Destroyer, Amy Millan, Tokyo Police Club on CBC Comp
Plus: Pink Mountaintops, Malajube, Tegan and Sara, Chad VanGaalen, You Say Party!

When CBC Radio 3's studios aren't beaming the finest in Canadian indie rock over the airwaves, they're collecting the best bits for their Sessions compilation series. The third volume of CBC's Sessions gathers a dozen such tracks culled from their treasure trove of in-studio sessions, primarily recorded in the booths of CBC's Vancouver and Toronto operations.

So who made the cut? Why, the likes of Amy Millan, Destroyer, Tokyo Police Club, Tegan and Sara, Pink Mountaintops, Malajube, Chad VanGaalen, You Say Party! We Say Die!, Shout Out Out Out Out, Cuff the Duke, Joel Plaskett, and Cuff the Duke. CBC Radio 3 Sessions - Volume III is available now in stores, on iTunes, and through the CBC's website. And, if you've got some time to kill, poke around the Radio 3 website's wealth of archived live sessions. [MORE...]

New Pornographers Host XM Show, Issue iTunes Single

First YouTube, now satellite radio: the New Pornographers are quickly becoming the kings and queens of new media. Every Tuesday night in December, a different New Pornographer will take over XM Satellite Radio's indie-centric XMU channel for their weekly "XMU A.I.R. (Artists in Residency) TIME" program. Though the content is left entirely up to the guests, XMU says that "setlists often include early influences, contemporary favorites, 'on my iPod right now' tracks, and lots of commentary."

So will AC throw on a little /DC? Will Dan Bejar mine selections from his vast array of Kidz Bop CDs? Will Neko host some sort of Delilah-style call in program with long distance, soft rock dedications? You'll have to tune in to find out just who spins what when. The show airs at 10 p.m. EST on Tuesdays, with encores Wednesdays at 2 p.m. and Thursday at 6 a.m. Ooh, drive time with Fancey!

Hey, and while we're talking Tuesdays with the New Pornographers, let's touch on this: Matador will issue an iTunes only single for Bejar-penned Challengers closer "The Spirit of Giving" on November 27. It comes backed with a new Carl Newman composition called "Joseph, Who Understood" and a combined pair of covers of tunes by (or, in the case of "Arms of Mary", covered by) fellow Canadian rockers Chilliwack.

As the band prepares to transmit themselves through space, their time on terra firma will be spent on tour. Those dates after the jump. [MORE...]

Radiohead Rainbows CD Due Via ATO New Year's Day?
Band to play webcast? Downloads to land band mad cash? Story to include periods?

You can already expect a hefty Radiohead box set and/or the clunkiest-looking USB drive ever under your pan-religious holiday tree this season, but what to do with all those gift cards and store return credits? Looks like you just might be able to use them to complete your box set, as the unconfirmed word is that In Rainbows will indeed hit U.S. shops in CD form via ATO/Side One-- and what's more, it may well do so January 1.

Reports have come in from several Pitchfork readers working in retail that this is the release date and label indicated on their order sheets; but, again, this info has not yet been confirmed by Radiohead's camp. More official-like: Radiohead's previously reported deal with XL Recordings, who'll handle In Rainbows CDs outside North America.

And while we're visiting the Radiohead rumor mill, we'd be remiss not to point out this juicy one. As BBC 6 Music radio host Adam Buxton disclosed in a recent broadcast (thanks ateaseweb!), Radiohead will purportedly take part in a BBC webcast set to air live November 9 from 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. UK time. According to Buxton, who'll head to Oxford to assist in the recording, Radiohead will talk and play some songs, and the vibe will be "fairly fast and loose."

Finally, on the ever-contested topic of In Rainbows sales numbers, Idolator points us to an interesting report from comScore, a service that specializes in measuring web traffic and the like. comScore tracked the traffic to www.inrainbows.com during the first 29 days of October and discovered that 1.2 million web-users worldwide visited the site (which, barring a 100% download rate-- and everybody visiting on the first day-- would debunk previous reports of Radiohead moving 1.2 million digital units in one day).

The company also found that while a "significant percentage" of website visitors chose to download, only 38% worldwide chose to pay. Still, those who did pay paid an average of $6.00 for the album-- which brings the average earnings per album, in comScore's estimate, to $2.26. Of course, this doesn't include the discbox sales, nor sales of the forthcoming CD. And camp Radiohead has yet to issue any official numbers.

