Malkmus LP Due in March, Two Jicks Dates Announced

Photo by Jen Reel

With all the difficult-to-decipher doodling going down in Camp Radiohead these days, it's nice to get a little information-- even if it is, in fact, very little information-- from one of indie rock's other pillars. Information that doesn't take a degree in leisure studies or a subscription to Games Magazine to decode, that is. So here goes.

Stephen Malkmus' fourth solo album, the follow-up to 2005's Face the Truth, will be released on Matador in March. I never knew cold, hard facts could be so comforting.

Stephen and his Jicks-- who just became majority shareholders in Quasi-- also have a pair of live dates planned for November. One is December 19 at Frisco's Great American Music Hall, and the next December 21 at Portland's Doug Fir, with support from Blitzen Trapper. Thanks to reader Eric Loeffler for the tip about the shows.

That's all for now, but at least it's something. [MORE...]

Jay Reatard Tears Across North America

Jay Reatard may seem just a little too punk for stuff like "tour schedules" and "blogs" and "doing things in a logical fashion," but when it comes down to it, I may very well have the guy all wrong. Jay-- and/or someone acting on his behalf-- has put quite a bit of planning into his fall tour, which finds the seer of Blood Visions taking the stage nearly every night for two months.

Sure, he's still a lifer, still no foe of chaos, so he's still playing fittingly decadent spots like Lager House and Beerland and Pink Elephant, but the fact that he's playing them one after the other in a directional fashion is pretty darn logical. It all starts tonight at Goner Fest in Memphis.

As for blogs, well, Jay's been pretty good about throwing new jams on his recently inaugurated spot. Get the Reatard-ation practically as it happens by clicking right here. Jay's itinerary, however, can be found by clicking yonder. [MORE...]

New Young Pony Club Hit North America on Tour

With their Fantastic Playroom bopping around on store shelves, the body movers of New Young Pony Club aren't content to sit tight and let their post-disco jams emerge from your speakers alone. So they're packing an extra set of everything and heading out on tour, giving those jams their proper due through the stacks and stacks of your local club's soundsystem.

The horsey bunch is traipsing through the UK right now, a jaunt which will be followed by a brief run through North America after CMJ. You can settle your dues and check out all the accoutrements of club life from now 'til the end of October. [MORE...]

DFA Drops Shit Robot, Still Going, Holy Ghost! Singles

Between emerging as a production powerhouse, helping catapult LCD Soundsystem, the Rapture, and Hot Chip into the indie elite, partnering with EMI, and sparring with that other DFA, the DFA label hasn't forgotten its bread and butter: twelve glorious inches of grooved, circular plastic.

Indeed, the dancefloor deities have three such 12" vinyl platters lined up for release this fall, the first of which dropped this week. Still Going-- a duo comprised of Rub-n-Tug's Eric Duncan and Manthraxx/Mr. Negative gent Olivier Spencer-- hit us with "Still Going Theme" on 45rpm. If the name sounds familiar, perhaps you noticed it among the party jams on James Murphy and Pat Mahoney's forthcoming FABRICLIVE36 mix?

Come October 30, the DFA factories will churn out two more footloose helpings. NYC expat Marcus Lambkin's Shit Robot, practically a veteran DFA act by now, delivers "Chasm" on 45rpm, while Knicks fans Holy Ghost!, born from the ashes of the DFA-produced combo Automato, serve up "Hold On" on 33rpm. Take care not to confuse them with fellow NYC-dwellers the Holy Ghost. Holy Ghost! will DJ at a single release part on October 30 at 205 Club in NYC.

Shit Robot has a few dates lined up too. And all that's to say nothing of the DFA's globe-trotting new subsidiary Death From Abroad. Quick, somebody phone John Donne! This Death has plenty to be proud about. [MORE...]

Those Arctic Monkeys Sure Love to Tour

Much is made-- for good, and sometimes for bad-- of the fluorescent post-adolescence of those Arctic Monkeys. But at age 21, you're full of piss and vinegar and all the right stuff to wind it up 'til all hours, sipping $15 drinks and hanging out with seamy characters. A lifetime of Alka-Seltzer and memories awaits, boys. Revel in it while you can.

And so they shall, having sped up their plans for the rest of 2007 with a mess of dates. After some more time in these parts with the similarly youthful Voxtrot, they'll follow with a trek to South America, a few stops in France just for kicks, and to cap things off, their latest string of "BIGGEST GIGS EVER" in their native UK. Whew. Is that it for 2007? Please? [MORE...]

Quasi Add Jicks' Joanna Bolme to Lineup, Tour

This is just like the time that dude from Redd Kross played bass on all those White Stri-- eh, that's dating myself, to remember that. Nevermind: This is just like when Johnny Marr joined Modest Mouse!

