MC5 Looking At You July 19th, 1970 LIVE (Video)

MC5 playing Looking At You live at Tartar Field on Wayne State University Campus in Detroit on July 19th, 1970 TURN YOUR VOLUME UP NOW! Happy Friday..

PJ Harvey has created a ‘video album’ for ‘Let England Shake’, Award-winning photographer Seamus Murphy has produced a series of short films – containing reportage footage shot around England and performance footage of Harvey – for each song on the album. These films can be viewed here. PJ Harvey- “Let England Shake” Video Album

Thao and Mirah aren’t the likeliest pair. Sure, they share a love of acoustic guitars and prefer to be on a first-name basis, but you probably won’t find them grouped together in a RIYL list. But when Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn moved from Olympia, Wash. to San Francisco, she found a kindred spirit in Thao Nguyen, and the two eventually toured together. Now they’re debuting their first recorded collaboration, aptly titled Thao & Mirah.

Of the pair’s musical personalities, Thao is the wild girl — the one in the miniskirt who shows up to the party late, already a bit tipsy. Mirah is the serious, introspective girl on the fringes, taking mental notes on everyone in the room, then smiling sweetly while leaving early.

Take a look at their album covers. On her 2009 Kill Rock Stars release Know Better Learn Faster, Thao was front and center, blindfolded amid a sea of confetti and cheering/drinking partygoers. Mirah’s breakthrough 2001 album, K Records’ Advisory Committee, featured an abstract drawing in shades of gray.

Thao wrote a song about being “a body in your bed.” Mirah wrote a song cycle about insects.

Fortunately, all of that works in Thao and Mirah’s favor. It turns out the two are even better in cahoots than they are solo, each buttressing the other with her own set of complementary idiosyncrasies. They’re also helped along by tUnE-yaRds’ Merrill Garbus, who co-produced and contributed to Thao & Mirah, even co-writing album opener “Eleven,” a hyperkinetic, beat-heavy meditation on love’s elusive qualities (“When love is love don’t let it go away”).

Garbus realized and embraced the duo’s internal contrasts, interweaving them throughout the album. “Rubies and Rocks,” another peppy number, seems suited to Thao’s vocals. Instead, though, Mirah takes lead vocals, her pastel edges providing the perfect contrast to the swinging horn section, congas and the sweaty, throbbing bass.

Mirah’s writing leans toward the heady; “Spaced Out Orbit” is a sci-fi allegory of sorts, beautifully dark and moody. But it’s especially beautiful in context, preceding Thao’s “How Dare You,” a sad yet playful and downright danceable call-and-response ditty. “Sugar if you’re sure you’re going,” the two sing together after a wry back-and-forth, “We’ll move a little slower then.”

And while Mirah dabbles in innuendo on occasion, Thao throws subtlety out the window. “This is the last time I drag myself from your bed,” she sings on “Teeth.” On the even less subtle “Likeable Man,” she instructs, “Put your hands down your pants…” but it’s the follow-up line that really grabs you: “…before your daddies do.”

It’s thigh-slaps and digital drums. Wine glasses and synth bass. Party and after-party. Love and politics. Thao & Mirah.

Well, here’s an interesting new collaboration… Modest Mouse unveiled a new song live at Isaac Brock’s house last week and now we not only have confirmation that an album is in the works, but news that Big Boi is along for the ride as well: “Been camped out in the Lab with Modest Mouse all week, workin on the new mouse LP, coolest cats ever,” the Outkast co-leader said on Twitter today (via). “Long Live The Funk.”
Aside from a recent mention that he was listening to the band’s 2003 Good News for People Who Love Bad News single “The World at Large,” Big Boi and producer Chris Carmouche’s latest collaboration comes as somewhat of a surprise. Perhaps they hit it off during the weekend of last year’s Pitchfork Festival, where both acts performed headlining sets. Either way, it looks like they’ve filled their former guitarist Johnny Marr’s big shoes as a guest star quite well.

There’s no word yet on whether Big Boi is producing, performing, or both on the record, but this will definitely be a fun project to watch take shape in coming months. (via 24 bit)

Hardcore punk legend Keith Morris is still just as pissed off today as he was in 1977 when he fronted the original version of Black Flag. And he still has as much to get off his chest as he did in 1979 when he formed the Circle Jerks. Old age hasn’t tamed the beast in him either — he still feels like being loud and vocal. Last year, he came together with a group of his buddies — Dimitri Coats (Burning Brides), Steven McDonald (Redd Kross) and Mario Rubalcaba (Rocket from the Crypt, Hot Snakes) — and a new hardcore band was formed: Off!

