The Constantines Tour Canada

The Constantines continue their never-ending tour with a trek across their home country of Canada this spring. They'll be supporting homeland heroes the Tragically Hip for a few Ontario dates this month, as well as at a CFRU 93.3 FM fundraiser in Guelph tonight, January 18. Then in March, they'll hit the road again.

The Cons will be previewing some new material, which they're currently writing for the follow-up to 2005's Tournament of Hearts. [MORE...]

Lee Hazlewood Taps Granddaughter for Final Album
Phaedra is her name!

Sometimes it's best to bow out while you're ahead, which is precisely what revered septuagenarian songwriter Lee Hazlewood has opted to do with Cake or Death, his self-declared swan song release.

Boasting a number of delicious duets, plenty of political bile, and an Eddie Izzard-inspired title, Cake arrives Stateside January 23 via the UK's Ever Records (also home to Cyann & Ben and Cortney Tidwell). It includes a new, Hazlewood-sung version of the classic he penned, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" (made famous by Nancy Sinatra, made shitty by Jessica Simpson), as well as a twenty-first century take on "Some Velvet Morning", the seminal Hazlewood/Sinatra duet, now featuring the man's granddaughter-- who is named, most appropriately, Phaedra.

Both Cake or Death and first single "Baghdad Knights" are out now in the UK and Europe. [MORE...]

Exclusive: Bonde do Role Sign to Domino

Bonde do Role, Brazilian genre mashers, Pitchfork Music Festival survivors, and friends of Diplo (and who isn't these days?), have taken their party-starting to the next level by signing to Domino Records. Their first release for the label will be the "Solta o Frango" single, scheduled to come out April 10, and they will follow that with a currently untitled album in May.

(We hope that a remix for their now-labelmates Animal Collective is in the works.)

Before they fully become Domino artists, the trio will release the Gasolina EP on January 22 via Diplo's Mad Decent label. The EP features an extended mix of the album version of "Gasolina" as well as remixes of the song by Radio Clit, Buraka Som Sistema, and Scotty B and King Tut.

Bonde also have a full tour in the works, but for now they have four dates planned for March. The last date is an appearance at the Mad Decent South by Southwest showcase, which also includes sets by Diplo, Sinden, Amanda Blank, Flosstradamus, and DJ Blaqstarr. The latter happens to be the newest signing to the Mad Decent roster, and his Supastarr EP is scheduled for a spring release on the label.

The showcase's announcement appears on the Mad Decent blog with a cryptic reference to the addition of "a very special guest ???." Dudes, we can spot an M.I.A. appearance a mile away. (Unless, of course, the breakup rumors are true.) [MORE...]

Cage Launches Winter Tour

Def Jux MC Cage kicks off his U.S. winter tour tonight, still in support of 2005's seasonally appropriate Hell's Winter. The tour begins in Wallingford, Connecticut (an up-and-coming underground rap Mecca?).

Slow Suicide Stimulus, DJ Krazy Glue, CupCake, and Yak Ballz will support Cage on most dates, which gives this tour the roster with the worst artist and group names we've seen in a while. [MORE...]

Mark Eitzel Embarks on East Coast Tour

American Music Club spent a chunk of 2006 holed up at San Francisco's Closer Recording studio working on their new album (due this year on Merge and Cooking Vinyl), so it's no surprise that AMC ringleader Mark Eitzel is seeking out some fresh air.

Eitzel has a short string of East Coast dates lined up, starting this evening in New York City. This weekend, he'll stop by the Big Apple's World Financial Center for Winter Garden's American Beauty Project, a pair of free events celebrating the Grateful Dead's American Beauty and Workingman's Dead albums. Jay Farrar (Son Volt, Gob Iron, Uncle Tupelo), Espers, Tim O'Reagan (the Jayhawks), and more are also scheduled to play. [MORE...]

Cat Power, Seu Jorge Become Works of Public Art
Chan performs at art "Happening"

My, Cat Power, how you've changed. Just a year ago you were breaking down at shows, mumbling, weeping, and skittering off stage prematurely. Now you're looking like the bee's knees on the cover of the latest Magnet, hawking Chanel, and projecting your likeness onto the sides of buildings! It's a new leaf, and we're all about it.

Chan "Cat Power" Marshall joins musician/actor Seu Jorge and silver screen stars Tilda Swinton, Donald Sutherland, and Ryan Donowho as part of multimedia artist Doug Aitken's new installation piece sleepwalking. A large-scale video projection, sleepwalking graces an outside wall of New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) for a whole freaking month, "enlivening the building's architecture with the nocturnal journeys of five city dwellers" (thus spake the press release). Indeed, you can see it right now, or tomorrow afternoon, or anytime before February 20.

Aitken-- whose name you might recognize from videos for Interpol, Fatboy Slim, and Sponge(!)-- will host a museum "Happening" celebrating his piece on February 2, featuring a performance by Cat Power herself. The event is part of the MoMA and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center's PopRally series and also includes live music from street drummer/sleepwalking co-star Ryan Donowho (with Hishan Bharoocha), storytelling by Melissa Plaut, a public viewing of sleepwalking, and more surprises. Tickets go on sale January 22 and attendees even receive a swank poster designed by Chicago-based Bird Machine artist Mat Daly.

