Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch Says ‘Hot Sauce’ Release Depends on His Health

When Adam Yauch announced last July that doctors found a cancerous tumor in his parotid gland, cancelled shows and a postponed new album made everyone wonder when we’d hear from the Beastie Boys again.

However, the New York rapper seemed to be in better shape when he walked the red carpet at the Film Independent Spirit Awards on March 5 to support ‘The Messenger’ and ‘Treeless Mountain,’ two nominated films that were distributed by his company, Oscilloscope Laboratories.

“I feel better,” Yauch told Entertainment Weekly. “It was touch and go there for a while, but I’m finally getting my energy back.”

Now that Yauch is moving towards good health, the hip-hop group now hopes to get their new record, ‘Hot Sauce Committee, Part 1,’ out to the people after it was delayed due to Yauch’s illness. Still, the release date will all depend on the state of Yauch’s health condition in the coming months. “It was really disappointing to have to hold the record and postpone the tour, but doctors’ orders,” Yauch said. “We may or may not [release the album] depending on how my heath is come September. We want to, but we have to play it by ear.”

While it’s still unclear if ‘Hot Sauce Committee, Part 1′ will drop this year, Yauch said the group still plans to revisit the album and give it another look over soon. “I was just talking to Adam [Horovitz] and Mike [D] today on the phone and we were talking about working on it a bit,” he said. “We finished the record over a year ago, so we want to take a look at it and re-evaluate and make sure it is what we want to put out there and that we are still happy with it. I don’t think we will change it up too much.”

ANVIL‘s acclaimed documentary, “Anvil! The Story of Anvil”, was honored in the “Best Documentary” category at this year’s Independent Spirit Awards, which was held last night (Friday, March 5) at LA Live’s panoramic event deck in downtown Los Angeles. ANVIL also performed twice during the ceremony, which aired live and uncut on IFC (Independent Film Channel). The film’s director, Sacha Gervasi, said during his acceptance speech, “When I was 15 years old, this band took me out on the road and they showed me a lot of things, some of which I can’t discuss on live television.”

Just when it was looking like the flip side to Peter Gabriel’s song swap project, Scratch My Back, would be fractured at best and canned at worst, Justin Vernon has reciprocated Gabriel’s cover of “Flume.” On Saturday, April 17, Jagjaguwar will release an exclusive split 7”, featuring Bon Iver’s cover of “Come Talk To Me” off Gabriel’s 1992 album Us, as well as the aforementioned “Flume” cover.

For the one-off recording, Bon Iver mastermind Justin Vernon enlisted regular co-conspirator Sean Carey, as well as his very own sister and brother-in-law.

Jagjaguwar describes Vernon and company’s rendition of “Come Talk To Me” as “an intimated triumph,” adding, “It has the sensation of soaring, but its feet and hands are dug into the ground, rooting it there while it flirts with flight.”

How long has it been since we’ve heard a new LCD Soundsystem track? What are James Murphy and company building in there? So many questions. And finally an answer/preview/tease…

A We All Want Someone To Shout For reader radio-ripped this new track from the upcoming Murphy-scored Noah Baumbach film Greenberg, and color me impressed: the man channeled Plastic Ono Band era John Lennon brilliantly. From the shrill guitar moves to the slapback vox to the primal (scream) therapy workout, he went solo Lennon all the way and I, for one, do not object.

Stream/download yer “Oh You (Christmas Blues)” here.
backup download location

The Flaming Lips spent seven years making the phantasmagorical sci-fi flick Christmas on Mars, finally released in 2008. But Lips frontman Wayne Coyne isn’t afraid to jump into moviemaking again. Coyne says that he’s already working on another movie, and this one might not even take as long.

Coyne plans to film the movie in Oklahoma City. He tells Billboard, “My only goal was that I didn’t have to build space station-looking sets every time I wanted to have someone say something, only because I built those sets myself every time we shot something for Christmas on Mars over the seven years we took to make it. This one is set in someone’s house and in a back yard and in a slaughterhouse; all those are available to me right here, so I don’t have to build everything this time.” Sounds much easier…but how does Wayne Coyne have access to a slaughterhouse?

