Radiohead Is Playing for Wall Street Protesters Today

The Occupy Wall Street protesters camped out in Lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park are buzzing over a big secret musical guest scheduled to play this afternoon at around 4pm. We hear that it’s Radiohead, who are in New York for a couple concerts.

It makes sense: Radiohead’s lead singer Thom Yorke has a history of lefty anti-globalization protest. What do you think: Are the millionaires from Radiohead authentic enough to be the bards of revolution? They’re certainly capable of mobilizing people: When their New York show sold out in minutes they almost caused a Twitter riot.

Update: It’s been confirmed by Occupywallstreet.org the official website of Occupy Wall Street. An Occupy Wall Street spokesman told me, they have no permit but the police are “aware” of the event.

Country star Dierks Bentley took part in Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’s Pink Floyd week last night by performing a rendition of the band’s classic ballad “Wish You Were Here.” As expected, Bentley put a country spin on the tune with a bit of pedal steel and a light twang, but his performance was true to the melancholy spirit of the original.

Pink Floyd week on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon entered its third day in high psychedelic style Wednesday night, as MGMT performed with a surprise cameo by Deerhunter and Atlas Sound frontman Bradford Cox. Watch the video below.

MGMT played a song that would seem natural for the East Coast psych-rockers: “Lucifer Sam,” from 1967′s playful, acid-warped The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Joining the band with a reel-to-reel tape player was Cox, wearing what looked like the same Joey Ramone costume he donned during a recent Georgia show with the Black Lips. Ample amounts of bubbles and dry-ice fog accompanied the ensemble’s faithfully trippy performance

Fallon’s week-long tribute to Floyd continues Thursday, when country star Dierks Bentley will perform the title track from Wish You Were Here. Pearl Jam will cap the week Friday with The Walls “Mother.” The performances coincide with an enormous Pink Floyd reissues series, kicked off this week with a six-disc box set edition of The Dark Side of the Moon.

“Luficer Sam” isn’t the only psych-tinged song MGMT have covered recently. The band’s spaced-out version of Bauhaus’s “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything” will appear on MGMT’s entry in the U.K. LateNightTales compilation series.

Cox’s Atlas Sound project releases its third proper album, Parallax, on November 8. Hear “Terra Incognita” here.

Watch: MGMT, “Lucifer Sam”

Band Of Horses start work on their fourth album Band also admit to being ‘really frustrated’ after support slot with Kings Of Leon was axed last month

Guitarist Tyler Ramsay says the band have been busy working on the follow-up to their 2010 LP ‘Infinite Arms’ despite the fact he’s been recording debut solo album ‘Valley Wind’.

He told Apesontape.com: It’s full on for the next record. We’re really trying to get it solidified and get it done.”

The band also admitted that they were “really frustrated” after their ill-fated tour with Kings Of Leon was recently cancelled. The Followills pulled the remaining dates of their North American tour last month, citing frontman Caleb Followill’s “vocal issues and exhaustion” as the reason for shelving the dates.

“‘Exhaustion’, yeah, I think it was the third show into what was supposed to be a seven-week tour,” Ramsay said. “It was really, really frustrating and quite maddening.

“We were in Tampa, Florida and we just sat there for three days wondering what was going to happen. Every 30 minutes there would be some weird update about booking shows here or there. We ended up going to El Paso and recording, doing some demo stuff in a studio there.”

Pink Floyd week continued Tuesday night on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, as Foo Fighters performed with the U.K. rock icons’ own Roger Waters. Watch the video below (via The Audio Perv).

Dave Grohl and Co. faithfully covered “In the Flesh?,” the opening track from 1979 rock opera The Wall, with Waters singing lead and playing bass. Foo Fighters and Waters — or “Roger and the Foos,” as host Jimmy Fallon called them — alternated with brawny, accomplished ease between the song’s trudging acid-rock riffs and its airy, soul-tinged verse.

Fallon also sat down with Waters for an interview. When not showing off his impression of staunchly traditionalist 1950s pop singer Pat Boone, the Pink Floyd founding member had some very complimentary words for the Shins, who covered The Dark Side of the Moon’s “Breathe” Monday night. “What a great singer that kid is,” Waters said of frontman James Mercer.

Fallon’s week-long tribute to Floyd continues Wednesday, when MGMT will cover “Lucifer Sam,” off The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Country star Dierks Bentley will perform the title track from Wish You Were Here on Thursday, and Pearl Jam will close out the week Friday with The Wall’s “Mother.” Pink Floyd kicked off a massive reissues series this week with a six-disc box set edition of The Dark Side of the Moon.

Watch: Foo Fighters (feat. Roger Waters), “In the Flesh”

Watch: Roger Waters interview on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

In his heyday, he lived at 783 Bel Air Road, a four-bedroom, 5,432-square-foot Beverly Hills mansion that once belonged to John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas. The Tudor-style house was tricked out in his signature funky black, white and red color scheme. Shag carpet. Tiffany lamps in every room. A round water bed in the master bedroom. There were parties where Stevie Wonder, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Miles Davis would drop by, where Etta James would break into “At Last” by the bar.

Just four years ago, he resided in a Napa Valley house so large it could only be described as a “compound,” with a vineyard out back and multiple cars in the driveway. But those days are gone.

Today, Sly Stone — one of the greatest figures in soul-music history — is homeless, his fortune stolen by a lethal combination of excess, substance abuse and financial mismanagement. He lays his head inside a white camper van ironically stamped with the words “Pleasure Way” on the side. The van is parked on a residential street in Crenshaw, the rough Los Angeles neighborhood where “Boyz n the Hood” was set. A retired couple makes sure he eats once a day, and Stone showers at their house. The couple’s son serves as his assistant and driver.
Inside the van, the former mastermind of Sly & the Family Stone, now 68, continues to record music with the help of a laptop computer. -[NY Post]

The dictionary definition tells you this: ‘With roots in blues rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, massive sound, characterised by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall loudness.’

All the above is true of Mastodon, perhaps the best and brightest purveyor of the heavy stuff around, since their grimy and gruesome start as an uncompromising thrash outfit at the start of the last decade. Now major label 200,000-unit-shifting purveyors of the most progressive, aggressive yet surprisingly melodic metal you could hope to hear, the Atlanta, Georgia four-piece are back.