As previously reported, Cat Power plays both the Langerado Music Festival in March and the Dirty Three-curated All Tomorrow's Parties shindig in April. [MORE...]

Photos: Andrew Bird [New York, NY; 01/17/06]

Photos of January 17 performance at Bowery Ballroom, NYC, by Jessica Suarez
Live review of January 13 performance at the Hideout, Chicago, by Matthew Solarski

(Fun fact! Among the Bird-brained Bowery Ballroom attendees... MONICA LEWINSKY!!)

Is it possible to be too talented? Joined by a drummer (Martin Dosh), a bassist (Alpha Consumer's Jeremy Ylvisaker), and enough talent to raise the Titanic, singer/guitarist/ violinist/pedal-pusher/world-class whistler Andrew Bird promised-- and, for the most part, delivered-- a "marathon" set of mostly brand new material (much from his forthcoming Fat Possum full length, Armchair Apocrypha, out March 20) to the flock of fans fortunate enough to score tickets to this refreshingly intimate hometown performance.

An aura of big things to come pervaded the evening's proceedings, with Andrew himself admitting he's not likely to play so tiny a Chicago venue again anytime soon (his next Chicago gig will be at the 2500-capacity Riviera; the Hideout holds less than 200). It's not surprising, really: Bird has plenty going for him, from his grace with the violin and easy-to-digest voice to his fondness for pedals and storied whistling prowess, right down to his avian good looks and caddish charm. It's enough to take any NPR groupie to giddy stratospheres (and yes, Pitchfork is far from immune). And it certainly impresses dates and girlfriends.

The new music, for the most part, didn't diverge in any alarming fashion from the old music. There were plenty of lush, latticed backdrops built from pizzicato loops, quite a few SAT words and clever turns of phrase (and a few awkward ones as well), one or two rousing rock-outs and radio-ready choruses ("Plasticities" could well be a hit), and sundry sudden virtuosic turns on the violin.

Onstage these assorted talents engage in a somewhat precarious dance, and they don't always jell convincingly-- but every second or third song Bird will stumble into something magical. It's thrilling, in a way, being held in suspense, waiting for the next perfect moment, but frustrating too.

On record, Bird's juggling act is tempered significantly, his talents more often in harmony than not. Live, perhaps a little refinement is in order-- and the nice thing about being too talented? Even if Andrew trims it back a bit, he still has so much to offer.

Follow that Bird as he migrates to Australia and Europe in the coming weeks.

[MORE...]

Bright Eyes Sign to Polydor Outside North America
Next up: Bright Eyes tour of only Clear Channel venues

Conor Oberst and his band Bright Eyes have signed a licensing deal with Polydor Records outside of North America, Bright Eyes' publicist confirmed today. In North America, the band remains on Saddle Creek, the label Oberst helped start.

According to the publicist, "Bright Eyes have been on numerous labels outside of North America over their recording history and the move to Polydor is the newest endeavor to reach as many fans as possible."

As previously reported, the new Bright Eyes album Cassadaga is out April 10 and is preceded by the EP Four Winds on March 6. Oberst and co. hit the road in late February.

To hear a new Bright Eyes song, "Endless Entertainment", sign up for Universal Music UK's Bright Eyes mailing list here. Or just click on the link at the bottom of this story.

David Kilgour Cleans Up With The Far Now
Merge collects Clean chief's best on digital compilation

New Zealand isn't just some Edenic fairytale land where they filmed those Lord of the Rings movies. It's also an Edenic fairytale land with a rich musical history, a land which spawned the so-called kiwi rock of indie legends like the Chills, the Bats, Tall Dwarfs, Straitjacket Fits, the Verlaines, and the Clean.

Not to be confused with David Gilmour, David Kilgour and brother Hamish founded the Clean in Dunedin, New Zealand back in the late 1970s, going on to become one of their country's most beloved bands and exerting a lasting influence on indie rock to this day. While the band has an on-again/off-again thing going on right now, thirty years of kiwi rocking you haven't blunted David Kilgour's songwriting skills a bit. The Clean man returns on January 23 with a new solo LP-- his sixth-- called The Far Now.

Merge Records treats North Americans to The Far Now, showcasing twelve psych-tinged pop tunes penned by Kilgour. Half of the LP features contributions from DK's band, the Heavy Eights, while the other half collects home-recorded fare. Said Kilgour in a press release, "The songs sprung into my lap and pretty much decided how they wanted to sound, and I followed their direction."

If you're new to Kilgour and the Clean's legacy, Merge has just the thing for you. In conjunction with the release of The Far Now, the venerable imprint has assembled a digital-only compilation of the man's best work, titled The Before Now: A David Kilgour Retrospective. It's available for download now and spotlights Kilgour solo tracks alongside classics from his bands the Clean, the Great Unwashed, and Stephen. [MORE...]

