THE LONG-LOST LED ZEPPELIN SONG THAT WAS ALMOST ON ‘PHYSICAL GRAFFITI’…

Led Zeppelin boasts one of the most impressive — and successful — discographies of the rock era. But the songs that made it to their albums don’t necessarily tell the whole story, as evidenced by a feature in a recent issue of Classic Rock Magazine that traces the evolution of Jimmy Page‘s ‘Swan Song,’ which never appeared on a Zeppelin record — but came awfully close.

The ‘Swan Song’ story starts in 1974, when Page brought elements of what was meant to become a four-part suite about the seasons to the sessions for ‘Physical Graffiti.’ At the time, it was an instrumental featuring what Page is quoted as calling “a number of sections and orchestrated overdubs,” and while the band spent time developing it in the studio — you can find pieces from the sessions on YouTube — it was ultimately cast aside..

But as the article explains, the band’s decision to table ‘Swan Song’ had less to do with the quality of the song than the strength of the material they already had — and Page continued to return to it throughout the rest of Zeppelin’s career, incorporating some of its chord changes into live performances right up until their final tour in 1980…

Jesus Lizard fans who missed the alt-rockers’ 2008–2009 reunion tour probably won’t get another chance to see the band, and they shouldn’t hold their breath on hearing any new recordings. Guitarist Duane Denison tells Rolling Stone that, given his optimistic-turned-futile efforts to get the band back in the studio, the band is, for all intents and purposes, once again defunct. Jesus Lizard originally broke up in 1999.

“That reunion tour went so well – we kept it brief, and we didn’t extend it – that it just seemed natural to some of us to just go, ‘Well, let’s do an album. We all can still play, we get along, let’s do it,’” Denison says, explaining that “certain members” of the band started dragging their feet and hemming and hawing at how they lived too far apart and didn’t want to go the cliché route of a post-reunion LP. “Well, it’s a cliché only if you make it a cliché and you put out a shitty album,” Denison argues. Eventually, the guitarist gave up on trying to lure his bandmates back to the studio, a prospect for which he had started writing material for after the reunion tour.

It’s great that the Flaming Lips, 30 years into their life as a band, can still surprise not only their fan base but, presumably, their record label Warner Bros., with such a strange, tripped-out excursion as the Oklahoma City band’s new album, “Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends.” In fact, on this, their 14th studio album, they go deeper and further down the experimental abyss on a full-length album than they have in a decade, and seem to have busted out a bunch of distortion pedals that they haven’t used since they were discovering LSD and making seminal (if youthfully naive), psychedelic punk masterpieces like “Hear It Is.” So kudos to Wayne Coyne and company for their spirit of creative abandon.

But said abandon on “Heady Fwends” is often of the reckless kind, the sound of a band and a bunch of heady friends indulging themselves in the studio. The aforementioned “Heady Fwends” include, among others, Bon Iver, Kesha, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Yoko Ono, Erykah Badu, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Nick Cave and others, each of whom offers vocals on select tracks.

The Lips have long been the purveyors of beautiful chaos, the kind that harnessed Beatle-esque melodies and teamed it with distortion. For its part, “Heady Fwends” often sounds like the last minute of “Helter Skelter,” right before Ringo Starr screams, “I’ve got blisters on me fingers!”

Which isn’t a bad thing at all. This is noise rock, and the collaborators who fare best harness it to the greatest advantage. Pop star Kesha, in a weird non-sequitur collaboration with Biz Markie and the Flaming Lips, opens the record with the abrasive “2012 (You Must Be Upgraded),” and with it blows apart any question that she’s the most open-minded of the new batch of female pop vocalists. Rhode Island duo Lightning Bolt teams with the Lips for the psychedelic “I’m Working With NASA on Acid,” a title which accurately conveys the music’s essence.

There’s little beauty within this particular collection of noise; it’s often the staticky, abrasive, treble-heavy noise, the kind that actually annoys the ear drums. Which would be fine if “Heady Fwends” didn’t feel so cobbled together; it seldom gathers enough momentum, and doesn’t feel the least bit cohesive. There’s a fine line between “cobbled together” and “improvised,” and though the Lips should never be criticized for their occasional indulgences, that doesn’t mean all of them are equally worthy of attention.

“No introductions needed,” Big Boi begins on the latest track to surface from the OutKast-half-not-just-doing-commercials-and-Hendrix-biopics’ upcoming Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors (currently set for November 13 on Def Jam), but it’s hard to get past the impressive artist lineup on no-nonsense posse cut “Gossip.” Particularly considering the track, which premiered on Atlanta radio DJ Greg Street’s show last night, contains verses from both halves of Texas gangsta-rap heavyweights UGK, including Pimp C, who died four-and-a-half years ago. Throw in Big K.R.I.T., the Mississippi up-and-comer who rocked Conan’s TV show just a night earlier, and you have a generation-spanning array of Southern hip-hop greatness.

The track itself, ostensibly a tirade against haters who talk too much, is hard-charging and lyrically deft, with old-school production relying on chopped-up guitars and banging drum machines. All in all, a fine change-up after stripper-friendly “She Said OK,” which Street also spun last night. Boi is as nimble as ever, rhyming about Coca-Cola and cockatoos, while the laid-back Big K.R.I.T. (“I had you trippin’ like you smokin’ furl”), sneering Bun B (“Ain’t nobody body trippin’ ’cause the money already made”), and booming Pimp C (whose posthumous verse trips up on a dated “no homo” aside that gives away its inevitable age). Still, as hard as it is to judge by tagged-up radio rips, the track isn’t as instantly thrilling as its roster — nor as the untouchable procession of singles that led to Sir Lucious Left Foot.

Stream it below while it lasts

One lesser discussed fact surrounding the 1980s cult-favorite kid show Pee-wee’s Playhouse is that its whimsical set, puppets, and assorted other oddities were dreamt up by a few avant-garde artists. Namely, late-’70s punk veteran Gary Panter, Ric Heitzman and Wayne White provided the surrealist environment where Paul Reubens’ character let his imagination run amok. While all three went on to have further influence on the world of art and music, White’s post-Pee-wee work reached an even wider audience when he designed two classic animated music videos: the Smashing Pumpkins’ unforgettable Georges Méliès-inspired “Tonight Tonight” and Peter Gabriel’s “Big Time.” White is also a childhood friend of singer-songwriter Kurt Wagner, for whom he’s created numerous Lambchop album covers.

Now — as Yewknee points out — an inspiring new documentary about his career in art, Beauty Is Embarrassing, is hoping to fund nationwide distribution after earning loads of critical praise at recent festivals. Based on this preview, which features interviews by Panter, Simpsons creator Matt Groening, and composer Mark Mothersbaugh, the film looks like a must-see for anyone looking to fuel their muse. Check out the trailer below..

