Video: Chrome Children on Korean TV

It doesn't seem to be official, and reports from the Stones Throw camp imply that they had nothing to do with, but this advertisement for the Chrome Children compilation on the Korean Home Shopping Network is pretty amazing, even if it's a fake.

"Oh No," you might say, and so would the woman in the advertisement.

Photos: The Hold Steady [Austin, TX; 10/08/06]

The many faces of Craig Finn: telling stories, cracking jokes, exhorting the crowd's good sense, shouting without any use for a microphone, sneering, falling into sympathy with the boys and girls in America, condemning (on occasion), and when it's all said and done, giving you a damn good time.

At Emo's on Sunday, the Hold Steady delivered their trademark evocative narratives and riff-heavy forgetfulness, each song (mostly culled from Boys and Girls in America) bearing a Finn expression as its emblem. And as much attention as the frontman draws, it's a tall credit to Tad, Franz & co. that the music faithfully framed their leader with such energy and just enough Tecate-fueled sloppiness.

And as fresh as Boys and Girls standouts like "Stuck Between Stations", "First Night", and "Chips Ahoy!" sounded, it came as a welcome treat that the Separation Sunday tracks that peppered the set hit with the force of already classic material. For some reason, it's not so annoying when a Hold Steady fan shouts along to "Stevie Nix" or yells "I love you, Franz!" Even at its most sinister levels, the music and Finn's face urge the crowd to join the surely-doomed party.

More photos and tour dates below. [MORE...]

MP3: Kid Sister: "Damn Girl" (Produced by A-Trak)

Actually the older sister of Flosstradamus half Josh "J2K" Young, Kid Sister is a name you'll likely be hearing a lot in the months to come. The young Chicago MC has gained considerable steam playing Floss' now-notorious dance parties-- and the Pitchfork Music Festival-- and word is the majors have come a-courtin'.

Kid Sis hooked up with Kanye touring DJ/slick turntablist A-Trak to produce "Damn Girl", a fun enough club rap foray that won't melt any faces but might shake a few booties. She's set to record several more jams with Trak, Flosstradamus, Spank Rock's Armani XXXchange, and more producers for a highly-anticipated debut.

Here's hoping she starts beef with Little Brother.

Infinite Mixtape #48: Turbulence: "Notorious"

Fasten your safety belts, lift your trays, and return your seats to an upright position, because aptly-named Jamaican reggae star Turbulence is about ready to shake things up. As the leadoff cut on XL Records' expertly-curated forthcoming compilation Serious Times (due November 7), his hit song "Notorious"-- originally released nearly two years ago-- is on the cusp of finding the widespread audience it deserves.

Pitchfork columnist and reggae/dancehall guru Dave Stelfox named "Notorious" his favorite track of 2005, calling this "rough-and-tumble voicing over a rudimentary hip-hop-style beat" an example of "what I've always loved about this music: no frills, no hype, just great songs full of honesty and passion." It's dark, fierce, gritty, and pretty much impossible to resist.

------------------------------------------------------

#0048 > Turbulence: "Notorious"
[from Serious Times; XL Recordings]
Info: [MySpace] | [XL]

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// Previously on The Infinite Mixtape:
#0047: I'm From Barcelona: "We're From Barcelona"
#0046: Christopher Willits: "Colors Shifting"
#0045: Giddy Motors: "Panzrama"
#0044: Bound Stems: "Western Biographic"
#0043: Tim Hecker: "Chimeras"
#0042: Working for a Nuclear Free City: "Troubled Son"
#0041: Fujiya & Miyagi: "Collarbone"
#0000: All Previous Infinite Mixtape Entries

Video: Broken Social Scene: "Major Label Debut"

Eat your heart out, Devendra! Broken Social Scene are now the biggest hippies on the block, and they're a "collective," which gives them an extra edge. The band get their dirt on in the couple of years' worth of tour footage that comprises this video, which was directed by Sarah Haywood. If we're to believe what we see, life on the road with BSS is one big happy, sweaty party full of crowded stages and "Band on the Run" sing-alongs. Broken, my ass!

Billy Bragg Begets Box, Begins Book Bender

When the world falls apart some things stay in place: for example, the politically charged songwriting of Billy Bragg.

Whether championing the working class of England, challenging current interpretations of patriotism, or battling the terms and conditions of MySpace, the folk-punk artist remains a stalwart of progressivism-- and, unlike many mainstream artists whose music is (as he once described to newspaper The West Australian) "rammed down your throats and used for car adverts," Bragg consistently challenges the status quo.