Tweedy Reveals Wilco LP Title, Release Date

Finally, some concrete Wilco album news! According to a tip from Pitchfork reader Collin Brown and later confirmed by Wilco's publicist, last night at a solo show in Nashville, Jeff Tweedy announced that his band's forthcoming record is called Sky Blue Sky and it will be out May 15 via Nonesuch. It will be the band's first studio release since 2004's A Ghost Is Born.

Wilco have also scheduled three Australian dates, and Tweedy will continue to make the solo rounds through the end of the month. For all side project dates, back it up to here and here. [MORE...]

Exclusive: Decemberists Announce Spring U.S. Tour
My Brightest Diamond to open

First the good news: The Decemberists are making a killing in their charity auction to benefit the Portland youth organization p:ear. That guitar Chris Funk played on "The Colbert Report"? It went for a cool $2,225. Colin Meloy's jacket? $183.50. And the "bus mall" sign from the Picaresque liner notes? A whopping $455. (Why a cardboard sign is worth more money than a piece of clothing drenched in Colin Meloy's sweat is beyond me. Mmm...Colin Meloy's sweat...)

And there's still a few minutes left to give them your money, with auctions on a few tour posters still in progress.

Now the better news: the Decemberists have scheduled their second American tour in support of their latest album, the fabulous The Crane Wife. It takes them from scenic Jersey City, New Jersey all the way to Bellingham, Washington in March and April.

My Brightest Diamond will open all of the shows except for Knoxville, Nashville, and Atlanta. Sorry, Vols and Hotlantans.

As previously reported, the band heads to the UK and Europe in February. Also, the Decemberists DVD The Decemberists: A Practical Handbook will be released on Kill Rock Stars on March 20. [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...]

Songs of Green Pheasant Sends Aerial Days Stateside

Cooped up in rural isolation, you've only got a couple options: either go Shining-crazy, or keep your wits about you by creating some lovely, thoughtful, intimate music. Lucky for us, Sheffield-area resident Duncan Sumpner does the latter as Songs of Green Pheasant. (Although one wonders what a Green Pheasant freakout would look like...)

Sumpner follows up 2005's haunting FatCat debut, Songs of Green Pheasant, with a mini-album of sorts meant to serve as a bridge between that self-titled LP and another full-length to come. It's called Aerial Days, it landed overseas back in November, and it finally graces U.S. shores via FatCat on January 23.

Green Pheasant brought along a few friends for this one, but he still recorded it exclusively on 4- and 8-track, so it retains the warm, homespun feel of his debut. Don't miss the spacey "Dear Prudence" cover, recorded at the BBC's behest to commemorate the death of John Lennon.

On FatCat's website, Sumpner describes his own songs as "musical jottings of certain times...little candles that light up and stretch out across those three or four years illuminating those pockets of time." Dude that is so emo. [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...]

Turbulence Promises Album Will Do Good

Those of us who have played NBA Jam T.E. are familiar with the term "monster jam," and those of us who have ears know that Turbulence's "Notorious" is one of them (though not in the basketball sense). Now the creator of Pitchfork's 33rd favorite track of 2006 is preparing the release of Do Good, his second album for Minor7Flat5, and we're pretty excited, even if "Notorious" isn't actually on the album.

Do Good has a January 23 release date, and it features production from Andreas "Brotherman" Christophersen, who-- according to a press release-- "provides sounds ranging from seventies-style roots reggae to dub to dancehall, two-step, and trip hop." And for that little extra touch of authenticity, Do Good was partially recorded and mixed at the Bob Marley-dedicated Tuff Gong studio. [MORE...]

Echo & the Bunnymen Expand Songs to Learn and Sing

In 1985, Echo & the Bunnymen gave us Songs to Learn and Sing. On Tuesday, January 23, 2007, they'll hand over More.

Rhino Records has expanded and remastered the Bunnymen's greatest hits classic, tacking on nine "new" tracks and a DVD. "New" meaning since 1985, that is.

The updated collection, fully titled The Very Best of Echo & the Bunnymen: More Songs to Learn and Sing, spans the Liverpool quartet's lengthy career, including material released after the replacement of drummer Pete de Freitas, who was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1989, and bassist Les Pattinson, who left the band ten years later.

The DVD boasts eight videos recorded between 1983 and 1999.

Echo & the Bunnymen's current incarnation has a single show on the touring agenda right now; it will take place at the Manchester Evening News Arena (...in Manchester, England) on March 30. [MORE...]

Built to Spill Show Europe What They're Made Of
Suffocation Keep [ft. Built to Spill Bassist Brett Nelson] Drop Free LP

Your pals in Built to Spill-- who are working on the follow-up to last year's You in Reverse (and, we hope, spending more time on its cover art)-- have made a date with the old countries this spring. Clearly they saw that movie Euro Trip and are looking to score with some hot Euro chicks. Can we blame them?

The May-long trek (which bleeds one day into June) kicks off in the Ganja-lands, then winds through Scandinavia, Germany, England, and a bunch of other places. Along the way our trusty Spillers will play previously reported big ticket events like the fan-curated ATP festival and the ATP-curated portion of the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona. [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.)