Happy Mondays Back at It With New Album, Tour

Fans of Factory Records, sunshine party-pop, and drugs have considerable cause for celebration as yesterday, Monday, March 26, Happy Mondays revealed their intentions to return to the dangerous world of releasing full-length albums.

According to NME.com, their as-yet-untitled LP-- which technically follows up 1992's regrettable ...Yes Please-- will be heralded by a new single in June. As Happy frontman Shaun Ryder told the British weekly, "I'm not the world's best salesman, me...I'm not a salesman at all. I think it's a really great album."

The Mondays-- who reunited in present form back in 2004 and contributed new single "Playground Superstar" to the 2005 Goal! film soundtrack-- tapped Howie B and Sonny Levine to produce their comeback album, which will bear the stamp of new Happy Mondays home Sanctuary Records.

The band made a splash as rave culture peaked with their aptly-named 1990 smash Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches. They also featured prominently in the 2002 Tony Wilson/Factory Records flick 24 Hour Party People.

As previously announced, the Mondays play Coachella in late April. They've also lined up some UK dates for later in the spring. [MORE...]

The Pack Talk Album, Vans, Parents, the Misfits
"Us wearing Vans and skating and having that kind of urban style led to people talking about, 'Oh we're punk rock.' I know some people who would really get mad. You're talking about punk rock, and you don't know what punk rock is. I don't like it."

Hours after I talked to the Pack at South by Southwest, they performed shirtless on the roofs of cars parked in an Amtrak station parking lot during an after-hours Paperthinwalls.com party. Our meeting was a more low-key affair. Young Stunna, Young L, and Lil B (Lil Uno was napping) sat by their hotel pool, fully clothed, and talked about their careers up to this point: their hit ("Vans"), their currently-untitled album (planned for a summer release), and their relationships with hyphy, hip hop, and their mothers.

Pitchfork: What's the deal with your album? It was supposed to come out in February, right?

Young Stunna: Yeah, we actually released an EP [Skateboards 2 Scrapers], which was good at the time. We tried to get the best stuff that we could, and we keep working. We got the EP out for the fans.

Pitchfork: Are the songs from the EP going to be on the album?

Young Stunna: "Vans" should be on there. I'm about 80% sure. There's no reason "Vans" shouldn't be on there. From the EP? No. I mean, there might be.

Lil B: We want it to be fresh songs. We wanted to make the EP a separate album. That was the EP. Now it's time for the album, which is going to kill.

Pitchfork: Since the album comes out in the summer, are you trying to write any big summer jams? L, does the season factor into your beat-making at all?

Young L: Season doesn't really change anything for me, at least consciously. Maybe subconsciously we wanna make a summertime beat, but I don't think I write it to be a summertime beat or anything.

Pitchfork: The hyphy scene has started to blow up, but you guys don't seem to be totally a part of that, so I'm wondering what your relationship is to that scene.

Young Stunna: We grew up around it. That's our culture. At the same time, we come from diverse backgrounds, so you're not going to just hear "hyphy hyphy hyphy hyphy hyphy." You're going to hear this, this, this, this, this, and then some hyphy. So we're part of the hyphy movement, but we're not hyphy. [MORE...]

Fennesz Reprises Sakamoto Collaboration with LP, Tours

In a bid to make the coming spring endless, Mr. Christian Fennesz, laptop provocateur, will unleash his illustrious electronic sounds upon the gathered hordes at a number of European festivals next month. While this is wondrous news for residents of and folks happening through Vilnius, Lithuania, and Ljubljana, Slovenia, it leaves the rest of us a bit cold, and even more desperately in need of a sick Fennesz fix.

Fortunately, not long after his tour, Fennesz will reprise his collaboration with noted composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (The Last Emperor, etc.). The pair's Cendre follows up 2005's Fennesz Sakamoto one-track EP Sala Santa Cecilia and arrives Stateside via Touch on May 15. Cendre collects 11 new joint efforts and has Mr. Fennesz tearing it up on the guitar and laptop, while Mr. Sakamoto throws it down on piano and laptop. That shit is hot.

Keep those ears perked, as Touch should have a Fennesz full-length proper on the way in late 2007. [MORE...]

Spoon Announce New Album Title

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Yes. That's the title.

Herren Talks Prefuse, Savath, New LPs, Collaboration
"I play it for people and say, 'What is this shit? How do you interpret it?' And they're like, 'This sounds like some sad-ass soundtrack.'

If there's one thing we can count on from Prefuse 73's Scott Herren, (now going by his full name: Guillermo Scott Herren), it's that he always has a ton of collaborations and side projects going almost simultaneously. So far this year, those projects are limited to three: a new Prefuse 73 album, a new Savath & Savalas album, Golden Pollen, scheduled for a June 19 release on Anti-, and a full-length collaboration with Japanese MC Twigy, tentatively due out in May.

We caught up with Herren recently to talk about these three projects as well as his relationships with hip hop, his collaborators (including Battles' Tyondai Braxton), and the language barrier.

Pitchfork: What's your relationship with Tyondai Braxton?

