Hear Big Boi’s Album Right Now

Your morning is about to get a whole lot funkier. Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty, the new solo album from OutKast MC Big Boi, is streaming in full at Big Boi’s MySpace. Nobody’s getting any work done today!

Jack White has taken folk-flavoured chanteuse Laura Marling under his wing.

The 20-year-old singer-songwriter stopped by White’s Nashville studio while on tour to lay down a single for the White Stripes rocker’s Third Man record label. “Somebody turned me onto her a few months back,” the Stripes’ maestro told the BBC’s Newsbeat of the Hampshire-born performer. “If people are coming through town I try to catch up with them and ask them if they want to come by before their show and record something.”

The sessions went well, according to White. “It was perfect — one take,” he said. “She’s gorgeous. Gorgeous voice and an incredible person. A wonderful girl.” The as-yet-untitled tune will be released at some point on seven-inch vinyl as part of Third Man’s ‘Blue Series.’ Other groups to record White-produced, one-off Blue Series cuts include rockabilly legend Wanda Jackson, all-girl garage quartet Black Belles and retro rocker Dan Sartain.

Meanwhile. it seems the Dead Weather’s upcoming European and North American dates are the only action currently penciled in on White’s personal musical calendar. The singer-guitarist’s Alison Mosshart collaboration has a couple of remaining club shows and festival slots scheduled on this side of the Atlantic plus a short US tour planned for July, but he apparently has “nothing planned with the Raconteurs or the White Stripes.”

When it comes to writing and recording the follow-up to this year’s ‘Contra’ record.

Speaking to the BBC’s Newsbeat before taking to Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage last weekend, lead singer Ezra Koenig assured fans the New Yorkers won’t be rushing into anything. “You never want to sacrifice the quality for speediness. I’ve seen some bands do it and it ain’t pretty.”

With an extensive US tour recently added to their itinerary it’s likely to be the end of the year before the quartet start work on a third album. “We’re always gathering ideas and I can say I think about the next album every day,” Koenig said. “Every day it’s something that’s on my mind. That doesn’t mean we’re having writing sessions and we’re all sat around talking about it, but it means it’s always looming.”

Although ‘Contra’ reached No. 1 in the US and UK, Koenig believes the band should “take a little more time than we did for the last album.”

He added, “We haven’t had a vacation in a few years which we don’t care about because this is an amazing life to lead and it’s amazing that people care about our music.”

The New York combo follow a triumphant Glastonbury performance with UK appearances at T in the Park on July 10 and a headlining slot at Latitude on July 18.

Unlike a lot of media critics and bloggers, Prince obviously doesn’t think print is dead. Three years ago, he caused a stir by releasing his ‘Planet Earth’ album via UK newspaper the Mail on Sunday and now the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer intends to again partner with publications to release his album, ’20Ten.’ So far, four publications are lined up to distribute the LP, free with purchase of the issue.

According to Billboard.biz, the 2.5 million copies of Prince’s 27th studio album will be released in the UK via England’s Daily Mail and Scotland’s Daily Record on July 10. The issues will also feature Prince’s first interview with a British newspaper in over 10 years as well as ticket giveaways. The same day, the album will be available in Belgium with copies of Het Nieuwsblad.

The album will also be released in Germany on July 22 via the country’s edition of Rolling Stone. There’s still no word on a North American street date, but it’s believed that Warner Brothers will distribute the album in countries where distribution deals can’t be reached.

In other news, Prince recently released a new single, ‘Hot Summer,’ via Minneapolis Public Radio’s the Current on his birthday, June 7. The 52-year-old also received the Lifetime Achievement honor at the BET Awards this past weekend.

Ramones drummer Marky Ramone (real name Marc Bell) wants $175,000 in back-royalties (and $1 million in punitive damages) from a distribution company he says is in violation of a contract he signed with them in 2005.

The former punk rocker says the contract promised him regular royalty payouts, but he hasn’t seen a penny since 2008. The distributors, he says, must be pocketing it.

Marky filed formal lawsuit documents with the New York Supreme Court early last week, reports TMZ.com. No word yet from the other camp.

Arcade Fire’s forthcoming new album ‘The Suburbs’ could be set to be released with eight different covers.

According to reports on MBVMusic.com, the Canadian group’s third studio effort will be released with multiple cover designs.

They go on to say that the ADA (Alternative Distribution Alliance), the people who distribute albums to retailers, have listed such information about the band’s upcoming August 2 release in their sales catalogue.

Despite such reports, neither the group’s official website or record label have confirmed such allegations.

Earlier this month (June 7), Arcade Fire previewed ‘The Suburbs’ live with a comeback gig in Granada Theatre, in Sherbrooke, Quebec – reports Uncut’s sister publication NME.

Meanwhile, Arcade Fire will perform a warm-up gig in London before their appearance at Reading and Leeds festivals in August.

If it really is LCD Soundsystem’s swansong , then they know a hell of a good way to say goodbye.

Sunday night at Glastonbury is when they last pockets of energy, held in reserve over the long weekend, finally get released for one last hurrah. On Sunday night, James Murphy and his hipster collective were the ones to let it out of the box. There are many elements which combine to make the band’s music so infectious. Paramount among them is Murphy’s ability to make people dance, but better still is his knack at cherry-picking the best bits of over 40 years of music and making them all seem uniquely his own.

So it is that David Bowie collides with Talking Heads, Can and the Fall in a beat-driven electronic stew. ‘Us v Them’ and ‘Drunk Girls’ make early appearances, with the band’s breakneck momentum maintained until the band played a special reading of ‘All My Friends’ that may well prove to be the lingering memory from this festival.

While R.E.M. fans await the group’s 15th studio album, guitarist Peter Buck has found a number of ways to keep himself busy. Last week, the first fruits of Buck’s labor with Tired Pony — a cameo-heavy project with Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody — surfaced on Spinner. Now, as Slicing Up Eyeballs reports, there’s pictorial proof of Buck in the studio, contributing mandolin and guitar to the Decemberists’ sixth LP.

The photographs were snapped by R.E.M.’s longtime collaborator Scott McCaughey earlier in the month. McCaughey — who also fronts the Young Fresh Fellows — took the pictures when Buck descended on a barn outside of Portland, Ore. where Colin Meloy and his band have gathered to work on the follow-up to 2009′s ‘The Hazards of Love.’

The Decemberists’ next album is expected in early 2011 via Capitol Records, with producer Tucker Martine guiding the band. Martine also worked with R.E.M. earlier this year on demos for their hotly anticipated follow-up to 2008′s ‘Accelerate’. That disc is also expected in 2011.More About R.E.M. on AOL

Earlier in the week, the official Dead Weather YouTube channel released new music video featuring Los Angeles artist Max Neutra live-painting frontwoman Alison Mosshart in Third Man Records’ signature colors (yellow, white, black) to the tune of Jack White and co.’s new single “Gasoline” It’s a fun clip, excellent painting, and Neutra’s talents are pretty much undeniable, but I thankfully held off on posting it as only 3 days later we’ve got another new Dead Weather video.

(via twentyfourbit)

Laurie Anderson’s O Superman, her first, most famous and, indeed, only hit, was released in 1981, when Reagan had just swept to power and the American Empire was reaching something like its zenith, with the Cold War entering its final phases. Twenty-nine years later, and on Homeland Anderson seems fairly certain she’s bearing witness to that crumbing, deluded and debt-ridden Empire’s end.

That may sound a somewhat portentous subject, but in fact Anderson’s whimsical sense of humour remains a constant, at times a little wearingly so. Then again, if you are essentially releasing an album about the credit crunch, it’s probably best to try and sneak some chuckles in there. Certainly Homeland’s catchiest track, the chattering techno pop of Only an Expert, succeeds as a brilliantly vicious satire of the hollowing out of the American Dream, managing to find a through thread between the Iraq War, the bail out of the US banks and the empty wisdom of Oprah Winfrey.

However, the album really does come into its own when Anderson allows herself to hit a more sombre note. Certainly the latter portions of the 11-and-a-half minute, pitch-shifted tour de force Another Day in America are extraordinary. Over a wraithlike keyboard figure, wreathed in wordless backing wails (courtesy of Antony Hegarty), ambient hiss, dissonant strings and trembles of keyboard she bids farewell to the junk and the glory of the 20th century, questioning “how do we begin again?”, intoning, yearning, that “the reason I really love the stars, is that we cannot hurt them”, before concluding, ominously: “but we are reaching for them”.

To some extent Only an Expert and Another Day in America dominate Homeland to the point of slightly unbalancing it, the first catchy and pugnacious, the other epic and quotable. Yet the rest of the tracks don’t really try and compete: elsewhere Homeland offers a more textural journey, populated by squalls of free jazz, melancholic knots of electronica, uncomfortable pauses and low, distorted vocals. There are still witticisms aplenty, but the overall effect is an air of creeping dread, the perfect soundtrack for a journey into America’s night.

This Saturday June 26th at Smarty Pants in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle, WA. DJ Kingblind, DJ Teenage Rampage and our KEXP’s very own DJ El Toro will be spinning at our new DJ night…

It’s called: KINGS OF THE VINYL FRONTIER

Here are the details,

Kings of the Vinyl Frontier is a DJ night on the last Saturday of every month for vinyl lovers at Smarty Pants in the georgetown neighborhood of Seattle. The concept is simple, We have music lovers bring their favorite records and we play em’

Cool, how does that work?

It’s easy! All you gotta do is just show up with 3-5 songs on vinyl, sign up and our DJ’s will spin your tunes. Check out the theme of the month so you bring the right tunes. Heck, it’s like have your favorite jukebox in human form! (Don’t worry, You don’t have to bring any records.. But it’s more fun if you do)

Cost: 100% free
Date: Saturday June 26th 2010
Time: *7pm till closing (*Normally we will start at 9pm but this June edition of KVF is an Artopia supershow.. so we are starting at 7pm)

Please check out the website for complete details and directions
http://www.kingsofthevinylfrontier.com

Kings of the Vinyl Frontier (At Smarty Pants)
6017 Airport Way S, Seattle, WA. 98108
(206) 762-4777

The first video from Interpol’s fourth, self-titled album, available September 7th on Matador Records.
Directed by Charlie White

​Original Kinks bassist Peter Quaife died yesterday at age 66. The cause of death is yet to be determined but he had suffered from kidney disease for more than a decade. He was a member of the band from its founding in 1961 until 1969 when he quit due to tensions within the group. He played on and sang backing vocals for most of the bands early hits, including “You Really Got Me,” “All Day and All of the Night,” and “Dedicated Follower of Fashion.” He last played with the Kinks when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. He had been largely retired from music since the ’70s, making a living as a graphic artist in Canada and becoming a cartoonist.

Whether you’re a Kinks fan or not, it’s impossible to ignore their influence on pop music. Genres including garage, punk and Brit-pop incorporated their ideas, sounds and even fashion. Bands like Blur would never have existed without them. Arguably, they’re behind only the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in terms of most important British Invasion bands. Take a minute to honor the passing of one of the founding members with one of their classic songs, embedded below.

Directed by CC’s Ethan Kath and Rob Hawkins, the clip features children from the London College of Music scrapping about and playing their instruments in London’s Abney Park Cemetery. Meanwhile, Alice Glass mournfully lip-syncs the song, while Ethan smears some weird shit on his face. Goth-y!
(via pfmedia)

Interpol has reshuffled its summer tour plans, announcing a month of US headlining dates. The New York indie favorites had been slated to open a number of U2′s North American 360 Tour dates until Bono’s back injury last month prompted the cancellation of that massive stadium trek.

But the Interpol camp are a flexible bunch, as yesterday’s announcement — not to mention the band’s recent lineup additions in the wake of bassist Carlos Dengler’s departure — proves. Tickets for the tour, which gets underway on July 23 in Northampton, Pa., and runs until Aug. 21 in Miami, go on sale Friday, June 25.

In advance of Interpol’s eponymous fourth album, which is due in September and marks a return to Matador after a short tenure with major label Capitol Records, the band started road testing two new songs, ‘Success’ and ‘Summer Well,’ this week according to Spin. Interpol played in Buffalo, New York last night as part of prearranged warm-up dates for those postponed U2 shows, rounding out the week with gigs in Pittsburgh, Allentown, Pa., and New York this week.

The Paul Banks-fronted outfit, which recently added Dave Paio on bass and onetime Secret Machines member Brandon Curtis on keyboards, will still get the opportunity to play with U2, provided that band’s late summer European shows continue as planned. As for other activity in the Interpol camp, the group’s new music video for the track ‘Lights’ and the tour dates are now available at the band’s official website.

Google Inc. is preparing to roll out a music download service tied to its search engine later this year, followed by an online subscription service in 2011, according to people familiar with the Internet giant’s discussions with the music industry.

Google’s proposals are still vague, say these people, and it’s unclear whether it has struck any deals with record labels so far. But Google has been stepping up conversations about offering new music services tied to phones running its Android operating system along with the broader Web, said people who have been briefed on the talks. The launch of Google’s download music store is still months away, these people said.

The discussions come as Google has been pushing deeper into music. Last year, as a first step, the company began linking to partner websites like iLike and Pandora through its search engine, allowing people to stream songs with one click from its search page. Now, the company is looking to tie its own service to its search engine, too.

