111 Recent ItemsElephant Man Collects Greensleeves Tracks for Comp
Though he is currently signed to Bad Boy Entertainment, Jamaica's Elephant Man will release a 20-track compilation of his recordings for the Greensleeves label on February 19. The comp is the first in the Monsters of Dancehall series celebrating the label's 30-year anniversary. [MORE...]
CSS, DFA 1979, Gossip on Wall of Sound Comp
The folks at the Wall of Sound label have decided that the dance influences in groups like CSS, the Gossip, Soulwax, and the now-defunct Death From Above 1979 constitute a movement.
So they're documenting it with a compilation titled Shock Rock. They will release the compilation on February 19, but a Shock Rock tour with a semi-rotating lineup of several of the featured bands kicks off tonight in Leeds, England.
One of those groups, Shy Child, will release their Wall of Sound full-length debut in May. [MORE...]
Clientele, Portastatic on Go-Betweens/McLennan Tribute
Exclusive: Contest held to determine final compilation contributor!
When Go-Betweens co-leader Grant McLennan unexpectedly passed away last May, the music world mourned the loss of a dear family member, a friend, and a brilliant, intuitive songwriter. For anyone who had been touched by Grant's music over the last 30 years, it was like losing someone very close. While never quite a commercial smash, Australia's Go-Betweens nonetheless etched an enduring legacy, charming critics and fans alike with warm, thoughtful pop songwriting. Seeking to pay tribute to Grant and his extraordinary music, Go-Betweens superfans David James Buckner and wife Sherri decided to compile a fitting tribute album.
Love Goes On collects exclusive covers of Go-Betweens favorites and Grant McLennan solo tunes from artists who count Grant and his oeuvre as a profound influence. It should hit shops in early September via David and Sherri's own Rare Victory label and will feature liner notes penned by The Big Takeover's Jack Rabid.
Confirmed contributors include the Clientele, Portastatic, Brookville (aka Ivy's Andy Chase), kiwi rock stalwarts the Bats, Sarah Records graduates the Orchids, Bobby Wratten's post-Field Mice project Trembling Blue Stars, Belle & Sebastian collaborator Future Pilot AKA, and ex-Auteurs/Black Box Recorder gent Luke Haines. Other likely participants include Ivy (re-working their cover of "Streets of Your Town", originally from the Guestroom LP) and Church frontman and McLennan's Jack Frost partner Steve Kilbey (tackling "The Wrong Road").
Hear comp selections from Portastatic, the Orchids, and more at the label's MySpace.
As David told Pitchfork via e-mail, "We have been incredibly pleased and heartened to see the enthusiasm with which this project has been embraced by artists of various cultures and epochs."
But wait-- there's room for one more! Due to a last-minute cancellation, Rare Victory is seeking one final contributor for Love Goes On, to cover title track "Love Goes On!" (originally released on the Go-Betweens' 1988 LP 16 Lovers Lane). Interested parties should shoot an mp3 of their entry to rarevictory@gmail.com no later than March 29, 2007. The label will choose a winner on the basis of "originality, melodicism, and sound quality."
Bear in mind that all entrants, while retaining ownership of their songs, agree to keep them exclusive to Love Goes On for at least 12 months from the release date. Fair enough, why not give it a whirl? [MORE...]
Apples in Stereo, Polyphonic Spree Support Critic-Turned-Politician
Also: Centro-matic, the Paper Chase, Rhett Miller, Ben Kweller
The talk in MusicCriticTown these days is that jobs are scarce, underpaid, and underappreciated. So it seems that former Dallas Observer music editor Zac Crain has found one solution to these problems: give the whole thing up and run for mayor of Dallas.
We're a little baffled by his decision, but hey, the only thing we've ever campaigned for was the position of albums on Pitchfork's year-end list. Then again, Crain bears a slight resemblance to a hairier Ian MacKaye, so maybe he has MacKaye's political bent and knack for riveting public performances as well.
Though he announced his candidacy back in April, he has recently recruited members of the Dallas music scene to contribute songs to a benefit album for his campaign.
The 32-song, double-disc compilation features contributions from the Polyphonic Spree's Tim DeLaughter, Ben Kweller, Rhett Miller (with instrumentation by Jon Brion), the Deathray Davies' John Dufilho with the Apples in Stereo's Robert Schneider, Centro-matic, the Paper Chase, and many more. Plenty of the tracks are previously unreleased or were written exclusively for the compilation, which is available for purchase here. [MORE...]
New Order, Eno, Durutti on Post-Punk Comp Reissue
Re-issue! Re-package! Re-package!Re-evaluate the songs
double-pack with a photograph
Extra Track (and a tacky badge)...
Ah Morrissey...stop being so pessimistic. Sure, the "sickening greed" of the music industry's "sycophantic slags" dates further back than we care to remember, but certainly there are exceptions to the rule, right? For instance, the rescuing from obscurity (and exorbitant eBay spending) of notable 1980 "postpunk pop avant-garde" (thank you Greil Marcus!) compilation From Brussels With Love by LTM Recordings.
Originally the very first release by mysterious Belgian label Les Disques du Crépuscule, the From Brussels With Love cassette compilation from November 1980 has long been a sought-after oddity of a bygone era, not to mention a bygone format.
LTM released the collection for the first time on CD yesterday, February 12 (although there are supposedly ultra-rare Japanese versions kicking around, if you prefer that particular quest). Scoop it up via Darla in the U.S.
Much of the material is quite rare and appears only on the cassette, including an early committal to tape by Thomas Dolby, two "experiments" by Factory Records' Durutti Column, tunes by New Order (with one-time Ian Curtis "replacement" Kevin Hewick) and in-house producer Martin Hannett, compositions by soundtrack gurus Michael Nyman and Harold Budd, interviews with actress Jeanne Moreau and Brian Eno (by Wim Mertens), a track by Wire's Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis, two "jingles" by original Ultravox vocalist John Foxx, and other curios.
Clocking in at 75 minutes, this CD reissue's aim is true and it has almost everything the original cassette release did-- minus A Certain Ratio's live version of "Felch" found on the cassette, and minus the cassette itself, of course-- including a 16-page facsimile of the original booklet and artwork by the superb Crépuscule designers Benoît Hennebert and Jean-François Octave. [MORE...]
Devendra, Sunset Rubdown, Why? Cover/Remix Xiu Xiu
5RC will soon ship off for that great big record store in the sky (where they have everything on vinyl), but not before treating discerning audiences to one last left-of-center indie gem-- and this one might as well be the Hope Diamond. On April 10, the KRS-affiliated imprint hits us with Remixed and Covered, a massive two-disc set packed with, you guessed it, remixes and covers of Xiu Xiu songs.On disc one, spring tourmates Sunset Rubdown take on A Promise's "Apistat Commander", avant-hoppers Why? do The Air Force's devastating closer, "Wig Master", and melancholic folkie Marissa Nadler makes Fabulous Muscles jam "Clowne Towne" her own. Devendra Banhart's cover of "Support Our Troops OH!" (originally released on a split 7") crops up again here as well.
Alas, Tu Mi Piaci covers EP stars Pussycat Dolls do not return Xiu Xiu the favor.
Disc two boasts remixes from the likes of loop-happy Creepshow partner Grouper, slice'n'dicer Kid606, like-minded shrieker This Song Is a Mess but So Am I, club MC/producer Gold Chains, boundary-pushers To Live and Shave in L.A., and Xiu Xiu themselves.
Remixed and Covered is one of approximately 92 Xiu Xiu-related releases due this year. Others include the previously reported reprise of XXL, Xiu Xiu's collaboration with Italy's Larsen, whose Spicchiologi? drops May 29 via Important; the follow-up to PLUG award-winner The Air Force, which features a duet with Michael Gira; side projects with Deerhoof's John Dieterich and This Song Is a Mess; and a video collection and tour DVD.
That DVD should be available this spring, when, somehow, Xiu Xiu will find time for a month-long tour (be on the lookout for another Polaroid project as well). And! Perhaps inspired by all that Neon Bible toll-free hoopla, Xiu Xiu have set up their own "hotline", which you may dial up to hear effed-up, mostly indecipherable messages. For a good time, call (510) 587-3204. [MORE...]
Devendra, Lavender Diamond, Giant Drag Do Madonna
Devendra does "Express Yourself", dedicates it to his spirit animal
L.A. freak-folk label Manimal Vinyl will release a Madonna tribute compilation titled Through the Wilderness this September or October. The list of flower children paying homage to the Material Girl includes Devendra Banhart, Vietnam, Women & Children, Lavender Diamond, Giant Drag, the Chapin Sisters, Bat for Lashes with Moon and Moon, and the Tyde.
The album also features Winter Flowers, Apollo Heights, Jonathan Wilson, Mountain Party, Alexandra Hope, Little Death, Siddhartha, Golden Animals, and the Pangaeans.
Proceeds
from sales of Through the Wilderness will assist the fight against AIDs in Africa, though a specific charity
has not yet been selected.
[front
page photo from Madonna.com]
Sweden's Labrador Preps 100-Track Anniversary Box
Includes Acid House Kings, the Radio Dept., Club 8, The Legends, Pelle Carlberg, Sambassadeur
Can't get enough of that Jens Lekman fellow? Peter Bjorn and John and I'm From Barcelona duking it out atop your last.fm charts? Drink yourself silly every afternoon to Frida Hyvönen? Cry yourself to sleep every night to El Perro Del Mar? MySpace friends with the Concretes, Hello Saferide, Blood Music, and Jenny Wilson? Looks like you've got it bad for Swede-pop.Which means Labrador Records has just the thing for you. This Valentine's Day, the beloved Swedish imprint celebrates 100 releases and 10 years of serving up some of the best indie-pop on the planet with Labrador 100, A Complete History of Popular Music. The four-disc, 100-track set includes one song from every Labrador release to date (including a brand new Radio Dept. jam) and a huge booklet detailing the label's history and more. Puppy-eyed kids across the U.S. can pick it up for their sweethearts in late February via Darla distribution.
Whether you're in the mood for the sentimental delicacies of the Radio Dept. and Laurel Music, the cosmopolitan indie-pop of Club 8 and Sambassadeur, the delightful jangle of Acid House Kings and the Legends, the wry wit and quirkiness of Suburban Kids With Biblical Names and Pelle Carlberg, the gaze-y sprawl of Douglas Heart, or the indie-disco of Waltz for Debbie, Mondial, and Tribeca, Labrador 100 has it all.
Don't know what the hell we're talking about? Get acquainted by checking out the free mp3s Labrador is offering right now. They've been posting a song from each CD every week, and if you troll the Labrador mp3 archives, we reckon you'll find a bunch more there.
Labrador celebrates the release of the centennial mega-comp with a mega-party at Stockholm's Debaser on February 10. Sambassadeur, Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, the Mary Onettes, Lasse Lindh, and [ingenting] will perform, while members of Acid House Kings, Bubblegum Factory, SKWBN, and folks from the imprint itself will spin DJ sets.
The lovable label has a couple more feel-good releases on the way. On March 28, they'll treat us to Pelle Carlberg's In a Nutshell, while April 25 has the Mary Onettes' debut hitting shelves at the more sensible record shops near you. If you love the 1980s and haven't heard the Mary Onettes' "Lost" yet, please do so immediately. [MORE...]
Death Cab, Lips, Raconteurs Join Townshend on Comp
Plus: Regina Spektor, Editors, Magic Numbers, Kooks, Razorlight, Fratellis
Thank the internet for this one: a short while back, one Rachel Fuller, life partner to one Pete Townshend, established a live video webcast program called "In the Attic". She invited cool folks like the Flaming Lips and Death Cab for Cutie to play acoustic songs on her claustrophobia-inducing show. Jokes were said, laughs were had, and shambling, intimate performances were shared. The people rejoiced.Flash forward to right now, and "In the Attic" is set to unleash its very first compilation of those performances, the iTunes-only release Attic Jam. Featuring intimate, exclusive recordings from the aforementioned, as well as the Raconteurs, Regina Spektor, Editors, the Magic Numbers, and more, the digital release arrives February 14. So when your sweetheart gets you an iTunes gift card for Valentine's Day, after you break up with him/her, you know what to do with it.
Most intriguing of all, Townshend himself even joins a number of the artists (and contributes a couple of his own performances), including the Raconteurs (covering the Who's "The Seeker"), Death Cab (doing their own "Photobooth"), the Lips (covering "Baba O'Riley"), the Fratellis, and the Zutons. Fuller and co-host Mikey Cuthbert lend tracks as well, and Pete's younger brother Simon even makes an appearance.
Quoth the press release: "The unique chemistry generated by Fuller's edgy style, the enthusiasm of her sidekick Mikey and Pete's wisdom and experience adds a charm to these tracks that you will hear nowhere else." Wisdom, enthusiasm, and edge, people! Try to front on that. [MORE...]
Lusine Recruits Tejada, Dear, Apparat for Remix Album
Also: Spectral kicks off Death series, North American "residencies"
Seattle techno producer Jeff McIlwain, aka Lusine, will release an album of remixes on March 20 via Ghostly International. The CD/digital version of the collection is titled Podgelism and features remixes of Lusine by John Tejada, Matthew Dear, Apparat, Lawrence, Robag Wruhme, and Lusine himself, among others. Ghostly will also release an abbreviated 12" version titled Podgelism: Select Remixes, which features four of the most dancefloor-oriented remixes. It is also scheduled for a March 20 release. Doug Seay's video for "Still Frame" will come with the CD.Speaking of Ghostly's danceable side, counterpart label Spectral Sound will release the first 12" in the Death Is Nothing to Fear series on February 20. Death Is Nothing to Fear 1 features Audion (aka Matthew Dear) on the A-side and Bodycode and newcomer Pär Grindvik on the B.
Dear is currently on a North American tour under his Audion alias. His remaining DJ dates continue through March, and Spectral is calling them the first installment of a bi-monthly North American "residency", which sort of sounds like a regular old tour to us. April and May's "residency" will feature Bodycode. [MORE...]
Rabbit Factory Unleashes Soul of Neal Hemphill
Plus exclusive MP3s from Ralph "Soul" Jackson
Tomorrow, February 6, Chicago label Rabbit Factory will release Birmingham Sound: The Soul of Neal Hemphill Vol. 1. (It's available on eMusic now.) It's a compilation of soul from Birmingham, Alabama in the 60s and 70s named for plumber-turned-studio owner Neal Hemphill. Hemphill was responsible for a great deal of the music produced in the city during that time, and the 23-track compilation includes tracks by Frederick Knight (who wrote "Ring My Bell", a hit for Anita Ward), the Blue Notes, and Ralph "Soul" Jackson.Rabbit Factory will also use the two Jackson tracks on a 45 release in conjunction with the compilation, with "Set Me Free" on the A-side and "Take Me Back" on the B. The label has offered both tracks for download at the links below. "Set Me Free" is an uptempo plea backed by a female chorus, while "Take Me Back" is a little more wistful. [MORE...]
Exclusive: Ed Banger Delivers Second Comp, Tour
Plus stickers!
Though the first volume of Ed Banger's Ed Rec series of compilations was just released digitally, the French label is already moving forward with plans for a physical release of Ed Rec Vol. 2.Unlike Vol. 1, which was retrospective, Vol. 2 will feature 14 new and exclusive tracks, except for Justice's "Phantom" and Mr. Flash's "Disco Dynamite". Ed Banger will release Vol. 2 with Because Music in Europe on March 12 in both CD and double LP formats. Vice will release it digitally on March 6 and physically on April 10 in the U.S., with a currently untitled bonus track by label boss Busy P tacked on. The package also comes with a page of original stickers from the label.
Ed Banger artists Justice, DJ Mehdi, Sebastian, and Busy P will tour North America together in March, after which Justice have a couple dates of their own. Parties in Chicago, Brussels, and Paris will precede the tour.
The compilation isn't the only upcoming Ed Banger release. The label also plans to release 12"s from Mr. Oizo ("Patrick 122"), Busy P ("Rainbow Man", February 26), DJ Mehdi ("Lucky Boy" EP, March 19), and Justice ("D.A.N.C.E", also on CD single April 16). A Justice album is in the works for June. [MORE...]
Herbert Releases Film Work as Score
We've been swooning over Matthew Herbert's concept-heavy albums (like last year's Scale) for a while now, but the British producer has not limited his output to just records. He has also been quietly recording film music for a decade now. !K7 will release a 17-track compilation of these pieces in April, simply titled Score.Score collects Herbert's soundtrack work from seven films and one ballet piece, much of which was arranged by frequent collaborator Pete Wraight. The compilation includes his work with Blanca Li (the choreographer of Daft Punk's "Around the World" video) and Etienne Chatiliez, who Herbert is currently recording with at Abbey Road's Studio One for a new film. That project is, according to a press release, "a musical called Agathe Clery, about a white racist who turns black." Dave Chappelle could not be reached for comment.
True to his dedication to avoid "the use of pre-set keyboard sounds, drum machines, or secondary musical sources," the sounds Herbert sampled for these pieces relate conceptually to the films for which they were recorded. Thus, in his rejected demos for Manolete (a bullfighting flick), he "used the sound of blood and hair, dust and cloth, and even the bull itself to generate percussion." And in his score for "Set Boundaries", "a live performance piece about borders," "all the percussion [was] made out of bullets from RAF Tornado shells that were used in Iraq, and from Israeli bullets. I just wanted to reinforce the idea that national boundaries are defended with ruthless violence." Man, talk about commitment. [MORE...]
R.E.M., Lips, Ward Cover Radiohead, More on Comp
Also: Magic Numbers, Paul Weller, Robert Plant, Sia, Dido, Damien Rice, Girls in Hawaii
Southern California NPR affiliate radio station
KCRW is making mornings more eclectic than ever. On the way to the office,
listeners can now catch its diverse programming, get their daily grind on with a wide assortment of
Starbucks joe, and, while they're at it, pick up a Starbucks/KCRW covers compilation. How's
that for variety?
On March 13, KCRW and Starbucks Entertainment will co-release Sounds Eclectic: The Covers Project at select Starbucks locations (Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, San Diego, Austin, Boston, and Washington, D.C.) and online.
