The Gossip/Long Blondes U.S. Tour Canceled

Remember those tour dates we told you about a little while ago? You know, the ones with the Long Blondes, the Gossip, and Panther? Word on the street is they're off like a High School Musical starlet's prom dress.

Why? Well, did you read that Rick Rubin story in the New York Times Sunday Magazine last week? (If not, we recommend doing so.) Near the end, Rubin, the president of the Gossip's current label, Columbia, drops this interesting tidbit of information:

"'I saw [the Gossip] at the Troubadour, and they blew my mind'," [Rick Rubin] said. 'It was the best show I've seen in five years. Afterward, I met with the band. They felt stressed, and they were having trouble writing songs. The energy in the room when they were performing was so intense, and I'm not even sure how we'd get it to feel like that in the studio. So we decided to record a live show during their European tour, and we're going to release a DVD of the live album as their first release.'"

That live album and DVD, originally scheduled to be released on November 16, has been pushed back. So apparently, they pushed back the tour in support of it too.

Hmm. One would think that touring is a good way of drumming up excitement for a live album, no matter when the shows take place, but hey, we ain't gonna argue with Rick Rubin.

No word yet on whether the tour will be rescheduled, but all dates-- canceled and otherwise-- are available after the jump.

One piece of good news here is that the Long Blondes posted on their Myspace page that instead of touring, "We will in fact be spending October and November recording our second album." [MORE...]

Jonny Greenwood Scores Paul Thomas Anderson Film

Say it with me now in a scary voice: There Will Be Blood. And, as the trailer to this forthcoming film by Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love) indicates, there will also be original music...by Jonny Greenwood!

The Radiohead guitarist, already burning up the Pitchfork newsroom today, has taken his orchestral muse and applied it to Mr. Anderson's latest film, PT's first feature since 2002's Punch-Drunk (which, along with 1999's Magnolia, had a score by Jon Brion). This one stars Daniel Day-Lewis and looks to be an oil baron thriller inspired by Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel Oil!. No word on a theatrical release yet.

Big thanks to reader M.S. Markham for the tip!

And just in case you didn't take Greenwood's word for it, Radiohead's publicist has confirmed that the band has definitely finished its latest album. Hooray!

Huge Metal Box Sets Due Soon on Rhino, Earache
This is not a Public Image, LTD. news item, sorry

Without it, there'd be no VH1 reality programming: The split between the glossy L.A. pop metal what birthed a thousand "Behind the Music"s and at least one "Rock of Love", and tr00 fookin' METULLL that spawned a thousand cases of whiplash, and Decibel magazine. (The greatest music magazine in the world-- Ed.)

On two forthcoming metal box sets, that dichotomy is in full force. One, Rhino's Heavy Metal Box (due October 2) features Ratt's "Round and Round" and Poison's "Talk Dirty to Me". The other, Earache's Metal: A Headbanger's Companion II (out September 10 in the UK/Europe), sports Circle of Dead Children's "Strip Naked for the Killer" and Deathwitch's "Coffin Fornicator". You see the difference.

Really, it's a question of intent. The Rhino set seeks to compile tracks from "the genre's first golden age, between 1968 and 1991." Well, that's narrowing it down. Thus, their focus on the (comparatively) tame suits such a brief encapsulation. Besides, can the company responsible for the recent Traveling Wilburys anthology really be blamed for excluding Anal Cunt from their archives? The Earache box is all about the extreme, and the tracklist (and resulting hearing loss) are testament to that.

Rhino's tradition of sweet-ass packaging continues with Heavy Metal Box, as it's contained in a fake amplifier box...THAT GOES TO 11. Seriously!

Check it out:

Whether you fancy Cadaver Inc. or Cinderella-- and an argument can be made for both-- there's a box out there for you. Happy early birthday, ma! [MORE...]

Aesop Rock, Cage, PGMG's Zollo Grace Grayskul's Latest

By the power of, uh, themselves, Grayskul have the power. The power to what, you ask? Well, beyond the power to make allusions to self-reflexive bygone classics, they've the power to cold rock a party at the drop of a hat, and issue a sophomore set sure to master your tiny universe.