The discussions come as the Mountain View, Calif.-based search company has been ramping up on entertainment content. Google is also moving to add professional content on its YouTube video site, and is planning to roll out a digital bookstore this year.

The launch of a Google music store would heighten tensions with Apple Inc., whose iTunes store is the leading U.S. digital music seller. Apple also recently began selling digital books. The two Silicon Valley giants have been at odds since Google launched its Android mobile phone software, a direct challenge to Apple’s popular iPhone. Apple recently hit back with an advertising platform for its iPhone and iPad tablet that has terms Google says could limit competition.

Google and Apple declined to comment for this article.

Google’s push into music retailing is likely to be welcomed by music labels that are increasingly concerned about Apple’s dominant position among U.S. music retailers. Apple accounted for 28% of all music purchased by U.S. consumers in the first quarter, according to NPD Group.

The recording industry has long sought a counterweight to Apple’s growing clout, but rivals such as Amazon.com Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. remain far behind with about a 12% share each, according to NPD.

The first phase of Google’s music service is expected to be a Web store where users can buy and download tracks, music industry insiders said. It will be tied directly to Google’s search engine, so that people using Google.com to look for a particular group or song will be served a link to the company’s music store, according to people familiar with the talks.

These people also said the download store would be an “interim” step toward what is expected to be a more ambitious cloud-based subscription service compatible with mobile phones built with Google’s Android software. A cloud-based service would enable subscribers to stream music directly from the Internet to their mobile phones, so that users wouldn’t need to store music files on their devices. Google recently provided a glimpse of a Web-based music store within its Android Market, which sells apps for phones built with Google’s Android mobile software.

Apple in the past several months bought and then shut down online music service Lala.com, prompting widespread speculation it might also soon launch a new cloud-based version of its iTunes music store.

This is the music video to the single ‘Back to the Fuck Yeah’ by Pulled Apart by Horses which is a homage to the evil dead film series. Totally Awesome

Pulled Apart By Horses’ self-titled debut album is available now via Transgressive.

Bonus:

Back in April, the band releaaed a live album on 12″ vinyl exclusively for Record Store Day. The album, recorded at the band’s spiritual home “The Packhorse”, Leeds, is called Live At Leeds and limited to only 500 copies. The set, featuring fan favourites such as “E=MC Hammer” & “I Punched A Lion In The Throat” alongside new tracks “Yeah Buddy” & “Get Off My Ghost Train”, captures the incredible live energy of this band.

The 8-track 12″ can be bought here but you can download 4 FREE tracks off of it right here.

E=MC Hammer (live at Leeds)” | download

Teenage Fanclub will return North America beginning September 22 to tour in support of their new record, Shadows. While here, the band will also appear on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on September 28. And lucky fans in Seattle and Portland will get the full Merge treatment of Teenage Fanclub, Superchunk and Telekinesis all in one night!
The brilliance of Shadows, like all the best Teenage Fanclub records, is that it sounds like everything they’ve ever done and like nothing anyone else has ever done, all on one album. It may be a considered and well put-together record, but it has all the spontaneity of Bandwagonesque. It may have a deceptively simple feel, but it’s as polished and intelligent as Grand Prix. And despite the input of others and new ideas, it’s still a record that only the three members of Teenage Fanclub could make.

Teenage Fanclub North American tour:
9/22 Toronto, ON Horseshoe Tavern * on sale June 28
9/23 Toronto, ON Horseshoe Tavern * on sale June 28
9/24 Montreal, QC Le National
9/25 Boston, MA Royale
9/28 New York, NY Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
9/30 Brooklyn, NY Williamsburg Waterfront w/ Belle and Sebastian
10/01 Philadelphia, PA Trocadero
10/02 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
10/03 Millvale, PA Mr. Small’s Theater
10/05 Chicago, IL Lincoln Hall
10/06 Chicago, IL Lincoln Hall
10/07 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
10/11 Los Angeles, CA El Rey Theater
10/12 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
10/14 Seattle, WA Showbox w/ Superchunk & Telekinesis
10/15 Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom w/ Superchunk & Telekinesis
10/16 Vancouver, BC Biltmore Cabaret

Band Of Horses played a secret gig for fans at Grand Central Station in New York City last week (June 18).

The band announced the one-off free show only the day before and over 1,000 fans queued for hours for their chance to see Band Of Horses in the famous venue.

Around 500 people managed to cram into Vanderbilt Hall just off the main concourse, although sight lines were limited due to a raised viewing platform placed in the middle of the room.

Beginning with ‘Ode To LRC’, Band Of Horses played a 15-track set which lasted just over an hour. The high ceilings of Grand Central’s famous Beaux-Arts design caused more reverb than was initally comfortable, but the echo gave the band’s Americana rock a grander sound which resonated around the station as bemused rush hour commuters hurried by.

Band Of Horses played:

‘Ode To LRC’
‘Too Soon’
‘The Great Salt Lake’
‘Is There A Ghost’
‘Compliments’
‘Factory’
‘Marry Song’
‘Evening Kitchen’
‘Older’
‘Laredo’
‘Writers’
‘No One’s Gonna Love You’
‘Infinite Arms’
‘Monsters’
‘The Funeral’

Argentina striker Lionel Messi has said the entire squad wants Oasis to reform to play a “celebration party” for them if they win the World Cup.

Messi says he has become obsessed with Oasis since teammate Carlos Tevez, (who plays for Manchester City, Noel and Liam Gallagher’s club) forced him to listen to the band ahead of the competiton, reports The Sun.

“Ever since he has been playing in Manchester, Carlitos has told me how great Oasis was. I kept promising I would listen to them, but I never got round to it,” Messi explained.

“On the plane on the way to the World Cup Carlitos made me listen to their first two albums. I have to say I wasn’t expecting much but it is some of the best material I have ever heard. They are absolutely amazing. Their songs are incredible. I would have to say ‘Supersonic’ and ‘Live Forever’ are my favourites. I have been listening to their stuff on my iPod dock in the hotel room, on the way to the matches and in the dressing room. I can’t believe it’s taken me all this time to finally listen to them.”

Messi added that initially he didn’t realise the band were no longer together.

“I’ve been watching their live performances on YouTube and they look like they’d be amazing to see in concert. I asked Carlitos if we could go and see them in Manchester or London in concert, but he told me they have split up,” Messi said.

He then added that the team have pledged to get the Gallaghers to put aside their differences should they win the competition – even asking them to “name their price” to reform.

“I showed the rest of the boys in the Argentina squad their stuff and I promise you, everybody absolutely loves it. A few knew a couple of their songs but for most of them it was their first listen. We have agreed that if we win the World Cup we want to fly them over to Argentina for our celebration party. We just need them to name their price.”

Messi may face some competition though, as Noel Gallagher recently claimed he was Italy’s lucky mascot when the country won the last World Cup in 2006.

Domino Records’ Liverpudlian rockers Clinic have announced details of their forthcoming sixth album. ‘Bubblegum’, the follow up to 2008′s ‘Do It!’, is out on Oct. 4.

The new LP is produced by the Grammy-nominated Texan John Congleton, who has also worked with Bill Callahan, St Vincent, Okkervil River, R Kelly, Marilyn Manson and Antony and the Johnsons. New tracks include ‘Liontamer,’ ‘Un Astronauta En Cielo,’ ‘Milk and Honey’ and ‘Another Way of Giving.’ The record was recorded at Elevator Studios in Clinic’s native Liverpool, while a single, ‘I’m Aware’, is out on Sept. 20.

The four-piece have been together for some 13 years now, and over that time have secured both critical admiration and respectable popularity in the US.

Clinic’s official website describes ‘Bubblegum’ as “a rewiring of Clinic’s trademark hyped up sound. In place of churning riffs and wired vocals is a dream state of harpsichords, dulcimers and strings. Melody and softness combine with the band’s unique internal logic to produce a record of pop beauty.”

News of the new album comes as Clinic gear up to headline a Domino Records night in Paris on Wednesday, June 23, supported by Anna Calvi and Chief.

Radiohead have almost finished their new album – and are looking to releae it by the end of the year.

The band have been working on the follow-up to 2007′s ‘In Rainbows’ for almost a year. Now guitarist Ed O’Brien has revealed that they are almost done – and reckons it could be the band’s best yet.

He told Adam Buxton’s BBC 6Music show: “We’re in the heart of the record. It’s genuinely exciting. It’s very different from what we did last time. It’s really nice to be doing this. It’s so good to be making music with the band that you feel is still as good as it’s ever been.”

The guitarist could not confirm any schedule for release, but said he wanted to see the record out sooner rather than later.

He stated: “Ideally, it would be great if it came out sometime this year. It has got to. I hope so. We’re at the finishing line. When you’re making a record, a film, writing a book for ages and ages you think the finishing line is miles away. Now it feels it’s in touching distance. But of course, it being a creative process, at the last bit also, you have bursts of energy, you achieve a lot of things in a small period of time and then you’re nearly there… it might slow down. But yeah, hopefully it will be a matter of weeks.”

You can read the full interview at Radiohead’s news service Ateaseweb.

The band are believed to be working with long-standing producer Nigel Godrich.

The group’s last recorded output were two one-off tracks last year, ‘Harry Patch (In Memory Of)’ and ‘These Are My Twisted Words’.

Leonard Cohen has revealed that he will be releasing a new album next year.

His first album for six years will mostly feature songs written before the Canadian embarked on a world tour in 2008 and 2009, The Guardian newspaper has reported.

Speaking at his induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York, he added that the album should be set for release next year. He said: “God-willing it will be finished next spring.”

“[There will be] 10 or 11 songs. One song was written on tour, the rest were written before.”

Cohen’s last album, ‘Dear Heather,’ was released in 2004, whilst in 2006 he released a book of poetry and drawings entitled ‘Book of Longing,’ which proved a hit in Canada, topping the bestsellers list.

The promise of a new album is somewhat a suprise after Cohen seemingly hinted at retirement at a New York gig in 2009, as previously reported by Spinner.

In recent years the prominence of Cohen in mainstream music has skyrocketed after both ‘American Idol’ and UK’s ‘X Factor’ TV shows used his song ‘Hallelujah.’ In the UK, a Christmas chart battle commenced between 2008 series winner Alexandra Burke and a cover by Jeff Buckley, with Burke eventually landing at No. 1 — whilst Cohen’s original charted at 36.

Las Vegas Sun:
The Beach Boys are gearing up for next year’s 50th anniversary, and Mike Love told me that his cousin, founder and longtime member Brian Wilson, is reuniting with them for celebration concerts. Tonight, they host a one-night-only poolside concert at The Venetian to play their chart-topping hits that have sold more than 100 million records worldwide and racked up 32 platinum and gold albums.

“It’s very difficult to pick a real favorite,” laughed Mike when I talked with him before he flew here. “I’m proudest of all, though, with ‘Good Vibrations.’ I think it really says what we are all about. We must have played it somewhere over 7,500 times over the years. … If I had a nickel for every … fortunately, I do”…

Spinner:

The surviving Beach Boys last appeared publicly in 2006 for a press conference marking 40 years since ‘Pet Sounds’. Of the original members, Carl Wilson died of cancer in 1998 and Dennis Wilson drowned in 1983.

Love, who once described ‘Smile’ as a “whole album of Brian’s madness,” also spoke about the current incarnation of the Beach Boys, saying, “We’re still out there doing 150 shows a year, and the sound has reached all the way around the globe…

ARCADE FIRE has added a second date at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The new show has been confirmed for August 5.

Pre-sales for the new date will begin Wednesday, June 23. Tickets will go on sale to the public 9 a.m. EST Saturday, June 26. Check www.arcadefire.com for further details.

SPOON is confirmed as special guest on both the August 4 and 5 New York shows, as well as the Philadelphia, DC and Atlanta dates, which bookend the ARCADE FIRE’s previously announced August 8 Lollapalooza appearance and the release of the band’s third full-length studio album, The Suburbs, out August 3rd on Merge.

Written, arranged, performed and produced by the ARCADE FIRE and co-produced by Markus Dravs, The Suburbs was recorded around Montreal and New York over the past two years. A double A side, limited edition 12″ was released to record stores May 27th 2010, featuring the title track and “Month of May,” both of which are available for immediate download with album pre-orders placed at www.arcadefire.com.

More recently, first single “Ready To Start” and the track “We Used To Wait” have also surfaced on the internet.

The Suburbs’ complete track listing is:

1. The Suburbs
2. Ready to Start
3. Modern Man
4. Rococo
5. Empty Room
6. City With No Children
7. Half Light I
8. Half Light II (No Celebration)
9. Suburban War
10. Month of May
11. Wasted Hours
12. Deep Blue
13. We Used to Wait
14. Sprawl I (Flatland)
15. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
16. The Suburbs (continued)

Formed in Montreal, the ARCADE FIRE is Win Butler, Régine Chassagne, Richard Reed Parry, William Butler, Tim Kingsbury, Sarah Neufeld and Jeremy Gara.

