Sov Fights Donut, Parties With Playboy, Helps Islands
Most logic-defying headline ever?

What a week for Lady Sovereign! The ecstasy of victory, the agony of defeat. Playboy bunnies, jelly donuts. Late night television.

It all started Monday night, January 8, when Sov performed at San Francisco's Mezzanine club (a make-up show for when she was sick back in November). However, this wasn't an ordinary performance. It was a battleground.

Remember that guy in San Francisco who raised $10,000 to take Lady Sovereign on a date? And remember how she dissed him in the press after the date? Well, that guy brought a friend on the date. And that guy happens to be a rapper. A rapper who calls himself Jelly Donut. And who dresses up like a giant donut. Which he did at the Lady Sovereign show at the Mezzanine on Monday night. And challenged Sov to a rap battle.

Sov was not having it. Apparently, she spit on, poured Red Bull on, and eventually kicked out the man in the donut costume. However, the crowd was on Jelly Donut's side, bombarding her with chants of "BATTLE JELLY DONUT!" and pieces of paper with an image of a donut on them (provided by the man himself, of course).

You can read all about the melee here, and see photos from it here. And check out a video clip here.

We still don't really understand why she turned him down. It's a great publicity stunt! Look at the Decemberists: what would have happened if they said "no" to Stephen Colbert? [MORE...]

Kanye, Gnarls, Girl Talk Take on Jackie Chan, China
Lupe Fiasco and Spank Rock vs. Supergirls

What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas most of the time, but not in the case of Fusion, which-- according to its website-- is a "funky and internationally fresh" concert event taking place February 13 and 14 at the Las Vegas Aladdin Hotel and Casino's Theatre of the Arts.

Hunan TV will broadcast the event in mainland China with the purpose of getting "the biggest names in music from China and the United States [to] converge on one stage" in celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year (apparently "the world's most celebrated holiday").

The first night is dedicated to the Chinese artists, which include Jackie Chan (!), A-mei, Mayday, Zhang Zhen Yue, Shin Band, and Supergirls^TM. On the second night, Kanye West, Gnarls Barkley, Lupe Fiasco, Spank Rock, Girl Talk, Tigra, and Berko will take the stage.

Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse must be pumped to be part of an event "staged in the mythical world of legendary China [with] a spectacular blend of live music, dance, and dazzling special effects." Bets are being placed now as to what their costumes will be, and odds are four to one on a Mulan theme.

Field Music Record Futureheads, Share Video
Dave Brewis unveils solo project: School of Language

There's something in the water in Sunderland, something that helps the English city's bands churn out tight, punchy guitar-pop in earnest. And Field Music and the Futureheads just love that Sunderland water: they drink it straight up, mix it with their tea and Tang, bathe in it, water their plants with it, and guzzle it every night before bed.

Perhaps it was a chance meeting by the water cooler, then, that led the Futureheads to ask Field Music's Dave Brewis to record some demos for the love-hounds. "The Futureheads are working on new songs," Brewis told BBC 6 Music's Tom Robinson recently (thanks to Memphis Industries for the heads up), "and I know how to use the studio, so they asked me to record them. It's just demos and stuff, just ideas-- 'cause they've got loads of them."

Field Music aren't exactly short on ideas either. Their sophomore LP, Tones of Town, is packed with them. As previously reported, the Memphis Industries-stamped disc arrives January 22 in the UK and February 20 in the U.S. You can already hear quite a few of its jams in various places around the interweb-- including latest single "A House Is Not a Home", right below. The new video for the tune has our Field Music lads invading a young couple's dwelling space; it's quite funny in a silly sort of way that only our cousins across the pond seem capable of pulling off:



"There's nothing wrong with this piano" ought to be some sort of catchphrase, methinks. The "A House Is Not a Home" 7"/digital single, backed with non-album track "Logic", hits UK shoppes on January 14.

And since Field Music's Dave Brewis knows how to use a studio, it should come as no surprise that he's got a side-project going right now. Thus far, this Brewis brother's School of Language has only one demo and 22 MySpace friends, but we suspect both numbers will explode very soon: that demo, "Rockist Part 1", builds a rhythm from what sounds like vowel-pronunciation exercises (Bobby McFerrin would be proud) and should more than appease fans of Field Music's streamlined pop.

Finally, Field Music hit the roads of Europe at the end of this month. [MORE...]

Mastodon Bring Video Game to Blood Mountain

Mastodon are masters of self-promotion, posing with Borat backstage during their appearance on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien", documenting an attack by a gorilla-suited Tool while opening for the band on tour, and releasing multiple installments in their video tour diary on their YouTube. So what next?

How about a video game?

