James Cecil Leaves Architecture in Helsinki

At one point eight members strong, peppy Australian outfit Architecture in Helsinki has been reduced, for the moment, to a quintet following the departure of multi-instrumentalist James Cecil.

Cecil joined the band early in its life and played on all three AIH full-lengths to date: Fingers Crossed, In Case We Die, and Places Like This. It was announced that Cecil would be leaving the band during a New Year's Eve performance in their native Melbourne; AIH's publicist later confirmed the departure.

Many thanks to reader Phil Jones for the tip.

According to their website, Architecture in Helsinki are presently taking a "big fat well earned summer vacation" (it's summer Down Under right now, recall), but an October live session recently surfaced on the Daytrotter website, and the band appeared on the sixth episode of Nigel Godrich's "From the Basement" television program. Said episode aired on the UK telly earlier this month and hits U.S. screens on the Rave HD network March 28.

Grizzly Bear, Andrew Bird, Projectors Do MusicNOW
Festival curated by the National's Bryce Dessner

For four glorious days in early April, Cincinnati's MusicNOW festival will take place very much in the present, featuring some top-shelf experimental and otherwise idiosyncratic rock'n'roll bands you'll want to catch-- now.

Curated by Bryce Dessner of the National and Clogs, the fest will feature Grizzly Bear, the Dirty Projectors, Andrew Bird, Bill Frisell, and new music troupe Bang on a Can performing with special guests Glenn Kotche of Wilco and Dessner himself.

MusicNOW takes place April 2-5 at the Cincinnati's Memorial Hall. The fest will also feature a showing of vintage experimental films and artwork at the Contemporary Arts Center.

Electrelane's Murray, Octopus Project Cut Too Pure 7"s

UK label Too Pure-- home to Stereolab, Electrelane, Future of the Left, and Scout Niblett, among others-- has inducted a few new members into its monthly 7" singles club.

The January face of the Too Pure Singles Club is chamber popper Anni Rossi, while February brings a split offering between French-born Frànçois (a sometime member of Camera Obscura's live band) and Ray Rumours, aka Electrelane's Ros Murray. (If the Rossi and Rumours singles sound familiar, they were previously mentioned here.) Finally, for now at least, March heralds the arrival of an entry from Austin's the Octopus Project, the crew's first release outside of North America.

As usual, these singles contain two exclusive, previously unreleased tracks and are limited to an international run of 500 copies. Apart from a few select record stores, the only way to get your hands on one of them is through an annual subscription obtained here. Scope the tracklists below. [MORE...]

Thermals to Do Bowie, Clash, Built to Spill Karaoke
Queen, Pat Benetar, Supremes, Beatles, Stones all show up on song list, too

Thumbing through the big book of karaoke possibilities at your local watering hole-- particularly after you've downed enough adult beverages to muster the courage to actually sing karaoke-- can be a daunting task. But not nearly as daunting as temporarily fronting the Thermals. You'll have the chance to do just that when they play the backing band for a live karaoke session January 31 at Brooklyn's Studio B.

Luckily for all attendees at next week's New York magazine-sponsored extravaganza, the Thermals have taken just a bit of the fear out of the first part of the process by posting their song list well in advance. That leaves plenty of time to soberly select what will get your drunken reading at next week's gig.

There's Thermals songs aplenty from all over their three LPs, and a fairly characteristically Thermals-y selection of covers: a wide swath of peppy "classic rock", a couple girl group jams, a little punk, a few new wave cuts, and, awesomely enough, Built to Spill's "Big Dipper". Gone, sadly, is the rumored Madonna song from our last update.

Keep in mind that the event is being hosted by comedians the Whitest Kids U'Know, so no matter what you sing, they're probably going to make fun of you.

The full list is available for your perusal after the jump. [MORE...]

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Recording New Record
Band members dabble in side pursuits

"HAPPPYYY FREAKIN NEW YYYEAR" begins a message posted Saturday-- January 19-- on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' website. But who are we to quibble over two-and-a-half weeks' tardiness when the news that follows is as welcome as this?

Believe it: "We have a wet and wild feeling about 2008 and we're not kidding," reads the posting. "YYYs are currently writing and recording another record. A chunk of December was spent on a musical farm in Mass[achusetts] throwing cow dung at each other, making music makes us do strange things."

That record, cow dung and all, will be the full-length follow-up to 2006's Show Your Bones and the immediate record shelf successor to last year's Is Is EP.

And what else have our dear Yeah Yeah Yeahs been agreeing to of late? Apart from re-vamping their website, Nick Zinner's case of Hives, and Karen O's walk on the Wild Things side, each pillar of the YYYs trifecta has kept plenty busy.

