Johnny Cash Pardoned for Picking Flowers!?!
Star Wars fans pardon George Lucas for prequels...in sixty years

While he was alive, Johnny Cash made a name for himself with his charismatic presence, a host of cultural achievements, and, you know, a ton of awesome music. But it seems the city of Starkville, Mississippi is only now giving him the respect he deserves.

After holding a 42-year grudge, the city will soon issue a posthumous pardon to Cash for the night of public drunkenness he had there on May 11, 1965, according to an AP report.

Cash documented the night in jail in the song "Starkville City Jail", which points to his flower-picking and curfew-breaking as the reason for the arrest. There are plenty of other versions of the story, but the point is, the city of Starkville is posthumously pardoning Johnny freakin' Cash for a petty crime he committed over 40 years ago!

To celebrate the occasion, which is as much about the idea of redemption as it is about the ceremonial pardoning, the city will hold the Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival from November 2-4. The festival will include musical events, religious events, a charity auction, and a possible discussion by authors who have written books about Cash. Admission to the festival is free, but there is a suggested $10 donation that will go to a local Boys and Girls Club and the Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum.

QOTSA to Appear on Anthony Bourdain Holiday Special
Kohl's ads right around the corner...

Photos 1 & 2 by Aliya Naumoff, photo 3 by Lyndsay Siegel

Josh Homme and his Queens of the Stone Age crew give off badass rock'n'roller vibes like it's their job, which it sort of is. So if seeing them dressed to the nines in holiday sweaters best suited to little old ladies doesn't totally contradict their image, it at least complicates it. Truth told, who among us doesn't like to get in touch with his or her inner octogenarian once in a while?

But for what occasion did these hard rocking dudes don such festive duds? A holiday television special, of course. Specifically, an episode of chef Anthony Bourdain's Travel Channel show "No Reservations", according to a report from Rolling Stone's Rock & Roll Daily blog.

The forthcoming episode finds Queens rocking the basement of Bourdain's Connecticut home while he is upstairs cooking a holiday feast for them to enjoy together. In addition to their own tunes, the band also performs a version of "Silver Bells", renamed "Turkey Bells".

The report goes on to say the episode will include "karaoke, surly adolescents, and a Japanese businessman." As for those sweaters, Homme said, "I think someone Googled the word 'horrible,' and that's how we found them."

Queens of the Stone Age have plenty of tour dates to keep them busy until the wacky holiday special airs. Their next show is tomorrow, September 14, in Austin, Texas.

Oh, and below, we've included a picture from the MTV VMAs of Homme with Mastodon's Brent Hinds, who we're told is recovering well from his head injury.

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Scout Niblett Plots Fall Tour
Seeks camera and director of photography for music video

While songwriter and new non-smoker Scout Niblett prepares to tell North Americans that This Fool Can Die Now on October 9 (October 15 for Europeans), she has scheduled a fall tour of the continent to hammer the point home.

Even more dates are forthcoming, but as it stands now, the tour begins in Portland on October 9, preceded only by a British festival date on September 14. She'll return to the UK after she's done with North America for a handful of dates in November.

Finally, Niblett needs help from a fan and his/her camera to shoot the video for This Fool's first single. She lays the situation out clearly in a MySpace blog entry printed below in its unmodified entirety:

"i need you and your camera.

i need someone to shoot the video for the upcoming single from my next album.

i have a story board already mapped out. i just need a d.o.p

please send me a message if you are able and willing with links to clips you've shot already.

it will take place in the next 6 weeks somewhere in the US."

The post ran a few weeks back, so be advised that Niblett may have found her person already. [MORE...]

Ben Bridwell Explains Wal-Mart License, Band of Horses Announce Fall Tour Dates
"We promise to use the money to buy camcorders (at Wal-Mart) for people to film 'The Funeral,' so I can get mad and crap my diaper. Fuck it."

Photo by Stephen Lindley

Call Band of Horses what you will: totally awesome, meanies, sellouts... Wait, sellouts? When did this happen? Do we have a link for that?

Er, yeah, unfortunately. Seems the Band has licensed a song apiece to a forthcoming Ford commercial and a really tacky Wal-Mart website-- the latter of which suggests some link between cheap warez and existential satisfaction.

Though the marriage of cool tunes and uncool companies is hardly news, any whiff of indie rockers making nice with corporate interests tends to raise a bit of stink among purists. So we asked Band of Horses main man Ben Bridwell if he'd like to comment on the thinking behind the band's decision to lend their music to Wal-Mart and Ford.

He responded with the following statement,

"Dear friends,

"As you may have heard, there's been some recent discussion of a couple of licenses for BoH songs. Just to provide some clarification...

"I did allow Wal-Mart to use a song for a new website they created and have also given permission to Ford Motor Company to license a song from our new album. Because some people see Wal-Mart as a huge, evil corporation, they seem to be especially bummed about this license and see us as posers and/or corporate whores as a result.