So it's still too early, really, to declare Radiohead's experiment in price-naming a runaway success, an utter failure, or something in between. One thing I think we can safely declare: Radiohead kick ass live. Do yourself a favor and see them next year.

OK Computer Radio Play to Debut on BBC This Friday

Narrator: Time had come for the next world war. The earth, a jackknifed juggernaut. A neon sign buzzed through the rare stillness of the night. A man wakes, recognizing not where he is or where he comes from. He is born again.

Clearly, going a bit overboard with all things Radiohead is par for the course this month. And, if you're already tired of talking about just how much you ratedpaid for In Rainbows, lent out all your other discs to that younger sibling of yours, and worn holes in your crunk/reggae/lullaby tributes to the band, you'll want to keep an ear to your radio this Friday. That's when-- according to Ateaseweb.com-- a new twelve-part radio play based on Radiohead's watershed 1997 LP OK Computer debuts on BBC Radio 4.

According to the description on the BBC Radio 4 website, the play is "a celebration of Radiohead's seminal 1997 album OK Computer which draws on themes from each of its 12 tracks." The plot: "a man wakes up in a hospital in Berlin. He has no memory of who he is, or where he comes from. Once the details of his life are recovered, he is repatriated to Britain and into his former life. But he is haunted by the suspicion that this is not his real life at all."

The play was written by Joel Horwood, Chris Perkins, Al Smith, and Chris Thorpe, and it debuts October 19 at 21:00 BST.

In other Radiohead news, In Rainbows is (maybe) very very popular, and some members of the White House press staff proved themselves just slightly hipper than one might think, while others did not.

Radiohead's In Rainbows Premieres on Xfm Radio

Consider this a chance to try before you (don't?) buy: tomorrow (October 10), London-based radio station Xfm will broadcast Radiohead's seventh and latest opus, the much-chattered-about In Rainbows, in its entirety. The on-air unveiling begins at noon UK-time, which translates to sometime in the wee hours of the morning for Radiohead's fans in North and South America. Xfm claim to have the "world radio exclusive" on this one, and who are we to argue with a press release?

Even if you don't live in one of the several British Isles locales where Xfm broadcasts on the airwaves, you can always turn to the webwaves to catch the station disseminating that red hot new Radiohead digitally (Windows Media compatible only, boo).

Tomorrow, of course, is also the day Radiohead make In Rainbows available for download, via their site, for the fair price of whatever the heck you want to pay for it. Not that you need reminding, but there's also the deluxe discbox due in December and the regular CD release (label status: still nebulous) slated for early next year.

Ratatat Open for Bjork, Soundtrack the Birth of a Child
Baby born doing this: \m/

Björk's infatuation with beatmakers has grown to encompass the lovably scruffy guys of Ratatat, as she has asked them to open for her at shows on December 12 in L.A. and December 15 in Vegas. Being sane, they of course accepted, and those are now the only tour dates on the duo's schedule.

Accepting Björk's invitation isn't, however, the only thing Ratatat have done recently. A few weeks ago, Public Radio International's "Weekend America" ran a story in its "Listening In" series about what women choose to listen to while giving birth. A listener-generated playlist consisted of songs by Neil Young, the Grateful Dead, the Ramones ("I Wanna Be Sedated", har har), and Jimmy Buffet (life is full of disappointments, son). In the story itself, though, one woman revealed that Ratatat's "Wildcat" was her song of choice.

In a follow-up piece prompted by a listener's letter asking for more info about "that song with the cat's reeaaarrrrgh in it," "Weekend America" caught up with Ratatat for an interview on the subject, which you can listen to here. They explained how they recorded the roar, apparently obtained by going outside and capturing the sound from an actual wildcat, though one of the Ratatats pointed out, "I don't think it was giving birth at the time." They also revealed their own cheeky pick for Baby's First Song: "The Happy Birthday Song". Touché, gentlemen.

Also, we're sure that tons of people have noticed this already, but still:

[MORE...]

Animal Collective, Okkervil River, Rilo Kiley Rock NPR
Also: John Vanderslice, the Apples in Stereo, Bishop Allen

There's the worsening weather, the increasingly early darkness, the upcoming baseball playoffs, and now, yet another reason not to leave the comfort of your home, this one brought to you by The Internet, LLC: a pretty stellar September schedule of performers on NPR Music's Live Concert Series.