That's right, the band announced their most recent effort to promote the excellent Blood Mountain-- Mastodon: Quest for Blood Mountain-- via their MySpace: "You can collect diamonds to get pieces of a key to gain entrance to Blood Mountain... Keep an eye out for the special cheat codes that you can enter in the game. They're available on Mastodon flyers that are being handed out across the country."

I've played the game-- it seems the only controls are the keyboard arrows and space bar-- and I have a bone to pick: the thing is hard! I didn't get five game inches until I was eaten by dogs or I fell down some hole or, even worse, the game got all glitchy on me. There's potential there, but Mastodon need to get their tech department on the case ASAP.

Mastodon will begin their previously reported United States/United Kingdom/United Arab Emirates tour January 26 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. [MORE...]

Talkdemonic to Tour West Coast

Violist Lisa Molinaro has logged some serious hours with the Decemberists since joining their touring band last year, but she hasn't forsaken her first love: her band Talkdemonic.

Molinaro and Talkdemonic partner Kevin O'Connor are preparing to do their thing before the Decemberists return to the road in February. The pair, still riding on August's Arena Rock release Beat Romantic, have lined up a series of West Coast tour dates, set to kick off tomorrow, January 11, at Seattle's Crocodile Cafe.

The duo has started work on its next album, and are also in the process of signing to One Little Indian in the UK. Check out a demo version of the brand new song "Recorder" by clicking on the link below. [MORE...]

Video: Bloc Party: "I Still Remember"

Director Aggressive takes the video for "I Still Remember"-- Bloc Party's decidedly unaggressive first U.S. single-- to the trains. Lyrically, the song's a trip down memory lane, but visually, it's all boxcars, band members in multiple outfits, and Kele Okereke's oh-so-sincere looks into the camera, treated to a heavy blanket of fuzzy focus.

Matt Tong's collapsed lung may have forced them to put an end to their tour with Panic! At the Disco, but Bloc Party are emo through and through.

As previously reported, Vice will release A Weekend in the City on February 6, and the band begin their world tour January 25.


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Sam Prekop Talks New Sea and Cake Disc

Believe it or not, it's been nearly four years since we've heard so much as a whimper from the Sea and Cake, but that doesn't mean the veteran Chicago jazz-inflected pop quartet has slowed down.

Cakers Sam Prekop and Archer Prewitt spent the last few years focusing on individual pursuits-- each released a solo record in 2005 (Who's Your New Professor and Wilderness, respectively, both on Thrill Jockey). Drummer John McEntire, meanwhile, has concentrated on his work with Tortoise, while also recording up a storm at his Soma Studios. And Eric Claridge traded the bass for a palette and paintbrush, turning out a pretty sweet series of oil paintings last year.

Now the fire, wind, earth, and heart of the Sea and Cake (water is lame, man) have reunited at last, and by their powers combined, nearly completed work on album number seven. Pitchfork caught up with Sea and Cake captain Sam Prekop yesterday for a chat about recording the latest LP at a "rock'n'roll boot camp," his photography book, his electronic record with McEntire, and the fine art of the album cover.

"We're almost done" with the as-yet-untitled record, reported Prekop. "We have one more song to mix, and then the sequencing." It should see the light of day in May, and like all previous Sea and Cake full lengths, bear the Thrill Jockey stamp.

That's not the only continuing trend here: like the six Sea and Cake LPs before it, number seven will contain exactly 10 tracks (including "Scribble On" and "What Tonight Is")-- which was far from Prekop's intention.

"I was very anxious to make a record that had more than ten songs," he said. "[But] this one has ten, too, which I didn't think was going to happen, because we had actually prepared 15. But for whatever reason, five of them didn't make it. If we felt that we could have pulled off more than ten, we would have, or if it felt right.

"It could be a thing where we just know that ten, that's it, that makes the best record, you can't get further than that." [MORE...]

Exclusive: Blonde Redhead Reveal 23, Announce Tour

When we last chatted with Blonde Redhead's Simone Pace, the band was recording the follow-up to 2004's Misery Is a Butterfly, but still wholly undecided about all those silly logistical things we Pitchfork newsies love to report: an album name, song titles, a release date, and the like. Perhaps they resolved to make up their minds when the ball dropped, or perhaps they're just damned savvy marketers, but the art-rock trio has at last revealed all.

On April 10, 4AD will release Blonde Redhead's seventh album, 23, which we sure hope has nothing to do with that forthcoming Joel Schumacher-directed, Jim Carrey-starring numerology thriller. But hmm, wait a minute...23 times four (as in 4AD) times seven (seventh album) plus 23 minus one (um, just because) equals...666!!!!

Holy smokes, we've got ourselves a conspiracy. And we haven't even considered the numeric significance of folks like 23's co-mixers Rich Costey and Alan Moulder, nor that of Mr. Chris Coady, who recorded the Blonde Redhead-produced affair at New York's Magic Shop.