The collection features covers from the Flaming Lips (doing Radiohead's "Knives Out"), R.E.M. (John Hartford's "Gentle on My Mind"; made famous by Glen Campbell), M. Ward (David Bowie's "Let's Dance"), Rufus Wainwright and Chris Stills (Neil Young's "Harvest"), Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog" [haHA]), Paul Weller (Rose Royce's "Wishing on a Star"; made famous by Junior Walker), Damien Rice (Radiohead's "Creep"), Gary Jules (Tears for Fears' "Mad World"; made famous in Donnie Darko), and more, all originally performed live in the KCRW studio for Nic Harcourt's "Morning Becomes Eclectic" program. Well...except for the Lips, who took on Radiohead's "Knives Out" in their tour bus on the way to the studio. K.D. Lang also does us the disservice of giving the world yet another inferior cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah".
Proceeds from album sales will assist the station in digitizing its huge (60,000+ albums) music library.
As previously reported, earnings from KCRW's sixth annual A Sounds Eclectic Evening fundraiser will be put toward the same cause. The event is set to take place on April 14 at University City, California's Gibson Amphitheater. The Shins, Lily Allen, Cold War Kids, Rodrigo y Gabriela, and Bitter:Sweet will perform, and the Pinker Tones will entertain at the after-party. [MORE...]
Vashti, ex-Arab Strap, ex-Delgados on Idlewild Lit Comp
Plus Sons and Daughters, Trashcan Sinatras, Aereogramme, James Yorkston, King Creosote
Break out the librarian glasses and the Scottish stereotype of your choosing, kids: it's time to get literary in the highlands. See, indie rockers and their fans have always been a bookish sort, so the marriage of writers and rockers on the forthcoming Ballads of the Book compilation seems only natural. Idlewild's cartoonishly-named frontman Roddy Woomble conceived of the idea following his band's collaboration with Scottish scribe Edwin Morgan on their 2002 set The Remote Part.
"Why not have a bunch of (mostly) Scottish musicians interpret the writings of Scottish authors and poets in one raging orgy of liberal arts awesomeness?" he thought.
And so he set up a chatroom (read: pure conjecture) and invited all his music pals and his literature buddies to pair off. After a bunch of OMGs and LOLs, pair off they did. Before he knew it, Roddy had Vashti Bunyan, ex-Arab Strap gents Aidan Moffat (with the Best Ofs) and Malcolm Middleton, ex-Delgados Alun Woodward (as Lord Cut-Glass) and Emma Pollock, Aereogramme, Sons and Daughters, Trashcan Sinatras, Mike Heron (The Incredible String Band), Alasdair Roberts, James Yorkston, King Creosote, and Karine Polwart commingling with the likes of Morgan, Ian Rankin, and Alasdair Gray.
Hence, the 18-track Ballads of the Book arrives March 5 via Chemikal Underground Records, with support from the Scottish Arts Council. To celebrate, Roddy's recruited a number of Ballads contributors for a concert gala, going down tonight (i.e., pretty much right now) at Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall. Performers include Idlewild, Yorkston, Heron, Polwart, Roberts, and more. [MORE...]
Afghan Whigs Retrospective Revealed
On May 1, Rhino Records will release Unbreakable (A Retrospective), an 18-track overview of the Afghan Whigs' dark, decadent career. Notice how it isn't called Unbreakable (Greatest Hits), because the Afghan Whigs didn't really have any hits. It also isn't called Unbreakable (Best Of), because "Summer's Kiss", "When We Two Parted", "Fountain and Fairfax", and "You My Flower" aren't on it, and that's just criminal. (What were the criteria for inclusion on this thing anyway?)
What is on Unbreakable is 16 songs from the band's Sub Pop albums Up in It and Congregation, Sub Pop EP Uptown Avondale, Elektra albums Gentlemen and Black Love, and Columbia album 1965. And, as previously reported, the compilation includes two brand new Afghan Whigs songs, "I'm a Soldier" and "Magazine", recorded when singer/guitarist Greg Dulli, bassist John Curley, guitarist Rick McCollum, and drummer Michael Horrigan reunited last fall.
It's doubtful that the reunion will extend beyond those new songs, however, as Dulli is still very busy with the Twilight Singers and his collaboration with Mark Lanegan, the Gutter Twins. [MORE...]
Secretly Canadian Artists Cover Each Other for Comp
Jens Lekman does Scout Niblett, Danielson do Dave Fischoff, Songs: Ohia do Nikki Sudden
After 11 years of existence, Secretly Canadian is finally celebrating itself. The Indiana label that brought us everybody from Antony and Jens Lekman to Danielson/Br. Danielson/Danielson Famile and Songs:Ohia/Magnolia Electric Company/Jason Molina will release the retrospective compilation SC100 on April 10.
And what better way to
document Secretly Canadian's history than with a big ol' song swap? SC100 features 18 SC artists covering other SC artists. Jens Lekman covers Scout Niblett, Danielson does
Dave Fischoff, Songs: Ohia take on Nikki Sudden, Nikki Sudden does June Panic, June Panic do Danielson, Marmoset do Jens, Suzanne Langille does Songs:Ohia... Yup, it's a big ol' orgy.
Although Secretly Canadian has put out over 150 records by now, SC100 is still a technically correct title, since it's been in the works since it was the label's hundreth release. Therefore, the compilation only includes artists from SC's first 99 records. So no Antony or I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness or Frida Hyvönen, sorry. [MORE...]
Stuart Murdoch, Will Oldham, Jarvis Head Kiddie Comp
The Wiggles recoil in fear
The indie rock children's compilation market continues to grow. Last year, See You on the Moon, The Colours Are Brighter, All Together Now (and two more Kidz Bop collections) hit shelves. And the trend shows no sign of stopping in 2007.
Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is reportedly working on a collection of kids songs, as are Luscious Jackson. DeSoto's previously reported Play will be out April 17.
And now comes word of Songs for the Young at Heart, arranged by Stuart Staples and Dave Boulter of Tindersticks. It's due February 26 via V2 UK.
Frankly, Tindersticks are probably one of the last bands on earth we would expect to curate a children's music compilation, given their general malaise and all. But we guess kids can get sad too.
The disc features contributions from Stuart Murdoch (Belle & Sebastian), Jarvis Cocker, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Kurt Wagner (Lambchop), Cerys Matthews, Robert Forster (the Go-Betweens), Tindersticks, Staples solo, and more.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy's cover of "Puff, the Magic Dragon" and Staples' "Theme for the Young at Heart" were originally released on a 7" in July 2005 as a "first taste" of the compilation project on Lucky Dog Recordings.
Oldham's "Puff, the Magic Dragon" will go up against Broken Social Scene's version from See You on the Moon in a "which sounds better when you're stoned?" competition taking place in the Pitchfork office supply closet later this evening.
The first run of Songs for the Young at Heart will be limited edition, packaged with a Sexton Ming-illustrated children's book featuring Marriott Edgar's "The Lion & Albert", which Cocker recites on the disc. [MORE...]
Silver Jews, Avey Tare, Enon, Black Dice on RBR Comp
Also: The Jewish (!), not a Silver Jews side project
Since 1995, Nicolas Vernhes has produced everybody from the Fiery Furnaces and Cat Power to Les Savy Fav and Ted Leo at his Rare Book Room Studio in Brooklyn. And he has convinced a bunch of artists he's worked with to return the favor, by contributing new material for his new label, Rare Book Room Records.
The label's first release will be a double disc compilation tentatively titled RBR 001 ("til I come up with a better one," Vernhes says) and featuring contributions from Fischerspooner, Animal Collective's Avey Tare, Enon, Blood on the Wall, Tara Jane O'Neil, Black Dice, and yes, a band called the Jewish.
Vernhes has not yet set a release date for the compilation (though he "expects [it] to be ready in the next month or two") "because it is a complicated and time-consuming project." Part of the reason why the process has been so time-consuming is that Vernhes "made sure to record extended intros and outros so the songs merge together into one long, but indexed, piece of music. This solution was developed so that the songs [would] flow into each other organically, eliminating the jarring and sometimes random feel to some compilations."
The tracks already recorded for RBR 001 are listed below in alphabetical order by artist, since the compilation does not yet have a tracklist. Artists who have yet to record include Oakley Hall, Fischerspooner, Enon's Toko Yasuda, Dan Brown, Theo Angell, Holy Hail, Love As Laughter's Sam Jayne, "and probably a few more."
The Silver Jews track was originally the B-side to a UK single from American Water, but other than that, every song on the compilation is previously unreleased.
Rare Book Room's second release will be a full-length by compilation contributors Palm in the Claw. [MORE...]
Funkstorung Release Farewell Remix Album
After over ten years of releasing music together, German experimental electronic duo Funkstörung have dissolved themselves. On their website, they mention "musical differences, personal problems," and the distance between their homes as possible explanations for the break-up, without really committing to any of them.
Neither member is dwelling in the past, though. For one thing, !K7 will release the last Funkstörung record, Appendix-- a compilation of remixes for Björk and the Raveonettes, among others-- tomorrow, January 23. Additionally, members Chris de Luca and Michael Fakesch have dates lined up throughout Europe in the coming months.
De Luca has joined forces with Phon.o for an upcoming album, Chris de Luca vs Phon.o, material from which he has included in the "Main Streamed Mix" recently posted to the new duo's website. [MORE...]
Parts & Labor, Jana Hunter Cover Oneida's "Sheets"
As part of a six-volume tape series devoted exclusively to covers of Oneida's "Sheets of Easter"
If you've had the almighty, mental-thrashing pleasure of listening to Oneida's epic jam, "Sheets of Easter", you might find it hard to believe that six cassette tapes chock-full of covers of the almost-15-minute, riff-happy song will soon see the light of day. On February 1, Furniture Records delivers the first volume of their Sheets of Easter Everywhere singles club. The Austin/Chicago-based label has assembled tons of choice acts, including Parts & Labor, Jana Hunter, and DJ Sony Playstation, for the first installment-- and they all pay tribute to that beautiful beast from 2002's Each One Teach One. Check out Parts & Labor's hypnotic take on "Sheets of Easter" in mp3 form below.
Over the course of the year, Furniture will unleash the rest of the six volumes (one every other month), featuring such indie luminaries as Excepter, Jason Forrest, Pit Er Pat, BARR, Genghis Tron, AIDS Wolf, Pterodactyl, Best Fwends, All City Affairs, and Plastic Crimewave Sound, just to name a few.
Act fast if you want a copy, though: each volume will have a limited release of 300. Sign up for the singles club (details here), and you'll get each new tape as soon as it's released, as well as a nifty handmade book featuring thoughts on the project from the artists involved.
If you want to know how someone could ever hazard to cover "Sheets of Easter" in under a minute (because both Oh, Beast! and the Coke Dares do it on the first volume), here's your chance. And if you're not quite sure what a cassette tape is, fret not; singles club signees will also receive the tunes in CD form with the tapes and the book. [MORE...]
Pre-Thermals Material Collected on Urban Legends LP
Gather round, youngins, and let us tell you story: Looong ago and faaar away, before the mighty Thermals pounced on the scene-- and before the high-energy trio dished out their year-end- list-making dystopian opus The Body, the Blood, the Machine-- Hutch Harris and Kathy Foster were just another pair of rootin' tootin' ragamuffins fooling around with a 4-track.Together they released a self-titled full length as Hutch and Kathy, a couple singles as Haelah, and a string of releases-- including an LP, an EP, and a handful of 7"s-- as Urban Legends.
Urban Legends, you see, actually began in San Jose as Harris' home-recording thing, waaaay back in 1996. Miss Foster joined up in 1998, as the act began playing live and evolved into a full-fledged outfit-- one which at some point or another included members of Kind of Like Spitting, as well as Marc Bianchi of Her Space Holiday.
Now, with the Thermals being awesome all over the place, plenty of folks are no doubt curious as to how these spirited rockers came to be what they are today. These folks yearn to delve deeper into the band's history, into vast, uncharted proto-Thermals realms. And to these people, the Chicago-based Contraphonic imprint says, "We can help."
Part of the No Karma group (which issued one of those early 7"s), Contraphonic will deliver Urban Legends' Of Old Lost Days on January 23. The 19-track compilation collects a number of Urban Legends singles, as well as unreleased material, all recorded between 1997 and 2002.
Check out the "The World Is Strange", linked below, which could be mistaken for an early demo that Elliott Smith might've recorded on a particularly sunny day. What these early songs lack in grit and bite, they make up for with melodious warmth. Not a bad look at all.
As previously reported, the Thermals hit the road next month, joined along the way by the Hold Steady and the Big Sleep. [MORE...]
Paul Weller Celebrates 30 Years With DVD/Box, Tour
It's been a damn good run for Paul Weller-- and the man isn't showing any signs of slowing down yet. To celebrate a whopping 30 years of music-making, the former frontman for the Jam and the Style Council and current prolific solo artist has announced a whole bunch of anniversary hoopla. And like all good things, these come in threes.First up, three slightly different career retrospective releases bearing the title Hit Parade, all due January 23 via Yep Roc Records. Hit Parade conveniently collects the best material from Weller's days in the Jam and the Style Council, as well as his proudest solo moments-- and seriously, there's something for the whole family here. Dad wants it all, so get him the four-disc box set, featuring over 60 Weller jams from across the man's catalogue. Kid sister just wants the hits, so get her the single-disc version, featuring only the finest Weller cuts. And grandma just loves to watch her some TV, so why not buy her the two-disc DVD, collecting videos and performances from "Top of the Pops" and "The Old Grey Whistle Test"?
Next up, Weller plays three very special nights at New York's Irving Plaza at the end of the month. The first focuses on his work with the Jam, the second spotlights material from the Style Council, and the third spans Weller's entire prodigious career. After that it's off to Los Angeles' Avalon from another trio of gigs.
And it wouldn't be a celebration without some late night television antics. Weller hits up "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" on January 31 and "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on February 5.
Three decades, three releases, three New York shows, three L.A. shows. Is Paul Weller the Second Coming??
And now, if you're ready to view the most intense tracklist this side of Bob Pollard (as well as tour dates), by all means, click away. [MORE...]
Stones Throw Releases Retrospective Comp
The esteemed Stones Throw label will release its second tenth anniversary-related compilation in less than six months on January 23. The first disc of the simply named Stones Throw: Ten Years two-CD set features contributions-- some of which are previously unreleased-- from Madlib, J Dilla, Madvillain, Yesterdays New Quintet, Aloe Blacc, Charizma, and label head Peanut Butter Wolf. The second disc is a J. Rocc mix of the tracks (except for Funkaho's "Bootay") in a slightly altered order.
We aren't quite sure what Funkaho did to deserve being cut, besides having a really stupid name. [MORE...]
Sneakers Release Retrospective Compilation
First show since 1979 scheduled
Like those limited edition art print Nikes you bought on eBay and later regretted, Winston-Salem, North Carolina's Sneakers were a short-lived phenomenon. But not regrettable.
The Southern-fried post-punk/power pop band only released one EP (1976's The Sneakers) and one LP (1979's In the Red) in their original incarnation before band members went on to form the dB's and produce R.E.M.'s first two albums. However, Sneakers later reformed in 1992 to assemble the Racket anthology and record a few new songs.
The forthcoming Nonsequitur of Silence compilation one-ups Racket by including-- in addition to the EP ("culled from restored original mixes," according to a press release), the LP, and all of the later recordings-- two bonus tracks: "Decline and Fall (Fidelitorium mix)" and the demo version of "Love That Girl" (the previously unreleased song that became "Love's Like a Cuban Crisis").
Collectors' Choice Music will release Nonsequitur of Silence on January 30. Sneakers co-founders Chris Stamey and Mitch Easter curated and remixed the songs, respectively, with Brent Lambert handling remastering duties at Carrboro, North Carolina's Kitchen Mastering. Music critic Scott Schinder wrote liner notes for the release.
Sneakers will celebrate the release of the compilation with their first live appearance since 1979 tomorrow, January 13 at New York City's Bowery Ballroom. Stamey's dB's and Mitch Easter will appear separately at the show as well, and both have a few dates scheduled on their own. [MORE...]
Simian, Long Winters on Music for Robots Comp
Humans allowed to listen to it, too
Furthering their non-internet game, the folks at music blog Music for Robots released their second compilation today, simply titled Music for Robots: Volume 2.
Featuring exclusive tracks from Simian Mobile Disco, the Long Winters, Copy, and the Twilight Sad, as well as cuts from Frightened Rabbit, Lo-Fi-Fnk, Danava and more, Volume 2 is available online and at indie stores. [MORE...]
Calexico, Rogue Wave, Pink Mt'tops on Charity Comp
Also: The Faint, Bettie Serveert, Creeper Lagoon, Boyskout
Just because the holidays are over doesn't mean you can pack
away your generosity along with those rotting candy canes and the neon green 2OO7
glasses. The season for giving is going on right now, dudes-- and next season
too, and, like, always. And with that in mind, the charitable folks and circus-mongers at San
Francisco's Three Ring Records have assembled a choice compilation benefiting
the homeless.
At the Crossroads: A Benefit for Homeless Youth collects unreleased, hard-to-find, and classic jams from a number of indie favorites, including Calexico (who contribute their version of "All the Pretty Horses", only available prior on a tour EP), Rogue Wave (with a new tune called "Basketball"), Pink Mountaintops (who serve up the unreleased "The Solo Sex") and the Faint (who share Wet From Birth's "I Disappear").
Other contributors include indie old-timers Creeper Lagoon and Bettie Serveert, as well as solid Three Ring acts like Boyskout, the Ebb and Flow, Scrabbel, and the Scattered PAGES (who deliver an innocuously faithful rendition of the Smiths' "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want", which you may download below).
The compilation hits stores January 9 and every single one of the 12 dollars you spend on it goes directly to At the Crossroads, a San Francisco-based "Street Youth Support Program" that "reaches out to homeless youth and young adults at their point of need, and works with them to build healthy and fulfilling lives." [MORE...]
Crunk Hits Gets Vol. 3, Joined by Hyphy Hitz
Get low and go dumb simultaneously!