Many fans may have been hoping for another installment in the lineage of 2004’s Leviathan, 2006’s Blood Mountain and Crack the Skye in 2009 – the greatest concept-driven prog-metal trilogy since… well, since ever.

Instead, The Hunter is Mastodon with an edge of complexity removed. Songs run to five or six minutes, instead of nine or ten as previously (the average running time here is 3.89 minutes, almost half that of Skye, metal fact fans).

Previously, Mastodon tracks had three or four distinct sections within each song, often with different time signatures, making them “a bitch to play live” according to drummer extraordinaire and, increasingly, vocalist. Brann Dailor. Not so, The Hunter.

Opener ‘Black Tongue’ is a classic none-more-metal riff, invoking Slayer and early Metallica. ‘Blasteroid’, a minnow time-wise at 2.36, lives up to its title with uptempo explosion of positive energy and the memorable refrain: “I wanna drink some fucking blood! I wanna break some fucking glass!”

‘Stargasm’’s eerie synth lines and cheerful central motif almost recalls Zeppelin, while the bizarre ‘Octopus Has No Friends’ mixes vocoder vocals with melodic duelling guitars and an earth-shattering rhythm. Stupendous.

You may have heard lead single ‘Curl of the Burl’ – the dirtiest, funkiest sound in the Mastodon canon. Its Sabbath-esque riff could level trees and scare police horses. It’s completed by Ozzy-style vocals from fret-twiddler-in-chief Brent Hinds and, do my ears deceive me, handclaps? it’s the most ‘pop’ sound yet from a band variously accused of making sludgecore and math-metal (Hinds maintains the band simply makes “classic rock”, for the record).

Whereas previous albums were at least loosely conceptually based around Moby Dick, evil mythological creatures and the life of Rasputin (that last one really does take some explaining), the focus here is broader. Evil beasties and magical powers remain, of course, but this ain’t Tolkeinesque.

The album is dedicated to Brad Hinds, guitarist Brent’s brother (who was an avid hunter) who died during recording. “So we started coming up with all these really triumphant moments for the record. It was like, fist up in the air. Like fuck that – here we go,” Dailor has commented of the intention not to sink into despair.

So Hinds sings with real tenderness on the title track: “All the love I’ve shown / Given to the ones I’ve known / All the love I make / equal to the love I make”. In this genre only Mastodon could make it work and somehow they do, with an intricate, spooky riff and a searing Hinds solo reaching to the sky.

Despite the tragic inspiration, these songs are lighter in mood than anything in the Mastodon songbook. On ‘Creature Lives’, after a Pink Floyd intro of oscillating synths, it’s a justifiably epic, slow-burning, fist-in-the-air stadium rock moment. Album closer ‘the Sparrow’ is melancholic and other-worldly, with its ethereal vocals repeating, over and over.

And this from a band that used to write tunes called ‘Mother Puncher’.

The Hunter is a pitch for the mainstream – but it doesn’t compromise on Mastodon’s core ambition. They are still the most talented, surprising and impressive band making intelligent hard rock today. Now is their time.

Sub Pop:

These dudes just can’t catch a break it seems. As some of you probably recall, Mogwai had to cancel a series of shows earlier this year due to visa issues. Unfortunately their makeup dates have now been cancelled due to medical issues. We wish them a speedy recovery and please stay tuned for the makeup for the makeup dates to be announced.

Here’s the official word from the bands site:

US DATES: ANNOUNCEMENT

It is with the utmost regret that for medical reasons we have to postpone our American shows this week and cancel the I’ll Be Your Mirror performance. We will announce new dates as soon as possible and apologise for the last minute nature of this announcement.

It’s five nights of Pink Floyd covers over at the ever musically-minded Fallon program this week, which began last night with the Shins honest-to-Dark-ness take on “Breathe.” If you think James Mercer handles this cover well, it is because he has practice. Although, it is also because his voice is generally custom built for this particular brand of pensive throwback melancholy. True Moon heads will miss the subsequent three-and-a-half minute instrumental acid freakout “On The Run,” but it’s a little early in the morning for such shenanigans anyway. This is also a nice chance to check out the Shins new lineup in action, so consider that and check it below, along with a listing of the rest of the week’s schedule (MGMT, Pearl Jam, etc.):

Tonight it’s Foo Fighters and the man himself Roger Waters on “In The Flesh,” Wednesday it’s MGMT going in on “Lucifer Sam,” Thursday it’s country dude Dierks Bentley’s turn with “Wish You Were Here,” and the coup de grâce on this whole thing is Pearl Jam’s week-closing take on “Mother.” We will post exactly three of those four.

Radiohead kicked off a busy trip to New York City tonight, joining host Alec Baldwin for the season premiere of “Saturday Night Live”; this marks their first appearance on the show since 2000.

Below, watch tonight’s performance of The King of Limbs cut “Lotus Flower”, as well as “Staircase”, a track the band premiered during their session for the Nigel Godrich-created performance series “From the Basement” (via the Audio Perv). Also watch the show promos Radiohead filmed with Baldwin and “SNL” cast member Fred Armisen.

The Flaming Lips’ six-hour song has arrived. Remember, the one you could pay $100 a piece to get your name in, to benefit the Central Oklahoma Humane Society and the Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklahoma?

Yesterday, Wayne Coyne brought the marathon song, titled “I Found This Star on the Ground” and packaged with an accompanying toy called Strobo Trip to Jackpot Records, where the song is exclusively available for purchase. But if you’ve got the time, Flaming Lips fan message board Slow Nerve Action has uploaded a series of SoundCloud streams of the entire track, divided up into three parts. Listen here.

Thom Yorke has confirmed that Radiohead will be touring in 2012.

The band, who announced two shows in New York yesterday (September 20), have so far only played one live show, which consisted of a secret show at Glastonbury, in support of their new album ‘The King Of Limbs’.

But speaking to BBC Radio 1′s Giles Peterson, Yorke confirmed that the band would be touring, saying: “The idea is to go out and play next year on and off during the year.”

