Frightened Rabbit Hit the States
America is a very scary place

These days, it seems like every time you cross a street in Glasgow, you run into a great band. In the case of Frightened Rabbit, they're probably running away from you, but they're still great. A loose, spunky indie pop group that seems on the verge of collapse at every moment, the Scottish boys wear masks in all of their press photos and look like the kind of people who wreak havoc on whoever or whatever happens to be nearby.

Tonight in Brooklyn, Frightened Rabbit kick off their first U.S. tour, in support of their debut album Sing the Greys. Well, it's more of a mini-tour. Or, to put it most accurately, a trip to New York with brief stops in Philadelphia and Chicago.

New Yorkers: you have SIX opportunities to catch them this week. So no excuses. [MORE...]

Exclusive: Page France Reveal LP, MP3, Headlights Tour

Baltimore is supposedly one of the most depressing cities in America, full of drugs, crime, and failing schools. Well, that's what "The Wire" tells us anyway.

But somehow, that (allegedly) festering shithole has produced Page France, who are responsible for "Hat and Rabbit", one of the happiest, bounciest, and all-around peppiest songs of 2007 so far. The glockenspiel (or xylophone? I can't tell the difference) alone provides enough mirth to light a seedy back alleyway for a month.

"Hat and Rabbit" is available as an exclusive download by clicking on the link below. Or wait to hear it in context when it appears on Page France's forthcoming album ...and the Family Telephone, due out May 8 on Suicide Squeeze.

Or hop along with the tune in a live setting, as Page France hit the road with Polyvinyl band Headlights for a cross-country tour in March and April. Page France have a string of dates with the now label-less Margot & the Nuclear So and So's before that tour starts, and Headlights head to Europe with the Album Leaf in February.

Headlights are also prepping a limited edition tour EP featuring live sets recorded at XM Radio, WOXY, Daytrotter, and Indie 103.1 in the fall of 2006. The songs will be culled from the band's debut album Kill Them With Kindness as well as a brand new tune called "This One". [MORE...]

Sigur Rós: "New Album in the Works"
Play Tibet House benefit with Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Philip Glass

Sigur Rós are recording their full-length follow-up to 2005's Takk, according to an update on the band's website. And though bass player Georg Holm writes that the Icelandic musicians "don't know exactly where the album is heading yet," we suspect that their patented formula of epic, orchestral rock might just be too tough to resist. Not that we're complaining, though.

Holm writes, "We have finished recording a few songs but some more things need to be done... We are really just experimenting at this stage. Some of the songs we recorded are old songs, which we had written a while ago... We decided it was time they were recorded." The band expect to finish recording the record this year, and though "nothing is confirmed at this point," there is the possibility of a 2007 release.

Sigur Rós will play two U.S. shows in February. As previously reported, the first is in Miami, where they will accompany a performance of Merce Cunningham's "Split Sides" dance piece. The second is at New York City's Carnegie Hall alongside Lou Reed, Philip Glass, Patti Smith, and Laurie Anderson for a Tibet House benefit. They "will most likely perform just one song" at the latter event. So, like, 15 minutes, then?

Sigur Rós affiliates Amiina have also scheduled U.S. dates beginning in March and continuing into April. Danish label Rumraket recently released the band's "Seoul" single digitally, and the coming weeks will see a vinyl release with a remix from Frakkur, Sigur Rós vocalist Jónsi Birgisson's solo project. [MORE...]

Annuals Prep EP, Tour With Dears, Aqueduct

Photo by Charles Harris

When two bands whose names involve the pluralization of nouns that are more often used in singular form get together for a tour, you can damn well bet grammatical eccentricities are the least exciting thing about it.

As previously reported, Pitchfork Recommended North Carolinians Annuals and Pitchfork ho-hummed Canadians the Dears join forces for a January tour of the Eastern USA. The ten-date jaunt kicks off tomorrow night in Boston and whirls through DC, Florida, and New York City-- where Annuals will be arriving a night early in order to play "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" on January 18. Perhaps they can coax some tips on looking good on television out of their tourmates, who rocked "The Late Show with David Letterman" last month.

After a few weeks' rest, Annuals hop in the van again to sweep across the U.S. solo-style, then join up with Aqueduct to swoop down the West Coast and Southwest, all en route to SXSW.