TVT Records is turning out the Crunk Hits again, and for Volume 3, the crunk umbrella (crunkbrella?) gets even bigger. Seriously..."Don't Cha"? LL Cool J? Are we just including any song with a synth or a siren now? This could be the slippery slope to a NOW-like franchise, except without the limp acoustic ballads. Actually, that sounds pretty great. TVT, please proceed.Joining Crunk Hits, Volume 3 on its January 9 release, and also on TVT, is the compilation we're even more excited about: Hyphy Hitz, which features 20 tracks from ghost riding Bay Area artists. Unsurprisingly, E-40 and Keak Da Sneak are all over the tracklist, though their enormously awesome "Tell Me When to Go"-- probably the biggest actual hyphy hit-- is unfortunately absent. Is there a sad thizz face emoticon? [MORE...]
Jonny Greenwood Curates Trojan Records Reggae Comp
Radiohead still have nothing to discuss regarding their upcoming record, but you guys need yr fix, so we've got some Jonny Greenwood news.
On March 6, the guitarist/multi-instrumentalist will release a reggae compilation via Trojan Records. Titled Jonny Greenwood Is the Controller, it is the latest disc in the label's lengthy series of artist-curated comps.
Jahnny worked alongside Trojan on the project, utilizing selections from their mammoth catalog. He chose 17 tracks, including material from Lee "Scratch" Perry, Desmond Dekker, the Heptones, and more. [MORE...]
Love Is All, Long Blondes on Label Comp
Plus caUSE co-MOTION!, Comet Gain
The wee little label that could, NYC-based upstart imprint What's Your Rupture? got the jump on all those older, more experienced indie labels, introducing U.S. audiences to top-shelf acts from abroad and Pitchfork favorites like Love Is All and the Long Blondes through a series of vinyl EPs. Ever charitable, they also nodded to homebred lo-fi spazz-rockers caUSE co-MOTION! and spirited UK vets Comet Gain. Now all four acts and their respective EPs come bundled together on one convenient little piece of CD plastic.
Imagine the Shapes collects the first four What's Your Rupture? vinyl EPs onto CD-- 14 tracks in all-- and arrives February 6. If, like WYR?, you're one to think ahead, flex your foresight and preorder it now right here.
Believe it or not, this will mark the first time the Long Blondes-- whose Someone to Drive You Home snuck into our Top 50 Albums of 2006, despite the fact that we, er, haven't actually reviewed it yet-- appear on CD in the States.
If the news of this comp has you so excited you just can't contain yourself, bottle that energy and unleash it on the dancefloor at Imagine the Shapes' record release show, going down February 4 at Los Angeles' the Echo, as part of the Part Time Punks club night. caUSE co-MOTION! will perform, the kids will convulse, and the DJ will spin the Imagine comp in between sets if he/she knows what's good for him/her. caUSE co-MOTION tour the nation beginning next week; keep your browsers tuned to Pitchforkmedia.com for details. [MORE...]
Wu-Tang Plan New Album, Contribute to Compilations
MP3: Hell Razah, Talib Kweli, and Viktor Vaughn: "Project Jazz"
Wu-Tang Clan plan to release their first group album since 2001's Iron Flag this year via SRC Records. Label CEO Steve Rifkind-- whose now-defunct Loud Records released the first two seminal Wu-Tang albums-- made the announcement with a video on the label's blog. Explaining that he just got off the phone with RZA and Wu businessman Divine, Rifkind said, "It's official," though there is no information currently available about potential titles, release dates, or musical guests.
The Clan have also teamed with Nature Sounds for a couple of compilations. The first-- Wu-Tang Clan & Friends: Unreleased-- collects rare and previously unreleased tracks from every living Wu-Tang MC, curated and remixed by Wu DJ and occasional beatmaker Mathematics. Unreleased also features contributions from Wu associates like Cappadonna, Killah Priest, and Solomon Childs. Nature Sounds will release the compilation on January 23.
The second compilation, titled Natural Selection 2.0: A Digital Survival Guide, is a digital-only release currently available from iTunes and scheduled for a January 23 release at all other digital outlets. It features contributions from GZA, Raekwon, U-God, Masta Killa, Inspectah Deck, and Mathematics as well as Pete Rock, Talib Kweli, Little Brother, and MF DOOM (under his Viktor Vaughn alias).
Nature Sounds has offered a taste of Natural Selection 2.0 by making the Viktor Vaughn, Talib Kweli, and Hell Razah track "Project Jazz" available for download. It's a pleasant organ-and-saxophone-sampling jaunt through each MC's musical and personal history, with the exception of whatever MF DOOM is rapping about. We're not complaining, though. His mouth-full-of-cookies voice is always a blast to hear, and even though there are no Wu MCs on the track, there are few better summations of the Wu-Tang aesthetic than "enough combined slang to bang all year." [MORE...]
Alias, Lusine, Murcof Remix My Brightest Diamond
When we think of My
Brightest Diamond (aka Sufjan compatriot Shara Worden), ponies, orchestras, and churches spring
to mind-- but the last thing we think is "remix album dance party
wamp wamp whoa!" Which makes our thinking just plain wrong, because My Brighest Diamond has announced a remix disc, Tear It Down, set for release on March 6 via
Asthmatic Kitty.
Alias, Lusine, Gold Chains, Stakka, Murcof, and many more each play a part in reworking material from My Brightest Diamond's debut, Bring Me the Workhorse.
And while that sinks in, we'd like to remind you that Shara's scheduled to launch a European tour in early February. [MORE...]
Stream: Death Cab for Cutie: “Rocking Chair" (The Band cover)
My Morning Jacket + The Band = good combo. Death Cab for Cutie + The Band = the sadness.
Ben Gibbard slathers his sappy voice on this deep cut from the Band's self-titled second album (where it was called "Rockin' Chair"); the resulting DCFC hit-and-run is set to appear on the forthcoming Endless Highway Band tribute compilation, out via 429 Records on January 30.
It's a shame that Death Cab don't do much more with this song than make it sound like a Transatlanticism B-side, and Gibbard's disinterested lullaby croon does no justice to the lived-in feel of a song with the lyric, "I'm pushing age 73." Even more depressing: the other songs on Endless Highway.
Exclusive: MP3: Monster Bobby: "Silent Night"
I must admit that "Silent Night" is one of my least favorite holiday tunes, but Monster Bobby, principal songwriter for the Pipettes and recent Hypnote Recording Concern signee, has saved the world from another mundane, traditional version of the track. Bobby's take is available for free download below.
Here, "Silent Night" is pulsating and fuzzy. There's even a squeaky noise similar to the sound that's made by blowing on a blade of grass held between your thumbs. Unfortunately, Bobby's voice is high-pitched and whiny.
Monster Bobby's version of "Silent Night" is included on the compilation Christmas Crackers on the Sellotapes label. It's available exclusively through the label's MySpace page. All proceeds from the disc go to the Shelter charity.
Ghostly International Curates Memory Stick Comp
Features Matthew Dear, Dabrye, Dykehouse, other Ghostly artists
Nothing says "Happy Holiday-of-Your-Choice" like a gadget, and with this in mind, Michigan electronic label Ghostly International has collaborated with New York design boutique Moss in the creation of what is, to our minds, the first officially released compilation on a USB-compatible memory stick.Featuring a 128-megabyte flash memory and doubling as digital storage space, M/GM 1 (read: Moss/Ghostly Music Edition 1) features tracks from Matthew Dear, Dabrye, and Mobius Band, among others. Kristin Victoria Barron designed the device based on a concept from label head Sam Valenti IV.
According to a press release, M/GM 1 "is roughly the size of a pack of gum [and] can be used for data storage of any sort, a feature that follows from Ghostly's encouragement of file-sharing and desire to make music as portable and transferable as possible." A label that encourages file-sharing and the portability of music in 2006? What a novel idea, majors!
M/GM 1 is available starting this week at Moss' store and online here. [MORE...]
Ed Banger Teams With Vice, Preps Comp
Parisian dance label Ed Banger Records, run by Daft Punk's manager Pedro Winter (aka Busy P), and home to Justice, Uffie, Sebastian, DJ Mehdi, and more, has struck a U.S. distribution deal with Vice via a partnership with Because Music. (Justice is already signed to Vice in the U.S.)
To kick off the contract, Vice will release an Ed Banger compilation, Ed Rec Vol. 1, digitally on January 16. The collection features material spanning the label's existence, including tracks from the aforementioned artists as well as Mr. Flash, Vicarious Bliss, Zongamin, and others. Ed Banger will release the comp itself, also digitally, on December 18 in Europe
In addition, Vice will drop digital versions of 12"s and singles from Justice, DJ Mehdi,
Sebastian, Krazy Baldhead, Vicarious Bliss, and Zongamin in the future.
Beginning this month, Ed Banger will put on a series of parties across North America and Europe. The shows, which feature a variety of acts from the label's lineup, are currently scheduled through early April. [MORE...]
Ellen Allien Remixes Beck and Yorke, Owns 2007
Ellen Allien is all about 2007. In fact, she's so excited about it, she's practically planned out the entire year already, for both herself and the label she lovingly oversees, Berlin-based techno powerhouse Bpitch Control. Remixes, compilations, mixes, new albums, new signings, tours-- it's all in the works, so pull up one of those futuristic-looking pod chairs, pour yourself a glass of Tang, sit back, and check it out.
First up, Allien pays her respects to 2006, which wasn't too shabby at all for the gal. In collaboration with Shitkatapult co-chief Apparat, she released the Pitchfork Recommended Orchestra of Bubbles this past spring-- and she and Apparat judged a "Way Out" video contest held by MTV-owned Flux.tv (now Qoob). Check out the winning clip, painstakingly put together by Marco Testoni, below. Like a low-budget "Take on Me", it's an absolute marvel of animation on the cheap, although it might have fit slightly better with a gritty rock song than Allien & Apparat's nocturnal electronic bubblings.
After a series of DJ gigs in Europe this month and a New Year's bash in Berlin with Sascha Funke, Allien hops on the 2007 trajectory and doesn't look back. In March, she'll hit us with both the third Bpitch Camping compilation (including a new Allien track) and the CD/DVD Time Out Presents: The Other Side Berlin mix (which arrives March 30, courtesy of Fujiya & Miyagi's U.S. home Deaf Dumb & Blind Communications; tracklist below). Allien's Berlin mix culls together everything from a German version of David Bowie's "Heroes" to Swiss robo-seductress Miss Kitten to the minimal superstar Ricardo Villalobos. And heads up: Madlib's The Other Side L.A. mix drops then as well.
In the fall, Allien dons her mixing hat once again for Boogybytes Vol. 3 on Bpitch. Like previous Boogybytes releases mixed by Funke and Kiki, this one features another cover photograph that should frighten all the birds and small children away. As if that weren't enough, she has a Fabric mix on the way in May.
An unstoppable mistress of the mix, Allien will also give the remix treatment to tracks by Thom Yorke ("The Eraser"; joining Four Tet, Various, Surgeon, and others), Beck ("The Sun"), and, along with Apparat, Kate Wax-- those should see release in the near future. [MORE...]
Trentemøller, Tejada, Luciano on Poker Flat Comp
German tech house power label Poker Flat will release its fifth label compilation, Poker Flat Volume 5: Bets 'n' Bluffs, in the U.S. tomorrow, December 5 (it's already available across the pond). The two-CD set features contributions from Trentemøller (remixing himself), John Tejada, Argy, Luciano (as a remixer), and Peter Macia favorite Martin Buttrich, and the second disc features a bonus mix by Martin Landsky.
Poker Flat has also put out a double 12" release consisting entirely of the six tracks produced exclusively for the compilation. [MORE...]
Wilco, Yorke, Waits on Bridge School iTunes Comp
Also Bright Eyes, Lou Reed, R.E.M., Ryan Adams, Smashing Pumpkins
20 years ago, Neil Young's wife Pegi co-founded the Bridge School, a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting individuals suffering from physical disabilities and speech impediments in achieving their maximum potential.
Each year since the Bridge School's
inception, Neil has organized annual Bridge School benefit concerts, calling in
acts like himself, Billy Idol, Bright Eyes, Emmylou Harris, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Ryan Adams, Smashing Pumpkins, Tegan and
Sara, Thom Yorke, Metallica, Tom Waits, Wilco, Willie Nelson, and more to help raise
money for the foundation. Looks like he found that heart of gold, eh? (Ba dum dum.)
Now, the Bridge School has released a hefty iTunes benefit compilation of recordings from those concerts. The collection features 80 tracks, including several culled from 1997's Reprise release The Bridge School Concerts, Volume 1 (Live).
You can purchase the album as a whole or as individual tracks but either way, proceeds go directly to the Bridge School.
Highlights include Thom Yorke covering Young's "After the Gold Rush" and playing Radiohead's "Street Spirit" solo, the Wilco live rarity "Bob Dylan's 49th Beard", Smashing Pumpkins' "To Sheila", Tom Waits' "Innocent When You Dream", Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" and "Vicious", and more.
iTunes users can download the record here.
Calexico, Notwist Collaborate for Hausmusik Comp
Basement Jaxx, Daft Punk collaborate for house music comp (we wish)
You Can't Always Listen to Hausmusik - But... you might have to make an exception this time. Germany's Hausmusik imprint has stirred up something of a concept compilation by the aforementioned title to celebrate its 15-year anniversary.
For the album, which is due on December 5 exclusively in North America in both CD and double LP with book formats, 14 writers (including Thomas Palzer, Franz Dobler, Katja Huber, Harald, Staun, Didi Neidhart, Julian Weber, Sebastian Dietrich, Rev. Christian Dabeler, Almut Klotz, Roderich Fabian, Nora Scholz, Annemone Fesl and Martin Steinm ller) split into pairs to produce seven stories, each beginning with "Man kann nicht immer nur - hören," which translates to, "You can't always listen to..." Several additional contributors (Martin Dessecker, Doris Lasch, Ursula Ponn, Nadine Spengler, Martin Tom Dieck, Atak, CX Huth, Dominik Binegger, Melissa Gates, Helge Reumann, Xavier Robel, Marion Gerth and Silke Heinrich) produced comic book art, and also lent a hand in the creation of the tales.
The musicians, like the writers, worked in twos, with one artist beginning a song and another finalizing it. Pairs include Calexico and the Notwist, Console and Loopspool, Sodastream and Ms. John Soda, Couch and Squares on Both Sides, and more. [MORE...]
Rapture, Bloc Party on Black Strobe Remix Comp
Stream: Black Strobe: "Shining Bright Star (Phones industrial version radio edit)"
Parisian dark dance duo Black Strobe will preface the spring release of their debut full-length with the UK release of a selection of their remixes on the aptly titled 10-track A Remix Selection, out December 4 on Playlouderecordings.The label released A Remix Selection's first track-- "Shining Bright Star (Phones industrial version)"-- today as a 12" single, and it is also available online at the site of the duo's series of podcasts, www.remixblackstrobe.com. The other two current podcast installments are mixes created by both members of Black Strobe, beatmaker Ivan Smagghe and vocalist Arnaud Rebotini.
"Shining Bright Star" is a preview of the upcoming full-length, which is being recorded with Rapture/Bloc Party/Futureheads producer Paul Epworth (aka Phones -- hence the remix name) and My Bloody Valentine/Smashing Pumpkins/Nine Inch Nails engineer/producer Alan Moulder. Seemingly out of character, a press release claims that Black Strobe plan on covering a Muddy Waters song on the currently untitled album.
Black Strobe also have a series of live dates scheduled, most of which are DJ sets of some sort. The shows in Stuttgart, Germany and Rome, however, will feature a live trio, which consists of Rebotini, Benjamin Beaulieu, and a guy named Siskid. Smagghe chooses not to perform at these shows because "being on stage brings general unease... There is a 'show' element that I love in others but cannot imagine for myself." Siskid and Beaulieu are both involved in the recording of the full-length as well. [MORE...]
Futureheads, El Perro, Field Music Rock Xmas Comp
Futureheads + Field Music + Golden Virgins + Kathryn Williams = The Joseph and Mary Chain
It wouldn't be the ho-ho-holidays without some frosty, red-nosed, little seasonal releases, and here's one that should get your Yule log sizzling. On December 11, East Sussex vinyl imprint Izumi Records will toss It's Not Like Christmas down chimneys far and wide, featuring classic covers and wassailing originals by a bunch of UK up'n'comers, a few assorted Swedes, and one bona fide Xmas supergroup. If you haven't a chimney, score it now through iTunes.The Joseph and Mary Chain, no joke, is the name the Futureheads, Field Music, and the Golden Virgins-- all from Sunderland-- and Newcastle singer-songwriter Kathryn Williams have adopted to serve up a rousing collaborative rendition of "The Twelve Days of Christmas". The festive tune appears alongside jingles from El Perro Del Mar, Envelopes, NME favs Duels, emo-gazers Amusement Parks on Fire (featuring Duke Spirit frontlady Leila Moss), the Electric Soft Parade, Izumi's own Swimming, Duke Special, the Late Greats, and several more.
In the spirit of the season, all album sale profits go directly to Shelter, a UK organization whose mission is to "help people find and keep a home" and to "campaign for decent housing for all."
Stream four jams from It's Not Like Christmas' very own MySpace page, and preorder the album now by clicking here. [MORE...]
Klaxons, Simian Mobile Disco on New Kitsune Comp
Also: The Gossip, the Whitest Boy Alive, the Lovely Feathers, Oh No! Oh My!, Digitalism
The Frenchies at hipster dance label Kitsuné, who also happen to be the owners of the most viscerally ugly website on the internet, will release their third Maison compilation on November 27.
Maison 3 features exclusive tracks from Simian Mobile Disco, Digitalism, Dead Disco, the Whip, Fox N' Wolf, FreeForm Five, Boys Noize, Alex Gopher, the World Domination (produced by Adamsky), and the Valentinos. Though their contributions are not exclusive to the compilation, Klaxons, the Gossip, the Whitest Boy Alive, Oh No! Oh My!, and the Lovely Feathers are also featured. [MORE...]
