Bill Callahan Drops Whaleheart a Week Early in Texas

When you've romanced both Chan Marshall and Joanna Newsom like Bill Callahan has, you can pretty much do as you please: stick arbitrary parentheses around your long-standing pseudonym, drop said moniker altogether and issue one of the finest albums of your storied career, and make sure that the un-mess-withable folks of the Lone Star State get a crack at your latest jams a full week before everyone else.

Though the artist formerly known as Smog's rousing rebirth record Woke on a Whaleheart will blow up spots continent-wide April 24, Texans can pick up Whaleheart right now. (Drag City is doing the blowing up.) Not only that, but they're the only state in the nation Callahan's playing on his current tour, which will lead him UK-ward for a few dates around the turn of the month. Those drawl-free types dying for a Whaleheart fix can pick up the "Diamond Dancer" single, which was issued sans geographical preference March 20. [MORE...]

MP3: Bill Callahan: Sycamore [from the Woke on a Whaleheart LP]

Spoon Add "Secret" Shows to Tour
Britt Daniel plays solo for charity

Pitchfork researchers are hard at work trying to unlock the mysteries of Spoon's new album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. We're tackling the tough questions, like "Is that title for real?" (yes) and "So, like, did someone in the band just have a baby?" (No). In fact, the title comes from "the sound of one of the first songs written for the record, 'The Ghost of You Lingers'", according to Spoon's publicist.

We've also cracked the super secret (read: you have to sign up) Spoon mailing list and found information about some "secret" shows on the band's schedule. First up is an April 23 show in New York City with David Vandervelde and the Moonstation House Band.

Then, not so secretly, on May 7, Britt Daniel will play a solo show in Seattle as part of a muscular dystrophy benefit. Proceeds from the show will go to Charley's Fund, an organization that gives grants to muscular dystrophy researchers.

More "secret" Spoon shows are in the works, so put an online wiretap on that aforementioned mailing list for that information. [MORE...]

Video: Spoon: The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine [from the Gimme Fiction LP]

Shearwater Tour Through the Hot Months

Watch your windshields: Austin-based orinthology buff Jonathan Meiberg and his Shearwater flock will stray far from their nest on a string of summer dates.

The band's hoping to stir up support for their well-liked, Matador-issued (and previously reported) Palo Santo: Expanded Edition-- which adds bonus tracks, five re-recorded versions of tunes from last year's original issue, and a strange and alluring new cover to the mix. [MORE...]

MP3: Shearwater: Red Sea, Black Sea (New Version) [from the Palo Santo (Expanded Edition) LP]

Magic Numbers' Sophomore Album Gets U.S. Release

The disc-- originally released in Europe last year on Heavenly Recordings/EMI-- breaks Stateside on July 3. Just to throw you for a loop, the American edition will feature a different track order, as well as an extra tune called "Keep It in the Pocket". UPDATE: THE AMERICAN VERSION ALSO INCLUDES THE HIDDEN TRACK "ALL I SEE".
 
Those Magic Numbers introduce Those the Brokes with a New York show May 9, then play heaps of festivals all summer long.

As previously reported, the quartet appears on the Starbucks/KCRW covers comp, Sounds Eclectic: The Covers Project. That album dropped last month and features the Magic Numbers' take on Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love". The band also contributed a track to Rachel Fuller's "In the Attic" webcast compilation, Attic Jam, which hit iTunes exclusively back in February. [MORE...]

Stream: The Magic Numbers: Various Tracks

Gang Gang Dance's DeGraw Talks Album, EP, Films

Last time Pitchfork chatted with Gang Gang Dance's Brian DeGraw, he was filling us in on how his Gang's powers transcend those of a mere band-- and mulling over some appropriately ambitious extra-musical activities for the bunch: plays, restaurants, automobile design, and a freaking gorilla sanctuary, to name a few.

DeGraw and company haven't ruled anything out yet, but from the sound of it, the Gang is going to stick to a certain tried-and-true pursuit for the time being, one popularized by more conventional bands. They're going to release some records.

"We're just too busy right now," DeGraw told Pitchfork last week. "We're really still working on the record."

That record, the follow-up to 2005's God's Money, won't reach completion for a little while though, as GGD have "about six hours' worth of material" to sort through.

"We record all our practices," said DeGraw. "[We] then go back and listen to the tapes, pick out some parts, and then compose new songs using all these different parts stuck together. So when we're recording we'll do the same thing: we'll roll tape for a few hours and just improvise, then pick out all these really sweet spots and try to make them into something."

This reductive approach of course leaves many enticing musical paths untrodden, but Gang Gang Dance hope to try a few of them on an as-yet-untitled EP that will proceed the album. "We have all this extra stuff...so we figured we'd just take some of the stuff we knew we weren't going to use on the album and just put it out." The Social Registry will deliver that EP Stateside, while Young Turks will serve it up in the UK.

