T.V. Eye: April 16-22, 2007

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

Monday, April 16:

NBC: "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno": Lily Allen
NBC: "Late Night With Conan O'Brien": Black Keys


Wednesday, April 18:

Syndicated: "The Ellen DeGeneres Show": Lily Allen
CBS: "Late Show With David Letterman": Son Volt

Thursday, April 19:

CBS: "Late Show With David Letterman": Tokyo Police Club
NBC: "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno": OK Go
NBC: "Late Night With Conan O'Brien": Annuals
CBS: "Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson": Paul Wall

Friday, April 20:

NBC: "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno": OK Go
CBS: "Late Show With David Letterman": Regina Spektor
NBC: "Late Night With Conan O'Brien": Paul Weller
IFC: "The Henry Rollins Show": Ryan Adams
ABC: "Jimmy Kimmel Live": Morrissey

Saturday, April 21:

NBC: "Saturday Night Live: Björk

Arcade Fire's Win Butler: "Recovering Nicely"
When he screams, now it makes a sound

Rejoice and be glad! Neon Bible scholar Win Butler's recent health troubles-- which necessitated both a massive Euro-tour cancellation and sinus surgery-- appear to be a thing of the past. In a message posted on the Arcade Fire's website, Win offered a positive prognosis, and detailed his wellness regimen:

"Hi!

Just wanted to let you all know that the surjery (sic) was successful, and I am recovering nicely. Thank you for all of your thoughts and emails...

I will probably start singing again this week some time to try and get ready for the shows in North America.

It has been a blessing in disguise to be forced to stay home and read, and sleep (pick up Cormac Mcarthy's [sic] "The Road" if you are feeling like a little post apocalypse...don't let the Oprah Book Club Sticker scare you away)...Regine and I have even started working on some new songs...

anyway see you all soon

luv
Win"

Hey now, bud, I thought sleeping was giving in!

Win must've spent some of his time away Blackberrying, as Arcade Fire's been busy lining up some top-notch openers for their upcoming tour, and getting ready for the U.S. release of the "Keep the Car Running" 7", due out on Merge May 8. And, since it wouldn't be a day in Pitchfork news without us posting Arcade Fire tour dates, they're all yours after the jump. [MORE...]

Devendra Banhart Working on New Album

Devendra Banhart, freak-folk's resident male pin-up, is back in the studio recording his fifth full-length, the follow-up to 2005's Cripple Crow.

Banhart is producing the album along with friend and touring bandmate Noah Georgeson. Other contributors to the record include Vetiver's Andy Cabic, Espers' Otto Hauser, Joanna Newsom's brother Pete, Los Hermanos' Rodrigo Amarante, Luckey Remington, Greg Rogove, former Metallic Falcon Matteah Baim, and Banhart's touring band.

The album does not yet have a title or release date, but it will come out on XL Recordings.

Banhart has only one gig scheduled at the moment, at Bumbershoot in Seattle in September.

Wilco Become Toys!
Wilcos wobble, but they won't fall down

What with their deadpan musicality and meticulous lyricism, it seems at times like those Wilco gents take themselves very, very seriously. Then they go and do something like issue teeny toys of themselves. So misunderstood, indeed.

Portland-based toy company UNKL will launch a series of limited-edition Wilco figurines at San Diego’s Comic-Con this July. There’s Jeff Tweedy (a longtime UNKL fan, we're told), and, uh, the five other guys in Wilco.

Not included: a talking Jay Bennett with which you can stage bickering matches with your Jeff doll.

In other Wilco news, Sky Blue Sky will shine on May 15, they just pegged Low to open a bunch of North American dates on their previously announced world tour, and their handsome mugs will wind up in a picture book due out June 1. [MORE...]

Photos: Modest Mouse [Seattle, WA; 04/15/07]

Photos by Michael Alan Goldberg

Mouse on fire: Modest Mouse kicked off their crazy-anticipated North American tour in support of We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank with a gig last night at Seattle's Paramount. It was the Pacific Northwest titans' first since docking Ship atop the Billboard 200 album charts-- and to the best of our knowledge, as far as celebratory gestures went, Isaac Brock stuck to the bottle and left the knife at home.

Catch Modest Mouse gnawing their way to a city near you this spring.








[MORE...]

Tim Kasher Talks Good Life, Screenplay, Move to L.A.
"It's exploratory, it's exciting, it's a way [so that at] 80 years old or something I can look back and say, 'And then there was that time when I moved to L.A.'"

Tim Kasher has moved to L.A.

