Boris Smile for New Album
Boris/Merzbow split out now

Typically, April showers bring May flowers, but blooming could be harder after the downpour of arrows, tanks, napalm, and other destructively bad-ass things that comes when Boris release a new album next April via Southern Lord.

The official studio follow-up to the killer Pink is called Smile, and it features contributions from previous collaborators such as Michio Kurihara and Sunn O)))'s Stephen O'Malley.

There's not much other info about Smile available, but we have high hopes that Boris can stick to a release timetable better than Brian Wilson. In fact, the band will precede the album's release with a single on CD and seven-inch as well as a new video.

And remember that Boris/Merzbow live split we mentioned a while back? It's out now on Southern Lord. This latest collaboration between Boris and Merzbow spreads 13 tracks across two discs and comes on CD in groovy die-cut gatefold packaging designed by Southern Lord/Sunn O)))'s O'Malley.

Boris have three tour dates left this year, starting with a show in Tokyo tomorrow, November 30. [MORE...]

U.S. Gets Hey Willpower [ft. Imperial Teen, Tussle] LP
Imperial Teen, Tussle play December dates

Though it's been revamped with a fresh tracklist and brand new artwork not found on its previously released European issue, Hey Willpower's full-length debut P.D.A. ought to still pack a potent poppy punch when it drops in the U.S. January 22 via Tomlab.

Hey Willpower, as you may be aware, is the catchy side project featuring Imperial Teen's Will Schwartz, Tussle's Tomo Yasuda, and a rotating cast of characters. The disc comes at a bit of a lull for the band, with no live dates planned at the moment. Instead, Schwartz will focus his efforts on a trio of upcoming Imperial Teen shows, while Tomo and Tussle rock three of their own upcoming gigs, including that Worried Noodles happening. Wait... Will Schwartz... Hey Willpower... I get it now! [MORE...]

St. Vincent Extends Tour

Photo by Tod Seelie

Annie Clark, the current patron saint of solo shredding not named Marnie Stern, is finishing out her year with another round of Marry Me live proposals, this time featuring a full band incarnation of her St. Vincent moniker.

Though the current dates are in Europe, Clark has also padded her schedule with a handful of shows in the U.S. next year. [MORE...]

Merge Auctions Arcade Fire, Spoon Posters for Charity
And Superchunk, Portastatic, Robert Pollard, M. Ward, Destroyer, Rosebuds, Oakley Hall, too!

Throughout the holiday season, the folks at Merge Records are once again offering up on eBay rare, silkscreened, autographed gig posters from a good portion of their mighty stable of artists. Wall decor bearing the marks of the Arcade Fire, Spoon, Superchunk (and, while Mac was in a signing mood, Portastatic), the Clean's David Kilgour, Robert Pollard, M. Ward, Destroyer, the Rosebuds, Oakley Hall, and some hardworking printmakers will be up for auction over the coming weeks.

The Arcade Fire (pictured above) and Kilgour posters are up for auction right this instant, with more to be added soon, so keep checking back here for new swag. The Arcade Fire one is up to $493 right now!

Proceeds from the sales will be split between Oxfam America and the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina.

Weird Weeds, Future Rapper Play Chris Schlarb Events

Photo by Adriana Lucero-Schlarb

Chris Schlarb couldn't make room on the spine of his forthcoming Asthmatic Kitty album Twilight & Ghost Stories for the gaggle of guests who pop up on the disc. So as consolation of sorts, he's holding a series of listening parties across the country where several of Twilight's featured players will serve as the guests of honor.

The parties pop off over the weekend of December 7-8. Future Rapper's Michael Kaufmann, Weird Weeds, Languis, the::armor::class, and Inlets (aka Sebastian Krueger of My Brightest Diamond) will each perform at the scattered events; a schedule follows the jump. Attendees will be treated to a special quadraphonic mix of Twilight & Ghost Stories, a live performance from the bands, food and drink, and free admission.

Schlarb himself can't make it when the bulk of these go down: he'll be in Georgia with labelmate Liz Janes and the rest of the previously reported bunch at the Next to Last Fest December 8.

Also, a person could stream Twilight & Ghost Stories by clicking right here, were a person so inclined. [MORE...]

Black Lips, Deerhunter, Mastodon to Appear in ATL Doc

Some twenty odd years ago, movie producer Bill Cody helmed Athens, Ga.: Inside/Out, a film detailing the vibrant music scene emerging from the Georgian college town in the mid-1980s. Cody, alongside music historian/documentarian Chris Dortch II and Silver Jew producer Matt Robinson, has begun crafting a modern day companion piece to Inside/Out entitled We Fun: Atlanta, Ga.: Inside/Out.