(via 24bit)

Having already logged studio time with buddy Keith Richards, Jack White would be a natural to produce the next Rolling Stones album, should the rock legends celebrate their 50th anniversary by heading back into the studio. Keef evidently agrees, and in a recent interview with — who else? — Rolling Stone, he talked up a possible collaboration.

“That’s always a possibility,” Richards told the magazine, adding that the band plans to meet in July to discuss its future plans. “The door is wide open.”

White teamed up with the iconic Stones guitarist in 2009, and while the results of those sessions have yet to be released, Richards is game for putting them out.

“I don’t know if [Jack] ever considered that it was actually, like, master cuts,” Richards now says. “But at the same time if Jack wanted to do it, I’d probably say, ‘Yeah.’”

The two clearly have a good rapport, and as if the prospect of White working with (arguably) the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band of all time weren’t exciting enough, consider this: The former White Stripe and sometime Raconteur cites “Undercover of the Night” as his favorite Stones track. What the world needs now is a flashy, political disco-rock anthem, and White may be just the man to deliver.

David Bowie split the Spiders from Mars after tensions exploded following a conversation about a sports car, says drummer Woody Woodmansey.

He reveals how a chance conversation took place on a plane during the band’s 1972 US tour, which broke Bowie in America but led to him killing off his Ziggy Stardust character.

Woodmansey was sitting with newly-added keyboardist Mike Garson on the flight. The drummer tells the BBC: “I was reading a magazine and there was a Lambourghini in it. I said, ‘Oh, that’s nice,’ and Mike said, ‘Well, why don’t you buy one?’ I said, ‘I wish.’”

Garson persisted, believing Woodmansey could easily afford the car, and it led to a discussion about wages. “I went, ‘What do you think I get?’ He went, ‘Well, I know what I get,’ and he told me – and it was three times what I got.”

The keyboardist explains: “I was getting a salary that seemed fair, and I just assumed the other guys were getting more because they’d been there several years.”

The conversation led to Woodmansey, along with guitarist Mick Ronson and bassist Trevor Bolder, confronting Bowie and manager Tony Defries. The three musicians threatened to leave the tour and go home.

“The final straw was Defries saying to us: ‘I would rather pay the road crew more than you,’” Woodmansey says, “I thought, ‘There’s no game here.’”

The Spiders were able to negotiate a new deal and the tour continued – but the fight permanently damaged relations between them. Along with Bowie’s desire to distance himself from his Ziggy character, the disagreement contributed to the band’s split when, in July 1973, the singer announced at London’s Hammersmith Odeon: “Of all the shows on the tour this particular show will remain with us the longest, because not only is it the last show of the tour – it’s the last show we’ll ever do.”

Ronson’s widow Suzi says Woodmansey and Bolder were the only people in Bowie’s organisation who didn’t know what was to happen that night. She says: “It was decided in Japan. Mick was sworn to secrecy and told, ‘If you do this for us you’ll be the next star, you’ll be doing the next thing – but you mustn’t tell the boys.’

“Everybody knew except Woody and Trevor. I knew, the sound guy knew. I think it was horrific to have done that to them.”

Garson, who continued to work with Bowie, comments: “It wasn’t a big deal to me. David was done with it, and any artist at any time is entitled to be done with something.”
(via: Classic Rock Magazine.)

Spotify is apparently far behind digital sales, but ahead of physical sales… Full story at Business Insider:

Spotify is now the No. 2 revenue source for the major music labels, a source close to the company tells us.

The No. 1 revenue source for labels is Apple’s iTunes.

The gap between Apple and Spotify remains extremely large, our source tells us.

Bloc Party have revealed the tracklisting for their new album ‘Four’.

The album, which is the follow up to their 2008 LP ‘Intimacy’, will be released on August 20 and has been produced by Death Cab For Cutie/The Mars Volta knob twiddler Alex Newport.

The record will contain a total of 12 tracks, with a single ‘Octopus’ preceding the record on July 3. The quartet have also released a video trailer for ‘Four’, which you can see by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking.

The band have previewed a number of songs from ‘Four’ during a recent intimate UK tour.

Bloc Party tour the UK in October, playing a total of eight shows. The dates kick off at Newcastle’s O2 Academy on October 12 and run until October 20, when the band headline Cambridge Corn Exchange. The run also includes gigs in Leeds, Glasgow, Southampton, Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester.

The tracklisting for ‘Four’ is as follows:

‘So He Begins To Lie’
’3X3′
‘Octopus’
‘Real Talk’
‘Kettling’
‘Day 4′
‘Coliseum’
‘V.A.L.I.S.’
‘Team A’
‘Truth’
‘The Healing’
‘We’re Not Good People’

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion return with Meat and Bone, their first album of new material since 2004, which follows their 2010 reissue campaign. It’s out September 18 via Boombox/Mom + Pop. Check out album opener “Black Mold” above– it’s also available for download in the widget below. They’ve also plotted a North American tour for this fall, after summer festivals in Europe.
Meat and Bone:

01 Black Mold
02 Bag of Bones
03 Boot Cut
04 Get Your Pants Off
05 Ice Cream Killer
06 Strange Baby
07 Bottle Baby
08 Danger
09 Black Thoughts
10 Unclear
11 Bear Trap
12 Zimgar

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion:
07-07 Liege, Belgium – Liege Les Ardentes Festival
07-08 Lille, Belgium – SJOCK Fest
07-09 Bordeaux, France – Le Rocher De Palmer
07-10 Perpignan, France – Deferlantes Festival
07-12 Bilbao, Spain – BBK Live Festival
07-13 Milano, Italy – Magnolia Open Air Park
07-14 Ancona, Italy – Lazaretto
07-15 Martigny, Switzerland – Caves du Manoir
07-16 Stuttgart, Germany – Schocken
08-09 Sibenik, Croatia – Terraneo Festival
10-06 Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts
10-13 Pawtucket, RI – German American Music Hall
10-16 South Burlington, VT – Higher Ground Lounge
10-18 Toronto, Ontario – Horseshoe Tavern
10-19 Detroit, MI – Magic Stick
10-20 Indianapolis, IN – Earth House
10-21 Chicago, IL – Bottom Lounge
10-22 Minneapolis, MN – Triple Rock Social Club
10-23 Milwaukee, WI – Turner Hall
10-24 Columbus, OH – The Basement
10-25 Pittsburgh, PA – Rex Theater
11-03 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
11-08 San Diego, CA – Casbah
11-09 Los Angeles, CA – El Rey Theatre
11-10 San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
11-12 Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
11-13 Seattle, WA – The Crocodile
11-14 Vancouver, British Columbia – Biltmore Cabaret

Full story from Bloomberg (via SPIN):

The Black Keys sued Home Depot Inc. (HD) and Yum Brands Inc. (YUM)’s Pizza Hut, alleging the companies used the rock duo’s songs in commercials without authorization.