ARCADE FIRE will donate $1 from every ticket sold to Partners In Health, an organization helping impoverished communities around the world combat disease and poverty. Please visit www.pih.org for more information.

www.arcadefire.com
www.PiH.org

ARCADE FIRE
LIVE 2010

28-June Helsinki, Finland – Sentae Square
30-June Rättvik, Sweden – Dalhalla
2-July Tromøy, Norway – Hove Festival
4-July Werchter, Belgium – Rock Werchter
5-July Paris, France – Le Casino de Paris
9-July County Kildare, Ireland – Oxegen Festival
12-July Quebec, Canada – Quebec City Summer Festival
13-July Ottawa, Canada – Ottawa Bluesfest
31-July Montreal – Osheaga
1-Aug Boston – Bank of America Pavillion
2-Aug Philadelphia – Mann Centre for the Performing arts
4-Aug New York – Madison Square Garden
5-Aug New York – Madison Square Garden
6-Aug Washington DC – Merriweather Post Pavilion
8-Aug Chicago – Lollapalooza
9-Aug Nashville – Ryman Auditorium
11-Aug Atlanta – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
14-Aug Toronto – Olympic Island
27-Aug Leeds, UK – Leeds Festival
28-Aug Reading, UK – Reading Festival
29-Aug Saint Cloud, France – Rock En Seine
31-Aug Berlin, Germany — Tempodrom
2-Sept Bologna, Italy – Arena Parco Nord

In the four years since the previous Pernice Brothers album, Joe Pernice has published a terrific debut novel (It Feels So Good When I Stop), released an accompanying soundtrack, and had his name catapulted into Twitter infamy by his acerbic foil (and manager), Joyce Linehan. (Those Dangerfieldian tête-à-têtes have been collected in a book, Pernice to Me, available to those who pre-ordered the new record online.)

Pernice’s sixth studio album under the Brothers moniker is a palate cleanser that’s more satisfying than most bands’ main courses. Recorded with a smattering of musicians and free of lush pop arrangements, these 10 songs are some of Pernice’s most loosey-goosey and stripped-down. “Jacqueline Susann” and “Bechamel” are marked by raw excitement, as if the band had just been shown the changes. Elsewhere, Pernice and company are so relaxed that they echo ramshackle royalty like the Flying Burrito Brothers (“Newport News”) and the Faces (“Goodbye, Killer”).

This only augments Pernice’s self-depreciating and subversively cutting streak — more Elvis Costello than Elvis Costello on “The Loving Kind,” and deadpan on “We Love the Stage,” in which he asserts, like any good tongue-in-cheek pragmatist, “We sing to six the way we sing to 10.”

Liam Gallagher has said he intends to turn his memories of former band Oasis into a book or film in the near future.

Gallagher, who launched film production company In 1 earlier this year to make a film about The Beatles’ Apple Records, was asked whether he planned a similar venture for Oasis in the near future.

“Yep, without a doubt. Very soon,” he said in an interview on his clothing company Pretty Green’s official website, adding that he wants to compile his memories “before I forget them all”.

Speaking about his forthcoming plans for the clothing company, Gallagher added that he’s set to open a bespoke store in London offering the garments.

He said: “Definitely man. We’re just waiting for the right place to come along, and I’m not gonna rush into it. We’re looking to do a temporary store in London this summer, the website will tell you where and when it’s happening.”

Bob Lefsetz:

Live Nation Cancels Shows

Unilaterally. Supposedly 200 at CAA alone.

This has been the buzz of L.A. for days, but has gotten no mainstream media attention.

We know it’s been a bad summer… But this bad?

Jim DeRogatis:

Music industry gadfly Bob Lefsetz can be a difficult read–HE ALWAYS SEEMS TO BE SHOUTING ON HIS LEFSETZ LETTER BLOG (to say nothing of being endlessly redundant)–but everyone in the music business reads him because, well, he’s often the first to root out the kernel of what becomes a much bigger story.

During half a dozen chats that I had with concert industry insiders last week at the Event and Arena Marketing Conference, and in numerous other conversations with people in the business of late, the recurring prediction about the recently merged concert-industry behemoth Ticketmaster/Live Nation has been that recent layoffs, rivers of red ink on the profit statements, and the general unwiedlyness of the massive corporation that many of its own employees call the Death Star will inevitably cause it to crash and burn, much as many in the oil industry are predicting that the disaster in the Gulf will lead to the demise of BP.

The only debate centers on whether regional independent promoters will then emerge from their bunkers to pick up the scattered pieces of the business, as in the days of old, or a new, unwieldly corporate behemoth like AEG will take over where Ticketmaster/Live Nation leaves off…

Billboard:

While it seems more and more clear that the live music business is taking a beating this summer, blogger Bob Lefsetz’ surprising claim that Live Nation has “supposedly” canceled as many as 200 shows by Creative Artists Agency acts alone cannot be confirmed at this point.

Individual shows, legs of tours, or entire tours have been canceled or postponed by such artists as U2 (due to Bono’s back surgery), Christina Aguilera, Lilith Fair, Limp Bizkit, the Eagles, Country Throwdown, Rihanna, John Mayer, Bamboozle, and the Go-Go’s. Other tours by what were considered hot acts are experiencing slumping sales, among them Jonas Brothers and Kings Of Leon, according to sources. But a source familiar with the situation says the 200 figure is “untrue,” and hundreds of shows canceled is a hard number to reach, especially considering Live Nation promotes about 900 amphitheater shows a year.

Rumblings of a tough year for touring began a couple of months ago, with predictions ranging from “mediocre” to “bloodbath”…

After selling out London’s Roundhouse the previous night, we caught up with a very hungover couple of dudes from the awesome Band Of Horses!

Right now, the 78th Annual Meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors is going down in Oklahoma City. And since the Flaming Lips seem to be acting as Oklahoma City’s official cultural liaisons these days, why not have Wayne Coyne and co. provide our country’s mayors with a little hometown entertainment?

Blake Jackson tipped us off to the fact that on Sunday night, the Lips teamed up with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic to play a mini-concert for the assembled mayors. After an introduction in which the Philharmonic played an instrumental version of “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1″, the Lips played “Race for the Prize” and “Do You Realize??”, as well as a cover of Yo La Tengo’s immortal fuzz-pop love song “Sugarcube”. Lips member Steven Drozd conducted the orchestra.

Click below to watch the the Lips do “Sugarcube” and the Philharmonic doing “Yoshimi”:

The Flaming Lips cover Yo La Tengo’s “Sugarcube”:

Oklahoma City Philharmonic does “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1″

When word first hit that Sofia Coppola was finally gearing up for a new film after 2006’s Marie Antoinette, and that she was bringing Stephen Dorff along for the ride, I felt one of those all-too-rare jolts of premature and exorbitant anticipation. Though I love much of Coppola’s work, it wasn’t for her alone, but that she was offering the possibility of something I’d been hoping for for years — for Dorff to get his modern due.

I’ve loved him since The Power of One, and most especially when he’s basking in unique indies like I Shot Andy Warhol and Cecil B. Demented. But no matter what talents he’s shown, he’s always danced outside the spotlight. But now there’s happy news: I really think Coppola’s new feature, Somewhere, might change that, and I’m not just speaking from fangirl glee. The new trailer backs me up.

Focus Features has finally released a teaser for the film, Dorff stars as an actor in Los Angeles, who lives at the Chateau Marmont, who finds himself having to take care of his young daughter (Elle Fanning). It is full of Coppola’s soft and sweetly pensive style, and chooses to relay the story as a montage teamed with minimal dialoge and an indie soundtrack, much like the Antoinette teaser. Fanning has sure grown up a whole bunch over the last few years, and could give big sis a run for her dramatic money, but the real magic rests with Dorff, who looks spot-on as a tired and disillusioned actor.

The December 22 release date can’t come soon enough. Phoenix composed the score

Ryan Adams has announced that he is set to release a series of previously unreleased albums.

In a message to fans on his official Facebook page, Adams firstly revealed how he had got a new Ryan Adams & The Cardinals LP back “fresh from the mastering plant”.

Called ‘III/IV’, the double studio effort will be the follow-up to 2008′s ‘Cardinology’ and has been “in the vault since 2006″.

Meanwhile, in a second post, the singer-songwriter also added that he would be issuing a new solo album, which was recorded “over Christmas in 2005″.

“Oh yeah, p.s. the ‘Blackhole’ LP is also back from the mastering plant,” he explained. “I f’n love this thing. It took 4 years to make it and to me it is basically ‘Love Is Hell Part 3′… lots of shimmery guitar love on this. Exciting times!!!”

Despite the news, release dates for the albums are yet to be confirmed.

As previously reported, in early 2009 Adams was “ready for quieter times” after quitting The Cardinals, but has recently released “his first fully-realised sci-fi metal concept album” in the form of ‘Orion’, and has also written 11 new songs inspired by his trip to Ronnie James Dio’s funeral.

After an album named Antidotes, Foals have returned with Total Life Forever. It doesn’t take a genius to deduce that something must be going right, at the very least mentally, for the 5-piece post-Futureheads-whatevers. But for a band who could most accurately be compared, both to and after, a cup of black-as-night coffee, I still find such eau de cologne (French for “happiness”) a bit shocking. Second track “Miami” bounces over Yannis Phillipakis’ telephone connection-quality vocals and winds up landing, despite its name, closer to Stockholm, Sweden than Oxford, England. But even when things sound lorry (British for “hunky-dory), like on opener “Blue Blood,” the lyrics become sobering in their uncertainty, “You’ve got blood on your hands / I know it’s my own /… / Of all the people I hoped it’d be you.” The track that literally shimmers, but its joy is painted on like fool’s gold.

So if anything is clear on Total Life Forever, it’s that nothing is. For those biting their nails waiting for another “Tron” or “Red Sock Pugie,” there’s the door. Instead the climaxes are more cinematic in that they support the whole song rather than propping up otherwise lackluster stanzas. Take breathtaking single “Spanish Sahara.” Any half-Foals fan would recognize from the 7th second that there will be a monumental payoff. However, a new listener may give up before Phillipakis can hook them with his elegiac falsetto. But with time the song burgeons outward with the military precision of drummer Jack Bevan and the rocket-powered sways of guitarist Jimmy Smith. While the song was clearly created for a sole energy-releasing moment, there is ample attention paid to the build-up. It’s a song that shows the band recognizing comments about their “gimmick,” while also busting through critic-created chains with creative songwriting.

What I hope never leaves a Foals record is the tension. Whether it’s on The Tough Alliance-inspired “After Glow,” which works itself into a high-pitched frenzy, or the melding of urban grit and tribal simplicity of scary-if-you’re-alone closer “What Remains,” Phillipakis always creates an anxious environment. And while there are more than a few people who can’t take the man’s British yelps, it adds yet another level of uncertainty. His voice can take many different forms, and it can take said forms in the blink of a sixteenth note. Such ambiguity makes each song an adventure. Case in point, “This Orient” begins with schizo electronic boinging before becoming one of the most post-punk tunes before changing again into a hyper Appleseed Cast-type number.

Each song hides more than enough intricacies, even for the jittery music fans of 2010. It’s the ambiguity of styles, plus the insistence on bringing the listener along for a journey, that makes Total Life Forever such an endlessly interesting statement. Whatever Foals are, and whatever they are to become, will certainly be noteworthy. And I don’t think it’s wrong to say that what it is to come won’t necessarily be the best, but it will be worth inspection.

This month’s BET Awards will be a royal affair: Prince is getting a lifetime achievement honor.

The 51-year-old joins the likes of James Brown, Whitney Houston, Diana Ross and Al Green in being honored by the BET Awards, which will celebrate its 10th year in Los Angeles on June 27.

Stephen G. Hill, president of programming, music and specials for the network, said BET will celebrate the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s “unique style.”

“Prince is dynamic. Prince is genius. Prince is music,” Hill said of the performer, who has 10 platinum albums and 30 Top 40 singles to his name.

The BET show will be hosted by Queen Latifah and include performances by Kanye West.

Mi2N:

Following on from the original raid of Scenario Records in Kensington, BPI APU, together with Police officers from the Met and Bedfordshire, have raided an illegal vinyl pressing plant. Officers, having forced entry, found hiding inside two German nationals who were operating 7” and 12” vinyl presses producing illegal coloured vinyl discs. They were found to be in possession of over 200 stampers – including ‘rare’ Rolling Stones Bootlegs.

Enquiries are ongoing, but it is believed that this plant is responsible for producing the majority of the illegal vinyl discs currently circulating the UK.

Gorillaz are not longer set to work with Watchmen and V For Vendetta creator Alan Moore on an upcoming opera.

According to io9.com, Moore has revealed he is no longer working with Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett on the project, which was set to be about the 16th century mathematician and astronomer Dr John Dee.

“I should dash cold water on anybody’s dreams of this Doctor Dee opera with Damon Albarn and Gorillaz,” he said speaking at the Magus Conference in Northampton. “It didn’t work out shall we say”.

Going on to explain he had already “wrote a third of it”, the writer added that “nobody had done anything else upon the opera” and that other commitments from both parties had decided the fate of the collaboration.

“I had too many commitments as well,” Moore admitted. “And since I had never received any money or a contract, I was alright saying, ‘Yeah, I’m pulling out of this. You can do your own opera about Dr Dee, I don’t own Dr Dee, I don’t own the concept of opera’.”

As previously reported, Damon Albarn had been researching hermetic magic and philosophy in preparation for the collaboration.

It is unclear whether Albarn and Hewlett will continue to go ahead with the project.

Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie has unveiled a unique one-off collaboration featuring members of the Sex Pistols and The Who.