"Sound-wise," offered DeGraw, the album is "going to sound like a Gang Gang record. I think it's maybe just a lot tighter, [with] less improvisation and more composed songs."

The percussion-heavy band has a new weapon in its arsenal now too: a sequencer. "Recently in practices," said DeGraw, "I'll just throw some drum pattern on for fun; then we start realizing that we're really into it. Tim [Dewitt] started stepping out from behind the kit and just grabbing a mic, and it's sounding pretty interesting. I think it might become a big thing in the future for us, using less drums and more drum machines." [MORE...]

MP3: Gang Gang Dance: Nomad for Love (Cannibal) [from the God's Money LP]

BrakesBrakesBrakes Hit the Gas for U.S./Canada Tour

Video: BrakesBrakesBrakes: Spring Chicken [from the The Beatific Visions LP]
MP3: BrakesBrakesBrakes: Hold Me in the River [from the The Beatific Visions LP]

Modest Mouse Extend Tour
Johnny Marr designs shoe for charity

Video: Modest Mouse: Dashboard [from the We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank LP]

New Stephen Malkmus Album: "67.4685% Completed"
Janet Weiss drumming for Bright Eyes

That's right you hyper-literate slackers: put down the Pynchon and the peace pipe for a moment, and bask in the good news for people who love Pavement: Stephen Malkmus is putting together a new album (with his trusty Jicks, one assumes), and according to his official website and confirmed by Matador, he's just narrowly more than two-thirds done with it!

Spake the scribe at Malkmus' web-home, "basic trax for album committed to tape...67.4685% completed...Looks to be done sometime in Late June." Pessimists take note: the new Malkmus album is 32.5315% not completed.

"Apparently, the songs are so BIG that Matador is pushing for an early 2008 release."

So there you have it! Mr. Stephen Malkmus, fresh off a solo appearance at this summer's Pitchfork Music Festival, should have a new artifact out early next year.

Steve-o's also teamed with T.J. Doherty, perhaps the only living human being cool enough to have worked with both Steely Dan and the Rapture. T.J. "kept an eye on the meters," which leads us to believe he assisted in some sort of production capacity.

BONUS: HUGH MILLER POINTS US IN THE DIRECTION OF PHOTOS FROM THE RECORDING SESSIONS. SWEET!

As for that P4k fest appearance, Malkmus' interweb doppelgänger had a few words on that as well: "[Latest Jicks initiate] Janet Weiss is busy this summer pushing tempo for Bright Eyes, so Chicago gets just one Jick. I've seen him do the solo thing, and i hate to say its ......not........ exactly....... Genius. Still, you get the dude and his voice and some strumming; I say check it out."

If you won't settle for anything less than Genius, then you probably shouldn't purchase festival tickets here immediately.

Malkmus and his Jicks also play the Green Man Festival, from August 17-19 at Wales' Brecon Beacons National Park. Check out the Malkmus statement/update-- a good read-- in full, just beyond the pale...er, the jump. [MORE...]

MP3: Stephen Malkmus: Various Tracks

Exclusive: Architecture in Helsinki Sign to Polyvinyl
Third album, Places Like This, due August 7

The geographically-misled Aussies of Architecture in Helsinki now have a new home in the northern hemisphere, as Polyvinyl Record Company has signed AIH for all their North American concerns.

Concerns that'll soon include a pair of previously-announced remix-and-cover-laden singles for the new track "Heart it Races" and, not long after, ten knotty pop tunes united as the third AIH full-length Places Like This, yours to keep August 7.

Oh, and there's still the matter of AIH's world tour, popping off next month. [MORE...]

Stream: Architecture in Helsinki: Heart It Races (DJ/Rupture's Ital Hymn mix feat. Mr. Lee G)

Animal Collective, Danielson, Battles Play NYC's Seaport
Also: Fujiya & Miyagi, Menomena

Though the full lineup of New York City's Seaport Music Festival, held in summertime at Manhattan's South Street Seaport on the beauteous banks of the East River, hasn't been announced yet, a few stellar acts have been confirmed.

June 1 sees a double dose from the cup of cultishness in the form of Animal Collective and Danielson. July 6 snags loop-lovers Fujiya & Miyagi and Menomena (both of which, we're pleased to gloat, will be playing our own Pitchfork Music Festival later in the month). And the last day of August finds math blasters Battles (also playing our fest) adding up the awesomeness.

More to come, of course. [MORE...]

Photos: The Books [Somerville, MA; 04/15/07]

Jesus and Mary Chain Add Tour Dates

Video: Sister Vanilla (The Jesus and Mary Chain plus sister): Can't Stop the Rock [from the Little Pop Rock LP]

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.)