Art Brut Just Talking to the Kids on DVD

For as much as their record rocks, few bands validate the "you gotta see 'em live!" thing as much as Art Brut. Between Eddie Argos' ridiculous ad-libs and his band's high-energy guitar assault, one can't help but leave an Art Brut gig with a big smile pasted across his or her face. Unfortunately, up until now, you probably had to dwell in or near one metropolis or another to experience Eddie and Co. live and raw. Now you can laugh and rock along without moving your arse from the couch.

Way back in January of this year, Germany's Cargo Records snuck out an Art Brut DVD titled Talking to the Kids. The disc collects footage from a live show recorded January 24, 2006 at Cologne, Germany's Stollwerck, along with several music videos, photos, behind the scenes footage, German TV appearances, and other goodies.

Of course if you don't speak German, you might find the narrated portions a bit hard to follow, but we'll take live Art Brut any way we can get it. And we'll be able to get it much more easily come May 22, when Cobraside Distribution makes Talking to the Kids available in the United States.

That snappy band, meanwhile, has its revenge with It's a Bit Complicated, out June 26 in the U.S. via Downtown Records, and likely the day before overseas via Mute. Catch them on a brief States/Canada foray later this month, or in the UK thereafter supporting Maxïmo Park and eventually headlining. [MORE...]

Thermals Combat The Machine on World Tour

Having recently wrapped up a load of dates with the hard-partyin' Hold Steady, you'd think the lads and lassie of the Thermals might require a little time to dry out. Not so; hangover or no, the can-do kinesis they exude on wax apparently carries over to their willingness to plunder forth by land or by sea.

Hutch'll hitch up with his Thermals on an Oregon-bound trail before a ton of late-May, Cribs-supporting dates in the UK, a festival bender, and a lone dog-days jaunt to the Second City that probably precludes an all-out summer tour presently heating up booking agent phone lines. [MORE...]

Fridge LP Details, Four Tet/Sunburned Collab Revealed

Summer 2007 is shaping up to be quite busy for Kieran Hebden. Surprise, surprise. Is this guy ever not busy?

In addition to touring with percussionist Steve Reid in support of their latest collaborative record Tongues and remixing the stars under his Four Tet alias, Hebden has two new albums due on shelves in the coming months.

The Sun, out June 19 on CD and LP on Temporary Residence in the U.S. (and on Text in the UK and Domino in Europe), is the years-in-the-making new album from Fridge, Hebden's band with bassist Adem Ilhan and drummer Sam Jeffers. The follow-up to 2001's Happiness, The Sun features ten songs ranging in length from 38 seconds to almost eight minutes. Post-rock-tastic! (Temporary Residence plans to reissue Happiness on limited edition double LP in celebration of the occasion.)

As Jeffers told Pitchfork in an earlier interview, Fridge's new music features "a stronger strain of improvisation and 'freeness' running through it than ever before. Maybe even a contrast between some quite tight, rhythmical stuff, and loose, no-rules music-- often in the same track."

And speaking of improvisation and freeness, in August, Norwegian label Smalltown Supersound will release Fire Escape, a collaboration between Hebden and freak/folk/avant/noise troupe Sunburned Hand of the Man. Sunburned spent four hours in the London studio the Exchange last year, following Hebden's lead as he arranged the amorphous band into different subsets. Hebden made suggestions for what the band played, and they improvised from those suggestions. Hebden then reassembled and remixed an album from tracks of those session.

Sunburned co-founder John Moloney explained to Pitchfork, "He would be like, 'I want two of you guys: Play drums and bass now. Everyone play flutes now. All vocals. OK, a couple of piano pieces. It's a bit like our older stuff, crossed with a Can record or a dance record. It's pretty cool." [MORE...]

Mirah, Mudhoney, Timony on DeSoto Kiddie Comp
Plus: Channels, Tara Jane O'Neil, Anna Oxygen, the Cassettes, Georgie James

Kids these days don't know how good they got it. When I was a lad, there were no "Suite Life of Zach & Cody", no Zenon (not to mention no Zequel), and certainly no indie rock compilations made specifically for the juvenile set.

Lucky for this generation, DeSoto Records-- no strangers to children's causes-- will amass 14 youth-friendly tracks, call it Play, and release it digitally April 14 with an iTunes exclusive track from DeSoto's faithful Travis Morrison.

Technophobic child-havers-- who probably don't get their music news from websites, come to think of it-- can check their local dime stores and medicine shoppes for an old-fashioned CD copy of Play on May 22 sans the aforementioned Dismemberment Planner's parenthood-jam. The comp promises to be adult-friendly, too, but if my occasional channel-changing happenstance with "The Wiggles" has taught me anything, kid songs register as intolerable to virtually all ears over the age of eight. Although maybe those Wiggles just suck.

Those looking to get buck with bambinos in tow can check out comp-gracing Georgie James and the Cassettes at Bethesda, Maryland's Glen Echo Park April 22. [MORE...]

Apostle of Hustle Move Quickly Through U.S., Canada

Every day they're hustlin'; Apostle of Hustle-- whose more-than-solid Arts & Crafts release National Anthem of Nowhere is still warm in North American stores and, as of March 26, white-hot in Europe-- will pack their darting guitars and chattering drums for a plethora of April and May dates, including a handful with matinée idol Andrew Bird and fellow Broken Social Scene extended family member Memphis.