Past concerts in the series, which broadcasts select Washington, D.C.-area gigs live at www.npr.org/music, have recently featured the likes of the National, Björk, Low, and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists.

The upcoming shows include sets by Animal Collective, Okkervil River, Rilo Kiley, John Vanderslice (with Bishop Allen), and the Apples in Stereo (tonight!). The full schedule, complete with venues, is after the jump, but an archive of each show will eventually appear at www.npr.org/liveconcerts. So again, don't get up. [MORE...]

Stripes, Franz, QOTSA, Streets in XFM Documentaries
Also: Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs, Muse, the Verve

In celebration of its 10th anniversary, UK radio station Xfm will air a series of 10 documentaries about "10 of the most influential and significant albums released in each of Xfm's 10 years of broadcasting since its launch in 1997," according to a press release.

In the course of covering albums like the White Stripes' Elephant, Queens of the Stone Age's Rated R, Franz Ferdinand's self-titled debut, and the Streets' Original Pirate Material, the documentaries feature new, exclusive interviews with Dave Grohl, Beastie Boy Mike D, Oasis' Noel Gallagher, plenty of the bands themselves, as well as producers involved in the creation of the albums.

The series begins September 2 and continues backward chronologically with a new documentary airing every Sunday for 10 weeks. The full air schedule is listed after the jump. [MORE...]

SoundExchange Makes New Offer to Small Webcasters

At the time, it seemed the means to an end: Back in the middle of July, copyright royalty collection agency SoundExchange offered internet radio broadcasters an 11th hour reprieve from the potentially crippling rate increases they'd been dreading, in the interest of keeping negotiations open between the two parties.

But now, more than a month after the reprieve took effect, SoundExchange has finally offered a deal to small webcasters-- i.e. those grossing less than $1.25 million in revenue per year (with an additional stipulation capping the number of monthly listening hours). The deal proposes that those qualifying stations would pay out around 10 percent of their revenue through 2010, when, presumably, negotiations would pick up again.

Most critics of the proposal suggest that the $1.25 million delineation between "small" and "large" webcasters leaves far too many in the large category, which would almost certainly pay a higher percentage. The SoundExchange offer also only applies to royalties paid to their members: 20,000 artists on all the major labels and thousands of independents as well, but leaving a wide swath of under-the-radar artists still subject to the higher Copyright Royalty Board-determined royalty rates.

In his Radio and Internet Newsletter (RAIN), AccuRadio chief Kurt Hanson expressed his frustrations with the offer, including that the agreement will discourage growth among webcasters who may fear they'll enter the higher bracket and, therefore, be subject to higher rates. He hopes that negotiations with SoundExchange can continue, or that Congress intervenes on webcasters' behalf. If neither of those things happen, qualifying webcasters have until September 14 to accept the offer. Should they reject it, they'll either be subject to the original rates laid down by the Copyright Royalty Board or be forced to silence themselves.

In other net radio news, in a private meeting in New York last week between SoundExchange and a number of webcasting services, an agreement was reached that would cap the controversial per-channel minimum fee of $500 at a $50,000 annual payout per provider. Had this agreement not been reached, the fee would've otherwise topped one billion dollars for the likes of Pandora, Live365, and other large webcasters, according to AccuRadio's Dan McSwain.

McSwain feels that both deals are insufficient gestures on the part of SoundExchange to impress Congress, to encourage lawmakers to rule in its favor. McSwain said, "The co-sponsors of the Senate bill have promised to push the Internet Radio Equality Act to a floor vote when Congress returns from recess if negotiations have not progressed. Surely, SoundExchange will use these meager concessions as proof to Congress that they are engaged in a good-faith effort to keep webcasters in business."

Internet Radio Receives 11th Hour Reprieve!

With the impending July 15 royalty payouts looming, things had been looking awfully grim for internet radio broadcasters. Many recent legal manouevers taken by webcasters that sought to delay their impending payments to sound recording copyright owners had fallen short of their goals, and the potentially devastating royalty rate increases (and the massive monetary exchanges that go with them) seemed all but assured.

