fretboard. I'm eagerly anticipating Stern's debut album, In Advance of the Broken Arm, produced by Hella's Zach Hill and due out January 23. Her brief solo set was a revelation.
No such revelations were to be had during Loney, Dear's performance opening Sub Pop's CMJ extravaganza at the Bowery Ballroom. The Swedish group, centered around Emil Svanängen's tender indie pop songs, were perfectly competent, but lacked any sort of magic. Svanängen stood stock still, staring at a fixed point out in space in front of him, his expressionless face retaining the same look throughout the set. When he told the crowd he was happy to be there, I didn't believe him.
Loney, Dear [Bowery Ballroom; 7 p.m.]
Given that Oxford Collapse's Michael Pace is the singer/guitarist in a power trio that happens to be signed to Sub Pop, I gotta hand it to him for having the balls to wear a plaid button-down shirt to his label's showcase. Not that anyone would ever confuse Pace with Kurt Cobain--in addition to his brown curly hair, thick moustache, and goatee, Pace dedicated a song to Pat O'Brien and joked about receiving a neck massage before the show to relieve his symptoms of "metal neck" (aka headbanging too hard).
Oxford Collapse's focused, intense performance, which included several standouts from their new album Remember the Night Parties, highlighted how much Oxford Collapse are basically an early-90s emo band (see: Cap'n Jazz).
Oxford Collapse [Bowery Ballroom; 8 p.m.]
CSS [Bowery Ballroom; 10 p.m.]
The Thermals [Bowery Ballroom; 11 p.m.]
The Shins [Bowery Ballroom; 1 a.m.]
CMJ Report: Thursday [Marc Hogan]
Frida Hyvönen [Skirball Center at NYU; 8 p.m.]
Swedish pianist Frida Hyvönen plays soft dinner music with jarringly sexual lyrics, and she likes grapes. "It's a very social fruit," she explained. As her fingers dashed playfully across the ivories, Hyvönen sang about cocks and reminded us not to take off our pants. The smattering of New York University kids who arrived early, before the Wrens and Walkmen-- "I've got, like, two papers due tomorrow"..."Dude, why are you even HERE?"-- politely applauded.
The Wrens [Skirball Center at NYU; 9 p.m.]
Whatever it is, the Wrens still have it. They came out one at time, with singer/ multi-instrumentalist Charles Bissell hidden somewhere within a huge hooded jacket. Before the show was over, he'd harmonized a cappella with the crowd, climbed on top of a speaker, and invited the more fervent fans to sing along onstage. If everyone chooses sides, at least we were all on the same one.
The Walkmen [Skirball Center at NYU; 10 p.m.]
The Walkmen followed the Wrens' emotive crescendos with Hamilton Leithauser's scratchy-chested howls. The Dylan-tinged fare from the New York indie rockers' most recent album of original material, A Hundred Miles Off, makes a bit more sense in a live context, enhanced by horns on songs like "Louisiana". And yes, they still played "The Rat".
Califone [Tonic; 11:15 p.m.]
Let's just hope Califone aren't the next casualty of airline luggage-losing. Despite their rootsy sound, Tim Rutili's troupe rely on a stage-filling assortment of gear, from 12-string guitars to laptops. Rutili sprinkled in a spot-on Willie Nelson cover for kicks, but most of the set explored the atmospheric post-Americana of this year's Roots & Crowns.
CMJ Report: Thursday [Nitsuh Abebe]
When the breakcore freaks of Cock Rock Disco and the noise blasters of Load Records team up for a CMJ showcase, you expect some sort of violent, tacky strangeness-- you just don't expect it to spill out over the whole neighborhood. Nevertheless, I kick off Thursday night in front of the Pussycat Lounge, a strip club/venue just two blocks from the giant hole in the ground that serves as NYC's saddest, weirdest tourist trap, and next door to the store where-- much later tonight-- an Italian stripper will apologize to me personally for Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia. Go figure.Food for Animals [Pussycat Lounge]
The showcase is chaos from the first minute, and probably best summed up by the put-upon soundman who, when asked for a little more bass on Food for Animals' second Macintosh, replies: "I don't know, is it supposed to sound like that?" It was: The beats this act's two MCs shout their way through keep shattering and screeching and flailing their way into pink noise. I ask three people if they noticed what the guys were actually saying: It's a "no" all around.
Baby Calendar [Cake Shop; 10 p.m.]
After a little more shatter and screech, I'm moved to skip across town and recuperate at what should be the twee-est show on the Lower East Side-- a showcase for Athens, Georgia's Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records. (Name notwithstanding, this label does not appear to be owned by a pirate or leprechaun.) The mid-show highlight turns out to be Baby Calendar, a Miami three-piece whose indie pop is more about big bursts of cheer and Mates of State harmony than any doe-eyed shambling. They're so genial that the drummer even strips on request.
Drumcorps [Pussycat Lounge]
Back at the (ahem) Pussycat Lounge, the noise continues with a terrific set from Drumcorps: Between his metal grind, clenched-teeth breakbeats, and extensive dreadlocks, Aaron Spectre makes a pretty good argument for what a young Trent Reznor might have done if he were born a decade later and way less interested in sex. This guy's stage routine is so twitchy and hyperactive that when he takes a drink of water between songs, he forgets to calm down and winds up taking the world's first Extreme Grindcore Sip.
At this point, the room's developed the five standard indicators of a NOIZE show: (a) a distinct biological odor; (b) someone in the corner sleeping through something horrifically loud; (c) someone wearing a mask and dancing so lasciviously that you do everything in your power to avoid brushing up against him; (d) a running order that gets nonsensically switched around, to the point where I totally miss Duran Duran Duran; and (e) hand-made costumes. The door prize clearly goes to one of the following: either White Mice, from Providence...
White Mice [Pussycat Lounge]
...or Droon, from Antwerp, Belgium, who hefts his ASCII keytar and plays, inexplicably, for only about two minutes.
Droon [Pussycat Lounge]
The magic of it all is that during the ride home, the ringing in my ears is actually oscillating, in highly disturbing patterns. Which is good, because it drowns out whatever kid in my neighborhood spends the hour between 3:30 and 4:30 screaming loudly at regular intervals. NYC: WTF?
M. Ward, Six Organs, Okkervil Head Tanned Tin Fest
Also: Portastatic, Psychic Ills, Chosen Darkness, Lisa Germano, His Name Is Alive
Hold any European
trip-financing raffles lately? Proceed with caution. Wait, forget that-- risk
it all to get to Castellón, Spain for the eighth edition of the Tanned Tin music festival, running
from November 9-11 (with special opening and closing events on the days bookending the fest).Tanned Tin brings together an impressive array of musicians of an autumnal persuasion and takes place at several venues across the city: Centro Municipal de Cultura, Teatre Principal, and Casino Antiguo. Might want to ditch the cell phones, clinking beer bottles, and boisterous buds, however, as Tanned Tin's website boasts "an almost religious silence" accompanying past festival performances. Yikes!
Acts scheduled to perform include: M. Ward, Six Organs of Admittance, Okkervil River, Psychic Ills, I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, David Thomas Broughton, Lisa Germano, Portastatic, His Name Is Alive, the Radio Dept., Magik Markers, and more. Wonderful, spectral folkstress Annelies Monseré will open the festival with a free show on November 8. Make the jump for the complete event schedule. [MORE...]
CMJ Report: Wednesday [Brandon Stosuy]
All photos by Casey McKinney
The Twilight Sad [Fontana's; 8 p.m.]
CMJ boot camp began on trash night in Chinatown, Metallica's "Master of Puppets" lifting spirits in Fontana's upstairs bar. Meanwhile, in the basement, noisy Glasgow pop group the Twilight Sad tore eardrums: The quartet's self-titled EP's great, but I imagine if I hadn't heard it three dozen times, I would've failed to untangle the melodies from the feedback. They opened with vocalist James Graham wielding a drum stick and smashing cymbals along with the fresh-faced, Campbell Soup-kid drummer. But it was the Daniel Johnston t-shirt wearing guitarist who stole the show with his awkward teenage Kevin Shields impersonation-- all the more charming because he was out of tune. Strumming in a slapdash style, now again sipping from a cup with a Yankees logo on it, he looked bored and utterly fascinated at the same time. Still, despite the white noise hubbub, the general focal point remained the swoony Graham, who another Pitchforker later called the most attractive man alive. Well, he must've been scared of his own beauty because he kept his eyes shut for 75% of the set, issuing romantic utterances about kids on fire in the bedroom, running out of time, the invisible boy, and feeling bitter, so very bitter. Halfway through, amplifier problems led to a slight delay, so a bearded oldster jumped on stage and read, gently, a poem, "Twilight Sad." It was a great calm in the storm, but had me wondering: What came first, the poem or the band? Anyone?
Beach House [Cake Shop; 10:15 p.m.]
Ushering in a different sort of calm, downer Baltimore duo Beach House quietly owned the Cake Shop. The room was packed, leaving eyes to rest on hippies nodding themselves to careful, contented sleep on the bar, while others lined like trees against the wood-paneled wall, swaying. Beneath the field of cricket stars, it felt like we were indeed holed-up at the band's namesake, about to attend a Magnetic Fields/Brightblack Morning Light apple orchard picnic. Musically, the guitar/keys/vocals were Damon & Naomi backed by meteor slides. The male half of the band looks a lot like Devendra Banhart-- I was waiting for him to get up and flail shirtless with henna on his head. Thankfully, they remained subtle and downcast, digging into a "Lovelier Girl" before disappearing like a soft-edged dream.
The Slits [Knitting Factory; 12 a.m.]
A friend pointed out that the Slits more than made up for the Twilight Sad's lack of tuning. True…how long does it take to get those strings aligned? "Girls invented punk rock, not England" filtered from the P.A. before the seven- to eight-person band started playing. Ari Up-- dressed in a dayglo Jah paint-splatter sorta cheerleader outfit–- was insistent on reminding us everything she invented after forming the band in 1976. Or, she spoke in the third person, e.g. "now this is a Slits' bass." Later, her smiling but still annoying refusal to continue playing until the sound person got rid of some monitor boom reminded me why I generally avoid reunions: zero urgency, lack of context. She mentioned their first NYC gig (besides Up, only bassist Tessa Pollitt is an original member) in 1979 on 2nd avenue. Maybe it would've been better then? For our troubles, we heard "Typical Girls", "Shoplifting", and "Newtown", but the background singers couldn't sing and I wondered if eight people making music together have ever sounded so thin. I could concoct something phatter with a match and a Dixie Cup. Trust me.
120 Days [Cake Shop; 2 a.m.]
It's fitting that dudes named after a de Sade text would have me out until 4 a.m. on a school night. There were sound problems here, too, with repeated requests for more drum machine in the monitor. That aside, 120 Days played the best set of day two. (The Strokes boy band that bounced before them stood off to the side smoking cigarettes and peering all Springsteen-like, knowing they'd been beaten, at least this time.) When I saw the quartet in Oslo, it was obvious they were onto something; this late Cake Shop show proved that the fuckers have arrived-- the sound was denser than when it flew outdoors (obviously; there's less space to disappear into) and there was joyful Happy Mondays dancing by the band and audience. As vocalist Ådne Meisfjord noted, "Oh, the girls are dancing." Sure-- of course, the boys were dancing, too.
For his part, Meisfjord stripped down to his undershirt and made like a raver. A wonderfully extended "Come Out (Come Down, Fade Out, Be Gone)" arrived as a finale, complete with pause/breath-catch/skree extension. Around that time, a girl told me she'd traveled all the way from Toronto to catch the band, though she'd seen them in her city a few days earlier. I might not trek that far, but I'd definitely check them out again…maybe at one of the 3,000 other shows they're playing this week.
CMJ Report: Wednesday [Amy Phillips]
All photos by William Kirk
The Knife's performance at Webster Hall last night wasn't just great, it was kind of revelatory. Olof and Karin Dreijer, dressed in black coveralls and black ski masks (or was it blackface makeup?), were just a small part of the entire immersive experience, a combination rave/art installation/laser light show.
They stood both behind and in front of screens, on which were projected trippy geometric shapes, childish drawings, and ghastly figures, and were flanked on the stage by balloons bearing images of distorted faces. The way the elaborate light show hit their own faces made the pair look alternately like jack-o-lanterns, monkeys, or bank robbers, which pretty much sums up the varying moods of the performance: mischievous, playful, terrifying.
I'm not sure how much live music the Dreijers actually performed. Karin's mouth definitely moved, and Olof was certainly hitting something with his giant drum sticks, but it wasn't clear whether or not those motions corresponded with anything inside the crystal clear, surround sound sonic stew enveloping the venue. They played rejiggered versions of Silent Shout favorites such as "Like a Pen", "We Share Our Mothers' Health", "Forest Families", and the title track, and even threw in a shimmering, subdued take on "Heartbeats". The music was flashier and more dance-oriented than on record, much closer to Euro-trance/cheese/trash than I'm used to. Of course, it sounded amazing. So we're confronted with the reality of one of the best albums of the year, by one of Pitchfork's favorite bands, delivered using tropes that send the authenticity police into fits of rage: lip-synching, silly dancing, cool light show, superclub dance beats. Does that mean the Knife's performance was insincere, or lightweight, or somehow less worthy than that of a band sweating through a set, pounding on their own instruments and pouring their hearts out on the mic? Fuck no. Does it mean that we need to alter our antiquated notions of "worthiness" and "realness" in pop music performance? Fuck yes.
The Knife [Webster Hall; 11:30 p.m.]
After being flattened by the Knife, I headed to this weird (but kinda cool) afterparty at the West Side meat market Club B.E.D. It was dubbed the "Zombie Prom", so the place was full of people with fake blood on their faces and, inexplicably, a pair of dudes dressed up like Pac-Man. (Nobody seemed to care that Halloween was a day earlier.) But the main attraction was a performance by Lupe Fiasco, who tore up the place like it was a stadium packed with screaming fans, rather than a half-full loft space populated by distracted VIPs.
I was hoping to hear him perform "The Cool", given that this was the ZOMBIE prom, and it's possible that he did, but I arrived about halfway into his set. So I caught "I Gotcha", "Kick, Push", "Daydreamin'", and other Food & Liquor tracks, as well as a mixtape cut in which he rhymes over Gorillaz. Lupe was sporting a pencil-thin moustache, and while I usually am quite anti-moustache in general, it looked pretty badass on him.
Lupe Fiasco [Club B.E.D.; 1 a.m.]
CMJ Report: Wednesday [Nitsuh Abebe]
Dr. Dog [Bowery Ballroom; 10:25 p.m.]
Wednesday night at the Bowery Ballroom felt like a Battle of the Bands' Awkward Names. The shaggy hippies of Dr. Dog played a pretty glorious pop set, but is that a medical degree that dog has? (These guys seem more homeopathic.)
Cold War Kids [Bowery Ballroom; 11:25 p.m.]
Then the skinny-jeaned Christians of Cold War Kids staggered around for a bit, their singer coming off like an embittered Taylor Hicks yelling at you from the next barstool. (The band name denotes that they grew up amid crisis and drama, man.)
Tapes 'n Tapes [Bowery Ballroom; 12:30 a.m.]
Then came Tapes 'n Tapes (where's the other apostrophe, guys?), who turned out a markedly high-energy and bottom-heavy set-- tight and professional, packed with rockers from their earlier days, and a decent distance from the slacker delicacy of their debut LP, The Loon. Don't let their half-beards fool you: These guys bounced, beamed, and thanked the kids in front politely, like a band that's enjoying success in both senses of the word "enjoy."