Lucky for fans, his rejecting of consumerism doesn't mean there isn't plenty of his music to consume. On October 17, Yep Roc Records wraps up a massive reissuing of Bragg's solo releases by treating U.S. fans to Volume 2, a nine-disc box set featuring dozens of remastered tracks you've never heard on car adverts.

Tracing the evolution of Bragg's sound (from stripped down arrangements to the addition of a full band), Volume 2 includes four reissues: Workers Playtime (1988), Don't Try This at Home (1991), William Bloke (2002), and England, Half English (2002). Each CD is accompanied by a second disc of bonus material, a good deal of it previously unavailable, selected by Bragg and his old friends/collaborators Grant Showbiz and Wiggy. Like any decent box set of this magnitude, Volume 2 contains bells and whistles: in this case, a DVD containing a 1991 televised concert and a 2006 live show.

The prolific Bragg also released a book recently, The Progressive Patriot: A Search for Belonging, an impassioned response to the July 2005 London transit suicide bombings. He's presently touring the UK in support of the work. [MORE...]

Raconteurs to Release Instant Bootlegs

Fresh off their North American tour with Dr. Dog and the Raconteurs are already rallying up the troops for another assault, this time on the UK. And oh my gimmick, every gig will see the Raconteurs' set recorded, pressed, and made available to fans as they leave the venue. Each show will warrant its own limited edition (1000 copies) double-disc CD featuring artwork exclusive to the date and a KCRW version of upcoming single "Broken Boy Soldiers (due October 23 on XL Recordings), courtesy of the band and ConcertLive.

Yeah, it's just like that thing the Pixies did. And the White Stripes did.

Following the UK jaunt, the Raconteurs will play Las Vegas' Vegoose Music Festival, a series of East Coast performances alongside Bob Dylan, and a newly announced two-night New Year's party at Chicago's Riviera Theatre. [MORE...]

Tokyo Police Club Sign to Memphis Industries
Exclusive MP3!

Tokyo Police Club, who just released their debut EP-- A Lesson in Crime-- in North America on Paper Bag Records, have signed to Memphis Industries in the UK and Europe.

The band's first single for the label will be "Nature of the Experiment". It comes out in the UK on November 20 with B-side "Box", which is available as an exclusive download below. The "Cheer It On" single, the B-side of which is currently unspecified, will arrive in the UK on February 5. On February 12, A Lesson in Crime will finally arrive in both the UK and Europe along with bonus track "Cut Cut Paste".

Tokyo Police Club will play a few dates with Art Brut and the Spinto Band on October 16 at the Middle East in Cambridge, MA before going on to play CMJ and a ton of dates in both the U.S. and Canada in November. A video for "Nature of the Experiment" is currently in post-production.

Memphis Industries has also signed two other bands: New Zealand's the Ruby Suns (formerly Ryan McPhun and the Ruby Suns) and Scotland's Bricolage. The Ruby Suns' self-titled debut comes out in the UK on December 4 and in Europe in January, and a second album is already "in the works," according to a press release. Bricolage are currently looking for the producer of their debut and hope to begin recording it in November. [MORE...]

Cat Power Loves Chanel, Touring

We've always thought Chan Marshall was beautiful, but what do we know? We're indie rockers. We think brand new 7" vinyl is beautiful, too.

Turns out the beautiful people think Cat Power is beautiful, too. And they know what they're talking about, or so we're lead to believe. Women's Wear Daily reported on Monday that Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld has fallen for the songstress, who "has been tapped as the new face of Chanel's jewelry collections."

According to Matador Records, Marshall is not confirmed to appear in any Chanel ads at this time, although she and Lagerfeld have indeed become friends.

WWD reported that Marshall was decked out in gold Chanel jewelry (a necklace, ring, and bracelet) at a party celebrating the release of Lagerfeld's compilation CD, Les Musiques Que J'aime. (The comp features tracks from the likes of Devendra Banhart, the Boy Least Likely To, Lindstrom and Prins Thomas, LCD Soundsystem, the Pipettes, Black Mountain, Fiery Furnaces, Matmos, the Fall, Caribou, and Goldfrapp. Hey Karl, wanna write for Pitchfork?)

Marshall told WWD that Lagerfeld approached her while she was hanging out in front of the Mercer Hotel in NYC: "I was outside waiting, sitting on a pile of Louis Vuitton luggage, drinking water, with an apple and a cigarette in my hand, my cell phone, oh, and two guitars, and out comes Karl. He walks up, looks at me and says, 'Only a woman can look glamorous when smoking.' And I lowered my glasses and pointed to [the shadows under my] eyes and said, 'With these?'"

