Psychic TV's Lady Jaye R.I.P.
Band cancels fall tour

Sad news from the Psychic TV camp. According to a post late last week on the website of Psychic TV / Throbbing Gristle head agitator Genesis P-Orridge, Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge-- the Psychic TV keyboardist Genesis described as his "other half"-- passed away on October 9. She was 38.

The post reads:

Lady Jaye died suddenly on Tuesday 9th October 2007 at home in Brooklyn, New York from a previously undiagnosed heart condition which is thought to have been connected with her long-term battle with stomach cancer. Lady Jaye collapsed and died in the arms of her heartbroken "other half" Genesis Breyer P-Orridge.

Being overwhelmed by the enormity of their loss, Genesis and the other surviving band members of Psychic TV/PTV3 are not able to properly meet the demands of touring and performance. Obviously, her absence onstage, the conspicuous loss of her unique charisma, music and humour would be an unbearable emotional reality to confront night after night.

The group, who have been touring to promote their first studio album in 12 years, will announce future plans after an appropriate period of mourning.

Psychic TV has created a memorial MySpace page for their fallen comrade, where fans may share thoughts and memories in tribute to Lady Jaye.

The band had already cancelled a run of European dates for logistical reasons. Both these and the now cancelled North American dates-- which were to be in support of Psychic TV/PTV3's 2007 release Hell Is Invisible...Heaven Is Her/e-- lie ahead. [MORE...]

T.I. Arrested on Gun Charge

Agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) arrested Clifford Harris, aka T.I., on Saturday, October 13, in the rapper's hometown of Atlanta, according to a Reuters report. He was charged with the purchase of illegal weapons.

The arrest was the result of an undercover operation by ATF agents that began October 2 after they discovered that Harris' bodyguard was trying to buy machine guns without registering them, according to a statement from the Justice Department.

The bodyguard paid $2,200 for three machine guns, two silencers, and a pistol, and he was subsequently arrested on Wednesday, October 10. Upon arrest, he said he was buying the guns for T.I. The ATF agents allowed him to set up the delivery to Harris for Saturday in a shopping center parking lot, according to a criminal complaint filed Saturday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta and cited by an AP report.

The agents arrested Harris in the same parking lot, where they found three other firearms in his car, one loaded, said the complaint. Six other firearms were found in a bedroom closet during a search of the rapper's Atlanta-area home.

These charges are especially serious for Harris since he is a convicted felon, and according to the Department of Justice, it is a federal offense for a convicted felon to have someone purchase firearms on his or her behalf. U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia David E. Nahmias issued a statement saying, "[Harris] now faces serious federal charges and a potentially long prison sentence."

The arrest occurred hours before T.I. was scheduled to perform at the BET Hip-Hop Awards, where he led all artists with nine nominations. The one award he received-- CD of the Year for T.I. vs. T.I.P.-- he shared with Common for Finding Forever.

Photos: Nick Cave [Melbourne, Australia; 10/13/07]

Photos by Richard Sharman

Grinderman may be the Hyde to Nick Cave's Dr. Jekyll, but both personalities were out this weekend at Melbourne, Australia's Forum Theatre, as the solo artist Cave performed after his other band, who recently released their terrific self-titled debut album.

Unfortunately, our photographer was allowed access only to the solo performance, but as Mr. Cave is Mr. Cave whether he's Mr. Hyde or not, we figure you'll get the idea. More photos and Cave-on-Cave tour dates below.




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White House Weighs in on Radiohead
Press secretary Dana Perino: "Is that a band?"

Well, now that you know what Pitchfork thinks of In Rainbows, you're no doubt left wondering: What's the White House's take on the new Radiohead? The Washington Times was wondering this too, and since the White House actually answers their calls, they got the scoop (thanks also to The Daily Swarm for the linkage).

Turns out Radiohead have at least one "big fan" in the big house, that being deputy press secretary Tony Fratto, who expressed his intention to score a copy of In Rainbows.

Others, including deputy press secretary Scott Stanzel and National Security Council spokesperson Gordon Johndroe, were at least aware of the band. Stanzel called himself an "appreciator" of their music, while Johndroe admitted to being "90% sure" he had some Radiohead jams on his iPod. None from the quite-possibly-critical-of-the-Bush-administration Hail to the Thief, though!

White House press secretary Dana Perino-- who was 21 when Pablo Honey came out-- demonstrated her worldliness when asked about the British rock group: "I don't even know what that is. Is that a band?"