Also more exciting than grammar: Annuals follow up last year's Ace Fu-stamped Be He Me LP with a brand new EP titled Big Zeus and released exclusively in the UK. The five-track set bears Ace Fu's insignia once again and features "Ease My Mind", a tune originally by the band's pre-Annuals incarnation Sedona and the first Annuals jam written and sung by guitarist Kenny Florence. The song smacks heavily of Broken Social Scene (in a good way), and you can stream it along with another Big Zeus cut on Annuals' MySpace right now. Praise Jesus, neither of them sound like Sublime.

Vinyl fetishists and folks not ready to take the five-track EP plunge can scoop up a concurrently-released 7" collecting two Big Zeus tracks, "Carry Around" and "Ida, My". [MORE...]

Leonard Cohen Given Reissue Treatment

Columbia/Legacy will reissue still-living ladies' man Leonard Cohen's first three albums with previously unreleased tracks on April 24, according to a report from Billboard.com.

1968's Songs of Leonard Cohen will come with incomplete tracks "Store Room" and "Blessed Is the Memory". 1969's Songs From a Room will include early takes of "Bird on a Wire" and "You Know Who I Am", titled "Like a Bird" and "Nothing to One", respectively, with the latter featuring harmonies by David Crosby. And finally, 1971's Songs of Love and Hate will come with a full-band version of "Dress Rehearsal Rag".

Columbia/Legacy will also re-release Anjani Thomas' 2006 album Blue Alert on April 24, which features songs co-written by Field Commander Cohen. The re-released version of the record features a DVD with videos for "Thanks for the Dance" and "The Mist".

Sonic Youth, Murdoch, Watt, Suzuki on Future Pilot LP
Also: members of the Go-Betweens and Fire Engines

Sure, my mom's high school friend once dated the lead singer of the band that would become Styx (true story), but when it comes to the musical hook-up, I've got nothing on former Soup Dragon Sushil K. Dade, aka Future Pilot AKA. Dude knows and has jammed and recorded with enough legends of the indie rock to impress a new girl in a new pub every night, and he's recruited a slew of these fabulous people for the new, genre-mashing Future Pilot AKA LP.

Secrets From the Clockhouse arrives January 22 on Glasgow's Creeping Bent imprint, and boasts a bunch of funny, self-referencing track titles and one hell of a special guests list. Brace yourselves: Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, Stuart Murdoch and Sarah Martin of Belle and Sebastian, Damo Suzuki of Can, Mike Watt of the Minutemen and the Stooges, Robert Forster and the late Grant McLennan of the Go-Betweens, Davy Henderson of the Fire Engines, Scottish folk singer Karine Polwart, Scot rockers Unkle Bob, Scottish illustrator/novelist Alasdair Gray, and baroque chamber music ensemble Concerto Caledonia, also Scottish. Whew!

Patrons of the age of Internet can already download Secrets From the Clockhouse from Rough Trade Digital's online shop. Act fast though-- it's only available through the end of the coming weekend.

In other Future Pilot news, Dade has curated a "Burns Mela" event-- paying homage to Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns-- at the 2007 Celtic Connections festival, which goes down January 28 at Glasgow's Old Fruitmarket. Click here for ye olde details and lineup information. [MORE...]

The Hold Steady Tour With the Thermals

Sure, the Hold Steady may be in the UK for Valentine's Day (promoting the recently reported release of Boys and Girls in America there), but their hearts will always be in the U.S. And so will their recently announced tour with the Thermals, which is without question the best double bill we've seen in 2007 (all 15 days of it).

The Thermals have added shows to their own previously announced tour as well, which will take them from Seattle to Florida before meeting up with the Hold Steady.

P.S. The Body, The Blood, The Machine still absolutely slays. [MORE...]

T.V. Eye: January 15-19, 2007

Pitchfork's T.V. Picks for This Week:

Monday, January 15:

ABC: "Jimmy Kimmel Live": My Chemical Romance (rerun)
CBS: "Late Show With David Letterman": America with Ryan Adams and Ben Kweller

Wednesday, January 17:

CBS: "Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson": Common
PBS: "Tavis Smiley": Common
NBC: "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno": Robin Thicke

Thursday, January 18:

ABC: "Jimmy Kimmel Live": Robin Thicke and Pharrell
NBC: "Late Night With Conan O'Brien": Annuals

Friday, January 19:

ABC: "Jimmy Kimmel Live": Slayer

Dr. Dog Tour With Bobby Bare Jr.

Dr. Dog and Bobby Bare Jr. will gather their prefixes and suffixes together for a tour this March. They will be joined by comic-sketchin' New Yorker Jeffrey Lewis for the trek, which kicks off March 13 in Tucson.