The group said Pizza Hut and its ad agency created a commercial for a product called Cheesy Bites Pizza that “prominently features significant portions” of “Gold on the Ceiling.” Home Depot ran a commercial for its Ryobi brand of power tools that uses parts of “Lonely Boy,” the band said.

The use of the songs was “a brazen and improper effort to capitalize on plaintiffs’ hard-earned success,” lawyers for the Black Keys said in the complaints.

Here is the offending Pizza Hut ad:

Radiohead have released a statement detailing how the band will proceed following the stage collapse that killed drum technician Scott Johnson before a show in Toronto last weekend. Because the collapse damaged the band’s light show and stage setup, a group of Radiohead’s tour dates must be rescheduled.

From the statement:

Hello everyone,
As you will probably have heard the roof over the stage collapsed at our show in Toronto killing crew member Scott Johnson and injuring three other crew members. The collapse also destroyed the light show – this show was unique and will take many weeks to replace. The collapse also caused serious damage to our backline, some elements of which are decades old and therefore hard to replace.

Whilst we all are dealing with the grief and shock ensuing from this terrible accident there are also many practical considerations to deal with & consequently we have to try and reschedule the following shows…

Potholes Music‘s own Danny! just dropped some nostalgia-heavy visuals for Payback bonus cut “Goodbye Love“. The video features plenty of shots from the track’s sample source — Tevin Campbell’s “Goodbye” — along with clips of Yelawolf, Das Racist, Full House, and much more. It all makes for a pretty hilarious watch and just further cements why Danny! is Jay-Z’s new favorite rapper. Watch the video below.

That brief snippet of music from the Spoon/Wolf Parade/Handsome Furs project Divine Fits turns out to have been taken from their debut single, “My Love Is Real”. Merge will release the single on July 31, backed by the B-side “I Was Born in a Laundromat”.

In order to stream the new song, listeners must “like” Divine Fits on Facebook.

Watch a teaser for the upcoming Divine Fits album:

(via pitchfork)

Yoko Ono and Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore are set to release a mini-album, entitled ‘YOKOKIMTHURSTON’.

The six track album will be released on September 24 and will feature the 14 minute long single, ‘Early In The Morning’, reports Rolling Stone.

In October last year Gordon and Moore announced their split. The rock couple released a statement through their label Matador Records revealing that they were separating after 27 years of marriage.

The announcement raised doubts over the future of Sonic Youth after Matador revealed that plans for the band remained “uncertain”, even though they had previously hinted they would record new material in 2011. The statement read: “Musicians Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore, married in 1984, are announcing that they have separated. Sonic Youth, with both Kim and Thurston involved, will proceed with its South American tour dates in November. Plans beyond that tour are uncertain.”

Sonic Youth released their sixteenth studio album ‘The Eternal’ in 2009, while Moore’s third solo album, ‘Demolished Thoughts’, came out in May 2011.

Yoko Ono features on a track called ‘Do It!’ on the forthcoming collaborative Flaming Lips album, ‘The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends’, which also features Bon Iver and Nick Cave.

Last night, Bloc Party played their first show in three years, kicking off a world tour to introduce Four, their forthcoming fourth full-length due in August. Seven of the 17 songs performed were new, with titles like “3×3,” “Real Talk,” “Day Four,” “Team A,” and the reportedly fan-favorite “Truth.” Kele Okereke blogged about making the record last month, saying that he spent a year listening to just four records — “led zeppelin 4, deftones white pony, nicki minaj’s mix tape beam me up scotty and al green’s greatest hits” — though based on some of this new stuff it seems like his Gang Of Four and Fall records are never far from memory. Watch clips of “3×3″ and “Team A” below, and check the dates on that three month world tour (including three nights at NYC’s Terminal 5, which is a lot of nights at T5):
3×3

Team A

Here’s the setlist (via NME):
“3×3″
“So He Begins To Lie”
“Mercury”
“Hunting For Witches”
“Real Talk”
“Octopus”
“Song For Clay (Disappear Here)”
“Banquet”
“Day Four”
“Team A”
“One More Chance”
“This Modern Love”
“Helicopter”
“Truth”
“Ares”
“Like Eating Glass”
“Flux”

Tour:
06/20 – Manchester, England @ The Ritz
06/21 – London, England @ Koko
06/24 – Tokyo, Japan @ Ebisu Garden Hall
06/29 – Borlange, Sweden @ Peace & Love Festival
07/04 – Gdynia, Poland @ Heineken Opener Festival
07/05 – Sesimbra, Portugal @ Super Bock Super Rock
07/06 – Gdynia, Poland @ Open’er Festival
07/08 – Turku, Finland @ Ruisrock Festival
07/12 – Bilbao, Spain @ BBK Live
07/13 – Ferropolis, Germany @ Melt Festival
07/20 – Charrues, France @ Festival Les Vieilles
07/21 – Nyon, Switzerland @ Paleo Fest
07/28 – Byron Bay, Australia @ Splendour in the Grass
07/30 – Honolulu, HI @ The Republik
08/03 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hard Festival
08/04 – Chicago, IL @ Lollapalooza
08/05 – Montreal, Quebec @ Osheaga Festival
08/07 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5
08/08 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5
08/09 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5
08/11 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Pool at the Cosmopolitan
08/12 – San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands
08/16 – St. Polten, Austria @ Frequency
08/17 – Biddinghuizen, Netherlands @ Lowlands
08/18 – St. Polten, Austria @ Frequency
08/24 – Saint-Cloud, France @ Rock en Seine
08/25 – Zurich, Switzerland @ Open Air Festival
09/04 – Mallorca, Spain @ Mallorca Rocks
09/05 – Ibiza, Spain @ Ibiza Rocks
11/03 – Nantes, France @ Le Stereolux
11/04 – Lyon, France @ Le Transbordeur
11/05 – Bordeaux, France @ Le Rocher de Palmer
11/07 – Toulouse, France @ Le Bikini
11/08 – Milan, Italy @ Acatrax
11/11 – Hamburg, Germany @ Docks
11/12 – Stuttgart, Germany @ Theatrehause
11/13 – Dresden, Germany @ Eventwerk
11/14 – Munich, Germany @ Tonhalle
11/18 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Vega
11/19 – Stockholm, Sweden @ Munich Brewery
11/20 – Oslo, Norway @ Rockafeller
(Via Stereogum)

Good to Die Productions presents:
Deadkill – “Oh God Help You” (Official Video)

Deadkill is:
Bryan Krieger
Michael Stubz
Kirby C. Johnson
Michael Loftus
Shawn Trudeau
Debut Deadkill 7″ available now at goodtodierecords.bigcartel.com

The Sex Pistols only released a single studio album during their short initial career, but it’s certainly a landmark — and, fittingly, Universal Music this fall will commemorate the 35th anniversary of Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols by turning that 11-track album into a four-disc “super deluxe” box set.