As we previously reported, the Apostles ran a remix contest for Nowhere's leadoff track "My Sword Hand's Anger". The votes are in, and Canuck thinktank Circle Research will see the upside of "Anger" when their take on the track appears on the tune's digital maxi-single (alongside a live version of same) April 10. [MORE...]

Lifetime Poised for Spring Tour

New Jersey emo/hardcore elder statesmen Lifetime will bust some heads on the road again in support of their self-titled reunion album, which moshed its way into our hearts this year via DecayDance/Fueled by Ramen.

The tour of a Lifetime begins April 20 at Toronto's Reverb and wraps up April 29 at Richmond, Virginia's Alley Katz. [MORE...]

Dungen's Gustavsson Releases Solo Debut

Dungen multi-instrumentalist Mattias Gustavsson will release his solo debut as Life on Earth! on April 17 via Swedish label Subliminal Sounds.

The album is titled Look!! There Is..., and for those wondering what's up with the exclamation fixation, a press release explains it a little bit: "The basic idea is to make music that celebrates the incredible and absolutely wonderful phenomenon of life on Earth, hoping to spread some joy to any possible listeners." What's not to exclaim about?

Look!! features contributions from Mia Doi Todd as well as musicians from Dungen, the Works, and Town & Country. Dungen, meanwhile, hit us with Tio Bitar on May 15 via Kemado. [MORE...]

Elf Power Tour, Make More Records
Live in a hollow tree, bake cookies in a magic oven

Having cranked out nine albums of gleeful garage-pop (with two more on the bubble), whatever's fueling Elf Power must be some high-octane stuff. The joyful Georgians-- currently hunkered down in the studio, backing their chum Vic Chesnutt on an album of his tunes-- hit the road next week for a month of Midwest and West Coast dates before taking to the booth again to follow up last year's Back to the Web. [MORE...]

Jenny Lewis Wins L.A. "Pioneer Woman" Honor

Photos by Los Angeles 13th City Council District

For blazing a trail across indie America's heart, Rilo Kiley frontlady/solo singer Jenny Lewis has been named a "Pioneer Woman" by the Los Angeles City Council.

Okay, so maybe it was actually for "contributions to popular music [that] have left their mark on her neighborhood, her genre, and her time" and helping "place the Silver Lake and Echo Park musical scenes on the leading edge of 21st-century song," as board president Eric Garcetti put it. The leading edge of 21st-century song, eh?

Lewis received the Pioneer Woman award-- given out annually in conjunction with National Women's History Month, and meant to honor "outstanding community service and accomplishments...that continue to expand opportunities for generations to come"-- from Garcetti during a ceremony last Friday, March 30.

Ever humble, Lewis had this to say: "It is an honor to be recognized in the company of all the women gathered here whose accomplishments far outstrip my own. These women are actually affecting the community in a tangible way while I'm just up there singing about it." Oh, stop!

Since releasing and touring behind her disc with the Watson Twins, Rabbit Fur Coat, last year, Lewis has kept a fairly low profile. Her community-servicing voice graces Dntel's forthcoming Sub Pop LP Dumb Luck, while Rilo Kiley have been hard at work on the follow-up to 2004's More Adventurous.

Low Kick Off Tour, Rock NPR, Postpone June Shows

Photo by Tim Soter

Low will leave the confines of Minnesnowta to celebrate spring on their previously reported tour, which begins tonight in New York.

For the sake of their European fans, we hope they can clear customs with Drums and Guns in tow.

West Coast fans will unfortunately have to wait a bit longer than expected to catch Low live, as the band's June dates in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles have been postponed until September. (Thanks to reader Nat for giving us the heads up about that!)

On the bright side, Low's show in Washington, DC on April 10 with Sub Pop labelmates Loney, Dear will be broadcast live on NPR. It's part of their live concert series and will be archived for download via the "All Songs Considered" podcasts. [MORE...]

Architecture in Helsinki Plot World Tour, New Single
Single to feature remixes from A-Trak, Dr. Dog, DJ/Rupture, YACHT

Where've they been hiding? Herky-jerky million-piece Aussies Architecture in Helsinki have largely kept their down-under drollery on the down-low since 2005's much-beloved In Case We Die and that remix album.

No more! With new single "Heart It Races" due to be remixed back and forth and side to side by the likes of A-Trak, Dr. Dog(??), YACHT, and others-- plus a globe-spanning gallop as summer starts to toast the northern hemisphere-- Architecture is back with a vengeance.

The first of many manifestations of "Heart It Races", messed about by DJ/Rupture and yelled over by Mr. Lee*G (who, for his sake, I hope is the same Mr. Lee G who directed Yo' Mama's a Freak), is streaming on the band's MySpace right this instant. [MORE...]

CocoRosie Expand Tour Adventures

Photo by Julia Gillard

CocoRosie kick off their previously reported European tour tomorrow in Rome, and those wyrd sisters have added quite a few North American dates in late April and May.

The trek, bookended by European junkets, is in support of the release of CocoRosie's new album, The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn.

Touch and Go delivers Stillborn on April 10. [MORE...]

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