Bloody Radio-- out September 11 on Rhymesayers-- is the second disc from the Seattle-based rhyming superheroes, and splayed over its fifteen installments are fellow ultramen Aesop Rock, Cage, Pigeon John, and Atmosphere's Slug, along with a cameo from former Pretty Girls Make Graves heroine Andrea Zollo.

The mild-mannered-by-day, fierce-rhymespitters-by-night Grayskul will travel with the young avengers of Atmosphere, along with Mac Lethal and Lucky I Am, rescuing the purses of old ladies from the hands of thieves. Oh, and playing hip-hop shows, too. [MORE...]

June Panic Rescues Songs From Purgatory

Panic! at the banks of the mighty creek. Songs From Purgatory is a triple disc set of material originally released as cassette-only albums and nearly lost in the 1997 Red River Flood that swamped the area around hyper-prolific underground songwriter June Panic's North Dakota home.

Panic's master tapes were rescued from a watery grave by Panic himself (to think, the world almost lost "Jesus-Christ-Fucka-Sucka-Mobile"!), and have been brought to light, remastered, and reissued by Secretly Canadian. Pick up yours beginning September 11. [MORE...]

Stereolab's Gane, High Llama O'Hagan Do Soundtrack

No, you're absolutely right, this isn't the first time Stereolab co-leader Tim Gane and highest of the High Llamas Sean O'Hagan have collaborated on an LP: as the one-off Turn On, they released a record some ten-odd years ago.

But when director Marc Fitoussi calls, you brush off a decade's worth of dust and get busy soundtrackin'. Gane and O'Hagan have yet again collaborated on the score for the Fitoussi-helmed French comedy flick La Vie d'Artiste. The film apparently circles around the interconnected lives of three struggling artists, though if it's like any other French movie I've ever seen, at least one of those artists will turn out to be a man in a dress who drinks a lot of vino. Yuk yuk!

The soundtrack album will be released via Too Pure as a double CD and a download September 11. The first disc features music from the film, while the second contains 24 tracks of further collaborative material from the two gents that didn't make it into the film. [MORE...]

Freebass (Peter Hook, Andy Rourke, Mani) in the Studio
Q: How do you get a bass player off your porch? A: Pay for the pizzas

Though we've heard this sorta talk out of them before, Freebass-- the all-bass low end supergroup featuring New Order bassist Peter Hook, Smiths bassist Andy Rourke, and ex-Stone Roses/current Primal Scream (you guessed it) bassist Mani-- have been rattling subwoofers in the studio as they crank out their debut album.

According to Hook-- who recently spoke to Billboard.com about the project-- the album is not quite half done, though he and the lads hope to knock it out before Christmas. Hook also says he'd like very much for Freebass to play festivals next year once the album's in the can. "With the demise of New Order, I was happy to just not play for a while but now I'm missing it," he told Billboard. "And I want to get into it as soon as possible." No word on how those auditions for a singer went, but the Charlatans' Tim Burgess and the Stone Roses' Ian Brown are apparently working with the group. One would also think that guy from Crash Test Dummies with the ultra-low voice would be a natural fit.

Hook posted a Freebass track, "I Envy Us", on his MySpace. Shockingly, there are guitars and drums on it. Even synthesizers! Bells! Horns! And a voice that reminds you over and over again that this is Peter Hook's MySpace.

In other related topics, there's a Joy Division documentary screening during this month's Toronto International Film Festival, to say nothing of Control, which hits theaters soon. Joe Pernice is working on a screenplay loosely based on his book on the Smiths' Meat Is Murder, and some places are reporting that some jokers from "Reno 911!" are working on a Morrissey musical, but we'll believe that when it's actually singing and dancing right in front of us. As for Primal Scream, they'll spend the weekend on the Isle of Wight at Bestival.

Peter Hook has a few DJ dates scheduled for November as well. [MORE...]

Rogue Wave Tour With Feist, Without Feist

As Zach Rogue prepares to unleash Asleep at Heaven's Gate, his third gentle sonic tide at the crest of Rogue Wave, he'll embark on a landsurfin' safari of his own on an expansive North American tour. Following a handful of dates with Ms. Leslie Feist this month, Rogue and the Waves will head from sea to shining sea (or, at least, a few bayside locales) on a month of dates kicking off in San Diego October 10.