The side project, entitled Silver Machine, have been announced to perform a special covers show at London’s 1234 festival in Shoreditch on July 24.

Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock, The Who and former Oasis sticksman Zak Starkey, plus Primal Scream guitarists Andrew Innes and Barrie Cadogan have signed up for the covers project.

The band will performing a collection of their favourite songs by The Troggs, MC5, Creation, Flamin’ Groovies and Chocolate Watchband for the bash.

“We’re great and we can’t wait,” declared frontman Bobby Gillespie.

Festival director, Sean McLusky added: “We did a show at the Whitechapel Gallery with S.C.U.M and a bunch of other artists, Bobbie was playing and rocked ’Wild Thing’ by The Troggs with Jamie Hince from The Kills, so I asked him if he would do more of the same at the festival, so now we have….The Silver Machine.”

With surprise shows and previews of new tracks, Arcade Fire have been building plenty of buzz for their new record, ‘The Suburbs.’ The Canadian band increased that hype by releasing two more new songs, ‘Ready to Start’ and ‘We Used to Wait,’ which will be the band’s first singles for the US and UK respectively.

Seattle’s 107.7 the End, known for leaking ‘Month of May’ and ‘The Suburbs,’ debuted ‘Ready to Start’ on Monday and also shared ‘We Used to Wait,’ which BBC Radio DJ Zane Lowe premiered on his show over the weekend.

Since then, Arcade Fire and their label have asked 107.7 to pull both streams from the Seattle station’s blog but are still putting ‘Ready to Start’ on regular rotation. Before the streams were taken down, Consequence of Sound scooped them up for fans’ listening pleasure.

Arcade Fire are currently playing Europe and Canada until July and will kick off their US tour in Boston on Aug. 1. ‘The Suburbs’ is due out Aug. 3.

The making of ‘Something for Everybody,’ Devo’s first studio album in 20 years, has been a long road for the New Wave rockers. They’ve returned to their old label, Warner Brothers, performed at the Olympics and started a marketing company called Devo, Inc., which carried out a “song study” focus group to determine which songs would make the album and the new color of the band’s famous energy dome hats (blue ultimately won out).

Now Devo have released the first in a five-part web “reality” series that documents the making of the album, a few live performances, their flirtation with corporate marketing culture and, of course, the ongoing de-evolution of the world. The first episode chronicles the eight weeks leading up to the band’s recent Coachella set, where they “triumphantly” wore their “Everybody Face masks,” a product that didn’t go over so well with their label and advertising consultants.

Pavement have announced that original drummer Gary Young is set to join them for a special one-off show.

Taking place on June 24 at the Bob Hope Theatre in Stockton, California, the gig is also the group’s first ever hometown show.

Young, who produced Pavement’s early EPs in his home studio, also played drums on their 1992 debut album ‘Slanted & Enchanted’.

Quitting the band in 1993, the drummer was known for his eccentric behaviour which included handing out cabbage and mashed potatoes to fans at the door at gigs, doing handstands and running around the venue and stage while the rest of the band played.

His last recorded effort with the group was on the ‘Watery, Domestic’ EP in 1992.

It’s hard to imagine Queen Elizabeth II digging the Velvet Underground, though we can perhaps see her tapping her toe to Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Nevertheless, both the Velvet Underground’s John Cale and CSN’s Graham Nash (pictured) were awarded the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, or an OBE, on this year’s Queens Birthday Honours List. The recipients were announced Saturday, June 12.

Cale, 68, a Welsh native, and Nash, who is English, both moved to the US in the 1960s. Cale, a viola player and pianist, joined the New York-based Velvet Underground as bassist and enjoyed high times during the art rock band’s days as Andy Warhol’s protégées. Since leaving the Velvet Underground in 1968, reportedly due to a falling out with band co-founder Lou Reed, Cale enjoyed an acclaimed solo career and produced records for such artists as Patti Smith.

Nash was already a star before he moved to California in 1968 and joined up with David Crosby and Stephen Stills. His former band, the Hollies, which was named for their hero Buddy Holly, enjoyed Top 10 hits with ‘Here I Go Again’ and ‘Just One Look.’ The pop group was a regular TV fixture on the BBC’s longstanding chart show, ‘Top of the Pops.’

Following the award, Nash, who is now a US citizen, told the BBC News, “Everything I learned about being a decent human being I learned in England and I am grateful to be honored by the country of my birth.”

An OBE is given for notable service to the United Kingdom in many fields, including entertainment. Though an incredible honor, it is not one of the highest service awards and does not allow the honoree to use the title Sir, as would a knighthood.

M.I.A. has revealed how she named her debut album after her absent father in an attempt to re-establish contact with him. In an interview with the Observer, the controversial rapper says she became estranged from her father at the age of 10 when her family moved to the UK after being harassed by Sri Lankan government soldiers.

“I thought that if he Googled himself, he’d get my LP and then he’d get in touch,” she said. However, the reunion proved to be far from being a fairytale ending and their relationship suffered as her father dedicated himself to the Tamil struggle to form a separate homeland..

“It irritates me that I end up giving him so much attention when he had so little to do with my life,” she added.

Because of the time her father spent away from home dedicating himself to E.R.O.S. (the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students) — a non-violent group dedicated to support Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority through political pressure — M.I.A. didn’t realise until the age of eight that she actually had a dad. “One of those times, when he came home, he didn’t even know what I was called,” she said.

The estrangement first began when her father became involved with Tamil separatists and he left the family to train with the P.L.O. in the Lebanon. “He went out to buy a pint of milk and didn’t come back for four months,” she said.

CBGB Holdings LLC, which two years ago purchased the name and copyrights associated with Manhattan’s legendary punk-rock club CBGB, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Friday.

CBGB Holdings LLC, which two years ago purchased the name and copyrights associated with Manhattan’s legendary punk-rock club CBGB, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Friday.The company, reported assets and debts each in the range of $1 million to $10 million in its bankruptcy petition, filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.CBGB Holdings’ founding partners, James Blueweiss and Robert Williams, as well as the company’s bankruptcy attorney, weren’t immediately available for comment.The company didn’t say in court papers why it filed for bankruptcy protection.The Wall Street Journal has reported that Blueweiss and Williams teamed up in 2008 to pay $3.5 million for all of the legendary club’s intellectual property, which Hilly Kristal opened in 1973. Before the club shuttered in 2006, its stage hosted performances by the Ramones, Patti Smith, the B-52’s, the Talking Heads, Debbie Harry of Blondie, Green Day and Pearl Jam.Since CBGB Holdings purchased the defunct club’s brand, they’ve donated memorabilia to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex NYC and have taken steps to revive the brand including signing a distribution deal to sell T-shirts featuring the club’s well-known logo.CBGB Holdings’s bankruptcy case, numbered 10-13130, has been assigned to Judge Stuart M. BernsteinCBGB Holdings LLC, which two years ago purchased the name and copyrights associated with Manhattan’s legendary punk-rock club CBGB, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Friday.The company reported assets and debts each in the range of $1 million to $10 million in its bankruptcy petition, filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.

CBGB Holdings’ founding partners, James Blueweiss and Robert Williams, as well as the company’s bankruptcy attorney, weren’t immediately available for comment.

The company didn’t say in court papers why it filed for bankruptcy protection.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Blueweiss and Williams teamed up in 2008 to pay $3.5 million for all of the legendary club’s intellectual property, which Hilly Kristal opened in 1973. Before the club shuttered in 2006, its stage hosted performances by the Ramones, Patti Smith, the B-52’s, the Talking Heads, Debbie Harry of Blondie, Green Day and Pearl Jam.

Since CBGB Holdings purchased the defunct club’s brand, they’ve donated memorabilia to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex NYC and have taken steps to revive the brand including signing a distribution deal to sell T-shirts featuring the club’s well-known logo.

CBGB Holdings’s bankruptcy case, numbered 10-13130, has been assigned to Judge Stuart M. Bernstein.

The West still has a tendency to evaluate music from Africa in slightly condescending terms – witness how anything rhythmic or percussion-led is so often described as tribal, like it just shuffled up in a grass skirt waving a spear. Of course, anyone listening to a good amount of music from the continent will know the African nations are as subject to the contemporary cultural tides as anywhere on Earth. And it’s perhaps Konono No.1, a street dance band from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who most neatly encapsulates this mélange of modernity and tradition.

Africa has long been the junkyard of the West, and it’s in this territory of discarded scrap that Konono make their home. Founded in 1980 by likembé master Mawangu Mingiedi, Konono fuse the polyrhythmic dance sounds of Bazombo trance with a spirit of makeshift invention: scrap metal drums, homemade speakers built with magnets salvaged from car radios, and so on. One suspects that their debut album, 2005’s Congotronics, won critical plaudits because of rather than despite its roughshod vigour – and if the long-awaited follow-up, Assume Crash Position, takes a softer, more organic approach, it hasn’t tempered their sense of electric motion.

This fuller sound comes courtesy of an extended band, which sees Mingiedi’s original line-up augmented by new personnel including a raft of new vocalists, guitarist Manuaku Pepe Felly and members of fellow Congotronics band Kasai Allstars. There is evidence of a cleaner sound, too – those electric likembé thumb pianos, which once blasted through distortion, now sing slightly cleaner, and the crash of scrap drums is subsumed deeper into the mix. Under Mingiedi’s command, though, you feel the band still have the leadership to turn on a dime: see how Thin Legs switches from its menacing, polyrhythmic opening to a sudden explosion of melody, male and female voices interlocking joyfully.

Assume Crash Position comes to a head with Konono Wa Wa Wa, which builds to a delirious climax, likembé soloing with all the cartoonish intricacy of bluegrass banjo plucking. The album ends in new territory for Konono – a mournful solo piece by Mingiedi where he details his romantic woes over chimes of unplugged thumb piano.

Assume Crash Position doesn’t have the immediate impact of Congotronics, but it shows Konono are still morphing and innovating, led by a spirit of discovery – and whatever they find and pick up along the way.

It’s now been just about five years since Sufjan Stevens took orchestral indie pop to epic, expansive heights on his Illinois album, which placed in our top 20 of the past decade. Since then, Sufjan has worked on plenty of different projects, like Christmas records and the BQE orchestral work, but he still hasn’t released a proper follow-up. And it was starting to look like he’d never release a new, full studio album. Talking to Paste last year, he said, “I no longer really have faith in the album anymore. I no longer have faith in the song.”

But the National’s Bryce Dessner, a friend of Sufjan, tells Exclaim! that Sufjan is at work on that elusive new album right now. According to Dessner, Stevens is recording the album at the National’s Brooklyn studio.

Dessner says, “We’ve played on some of the tracks and been listening to some of the stuff as he’s been working on it.” He added, “It’s going to be incredible. It’s going to probably blow people’s minds.”

Dessner also says that the new work won’t sound like the music Stevens has released in the past, and he offers the unsurprising tidbit that Sufjan is “very solitary in what he does”.

Nothing solid yet, then, but the prospect of a Sufjan/National record should get us through some rainy days.
(via pfmedia)

Forget Bonnaroo, on Friday night the hottest show on earth was not in the fields of Manchester, Tenn., but rather at Toronto’s Danforth Music Hall, where Montreal’s prodigal sons the Arcade Fire staged the first of two surprise shows.

The concert was only the group’s third official show in two years and was the culmination of nearly a week of anticipation which began on Tuesday evening when the band posted on their official Twitter account, asking Toronto fans if they had “any plans for this weekend.”

“Thank you for coming out on short notice,” co-bandleader Win Butler told the raucous crowd, some of whom had been waiting outside the venue since 8AM. “We tried to call you but your answering machine was full.”

Returning to the same venue that played host to their Pitchfork-hyped ‘Funeral ‘ victory lap just over five years earlier, the Arcade Fire that played last night were far from the eager, bright-eyed indie-rock idealists that held court in 2005, and the material the band showcased off their forthcoming third album,’The Suburbs’ reflected that. Save for the set’s opening couplet of ‘Ready to Start’ and ‘Month of May’ — whose Queens of the Stone Age-esque propulsive energy works wonders in a live setting — the new songs are more subtle than any of the band’s earlier work. Showing refined maturity and confidence as songwriters, tracks ‘Suburban War’ (whose epic conclusion finds Butler screaming, “All my old friends, they don’t know me now”) and ‘Modern Man’ exposed a more groove-driven side to the band, nodding to the restrained work of subversive groups like New Order and the Clash. While the new songs may lack live bravado, they should reward with repeated listening on record.

The group’s familiarity with the older material allowed for a tighter, less spontaneous feel to live staples ‘Tunnels’ and ‘No Cars Go,’ but it’s hard to deny the incendiary one-two punch of set closers ‘Power Out’ and ‘Rebellion (Lies),’ the latter of which saw Butler propel himself into the crowd before admitting that he couldn’t remember some of the lyrics.

Similarly, the poignant version of ‘Funeral’ stand-out ‘Haiti’ — sung by Butler’s wife and co-bandleader Régine Chassagne, whose parents immigrated to Canada from the war-torn country — hung heavy with social significance and served as a reminder that a dollar from every ticket purchased for the evening would go to the band’s charity of choice, Partners in Health.

As always, the set closed with Spike Jonze favourite ‘Wake Up.’ Its blood-warming chanted chorus proved crowd-pleasing and provided an inclusive finish to a beautifully executed evening of songcraft and showmanship.

