Neko Case Reissues Debut
Pitchforks News fully endorses the taste of own foot

"(What, no love for Neko's 1997 debut The Virginian? It's good!)" Alas, we spoke too soon in our earlier story about Neko Case reissues, because Mint Records will complete the set of reissued Case studio records with the re-release of the aforementioned album on October 23. (Anti- delivers the others on November 6.)

The Virginian, credited to Neko Case and Her Boyfriends, was originally released on Bloodshot Records. This 10th anniversary, worldwide reissue comes free of extras, but it is packaged in one of those soft little digipaks.

The Case-friendly New Pornographers are on tour now; their next show is tonight, October 18, in Chicago. [MORE...]

School of Seven Bells Hop on Prefuse Tour
NOT Voice of the Seven Woods! Or the seven dwarfs! Or the cast of "7th Heaven"!

Photo by Amanda Merten

It appears Guillermo Scott Herren, aka Prefuse 73, is a little suspicious when it comes to numbers. Contrary to a previous report, Voice of the Seven Woods will not open up for Mr. Herren on his upcoming fall tour.

Instead, ex-Secret Machine Benjamin Curtis' School of Seven Bells will fill the role of "Prefuse 73 openers with the number seven in their name."

Just for clarity's sake:

Voice of the Seven Woods: not opening for Prefuse 73.

School of Seven Bells: opening for Prefuse 73.

"Class of 73 Bells": a Prefuse 73 track featuring School of Seven Bells.

Prefuse 73: Prefuse 73.

The School have a couple shows of their own before the tour begins. Their next date is in Brooklyn at CMJ tomorrow night (October 19). [MORE...]

Mike Patton to Voice Bionic Commando in Video Game
Get the heck out of here, you nerd!

Bionic Commando is a digitized game of war from the late 1980s. It is very good. Like many quality things in a world ever-devoid of new ideas, some nice folks are remaking the game for your modern leisure consoles. We imagine it will be not unlike the Halo franchise in virtually every way.

Well, every which way but this: according to kotaku.com, vocal acrobat/mental cosmonaut Mike Patton will provide the voice of Nathan "Bionic Commando" Spencer. The game's still in the planning stages, but knowing Mike, it'll be done in a week, with Rahzel and Kid Koala in prominent guest roles.

This isn't Mike's first foray into the pixilated world, of course: he provided the pipes for an all-knowing force in this year's The Darkness. And, though pointing out strange places Mike Patton has popped up is as mindlessly easy as writing the end of a phrase like this one, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention this thing again. I bet that lady's gonna buy two copies of BC: one for her, and one for her mama.

Will you help Mike Patton and the rest of the Federation battle the Badds and free Super Joe?

BONUS: Check this out. Dude is everywhere! 

Shugo Tokumaru to Make a Quick Exit

October 19, p-vine records will release Tokyo popster Shugo Tokumaru's Exit in his native Japan. No word on a worldwide release of Exit, but it's hoped that the album will come to the States sometime soon. I mean, look at that cover!

Hey, speaking of covers, feel free to reacquaint yourself with Tokumaru's reverent, recently Forkcasted take on "Young Folks" while you sit on your hands and wait for "sometime soon" to magically transform into "now."

In the meantime, you can pore over the tracklist and play pretend, or make it out to one of Tokumaru's forthcoming gigs. Thanks to reader Park Baker for the tip, and congrats for having a really awesome name. You too, Shugo! [MORE...]

Clientele, Martsch, Germano on Bigtop Soundtrack

Who doesn't love the circus? Dancing bears, trapeze derring-do, creepy circus people-- it doesn't get much better than that. And, in the grand tradition of, perhaps, Fellini's La Strada and Bergman's The Naked Night, Devon Reed's The Bigtop centers on life in the circus.

In Reed's film, a man played by the director "runs away with the circus, only to become consumed by his desire for power and the love of a woman." But wait! That's not all! Drumroll please, for the soundtrack to Reed's film is a feat unto itself.

Songs From the Bigtop, available now on iTunes and due in stores October 23 (self-released-style), collects 13 Reed-penned tunes performed by a number of names you may recognize. Among them: the Clientele, Built to Spill's Doug Martsch, Lisa Germano, Howe Gelb, Damien Jurado, Tullycraft, Eleventh Dream Day, and even Matthew Sweet.

Meanwhile, no clownin': the film for which this soundtrack came together is set to premiere in early 2008. [MORE...]

M.I.A. Stretches Out Tour

Photo by Kirstie Shanley

The comments section of M.I.A.'s MySpace page sports well-wishers and rabid fans alike pleading with the Sri Lankan sensation for a visit to far-flung spots like Finland, Brazil, and Missouri. But it's back to the UK for M.I.A., who'll follow the wrap of her North American tour in early December with a trek across the pond and a couple weeks worth of shows. Sorry, Branson; looks like it's gonna have to be next time.

In other M.I.A. news, she (and Switch, and some kids, and some others) just wrapped that Heaps Decent track, for which you should keep an eye perpetually peeled. [MORE...]

Company Flow to Reunite?

CMJ: it's happening. And, given the chaotic, scattered nature of the proceedings, it'd be easy for something big to get lost in the fray. (One shudders at the thought of something, somewhere going unblogged). But when we caught wind of this, well, we knew it'd be worth salvaging from the white noise.

Company Flow, the now-iconic hip-hop trio featuring El-P, Mr. Len, and Bigg Jus-- more or less dormant since the turn of the century-- will hope to reunite for Def Jux's big (and previously reported) showcase at Brooklyn's Music Hall of Williamsburg this Friday (October 19).