The singer also indicated that Portishead’s Clive Deamer, who played with the band during their Glastonbury set, would be part of the touring band.

Yorke also spoke about his plans to release a new album as part of Atoms For Peace, his project with producer Nigel Godrich and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, revealing that he is “finishing the album” at the moment.

R.E.M., one of the great American rock bands of the last 30 years, announced it is breaking up.

A statement on the band’s Web site reads: “To our Fans and Friends: As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening.”

The Athens, Ga.-bred band — vocalist Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and, until 1997 drummer Bill Berry — became underground and college radio favorites in the 1980s on the strength of classic albums such as “Murmur,” “Reckoning” and “Document.” The ’90s saw them transition to chart-topping superstars thanks to hits such as “Losing My Religion” and “Everybody Hurts.” Even as their popularity declined, the band regularly released new material over the past decade, including its 15th album, “Collapse Into Now,” earlier this year.

Update, 2:29 p.m. EST Stipe comments on the breakup:

“A wise man once said–’the skill in attending a party is knowing when it’s time to leave.’ We built something extraordinary together. We did this thing. And now we’re going to walk away from it.

“I hope our fans realize this wasn’t an easy decision; but all things must end, and we wanted to do it right, to do it our way.

“We have to thank all the people who helped us be R.E.M. for these 31 years; our deepest gratitude to those who allowed us to do this. It’s been amazing.”

Former Hüsker Dü/Sugar helmsman Bob Mould will round out a year of career introspection with a star-studded tribute show, “See a Little Light: A Celebration of the Music and Legacy of Bob Mould” in commemoration of his body of work.

On November 21 at Los Angeles’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, No Age, Best Coast, Dave Grohl, Ben Gibbard, Ryan Adams, Craig Finn and Tad Kubler, Margaret Cho, and Grant-Lee Phillips will gather to perform Mould’s music. Mould will also perform. The show takes its name from Mould’s memoir See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody, published earlier this year.

Below, watch Hüsker Dü’s video for “Makes No Sense at All”, off the 1985 album Flip Your Wig.

Buzzgrinder:

Based on interview snippets and a few quick conversations with band members, I had a sneaking suspicion this would be coming. The recently un-reunited Bee Thousand-era Guided By Voices will be releasing a new record. Let’s Go Eat the Factory will be out Jan. 1. Bam!

Let’s Go Eat the Factory track list
1. Laundry And Lasers
2. The Head
3. Doughnut For A Snowman
4. Spiderfighter
5. Hang Mr. Kite
6. God Loves Us
7. The Unsinkable Fats Domino
8. Who Invented The Sun
9. The Big Hat And Toy Show
10. Imperial Racehorsing
11. How I Met My Mother
12. Waves
13. My Europa
14. Chocolate Boy
15. The Things That Never Need
16. Either Nelson
17. Cyclone Utilities (Remember Your Birthday)
18. Old Bones
19. Go Rolling Home
20. The Room Taking Shape
21. We Won’t Apologize For The Human Race

Rolling Stone:

This particular lineup of the band, which includes frontman and songwriter Bob Pollard along with Mitch Mitchell, Tobin Sprout, Kevin Fennell and Greg Demos, have not recorded together since 1996’s Under the Bushes, Under the Stars. This will be the first new material credited to Guided by Voices since the band’s supposed final album, Half Smiles of the Decomposed, was released in 2004…

Nirvana nostalgia is reaching new heights this month as fans and Kurt Cobain’s former bandmates celebrate the 20th anniversary of one of the greatest rock records of all time, ‘Nevermind.’ And now that you can check out the three previously unreleased Nirvana tracks that appear on the forthcoming reissue of the landmark album, well, pre-orders are going to go through the roof.

Seattle’s End radio station is streaming the songs, which include a version of ‘Breed’ recorded at Butch Vig’s Smart Studio and featuring alternate lyrics; a boombox demo of ‘On a Plain’; and a live recording of anthem ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ from The Paramount in Seattle.

Turn up your speakers, throw on some flannel and listen here.
Robert Sorbo, AP

Billboard.biz:
Live Nation Entertainment and Universal Music Group today announced the formation of a broad-based strategic partnership.

Live Nation Entertainment’s Front Line Management Group division and UMG will launch a joint-venture management company “aimed at managing and strengthening artists and their brands through a variety of worldwide sponsorships, strategic marketing campaigns and brand extension opportunities,” the companies said in a press release. The partnership will be managed by Front Line and “will focus on developing direct-to-consumer bundling initiatives for select UMG artists in key markets around the world that bring together concert tickets and a variety of music products with artist websites,” the release continues. In addition, ticketing and bundling products will be handled by Live Nation Entertainment’s Ticketmaster division…

Hypebot:
In a move that creates the world’s largest music management firm, Vivendi-Universal have formed a joint venture with Live Nation that will include UMG‘s owned management co.‘s Sanctuary, Trinifold, Twenty First Artists (TFA) and 5B and such artists as ZZ Top, The Who, Robert Plant, Judas Priest, Fleetwood Mac and Wolfmother. As we reported this morning, Live Nation Chairman Irving Azoff and his Front Line Management division will helm the venture. Front Line clients include The Eagles, Aerosmith, Christina Aguilera, Jimmy Buffet and Neil Diamond…

Having conquered some of the world’s biggest arenas and festivals, the Foo Fighters play to throngs of screaming fans everywhere they go. Thanks to their notorious sense of humor, both on and off the stage, as well as their catalogue of alt-rock hits, you’d be hard pressed to find too many people with outward disdain — much less hatred — for Dave Grohl and co.

So when news broke that the equally notorious Westboro Baptist Church planned to picket the Foo Fighter’s concert in Kansas City, Mo., this weekend, one was left to wonder just why the church has such a problem with the band. The hate-mongering followers of the WBC gave their reasoning in characteristic fashion.

“The entertainment industry is a microcosm of the people in this doomed nation: hard-hearted, hell-bound, and hedonistic,” leader Fred Phelps wrote on the church’s website. “These people have a platform and should be using it to encourage obedience to God; instead they teach every person who will listen all things contrary to him: fornication, adultery, idolatry, fags.”