Beth Ditto, Mary Timony, Excepter on KRS Holiday CD
Even punk rockers get into the Xmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Solstice/Winter spirit. For its first holiday compilation, Kill Rock Stars has culled exclusive tracks from the likes of Beth Ditto of the Gossip, Mary Timony, Excepter, the Paper Chase, and the Robot Ate Me. The label will release The Kill Rock Stars Winter Holiday Album to digital retailers on November 21, but CD-R copies of the mix can be obtained for free with an online purchase of $50 or more, e.g. one of the Kill Rock Stars holiday packs.
Physical copies of the mix will not be available for long, and you must write your request for a copy in the comment field of the order form. But the little extra effort will be more than worth it when you get to hear Excepter do "Little Drummer Boy. [MORE...]
Temporary Residence Gets Thankful Again
The post-rockers at Temporary Residence are getting sappy on us again. For the label's hundredth release, they have assembled a companion compilation to Thank You, the comp that marked their fiftieth release.
The new compilation is titled Thankful (dudes, seriously, it's no big deal) and features one previously unreleased track from almost every band the label has signed since Thank You. Eluvium, Cex (with Nice Nice), the Ladies (aka Rob Crow and Zach Hill) and Mono are just a few who contribute tracks to Thankful, which the label will release on November 21. [MORE...]
Pop-Punkers/Kids Sing Ramones for Brats on the Beat
Kazakh label quickly follows with "Borats on the Beat"
"Pop-punk for kids" is something of a redundancy, but Go-Kart Records has nonetheless gathered some of the most semi-recognizable names in the pop-punk world to turn in their own child-friendly renditions of Ramones songs for an upcoming compilation, Brats on the Beat: Ramones for Kids.
Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba, the Donnas' Brett Anderson, Pennywise's Jim Lindberg, TSOL's Jack Grisham, Bouncing Souls' Greg Attonito, the Dwarves' Blag Dahlia, and former Queens of the Stone Age member Nick Oliveri all appear on the compilation, which Go-Kart will release this coming Tuesday, November 21. Jennifer Precious Finch of L7 and the Shocker produced the affair.
The twist is that the punkers only sing lead; for all of the choruses and background vocals, they are joined by the Gabba Gabba Hey Singers, i.e. a bunch of kids. And to make things even weirder, "California Sun" and "Spiderman" aren't even Ramones originals!
Yes, it's punk rock Kidz Bop.
There is, however, one redeeming aspect the release: a portion of the proceeds from sales will benefit St. Jude's Children's Hospitals. [MORE...]
Dust-to-Digital Plans Holiday Releases
The relentless diggers over at the Dust-to-Digital label have a big holiday season planned, so those of you who aren't buying Kingdom Come the day it comes out can pick up any of the following releases on November 21. But then again, who's to say that Jay-Z fans don't listen to Sacred Harp music?Dust-to-Digital collected 30 tracks of Sacred Harp singing from 1922 to the present on I Belong to This Band: 85 Years of Sacred Harp Recordings, the CD companion to Awake, My Soul: The Story of the Sacred Harp. Awake, My Soul was the first feature documentary about the singing style, which is also referred to as "shape-note singing" and features some of the most raucous group vocals that have been recorded. (You might be familiar with Sacred Harp singing from the soundtrack to the movie Cold Mountain.) I Belong to This Band comes with a 16-page, saddle-stitched booklet with annotations and an essay by University of Mississippi music professor David Warren Steel.
Then there is the Desperate Man Blues: Discovering the Roots of American Music DVD and its accompanying soundtrack. The film features Joe Bussard-- "king of record collectors"-- "telling the story of 'America's real music' with passionate enthusiasm in his own inimitable style," according to a press release. The DVD includes the documentary and a half-hour featurette; the soundtrack has tracks by Charley Patton, Son House, the Carter Family, Uncle Dave Macon, and Blind Willie McTell, among others. [MORE...]
Grandaddy's Jason Lytle Covers Beatles With Kids
MP3: Jason Lytle: "All You Need Is Love [ft. kids]"
See, not all indie kids are shy, insular, socially-awkward basement-dwellers. A few of them get out from time to time, even talk to one another, and on exceptionally rare occasions, fall in love. And then: they make babies. Babies who aren't quite ready yet for Joy Division, or latter-day Scott Walker, or even undiluted Beatles songs.Fortunately for these lovebirds, new V2 offshoot Little Monster Records has just the thing to ease little bundles of joy into the magical mystery world of the Beatles. It's called All Together Now, and like Kidz Bop's significantly less obnoxious step-sibling, Baby Rock Records' non-narcoleptic playmate, or See You on the Moon!'s more straight-and-narrow cousin, the disc takes a kid-friendly approach to some grown-up favorites. In this case, all Beatles songs, as sung by kids-- with a little help from some very special friends.
These friends include ex-Grandaddy mastermind Jason Lytle, Chicago-bred piano-pop chanteuse Rachael Yamagata, 80s Egyptian-walkers the Bangles, mainstay Marshall Crenshaw, and New York Dolls guitarist/Contes dude Steve Conte. Hear Lytle join some youngins for a tasteful rendition of "All You Need Is Love" by clicking the mp3 link below.
Not simply kid-friendly on the ears, All Together Now also comes joyously bundled with a colorful storybook full of poems and illustrations. The whole kit and caboodle arrives everywhere in May 2007, but savvy moms and dads may purchase it now exclusively at Barnes & Noble.
Little Monster Records launched early last month and has quite a few kid-tested, mother-approved releases in the works, including a Medeski, Martin & Wood disc to help prepare your little ones for middle age, and a record by Robert Bobbert and the Bubble Machine-- aka Robert Schneider of the Apples in Stereo. [MORE...]
Yorke, YYYs, Cat Power, Rapture on Benefit Comp
Also Feist, Junior Boys, the Walkmen, Franz Ferdinand, Death Cab's Chris Walla, and more
Thom
Yorke, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Rapture, Feist, Franz Ferdinand, Junior
Boys, Cat Power, Wolfmother, the Walkmen, Death Cab's Chris Walla and a slew of other big
name artists have joined together to help raise money for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer
Foundation. Unfortunately, to reap the fruits of their labor, you have to go to Urban Outfitters. Sorry.
Filter Magazine and the overpriced clothing merchant have teamed up to release the third comp in their Give.Listen.Help. benefit series. The disc features exclusive and live tracks, as well as B-sides, and will be sold only at Urban Outfitters locations, as well as on the hipstore's website. $8.99 out of $9.99 from every sale will go to the aforementioned foundation for education, screening, treatment, and breast cancer research. Hopefully, the other dollar doesn't go to Rick Santorum.
The CD will be available starting in mid-November and is limited to 10,000 copies. [MORE...]
Yo La Tengo, Animal Collective on Shortbus Soundtrack
So yes, John Cameron Mitchell's (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) new film Shortbus is the one where some dude sings our nation's national anthem into another dude's butt. Perhaps you've also heard it's a skin flick with heart, or that it takes a thoughtfully candid look at the sexploits of various dispossessed persons, or that it's phenomenal and/or abominable. What you may not have heard is that it also boasts a bangin' soundtrack featuring an exclusive cut by Yo La Tengo, among other treasures. And who better than lovemonkey Conor Oberst and his Team Love label to bring that amor-rific soundtrack to the streets? Shortbus (the CD) arrives November 7 bearing previously unreleased YLT tune "Wizard's Sleeve" alongside still fresh selections from Animal Collective, Azure Ray, the Hidden Cameras, controversial Swedish glam-rockers the Ark, and even a few Shortbus (the film) stars: Sook-Yin Lee, Justin Bond (aka Kiki of Kiki & Herb fame), Scott Matthew, and Jay Brannan. Perfect for, dear god, sing-alongs with your friends! [MORE...]
Sunn 0))), Fehlmann, Jelinek on Buddha Machine Comp
Sun City Girls, Blixa Bargeld also put a quarter in the Buddha Jukebox
Since its release, FM3's portable plastic loop player the Buddha Machine has been enshrined by the likes of Brian Eno, Alan Bishop (Sun City Girls), Thomas Fehlmann (the Orb), plus thousands of drone-friendly fans worldwide. Indeed, this very publication gave the device a respectable 8.2. So it's no surprise that the simple soundbox has launched an album, Jukebox Buddha, containing 15 tracks based on the Machine's nine loops. Due out on November 7 on Staubgold, this ambient offering features contributions from Sun City Girls, Sunn 0))), Fehlmann, Jan Jelinek with Andrew Pekler and Hanno Leichtmann, Einstürzende Neubauten's Blixa Bargeld, Monolake's Robert Henke, Alog, Mapstation, and many other Buddha buddies.
According to a press release, the artists "stretch, compress, reconfigure, rub and dust, and generally fuck around with the nine floating loops clipped out from FM3's confrontational world of quiet." Sounds like a fifteenfold path to awesome. [MORE...]
Sonic Youth Unveil Rarities Comp Tracklist
Just
in time for indie rock OGs everywhere making their holiday
wish lists, Sonic Youth's previously reported rarities compilation, The
Destroyed Room: B-sides and Rarities, comes out December 12 on Geffen. And now, it has a tracklist. Three of the 12 tracks are previously unreleased, and
most of them are culled from their 21st Century output, including the 2001 Noho
Furniture Sessions. Noho-ho?! [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...]
Sonic Youth Prep Rarities Comp, Zillion Other Things
Or "A Not-So-Brief Recent History of Sonic Youth"
Well, well, well. Looks like Sonic Youth are up to their old tricks again: releasing bong-loads of recordings, luring the kids out to live shows, and collaborating, side-projecting, and multimedia-mongering all willy-nilly-- last I heard, Thurston Moore was starting an improv noise ensemble with your mom. Anyhow, this latest dispatch on Youth-ful happenings may include any or all of the following: (1) info on a new B-sides/rarities comp; (2) SY's thoughts on label limbo; (3) info on the U.S. premiere of Kim Gordon and associates' Perfect Partner; (4) side project mania; and (5) tour hysteria.First up, the rarities comp. Titled The Destroyed Room: B-Sides and Rarities, according to Billboard.com, the disc arrives December 12 via Geffen. Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo culled the collection's selections from the back sides of singles, various compilations, and bonus cuts from international editions of SY releases. While the final tracklist has yet to be determined, The Destroyed Room will also a few tunes that even you-- yes you, with the washing machine tattooed on you chest-- have never heard before. Er, maybe.
Following the release of the comp, Sonic Youth become the musical equivalent of a free agent, having fulfilled their contractual obligations with Geffen. Asked by Billboard.com if the band would stay with their longtime label, bassist Kim Gordon expressed uncertainty. "I don't really think they want us to stay. They fired a few key people working on [Rather Ripped] a week before it came out...So, I don't know."
There's also talk of an expanded reissue of Daydream Nation-- recently added to the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress-- which a label split might jeopardize. [MORE...]
Ecstatic Peace Releases Tarantula Hill Benefit CD
Lee Ranaldo, Wolf Eyes members, Jack Rose contribute
After Nautical Almanac's Tarantula Hill home/venue burned down earlier this year, members of the noise scene came out in full force to help with benefit shows and live recordings, and now Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label is throwing its own hat into the ring with Less Self Is More Self, a two-CD compilation featuring contributions from some of the group's closest friends.
Contributing artists include various incarnations of past and present Wolf Eyes members (Aaron Dilloway and Nate Young both contribute solo tracks; John Olson is represented by the Graveyards and Mike Connelly by the Haunting), Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo, Jack Rose, Chris Corsano, Burning Star Core, Leslie Keffer, and To Live and Shave in L.A. Pitchfork's own Catherine Lewis contributed to the album artwork.
Less Self Is More Self is available now from Ecstatic Peace's website and "whatever stores are noisy enuff to carry it," according to a representative of the label. All proceeds from sales of the compilation will go to Carly Ptak and Twig Harper, aka Nautical Almanac. [MORE...]
Frank Tovey/Fad Gadget Retrospective Hits U.S.
Mute Records' first signing, electro-genius Frank Tovey (aka Fad
Gadget), is finally getting his due with the release of Fad Gadget
by Frank Tovey: A Retrospective in Sound and Vision.
The four-disc set (two CDs, two DVDs) will land in U.S. record stores on October 17,
and features an exclusive new documentary on Tovey's life and his career, which began in the late 1970s alongside those of electronic iconoclasts like Cabaret Voltaire, the Human League, and the Normal, and continued into this century, with Tovey opening for Depeche Mode's Exciter tour. Unfortunately, it ended with Tovey's unexpected death in 2002.
Other points of interest include rare and
unreleased tracks, classic Tovey/Gadget tunes, concert footage, television performances, easter eggs, and
more. The
package, which was put together by Tovey's family in conjunction with
Mute, dropped in Europe last month. [MORE...]
Band of Horses, Pinback Do Covers for "O.C."
This "indie" I keep hearing about--the kids dig it, right? Marketing tells me it's the new "grunge". Or was that "emo"? Crap, I can't keep all of these things straight. Monica, get our demographics expert on line one, pronto. Then explain this "MySpace".
On December 5, Warner Bros. will release the sixth in its series of companion soundtracks for the popular Fox television program "The O.C." Titled OC Mix 6: Covering Our Tracks, it features twelve acts of the "indie" persuasion covering twelve other acts, some of the "indie" persuasion and some not.
As previously reported, Lady Sovereign takes on the Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vacant", while Band of Horses do the New Year's "The End's Not Near", the M's do Clinic's "Come Into Our Room", Rogue Wave handle the Pixies' "Debaser", Pinback take a shot at Black Flag's "Wasted", Mates of State confront "The O.C." theme song, Phantom Planet's "California", and a bunch of other bands destined to fill future record store bargain bins do some other stuff. [MORE...]
Rachael Ray Loves the Boy Least Likely To!
Also Nellie McKay, Puffy Amiyumi
British twee kids the Boy Least Likely To sure have friends in high places. First, they were hand-picked to open for James Blunt on his last American tour. And now, their song "Be Gentle With Me" (from their debut album The Best Party Ever) is slated to appear on TV cooking goddess Rachael Ray's compilation CD Too Cool for School Mixtape for Kids , due out October 31 on Epic.
According to the Boy Least Likely To's manager, "Apparently she is rather a big fan of the band, so how could we resist? I have been told she was at our NYC show last time we were in."
Wow. We used to think Rachael Ray was just creepy and annoying. Could it be that she's creepy, annoying...and kind of cool?
Too Cool for School also features Nellie McKay's "The Dog Song" and Puffy AmiYumi's "Joining a Fan Club", alongside such standard kids fare as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and "Day-O".
The Boy Least Likely To kick off a brief UK tour next week, then take a break for two months, and tour the UK again in January with the Little Ones. [MORE...]
Radiohead, Arctics, Franz Meet Buena Vista Social Club
So do Kaiser Chiefs, Coldplay, U2
Yes, this is another Radiohead-goes-crunk or emo or classical or lullaby or whatever story. But wait, come back! This time, Radiohead were actually active participants in the situation. As were Franz Ferdinand, the Arctic Monkeys, U2, Coldplay, the Kaiser Chiefs, Faithless, and, um, Jack Johnson. And Maroon 5. And Sting.
On November 14, Hip-O Records/Universal Music Enterprises will release Rhythms del Mundo, a collaborative record that unites members of the Buena Vista Social Club with their pasty white musical brethren. After obtaining permission from the various bands to modify their material, the Cuban collective (under the guidance of arranger Demitrio Muniz) created brand new backing tracks for the original vocals of songs like "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and "She Will Be Loved".
Even Arctic Monkeys, who are known for not loaning their music to anybody, gladly submitted "Dancing Shoes" to the Club. [MORE...]
Stream: B&S;, Franz, Four Tet Kiddie Tracks!
Also Snow Patrol, Kooks, Johnathan Richman
So in July when we reported that Belle and Sebastian's Mick Cooke was curating a children's benefit compilation, Colours Are Brighter, for non-profit organization Save the Children, we didn't know if this would end up being awesome or embarrassing for all parties involved.
Turns out it's pretty awesome.
Six tracks, Belle and Sebastian's "The Monkeys Are Breaking out of the Zoo", Four Tet feat. Princess Watermelon's "Go Go Ninja Dinosaur", Franz Ferdinand's "Jackie Jackson", Snow Patrol's "I Am an Astronaut", the Kooks' "The King and I", and Jonathan Richman's "Our Dog Is Getting Older Now" popped up on the Colours Are Brighter website recently, and they're nothing short of fantastic. You can also hear the Belle and Sebastian, Franz Ferdinand, Four Tet, and Snow Patrol songs on the comp's MySpace page, and can download the Four Tet song from the comp's site.
Colours Are Brighter will be released on October 16 via Rough Trade. [MORE...]
Ryan Adams, Jon Langford, More on Bloodshot DVD
Celebrating over 12 years in this wild and woolly biz, beloved Chicago imprint Bloodshot Records has announced the release of its first-ever DVD, cunningly titled Bloodied but Unbowed: Bloodshot Records' Life in the Trenches. Due out October 10 and packed with over three hours of alt-country goodness, it's sure to make your eyes go, er, bloodshot. Yee-haw!The roundup includes concert footage, interviews, documentaries, short films, photo galleries, and more from artists on the quality-assured Bloodshot Records roster, as well as a "mockumentary" depicting a day in the life over at Bloodshot World HQ. Those outrageous alt-country rockers!
Among the urban cowboys and cowgirls on this hootenanny of a DVD: Alejandro Escovedo, Robbie Fulks, Jon Langford, Sally Timms, Old 97s, Kelly Hogan, Split Lip Rayfield, Waco Brothers, the Sadies, the Detroit Cobras, Bobby Bare Jr., and Ryan "Aw Shit" Adams.
Scope some hot clip action here. [MORE...]
Death Cab, Modest Mouse, Bright Eyes Photos in Book
Beulah, Grandaddy, Rogue Wave on accompanying CD
The list of bands Peter Ellenby has photographed since he began in 1994 reads like the graduation announcement for a whole class full of indie rock elites, from role models such as Sonic Youth, the Flaming Lips, Frank Black, and Mike Watt to the more recent likes of Modest Mouse, Death Cab for Cutie, Bright Eyes, and ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead.