Coyne also raises the prospect of at least one pretty awesome celebrity cameo: “I’m gonna try to get real actors, too, celebrities to show up and have fun with us for a couple of nights. I’m in the process of begging Justin Timberlake to be part of it; if I’m lucky I’ll be able to wear him down in another year.”

Timberlake does have a history of appearing in mind-bogglingly weird feature films; he did, after all, hold down starring roles in both Southland Tales and The Love Guru. And he appeared with the Lips on “Top of the Pops”, while wearing a dolphin suit.

Coyne says that he’s beginning work on the film, and that he and bandmate Steven Drozd have started work on the film’s music. But this one could also take a while: “Because I get to do it with people I love and it’s my art, I don’t care how long it takes.”

Meanwhile, Coyne will be busy with his regular frontman duties this year. The Flaming Lips will tour the U.S. in the coming months.

Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning star in this music-fueled story of the ground-breaking, all girl, teenage rock band of the 1970s: The Runaways. In Theaters March 19th!

Zach Rogue spent much of the time before the recording of Rogue Wave’s fourth album, Permalight, confined to bed rest as a slipped disc or two in his neck healed and he gained back the use of his arm. An experience like that could send a songwriter in one of two directions; writing bleak, life-is-hell songs, or fighting back with upbeat, sunny songs, celebrating triumph over adversity. Rogue mostly chose option number two here. The album is filled with sparkling, uptempo tracks that are cheerful, danceable, and full of joy. They are decorated gaily with bubbling synths, handclaps, slick harmony vocals, and all kinds of cute production tricks that help turn songs like “Stars and Stripes,” “Good Morning,” and “You Have Boarded” into bright power poppers with plenty of pop. There are big hooks in these songs, plenty of singalong choruses, and a feeling of joy behind the singing and playing. It’s a huge change from the bland and over-cooked sound the band fell into on their previous record. On Asleep at Heaven’s Gate there seemed to be a real danger that they were headed into adult contemporary territory with no return trip booked. Only a couple songs on Permalight venture into this realm, mostly the ballads, though this time the songs are saved by the production tricks and Rogue’s vocals. He, too, was headed in a bad direction on the last album, turning from a heartfelt, small-emotions guy into an arena-sized howler who sacrificed heart for show. Luckily, he’s dialed way back on the affectations and brings some real emotion to the slow songs, and a fun-filled, breezy approach to the uptempo tracks. The production, songs, and vocals are all perfectly in tune with each other, and the band has crafted a pretty impressive return to form. Permalight is still a far way from the bedroom origins of the group, but it’s also far from being a Coldplay knock-off, and anyone who’s been a fan from the start can certainly appreciate that

The quartet reappeared on SNL for the second time in recent memory behind the strength of their #1 selling album, “Contra”. Enjoy VW playing the albums lead single “Cousins”. I guess we can be thankful that they don’t seem to be wearing their preppy polos as much any more. They still look like a 21st Century Haircut 100 if you ask me. Don’t believe me? Watch the video below, Then watch this.

Joanna Newsom’s Friday night performance on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” was either a coup for Newsom or for Fallon; it’s hard to tell which. Maybe both! After all, Newsom doesn’t appear on television very often, and the opportunity to see her stand on the same stage as Mike Myers is a rare one indeed.

Newsom, with her band, performed the Have One on Me track “Soft as Chalk”, singing most of the song out of the side of her mouth. Check out the video below

The New York Times article “Minstrels in the Court of the Kingpin”:

In November an anonymous user uploaded a new song to YouTube by Los Tucanes de Tijuana, one of Mexico’s most popular bands. The song, “El Más Bravo de los Bravos” (“The Most Vicious of the Vicious”), heralds the exploits of Raydel Rosalío López Uriarte, better known as El Muletas, or Crutches, a suspected hit man and trafficker high up in the ranks of the Tijuana drug cartel who had become as infamous for blood baths and beheadings as for his fleet of bullet-proof trucks, his crew’s uniform logos styled after MTV’s “Jackass,” and a low-budget street DVD that fictionalized his exploits.