Black Lips, King Khan & BBQ Show Split Xmas 7"
With photos! Plus: King Khan & BBQ Show debut reissued

Photos by David Matysiak

Nothing says holiday cheer like, um, whatever's going on up there in that photo. And whether you're the sort who delights in stolen smooches beneath that mischievous mistletoe, or one whose season's greetings lean more "humbug" than "ho ho ho", the tidings we bring today can only be good: Atlanta lo-fi rock sensations Black Lips have teamed with jetsetting lo-fi rock sensations the King Khan & BBQ Show to send a Christmas 7" careening down your chimneys this winter.

The Lips offer unto the baby Jesus (and the rest of us) "Christmas in Baghdad", while KK & BBQ come bringing "Plump Righteous", which more or less describes how I felt following last year's Christmas dinner.

The good elves at NYC's Norton Records plan to have this double-sided seven ready just in time for the Yuletide.

What's more, in recording "Christmas in Baghdad" Black Lips christened the Coyote Bones studio, a new Omaha joint created by David Matysiak of the band Coyote Bones. To help capture the spirit of the season, the Lips donned wigs, sun hats, big goofy sunglasses, and at least one pink feather boa. Pictures of the ensuing mayhem, along with a few shots of the recording session, are yours above and below.

And for even more gift-giving options, consider the forthcoming reissue of the King Khan & BBQ Show's self-titled debut LP, which In the Red will serve up on November 12. Tracklist below; do check it twice.

Finally, keep your poutin' and cryin' to a minimum, as both acts are comin' to town.




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John Pugh Talks !!! Departure, Free Blood
"We encourage people to give away our singles as Halloween treats to the trick-or-treaters."

If you've seen !!! recently and were wondering why there was only one tall crazy guy jumping around (that would be Nic Offer) instead of the usual two, well, that's because the onomatopoeic party-starters have been playing with a man down (and, as it happens, a lady up).

Percussionist and sometime vocalist John Pugh (depicted here singing lead on "Dear Can") has officially left the group, as reported last week, in order to kick his Free Blood project up to full throttle. That project will unveil its debut offering, the "Quick & Painful" single, next week in the UK via Adventures Close to Home. U.S. releases are expected to follow via Rong Music.

We caught up with Pugh to get his take on the split split split, and to learn what else the world can expect from Free Blood.

The duo of Pugh and friend Madeline Davy, Free Blood began as an attempt to merge two worlds of revelry. Explained Pugh, "In New York you [used to have] two kinds of parties: a Manhattan party and a Brooklyn party.

"A Manhattan party was usually at a really fancy club with bottle service, but the music was always pretty amazing. They'd just have top-notch DJs, and you would go there and kind of get an education in the history of New York dance music. But the thing is, there was a dress code and this feeling that if you showed up without having coated yourself in cologne you were kind of a black sheep, so you left feeling kind of bummed out.

"But then you go to a Brooklyn party and it was at the other end of the spectrum; you would have this anything-goes attitude, and everyone would be sweaty and hadn't bathed in weeks. It was really fun, except the sound system was always busted and the music was kind of on fire-- people would just be playing 'Another One Bites the Dust' over and over again and getting totally shit-faced.

"So, when we started throwing parties at our place, we wanted to be kind of a marriage of the two ideas. And when I first started writing songs for Free Blood, I was thinking of this marriage."

Uniting two worlds proved a heady task, and eventually Pugh was forced to choose between this undertaking and his work in !!!. As he told it, "I officially quit at the end of July. We had pretty much been on tour since February and I had reached my limit. And it wasn't any surprise to anyone I think; I think everyone understood my reasons for leaving.

"It was a long tour of duty for me, like eight years. And they're still going at it. I don't think it really broke their stride much, so I'm happy about that, that they kept going and doing their thing." [MORE...]

Arcade Fire Join Bruce Springsteen on Stage!
The Killers and the Hold Steady are SO jealous right now

Attendees of tonight's Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band show at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa, Ontario were very, very lucky. Not only did they get to witness the Magic tour premieres of "Tougher Than the Rest" and "Backstreets" (DAMN!), but they were also treated to some very, very special guests: Canada's own Arcade Fire!

According to the set list archive on Bruce Springsteen's website, Win and Regine, and co. joined the Boss, the Big Man, and co. for Springsteen's "State Trooper" and "Born to Run" (!!!!), as well as their own Springsteen-indebted Neon Bible tune "Keep the Car Running". UPDATE: Although Springsteen's website says otherwise, various attendees have told us that the Arcade Fire folks left after "Keep the Car Running".

Holy cow. If anybody has video of this, please send it to forkcast@pitchforkmedia.com AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

UPDATE: Check out excellent video footage HERE!

Very special thanks to readers Danielle Leitch and Jack Silbert for the tip!

