Knife, Robyn, Royksopp on Trentemoller's Chronicles
Trentemoller tours too!

For a cat who's been remixing for nearly a decade and making records of his own for half that, you'd think Trentemøller would have more than one LP to his name.

But that Trentemøller's always got his mind in the future, and he's decided to eschew the potential sophomore slump in following up The Last Resort by unveiling a two-disc best-of of sorts entitled The Trentemøller Chronicles. Watch for retirement to come in December, with a comeback tour around Valentine's Day.

While it does feature a number of new songs, The Trentemøller Chronicles, out October 9 on Audiomatique, is primarily culled from previously issued comps, vinyl, and remixes. Our boy Trent tackles tracks from Robyn, the Knife, Moby, Röyksopp, and more. What else could you want?

A world tour, you say? Your wish is dude's command. Dates, plus the Chronicles tracklist, after the red thing. [MORE...]

Jesu Release Another New EP, Extend Tour
Hallelujah!

Jesu's Justin K. Broadrick must be getting high on Madlib's supply because he's still cracking away at the old to-do list, and by the looks of things, he's almost finished. The busy Brit will release another Jesu EP via Hydra Head on October 9. October 23. It follows the release of Jesu's excellent sophomore album, Conqueror, earlier this year.

The EP is called Lifeline and has four songs. One of them features a guest vocal turn from former Swans vocalist Jarboe. Avant metal mind melt, engage.

But wait, 2007 is hardly over for Broadrick and Jesu. The band still has two-and-a half months' worth of tour dates left starting October 4 in San Diego. The tour was significantly juiced up since our last report and now includes plenty of dates in the UK, Europe, and Japan.

Finally, for the most up-to-date info on any Jesu releases or side projects Broadrick might accidentally poop out in his sleep, check out the man's blog. [MORE...]

Pram Explore New Frontier on Forthcoming LP, Tour

How do they cram all that Pram into all those CD cases? You're liable to find out October 1, when Domino Records issues Pram's The Moving Frontier in the UK. The latest offering from the veteran British whizzes features fourteen new tracks of blissed-out studiolabbery, and will be available in both CD and LP varities. If only my Parallel Random Access Machine offered as many options as this other Pram!

Still hungry for the great taste of Pram? You can get more-- a whole lot more-- on a smattering of tour dates following the release of The Moving Frontier. [MORE...]

New Six Organs of Admittance LP Packs in Guests
Including Matt Sweeney and members of Magik Markers, Comets on Fire, and Fucking Champs

Photo by Kami Chasny

For the title to his follow-up on last year's The Sun Awakens, Six Organs of Admittance man man Ben Chasny went in more of a Dante's Peak direction. His next Six Organs of Admittance album is called Shelter From the Ash and is due out November 20 on Drag City.

Maybe most exciting is the fairly impressive crew Chasny gathered to appear on the album. Magik Markers' Elisa Ambrogio, the Fucking Champs' Tim Green, Chasny's Comets on Fire bedfellow Noel Harmonson, and Matt Sweeney (Chavez, Zwan, Superwolf) all lend their considerable musical talents.

There are no Six Organs of Admittance tour dates currently scheduled, but Drag City's website makes mention of "the Six Organs of Admittance Free Tour coming up in mid-November right on top of his new album release," so the announcement of some sort of shows can't be too far behind. And perhaps admission is free, provided you give the bouncer six of your organs? (OK OK, bad joke. Sorry.) [MORE...]

David Byrne Unearths The Knee Plays for CD Release

He may be 55 years old now, but except for the dashing gray of his hair, former Talking Heads principal David Byrne looks eerily like he did when he was in his 20s and 30s, tossing off gems like "Once in a Lifetime" and "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)". Thus, we have come to the conclusion that Byrne has simply transcended time.

For further proof, look no further than the fact that Byrne is, according to Billboard.com, issuing The Knee Plays-- his contributions to the soundtrack of Robert Wilson's the CIVIL warS opera (which also features music by Philip Glass)-- on CD for the first time over 20 years after he originally wrote them.

The Plays were originally intended to serve as musical interludes between parts of the mammoth opera, which was never performed in its entirety because of financial and logistical obstacles. However, Byrne adapted parts of his score with Wilson for use in a different piece that had a limited run in the U.S. and Europe in 1985.

Nonesuch will release The Knee Plays on October 30, supplemented with eight previously unreleased instrumentals. Also included is a DVD of the music set to a slideshow of 400 black and white photographs of the opera's production shot at 30-second intervals by JoAnn Verburg.

Digging into Pitchfork's own recent reporting past, we find that Byrne guested on the recently released Baby Elephant (aka Prince Paul and Bernie Worrell) LP Turn My Teeth Up! and that he will host "How New Yorkers Ride Bikes" at the New Yorker Festival on October 6.

Four days later (October 10, not that it matters if time means nothing to you), Byrne will participate in a conversation with evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. That talk is called "Connections Between Biology and Culture, Sex and Beauty, Genes and Creativity". Of course it is. [MORE...]

Onetime Ramone Sues Band, Digital Retailers

1-2-3-4! Richard Reinhardt-- better known as Richie Ramone, stickman for the iconic punkers from 1983-1987-- has, according to Billboard.com, sued Wal-Mart, Apple, RealNetworks, the long-retired band's management, and the estate of Johnny Ramone, claiming he's owed royalties to the tune of $900,000 on half a dozen songs he wrote for the group during his brief tenure as a Ramone.