CMJ Report: Wednesday [Ryan Schreiber]
Professor Murder [Pianos; 10:00 p.m.]
Lit from the fading embers of dancepunk, Professor Murder's set at Pianos proved everything their Pitchfork-recommended debut EP, Professor Murder Rides the Subway, suggested: You can't bury the genre that's not dead. Drawing as much from dub's legendary forefathers as from Solid Gold-era Gang of Four, Professor Murder's mellotron-drenched, echoplex-informed art-funk packed the room. But how does a band with just a five-song EP (one of which is a 22-second segue) handle a full set? Easy: Start late, and preview plenty of new material. If the evening's performance was any indication, their forthcoming debut could be a cold-blooded killer.
Figurines [Mercury Lounge; 1:00 a.m.]
So this was the sixth time I've seen Denmark-based rockers the Figurines...since March. It's not that I go out of my way to catch them whenever they're in town (alright, I sorta do); they're just that hard-working. Their latest album, Skeleton, finally saw North American release this year after having been available in their homeland since February 2005, establishing them, in my mind, as one of this year's most underrecognized indie bands. Their shows are always competent, if not necessarily revelatory-- but last night, as on the recent Chicago stop of their just-completed U.S. tour, they were tight beyond belief, easily winning over a crowd that had mostly turned out to see...
Girl Talk [Mercury Lounge; 2:00 a.m.]
I was sure after seeing the Knife's set at Webster Hall just two hours earlier that I'd already witnessed the quintessential CMJ performance of 2006. But for all the mind-blowing spectacle that went into the Sweden electronic duo's psilocybic special effects, Girl Talk's DJ/not-DJ set at Mercury Lounge was way more fun. Blowing up the show we saw at Chicago's Empty Bottle in September for a stage nearly twice the size, GT mastermind Gregg Gillis wasn't 10 minutes into his set before he'd invited up more than 50 people to dance (and eventually strip him to his underwear).
Girl Talk records give the impression of slaved-over mash-ups, meticulously stretched and pitchshifted to sync flawlessly, but last night's set list was worlds apart from the one I'd seen just over a month earlier, suggesting he may work faster than anyone realizes. In addition to completely reworking popular moments from the awesome Night Ripper, he also made room for brand new cuts (including Kelis' "Bossy" and Nelly Furtado's "Maneater"), spontaneously connecting one track to the next. Playing well beyond his usual 45 minutes, he finished out the set by announcing, "I promised I wouldn't pull out this Nirvana shit tonight, but...", ending an already massive set with his notoriously PA-shattering cover of "Scentless Apprentice". By the time it was all over, at 3:00 in the morning, the crowd was half-naked, drenched in beer, sweat, and a little blood from that one poor stagediver-- and ready to get back up at noon the next day and start all over again.
CMJ Report: Tuesday [Marc Hogan]
The Rapture [Bowery Ballroom; 11 p.m.]
Photo by Brendan Reid.
Season's greetings from the Rapture's singer/bassist, Mattie Safer: "What's up, Halloweiners?" Other than statuesque rockstar frontman Luke Jenner's too-short skeleton costume pantlegs, he must've meant. Jenner's exposed ankles and the band's cute, playfully choreographed "Monster Mash" entrance added welcome unpretentiousness to a night of taut dance-rock, lofty vocal yowls, and costume-wearing indie kids who apparently still remembered learning how to dance. Newer songs like "The Devil" reached the spooks up in the rafters, but older favorites like "House of Jealous Lovers" and "Sister Savior" provoked the most frenzied funky-getting. Out of the races, and on till All Saints' Day.
CMJ Kickoff Guide
Let's Get It: CMJ Motivation 101
Is this it? Sure is, kid. The 2006 CMJ New Music Marathon officially kicks off today with the first round of showcases, film premieres, and star-studded panels galore, and runs through this Saturday, November 4. Worried that big, scary New York City, its spookily-costumed masses, and its myriad venues might swallow you whole? Read on, my friend, for some Pitchfork-approved showcase suggestions, a panel primer, and a few cinematic choices. [MORE...]
!K7 Turns 21, Parties, Preps Henrik Schwarz DJ-Kicks
Hey party people: buy !K7 a drink this November, as the venerable electronic/dance imprint celebrates the big twenty-one. Originally launched as a video production company in 1985, !K7 has gone on to release quality records by some of the dancefloor's biggest names-- including this year's Herbert smash, Scale, and the DJ-Kicks series. To commemorate this coming of age (as U.S. law would have it, anyhow), !K7 will host three nights of hijinx in London from November 14-16. !K7 and two of its subsidiaries-- hip-hop/soul label Rapster and indie imprint Ever-- will each curate a night apiece of live music and photo exhibitions, going down at London's Phonica, Luminaire, and KOKO. Performers include Herbert, France's Cyann & Ben, and new !K7 signing Henrik Schwarz. Full details below.
Adulthood doesn't mean slowing down for always-prolific !K7, however, as the label keeps churning out those DJ-Kicks mixes. The latest, featuring Berlin-based Schwarz, hit shops abroad earlier this month and graces U.S. shores on October 31.
A relative newcomer, Schwarz gained notoriety for a spate of 12"s and a few high profile remixes, including tries at Coldcut and Alex Smoke. His DJ-Kicks disc sees him mixing a broad palette of styles, with everything from James Brown, D'Angelo, and Marvin Gaye rubbing up against cuts from Rhythm & Sound, Arthur Russell, and Schwarz's own material. Click on the interview below to hear Schwarz discuss his influences, selections, and computer-based mixing process.
Folks who scoop up the CD version of this DJ-Kicks will be pleased to find a special download code that provides access to an alternative version of Schwarz's mix, while 12" purchasers will be treated to an exclusive download track.
And start practicing those club moves now, because according to a press release, the next installment of DJ-Kicks will be mixed by none other than Hot Chip. [MORE...]
Clinic, Parts & Labor to Play Audioscope06
Also Piano Magic, Magnétophone & Sonic Boom
Cut all that gimme shelter B.S. and give to Shelter, the UK housing charity proudly supported by indie fest Audioscope06.
Tomorrow afternoon and evening holds this Oxford, England event, now in its sixth year. Musicians scheduled to perform include Clinic (in their last-known UK date of the year), Magnétophone & Sonic Boom (aka Peter Kember of Spacemen 3), Parts & Labor, Piano Magic, I'm Being Good, Kids in Tracksuits, the Rock of Travolta, Trencher, and Sunnybale Noise Sub-Element. All proceeds from Audioscope06 will go to Shelter.
Lollapalooza Inks 5-Year Deal
2007 Dates Announced
Looks like we're in for five more festival-filled summers here in Chicago. Yesterday, Lollapalooza's organizers signed a contract with the city to hold their annual extravaganza in downtown's Grant Park through 2011. In exchange for the privilege of bringing boatloads of bands to the beautiful lakefront location, Lollapalooza will pay five million dollars to the Chicago Park District's Parkways Foundation, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.
The money will go towards "our ability to fund new projects, youth programs and greening initiatives throughout Chicago's parks," according to a quote from Parkways Foundation president Laura Barnett in a press release.
The 2007 festival will take place August 3-5, and according to the Sun-Times, may include up to 15,000 more people allowed per day, bringing the daily total up from 60,000 to 75,000, if the event sells out. That's a lot of Porta Potties.
Elf Power, Melvins, Patton Oswalt Perform for Chunklet
So do the Jesus Lizard's David Yow, Harvey Milk, Zach Galifianakis, Big Business, and more
Who in their right mind
throws a four-day bash in celebration of their 13-year anniversary? Chunklet
Magazine, clearly. The publication has prepared an action-packed blowout to run
from today through Sunday evening, and a slew of its favorite artists (and
comedians, and puppet show acts) are diving in headfirst for the party. Of course, all of these bands suck and are totally overrated.
The Melvins ft. David Yow (the Jesus Lizard), Patton Oswalt, Zach Galiafinakis, Elf Power, Jon Wurster (Superchunk, Scharpling and Wurster), Harvey Milk, Tenement Halls, the Rattler, Big Business (performing in and before the Melvins), puppet crew Pull the String Players, and some special guests (for Day One) are all scheduled to perform at one (or more) of four Georgia venues this weekend-- the 40 Watt Club, the Drunken Unicorn, Variety Playhouse, and WhirlyBall Atlanta. The last place will serve as an arena for "Team Chunklet" to take on the Melvins/Big Business in a mean game of Whirlyball.
A limited edition 7" featuring exclusive material from both the Melvins and Patton Oswalt and artwork from master designer (he did the Pitchfork Music Festival poster!) Jay Ryan of the Bird Machine will be made available at each show. It looks like this and this. [MORE...]
Photos: Iceland Airwaves Festival Pt. 4 [Reykjavik; 10/21/06]
Photos by Leó Stefánsson unless otherwise indicated. Click for parts one, two, and three.The final night of Iceland Airwaves really didn't feel like the final night for two reasons: first of all, Sunday night-- featuring a single local showcase-- is actually the final night. Secondly, it felt a bit anti-climactic after Friday's incredibly strong lineup. This is not to say that it made one bit of a difference to the inebriated locals and foreigners wandering the streets-- Reykjavik, for better or worse, might just be the drunkest city in the world: witness the hipster kid jumping on the hood of a passing car and shattering the windshield with a swift kick. No one batted an eye.
The night began much less violently with Nortón's set at Gaukurinn. These young Icelandic musicians (including photographer Leó Stefánsson) play in various Reykjavik bands, and have combined here to bring back 1980s Clash/Blondie disco, jerky electro, and funky house. The initially sparse crowd grew as the band tested the dancefloor with trombone, keys, guitar, and laptop.
At Iðnó, Icelandic chanteuse Kira Kira (aka Kristin Björk Kristjansdottir) began her set to a darkened, hushed theater. Comparisons to another Icelandic Björk are tempting here, but not really accurate, as her childlike voice floated in and out of ambient electronics and ethereal piano tones.
Over in the National Theatre Basement, Hjatalin, who've had several radio hits this past summer, played somber, adult contemporary love songs for an adoring, youthful crowd. Back at Nasa, popular Icelandic band Benny Crespo's Gang performed confident, sweeping alt-rock to a more lively audience.
The UK's Fields were up next, and this possible next big thing began their set with perfectly harmonized vocals before launching into their thankfully not post-punk-referencing indie rock-- it's just nice to hear something different once in a while.
Finally, over at the Reykjavik Art Museum, the decidedly post-punk-referencing sibling act the Cribs (pictured above) were wrapping up, using their guitars in an onstage light saber duel. The headliner of the night, Kaiser Chiefs, closed the night and peppered their vivacious set with cheesy quips like, "You're a good-looking people!" and "So I heard Reykjavik likes to drink!" This is a medium-sized band with one album and an arena-rock mentality, and while their music is tight and fun, they can lay it on pretty thick.
And that about wraps up Iceland Airwaves for this year. This well-run festival is much smaller than the continental behemoths that rule the European summers, but the unbelievable zest for music and celebration in Reykjavik made these past four nights feel much larger than they were.
More photos ahead. [MORE...]
Photos: Iceland Airwaves Festival Pt. 3 [Reykjavik; 10/20/06]
Photos by Leó Stefánsson. Click for parts one and two.As the Reykjavik weekend got into full swing, night three of Iceland Airwaves found the venues completely packed, the streets flooded with music fans, and the city full of staggering drunks roaming about until six in the morning.
The night began with the wonderful Benni Hemm Hemm at the Reykjavik Art Museum. Benni's sentimental ballads draw as much from lo-fi indie as they do from country, and are enhanced by a full brass section that flares up at the appropriate moments, lending his performance an epic quality.
Up next were crowd-favorite Canadians Islands, dressed all in white and playing their indie-rock showtunes like their lives depended on it. Nick Diamonds even graciously busted out a new tune for the eager audience, a promise of good things to come from this band.
This was a hard act to follow, but Iceland's Apparat Organ Quartet (pictured above, and really a quintet-- doesn't the drummer count?) was up for the challenge. Playing a mad scientist array of vintage synths and organs, the Quartet, crisply attired in smart suits, blazed through poppy electro and massive industrial waves of analog sound.
Over at Gaukurinn, Icelandic favorites Jeff Who? pressed their new wave-influenced power-pop into the faces of what seemed like a dangerously over-capacity crowd. If one person moved, everybody moved in this morass of flesh and beer. And move they did, as the audience sang along over throbbing basslines and caterwauling synths, clearly showing their approval for this popular band.
But the obvious focus of the night was Wolf Parade. After taking the stage and dealing with some feedback problems, the band launched into its catalogue of quirky rock with boundless energy. The vocals may have been buried in the mix and two keys may have broken off a keyboard, but nobody gave a shit. Wolf Parade owned the night, creatively enhancing the songs from their debut, Apologies to the Queen Mary, with moments of improv and uninhibited gusto.
Click on by tomorrow for Pitchfork's final Iceland Airwaves installment. [MORE...]
Hold Steady's Nicolay, Talib Kweli Play Peace Fair
Dead Prez's M-1 leads "youth peace contest." No, seriously.
The fourth annual Brooklyn Peace Fair takes place this weekend, and artists ranging from Franz Nicolay of the Hold Steady (playing with Anti-Social Music) to (hopefully) Talib Kweli will play at the festival, which is comprised of "200 local organizations participating in a day of workshops, panel discussions, keynote speeches, music, and art," according to a press release.Before the event itself takes place this Sunday, October 22, there is a benefit concert scheduled for tomorrow at Supreme Trading, the proceeds from which will benefit Brooklyn Parents for Peace, the non-profit organization behind the Peace Fair. Artists playing the concert include the Shapes, Dabrye remixer Outputmessage (who also has a DJ set toward the end of night), and Matthew Perpetua of the wonderful Fluxblog (thanks for new the Long Blondes track and for turning us on to Shrag, man!), whose DJ set will close out the night.
The artists performing at the actual fair on Sunday include Anti-Social Music (a group that includes the Hold Steady's Franz Nicolay, Songs: Ohia contributor Peter Hess, and Ida/Beauty Pill member Jean Cook), Beans, Jeffrey & Jack Lewis, Jason Trachtenburg of the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls duo Magnolia, and, tentatively, Talib Kweli.
The true draws of the fair, however, are sure to be the "peace dance" and the "youth peace contest, moderated by M-1 of Dead Prez," which is like some sort of peace snake eating its own tail, i.e. exactly 17 overlapping kinds of awesome. [MORE...]
Exclusive: Sebadoh, Ted Leo to Play Noise Pop
Also John Vanderslice, Jolie Holland
Since its inception in 1993, San Francisco's Noise Pop festival has grown into one of the most respected indie rock extravaganzas in the country. In 2007, the festival will celebrate its 15th anniversary from February 27-March 4, and it has invited some stellar guests to the party.
So far, the reunited original lineup of Sebadoh, Teo Leo/Pharmacists, John Vanderslice, and Jolie Holland have all RSVPed to the event, and many others are on the way.
In addition to the tunes, Noise Pop will put on its first-ever Noise Pop Expo, a two-day event (March 3-4) featuring panels, a designer fair, art installations, a poster show, and more. It will also hold its annual film festival.
Photos: Iceland Airwaves Festival Pt. 2 [Reykjavik; 10/19/06]
Photos by Leó Stefánsson, unless otherwise indiciated. Scope part one here. Night two of Iceland Airwaves 2006 began at the Reykjavik Art Museum, a beautiful modern space that has been temporarily transformed into a concert venue for the duration of the festival. The sound was immaculate and the set times tight, as has been the case for much of the festival thus far.