To commemorate Ellenby's work, Chronicle Books released the first book-length collection of his photographs this week. The book's name is Every Day Is Saturday, and it comes with a 21-track compilation of previously released songs by the bands featured in the photographs, including Death Cab, Grandaddy, Beulah, American Music Club, John Vanderslice, and John Doe. Doe (originally of X) also wrote the foreword to the book, and Tim Scanlin of Actionslacks wrote the introduction.
Here is an incomplete list of other artists featured in Every Day Is Saturday: Sebadoh, Bob Mould, the Jesus Lizard, the Beastie Boys, Jeremy Enigk, Foo Fighters, Murder City Devils, Rocket From the Crypt, Neko Case, Rilo Kiley, Queens of the Stone Age, Rogue Wave, the Get Up Kids.
On October 27, a book release party will take place at San Francisco's Bottom of the Hill, featuring performances by Oranger, John Doe, ¡Carlos!, Engine 88, Overwhelming Colorfast, and special guest Spiral Stairs (aka Scott Kannberg of Pavement and Preston School of Industry). [MORE...]
Ghostface, Lupe, Rhymefest Ball for NBA 2K7
Okay, this is officially a trend. In April, Matador contributed music to 2K Sports' Major League Baseball 2K6. Then Sub Pop went ahead and lent tunes to 2K Sports' NHL 2K7 earlier this month. And now we have NBA 2K7, released just yesterday (September 26), also a 2K Sports product. This time, however, it's not indie rock that will soundtrack your hoop dreams. It's Ghostface, Lupe Fiasco, E-40, A Tribe Called Quest, Rhymefest, Mos Def, and more.Dan the Automator produced the soundtrack to 2K7, which hit stores September 19 and features a whole roster of fly MCs performing totally new ball-themed songs from the game and an Automator remix of Tribe's "Lyrics to Go".
The press release for the soundtrack features the usual back-patting on both sides, including praises for Dan the Automator's "solid gaming skills," but that stuff is nothing compared to the revelation that "select featured artists appear in the game as playable characters, including Phife from A Tribe Called Quest, Dan the Automator, and Slim Thug, among others." So wait, I can play as or against Phife Dawg? Awesome, because I don't know the last time I played a funky diabetic.
Since we're on a roll here, I'd like to suggest a few more future musical pairings for some of 2K Sports' other games: an all Scott Walker soundtrack to the Amped series of snowboarding games, Saddle Creek Records and Top Spin (tennis), and an Absolutely Kosher backed World Poker Tour. Wouldn't you love to hear the Wrens sing "This Is Not What You Had Planned" just as someone's full house trumps your flush? [MORE...]
Astralwerks Goes Reissue Crazy
Captain Beefheart, Simple Minds, Future Sound of London, Heaven 17
Like a new Joanna Newsom album or a Flaming Lips live show, Astralwerks is doing things epically. On October 3, the record label will release a slew of reissues and best-of collections from the 70s, 80s, and 90s-- an eclectic mix of psychedelic rock, post punk, synth pop, and Captain Beefheart (we'll give him his own genre).
Artists caught in the crossfire of this comp and remix spree: The Future Sound of London, Simple Minds, Heaven 17, and, duh, Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. [MORE...]
Chick on Speed Curates Girl Monster Comp
Courtney Love might be the girl with the most cake, but Chicks on Speed's Alex Murray-Leslie is the girl getting the most love in this news story. Why? Because Murray serves as the brains and steez behind Girl Monster, a new 3CD compilation that celebrates and reclaims music-by-women in several landmark ways (read: no "Women in Rock" sidebar schlock). It hits the U.S. market via the Chicks' own label on Halloween, appropriately enough-- October 31 to the non-ghoulish among you.
Girl Monster, why you so rad? First of all, your timeline stretches from the late 1970s (the Slits, the Raincoats, Malaria!) to today (Björk, Le Tigre, Peaches). Secondly, you contain 61 tracks, many of which are exclusive or previously unreleased, and you list your format as "3 CD + newspaper." Thirdly, you feature new songs and solo work from some of the original monsters (Talking Heads' Tina Weymouth, Throbbing Gristle's Cosey Fanni Tutti, Siouxsie Sioux, the Raincoats' Ana da Silva, and the Slits' Ari Up). It's true: people make music after forty, and sometimes it's great music, too. Fourthly, there is, like, a mutant collage on your cover.
Other P4k favs on the Monster mash: Barbara Morgenstern, Kevin Blechdom, Erase Errata, Planningtorock, Soffy O, and more. [MORE...]
Rhino Brings the Funk With Four-Disc Box
Once again, Rhino comes riding into town with a box set to put your record collection to shame, this time revealing the source material behind tracks by Kanye, Biggie, Snoop Dogg, Tupac, and the Beastie Boys, among others.
What it is: What It Is! Funky Soul and Rare Grooves (1967-1977), a four disc set of rare and classic funk tracks that have long served as rappers' delights. Many of these tracks make their U.S. CD debut here, including a previously unreleased alternate version of Aretha Franklin's "Rock Steady".
Rhino will release What It Is! on October 3 in a clamshell box, with pearly liner notes by writer and Soul Sides blogger Oliver Wang and track-by-track commentaries and testimonials from the likes of Bootsy Collins, Hank Shocklee (Public Enemy), Fred Wesley (James Brown), Howard Tate, DJ Pooh (Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube), and George Porter Jr. (The Meters). According to the press release, the booklet will also include plenty of "rare vintage photos."
The rest of the story is told in the tracklist, which includes two contributions from Sly Stone (performing as 6ix and writing and producing Little Sister's "Stanga") and three from the Meters, who back up Cyril Neville in addition to performing as the Rhine Oaks and as simply themselves. All in all, there are over five hours of funk taken from the Atlantic, Atco, and Warner Bros. archives, and it's all ripe for the (re-)pilfering. Sample away! [MORE...]
The Fall, Raincoats, Faust Pay Tribute to the Monks
Also: Jason Forrest, the Gossip, Jon Spencer, Mouse on Mars
Fresh off of the August 19 world premiere of the Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback documentary at this year's Chicago Underground Film Festival and an appearance in Pitchfork's 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s feature, the Monks are back with a tribute album and even a few live performances.
The tribute album is called Silver Monk Time: A Tribute to the Monks, and play loud! will release it on October 23. The compilation features 29 tracks on two discs by artists ranging from the Fall and the Raincoats to the Gossip and Jason Forrest. The Monks themselves even appear in collaboration with Charles Wilp. There are plenty of such collaborations, the others between Jon Spencer and Solex, Silver Apples and Alan Vega, Die Goldenen Zitronen and Chicks on Speed, and Gary Burger with both Alec Empire and Faust on two separate tracks. A seven-inch single with the contributions from Alec Empire ft. Gary Burger and the Fall is also scheduled for an October 23 release on play loud!
The Monks will appear live in London, Zurich, and Berlin in October, with the latter show serving as the record release party for Silver Monk Time. Screenings of the documentary will follow the shows in Zurich and Berlin. For more information on specific events in those cities and any that are added in the future, visit http://www.playloud.org/themonks.html.
[MORE...]
New Pornographers Tour for Mint Records Anniversary
With Mission of Burma on porno duty, the New Pornographers are free to concentrate on other artistic endeavors. How about some tour?
As part of Exclaim! Magazine's and Mint Records' recently announced 15th Anniversary Roadshow, Carl Newman and his crew (and Canadian labelmates Novillero and Immaculate Machine, for the most part) will take on the wild indoors of clubs across Canada this October. In support of the jaunt, Mint will release a collection of live CBC Radio 3 sessions from its artists (New Pornos, Neko Case, P:ano, and more). For now, the disc will only be available on tour and in select HMV stores across Canada.
First off, however, the Pornos have a stint lined up at Baltimore's Virgin Festival, as well as an October 7 "A Conversation With Music" session with The New Yorker's James Surowiecki at NYC's Newspace.
Finally, there will be a Mint showcase at the CMJ Music Marathon this fall, with a possible DJ set by Newman. [MORE...]
DeSoto Preps Children’s Comp, Jawbox Reissues
Here at Pitchfork World Headquarters, we love hearing from long lost friends (note: as long as they're not, you know, telling us about their shitty band's new record), especially when they're part of the DeSoto Records crew.
So, because DS head woman (and former Jawbox bassist) Kim Coletta was kind enough to take some time out of her busy day and prepare a massive update about DeSoto's latest rumblings-- including a new children's compilation, Jawbox reissues, a split from the Life and Times, Channels' debut, and more-- we thought we'd pay that kindness forward.
So, yes, another kiddie comp is near ready to hit the market-- and this one doesn't exactly feature the usual children's music suspects. Titled Play, the compilation collects new kid's tunes crafted at Coletta's behest by Soccer Team (Beauty Pill's Ryan Nelson and DeSoto's Melissa Quinley), Supersuckers, Mudhoney, Mary Timony, Georgie James (former Q and Not U drummer John Davis and Laura Burhenn), Channels with Damon Locks, the Cassettes, Ben Davis, Mirah with Tara Jane O'Neil, Sgt. Major, Mock Orange, Visqueen, Anna Oxygen, and Fresh Young Fellows. Yep, all of these people could kick Raffi’s ass. The recording will be available this fall through DeSoto's mailorder and as a digital download (the latter comes with a downloadable DIY booklet).
Next up, Jawbox reissues, and a two for one special at that! We love good deals! DeSoto will make a pair of out-of-print major label Jawbox releases-- For Your Own Special Sweetheart (1994) and Jawbox (1996)-- available again soon through iTunes and other music download stores, with the label providing downloadable booklets on their website. [MORE...]
Eno, Scott Walker, Stephin Merritt Rock the 10 Plagues
So do Imogen Heap, Rufus Wainwright, Robert Wyatt, and more
Rufus Wainwright and the death of the firstborn? Imogen Heap and locusts? Brian Eno, Robert Wyatt and flies? Scott Walker and darkness? OK, well that last one's not a total shocker.
Your family's Passover seder is about to get way cool.Last September, British arts organization Artangel commissioned Walker, Wainwright, Eno, Robert Wyatt, Stephin Merritt, Imogen Heap, Laurie Anderson, and more to each write a song based on an assigned Biblical plague (there are ten) that takes place in the book of Exodus. Check yr history.
A festival was then held in Margate, England, transforming the town into a modern recreation of the Israelites' escape from Egypt. (WTF?) During the event, the "Plague Songs" were performed by local musicians. The entire thing was filmed, and will be broadcast and screened in the UK next year (the former on Channel 4) under the title Exodus.
The Frogs, the Boils, the Darkness, and the Locust were sadly not asked to participate.
Now, 4BC-- er, excuse us-- 4AD will release the original, star-studded recordings (formerly only available on CD at the Margate Exodus), presented in order of the plagues. These exclusive cuts make up Plague Songs, due November 7 in the U.S. and October 2 in the UK. [MORE...]
Stephin Merritt Goes Side Project Crazy
Having recently played a benefit performance for 826 Seattle, Stephin Merritt continues his literary dalliance with a new album and contributions to various book-ish comps.
On October 13, Nonesuch Records will release The Tragic Treasury: Songs From a Series of Unfortunate Events, the debut album from Merritt's side project the Gothic Archies. The CD is a companion album to the Lemony Snicket books, featuring a song for every book in the series (plus two bonus tracks). In the spirit of Snicket, The Tragic Treasury is a decidedly grim affair. How grim and gothic? Merritt explains on his website: "What makes this band different from the Magnetic Fields is that any glimmer of hope is absolutely extinguished."
In October and November, Merritt will accompany Snicket (aka Daniel Handler) on the "For Crying Out Loud" bookstore tour, playing songs from the album on ukulele, accompanied by Snicket on percussion.
In other Merritt news, the Future Bible Heroes awoke from dormancy this summer to contribute a song "Mr. Punch"-- a "faux-British vaudevillian dance hall tune"-- to the Neil Gaiman tribute CD Where's Neil When You Need Him? on your favorite label and mine: Dancing Ferret Discs.
The 6ths recently contributed "You You You You You", a track from Hyacinths and Thistles to the music issue of the Oxford American.
And continuing onward in musical prolificacy, Merritt is currently recording a new Magnetic Fields album, to be released by Nonesuch "with a target release of next spring" (according to his website). [MORE...]
Animal Collective, Nouvelle Vague Play Gypsy Music
There's No Comp Like a Balkan Gypsy Music Remix Comp
Classic gypsies meet contemporary gypsies in a new Crammed Records comp, Electric Gypsyland 2. Containing reinventions and reinterpretations of 16 tracks by three Balkan Gypsy bands (Taraf de Haïdouks, Koççani Orkestar, Mahala Raï Banda) on the Belgian label , the album includes contributions from Animal Collective, Nouvelle Vague, Tunng, Cibelle, and 43 Skidoo (which is, according to the Crammed website "a fleeting reincarnation of the similarly named cult 80s band"), plus remixes by fusionists and Balkan club mainstays Shantel, Balkan Beat Box, Oi Va Voi, Smadj, DJ ClicK, Forty Thieves Orkestar, Gaetano Fabri, Russ Jones, and Russendisko.
The album wanders onto shelves on November 7, accompanied by a bonus CD containing 12 original tracks by Taraf de Haïdouks, Koççani Orkestar, Mahala Raï Banda, and Zelwer. [MORE...]
Rhino Preps Massive Goth Box
Genre purists commit mass suicide
Rhino Records wants to remind you that goth isn't all about pale skin, séances, dripping black eye liner, and mall food courts...well, not completely. At one point, in the pre-Hot Topic days of yore, this dark strain of post-punk loosely constituted a serious genre (at least, in retrospect).
With A Life Less Lived: The Gothic Box, Rhino's out to recapture goth's glory days with a lavish four-disc collection, replete with packaging that appears to resemble, at least in part, a corset.
The set hits stores (including, quite possibly, Hot Topic) on September 19 and compiles 53 goth-but-not-goth songs and 12 videos onto three CDs and one DVD. Although, to be fair, most of the bands on the comp have tended to resist being boxed in by the "gothic" label.
So what exactly functions as a "goth classic," since the underground movement didn't churn out a huge number of ostensible hits? Rhino mined a twenty-year period (1978-1998) to showcase bands that, although they often eschewed genre labels, are nonetheless considered pioneers of goth music culture. These include Joy Division, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Sisters of Mercy, and the Cure. [MORE...]
Fennesz, Cornelius, Devine Remix Ryuichi Sakamoto
OK kids, time to expand the vocabulary. Today we've got a noun, bricolage, meaning 1) (according to Dictionary.com) "something made or put together using whatever materials happen to be available," 2) an Orange Juice-chugging guitar band from the UK, and 3) (pl.) the title of master composer/musician Ryuichi Sakamoto's upcoming remix project.Stock boys everywhere will pack record store shelves with Bricolages on September 19, courtesy of KAB America. Artists including Cornelius, Craig Armstrong, Richard Devine, Fennesz, Alva Noto, and others formed this 13-track release by remixing material that happened to be on Sakamoto's 2005 solo release, Chasm.
Sakamoto took home an Oscar, a Grammy, a Golden Globe, and a whole slew of other awards for his score to Bernardo Bertolucci's 1987 best picture The Last Emperor. So he's a pretty big deal. In fact, he's taking an executive producer credit (in association with Norika Sora, Evan Balmer, Justin Kleinfeld, and Eric Giambertone) for Bricolages. Nothing like seeing your name in the liner notes, right? [MORE...]
Exclusive: Michael Mayer Readies Immer 2 Mix
Says "fuck that passive waiting shit"; changes world by his own damn self
So lately your iTunes shuffle keeps calling up those Clap Your Hands tracks you got off Soulseek last year, and they're cool and all, but you're just not feeling them right now. Frankly, you're not really feeling the so-called "indie rock" at all these days. Perhaps it's high time you, as Pitchfork's Dominique Leone once put it, "come down...to the minimal world." And what better occasion than this: on October 30 in Europe and October 4 in America, Germany's minimal techno mecca Kompakt will release Immer 2, the intensely-anticipated follow up to 2002's seminal Immer mix. As with its predecessor, Kompakt co-founder and beloved techno artist Michael Mayer mixed this set, liable to blow up headphones and slick European dancefloors in equal measure with de rigeur tunes from Lindstrøm, Justus Köhncke, SCSI-9, and more.
Whistle not quite whetted yet? Try this: in addition to twelve Mayer-mixed minimal house and techno anthems, copies of Immer 2 will also include a golden ticket to seven additional mp3s hand-selected by Mayer himself. Buttress your playlists with these subtle bangers and your indie rock won't sound quite the same again.
If you're not quite ready yet, try dipping your toes in Mayer's world by catching the man in action at Detroit's Shelter on October 7, or at NYC's T New York on October 6. The latter show is part of the New Yorker Festival and is listed as "A New Yorker Dance Party Hosted by Sasha Frere-Jones". HAHAHAHAHAHA. [MORE...]
Arab Strap Break Up, Announce Farewell Comp/Tour
In a sad bit of news, the strapping, decidedly non-Arab lads behind plainspoken Scottish mope-pop institution Arab Strap have called it quits.
The band-- comprised of Aiden Moffat and Malcolm Middleton-- began collaborating back in 1995 and over the next 11 years released six fine studio albums (including The Last Romance, which came stateside this year), three live albums, and numerous singles. Through the majesty of song, they regaled countless young indie men and women with tales of the finer points of love, relationships, and fooking-- not bad for an act named after a sex toy.
"There's no animosity," wrote Moffat in an official statement. "We simply feel we've run our course."
On November 27, Chemikal Underground will release the Strap swan song in the UK, a farewell compilation titled Ten Years of Tears. Expect a U.S. version to follow sometime in early 2007. The disc features 18 listed tracks and two hidden bonus cuts, and collects a smattering of Arab Strap standouts hand-picked by the band, including demos, live recordings, Peel Sessions, and rarities, as well as fan favorite debut single "The First Big Weekend" and the very first AS recording, "Oxytocin".
The band also plans to release a final seven-inch featuring, appropriately, "There Is No Ending" (which also closes the comp) and a new Four Tet remix of "Weekend". No release date has been set.
Moffat and Middleton sure as fook aren't done with music yet either. The former, as L. Pierre, will release a new record called Dip in early 2007 and plans to follow it with another disc and tour-- these of the spoken-word variety. The latter is presently recording a solo album in Glasgow.