“We’ve played some of our favourite shows in Toronto, but Jesus Christ, do you guys ever keep it close to your chest,” Butler half-joked towards the end of the set. “Do you like us? Do you like us?”

As evidenced by the raucous crowd response, indeed they do.

The singer-songwriter and producer Daniel Lanois was in intensive care after he was injured in a motorcycle accident over the weekend, The Guardian reported.

Mr. Lanois, a Quebec-born musician who has worked as a producer on albums including Bob Dylan’s “Time Out of Mind,” Willie Nelson’s “Teatro” and U2’s “No Line on the Horizon,” crashed his motorcycle in Los Angeles on Saturday. A statement from his label, Jive Records, did not specify his injuries but said that because of their “severity,” Mr. Lanois had canceled his summer tour and all other “promotional activity” for the next two months.

He had been scheduled to play a concert in Montreal before a monthlong series of performances in Europe with the Black Dub collective, a group that also includes the singer Trixie Whitley, the drummer Brian Blade and the bassist Daryl Johnson, but those dates are on hold and their album will be released “when circumstances permit,” their label said.

Larry LeBlanc, a music journalist, told the Globe and Mail newspaper that he spoke to Mr. Lanois by phone on Tuesday. “He just said, ‘Look, I got a lot of broken bones,’” Mr. LeBlanc said. “He’s always an ‘up’ person anyways.”

Outkast’s Big Boi and Andre 3000 are arguing with their own label, Jive Records, over Big Boi’s new solo album. Because Andre 3000 recorded three songs for Big Boi’s Sir Luscious Left Foot, Jive is blocking its release, claiming that Def Jam can’t issue songs featuring both rappers.

“It’s plain stupidity,” Big Boi told GQ magazine. “It’s stupid business and it’s stupid politics.” The “stupidity” runs even deeper than it may at first seem. Not only is Jive the label representing Outkast – it was originally slated to release Sir Luscious Left Foot.

“Jive Records told me my album [was] a piece of art, and they didn’t know what to do with it,” Big Boi explained. Because none of the singles seemed radio-friendly, they eventually released the rapper from his contract. He then turned to Def Jam, which plans to release his solo debut on 6 July.

But it seems that what Jive didn’t want, no one else can have. “We can’t be on songs together now,” Big Boi said. Andre 3000 recorded verses for three of Big Boi’s solo tracks: Royal Flush, Lookin for Ya, and an unnamed song. “We tried to get everything solidified but Jive said, ‘Naw.’” he explained. “Then I was going to take Dre off and make my own version [of Lookin for Ya], but then I thought, ‘No. Fuck that. If he can’t be on it, then I’m not using it.’”

The problems with Jive run deeper still. Big Boi said he felt insulted by the label’s attitude to his solo album, which he has been working on for several years. “Jive [had new single] Shutterbug for three years, and [new leak] General Patton for three years. You see what I’m saying? They told me to go in and make my version of Lil Wayne’s Lollipop! … how you gonna tell me to go bite another MCs style? How are you even going to open your mouth up to tell me to go and do that? That’s the highest form of disrespect ever. So that’s when I wanted to get off Jive. And the only honorable thing they’ve done is allow me to do that.”

Fortunately for his fans, Big Boi isn’t going to let Jive push him around. “They can’t stop us, man,” he said. “For these people that we don’t even know – that haven’t even had a hand in our career at all – that’s fucking blasphemy.” While Royal Flush leaked in 2008, Lookin for Ya mysteriously appeared online this week. “Either they’re going to do it the right way, or they’re going to do it my way,” Big Boi said. “I’m no stranger to that internet, baby.”

Teenage Fanclub’s first album since 2005’s Man-Made, coming so soon after the death (in March) of Alex Chilton, has the warmth and poignancy of a tribute, even if writing and recording was all wrapped up by then. As with everything they’ve ever done, homage is paid here to the American “B” boys: The Beach Boys, Big Star and The Byrds. As they say, it’s too late to stop now. And besides, why mess with a winning formula?

That formula – gently strummed acoustic guitars, the occasional sunburst of electric noise, aching chord progressions and billowy harmonies worthy of CSN&Y – works pretty well on Shadows. On album opener Sometimes I Don’t Need to Believe in Anything, it works fabulously, the guitar thrum and crisp beat creating a sort of organic motorik pulse, before the heavens open and the chorus breaks through like sunshine after the rain. It is as great a track as any TFC have ever recorded and suggests that Shadows will be a Grand Prix, even a Bandwagonesque, of a tour de force.

It isn’t quite that good, that consistent. Baby Lee is predictable TFC fare, and The Fall is distinctly average. But fourth track Into the City is another goodie, its shimmery guitars recalling Roger McGuinn’s timeless flights, the gorgeous harmonies making you wonder what a Big Star album might have sounded like if Bell and Chilton didn’t hate each other’s guts.

There are a couple of departures here, albeit hardly radical ones. The piano- and strings-led Dark Clouds recalls baroque posters The Left Banke and is one for pretty ballerinas. Sweet Days Waiting bears the influence of 60s soul – Jerry Butler could have sung it. Album closer Today Never Ends is a Harvest-era Neil Young ballad with slide guitar and yet more of TFC’s trademark lexicon of lustre (“the sunlight pours in through my window…”). But the two other tracks that rival that awesome album opener are the ones where the band trys to outstrip The Byrds circa Chestnut Mare: Shock and Awe, all chiming guitars and keening chords, and The Back of My Mind, which is so LA 1970 you can almost taste the smog.

Shadows, then, features three or four tunes that merit inclusion on a Fanclub Best Of, and is overall a strong if less than startling collection. It’s unlikely to win this year’s Spin magazine critics’ poll, as Bandwagonesque did, famously beating Nirvana’s Nevermind. Still, it’s good to have them back. Now, back to that opening track…

Damien Jurado’s been at this songwriting thing a while now, quietly and consistently releasing a string of solid to stellar records over the past twelve years or so. Saint Bartlett, the ninth in that procession, was released last month on Secretly Canadian and includes some of the more adventurous production we’ve heard out of Jurado’s camp in recent years thanks to the touch of Richard Swift. “Arkansas,” however, sticks to the tried and true; its piano line playing out like Prom Theme,1957. It’s recast here as a murder ballad of sorts, Jurado playing the part of the conscience-tortured guilty.

From the original story in The New Yorker:
After majoring in English at N.Y.U., Murphy set up a recording studio in Dumbo, Brooklyn. In 1996, he became the live-sound engineer for a band called Six Finger Satellite. He developed an approach to live sound that he called Death From Above, and became close to a band member named John MacLean, now know professionally as Juan MacLean.

MacLean recalled that “we all had raging heroin addictions, and James was the guy caught in the middle of the chaos, the straight guy hanging around with these people who were a mess.”

A correction on page 5 in the June 7, 2010 issue:

In “Let’s Dance” (May 10th), Juan MacLean’s comments about heroin use were wrongly used to characterize the time period when James Murphy was working for Six Finger Satellite. MacLean’s remarks referred to a period of time several years earlier, and were not meant to exclusively describe that band or its members

Eleven years into their career, Louisville’s My Morning Jacket have released five highly acclaimed, classic albums, the live concert album and DVD Okonokos, and have been revered for their legendary live performances. With such an expansive catalogue, it’s been impossible in recent years for the band to perform every last MMJ favorite for one venue… that is, until this October. In an unprecedented move, New York City’s Terminal 5 will be presenting a historic five night run of shows where the band will perform one of their albums in its entirety on each night.
The stint will kick off on Monday, October 18th with a performance of the Jacket’s debut, 1999’s The Tennessee Fire, and will be followed chronologically by their other four full-lengths, ending with 2008’s Evil Urges on Saturday the 23rd. After the given album is performed each night, the audience will be treated to a mix of favorites from the band’s catalog as well. The series of shows are sure to put a magnifying glass over the chameleonic band’s history, highlighting their remarkable tendency to perpetually evolve.

All of the dates will individually go on sale June 18th but for fans who want the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of experiencing all five nights, there will be a special pre-sale. Five-show ticket packages will go on sale June 14th. As with their current upcoming headlining tour dates in August, the band will be donating $1 from each ticket to a local charity. Please see below for more info on each charity and to purchase tickets, head over to http://www.terminal5nyc.com.

October 18 – The Tennesee Fire / Charity: Safe Haven of Pike County
www.safehavenofpikecounty.org

October 19 – At Dawn / Charity: The Innocence Project
www.innocenceproject.org

October 21 – It Still Moves / Charity: 826NYC
www.826nyc.org

October 22 – Z / Charity: New York Cares
www.newyorkcares.org

October 23 – Evil Urges / Charity: Sustainable South Bronx
www.ssbx.org

Richard Ashcroft brought his RPA & The United Nations Of Sound project to Paris last night (June 8) to play one of the first gigs with his new outfit.

The Verve’s frontman played with the collective at the 500 capacity Le Trabendo venue in the French capital, with the band including guitarist Steve Wyreman, bassist Paul ‘DW’ Wright, drummer Derrick Wright and the singer’s wife Kate Radley on keyboards.

They walked onstage to their own song, ‘Third Eye (Columbus Circle)’, before showcasing 10 of the 12 tracks from their forthcoming self-tiltled debut album, which is released on July 19.

Later on Ashcroft played the first of two encores solo on an acoustic guitar.

At this point the singer took requests from the front row, apologising when he forgot the words to ‘Brave New World’.

Only one song by The Verve – ‘Lucky Man’ – was played with the full band, although ‘Sonnet’ and ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ featured in the acoustic segment; ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ was notable by its absence.

RPA & The United Nations Of Sound played:

‘Are You Ready?’
‘Born Again’
‘A Song For The Lovers’
‘Beatitude’
‘Music Is Power’
‘How Deep Is Your Man’
‘America’
‘Lucky Man’
‘She Brings Me The Music’
‘Glory’
‘Let My Soul Rest’
‘Check The Meaning’
‘Sonnet’
‘Brave New World’
‘The Drugs Don’t Work’
‘Royal Highness’
‘This Thing Called Life’
‘Break The Night With Colour’

The possibility of the White Stripes playing together once again has slowly inched slightly further to becoming a reality — but anybody expecting anything imminently is advised not to hold their breath.

Taking a break from producing the latest album by the Queen of Rockabilly, Wanda Jackson, the band’s singer-guitarist Jack White told BBC 6 Music that drummer Meg White had swung by his Nashville studio.

He said, “She was here while [Jack's side project the Dead Weather] were rehearsing in one room and [Jack White's wife] Karen Elson’s band was rehearsing in the next room and she’d just hang out with all of us and talk about the songs.”

White went on to explain that if the White Stripes were to return then it would be done spontaneously as forward planning only served to have an adverse affect on the band. He said, “We never plan things that far ahead. I mean, one time we did when we did [2003 album] ‘Elephant’ in Hackney and that record sat in the can for a year! That’s what happens when we plan ahead.”

The White Stripes haven’t been see in public since 2007 when the band was forced to cancel its world tour after Meg White developed “acute anxiety.” According to White, she’s since recovered.

In a rare interview, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has warned young musicians not to tie themselves to the “sinking ship” of the music industry, suggesting it will soon collapse. The singer said it is “only a matter of time — months rather than years — before the music business establishment completely folds,” he said in an interview for a school textbook.

He advises musicians to self-release music rather than yearn for a major label contract, suggesting the loss of the mainstream music industry will be “no great loss to the world.”

His group, who were previously signed to EMI, shook the industry after offering a ‘pay what you want’ system for the digital release of ‘In Rainbows’ in 2007. The model has since become a common option for groups selling their music online with stores such as BandCamp.com.

Although the concept of the whole music establishment folding may seem implausible, it could be agreed that the annual deluge of music graduates often find they have few full-time prospects. The RIAA report that music piracy is now costing 71,060 US jobs and $2.7 billion (£1.86 billion) in workers’ earnings every year. However, hard times have encouraged some of the most prolific music movements in history. The modern affordability of recording equipment and global distribution could be the factors that prove Thom Yorke right.

The interview was for a new school textbook, The Rax Active Citizen Toolkit, which aims to engage young people with political issues, and also features interviews with Ms Dynamite and newsreader Jon Snow.

Pixies have cancelled their first-ever performance in Israel, citing “events beyond our control”. Although the US band did not give a reason for the cancellation, organisers said it was linked to Israel’s raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla last week.

“The decision was not reached easily,” the band said. “We all know well the Israeli fans have been waiting for this visit for far too long. We’d like to extend our deepest apologies to the fans but events beyond all our control have conspired against us.”

Pixies were due to perform on 9 June, headlining the second night of the Pic.Nic festival. They are not the first group to call off their appearance at Tel Aviv’s Expo grounds. Both Klaxons and Gorillaz DJs pulled out last week, without giving reasons for their decision. Editorsand Israeli duo Carusella are still scheduled to perform, and English band Placebo went ahead with their show on Pic.Nic’s first night (5 June). “It’s important to [endorse] Israel these days,” an Israeli journalist remarked in a pre-concert interview with Placebo. “I suppose so,” joked frontman Brian Molko, with an awkward laugh, “You know, if you decide to go sailing.”

In the early hours of 31 May, Israeli commandos launched a raid on six ships carrying aid materials to Gaza. Nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed and dozens were injured in the melee, which took place in international waters, 40 miles from shore. Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the soldiers were defending themselves, but has opposed an international inquiry.