“A very dangerous man who doesn’t fear the Devil,” Los Tucanes sing, listing Mr. López’s favorite guns (R-15 and 50-caliber rifles) and comparing him to Rambo. “He executes, kidnaps and gets the payments.”

It was not the first time that Los Tucanes (the Toucans) paid tribute to Mr. López in a narcocorrido, a controversial, time-honored and immensely popular Mexican song form that in its current manifestation typically turns news accounts of drug trafficking and drug violence into bouncy accordion- and brass-accented ballads. Their 2008 song “El Muletas” detailed a failed arrest attempt in which Mr. López escaped 200 federal agents at a popular Tijuana restaurant. (Mr. López was apprehended last month.)

The video below, with a backing track of Los Tucanes de Tijuana’s “El Más Bravo de los Bravos”, features fictional scenes and actual footage of Mexico’s narcos kidnapping, murdering, and necessitating the intervention of dozens of Mexican law enforcement agents (note: the audio quality is abysmal):

“It’s been a long time coming, but we’re working on the script right now,” former Academy Award nominated actor Don Cheadle told Parade magazine recently of the long-overdue Miles Davis biopic, which he was previously reported to star in. Cheadle’s update that the project is gaining momentum is newsworthy enough, but, as a YRB interview (via the Playlist) with Erin Davis and Vince Wilburn, Jr., Davis’ son and nephew respectively, proves, the details are truly where it’s at:

“Herbie Hancock’s going to score it and Don Cheadle’s directing and starring,” said Wilburn, adding later: “Don didn’t like the other writer that was attached to the movie, so there’s a new writer named Steven Vegelman that Don’s writing with. Once is the script is OK’d by the family, then we go into production.”

Taking on a biopic about one of the most famous and complicated jazz musicians of all time is a daunting task to say the least (even a documentary about the man would be harder than making a Dylan film, I say), but it sounds as though Cheadle, Davis, Wilburn, and company are being aptly patient with the precarious project. Not to mention I can’t imagine a better living jazz legend than Herbie Hancock—someone who has played with Davis himself among countless others—to score the movie.

In 1995, a benefit album to raise funds to fight the allegedly wrongful imprisonment of convicted murderer Leonard Peltier was supposed to come out on Columbia. The record– dubbed Exiled in the Land of the Free– was to feature feature rare, live, and unreleased tracks from Beastie Boys, Rage Against the Machine, Superchunk, Mike Watt, Josh Homme, and more. (Via Billboard.) Well, the compilation never came out, and everyone moved on.

Well, almost everyone, apparently. American Indian Movement member Peltier is still in prison for killing two FBI agents. And now a former Columbia employee has made a website that offers the whole album to download for free, in the hopes of inspiring support for the cause.

“I apologize for the release of these materials without getting anyone’s approval,” reads the site. “But I believe the cause needs to be heard and I trust you will remember why you chose to take place in this benefit 16 years past.”

Check out the lost album’s tracklist below and head to the Exiled in the Land of the Free site for more info and to download. But since none of this seems to be authorized, don’t be surprised if the music disappears soon.

Exiled in the Land of the Free:

01 The Goats: “Leonard Peltier in a Cage”
02 New Bomb Turks: “Stick It Out”
03 Rage Against the Machine: “Wake Up (Live)”
04 Corrosion of Conformity: “Land of the Free Disease”
05 Chavez: “I Saw It Move”
06 Josh Homme: “If Only” (demo)
07 Beaver Chef: “Long Ago”
08 Superchunk: “I Can Still Feed Myself Thanks”
09 Helmet: “Just a Patsy”
10 Bad Religion: “Atomic Garden”
11 Silica Gel: “Punishment”
12 Giant Sand: “Spirits”
13 The Goats: “¿Do the Digs Dug?”
14 Quicksand: “Clean Slate” (live)
15 Beastie Boys: “(R)Evolution Time”
16 Biohazard: “Scumbag”
17 Brother Sun: “Redman”
18 Mike Watt: “Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing” (live)
19 Zack De La Rocha and Corrosion of Conformity: “The Punchline”
20 Leonard Peltier: “Greetings from Leonard Peltier”

