Efterklang Ready Parades to Play at Concerts

Self-proclaimed "friendly & nice people from Copenhagen" Efterklang will gently release their second album, Parades, worldwide on October 15. The follow-up to 2004 debut full-length Tripper and a number of EPs, Parades will come out in Denmark on Efterklang's own Rumraket label and elsewhere on the Leaf Label.

Their Friendlinesses will then get reacquainted with fans on a European tour that kicks off in Le Havre, France on October 16, just a few days after a Parades release show in Copenhagen. It's the band's first tour in almost two years, and they hope to extend it into 2008 and include shows in the U.S. and possibly Asia. Customs folks tend not to bother friendly and nice people too much, so we don't imagine either of those destinations will give the band much trouble. [MORE...]

Besnard Lakes, Eric's Trip Play Halifax Pop Explosion
Plus: Apostle of Hustle, Brother Ali, Shapes and Sizes, Sole, Tegan and Sara, Land of Talk

KABOOM! October 16, the starting gun of the 15th annual Halifax Pop Explosion will sound, bringing with it a solid glut of awesomeness to the dozen or so different venues reserved for the event in the Nova Scotian capital.

Over five days, Besnard Lakes, a reunited Eric's Trip, Shapes and Sizes, Brother Ali, Tegan and Sara, Apostle of Hustle, Old Time Relijun, Sole, Miracle Fortress, Joel Plaskett, Young Galaxy, AIDS Wolf, Land of Talk, Dog Day, the Most Serene Republic, and Northern State will be among those cavorting and capering in the fair city.

The fest will also host the second annual Music Matters conference, a summit on the state of the biz, as well as an art fair, various brunches, and other excitement, Canadian style. The full lineup is available on the festival website.

Flaming Lips Plan Halloween Parade in Oklahoma City

Ghouls! Goblins! A bushy-haired weirdo singing through a nun puppet! Something tells me the Flaming Lips do Halloween about as right as any non-cannibalistic, non-Scandinavian black metal band out there. But not without a little help from the costumed and confetti-soaked masses. This is where you come in.

If you're mobile, bored, of age, and free the weekend of October 26-27, you're in luck: the Flaming Lips have been asked by hometown rag the Oklahoma Gazette to participate in their annual Halloween parade. So the band is gathering up 1,000 of the most fearless freaks they can find for the March of a Thousand Flaming Skeletons, a "spectacle celebrating the mysterious, the supernatural and the otherworldly."

Oh, there's more, too: "The March of a Thousand Flaming Skeletons is a symbolic procession glorifying the beauty of death and the boundless flame of love and life." To say nothing of Sweet Tarts!

Obviously, you've gotta be in Oklahoma City October 27 to march, and the day before to pick up your costume. There's a $25 fee to participate, but in exchange for paying up front, you'll get to take your costume (and, uh, torch?) home, and snag a t-shirt unique to the event as well.

Also, tough break, kiddies, but you've gotta be 18 to ride this ride. Interested parties are advised to e-mail deathmarchreservation@hellfireltd.com ASAP to secure a spot in the parade. (I thought that was Danzig's email address?)

Of course, this isn't the only holiday-themed Flaming Lips goodness on the way. The band's delay-plagued Christmas on Mars film will (should?) see the light of day in March. The band are on live holiday at the moment, with on exception: they're set to play the Echo Project in Fairburn, Georgia this Friday evening.

Reunited Avengers, Pansy Division Join Forces for Tour

Photo by Marcus Leatherdale

Punk rock nostalgia hounds will get a double dose of the stuff they crave this fall in the form of a co-headlining tour featuring the Avengers and Pansy Division.

For those who need their memories jogged, the Avengers are a short-lived San Francisco foursome who reunited half-intact this year, 30 years after they first formed. Frontwoman Penelope Houston and guitarist Greg Ingraham remain from the original lineup, and this will be the band's very first national tour.

Pansy Division have only been gone a short time by comparison: four years. Also from San Francisco, the former Lookout! "queercore" band is now signed to Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles and is readying its next full-length. Here's hoping for an LP full of songs as provocatively titled as past classics ("Dick of Death", "He Whipped My Ass in Tennis (Then I Fucked His Ass in Bed)", etc.).

The Avengers and Pansy Division now share DNA in the form of the Mr. T Experience/the Plus Ones' Joel Reader (bass in the former, guitar in the latter) and the Plus Ones' Luis Illades (drums). The joint tour kicks off in L.A. tomorrow night (October 11), but the Avengers have a single date without Pansy Division tonight in their hometown. [MORE...]