Guillermo Scott Herren: He's one of my best friends. I took Battles everywhere with me on the last official Prefuse tour, for Surrounded by Silence. I took them from Japan to Italy to Spain, just because I really believed in them, and I wanted to show the world what they could do. I wanted to bring them to a Prefuse audience because I thought we had a lot of similarities, and Tyondai and I always-- when we're talking about our own music-- we always find these ties. Our influences are very similar, even though they come out different. And I was like, "There's no way my crowd is not going to respond to these guys. They're just as banging as any beat." Anybody that brings any kind of heat with hip hop or whatever-- if they get what I'm doing, they're going to get what they're doing.

Pitchfork: Was the response good?

GSH: Yeah, it was great. I think it opened a lot of people's heads up. They were just like "Holy shit!" when they would drop their beats.

Pitchfork: Have you heard the full-length, Mirrored, yet?

GSH: Yeah, I'm supposed to be working on a remix, but instead I'm working on the Prefuse record because there's so much work to be done with it.

Pitchfork: Do you know which track you're remixing yet?

GSH: Not yet, but I'm sure it will be fitting. It will be fun. This Prefuse shit is just out of control. There's so much to do because it's two records, and they're totally different. My head's got to split in half and do two different things.

Pitchfork: How are they coming along? There's no release date set yet, is there?

GSH: The timetable is definitely "TBA." The goal that we've made with each other, me and Warp, is that I would try to turn it in by June, and thank God for Warp being supportive and calling me to make sure I'm okay. Like, "You've got a lot of work, are you okay?" and I'm like, "I'm cool, I'm cool. My brain hasn't melted yet." [MORE...]

Pioneering Producer Joe Meek Reissued Thrice-Over
He never met an effects pedal he didn't like

This coming Tuesday, April 3, Sanctuary Records Group will beam down three reissue packages bearing the mark of Joe Meek, the 60s songwriter and producer whose work on the Tornado's interplanetary "Telstar" and his own avant-garde LP I Hear a New World helped usher in a brave new world of noise into pop music.

How important was this guy? Put it this way: dude has recording equipment named after him. And the White Stripes are honored to be using one of his synthesizers.

The Joe Meek EP Collection boxes a dozen discs of Meek's production, while Vampires Cowboys Spacemen & Spooks collects 60 wordless Meek-works including a congregation of crazy covers of Meek-era standards like "Wipeout" and "The Can-Can." Meek freaks will also be treated to Joe Meek's Freakbeat: 30 Freakbeat, Mod and R&B Nuggets, the title of which suggests its contents rather well.

Stephen Marley Talks Mind Control, Family, Jail
"I could tell by the coldness of the walls, by the crampedness of the floor, that this place was not meant for man, much less a righteous youth!"

Having just released his debut solo album, Mind Control (Universal Republic), on March 20-- and about to embark on a tour of North America on March 29-- Stephen Marley took time out of his busy schedule to speak to Pitchfork.

His work with his brother Damian ("Jr. Gong") on Damian's 2005 album, Welcome to Jamrock, and on Mind Control's awesome "The Traffic Jam" has an exciting ferocity to it, but Stephen was kind and warm over the phone as he talked about his family, his career, and the arrest that landed him in a Tallahassee jail for possessing a certain Jamaican natural remedy.

Pitchfork: You've been away from the Melody Makers-- the group you were in with your siblings Ziggy, Sharon, and Cedella-- for a while now.

Stephen Marley: As a group, but not as a family.

Pitchfork: How is being a solo artist different for you than being a member of a group?

SM: Well, being a solo artist you have to carry the whole show. It's more focused on you. You're in the driver's seat. You're not the shotgun. You're not the passenger. You're the driver, so you have to keep your eyes open and know where you're going.

Pitchfork: Is there more pressure?

SM: Yeah, there's a little more pressure, but to me, it's good pressure. I like challenges.

Pitchfork: Challenges like--

SM: Being in the spotlight!

Pitchfork: Or being in jail? You have those three songs on the album that are inspired by your experience of being put in a Tallahassee jail for marijuana possession. What was that like?

SM: Well, it was an experience still. I mean, it wasn't a great bad experience. It was an inconvenience. It wasn't justified, where they put us for this plant that we had. It wasn't justified, because I was behind bars with people that cut people's throats. And at the same time, I can go out to any bar on any given day and have as many shots of Jack Daniels and be as drunk as I want to be. So it didn't feel right, and it made me very curious as to why, really, do they fight this plant so much when it has so many different uses, you know?

Pitchfork: Have you found any answers to that question?

SM: Mind control [laughs]. [MORE...]

Sonar Fest Grabs Beasties, Dizzee, Mogwai, Junior Boys
Plus Devo, Justice, Wolf Eyes, Simian Mobile Disco, Cornelius, Various

If all that E! Wild On I constantly find myself losing sleep over is any indication, they party awful hard-y in Spain, which explains how the 14th annual Sonar Festival plans to cram over 50 acts into its three day span. The "multifaceted bill with a party spirit"-- heavy on all things hip-hop, electronic, and experimental-- is coming to Barcelona June 14-16.