Even before the events of last week, Pixies were one of several western acts targeted by Israeli human rights activists advocating an artistic boycott of their country. “As much as some of us are huge fans and would love to hear your show, we won’t cross the international picket line … to come and see you,” wrote the group Boycott Israel on 1 March. Singer Elvis Costello cancelled two gigs in Israel last month, calling it “a matter of instinct and conscience”.

Shuki Weiss, promoter of the Pic.Nic festival, called on Israeli authorities to “fight against those who are doing everything they can to prevent artists from performing in Israel”. “We can only hope for better days, in which we will finally present the long-awaited visit of the Pixies in Israel,” she said. Refunds for Wednesday’s concert will be available.

Despite the recent spate of cancellations, several high-profile performers have performed in Israel, including Metallica, Rihanna and Kool and the Gang. Acts such as Elton John and Rod Stewart are scheduled to play the country later this summer.

It’s easy to forget the trajectory of stardom this Sunderland four-piece were on before they dropped 2006’s esoteric News and Tributes: the band’s second album, and a befuddling listen if you’d been reared on the student disco fodder of their eponymous 2004 debut. Singer Barry Hyde summed it up at the time: “It was almost like we made our fifth album second, like we jumped ahead of ourselves.” Nevertheless, fans smiled and thought: “Can’t wait to hear album number six.”

See, The Futureheads always had more nous, more range, more brains than their indie punk peers. Remember that this is a band whose early gigs saw them dressed as robots, a la Devo, and miming along to their songs on a tour of German squats like a new-wave boyband.

While 2008’s This Is Not the World (their first for own Nul label after leaving 679) tried gallantly to marry their passion for art-school weird and rent-paying big tunes, there was always the hope amongst their fanbase that the band might give up on their commercial dreams, instead ploughing the oddness that always set them apart from the pack.

Album number four delivers on that hope. The Baron pairs bee swarm-style Thurston Moore guitars with the innovative studio smarts of Queen at their most thrillingly pompous, while, XTC-indebted hooks and crooks aside, Jupiter is a telling reminder that there are few better bands at structuring four-part harmonies than them. Then there’s Sun Goes Down, the group’s most unnerving moment to date, Hyde’s guitar prowling within a maze of fug and sleaze. “The sun goes down,” he gasps, “and the double life begins. It’s a one way ticket to the city of sin.” It’s less Decent Days and Nights, more Decent Nights and Tormented Early Mornings.

With fitting perverseness the album might even reward them with their most legitimate pop hit to date. Lead single Heartbeat Song would have glistened even within the pop-heavy tracklisting of their first album. One can only hope its inevitable mainstream success will fund Britain’s most interesting guitar band’s ongoing expedition of weirdness.

Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty, the long-awaited, much anticipated solo album from OutKast’s Big Boi, will finally hit record-store shelves July 6, thanks to the good folks at Def Jam. And now the album has both cheesy 80s jazz-looking cover art (above) and a tracklist, which you can see below.

As you can see, the album includes faves like “Shutterbugg”, “Shine Blockas”, and “Fo Yo Sorrows”, as well as the champion-status new track “General Patton”. It also includes a ton of collaborations– folks like T.I., Janelle Monáe, Sleepy Brown, Jamie Foxx, B.o.B., and the awesomely named Vonnegutt will all appear. But one person conspicuously absent from that tracklist is Big Boi’s OutKast partner Andre 3000.

According to Big Boi himself, Andre’s absence isn’t a sign of inter-OutKast discord. Rather, Andre isn’t on the album because of drama with Jive, Big Boi’s old label. On his Twitter yesterday, Big Boi wrote, “Jive Records is trying to block 3 Stacks from being on the album. Boi Stop!!!!” A couple of hours later, Big tweeted, “The Andre 3000 records r on deck..Stay Tuned !!!!!!!!!!!!”

Around the same time, an Andre 3000 collaboration called “Lookin’ for Ya” mysteriously surfaced online. Andre’s verse from the song leaked last year, but the whole thing is out there now, and you can download it from 2DopeBoyz.

In an interview with GQ yesterday, Big Boi explained the conflict. “Jive Records told me my album is a piece of art, and they didn’t know what to do with it. So I moved it over to Def Jam. And now Jive is trying to block Dre from being on my record. We can’t be on songs together now.”

Even if Andre’s absence remains an affront to humanity, Big did also helpfully point out that Andre will appear on Sir Lucious Left Foot in one way: He produced the Yelawolf collaboration “You Ain’t No DJ”.
Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty:

01 Feel Me (Intro)
02 Daddy Fat Sax
03 Turns Me On [ft. Sleepy Brown & Joi]
04 Follow Us [ft. Vonnegutt]
05 Shutterbugg [ft. Cutty]
06 General Patton
07 Tangerine [ft. T.I. & Khujo Goodie]
08 You Ain’t No DJ [ft. Yelawolf]
09 Hustle Blood [ft. Jamie Foxx]
10 Be Still [ft. Janelle Monáe]
11 Fo Yo Sorrows [ft. George Clinton, Too $hort & Sam Chris]
12 Night Night [ft. B.o.B & Joi]
13 Shine Blockas [ft. Gucci Mane]
14 The Train Pt. 2 (Sir Lucious Left Foot Saves the Day) [ft. Sam Chris]
15 Back Up Plan
(via pfmedia)

The Strokes look set to play a secret festivals warm-up show tonight (June 9) in London.

The band posted up a logo based on their own with the name Venison on their Twitter, before then following it with a picture from the same account clearly taken from London’s Dingwalls venue.

The website for the Camden venue Dingwalls.com lists Venison playing the venue tomorrow night, explaining that tickets will go on sale from 9pm (BST) tonight only from the venue’s website.

The site also notes that the band were previously called “The Shitty Beatles.”

Review of the classic, Now out of print cassette from Pussy Galore. (limited edition of 550 copies, although four tracks from this appear on the Corpse Love CD)
I can’t remember the chick in Pussy Galore’s name-she starts this tape off so dramatically-“hello I hate your fucking guts I hate this fucking machine fuck you I’m gonna make my own fucking music” and her voice just comes out of nowhere screaming-then Hagerty & Spencer start playing “rocks off”. It all comes full circle when the chick sings a HC version of ‘rip this joint’. For all of pussy galore’s anti-HC stance, it sure sounds hardcore to me. it’s dirty. it’s a dirty tape. it sounds like listening to exile on main street for real during revolution summer-all of us were in college then and we all got involved in drugs and strange clusterfucks. I first heard this tape that year at a party in south Oakland section of Pittsburgh across the street from the police precinct-it had stairs with wooden panels-“do the hip shake baby”-this version of exile sounds like it was recorded on a boom box, though it’s better sounding than some 74 Kiss tapes, hell maybe it’s by Kiss after all. I fuckin love it. (this was a different chick than the one spencer was yelling at during that Gibson Brothers gig at Khyber Pass, I never saw Hagerty yell at any chicks-Spencer yells, Hagerty fumes.) (Maybe that’s why Hagerty’s records are some much better than Spencer’s)
(Review by Jim Hayes 2010)

(Editor’s note, This cassette does make the Stones version of Exile sound like Sesame Street. Hardcore indeed.)

It’s not many bands that can lay claim to a full quarter-century’s worth of music-making, and fewer still who’ve been pushing boundaries and limits of acceptability all that time. The Melvins, however, are a true anomaly: a strange, goggle-eyed, stump-limbed mutant that should by rights have been scraped straight from the delivery room floor into the hospital incinerator, but has survived all this time on a steady diet of Black Flag, Black Sabbath and gasoline fumes while influencing everyone from Kurt Cobain to Isis and Mastodon along the way.

At first glance it might seem that, for their 20th studio album and third with Big Business apprentices in tow, things are as close to standard as these guys could ever get, with King Buzzo churning out glutinous, Sabbathantine riffs at a steady pace and his preternatural lowing seeping eerily through any gaps not mired in viscous ooze or grain silo drum thumps. It’s a testament to the band’s strange and unique talents, then, that military-style jody calls, ooky haunted-house keyboards and squeaky-dog-toy accompaniments can all be dropped into the rich, tarry soup without it ever even threatening to go off the boil. Instead, everything plops heavily into place and – at first glance at least – even seems as though it belonged there all along.

Wilfully obtuse as ever and doubtless smirking at us for allowing them to have become outsider metal’s sacred cow, you nonetheless can’t help but love them for all their mischievous ways, from the opening volley of riff-heavy rockers to the strange lumbering grace of I’ll Finish You Off and even onto their deconstructed take on My Generation. The Bride Screamed Murder, you see, all works when it really shouldn’t, demonstrating once again just how the Melvins can somehow ensure their own very special brand of weird never quite becomes the norm. Now, how about another 25 years?

LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy has described his soundtrack for the film Greenberg is unlike any of his previous material.

The film, which stars Ben Stiller and Rhys Ifans, is released in the UK on Friday (June 11).

In a inteview, Murphy spoke about a ” super organic ” recording process for the soundtrack.

“We wound up making music that has nothing to do with LCD really,” he explained, before adding that he recorded the album just 100 metres away from the film studio.

He added: “We’d watch a scene, I’d walk across the street, write a song with lyrics and everything on piano and drums and bass and bring it over.”

Murphy also admitted that despite not usually liking soundtracks, he felt that Greenberg was a project worth getting involved with with.

“I don’t like soundtracks because usually I find they just are insulting,” he said. “Like, ‘Oh, it’s a sad moment, and you’re too stupid to get it, and the actors suck so bad so I’m gonna have to make it sad sounding’! And I feel like the actors are really good in the movie and the audience isn’t gonna be that dumb so I don’t have to do things like that.”

The Flaming Lips have secured a full UK release date for their version of Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon.’

Their reworking of the classic 1973 album is a collaboration with Stardeath and White Dwarfs, the band that features Wayne Coyne’s nephew Dennis on vocals. Guest appearances come from Henry Rollins and the female rapper and electropop artist Peaches.

The two bands are currently taking the album out on the road. Having completed a US tour in April, the Oklahoma psych rockers are set to follow up with a handful of festival appearances, including Bonnaroo.

The project was initially hatched last year when Stardeath supported Uncle Wayne’s band on a global tour and both cited the English group as a prime influence. They first performed their collaboration at midnight on New Year’s Eve at the Cox Center, Oklahoma City.

Titled ‘The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs With Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing The Dark Side Of The Moon,’ the album was originally released through iTunes on Dec. 22, 2009.

Then in April, a limited vinyl edition was released by Warner Bros. to coincide with Record Store Day. The CD version is released on CD on June 28.

Devo are set to appear in the newly returning TV series ‘Futurama.’

The New Wave rockers will appear in the landmark 100th episode of the futuristic Matt Groening-penned animation, which had been cancelled in 2003.

The episode will see the band from Ohio fight for mutant rights, having mutated themselves over the years. Vocalist Mark Mothersbaugh will help lead the campaign to fight for the rights of the second-class mutants, a statement from the band read.

Much like ‘Futurama’ itself, Devo are staging a comeback of their own. This summer’s release of ‘Something for Everybody’ will be the band’s first output in 20 years, with a UK release date slated for June 14.

Their last album, released in 1990, was entitled ‘Smooth Noodle Maps’ and suffered poor album sales, with the band splitting up soon after.

Devo aren’t the first from the music world to guest on ‘Futurama,’ with the likes of Beck, Snoop Dogg and Coolio lending their voices and appearing on the series and its DVD spin offs.

Its sister show, ‘The Simpons,’ has a slightly more illustrious history of music-related guest stars, with Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Mick Jagger, Aerosmith and Metallica all appearing in the series since its inception in 1989

In the midst of their return, New York gloom-rockers Interpol have hit some speedbumps. Bassist Carlos D left the band, and they were forced to cancel most of their forthcoming tour after their dates opening for U2 fell through. But now Interpol have a new member and some concrete news about the release of their fourth album.

First off: According to the band’s website, the forthcoming Interpol album is self-titled, and it’ll arrive sometime in mid-September. Secondly, the band has also revealed their replacement for Carlos D: indie lifer David Pajo.

Pajo is probably best known for his stint in the pioneering post-rock band Slint, but he’s also played with a long list of other people, including Tortoise, Stereolab, Zwan, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Royal Trux, the For Carnation, and Dead Child. He’s released solo records under the names Pajo, Papa M, Aerial M, and M, and he spent last year as a touring multi-instrumentalist for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. He’s better known as a guitarist than a bassist, but he knows how to play his instruments.