Both acts also have their own hefty treks scheduled for the coming months. Dr. Dog is prepping for a full-blown jaunt with What Made Milwaukee Famous next month, as well as a few scattered dates in April, while Bobby Bare Jr. is currently in the midst of a tour.

Dr. Dog will drop their new album We All Belong on February 27 (not February 13, as previously reported) via Park the Van Records. The band even created a puzzle website in anticipation of the record. If you want to save some time, head directly to the prize. [MORE...]

V2 Closes Shop on New Releases, White Stripes Are Free
Staff, artists let go; label shifts focus to catalogue releases

Get ready for V2 v. 2.0: leaner, meaner, and intrepidly backward-looking, with 90% fewer new releases and 100% fewer employees.

According to a Billboard.com report and verified by a V2 publicist, V2 North America parent company Sheridan Square Entertainment (which purchased the label from its founder, Virgin entertainment mogul Richard Branson, in 2005) has, effective January 12, initiated plans to restructure the imprint's entire operation.

As of last Friday, V2 no longer releases new material from its artists, focusing almost exclusively on maintaining its back catalogue (a task to be overseen by Chief Operating Officer Michael Olsen in Nashville) and pursuing digital ventures. The only exception is the gospel genre, to which V2 will continue contributing new records.

Restructuring also meant terminating all of V2's employees, including label president Andy Gershon. "I wish the best for everybody that's still left at V2 and Sheridan Square," Gershon told Billboard.com, which estimates 35 people lost their jobs this past Friday. A publicist from V2 declined to comment on the situation.

Artists on the V2 roster-- which include alternative radio heavyweights like the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, the Crystal Method, and Moby-- now return to the auction block; V2 will, however, retain back catalogue rights for these acts.

In the case of the Stripes and the Raconteurs, though, things are slightly different. According to their publicist, the band's contract with V2 has already expired; Meg and Jack are presently in negotiations with other labels, seeking a distributor for their own imprint, Third Man Records, for future releases. [MORE...]

Ben Gibbard Goes Hollywood
Death Cab frontman in movie directed by guy from that TV show

Insert "A Movie Script Ending" joke here: Death Cab for Cutie singer/guitarist Ben Gibbard is making the leap from indie rock heartthrob to indie film heartthrob. He has a role in the big-screen adaptation of David Foster Wallace's short story collection Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, directed by John Krasinski, aka Jim from the American version of "The Office".

Eagle-eyed reader Trey Burke alerted Pitchfork to the movie's IMDB page, which lists Gibbard as playing a character named Harry. Other cast members include a guy who was in Snakes on a Plane (Bobby Cannavale), a guy from "Saturday Night Live" (Will Forte), a girl from "That '70s Show" (Mila Kunis), Krasinski's "Office" coworker Rashida Jones, and Krasinski himself.

Unfortunately, Gibbard's next film role will not be in a remake of the Cash Money Millionaires classic Baller Blockin', in which he would be so, so great as Lil Wayne's character, Iceberg Shorty. [MORE...]

Kevin Shields: MBV Will "100%" Make Another Album

Kevin Shields has revealed, in an interview published in the January/February issue of Magnet Magazine, that he intends to record another full-length with My Bloody Valentine. It would be the shoegaze overlords' first album since 1991's classic Loveless.

"I do feel that I will make another great record," Shields told the publication. "We are 100% going to make another My Bloody Valentine record unless we die or something. I'd feel really bad if I didn't make another record. Like, shit, people only got the first two chapters, but the last bit is the best bit. It's just that it's taken me such an oddly long time for that to happen." Wait. Better than Loveless? Kev, we know good for press and everything, but holy crap, dude, what are you saying? 

Given Shields' recent remix and solo work for Sofia Coppola films and Go! Team singles, the guy has a lot to prove-- although there's no question the album would certainly be one of the most highly anticipated releases of... whatever year it eventually comes out. As for what year that might be, Shields was hesitant to give any kind of timeframe. (Actually, the answer was, "I don't know," so let's just take this with a grain of salt altogether.) But Shields did have this to say, in defense of the band's inability, thus far, to follow their magnum opus:

"A lot of people say the reason My Bloody Valentine didn't make another record is because we couldn't. That's mostly true, but not because we couldn't make another record, but because I never could be bothered to make another record unless I was really excited by it. And just by fate or whatever, that never happened. I'm quite optimistic about the future, even though experience has taught me that I'm probably just delusional."

Hah, well, on the off chance it never happens, we'll always have the past:

Video: My Bloody Valentine: "Only Shallow"

Video: My Bloody Valentine: "To Here Knows When"

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.)