“In August, after an unexpected summer storm, 4 people died when one of the festival tents at pukkelpop collapsed, leaving 10s of other people injured. The festival’s insurance companies now claim this drama was caused by illegal downloading. The reasoning being that fewer CD sales have led to an emphazise on live-acts and festivals. Pukkelpop is a yearly music festival in Belgium (since 1985) attracting up to 180.000 visitors and has sold out every year since I can remember.” (via boing boing)

Now you can pick up or stream the Alabama Shakes’ 4-track debut in all its soulful, tight-knit and occasionally unwound rock glory. I can’t wait to follow this quartet as they blow up over the next year or so. Give it a spin above, and grab the whole set for just a dollar per timeless cut.

Coachella 2012 takes place over the course of two weekends, April 13-15th and April 20-22nd, in Indio, California. A lineup announcement is likely months away, but music trade publication Hits Daily Double just dropped a rather noticeable bombshell at the end of their latest news report. We’ll just quote ‘em verbatim:

“…And though rock record revenues have diminished, the concert business, led by acts with multi-decade careers playing arenas and stadiums, has held steady and in some cases has actually increased. The same is true with high-profile festivals like Coachella, which has locked in No Doubt and Radiohead as two of next year’s headliners…

It should be noted that Hits Daily Double also reported that The Rolling Stones were “very close to finalizing a deal” to headline Coachella 2010.

We’ve reached out to the festival and the respective bands for comment and will let you know if they choose to respond.

It was a big day for Girls. The band’s second full-length, the BNM’d Father, Son, Holy Ghost was released on True Panther, and they appeared on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon”, accompanied by three backup singers, to perform “Honey Bunny”. They also performed “My Ma” as a web exclusive. Watch both below, with the “Honey Bunny” video via the Audio Perv.
Girls will also play an in-store at Nashville record store Grimey’s this Friday. The performance will be webcasted live via the websites of a long list of American independent record stores, in what Matador is calling “the first-ever nationwide instore.” Later this year, Girls will release a limited-edition piece of vinyl via the participating stores. (via pitchfork)

“Honey Bunny”:

“My Ma”:

New documents have revealed The Beatles refused to play to a “segregated crowd” when they toured the US in the mid-1960s.

A contract and rider, which was drawn up ahead of a gig at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California, in 1965 has unveiled the political sensitivities and personal needs of the band at a time when racial tensions in the US were a serious issue, reports The Guardian.

The documents also request “no less than 150 uniformed police officers for protection” and a “special drumming platform for Ringo [Starr]“.

At the time, The Beatles’ trailer was also required to have access to “electricity and water”, while “four cots, mirrors, an ice cooler, portable TV set and clean towels” were to be present in the Fab Four’s dressing rooms.

The documents – signed by their manager Brian Epstein – are expected to fetch up to $5,000 (£3,170) at a Los Angeles-based auction on September 20.

What separated Girls from their San Francisco garage-pop peers back on 2009’s Album was the sensitivity. Christopher Owens’ voice was so warm, hopeful, yet damaged as he sung about various women (“Laura,” “Lauren Marie”), and his partner and producer Chet “JR” White treated the songs with just as much loving discomfort. Two years later, the pair has picked up a supporting cast and loads of confidence for Girls’ second album, Father, Son, Holy Ghost. On the opener, “Honey Bunny,” Girls travel to the beach looking for love, with Owens doing his best Brian Wilson over gushing surf guitar and jangling tambourines. With “Die,” Girls deliver 90 seconds of blistering psych-rock that closes with Owens screaming, “We’re all gonna die!”, plus a King Crimson-worthy Mellotron solo. “Vomit” is a panoramic epic propelled by whirring organ, Mogwai-style guitar doom, and bona fide gospel wails. “Just A Song” wallows in folksy despair, while “Magic” bounces forth with loose new-wave aplomb.
In another band’s hands, all this stretching would seem sophomoric, but Girls have always been great at grasping. Though Owens’ grip still falters when it comes to the other girls in his world, his group’s astounding expansion seems to correspond with his discovering a more universal love: “If you don’t have a little love in your soul, nothing’s gonna get any better,” he sings on “Forgiveness.” What was once just sensitive has become downright spiritual.

Seminal post hardcore outfit, Scratch Acid, has confirmed a run of North American tour dates. As previously announced, the band will also be playing the second British All Tomorrow’s Parties festival (which is being curated by Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum), along with a London gig. Officially disbanding in 1987, these dates mark the first time the band will perform together since a brief run of three reunion shows in 2006.

The tour kicks off November 1 In Atlanta and hits NYC’s Webster Hall on November 7, Emo’s in Austin on December 10 and the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles on the 13th of December. The full tour schedule is listed below.

Scratch Acid’s “music for and about beautiful women” was first unleashed in 1984 with their self-titled debut and follow-ups, Just Keep Eating and the Berserker EP (all of which where compiled by Touch and Go Records as The Greatest Gift in 1991). Scratch Acid’s eventual permanent lineup consisted of David Yow on vocals, Brett Bradford on guitar, David Wm. Sims on bass, and Rey Washam on drums. Originally formed in Austin, TX, the band’s live shows quickly became things of legend – including performances dressed as Jesus, Hitler and the cast of Wizard of Oz (Yow as Dorothy, carrying a dead chicken to play the role of Toto). And of course, there was the time they opened for the Butthole Surfers after distributing 80 hits of acid to the crowd. Members of Scratch Acid went on to perform in Big Boys, Ministry, the Didjits, Tad and, most famously, the Jesus Lizard (with Yow and Sims again taking vocal and bass duties respectively).

Scratch Acid Tour Dates

Nov 1 – Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
Nov 2 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
Nov 4 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
Nov 5 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
Nov 7 – New York, NY – Webster Hall
Nov 9 – Boston, MA – Paradise
Nov 10 – Montreal, QC – Il Motore
Nov 11 – Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
Nov 12 – Chicago, IL – Metro
Dec 8 – Dallas, TX – Trees
Dec 9 – Houstin, TX – Fitzgerald’s
Dec 10 – Austin, TX – Emo’s East
Dec 13 – Los Angeles, CA – El Rey Theatre
Dec 14 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
Dec 16 – Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
Dec 17 – Seattle, WA – Neumos

How many times have you listened to ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ on repeat? As high-schoolers, most of us probably looped the Nirvana classic longer than our parents could stand. But 144 times in a row, not many of us can make a claim like that. That’s the stuff of uber-obsessed Cobain fanatics, and apparently Toronto has a whole lot of them.