First up, the always dependable and eternally cutesy Mates of State. Was that another cover of Gnarls Barkley summerjam "Crazy", heavy on the melodrama, thrown into the end of the set? Indeed, and the attendees ate it up. Up next was Hot Club de Paris. This Liverpool trio-- and recent Moshi Moshi signing-- rocks the a cappella and tight, jerky post-punk in a fashion very similar to the Futureheads. And they had the appropriate jokes, noting that there's a chain of grocery stores in the UK called Iceland. Again, the crowd loved it. And why not? We needed to get primed for the amazing tap-dancing circus that is Tilly and the Wall, whose whirling dervish performance was a true celebration on stage and plastered dreamy smiles upon every face.
Elsewhere, Nico Muhly, an American Julliard graduate, performed his neo-classical experiments with Icelandic super-producer Valgeir Sigurdsson (Björk, Bonnie "Prince" Billy's The Letting Go). But this festival is all about kinetic energy, so a trip over to Nasa to see hardcore kingpins and hometown heroes Reykjavik! next didn't feel out of place at all. The screechy Blood Brothers/At the Drive-In-style rawk got a bit tiresome, but Emily Haines-fronted Metric were there to pick up the slack with their dreamy and occasionally aggressive Canuck pop. Unabashedly soaking up the adoring crowd's sweat and cheers, the band didn't skimp on the prolonged jams.
Finally, rounding out the night was Sweden's amazing Love Is All (pictured above), who skronked out their no-wave roots with incredible tightness, muted scratch guitar, and dying-goose saxophone ablaze. Rumor has it that the weekends in Reykjavik find the kids smashing their beer glasses in the streets, so tonight I'll be wearing my galoshes.
Stay tuned for installments from Iceland Airwaves through the weekend. More photos ahead. [MORE...]
Nick Cave, Low, Magnolia Electric Co. to Play ATP
The lineup for the Dirty Three-curated All Tomorrow's Parties festival is shaping up to be typically high-quality for ATP, with Nick Cave (playing solo), Low, Magnolia Electric Co., Brokeback (aka Tortoise bassist Douglas McCombs), Tara Jane O'Neil, the Drones, Faun Fables, Grinderman, and Papa M (aka Slint/Will Oldham/Stereolab/Tortoise/Zwan member/collaborator David Pajo), in addition to Dirty Three themselves.
As previously reported, Dirty Three's ATP will occur April 27-29, 2007 at Butlins Minehead in Somerset, England.
Arthur Nights Kicks Off Tonight
Kyp Malone of TVOTR, Van Dyke Parks added
L.A. is getting a whole lot freakier this week, as Arthur Magazine (in conjunction with the Echo Presents and Spaceland Productions) launches its Arthur Nights festival tonight.
The event, which runs from today, October 19, through Sunday, October 22, is set to take place at Los Angeles' Palace Theater. It was moved from its original locations, the Echo, Ex_Plx, and Jensen's Rec Center.
Lineup highlights, many previously reported, include Devendra Banhart, Boris, Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio, Comets on Fire, Fiery Furnaces, Ruthann Friedmann, Six Organs of Admittance, Be Your Own Pet, Wooden Wand, Charalambides, OM, Josephine Foster, Archie Bronson Outfit, Espers, Belong, the Howling Hex, the Nice Boys, and Bert Jansch. Dirty Three's Jim White will drum with White Magic, and the legendary Van Dyke Parks will join Living Sisters, the acoustic trio of Inara George, Eleni Mandell, and Becky Stark (Lavender Diamond).
Visit the festival's website for a full artist list.
Dirty Three Curate ATP, Rock Asia, Exhibit Art
Australian mostly-instrumental rockers Dirty Three will curate the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in 2007, which will take place April 27-29 at Butlins in Minehead in Somerset, England. The lineup has yet to be announced, but tickets for the event are on sale now.
Before then, the trio will leave their home continent for somewhere a little closer but no less exotic: Asia. They will play five dates in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Malaysia beginning October 26 at Shanghai's Yun-Feng Theater. And on October 21, Dirty Three drummer Jim White will play with White Magic at the Palace Theater in Los Angeles as part of the Arthur Nights festival.
Finally, things get truly multimediary with the exhibition of Dirty Three guitarist Mick Turner's paintings at the blank space gallery in Sydney, Australia. Turner's paintings have served as the cover art for all seven Dirty Three albums, and this exhibition is part of a Sydney/Melbourne gallery swap with BRIGHTSPACE, where Turner's March show sold out. His blank_space show is called "New Works: Canvas, Print & Bronze". It opens October 19 and runs through October 23. [MORE...]
CMJ Schedule Revealed
Decemberists, Albert Hammond Jr., the Fall, Malajube added
Forget every non-music-related item you know, and make some space in that brain for the 2006 CMJ Music Marathon lineup. As previously reported, the artist list for the NYC event, taking place October 31-November 4, is downright gigantic, and it seems to be getting bigger by the second. Since our last story, the Decemberists, the Strokes' Albert Hammond, Jr., the Blow, the Cardigans, Chin Up Chin Up, Malajube, Mary Timony, Gang Gang Dance, the Fall, and many, many more have been added.
The full schedule can be found here.
In addition to the slew of
bands, CMJ will host a series of film events, including
advance screenings of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit
Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan with a special appearance by Borat himself and Oasis-- Lord Don't Slow Me Down with a special appearance by Noel Gallagher himself. Who is more of a comedic character? You decide!
As usual, there will be a number of panels in addition to the multimedia extravaganza. This year's panelists include Chuck D, George Clinton, Janeane Garofalo, A-Trak, Gibby Haynes of Butthole Surfers, Nina Persson of the Cardigans, Hi-Tek, Dr. Know of Bad Brains, Steve Earle, Adam Green, the muthafuckin Insane Clown Posse, and Pitchfork Senior News Editor Amy Phillips. [MORE...]
Photos: Iceland Airwaves Festival Pt. 1 [Reykjavik; 10/18/06]
All photos by Leó Stefánsson unless otherwise indicated.
As the first night of the 2006 Iceland Airwaves festival got underway, the kids poured into the freezing cold streets of the vibrant city of Reykjavik-- a precursor to the madness to come as the weekend approaches, the bands get bigger, and the crowds get drunker. This night was mostly made up of Icelandic bands, of which there seems to be an endless supply-- and several of these very young musicians proved their mettle.
At Grand Rokk, a venue right off the main shopping street of the city center, the teenage Retro Stefson (pictured above)-- a rambunctious bunch of kids-- injected a healthy dose of bossa nova into their blend of keys, samplers, and guitars. They wrapped up their set with an impromptu cover of Wu-Tang Clan's "Ain't Nothin' ta Fuck Wit". Apparently, neither are they.
Retro Stefson were followed by the workhorse power-pop of Spengjuhöllin. But the highlight of the night was the singer-songwriter Helgi Valur, performing at a small bar called Dillon. His backing band, consisting of trombone, cello, bass, and drums, lent his raw, folksy, Springsteen-esque rock a vigor much appreciated by the small crowd.
Finally, last night ratified the dubious concept of Icelandic hip hop, with Original Melody and Forgotten Lores performing to a rapturous crowd at Nasa. Rapping in English and Icelandic, these crews brought the motherfucking ruckus like they invented the shit.
And it only gets better from here. Keep your mouse situated at the Fork for more photo installments from the Iceland Airwaves festival, which continues through Sunday. [MORE...]
Mountain Goats, Man Man, Portastatic Play Troika Fest
So do Okkervil River, Asobi Seksu
Next stop: Durham, NC for the fifth annual Troika Music Festival. From Wednesday, October 18 through Saturday the 21, downtown Durham will become an indie rock haven, featuring bands like Man Man, Mountain Goats, Portastatic, Okkervil River, Asobi Seksu, Jennifer O'Connor, Two Ton Boa, and many more, with a specific concentration on local acts.
The four-day event will take place at various venues across the city. Click here for a full event schedule.
Pop Montreal, FMC Policy Summit Kick Off
Joanna Newsom, Tapes 'n Tapes to play, Arcade Fire, Islands, Stars members to talk
O Canada! As previously reported, the annual Pop Montreal festival kicks off this evening. You lucky people get five days (October 4-8) of music from the creme of the indie and sorta-indie crop, including Joanna Newsom, Spank Rock, Akron/Family, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Tapes 'n Tapes, Vashti Bunyan, Dr. Octagon, Regina Spektor, Cadence Weapon, the Russian Futurists, Beirut, Portastatic, Harvey Danger, Sunset Rubdown, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Islands, and Memphis.
Since our last story ran, the fest has added Roky Erikson, Islands, the Constantines, Dirty on Purpose, Flosstradamus, Subtitle, A-Trak, Two Gallants, Damien Jurado, Born Ruffians, So Many Dynamos, Tokyo Police Club, Professor Murder, Chromatics, Earl Greyhound, and more.
Unfortunately, Vitalic seems to have canceled his North American tour, so he won't be appearing. [MORE...]
Go! Team, Wolf Parade, Love Is All Hit Iceland Airwaves
With the summer festival season officially over, it's time to jet off to some slightly more exotic locales for your monthly live music bender. October's destination: Reykjavik, Iceland.
The Icelandic capitol plays host to the 2006 edition of the Iceland Airwaves Festival, held at various venues in downtown Reykjavik from October 18-22. The line-up features international favorites like the Go! Team, Wolf Parade, Love Is All, Metric, Architecture in Helsinki, Kaiser Chiefs, Islands, Mates of State, Metric, Brazilian Girls, Tilly and the Wall, 120 Days, Dälek, Klaxons, the Cribs, Fields, the Whitest Boy Alive, Datarock, Walter Meego, We Are Scientists, and more.
These foreigners will play alongside tons of local Icelandic acts, including Jóhann Jóhannsson, Mugison, Apparat Organ Quartet (not the Ellen Allien collaborator), Benni Hemm Hemm, Leaves, Worm Is Green, a band called Tony the Pony, and former Sugarcube Einar Örn's Ghostigital.
Ghostigital will also curate an Airwaves event that includes Dälek and others. As previously reported, the reunited Sugarcubes will play a one-off gig in Reykjavik on November 17 (i.e., NOT during the festival).
In all, over 180 artists will perform at this year's Iceland Airwaves. For a complete list, click here. Assorted clubs, record labels, and publications will host events at the festival, including Vice, Moshi Moshi Records, Kerrang!, Drowned in Sound, Bedroom Community Records, Breakbeat.Is Club, and Kronik Club.
Are the logistics of traveling to Iceland making your brain spin? Festival sponsor Icelandair is offering package deals that include festival tickets, airfare, and hotel accommodations in "Europe's hottest nightlife city," Reykjavik. Before you run off with daddy's credit card, however, be aware that festival attendees must be at least 20 years of age.
Talib Kweli Returns With New Album
Kicking mad new flava in ya Ear Drum
Respected by hard-hitting MCs (including Jay-Z and 50 Cent) and scrawny, Liberal Arts degree-toting white kids alike, Black Star hip-hopper Talib Kweli returns this November with his latest longplayer, Ear Drum. Kweli's own label, Blacksmith Records (partnered with Warner Bros.) will release the disc, which follows up 2004's The Beautiful Struggle. Ear Drum sees Kweli spitting more of that slick but thought-provoking street poetry you've come to love from the man, and includes guest spots from frequent Kweli recording partner and DJ/producer Hi-Tek, Southern rap legends UGK, embattled songstress Norah Jones, reggae star Sizzla, and MC-on-the-rise Jean Grae.
If reading about this is making you anxious, click below for a stream and video of the first single off Ear Drum, the Kwame-produced "Listen". [MORE...]
Lollapalooza Hawks Sleater-Kinney, Hold Steady MP3s
Cutting-edge mics capture complete experience, including that dipshit on the cellphone
Victim of Post-Lollapalooza Withdrawal Disorder? Perry Ferrell's got you covered. The ex-Jane's Addiction frontman and his ever-growing festival enterprise Lollapalooza will soon make available for purchase digital recordings from the 2006 event, which went down from August 4-6 at Chicago's Grant Park with 130 bands and tens of thousands of your closest friends (including your friendly neighborhood 'fork). This means live recordings of all your Lolla favs, including what appear to be full sets from the Hold Steady, Stars, Be Your Own Pet, Editors, Deadboy & the Elephantmen, and Smoking Popes, along with assorted tunes from Sleater-Kinney (their last-ever Chicago gig), Broken Social Scene, the Go! Team, Iron & Wine, Andrew Bird, Cursive, Wolfmother, Lyrics Born, the Frames, and more-- 26 performers in all.
The tunes will be available in two formats: plain ol' mp3, and snazzy FLAC, a CD-quality type of file that takes up hella space on your harddrive. Click away at www.livelollapalooza.com beginning October 19 when the website launches (according to mtv.com)-- or snag them from iTunes beginning right now.
Animal Collective's Geologist, Bishop Allen Play DAM!
Plus Bound Stems, Dirty on Purpose, Early Day Miners
In support of the DC music scene, the inaugural District's Awake! Music Festival will showcase a variety of national "buzz bands" and notable hometown acts (that aren't Fugazi) for three days of live music in our nation's capital. The city-wide extravaganza takes place from October 26 through 28 and features artists such as Longwave, Travis Morrison, Geologist (of Animal Collective), Cloud Cult, Dirty on Purpose, Bishop Allen, Early Day Miners, Bound Stems, Decibully, Hopewell, the Oranges Band, and more. Organized by musicians, artists, promoters, writers, web-publishers, venue owners, and entrepreneurs, the DAM! event is similar to San Francisco's Noise Pop Festival and Pop Montreal in its goal, politically speaking, which is to increase the city's visibility on the national music radar.
Of the DAM! Festival, President Bush commented, "I like damn music. So long as it brings about freedom and liberty."
(OK, kidding. But W does have his jams.)
PJ Harvey, Newsom, New Pornos Rock New Yorker
Throw your reading glasses in the air and wave 'em like you just don't care
When we think of The New Yorker, we think of hard-hitting investigative reporting, confusing cartoons, and that drawing of the snooty guy with spectacles and a top hat. We certainly don't think of ROCK AND MOTHERFUCKING ROLL. (Except when they run those funny pieces that try to explain Houston rap or reggaeton to rich white people.)
But next weekend, The New Yorker is all about the rock. Well, sort of. As part of their seventh annual New Yorker Festival, "a celebratory weekend of public discourse on arts and ideas" taking place October 6-8 at venues throughout the city, the magazine will host a series of musical events...and one sure-to-be-awkward dance party.
On Saturday, October 7, PJ Harvey will perform as well as chat with theatre critic Hilton Als at the Supper Club. Later that night, at that same venue, Randy Newman will talk with editor Susan Morrison, and at Newspace, the New Pornographers will hang out with James Surowiecki, the guy who does the Financial Page. So he and Carl Newman can trade stock tips. Down in Brooklyn, at the waterfront venue BargeMusic, Joanna Newsom will perform and talk shop with fellow "composers on the edge" Mason Bates, Corey Dargel, and Nico Muhly, as well as critic Alex Ross. [MORE...]
Photos: Wire Fest [Empty Bottle; Chicago, IL; 09/22/06]
Eclecticism reigned once again at Chicago's Empty Bottle Friday night, as The Wire brought together four acts from three different continents to play the third night of the Adventures in Modern Music festival (for a recap of night one, click here). The grab bag bill included Brazil's Tetine, France's Colleen, Portland's Yellow Swans, and Chicago's own Spires That in the Sunset Rise. [MORE...]
