Mike Patton and Fennesz Tour Together
Epic!

Mike Patton is no stranger to collaboration, and he has recently announced that he will spend late May and early June touring with Austrian noisemaker Christian Fennesz after wrapping up his tour with/as Peeping Tom.

The duo's dates together begin May 28 at the Moers Festival in Germany and end June 9 in Tel Aviv.

Fennesz has plenty to keep himself busy before then as well, including a collaborative album with Ryuichi Sakamoto and a tour of his own. [MORE...]

Handsome Furs Pelt Audiences with Handful of Dates

It might've seemed as though Dan Boeckner (often of Wolf Parade) Handsome Furs spilled his life story to us last month, but he neglected to mention one formative event: the string of late-spring tour dates they've wrapped around Sub Pop's May 22 release of their debut, Plague Park. (Probably because they weren't booked yet.) Following a one-two step around Canada, the lovebirds'll hit the road for a week's worth of East Coast gigs.

As we previously reported, Boeckner was forced to drop out of the potentially amazing Final Fantasy: Online a.k.a. Internet megagroup due to scheduling conflicts, leaving his Wolf Parade cohort Dante DeCaro to slay the Tonberries and earn the rank of Black Mage or whatever. [MORE...]

Good, Bad & Queen Play Fests, Drop iTunes EP

Melding musicians of different genres and eras-- as well as monarchs and spaghetti Westerns-- the Damon Albarn-led mouthful the Good, the Bad & the Queen have, like any self-respecting band nowadays, lined up a bunch of festival dates to while away the spring and summer hours.

Our Queen and her retinue will visit cities across Europe as the days grow longer and warmer, partaking of such hallowed traditions as the Hurricane Festival in Scheeßel, Germany, and Les Eurockéennes, in Belfort, France. Now I don't speak French, but I just caught a whiff of the unmistakable odor of bad pun. It's an odor we at Pitchfork know all too well.

Cutely enough, the band-- which bid farewell to London's Hammersmith Palais this past weekend-- is also slated to play the infamous Tower of London.

Meanwhile, at some point during their diplomatic mission to America last month, Damon and his royal highnesses set up shop at the Apple store in New York City's Soho hood to perform a bundle of tunes off their self-titled, debut record. The fruits of this generous gesture can be yours beginning today on iTunes.

The Live From Soho EP packs five in-the-flesh tunes-- one buttressed by a special string quartet intro-- from the Albarn/Allen/Simonon/Tong superproject. We don't see any higher-quality, DRM-free versions yet, but we'll be seeing them soon, yes? Yes?? Or off with his head, as the saying goes.

For some studio-recorded GBQ goodness, pick up the foursome's latest single, "Green Fields", which landed UK-ways via Parlophone just yesterday. [MORE...]

Lady Sov Gets Sick, Cancels Gigs, Plays Go-Kart Track

It seems the biggest midget in the game might be a little short on antibodies. Lady Sovereign, no stranger to medical leave, has canceled two shows next week in order to undergo "treatment and recuperation" for an illness that left her bedridden. Her April 10 gig at Glasgow, Scotland's King Tuts and April 11 stop at Birmingham, England's Academy 2 have been postponed indefinitely.

As Sov said in an official statement, "I am gutted to have to postpone these shows, but I feel like shit."

After her recovery, there's a gathering; where's it at? Some go-kart track in Leeds. Sov's added a date at the Pole Position Go Kart Track as part of the T-Mobile Street Gigs series. Past performances in the series include the View crumbling the Edinburgh Castle and that Mika getting sissy at a circus. Man, what's next? Arctic Monkeys at a Chuck-E-Cheese? Actually, that sounds about right.

Lady Sov's next single, "Those Were the Days", comes out in the UK on April 16.

Full Sov dates-- including those in which she'll confuse the hell out of 11 year old Gwen Stefani and Akon fans-- after the jump. [MORE...]

YACHT Releases Two Records, Tours

[Photo by Sarah Meadows]

The Blow seemed to be a full-fledged duo with the release of Paper Television last year, but Jona Bechtolt is taking more of a traditional producer's role to Khaela Maricich's bona fide indie pop star persona. Bechtolt won't join Maricich on her previously reported tour, though the possibility for future collaboration in the studio still exists.

Fans of Bechtolt's lo-fi Neptunes approach to beatmaking need not worry, however, as he will release two albums in the coming months under his main moniker, YACHT.

The first YACHT album is a remix record on States Rights Records titled Our Friends in Hell. It comes out April 10 and features remixes of Architecture in Helsinki, Mirah, Lucky Dragons, Tussle, and the Blow, among others. This makes us happy just looking at it: Mirah: "Jerusalem (Chopped and Screwed Remix)".