"I'd like to just state for the record that we let all kinds of folks use our songs in all kinds of mediums - TV, films, school projects, etc... My personal stance is that once that music is recorded and released to the world then I don't really care where it goes. "The Funeral" has been licensed to death (ha, wretch) at this point and if somebody wants to throw down some duckets for it, then feel free. It also beats the hell out of stealing batteries from Wal-Mart to sell them back for 8 bucks.

"As for Ford: I drive a 1986 F-150 that still runs great. Maybe I'll get the a/c fixed with the cash they kicked down. I'm also stoked that people will hear our song on TV and we might pick up some new listeners in the process. I see no negative.

"That's our reasoning and I'm okay with it. I hope fans of the band are, too.

"We promise to use the money to buy camcorders (at Wal-Mart) for people to film "The Funeral," so I can get mad and crap my diaper. Fuck it.

-bb"

Dub these Horses sellouts if you wanna (we report, you decide, etc.): Just don't call 'em slackers. Having wrapped a short run of late summer dates last night in Portland, the band has just announced their fall plans, which include a stampede throughout North America in October and November. Hey, kinda like how they made that one album, then cranked out another one real quick-like!

And about that album they cranked out: it's pretty good! You can find it at stores much less depressing than Wal-Mart October 9, thanks to Sub Pop. Preordering the disc directly from Band of Horses' site will not only get you a fine rock'n'roll record, but a handsome Band of Horses beer koozie to boot!

Also in the works of the Band: hanging with friends and going to the record store. [MORE...]

Boredoms' Eye, Lindstrom, Tussle on Supersound Comp
Plus: 120 Days, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Arp, Kim Hiorthøy, Bjørn Torske

Smalltown Supersound-- the little avant label that has brought us fine releases from the likes of Lindstrøm, Boredoms' Yamataka Eye, 120 Days, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Tussle, Bjørn Torske, Kim Hiorthøy, and the Whitest Boy Alive-- will release its next state-of-the-label compilation in the UK on September 17.

That comp, called The Portable Supersound (as a tribute to Galaxie 500's The Portable Galaxie 500 compilation), features contributions from all of the above mentioned artists except for the Whitest Boy Alive.

Eye appears here under his moniker the Lift Boys, and the Sunburned track is the result of the band's studio collaboration with Four Tet on the Fire Escape LP that arrives October 2.

Also included on The Portable Supersound is new signing Arp (aka Alexis Georgopoulos, formerly of Tussle), who will release In Light on November 6, and diskJokke, who is preparing his debut, Staying In, for release early next year. [MORE...]

Bobby Byrd, James Brown Sideman, R.I.P.

Bobby Byrd-- singer, songwriter, and celebrated foil for the Hardest Working Man in Show Business-- died yesterday of complications from cancer in his Loganville, Georgia home, RollingStone.com reports. He was 73.

Byrd worked with James Brown from 1953-1973, first in the Famous Flames and then the JBs. He is perhaps best known as a co-vocalist on some of Brown's most famous songs: You'll recognize him immediately as the source of all the "get on up!"s on "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine".

A solo artist in his own right as well, Byrd recorded several albums and numerous singles, most famously the oft-sampled "I Know You Got Soul".

Brown and Byrd reunited in the years before their deaths, and Byrd performed at Brown's memorial service in Augusta, Georgia in December 2006.

CYHSY Guy's Guns N' Roses Tribute Band Returns!

In news that should single-handedly raise Pitchfork's review of music to at least a 7.1, Mr. Brownstone-- the Guns N' Roses tribute band that counts among its hallowed ranks Clap Your Hands Say Yeah drummer Sean "Axl Rose" Greenhalgh-- has returned!!

The Axl-aping combo, as you may have read, called it quits last year. This sudden reunion shouldn't come as much of a surprise, though. As Greenhalgh told Pitchfork last June, "We've claimed to be playing our 'final shows' more often than Axl has claimed that Chinese Democracy is coming out. But this time it's for real."

Significantly more "real" are the pair of shows Mr. Brownstone have lined up, including a New York gig in November (with support from an "All Metal Tribute to the Bee Gees", my oh my) and a Boston show in December.

Word is that these will, in fact, be the final Mr. Brownstone shows, but you know how that goes. Greenhalgh's Clap also have a bunch of their own gigs, as previously reported.

In related news, Chinese Democracy. Hahahaha. [MORE...]

Photos: Arctic Monkeys / Voxtrot [Chicago, IL; 09/12/07]

"This is the best crowd we've had so far on this tour," Voxtrot's Ramesh Srivastava remarked about halfway through the Austin quintet's set opening for Arctic Monkeys at Chicago's Riviera Theatre last night. He spoke too soon.

By the next banter break, some bratty Monkeys fan had let forth a particularly harsh "GET OFF THE STAGE!!" Ramesh, however, had the last laugh. "This one's for you," he retorted, and the band launched into "Brother in Conflict", which opens with the line "I wanna drown you in a pool of blood." Touché!