As Super Deluxe Edition notes, a listing for the Never Mind the Bollocks box set has appeared on Amazon.co.uk with a Sept. 17 release date. No tracklist has yet been revealed, but a quick search finds Universal has it listed at its own online store with a £99.99 (about $157) retail price tag.

Furthermore, HMV.com shows a 2CD version also being released on the same day, but there’s no tracklist shown for that slimmed-down edition, either.

Previously, Future Of The Left made a strong case for the efficient, unindulgent three-piece being the platonic ideal of rock band setups. The three years in between second album ‘Travels With Myself And Another’ and this, its follow-up, have seen them expand to a quartet – yet the Cardiff group continue to have the practice of synthed-up, earwormy postpunk archness locked down. Strictly speaking, ‘The Plot…’’s 50-minute running time is probably 10 more than desirable, but this is still FOTL’s finest collection of songs yet. Andrew Falkous’ keyboards, like Les Savy Fav to the power of Devo, take centre stage; guitars crunch rustily and soar dramatically at various times. The lyrics, meanwhile, continue to move FOTL up two or three rungs of excellence: a world of unlikely celebrity anecdotes and exasperation at society’s dimness. “I have seen into the future/Everyone is slightly older” is this writer’s pick for its textbook bathos.

Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich’s live music television program “From the Basement” will return for a third season this summer. The new season will be available to watch in 3D on the station 3net in July, as well as in 2D via Crackle in August. In the UK, it will air on Sky Arts HD and Sky 3D. Guests will include the Shins, Feist, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Foster the People.

Previous seasons have featured Radiohead, the White Stripes, Sonic Youth, PJ Harvey, Beck, Jarvis Cocker, Fleet Foxes, and others…

Entertainment Weekly offers a brief clip of the Shins performing their Port of Morrow track “Bait and Switch” on “From the Basement”. Check it out here.

In the early-’90s metal drought, a strange strain developed through the cracks in the pavement, as downtuned strings, sluggish tempos, and vintage amplification led to the blossoming of stoner rock. A large number of bands cashed in on the genre’s fruition with erudite riffage and rad tuneage, but such a cash-in eluded the stump-dragging trogs of Sleep, whose clunky riff-mastery and weed obsession made them the stupidest-sounding smart stoner-metal band around. Before imploding in ’96, they delivered this “fuck you” of an album song cycle — legend has it that it arrived at London Records as a DAT tape in a porcelain skull bong in a police helmet. London passed, and the world was deprived of the band’s masterwork for years — and what a shame, for Dopesmoker, an hour-long uninterrupted chug saga, is one of rock’s great concept albums. The lyrics, obsessed with pot and religious pilgrimage, are both sublime and ridonk; one ’90s bootleg version had a crucified pot leaf on its cover. “Drop out of life with bong in hand/And follow the smoke to the riff-filled land” were the opening lines to one of rock’s greatest musical journeys. My advice: take this, the album’s third legit release (which, by the way, sounds so balls you can practically hear the dank nugs), pop it in, turn out all the lights, face Mecca, and bow down…..

Best Coast’s Instagram-style love letter to Los Angeles comes out as an homage to early-’80s MTV, which seems appropriate enough. I’m fairly certain that image of Bobb Bruno buried in the sand with his guitar is ripped straight from a Huey Lewis video I saw once as a kid. And like Norton’s Regina Spektor video, this is a lighter-than-air barrage of images that never lingers too long on any one thing. Norton’s been around for a while without ever getting any real attention, but just take a look at his resume. The man has some magic.

Update: The Guardian spoke to a rep for the band…

The Rolling Stones have denied that they will be bowing out next year with a headline show at Glastonbury festival.

They also said the band would not be playing the festival.

Better late than never! Full story at the Mirror:

The Rolling Stones are set to bow out in sensational style… with a farewell gig at ­Glastonbury next year.

The band, whose four members have a combined age of 272, will play the ­coveted Sunday night headline slot on the Pyramid stage after talks with festival organisers Michael and Emily Eavis.

Sources close to the band indicate that the appearance is expected to be the final date in a “handful” of shows in Britain and America in 2013 – which they see as their true 50th anniversary – before they ­finally retire from the live arena.

Mogwai’s 2011 record Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will is getting the remix treatment. A Wrenched Virile Lore will include reworked versions from Tim Hecker, the Soft Moon, RM Hubbert, Robert Hamson, Zombi, Justin Broadrick, Xander Harris, Umberto, and Cyclob. No release schedule or tracklist has been released as of yet, but you can download Xander Harris’ version of “How to Be a Werewolf” below in exchange for an email address.

Death Cab’s Ben Gibbard shared an abandoned cover of the title track to Stars’ enduring 2004 LP, Set Yourself on Fire. Hope for a sophomore Postal Service record might be waning, but this cut isn’t too far from being in the same vein. (via 24bit)

Both the Flaming Lips and Radiohead were scheduled to play shows in Toronto this weekend. Radiohead’s show, however, was cancelled following the tragic death of drum technician Scott Johnson during a stage collapse hours before the scheduled performance. In support of “the Radiohead family,” the Flaming Lips covered “Knives Out” at their show.

“This unspeakable thing that happened…it can’t help but affect our mood tonight,” Wayne Coyne said. “All of our thoughts and all of our collective good karma goes to them…and to the families of those who were hurt.” Watch video of the cover below, via Radiohead at Ease and Pitchfork.

Shia LaBeouf’s dong is probably not the first thing you’d expect to see in a Sigur Rós video, but it is indeed one of the first things that appears onscreen in the new video for the meditative instrumental piece “Fjögur Píanó.” In the clip, we see LaBeouf engaging in some morning naked experimental ballet with a limber blonde ladyfriend, going on an underwater car ride, crying at the sight of a room full of wall-mounted butterflies, and committing some sort of bloody sex assault. It doesn’t make the tiniest bit of sense, but it’s fascinating regardless. The video, from director “Alma Har’el, is part of the band’s “Mystery Film Experiment series,” which has already given us videos for the Valtari songs “Ég Anda” and “Varúð.” Watch the incredibly strange new one below.

(via stereogum)

Morrissey will take a break from wallowing to tour the U.S. this fall, a calendar of dates that includes a gig with Iggy & The Stooges in L.A. Check the dates out below.