The second album is a new full-length called I Believe in You. Your Magic Is Real. Marriage Records will release the album on May 8, and Bechtolt will celebrate its release May 5 in Portland with "the most epic CD release party of all time on an actual yacht," according to a press release.

YACHT will tour the U.S. in April and Japan in July. His first date is in Brooklyn on April 14. [MORE...]

Plaid Mount U.S. Tour With Video Artist Bob Jaroc
Tattersall can't even get a record deal

Business is good for the ex-breakdancers who comprise electronic icons Plaid. Fresh off last year's collaboration LP with video artist Bob Jaroc, Greedy Baby-- and still reeling from the recent reissue of some choice early works as the Black Dog-- the Warp-signed UK duo will dust off its gadgets and doodads and descend upon the U.S. for a brief tour beginning this week.

Plaid principals Ed Handley and Andy Turner will have Mr. Jaroc in tow for all six of their Stateside dates, which will whisk them all the way from a Natural History Museum to some kind of NASA facility, an apropos stomping ground for these people and their fans.

In addition to the aforementioned exploits, Plaid also recently scored the music for anime film Tekkon Kinkreet, which hit theatres in Japan this past winter. [MORE...]

Deerhoof, Battles Drummers Contribute to Drum Site
Give the drummer some

For those who find the place behind the drum kit more exciting than the frontman or frontwoman's spotlight, MyDrumLesson.com is for you. The new website features videos, transcriptions, a message board, and other resources dedicated to helping indie rock drummers improve their craft.

My Drum Lesson founder Scott Tiemann has assembled an impressive list of over 50 drummers to contribute to the site, including Battles' John Stanier, Deerhoof's Greg Saunier, Cale Parks of Aloha, Erin Tate of Minus the Bear, and Superchunk's Jon Wurster.

Access to the majority of the site's content is only available with a paid membership, but five percent of proceeds from those memberships will go to Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Tiemann organized the donation to the online resource center with the help of J Robbins, whose son Callum suffers from SMA.

The Sea and Cake Let Everybody See Them Live

Photo by Jim Newberry

Veteran featherweight jazz-poppers the Sea and Cake-- the scented candles of indie-rock-- are all primed to issue Everybody, their seventh full-length audio footbath, May 8 via Thrill Jockey. And, wouldn't you know it? They're touring, too. Take a soothing breath with me now: ahhhhh.

Archer, Sam and the fellas will lull audiences over the course of a string of dates heavy on the coastal areas (natch), joined by mellifluous labelmates the Zincs and, at times, by Scandinavian cutie-pie Loney, Dear. It is gonna get calm up in this piece! [MORE...]

Les Savy Fav, Wilco, Yo La Tengo Join ATP vs. Fans
Plus: Go! Team, Thermals, Johnston, Clinic, Okkervil River, Annuals, Isis, Cornelius

Lordy lordy, is that ATP Versus: You (The Fans) festival ever shaping up to be a tripped-out, no-holds-barred, dusted-up throwdown the likes of which the indie world has never seen.

Since we last reported, the stakes have gone through the roof: the ATP overseers have bolstered their already impressive roster with Slint (as you know), Isis, and Cornelius, while the Fan contingent-- a voting body which includes YOU, my friend-- has retaliated mightily by enlisting the aid of Les Savy Fav, Wilco, Yo La Tengo, the Go! Team, the Thermals, Daniel Johnston, Clinic, Okkervil River, Annuals, Trans Am, Two Gallants, and Bat for Lashes.

In reality, everybody wins, because fans and ATP organizers alike get to see all of these bands-- plus previously reported titans like Modest Mouse, Mogwai, Built to Spill, Battles, Band of Horses, Explosions in the Sky, Patti Smith, Grizzly Bear, and more-- rattle Minehead, England's perpetually rockin' Butlins Holiday Centre from May 18 thru 20. The complete lineup to date is reprinted for your convenience below.

Bear in mind the polls remain open; exercise your right to vote here. At present Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, 65daysofstatic, Eels, Final Fantasy, and Four Tet comprise the top five fan picks, while ATP has extended offers to American Analog Set, Architecture in Helsinki, Chavez, Hood, Jens Lekman, Subtle, the Decemberists, and Xiu Xiu. As if shit weren't off the heezy enough.

And because the parties of tomorrow rage on ad infinitum, ATP also has its Dirty Three-curated shindig going down April 27-29 at the usual joint. Since our last transmission, Suicide's Alan Vega, Einsturzende Neubauten, White Magic, Sally Timms, We Ragazzi, and Yann Tiersen have joined another humdinger of a lineup that includes Cat Power, Joanna Newsom, Grinderman (and Nick Cave solo), Bill Callahan, Low, Magnolia Electric Co, A Silver Mount Zion, J. Spaceman, and more.