The masses will have the opportunity to revel in her beauty starting at the end of this month, as Cat Power has European and North American tours scheduled through the end of the year, including just-announced East and West Coast dates. [MORE...]

String Quartet Tackles Radiohead's OK Computer
Beats Thom Yorke over the head with cello case

This week in People Covering/Interpreting/ Recontextualizing/Maiming Radiohead we have the Section Quartet, four stylin' Los Angeles string musicians who have already bowed their way through an album and an EP full of arrangements of tunes by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Clash, the Darkness, Jeff Buckley, Iron Maiden, KISS, and more.

This time around, armed with a mere pair of violins, a viola, and a cello, the Section Quartet takes on Radiohead's mighty opus OK Computer in its glorious entirety. It all goes down at two live coastal concerts this month: the first at Los Angeles' Spaceland on October 15, and the second at New York City's Merkin Concert Hall on October 19.

The Section Quartet just signed to Decca/Universal and recently played the main stage at the Coachella Music Festival. They've contributed to albums by Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, James Blunt, A Perfect Circle, and Dokken. You can hear their versions of Radiohead's "Just" and "No Surprises" on the 2004 release No Electricity Required.

Half of the current Section Quartet also performed as "The Section" on the 2001 disc Strung Out on OK Computer: The String Quartet Tribute to Radiohead. That same tribute series also took a stab at the Smiths, the Cure (twice), Tool (twice), Pink Floyd, Nine Inch Nails, and egads, Incubus.

Click below for a ridiculously hokey promo video of the Section Quartet performing bits from a few tunes, including Radiohead's "Just" and "The National Anthem".

Rachael Ray Loves the Boy Least Likely To!
Also Nellie McKay, Puffy Amiyumi

British twee kids the Boy Least Likely To sure have friends in high places. First, they were hand-picked to open for James Blunt on his last American tour. And now, their song "Be Gentle With Me" (from their debut album The Best Party Ever) is slated to appear on TV cooking goddess Rachael Ray's compilation CD Too Cool for School Mixtape for Kids , due out October 31 on Epic.

According to the Boy Least Likely To's manager, "Apparently she is rather a big fan of the band, so how could we resist? I have been told she was at our NYC show last time we were in."

Wow. We used to think Rachael Ray was just creepy and annoying. Could it be that she's creepy, annoying...and kind of cool?

Too Cool for School also features Nellie McKay's "The Dog Song" and Puffy AmiYumi's "Joining a Fan Club", alongside such standard kids fare as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and "Day-O".

The Boy Least Likely To kick off a brief UK tour next week, then take a break for two months, and tour the UK again in January with the Little Ones. [MORE...]

TVOTR, Grizzly Bear, Secret Machines Rock for Darfur

It's hard to care about something like the crisis in Darfur when your only contact with it comes from street canvassers and George Clooney, but the folks at MySpace realize this and have formed Rock for Darfur in response. The goal of the organization is "to send a strong message to the world that the crisis can, and must, end now," according to its website.

To accomplish this goal, the organization has enlisted the help of 20 musical artists (and promised even more) to play concerts on October 21 in venues across the country, a portion of the proceeds from which will go to Oxfam's Sudan Crisis Relief and Rehabilitation Fund.

TV on the Radio and Grizzly Bear will play the last show of their current tour together at Philadelphia's Starlight Ballroom for the benefit, and the Secret Machines will play at Soma in San Diego. Artists playing shows in other parts of the U.S. and Canada include Blink-182 offshoot (+44), clown-core duo Insane Clown Posse, Christian rockers Jars of Clay and Switchfoot, British faux-jazzbo Jamie Cullum, coattail rider Ziggy Marley, and, um, "Alice in Chains". It's an "eclectic" group, to say the least, but it really is for a good cause.

Morrissey Announces Winter Tour

Ringleader of the Tormentors is scheduled for one final push this year. Morrissey has unveiled a winter tour of Europe, set to launch in early December.

The Ringleader has a North American agenda as well...on the part of the continent that doesn't slaughter baby seals, anyway. In an entry posted on both his MySpace and in True to You zine, Moz disclosed that he will soon visit the U.S. for a November gig in St. Louis as well as a stint with computer Ennio Morricone at Carnegie Hall. Maybe he'll bring that violin from the album cover. [MORE...]

Justin Hawkins Quits the Darkness!
The Sun in actual news shocker

Well I'll be: Glammed-out Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins revealed today to British tabloid The Sun (no, seriously) that he is quitting the quite-popular, glammed-out arena-rock band he's bled, sweated, and cried for since 2000.

The reason? Cocaine.

