Thurston Moore Releases iTunes Live EP

Photo by Jason Bergman

Thurston Moore isn't just an author and a scorer of porn flicks (NSFW), he's also a solo artist! Who'da thunk, right? Okay fine, between last year's Trees Outside the Academy and its accompanying tour, the Sonic Youth frontman has stayed pretty active in the solo game.

Time to add another solo goody to Thurston's resume: the Live From SoHo EP, an iTunes exlusive that hit the digital retailer yesterday. It captures Thurston accompanied by SY drummer Steve Shelley, Chris Brokaw, Samara Lubelski, and Matt Heyner performing at the Apple Store in New York City's SoHo neighborhood last October. The set list consists of nine tunes from both Trees and Psychic Hearts, Thurston's previous solo album.

As previously reported, Thurston and the rest of Sonic Youth will head Down Under in February for a series of shows before he and the New Wave Bandits play an NYC date with Roky Erickson on March 1. [MORE...]

Xiu Xiu Fun: Video Zine, Song Project, Haiku Offerings
Inhibition none/ Nightmares disguised as records/ Xiu Xiu I love you

Good old Xiu Xiu, never for want of ways to draw us into their twisted art rock world. There was the Polaroid thing, of course, and the subsequent books, and the sound sculpture, just to name a few. Now we have the recently launched official website for sixth album Women as Lovers, which arrived this week via Kill Rock Stars.

Just what wonders await those who click the link up there? For starters, how about your very own personal haiku penned by the one and only Jamie Stewart? Stewart will serve up 17 meticulously arranged syllables to the first 234 people who submit a photo of themselves rocking a copy of Women as Lovers. Details here.

If you'd rather give than receive, how about lending your voice to a new Xiu Xiu instrumental and sharing the results with the world? The band is asking fans to sing over a track called, for now, "Untitled: Will You Please Sing on This". Intone, coo, shriek, shout, or mumble over the dancey number, give it a new name, and upload it. A couple fan offerings are already available for your ears here.

And if both giving and receiving are a bit too active for your tastes, why not sit back and get acquainted with "I Do What I Want When I Want", the new Xiu Xiu video magazine (not to be confused with the Women as Lovers track)? A giggly and quite possibly high Greg Saunier of Deerhoof inaugurates the series with a brainy discussion of "Star Trek", William Shatner, television theory, and Tourette syndrome.

Finally, it would be a sad year indeed if there weren't a Xiu Xiu tour going down. No need to worry about 2008 though, which officially becomes a happy year on March 7. [MORE...]

Monster Bobby Needs You to Name His Tune

Sometimes after you nail a winning melody, finesse some fitting chord changes, and pen the perfect lyrics, there just isn't a drop of creative juice left to devote to the fine art of nomenclature.

Such is the recent plight of Pipettes backbone and indie-pop songwriter Monster Bobby, who had no trouble summoning all the component parts of a new tune for his next album on Hypnote, but has found himself hopelessly stuck on a name.

That plight soon developed into a tour-wide quest for a title, but even show-goers failed to come up with anything that tickled Bobby's fancy. Monster Bobby now turns to you, loyal patrons of the interweb, for the divine arrangement of letters, spaces, and punctuation that folks will forever connect with his composition.

Download the song at the link below, rack your brain for that title of titles, and submit your suggestions direct to Bobby via his MySpace. The person who comes up with the best name is promised "some kind of lovely glittering prize."

The forthcoming Monster Bobby album, meanwhile, is titled Forty Winks and will feature 40 different one-minute jams about-- how clever-- sleeping and beds and the like. Which means you'd better come up with a damn good title, since you'll be up against 39 others on roughly the same subject.

And while we're on the subject of Monster Bobby, it wouldn't hurt to know that he's got a trio of London dates lined up, plus he'll appear tonight (January 30) on Radio 1 as part of a "BBC Introducing... Night on Radio 1" special. Bobby's bit is expected to air around 7 p.m. Eastern, so tune in! [MORE...]

MBV Add More Shows, Including Roskilde and Oya

Contrary to a lot of expectations, the My Bloody Valentine Carnival and Olde Tyme Reunion Show won't stop at Coachella this April. The band's dates remain concentrated in the summer, with a few added since our last report.

MBV are now scheduled to appear at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark in early July (alongside Radiohead), as well as at the Øya Festival in Norway in early August. They've also added a July show in Paris and a fifth (and apparently final) ATP-sponsored show at London's Roundhouse at the end of June.

Oh, and (we wish) they (would) also have a full-blown North American tour starting right now! [MORE...]

Destroyer Announces North American Tour
Hello Blue Roses schedule Brooklyn show

As promised, Mr. Dan Bejar and his Destroyer will bring their rollicking recondite revue on the road this spring for a fairly extensive North American tour. Kicking off in Minneapolis come mid-April, Bejar's bunch will unpack their adjectives all over the continent through May, recounting his Trouble in Dreams all the while. That new album emerges March 18 on Merge in the U.S.

Can't bear another moment without your Bejar? Well, if you can hang tight 'til March, there's always South by Southwest, at which Destroyer are slotted to appear. Or, for a quicker fix, you could always check out the album with the really long name Bejar and ladypal Sydney Vermont recently issued as Hello, Blue Roses. That particular coupling has a lone scheduled date, February 16 at Brooklyn's Glasslands alongside Locust labelmates Begushkin. [MORE...]