Simian Mobile Disco, Hot Chip Remix Ladytron
Ladytron get to work on new album with Vicarious Bliss

To celebrate the UK re-release of 2005's fine Witching Hour (out now on So Sweet), Ladytron will issue a single for "Destroy Everything You Touch" October 22 that features a remix of the track by Hot Chip and a Simian Mobile Disco revamp of "International Dateline". Hipness overload!

The Witching Hour re-release contains a bonus disc that includes both extra cuts from the "Destroy" single, plus a mess of bonus tracks and other remixes from the likes of Playgroup, Vicarious Bliss, and James Iha. Guess he's bored?

While we're on the subject of Ladytron remixes, we'd be remiss to not mention their planned contribution to that mysterious Nine Inch Nails remix disc. Far less mysterious, however, are the group's plans for the fall, which-- according to a MySpace blog-- go like this: "We're off to Paris for the next seven weeks or so, to record the follow up to Witching Hour, in collaboration with our friend Vicarious Bliss, check him out if you haven't heard his stuff already. We're all really excited about it. More detail as it happens." Okay!

Ladytron were scheduled to perform at this winter's Portishead-curated ATP Nightmare Before Christmas, but they have had to cancel. [MORE...]

Radio Slave Unshackled for Fall Tour

Brighton beatmeister Matt Edwards will hang the "Gone Fishin'" sign on the door of his office as Rekids label head to take his Radio Slave alias on a short tour of North America this fall.

Bodies will rock, drinks will be drank, and bill collectors will receive automated out-of-office replies starting tonight (October 10) in Toronto. [MORE...]

Architecture in Helsinki Kick Off Tour Tonight
Glass Candy, Lo-Fi-Fnk, Panther added as openers

And they're off! Architecture in Helsinki, the mega-cute, cartographically-challenged Aussies, are heading to places like Ann Arbor and Pomona on their fall North American/Australian tour in support of this summer's Places Like This. That economy-sized party kicks off this very evening at Philadelphia's North Star Bar.

The tour's opening slots were recently filled as well: looks as though Sweden's Lo-Fi-Fnk and fellow Portlanders Panther and Glass Candy will occupy most of the slots. There's also that SoCo-sponsored swill-a-thon in Tempe October 20 with Architecture, Clap Your Hands, Girl Talk, and Cold War Kids, but you're already resting your liver for that. [MORE...]

Photos: Pop Montreal [Montreal, Quebec; 10/03-10/07/07]

Photos by Matthew Solarski and Leslie Bembinster

The sixth annual Pop Montréal festival swept through Canada's second most populous city last week, tossing five days and nights of myriad musical acts, sundry film screenings, numerous panels, dozens of venues, and a fairly enormous arts and crafts fair ("Puces Pop") into one delectable pop poutine.

Highlights included two performances from punk godmother Patti Smith-- one with Montreal's own A Silver Mt. Zion and one, with Smith's band, in the magnificent confines of the Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste-- along with another barnburner courtesy of those crazies in Man Man, an enchanting set that paired Final Fantasy with some exquisite overhead projection accompaniment, sold out showcases featuring Sunset Rubdown and the National with Doveman, and a reunited Eric's Trip, still tight and still whipping the kids into a frenzy.

Like a little cousin to SXSW or CMJ, Pop Montréal also takes care to showcase promising newcomers, among them Puerto Rico's Balún, Venezuela's Todosantos, and Canada's own Ohbijou, DD/MM/YYYY, Basia Bulat, Feuermusik, Krief (guitarist for the Dears), AIDS Wolf, and Erin Lang.

Catch photos of the aforementioned and more just ahead.

PATTI SMITH AND HER BAND


PATTI SMITH with A SILVER MT. ZION


THE NATIONAL




MAN MAN






SUNSET RUBDOWN


FINAL FANTASY

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Photos: Fujiya & Miyagi at Camelot for Kids Benefit [Chicago, IL; 10/05/07]

Photos by Esther Ramirez

It doesn't get much more heartwarming that this. On Friday, October 5, England's Fujiya & Miyagi played a previously reported special show at Chicago's Empty Bottle, prior to their scheduled gig that night. That show was the first of two benefits planned thus far for the Camelot for Kids organization, which aims "to help children with extraordinary needs," including those diagnosed with autism.