The 2011 edition of the Scotiabank Nuit Blanche art festival, which happens on Oct. 1, will see ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ performed 144 consecutive times by Nirvana nerds, including members of Tokyo Police Club, F—ed Up, Woodhands, Gallows and Junior Battles along with Buck 65. The big showdown happens at Toronto Underground Cinema (186 Spadina Ave), and it’s just in time for ‘Nevermind”s 20th anniversary, too.

This outrageous event isn’t just for the pro, either. Anyone can do their part to keep the dusk-to-dawn tribute going. The enterprising media collective/record label known as Juicebox putting on the night are leaving this open to stragglers so anyone can decide last minute to show a little, well, spirit.

The Fall, who many believe are just now reaching their peak, have announced (via their label, Cherry Red Records) that they will be releasing their 29th studio album on November 14, and, with my mom’s birthday just a couple days later, I think I’ve found the perfect gift!

The new album, titled Ersatz G.B., is described as “retain[ing] many of [The Fall's] most distinctive elements whilst offering a fresh take on Mark E Smith’s familiar style and subject matter.” However, if you’re like me (and no one else is because my mom says that I’m sooo unique), then you’ve probably heard countless albums described in the exact same way; but please, don’t make mistake my sarcasm as malicious, because a new Fall album is always an event. To mark their momentous follow-up to last year’s warmly received Your Future Our Clutter (TMT Review), The Fall will also be releasing a special 7-inch single with a yet-to-be-announced A-side, but they did mention that it will contain an exclusive B-side that you’ll totally NOT be allowed to download and own without buying the single.

The Fall also announced that they will be heading out on a nine-date tour of the UK so that all the Fall-natics can get a chance to see Mark E., as if they haven’t already had a few chances.

Ersatz G.B. tracklisting:

01. Cosmos 7
02. Taking Off
03. Kennedy
04. Mask Search
05. Greenway
06. Happy Song
07. Monocard
08. Laptop
09. I’ve Seen Them
10. Change

UK tourdates:

09.11.11 – Glasgow, UK – The Electric Frog
09.18.11 – Tillburg, The Netherlands – Incubate Festival
10.22.11 – Cardiff, UK – SWN Festival, Cardiff University, Great Hall
11.02.11 – Leeds, UK – Stylus
11.03.11 – Edinburgh, UK – HMV Picture House
11.04.11 – Newcastle, UK – Riverside
11.05.11 – York, UK – Fibbers
11.15.11 – Cambridge, UK – The Junction
11.17.11 – Brighton, UK – Concorde 2
11.18.11 – Leicester, UK – The Auditorium
11.24.11 – London, UK – indigO2
11.26.11 – Poole, UK – Mr. Kyps
12.02.11 – Minehead, UK – All Tomorrow’s Parties

The elements of exposure have been against Beirut. Six years of not being able to walk into secondhand bookshops and shitty-sofa’d coffeeshops without hearing “After the Curtain” from Gulag Orkestar (2006) and the like has taken its toll—as it would take a toll on any album. While follow-up albums Flying Cup Club (2007) and the March of the Zapotec/Holland EP (2009) each took their rightful victory laps on my iTunes before bidding their adieu, long-term “infatuation-albums” is where Gulag Orkestar is squarely and securely cataloged for me. However, boxed and categorized as such, even The Rip Tide, this beautiful little album with its weighted horns, wintry marches, and longing plights of vocals, has been, shall we say, peppered with years’ worth of layers of disinfatuation-dust, a thick silt composed of shrugs, and enough callusing to emit a completely undeserved auto-hesitation at the suggestion of a new album. One can almost smell the coffee ready to brew along with this shit.

Far be it for me to say I’d ever tire of Zach Condon, the cherub-faced, wobbly trumpeter and mad strummer of heartstrings and ukulele alike. Honestly, as he belts out his age-defyingly august and lady-parts-melter of a voice, he’s as close as this girl’s got to an indie-Bieber. Just like with the Bieb, there’s an oddly similar duality at play between Condon’s frumpy, red-faced average-boy-ness and the unknowability that escalates to the practically mythical when Condon opens his mouth. And just like with the Bieb, it’s as if Condon’s got a bellows plugged right into my main artery, poofing my heart up with every breath. Whatever he’s selling, whatever instrument’s in his hands when he’s selling it: it’s unerringly pervasive, infectious. The ensemble of instruments used for light or dark, those buoyant strums or wavering wheezes and soars of Eastern European elements are equal parts used to break and ameliorate the ol’ ticker.

It takes a new album, perhaps, not to extend their catalog and presence, but to prove how simple and affective Beirut’s sounds are and always were, even when this majestic Bieber-like figure and his shlumpy, come-and-go band-mates are as loosely tied to one another as snot particles in a blown-out sneeze. The first realization in the earliest moments of opening ballad “A Candle’s Fire” is: Beirut doesn’t really need an invitation; Condon’s is the kind of voice I want to be hearing when I hear a song, any capital-“S” Song, and the band crafts the kinds of Songs that automatically throw open doors to my enjoying them. They are immediate escapades; they are deportations; they are twilight vignettes in ruins, Secret Gardens tucked away in woozy blurts of brass and waltzing strings. Theirs is the sound of escapism, but escapism that doesn’t take you anywhere except some tenderly internalized, sequestered notch in yourself.

Through the most austere of trudging-onwards tracks, to the most pathos-inducing ballads of “Postcards from Italy,” to Pallett’s lover’s plea “Cliquot,” Beirut’s songs are always narrations pregnant with urgency and desire, even if all that desire sounds like is exhaustion. And however theatrically ornate, however heavy of heart, Condon’s lyrics have always bounded past the music, his voice tugging at the bit, leaping ahead of each song’s pace in a tormented struggle fueled by one longing or another. Maybe one of the definitive differences between previous works and The Rip Tide is the way Condon sounds more in-step, more steeped in his own music: engaged in an interlude or dance with the music around him instead of jumping over it so strenuously. The brass instrumentation, for instance, has moved away from world-weary, wilting violets and has taken on a Southwestern heat and celebratory blare. Even the real Fiona Apple-esque pulmonary-pounder “Goshen” picks up with brisk snares tattering the tune’s simplicity.