If the title didn't clue you in, the focus this time around has been shifted from Athens to Atlanta's exploding rock'n'roll underground. Deerhunter, Black Lips, members of Mastodon, and adopted Atlantans King Khan & BBQ Show all make appearances, as should a good chunk of the rest of the ATL crowd. The film is still very much in production, with plans to shoot tomorrow night's (November 30) Deerhunter/Black Lips show in Atlanta. Interested parties can check out the project's MySpace for clips, including a slightly pickled-looking Jared Swilley of Black Lips (pictured above) explaining the title. And in case you'd like to help this thing along, you can donate to the cause via Paypal through the project's MySpace as well.

Of course, this isn't the only ATL scene flick on tap, nor the only Black Lips screen project in the works, nor the only meet-up between Black Lips and King Khan & BBQ Show. Creative bunch, that Atlanta crew... somebody should make a movie about 'em!

MMJ Sell Live "Oregon Trail" Picture Disc for Charity

Though it sports a rather drab, oddly repetitive title-- 2006-2007 New Year's Eve Skit Picture Disc Skit, to be exact-- My Morning Jacket's latest release is anything but. Culled from their "Oregon Trail"-themed (!!!) gig last New Year's Eve at San Francisco's Fillmore, the disc collects a pair of skits from the performance, as well as some intro and outro music to go with it. Sure, that's creative and all, but will it help you stay upright as you attempt to ford the Snake River on your quest towards westward expansion?

The picture disc itself is pretty swank, sporting handsome full-color snaps of the band in their western wear. And it's all for a good cause: proceeds go to Sweet Home New Orleans, an organization that helps bring musicians displaced by Hurricane Katrina back to the Big Easy. (If that sounds familiar, it's because that Mike Mills event in D.C. this weekend also benefits Sweet Home New Orleans.)

Skit Picture Disc Skit is available now through the band's website. (Via NME.)

At the moment, the band have no such hijinx in store for this New Year's Eve, or any other night, as they have no tour dates scheduled, though hijinx of a Danzigian sort pop up on the recently released Misfits tribute disc, to which the band contributes their take on "Hollywood Babylon". And, of course, MMJ crooner Jim James and Calexico's spin on Bob Dylan's "Goin' to Acapulco" is a highlight amongst highlights on the soundtrack to the Dylan biopic-type-thing I'm Not There.

And just for kicks, here's a screenshot from Oregon Trail the game, via its Wikipedia entry:

Growing Sign to the Social Registry for 7", Mini-Album

Brooklyyyyyn zoo! As if the borough needed more music-related goodness inside, Brooklyn duo Growing has signed to Brooklyn label the Social Registry. To start the partnership, Growing have a single and a mini-album planned for the coming months, their first releases since this year's Vision Swim.

The single is "The Social Club Nº 8", Growing's entry in the Social Registry's monthly seven-inch series called, of course, the Social Club. It has two tracks, one of which ("Disconfirm") hit Forkcast quite recently; like the rest of the Social Club singles, it is hand-numbered, features letter-pressed artwork, and is limited to 750 copies.

The four-track mini-album is called Lateral, and comes out February 19. [MORE...]

Beyonce's Sister Solange Samples Boards of Canada
Solange's album also features Cee-Lo, Q-Tip, Lil Wayne

With will.i.am sampling M.A.N.D.Y. vs. Booka Shade for "Get Your Money" and Andy Samberg jacking Aphex Twin for the "SNL" digital short "Iran So Far", is IDM the new James Brown/Stax/Motown? We sure didn't get the memo, but it looks like Solange Knowles did.

The singer, songwriter, Beyoncé sibling, and Bring It On: All or Nothing star (who knew it was a trilogy?) gets a Boards of Canada sample to call her very own on her forthcoming album. Knowles originally reported the news herself via MySpace blog all the way back in September.