***UPDATE: While a Def Jux rep initially confirmed the reunion, the group's publicist has informed us that it is NOT YET CONFIRMED. The official word from El-P: "I don't want to make any official announcement on anything as nothing is confirmed yet, but if all goes right the fans will be getting more than is advertised on the bill. If all goes right we will be rocking songs we haven't done in years. It [may] mean all of us, it may mean two of us...and possibly it may not happen at all. I will know more later this week."

Provided it happens, this is big for reasons both musical-- OMG Funcrusher Plus (which turned 10 this year, by the way)-- and personal, as El-P and Bigg Jus will reportedly have to mend a bridge or two to pull this one off. There's even been some talk of reissuing some Co Flow material, though that, at the moment, is just talk.

Even without this news, that showcase is one to check out, with Junk Science, Hangar 18, the Mighty Quinn, Mr. Dibbs, Yak Ballz, Despot, Activator, Cool Calm Pete and other special guests all slated to appear. El-P, as you should know by now, also dropped the Recommended I'll Sleep When You're Dead LP this year.

Mobb Deep's Prodigy Given 3 1/2 Year Sentence

Albert Johnson, aka Prodigy of The Infamous Queens rap duo Mobb Deep, pleaded guilty to a 2006 charge of possession of a loaded gun on Tuesday, October 9, and will soon serve a three-and-a-half-year sentence, according to a New York Daily News report.

The 32-year-old rapper was arrested in October of last year after police stopped him for making an illegal U-turn on Ninth Avenue in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood, according to the report. The officers found an unlicensed .22-caliber pistol in a compartment between the driver's seat and front passenger seat of his Chevy Suburban. Sitting in that passenger seat was the Alchemist, the producer who helmed the boards on Prodigy's Return of the Mac, which Pitchfork tagged as Best New Music earlier this year.

Though he initially claimed to have no knowledge of the weapon, Johnson eventually fessed up and struck the three-and-a-half-year deal with prosecutors in the Manhattan Supreme Court case. Since Johnson is a convicted felon and this was his third weapons charge, he would normally face a sentence of 15 years.

Of Montreal Expand Tour, Launch Blog

Unplugged EP: out now. Rarities comp: not 'til next week. Fall U.S. tour: first leg just wrapped. Big foreign festival: just some plans for the weekend. Back to the States to kick off another few weeks of shows: slated for Halloween.

Of Montreal have so gosh darned much on their plates this October and November, you'll excuse them if they can't make it to Europe for a proper tour until the throes of shopping season kick in, won't you?

To cap off a tremendously successful 2007, the band has generously squeezed in a week-and-a-half of dates from London to Istanbul. After which they'll smile, shake hands all around, and collectively collapse. And deservedly so!

Someone will go over and wake 'em up before May, we hope, since Of Montreal are one of the bands chosen by us for that there Pitchfork vs. ATP thing. A tip: you could save yourself a lotta money on airfare if you'd only start swimming now.

And, like everyone and their adopted third cousin twice-removed, Of Montreal have taken to blogging. [MORE...]

Dinosaur Jr. Ready Fall Tour Plans

We've run so many "Dinosaur Jr. Resurrected!" stories at this point that the metaphorical tar pit of "no longer extinct" and "formerly fossilized"-style quips we use to set these things up has dried out.

It's for the best for everyone, really: Dinosaur Jr. are back, and it appears that pleases them just as much as it pleases us. So, to cap off what's been a startlingly successful year for the fuzzy veteran freaks, they've planned a month of U.S. dates in November and December.

In other news from the Dinosaur fold, "Yer Son" pops up on that Free Yr Radio comp (to say nothing of what yer mom pops up on, LOLz), and Lou's gotta relearn Bubble and Scrape before Sebadoh rip it a new one all the way in May. [MORE...]

Ghost Release Spooky Live Overture CD/DVD

A crowd of people gathers in a converted boat warehouse located on Japan's Yokohama Bay. Once inside, the doors are closed and locked behind them, and they are told that no one will enter or exit until a concert is performed in total darkness.

It sounds like the premise of a horror flick in the Saw/The Descent vein, but it's actually the way a Ghost concert on October 9, 2006 began. The band played an entirely improvised, 90-minute set at the Nippon Yusen Soko venue that night, and they will release a CD/DVD document of the event via Drag City on October 23.

Overture: Live in Nippon Yusen Soko 2006 is Ghost's first entirely improvised release. The DVD portion of the package features the whole concert, divided into three chapters for convenience, while the CD version of the show was edited down to a single, 56-minute track.

To celebrate the new release, Drag City will host a "Ghost Night" at Rodan in Chicago tomorrow evening (October 18), featuring DJs and a screening of the DVD.

In the tour department, Ghost's Michio Kurihara is currently on tour with Boris and Damon & Naomi. The tour's next stop is tomorrow night in San Antonio. [MORE...]

Eels Best Of, Rarities Comp Due in January

Eels: they're wily creatures, tough to nail down-- but to the right person, they're a delicacy without parallel. So it is with Eels, the prolific, long-running crew helmed Mark Oliver "E" Everett.

In celebration of ten odd years in one odd band, Eels will issue Meet the Eels: Essential Eels Vol. I 1996-2006, a compilation of their best tracks and a couple rarities (a Jon Brion remix of "Climbing to the Moon" and a cover of Missy's "Get Ur Freak On", for starters), with a dozen music videos on a bonus DVD for kicks.

Add to that Useless Trinkets: B-sides, Soundtracks, Rarities and Unreleased 1996-2006, a separate double-CD collecting 50(!) Eels curios, from their covers of Daniel Johnston's "Living Life" and Prince's "If I Was Your Girlfriend" to performances on the BBC. An accompanying DVD contains a half-dozen clips from their stint at 2006's Lollapalooza.

Both sets feature track-by-track liner notes by E himself and never-before-seen artwork. And both will be available January 15 from DreamWorks/UMe. [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.)