10/05 – Boston, MA @ Wang Theatre

10/06 – Waterbury, CT @ Palace Theater

10/10 – New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall

10/15 – Portland, ME @ State Theatre

10/16 – Burlington, VT @ Flynn Center for the Performing Arts

10/18 – Albany, NY @ Palace Theatre

10/19 – Niagara Falls, NY @ Rapids Theatre

10/23 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Heinz Hall

10/24 – Columbus, OH @ LC Indoor Pavilion

10/26 – Flint, MI @ James H Whiting Auditorium

10/27 – Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theatre

10/29 – Minneapolis, MN @ Orpheum Theatre

10/30 – Clear Lake, IA @ Surf Ballroom

11/01 – Lincoln, NE @ Rococo Theatre

11/03 – Denver, CO @ Ellie Caulkins Opera House

11/04 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kingsbury Hall at University of Utah

11/08 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre

11/10 – Bellingham, WA @ Mount Baker Theatre

11/11 – Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

11/14 – Davis, CA @ Robert Mondavi Center at UC Davis

11/16 – San Francisco, CA @ Davies Symphony Hall

11/17 – Reno, NV @ John Ascuaga’s Nugget – Rose Ballroom

11/21 – Tempe, AZ @ Marquee Theater

11/23 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas at The Chelsea Ballroom

11/24 – Los Angeles, CA @ Staples Center Arena
+
11/27 – El Paso, TX @ Tricky Falls

11/28 – Wichita Falls, TX @ Kay Yeager Coliseum

11/30 – Pharr, TX @ Pharr Entertainment Center

12/01 – Beaumont, TX @ Jefferson Theatre

12/03 – Atlanta, GA @ Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre

12/05 – Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel

12/07 – North Bethesda, MD @ The Music Center at Strathmore

12/08 – Atlantic City, NJ @ Showboat Resort and Casino – House of Blues


+ = w/ Iggy & The Stooges

Here is a video gathering of some excellent cover songs from Sir Paul, enjoy !!

Paul Weller – Birthday

D’Angelo, ?uestlove and friends – She Came In Through The Bathroom Window

Jack White – Mother Nature’s Son

Bob Dylan – Yesterday

Red House Painters – Silly Love Songs

Dave Grohl and Norah Jones – Maybe I’m Amazed

Florence + The Machine – Oh Darling!

Sufjan Stevens – What Goes On

Elliot Smith – Because

Fiona Apple – Across the Universe

Pixies – Wild Honey Pie

Nick Cave – Let It Be

One man died after metalwork collapsed onto a stage in Toronto’s Downsview Park on Saturday afternoon, minutes before spectators were set to begin streaming in to watch a concert by the alternative rock group Radiohead, authorities said.

Ian McClelland, deputy commander of Toronto Emergency Medical Services, said that city paramedics pronounced the person dead at the scene.

Toronto police later announced on Twitter that the victim was a male in his 30s.

Another man who suffered serious injuries due to the collapse was transported to Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital, said McClelland. The 45-year-old man suffered a head injury that isn’t considered life-threatening, according to Toronto police.

The other men with minor injuries were assessed and released, McClelland said. He added that he didn’t believe any others were affected.

The victims were setting up a stage in the park when a “scaffolding-type structure collapsed” about 40 to 60 feet above the main stage area, said Toronto fire Capt. Mike Strapko.

Aerial footage showed that some metal framing — some of it covered in a blue material — crumpled on the stage, which was in front of a large grassy area. Some of the scaffolding-like material remained standing, reaching about 50 feet in the sky.

Uniformed personnel surveyed the scene, with yellow crime tape stretching around the stage and the surrounding area with police cars, fire trucks and at least one EMS vehicle parked nearby.

The incident occurred around 4 p.m., according to Toronto Police Service Constable Harrison Ford. The weather was good at the time, with no storm or significant winds, he said.

The gates were scheduled to open, allowing fans onto the concert grounds, at 5 p.m., according to CNN affiliate CBC.

That show — which was sold out and had been scheduled for Saturday evening — was canceled due to what the production company Live Nation Entertainment described as “unforeseen circumstances.”

“Radiohead concert canceled. There has been an incident, more details forthcoming,” said a post on Downsview Park’s official Facebook page.

The band was to be joined by the Canadian musician known as Caribou.
(via CNN)

Robert Pollard continues the most prolific outpour in all of popular music with yet another defiant winner.

Ah, Guided By Voices, where to begin? Their 1983 birth in Dayton, Ohio? Its legendary three-classic LP run of Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes, and Under the Bushes Under the Stars? Robert Pollard’s prolific output? The “classic lineup” reunion for Matador’s 21st birthday party in Vegas? Or on this very LP, Class Clown Spots a UFO, their 18th proper studio effort? Really all of those things can be combined and are worth a mention when talking about, taking in, or explaining Class Clown Spots a UFO. The classic lineup’s been reunited and going strong, this is its strongest release since that classic three-LP run, Pollard’s finally back at the top of his game, and the band’s held onto its Midwest roots and still manage to sound fresh and vital.

Make no mistake, Class Clown Spots a UFO is a classic Guided By Voices record, with brief songs that almost seem fragmented until you realize how complete they actually are, never lacking passion or honesty. Pollard may not be a pop perfectionist, but he’s always pretty damn close to one, which is an incredibly impressive feat considering the amount of material he releases with various different projects. The closest thing Guided By Voices have had to a “hit” was “Game of Pricks” back in 1995. Their songs have never catered to any particular set of rules; they’ve always just stood out as unbelievably good left-field pop songs that bristle with a passion more befitting of a political punk band. It’s part of what makes them so interesting: they’re not rallying for anything but themselves and what they believe in, all of which can be found within the lyrics to Class Clown Spots a UFO from science fiction to broken relationships.

Again, in typical Guided By Voices fashion, the tracklist may seem intimidating at first glance, being 21 songs long. But the record still manages to run under 40 minutes, making it a little shorter than most full-lengths being put out today. Leading off with “He Rises! Our Union Bellboy”, it quickly becomes very clear that their aim is higher here than it was with their first full-length effort from this year, the reintroductory Let’s Go Eat the Factory. From the surprisingly expansive and altogether brilliant opening track, Class Clown Spots a UFO never hesitates to look back. It goes full throttle as if to make clear that their decision to come back wasn’t a fluke. They couldn’t have had put out a more compelling argument.