Rolling Stone reports that Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse has committed suicide. His family released the following statement:

It is with great sadness that we share the news that our dear friend and family member, Mark Linkous, took his own life today. We are thankful for his time with us and will hold him forever in our hearts. May his journey be peaceful, happy and free. There’s a heaven and there’s a star for you.

In the past 15 years, Linkous made four albums under the Sparklehorse moniker: Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot (1995), Good Morning Spider (1998), It’s a Wonderful Life (2001), and Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain (2006). He also collaborated on two LPs: last year’s Dark Night of the Soul with Danger Mouse and In the Fishtank with Christian Fennesz.

Linkous worked on various projects with a slew of brilliant artists during his career, including with Daniel Johnston as the producer of 2003’s Fear Yourself, and the likes of Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, Vic Chesnutt, and many more.

According to Linkous’ publicist, he was nearly finished with a new album to be released via Anti- Records.

Foo Fighters are set to begin recording their next studio album in September, frontman Dave Grohl has revealed.

Grohl, who is also set to release new Them Crooked Vultures material this year with Josh Homme and John Paul Jones, said that the band he heads up had just started the writing process for what will be their seventh studio album.

“Foo Fighters have just started writing and we’re going to start recording in September so life is full of music,” the guitarist/drummer told BBC 6 Music.

John Paul Jones recently said that Them Crooked Vultures hope to record their second album “by the end of summer, something like that.”

A snippet of Rolling Stone’s coverage:
The piece was a mix of Matthew Barney and Wicker Man, as three of the four members of Animal Collective — Avey Tare, Deakin and Geologist — stood nearly motionless for three hours in the center of the room, guarding glowing video orbs and donning black robes, white gloves and creep-tastic white bunny masks. A pool of glass stalagmites jetted upwards, a puffy 8-foot-tall mountain stood menacingly in the background and Perez’s epileptic video art flickered up the rotunda, whose walls were absent of any other art. A 36-speaker system cycled a series of drones reminiscent of the VHS horror films that Animal Collective sites as an early influence — swirling masses of surround-sound gurgles, moans, static, squawks and terror-noise.

Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, the composer-in-residence with the BBC Concert Orchestra, unveiled the world premiere of his new composition “Doghouse” for an intimate crowd at the BBC’s famous Maida Vale Studios last month. That’s newsworthy enough, I say, but thanks to a couple online reviews from the lucky few in attendance, there’s more…

According to attendee Adam Bowie, Greenwood and conductor Robert Ziegler also had a 20-minute interview after the performance and—just as Greenwood’s “Popcorn Superhet Receiver” inspired his lauded There Will Be Blood score—”Doghouse” will inform parts of the score to Norwegian Wood, director Anh Hung Tran’s forthcoming film based on Haruki Murakami’s bestselling novel of the same name. It’s unclear if the film project was discussed in the Q&A, but the program handed out to attendees did indeed confirm the Norwegian Wood project.

“I wrote this piece mostly in hotels and dressing rooms while touring with Radiohead,” Greenwood said in a description from the BBC’s site (now removed). “This was more practical than glamorous – lots of time sitting around indoors, lots of instruments about – and aside from picking up a few geographical working titles, I can’t think that it had any effect where, on tour, it was written.”

And now for the really great news: We will all get a chance to hear the premiere of “Doghouse” and preview of Greenwood’s next film score on Friday, March 19, as BBC Radio 3 will broadcast the performance on that date at 2PM.