Flaming Lips, Wu-Tang, BSS to Play Voodoo Fest
A crazy bitch named Katrina may have temporarily displaced the festival last year, but New Orleans' Voodoo Music Experience returns to the area's City Park district this coming Halloween weekend, celebrating its eighth anniversary. The two day event, going down October 28 and 29, features performances from a number of 'fork-friendly acts, including: the Flaming Lips, Wu-Tang Clan, Broken Social Scene, the Fiery Furnaces, Drive-By Truckers, Jamie Lidell, Secret Machines, the Rentals, Brazilian Girls, Duran Duran, the reunited original lineup of Nola's beloved Meters, and P4kHQ guilty pleasures My Chemical Romance and Ferry Corsten.
Also onboard: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Shooter Jennings, Blue October, Kings of Leon, Jack's Mannequin, and loads of regional favorites. The festival's website promises more acts will be announced soon. Full line-up ahead.
Weekend passes for Voodoo are on sale now, while those willing to pony up a few (hundred) bucks more gain access to some sort of frou-frou VIP lounge. Swank! [MORE...]
Photos: Wire Fest [Chicago, IL; Empty Bottle; 09/20/06]
The Wire's 2006 Adventures in Modern Music festival kicked off at Chicago's Empty Bottle Wednesday night with a typically eclectic bill, featuring ambient laptopper Tim Hecker, nu-folkie Jana Hunter, metal ensemble Rhys Chatham's Essentialist, and, in an extremely rare live appearance-- one of his first since he began releasing records nearly 30 years ago-- the mysterious blues-man Jandek. [MORE...]
Yo La Tengo, Ladytron, BYOP Play NEMO
Plus over 297 other bands
Finding NEMO shouldn't be a problem, as the massive three-day festival takes over practically every live venue in Boston from September 28-30.
A networking event for artists and music industry peeps, the NEMO Music Festival and Conference also features nightly showcases from over 300 local and national acts, including Dr. Octagon, Yo La Tengo, Ladytron, Be Your Own Pet, the Long Winters, the Black Lips, 7L & Esoteric, Diamond Nights, Joseph Arthur, and Fancey, to name a few.
This year's NEMO Music Fest places particular emphasis on helping artists take their careers to the NEXT LEVEL. In addition to offering performance clinics, a music industry trade show, and panel discussions, the organization will also host the Boston Music Awards. This event raises money for the NEMO Scholarship Fund, granted to musically gifted students in need of financial aid. Sweet.
El Perro del Mar, Vetiver Play Solid Music Fest
Plus Final Fantasy, Quintron & Miss Pussycat
Not all good festivals happen in outdoor parks in the summertime. Some happen in Turkish wedding halls in Germany in the fall, like the first-ever Solid Arts and Music Festival. Featuring music from Final Fantasy, Vetiver, El Perro del Mar, Quintron and Miss Pussycat, XBXRX, Adem, and more, the two-day event also includes an art exhibition, poetry, and performance.
"We started this spring to curate two evenings of music in a Turkish wedding hall...in Berlin Kreuzberg," the festival coordinators explained, "Why? Because we were bored, seriously. In the beginning it was just about two evenings of music we love-- challenging, interesting, passionate artists from all over the place. And then we also started to invite artists for a little exhibition in the venue nearby...and a little beautiful thing started."
The little beautiful thing takes place September 29 and 30 at Festsaal-Kreuzberg and the West Germany Gallery.
Devendra, Tamborello, Saul Williams Play Dublab Event
How about taking a break from those routine Saturday night visits to the local 24-hour hipster diner to hit up a top secret Los Angeles destination with Devendra Banhart, Jimmy Tamborello, Daedelus, Saul Williams, Mia Doi Todd, and a variety of other celebs? Internet radio station Dublab and ArtDontSleep can make it happen.
In celebration of Dublab's seven-year anniversary and John Coltrane's birthday, the former will put on a concert event featuring the artists listed above (some on DJ duty), as well as "motion graphics", a poster exhibition, "live screen-printing" from, a "magic photo booth", and more.
The festivities run from 7pm-2am this Saturday evening/Sunday morning, with all proceeds benefiting, quoth a press release, "Dublab's positive music mission."
To uncover the party's location, confirm your attendance here.
Full roster of performers after the jump. [MORE...]
KF Whitman, Dresden Dolls Play Brainwaves
KT Tunstall, GWAR, Tears for Fears play Totally Made Up Fest
The mighty Brainwashed.com-- one of Pitchfork's fellow alums from the Internet class of 1996-- will this year celebrate its tenth year of online operations. Besides offering streaming audio/video and original editorial content on musical matters over the years, Brainwashed has also made itself super-useful by hosting the websites of numerous indie bands (!!!, Tortoise, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Antony and the Johnsons, etc.) and labels (Kranky, Stormy, Terminal Kaleidoscope, Tigerbeat6, Ba Da Bing!, etc.), as well as the site's own recording label, Brainwashed Recordings. A successful, decade-long go at this calls for a party, and party they shall-- festival stylee! Hence, the Brainwaves Festival takes up residence at Arlington, Massachusetts' Regent Theatre from November 17-19.
With four "sets" spread over three days, Brainwaves will feature performances by Keith Fullerton Whitman, Stephen Stapleton (as DJ) and Colin Potter of Nurse With Wound, Greg Davis, Edward Ka-Spel and Silverman, Christoph Heemann, Andreas Martin, Volcano the Bear, Windy & Carl, Jessica Bailiff, Landing, and more-- including, oddly enough, the Dresden Dolls. Full lineup ahead.
Brainwashed founder and main-brain Jon Whitney told Pitchfork via email that he's predicted "surprised, unannounced guest appearances" because several unconfirmed performers "don't know if they can commit, or don't know about getting into the country, or don't want to be ambushed by the vicious indie paparazzi" (gulp!). [MORE...]
Of Montreal, Man Man, Danielson Rock Pygmalion Fest
David Bazan, Elf Power join in
C-U in Champaign-Urbana in a week, college town scenesters. From September 20-23, this hyphenated haven will host the second annual Pygmalion Music Festival, curated by Nicodemus Agency and Polyvinyl Records.
The lineup includes Of Montreal, Man Man, Danielson, David Bazan, the Life and Times, Howling Hex, Elf Power, Headlights, Owen, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Murder by Death, the City on Film, Margot and the Nuclear So and So's, Weird Weeds, Murder by Death, Metal Hearts, Unwed Sailor, and more.
Acts will perform at one of seven venues across C-U: the Canopy Club, Courtyard Cafe, Cowboy Monkey, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Mike N Molly's, the Highdive, and the Iron Post.
In addition, Pygmalion will put on a free closing night post-party at the Iron Post on September 24. So far, Water Between Continents and Casey Dienel are scheduled to celebrate the occasion, as well as a slew of top-secret special guest appearances by C-U hometownies.
Sufjan, Band of Horses, Wrens Play Paste Fest
So do Magnolia Electric Co., Beirut, José González, and more
Paste Magazine does more than tell your mom what music to listen to and provide freelance paychecks for several Pitchfork staffers. It also puts on quality rock music festivals featuring bands we aren't afraid to endorse.
The second annual Rock n Reel Festival takes place September 15-24 at clubs across Atlanta, Georgia, including the Earl, Variety Playhouse, Fox Theatre, and East Atlanta Strut.
The festival's full artist lineup features 50+ bands/musicians. Highlights include Sufjan Stevens, Band of Horses, Beirut, Magnolia Electric Co., the Wrens, José González, Death Vessel, My Brightest Diamond, Now It's Overhead, Richard Buckner, Eric Bachmann, Chad VanGaalen, French Kicks, Supersystem, the Little Ones, and more.
As its name suggests, Rock n Reel also screens movies. The festival is currently holding an online short film competition, which can be accessed here.
Clipse, Shins, Girl Talk, Thermals Added to CMJ
Also: Tapes 'n Tapes, Magnolia Electric Co., CSS, Beach House, George Clinton
CMJ has announced even more performers for its previously reported fall extravaganza, the CMJ Music Marathon, which kicks off in NYC on October 31 and runs through November 4. Predictably, the additions are pretty incredible, running the gamut from the indie-normous (the Shins) to recent favorites (the Thermals) to the lame (Medeski, Martin and Wood).
But the name that made us don sackcloth and ashes, burn all of our earthly belongings, and weep with joy in thanks, is Clipse. Now that all of our shit's burnt up, we're not quite sure how we're going to get to New York, but we'll find a way.
Unfortunately, the Boy Least Likely To have canceled their appearance at the festival. We're not sure why, but we hope they're not beefing with Clipse. No offense to the British duo, but we're pretty sure Pusha and Malice would win that one.
[MORE...]
Future of Music Coalition Takes on Musician Healthcare
Prepares for Policy Summit 2006
If you're an indie musician, supporting yourself is standard operating procedure. But while some methods of self-support are taken for granted, others are almost ignored entirely. Just ask Jenny Toomey, former frontwoman of Tsunami, co-head of the now-defunct Simple Machines label, and Executive Director of the Future of Music Coalition. "Indie bands need to learn how to sell their own CDs at gigs or silkscreen their own t-shirts or sometimes sleep on floors to save money. [Those] things are just givens in the DIY scene. Getting your own health insurance should be one of those things," Toomey said in a recent interview with Pitchfork.In order to accomplish this, the FMC has launched HINT, the Health Insurance Navigation Tool. Funded by a grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the HINT program offers free, confidential thirty-minute phone consultations in which the ins and outs of insurance are explained to musicians in order to help them find the resources that will best meet their needs. It is the FMC's hope that these consultations will demystify the process of obtaining affordable health insurance and assist in identifying organizations aimed specifically at helping musicians.
HINT has been around for "about a year," but Toomey said the FMC is pushing the program now because "I just don't think it's getting enough usage. We initially believed this was something that, 'If you build it, they will come.' But I think there's a lot of shame and a lot of denial in the music community about [getting health insurance]. A lot of musicians are young, so they deny. If you can convince yourself that you don't need to spend another hundred dollars a month to protect yourself from financial ruin, you'll do that."
[MORE...]
Liars, Sunn 0))), Erase Errata Head Frieze Fest
Co-curated by Pulp's Steve Mackey
Talk about bringing people together! It
seems like every location out there is pulling its weight in the fall festival
craze. Most recently, London's Frieze Art Fair, put together by frieze art magazine, revealed its own live off-site
music event, Frieze Music 2006.
FM'06 takes place over two days (October 13-14) at London's Hippodrome. The appropriately artsy-fartsy list of performers include Liars, Sunn 0))), Erase Errata, the Curtains, an all-girl English drum troupe called Leopard Leg, and more. Full lineup after the jump.
This year's festival was curated by Pulp's Steve Mackey, frieze Associate Editor Dan Fox, and Upset the Rhythm, a London-based DIY promoter/record label. [MORE...]
Acid Mothers Temple/Ruins Tour in "Battle Formations"
Insert Voltron/Dragon Ball/Pokémon joke here
Three guys, seven bands, nine cities, one traveling Japanese festival. Sound nutty? Some of the craziness can be attributed to the fact that the men behind the music are Acid Mothers Temple's Tsuyama Atsushi and Kawabata Makoto, and Ruins' Yoshida Tatsuya-- touring together in numerous arrangements, among them Acid Mothers Temple SWR. Now it's common knowledge that AMT and Ruins are two of the most exciting psychedelic artists active today, but what's with the new SWR arrangement? According to Tatsuya, "SWR is the AMT Family's most powerful battle-formation yet...their crushingly acute freakout sound will pulverize the world's legions of wannabe psych groups." Fuck with that, Devendra!
The Japanese New Music Festival, featuring the aforementioned trio and now in its fourth year, will travel across the bars and lounges of North America over the course of the next week. Here's the kicker-- for each gig, Atsushi, Tatsuya, and Makoto will arrange themselves in seven different band formations (including SWR). All in one night!! We're not sure how long each act will go on for, or how on Earth these dudes will have the necessary stamina to go all out like this, but it's looking like the Japanese psych rock spectacle of the summer, and it's nearly upon us!
The bands include Acid Mothers Temple SWR, a drum and sampled-bass solo incarnation of Ruins called Ruins Alone, experimental punk band Akaten, a cappella ensemble Zubi Zuva X, humorous improvisers Zoffy, improv pair Shrinp Wark, and the all-encompassing Seikazoku. Holy moly. But seriously, there's no sense trying to describe this shit-- just go see it. [MORE...]
YYYs, Broken Social, Antony Head Glasgow Fest
Also: Yo La Tengo, Gang of Four, the Fall, Tapes 'n Tapes, Hot Chip, Camera Obscura, Guillemots
Glasgow, you are in for a treat! Americans won't be the only ones reveling this weekend, as accompanying the awesomeness of Indian summer (weather) we have the Indian Summer Festival! This one goes down September 2 and 3 in Glasgow's Victoria Park and reads like a Pitchforker's wet dream: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Broken Social Scene, Antony and the Johnsons, the Fall, Yo La Tengo, Gang of Four, Tapes ‘n Tapes, Hot Chip, Camera Obscura, Guillemots, and more have gathered in Scotland to perform at the event. Complete lineup ahead. Keep yr pants on, dudes. [MORE...]
Merge Acts Celebrate Orange Club's Anniversary
Revelers include Superchunk, David Bazan, the Rosebuds, Ashley Stove, more
You know that bar? The one right around the corner? Just down the street? Where all the indie rockers go for a drink? Your Rainbo in Chicago? Your Clem's in Brooklyn?Carrboro, North Carolina isn't Brooklyn, and it ain't Chicago either, but it has its own musician's watering mecca and-- get this-- it's down on Main Street. Orange County Social Club, founded by former Merge Records retail and mail order manager Tricia Mesigian five years ago, has become that place for Carrboro, a small town of just under 20,000 bordering Chapel Hill, the town whose indie rock Merge has helped make famous for more than a decade.
Mesigian left Merge to start the bar, but her original label crew-- which includes Superchunk and Merge co-founders Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan-- has been good for business. In the label's guide for out-of-towners at their four-day 15th anniversary party in June of 2004, they endorsed OCSC as the official label bar of choice, and McCaughan has sported OCSC apparel in the artwork for Portastatic's Autumn Was a Lark and Summer of the Shark.
As such, Merge (which isn't 21, btw) helps the bar celebrate its fifth birthday this month, beginning tonight (September 1), as Superchunk and Chris Lopez's Tenement Halls team up for a show at the Cat's Cradle. On September 18, it's "acoustic jams" night at the OCSC, with former Lion named Pedro David Bazan, Jeremy Chatelain (Jets to Brazil, Cub Country), Regia's Louis Schefano, Jenny and Lee Waters of Work Clothes, and Seven Mary Three's Jason Ross (cumbersome choice, eh?).
The real kicker, though, is September 24's show at OCSC: Glorious Merge guitar poppers Ashley Stove play for the first time since 2001, joined by Victory Factory-- the new band of Pipe wildman Ron Liberti-- and Hundred Aires, the new bag of Mayflies USA frontman Adam Price. The Rosebuds and former Spatula guy Chuck Johnson join up for the Carolina cocktail. Nights devoted to karaoke and "Family Feud" (September 6 and 12, respectively) split up the rock nights, but all the cool kids will totally be scoping Rusted Root at the Cradle, anyway (Oh, snap!).
And, in the spirit of giving back, OCSC will donate a portion of all September profits to the MusiCares Foundation. [MORE...]
Rhys Chatham's Essentialist Tours U.S.