And finally, it wouldn't be a proper goodbye without a farewell show, eh? How about 11 of them? Arab Strap embark on a final tour this November, where they will help you weep into your pint at clubs across England and Scotland, and, fittingly, send the Strap out to pasture with two last gigs where it all began: King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow. [MORE...]
Sufjan Preps Xmas Box Set
Elf/human pyramid attempt proves fatal for three North Pole-dwellers
Should you awaken this December 25 to find a suspicious bulge at the bottom of your stocking, don't fret just yet (unless you've been particularly naughty)-- it's probably just that Sufjan Stevens Songs for Christmas box set that Asthmatic Kitty is planning to drop on the unsuspecting, candy cane-munching masses come November 21.First off: yes, these are the festive Sufjan tunes that were all over all those blogs. Most of them, anyhow. The creatively-titled five-disc set compiles newly mixed and mastered versions of four of Stevens' infamous Xmas EPs-- slapped together by Sufjan and his buddies over four of the last five Decembers and sent exclusively to friends-- as well as a new gaggle of seasonal selections recorded just this June.
Each of the five discs features Sufjan and pals' takes on a number of holiday favorites, including "Silent Night", "Jingle Bells", "The First Noel", and no fewer than three versions of "O Come O Come Emmanuel" (one with comma, two without-- but no "Adult Contemporary Easy Listening Version", alas).
Sufjan-philes will also be delighted to find a number of exclamation-ridden tunes penned by Suf-jeezy himself in the spirit of the season, such as (we are not making these up) "Hey Guys! It's Christmas Time!", "Come On! Let's Boogey to the Elf Dance!", "That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!", "Get Behind Me, Santa!" (sorry Sufjan, these kids beat you to it), and my personal favorite, "Did I Make You Cry on Christmas Day? (Well, You Deserved It!)". Cheeky!
Just in case 42 yuletide tunes aren't enough for ya, the fine folks at Asthmatic Kitty have packed this puppy to the brim with bonus bric-a-brac, including stickers, essays, short stories, songbooks, music videos, comic strips, and, according to the AK website, "an original Christmas Family Portrait painting of Santa Sufjan (with wife and kids!)"-- wait a minute! Sufjan's married? And he has kids?! We're not even going to touch that.
Sufjan also has a huge tour going down and he's writing for magazines.
So be good, boys and girls, and scope the tracklist after the jump. [MORE...]
Tribe Called Quest Return, Tour With Rhymefest
Eight years after their breakup, A Tribe Called Quest have announced a quest called the 2K Sports Bounce Tour. We jest not-- Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad have reunited for the sake of a basketball video game. Joining Tribe for this jaunt is lovable Chicago MC Rhymefest and L.A. crew the Procussions.According to a press release, Tribe's Phife will appear as a playable character in NBA 2K7, a fact which sealed the deal on the reunion tour.
In addition, the game will feature an exclusive Dan the Automator remix of Tribe's "Lyrics to Go", alongside new, basketball-centric tracks from tourmate Rhymefest, Ghostface Killah, Lupe Fiasco, Mos Def, E-40, Fabolous, Hieroglyphics, and more. If you don't have the fifty-odd bones required to purchase the game, snap up the soundtrack, Dan the Automator Presents 2K7, hitting shelves September 19. [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...]
Ben Folds Preps Rarities Collection, Tour
When Ben Folds isn't detailing the male anatomy on the bathroom walls of Dresden Dolls haters' abodes (see: MySpace blog entry), he's pumping out a rarities collection, touring with an orchestra, planning the follow-up to 2005's Songs for Silverman, and working out the kinks on another live record.
And, um, blogging about vandalizing bathroom walls with wiener drawings. Phew! Looks like Pitchfork will be hanging onto our security deposit this time around.
On October 24, Sony BMG will release supersunnyspeedgraphic, the lp, a collection of Folds songs ganked from rare EPs (Super D, Sunny 16, Speed Graphic, and The Bens EP), B-sides, covers (The Cure's "In Between Days", the Darkness' "Get Your Hands off of My Woman", and Dr. Dre's "Bitches Ain't Shit"), and film soundtrack appearances. The tracks have been remastered, reworked, and relocated since their original releases. All tweaking went down at Folds' Nashville studio with bassist Jared Reynolds and drummer Lindsay Jamieson.
The piano man will begin recording another album entirely in October, and reportedly feels like "blowing shit up in the studio at the moment." Okay, dude. Folds is also toying with the idea of bringing in 100-piece choirs, using piano only, using eight pianos at once, and maybe utilizing some cheap synthesizers he purchased on eBay.
Early next month, Folds will launch an orchestral tour of Australia. Then it's off to the U.S. for a handful of college town dates and a slot at the Vegoose Festival in Las Vegas. A live recording of the Folds/orchestra pair-up is in the planning stages. [MORE...]
Rhino Compiles Hardcore Giants for Film Soundtrack
Sorry broheim, no porn here
It's essential for a music movie to have a good soundtrack, and doubly so for a documentary of a specific scene. With that in mind, Rhino Records has assembled a pretty solid compilation of tracks from local '80s hardcore scenes to soundtrack the previously reported forthcoming documentary American Hardcore: The History of American Punk Rock 1980-1986.Sharing its name with the film, American Hardcore (the soundtrack) compiles 26 tracks onto a 37-minute album and includes contributions from the DC, New York, Boston, SoCal, NorCal, and Pacific Northwest scenes, among others. Big names (Bad Brains, Black Flag, Minor Threat) mingle with smaller ones (Battalion of Saints, Gang Green) on this record, which drops digitally on September 26 and lands in stores on October 10.
The film, which debuted at Sundance this year, opens in New York on September 22 and in Los Angeles and Irvine, California on September 29, with a nationwide release scheduled for October 13.
[MORE...]
XL Releases Serious Times Reggae Compilation
You're leaving one of Radiohead's recent shows. A reggae song comes on the sound system, and it's really good. "What is this darkly anthemic monster of a track?" you think to yourself. You ask your friends. They don't know. All you remember is the line, "I could have been one of the most notorious." To this day you wonder, "What was that song?"
Well to this day and no longer, because Pitchfork has your answer. That track is Turbulence's "Notorious", and it's featured prominently on XL's upcoming Serious Times compilation, a double disc package that comes with 20 pages of liner notes and is set for an October 10 release.
The first disc is a mix of tracks from the second (in addition to a few dubplates not featured there) done by Cham/Rihanna tourmate Federation Sound (aka Max Glazer). The second disc features the tracks in their unmixed form, along with a couple of remixes of the title track by Gyptian that are not featured on the Federation Sound mix. In addition to "Notorious" and "Serious Times", the compilation also features the 10-year-old QQ's "Poverty". If you need a descriptive preview, Dave Stelfox raved about all three tracks in the January installment of the Month in Dancehall. And yes, there are two different songs called "Rolling". Figures.
Click on the link below to hear an exclusive remix of the title track. [MORE...]
Thurston, Mogwai, Tortoise on "American Life" Comp
Indie rock and NPR aren't such strange bedfellows anymore, and this latest pairing of the two seems downright cozy. On November 7, Shout! Factory Records will release This American Life: Stories of Hope & Fear, a two disc set compiling segments from the nationally syndicated, Ira Glass-hosted, weekly radio program "This American Life", produced by Chicago's WBEZ.Sounds fine and dandy for schoolteachers and sweater-knitters, but here's where it gets hep-to-the-max: most segments feature a story or an interview set against the music of underground and not-so-underground sensations like Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, Mogwai, Tom Zé (remixed by Tortoise), the RZA, Blonde Redhead, Calexico, Ida, Philip Glass, Carly Simon, Morcheeba, and more.
Divided into two discs along Hope/Fear lines, the collection even features storytelling by the ever-popular David Sedaris and "The Daily Show" correspondent John Hodgman. As if that weren't groovy enough, Divya Srinivasan (of Sufjan-Illinois and Waking Life fame) designed that purty cover up there. Complex tracklist after the jump. [MORE...]
Numero Group Parties With God
Compilation released on CD and deluxe pearly gatefold double vinyl
Church music can be a terrific bore, but when artists inject a little bit of secular spirit into religious forms, things start to get interesting. The god-fearing people of the Numero Group, the label responsible for the crate-digging that produced the Eccentric Soul series, know this and have thus assembled a compilation inspired by the Funky Boss himself.
Good God! A Gospel Funk Hymnal will be released August 29. The album's compilers have spent the last year looking through the repertoires of the few hundred gospel groups who had a funky number or two, and the end result is 18 tracks full of what a press release calls "primitive choirs, spacious breaks, congas, elderly rappers impersonating the devil, cast recordings, thumping bass, and JB impressionists, all with a heavy slathering of gospel gravy."
Modern bands could learn a lesson in band naming from some of the positively righteous ones on this tracklist. Yes, the Mighty Walker Brothers' "God Been Good to Me" and LaVice & Company's "Thoughs Were the Days" have been properly listed. [MORE...]
Depeche Mode to Release Best Of
Since we live in a world in which Paula Cole, Marc Cohn, and Lisa Loeb all have put out greatest hits albums, it's refreshing to report about one that actually deserves to exist. On November 13, Mute UK will release Depeche Mode's The Best Of, Volume 1, a career-spanning single-disc collection of the pioneering electro-pop band's hits. (Not to be confused with DM's 1998 two-disc singles collection.)
The compilation of tunes from 1981 through last year's Playing the Angel will also include a brand new track, "Martyr", which will be released as a single earlier in November.
As previously reported, September 25 will bring the release of the Touring the Angel: Live in Milan DVD.
Animal Collective Plan Live Box, EP, Tour
It must be mating season, because Animal Collective have a number of musical babies on the way. Dave Portner (aka Avey Tare) let fans at the Collected Animals forums in on a special band update yesterday, and we have since received confirmation that "wheeter" is in fact the real Portner, so on with the news.
First up is an Australian tour EP, which will feature "People", "Tikwid", "My Favorite Colors", and "People" (live) and will be available during the band's Down Under trek in November. It's possible that the project might see worldwide release, but plans are still up in the air.
The group is shooting to have its long-awaited live box set fully sequenced and mastered by the end of the month. It will be released via Catsup Plate Records, and will likely include three LPs of material packed to the brim with Sung Tongs songs and other pre-Feels material. Not only that, but Animal Collective is "starting to film for a very special release next year," according to their manager.
While we're on the topic of the live recordings, we'd like to remind you that Animal Collective will drop a reissue of the very rare Hollinndagain LP this Halloween via the band's own label, Paw Tracks.
Panda Bear (Noah Lennox) just finished recording a nine-song record, set for release in the winter 2007. There might be a tour around that time, too. The tunes will be divided up into three EPs. A 12", Bros should be out by the end of this year, with a Paw Tracks EP following shortly after. Panda Bear will also be featured on a split with Excepter, due this January on...you guessed it, Paw Tracks.
Portner also recently recorded a track for a forthcoming compilation of bands that have recorded at Brooklyn's Rare Book Room studio.
Finally, Animal Collective have a few dates ahead of them, including performances at this weekend's Leeds and Reading festivals. After that, it's on to Australia and New Zealand. [MORE...]
Exclusive: Domino to Release Josef K Anthology
Gregor Samsa anthology coming in 25 years
While "justice" for Kafka's Josef K. was prolonged, crude, and nothing of the sort, justice for American fans of early-1980s Scottish dark indie-poppers Josef K was just ridiculously prolonged. Twenty-odd years prolonged to be exact. That all ends November 7 when the magnanimous folks at Domino Records issue the very first official U.S. Josef K release, a 22-track compilation titled Entomology.
Comprised of vocalist/guitarist Paul Haig, guitarist Malcolm Ross, bassist David Weddell, and drummer Ronnie Torrance, Josef K sounded a wee bit like Joy Division with jangle, and were part of that whole Postcard Records scene that people cooler than you are always talking about. Fellow Postcarders Orange Juice and the Fire Engines were both subjects of Domino releases last year. Can Aztec Camera be far behind...?
Entomology collects a number of JK singles, B-sides, album cuts, requisite Peel Sessions, and even six tunes from the unreleased Sorry for Laughing album, rejected by Postcard way back in the day ("Heads Watch", "Drone", "Sense of Guilt", "Citizens", "Variations of Scene", and "Endless Soul"). Some 25 years on, the taut rhythmic intensity, eerie atmospherics, and looming paranoia of these recordings still resonate-- which is to say, they're pretty effing awesome. [MORE...]
TVT to Release Spawn of Crunk Hits
Dreams do come true, like that time you slept with the prom king or queen (or both, you freak!) and it was everything you dreamed it would be. And then it happened again.
What, that never happened to you, not even once? Okay, we admit, it didn't happen to us either. That's why we're so surprised to be getting a second volume of Crunk Hits.
Believe your blinged-out-headset-wearing ears, kids. Tomorrow, August 22, TVT Records will release Crunk Hits Vol. 2, 19 tracks of pure synth-infested Southern funkified hip hop goodness. This tracklist has more "Lil"s than you can snap yo fingers at, which begs the question: to apostrophize or not to apostrophize? Is apostrophize even a word? Is "Lil" actually an acronym for "lucky in love?" Will listening to this comp make me lucky in love? Find out the answers to none of these questions on Crunk Hits Vol. 2. [MORE...]
Electrelane Release Singles, Rarities Comp
Nimble, often instrumental, and powerful as hell, Electrelane isn't the easiest beast to brand, but we love them all the same. (And not just because guitarist Mia Clarke is a Pitchfork contributor.) They love us too, and to show it, the four-piece has assembled a rarities compilation to whet fans' appetites until the next Electrelane album arrives.
Entitled Singles, B-Sides & Live, this monster drops on August 22 in the U.S. (and the day before in the UK) through Too Pure.
The collection features 16 tracks, including A- and B-sides released on Indenial/Skint, Fierce Panda, the group's own Let's Rock! label, and Too Pure. It includes a kickass cover of Springsteen's "I'm on Fire"), a John Peel session selection ("Oh Sombra!"), and three live tracks (including the band's stab at Leonard Cohen's "Halleluj-- psyche!-- "The Partisan").
Electrelane's four steadfast pistons-- Clarke, Emma Gaze, Ros Murray, and Verity
Susman-- are currently
in Berlin recording their fourth album after spending some
time pursuing personal interests and solo/side projects (Verity as Vera November, contributing a track to the forthcoming Jens Lekman-curated Arthur Russell tribute; Ros in Ray Rumours, Sisisi Sisisi Sisi, Las Pulpas, and probably a few more obscure Iberian lo-fi bands, and Clarke writing for The Wire, Venus, and you-know-who).
No release date has being bandied about for the new album yet, so it
would be safe to assume "beginning of 2007" at the earliest.
[MORE...]
Live Franz, Outkast, Dizzee on BBC Comp
Also Basement Jaxx, 50 Cent, Queens of the Stone Age, Oasis
BBC Radio 1's "Live Lounge" will join the radio-show-compilation ranks when it releases an eponymous double disc set on September 18 in the UK, according to a report from NME.com.
In addition to "Live Lounge" in-studio performances of standards like Outkast's "Ms. Jackson" and Basement Jaxx's "Romeo", the compilation also features a number of covers, including Franz Ferdinand's version of Gwen Stefani's "What You Waiting For", Embrace's cover of D12's "How Come", and-- just what we all needed-- another cover of "Hey Ya", this time by "Pop Idol" winner Will Young.
Other cover selections include Coldplay's "The Scientist" by Natasha "Unwritten" Bedingfield, the Darkness' "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" by Lemar, Hard-Fi's "Living for the Weekend" by Sugababes, and Pharrell's "Frontin'" by Jamie Cullum.
Shockingly, nobody covers "Crazy" on this compilation. [MORE...]
Stones Throw Celebrates 10 Years With Comp, Tour
New Madvillain album in the works
Turning 10 is a big deal, and for its first year in double digits, Stones Throw Records is having children. Life comes at you fast, I guess. The newborn, Chrome Children, is the full-length collaboration between the Adult Swim network and the entire Stones Throw roster, as previously reported.
The compilation will be released October 3 and comes packaged with a
full-length DVD of the MF Doom and Madlib headlining gig at this year's
SXSW.
Unlike Danger Doom's The Mouse and the Mask, Chrome Children
does not feature actual samples of Adult Swim shows (thank god), but the network
will be airing advertisements and creating animated videos for some of
the songs. All tracks are new and exclusive to Chrome Children,
except for J Dilla's "Nothing Like This" and Gary Wilson's "Dream(s)".
Stones Throw is also offering Peanut Butter Wolf's "Chrome Mix"-- a
20-minute mix that takes half of its tracks from Chrome Children-- as an MP3 download from its website (see link below).
Shortly following the release of Chrome Children, there
will be a Stones Throw 10th anniversary tour featuring Madlib (his
first nationwide tour!), label founder Peanut Butter Wolf, and J. Rocc.
Other Stones Throw artists such as MED, Percee P, Egon and
currently-unannounced guests will also join the tour on select dates.
Madlib is still hard at work with MF Doom on the upcoming Madvillain
album, but he has so many projects in the works before that gets
released that you'd be forgiven for forgetting it existed at all. They
have done a little recent recording, however. Namely, their take on
"The Star-Spangled Banner" (!) and their Chrome Children appearance, "Monkey Suite".
The Beat Konducta has been behind the boards quite a bit recently. He
produced Talib Kweli and Norah Jones on the former's forthcoming album,
Ear Drum, which is tentatively scheduled for a fall release. His instrumental backings for the Dudley Perkins album Expressions,
hit iTunes recently. And Yesterdays New Quintet have just completed
"Summer Suite", a 40-minute long track that Stones Throw hopes to
release this summer. Time's a-ticking, guys, but considering the
abundance of material already being released, I guess I understand. [MORE...]
Pinback Rarities Compilation Due
West Coast indie mainstays Pinback will release their first rarities compilation via Ace Fu on September 5. The 11-track compilation is titled Nautical Antiques (has a nice ring to it) and features B-sides, demos, previously unreleased songs, European bonus tracks, and other tracks.