The band hammered through “Got Nuffin’”, a pleasant surprise and one of Transference’s strongest numbers (despite being previously released on it’s own EP). The first thing one notices about the performance is the precision. Sure it looks likes Britt Daniel is playing sloppily, but you get the impression that everything is planned down to the smallest missed note. The piano, drums and even tambourine are audible on their own, never blending in but rather standing on their own. Spoon has a reputation as studio workhorses, but their live show is no different, built from bricks of practice and old fashioned hard work

LCD Soundsystem has confirmed May 18 as the U.S release date of its as yet untitled third album. The record will be released on DFA/Virgin in the U.S. and will consist of the following songs:

Dance Yrself Clean
Drunk Girls *
One Touch
All I Want
Change *
Hit *
Pow Pow
Somebody’s Calling Me *
What You Need

The above were recorded at The Manshun in Los Angeles and the DFA studios in New York and mixed at DFA from April 2009 through February 2010. TBD was written and produced by James Murphy. Additional mixes were done by Dave Sardy as indicated (*).

The new album is LCD Soundsystem’s first full offering of new studio material since 2007’s Sound Of Silver, which was named best album of the last decade by NPR, ranked #1 in the 2007 Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll, landed at #12 and #17 respectively in Rolling Stone and Pitchfork’s best albums of the decade, and like its predecessor 2005’s LCD Soundsystem received a Grammy nomination for Best Electronic/Dance Album. Sound Of Silver also featured “All My Friends,” ranked #4 by Time in its Best Songs of 2007 and named single of the year by Pitchfork, and Entertainment Weekly #8 song of 2007 “Someone Great.” In 2008, LCD Soundsystem contributed the track “Big Ideas” to the soundtrack of the movie 21. The bandhas since released the 45:33: The Remixes EP and a cover of Alan Vega’s “Bye Bye Bayou,” issued to commemorate Record Store Day 2009 and earning LCD its fifth NME single of the week. The album will be preceded by the March 23 release of the soundtrack to Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg, which features both composition’s from James Murphy’s original score for the film and the new LCD Soundsystem song “Oh You (Christmas Blues).”

The record’s release will be supported by a world tour beginning with an April 16 penultimate slot at the Coachella festival in Indio CA and continuing with a run of UK/Europe headline dates (several of which have sold out well in advance and necessitated added dates) and further worldwide festival appearances. For a full itinerary, see below and continue to check http://lcdsoundsystem.com/ for additions going forward.

LCD SOUNDSYSTEM On Tour 2010

April 16 Indio CA Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival
April 20 Dublin Tripod * SOLD OUT
April 21 Dublin Tripod * SOLD OUT
April 23 London Brixton Academy * SOLD OUT
April 24 London Brixton Academy *SOLD OUT
April 26 Birmingham Academy
April 27 Leeds Academy * SOLD OUT
April 28 Glasgow Barrowlands
April 29 Glasgow Barrowlands * SOLD OUT
May 1 Manchester Academy * SOLD OUT
May 2 Bristol Academy * SOLD OUT
May 4 Amsterdam Paradiso * SOLD OUT
May 5 Brussels Ancienne Belgique * SOLD OUT
May 6 Berlin WMF
May 7 Luxembourg Den Atelier
May 8 Paris Bataclan * SOLD OUT
May 9 Paris Bataclan
May 30 George WA Sasquatch Festival
June 11 Manchester TN Bonnaroo Festival
July 10 Lisbon Alive Festival
July 17 Chicago IL Pitchfork Music Festival
September 12 Isle of Wight Bestival

“Public concern” might mean the BBC will have to “rethink” plans to axe two radio stations, BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons has said. There has been growing opposition to the announcement by director general Mark Thompson on Tuesday, earmarking 6 Music and Asian Network for closure….The proposals will go through a public consultation before being approved. Union leaders have met with Mr Thompson, telling him the plans are “unnecessary and unacceptable”.

Former director general of the BBC Greg Dyke has told Richard Bacon’s 5 live show that he does not believe 6 Music and the Asian Network will be closed down. “All that’s going to happen now is there’s going to be campaigns to save the two stations they want to close,” he said.