On Oct. 12, the band released their first EP, which features the track ‘Darkness.’ It’s a song that “is basically a protest against our addiction to ‘Black Gold,’ which would be oil,” Morris tells Spinner. “We’ve been trained to drive two blocks to purchase groceries and then sit at home eating unhealthy food while watching TV that fills our heads with garbage. We are the creators of this situation for not doing anything to break this habit and for letting it go on for as long as it has. Get up and walk! Get up and do something! Don’t be a slave!”

Before you go for that walk, you may just want to check out this video, which features a live performance of ‘Darkness’ in the same warehouse where Off! played their show. Directed by Vice Records’ Jake Burghart, the clip gives you a glimpse of what Off! is like in the live setting — that is to say, ferocious.

We can confirm that the beautiful Poly Styrene, who has been a true fighter, won her battle on Monday evening (4/25/11) to go to higher places. Poly Styrene was born Marianne Elliot Said on June 3, 1957. She passed away due to cancer.

Poly Styrene was a punk amongst punks. A groundbreaking presence that left an unrepeatable mark on the musical landscape, she made history the moment she uttered, “Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard but I think oh bondage up yours!” The influence of Poly and X-ray Spex has been felt far and wide ever since. The seminal album Germ Free Adolescents is a landmark work and a primary influence on Britpop and Riot Grrrl. At the center of it was Poly Styrene, a bi-racial feminist punk with the perfect voice to soundtrack rebellion. Poly never sacrificed the intelligence or the fun in her music and style. Her trademark braces and dayglo clothes were a playful rejection of the status quo and of conformity and complacency. She dissected gender politics, consumer culture, and the obsessions of modern life in a way that made us all want sing along with her. You will be missed Poly.. RIP..

Given the trials and tribulations that resulted in the delay of the Strokes fourth album, ‘Angles,’ it’s somewhat surprising to find their members already willing to confine themselves in the studio with each other so soon after its release.

Yet according to Nikolai Fraiture that’s exactly what’s happened. The NME reports that the bassist wrote on his Twitter account on Monday, April 25, “super excited to go in to the studio today and work on some new ideas! I’ll keep you posted,” later confirming, “for the Strokes, of course!”

‘Angles’ was released five years on from third LP, ‘First Impressions of Earth,’ after lead singer Julian Casablancas separated from the rest of the band and contributed most of his vocal parts via email. It reached Nos. three and four in the UK and US Charts respectively, but both Casablancas and guitarist Nick Valensi sounded less than enamoured with their efforts. The latter told Pitchfork that he felt the group “had a much better album” in them, with Casablancas also commenting that “there’s a bunch of stuff [on the record] I wouldn’t have done.”

Such evident tensions suggest that studio sessions may be fractious. Casablancas has told Shortlist that the band were “going to start working on stuff as soon as possible,” the group perhaps keen to put ‘Angles’ to bed early given their apparent reservations.

The Strokes return to the UK to play T In The Park (July 8-10) and Reading & Leeds Festivals (Aug. 26-28).

Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues by subpop
Album comes out May 3rd on Sub Pop Records in the US and May 2nd on Bella Union in the UK.

Click to hear entire album HERE

Fleet Foxes Tour:

04-30 Vancouver, British Columbia – The Vogue Theatre
05-01 Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
05-03 Seattle, WA – Moore Theatre
05-05 Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
05-06 San Diego, CA – Spreckels Theatre
05-07 Hollywood, CA – Hollywood Palladium
05-08 Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre
05-10 Austin, TX – Stubbs Waller Creek Amphitheater
05-11 Dallas, TX – Palladium Ballroom
05-13 Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
05-14 Atlanta, GA – The Tabernacle
05-15 Washington, DC – DAR Constitution Hall
05-17 Boston, MA – Orpheum Theatre
05-18 New York, NY – The United Palace Theatre
05-21 Upper Darby, PA – Tower Theatre
05-25 Berlin, Germany – Astra
05-26 Munich, Germany – Dachau Summer of Music
05-28 Barcelona, Spain – Primavera Sound
05-30 Paris, France – Bataclan
05-31 London, England – Hammersmith Apollo

• 2011 is the most successful Record Store Day yet.
o Independent record stores sold 13% more albums in 2011 vs. 2010 for the week of Record Store Day.
o Album sales at independent record stores increased more than 39% over the prior week.
o Top sellers at “core” independent record stores increased 88% over the prior week; in 2010 this figure was +26% and +16% in 2009.

• Independent record store album sales increases by year:
(sales percentage increase over the prior week)
2011 (April 16, 2011): +39%
2010 (April 17, 2010): +12%
2009 (April 18, 2009): +21%
2008 (April 19, 2008): +0.4%

• Vinyl album sales increased more than 220% at independent record stores.
o 2011 was up more than 70% from Record Store Day in 2010. The weekly increase in 2010 was 119%.
o Independent record stores sold nearly 84% of all Vinyl LPs last week.
o There were 14 new vinyl album releases that sold 1,000 copies or more, and 37 that sold at least 500 copies.
o The top selling vinyl album was Panda Bear’s Tomboy, with 7,000 copies sold for the week.