Rhys Chatham loves him some guitar. In the past, the ambitious, avant garde musician has scored pieces for 100 guitars, and last year the city of Paris commissioned him to write a piece for 400 guitars. Now Chatham fans will be amped (ha) to learn he's channeling his guitar love into a Sunn 0)))/Earth/Sleep-inspired, pared-down heavy metal outfit called Essentialist. As previously reported, Rhys Chatham's Essentialist-- featuring members of San Agustin and Jonathan Kane's February-- make their debut this weekend at the Table of the Elements Fest in Atlanta. From there, they'll head out on a two-week U.S. tour, culminating in an appearance at The Wire's Adventures in Modern Music Fest in Chicago.
So exactly how will this minimalist form of metal sound? A press release describes Chatham's new musical venture as "hallucinatory" and "mind-crushing." Expect an Essentialist debut album in early 2007 on Table of the Elements, and stay tuned for all the essential (groan) info. [MORE...]
Lady Sov, James Chance, Ellen Allien Play MEG Fest
Plus: Final Fantasy, Ghislain Poirier, Think About Life, ESG, Bell Orchestre, Hidden Cameras
Polish off those dance moves: The eighth annual MEG (Montreal Eclectic Groove) festival highsteps into Montreal this weekend (September 1-4). Held in conjunction with the previously reported Osheaga Festival, MEG's self-described as "four days of bare feet in the grass in celebration of the creation of modern music" and features an eclectic roster that is very groovy indeed. The live music extravaganza takes place in various venues around the
city, including the legendary Club Savoy and the scenic Parc Jean
Drapeau.
Sonic highlights include: Lady Sovereign, James Chance and the Contortions, Ellen Allien and Apparat, ESG, Bell Orchestre, Final Fantasy, Think About Life, We Are Wolves, Ghislain Poirier, the Hidden Cameras, Brazilian Girls, To Live and Shave in L.A., the White Mice, Bush Tetras, Zombie, Call Me Poupée, Kiss Me Deadly, Duchess Says, Why Alex, Why?, D*I*R*T*Y Soundsystem, and more. Lowlights include: Uffie.
Ariel Pink Plays Nowheresville
Bogalusa poised to become the "L.A." of LA
After being forced to cancel his European tour with Holy Shit (due to heightened airport security), Ariel Pink is heading deep-- way deep-- into the heart of the American South this weekend to play a show at Bogalusa, Louisiana's Centennial Year Music and Arts Celebration.
What brings L.A.-based Pink to rural Louisiana? Is this the beginning of some ironic backwoods tour? Actually, according to his publicist, the avant-artist is venturing to Bogalusa to help promote his step father's campaign for mayor. Because nothing wins votes like skinny dudes with long hair and art-damaged schizo-pop.
Pink headlines the Saturday, September 2 bill as the lone "rock and roll" act in a lineup of country, jazz, blues, gospel, and inspirational music. It's safe to assume the Centennial Celebration will be the only time he'll share the stage with the likes of the Pleasant Hill Baptist Choir or local gospel singer Gloria "Lori" Kates. According to the oh-so-charming Bogalusa Daily News, an L.A. film crew will capture the weekend's festivities, accompanying Pink to Louisiana in order to film a documentary about him. [MORE...]
Touch and Go Adds Art Show to Fest
Also considering petting zoo, dunk tank, and little sausages on sticks
As if a whole weekend of quality live music weren't enough, Touch and Go just announced the icing on their 25th Anniversary birthday cake: an art show featuring works by 12 of the label's artists. As previously reported, Touch and Go celebrates 25 years of record-releasing goodness with a three day festival (September 8-10) featuring scads of T&G bands at Chicago's Hideout's annual block party. Set times were announced earlier this week.
The art show will take place the week prior to the Block Party (September 4-8) at Chicago's Open End Gallery and feature paintings, sculpture, photographs, and etchings by the following way-too-talented people: Jon Langford (Mekons), Eric Bemis (Rico Bell/Mekons), Tim Kerr (Big Boys), Mick Turner (Dirty Three), Bianca Casady (CocoRosie), Pall Jenkins (The Black Heart Procession), Tom Greenhaigh (Mekons), Tara Jane O'Neil, Sam Coomes (Quasi), Tim Harriss (Kepone), Jeff Mueller (Shipping News), and Jason Noble (Shipping News).
Rapture, Diplo, Wrens, Clipse Head Riottt! Fest
Plus: Girl Talk, Metric, Saul Williams, Explosions in the Sky, Asobi Seksu, more
All aboard! No, not you
guys-- we're talking artists here...artists billed for California's Be the
Riottt! Festival, specifically. It's got a little bit of everything! Set for
November 11 at San Francisco's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, the eclectic Riottt! lineup includes
the Rapture, Clipse, Diplo, Explosions in the Sky, the Wrens, Metric, Asobi
Seksu, Girl Talk, Sage Francis, Tokyo Police Club, and more.
Check out the full list after the jump! [MORE...]
Destroyer, Califone, Okkervil River on YETI 4 Comp
Plus! Exclusive mp3s from Destroyer and the Blow
YETI magazine is back with another enormous heap of literary and musical goodness. YETI 4 has 244 pages full of pieces like an archival interview with the late science fiction author/MacArthur "genius" grant recipient Octavia Butler, an Okkervil River tour diary written by Will Sheff, and a guide from Pitchforker/Matmos-ian Drew Daniel entitled "How to Sing Along to 'Sweet Home Alabama'". Also included are interviews with Dan Bejar (which, according to a YETI representative, was conducted by "his eight-year-old mini-me"), Todd Barry, and the Blow, in addition to plenty of fiction and full-page illustrations. That's not even cracking the surface of the magazine's contents, but the real news for Pitchfork readers is the accompanying YETI 4 compilation, which is completely full (literally, as it's almost 80 minutes long) of exclusive and unreleased tracks from the likes of Destroyer (two tunes from Ideas for Songs, a cassette-only release with an original run of 50), Califone (an alternate mix of Infinite Mixtape track and Psychic TV cover "The Orchids"), Okkervil River, the Blow, and Somos Marquis Homos, a confounding collaboration between the Murder City Devils' Spencer Moody and David Bazan of Pedro the Lion fame. Other contributions include an Eritrean folk song and a rare 1950s 78 tribute to country musician Jimmie Rodgers by two unknown Kenyan singers.
YETI will release the magazine and compilation on September 1, which also happens to be the first day of the previously reported Halleluwah Festival, where quite a few of the contributing musicians will perform. YETI has given Pitchfork two exclusive MP3s from the compilation for your sampling pleasure: Destroyer's "No One Needs to Know" and the Blow's "Get Around". You can download both at the links below.
[MORE...]
Table of the Elements Fest Hits Atlanta
Featuring Rhys Chatham, Tony Conrad, Jonathan Kane, and more!
Georgia-based experimental/modern composition label Table of the Elements will host its fourth festival this Labor Day weekend (August 31 through September 4) at Atlanta's Eyedrum venue, and boy do they have a shit ton of festive activity planned. This year's shindig, titled "Bohrium," (past festivals names have included "Manganese", "Yttrium", and "Dubnium") features all manner of creatively-themed music performances, interspersed periodically (ha ha) with independent films and at least one goat roast. Bohrium's highlights include legendary avant-guitarist Rhys Chatham's new heavy metal band (!) Essentialist (featuring members of Jonathan Kane's February, Bear in Heaven, and San Agustin) making their world premiere on the last night of the fest. From there, Essentialist will embark on a two-week tour of the U.S. before heading into the recording studio to work on a new album (to be released in early 2007). This October, TotE will release Chatham's 1971 piece Two Gongs, and in December, A Crimson Grail, his 2005 orchestral work for 400 guitars. [MORE...]
Byrne Recruits Banhart, Bunyan for Carnegie Hall
Plus: Vetiver, CocoRosie, Adem, Alarm Will Sound
Hi yo! It has been revealed that David Byrne will curate
2007's Perspective series, running February 1-4 at New York's famed Carnegie
Hall.
The event's initial itinerary includes an evening of songs from Here Lies Love - A Song Cycle, Byrne's new collaboration with Fatboy Slim, based on the life of former Philippines First Lady and footwear fiend Imelda Marcos and the servant who raised her. Also on the agenda: a performance of The Knee Plays (a 1985 theater project created by Byrne and Robert Wilson), a night of nü-folk with Devendra Banhart, Vetiver, Vashti Bunyan, CocoRosie, and Adem, and an eclectic closing gig with with Alarm Will Sound, Camille, Haale, and a handful of as-of-yet unannounced artists.
As previously reported, Byrne took part in 826 NYC's Revenge of the Book Eaters benefit last Thursday where, for a mere $15,000, he and Sufjan Stevens joined forces for a cover of Lefty Frizzell's "Saginaw, Michigan". The man gets around! See the story here.
Sigur Ros to Perform Split Sides Soundtrack
As you very well already
know, Sigur Rós released their Sæglópur EP/DVD in North America earlier
this month via Worker's Institute. Disc one, aka the audio portion of the
package, features a track from Takk and music expanding on the material
found on the band's Untitled and Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do EPs.
But Sigur Rós aren't quite done with Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do-- originally composed and recorded for a project from acclaimed choreographer Merce Cunningham in 2003. The Icelandic quartet will make its way to Miami on February 25 of next year to once again provide the score for Cunningham's dance company's performance of Split Sides, this time as a part of the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts' citywide festival, Merce in Miami. The fest is scheduled to run through February and March 2007. Sigur Rós will play at the city's Ziff Ballet Opera House. [MORE...]
Touch and Go 25 Fest Set Times Announced
Bust out them Palm Pilots and start planning those port-o-potty breaks now, kids. Touch and Go Records has just announced the complete set times for their 25th anniversary bonanza, going down September 8-10 as part of the Hideout's tenth annual block party in Chicago. As previously reported, T&G more than delivered on their promise of a band for every year of the venerable label's existence-- at last count we had 33, including "a few songs" by the legendary Big Black. Schedule after the jump. [MORE...]
Daft Punk, Duran Duran Head Bang! Festival
Festival season is in full effect right now, but one recently announced event just picked up the golden ticket more commonly known as Daft Punk. The Parisian duo will join newly added acts Duran Duran, Common, Tiësto, Thievery Corporation, the previously announced Modest Mouse, Gnarls Barkley, and more for the annual Bang! Music Festival in Miami, Florida.
We hope they bring the pyramid, but even more than that, we hope this blossoms into a full tour.
The day-long party is scheduled to go down on Saturday, November 11 at the city's Bicentennial Park. A full lineup is still in the works. [MORE...]
Beck, Basement Jaxx, QOTSA Head Detour Music Fest
Blackalicious, Of Montreal, Peeping Tom, Elected also onboard
Lucky Los Angeles! Yesterday, Arthur Nights, and today, the first annual LA Weekly Detour Music Festival has been announced. The day-long event, brought together by the LA Weekly (clearly) and Goldenvoice (creator of Coachella), is scheduled for October 7 in downtown Los Angeles at Main and 1st Streets. Beck, Basement Jaxx, Peeping Tom, Queens of the Stone Age, Blackalicious, Of Montreal, the Elected, Oh No! Oh My!, VHS or Beta, and more will perform.
A portion of ticket proceeds will benefit TreePeople, not the old Doug Martsch band but a nonprofit organization whose goal it is to train communities to plant trees, educate people about the environment, and work with government agencies on water issues. [MORE...]
Devendra, Boris, Furnaces Head Arthur Nights
Be Your Own Pet, Charalambides, Wooden Wand also on the bill
Last year's Arthur Fest was pretty sweet, but everybody, including the folks over at Arthur Magazine, knows that night time is the right time for hipsters to come out of hiding. So, this year, Arthur, in conjunction with the Echo Presents and Spaceland Productions, will put on Arthur Nights, a four-evening music extravaganza running October 19-22 at the Echo, Ex_Plx, and Jensen's Rec Center in Los Angeles.
Lineup highlights include Devendra Banhart, Boris, Fiery Furnaces, Six Organs of Admittance, Be Your Own Pet, Wooden Wand, Charalambides, Tall Firs, OM, Josephine Foster, Mia Doi Todd, and Bert Jansch in his first and only scheduled U.S. performance of the year. The full schedule is still in the works, however, and a slew of artists including a major headliner for Day Three remain unannounced at this point in time. [MORE...]
Exclusive: Beck Curates NextFest Concert
Jamie Lidell and Of Montreal to Play Event
Flying cars, androids, space probes, and...Beck? No doubt about it. Wired Magazine has scheduled its annual NextFest technology fair, taking place in New York from September 27-October 1 this year, and Beck is in charge of its soundtrack.
Next Music serves as the event's kick-off concert, and it will go down September 26 at Irving Plaza. Beck has selected Jamie Lidell (okay!) and Of Montreal (what?) to take the stage.
Last year's event took place in Chicago, was curated by Jeff Tweedy, and featured Joanna Newsom and the Handsome Family.
Tomorrow, here we come!
Thermals, Erase Errata, Ponys Play Fuck Yeah Fest
Also Envy, Dead Meadow, Blood Meridian
Before summer winds down, L.A. residents will have the chance to take in three days of independent music in Echo Park. The F Yeah Fest (changed from the Fuck Yeah Fest, which, the website informs, requires a long explanation and "having to apologize to the city for covering half of the east side of Los Angeles with hundreds of posters that say "Fuck" on them) takes place this weekend, on August 18, 19, and 20 and is curated by Keith Morris of Black Flag and the Circle Jerks.
The year's fest includes a diverse line-up of local and national acts: Dead Meadow, the Thermals, Envy, Giant Drag, Gris Gris, Icarus Line, Blood Meridian, Erase Errata, the Ponys, Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower, Midnight Movies, Shapes and Sizes, Dios Malos, Chuck Ragan (of Hot Water Music), Subtitle, Partyline (ex-Bratmobile), Tussle, the Willowz, Silversun Pickups, Sex Eyes (ex-Lifter Puller), BARR, Matt and Kim, Bobby Birdman, plus many more. And, of course, the Circle Jerks.
Taking place at three venues-- the Echo, Sea Level Records, and the Jensen Rec. Center, the three-day event includes stand-up comedy, a "What I Love About Summer" art exhibition, and a "Summertime Photo Jam."
In order to preserve local flavor, the fest will also feature oxygen bars, Ryan Seacrest, and little booths where you can get cosmetic surgery. Just effin' with you.
Slits, Knife, Deerhoof, Black Keys Play CMJ
Also Hot Chip, Madlib, Blonde Redhead, the Boy Least Likely To, more
The East Coast/West Coast split has just gotten a little
wider. Competing with baby Vegoose in Las Vegas for Halloween weekend festival
madness is the old 'n wise CMJ Music Marathon in New York City, celebrating
its 26th year with the likes of the Knife, Deerhoof, the Slits, the Black Keys, Madlib,
Hot Chip, Blonde Redhead, the Boy Least Likely To, Blue Cheer, Silversun
Pickups, White Whale, Dr. Dog, Professor Murder, Someone Still Loves You Boris
Yeltsin, These Arms Are Snakes, Portastatic, Jason Forrest Band, Thunderbirds
Are Now!, and more.
This year's event is scheduled to take place at venues across the Big Apple from October 31 - November 4. The full lineup has yet to be unveiled, but the initial roster ain't looking so shabby.
Newsom, Vitalic, Tapes 'n Tapes Play Pop Montreal
Beirut, Regina Spektor, Dr. Octagon, Vashti Bunyan Also Onboard
What's that lineup we see fizzing over with talented musicians? Ah, but of course: it's the annual Pop Montreal festival, scheduled to run from October 4-8 this year.
The event's initial artist list includes Joanna Newsom, Spank Rock, Akron/Family, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Tapes 'n Tapes, Vashti Bunyan, Vitalic, Dr. Octagon, Regina Spektor, Cadence Weapon, the Russian Futurists, Beirut, Portastic, Harvey Danger, Sunset Rubdown, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Islands, Memphis, and more.