Those tunes-- "Smash You", "Somebody Put Something in My Drink", "Human Kind", "I'm Not Jesus", "I Know Better Now" and "(You) Can't Say Something Nice"-- ain't exactly Ramones classics, but that's not really the point. Reinhardt claims that the band, their subsidiaries, and these digital music providers have been getting rich off his fertile dome, as there were no stipulations pertaining to digital sales of the tunes in writing. Yeah, dude, 20 years ago the idea of buying a song online was roughly as crazy a notion as the lady who danced with the cat in that video going on to co-host the most popular television program ever. My, this post-modernism is something, innit?

However this plays out, we'll keep an eye on it and let you know if it gets interesting. You, meanwhile, should keep an eye out for It's Alive 1974-1996, the forthcoming Ramones live DVD anthology.

Boredoms, Matmos, Gira, Hecker Do London Wire Fest

Well, Wire, cheers. You've outdone yourself. Following closely behind the Chicago incarnation of your Adventures in Modern Music festival is the London-based rag's own hometown party, stretched out into a wild month and taking the show to venues large and small, near and far.

And, fine as the U.S. lineup is, yours ain't nothing to scoff at, neither, what with Boredoms (as V∞redoms), Matmos (and Matmos gentleman/Pitchfork contributor Drew Daniel's the Soft Pink Truth), Michael Gira, Tim Hecker, Jackie-O Motherfucker, Lydia Lunch, Kode9 & Spaceape, and so forth to our Boris, No Age, Excepter, Qui, Deerhunter, and so on. Well played, Wire.

"The Wire 25" is-- you called it-- Wire magazine's 25th anniversary party, featuring films, workshops, and more experimental/left-field music than you can shake a theremin at. The London installment runs at various venues around the city October 26 through November 22. The entire musical performance schedule is available after the jump. [MORE...]

Girl Talk, CYHSY, AIH, Cold War Kids Play SoCo Gig

It would appear from the recent rosters for their Music Experience concerts that Southern Comfort, the unsettlingly smooth "wussy whiskey," doesn't reserve the sweet stuff for their liqeurs.

Following gigs in Madison and San Diego (and, in total defiance of my thesis, one this weekend in St. Louis with one of the worst lineups ever conceived), Tempe, Arizona gets theirs October 20 when the pretty sweet lineup of Girl Talk, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Architecture in Helsinki, and Cold War Kids plays the free Experience at the city's Marketplace. They'll be joined by William Reed, Sick Puppies, "other local bands" to be determined, and, come Sunday, at least half a day's worth of regret.

Perkins, Muldrow Form G&D;, Craft a Message

G&D could've done a little better in choosing their joint recording alias/acronym: you gotta be one heck of a good guesser to know it's actually the new shared venture from Georgia Anne Muldrow and Dudley Perkins.

Still, if you're hip to them, you'll know what you're getting into on G&D's debut as a duo, The Message Uni Versa: smooth, slinky R&B dusted up a bit and crooned in a pleasantly off-kilter fashion. "And yet," the press material states, "there's another quality of [Perkins'] voice, which mere mortal music critics cannot describe." Oh yeah? It's warbly. Get the Message September 25 from Look Records. [MORE...]

Patrick Wolf Adds Dates to World Tour
Ok, these are getting ridiculous

Photo by Warren du Preez and Nick Thornton-Jones

Eh, I think we can safely say that Patrick Wolf is not retiring from live performance. With the addition of a handful of Australian dates (and a one-off in Japan) to his already plump tour schedule, Wolf's covering four continents before December, leading us to, yet again, point to his earlier conniption, shrug, and be glad everything worked out.

So, yes, on to Patrick, then. Right around the time he kicks off his tour in the Rebel Capital, our little airplane boy and his digitally-encoded sparklemotion will roll on through your computer speakers on his digital-only "Magic Position" EP. Beyond that, he'll still be chipping away at that new LP of his with Alec Empire. Will the other stars of 1998 join Wolf in his quest for pop immortality? Wherefore art thou, Tjinder Singh, Bis, and Jimi Tenor? [MORE...]

Sir Richard Bishop Collects Fragments on LP, Tours

Sir Richard Bishop is not a knight; yet again, he's no lady, either (...I think). He's just a guy, often in a hat, who can wail the heck out of an acoustic guitar, and write some wacky songs besides.

Polytheistic Fragments is former Sun City Girl Sir Richard Bishop's second album of 2007, following the invitingly-titled While My Guitar Violently Bleeds, and it's due September 25 from Drag City. However, Chicago-dwellers who happen into Whole Foods stores in the city's Lakeview, Lincoln Park, and South Loop neighborhoods tomorrow (September 22) at 2 p.m. (central) can hear Fragments and the Red Krayola's Sighs Trapped by Liars while they decide between 62 different brands of homemade granola. Sweet!

Bishop has a date with Low this weekend, and another round with Bill Callahan to follow. [MORE...]

Bad Brains Kick Off Tour This Weekend
Pay to come

Photo by Frank W. Ockenfels 3

Yacht rockers and soccer fiends Bad Brains begin a too-short tour of California this weekend (specifically: tomorrow, September 22) to support their reunion record of sorts, this year's Build a Nation.

After they finish those shows, they'll take a little break before heading over to Europe for a similarly limited set of dates in October. What a bunch of teases. [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.)