Photos: Vampire Weekend [New York, NY; 01/29/08]

Photos by Jason Bergman

Vampire Weekend, perhaps you've heard of them? The Columbia-educated quartet took to the stage at New York City's Bowery Ballroom last night for a record release show that just as well might have been a post-tour homecoming gig: smiles all around, loads of people singing along, spastic fans losing their shit. Instead it was an auspicious start to an ambitious tour that won't wrap up until April. Given the rate things are going, these guys should have called themselves Vampire Decade.

Meanwhile, openers Beat the Devil came just shy of living up to their name, beating some drums instead and wielding an oversize shovel while screaming. Fun! More photos and all VW's tour dates below.

VAMPIRE WEEKEND







[MORE...]

Karen O, TVOTR's Adebimpe, Wyclef Judge Fulbrights
Also: System of a Down's Serj Tankian

Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O is totally the new Fiona Apple, at least in terms of being the one girl on a panel that helps decide who gets a Fulbright scholarship. O, along with Tunde Adebimpe (TV on the Radio), Serj Tankian (System of a Down), and Wyclef Jean (the Fugees, general goofiness), will help determine who will join the elite group of Fulbright-mtvU Fellows.

Fulbright-mtvU Fellowships are sponsored by MTV's college network and the U.S. Department of State, and the purpose of the program is to aid students who want "to travel abroad for a year and study how music can serve as a global force for mutual understanding," according to a press release.

Last year, the first Fulbright-mtvU Fellows were chosen with input from Apple, Common, and the Shins' James Mercer, all of whom remain more likely to win a PLUG Award than a Nobel Prize.

Still, we wouldn't put it past a dude like Serj Tankian to grind out a thesis on the relationship between international politics in the post-Vietnam War era and the music of the Dead Kennedys.

Applications for 2008-09 Fulbright-mtvU Fellowships are due March 1, and the application materials can be obtained here.

Kanye West to Tour With Lupe, N.E.R.D., Rihanna

As the Star Wars universe goes, C-3PO is probably the least Kanye West-like character one can think of. But that lovable, bumbling protocol droid appears to be the loose inspiration for the pretty freakin' badass tour poster you see up there, posted yesterday to Kanye's blog. (Thanks to reader Dallan Guzinski for the tip.)

And how can we gripe when the supporting cast looks as rock solid as this? Lupe Fiasco! N.E.R.D.! Rihanna! No word on dates for the "Glow in the Dark" tour just yet, but given the rate at which Kanye has been posting things to his blog lately, we reckon we won't have to wait long.

Seems that we can also look forward to seeing Kanye in a video for the Estelle track "American Boy" on which he's featured.

Death Cab for Cutie Name New Album

And the new album from Death Cab for Cutie is called...

Narrow Stairs

Yup. Just about as exciting a title as Plans.

Siouxsie Plans Gigs Near and Far

Proto-punker turned musical chameleon Siouxsie Sioux has lined up tours on both sides of the pond in support of her 2007 (and, somehow, first) solo disc Mantaray.

Siouxsie will put the emphasis on the Mantaray tracks at these shows, but she'll also spend time mining three decades' worth of mood pieces from her impressive back catalog as leader of both the Banshees and the Creatures.

The U.S. leg of gigs (with Rasputina supporting on most dates) kicks off February 8 in NYC, while Siouxsie graces her native UK beginning February 29. If all goes according to plan, these won't be Siouxsie's only live outings in 2008. [MORE...]

Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue Finally Reissued

Late Beach Boy Dennis Wilson's legendary solo album Pacific Ocean Blue is beloved by those who've waded in its grandiose psych-soul... and all but unknown to those who haven't. The album's been out of print for over 10 years, rendering the audience for this forgotten gem smaller and smaller. But after all that time spent out to sea, Pacific Ocean Blue will come crashing back to shore May 13 as a two CD set from Caribou/Epic/Legacy and a double LP vinyl version from the Sundazed label.

In addition to Pacific Ocean Blue's original 12 tracks, the discs will contain a slew of previously unreleased bonus tracks mixed by original Ocean engineer John Hanlon and Caribou Records owner Jim Guercio. Many of these songs were meant for Bambu, the album intended to follow Pacific Ocean Blue that Wilson never completed. Man, what is with those Wilsons and keeping the follow-up albums to themselves?

The set will be further bolstered by photos by Dean Torrence of Beach Boys contemporaries Jan & Dean, and liner notes by Beach Boys scholars David Leaf, Jon Stebbins, Ben Edmonds, and David Beard. [MORE...]

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Announce Tour

Photo by Richard Sharman

Europe, lock down your valuables and keep an eye on your daughters: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are heading out for a spring tour of your fair continent, and sin-- not to mention well-crafted facial hair-- will be the order of the day. As will sorta spooky rock'n'roll of course, including plenty from the band's latest opus (you know, in the Biblical sense), Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, out March 3 in the UK from Mute and April 8 in the States on Anti-.

Will Nick and the Seeds be able to keep their hands to themselves and leave it all onstage as they wind their way around Europe? [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.)