Interpol also just announced a new run of European dates. All of Interpol’s dates are listed below:
06-21 Rochester, NY – Water Street Music Hall !
06-22 Buffalo, NY – Town Ballroom !
06-23 Pittsburgh, PA – Mr. Small’s Theatre !
06-25 Allentown, PA – Crocodile Rock Cafe !
06-27 Minneapolis, MN – TCF Bank Stadium *
06-28 Des Moines, IA – People’s Court !
06-30 East Lansing, MI – Spartan Stadium *
07-01 Cincinnati, OH – Bogart’s !
07-02 Cleveland, OH – House of Blues !
07-03 Toronto, Ontario – Rogers Centre *
07-05 Columbia, MO – Blue Note !
07-06 Chicago, IL – Soldier Field *
07-08 Athens, GA – 40 Watt Club !
07-09 Miami, FL – Land Shark Stadium *
07-10 Charleston, SC – The Music Farm !
07-12 Philadelphia, PA – Lincoln Financial Field *
07-14 Baltimore, MD – Ram’s Head Live !
07-16-17 Montreal, Quebec – Montreal Hippodrome *
07-19 New York, NY – New Meadowlands Stadium *
07-20 Providence, RI – Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel !
07-21 New Haven, CT – Toad’s Place !
07-23 Clifton Park, NY – Northern Lights !
07-24 Lancaster, PA – Chameleon !
09-16 Caen, France – Le Cargo
09-18 Paris, France – Stade De France *
09-21 Lille, France – Aeronef
09-22-23 Brussels, Belgium – Stade Roi Boudoin *
09-25 Bordeaux, France – Le Vigean
09-26 San Sebastian, Spain – Anoeta Stadium *
09-28 Granada, Spain – La Industrial Copera
09-29 Seville, Spain – Olympic Stadium *
10-01 Santiago, Spain – Santiago De Compostela
10-02-03 Coimbra, Portugal – Estadio Cidade Coimbra *
10-05 Bilboa, Spain – Rockstar Barakaldo
10-06 Toulouse, France – Li Bikini
10-08 Rome, Italy – Olympic Stadium *
11-12 Lisbon, Portugal – Campo Pequeño
11-13 Madrid, Spain – Palacio Vistalegre
11-14 Barcelona, Spain – San Jordi Club
11-16 Marseille, France – Dock Du Sud
11-17 Milan, Italy – Palasharp
11-18 Vienna, Austria – Gasometer
11-20 Berlin, Germany – Tempodrom
11-21 Amsterdam, Netherlands – Heineken Music Hall
11-22 Dortmund, Germany – Westfalenhalle 2
11-24 Nottingham, England – Rock City
11-25 Newcastle, England – O2 Academy
11-26 Birmingham, England – O2 Academy
11-27 Edinburgh, Scotland – Corn Exchange
11-29-12-01 Dublin, Ireland – Olympia
12-03 Manchester, England – Apollo
12-04 Liverpool, England – Liverpool University
12-06-07 London, England – O2 Academy Brixton

* with U2
! with Twin Tigers

FIFA freaks, intergalactic geeks and pop-culture crazies all agree — Adidas’ ‘Star Wars’-themed World Cup ad is the year’s most awesome bit of promotional eye candy.

A lightsaber-wielding Snoop Dogg and a droid-totting Daft Punk steal the show in this hilarious re-imagination of the Mos Eisley’s famous cantina scene from Episode IV. Ciara, Oasis’ Noel Gallagher, Ian Brown of Stone Roses fame, soccer star David Beckham and actor Jay Baruchel all make cameos in this slick and imaginative commercial that’s worth repeated views, no matter what galaxy you’re from.

Babyshambles drummer Adam Ficek has left the band but will be replaced temporarily by Supergrass drummer Danny Goffey.

Ficek, who performs solo under the Roses Kings Castles name, joined the Pete Doherty fronted act in 2005.

A statement from Babyshambles’ spokesperson said:

“Babyshambles have parted company with drummer Adam Ficek. Currently booked Babyshambles commitments will take place with Danny Goffey of Supergrass filling in on drums.”

NYT:

Editors’ Note: June 3, 2010

The cover article in The Times Magazine on Sunday profiled the singer and political activist M.I.A. While discussing her efforts to draw attention to the civil war in her home country, Sri Lanka, she was quoted as saying: “I wasn’t trying to be like Bono. He’s not from Africa — I’m from there. I’m tired of pop stars who say, ‘Give peace a chance.’ I’d rather say, ‘Give war a chance.’ The whole point of going to the Grammys was to say, ‘Hey, 50,000 people are gonna die next month, and here’s your opportunity to help.’ And no one did.”

While M.I.A. did make those remarks, she did not make the entire statement at the same point in the interview, or in the order in which it was presented.

The part that begins, “The whole point of going to the Grammys,” up to the end of the quotation, actually came first. The part that begins, “I wasn’t trying to be like Bono,” and ends, “Give war a chance,” came later in the same interview. The article should have made clear that the two quotations came from different parts of the interview.

M.I.A.‘s Releases Recording of Lynn Hirschberg Interview and New Song Here:

Huffington Post:

Now M.I.A. has found another way to channel her anger at Lynn Hirschberg and the NYT—through a track called ‘I’m a Singer (Haters)’ posted on her website. Here are some lyrics, listen below:

And the story’s always f——ed by the time it hits
Why the hell would journalists be thick as s—-
Cuz lies equals power equals politics.
I’m a singer
Never said anything else
I didn’t lie to you
Thinkin’ of somebody else
You can talk sh—to me I’m used to it
You can make me hard with the wounds that I have to lick
You can pick on me and I can see it at a click.
M.I.A. has also posted excerpts from the interview on her website. Turns out Hirschberg is the one who ordered the truffle fries.

”‘I kind of want to be an outsider,’ she said, eating a truffle-flavored French fry,” Hirschberg wrote of M.I.A. in the NYT piece. ”‘I don’t want to make the same music, sing about the same stuff, talk about the same things. If that makes me a terrorist, then I’m a terrorist.’”
(via daily swarm)

‘Weird Al’ Yankovic, Josephine Foster and White Magic have been added to the Godspeed You Black Emperor-curated ATP festival this December.

They join the likes of Deerhoof, Scout Niblett and Mike Watt on the bill for The Nightmare Before Christmas event, which runs from December 3-5. The bash takes place at Butlins in Minehead.

The full line-up, so far, for ATP’s The Nightmare Before Christmas is:

Godspeed You! Black Emperor
‘Weird Al’ Yankovic
Neurosis
Bardo Pond
The Ex
Deerhoof
The Dead C
Black Dice
Francisco Lopez
Tim Hecker
Mike Watt
Scout Niblett
Wolves In The Throne Room
Marissa Nadler
Growing
Rangda
Nomeansno
Josephine Foster (Solo)
White Magic
Emeralds
Daniel Higgs (Lungfish)
Boban I Marko Markovic Orchestra

Radiohead drummer Phil Selway is set to release his debut solo album later this year.

‘Familial’ is released on August 30. was produced by Ian Davenport, who works at Radiohead’s Oxfordshire base, Courtyard Studios. Singer/songwriter Lisa Germano, former Soul Coughing bassist Sebastian Steinberg, Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche and multi-instrumentalist Patrick Sansone have contributed to the music.

The cover art for the album is pictured. It will be released on the Bella Union label.

Selway began performing solo in 2001 as part of the ’7 Worlds Collide’ charity project. They played gigs as part of the project last year.

Radiohead are currently working on their new album in Los Angeles. It will be the follow-up to 2007′s ‘In Rainbows’.

The tracklisting of ‘Familial’ is:

‘By Some Miracle’
‘Beyond Reason’
‘A Simple Life’
‘All Eyes On You’
‘The Ties That Bind Us’
‘Patron Saint’
‘Falling’
‘Broken Promises’
‘Don’t Look Down’
‘The Witching Hour’

Fewer new releases are reaching one million units in sales, a very small number of them even get to 5,000 units and maintaining early sales momentum is increasingly difficult. Those were the lessons learned from Nielsen’s presentation at last month’s NARM conference in Chicago. Some of the highlights from the presentation:

12 Albums Released in 2009 Sold More than One Million Units
Of the 97,751 albums released in 2009, only 12 of them sold more than one million units last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The number of titles to reach one million units in previous years was 35 in 2006, 27 in 2008 and 22 in 2009.

The new releases that do sell over one million units in the year of their release, however, are maintaining their average. Between 2006 and 2009, the average annual tally for titles reaching the one million mark has ranged from a low of 1.42 million in 2008 to a high of 1.61 million in 2009. In years past, there were far more titles in the one million to 1.4 million range. Now such titles would probably not reach the one million mark and as a result would not be included in these calculations. So, the average of the titles in this million-plus ground stays about the same even though there are fewer sales and less revenue from these million-plus sellers.

A side note: Albums routinely sell well after their year of release. In the case of Taylor Swift, her 2006 debut sold over one million units in both 2007 and 2008 after selling less than 300,000 units in the year it was released. Zac Brown Band’s The Foundation, released in 2008, sold over one million units in 2009. And Michael Jackson’s catalog sold millions in 2009 but was not counted in these figures.

Only 771 of 2009’s New Albums Sold Over 5,000 Units
The numbers are enough to make you stop and think. Only 2.1% of the 97,751 albums released in 2009 – or about 2,050 unique titles – reached a threshold most people would assume is within reach of just about any artist.

The Number of New Albums Actually Dropped in 2009
If 97,751 new releases seems high, consider it’s actually a lower number than the 105,000 new releases that came out in 2008. Expect the number of new releases to hold steady or decline in the coming years. In recent years, digital distributors flooded online retail with foreign catalogs being licensed to new territories. In effect, these distributors are catching up to all the music that’s available from around the world. As with most games of catch up, this one won’t go on forever. As fewer and fewer old recordings find their way to U.S. retailers for the first time, the unique number of titles released in a given year will fall. There may be an increase in the number of domestic recordings, but it may not be enough to make up for the fall in new foreign catalogs.

Albums’ Second-Week Fade Are Getting Bigger
The median second-week fade was 62.8% in 2009 and had steadily dropped each year from 33.9% in 2000. Nielsen’s explanations are good ones: marketing budgets are more limited, pre-sales are more common, core fans are more aware of new releases, piracy may be eroding sales of casual fans.

These are the results of the last decade’s shift from physical to digital sales. Internet sales – both physical and digital – mean a greater percentage of total sales will come from pre-orders that SoundScan counts as first-week sales.

Here are a few other thoughts. Because radio plays less of a role in album sales, few albums get the lasting benefits of radio promotion that helps sales after the initial push. And because there are fewer marketing dollars being spent at physical retail, there are fewer titles enrolled in price-and-placement programs that used to position a sale-priced CD for the first two or four weeks of release.

These factors combine to create a retail environment in which it is easier to get core fans’ attention but difficult to market beyond those core fans.
(via billboard)

Check out the new Broken Bells video for “The Ghost Inside” a track from their critically acclaimed, self-titled debut out now on Columbia Records.

Entertainment Weekly, who broke the story about the surprise cameo, explains that, “Both members of alt-pop superduo Broken Bells (producer Danger Mouse and singer James Mercer from the Shins) are big Mad Men fans. So when it was time to cast the beautiful android in their video for ”The Ghost Inside,” they immediately thought of the show’s Christina Hendricks. ”We assumed we would ask and that’d be it,” Mercer says. ”She’s got to be so busy, and who the hell are we? But she said yes! Turns out she’s a fan of our record.””

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is being sued for $1 million for using a Talking Heads song in an ad without the band’s permission. The band’s ex-lead singer, David Byrne, sued the governor Monday in Tampa for using “Road to Nowhere” in an online attack ad against Marco Rubio. Rubio is the likely Republican nominee in the race for Florida’s open U.S. Senate seat. Crist is running as an independent. Crist’s campaign spokeswoman didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment. Byrne said in a statement that his fans might lose respect for him if he lets his songs be used in ads.

The New York City stop of Conan O’Brien’s “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour” was at Radio City Music Hall Monday night. Along with bringing back classic characters and bits– Masturbating Bear, Triumph, the “Walker, Texas Ranger” Lever– a few special guests popped by. Vampire Weekend did a beefed-up take on “Walcott” with Conan on rhythm guitar, and then Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart popped up for a lethal dance-off. Watch it all below.

(via pfmedia)

Yoko Ono has given her opinion on Oasis’ split – saying she hopes the band can reunite and make new music together again in the future.

Answering the latest of her weekly online question and answer sessions with fans on Imaginepeace.com, Ono stated that she was a fan of the band.

“I love Oasis,” she said. “We need the power of goodness like them. The goodness is shining from their music. I hope they will make more albums.”

Elsewhere, Ono also admitted she wants to collaborate with The Flaming Lips, who reworked her song ‘Cambridge 1969′ on 2007 covers album ‘Yes, I’m A Witch’.

Asked if she liked the band and would consider working with The Flaming Lips again, Ono replied: “I love their music. Something can happen in the future…”

It’s been quite some time since Belle and Sebastian released their last studio album, let alone toured America. But the Scottish dream-pop collective have announced details of a short US tour this autumn, while work on the band’s new album continues.

Stuart Murdoch and co. will play nine dates across the US, Canada and Mexico this September and October, beginning in Brooklyn on September 30 and ending in San Francisco on October 17. They will play two dates south of the border in Mexico City and Guadalajara.

Meanwhile, an announcement on the band’s website revealed they were in the “final stages of recording the new album.” They also promise UK shows and a “trip to South America” before 2010 is out.

Prior to the North America dates, the band are set to play a number of European festivals, including Latitude on July 18. Later in the year they will be curating and headlining the Bowlie 2 festival presented by ATP, a sequel to the 1999 Bowlie Weekender, the early incarnation of the ATP festivals which Belle and Sebastian also curated. That takes place at Butlins, Minehead on December 10-12.