Granted, there are a few moments in a select few songs that don’t quite hit their mark, but it’s those miscues that make Guided By Voices so interesting and raw. This is honest music. It also helps that any time they land on any of those false notes, they’re immediately remedied by one element or another. There’s a lot more subtlety on Class Clown Spots a UFO than one might expect, whether it be a light orchestral arrangement buried in the production, or a simple three-note guitar drone. Another thing helping matters is that when Pollard hits his stride, he’s a lyricist of surprising warmth and pathos. All of that is evidenced very early on, even within the two-song punch of the tender “Forever Until It Breaks” and the rollicking title track.

“Class Clown Spots a UFO” is an interesting staple in the band’s legendary discography, because when it first appeared, it was a thing of absolute devastation, a song of heartbreak. Here, it’s reworked into a warm celebration. That transition from bleak to utterly winsome seems to serve as a good metaphor for the recent change of fate for the band. It also serves as a persistent reminder of Guided By Voices’ enviable versatility. After that outburst of happiness and warmth comes the first of five songs on Class Clown Spots a UFO that come in under the “one-minute-or-under” mark, “Chain to the Moon”, which is another song that emulates loneliness to an unnerving degree and is one of the record’s best songs. Not to be outdone, two of the other four short songs, “Roll of the Dice, Kick in the Head” and “Lost in Spaces”, can boast the same claim. The remaining two, the Pavement-esque “Fighter Pilot” and “Worm with 7 Broken Hearts”, recallin early-era Black Lips, come fairly close to being able to say the same as well.

Really, the heart of Class Clown Spots a UFO lies in the songs that are around the one-and-a-half- to two-and-a-half -minute mark. This is a classic Guided By Voices record, after all. Of those, there aren’t any that don’t stand out (with the possible exception of “Tyson’s High School”), making Class Clown Spots A UFO one of the strongest LPs that Guided By Voices have ever released. Many of them play up a psychedelic influence on a much more noticeable level than they had previously. The 60s psych-pop flourishes only help define some of the songs and add an extra dimension to the overall mood and tone to Class Clown Spots a UFO.

However, the most surprising aspect of this record is how devastating some of the slower songs end up being. Guided By Voices have never been as adept at breaking hearts as igniting them, at least never this consistently. Every time they touch the breaks on their tempo, they unleash a small but almost violently despaired track. When their universe collapses, so does this listener. This is especially noticeable on “Be Impeccable” and the short “Lost in Spaces”. Fortunately, the band doesn’t leave the record hanging on that kind of note. It wouldn’t have fit the record as well as what they do decide to end with, the fierce “No Transmission”: “No Transmission” expertly brings everything to a crashing close, re-igniting an energetic fire that’ll leave the listener on an adrenaline high and have him anxiously awaiting their follow-up record, Bears for Lunch, to be released later this year. It’s not a rumor anymore, folks. Guided By Voices are back. In a big way.

On July 24, Drag City will release Silencio, the sophomore solo album from Stereolab frontwoman Laetitia Sadier. Sadier is also planning a U.S. fall tour in support of the record– dates below.

Laetitia Sadier:
07-15 Suffolk, England – Latitude Festival
09-15 Chicago, IL – Schubas
09-16 Pontiac, MI – Pike Room at Crofoot
09-18 Toronto, Ontario – Drake Hotel
09-19 Montreal, Quebec – Pop Montreal Festival
09-20 Cambridge, MA – Middle East Cafe
09-21 New York, NY – Mercury Lounge
09-22 Brooklyn, NY – Knitting Factory
09-23 Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
09-25 Washington, DC – DC9
09-26 Pittsburgh, PA – Thunderbird Cafe
09-27 Cincinnati, OH – Midpoint Music Festival
09-28 Urbana, IL – Pygmalion Music Festival
09-29 Madison, WI – University of Wisconsin
09-30 Minneapolis, MN – 400 Bar
10-03 Seattle, WA – Barboza
10-04 Portland, OR – Bunk Bar
10-05 San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill
10-06 Los Angeles, CA – Culture Collide Festival
10-10 Denver, CO – Hi-Dive

The Zappa Family Trust, the “corporation” that handles all things having to do with Frank Zappa, have announced that they have signed a new contract with Universal Music Enterprises which will see 60 of Frank’s albums get rereleased. The program will see all of the albums from Zappa’s Barking Pumpkin Records be put back on the market.

The releases will come out monthly in batches of 12 starting on July 31 with some of his most iconic works:
Freak Out! (1966)
Absolutely Free (1967)
Lumpy Gravy (1968)
We’re Only in It for the Money (1968)
Cruising with Ruben & the Jets (1968)
Uncle Meat (1969)
Hot Rats (1969)
Burnt Weeny Sandwich (1970)
Weasels Ripped My Flesh (1970)
Chunga’s Revenge (1970)
Fillmore East, June 1971 (1971)
Just Another Band from L.A. (1972)
In most cases, the analog masters have been remastered for the new release.

Sleigh Bells offer a dark and dizzy live performance clip to accompany their Reign of Terror cut “Demons”. The band’s Derek Miller co-directs, with Gregory Kohn.

Damon Albarn enlisted Bobby Womack to sing on Gorillaz’s 2010 album Plastic Beach, pushing the great soul singer back into action after a prolonged period of silence. Remarkably, the unlikely pair struck up a friendship, a partnership that led to 2012′s The Bravest Man in the Universe, Womack’s first album in 13 years. Signing with Richard Russell’s XL Records, Womack collaborated with his longtime cohort Harold Payne, Albarn, and Russell on this ghostly, skeletal soul collection, each man bringing his own signatures to the table. Russell’s beats intertwine with Albarn’s spectral chords, each evoking distinct memories of his past work, but even if there are clear antecedents in Russell’s production of Gil Scott-Heron or the futuristic funk oeuvre of Gorillaz, these two do not bend Womack to fit their needs: they free him to make a startlingly modern Bobby Womack album, one that harks back to such previous masterworks as Understanding and The Poet, albums that fully embodied both the singer and his times. And so it is with The Bravest Man in the Universe, an album that sounds like 2012 as much as it sounds like Womack: the rhythms belong to the modern world, the slow, shimmering grooves undeniably Womack’s, as he’s been specializing in this sound since the turn of the ’70s. Initially, the most bracing elements of The Bravest Man in the Universe are those electronic flourishes from Russell and Albarn and, most of all, the power of Womack’s singing. He’s showing signs of age — his voice is etched and weathered — but he sounds undiminished, both as a vocalist and as a man. This is not a quiet, mournful album about the dying of the light; this is about living in the moment, embracing age and modernity with equal enthusiasm. The past is present on The Bravest Man in the Universe — nowhere more so than on “Dayglo Reflection,” where a song by Womack mentor Sam Cooke is interpolated and chanteuse of the year Lana Del Rey is deployed as effectively ethereal counterpart, but Bobby covers the traditional “Deep River” and revives “Whatever Happened to the Times,” a song he co-wrote with his old running partner Jim Ford — although Womack is never beholden to time gone by; the old days are part of him, informing how he’s facing the present, and there’s nothing remotely approaching nostalgia here. For as haunting as parts of the album are, there is no fetishization of death on the parts of Albarn and Russell; even with a tinge of melancholy coloring the fringes of the album, this is an album that affirms the power of life, in all of its mess and glory.