In a show of Californian solidarity, the duo have autographed
90 copies of the release that the folks at San Diego-based Lou's
Records are selling on their website, where Nautical Antiques is available for pre-order now. The tracklist is after the jump.
Don't forget, Pinback are also playing the Touch & Go Records 25th Anniversary Celebration in Chicago on Sunday, September 10.
Sleater-Kinney, Death Cab, M.I.A. on KEXP Comp
Also Bright Eyes, Band of Horses, Patti Smith
Internet-friendly Seattle radio station KEXP will release its second compilation of in-studio performances on August 22. Live at KEXP Volume 2 collects 20 tracks from artists ranging from the Decemberists and Death Cab for Cutie to Gang of Four and Patti Smith.
The CD can be purchased via KEXP.org and select Seattle record stores, but it is available immediately to new and current station members who pledge online.
Tracklist:
01 Lyrics
Born - "Callin' Out"
02 Gang of
Four - "What We All Want"
03 Thievery
Corporation - "Warning Shots"
04 Tapes 'n
Tapes - "Insistor"
05
Sleater-Kinney - "Jumpers"
06 Ted Leo
and the Pharmacists - "Walking to Do"
07 Death Cab
for Cutie - "Crooked Teeth"
08 The
Decemberists - "We Both Go Down Together"
09 Zero 7 -
"Home"
10 Common
Market - "Connect For"
11 M.I.A. -
"Galang"
12 Band of
Horses - "The Funeral"
13 The
Wedding Present - "Ringway to SeaTac"
14 Editors -
"Munich"
15 Skullbot -
"Lookout"
16 Bright
Eyes - "At the Bottom of Everything"
17 Trashcan
Sinatras - "Weightlifting"
18 Aqualung -
"Brighter Than Sunshine"
19 Drive-By
Truckers - "World of Hurt"
20 Patti
Smith (With Lenny Kaye) - "People Have the Power"
Kompakt Preps Total 7; Exclusive mp3
Once again, minimal authority Kompakt delivers their annual dose of what's cool with the Total 7 compilation, due out August 22. The not-so-compact 2-CD/3-LP collection of the legendary German label's top singles of the year (as well as plenty of exclusives) features contributions from the likes of Justus Köhncke, Superpitcher, Michael Mayer, Reinhard Voigt, Thomas Fehlmann, and more.
Sonically, it covers ample ground, from space disco to microhouse to what is amusingly described (in the press release) as a "twisted land of bass drum dreams." Which is my favorite kind of dream.
Thanks to the folks at Kompakt, we've got an exclusive mp3 of the Tobias Thomas/Michael Mayer collaboration "Sweet Harmony" for your downloading pleasure. [MORE...]
Delgados to Release Peel Sessions
Much like John Peel himself, the Delgados are gone but not forgotten. And the members of the band are not forgetting their erstwhile fans, either, which is why they've assembled The Complete BBC Peel Sessions for an August 8 release on Transdreamer in America. (It came out on June 12 on Chemikal Underground in the UK.)
Exactly what it claims to be, The Complete BBC Peel Sessions collects every Peel Session track from the group's debut on the show in 1996 through to their last appearance in 2004 on a two-disc, 29-song set that includes covers of ELO's "Mr. Blue Sky" and the Dead Kennedys' "California Über Alles" (back to back!). According to a press release, "extensive liner notes that deal with the background of the sessions, the recording of specific tracks, and the odd anecdotal aside" will also be included. Check the tracklist after the jump. [MORE...]
Exploding Hearts Reissued, Compiled
Nice Boys (Ex-Exploding Hearts) Prep Debut
Press releases and record labels are notorious for over-hyping their bands, but when Dirtnap Records unveiled "big big news" on their website late last week, they weren't screwing around.
On Halloween, the label will reissue late, lamented punk band the Exploding Hearts' 2003 masterpiece, Guitar Romantic, on vinyl. In addition, Dirtnap will drop Shattered, a 16-song collection of Hearts demos, singles, unreleased material, and alternate takes from the GR sessions, in CD format. The disc will pay tribute to the band with a 20-page full color booklet holding previously unseen photos from the archive of Hearts photographer Chrystaei Branchaw and extensive liner notes from Vinyl Warning Records' Fred "The Barber" Landeen.
In addition, Shattered will feature film footage (five songs) from the band's last official show, which took place July 17, 2003 gig at San Francisco's Bottom of the Hill.
Shattered tracklist:
01 (You Left Me) Shattered
02 We Don't
Have to Worry Anymore
03 So Bored
04 Busy
Signals (unreleased version)
05 (Making)
Teenage Faces
06 Shadow
07 Sniffin'
Glue
08 Walking out
on Love
09 Still
Crazy (alternate version)
10 Modern
Kicks (alternate version)
11 Busy
Signals
12 I'm a
Pretender (alternate mix)
13 Throwaway
Style (alternate mix)
14 Black and
Blue (alternate mix)
15 Thorns in
Roses (alternate mix)
16 (You Left
Me) Shattered (alternate version)
An MP3 of "Teenage Faces", originally released as the A-Side of a rare, out-of-print Vinyl Warning Records seven inch, can be heard by clicking below. [MORE...]
Josephine Foster Gets Devendra, Feathers for Anti-War Comp
Following the release of her latest full-length, A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, singer Josephine Foster takes on another oft malevolent wolf-in-uniform: the U.S. military. Foster has curated a compilation to benefit counter-military recruiting campaigns and pacifist organizations, to be released by Arthur magazine's Bastet label.
The album will be available August 1 and is titled So Much Fire to Roast Human Flesh, in reference to the very real atrocities of war (though taken out of context, it sounds unmistakably metal). Predictably, the comp is a bit more folk-minded, featuring the likes of Feathers, Angels of Light, Devendra Banhart, Diane Cluck, and others. Painter Fred Tomaselli contributed cover art.
"All of the musicians represented here are U.S. citizens," said Foster. "Our voices join with many others across the land that freely question and openly oppose war."
So Much Fire tracks:
01
The Cherry Blossoms - "Dragonfly" (live)
02 Feathers - "Dust"
03 Michael
Hurley - "A Little Bit of Love for You"
04 Meg Baird - "Western Red Lily (Nunavut Diamond
Dream"
05 Andrew Bar - "Don't Trust That
Man"
06 Goatgirl -
"President Combed His Hair"
07 Devendra Banhart - "I Know Some Souls"
(demo)
08 Kath Bloom - "Baby Let it
Come Down on Me"
09 Charlie
Nothing - "Fuck You and Your Stupid Wars"
10 Diane Cluck - "A Phoenix and Doves"
11 John Allingham & Ann
Tiley - "Big War"
12 Josephine Foster - "Would You Pave the Road?"
13 Angels of Light - "Destroyer"
14 Rachel
Mason - "The War Clerk's Lament"
15 Pajo - "War Is Dead"
16 Mvee -
"Powderfinger"
17 Kathleen Baird - "Prayer for Silence"
18 Lay All Over It -
"A Place"
R.E.M.'s Early Years Collected
Music industry, launch your acronym attack! On September 12, R.E.M. will drop the first-ever complete CD and DVD anthologies of their 1980s I.R.S. Recordings. OMG, LOL, etc.
The collection, titled And I Feel Fine... The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987, will come in two packages. Number one (for the likers) is a 21-track single-disc collection of fan and band favorites. Two (for the lovers), a dual-CD collector's edition with Anthony DeCurtis-penned liner notes, includes the aforementioned material as well as 21 rarities, alternate takes, previously unreleased mixes, live recordings, unreleased songs, and more. R.E.M. were responsible for compiling the set, which is being released via EMI on September 12.
A DVD, When the Light Is Mine... The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987 will be released separately on the same date. It brags 2+ hours of content, featuring previously unreleased television performances, interviews, outtakes, and every one of the band's I.R.S.-era music videos, including "Wolves, Lower," which debuts with the film (unless you want to spoil the fun and click on the YouTube link below). [MORE...]
Bright Eyes Rarities Compilation Due
Anxiously awaiting the follow-up to Bright Eyes' I'm Wide Awake It's Morning/Digital Ash in a Digital Urn? Prepare to hit the Noise Floor. On October 24, Saddle Creek will release a collection of Conor Oberst rarities-- singles, one-offs, previously unreleased tracks, collaborations, and covers-- recorded between 1998 and 2005.
Noise Floor will be available on both CD and vinyl formats, with five songs available only on the LP.
Tracklist:
01 Mirrors and Fevers (Don't Be Frightened of Turning The Page EP - 2000)
02 I Will Be Grateful for This Day (Sub Pop Singles
Club 7" - 2001)
03 Trees Get Wheeled Away (Lost & Found, Volume 1 compilation - 2003)
04 Drunk Kid Catholic ("3 Hit Songs From Bright
Eyes" UK single - 2003)
05 Spent on Rainy Days (Home Series on Post Parlo Records - 2002)
06 The Vanishing Act ("Too Much of a Good Thing"
7" - 1999)
07 Soon You Will Be Leaving Your Man ("Motion
Sickness" 7" - 2000)
08 Blue Angels Air Show (DIW Magazine 7" - 2002)
09 Weather Reports (Unreleased 7" with M. Ward)
10 Seashell Tale (Unreleased 7" with M. Ward)
11 Bad Blood (Album Leaf split 7" - 2001)
12 Amy in the White Coat (Vinyl-only B-side on the No Beginning to the Story EP - 2002)
13 Devil Town (The
Late Great Daniel Johnston compilation - 2004)
14 I've Been Eating (For You) ("3 New Hit Songs
From Bright Eyes" - UK single - 2001)
15 Happy Birthday to Me (Feb. 15) ("3 New Hit Songs
From Bright Eyes" - UK single - 2001)
16 Motion Sickness ("Motion Sickness" 7" -
2000)
17 Act of Contrition (Second Thoughts compilation - 2000) *
18 Hungry for a Holiday (Album Leaf split 7" - 2001) *
19 When the Curious Girl Realizes She Is Under
Glass Again (Sub Pop singles club 7" - 2001) *
20 Entry Way Song (Amos
House Vol. 2 compilation 2002) *
21 It's Cool, We Can Still Be Friends (Transmission One: Tea At The Palaz of Hoon
compilation - 2000) *
* vinyl only
Over the past year, Oberst has been working on his new new record, logging hours with producer Mike Mogis at studios across the country. Guest stars on the disc include Sleater-Kinney's Janet Weiss and alt-folkie Gillian Welch. Currently untitled, the effort is slated to drop in Spring 2007.
Bjork, Thurston, Jarvis Make Rough Trade Mix
Also: James Murphy, Erol Alkan, Bobby Gillespie
Making someone a mixtape is universal code for "I love you" for the less-than-forthright of us, and what better way to get some lovin' than to listen to a mix carefully compiled by some of your favorite artists? The folks over at Rough Trade have just such a mix set for a September 25 release in the UK (alas, Americans remain loveless).
Rough Trade Shops will be celebrating its 30th anniversary with the release of The Record Shop: 30 Years of Rough Trade Shops, which features 30 tracks from the likes of the Modern Lovers, the Pixies, Björk and LCD Soundsystem, among many others.
The real treat, however, is that 30 members of the store's famous clientele, including some of the artists featured, handpicked the tracks on the two-disc compilation. These curators include Jarvis Cocker, Björk, Thurston Moore, DFA/LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy, Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie, and Sire Records co-founder Seymour Stein. Each curator will also contribute liner notes to the package. The tracklist is listed after the jump with the names of the people who chose each track in parentheses. [MORE...]
Belle & Sebastian-Curated Kids' Comp Details Revealed
A recent addition to the Q & A section of the Belle & Sebastian website reads:
"Q. I have a one and a half year old son, Captain, who just absolutely LOVES your music. Did you ever think about kids when you were writing some of your songs?...
A. Not really, I must confess. I'm glad it appeals to the young though. We're still babies ourselves, so it comes naturally.
Stuart"
Well, Stuart might not have kiddies on the brain, but his bandmate Mick Cooke does. As we reported back in May, the Belle and Sebastian member curated a benefit compilation for the non-profit organization Save the Children, gathering together such modern rock superstars as the Flaming Lips, Franz Ferdinand, Four Tet, Snow Patrol, the Divine Comedy, and Jonathan Richman doing children's songs.
The comp is called The Colours Are Brighter, it's out October 16 on Rough Trade, and it contains the following tracks, according to NME.com:
01 Four Tet (featuring Princess Watermelon) -
"Go Go Ninja Dinosaur"
02 Rasputina - "A Skeleton Bang"
03 Franz Ferdinand - "Jackie Jackson"
04 Snow Patrol - "I Am an Astronaut"
05 The Divine Comedy - "Three Cheers for Pooh,
Cottleston Pie, Piglet Ho"
06 The Kooks - "The King & I"
07 Half Man Half Biscuit - "David Wainwright's
Feet"
08 The Barcelona Pavilion - "Tidy Up Tidy
Up"
09 Jonathan Richman - "Out Dog Is Getting
Older Now"
10 Ivor Cutler Trio - "Mud"
11 The Flaming Lips - "The Big Ol' Bug Is the
New Baby Now"
12 Belle & Sebastian - "The Monkeys Are
Breaking out of the Zoo"
13 Kathryn Williams - "Night Baking"
[MORE...]
DFA Remixes: Chapter 2 Due in October
Waiting around for a new LCD Soundsystem record is like waiting for water to boil. Fortunately, James Murphy is keeping things moving with another remix collection from his partnership with Tim Goldsworthy, the DFA.
The DFA Remixes: Chapter Two, due October 3 on CD/double vinyl via DFA/Astralwerks, collects the duo's tweaks of tracks by Junior Senior, N.E.R.D., Nine Inch Nails, Goldfrapp, Chromeo, Tiga, Hot Chip, and UNKLE. The collection marks the fifth anniversary of the label, taking place this September.
Tracklist:
CD:
01 Tiga - "Far From Home"
02 Junior Senior - "Shake Your Coconuts"
03 N.E.R.D - "She Wants to Move"
04 Hot Chip - "Colours"
05 Nine Inch Nails - "Hand That Feeds"
06 Goldfrapp - "Slide In"
07 Chromeo - "Destination Overdrive"
08 UNKLE - "In a State"
Double vinyl:
A:
01 Tiga - "Far From Home" (DFA
instrumental mix)
B:
01 Junior Senior - "Shake Your Coconuts"
(DFA remix)
02 Chromeo - "Destination Overdrive" (DFA
remix)
C:
Goldfrapp - "Slide In" (DFA instrumental)
D:
UNKLE - "In a State" (DFA remix)
Wrens, Frank Black, Long Winters on TMBG Tribute
Bar/None is taking They Might Be Giants full circle. In honor of the 20th anniversary of TMBG's eponymous first album, which came out on Bar/None in 1986, the new Jersey label (in conjunction with MM3 Records) has released Hello Radio, a tribute album to everyone's favorite educational rockers.
Contributors to the disc include Frank Black, the Wrens, OK Go, and the Long Winters. [MORE...]
Fennesz, Biosphere, Jóhannsson on Touch Comp
Over the course of 2006-07, UK electronic music label Touch Records will celebrate its 25th anniversary. And what's a celebration without souvenirs? Today, Touch releases Touch 25, a special anniversary compilation.
Jóhann Jóhannsson, Biosphere, Fennesz, Ryoji Ikeda, Philip Jeck, Pan Sonic, and more contribute exclusive tracks to the compilation. "Almost everyone we are currently working with in music has made a special recording for the CD, so it is a 'Declaration of intent' 25 years down the line," Touch founder Jon Wozencroft said in a press release. "We had no idea how it would pan out. What seems to have taken place, is a sequence of 25 tracks (in itself an accident of numbers) that each in their own space are quite obscure and 'of a refined sense of taste,' but together, build a very emotional journey through the emotional conditions brought on by the lack of emotion in everyday life, and its replacement by extremities." [MORE...]
Jamaica to Toronto Series Continues
On July 11 in North America (July 31 everywhere else), Seattle's Light in the Attic Records will release Soul, Funk & Reggae 1967-1974, the second album in the seven-volume Jamaica to Toronto series. The compilation features pre-disco biscuits from sunny-to-snowy transplants like Wayne McGhie, Noel Ellis, Jackie Mittoo, and Lloyd Delpratt, with 36 pages of essays and interviews by the Cougars' Jay Douglas and Canadian DJ/music historian Sipreano (aka Kevin Howe). Trust us: without these musicians, your high-school ska band would have been nothing. Nothing. [MORE...]
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...]
Rhino Boxes Rockabilly Classics
Need a hot soundtrack for that Fourth of July pool party? Well, Rhino's got just the cure: a four-disc rockabilly box set scheduled to hit stores this coming Tuesday, June 27.
Dubbed by the label as "a celebration of sex, rebels, and rock 'n' roll," Rockin' Bones: 1950s Punk & Rockabilly spans the genre's heyday from 1954-1969, and features a whopping 101 tracks that laid the groundwork for generations of rock guitarists-- everyone from Johnny Ramone to self-professed Link Wray disciple Jeff Beck (Ola, not Odelay).
Classic performances include rockabilly-tinged entries from such legends as Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and Johnny Cash, genre staples from the likes of Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent, and honey-voiced teen idol Ricky Nelson, as well as a fair share of obscurities. As a plus for obsessives, over a third of the selections in the set mark their U.S. CD debut. [MORE...]
Antony + Lou Reed + Johnny Depp + Pirates
The Decemberists SO pissed they weren't asked to participate
Keith Richards may have backed out of his cameo in the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, but that hasn't stopped the film's director from working with some of his other favorite rockers on another project.
Big names (Bono, Sting, Lou Reed, Nick Cave), pretty big names (Rufus Wainwright, Richard Thompson, Lucinda Williams, Jarvis Cocker, Bryan Ferry, Van Dyke Parks), smaller names (Antony, Akron/Family, Jolie Holland), and baffling names (Ralph Steadman? John C. Reilly?! That Prairie Home Companion role must have really spoken to him) alike will contribute to Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys, a two-disc compilation due out August 22 on Anti-.
