Plan B Plans American Invasion
Invading Luxembourg was his first choice, but that didn't work out

For those who like their rappers foul-mouthed and tormented, Plan B's debut, Who Needs Actions When You Got Words, was a breath of refreshingly toxic air. But until now, it was only available to UK residents and those willing to pay import prices. Cordless Recordings has remedied the situation, however, with the April 17 release of Who Needs Actions in the U.S.

Overeager U.S. fans of the East London MC need not wait so long, though, as Cordless will precede the release of the full-length with the January 23 release of a digital EP titled Time 4 Plan B, featuring solo acoustic and full band versions of album tracks. The EP will also feature non-album track "More Is Enough".

Plan B hasn't totally forsaken the UK, however. 679 Recordings will release "No Good" as a proper UK single complete with remixes on February 19, and he will begin a tour there January 30 in Preston, England. Still, his newfound Yankee love remains intact with the promise of an appearance at South By Southwest in March. [MORE...]

Castanets Strike Out on Tour With Shapes and Sizes
Somebody get that kitty an inhaler already!

The march toward SXSW has begun! Joining the ranks of the many, many bands gearing up for a holy crusade to take back Austin from whomever and whatever inhabits Austin the other 51 weekends of the year: the Asthmatic Kitty one-two punch of Brooklyn's Castanets and Vancouver's Shapes and Sizes.

Like many bands this time of year, these two hop in the tour van for a little warm up spate of dates, then rock the big one in mid-March, then cool down with another stretch. Don't be surprised if they're wheezing a bit by the end of this one. You know, because they're Asthmatic? No? Fine, just sit there and frown, see what I care.

This should bring smiles back: Castanets and Shapes and Sizes will sell copies of an exclusive tour EP at all shows, collecting three new S&S jams and one very special cover from Castanets-- of a song by the Knife!

In related news, the second 7" in Asthmatic Kitty's previously reported Unusual Animals series-- featuring our pals Castanets and their pals Dirty Projectors-- arrives March 6. Castanets serve up "BlackWater", an eerie, psyched-out swamp dirge full of the squeaky guitar strings we've come to expect from the band, while Dirty Projectors contribute typically weird yet infectious fare in the form of "Silence in the Land". Stream both tracks here.

And, bonus, you can still listen to the first Unusual Animals 7", out January 23 and featuring Shapes and Sizes and the Weird Weeds, right here. [MORE...]

Exclusive: Mystery Jets Sign to Dim Mak

I can't think of many experiences that would be weirder than being in a hot up-and-coming rock band with your dad. Can you imagine? There you are, backstage at Glastonbury, getting sloshed and making out with a groupie, with dad watching the whole time. Or--even worse--watching your dad get sloshed and make out with a groupie. Aren't kids supposed to rebel against their parents, not rock with them?

The English band Mystery Jets-- featuring the talents of frontman Blaine Harrison and his father, guitarist Henry Harrison-- have never exactly done things normally. They live on Eel Pie Island, which is in the middle of the Thames. They use various household items as percussion instruments. Their press bio contains this sentence: " Kai's parents lived with Blaine's parents in a commune in the Seventies ('we used to share hash cookies together', notes Henry, a former architect)." What!

So it should come as no surprise that Mystery Jets have finally gotten around to signing an American record deal, a good year or so after they first gained buzz band status in the UK. The fashionable Hollywood label Dim Mak will release the Diamonds in the Dark EP on April 10, followed by the full-length Zoo Time on May 8. The EP includes a cover of Bloc Party's "Pioneers", while the album features a significantly different tracklist from the band's UK debut album, Making Dens.

An American tour is in the works for the summer. Bring your dad. Or your son. [MORE...]

Low Add European Dates to Tour
Retribution Gospel Choir serve up some gigs as well

Taking the Sturm und Drang of Drums and Guns overseas seemed like a natural choice for slowcore behemoths Low. The Duluth trio just extended the celebration surrounding the release of its eighth LP to include a stretch of dates in Europe-- including, yes, quite a few in Germany.