For this performance, Fujiya & Miyagi played especially for the very kids Camelot helps. In return, those kids-- inspired by Transparent Things track "Reeboks in Heaven"-- presented the trio with a new pair of the shoes they had all signed. Awwww.

Fujiya & Miyagi have a good month's worth of shows ahead of them, while Busdriver plays the next Camelot for Kids gig at Empty Bottle on November 16. More such shows are expected to follow.








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Radiohead Album NOW AVAILABLE!
World stops turning

Ladies and gentlemen, we hereby present to you: The Catch. As it turns out, paying absolutely nothing for the brand new Radiohead record was, yes, a wee bit too good to be true. You can still get In Rainbows for zero dollars, or eight dollars, or $100.00 if you so choose. It still contains the 10 core In Rainbows tracks. It's still DRM-free. And, as of this posting, it's available right this very minute (at least according to the email we just got.)

But as El Perro Del Mar charmingly put into song last year, you've got to give to get back. And in the case of Radiohead's In Rainbows, regardless of whether you chose to give monetarily, you will be giving some-- in audio quality.

According to an email sent to those who pre-ordered the digital version of In Rainbows-- and imminently apparent to those who've already rushed to enter their code and download their copy-- "THE ALBUM WILL COME AS A 48.4MB ZIP FILE CONTAINING 10 X 160KBPS DRM FREE MP3s."

That's right, 160 kbps. It doesn't take a techie to tell you that's a few dozen kbps shy of CD quality. (And lord knows how that's going to sound pumping out of Xfm shortly.)

For some, this won't matter so much-- perhaps the bulk of your mp3s are 160 kbps or (egads!) 128 kbps anyhow-- but for those with an ear for sound quality (not to mention all you nutty FLAC-heads) who voluntarily shilled out significant buck for the latest piece from their heroes Radiohead, this comes as something of a sub-RickRoll kick in the trousers.

Still, it's Radiohead, and something tells me they're more deserving than most recent recipients of your hard-won earnings.

With the 160 kbps cat out of the bag, it would now appear that the only way to hear Radiohead's new one in all its glorious, CD-quality sonic form is to buy the actual CD-- either as part of the deluxe discbox that drops in December or as the regular release that's due early next year (rumors still abound as to which label will have the privilege of releasing it). Perhaps a CD-quality digital release lies somewhere on the horizon as well?

In related Radiohead revelations, Billboard.com is reporting that the quintet has entered a unique licensing deal for the edition of In Rainbows released today, in which all rights belong to the band for this downloadable version of the LP. "[Radiohead], in cooperation with us, have created their own model of direct licensing for online," a spokesperson for UK collection association MCPS-PRS Alliance told Billboard.com.

Rights and royalty arrangements for the physical version of the album have not yet come to light, although Radiohead's publisher Warner/Chappell has stated that "all necessary licenses will be in place to allow proper payment of publishing royalties on both physical and digital sales of In Rainbows." All righty then.

Cat Power's Next Covers Record: Jukebox

Photo by Nilina Mason-Campbell

Looks like Cat Power isn't going to have to choose between Covers Record 2 and Covers Record II for the title of the sequel-of-sorts to 2000's Covers Record. The album now has a completely different name: Jukebox.

Chan Marshall's forthcoming, Dirty Delta Blues-assisted spin through the songs of others (well, mostly) will be released January 22 on Matador. In addition to takes on tunes by her favorite songwriters-- a tracklist has yet to be finalized-- Jukebox finds a little room for a pair of Chan originals, one old and one new. "Metal Heart" is an updated version of the Moon Pix standout, while recent live staple and Dylan homage "Song to Bobby" is new to the studio.

Ms. Marshall's ongoing homage to Dusty Springfield continues to roll down those dusty trails on the road, as she prepares to set forth on a brief yet expansive fall tour this weekend in Georgia. Dates after the jump. [MORE...]

The Hives Release Singles Collection

Photo by Joseph Mohan

Either to twist our tongues or to promote the November 13 release of The Black & White Album (we suspect both), the Hives released a six-song sampler called Singles Collection on iTunes today.

Featured on the Collection are five songs from The Black & White Album and an exclusive bonus track recorded for the Cartoon Network's fall season, "Fall Is Just Something Grownups Invented".

The Hives are still on tour with Maroon 5, though their next dates is a headlining show tonight, October 9, in New York City. [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.)