Take a minute to let that sink in. Tim Kasher, a godfather to the storied Omaha "scene", bread to America's breadbasket, helmer of two of Saddle Creek's most vital and long-standing bands (one of which he named after Nebraska's original state slogan, for crissakes)-- dude's packed up and skipped town. He warned us in song that he'd leave Omaha, and now he's gone and done it.

Still, from the sound of it, this is a move the Cursive/Good Life frontman has been mulling over for a long time. And we should be excited for the guy.

"It's just something I've always wanted to do," Kasher told Pitchfork recently. "It's exploratory, it's exciting, it's a way [so that at] 80 years old or something I can look back and say, 'And then there was that time when I moved to L.A.'"

While he insists this isn't the reason for the move ("I don't like the vibe of moving to go make it somewhere or something like that,") Kasher-- like many who go the way of L.A.-- has a screenplay in hand. A screenplay adapted from a Kasher-penned play, really, and it's called Help Wanted Nights.

Like a sign one might see outside a diner or something? "Yeah, exactly," said Tim, adding, "it should have commas, but you don't put commas on marquees and stuff, so I thought I'd leave it that way."

According to Kasher, Help Wanted Nights involves "roughly a week in a bar in a small town where a stranger's car breaks down...so, he fraternizes with the regulars, getting too wrapped up in their sordid lives. Something like that."

If that sounds familiar, Kasher's with you. "I didn't hide my appreciation for Tennessee Williams or Edward Albee too much. It also doesn't fall far from the Good Life tree."

Indeed, Help Wanted Nights the play/screenplay in turn helped inspire Help Wanted Nights the album, Kasher's fourth with the Good Life, tentatively due for release via Saddle Creek on September 11, 2007. "There was definitely talk about what's appropriate or inappropriate," Tim explained when asked about the release date. "I think [the label] just saw it as the most logical release date for when we were done with recording it."

Help Wanted Nights features the same Good Life line-up heard on 2004's Album of the Year: Kasher, Stefanie Drootin, Ryan Fox, and Roger Lewis.

And while this won't exactly be his Album of the Decade, "everything's very idealistic," mused Kasher. "It's like if I could ever get that performance to be put on or to be shot, then this would be some kind of soundtrack for that. It was kind of the impetus for writing this record." [MORE...]

Tortoise's McEntire, Herndon, Bitney Team Up for Bumps

Tortoise side projects are born, retired, and revived at a pace that completely belies the band's name, so it doesn't come as a huge surprise that three of members of the band-- John McEntire, John Herndon, and Dan Bitney-- are releasing an album of instrumental percussion under the name Bumps.

The surprise is that they're releasing the album, simply titled Bumps, on Stones Throw, that bastion of excellent underground soul and hip hop.

That's not to say it's not a nice surprise. In fact, the possibility of Bumps becoming the go-to sample source for a new generation of hip hop heads is mighty intriguing. The three-piece suit could become the new gold chain.

Stones Throw will release Bumps on June 19.

Don't forget, Tortoise will launch their North American summer tour in Columbus, Ohio on June 14. [MORE...]

Deerhunter, Menomena, Klaxons, Fujiya Added to Pitchfork Music Festival!
Also: Oxford Collapse, Beach House, Craig Taborn's Junk Magic, Dan Deacon

The Pitchfork Music Festival lineup just keeps growing, and today, we're thrilled to announce the latest additions to the roster of our first-ever three-day festival, taking place July 13-15 at Union Park in Chicago.

Atlanta psych-rock powerhouses Deerhunter, Portland-based experimental pop trio Menomena, dance-rock juggernaut Klaxons, sleek Brits Fujiya & Miyagi, Sub Poppers Oxford Collapse, neo-slowcore duo Beach House, fantastically insane one-man-band Dan Deacon, and boundary-breaking jazz ensemble Craig Taborn's Junk Magic.

Of course, they all join previously announced Pitchfork Music Festival performers Cat Power, New Pornographers, Clipse, Stephen Malkmus, De La Soul, Iron and Wine, Of Montreal, Girl Talk, Jamie Lidell, Grizzly Bear, Battles, the Ponys, Professor Murder, Ken Vandermark's Powerhouse Sound, and, of course, Sonic Youth performing their landmark 1988 album Daydream Nation (in collaboration with All Tomorrow's Parties' Don't Look Back).

Best of all, that's just a taste of the many artists who'll be performing at this year's fest, for which we still have yet to announce two more artists who, like Sonic Youth, will be performing their classic albums in full as part of Friday's ATP/Don't Look Back festival kickoff.