• Vinyl singles sold at a rate of over 13-times greater than the normal sales week.
o Record Store Day sales doubled the entire year-to-date vinyl single total in just one week; sales of vinyl singles last week are nearly double last year’s 2010 Record Store Day.
o There were 27 new vinyl single releases that sold at least 500 copies.
o “Brown Sugar”/The Rolling Stones is the best selling vinyl single released for Record Store Day, with 2,000 copies sold.

• The Foo Fighters released Medium Rare – a 120 gram Record Store Day exclusive – which sold 2,000 copies. The Foo Fighters also had the best-selling album overall for the week, Wasting Light, with 235,000 copies sold.

There is some great new soul music coming out of the UK recently.. Thanks limeys!

Lately, the former Joy Division/New Order bassist Peter Hook has been touring with a new band, the Light, and playing Joy Division’s classic album Unknown Pleasures in full at every show. Hook and his band have more Unknown Pleasures shows coming up, and they’ll also play Closer, Joy Division’s equally essential second album, in full at the Manchester venue the Factory.

And on May 9, Hook’s own Hacienda Records will release 1102 / 2011, a new EP from Peter Hook and the Light. The four-track EP includes new versions of three old Joy Division songs, with vocals by singer Rowetta from the Happy Mondays, as well as a previously unfinished Joy Division song called “Pictures in My Mind”, which Hook sings himself.

And in further Hook news, SF Weekly reports that Hook’s publicist sent a cease and desist letter to the organizers of a San Francisco club night called Hacienda, demanding that the name be changed, so as to not confuse it with the legendary Manchester club that Hook’s bands used to play all the time. At least for now, the night has changed its name to Rançhería.

Below, we’ve got Hook’s tour dates and the 1102 / 2011 tracklist, as well as Joy Division’s video for “Atmosphere”. (via pitchfork)

1102 / 2011:

01 Atmosphere
02 Insight
03 New Dawn Fades
04 Pictures in My Mind

Peter Hook:

04-22 Manchester, England – Sankeys (DJ set)
04-23 London, England – Scala *
04-30 Edinburgh, Scotland – Liquid *
05-07 Pontevedra, Spain – Festival Do Norte *
05-12 Lille, France – L’Aeronef *
05-13 Nantes, France – L’Olympic *
05-18-19 Manchester, England – The Factory ^
05-28 Den Haag, Netherlands – Paard van Troje *
05-29 Eindhoven, Netherlands – Effenaar *
06-04 County Clare, Ireland – Cold Pro Festival *
06-16 Sao Paolo, Brazil – Studio Emme
06-18 Sao Paolo, Brazil – Studio Emme
07-24 Kortrijk, Belgium – Shadowplay Festival
08-24 Wroclaw, Poland – Green Festival

* performing Unknown Pleasures
^ performing Closer

Joy Division – Atmosphere

Çhrîs™ | Myspace Video

Way back in 2007, Justin Vernon self-released For Emma, Forever Ago, his first album under the name Bon Iver. Jagjaguwar picked up the release the next year, and it slowly became a massive word-of-mouth indie hit. In the years since, Vernon has launched his Volcano Choir side project, worked with Kanye West and Gayngs, and done all sorts of one-off gigs and guest appearances. But though he’s done a ton of touring with Bon Iver, that main project has been largely silent ever since he released the Blood Bank EP early in 2009. And on June 21, Bon Iver will finally return when Jagjaguwar releases their self-titled sophomore album.

Vernon and brother Nate recorded and mixed the album over a three-year period at a former veterinarian’s clinic in Wisconsin. Regular Vernon collaborators Sean Carey, Mike Noyce, and Matt McCaughan play, sing, and contributed production to the album. Volcano Choir members Jim Schoenecker and Tom Wincek helped out with processing, and Rob Moose, who has worked with the National and Antony and the Johnsons, helped arrange strings. The LP also features pedal steel player Greg Leisz and a horn section that includes Mike Lewis, C.J. Camerieri, and free-jazz monster Colin Stetson. The lush cover art, from Minnesota artist Gregory Euclide, is above.

We’ve got the tracklist below, as well as a brief preview video for the album.

Bon Iver:

01 Perth
02 Minnesota, WI
03 Holocene
04 Towers
05 Michicant
06 Hinnom, TX
07 Wash.
08 Calgary
09 Lisbon, OH
10 Beth/Rest

Untitled from Bon Iver on Vimeo.