Touch & Go Anniversary Lineup Finalized
No, the Jesus Lizard aren't playing
Touch and Go Records are big fat liars...in the best possible way. The legendary indie label claimed that their 25th anniversary celebration, taking place September 8-10 at the Hideout in Chicago (with proceeds going to local charities Tuesday's Child, Literacy Works, and the Thomas Drummond Elementary School) would feature 25 performers-- one for each year. But after announcing 24, they added "a few songs" by Big Black and claimed that didn't count as 25.
And now, even after revealing the real number 25 (reunited D.C. post-hardcore juggernaut the Monorchid), they've tacked on a slew of other acts to play in between the main bands: Sally Timms (the Mekons), PW Long (Mule), Tim Midgett and Andy Cohen (Silkworm), Brick Layer Cake, Cash Audio, Tara Jane O'Neil, and Jon Langford (the Mekons) with Kat (the Ex).
So now they're set all the way until their 33rd anniversary. [MORE...]
Deerhoof, Vashti Bunyan, Erase Errata Play Halleluwah
Drink your Sparky Vitamyn Water, kids, because there's another new festival on the block. (And by "the block" we mean Portland, Oregon.) Co-curators Mike McGonigal (YETI magazine) and Chantelle Hylton (Blackbird Booking) recently announced the lineup for Halleluwah, a music, art and film festival taking place in Portland, Oregon September 1 and 2.
"One of the key ideas of the festival is that you are always missing something really cool," says McGonigal (whose 33 1/3 book on Loveless is proof that someone actually does love My Bloody Valentine more than your ex-boyfriend did). Lots of "really cool, interesting stuff" will be happening close-to-continuously at the Disjecta Interdisciplinary Arts Center, a converted warehouse space near Portland's Burnside Bridge.
Disjecta has three floors. The top floor will feature bands like Erase Errata, Vashti Bunyan, Jackie O Motherfucker, and Deerhoof. The second floor second stage has equally "vital and awesome" bands, plus PDX cuisine, crafts, and the spanking-new (gold-covered!) YETI.
The cherry on top is the limited edition Halleluwah vinyl LP. It'll be for sale exclusively at the festival and features unreleased tracks from Deerhoof, Sir Richard Bishop of the Sun City Girls, Tara Jane O'Neil, and many other festival participants. [MORE...]
Brightblack Morning Light Curate Quiet Quiet Fest
Shhh: "Quiet, Quiet, Forest Spectrum", an oh-so-mystical folk festival--nay, experience-- is coming to the coastal wilderness of Big Sur, CA tomorrow, August 11. Curated by Brightblack Morning Light member Nabob Shineywater, the fest involves a selection of long-haired, crystal-toting, dream-catching musicians performing live sets in a magical outdoor setting at the Henry Miller Library.
The Brightblack Morning Light site describes the lineup more, um, poetically than I ever could, and it goes like this, flower kids: Grass ("featuring members of Feathers and Espers in true nomadic physical journey"), Huayllipacha ("traditional music of the Andes Mountains"), Lavender Diamond ("along the path a new jewel is found with levitations of breathing singing"), Sunroof! ("an instrumental code of new experimentation from the United Kingdom"), Brightblack Morning Light ("celebrating their debut LP on Matador and toted crystals from New Mexico"), Daniel Arcus Incus Ululat Higgs ("with selected works from the recent Magic Alphabet recording of tranceful Jews harp, and other psychic chord modulations" (aka Lungfish's Dan Higgs)) and lastly, a "Quiet, Quiet Surprise by a legendary folk singer with a depthful collection of ol' time cowboy songs." Which I'll go ahead and tell you is Ramblin' Jack Elliott.
Folk-loving souls can purchase advance tickets at www.henrymiller.org. A portion of proceeds will benefit the library.
Shineywater has curated other very hushed, very eclectic events in the past, including "Quiet, Quiet Window Lights", featuring Joanna Newsom, Bonnie ‘Prince' Billy, and Devendra Banhart, as well as "Quiet, Quiet Ocean Spell", showcasing the likes of Vetiver, RTX, and Michael Hurley. How does such a laid-back dude decide to plan festivals? While organizing "Ocean Spell", Shineywater told a Monterey-based paper, "My daily pursuit is to resist the Babylon system. I try to do it by taking a big toke of organic marijuana every morning." (Only in California!) [MORE...]
Franz, B&S;, TVOTR, Pipettes Play La Route du Rock
All aboard! It's time for a trip down La Route du Rock. To your left, you'll see Liars, Mogwai, Calexico, Islands, Why?, and Grizzly Bear. Hey, look straight ahead! It's Belle & Sebastian, TV on the Radio, Cat Power & the Memphis Rhythm Band, the Pipettes, and more. And to the right, you can see Franz Ferdinand, Band of Horses, Television Personalities, the Spinto Band, Isobell Campbell...it goes on. Those choosing to put their arm out the window must hold their hands in \m/ \m/ at all times. ROCK.
This Friday, the La Route du Rock festival will kick off in Saint-Malo France. The three-day event runs through Sunday evening and is home to a most brag-worthy lineup. Artists will perform at le Fort de Saint-Père, le Palais du Grand Large, and the Beach Fnac.
We are extremely jealous of French people right now. [MORE...]
Raconteurs, Killers, Fiona Apple to Play Vegoose
Also Mars Volta, Built to Spill, the Roots, more
Las Vegas' Vegoose Festival (brought to you by the folks behind Bonnaroo-- can't you tell?) has announced the lineup for its second year. Like Bonnaroo, it's heavy on the hippie-friendly, but also offers quite a bit of variety.
Vegoose 2006 will take place October 28 and 29 at Sam Boyd Stadium and Star Nursery Field. In addition, there will be a special series of late night concerts at venues across Vegas, guaranteeing fans a hefty collection of stripper business cards gained from all those 2am treks across the streets of the other city that never sleeps (but always sleeps together).
Get ready to get stoned out of your (Halloween) gourd with the following lineup:
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Widespread Panic, the Killers, the Mars Volta, the Keller Williams Incident, the Black Crowes, Fiona Apple, the Raconteurs, Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley, Medeski Martin & Wood, the Roots, the Rhythm Devils (feat. Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzman, Mike Gordon and Steve Kimock), G. Love & Special Sauce, Jurassic 5, Galactic, Praxis, Yonder Mountain String Band, Gomez, Built to Spill, Guster, Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Dr. Octagon, Band of Horses, Jamie Lidell, the Zutons
Beck, Shins, Yeah Yeah Yeahs Play Download Festival
Radiohead bootlegs play download festival (on my computer)
The West Coast version of the second annual U.S. Download Festival comes to San Francisco's Shoreline Amphitheatre on September 30, and headliners include Beck, the Shins, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Muse, Wolfmother, Rogue Wave, and Coheed and Cambria. Tickets are on sale now, and there are plenty more acts to be announced.
Unlike most festivals with multiple locations, which usually look pretty similar, Download has created an odd, sucky version of itself for its first venture to the East Coast. The bands hitting Boston's Tweeter Center on August 20 include 311, the Dropkick Murphys, G. Love & Special Sauce, Jurassic 5, and the Wailers. This Boston version of the festival comes to the Tweeter Center August 20. Contact high, here we come!
Flaming Lips, Sonic Youth, CYHSY Play Osheaga Fest
White people may have stolen their land, but Native Americans continue to exert their influence on the continent's summer music festivals. The Osheaga Music and Arts Festival takes its name from a Mohawk phrase, and there are sure to be plenty of Mohawk haircuts in the crowd on September 2 and 3 in Montreal.
As seems to be the trend this summer, the top-lining heavyweights for the Canadian fest are the Flaming Lips and Sonic Youth, along with frequent festival bridesmaids Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Lady Sovereign, Dinosaur Jr., Wolf Parade, Metric, the Stills, Bell Orchestre, the Dears, Magic Numbers, the Hidden Cameras, Think About Life, Islands, Starsailor, and We Are Wolves, among many others. There's a heavy concentration of NYC no wave legends, with both James Chance and the Bush Tetras on the bill, as well as a heavy concentration of suck, with G. Love and Ben Harper.
Osheaga is blessed with a killer location, St-Helene Island in the Parc Jean Drapeau. The park was created for the 1967 World's Fair and houses some très bien large scale art work like Alexander Calder's Man and a Buckminster Fuller Geodesic Dome. A nice change of pace from getting stoned and dehydrated in an open field smack in the middle of nowhere.
Elf Power, Man Man Play Team Clermont Fest
As sweet and clean as moonlight through the pines, here comes some summer fun in Georgia. The PR firm Team Clermont will host its annual Summer Festival and Blue Ribbon Ball August 3-5 in Athens. Featuring a bunch of national and local artists on the Team Clermont roster, the fest will include performances by the likes of Elf Power, Man Man, John Roderick of the Long Winters, Now It's Overhead, and White Whale.
The last night of the festival is devoted to the Blue Ribbon Ball, complete with balloons, photo ops, and spiked punch. (Guess what beer company is sponsoring.) According to a press release, the Ball will feature Elf Power performing "cover songs and originals in the manner of the proverbial, slightly cheesy ‘prom band'." (I wish my prom had featured some cool Elephant 6 band instead of that lame rent-a-DJ.)
There will also be a college radio kickball tournament on Saturday afternoon. Because if there's anything college radio DJs are good at, it's sports.
Georgia, Georgia...
08-03 Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club - LYLAS, Iron Hero, Now It's Overhead, Modern Skirts
08-04 Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club - Pattern Is Movement, White Whale, Dark Meat, Man Man
08-05 Athens, GA - The Go! Bar - John Roderick
08-05 Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club (Blue Ribbon Ball) - Elf Power
Xiu Xiu, Gossip at Homo A Go Go
Attention ladies, fags, and rollerskate jammers: report to Olympia, Washington immediately. The biennial Homo A Go Go festival kicks off today, and runs until August 6. It features queer music and spoken word showcases, film screenings, craft and fashion shows, karaoke, and educational/socio-political workshops.
All gigs are all-ages, all-inclusive, and take place along 5th Street (vegan burritos!) or in the Capitol Theatre (Bikini Kill!). Swapmeets abound, so bring yr zines.
More than 100 performers are scheduled, including the Gossip, Xiu Xiu, Shoplifting, Hey Willpower, Amy Ray (of the Indigo Girls), Blowoff (featuring Bob Mould), Lesbians on Ecstasy, Des Ark, Lovers, DJ John Cameron Mitchell (the Hedwig dude), Mikaela's Fiend, Addicted2Fiction, and many, many more.
Proceeds benefit the Gender Variant Healthcare Project.
Wu-Tang, Mos Def, De La Soul Rock the Bells
Coachella and Bonnaroo have come and gone, the Pitchfork Music Festival is just around the corner, as is Lollapalooza and any number of European and British festivals. While many of these events represent their fair share of hip-hop, you're gonna have to head to Cali next weekend for the uncut fishscale.
Rock the Bells, now in its fourth year, will be hitting both Northern and Southern California this August. The headliner this year will be a reunited Wu-Tang Clan, with a performance featuring a tribute to dearly departed member ODB. The Clan brought the motherfucking ruckus two years ago during a now-historical appearance at Rock the Bells Version 2.0, which turned out to be the last to feature all members.
Other acts at this year's Rock the Bells include De La Soul, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Redman, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Aesop Rock, and Murs.
Both the NoCal and SoCal editions of the festival will be packed full of bonus features. A "B-Boy stage", art exhibitions, turntable and emcee battles, and a 20-minute sneak preview of a feature documentary about the festival will all pop up at various points. And, most excitingly (or tediously, we'll see how it pans out), MC Supernatural will attempt to break the Guinness Book of World Records record for "Longest Freestyle". Doesn't sound that hard? D.O., a Canadian rapper we've never heard of either, currently holds the record at eight hours and forty-five minutes. That's some breath control.
Hip-hop will rock and shock the nation:
08-05 San Bernardino, CA - NOS Events Center (with Wu-Tang Clan, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Redman, De La Soul, Aesop Rock with Rob Sonic and DJ Big Wiz , Living Legends, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Immortal Technique, Murs 3:16, Self Scientific, Visionaries, B Real, Dilated Peoples, Planet Asia, Dirty Heads, Supernatural, more)
08-06 Concord, CA - Sleep Train Pavilion (with Wu-Tang Clan, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Redman, De La Soul, Living Legends, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Immortal Technique, Murs 3:16, Zion-I, Supernatural, Dirty Heads, Planet Asia, Sway & King Tech, more)
Temporary Residence Celebrates 10 Years
Temporary Residence Limited, or TRL for the post-rock set, has stuck around long enough to celebrate its first double-digit anniversary with a Labor Day weekend extravaganza at New York's Bowery Ballroom.
The "Big Baby Birthday Bash!", taking place September 1-3, will feature 10 bands from the current TRL roster, including the only currently scheduled U.S. performances from Caroline, Mono and Tarentel, as well as Fridge's first show since 2002.
While most of the TRL roster isn't in touring/promotion mode, Fridge and Envy have both been notably active lately. Fridge, the trio that includes Kieran Hebden and Adem, will release its long-awaited new album in January 2007, while Japanese post-hardcore vets Envy will be making their second trip ever across the States in support of their next album, Insomniac Doze, out September 12.
The full Big Baby Birthday Bash lineup:
Friday, September 1:
Envy
Sleeping People
Miss Violetta Beauregarde
DJ Kieran Hebden
Saturday, September 2:
Explosions in the Sky
Eluvium
Caroline
Lazarus
Sunday, September 3:
Mono
Fridge
Tarentel
DJ Xian Hawkins
Tortoise, Low, Morricone Play Don't Look Back
It's a simple concept: take a respected band and get them to stage one of their defining albums in its allness. Everyone's a sucker for nostalgia and, moreover, when you know what you're gonna get, there's no whining about songs not played.
Last year, the All Tomorrow's Parties "Don't Look Back" series of concerts featured such highlights as Belle and Sebastian returning to their debut album If You're Feeling Sinister (later released as a live set) and the reunited Stooges tearing the Hammersmith Apollo audience a new one by playing Funhouse in its entirety.
This year's set of "Don't Look Back" shows kicks off tomorrow night with paisley underground vets Green on Red performing their 1985 album Gas Food Lodging, and continues throughout the rest of the year with various shows around London. Other participants include Tortoise, Low, Tindersticks, Isis, and legendary film composer Ennio Morricone running through a collection of his soundtrack work, including music from Once Upon a Time in America, The Legend of 900, The Mission, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, A Fistful of Dynamite, Cinema Paradiso, The Untouchables, Novecento, I Promessi Sposi, The Red Tent, and Canone Inverso.
Kinda makes Millions Now Living Will Never Die seem like a minor accomplishment, doesn't it? [MORE...]
Baltimore V Fest Lineup Announced
The most exciting thing to happen in Baltimore since Cal Ripken Jr.'s streak, the American version of the Virgin (V) festival, has announced its lineup. Taking place September 23 at the Pimlico Race Course, the Yankee arm of the popular British fest will feature the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Who as headliners, as well as sets by the Killers, the Flaming Lips, the Raconteurs, Scissor Sisters, Gnarls Barkley, Keane, Thievery Corporation, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, New Pornographers, Wolfmother, Drive-By Truckers, Kasabian, Brazilian Girls, Tiesto, John Digweed, Carl Cox, 2Many DJs, RJD2 and James Holden.
According to Billboard.com, tickets are $97.50. Yowza! But Pete Townsend's windmills are priceless, right?
