Toumani Diabate Reveals New Album, Tour

Twenty years after he released Kaira, his international debut, talkative Malian kora master and Björk collaborator Toumani Diabaté will release his new album via World Circuit/Nonesuch February 26. The Mandé Variations is his first solo album on the kora (a traditional West African 21-string instrument) since Kaira, except this one comes entirely without overdubs or accompaniment of any kind.

In support of The Mandé Variations' release, Diabaté will gather up his friends for a tour of the Symmetric Orchestra. The ensemble includes musicians from Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso, who play instruments ranging from the kora and typical rock band elements (guitar, bass, drums) to other traditional African instruments such as the ngoni and the balafon.

The Symmetric Orchestra tour begins January 24 in Seattle and extends across the U.S. before heading Down Under a little later, in March. [MORE...]

Silje Nes Serves Up FatCat Debut in North America

Looks like Atmosphere aren't the only ones benefiting from their association with a big kitty these days. Norwegian songstress and sonic tinkerer Silje Nes will issue her debut, Ames Room, on FatCat Records March 11 in the U.S. and Canada (it's available elsewhere now). FatCat caught wise to Ms. Nes via a demo some years back, and were impressed enough with what they heard to welcome her into the fold.

Nes has herself a handful of European and UK dates on the way before she opens the door to Ames Room, and she plans to hit SXSW in the days that immediately follow. A full U.S. trek is being planned for March. [MORE...]

YACHT Designs Clever Sleeves for New MacBook Air

Front page photo by Kathryn Yu

YACHT's Jona Bechtolt: party-starter, penny picker-upper, and now, shrewd businessman. Within days of the unveiling of Apple's impressively-thin new laptop, Bechtolt is all poised to cash in on MacBook Air hysteria (hyst-Air-ia?).

Taking to heart Steve Jobs' claim that the MacBook Air will fit in a standard manila business envelope (seeing is believing), Bechtolt and frequent collaborator Claire L. Evans devised the perfect accessory: the manila envelope-styled protective laptop sleeve (pictured above). The pair readily admits it's an "obvious" idea, but who cares when it's also probably a massively lucrative one?

"AirMail", as they're calling it, is available for pre-order now. Bechtolt and Evans plan to ship these things out in about two weeks, to coincide with the arrival of the first wave of MacBook Airs.

Straight from the product's website: "The AirMail laptop sleeve is handmade out of durable upholstery-grade vinyl, and lined with fuzzy, soft fleece. All AirMail sleeves have the same dimensions as standard interoffice manila envelopes, which will serve to remind you-- and everyone around you-- that your new MacBook Air really is the thinnest laptop in the world!" Um, nerd alert!

Thanks to reader Joseph Darragh for the tip.

Catch YACHT and his trusty MacBook on a handful of upcoming gigs, including two this weekend. Then you can say you knew him before he went all parvenu and started buying real yachts-- Ah! Now your whole scheme becomes clear, Bechtolt! [MORE...]

Thurston Moore Soundtracks Adult DVD (Possibly NSFW)
Also co-writes book about no wave

Front page photo by Jason Bergman

Thurston Moore has written the soundtrack for a porno!

Calm down. It's more of an artsy adult film than an honest-to-goodness porno. And if you're up on your Sonic Youth history, it's really not that completely out of the blue.

A press release describes the hour-long movie, Extra Action (And Extra Hardcore), as the result of what happens when photographer/filmmaker Richard Kern tells his "unpretentious, unadorned, and definitely undressed" "real women" to "roll around and do something interesting for a few minutes." The DVD comes out March 18 via MVD, and in addition to Thurston's original score for Extra Action, it features previously unreleased Kern flicks as extras.

Kern's name will be familiar to Sonic Youth fans for his videos for "Death Valley 69" and "Scooter and Jinx" , as well as the cover of Evol, which featured a still from his film Submit to Me Now. He has also directed videos for the Breeders and Marilyn Manson.

Expanding Moore's multimedia attack, Abrams Image Books will publish No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York. 1976-1980 by Thurston and Byron Coley on June 1. It's a photographic and oral history of the very scene Pitchfork's Marc Masters documented in his recent feature "NO!: The Origins of No Wave" and his book No Wave.

Finally, Sonic Youth have those Down Under dates in February, and Thurston himself has a pair of solo dates bookending the tour. The first is a DJ set on January 26, and the second is a March appearance in NYC opening for Roky Erickson. [MORE...]

CYHSY Play Planned Parenthood Benefit Show
The Great Buck Howard, that movie they're in, debuts at Sundance this weekend

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah don't mind if you make babies. They just wanna make sure you're well prepared to do so. So in lieu of introducing "Clap Your Hands Say Not Tonight, Honey"-brand contraception into an already overcrowded marketplace, they're donating the proceeds from their January 22 show at New York City's Bowery Ballroom to Planned Parenthood of New York City. Score! Er, responsibly, of course.

Hey, speaking of scoring, The Great Buck Howard-- the Tom Hanks/John Malkovich vehicle in which the band appears and provides a few new tunes-- will debut at the Sundance Film Festival over the weekend.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah hit Australia in February for the Laneway Festival and beyond. [MORE...]

X Gear Up for 31st Anniversary Tour
John Doe tours with Wilco

What do you get when you put Exene Cervenka, John Doe, Billy Zoom, and D.J. Bonebrake in a big shiny bus and tell 'em to have at it? Why, you've got the "13-31 Tour", an all-too-rare series of live outings from the original lineup of seminal Los Angeles rockabilly-tinged punkers X in celebration of the 31st (holy hell!) anniversary of their formation. What did you think I was gonna say?