Here's the lineup so far:

Friday, July 13:

Sonic Youth performs Daydream Nation

Saturday, July 14:

Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues
Clipse
Iron and Wine
Girl Talk
Grizzly Bear
Battles
Fujiya & Miyagi
Oxford Collapse
Dan Deacon
Beach House
Professor Murder
Ken Vandermark's Powerhouse Sound

Sunday, July 15:

New Pornographers
Stephen Malkmus
De La Soul
Of Montreal
Jamie Lidell
Menomena
Klaxons
The Ponys
Deerhunter
Craig Taborn's Junk Magic

Tickets are on sale now at Ticketweb. Three-day passes cost $50, Friday night costs $15, Saturday and Sunday individual passes cost $25, and a Saturday/Sunday pass costs $35.

Keep up on all the latest festival news and details by bookmarking the Pitchfork Music Festival webpage and by tuning into the Pitchfork Music Festival podcast.

Lily Allen Cancels American Tour?

Well, this was unexpected! After adding and adding and adding shows to her neverending journey in support of her debut album Alright Still, Lily Allen has apparently canceled her entire May-June American tour.

According to several clubs at which Lily was scheduled to play, the reason for the quashed tour is "scheduling conflicts," and it will be rescheduled in the fall. So far, 11 dates, stretching from Kansas to Florida, have been removed. However, representatives from Lily's camp would not confirm that the entire tour would not be taking place.

No word yet on whether Lily's still playing Coachella or Bonnaroo or this weekend's KCRW Sounds Eclectic Evening. [MORE...]

Les Savy Fav Want You to Sing Their Jams

Is a Les Savy Fav show really a Les Savy Fav show unless someone accepts Skittles straight from Tim Harrington’s mouth? Methinks not. Mildly uncomfortable audience participation is as much as mainstay of the LSF experience as spiny riffage, barking vocals, or sweat descending into your nether regions.

But on any given night, there's only so many mouths one can feed regurgitated candy to, and those Les Savy freaks are widening their reach with a new approach to fan-fellowship. They'd like it very much if you'd visit their website, learn a few lines from a few new choice cuts ("Nine Teen Ninety Nine", "The World", and "Resent the Rent") and then call 718-228-8954 and sing them into their voicemail.

A chance to go all Idol with Les Savy Fav? Sweet slimy bon-bons!

In other Fav news, looks like the grumblings about scheduling another UK date around their May 19 date at the All Tomorrow's Parties Versus You (The Fans) festival will amount to little more than that, as, according to their website, the idea of booking a gig "sounds like work" and they, therefore, are "gonna just keep it easy."

Too lazy to slate a show and getting ringers for vocal duties? How sinfully slothful!

Joakim About to Get Silly on North American Tour

When French remixer/DJ/Tigersushi head chef/club sensation Joakim crashes North American shores later this month, he won't be alone. Indeed, this propagator of all things danceable will bolster the agreeable blend of house, techno, electro, and disco found on this year's Monsters & Silly Songs (!K7) with four separate live bands branded with similar but distinct names.

We know this much: Joakim's Ectoplasmics include Maxime Delpierre on guitar, Juan DeGuillebon on bass, and Mark Kerr on drums. As to who or what comprises the Euroschmucks, the Ectosluts, or the Europlasmics, folks in New York, San Francisco, and Chicago will just have to wait and find out. And don't even get us started on the Ectoschmucks (who turn up in Barcelona) and, of course, the Eurosluts (bound for Dublin). Do these refer to actual variations of Joakim's band? Or are they merely products of the Frenchman's whimsy? Either way, like Bill Murray, they're pretty funny.

In related news, Joakim lends his production muse to Chateau Rouge, the debut LP by buddy/collaborator My Sister Klaus-- aka Guillaume Teyssier, aka the lyricist behind Poni Hoax's kick-ass "Budapest". Look for that one May 15 on Tigersushi, and later, another Joakim-produced Poni Hoax LP. [MORE...]

Part Chimp Tour Europe, Spill Cup on U.S.

Part Chimp's odds'n'sods comp Cup busts through your headphones and pounds directly on your eardrums, shooting to kill your auditory nerves. The blaring Brits collect ten shattering singles, some mauling miscellaneia, and, improbably perhaps, a Beatles cover.

North Americans will get to hear Cup May 22 thanks to Monitor Records, but they may not be able to hear anything afterwards, ever. Cup comes complete with a pair of videos for "War Machine" and conveniently-titled new single "New Cross" which noise-punk fans on the go can load on their video iPods for portable punishment.

Part Chimp are currently going ape around Europe. [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.)