The Who appearance is part of their first world tour in 20 years, which begins September 12 in Philadelphia. That is, if you count the state the band is currently in as "The Who"
Bumbershoot Full Lineup Revealed
Labor Day weekend: the beaches close, but the fun (and the water?) still flows...if you're at the Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival in Seattle. The event, which will take place from September 2-4 at the Seattle Center, has just revealed its massive lineup in full.
The list includes Kanye West, Spoon, the New Pornographers, A Tribe Called Quest, Blondie, Atmosphere, the Gossip, Feist, Of Montreal, Metric, Mates of State, Jamie Lidell, Deerhoof, Lady Sovereign, the Blood Brothers, NOMO, Jose Gonzalez, Vashti Bunyan, Badly Drawn Boy, CocoRosie, and more.
Full lineup after the jump. [MORE...]
Gang of Four, Nurse With Wound to Play ATP
What's this? I can't believe my eyes, I must be dreaming! Curator Thurston "Skellington" Moore has cooked up even more additions to the seemingly rolling All Tomorrow's Parties Nightmare Before Christmas lineup. It was recently revealed that Dinosaur Jr., Nurse With Wound, Gang of Four, and Be Your Own Pet will appear at the three-day UK event, which is now bragging over 25 artists.
Holy shit, Nurse With Wound! [MORE...]
Jandek to Play Adventures in Modern Music Festival
The fourth annual Adventures in Modern Music Festival is headed to Chicago once again, taking place September 20-24 at the Empty Bottle (where, like, every good show in the city happens). Sponsored by The Wire magazine, the fest applies the word "modern" rather loosely (most of the participating acts have been recording for awhile...some for decades) but does promise a range of aural "adventures." The highlight of this year's lineup is international man of mystery Jandek, making his Chicago debut. Jandek was supposed to perform at last year's fest, but Hurricane Rita spoiled his travel plans.
Other performers include art rockers Kayo Dot, earthy rockers Badgerlore, rap scientist Edan, free jazz masters Hamid Drake and William Parker, and pioneering trumpeter/guitarist Rhys Chatham. [MORE...]
Malkmus, Silver Jews, Britt Daniel to Play Musicfest NW
On September 7-9, practically every live venue in Portland, Oregon will be jam-packed with attendees of Willamette Week's annual Musicfest NW festival. This year's fest benefits the Rock and Roll Camp for Girls and the Oregon Music Hall of Fame, and, usual, showcases dozens of artists from the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
We're most excited about the Stephen Malkmus/Silver Jews double bill at the Crystal Ballroom on September 8, but other highlights include the Dandy Warhols and Brian Jonestown Massacre together at last at the same venue the night before, as well as performances from Britt Daniel of Spoon, the Black Keys, Eric Bachmann, Centro-Matic, Jeremy Enigk, Richard Buckner, the Blow, Lifesavas, Kristen Hersh, Little Brother, M-1 (of Dead Prez), the Joggers, the Melvins, Dead Moon, the Helio Sequence, Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, Viva Voce, Swords (playing their last show), and Little Steven's Underground Garage Showcase, featuring the Zombies, the Mooney Suzuki, the Woggles, and Phantom Planet. Plenty of other acts, ranging from singer/songwriters (‘cause it wouldn't be a Northwestern festival without ‘em!) to rock bands to hip hop artists, are also scheduled.
V Festival Coming to North America
Forget press releases: Sir Richard Branson, lord of the Virgin empire, took a personal approach to delivering news when he rappelled from a helicopter over the Toronto waterfront last Friday. His message to the media? Virgin's hugely popular British rock fest, the V Festival, will drop into Toronto's Island Park on September 9-10.
There are over 40 bands on the Toronto roster, including the Flaming Lips, Massive Attack, Gnarls Barkley, the Raconteurs, Wolfmother, Phoenix, the Hidden Cameras, the Dears, Jose Gonzales, Starsailor, Alexisonfire, Zero 7, Eagles of Death Metal, Thrice, 2ManyDJs, K'Naan, and Sam Roberts Band. The fest aims to draw 50,000 concertgoers, which just might happen, considering the British V Festival sold out in a mere three hours.
The V festival will make its U.S. debut at Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course on September 23. (Alas, Branson didn't do any rappelling into Bodymore.) Gnarls Barkley and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are the only acts confirmed for that one so far, with the full lineup to be revealed July 10.
Apparently, these North American extensions of the V Festival are only the beginning. Virgin hopes to hold fests in Vancouver and Montreal next year.
Malkmus, Thermals, Menomena on Portland Comp
A $7 local music comp is probably the last place you'd expect to hear a new track from Stephen Malkmus, but apparently the ex-Pavement front-man has much love for his adopted hometown of Portland, Oregon. Portland's non-profit PDX Pop Now! organization will release the two-disc PDX Pop Now! 2006 on July 11. It's a 40-track collection of music from area artists, including renowned performers like Malkmus as well as lesser-known acts looking for exposure.
Other locals contributing unreleased material include the Thermals, Menomena, Viva Voce, Vursatyl (of Lifesavas), and Talkdemonic, while Colin Meloy of the Decemberists, the Joggers, Jackie-O Motherfucker, Mirah, the Blow, and others offer previously released songs.
Funds raised from sales of PDX Pop Now! 2006 go towards producing the Third Annual PDX Pop Now! Music Festival on July 28-30 at Loveland in Portland. The lineup for the free, all-ages event is still being nailed down, but there will be a free kickoff-show on July 19 in front of Portland's City Hall, featuring a performance by Quasi.
The tracklist for the compilation is after the jump, and check out the exclusive mp3 of the Thermals track "Product Placement" below. [MORE...]
Big Black to Play Touch and Go Anniversary Show
Better start lifting weights now, because Big Black are back! Well, for a little while, at least.
Steve Albini's legendary noise-punk band will appear on stage for the first time in almost two decades this September at Touch and Go's 25th Anniversary Celebration. According to the label, it's "just a couple songs, but who cares how many they play?" Yes, exactly. (I really hope they do "Kerosene" and "Jordan, Minnesota", personally.)
Oh yeah, Arcwelder were also added to the celebration's lineup. But that's slightly less exciting. [MORE...]
Cat Power, New Pornos to Play Detroit Fest
With the Pistons falling short in the conference final, the auto industry dealing with record-high oil prices, and Eminem and Kim divorced again, Detroit residents sure need something to cheer themselves up (and I doubt the fact that the Tigers are doing OK will suffice.
Enter the Comerica TasteFest, a five-day extravaganza of free samples from local restaurants, free activities for kids, and free stage shows, all of which are supposed to make people wanna give the city more props. (Did I mention that it's free?)
The shows take place from June 30-July 4 in the New Center district of downtown and include performances by Common, Ray Davies, Cat Power & the Memphis Rhythm Band, the New Pornographers, Kings of Leon, Amadou and Mariam, Dabrye, Blanche, Demolition Doll Rods, the Paybacks, Mavis Staples, and perhaps the best band to ever appear on a Fourth of July bill, the All-American Rejects.
MC5 Added to Thurston Moore's ATP
Kick out the jams, Jackie-O Motherfucker!
The Thurston Moore-curated Nightmare Before Christmas arm of the All Tomorrow's Parties festivals just got even rawer. Mr. Moore has added the MC5 to the lineup, which already included Sonic Youth, Deerhoof, and a reunited Iggy & the Stooges (with Mike Watt on bass!) And speaking of arms, a press release announces that vocal duties for the legendary Detroit quintet will be handled by Mark Arm of Mudhoney, taking the place of original singer Rob Tyner, who died of a heart attack in 1991.
The reunited band are going by the name dkt/MC5 and will be the act to immediately open for the Stooges, who are probably the only ones who could top them anyway. The other new announcements are Negative Approach, Dead C, Monotract, Prurient, and Ecstatic Peace signees Awesome Color.
The full lineup for the festival, which is set for December 8-10 at the Butlins Holiday Resort in Minehead, Somerset, England, is listed after the jump. Tickets are limited and selling fast, so warm your napalm heart (possibly a bad idea, in the literal sense) and get yours before they run out. [MORE...]
Broken Social Scene Get With Mascis, Ravers
Ooz ooz ooz I THINK ooz ooz ooz IT'S ALMOST ooz ooz ooz CRIIIIMES!
What's that sound? It's Broken Social Scene playing at a rave, duh! Which is exactly what the good citizens of Tweed, Ontario will be hearing on July 22, as the band is scheduled to headline the World Electronic Music Festival in Trudeau Park. Spread across three days and six stages boasting names like "Hardsound Stage", "World of DnB Stage" and "Four Four Stage", the WEMF offers 250+ international performers, including Goldie (remember when he was going out with Björk?), Grooverider, Knifehandchop, a shitload of DJs we've never heard of, and, um, Broken Social Scene. We hope they like phat pants and pacifiers!The WEMF is just one of a bazillion festivals BSS are playing this summer; in fact, they love festivals so much, they're curating their own, taking place June 24 on Toronto's Olympic Island, featuring Bloc Party, Feist, Raising the Fawn, and Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis. With everybody in town, BSS and Mascis decided to team up for a benefit show at Toronto's Mod Club on June 23. "Broken Mascis Scene" will perform Dinosaur Jr. songs at this one-off event, with proceeds going to the AMMA Foundation of Canada, an organization devoted to helping the poor. Here's what Broken Social Scene's busy schedule looks like: [MORE...]
Ghostface, Walkmen, Furnaces Rock Cincinnati
We've got another live one for ya. Pull out those summer music festival maps and add Cincinnati, Ohio's Desdemona Festival to the list. From June 23-25, the not-so-lil' Midwestern town will be home to a big fat weekend of rock (and electro and hip-hop).
Taking place right on the Ohio River at Sawyer Point Waterfront Park, the brand new fest features performances from Ghostface Killah, the Walkmen, Fiery Furnaces, Annie, Apples in Stereo, Stellastarr*, the Stills, Mates of State, Radio 4, Enon, Heartless Bastards, We Are Scientists, Rogue Wave, Northern State, Richard Swift, Saturday Looks Good to Me, the Double, Au Revoir Simone, Aberdeen City, and many more.
All that, and kids under 10 get in free! Britney and K-Fed! Brangelina! Bennifer! Bring Sean Preston, Shiloh, Maddox and co. along! "Introduce a young child to indie rock-- it's the right thing to do," sez the Desdemona website. True dat.
According to the man behind the fest, organizer Nick Spencer, the event "is a non-profit effort driven by Cincinnati Tomorrow, an organization working to make Cincinnati a more attractive place for young and creative people." Well, good luck with that.
Welcome to Austin, Texas in the middle of March. Welcome to South by Southwest.
If you're the kind of person who likes to complain about how it used to be "all about the music" and now it's "all about marketing," don't come here. Also stay away if you hate publicists, street teamers, A&R reps, label managers, marketers, journalists, bloggers, and Toyota (their Yaris car is being hawked here 'til kingdom come).
But for those of us who revel in the silliness of the pop music business, this is paradise. I've been here less than 24 hours and I've already seen two fantastic bands and spent time with friends I only communicate with through email during the rest of the year. And did I mention the staggering amount of free stuff, not all of it trash?
But enough existential yammering, on to the music.
Field Music were quite disappointing, offering serviceable, if a bit lethargic, takes on their spiky post-punk. Nothing was as sharp as it is on their record--the vocal harmonies didn't sparkle, the hooks sagged. Plus, the Emo's stage was flanked by a pair of mysterious cameramen, who filmed not only every second of Field Music's performance, but every second of the crowd milling about in between acts.
Photo: Serena Maneesh
I don't particularly care for Serena Maneesh's album, but then again, I'm not a sucker for anything shoegaze (like so many people I know). So I expected the Norwegian band's live show to be as boring as their album, with lots of staring at the floor. Well, apparently nobody told Serena Maneesh that you're supposed to look like you don't care when you play this kind of music. From frontman Emil Nikolaisen's Hendrix-meets-Stevie Nicks outfit and guitar bashing to the statuesque bassist's awkward pogoing, this was clearly a performance from people who grew up watching metal videos on MTV. Not at all a bad thing! The music was still dull, though, and there was way too much jamming.
Photo: Rumble Strips
The Rumble Strips' set at the Blender Balcony was criminally under-attended; maybe everybody was at the "secret" Flaming Lips gig or the Matador showcase. Suckers. What they missed was one of the most exciting new bands in Britain, a twee-ish, post-punk-ish four-piece featuring a trumpet player and a saxophonist and fronted by a guy who yelps like Morrissey gone David Byrne. (It also helps that he's foxy like Travis Morrison.) The Rumble Strips were bouncy and happy and completely unpretentious, and for a half an hour, I loved life and that was that.
The Ark are also bouncy and happy, but they're completely pretentious in the best possible way. Best described as "the Swedish Cheap Trick", these guys dress like hookers and play like they're in a sold-out hockey arena. Smoke machines, choreographed moves, a shirtless frotman in a Scott Weiland hat, a guitar solo played by the guitarist's teeth-why the fuck weren't more people there to see them? When the keyboardist/backup singer hit a particularly low note, the lead singer remarked that the sound "makes the small hairs on my scrotum stretch out to infinity." Could Belle and Sebastian really top that?
Stay tuned for daily updates from SXSW.
Do you have a news tip for us? Anything crazy happen at a show you attended recently? Do you have inside info on the bands we cover? Is one of your favorite artists (that's not somebody you know personally) releasing a new record you'd like to see covered? You will remain completely anonymous, unless we are given your express permission to reveal your identity. (Please note that publicists, managers, booking agents, and other artist representatives are generally exempt from this rule, but will also be granted anonymity if requested.)
Tue: 01-30-07: 07:00 AM CST
Shellac to Play Robbins Benefit
Mon: 01-29-07: 08:15 PM CST
Police to Reunite for Arresting Grammys Performance
Mon: 01-29-07: 05:00 PM CST
Clipse Announce Winter Tour
Mon: 01-29-07: 04:30 PM CST
Decemberists Get Embroidery Treatment
Mon: 01-29-07: 04:00 PM CST
Rogue Wave's Spurgeon Receives Kidney
Today's Other Headlines
- Anticon Signs SJ Esau, Thee More Shallows
- Photos: Annuals [Atlanta, GA; 01/26/07]
- Maria Taylor Enlists Siblings, Oberst for New Solo LP
- Ponys, Roky, Brightblack, Annuals to Play Noise Pop
- Earl Greyhound OK After Tour Van Accident
Browse
Mon: 01-29-07
- Police to Reunite for Arresting Grammys Performance
- Anticon Signs SJ Esau, Thee More Shallows
- Photos: Annuals [Atlanta, GA; 01/26/07]
- Clipse Announce Winter Tour
- Decemberists Get Embroidery Treatment
- Maria Taylor Enlists Siblings, Oberst for New Solo LP
- Rogue Wave's Spurgeon Receives Kidney
- Ponys, Roky, Brightblack, Annuals to Play Noise Pop
- Earl Greyhound OK After Tour Van Accident
- Flaming Lips, Metric, Lil Jon Team Up With Playboy
- Klaxons Send Myths Stateside via Rinse/DGC
- Exclusive: Xiu Xiu, Larsen Team for New XXL Album
- Arcade Fire Launch Most Anticipated Tour of All Time
- Exclusive: Cornelius' Sensuous Comes to the States
- Pitchfork Seeks Business Intern
- T.V. Eye: January 29-February 3, 2007
- Ted Leo Expands Living With Chumbawumba Cover
- Pitchfork Music Festival SXSW Party Revealed!