Drummer Brian Chase has been lending his time-keeping skills to a number of fellow Brooklynites, including the Sway Machinery, BPO, and Drummer's Corpse. He's also embarked on a solo endeavor tentatively titled Drums and Drones and inspired by prepared piano pioneer La Monte Young's 1962 piece Dream House.

Zinner has continued embracing his photographic muse and is working on his second photo book, the follow-up to 2005's crowd shot compendium and tour travelogue I Hope You Are All Happy Now.

Karen O, finally, "is piddling around on various top secret projects" (one of which, we can only assume, is her musical contribution to Where the Wild Things Are). She also co-directed a music video for her underage pals Tiny Masters of Today.

The Walkmen Leave Label for New Album

Photo by Natalie Kardos

Their very name is made for walking, and that's just what the Walkmen have done in preparation for their new album. According to two interviews with frontman Hamilton Leithauser, the forthcoming LP will be released on a label other than Record Collection, which put out Pussy Cats, A Hundred Miles Off, and Bows and Arrows.

"We're actually in negotiations right now with a new label, and we're all happy about that too. I think a little fresh blood will be good for us," Leithauser said in an interview with the Baltimore blog Butter Team.

A representative from the label said, "Record Collection's deal with the Walkmen expired after the release of Pussy Cats. We've had an amazing time working for the Walkmen, we're all still friends and we wish them luck as they move into the future."

Leithauser revealed more about the contents of the new record in an interview with Billboard.com. Apparently, it features "a lot more instrumentation" than previous records, including turns on the trumpet and viola from member Paul Maroon. "It's sort of our sound again, but when you have it with a new instrument you can modify it the slightest bit, which to us sounds completely new," Leithauser explained.

Billboard.com reports that the band has finished recording nine songs, with six to go, and they plan to finish those this month in time for a spring release date. Between the two interviews, Leithauser confirmed that "If Only It Were True", "Red Moon", "Around and Around", "Blue Route", and "I Lost You" are all in the running for the record's tracklist. He told Billboard.com that "I Lost You" was the album's "breakthrough song," adding, "We wanted to do, like, a big Roy Orbison song that ends with a big [crescendo]. We tried a lot of different strings and horn parts and finally found a few that go together. We think it's fantastic. It's, like, power rock."

And finally, Leithauser let Butter Team in on the progress of the band's novel: "We really are trying to finish it even though it might take us 20 years."

The Walkmen will display this newfound power on the road, including some shows with Vampire Weekend. [MORE...]

Shudder to Think Members, Stella Play "Barack Rock"
Also: Nina Persson (the Cardigans), OK Go, Joan as Police Woman

Shudder to Think members Craig Wedren and Nathan Larson are reuniting for another show, and this one is to support the man who is steadily becoming the indie rock presidential candidate of choice, Barack Obama.
Man, if he gets into the White House, can they please sing the opening lyrics of "No Rm. 9, Kentucky" all Marilyn Monroe-style ("Happy birthday, Baa-raaaaack... yeah!") at his inauguration?

Anyway, the upcoming Wedren/Larson show is on February 4, i.e. the night before the big Super Tuesday primary elections, at NYC's Bowery Ballroom. GetUpandVote.com is presenting the show, called "Barack Rock", and the other performers include hosts Stella (Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, and David Wain), the Cardigans' Nina Persson, OK Go, Joan as Police Woman, and other surprise guests.

According to a press release, all these people have united behind Obama because he "is the only viable and honest candidate that represents actual, meaningful change for our country in this time of acute political, social, and economic decline."

"Aqua Teen" Co-Creator Talks Neko, Homme, T-Pain
Case to play animated teen pop star in "Cheyenne Cinnamon and the Fantabulous Unicorn of Sugar Town Candy Fudge"

Folks who tune in to the new season of Adult Swim's "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" on Cartoon Network (which premieres this Sunday, January 20) can of course look forward to seeing cartoon and comedy convention further subverted beyond any semblance of reason. They can also look forward to a pretty sick assemblage of guest stars. Those guests, as previously reported, include Neko Case, Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme, T-Pain, Kelly Hogan, and former professional baseball star John Kruk.

Still puzzling over the utter randomness of it all, Pitchfork caught up with Dave Willis, "Aqua Teen" co-creator (and the voice of Meatwad, Carl, and Ignignokt), to chat about the upcoming season's unlikely guests, past adventures with Danzig and Ted Nugent, T-Pain's Mooninite-inspired "bling," and Case's upcoming turn as computer-animated "pop princess" Cheyenne Cinnamon.