Arcade Fire are currently resting up for a European trek later this month, followed by the Big Day Out tour in Australia and New Zealand in the New Year. Springsteen and the E Street Band are on the road through December. Tomorrow they plan in Toronto...can we say encore?! [MORE...]

Saturday Looks Good to Me to Finally Issue Fill Up

It was a nippy late February afternoon here at P4K HQ when we first sounded the warning for Saturday Looks Good to Me's Fill Up the Room, and it'll likely be a cold one again October 23 when we trek down to the record shop to gaze longingly at the K Records-issued disc.

Though it's coming quite a few weeks after it was initally intended, it's still eleven songs in length, still running in the order we previously published, and still full of some halcyon harmonies and seraphic songcraft. UK residents, meanwhile, get theirs November 12.

Having recently wrapped up a brief string of dates with new labelmates the Blow, Saturday Looks Good to Me will step out on their own beginning this weekend. According to a MySpace blog entry, both Chicago shows-- the first 21+, the second all ages-- that kick off this tour will be recorded for release later this year as a double LP live set. Not only that, but the band's asking diehards for input as to which songs fans would like to hear at the gigs (psst, do "Alcohol", guys!). Bigmouths and control freaks who haven't already done so can head over to the band's MySpace and insist away. [MORE...]

The White Stripes Sell Cameras

Flip over to the White Stripes' MySpace blog or the news section of their website, and you'll be greeted with a cryptic note containing a question mark, a quote from pioneering experimental photographer Man Ray ("The tricks of today are the truths of tomorrow") and a roman numeral. That numeral, X XV MMVII, seemed to be tipping us off to some kind of goings-on on October 15, 2007. But what?

Cameras! Find the accompanying question mark on the site, and it reveals that, at 12 PM EST on the 15th (Monday), the White Stripes will begin taking orders for the his'n'hers cameras depicted above. There's the "Meg" Diana camera, which comes with a custom filter and a ringflash accessory (which produces a unique appearance of a 3D shadow on the images), or the "Jack" Holga camera, with custom filters and a fisheye lens accessory. What's more, the first 333 folks to order both cameras get a "mystery gift". Please say it's a lenscap!

Both cameras appear to be of the lomographic variety, a type of instrument which tends to produce images with particularly vivid colors, strange exposures, and a lot of weird unintended effects. They're really neat!

The Stripes have yet to reschedule that big tour of theirs.

Billy Corgan Blogs: "Words Iz Cheap"
"I believe God talks to me at each and every moment of my life, the only problem being that I don't listen."

Photo by Shervin Lainez

It takes a certain kind of egomaniac to blog (we can relate) and another kind to be a rock star. Very rarely do the two intersect. But wait, what is this? Why, it's Billy Corgan to the rescue, combining both egomanias in one bald man!

We imagine Corgan's most recent post to the Smashing Pumpkins blog-- titled "Words Iz Cheap"-- came about as the result of the following experiment: "What would happen if we combined the instantaneousness of internet publishing with the lifestyle of a public figure?"

The result: OPINIONS! Lots and lots (and lots) of (really vague) opinions. We're not really sure what Corgan's inspiration was in writing the post, but you can either read the whole thing here (highly recommended for fans of platitudes!) or check out our highlight reel below:

• "I love my country...I love it so much, I'll say it twice...I LOVE this country!!"

• "Everywhere that I look here I am reminded of other battles and beliefs that now seem forgotten, yet their symbols still blow their horns in silent reverie because that's all they know how to do...like children waiting for a dad to come home who won't ever come home because he has run off to Trinidad with his secretary...(Uncle Sam has moved down to his timeshare!)"

• "(In fact, I respect all fans' opinions, even when I may disagree strongly with them, which I often do.)"

• "The question I ask is when does the past begin to dictate our future?"

• "I believe God talks to me at each and every moment of my life, the only problem being that I don't listen."

• "Thanks to digital media, many of us can and will be remembered in perpetuity by an unseen future."

• "I am happy to be a warrior of light and universal logic if I am fighting for the good in us."

• "We may not always be what you want, but we do have what you need!"

Hopefully the singer keeps things a little less wordy in his stage banter at the Pumpkins shows left this year. Their next date is tomorrow, October 13, in Boston. [MORE...]

Photos: Reefer Duberland (members of Interpol + members of Liars + Bradford Cox) [Chicago, IL; 10/11/07]

Photos by Sanchez and Kitahara

It was a poorly kept secret: all of Liars, half of Interpol, and an assortment of others (including Deerhunter's Bradford Cox) crowded the stage at Chicago's tiny Empty Bottle club last night following the Interpol/Liars proper show at the Aragon Ballroom. Billed as "Reefer Duberland", the stoner-y, echoey connotations of their adoptive one-off name somehow proved a lot closer to what we lucky few got than a typical outing from two brooding, dingy rock bands.