Asleep at Heaven's Gate will make its drowsy way to stores September 18 from Brushfire. Warning: do not operate heavy machinery after listening to Rogue Wave LP3. [MORE...]

M.I.A. to Drop "Jimmy" Single

Photo by Kirstie Shanley

Sure, in clubs and cars and anywhere Best New Music is found, you've been shaking it to M.I.A.'s "Jimmy" for ages now. But unless you snagged a copy of the Japanese version of Kala-- the splendid album from whence it came-- on holiday in Kyoto, you probably haven't heard "What I Got". Tacked on the end of M.I.A.'s bangin' sophomore effort in the land of the rising sun, "What I Got", in true M.I.A. fashion, flips scripts from the Chili Peppers and Huey Lewis & the News into something all her own.

"What I Got" is the star of the new 7" single for "Jimmy", which drops October 1 in the U.K. via XL. It will also be available as a CD and 12"-- regrettably absent the blood sugar sex magik of "What I Got". Still, as befits a modern disco cut, the B-sides will feature "Jimmy" getting stripped of its vocals for an instrumental, and mixed anew by DJ Eli.

Oh, and M.I.A. will take what she's got on the road sporadically from now 'til the end of October. [MORE...]

Cold War Kids Tour to the Delight of Some

From the wilds of college-town Wisconsin to the enclaves of Europe and back to the purple mountain majesty of Colorado, the Cold War Kids-- like the change about which they dubiously sing-- are gonna come.

The Fullerton, CA child stars are making their way to a lot of places this fall, unlike the static standoff they named themselves after. Following a one-off boozing up the Badgers with Wayne Coyne and the like, they'll link up, as we've mentioned, with the White Stripes for a few weeks of opening slots. Then it's Europe ho for the Kids, before a headlining run of U.S. clubs.

Gosh, is it ever hard to find neutral things to say about Cold War Kids. [MORE...]

Crystal Castles Tour Real World With Metric, Tour Fantasy Worlds With Joysticks

It seems the world of noisemaking just isn't enough for bleepmaestros Crystal Castles. They've gotta go and turn their lives into a rousing game of Crusin' World. And so it shall be on a mostly North American string of tour dates over the next month or so, which finds the Toronto terra-biters getting busier than any other video gamers you know. Most of the dates are with Metric, and they're also scheduled to play CMJ in mid-October, date and venue TBA.

The duo is currently working on their debut album, due February 19, 2008 on Last Gang. Hop them rubies, Bentley Bear!

Promises were made on the band's MySpace page of a winter tour of Japan and Australia, but, as it so often is with gamers, the likelihood of that happening depends entirely on how quickly they can find the bank of warp pipes. Do your homework!

UPDATE: Crystal Castles insist that this news item "makes it seem like we are at home playing videogames when in fact we've been on tour since feb'2006 and hate videogames." So, um, yeah. Sorry.

[MORE...]

Death Cab for Cutie Plan Plans Follow-up, Hit Studio

Imagine a modern day indie rock Rip Van Winkle, who fell asleep listening to Something About Airplanes just before the turn of the century and awoke last year to find his favorite band turned chart-topping megastars. How would he feel? Would he stand by his beloved Death Cab for Cutie or cop a scowl and brand them sell-outs? Would he undergo an existential crisis, only to meet some overzealous but sincere latecomer DCFC fangirl (played by Scarlett Johansson) who teaches him the true meaning of profound happiness? Zach Braff, film that shit!

The soundtrack, obviously, would be by Death Cab, who are about to enter the studio to record the follow-up to 2005's Plans, according to Billboard.com. The quartet did some pre-production, whatever the hell that means, and now they're eyeing mid-September as the golden moment to start recording. Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco will all be graced by the recording Death Cabbies, and spring 2008 will most likely be the season of the new album's release. No word yet on a title, producer, or tracklist, but-- hey wait a minute Rip, are you nodding off again?

As previously reported, Death Cab's Ben Gibbard will join Daniel Handler/Lemony Snicket in conversation at San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts on September 11, while the Postal Service will not be delivering a new album in time for the holidays.

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.)