The proposed cuts have been criticised by music industry figures including music producer Mark Ronson and pop star La Roux. More than 100,000 people have already joined a group set up on social networking site Facebook to save 6 Music. Writing in the Guardian, Brit-winner Lily Allen said she hoped “that the backlash they’ve received so far will make them hink twice.”

Sign Petition Here

Twee pop fans rejoice — Belle and Sebastian have announced their first shows in nearly four years. The iconic Scottish ensemble have been on hiatus since the summer of 2006, when front-man Stuart Murdoch put the group on hold to work on his musical narrative God Help the Girl. Now, the singer has returned his focus to his original group, who are reportedly gearing up for a busy year of performing and recording.

In a message sent around to members of their mailing list, the band said, “We’ve been in the studio these last few weeks writing some new tracks and shortly we will say cheerio to Glasgow for a while when we set off to L.A. to record our next album.”

Although no further details about the recording sessions are currently available, perhaps this means they will be reconvening at the Sound Factory with Tony Hoffer, with whom they recorded 2006’s The Life Pursuit.

This confirms Belle and Sebastian’s previous hints that they would be working on new material; back in November, they asked, “could that be another B&S record on the horizon?”

As well as working on their new album, Belle and Sebastian have also scheduled a small handful of shows for this summer. They’ll be playing festival dates in Finland, Norway and Japan, and promise that they will unveil their first UK show “sometime next week.”

As for whether they will be playing any North American shows anytime soon, we’ll just have to wait and see. Still, this in itself is a lot to be grateful for, since this is the first tim

Plans to release Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse’s star-studded project Dark Night Of The Soul were halted last year due to mysterious (to the public, at least) “ongoing [legal] dispute with EMI,” but that didn’t stop Danger Mouse, aka Brian Burton, and company from getting the music out to the masses. The record, which features the likes of David Lynch, Iggy Pop, Julian Casablancas, Pixies’ Frank Black, the Flaming Lips, and many more, was leaked to the internet, and a book of photographs accompanied by a blank CD-R was released instead (get it?).

Well, EMI, Burton, Sparklehorse, and company have finally cleared the album for an official release, reports BBC 6Music. “The problems of last year are last year, so hopefully it will be out soon in June or something like that,” Danger Mouse said.

But that isn’t all Danger Mouse has in store for this year: The eponymous debut of his new band Broken Bells, a collaboration with the Shins’ James Mercer, won’t hit shelves until next week in the U.S. (Mar. 9), but the duo are already working on songs for its follow-up. Though he could conceivably plot a third Gnarls Barkley album, another project with Beck, or launch a new epic collaboration, Danger Mouse is going all-in with the Broken Bells: “I’m not really interested in too much else right now.”

Record collectors and Soundgarden fans alike will enjoy this: The recently-reunited Seattle grunge outfit and Sub Pop Records are re-releasing the band’s first single, “Hunted Down” along with original B-side “Nothing to Say” on orange vinyl on April 17, Record Store Day.

If you remember your Soundgarden history, “Nothing to Say” was the song that made the A&R suits turn their heads: “Labels started calling us when they heard the song,” recalls guitarist Kim Thayil. “I was working at Seattle Filmworks along with Mark Arm from Mudhoney, Bruce Fairweather from Mother Love Bone, and Owen Wright from My Sister’s Machine. I got this phone call while I was doing some splicing and it was Chris. He said, ‘You’re not going to believe this — A&M called!.’ The rest is history.”

In the food-for-audiophiles department, Soundgarden are also offering a live version of “Spoonman,” recorded in San Diego in 1996. As the band’s email to fans states: “We recorded all the shows (on two inch tape)… to one day release as a live album. We never got around to mixing those shows until recently and we were surprised at how crazy cool it all is!” We could wax on and on about recording on tape, but we’ll spare you. To find stores near you participating in Record Store Day, go here.

Lou Reed has finalised details of the digitally re-mastered edition of his seminal 1975 album “Metal Machine Music.” Reed will release the ground breaking album in the UK on April 19th on his independent label “Sister Ray” in the following three formats – double gatefold vinyl in quadraphonic sound, audio DVD and Blu-ray.