Along the way Alan, Mimi, and new bassist Matt Livingston will hit up a number of festivals, including the Dirty Three-curated edition of All Tomorrow's Parties (seems that Fishtank session paid off after all), Music in Mind, and Primavera Sound. Much like the ocean, which we could equate to Low's sound in tacky poetic fashion, this European jaunt effectively splits the band's previously reported U.S. tour in half. More dates abroad are expected to be announced soon.

Drums and Guns, as previously reported, is "about killing" and arrives via Sub Pop on March 20. While the Pitchfork jury's still out the new LP, of course, we asked Magic 8-Ball if it was any good, and Magic 8-Ball said, "Shit yes, bitches." You have been warned.

Alan Sparhawk's partially improvisational side project, Retribution Gospel Choir (also featuring Livingston), starts the tour train rolling by playing three special Midwest engagements in February. [MORE...]

Exclusive: Richard Buckner Tours With Six Parts Seven

Photo by Jen Ray

Break out the flannels, the faded blue jeans, the Malboros, and the unkempt facial hair: it's time for a Richard Buckner/Six Parts Seven tour! The prolific Merge Records bard and the stately Suicide Squeeze outfit join forces for a winterlong tour of these United States, part ways for a spell, and then reunite just in time for spring to rattle your hormones.

Not to be confused with Richards Swift, Hell, and Simmons, Richard Buckner plays in support of last year's quite-alright Merge Records release Meadow. 6p7, as the cool kids call 'em, open all dates. They'll then join headliner Buckner to serve as his backing band-- at which point the collective entity will not be known as the Seven Parts Seven, praise the lord.

Six Parts Seven also play some scattered dates sans Buckner. As previously reported, the sextet promotes informal violence with new LP Casually Smashed to Pieces, out January 23 on Suicide Squeeze. If you're feeling all wound up right now, Casually Smashed jam "Night Behind the Stars" (mp3 linked below) should lull you to a state of chilled-out contentedness, perhaps even to chilled-out sleep. [MORE...]

Band of Horses Trot Out on Tiny Tour
But will they play "St. Augustine" in St. Augustine?

Seems our fair Horses have grown restless and cold during these winter months, cooped up in South Carolina (okay, maybe not so cold) working on the follow-up to 2006's Everything All the Time (Sub Pop). So it's high time to saddle up for a vacation to sunny Florida!

Taking full advantage of their trip to Sunrise for the previously reported 2007 Langerado Music Festival, Ben Bridwell and Band of Horses will ditch the bridles for a week and canter all over the land of Disney and old people (including, yes, St. Augustine) before galloping through Atlanta and using some other equine verb to get to Knoxville.

Who's gonna ride this wild Band of Horses? Certainly not you, Bono. [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...]

DJs Drama & Cannon Arrested for "Illegal" CDs
"You see what happens, Drama? You see what happens when you fuck a label in the ass?!"

If it wasn't clear before, it is now: the RIAA cares absolutely nothing about its artists or their music. This was made abundantly apparent last night on local Atlanta TV station FOX5, when news correspondent Stacey Elgin reported that DJ Drama and Don Cannon were arrested for "making and selling 'illegal CDs.'"

A SWAT team raided the popular mixtape DJs' Walker Street studio and confiscated at least 50,000 CDs, computers, recording equipment, money, bank statements, and cars. 17 people were detained, but Drama and Cannon were both arrested. Saying the RIAA had investigated the business for a while before the raid, RIAA representative Matthew Kilgo expressed eyebrow-raised amazement at the two's Gangsta Grillz franchise: "These guys are actively advertising online. They've got a website that they're advertising from. That's where you place your order, and that's how the orders are shipped out."

Wait, they have a website?!! Criminals!

Kilgo also pointed out that some unnamed statistics show that "up to 900% profit can be made just from the resale of counterfeit CDs," and it's great that Kilgo is so focused on the facts, except for the little one that Drama and Cannon aren't just copying T.I. and Lil Wayne albums onto cheap CD-Rs.

Gangsta Grillz mixtapes are in such high demand because of their focus on exclusive content, and since artists often use them as promotional tools for their official albums, record labels usually condone-- if not outright encourage-- them.

Adding insult to injury, Fulton County police officer Major E. A. Platt said, "In this case, we didn't find drugs or weapons, but it's not uncommon for us to find other contraband when we execute a search warrant."