Condon’s relaxed into this album, even gladly exchanged Flying Cup Club‘s fussiness for fustiness and a moth-eaten record static that infects the entirety of the tracks, from the distorted dust-mote quality of synths in “Santa Fe” to the little pops of spittle crackling in the corners of Condon’s cheeks as he’s singing a mantra-like ending to “The Peacock.” While Beirut’s discography has sounded like the fleshing out of a band that would be found only otherwise in a ghostly form emanating from a crackly gramophone, The Rip Tide has taken up more of this actual record aesthetic for itself—consciously or not.

Track after track, lyrics like “This day undone, but can it bring some good,” or “Whatever comes through the door,” or “If you have to go, would you carry on my way” implement visions of hands-in-the-air submissions and unusually opened-armed gestures of letting go. And perhaps this letting go is the sunniest disposition The Rip Tide has to offer. Instead of Condon as the source of the record’s epic pull and current, he’s reined in his penchant for grasping and grappling and seems to be content to rest on the shore, letting the pull of other things carry away what they will, sometimes with a eulogy, sometimes with smiling trumpets. It’s a great accomplishment from a songwriter for which we should expect exactly as much.

Even though Brian May knew Freddie Mercury would ultimately succumb to AIDS, the Queen guitarist recently revealed that he was suicidal after the singer’s 1991 death. In an interview with UK’s Daily Mail (via Gibson), May revealed that the impact of Mercury’s death was compounded by the loss of his father, who died around the same time.

“The band finished, so there was a terrible feeling of loss — the band was my family,” May said. “We lost Freddie and my dad died at almost the same time. I didn’t want to live. I’d lost myself completely. I coasted along and got by somehow, but I couldn’t get myself into gear. So I had to go into this place where I was isolated and removed from my life. Gradually, the suicidal feelings went away.”

The “place” May is referring to was an Arizona clinic that he checked into to battle his depression. The legendary axeman also revealed that Mercury — who would have celebrated his 65th birthday on Sept. 5 — ultimately decided to give up fighting the disease.

“Freddie loved life,” May said. “He lived it to the full. And towards the end, when he realised it was no longer fun, he decided to come off medication. He was suffering and sadly there was no way out.”

We’re glad you pulled through, Brian.

The problem, he said, will be finding an actor who can portray him on screen.

“There are feelers out at the minute [but] I’m in no rush right at the moment. Also, how are they going to find me? The idea of a succession of Keith Richards coming down is horrifying,” he said.
The award was presented by Johnny Depp, who would be the frontrunner to play Richards in any biopic. Depp famously used the Stones guitarist as inspiration for his Captain Jack Sparrow character in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

Richards’ autobiography won high praise when it was first published last year. It recounts his debauched adventures in rock’n’roll.
Richards was among the famous faces who attended the awards ceremony at the Royal Opera House.

George Osborne received the Politician of the Year award but avoided a potentially awkward encounter. Peter Mandelson was due to hand out the prize but Mr Osborne’s office refused to allow it, sourced said. Dylan Jones, GQ’s editor, stepped in as a last-minute replacement.

Hugh Laurie was named Musician of the Year for his new sideline as a blues artist. Other winners included golfer Rory McIlroy as Sportsman of the Year, Rob Brydon as Comedian of the Year, Sherlock’s Benedict Cumberbatch as Actor of the Year, Professor Brian Cox as TV Personality of the Year and Doctor Who’s Matt Smith as Most Stylish Man of the Year.
Special awards went to Bill Nighy, Sir Trevor Nunn and Olympics 2012 chief Lord Coe.

Woman of the Year was Lara Stone, the model. Other women who attended the ceremony included Emma Watson, who was there to present an award to photographer Mario Testino.

Full list of GQ Men of the Year winners:
Comedian – Rob Brydon
Solo Artist – Tinie Tempah
Chef – Heston Blumenthal
Politician – George Osborne
Most Stylish Man – Matt Smith
Sportsman – Rory McIlroy
Designer – Tommy Hilfiger
Woman of the Year – Lara Stone
Actor of the Year – Benedict Cumberbatch
Musician of the Year – Hugh Laurie
TV Personality – Brian Cox
Inspiration – Mario Testino
Editor’s Special – Bill Nighy
Lifetime Achievement – Duran Duran
Man of Next Year Surprise Award – Lord Coe
Alfred Dunhill Cultural Icon –Sir Trevor Nunn
International Man of the Year – Bradley Cooper
Band of the Year – U2
Writer of the Year – Keith Richards
The Armed Forces Special Award was shared by a number of ex-servicement who have been assisted by Help for Heroes.

Watch the full episode. See more American Masters.

(Flash Required)

The new video for My Machines (featuring Gary Numan) taken from Battles’ album Gloss Drop, out now.

Directed by Daniels, this video is a collaboration between Battles, Warp Records and The Creators Project’s The Studio, which produces and distributes works from artists representing a cross-section of creative disciplines.

The Flaming Lips are currently recording a six hour long song.

The band are recording the epic ‘Found A Star On The Ground’ to raise money for both the Central Oklahoma Humane Society and the Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklahoma.

For $100, fans can have their name put into the lyrics of the song and will hear frontman Wayne Coyne sing their name. For more information, visit flaminglipssixhoursong.com

Last month $800,000 (£550,000) worth of The Flaming Lips own equipment was destroyed when a lighting rig for a gig in Tulsa, Oklahoma, collapsed – causing the show’s cancellation.

As reported by News OK, strong wind and rain brought the rig down onto the band’s equipment.

Wayne Coyne was said to have rushed onstage to secure the instruments as the storm worsened. Between grabbing guitars and amps, Coyne took to Twitter, and let fans know what was going on: “FUCK!!!! Wind and rain destroyed the stage !!!!!”, he tweeted before adding, “Show is cancelled!!!! Devastation!!!”