- Afghan Whigs Retrospective Revealed
- Pretty Girls Make Graves Split
Fri: 01-26-07
- Chatham Gets Sonic Youth, Godspeed for "Guitar Trio"
- Okkervil River's Will Sheff Tours With Josh Ritter
- Modest Mouse Unveil Dead Tracklist, Release Date
- The Good, the Bad and the Queen Kick Off Tour
- Tapes 'n Tapes Schedule North American Tour
- Animal Collective's Avey Tare Records With ex-Múm Gal
- Brian Eno Producing New Coldplay Album
- Kaiser Chief Wilson Chats Album, Na's, No's, Hit'n'Run
- Mastodon Kick Off Winter Tour
- Pattern Is Movement Tour With David Bazan
- Smashing Pumpkins Announce First Reunion Shows
- Secretly Canadian Artists Cover Each Other for Comp
- Shins, Lily Allen, Cold War Kids Play KCRW Fundraiser
- Danny! = Next Def Jux Artist
- Girl Talk Seeks Dancers for Vegas Gig
- Q-Tip Readies Renaissance, Kamaal LPs
- Badly Drawn Boy Tours Europe, North America
- RJD2 Extends North American Tour
Thu: 01-25-07
- Beck's Information Deluxe Edition Revealed
- Photos: Deerhoof/Hella/Busdriver [Los Angeles, CA; 01/24/06]
- Capitol and Virgin Totally Hook Up
- Photos: Of Montreal [San Antonio, TX; 01/21/07]
- Joanna Newsom Tours Australia, New Zealand, Japan
- Lemonheads Tour America, Down Under
- Tom Waits Settles Another Goddamn Lawsuit
- Yo La Tengo Hit the Road
- Datarock Transmit Grooves on North American Tour
- The Rapture Launch Winter Tour
- Times New Viking Sign to Matador, Prep Second LP
- Scott Walker Documentary Drifts Into Theatres
- Shining Put Their Noses to the Grindstone on New LP
- Neko Case Launches Bi-Continental Tour
- Pollard Preps Self-Released EP, LPs for Merge, Ipecac
Wed: 01-24-07
- Perry Farrell's Satellite Party Gets Ultra Payloaded
- The Decemberists Offer iTunes Live From SoHo EP
- Apostle of Hustle Sing National Anthem of Nowhere
- Phil Elverum Re-Adopts Microphones Name for New 7"
- Stuart Murdoch, Will Oldham, Jarvis Head Kiddie Comp
- Can You Make an Album in 28 Days?
- Faust Founder/Producer Uwe Nettelbeck Passes On
- Dinosaur Jr. Reveal Reunion Album Details
- Jennifer O'Connor Tours, Joins Sykes, Dump for 7" Club
- !!!'s Offer Talks Myth Takes, Out Hud, Politics, Welfare
- The Kooks Return to North America
- The Knife's Silent Shout to Become Three-Disc Set
Tue: 01-23-07
- Producer Disco D Commits Suicide
- Yorke Pimps Liars, Spank Rock, Malkmus on iTunes
- Walkmen, Kaiser Chiefs to Tour Together
- Lady Sovereign to Open for Gwen Stefani
- Junior Boys Extend Tour Stateside, Canadaways
- Toto, Spin Doctors, Marky Mark Sign on for Coachella
- Menomena Announce North American Tour
- Band of Horses Saddle Up for Studio, Enhance Lineup
- The Books Announce Spring Tour
- Jarvis Gets U.S. Release Date, Tours Europe
- Hella Kick Off Tour, Get Ready for Outer Space
- LCD Soundsystem to Fans: Send Silver to #1!
Mon: 01-22-07
- Photos: Mission of Burma [New York, NY; 01/19/07]
- Jesus and Mary Chain to Play Coachella!
- Touch and Go Revisit Festival With Video Awesomeness
- Kristin Hersh Talks New Album
- Silver Jews, Avey Tare, Enon, Black Dice on RBR Comp
- Kanye West Applies for Graduation With Chris Martin
- Maximo Park Reveal Our Earthly Pleasures
- Enon Cancel Dates With Of Montreal
- Corsano + Hair Police + Mouthus + Giffoni = Death Unit
- Funkstorung Release Farewell Remix Album
- Deerhoof Give Friends Art Opportunity
- T.V. Eye: January 22-29, 2007
- Jarvis, Lily, New Pornos, Ghostface Added to Coachella
- Ted Leo/Pharmacists to Tour U.S./Canada
Sun: 01-21-07
Fri: 01-19-07
- Pitchfork Music Festival 2007: July 14-15, Chicago
- Kanye West, RZA, DJ Premier on Beat Kings DVD
- Apples in Stereo Tour in Support of New Album
- Summer Hymns, Winter Tour
- Islands' Nick Thorburn Talks All Kinds of Crazy Stuff
- Rock Plaza Central Sign to Yep Roc
- Dosh Drops EP, Dashes Off on Tour
- Fujiya & Miyagi Schedule U.S. Shows
- Lily Allen Announces American Tour
- Ghost Prepare for Stormy Nights
- Iron & Wine and Calexico Tour Japan
- Exclusive: The Pipettes to Charm North America
- Arcade Fire Announce UK Single
- Radiohead Working on Album Again
- Bjork Taps Antony, Timbaland, Lightning Bolt for LP
- Of Montreal Launch Tour, Release Digital Single
Thu: 01-18-07
- The Constantines Tour Canada
- Exclusive: Bonde do Role Sign to Domino
- Lee Hazlewood Taps Granddaughter for Final Album
- Cage Launches Winter Tour
- Mark Eitzel Embarks on East Coast Tour
- Cat Power, Seu Jorge Become Works of Public Art
- Photos: Andrew Bird [New York, NY; 01/17/06]
- Bright Eyes Sign to Polydor Outside North America
- David Kilgour Cleans Up With The Far Now
- Tweedy Reveals Wilco LP Title, Release Date
- Exclusive: Decemberists Announce Spring U.S. Tour
- Parts & Labor, Jana Hunter Cover Oneida's "Sheets"
- Songs of Green Pheasant Sends Aerial Days Stateside
- Pre-Thermals Material Collected on Urban Legends LP
- Turbulence Promises Album Will Do Good
- Echo & the Bunnymen Expand Songs to Learn and Sing
- Built to Spill Show Europe What They're Made Of
Wed: 01-17-07
- Plan B Plans American Invasion
- Castanets Strike Out on Tour With Shapes and Sizes
- Exclusive: Mystery Jets Sign to Dim Mak
- Low Add European Dates to Tour
- Exclusive: Richard Buckner Tours With Six Parts Seven
- Band of Horses Trot Out on Tiny Tour
- Paul Weller Celebrates 30 Years With DVD/Box, Tour
- DJs Drama & Cannon Arrested for "Illegal" CDs
- Deerhoof Launch World Tour
- Camera Obscura Kick Off Tour, Share Single, Video
- Exclusive: Gustav Ejstes Talks New Dungen Album
Tue: 01-16-07
- Morrissey Seeks California Love on Tour
- Subtle Make Plans With TV on the Radio, Launch Tour
- Drag City Brings Boris' Rainbow to U.S.
- ? of ? & the Mysterians Loses House, Valuables to Fire
- Bonnie "Prince" Billy Preps New Single
- Ninja Tune/Big Dada Prep Diplo, Wiley, Bug Releases
- Junior Boys Remixed by Hot Chip, Prep EPs, Tour
- Slint Rock Spiderland at Primavera Sound Festival
- Postal Service Cheat on USPS-- With UPS!
- Stones Throw Releases Retrospective Comp
- Sonic Youth Tour Japan with Vooredoms (Boredoms)
Mon: 01-15-07
- Frightened Rabbit Hit the States
- Exclusive: Page France Reveal LP, MP3, Headlights Tour
- Sigur Rós: "New Album in the Works"
- Annuals Prep EP, Tour With Dears, Aqueduct
- Leonard Cohen Given Reissue Treatment
- Sonic Youth, Murdoch, Watt, Suzuki on Future Pilot LP
- The Hold Steady Tour With the Thermals
- T.V. Eye: January 15-19, 2007
- Dr. Dog Tour With Bobby Bare Jr.
- V2 Closes Shop on New Releases, White Stripes Are Free
- Ben Gibbard Goes Hollywood
- Kevin Shields: MBV Will "100%" Make Another Album
Sun: 01-14-07
Fri: 01-12-07
- Marnie Stern Melts Your Face With KRS LP, Tour, MP3
- Video: Jelly Donut vs. Lady Sovereign
- Exclusive MP3: Grizzly Bear: "Knife (Girl Talk Remix)"
- The Stranglers Choke Out New Album Stateside
- Sneakers Release Retrospective Compilation
- Exclusive: MP3: Busdriver: "Less Yes's, More No's"
- Dntel Sub Pop Debut Revealed
- Vashti, Vetiver, Juana Molina, Adem Launch Tour
- Hold Steady Invade Britain
- The Ponys Tour Before Turning the Lights Out
- Arab Strap Drop Tears Stateside, Prep Solo Discs
- Exclusive: Mando Diao Share U.S. Release Details, MP3
- Video Premiere: Rob Crow: "I Hate You, Rob Crow"
- MP3: The Pack: "Candy"
- Yo La Tengo, Walkmen, PB&J; Head Laneway Fest
- El Perro Del Mar Tours America Del Norte
- Viva Voce to Support Shins on Tour
Thu: 01-11-07
- Gruff Rhys Coming to America Thanks to Conor Oberst
- Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid Speak in Tongues, Tour
- Bill Callahan Dumps Smog Name, Drops LP
- Benjy Ferree Launches U.S. Tour
- Misra + Absolutely Kosher = <3
- Decemberists Auction Instruments, Clothes for Charity
- Kanye West Gets HBO Show
- Video: Justin Timberlake/Rock Plaza Central: "SexyBack"
- Ex-Test Icicle Balls With Saddle Creek Peeps
- Video Premiere: Beach House: "Master of None"
- Lily Allen Announces U.S. LP Bonus Features
Wed: 01-10-07
- Sov Fights Donut, Parties With Playboy, Helps Islands
- Kanye, Gnarls, Girl Talk Take on Jackie Chan, China
- Field Music Record Futureheads, Share Video
- Mastodon Bring Video Game to Blood Mountain
- Talkdemonic to Tour West Coast
- Video: Bloc Party: "I Still Remember"
- Sam Prekop Talks New Sea and Cake Disc
- Exclusive: Blonde Redhead Reveal 23, Announce Tour
- Rough Trade Inks North American Licensing Deal
- Thurston, Carl Newman Write About Favorite Shows
- The Rapture Announce American Tour
- Patti Smith to Release Covers Album
Tue: 01-09-07
- Exclusive: I'm From Barcelona Introduce U.S. Tracklist
- Mark Ronson Recruits Lily Allen, ODB for Album
- caUSE co-MOTION! Incite Brouhaha on Tour
- Strokes' Hammond Jr. to Release Debut in U.S.
- Kaiser Chiefs Reveal Album Details, Tour
- Video: My Brightest Diamond: "Something of an End (David Keith Remix)"
- Animal Collective Sign to Domino, Tour
- Video: ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead: "Naked Sun"
- Bright Eyes Emotes Across North America
- Whitman, Forrest, Belong, Pioulard Record Ringtones
- Video: Clinic: "If You Could Read Your Mind"
- Burrito Brother Kleinow Dead at 72
- Mos Def Album Magically Disappears
- Exclusive: MP3: !!!: "Heart of Hearts"
Mon: 01-08-07
- PB&J;, Patrick Wolf, 120 Days Head Dutch Fest
- John Reis' Sultans Hang up the Crown
- Cold War Kids Tour With Tokyo Police Club
- Simian, Long Winters on Music for Robots Comp
- Emily Haines Serenades NPR Listeners
- M. Ward, Jim James, Ladyhawk Featured on FADER 7”
- The Broken West (Formerly the Brokedown) Plan Tour
- Bloc Party Announce North American Tour
- Do Make Say Think Make Album, Do Tour
- MP3: Beirut: "Elephant Gun"
- Pharoahe Monch Shares New Song, Controversial Video
- A-Trak Releases One of Everything
- R.E.M., Patti Smith, Grandmaster Flash Make Rock Hall
- Ted Leo to Play NYC Benefit for Robbins Family
- T.V. Eye: January 8-15, 2007
Sun: 01-07-07
Sat: 01-06-07
Fri: 01-05-07
- Xiu Xiu, BARR, Grouper Get Artsy-Fartsy
- Video: Deerhunter: "Strange Lights"
- Calexico, Rogue Wave, Pink Mt'tops on Charity Comp
- Amon Tobin Meets Kronos Quartet in Foley Room
- Grizzly Bear Yellow House Film Sync Discovered!
- Chin Up Chin Up, Bobby Conn Play Robbins Benefit
- Walkmen Announce Australian, U.S. Tours
- Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks Launch Tour
- Trail of Dead Announce UK Tour
- Ponys, Flosstradamus, Bound Stems Rock Schubas Fest
- Crunk Hits Gets Vol. 3, Joined by Hyphy Hitz
- Jonny Greenwood Curates Trojan Records Reggae Comp
- MP3: Justice: "Phantom Part I"
- Love Is All, Long Blondes on Label Comp
- Enslaved Tour North America
- Justin K. Broadrick Talks New Jesu Album, Tour
Thu: 01-04-07
- The Shins Announce U.S. Tour
- Rock Plaza Central Horse Around on Tour
- Wilco Side Project Autumn Defense Prep New LP
- RJD2 Reveals Tracklist, Tour Dates, New Song
- Peter Bjorn and John Tap Victoria for U.S. Gigs
- Modest Mouse, Shellac, Books Join Fan-Curated ATP
- Fugazi's Lally Takes There to Here From Here to There
- Wu-Tang Plan New Album, Contribute to Compilations
- Sublime Frequencies Film Explores Moroccan Music
- The Curtains (Ex-Deerhoof) Launch U.S. Tour
- Pelican Reveal Details of Next Album
- MP3: DJ Jaguar Skills: "1979-2006: A Hip Hop Odyssey"
- Low Hit the Road
- Video: Hot Chip: "Arrest Yourself"
- MV/EE Hit the Bummer Road
Wed: 01-03-07
- Stream: Modest Mouse: "Dashboard"
- Stax Returns!
- The Knife Remixed by Dave Sitek, Booka Shade
- Sparklehorse Announce North American Tour
- Video: Jarvis: "Don't Let Him Waste Your Time"
- Clap Your Hands, Wrens Play NYC Benefit Shows
- Video: Kleerup [ft. Robyn]: "With Every Heartbeat"
- Blur Not Reuniting With Coxon
- Stooges, Interpol, Bloc Party, Lily Allen Play SXSW
- Video: Mastodon Tour Diary, Part Two
- Modest Mouse Confirm New Single
- Morrissey, Shins, Air, Les Savy Fav Say "Cheese"
- Sufjan, Björk, Prince Line Up for Joni Mitchell Tribute
- Nick Cave Live DVD, Grinderman LP Revealed
Tue: 01-02-07
- Under Byen Tour North America With Frida Hyvonen
- M. Ward Tours, Scores Film
- Thermals Tear Across North America
- Video: Girl Talk [New Year's Eve 2006-07, Chicago]
- MP3: Talib Kweli, Madlib Team for Free Album
- Sebadoh Reveal Reunion Tour Dates
- Video: Bonnie "Prince" Billy: "Ebb Tide"
- TV on the Radio Schedule North American Tour
- Moore, Ranaldo, Chatham Head Experimental Fest
- Shins Share Video, Digital LP; Rock "SNL"
- T.V. Eye: January 2-8, 2007
- While We Were Out
Squares, Inc.