Ah, okay, so you didn't find any of those things, but since "it's not uncommon" to find them in similar raids, you might as well have found them? WTF!!

Elgin ended her hard-hitting report by saying, "Authorities tells us this is a big problem in Atlanta, because Atlanta is known as the hub for the Southeast. They say anytime anybody wants a CD, they know they can find it in Atlanta."

Hey, hold on a second, maybe this whole thing is one big joke. I mean, that couldn't be serious. Right, RIAA? Right?

Ganstagrillz.com is currently "shut down and under investigation," but you can email Matthew Kilgo with your thoughts and feelings about his raid at MKilgo@RIAA.com.

Deerhoof Launch World Tour

Deerhoof's 12 unique Friend Opportunity album covers may seem numerically impressive, but they're nothing up against 38 one-of-a-kind tour dates. As we speak, the Runners Three are preparing to launch a whopper of a trek-- one that will take them through Japan, North America, and Australia, all over the course of three months.

The tour, which kicks off this evening in Osaka, Japan, supports Deerhoof's forthcoming Friend Opportunity, due this coming Tuesday, January 23, via Kill Rock Stars.

And what better way to celebrate a sparkling new album than with an old holiday classic? On December 23, Deerhoof posted a cover of "The Little Drummer Boy" to their MySpace blog. The number was originally intended for a slot on the soundtrack to Justin Theroux's film Dedication, but upon realizing that "if you use it in a movie you have to pay five figures to some estate somewhere," he decided to lose it.

As previously reported, Dedication features music by the band, and will premiere at Sundance on January 22. And Deerhoof are up for a PLUG Award, so vote here. [MORE...]

Camera Obscura Kick Off Tour, Share Single, Video

If looks could kill, the cover of Camera Obscura's new single could get the electric chair, what with our six Glaswegians looking so insufferably swank all up in there. Seriously, dudes and ladies, where's the party?

Merge delivers "If Looks Could Kill"-- the latest single from Camera Obscura's lovely latest full-length, Let's Get Out of This Country-- to North American audiences on January 23. As if one format weren't murderous enough, our European brothers and sisters get two from Spain's trusted indie pop imprint Elefant on January 29: CD and seven-inch, each featuring different B-sides. And if you really want to flirt with death, check out the video for "If Looks Could Kill", a fast-paced travelogue that will have you seeing double.



Finally, as previously reported, Camera Obscura take to the open road beginning tonight in Atlanta. After a whirlwind tour of North America, they embark for the significantly warmer climes of summery Australia for scattered dates and festival appearances. Getting out of the country, indeed. [MORE...]

Exclusive: Gustav Ejstes Talks New Dungen Album
"I say people should eat and drink music as much as they want."

International success can make for some pretty basic misunderstandings. So when the vintage psychedelia of Dungen's third album-- 2004's Ta Det Lugnt-- caught on outside of singer, songwriter, and bandleader Gustav Ejstes' native Sweden, he was suddenly forced to answer questions about why he sang in Swedish, as if it was the result of an aesthetic choice and not simply his native tongue. ("Hey Sufjan, why don't you sing in Portugese?")

We were able to avoid the question when we talked to Ejstes recently, though we did ask if he ever writes nonsense lyrics just because he could probably get away with it (he doesn't). He also told us about the recording process, his interest in production, and his love for hip hop (especially Madvillain). Oh, and there was the matter of Dungen's currently untitled upcoming record (tracklist below), which Kemado will release May 1 in the U.S. A Swedish release on Subliminal Sounds is scheduled for around the same time, and Dungen plan to tour "later this spring."

Pitchfork: How is this new album different from Ta Det Lugnt?

Gustav Ejstes: Each song stands out more. [There are] shorter songs than on Ta Det Lugnt, [which] had that collage vibe [where] one song slips into another one, changing and fading into each other.

Pitchfork: Are there fewer of the jazz-influenced instrumental passages?

GE: There are instrumental parts, and the jazz influences are still there. [But] I think the songs are more like traditional songs. The album is not Ta Det Lugnt 2. I think it would be bad if it were just a "volume two." [MORE...]

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.)