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Hella Bring Outer Space to Earth Cities

Hella will test their newly formed five-man lineup on the road starting tonight, when their first full tour in support of There's No 666 in Outer Space kicks off in San Francisco. Since we last reported, Hella have added plenty of shows to the tour.

Though Pitchfork gave Outer Space a 7.0, not all of the press for the album has been positive. In fact, our own Brandon Stosuy panned the record in Spin. Hella have taken the criticism in stride, however, making a tour t-shirt featuring Brandon's review. [MORE...]
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Fiona Apple, Jon Brion to Play L.A. Benefits

In an effort to raise funds for a friend, Fiona Apple will join Jon Brion on stage at his favorite Los Angeles venue, Largo, on March 5 and 9.

Apple's production manager, Gordon "Gungi" Paterson, was diagnosed with cancer last summer, and to lend a hand with the financial burden associated with his treatment, Fiona, Brion, Dave Palmer, David Garza, Nickel Creek's Sean and Sara Watkins, and more will perform at the pair of benefits. Proceeds will go to Gungi and his family.

"Gungi is one of those people that you just love, really actually LOVE, within five minutes of meeting him," Apple wrote on her official website. "As you may know, I am a girl prone to low days. I don't know how many times I got to soundcheck in a grumpy, nasty, teary rut, and when I saw Gungi, all nearly seven feet of him, across the empty theatre, and we waved to each other and he asked me how I was, I immediately got a jolt of life...His face is a pep-talk!...His eyes are HUGS!...

"He's my friend. I love him. He's helped me a lot when I have been in trouble. Now, he is in trouble, and I want to help him...If you can come to either of the shows at Largo, they should be pretty fun...and if you don't come, then maybe you'd like to donate 5 bucks or something...whatever you decide, I thank you, for being there for me, for giving a damn, and for making noise and for listening."

In related news, Jon Brion will play a one-off show at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago on March 9.

As previously reported, Apple will join Common and the Shins' James Mercer on mtvU's Fulbright-mtvU Fellowships committee. The Fulbright is a Department of State-sponsored program which allows college students to study abroad for a year while doing research on a project of their own design.

The aforementioned artists will lend a hand in awarding this year's batch of Fulbrights to four students who wish to "study how music can serve as a global force for mutual understanding."

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12 Rods' Olcott Returns With Mystery Palace

Flash back to the mid-nineties, when a nascent Pitchforkmedia.com was handing out high scores all willy-nilly, and you'll find a glowing 10.0 review of an EP called Gay? by a not-much- talked-about-anymore act called 12 Rods. Whether deserved or not, the record stands, and while 12 Rods dissolved back in 2004, former frontman Ryan Olcott continues to hone his craft today-- with Mystery Palace.

The Minneapolis-based synth-pop trio-- featuring Olcott (in FoodTeam guise) on keyboards and vocals, James Buckley on bass, and Joey Van Phillips on drums-- issued its debut LP, Flags Forward, this week via Milwaukee's Zod Records. The album, which the band celebrated at a few record release gigs this past weekend, follows up last month's "Stepchild" single. Check out some sample jams on the trio's website. They're not exactly 10.0 territory, but they are, well, interesting.
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Maximo Park Announce U.S. Release Details

Maxïmo Park have secured a U.S. release date for their new album, Our Earthly Pleasures. Warp will release it Stateside May 8, and it is still scheduled for an April 2 release in the UK. The U.S. version will include the bonus tracks "Pride Before a Fall" and "Distance Makes". Both will appear as B-sides to the album's first single, "Our Velocity", which comes out March 19 in the UK.

A stream of "Our Velocity" is available at the band's MySpace.

As previously reported, Maxïmo Park have plenty of UK and European dates scheduled, quite a few of which are with Art Brut. A full U.S. tour is forthcoming. [MORE...]

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Beirut Release eMusic EP, Work With Final Fantasy
Also book two NYC shows

Smart dude, that Zach Condon. He knows that in order to maintain the rabidity of your fan base, you have to keep them wanting more. Just a few weeks after the release of the Lon Gisland EP, Beirut have dropped a couple more morsels to feed the starving masses: the Pompeii EP, currently available only at eMusic. (It will be available soon in Europe via Rough Trade Digital.)

It consists of the songs "Fountains and Tramways" and "Napoleon on the Bellerophon". Both tracks were recorded before Condon made Beirut's debut album Gulag Orkestar.

Thanks to the folks at Rewriteable Content for pointing out the EP!

Beirut return to the stage at the 4AD SXSW showcase at Emo's on March 14, playing alongside labelmates Blonde Redhead, the Mountain Goats, Emma Pollock and Wolf & Cub. They'll also do a live KEXP set on March 16. And on May 6 and 7, they'll play the Bowery Ballroom in their adopted home of New York City.

A video for "Elephant Gun" is in the works, as is Beirut's second album. The band plan to return to their hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico to record in March and April. Griffin Rodriguez, who has worked with Man Man, Bablicon, and A Hawk and a Hacksaw, among others, will be helping out with the recording.

Condon and co. will also head up to Canada in May to work with Owen Pallett on the next Final Fantasy album.

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Annuals Picked to Open for Blonde Redhead

Photo by Charles Harris

My, do those Annuals kids have pluck. And the bigger kids are taking notice: already tapped by Kaiser Chiefs and the Walkmen to open a string of shows on the coupling's North American tour, Annuals will now also join Blonde Redhead as the art-rock vets hit the road in support of the forthcoming 23 (out April 10 on 4AD), which your humble reporter is fairly obsessed with right now. So much so that he's scribbling on the walls about it.

