Jamie Klaxon Talks Success, Violence, Family, Future
On Klaxons gigs: "It becomes this bloke-fest with men everywhere trying to fight each other!"

Sound a bit overwhelming? Not for these kids. As Klaxon Jamie Reynolds revealed in a chat with Pitchfork yesterday, the trio is taking things one dance step at a time.

"Just after the mayhem last year," Reynolds explained, "we were really into the idea of getting a good pace going...rather than going full steam ahead and crashing."

The mayhem, however, has just begun. While the record sales week hasn't quite ended, as of yesterday, Klaxons have the number one album in the UK. "It's absolutely ridiculous!" exclaimed Jamie.

So how does he intend to celebrate? "I'm going stop in on my mother and a couple of friends. And I'm going to play a gig to 200 people in my hometown. [It's] perfect, honestly. Today is what it's all about."

That Southampton gig went down last night, as part of a handful of "warm-up" shows before Klaxons hit the road with CSS and company. "It's great to come here and get to see old friends I haven't seen in a long time," said Jamie.

Nevermind all the new friends he'll likely make when Myths hits the States in late April, as previously reported, via Rinse/DGC. Not surprisingly, Jamie's psyched: "The whole idea of being on the same label as Nirvana and bands like that is mind-blowing!" [MORE...]

Video: Klaxons: Magick [from the Myths of the Near Future LP]

M. Ward Tours With Norah Jones

Post-War veteran M. Ward guested on Norah Jones' brand new album Not Too Late, and now he will tour with the Starbucks-ready singer and her Handsome Band for a month full of North American dates. So your mom will totally have a crush on him.

As previously reported, Merge will release "To Go Home" as the first single from Post-War on February 20 in the U.S. (4AD released it in Europe on January 29 in 7" and CD formats.) It features guest appearances from Neko Case, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, and more.

Ward has three early February dates in California with Victoria Williams supporting. They begin at Los Angeles' El Rey Theatre on February 2. [MORE...]

Video: M. Ward: Chinese Translation [from the Post-War LP]

Coldplay Prep Singles Box Set, Tour

Coldplay have announced the release of a singles box set, the wittily titled The Singles 1999-2006. Have they really only been around seven years?

The collection, due internationally on March 26, features all 14 of the band's singles, including six that have never before been released on 7" vinyl: The Blue Room EP, "Don't Panic" (previously unreleased in the UK), "In My Place", "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face" (previously unreleased in the UK), "What If" (previously unreleased in the UK), and "The Hardest Part".

Each single will be pressed on heavyweight 7" vinyl and sleeved in its original artwork. There will not be a CD release.

In other news, Coldplay have a handful of South American and Mexican tour dates on the agenda. They'll kick things off on February 14 in Santiago, Chile.

As previously reported, Brian Eno is producing the next Coldplay album, according to an interview he did with BBC Radio 4's Kristy Lang last week.

Finally, Coldplay have been nominated for two Grammys, in the categories of Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical for "Talk" and "Talk (Thin White Duke mix)", respectively. [MORE...]

Stream: Coldplay: Various Tracks

Air Plan European Tour

Air's Pocket Symphony is hitting the road. This March, Nicolas Godin and JB Dunckel will bring their new tunes to venues across Europe, and a Stateside trek is in the works for this spring, surrounding the duo's Coachella appearance. The summer will be spent at European and Japanese festivals.

As previously reported, Symphony is due March 6 via Astralwerks.

The 12-track LP was co-produced by the esteemed Nigel Godrich, and features vocals from Air's Nicolas Godin and JB Dunckel (aka Darkel), as well as Jarvis Cocker and the Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon. [MORE...]

Stream: Air: Various Tracks

Ladytron Tour With Nine Inch Nails

Ladytron will assume the role of touring machine for much of the first half of 2007. Their itinerary includes a couple of DJ sets by various band members, a few solo dates, and a massive tour of the UK, Europe, and Japan with Nine Inch Nails. So much synth it'll hurt your ears!

The band still have release plans while on tour, though. First, 2005's Witching Hour will finally have a full release in Europe, though that's about all the information they've released on their website so far. They will also release a series of remix 12"s. The first is for "Weekend" and features remixes from Virgintears and former Smashing Pumpkin James Iha (or is it current Smashing Pumpkin? We can never tell with Corgan and crew). It will come out digitally and on vinyl in early February. The next remix 12" will be for "Soft Power", and it should be available in March. [MORE...]

MP3: Ladytron: Sugar [from the Witching Hour LP]

You Say Party! We Say Die! Sign to Paper Bag

Like fellow up-and-comers Tokyo Police Club, Under Byen, and controller.controller, You Say Party! We Say Die! have up and signed to Paper Bag Records. The label will release their second album, Lose All Time, on April 10.

The Vancouver party poopers have plenty of tour dates to keep them busy in the meantime. They will kick things off March 1 in Medicine Hat, Alberta, aka the funniest name for a city we've heard in a while and our newest insult ("Screw you too, medicine hat!"). For the end of the tour, they will join up with fellow Canucks Malajube and Champion for the punctuationally appropriate "Exclaim! Tour".