Coyne also said he thought he was going to die via the social network site, before noting that the only injury was some speakers and instruments.

Daily Mail:

Facebook’s 750 million users will soon be able to listen to music through the site – sharing songs in the same way that users currently share videos, television programmes, Hollywood films and news links.

It’s a move that could put Facebook in direct competition with Apple’s iTunes service – and looks certain to cement the site’s position ahead of Google as the UK’s most popular web destination.

News of the new feature is expected to be unveiled at this month’s ‘f8’ conference on September 22 in San Francisco, an annual event held by Facebook to show off new ‘apps’ and technologies.

Music services partnered with the site are expected to allow Facebook users to listen to libraries of millions of songs directly via the site, without having to install special software on their PCs. Facebook users will be able to listen to huge libraries music directly from PCs in their workplace for the first time…

Digital Music News:

August 3rd, 2011: Facebook releases the ‘Musician’s Guide,’ a 40-page manual for creating a band presence on its network.

August 31st, 2011: RootMusic secures $16 million in second-round funding to further develop its Facebook-focused BandPages product suite.

September 1st, 2011: Roadrunner Records selects FanBridge to manage Facebook pages for its artist portfolio.

September 22nd, 2011: Facebook’s f8 takes place in San Francisco, a likely launching spot for ‘Facebook Music’. That probably includes stepped-up integrations involving Spotify, as well as Rdio, MOG, and others (now or later).

If MySpace Music is dead, then Facebook Music – broadly defined – is still just coming to life! And everyone has something to gain in this game…

The winner was announced this evening (September 6) at a ceremony at the Grosvenor Hotel in London. This was the first time in the competition’s history that every one of the nominated artists was scheduled to perform at the ceremony itself, although Adele had to pull out due to illness.

Harvey accepted the award and £20,000 cash prize with a straightforward, composed speech.

“First of all I’d like to say thank you very much for this award, and the recognition of my work on this album,” she said.

Harvey, the award’s first two-time winner, also made reference to her previous win, which famously took place on September 11, 2001, an event of course overshadowed by the terrorist attacks in New York.

It’s nice to actually be here. I was in in Washington DC watching The Pentagon burning from my hotel window, so it’s good to be here. So much has happened since then. This album took me a long time write. It was very important to me, I wanted to make something that was meaningful not just for myself but for other people, hopefully to make something that would last.

Harvey went on to thank “the people that have supported her throughout her career,” her manager, her record company Island, agents and “those who helped me make ‘Let England Shake’”.

The ceremony was broadcast on BBC Two and was hosted by Jools Holland.

The Barclaycard Mercury Prize was won in 2010 by The xx for their self-titled debut album.

The full list of nominees is:

Anna Calvi – ‘Anna Calvi’
Elbow – ‘Build A Rocket Boys!’
James Blake – ‘James Blake’
Katy B – ‘On A Mission’
Metronomy – ‘The English Riviera’
Tinie Tempah – ‘Disc-Overy’
PJ Harvey – ‘Let England Shake’
Gwilym Simcock – ‘Good Days At Schloss Elmau’
Everything Everything – ‘Man Alive’
Ghostpoet – ‘Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam’
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – ‘Diamond Mine’
Adele – ’21′

PRESS ASSOCIATION — Singer-songwriter PJ Harvey could become the first act to win the Mercury Prize twice if she proves the bookies right and picks up the award later.

She is in the running for her acclaimed album Let England Shake which has been installed as the 11/8 favourite.

Harvey, who won in 2001 for Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, said her latest album was influenced by current and past conflicts including the Gallipoli campaign of the First World War.

Head of judges Simon Frith described her as “an outstanding artist”.

Next favourite is another female singer-songwriter – Anna Calvi – popular with critics and bookmakers alike.

The London-based singer has been championed by producer Brian Eno and praised for her dark, passionate on-stage style.

Record-breaking star Adele has also bagged a nomination to go with the clutch of awards she has picked up this year.

Her second album, 21, is already the biggest-selling album of the year and set a new record for an unbroken 11-week stint at the top of the charts.

It is the second time Adele has been up for the prize, with her debut 19 missing out in 2008 to Elbow’s The Seldom Seen Kid.

The overall winner of the 2011 prize will be revealed at a ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in central London and be broadcast live on BBC Two.

American Guitar manufacturer Gibson, who’s guitars are held in very high regard by the music community worldwide, was just subject to a federal raid on August 24, 2011. S.W.A.T. teams with automatic machine guns entered the company’s facilities in Nashville and Memphis and shut down operations without any explanations.
Henry Juszkiewicz, Chairman and CEO is now speaking out and saying the company has fully operated under the law and done nothing wrong. Juszkiewicz is calling this raid and an initial one that took place in 2009, unwarranted attacks on his business and also talks about how he is currently suing the government and fighting for due legal process to present his case but is having a hard time even finding out what law the company has supposedly violated.

From Gibson Guitar Corp:
Henry Juszkiewicz, Chairman and CEO of Gibson Guitar Corp., has responded to the August 24 raid of Gibson facilities in Nashville and Memphis by the Federal Government. In a press release, Juszkiewicz said: “Gibson is innocent and will fight to protect its rights. Gibson has complied with foreign laws and believes it is innocent of ANY wrong doing. We will fight aggressively to prove our innocence.”

The raids forced Gibson to cease manufacturing operations and send workers home for the day while armed agents executed the search warrants. “Agents seized wood that was Forest Stewardship Council controlled,” Juszkiewicz said. “Gibson has a long history of supporting sustainable and responsible sources of wood and has worked diligently with entities such as the Rainforest Alliance and Greenpeace to secure FSC-certified supplies. The wood seized on August 24 satisfied FSC standards.”
Juszkiewicz believes that the Justice Department is bullying Gibson without filing charges.

“The Federal Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. has suggested that the use of wood from India that is not finished by Indian workers is illegal, not because of U.S. law, but because it is the Justice Department’s interpretation of a law in India. (If the same wood from the same tree was finished by Indian workers, the material would be legal.) This action was taken without the support and consent of the government in India.”

Check out the press release, NY Times coverage and interview with company CEO Henry Juszkiewicz below for more info and ways you can support this company and spread the word on this covert event.