If you were one of those kids who grew up on alternative rock in the 1990s, there’s a very good chance you owned a VHS copy of 1991: The Year Punk Broke, a documentary about Sonic Youth touring Europe back in the days right before alternative rock became the sort of thing your parents asked you about at the dinner table. Nirvana, Sonic Youth’s openers on that tour, were all over the movie, and it also featured footage of Dinosaur Jr., the Ramones, Babes in Toyland, and Gumball. Now, Slicing Up Eyeballs reoprts that the film is finally coming to DVD.

According to director Dave Markey, Universal Music is planning an extended 20th anniversary edition of the movie later this year. It will include a 42-minute film called “(This Is Known As) The Blues Scale”, which contains bonus performances from Sonic Youth (“Inhuman”, “White Kross”, “Orange Rolls/Angel’s Spit”, and “Eric’s Trip”) and Nirvana (“In Bloom”). Watch clips from “(This Is Known As) The Blues Scale” here. The DVD will also contain footage of a 2003 panel discussion with Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, and Steve Shelley, Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis, and Markey, as well as more performance material and commentary from Markey and Moore. (via pitchfork)

Below, check Sonic Youth performing “Schizophrenia” in the movie.

Arcade Fire’s ‘The Suburbs’ is set to sprawl a little further. The Quebecois group have revealed they are planning to issue a ‘deluxe’ version of their acclaimed 2010 album complete with two previously unreleased tracks.

According to Pitchfork, the seven-piece told BBC Radio 1′s Zane Lowe yesterday that the revamped disc will be available from June 27. The new tunes are titled ‘Speaking in Tongues’ and ‘Culture War,’ and they will bolster the disc’s already expansive 64-minute running time to create an 18-track epic. Additional goodies for Arcade Fire completists will come in the form of a bonus DVD containing ‘Scenes from the Suburbs’ — a short film directed by ‘Being John Malkovich’ auteur Spike Jonze — and a making-of documentary.

Following the announcement, Lowe confirmed that he will showcase the two new songs on the May 23 edition of his Radio 1 programme. The original version of ‘The Suburbs’ — Arcade Fire’s third studio LP — was released in August 2010 to a slew of positive critical notices. It topped the charts in the UK and US and went on to win Album of the Year both at the Grammy’s and Canada’s Juno Awards, as well as Best International Album at the Brits.

Formula 1 race car driver Lewis Hamilton has ponied up $100,000 to buy the custom gold-leaf Fender Stratocaster guitar that Prince has been playing on tour. Proceeds will go to children’s and community-based organizations.

Hamilton and his girlfriend, actress and Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger, had joined Prince onstage at a concert in Abu Dhabi following the 2010 Grand Prix.

Prince had ordered the guitar from Fender’s Custom Shop in Corona to be a unique component of his “Welcome 2 America Live” tour when it began late last year in New York. The guitar is gold-plated from head to toe, although it is not solid gold, as has sometimes been reported.

He brought the tour to Los Angeles for a planned run of 21 nights at the Forum in Inglewood that started Thursday. The stint continues with three more shows this week — Thursday, Friday and Saturday — and other dates to be announced.

After more than three years of providing guitar lines and credibility boosts to The Cribs, Johnny Marr has left the British band to concentrate on his own solo work. Marr had become an official member of the group in 2008, contributing to the songwriting on 2009’s Ignore The Ignorant, bringing tons of Smiths diehards to the group’s live shows, and not so subtly stealing the spotlight in all of their promo photos before quietly leaving the band in January. In confirming his departure, Marr said on his website that he’s currently making plans to release two solo albums within the next year, as well as do more soundtrack work along the lines of his scores for Inception and the upcoming The Big Bang. He’s also got that “tell-all” memoir, of course, which will hopefully keep his tenure in The Cribs to maybe just a chapter in favor of some good Morrissey dirt.

Ray Davies has said he is seeing his brother Dave next week to talk about a Kinks reunion.

Guitarist Dave recently slammed his brother, labelling him an “arsehole” and insinuating that the singer didn’t want to reform The Kinks, who originally split in 1996.

However, Ray appeared to refute those claims, telling Rolling Stone: “I’m seeing Dave next week. I hear that Dave is saying stuff in the press like, ‘I’ll do it, but Ray doesn’t want to do it.’ This is me saying, ‘Ray will do it if Dave does it’.”

Back in 2008, a lot of heads turned to clock Crystal Stilts’ Alight Of Night, their first album after a string of here-today-gone-tomorrow singles and EPs. It wasn’t exactly a surprise – Crystal Stilts felt like part of a new age dawning, of underground collectives and random, crazy groups who’d rediscovered the joys of noise-pop and set about creating their own Creations – but there was something unique about Crystal Stilts, something hermetic yet gorgeous about the world they created. With their new album, In Love With Oblivion, they stretch things further still, honing their songcraft, indulging their more strung-out sides, full of elliptical verses and perfectly chiming guitars, cranky pop organs and the punkest of rhythms. It’s a perfect blend of pop smarts and beguiling experiment.