If the band's dates don't look particularly international, there's a very good, very frustrating reason for that. Because of visa troubles they encountered on their October tour, they "won't be going back to play in the USA for five years," according to their website. "The soonest we can return is October 2011. It will still be likely that we will need time after that to apply for a waiver to get back in. Complicated but true."

Bummer guys, but we'll always have international waters! [MORE...]

MP3: You Say Party! We Say Die!: The Gap [from the Hit the Floor! LP]

Mr. Lif Kicks Off Tour

Mr. Lif is alive, in one piece, and recovered enough from December's tour bus accident to welcome the newest member of the Def Jux family last week and now to hit the road again. The MC kicks things off tonight at Tallahassee's Club Downunder and will continue touring into mid-February, with a few scattered dates after that. We wish him a safe and uneventful tour. [MORE...]

MP3: Mr. Lif: The Fries (Abdul Malik remix) [online]

Exclusive: Jarvis Announces North American Dates

Jarvis Cocker is coming...to North America. The debonair Pulp frontman will support the Stateside release of his debut solo album, Jarvis, with a string of performances surrounding his appearance at Coachella on April 27.

Only four dates are scheduled so far-- one in New York City and three on the West Coast-- but there's a nice, convenient four-day stretch in between the NYC show and Coachella, so, what say you to a little Midwest stopover, eh, Jarv?

As previously reported, Jarvis is out in America April 3 on Rough Trade/World's Fair. Before heading to our shores, Cocker will play a few UK shows in February. [MORE...]

MP3: Jarvis: Running the World [hidden track from the Jarvis LP]

The Cribs Enlist Kapranos, Ranaldo for Warner Debut

The Cribs (aka English brothers Ryan, Ross, and Gary Jarman) have signed to Warner for their follow-up to 2005's The New Fellas. They were able to snag Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos as the album's producer, in the time off before Franz begin recording their third album.

(Yes, that's what Kapranos and the Cribs were doing in Vancouver when they showed up at a Ukranian Hall one evening to belt out "Take Me Out", as captured in this video.)

In an interview with NME.com, bassist Gary Jarman revealed that the band were also able to enlist another marquee name for the record: Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo, who contributed some spoken word action.

"We didn't really know what to expect, but he was a really friendly, nice guy," Jarman said. "He's the king of the spoken word... I had a book of his poetry that I really liked called Road Movies. When the Cribs first started we wanted to be a spoken word band, but none of us really could get our heads round doing it."

As for Ranaldo's contributions to the record, Jarman said, "We just had one day in a studio in New York, and we all played live together in the studio, which was really fun. He did five different full-length things, and we all went through it together choosing our favorite parts."

The Cribs will finish mixing the record with Andy Wallace (Nirvana, Slayer, Afrika Bambaataa) in New York City this week, and they will master it back home in Wakefield, England for a spring release. A U.S. tour is forthcoming, though the band have already announced their appearance at Coachella in April.

Video: The Cribs: Hey Scenesters [from The New Fellas LP]

The Shins' Wincing Debuts at #2!
Daughtry, Akon, Dreamgirls admit defeat, pack up and go home

Oh, inverted record industry is more like it. Confirming rampant web-speculation, Billboard announced this morning that 118,000 people saw fit to change their lives this past week, snapping up enough copies of Wincing the Night Away (Sub Pop) to vaunt the Shins' third LP to the number two spot on the Billboard 200.

This marks the highest chart placing ever for Sub Pop, whose previous chart high (at least in the SoundScan era) was the Afghan Whigs' Black Love, which hit #79 in 1996, according to Billboard.com. (Wasn't that a co-release with Elektra though? Does that really count?)

Wincing also trumps the first-week sales of previous Shins discs Oh, Inverted World (no rank; about 1,200) and Chutes Too Narrow (#86; about 15,600) by a million zillion miles. Oh went on to sell nearly 480,000 copies, while Chutes is pushing 420,000 as of last week, according to a Sub Pop rep. All of this may or may not have something to do with a psycho-social disorder known as Garden State.

Only pretty-boy rap&b foursome Pretty Ricky bested the Shins last week, selling 132,000 copies of their new album Late Night Special. But we're fairly sure Natalie Portman doesn't give two shits about them.

According to Billboard, Wincing also topped the Top Independent Albums, Top Digital Albums, Top Internet Albums, and Top Tastemakers charts. (No, we don't know what the difference between a "Digital" album and an "Internet" album is. Or what a "tastemaker" album is.) "Phantom Limb" is in the top 20 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart as well.

As previously reported, the Shins hit the road (in stretch-Bentleys, no doubt) with Viva Voce this February.

And, in other news, have you scoped the newly revamped Sub Pop website yet? Fetching! [MORE...]

MP3: The Shins: Phantom Limb [from the Wincing the Night Away LP]

Photos: Peter Bjorn and John [New York, NY; 01/30/07]

The Killers Announce North American Tour
It's going to be the best tour of the past 20 years

Video: The Killers: A Great Big Sled

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