According to a review by EW.com, Queens Of The Stone Age got more than they bargained for at Zach Galifianakis’ stand-up comedy show. The band had apparently asked the comedian/Hangover star’s manager for free tickets to his sold out show in LA Wednesday night (August 31). While Josh Homme, Troy Van Leeuwen, and Michael Shuman ended up getting good seats, they also became prime targets for Galifianakis.

“I don’t fucking know you guys!,” the comedian yelled at the band throughout the night. At one point, Galifianakis mocked QOTSA by saying “’Can we get tickets?’ Let me Google them and see who the f— they are! I don’t know you motherfuckers!” But it didn’t stop there, as Galifianakis actually brought Josh Homme up on stage for a Q&A session later in the evening. After the QOTSA frontman told him that he was from Palm Springs, Galifianakis replied “Palm Springs, one of those great heavy metal towns. Isn’t Warrant from there?”
In case you’ve never seen him perform stand-up, or if you couldn’t tell from his role in The Hangover films, Galifianakis’ style of comedy is off the wall to say the least. It’s obvious that he was just playing around with the band, and apparently Homme and the gang were good sports about it. We just wish we could’ve been there to see it.

Today in The New York Times Janet Maslin reviews Marc Spitz’s new book, “Jagger: Rebel, Rock Star, Rambler, Rogue.” She liked the book, and so do I. It argues against the prevailing and increasingly boring theory that Keith Richards is the Stones’ main claim to authenticity, the soul of the band, the principal force of their sound and songcraft, and that Mick Jagger is a shallow socialite poseur. If you were persuaded by Keith Richards’ strong attitudes in his memoir, “Life” — which has sold a million copies worldwide in under a year, according to a recent statement by its American publisher — you may believe in this theory yourself.

I understand that Mr. Jagger and Mr. Richards have been writing songs together since 1964. I like the way Mr. Richards has worked with the other guitarists in the Stones, and I like that when their gigs are flagging he turns his back on the audience, places himself in front of Charlie Watts’s bass drum and bears down on the groove. But sometimes I imagine a fantasy version of the Stones in which Keith Richards is not a member.

Mr. Spitz’s book doesn’t go too far into it, but there are a number of Stones songs allegedly written entirely — words and music — by Mick Jagger alone, or with other people who are not Keith Richards, or with minimal input from Keith Richards. They are not trifles: they’re among the Stones’ greatest, an alternate canon.

For amusement, here’s at least a partial list, an album’s worth.

Much of the information comes from Jann Wenner’s interview with Mr. Jagger, published in Rolling Stone in 1995. Other sources include Mr. Richards’ Life; a 2001 book of interviews with the band members, compiled by Dora Loewenstein and Philip Dodd, called “According to the Rolling Stones”; timeisonourside.com, which compiles various band members’ public comments about every track the Stones recorded; and the database compiled by the Swiss researcher Felix Aeppli, online at aeppli.ch.

“Yesterday’s Papers” (Mr. Jagger, in Wenner interview: “The first song I ever wrote completely on my own for a Rolling Stones record.”)
“Sympathy for the Devil” (Wenner interview: Mr. Jagger asserts that he wrote it himself, and Mr. Richards suggested it be played in “another rhythm.”)
“Street Fighting Man” (Wenner interview: “I wrote a lot of the melody and all the words, and Keith and I sat around and made this wonderful track…”)
“Brown Sugar” (Wenner interview: Mr. Jagger asserts that he wrote it all.)
“Moonlight Mile” and “Sway” (Wenner interview: Mr. Jagger asserts that he wrote both with the guitarist Mick Taylor; in Life, p. 283, Mr. Richards concedes that “Moonlight Mile was all Mick [Jagger]’s.”)
“Star Star” and “100 Years Ago” (according to Mr. Taylor’s and Mr. Richards’ comments quoted at timeisonourside.com)
“It’s Only Rock and Roll” (“Life,” p. 369)
“Miss You” (Wenner interview: Mr. Jagger asserts he wrote it with Billy Preston)
“Some Girls,” “Respectable,” “Lies,” “When the Whip Comes Down” (Wenner interview)
“Emotional Rescue” (written mostly by Mr. Jagger with Charlie Watts and Ron Wood, according to timeisonourside.com)
(by Ben Ratliff)

More than three million CDs as well as tens of thousands of film DVDs were destroyed, threatening a music industry crisis, when a giant Sony warehouse in Enfield, north London, was burned down earlier this month.
The building was also the main storage facility for PIAS, Britain’s biggest distributor of independent music, threatening the livelihoods of more than 150 independent music labels which were affected.
The blaze, which could be seen for miles across London, became one of the symbols of the chaos which erupted in the capital before spreading to other major cities. Witnesses reported seeing informal gangs of looters helping themselves to electrical goods shortly before the 260,000 sq ft building went up in flames on August 8. But evidence has now emerged suggesting that the well-guarded Sony DADC distribution centre was deliberately targeted by a professional gang, in a carefully planned raid, using the riots as a distraction. Sources in the security industry disclosed that intruders first arrived wielding specialist cutting equipment and spent up to two hours dismantling a high security fence before breaking in. It is claimed that they then summoned a fleet of vans and drove inside the premises, which are set back from the main focus of rioting in the area, before beginning to load up stock. According to one source, security guards on site were effectively overwhelmed and unable to fend off the intruders, knowing that police were already stretched as anarchy gripped the capital. After loading up with stolen goods, the robbers are then said to have invited other gangs in to continue the looting in an attempt to cover their tracks. By the time a crowd of youths were seen inside the warehouse helping themselves to stock including games consoles, the original robbers had already left the scene. Tommy Thompson, an employee at a nearby hotel, was attacked as a gang of about 20 looters made off, loaded with stolen goods, before the building went up in flames. A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police declined to comment on the disclosures. Five youths – two 17-year-old boys and men aged 18, 22 and 23 – have been arrested in connection with the looting and arson but released on bail pending further inquiries. Sony declined to comment while the investigation remains under way. The company has set up a new distribution site in Hertfordshire, averting the threat bankruptcy for labels which depended on the facility.