Of course, Annuals must first plow through a Noise Pop appearance, a short tour with Aqueduct, and about three dozen SXSW showcases and parties before riling the masses up for the aforementioned indie stars.

In a slightly more congruous pairing, cinematic L.A. brooders Midnight Movies open a stretch of dates for Blonde Redhead as well. [MORE...]
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Cinematic Orchestra Reveal New Album Details

This summer, Jason Swinscoe will return with the first Cinematic Orchestra album since 2002's Every Day. The new record, titled Ma Fleur, was conceived as the soundtrack to an imagined film. Swinscoe made use of a scriptwriter and photographer Maya Hayuk for inspiration, bringing unfinished pieces to them and writing more music based on their responses in the forms of short story scripts and photographs.

It's out on Ninja Tune on May 7 in the UK and June 5 on Domino in North America.

Swinscoe collaborated with longtime bassist Phil France on Ma Fleur's arrangements. He also assembled a trio of vocalists, each of which he used to voice specific characters or thematic elements of the Ma Fleur story. Legendary soul singer and previous Cinematic Orchestra collaborator Fontella Bass plays the part of the elderly protagonist, and Lou Rhodes plays a character in mid-life. The youngest member of the trio is Montreal's Patrick Watson, who sings on the beautiful album closer "To Build a Home".

Ninja Tune is offering the radio edit of "To Build a Home" as an MP3 download if you sign up for the Cinematic Orchestra mailing list here. It's worth it, but if you'd rather not provide an email address, you can stream the song from the group's MySpace.

The Cinematic Orchestra will tour Europe and the UK in April and May, with plans to play select North American venues in July. So far, only an NYC date has been announced. A full tour is in the works for the fall. [MORE...]

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Ryan Adams Unleashes His Tiger This June
ewww

Seems Ryan "Minus" Adams has finally parsed down (or tossed aside entirely) the 3,492 tracks recently uploaded to his website into one concise, 13-song album. Ryan's ninth full-length proper, Easy Tiger, enters the physical universe June 5 via Lost Highway.

Possibly named for a line Mr. Adams often gets in bed, Easy Tiger's not-yet-sequenced baker's dozen is reprinted below for your speculative pleasure. Will "Goodnight Rose" be a rollicking alt-country romper? Will "Oh My God, Whatever, Etc." involve cheap beat boxes and witch impersonations? Lord we hope so. [MORE...]
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Exclusive: Voxtrot Reveal Debut LP Title, Tracklist

"I guess it's the first time we're presenting ourselves to a lot of people," Voxtrot's Ramesh Srivastava told Pitchfork earlier this month when asked about his band's long-awaited debut, "so maybe we'll just name it after us."

And self-title it they did.

Voxtrot, the debut LP from, yes, Voxtrot, arrives May 22 (as previously reported) on Beggars/Playlouder. The 11-track set follows three favorably received EPs-- Raised by Wolves, Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives, and Your Biggest Fan-- and contains entirely new material. Tracks include "Firecracker", which Ramesh cited as one of his favorites and called "an odd marriage of styles," as well as previously mentioned jams "Kid Gloves" and "Blood Red Blood".

Voxtrot-- whose "Trouble" single dropped just this past Monday in the UK-- wrap up a European tour this weekend, then return to North American for SXSW, a gig in Mexico, and a proper spring jaunt in late May. [MORE...]
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Photos: Sebadoh [San Diego, CA; 02/26/07]

Reunited lo-fi high-priests Sebadoh took to the asylum-chic stage at San Diego's Casbah Monday night for the original trio's first show in well over a decade. Multi-instrumentalists Lou Barlow (who's having something of a career Renaissance of late), Eric Gaffney, and Jason Loewenstein look to be having a ball in Christopher Wilson's appropriately lo-fi photographs.

According to Wilson, "Eric Gaffney said that the photo I took of the three of them [see below] was the first time they had been photographed together in 15 years." True or not, we're just glad to have them back. Sebadoh's reunion tour continues through mid-April.








[MORE...]
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New R. Kelly Album Due in May
T.I. guests on new single "I'm a Flirt (Remix)"

The crown prince of Cloud Cuckoo Land, r&b god R. Kelly-- whose fall from grace landed him in some zany lyrical nether-realm that culminated with 2005's "Trapped in the Closet" saga-- has a new LP on the way. As reported on Billboard.com, Kelly will issue the as-yet-untitled follow-up to 2005's TP.3 Reloaded on May 29.

The new album will include latest single "I'm a Flirt (Remix)", featuring guest verses from T.I. and T-Pain. It's a remix because the piano romp originally appeared under the same title on Bow Wow's 2006 LP The Price of Fame. On Kelly's version (stream below!), we learn to keep our women far away from the self-proclaimed "king of r&b" because he's "a dog on the prowl when I'm walking through the mall." Furthermore, "The moral of the story is cuff your bitch/ 'cause hey/ I'm black, handsome, I sing, plus I'm rich." You've been warned.

Kelly recently missed a court appearance for his child porn trial because his appendix burst. Apparently, he was trapped in the hospital.

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Feist Announces Canadian Tour

Leslie Feist will rep her home country, Canada, and new album, The Reminder, on tour this May and June. The solo artist/Broken Social Scene contributor has promised summer festival appearances and East Coast U.S. dates, so stay tuned for that info, non-Canadians. She'll also play Bonnaroo on June 16.

As previously reported, The Reminder is due April 23 in Europe (marking the end of a very short UK/Euro trek) and May 1 in the rest of the world. [MORE...]

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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.)

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