"It affected every single decision I made," Hawkins told The Sun's Sean Hamilton in a lengthy and revealing interview (well-worth reading in its entirety-- click here). "Everything was decided on the basis that I wanted to take cocaine at some point. I would demand that we were the first on at awards shows so that I could get on with my drinking and drugging.

"I feel like I've lost three years of my life. I'm only just coming to terms with what has happened because I was always off my face."

Apparently Hawkins' addiction grew in tandem with the Darkness' swift ascent to fame and fortune. He admitted to spending over £150,000 ($278,279.98 on today's market) on cocaine over the past three years.

"But the simple truth of it is that when you realise your dreams, they are not special any more, particularly when you are in the midst of addiction," he went on to say. "We never really had a chance to sit back and enjoy things. It all happened so quickly. And I never coped with it all as well as I thought I would."

Hawkins checked into rehab last August, and it was there that he decided that if he wanted to stay clean, he had to quit the band.

"I feel bad for the others," he told The Sun. "It will be an upheaval. But it's time for me to move on. It would be damaging to my recovery to stay on. I'm not blaming the band for my problem-- I am an addict. There are people who can be in bands and stay clean, but I'm not one of them."

And the band will carry on without him, apparently. Hawkins suspects new bass player Richie Edwards will take over as frontman, while Hawkins himself-- clean for nine weeks and counting-- returns to the finer things in life: his girlfriend, his new home, his solo project, film scoring-- and feeling things.

"It sounds stupid but I now get a thrill from things like putting on a cashmere cardigan and feeling how soft it is. I never used to notice things like that."

And Justin's solo project, British Whale? If that World Cup ditty was any indication, boy oh boy do we have something to look forward to.

MP3: The Pipettes: "The Burning Ambition of Early Diuretics"

Not sure what, if anything, this song has to do with urinating, unless it's indirectly referring to being so very in love with someone that you start pissing yourself.

In any case, this cover of a tune by Monster Bobby (who plays guitar in the Cassette, the Pipettes' backing band) is a typically delicious Pipettes confection, floating on organ and xylophone and ba-ba-ba male backing vocals. Love, love, love, love, love.

"The Burning Ambition of Early Diuretics" is one of the B-sides to the latest Pipettes single, "Judy", which came out on Memphis Industries last month. [MORE...]

The Hold Steady Announce Winter Tour

The Hold Steady are currently wiping the floor with audiences across the country, on tour in support of their recently-released juggernaut Boys and Girls in America. That tour ends on October 30.

After taking a 22-day break to reflect upon how awesome they are, the Hold Steady will hit the road once again, starting in Philadelphia on November 21 and concluding in Northampton, Massachusetts on December 15.

Stay tuned for photos from their show in Austin, Texas this past weekend, which we'll post later today.

Oh, and have you seen this cool thing? [MORE...]

Gorillaz Release Flood of Demon Days Multimedia

Animated multi-platinum act Gorillaz are following the success of last year's Demon Days with a DVD (their second), four iTunes-only EPs, new toy figurines, and an autobiography. Not too shabby for a bunch of cartoon characters.

The DVD, Phase Two: Slowboat to Hades, is the follow-up to the Phase One: Celebrity Takedown DVD that followed the release of their self-titled debut, and it is scheduled for an October 31 release.

According to a press release, Phase Two "rounds up the Demon Days era's award-winning videos, hi-tech performances, inventive animated shorts, acceptance speeches, and more," including "a brand-new 3D DVD reconstruction of Gorillaz' online hangout, Kong Studios. Viewers can wander through this decaying palace of sin and watch the breathtaking live performances in the cinema, visit the band's bedrooms, tour the corridors and find games, original animatics [?!], cameos from some of the Demon Days guests, and off-color jokes galore." It also comes with a CD-ROM full of 16 games, 45 desktop wallpapers, eight screensavers, and "hidden, achievement-based extras."

The four EPs that come with "previously unreleased videos and a digital booklet with images and access to bonus content like wallpaper, buddy icons, and more" are as follows: the Dare EP, due out October 24, the Dirty Harry EP, due out November 7, the El Mañana EP, due out December 5, and the Feel Good Inc. EP, due out December 26. They will be available exclusively via iTunes. [MORE...]

Do you have a news tip for us? Anything crazy happen at a show you attended recently? Do you have inside info on the bands we cover? Is one of your favorite artists (that's not somebody you know personally) releasing a new record you'd like to see covered? You will remain completely anonymous, unless we are given your express permission to reveal your identity. (Please note that publicists, managers, booking agents, and other artist representatives are generally exempt from this rule, but will also be granted anonymity if requested.)