Along with "Firecracker", "Brother" appeared to galvanize Voxtrot, who had before this point seemed all too aware of the less-than-soft-and-warm reception they were getting (despite Ramesh's crowd-praising remarks). This crowd was, for the most part, not having Voxtrot's frilly jangle-pop and near-constant stage acrobatics. They were anxious to see the no-nonsense Arctic Monkeys, and who could blame them? Srivastava seemed relieved to announce that Voxtrot would soon be back in Chicago for a headlining show-- one which will likely find band and audience on the same page.

Those no-nonsense Monkeys, naturally, were received rapturously by the youngish crowd. Their appeal is understandable, and lead vocalist Alex Turner has stumbled into a pretty enviable stage persona. On the one hand, he's endearing and engaging, keeping his eyes wide open almost constantly and scanning his surroundings like a curious schoolboy. And although you couldn't understand half of his between-song chatter, it still felt natural and unrehearsed.

On the other hand, he may as well be rolling those eyes he keeps open, as he managed to appear aloof much of the time-- in a way that's still fairly charming. During parts of songs where he's not required to play guitar, Turner just stood there in front the mic, arms hanging lazily by his side like he was waiting in line at McDonald's or something. At once he's above all the silliness of the music biz, and yet still down-to-earth.

The kids are lucky to have a band like this.

ARCTIC MONKEYS






VOXTROT





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Mos Def, Aesop Rock on DJ Krush DVD Retrospective
Plus: the Roots' Black Thought, DJ Shadow, Company Flow, Mr. Lif, Anticon crew

The History of DJ Krush is pretty much exactly that: a three disc set of documentaries, live footage, and music videos from the longtime Tokyo recordman. Lavishly decorated with photos, liner notes by producer Noriko Asano, and extensive gig-and-discographies, the DVD set lands September 18 from Red Ink/Sony Japan.

Mos Def appears on the A-Un DVD, which collects footage of Krush from his early career through the mid-1990s. The second, Ko-no-Michi, follows Krush from 1995's Meiso LP through last year's world tour. DJ Shadow, Black Thought, Company Flow, Aesop Rock, C.L. Smooth, Mr. Lif, Sly & Robbie, and the Anticon crew are among the guests on the disc, which also sports Krush's first long interview and a Tokyo DJ set from last fall shot specifically for the DVD. The third disc, Clips, describes itself; tracklist for that one-- along with Krush's upcoming intercontinental tour dates-- after the jump. [MORE...]

Mobb Deep's Havoc Readies Kushy Solo Debut

Destruction, Terror, and Mayhem beware. The abstract, violent force Queensbridge producer and MC known as Havoc will unleash his ferociously titled The Kush (okay, maybe not so ferocious) via Nature Sounds on September 18.

It's been 15 years since Havoc made a name for himself as one half of Mobb Deep, yet The Kush is Havoc's solo debut (though it's somehow billed as a prequel to an "official" solo album). And this pre-official solo release boasts a few guest spots, including one from Mobb Deep-mate Prodigy, whose Return of the Mac landed earlier this year.

Havoc has a few hometown dates heralding The Kush's arrival. The next one is tonight, September 13. [MORE...]

New Porno Fancey Gets Schmancey on Second Album

It was almost a year ago when we spoke to New Pornographers guitarist Todd Fancey about releasing his sophomore album under the Fancey moniker, the follow-up to 2004's self-titled debut. Well, the cheekily titled Schmancey will finally hit shelves this fall via What Are Records?

Overeager collectors of all things Porno-related (clear history! clear history!) should be able to download the digital version of Schmancey from the What Are site on September 14. On the very same day, the full Fancey band will play a show in Seattle to kick off a tour supporting Lavender Diamond and, you guessed it, the New Pornographers. A CD version of Schmancey, meanwhile, is expected in early October.

Of course, Señor Fancey Schmancey will also accompany the NPs on guitar for the rest of their previously reported fall dates. [MORE...]

James Murphy Talks Arcade Fire, FABRIC36, LCD LP3
He's remixing "Black Mirror"!

Photo by Kirstie Shanley

In May, James Murphy and his LCD Soundsystem caused heavy palpitations in a capacity crowd at Chicago's Metro venue, only to slink downstairs to the basement Smart Bar an hour later and spin disco records nobody had ever heard of (but everybody dug) until the wee hours.

Murphy remembers passing out on the floor that night. We're hardly surprised.

James Murphy does a lot of things very well: make records, produce records, and play other people's records. Though the first two skills should be familiar to anyone who makes it to the second paragraph of any piece about Murphy on this website, you used to have to be in the right place at the right time to experience him in action on the ones and twos.

Thankfully, FABRICLIVE36, the mix James and his LCD Soundsystem cohort Pat Mahoney crafted for the venerable London club/label Fabric, gives you a little peek into the crates of a dude whose record intake is as impressive as his recorded output.

Over the phone from London earlier this week, Murphy noted the difference between making bodies move from behind the wheels of steel, rather than via his regular gig centerstage with LCD. "There's nothing to look at, it's not like a performance," he said. "You're just trying to make people dance and forget about you, which I like. When you're playing live, people don't have a chance to forget about you. They're pretty different. DJing is much more about trying to make people happy." [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.)