During their headlining set at Bonnaroo last night, Billboard reports that Radiohead dropped a major hint about a possible collaboration with Jack White. Before playing “Supercollider”, Thom Yorke said, “This song is for Jack White. We saw him yesterday. A big thank-you to him, but we can’t tell you why. You’ll find out.” Will they do a Third Man single like Beck? And the speculation begins.
Here’s Radiohead’s entire Bonnaroo set:

A rare Sex Pistols 7” vinyl single sold over the weekend for just under $20,000 (£12,860) at auction.

The record, which is 35 years old, is a 7-inch promotional acetate and features the band’s seminal single ‘God Save the Queen’ and ‘Never Mind The Bollocks’ album track ‘No Feelings’, reports Whatsellsbest.com.

The record was put out on the LTS record label, which makes it a substantial rarity. According to the sellers’ listing; “This is one of only two copies known to exist.”

During the Sex Pistols short-lived career, they were dropped a number of times by various record labels due to their controversial image and musical output, meaning that a number of their singles were pressed by vinyl plants only a handful of times. These singles are now some of the most valuable rarities in music.

The record sold on the UK auction website Ebay for $19,672 (£12,629), which is substantially more than the price received for the other LTS pressing of ‘God Save The Queen’, which fetched $16,000 (£10,766) in 2006.

Other rare pressings of ‘God Save The Queen’ on record labels A&M and Town House have fetched $17,000 (£10,925) and $23,000 (£14,780) respectively.
(via NME)

When news broke of the new album from the Liars’ camp, it was cryptic, to say the least. The album’s title, WIXIW, seemed like some sort of heiroglyphic mess, and the video trailer featured time-lapse footage of a banana rotting and microphones pointed at a bowl of Rice Krispies. But hey, this is the band that put out a concept album about a drum fighting a mountain, so weird is to be expected (or better yet, embraced). The key here, though, is the secretive, mystic nature of their work. Where other Liars albums obscured their truth in gritty, scowling dance-punk or walls of guitar noise, WIXIW sinks into a bubbling electronic groove and entrances listeners to a point of intense soul-searching.

Though they may have changed up their musical tools (focusing intently on synths and electronics), this is undeniably still a Liars album. The arrangements remain sparse, impassioned, and at times eerie. Angus Andrew’s falsetto, backed by the rich bass and slippery synths, sounds remarkably akin to Thom Yorke, but to lump this in as a Kid A sound-alike would be a disservice to its riveting self-inspection. Tracks like opener “The Exact Colour of Doubt” don’t come around too often: the music angelic while the lyrics frankly discuss dangerous emotions. “I’ll always be afraid/ I’ll never let you down,” Andrew croons over washes of Alpen synths, low-slung drums, and clusters of reverbed guitar notes. Though every component screams introspective crawl, there’s a life to the track thanks to scuffling handclaps and splashy bass. The airy “Ill Valley Prodigies” similarly evokes Yorke in the falsetto, though the minor acoustic picking and unearthly field recording behind him are Liars at the height of their evocative powers.

Other tracks, though, dive completely into the intensity head-first, thriving in their manic energy. In “A Ring On Every Finger”, a track tailor-made for high quality headphones, a minute sample of Andrew’s “uh” pingpongs between the headphones while electronics squiggle and synths build slowly in the background. Eventually, everything drops out of the mix save a buzz and a few scattered clacks, the anticipation for the groove’s return building as each drone reaches a crest. The interlocking synth grooves of “Octagon” drive at full-speed, the bubbling bass tones creating an anxiety fueled by Andrew’s admission, “I always knew you were right.” A stuttered sample of a manic laugh and some detuned synth stabs propel the dark energy even further. Few bands, if any, create tension as well as Liars.

“Who is the Hunter” opens with Andrew’s falsetto ringing out over a lone bass, the track building layer by layer, developing a straight-ahead fidget. “I never stood too long/ It won’t do anyone to watch that river rise,” Andrew languishes over a flowing, echoing marimba-like melody and a handful of synthetic layers. The melody’s coldness and propulsive energy evoke the unstoppable water, and the cruising strings that close out the track have that epic, downcast soundtrack feel that made “Scissor” (off of their last album, Sisterworld) so hauntingly memorable.

While some of Liars’ albums work off of an explicit concept or theme (Drum’s Not Dead used the aforementioned epic if surreal percussion vs. nature concept, and They Were Wrong So We Drowned was preceded by a good deal of time in the New Jersey woods studying witch trials and folklore), each album has its own distinct feel while still sounding like a Liars album. Any band without Liars’ intense knowledge of their own sound would take a song like “His and Mine Sensations” straight into the realm of Radiohead fan-boy wooziness, yet here it’s a new layer in the Liars canon. The wordless sampled vocal harmonies, cluttered synth warps, and broken outro could only be Liars, but this time their new world pushes the edge of electronic insanity.

The biggest anomaly on the disc is “Brats”, which recalls the group’s old dance-punk insistence. The drums slither between techno synths, and Andrew’s distorted vocals sound ready for some sort of grungy dance floor, a modernized club-ready take on something like “There’s Always Room on the Broom”. The fact that that song came out eight or so years ago (on their stellar sophomore record They Threw Wrong, So We Drowned) surely isn’t lost on anyone, least of all these constantly exploring, experimenting musicians. No matter how far into the ether they push, no matter what new form their music takes, there is a core Liars sound, and they’ve never sounded more aware of that or as ready to take on the challenge of reaching into that center. What they find there is pure power, an album that glistens and gleams, thrumming with life despite a massive dose of tension.

Grizzly Bear are back with their fourth album set for fall. Here is the first available track, enjoy.

He made a speech as part of a Congressional hearing on ‘The Future Of Audio’ yesterday, and indicated that he would like search engines to automatically block all links to websites which notoriously enable copyright infringement, such as The Pirate Bay. Google has always resisted blanket takedown requests aimed at entire websites, arguing that goes way beyond its obligations under America’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

But, Sherman says, advertising agencies have drawn up black lists of entire websites to ensure they don’t inadvertently buy ad space alongside unlicensed content, and he thinks search engines should have a similar approach to those websites that have, through one process or another (maybe a judicial one) been shown to be liable for contributory copyright infringement.