The album was produced by Hal Willner, the man behind multiple tribute compilations, including the bizarre Closed on Account of Rabies: Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, which featured a Christopher Walken reading of "The Raven" alongside contributions from Iggy Pop and Jeff Buckley. Although Rogue's Gallery is not the official soundtrack to Pirates of the Carribean, the idea was dreamed up by Pirates director Gore Verbinski and lead pirate Johnny Depp while filming the movie, because they were, y'know, at sea a lot. [MORE...]
Lady Sov, MF Doom, Mos Def on Adult Swim Comp
Hip-hop is a nerdy enterprise. From old school heads likening their skills to a science to current MCs obsessing over the intimate details of their whips, chains, and, ahem, business practices, there's no escaping the fact that it takes quite a bit of time to go digging through records for samples or coming up with words that rhyme with "block".
Recently, the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim has been feeding the nerdy side of the genre by teaming up with artists and labels to bring you exclusive music. First came Danger Doom's free-to-download Occult Hymn EP, and a collaborative compilation with Stones Throw Records is scheduled for a September release. Now it's time to add Chicago label Chocolate Industries to the list of Adult Swim collaborators, as June 26 will bring the appropriately named Chocolate Swim, the label's mini-album collaboration with the network. [MORE...]
New Sublime Frequencies Releases Due
A CD/DVD label that focuses on "an aesthetic of extra-geography and soulful experience"? Sounds sublime. And that's what Alan Bishop, informal ethnomusicologist and Sun City Girls member, continues to aim for with each release on his Sublime Frequencies label, a collective that (like Bishop) gravitates towards sights and sounds either marginalized or completely overlooked by the music industry, mainstream media, academic research, and society in general. On June 20, the label will traverse new aural and visual terrain with the release of three obscure sound collages and one ghostly DVD.
The DVD release, Phi Ta Khon: Ghost of Isan, is a 75-minute film by Robert Millis, who traveled to the Isan interior of Northern Thailand in order to document a rare ghost festival, also referred to as "Thai Halloween" or "Mardi Gras From Hell." As if that doesn't already provide a vivid enough mental picture, the Sublime Frequencies website describes the fest as a hypnotic parade of "magnificent costumes, ornate masks, decorative phallic icons, strange ceremonies, drinking, dancing, and endless addictive Mo Lam music in higher doses than most souls can process." The DVD comes with a short bonus film about Thai spirit houses, plus an eight-page insert with lengthy liner notes and full-color pics. [MORE...]
Magnolia Elec. Co., Oneida, Calvin Johnson on Comp
With things like Soulseek and MySpace now serving as the primary means by which indie rock reaches college students' ears, one might argue that the once-proud tradition of college radio is no longer as relevant as it once was. Hell, I spent four years in Ann Arbor, and I can't even tell you what our station was called.But thankfully for the residents of Greensboro, North Carolina, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro's WUAG 103.1 does not intend to go gently into that good night. In recent years, WUAG has seen a host of local and national acts play in their studio and at station-sponsored performances. Now, the station has put together 18 Watts Is Better Than None, a double-disc compilation of exclusive tracks from many of those sessions.
The first disc features many of the national acts which have passed through Greensboro, including Boom Bip, Oneida, Calvin Johnson, and Magnolia Electric Co. The second disc is filled with North Carolina acts like Ahleuchatistas, the Strugglers, and a bunch of people we're not familiar with (though we're kinda dying to hear what L in Japanese sound like.)
Between both discs, there are a total of 30 tracks--all on sale from the WUAG website a sickeningly cheap $8.00. That's less than 27 cents per song!
Spartan tracks:
Disc One (National Artists):
01 Lifesavas - "HelloHiHey"
02 Tender Forever - "That Feeling of Love"
03 Plat - "Aftur"
04 The Baptist Generals - "500 League Reunion March (In a Plymouth)"
05 Psyche Origami - "Wherever You Are"
06 Unwed Sailor - "Little Wars"
07 Oneida - "Spirits"
08 Calvin Johnson - "Love Will Come Back Again"
09 Magnolia Electric Co. - "Untitled"
10 Boom Bip - "Red Room"
11 Voltage - (Untitled)
12 Tussle - "A&W"
13 Timonium - "Self Evidence"
14 Page France - "Finders"
Disc Two (North Carolina Artists):
01 Blank_Blank - "160 Oz."
02 Cesar Comanche - "Up & Down"
03 Bellafea - "Depart, I Never Knew You"
04 Walking Dead - "First in Last"
05 Ticonderoga - "They Can Run"
06 Endless Mic - "Down"
07 Cities - "Cancer"
08 Kaliedescope Death - "What Do They Know"
09 Witch Kings - "Reap What You Sow"
10 SNMNMNM - "New Mexico"
11 Boxcar Bertha - "WEF"
12 Tim Smith Band - "Holy Day"
13 L in Japanese - "Fill in the Blanks"
14 Ahleuchatistas - "Shots Rang Out at the Press Conference"
15 The Enrichment Center Percussion Ensemble - "Winter Song"
16 The Strugglers - "Sea of Tears"
This Saturday, April 29, WUAG will host a record release show at the Flying Anvil in Greensboro. It will feature performances by Blank_Blank, Endless Mic, Cities, and, most awesomely, Megaband, "the Athens, GA-based band Cinemachanica playing the soundtrack to the 1988 NES game Mega Man II while a guy beats the game live on the big screen in under 40 minutes," according to the WUAG website. Holy shit.
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.)
Fri: 02-16-07: 06:04 PM CST
Actress Jena Malone Records Social Registry 7"
Fri: 02-16-07: 02:51 PM CST
El-P Reveals LP Tracklist, Single With Trent Reznor
Fri: 02-16-07: 12:20 PM CST
Lil Wayne and Young Jeezy Team Up for Tour
Fri: 02-16-07: 11:30 AM CST
Mew to Tour North America This Spring
Fri: 02-16-07: 07:00 AM CST
The Wrens Don't Announce New Album Details
Today's Other Headlines
- Rakes Release Ten New Messages, One New Remix EP
- Spank Rock Headlines Disco D Tribute Show
- Dan Deacon Signs to Carpark, Tours
- Mates of State Tour With "This American Life"
- Photos: Audion [Chicago, IL; 02/15/07]
Browse
Fri: 02-16-07
- Actress Jena Malone Records Social Registry 7"
- Rakes Release Ten New Messages, One New Remix EP
- Spank Rock Headlines Disco D Tribute Show
- Dan Deacon Signs to Carpark, Tours
- Mates of State Tour With "This American Life"
- Photos: Audion [Chicago, IL; 02/15/07]
- Elephant Man Collects Greensleeves Tracks for Comp
- Domino Continues Triffids Mania
- El-P Reveals LP Tracklist, Single With Trent Reznor
- Lil Wayne and Young Jeezy Team Up for Tour
- Mew to Tour North America This Spring
- Brother Ali to Spread Undisputed Truth on the Road
- The Wrens Don't Announce New Album Details
Thu: 02-15-07
- Exclusive: Lindstrom to Produce New 120 Days Jams
- CSS, DFA 1979, Gossip on Wall of Sound Comp
- Sufjan Interviews Labelmate Rafter, Mentions Cali LP
- Malajube Tour the World
- Clientele, Portastatic on Go-Betweens/McLennan Tribute
- Dios (Malos) Hit the Road, Share Exclusive New MP3
- P.O.S. Tours With k-os, Warped Tour
- Clipse, Mos Def, Chuck D Featured in PBS Documentary
- Deerhunter Hit the Mark With New EP, Double-Vinyl
- Pixies Tour Australia, Get Another Tribute Album
- Hot Chip Announce U.S. Dates
- Exclusive: Arcade Fire to Play "Saturday Night Live"
- Wilco Reveal Sky Blue Sky Tracklist
- Luaka Bop Seeks U.S. Distro, Preps Os Mutantes Discs
Wed: 02-14-07
- Pitchfork Seeks News Reporter in Chicago
- Arbouretum Tour the States
- Crystal Castles Embark on 8-Bit Terror Tour
- Wooden Wand Taps Sonic Youth for Ecstatic Peace LP
- Factory Honcho Tony Wilson Battling Cancer
- Throbbing Gristle Prep First Studio LP in Decades
- The Rapture Release iTunes EP, Debut Throne of Blood
- Jarvis, Guillemots, Peter Gabriel in BBC Bird Doc
- The Shins Add UK Dates
- Stooges, Arctics, Animal Collective, CSS, !!! to Rock FIB
- Au Revoir Simone Prep Second LP, Big Tour Adventure
- Photos: Arcade Fire [New York, NY; 02/13/07]
- Exclusive: Elliott Smith Rarities Due on Kill Rock Stars
- Art Brut Tour UK With Maximo Park, + North America
Tue: 02-13-07
- Stripes, Franz, Wilco, Lips Onboard for Bonnaroo 2007
- 9th Wonder Teaches Class With Play (of Kid 'n Play)
- Andrew Bird Announces Environmentally-Friendly Tour
- Blood Brothers Announce North American Tour
- Apples in Stereo, Polyphonic Spree Support Critic-Turned-Politician
- The Blow Tour with Mirah, Electrelane
- Charalambides Kick Off Tour
- Bloc Party Add Tour Dates
- Jesus Lizard/Scratch Acid's David Yow Joins L.A.'s Qui
- The Pipettes Schedule UK/Euro Tour
- New Order, Eno, Durutti on Post-Punk Comp Reissue
- CSS Announce Green Screen Video Contest
- Crippled Black Phoenix [ft. Mogwai, Portishead] Tour
- Robyn Says "Konichiwa" to UK With Expanded Robyn
- Devendra, Sunset Rubdown, Why? Cover/Remix Xiu Xiu
- Pretty Girls Make Graves Schedule Farewell Tour
- Rhymefest Turning New Album into Stage Musical
Mon: 02-12-07
- Exclusive: Arcade Fire Unveil North American Tour
- White Stripes Sign to Warner Bros.
- Flaming Lips Announce Spring Tour
- The Police Announce Reunion Tour
- Exclusive: Peter Bjorn & John North American Tour
- Iron and Wine Sics Shepherd's Dog on Fans This Fall
- Battles Talk Mirrored, Vocals, Side Projects
- Devendra, Lavender Diamond, Giant Drag Do Madonna
- Saddle Creek to Distribute Range Life Records
- Nine Inch Nails Year Zero Tracklist Revealed
- Sigur Ros Protest Deforestation With Reykjavik Gig
- T.V. Eye: February 12-17, 2007
- J Dilla, Band of Horses Clean Up at Plug Awards
- Depeche Mode Reissue Construction, Celebration
- Field Music's Brewis Talks Covers, Hiatus, Futureheads
Fri: 02-09-07
- Sweden's Labrador Preps 100-Track Anniversary Box
- Matt and Kim Tour America
- Lifetime Hit the Road, Prep Vinyl Release
- Gnomonsong Update: Devendra Puts Out Jana Hunter, Papercuts, Rio en Medio, Michael Hurley
- Andy Partridge: XTC "Well and Truly in the Fridge"
- Dungen's New Record, Now With 100% More Title
- Photos: Lindstrom [Chicago, IL; 02/08/07]
- Strokes' Hammond, Jr. Adds Tour Dates
- The Shins Expand Tour
- Haggard, Nelson, Price Are Last of the Breed
- Arcade Fire Pick Patrick Wolf, Electrelane to Open Tour
- Vieux Farka Toure Releases Debut LP, Tours
- Silver Jews Documentary to Premiere at SXSW
- Mastodon Extend Tour
- Rosebuds Tour in Advance of New Album
- Rufus Wainwright Announces New Album Details
- The Stooges Announce Tour Dates
- Brian Wilson to Premiere New Work in London
- Death Cab, Lips, Raconteurs Join Townshend on Comp
Thu: 02-08-07
- Dr. Dre, Hollywood Producer
- Akron/Family Launch U.S., European Tour
- Apples in Stereo Expand, Kick Off Tour
- Electrelane Ready Fourth LP, Tour With the Blow
- Lusine Recruits Tejada, Dear, Apparat for Remix Album
- Spiritualized's Pierce Returns to Earth for UK Tour
- Exclusive: LCD Soundsystem Announce Tour
- Panda Bear Reveals Earth-Shattering Three-Date Tour
- Feist Tracklist Revealed
- Sufjan Reviews My Brightest Diamond Gig
- Bonde do Role Announce Album Details, Tour
- Shins Kick Off Tour, Stay in Top 10
- Ghostface Guests on "30 Rock" (Again), Plays Poker
- SXSW Reveals Preliminary Lineup
- Antony Collaborates With All Sentient Life, Plans New Album
- Will Sheff "Talks" Lost Voice, New Okkervil Album
Wed: 02-07-07
- Calla Bloom Anew With Strength in Numbers, Tour
- Modest Mouse Announce More Shows
- Lady Sovereign Expands World Tour
- CocoRosie Ready for Adventures, Euro Tour
- Exclusive: Arcade Fire to Rock NPR
- Klaxons Invade North America
- Flying Canyon's Cayce Lindner, R.I.P.
- Twilight Sad Unveil Debut, Tour North America, UK
- Exclusive: Flaming Lips, Metric Reveal Playboy T-Shirts
- Indie Rock Movie Half-Cocked Comes to DVD
- Smashing Pumpkins Reveal Album Title, Release Date
- Maximo Park's Smith Talks Pleasures, Displeasures
Tue: 02-06-07
- Feist Announces New Album
- Patrick Wolf Reveals U.S. Release Details
- Joni Mitchell Tribute [ft. Sufjan, Bjork] Set for April 24
- Bright Eyes Reveals Cassadaga Tracklist, Euro Dates
- Soft Circle (ex-Black Dice) in Full Bloom on Debut LP
- Grizzly Bear, Band of Horses, Mogwai Join Fans' ATP
- John Cale Travels With Circus
- Deerhunter Announce North American Tour
- Bjork Release Date Disappears! Album Title Revealed?
- Exclusive: Aesop Rock Writes Nike Workout Soundtrack
- Photos: Camera Obscura/The Essex Green [Chicago, IL; 02/03/07]
Mon: 02-05-07
- Long Blondes Release Single, Tour
- Folk Singer, Dylan Pal Eric von Schmidt Dead at 75
- Motown Pianist Joe Hunter Dies
- Frog Eyes' Mercer Talks Blood, Sweat, Tears, Bowie
- Photos: Yo La Tengo [Atlanta, GA; 02/03/07]
- Nine Inch Nails Set New LP Release Date
- Rabbit Factory Unleashes Soul of Neal Hemphill
- Exclusive: Okkervil River Deluxe-ify Sheep, Enter Studio
- Chin Up Chin Up, Boris Yeltsin to Tour
- Bjork Reveals Release Date?
- Mysterious Arcade Fire Pamphlet Surfaces
- LSF, Wolf Parade, Islands Members Team Up for Benefit
- Photos: Sparklehorse / Jesse Sykes [Austin, TX; 02/02/07]
- Beatles, Apple Inc. Settle Lawsuit
- T.V. Eye: February 5-9, 2007
- Photos: Cat Power [New York, NY; 02/02/07]
- Gnarls Barkley Hold Haiku Contest
- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Announce Spring Tour
- Arctic Monkeys Unveil Second Album Details
Sun: 02-04-07
Fri: 02-02-07
- SXSW: Good Bad & Queen, Mountain Goats, Mastodon
- Rah Bras Call It Quits
- Love Is All Release Single, Tour
- The Juan Maclean Kicks Off DJ Dates
- All Seven Sly and the Family Stone LPs Reissued
- Ratatat, 120 Days Tour Together
- Jesse Sykes Confesses Like, Love, Lust, Kicks Off Tour
- Exclusive: Ed Banger Delivers Second Comp, Tour
- Midlake Embark on Bi-Continental Tour
- Goldfrapp Ride a White Horse on New EP
- Sufjan, My Brightest Diamond to Play Music Now Fest
- Pitchfork Seeks Business Intern in Chicago
- Arcade Fire Involved in London Scuffle?
- Exclusive: Battles Reveal New Album Details
- Elvis Perkins Supports XL Debut on Tour
- Mountain Goats, Annuals Head WKNC Benefit
- Exclusive: Voxtrot's Ramesh Srivastava Talks Debut LP
Thu: 02-01-07
- Broken Social Scene Score Tracey Fragments
- Trentemoller "Moan"s, Seances With Lynch, Pynchon
- Herbert Releases Film Work as Score
- R.E.M., Lips, Ward Cover Radiohead, More on Comp
- Jonathan Richman Tours, Scores Indie Film
- Exclusive: Frog Eyes Shed Tears, Tour to Feel Better
- Grizzly Bear Kick Off North American Tour
- Exclusive: Dean & Britta Announce Tour, Share MP3
- Bjork, Chili Peppers Set to Rock Roskilde
- Exclusive: Magik Markers Record With Ranaldo, Tour
- Sea and Cake Ready Everybody
Wed: 01-31-07
- Jamie Klaxon Talks Success, Violence, Family, Future
- M. Ward Tours With Norah Jones
- Coldplay Prep Singles Box Set, Tour
- Air Plan European Tour
- Ladytron Tour With Nine Inch Nails
- You Say Party! We Say Die! Sign to Paper Bag
- Mr. Lif Kicks Off Tour
- Exclusive: Jarvis Announces North American Dates
- The Cribs Enlist Kapranos, Ranaldo for Warner Debut
- The Shins' Wincing Debuts at #2!
- Photos: Peter Bjorn and John [New York, NY; 01/30/07]
- The Killers Announce North American Tour
Tue: 01-30-07
- Isis Frontman Joins Black Metal Supergroup Twilight
- Little Brother Part Ways With 9th Wonder
- Xiu Xiu and Sunset Rubdown to Tour Together
- The Blow Expand Poor Aim, Tour With Of Montreal
- Danielson Movie Heads to DVD
- Steve Reich, Sonny Rollins Win Polar Music Prize
- New Avalanches Album in the Works, Finally
- The Good, the Bad and the Queen Hit North America
- José González Schedules U.S. Shows
- Jay-Z, M.I.A., Timberlake to Shock With Timbaland
- Vashti, ex-Arab Strap, ex-Delgados on Idlewild Lit Comp
- Nick Drake Preps Music From Beyond, Haunts SXSW
- Shellac to Play Robbins Benefit
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
- 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
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