Converging in the quiet of South Florida, Brad Hargett and JB Townsend dreamt a perfect pop group and then set about recreating the dream. Along the way to New York, they collected members, record labels, a cultish fanbase, raves from the likes of Dean Wareham and Stephen Pastel, and (from across the seas, at least) the kind of mystique even the ‘know-everything’ glaze of the modern ‘net-age couldn’t debase. I still listen to their records and wonder about the people behind the songs – and this does not happen very often nowadays. Their record covers are mysterious two-tone ciphers. They know the importance of a good font. In short, they sound and look like a group you want to be in.

And as with all good pop bands, Crystal Stilts not only look cool and sound great: they also listen hard. I recently read an interview where JB said his favourite show of ’09 was The Mad Scene, which made me double-take – who else cares so much about Hamish Kilgour’s other best group? But if Crystal Stilts are scholarly about pop, they don’t wear their knowledge heavily. The best songs on In Love With Oblivion are effortless, rapturous – “Through The Floor” burns on fevered energy; “Silver Sun” kisses the air with a beautiful stream of jangle guitar; “Alien Rivers” is a spooked, psychedelic requiem, roughly Opal’s Happy Nightmare Baby + 14 Iced Bears’ “Mother Sleep” x Victor Dimisich Band. (But that was my math, not theirs.) “Precarious Stair” is my favourite girl-pop-song-not-actually-fronted-by-a-girl since, I dunno, “Just Like Honey”.
A friend of mine walked into my flat when “Half A Moon” was playing and for a split-second asked if it was The Damned’s “Smash It Up”, which made me chuckle. Then he looked at the speakers and wondered what exactly he was hearing. Hey, cool – it’s always good to take people by surprise. Well, that’s what Crystal Stilts do with In Love With Oblivion – take all of those expectations you have and quietly, unassumingly, but determinedly turn them upside down, make you listen differently the glorious haze of pop they pour out of their bloodied veins. A buzzing organ, some slack-strung guitars, a clutch of Moe Tucker dreams and some black tambourines rarely sounded this alive.
- JADE PILLAR

Click here to stream the new album: In Love With Oblivion

Crystal Stilts “Through The Floor” from Slumberland Records

CRYSTAL STILTS TOUR DATES

Sat-Apr-16 New York, NY Le Poisson Rouge #
Sun-Apr-17 Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg #
Fri-Apr-22 Washington, DC Black Cat Backstage *
Sat-Apr-23 Raleigh, NC Kings Barcade *
Mon-Apr-25 Birmingham, AL Bottletree *
Tue-Apr-26 New Orleans, LA The Den *
Thu-Apr-28 Houston, TX Fitzgeralds (upstairs) *
Fri-Apr-29 Austin, TX Austin Psych Fest 4 at Seaholm Powerplant
Sat-Apr-30 Dallas, TX Club Dada *
Tue-May-03 Phoenix, AZ Rhythm Room
Wed-May-04 San Diego, CA Casbah
Thu-May-05 Santa Barbara, CA Muddy Waters
Fri-May-06 Los Angeles, CA Natural History Museum
Sat-May-07 San Francisco, CA Rickshaw Stop
Sun-May-08 Sacramento, CA The Hub
Tue-May-10 Portland, OR Mississippi Studios
Wed-May-11 Seattle, WA The Crocodile
Thu-May-12 Vancouver, BC Biltmore
Fri-May-13 Kennwick, WA Red Room
Sat-May-14 Boise, ID The Linen Building
Sun-May-15 Salt Lake City, UT Urban Lounge
Mon-May-16 Denver, CO Larimer Lounge
Wed-May-18 Minneapolis, MN 7th Street Entry
Thu-May-19 Madison, WI High Noon
Fri-May-20 Chicago, IL Empty Bottle
Sat-May-21 Detroit, MI Magic Stick
Sun-May-22 Toronto, ON Sneaky Dees

# = w/ Spectrum
* = w/ The German Measles

Director Tim Nackashi likes a challenge — he directed a one-take clip for OK Go and a 360-degree video for Craig Wedren. This video for Death Cab For Cutie was shot and streamed live, in one take. There are performance elements, but it’s not just a performance clip — there are choreographed dances, background actors, etc, that would make it tricky. I don’t see many bands attempting the same thing, but it’d be great to see if more musicians try more complex ideas for their live performances on SNL or Fallon.