The Melvins will attempt to become the Guinness World Record holders for the first band to tour the full United States and D.C. in 51 days…“We figured it was time for us to do something REALLY crazy,” said Osborne. “51 shows in 50 states plus 1 on D.C. and all in 51 days? Jeez! I wonder if we can do it?”

“CBGB” is shaping up to be quite a star-studded affair. The film, which chronicles the famous New York City music venue, has cast “The Big Bang Theory’s” Johnny Galecki as Terry Ork, “The Borgias’s” Mickey Sumner as Patti Smith, and Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins as punk legend Iggy Pop.

Alan Rickman has already been cast as CBGB founder, Hilly Kristal, while Malin Akerman is set to portray rock icon Debbie Harry.

Rickman’s “Harry Potter” co-star Rupert Grint has also signed up for the “CBGB” project, as guitarist Cheetah Chrome of punk band the Dead Boys. “Avatar” actor Joel David Moore and Julian Acosta will play Joey and Johnny Ramone, respectively, while “Seinfeld” veteran Estelle Harris will star as Kristal’s mother, Bertha.

Brad Rosenberger, Randall Miller, Jody Savin and Kristal’s daughter, Lisa Kristal Burgman, are producing the film, titled “CBGB,”which aims to capture the Bowery nightclub when it was home to New York’s burgeoning punk rock scene and performers like Smith, Blondie, The Ramones, The Talking Heads and Television.

Kristal, who the New York Times dubbed “a rock midwife”, died of lung cancer in 2007. CBGB closed its doors in 2006.

“There was no real venue in 1973 for people like us,” Smith told the Times after Kristal’s death. “We didn’t fit into the cabarets or the folk clubs. Hilly wanted the people that nobody else wanted. He wanted us.”

Savin, who is also directing the film, told Bilboard in 2011 that “It was an old-fashioned salon in an awful part of New York where people could fail while they worked to find their voice.” He added that Kristal “provided a voice to the disenfranchised. It’s a heroic and flawed story.”

Like his video for M.I.A.’s “Born Free”, director Romain Gavras’s clip for Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch the Throne track “No Church in the Wild” takes place in a brutal police state. It features a mob taking on the authorities with Molotov cocktails, fireworks, lasers, and, randomly, an elephant. Gotta say: Kanye’s “you will not control the threesome”/”never fuck nobody without telling me” verse seems pretty out of place when you’re watching a cop get set on fire.
All in all, a big change from the Greaty Gatsby trailer.

The Arizona experimental roots band Calexico have a new album called Algiers coming out at the end of the summer, and today they announced all the details and unveiled the leadoff single “Para.” Below, download the track, watch the song’s grainy, impressionistic video, and check out the album’s tracklist.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Epic”
02 “Splitter”
03 “Sinner In The Sea”
04 “Fortune Teller”
05 “Para”
06 “Algiers”
07 “Maybe On Monday”
08 “Puerto”
09 “Better And Better”
10 “No Te Vayas”
11 “Hush”
12 “Solstice of a Vanishing Mind”

Algiers is out 9/11 on Anti-.

The Walkmen have planned a big North American tour in support of their new album Heaven. After touring with Florence and the Machine this summer, they’ll set out on a headlining trek this fall, which includes a couple shows with the War on Drugs. They’ll also appear on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” tomorrow night, and on Wednesday night, their show at the Bowery Ballroom will be filmed by La Blogothèque and live-streamed on Spotify.
The Walkmen:
06-06 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
06-08 Porto, Portugal – Optimus Primavera Sound
06-09 Toledo, Spain – Circulo De Arte
06-11 Berlin, Germany – Roter Salon
06-12 London, England – Village Underground
06-14 Paris, France – Nouveau Casino
06-27 Louisville, KY – WFPK Waterfront Wednesdays
06-28 St. Louis, MO – Plush
06-29 Milwaukee, WI – Summerfest
06-30 Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
07-05 Salt Lake City, UT – Pioneer Park
07-21 Burnaby, British Columbia – Deer Lake Park %
07-21 Auburn, WA – White River Amphitheatre %
07-22 Troutdale, OR – Edgefield %
07-25 Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre %
07-29 Indianapolis, IN – The Lawn @ White River State Park
07-30 Cleveland, OH – Jacobs Pavilion %
07-31 Detroit, MI – Fox Theatre %
08-02 Toronto, Ontario – Molson Canadian Amphitheatre %
08-03 Montreal, Quebec – Osheaga Festival
08-05 Chicago, IL – Lollapalooza
08-10 San Francisco, CA – Outside Lands
08-11 San Francisco, CA – Outside Lands
08-12 Saint-Malo, France – La Route Du Rock
08-17-19 Glanusk Park, Wales – Green Man Festival
09-12 Los Angeles, CA – Anson Ford Amphitheatre
09-14 San Diego, CA – House of Blues
09-15 Santa Ana, CA – The Conservatory
09-16 Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom
09-18 Norman, OK – University of Oklahoma
09-19 Dallas, TX – Granada Theatre
09-20 Austin, TX – Stubbs
09-21 Houston, TX – Warehouse Live
09-22 New Orleans, LA – Tipitinas
09-26 Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
09-27 Nashville, TN – Cannery
09-28 Asheville, NC – Orange Peel
09-29 Columbus, OH – Newport Music Hall
09-30 Pittsburgh, PA – Mr. Smalls
10-04 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club #
10-06 Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory #
10-18 New York, NY – Terminal 5
10-19 Boston, MA – Royale
10-27 Birmingham, England – Institute
10-28 Glasgow, Scotland – ABC 2
10-29 Dublin, Ireland – Vicar Street
10-30 Manchester, England – Ritz
11-01 London, England – Forum

% with Florence @ The Machine
# with The War on Drugs
Watch the video for Heaven’s title track:

via pfmedia

It turns out Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner and frontwoman Karen O have flown to Australia of late to promote respective solo projects — Zinner with his symphonic debut, “41 Strings,” and O with her first psycho-opera, Stop the Virgens. The latter is of particular interest around here, as it stems from a shelved 2005 solo album from O left gathering dust while YYYs followed their debut with two more excellent LPs and the personal favorite Is Is EP. Last fall we heard ”Duet” premiered live on WNYC, and now we have a video take on the somber cut with Jason Grisell returning on harmony vocals/guitar. Zinner and O originally conceived their band as an acoustic duo back in 2000, so I like to imagine this material as a kind of alternate reality to the heavier direction they ended up pursuing for a decade. Check it out above. Meanwhile, explore Stop the Virgens further with a behind-the-scenes featurette after the jump.

O and Zinner’s solo work continues to impress, but fear not, YYYs fans, they’ve been “writing and jamming” and “working on some more Yeah Yeah Yeahs stuff,” as well.