Towering over the lineup like an intergalactic robot over the streets of Tokyo are the indefatigable Beastie Boys. Not only are they Friday night's headliners ("featuring all their classics"), but the Beasties will also perform instrumental, sans their usual adenoidal references to 70s sitcoms, at a gala event on Thursday night. A black-tie shindig with the Beastie Boys? Don't they remember how that house looked at the end of the "Fight for Your Right" video?

A hefty lineup and further details are available on the Sonar website, but here are the highlights: Beastie Boys, Devo, Dizzee Rascal, KTL (aka Peter "Pita" Rehberg and Stephen O'Malley of Sunn O)))), Clark, Justice, Mogwai, Junior Boys, Wolf Eyes, Simian Mobile Disco, Black Devil Disco Club, Cornelius, Various, New Young Pony Club, DJ Nu-Mark, Mira Calix, Rahzel & DJ Js-One, DJ Mehdi, Uffie and Feadz, and FM3 Plays the Buddha Machine (that should be interesting!).

Photos: Amiina / Tom Brosseau [Chicago, IL; 03/23/07]

While Sigur Rós campaign for majesty and beauty with fairytale tongue in wide open spaces, Amiina fight the war against ugly musics from the homefront. Their precise, delicate compositions have a hearth-warmed, parlor-spun charm, and while they threatened to lull the inattentive into slumber at last Friday's show at the Lakeshore Theater, folks with an ear for nuance and controlled grace likely found much to delight over.

While best known as Sigur Rós' string quartet, the ladies only assumed quartet formation twice, maybe three times-- and once for an all-saw encore! More often they bounded restlessly from instrument to instrument, each leading the fragile charge for a song or so on everything from mandolin and Irish harp to keyboards, laptops, and even a makeshift armonica comprised of a row of crystal wine glasses.

As for opener Tom Brosseau-- can this guy really exist? Awkward aw-shucks bumpkin Brosseau, far as I could tell, wasn't putting on an act. He really was slipping up because he had "ants in his pants," as he put it. And he really did try to convince the governor of his home state, North Dakota, to write the liner notes for his album-- by impersonating Bob Hope's bit in Spies Like Us. So Tom's between-song story went. In all, Brosseau's banter made a more favorable and lasting impression than his vaguely-quirky, blue-eyed folk tunes, but both suited the evening's no-frills fireside vibe.

Amiina's U.S. tour continues through April.

AMIINA





[MORE...]

Trio of Dolly Parton Reissues Due

In this post-Straight Talk era, it's hard for some people not to think of Dolly Parton as a wild-eyed, well-endowed punchline. Sucks for those people, because Dolly is a legend not only because of her body but because of her body of work, which contains some of the greatest country music of all time.

In the early 70s, Ms. Parton was at the forefront of feisty, fiery twang, and her still-impressive pipes shone ever-brighter back then. It was in this period that Parton issued some of country music's most-revered albums, three of which-- 1971's Coat of Many Colors, 1973's My Tennessee Mountain Home, and 1974's Jolene-- will see expanded reissues from Sony BMG’s Legacy Recordings series April 3.

Each CD carries at least one bonus track, and two of the sets will mark the debut of some previously-unreleased Parton. [MORE...]

T.V. Eye: March 26-April 1, 2007

Pitchfork's T.V. Picks for This Week:

Tuesday, March 27:

NBC: "Late Night With Conan O'Brien": Mastodon (rerun)

Wednesday, March 28:

NBC: "Late Night With Conan O'Brien": Death Cab for Cutie (rerun)

Thursday, March 29:

CBS: "Late Show With David Letterman": Bloc Party
NBC: "Late Night With Conan O'Brien": My Morning Jacket (rerun)

Friday, March 30:

ABC: "Jimmy Kimmel Live": TV on the Radio

Saturday, March 31:

NBC: "Saturday Night Live: Arcade Fire (rerun)

Stiff Records Reissues Five Forgotten Gems
LPs by Tracey Ullman, Wreckless Eric, Rachel Sweet, Any Trouble, Dirty Looks

Pioneering punk imprint Stiff Records-- the label credited with breaking Elvis Costello and the Damned, among others-- has plunged deep into its vaults and emerged with a bevy of lesser-known beauties from their early years, all of which will be reissued this coming Tuesday, April 3.

You Broke My Heart in 17 Places boasts strangely-straightforward gooey gal-pop from world's first Simpsons fan Tracey Ullman. Wreckless Eric-- perhaps best known in 2007 as the dude who penned the tune Will Ferrell uses to woo Maggie Gyllenhaal in the minor-key Stranger Than Fiction-- is represented by the sprawling Big Smash LP. Fool Around, the debut of then-16-year-old Rachel Sweet, packs chunky Motown-style R&B far less saccharine than her name might suggest. Dirty Looks' The Complete Stiff Years throws together a pair of the moddish Staten Island trio's Stiff releases, Dirty Looks and Turn It Up. And Any Trouble's Where Are All the Nice Girls? is sure to sooth the same itch pre-Armed Forces Elvis Costello scratched.

All five reissues are given the deluxe treatment, with bonus tracks and new liner notes. Full tracklists-- and we do mean full-- after the jump. [MORE...]

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