Following a rushed, drained-looking, but determined load-in, the band assembled on the stage. Liars took the prominent positions front and center with Paul Banks crouched in a corner stage left. He appeared calm, if apprehensive. The music began around 12:30 a.m., emerging from the chaos so abruptly the audience hardly even noticed. Things settled into a dubby, rubbery reggae bop, with Liars frontman Angus Andrew coaxing echo from contraptions on the floor. Had it not been for him-- and Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino's troubled groove-- there'd be a comment here about sounding like a jam band.

Five minutes in, it seemed to dawn on people-- message board trollers and in-the-know scenemakers alike-- that this, and not a parade through "Slow Hands" and "Stella"-- might actually be the set they came to see. Most audience members looked restless, and the crowd became noticeably thinner with each passing thump. And nothing perplexes an already prickly crowd like Bradford Cox-- in town to open a Yo La Tengo show as Atlas Sound-- who left his perch at the side of the stage to take the microphone and, through Andrew's manipulations, essentially MC the entirety of the rest of the night.



The backdrop changed around 12:45, becoming a bit more insistent, and Banks attempted a soft, snaky riff that didn't go too far. As the beat became further disco-fied, Bradford and Angus yelped at each other. That dropped off into echo, with Fogarino and Liars' Aaron Hemphill locking in while everyone else filled empty space. That was the dominant impression of the night, really: those two were truly conversing, while the rest of the band seemed to be largely minding their own (or Bradford's) business. Banks, seeming a bit lost, at one point wailed on the whammy bar for a while. He looked stern while doing it.

By one a.m., the club was half-empty. The band soldiered on into a steady 4/4, with Bradford repeating short phrases and Angus rendering them incomprehensible through his bank of toys. The lanky Aussie briefly reared his head for a moment, one of the few times even a tall dude like me could see him. The music swelled, became choppy, bleating: with the merry-go-round vocals and the bursts of sound, the effect was similar to Animal Collective's live thing, of which Bradford, at least, is a fan.

Banks eventually found some confidence and took momentary control, and his jabby, metallic, minor key riff was the most Interpol-like thing of the night. Matched with the faraway chant Angus seemingly pulled from nowhere, it was the first point the two bands' styles genuinely fit together, and doubtless the highlight of the set. Things kept swinging as sound turned ever Liars-y, with the drums thudding, and Angus and Bradford shooting pennywhistle noises at each other.



Around 1:20, things quieted, and Fogarino cut through the din with an almost New Jack Swing (or "House Clouds") drumbeat. The bass throbbed, and Banks managed an atmospheric spy flick guitar riff that proved his finest improvisation of the night. The whole thing swelled, then petered out around 1:30. What was left of the crowd seemed unsure whether they'd seen everything, but when the bouncer started ushering folks outside, they got the message: whatever that was, that was it.



This was, of course, close to what I wanted when I heard about the show: muscular squalls and gurgling new wave, some marriage of Interpol's pop tendencies and Liars' freaky ones. But instead of a mutual elevation of both sounds, they gave a compromise: Liars' quiet, terse side tempered by Interpol's steady, pretty dirge. Liars are a great opening band for Interpol, but the two acts really don't share a lot: Liars-- and Bradford Cox-- are students of noise and improv, but Interpol are structuralists, and Banks at least seemed uncomfortable with anything beyond the melody.

I'm sure a lot of folks in attendance looking for "Obstacle 1" thought it was pure formless cacophony, but it would've been so much better had that been true. Instead, it was safe, and quiet, and often a bit dull. All involved kept reaching for something that, for whatever reason, never came.


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Hot Chip's New Album Made in the Dark
They remixed three songs in the time it took you to read this sentence

We already knew Hot Chip's music is made for the dark of the dance floor (and for headphones, and weddings, and cross-country bus rides, etc.), but the title of the British quintet's third full-length gives us a little more insight into its origins.

Made in the Dark will come out via DFA/Astralwerks early next year, tentatively February 4 in the UK and February 5 in the U.S. The follow-up to last year's The Warning has 13 tracks, including previously reported titles "Wrestlers", "Out at the Pictures", and "Shake a Fist". Other song titles include the title track, "Bendable Poseable", "We're Looking for a Lot of Love", "Ready for the Floor", "In the Privacy of Our Love", and "One Pure Thought".

For more info about Made in the Dark, stay tuned to Pitchfork News for our interview with head crooner Alexis Taylor.

Hot Chip have a handful of live shows left this year, including some Joe Goddard DJ dates, and they don't plan to fully tour again until the record comes out. Time to buy a ticket to Brazil! [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.)