Video streaming by Ustream

Nearly ten years after their acclaimed Ultraglide in Black helped kick-start a renewed interest in all things Detroit and rock-and-roll, The Dirtbombs released the de facto companion piece, Party Store.

Ultraglide was a covers collection of 60′s and 70′s soul gems centred on the ideas of African-American identity and politics of the era (see Curtis Mayfield’s “Kung Fu” and Stevie Wonder’s “Living for the City”). All of the songs made an impression on a young, pre-musical Mick Collins as he listened to them on 45′s in the family basement.

Party Store is an assortment of live band interpretations of classic Detroit techno music of the 80′s and early 90′s. These are songs Collins digested when they were originally released – at a time where he was already making waves with garage-punk legends The Gories. Songs that run the gamut of subject matter from materialistic future-disco braggadocio “Sharevari” (originally by A Number of Names) to cold, post-industrial isolation of “Alleys of Your Mind” originally by Cybotron) through the instrumental optimism of a worldwide house classic, “Strings of Life” (originally by Derrick May)… ALL these themes encapsulate the climate of Detroit both now and at the time of their initial release. Let it be said clearly…this is a record that addresses, at the same time, both the past and the future of Detroit.

With “Good Life” – originally by Kevin Saunderson via his Inner City outfit, Collins recontextualizes the upbeat modern dance élan to echo with post-punk zeal as the zest of doubled harmonies resonates throughout. “Bassbin” (originally by Carl Craig as Innerzone Orchestra) features modular synthesizer programming by Carl Craig himself and is the album’s piece de resistance. Clocking in at over 21 minutes, the track’s original light jazz underpinnings are diffused into a martial, militaristic backbeat coupled with fire-raining feedback screes from Collins trusty Kent guitar. It is arguably the most intense recording the Dirtbombs have ever produced.

Then end result is nothing short of impressive. The players’ recreation of the sequenced, digital rhythms and melodies stems from an Oblique Strategies card pulled during the recordings (“Humanize something that is without error”) and they tend to do so with a crisp, krautrock-like precision. For originals that all contained drum machines, sequencers and synthesizers the Dirtbombs takes on these pieces all matter-of-factly and use said tools only to accent what’s laid down by the live unit.

The Dirtbombs ability to reinterpret is their trump card and with their work here they will undoubtedly turn a whole new audience of “rock” ears on the techno world they have ignored far too long for no good reason.

THE DIRTBOMBS

5/30 – Detroit, MI @ Movement
6/02 – Washington, DC @ Rock and Roll Hotel
6/03 – Philadelphia, PA @ Making Time at Voyeur Nightclub
6/04 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Bell House
6/05 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
7/14 – Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rossa
7/15 – Toronto, ON @ The Horseshoe Tavern
7/16 – Detroit, MI @ The Magic Stick

Bloc Party are back. Almost. After a two-year hiatus, the band will stage a “proper” reunion in September. While the group intends to develop new material, they have no plans to perform before the end of 2011.

Fans have been speculating for months about a Bloc Party reunion, spurred by a group photo at Christmas. The rumours intensified when Russell Lissack became a free agent at the end of March, leaving Ash after about a year as a touring guitarist. Now, Lissack has confirmed that Bloc Party are to return, in an interview with NME.

“Kele and I started working on Bloc Party stuff,” Lissack said. “We’re having a bit of a break until the festivals are over, because people have commitments during the summer, but we’re going to get back properly in September and sit in a rehearsal studio to work on new band material.”

In a Facebook posting last month, drummer Matt Tong said Bloc Party will “most likely not” play any concerts in 2011, although they plan to make another album. In another recent interview, Lissack said he had already written “maybe seven or eight songs” for the next Bloc Party LP.

Bloc Party have been on hiatus since the end of 2009. “We definitely need to have a break and gain a bit of perspective on life outside of the band,” Tong said at the time.” All Bloc Party members except Tong have since launched side-projects, including Lissack’s Pin Me Down, bassist Gordon Moakes’s Young Legionnaire, and Kele Okereke’s 2010 solo album, The Boxer. (via guardian UK)

The Beatles’ first recording and publishing contract is expected to fetch £50,000 when it goes under the hammer on Thursday (April 14).

The previously unseen document features the signatures of Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison, along with Pete Best, the drummer who was sacked to make way for Ringo Starr in 1962, reports The Independent.

Bert Kaempfert, an arranger and producer hired by the band at the time, is the fifth and final signatory on the document.

Signed in Hamburg on June 19 1961, the document was discovered by Fame Bureau in Switzerland earlier this month.

Ted Owen, a representative for the auctioneers, commented: “The most important thing about this contract is that we didn’t know it existed. It’s gold dust.”

The contract will go under the hammer at the Theatre Royal in London.