Thursday afternoon, all that changed. According to Wired magazine's blog and confirmed by various sources, SoundExchange executive director Jon Simson promised Congress that his organization-- which collects the payments on these sound recording copyrights-- will not enforce the rate increase as long as a new deal is in the works between SoundExchange and the webcasters involved in the Copyright Royalty Board hearing. Additionally, the per-channel minimums which would've potentially crushed multi-channel sites like Pandora and Live365 are off the table, and the per-station minimum will be capped at $50,000 per year.

There's still some question as to whether webcasters who didn't participate in the CRB hearing will be privy to this reprieve. But beyond that, this is fantastic news for broadcasters and fans of internet radio.

And just in case you thought this whole representative democracy thing of ours doesn't work, Pandora founder Tim Westergren's claim that "this is a direct result of lobbying pressure, so if anyone thinks their call didn't matter, it did" ought to set you straight. The people spoke, and progress was made, but you'd still be advised to contact your Congressperson and tell them to keep pushing for fair play for broadcasters. And stay tuned to Savenetradio.org for updates.

Rock on, net radio!

Sonic Youth, El-P, Grizzly Bear Play Free Yr Radio

Before the transmission's over and the signal fades, the Urban Outfitters/Toyota Yaris/thrifty hipster covergence that is Free Yr Radio will host a trio of shows that aren't to be scoffed at. The series-- which hosts free in-store performances by really good indie bands, and somehow benefits community radio stations -- will give away Grizzly Bear, El-P, Dntel and Sonic Youth throughout the month of July at your favorite emporium of mass-marketed kitsch.

Grizzly Bear will play an Urban Outfitters in Cleveland on July 12 to benefit WBWC, El-P plays the Avenue of the Americas store in NYC on July 14 to benefit WNHU, and Sonic Youth and Dntel will hit Santa Monica on July 21 to benefit KXLU.

The series hosted the likes of Dinosaur Jr., Klaxons, the Rapture, Man Man, and a whole bunch more throughout the late spring, and they're certainly closing things out with a bang. Video and photos from past events are available on the Free Yr Radio website.

Net Radio Broadcasters Plot "Day of Silence" June 26

It's the first thing they warn you about when you start in radio: dead air is to be avoided at all costs. But unless radical steps are taken to alter the costs soon to be inflicted on web-based broadcasters, there's going to be a whole lot of dead air streaming over the internet.

On June 26, major webcasters such as Live365.com, Pandora.com, AccuRadio.com, and popular Santa Monica, California-based KCRW are among those who will silence their feeds for 24 hours in a show of solidarity against the upcoming July 15 rate hike on net radio royalties. Though regular programming will indeed be interrupted, the broadcasters won't simply be broadcasting silence; many stations will run intermittent PSAs detailing the current plight of net radio interspersed with ambient noise to give listeners an idea of what they'll be hearing should the royalty increases stand. KCRW is producing an hour-long program pleading the case of net radio entitled "D-Day for Webcasters," which they plan to loop all day Tuesday. Additional broadcasters will continue to be added to the roster of supporters for this day of silence.

In other net radio news, late last month, several large webcasters (including National Public Radio and the Digital Media Association) filed an emergency stay to the U.S. Court of Appeals in the D.C. Circuit, seeking to delay the July 15 rate hike. The decision on whether or not to grant the stay will be made soon in an appellate court. Additionally, on Thursday, June 28, the House Committee on Small Business will hold a hearing between artists and webcasters entitled "Assessing the Impact of the Copyright Royalty Board Decision to Increase Royalty Rates on Recording Artists and Webcasters."

In a related topic, recent bipartisan legislation has been sponsored by Representatives Mike Doyle (D-PA) and Lee Terry (R-NE) and Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) to expand the way licenses are issued for low-power FM radio stations. (That would be regular terrestrial radio, not internet.)

A 2000 bill permitted churches, schools, labor unions and other community groups to apply for these licenses, but a stipulation in the ruling made the licenses available only in rural areas. The proposed legislation-- the "Local Community Radio Act of 2007"-- seeks to offer urban broadcasters an opportunity to earn one of these licenses, which would allow for innumerable alternatives to the current Clear Channel-dominated terrestrial radio options.

If Doyle's name sounds familiar, that could be due to his fandom of fellow PA resident Greg Gillis, aka Girl Talk. Those looking for three minutes of incongruity after all those facts should check out this video of Doyle riding for his dogs Girl Talk and recently-arrested mixtape mastermind DJ Drama in front of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet.

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.)