Belle and Sebastian’s North America dates are:

Williamsburg Waterfront, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Sept. 30)
Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles, Calif. (Oct. 3)
Guadalajara Teatro Estudio Cavaret, Mexico (Oct. 7)
Mexico City TBA, Mexico (Oct. 9)
Chicago Theatre, Chicago, Ill. (Oct.11)
Massey Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (Oct.12)
DAR Constitution Hall, Washington, D.C. (Oct.14)
Wang Theatre, Boston, Mass. (Oct.15)
TBA, San Francisco, Calif. (Oct.17)

The rumors were true: The Dead Weather, Jack White’s hard-rocking supergroup, will headline Capitol Hill Block Party on Sunday, July 25. The Seattle music festival’s other headliners are hip-hoppers Atmosphere on July 24 and psychedelic pop band MGMT on July 23, according to Tuesday’s official lineup announcement.

Support from Capitol Hill residents and City Hall paved the way for promoters to expand the festival from two days to three, adding Sunday specifically to accommodate the Dead Weather. Now in its 14th year, Block Party — which takes place at the intersection of East Pike Street and 10th Avenue — previously ran Friday and Saturday only.

The lineup, which promoters say is only partially complete, includes national acts like Yeasayer, !!! and Blonde Redhead. Seattle is represented heavily by Shabazz Palaces, Truckasauras, Blue Scholars, Past Lives, Unnatural Helpers, THEESatisfaction, Dutchess and the Duke and many more. Portland’s Blitzen Trapper and Jaguar Love are also on the bill; the full lineup is below.

Tickets are available now at https://thestranger.com/blockpartytickets. They cost $23 for single day advance tickets or $60 for an advance three-day pass. Tickets at the gate cost $25. A portion of ticket proceeds go to Seattle all-ages music venue the Vera Project and community radio station KEXP.

Friday, July 23

MGMT, Holy Fu**, Yeasayer, Shabazz Palaces, Bear in Heaven, Unnatural Helpers, Fences, Champagne Champagne, Head Like a Kite, Naomi Punk, Macklemore, USF, Chris Pureka, Mahjongg, Jaguar Love

Saturday, July 24

Atmosphere, Blonde Redhead, !!!, Night Marchers, Obits, Blitzen Trapper, Mad Rad, Eastern Grip, Zola Jesus, Seattle Hip Hop Showcase with Grynch/Spaceman/State of the Artist, Here We Go Magic, Past Lives, Drowning Men, THEESatisfaction, Beach Fossils, Cold Lake, Black Breath, Grand Hallway

Sunday, July 25

The Dead Weather, Blue Scholars, Harlem, Fresh Espresso, the Dutchess and the Duke, Victor Shade, the Globes, Truckasauras, Cynic, Villagers, Flexions, Police Teeth, Steel Tigers of Death.

Arcade Fire, the celebrated Canadian rock band that last week unveiled the first songs from its much anticipated album “The Suburbs,” has announced a brief U.S. tour to coincide with the release. Between Aug. 1-11, the band will play headlining shows in Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Columbia, Md., Nashville and Atlanta, in addition to its previously announced appearance at the Lollapaloooza Festival in Chicago. “The Suburbs,” Arcade Fire’s third full-length, is due Aug. 3 on Merge.

Spoon will support on the New York, Philadelphia, DC and Atlanta dates.

Arcade Fire will mark its return to the stage next week (June 7-8) with a pair of intimate gigs at Sherbrooke ONT’s Theater Granada.

“The Suburbs” is Arcade Fire’s follow-up to “Neon Bible,” which hit No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in March 2007 and has sold 421,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The band has been working on the album for more than six months with producer Markus Dravs, who also helmed “Neon Bible.” There has been speculation that Owen Pallett, the Polaris Prize-winning creative force behind Final Fantasy, has been working on the album’s arrangements. He previously arranged strings for Arcade Fire, and fueled rumors by recently cryptically posting on Twitter that he had “just completed 10 days on the best album I’ve ever had the pleasure of working on.”

Here are Arcade Fire’s U.S. tour dates:

Aug. 1: Boston (Bank of America Pavilion)
Aug. 2: Philadelphia (Mann Center for the Performing Arts)
Aug. 4: New York (Madison Square Garden)
Aug. 6: Columbia MD (Merriweather Post Pavilion)
Aug. 9: Nashville (Ryman Auditorium)
Aug. 11: Atlanta (Verizon Wireless Amphitheater at Encore Park)
(More tour dates are expected shortly)

We can argue all you want about proto-this and seminal that, but when Raw Power is on the stereo, it’s hard to deny that it’s the greatest rock record ever. If you even tried to, this record would probably stand up and punch you in the face. Nearly four decades after its original release in 1973, Raw Power — the Stooges’ third and final studio album before their recent reunion — remains a uniquely visceral listening experience, a confrontational slab of psychedelic punk made in the dead zone between psychedelia’s demise and punk’s birth. There’s something truly nihilistic in the way “Search and Destroy” and “Penetration” career toward ruin and so-called ballads like “Gimme Danger” and “I Need Somebody” sound poised to abandon all sanity.

For a listener attuned to current, structured definitions of “heavy” music, this stuff is particularly volatile. In the ’90s, Iggy Pop created a new, “violent” mix of the album intended to supersede David Bowie’s much-maligned original production, but it’s that original production that’s the basis for this new Legacy Edition. The two discs include a few studio outtakes (“Doojiman” and “Head On”) and a live show from Atlanta in 1973 — dubbed “Georgia Peaches,” the recording sounds as if it were coming from the next room, and the band play as if they had learned the songs an hour earlier. It’s absolutely thrilling.

Pianist Scott Thurston’s Jerry Lee–isms align the Stooges’ rock with 1950s boogie-woogie — and suddenly it makes total sense that this band would later cover “Louie Louie.” (The Deluxe Edition of the reissue adds a book, a DVD, and another disc of killer studio rarities and outtakes, many of which have Pop blithely riffing on food.) At one point, Pop, eagerly baiting the crowd, gets into it with an audience member: “Hey, you wanna get your little fuckin’ face punched out, little cracker boy?” And just like that, this music asserts its place in the pecking order. Got it? Don’t make me sic Iggy on you.

According to a Guardian article, we’ve been listening to the legendary bluesman Robert Johnson at the wrong speed all these years.

The story claims that his music has been reproduced at the wrong speed for decades:

Either the recordings were accidentally speeded up when first committed to 78, or else they were deliberately speeded up to make them sound more exciting. Whatever, the common consensus among musicologists is that we’ve been listening to Johnson at least 20% too fast.

Jon Wilde, who wrote the article says that the findings are based the examination of Johnson’s guitar tunings on the recordings so Johnson would sound more like this:

U.K. alternative act Bat For Lashes has teamed with Beck for the new “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” soundtrack, out next month. Now Natasha Khan is considering working with him again when it comes to recording the follow-up to her 2009 Bat For Lashes album “Two Suns.”

“I’ve got a bunch of songs, it’s not early days in terms of I’ve got enough where I could make an album,” she says. “But actually I want to take more time with this one because I’ve been on tour for so long and I think it’s boring to write songs about being on tour.”

Instead, Khan plans to go traveling, work on other projects and pick and choose some collaborations – starting with Beck. The co-write “Let’s Get Lost” was recorded in L.A. for the soundtrack.

“It turned out great, and I’m really proud of it,” says Khan. “So I’m just branching out, trying to be inspired by different things and collaborate a bit and just nourish the artist.”

Asked about recruiting Beck for the third Bat For Lashes album, Khan responds: “Yes, possibly. He’s got great creative ideas.”

Khan has been nominated but ultimately missed out on a BRIT Award and Mercury Prize (twice). But the “Two Suns” lead single “Daniel” won her an Ivor Novello award this month.

“With ‘Daniel’ I played most of the instruments, I wrote everything, I wrote the song,” she says. “In some ways [the Ivor Novello] is great because it’s validated that I can do it on my own, so it frees you up in a way to feel like you want to branch out more. So that might be great for collaborations.”

Khan says a 2011 album release is possible. She still has two more records to deliver to troubled major EMI.

“Hopefully it will be fine,” says Khan of the major, which is struggling with a debt burden. “God knows what’s happening, but hopefully it will be sorted out by the time [of the album].”

The debut EP from How to Destroy Angels, Trent Reznor’s collaboration with wife Mariqueen Maandig, is available for free download right now from the How to Destroy Angels website.

As previously reported, the free EP is a 320 kbps download. If you’d rather get it as a higher-quality download, you can pay $2 for an HD version. The CD version will be out July 6, with vinyl due sometime in the future.

MIA has posted a new song on her Neet Recordings homepage attacking journalist Lynn Hirschberg.

The star, who previously published Hirschberg’s phone number after apparently taking offence to an article she had written about her, posted the track ‘I’m A Singer’ on the site and tweeted: “TO MY FANS HERES THE TRUFFF, A SONG, AND THE LINKS TO WHAT REALLY MATTERS.”

The lyrics of the song see MIA blasting the New York Times writer with the lyrics: “Why the hell would a journalist be thick as shit” and “You can talk shit to me I’m used to it/You make me hard with the wounds that I have to lick/You can pick on me and I can see it at a click”.

To hear the song in full go to NeetRecordings.com

The article in question featured Hirschberg and MIA speaking about her links to Sri Lanka, her visa problems in the US and her family.

MIA had promised to publish her own version of the article on the site this weekend but instead posted the song and short audio excerpts of the pair talking about french fries and an audio clip in which the star explains her highly-publicised 2009 Grammy performance when she was heavily pregnant.

“It wasn’t just about me getting to the Oscars or me going to the Grammys, that doesn’t mean anything,” she said in the clip. “The whole point of that journey was so you can go, ‘Hey 50,000 people are going to die next month here’s your opportunity to help’ and no-one did, and they still died! It wasn’t about accolades or fame.”

It is not Hirschberg’s first difference of opinion with one of her subjects, she infamously got on Courtney Love’s bad side following a 1992 Vanity Fair piece on the singer.

Relatively new to Youtube is this 2008 documentary in its three hour (!) entirety. I’ll admit I haven’t watched the whole thing yet so can’t vouch for quality, though it evidently touches on the whole beloved Krautrock spectrum. Hell, I’d watch a documentary about plumbing if it had something about Can in it, so I’ll be diving right into this one shortly.

(You can watch the rest of the documentary online HERE)

It’s not often Wilco get unstuck playing a gig. A good 15 years of playing — from sweaty clubs to today’s arena-sized shows — means Jeff Tweedy and gang have learned to take the odd mishap, technical failure or sound problem in their stride.

Friday’s set at Primavera Sound 2010 in Barcelona was a perfect example on how something as minor as an … errr … major technical fault during the opening number needn’t derail Chicago’s favourite sons.

‘Wilco (The Song)’ was barely out of the traps when most of the sound cut out, leaving Tweedy to sing alongside little else other than Glenn Kotche’s pounding drumming, with the rest of the band doing a more than passable impression of a mime rock group.

With the sound cutting in and out, Tweedy said, “You know, we’re having some difficulties. While we sort that out, why don’t we sing a song together.’ ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’s plaintive Jesus, Etc.’ rang out, and Primavera’s crowd didn’t hold back.

With the problems sorted, Wilco’s solid latter-day line-up — Tweedy, Kotche, bassist John Stirratt, multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone, guitarist Nels Cline and keyboard player Mikael Jorgenson — played an epic set, in keeping with the setlist for this most recent tour. Cline’s guitar odyssey on ‘Impossible Germany’ caused the biggest cheer of the festival so far. Proof you really can’t keep a good band down.

Actor Dennis Hopper, who died Saturday at the age of 74 of complications from prostate cancer, was beloved by several generations of movie fans. Many, including a number of musicians and other music industry insiders, took to the Web this Memorial Day weekend to pay their respects to a star of such memorable films as ‘Blue Velvet,’ ‘Apocalypse Now,’ ‘Easy Rider’ and ‘Rebel Without a Cause.’

As reported by NME, former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash paid tribute to Hopper on Facebook and Twitter, writing, “You take the great ones for granted until they’re gone. RIP Dennis Hopper.” The British band Everything Everything also took to Twitter, but chose to highlight some of Hopper’s movies for their fans (including the less discussed futuristic ’90s flick ‘Waterworld’).

Har Mar Superstar was emotional in his Twitter tribute: “I love you, Dennis Hopper. Easy Rider and River’s Edge are HUGE influences.” Katy Perry, meanwhile, recommended her favorite Hopper film: “Watch Blue Velvet. [M]y favorite Dennis Hopper. #rip.”

British producer Paul Epworth, who has worked with the likes of Bloc Party and Florence and the Machine, tweeted: “Very sad to post RIP Dennis Hopper… Thanks for the characters you created, especially “mad frank” (referring to his character in ‘Blue Velvet’). “Your genius will be missed…”

A number of Hopper’s Hollywood peers also took time to commemorate the actor, who was also a director and avid photographer, this weekend.

Hopper was hospitalized in late September 2009 with flu-like symptoms, but was discharged a few days later. It was soon revealed that his prostate cancer, first diagnosed a decade ago, had returned. By March, court documents from his impending divorce from fifth wife Victoria Duffy revealed that Hopper was terminally ill, as the cancer had spread to his bones. He was deemed too ill to receive chemotherapy treatments.

Hopper died at his home the morning of May 29 in Venice, California, surrounded by friends and family.