Warp Records confirmed Boards of Canada's appearance on Knowles' record, but the original message also names a slew of other impressive guests: Cee-Lo, Q-Tip, Lil Wayne, Floetry's Marsha Ambrosius, and Bilal. In the message, she exclaimed she was "happy as yellow" with the album's progress, and "jammin to Feist and Lemon Jelly." You want to read the whole thing, don't you? Here:

"Thursday, September 27, 2007

album update
Current mood: chipper

in miami
happy as yellow
workn with cee-lo (wooooowww....Luv Him)
makn great music
wonderful people
bilal,q-tip,marsha(floetry),boards of canada,lil wayne....
all on MY record!
wow
feel so blessed
so honored
everyone is loving and respecting the music
being brave
staying focused
writing

cant wait
till your ears join
im taking my time
getting it right
jamming to feist and lemon jelly
inspiration

comes from every angle
life
love
dreams
paris :), london, miami, boston...

electro soul,vintage grooves, galaxy glimpse, 60's doooo wop!

cant wait for u 2 hear"

Wait..."galaxy glimpse?" Is that a reference to the "Dayvan Cowboy" video?

Radiohead Announce More Tour Dates, Sorta

Though it's still kinda shy on some of those all-important details (like, uh, specific dates and venues), Radiohead have announced a number of live engagements for next summer that closely approximate a proper tour. Adding sixteen stops to the previously announced pair from the other day, the band will kick off their tour in Dublin with a pair of dates in June, do two in Paris, hit up Barcelona, and then take it to Nimes, France for another duo of dates.

Which dates? That remains to be seen, but if the list posted on Radiohead's website is to be believed, those should all go down before their first specific (and currently on sale) date: June 18 at Milan, Italy's Civica Arena.

Then it's to the Hurricane and Southside Festivals in Germany, as we mentioned before. From there, two dates in London, a stop in Glasgow and one in Manchester will close out June. July sees the band in Amsterdam, at Denmark's Roskilde Festival (reportedly taking place July 3-6 in its usual spot), Belgium's Werchter Festival (on the same days as Roskilde) and, finally, making a date in Berlin. The usual chronological itinerary we'd generally post is a little hard to put together without, you know, chronology, but we've done what we can below.

In other Radiohead news, those discboxes are looming, as is the physical release of In Rainbows in both North America and the UK. That big, controversial box set of their previous LPs drops December 10. [MORE...]

Vetiver Plan Remix 12", Covers Album, New LP

There's just so darn much afoot in the land of Andy Cabic and Vetiver of late, what with a new 12" remix project, a covers album, and a proper LP on the way. They're set to emerge in roughly that order, so let's begin at the beginning, shall we?

While they were moving the levers at sessions for Vetiver's 2006 LP To Find Me Gone, Cabic and producer Thom Monahan decided to take a couple of the tracks in some very un-Vetivery directions. New drone-heavy, "deconstructive and electronic" visions of "You May Be Blue" and "Been So Long" will appear on a 12" due on Gnomonsong January 29, representing the first Vetiver recordings for the label Cabic himself co-owns (along with Devendra Banhart). Farmer Dave Scher (Beachwood Sparks) provides melodica and pedal steel on the tracks, while flute duties were handed over to Alissa Anderson (who's also contributed photos to this very website in the past).

Vetiver will release an all-covers LP in the coming spring, with takes on Townes Van Zandt's "Standing", Hawkwind's "Hurry on Sundown", Norman Greenbaum's "Hook & Ladder", Elyse Weinberg's "Houses", and Biff Rose's "To Baby" slated to appear.

Meanwhile, Vetiver also have a track on that Natalie Portman charity mix, and Cabic's been writing material for an all-new Vetiver disc, which he's hoping to record this spring.

Belle & Sebastian Fete Glasgow in Calendar
I was going to call this the one merch idea Gorillaz hadn't thought of yet, except they have

It's the holiday shopping season, which of course means the arrival of...a Belle & Sebastian calendar? Sure, why not? They've already got a puzzle, a frisbie, playing cards, and a comic book.

As it turns out, Belle & Sebastian's "Toast to Glasgow 2008 Calendar" is more than a timekeeper. It's also a guide to the band's hometown of Glasgow, Scotland, with each month featuring a band member in one of his or her favorite places in the city. The photos, courtesy of photographer Marisa Privitera and B&S leader Stuart Murdoch, were all taken this year at locales such as Stow College, the Transport Museum, and Queens Cafe.

In other geographic B&S news, a few band members have solo or DJ sets coming up, culminating in Stevie Jackson's January 8 appearance at the Concrete Frequency: Songs of the City event in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the band has been working on their "God Help the Girl" project; for updates on the selection process, check out Murdoch's diary. Murdoch has also been keeping busy as a producer; he recently helmed the debut single for Glasgow band Zoey Van Goey. [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.)