Last year, a handwritten lyrics sheet for The Beatles ‘A Day In The Life’ fetched $1.2 million (£732,000) at Sotheby’s in New York.

Even robots (and, for that matter, human robot rockers) aren’t impervious to natural disasters and can empathize with those affected by such catastrophes. Thus, Daft Punk are doing their part to help with the relief efforts in the wake of a deadly tsunami that wiped out entire towns and caused devastation across Japan’s coastal areas on March 11.

But rather than hop in an LCD pyramid and entertain 20,000 rave-faced fans to raise money for the cause, the legendary production duo are going another route — by auctioning off their famed Ferrari. The car will be familiar to the Daft Punk faithful, who will recognize it from the French duo’s 2007 film, ‘Daft Punk’s Electroma.’ In the opening sequence, actors portraying robotic versions of the duo are seen driving the 1987 Ferrari 412 across the Southwestern United States. The license plate reads “HUMAN.” Yes, all of this is supposed to work on multiple levels.

The iconic car will be up for auction along with a number of additional, one-of-a-kind collectables from other big-ticket artists via EMI Music’s specially arranged auction, EMI Family 4 Japan. Turns out, the two humans who man Daft Punk didn’t get the nicknames “Hero Robot No. 1″ and “Hero Robot No. 2″ for no good reason, after all.

D.I.Y. culture is hard to shake, or at least it is for TV on the Radio, the critically-beloved Brooklyn art rock band. As a companion to its fourth studio album, “Nine Types of Light” (out Tuesday from Interscope), the group created a feature-length movie, built from videos for each of the album’s tracks. “We as a band always have so many ideas for things that aren’t just musical,” Tunde Adebimpe, one of the band’s vocalists, said in an interview. “And for less than the price of a Maroon 5 video, you can make a full-length feature.”

TV on the Radio has made ambitious rock with shades of post-punk, electronica and psychedelic jazz. The group’s latest album, “Nine Types of Light”, is out Tuesday.
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The movie — also called “Nine Types of Light,” with a screening Monday at the Sunshine Theater in Manhattan –- will be available as part of a deluxe CD set. “The things that we have been asked to do to add value to something that we feel is pretty valuable already, it’s weird after a while, “ Mr. Adebimpe said, “where you’re kind of like, I don’t want that person to do a remix, I don’t have it in me to make another song.” Making the movie was a way to help promote the record that the bandmates found palatable; they asked friends to collaborate on the movie. Now they hope fans will watch the album, not just listen to it.

A few days before the record was due to be released, the group was still finishing the film in a shared editing space in Brooklyn. In the video below, which includes yet to be released footage from the movie, the members of TV on the Radio discuss the process behind the film, how it squares with their indie ethos and why people should make out while watching it. (via NYTIMES)

Beastie Boy Adam Yauch had directed a celeb-festooned short film, Fight for Your Right Revisited, a sequel of sorts to the Beasties’ classic video for “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!)”. The new film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival’s Short Film Program. Well, the 22-minute flick is set to be released in a few weeks, and you can get a sense of what it is by checking out the trailer below, which features snippets of the new Beasties song “Make Some Noise”, from their forthcoming LP Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2. According to the Beasties’ camp, the song and Hot Sauce cut “Too Many Rappers” are both featured in the film.

The clip features famous folks like Susan Sarandon, Elijah Wood, Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Seth Rogen, Jason Schwartzman, John C. Reilly, Will Arnett, and Danny McBride; it looks as if the film’s plot may involve an older, beer-chugging, über-obnoxious “future version” of the Beastie Boys going back to the past and wreaking havoc on a younger Beastie Boys. Definitely prime comedic material.

(via pitchfork)

Producers of a biopic based on the life of the late British singer Dusty Springfield say they are trawling Britain and the US for an actor to play the lead role. The as-yet-untitled project is being put together with support from Springfield’s former backing singer and friend Simon Bell, who knew her for a number of decades.

“Simon’s close friendship and intimate knowledge of Dusty’s life will be invaluable in the making of this film,” said Dominick Fairbanks, the film’s executive producer. “We will announce our writer and director very shortly, and the search is on for the actress to play Dusty. This is a fabulous part for any actress and we are looking on both sides of the Atlantic at the moment.”

The film will delve deep into Springfield’s colourful private life, which saw her battle alcoholism, substance abuse and prejudice concerning her bisexuality. Born Mary O’Brien to an Irish family in Hampstead, London, the singer rose to become the bestselling female artist in the world in 1966. The following decade saw her sales drop dramatically, before she revived her career in the 1980s following a number of collaborations with the Pet Shop Boys. She died of breast cancer in 1999, aged 59.

The biopic appears to be in very early stages. As yet, no director has been announced and it is not clear whether a screenplay exists.