And as you know well by now, the Pitchfork Music Festival has teamed with All Tomorrow's Parties to present an installment of Don't Look Back, in which seminal artists play their seminal albums in their entirety. We've already announced Sonic Youth, who'll melt faces when they blaze through Daydream Nation at Chicago's Union Park on July 13. Be on the lookout for more announcements and get yr tickets here. [MORE...]

Photos: Rock Plaza Central [Chicago, IL; 04/01/07]

April Fools and a vociferous front row posse of fans gave the gentleman and lady of Toronto's Rock Plaza Central ample opportunities to horse around as the sextet galloped into Schubas to regale us with tunes off last year's Are We Not Horses (and a few older ones too). That album, which might just be the best concept record about mechanical steel horses ever, earned the act a Pitchfork Recommendation last fall. It finally gets a proper Stateside release April 17 via RPC's new U.S. home Yep Roc.

Catch Rock Plaza Central as they swoop across Ontario this month.






[MORE...]

Death Cab, R.E.M., Leo, Wrens Rock for Net Neutrality
So do Kathleen Hanna, Jimmy Tamborello, Bob Mould, Rogue Wave...and YOU

Do-good not-for-profit the Future of Music Coalition, long known for championing the causes of independent musicians, has launched Rock the Net, a campaign designed to help Massachusetts Democratic Representative Edward Markey's fight for net neutrality on Capitol Hill.

The initiative is backed by a slew of labels, fans, and, of course, bands. Founding supporters include Ted Leo, Death Cab for Cutie, Calexico, the Donnas, the Wrens, Kathleen Hanna, Jimmy Tamborello, the Locust, Bob Mould, Boots Riley of the Coup, R.E.M., Kronos Quartet, Rogue Wave, John Doe, and many, many more. New bands and labels are joining every day; right now, they're up to 256 bands and 59 labels.

Given the web's penchant for subjectivity, bias, and "Which Laguna Beach Girl Are You?" quizzes, the concept of net neutrality can be confounding. Here's a primer on what exactly the FMC is raging against: the big telecommunications interests would very much like to collect money from webhosts in exchange for higher bandwidth, making those sites that could afford it lightning fast and those who couldn't deathly slow.

Thus far the internet's been a real playing-field-leveler for folks on a shoestring budget (ahem); record sales notwithstanding, the web's allowed no reason why Wooden Wand couldn't conceivably enjoy the same kind of online presence as Akon. But with major-label money thrown into purchasing bandwidth, the tables would turn toward those with mad cash-- not unlike television and radio. Hence the uproar.

In a March 27 teleconference, Rep. Markey-- joined by loveable loudmouth Leo, CD Baby founder Derek Sivers, and FMC executive director/musician Jenny Toomey-- detailed Rock the Net's involvement in his own proposals. Markey, chair of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, is seeking to craft legislation that would keep this bandwidth-borne payola from becoming reality, and swears that help from Rock the Net and its cadre of conscientious artists will be invaluable.

Mr. Leo, taking the role of eloquent elder spokesman, chimed in that "the ability for a musician in my position to actually reach people is entirely wrapped up in the concept of a network...in the past, of course, it was infinitely more difficult to do this...what we've seen-- in really the last five years but even in the last decade-- has been an incredible flowering of independent music's ability to reach the people who are not just willing but interested to hear it." Leo pointed to the increased difficulty this kind of artist-centric networking would face were the telecom companies successful in their aims.

For additional information on Rock the Net's goals, artists and events-- and to find out how you can help-- check out the initiative's website. Sign the petition, or be prepared to have to wait hours to get your favorite band's website to load.

Rapture, Wu-Tang, CYHSY, Autechre Do Dour Festival
Plus: Thermals, DJ Shadow, Explosions in the Sky, Vitalic, Justice, Digitalism, Notwist

To a native English speaker, the idea of a Dour Festival smacks of as much joy as a Daughtry/Nickelback/Hinder triple-bill. So imagine our surprise when we found out that not only is Dour a city in Belgium, but that Dour's festival-- now in its 19th year-- packs such shiny happy people as the Rapture, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and the Thermals.

Coming live and direct July 12-15, the Dour Festival is anything but; its sprawling roster and reasonably-priced parking are sure to slap a smile on any gloom-mongering fest-goer. Full-fest and individual day tickets are available now, there's onsite camping to be had, and you'll encounter delicious, fluffy waffles everywhere you turn.

C'mon, get happy: the Rapture, Wu-Tang Clan, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the Thermals, Autechre, DJ Shadow, Explosions in the Sky, Justice, Clark, Digitalism, SebastiAn, Venetian Snares, Converge, Vitalic, KRS-One, Mates of State, the Notwist, the Young Gods vs. Dälek, the Cinematic Orchestra, the Frames, Erase Errata, ADULT., Midlake, Wolf Eyes, the Congos, Erol Alkan, Tiefschwarz, Goldie, Stereo Total, Uffie & Feadz, and more more 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.)