The album coincides with Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Trio UK concerts at the Cambridge Junction (April 17), Oxford O2 Academy (April 18) and London Royal Festival Hall (April 19, part of the Ether Festival).

Lou did the digital re-mastering from the original multi-tracks with the help of world-renowned mastering guru, Scott Hull. This is a new and improved re-mastered version, and is different from all previous releases on the RCA, Buddha and Sony affiliated labels.

Says Reed, “The out of print “Quad” release has been replicated for all formats, including a perfect vinyl version playable on your stereo turntable with the original rear sections moved to the center of the front left/right speakers. It’s worth getting a turntable to hear this. We worked from digital transfers (95k 24bit) made from the original analogue masters. The original label supplied us with these files and photo copies of the analogue reels including copies of Bob Ludwig’s mastering notes.”

Although the Metal Machine Music album will be reissued just in time for Reed’s Metal Machine Trio UK concerts, MM3 will not perform music from the legendary album, but instead will perform music loosely based on, and inspired by, the 1975 album.

Pavement have expanded their reunion tour yet further, adding dates across North America.

Those new dates are for May, June and September and you can see the list after the jump.

The full list of dates already announced can be found on the Matador website, including the four-night residency in May at the o2 Academy Brixton in London. Pavement release their best of compilation, ‘Quarantine The Past,’ on Mar. 8.

On Monday (Mar. 1) the Stockton, California band launched their reunion tour at the Town Hall in Auckland, New Zealand. As would be expected, the set was full of well-regarded tracks like ‘Trigger Cut,’ ‘Range Life,’ ‘Rattled By The Rush,’ ‘Stop Breathing’ and ‘Summer Babe (Winter Version),’ amongst many others. This being the age of the Internet, so many videos are floating around YouTube. The best is probably the 10 minute highlights reel found here.

On his blog guitarist Spiral Stairs said: “Last night we played our first show in over ten years. and yes we were seriously nervous! the show was great. the fans were unreal. whew… all those pavement anxiety dreams can now go away! Auckland was great. we had an amazing time the few days we were here. good weather and good people.”

The Pavement reunion was announced last September. A statement on the band’s website said, “Please be advised this tour is not a prelude to additional jaunts and/or a permanent reunion.” Last chance to see, it would seem.

The new dates are:

Sasquatch Festival, Quincy, Wash. (May 30)
Olympic Island, Toronto, Canada (Jun. 19)
Greek Theatre, Berkeley, Calif. (Jun. 25)
Pitchfork Music Festival, Chicago, Ill. (Jul. 18)
First Bank Center, Broomfield, Colo. (Sep. 9)
Uptown Theater, Kansas City, Mo. (Sep. 11)
Roy Wilkins Auditorium, St. Paul, Minn. (Sep. 12)
Mann Center For The Performing Arts, Philadelphia. Pa. (Sep. 17)
Agganis Arena, Boston, Mass. (Sep. 18)
The Tabernacle, Atlanta, Ga. (Sep. 26)

Band of Horses have announced the completion of their third studio album, ‘Infinite Arms.’ The follow-up to 2007’s rapturously received ‘Cease to Begin’ — which counted the bona fide classics ‘No One’s Gonna Love You’ and ‘Is There a Ghost?’ — will drop on May 18.

What’s uncertain, according to a Pitchfork report, is whether the album will follow its predecessors on Sub Pop. The band first aligned with the legendary Seattle label for 2006’s ‘Everything All the Time,’ but it is still unclear if the label, which usually announces its projects months in advance, will release the disc.

Twenty-seven tunes were purportedly written in advance of the Phil Ek-produced effort. While there’s no word what songs or how many actually made the cut, frontman Ben Bridwell said, “in many ways, this is the first Band of Horses record.”

In advance of the disc’s release, Band of Horses will hit the road for a run of US and international dates later this month, with a scheduled stop in Austin for SXSW. Dates at the New Orleans Jazz Fest and Sasquatch, plus gigs with Widespread Panic, She and Him and Snow Patrol are also planned.