Codes and Keys, the new album from Death Cab for Cutie, is out May 31 via Atlantic. You’ve heard the first single “You Are a Tourist”, and now check out the album’s first sequential track, “Home Is a Fire”, above. The song is more reminiscent of Ben Gibbard’s work as part of the Postal Service than previous DCFC material, little electronic pitter-patters and all.
DEATH CAB for CUTIE – Home Is A Fire by ATL REC.

Jack White will produce an upcoming live album by rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis. The concert will take place on Record Store Day, April 16, at White’s Third Man Records compound in Nashville.

According to the label, White will man the boards for the show, which will be recorded direct to analogue. The finished product will be pressed and packaged locally and made available to fans within weeks of the gig.

For the concert, Lewis — who is responsible for Sun Records classics like ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On’ and ‘Great Balls of Fire’ — will be backed by a multi-generational band. Booker T and the MGs guitarist Steve Cropper, Raconteurs/Dead Weather bassist Jack Lawrence and Bob Dylan/Neil Young session man Jim Keltner will assist ‘The Killer’ for the show.

Lewis released a star-studded album, ‘Mean Old Man’ last fall. The project, which was produced by Keltner, featured collaborations with everyone from Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger to John Fogerty and Slash.

Tickets for the show are now on sale for $30 (. While there’s no word on an album title or planned set at this point, the news is the latest in what will already be a busy Record Store Day 2011 for Third Man. The label has already announced plans for singles by The White Stripes, Karen Elson and ‘Rome’ — a collaboration between Danger Mouse & Daniel Luppi. (via Spinner)

“The crowd was fervent; many in it came dressed in black and white, as the band had requested. All were prepared to sing until there was nothing left to sing. That meant the band’s early singles, deep cuts from its three albums, covers of Alan Vega and Harry Nilsson, and more in a show that lasted over three hours, with a couple of breaks.

It was, depending on how you looked at it, a relentless dance party, a concert for completists, or a test. Turns out there’s something dutiful and academic about using the bully pulpit of a final show to play huge and sometimes unpopular chunks of a band’s catalog, including at least one lumpy number that Mr. Murphy said the band was giving its premiere live — and, of course, dispensing with. And there was an unforgivable lull during the show’s second portion, when LCD played “45:33” — that’s how long it is, though it felt longer — which was released as a workout mix for Nike but inspired no jogging here…

“I know it’s a long show, but thank you for putting up with us,” Mr. Murphy said before the encore, just at the point that the concert’s length was beginning to feel like a manifestation of ego…”

Video is dead but you can download an AVI (1.68 gigs) of the entire show from Mediafire. Download by Clicking Here

As one of the great 20th century philosophers put it, “Mondays Suck.” Well here’s a way to bust you out of your Monday blues: a red hot soundboard recording of The Ramones live at NYC’s Palladium, from January 7, 1978, at the height of their powers. They blast out of the gates with a ripping version of “Rockaway Beach,” then tear through 25 more songs all in 54 minutes. The video of the show below sets the audio of the gig to a series of cheap sci-fi and horror movie trailers. Enjoy:

THE RAMONES from Zoltan on Vimeo.

On their debut album, 2009′s I Blame You, the Obits sounded like a potentially great band whose members were still figuring out how to write material that matched the force and power of their sound. The Obits’ second album, Moody, Standard and Poor, suggests that they still haven’t resolved the minor flaws that dogged I Blame You, but this time around that seems to matter less. What made I Blame You work was the way Rick Froberg and Sohrab Habibion bounced their guitars off one another — lean, echo-laden leads wrapped around thick, chunky chords that complemented one another like tequila and lime — and bassist Greg Simpson and drummer Scott Gursky gave them just the right sturdy platform for their six-string interplay, and over the course of two years the band has only gotten tighter, better, and stronger at what it does. The best songs on Moody, Standard and Poor are the ones that let the Obits indulge in the interplay that’s their musical reason to be, and when they lock in on “You Gotta Lose,” “I Want Results,” “Beggin’ Dogs,” and “New August,” they sound like the first really great guitar band to emerge from the indie underground in years. As far as coming up with great melodic figures or clever lyrics, Moody, Standard and Poor is ultimately no better or worse than the debut; “No Fly List” is a pretty impressive litany of insults and “You Gotta Lose” confirms that Froberg has the garage rock sneer down, but his phrasing on “I Want Results” is sloppy enough that you might mistake the chorus for “I watch the soaps” on first listen. But what the Obits do reasonably but not remarkably well isn’t as important as where they excel on Moody, Standard and Poor, and when the pieces mesh just right, this band does guitar back-and-forth as well as anyone since Television, and rocks a whole lot harder to boot.