And it wouldn't be a Blonde Redhead marketing blitz/occult conspiracy without the North American tour, which kicks off in mid-March at SXSW. But wait: if Kazu and the Pace brothers rock precisely four SXSW showcases/parties (a reasonable number for a band of their stature), that means they'll play exactly 23 shows on this tour!!! Hot Jesus, somebody call Dan Brown already. [MORE...]

Rough Trade Inks North American Licensing Deal
Jarvis, Brakes, British Sea Power, 1990s, Veils to cross pond

Times have been, er, rough for North America-dwelling fans of UK indie powerhouse Rough Trade Records in recent years, with most of the venerable label's newer releases hopping the pond in small numbers at best. Hence, you may have come up woefully short last time you visited your local U.S. record shop to hit on the clerk and buy that new Brakes record-- but not for long!

Rough Trade announced yesterday that they've hooked up with the NYC-based World's Fair Label Group to move units of their sweet product all over North America. According to a press release, the deal is an "agreement" in which World's Fair-- already in league with Definitive Jux, PIAS, Bella Union, Fabric, Echo, and BBE-- will "begin overseeing the marketing, manufacturing and distributing of five marquee releases initially, with more titles soon to be announced."

Those five initial discs are Jarvis Cocker's Jarvis, the Veils' Nux Vomica, the 1990's imminent debut, the forthcoming British Sea Power disc, and yes, Brakes' The Beatific Visions-- however because there's already a U.S.-based Brakes, and neither Brakes UK or the Brighton Brakes sounds remotely cool, the band behind Beatific Visions will henceforth be known as BrakesBrakesBrakes to U.S. audiences. Oh boy.

Said Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis in the press release, "This venture represents an opportunity to show what Rough Trade can do to help foster the growth of Independent artists and talented mavericks determined to improve the quality of all of our lives." [MORE...]

Thurston, Carl Newman Write About Favorite Shows

Oh man, remember concerts, those things we used to go to before the days of downloading convinced us that we should just stay inside and half-digest records recommended to us by blogs we discovered by Googling celebrity crotch shots?

Well, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and the New Pornographers' Carl Newman do, and not just because they continue to play these "shows" on a regular basis. Along with 48 other writers-- such as Chuck Klosterman, Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), and Harvey Pekar (he of American Splendor immortalization)-- they remember certain concerts because they meant something to them. And they have written about those concerts for Da Capo Press' The Show I'll Never: 50 Writers Relive Their Most Memorable Concertgoing Experience.

Thurston writes about Glen Branca, Rudolph Grey, and Wharton Tiers, while Carl Newman writes about Redd Kross. Sufjan Stevens was supposed to contribute to the book as well (as he told us in an interview, he was going to write about the Ex), but we guess he got too busy with that whole being a successful musician thing.

Sean Manning edited The Show, which Da Capo will publish as a paperback original on January 15. The book's full list of musical subjects-- in order of appearance in the book (which is in chronological order by date of occurrence)-- is long enough that it might convince you to give up reading as well, but it is printed below: [MORE...]

The Rapture Announce American Tour

"Helping hipsters dance one song at a time" says the promotional postcard for the Rapture's latest album, Pieces of the People We Love. The band will help many a hipster, and play many a song, on their recently announced winter American tour, which will hit such hotspots as Tallahassee, Pittsburgh, and Northampton in late January and early February. Then it's off to Europe for Luke, Mattie, and the boys. [MORE...]

Patti Smith to Release Covers Album

Patti Smith helped launch her career with a cover of Van Morrison's "Gloria", and now, at the age of 60, she's coming full circle. Billboard.com reports that Smith will release a covers album this spring, and it will includes material originally recorded by Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Nirvana, Neil Young, and, Smith says, "some people you'd be very surprised at."

Oh god, we hope she isn't covering "Crazy" too.

In addition, the LP features guest appearances from Television's Tom Verlaine, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea, the Black Crowes' Richard Robinson, playwright/actor Sam Shepard, and Smith's children Jackson and Jesse. It's a family affair.

As reported Monday (January 8), following a March 12 ceremony at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, Smith will be admitted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She plans to perform at the event. Other 2007 inductees include R.E.M., the Ronettes, Van Halen, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

And that's not all the punk godmother is up to right now. Smith currently has a photography exhibit, "A Pythagorean Traveler", on display (through January 13) at New York City's Robert Miller Gallery. She'll make an appearance at another gallery, the Boston Institute of Contemporary Arts, on February 21 for a spoken word/poetry show.

In other news, Billboard.com reports that Smith and her band are currently learning songs associated with the "Summer of Love" era of the late 1960s for an upcoming tour.

Finally, further deluxe reissues are on their way from Smith's Arista back catalog, following the 30th Anniversary Legacy Edition of Horses in 2005.

[photo by Angelo Cricchi]

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.)