Joanna Bolme-- who's played bass with both Stephen Malkmus and the Minders-- has joined Touch and Go recording artists Quasi. (That's Joanna on the left in the picture over there, next to Sam Coomes and fellow Jick Janet Weiss). They're expanding exponentially! It's quasi-algebraic! They're a triple threat! Two Jicks for every boy!

Joanna, Janet, and Sam will hit the road in October to test out that whole "two's company..." thing. Quite a few of their dates find 'em linking up with labelmate Ted Leo, no stranger to new blood on the low end himself. [MORE...]

Ariel Pink Mines the Vaults for Scared Famous, Tours

It's tough for most of us non-musicians to imagine recording a single album, let alone a double LP set. And it's harder still to imagine that, when done with said opus, we'd all but stuff it in a drawer and let the magnetic material on which it was captured deteriorate. But that sort of behavior seems almost normal when you consider the source: Ariel Pink.

Never one for the editing process, Pink and his Haunted Graffiti will release Scared Famous, plucked from "a self-made double-album in vague circulation a few years ago" apparently resurrected from amongst Pink's "massive bank of half-forgotten cassettes," according to a press release. The single disc Scared Famous emerges in the U.S. October 2 and the UK October 1 from Hall of Records.

Still thinking Pink? You can catch him on a brief November tour, or wait it out 'til next year when his thousandth full length is released. [MORE...]

Dan Deacon Adds Even More Dates
Sickness no match for the restorative powers of thrift store t-shirts

Photos by Jason Bergman

It seems that Daniel "Gunk" Deacon is all better now after a short rest, so he's decided to tempt his central nervous system again with the addition of quite a few European dates to the end of his current tour.

Deacon plans to announce even more Euro dates soon, and he is also planning tours for next year. In January, he'll tour the U.S. with the show from his forthcoming Ultimate Reality DVD, and he hopes to hit Japan and Australia in February. And on MySpace today, he wrote, "in the late year month of November I'll be moving back into a warehouse in Baltimore with rad friends for secret doom lessons. There I will be recording my new record and beginning to transcribe the score." OK then.

Also, he's playing a place called "Spooky Haunted House" in his hometown of Baltimore on Halloween, which could either be some crazy art collective or is an actual, like, Halloween haunted house. [MORE...]

HEALTH Spread the Wellness on Tour

Sure, we're mere weeks before the onset of cold and flu season, but when it comes to matters of HEALTH, things are looking up all the same.

The Los Angeles-based noiseniks just released their self-titled debut LP into the world (with help from Lovepump United), and they just kicked off a sizeable North American tour on which they'll meet up with several of their fellow racketeers. If the curiously Eastern tack these dates seem to take strikes you as off (those L.A. bands tend to stay pretty tethered to the homefront), think nothing of it: they'll kick off next year with a West Coast tour still to be firmed up. [MORE...]

CocoRosie's Bianca Casady Exhibits Her Art

When more traditional hip-hop artists want to explore their non-musical sides, it's often acting they pursue first. But when it comes to experimental freak folkies whose ties to hip-hop come in the form of the occasional use of beats and a penchant for fitteds, an art show is perhaps a better place for them to fully express the depth of their weirdness.

CocoRosie's Bianca Casady seems to think the same way, as she will debut a collection of her visual art in New York City on October 6. Titled "Lil' Girl Slim 'Cosmic Willingness' Pipe Dreamz A Revelation", the exhibit will feature work in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, video, works on paper, and performance.

"Lil' Girl Slim..." will run at Deitch Projects through October 19, when CocoRosie will also perform at the space. The Casady sisters also have a solid number of European dates scheduled for this fall, the next of which is tonight, September 27, in Paris. [MORE...]

Kevin Drew Extends Spirit If... Tour Into December

From Spirit If... to "Backed Out on the..." to the wayfaring lifestyle he leads, Kevin Drew seems hellbent on expressing a certain fondness for...trailing off. And when he trails, boy howdy, does he ever trail hard.

Drew's previously announced tour in support of his solo-ish debut will keep trailing on for a few extra stops this December, and a few others in between for good measure. Gear up for extended jams and endless stage prattle and the continual accruing of band members and ever-longer beards and... [MORE...]

Viva Voce Package Early Albums Together, Tour

Photo by Nilina Mason-Campbell

New to the Viva Voce party? It's cool, take your coat off, settle in a bit. In fact, why don't you swing by the punchbowl and make nice with 2003's Lovers, Lead the Way! and 2004's The Heat Can Melt Your Brain, a pair of out of print early Voce platters. They're real friendly like, and they're coming out in a two disc set complete with plenty of bonus material November 13 from Amore!Phonics.

Viva Voce will follow in Maritime's footsteps when they get chummy with Jimmy Eat World on their fall tour. [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.)