Yes, X will be doling out many a Wild Gift on stage this spring, from a youngster-schooling appearance at SXSW to, you guessed it, a gig where it all began, Los Angeles. And just in case you don't feel like leaving that house that you call home to catch all the steamy single-X action, one of the band's SXSW appearances will be taped for an hour-long DirecTV special. Ooh, special!

Seasoned road warrior John Doe has quite a few dates of his own before the so-called "13-31 Tour" kicks off, including a whole bunch with some band called Wilco. [MORE...]

Jason Forrest Returns With New DJ Donna Summer LP

Like Madlib or Matthew Dear, the many incarnations of Jason Forrest can be hard to follow. One minute, he's just Jason Forrest. The next, he's got a band. And then there's Donna Summer, an alias he hasn't used for a release in five years but under which he's releasing his new album, Panther Tracks. To make things even more confusing, the record is actually credited to DJ Donna Summer.

Confusion aside, we know Panther Tracks exists, contains music, and will hit shelves on March 24 via Forrest's own Cock Rock Disco label. And for vinyl nerds, half of the record is already out. CRD split the vinyl release into two 12"s, and the first came out in December. The second will follow on the same day as the CD release.

Cock Rock Disco is also planning a free MP3-only companion remix collection for Panther Tracks, which will contain tweakings from Glowstyx, Slam, Ladyscraper, Nero's Day at Disneyland, DJ C, and others.

Mr. Donna Summer also has a few live dates to accompany the new studio material. The first is in Forrest's hometown of Berlin on January 19. [MORE...]

Sakamoto, Willits Collaborate on Ocean-Healing Album

Ryuichi Sakamoto photo by Kazunari Tajima / Christopher Willits photo by Charis Briley

Innocence and experience, guitar and piano, Christopher Willits and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Combine these elements and you've got another disparate pairing, Ocean Fire, Sakamoto and Willits' new collaborative LP.

According to a press release, Ocean Fire is "dedicated to the healing and restoration of our fragile oceans," which is more than we can say for, like, Strawberry Jam.

The ocean-healing begins on February 12, when 12k Recordings releases the seven-track ambient LP under the Willits + Sakamoto banner (it's out now in Japan via Commmons/Avex). Mr. Willits is currently working on the follow-up to 2006's Surf Boundaries; he also has a couple shows lined up with collaborator Scott Pagano. [MORE...]

Photos: Sufjan Stevens [Melbourne, Australia; 1/16/08]

Photos by Richard Sharman

Look at that hat! Look at that vest! As Sufjan Stevens continues to push the boundaries of form and genre, it seems that he's experimenting with fashion as well. Last night, Stevens and his band hit Melbourne, Australia's Forum Theatre, on the second-to-last date of his first-ever Australian tour. Everyone looked quite, um, dapper-- especially Shara Worden, aka My Brightest Diamond, who played piano and sang.

Soof plays a couple of dates in Japan before heading back Stateside for the Tibet House Benefit at Carnegie Hall in mid-February. And you can catch some Sufjan videos on the forthcoming Asthmatic Kitty DVD.

More photos and tour dates below.






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Mono Release Live/Documentary DVD

Japanese post-rock combo Mono will release their first DVD January 22 on Temporary Residence. Titled The Sky Remains the Same as Ever, it's an almost two-hour chronicle of the recording of 2006's You Are There and the subsequent worldwide tours in support of the album. In terms of footage, this translates to a dozen live tunes "and driving...lots and lots of driving," according to a press release. How Mono-tonous!

The Sky Remains the Same as Ever is available now in Mono's native Japan via Human Highway Records.

And it seems we'll have to content ourselves with these digitalized renderings of the Mono live event for now, as the band has no touring plans at the moment.

Sparklehorse Leave Astralwerks/Capitol

Photo by Kirstie Shanley

With the major label system as we know it very much on the rocks, musical casualties are turning up left and right. Whether they've been cold dropped without mercy or merely freed from the bonds of corporate oppression is probably a matter of perspective more than anything, but few would argue that the era of million-plus first week sellers is long over.

Which leaves one to wonder how Mark Linkous and his Sparklehorse are feeling right about now, having parted ways with former home Astralwerks [via EW.com].

According to an Astralwerks rep, Sparklehorse's contract simply expired, and thus the act is no longer allied with Astralwerks nor its parent label, Capitol. No word yet where the band will go for the follow-up to 2006's Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain.

Beyond this bit of news, we've heard nary a whinny from Sparklehorse in 2008, though Mr. Linkous did premiere some new material at last month's Portishead ATP.

And hey, looks like Soulja Boy's a fan! So there's that.

Enon Tour the Heck Outta Early '08

Photo by John Ray Fuller

And away they go! Starting yesterday, Enon are dropping a little of their spastic weirdness on Europe, the UK, and finally, these United States on a whole buncha tour dates to kick off '08. The band set things rolling in the Netherlands, sticking to that side of the Atlantic for nearly a month before picking things back up in April for a fortnight in the States in April. Just, um, don't accuse them of running for any borders or anything.

In other Enon news from this young year, the band's "Ashish" pops up on that Rare Book Room compilation, due February 26. And their latest album, last fall's Grass Geysers... Carbon Clouds, is still fresh on Touch and Go. [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.)