Case, Hogan, and Kruk play a trio of sirens [see above] on an "Aqua Teen" episode set to air January 27. Why sirens? As Willis, a longtime fan of both Case and Hogan, tells it, "We were trying to think of the perfect vehicle for both [Case] and Kelly Hogan and former Philadelphia Phillies great John Kruk, and this just seemed like such a natural fit."

And why these three? "Well, when you see Neko and Kelly, you think of Philadelphia Phillies baseball. In the same way you see Kruk on 'Baseball Tonight' and alt-country keeps popping up in your head."

Naturally.

While Case-- who, along with Hogan, sings all of her lines on the episode-- took a minute to warm up to things, she and Willis eventually formed a rapport that's already extended to a second project.

"I think Neko was genuinely kind of nervous, at least initially," says Willis. "But I've since used her voice for this other thing I'm doing, this CGI pilot that we're still working on, and by then we were pretty comfortable with each other. She's actually a really great actor. Not that I was surprised, but she's really good."

[Case and Hogan also spoke to Time Out Chicago's TOC Blog today about their "Aqua Teen" adventures and Case's follow-up to Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, which is due in January 2009 for now. Apparently, Neko's got it bad for Master Shake.]

And that CGI pilot? Brace yourselves: it's called "Cheyenne Cinnamon and the Fantabulous Unicorn of Sugar Town Candy Fudge", and it features what Willis describes as "a Strawberry Shortcake pop princess that lives in a candy wonderland just outside of Detroit. She comes into Detroit and helps solve problems of racism and teen pregnancy with the power of love and teen pop songs."

Unlike her "Aqua Teen" appearance, Neko is lined up to provide the speaking voice of Cheyenne Cinnamon, but won't be doing any singing-- "which is consistent with every other pop princess," Willis notes. "But her character will lip-synch it, and then a decidedly different-sounding voice sings all the songs." He isn't certain who will provide the singing voice just yet.

The songs in question were penned by pop-rocker and producer Butch Walker, and Willis is pretty psyched about them. "Butch turned all the music around in less than a week, and it sounds exactly like something that you would hear all over the radio, like something that would sell 20 million records."

"Cheyenne Cinnamon" is only in the pilot stages right now, but with any luck it will be confounding late-night television viewers soon enough.

So Case and Willis hit it off pretty good, but what of Mr. Kruk and "Aqua Teen"? "I don't think he quite realizes what he did. He was amazing [enough] to just say, 'Sure, yeah I'll do it.' I mean, I think that's pretty consistent with his entire career.

"Ultimately we made him look pretty good. And I told him, I said, 'Can I give you the mullet from the late-80s Padres Kruk?' And he was like, 'Sure, go for it.' He didn't care." [MORE...]

Portishead Announce First Tour in Forever

Photo by James Cadden

My Bloody Valentine won't be the only 1990s icons fully reborn as an active live act in 2008: Portishead, fresh off a successful stint last month at the ATP Nightmare Before Christmas festival they curated, have also put the touring cogs in motion.

The Bristol trio today announced nine gigs lined up for spring (plus their previously announced Primavera Sound appearance), with the promise of more to come. For now folks in the UK, Portugal, France, Spain, and Italy should consider themselves fortunate; the last time Portishead embarked on anything resembling a tour, my favorite bands were Third Eye Blind and Collective Soul.

One can only assume Beth, Geoff, and Adrian will use these shows to unveil more new material set to appear on the follow-up to 1997's Portishead, due in April on Island. What we've heard thus far has been promising, so color us stoked. [MORE...]

Dizzee's Maths + English Coming to U.S. Via Def Jux
El-P remixing "Where's Da G's"

We haven't exactly been shy in expressing our fondness for Dizzee Rascal's Maths + English album. We gave the disc our recommendation when we reviewed it back in June, and it even landed at #49 on our list of our favorite albums of last year (single "Pussyole" made it onto our top songs list at #28) But when XL originally released the album, it wasn't given a physical release in the U.S., just a digital one. It was unfortunate; as our reviewer Nate Patrin wrote, "Dizzee's best prospects for an expanded fanbase may well be across the pond."

Happily, Maths + English is getting another chance, thanks to the good folks at Def Jux. The indie rap powerhouse will issue the album on CD for the first time in the States April 29. (It will also re-release it digitally, as it is no longer available as a download here.)

The Def Jux version will feature new studio tracks "G.H.E.T.T.O." and "Driving" as well as a remix of the UGK-assisted "Where's Da G's" by Def Jux label head El-P. All told, it sounds like it was worth the wait.

In other Dizzee news, he's got those dates we told you about recently. [MORE...]

Band of Horses Kick off Winter World Tour
Join Sufjan on Tibet House benefit bill

From a town so small to a town so large to a town that is hopefully within galloping distance of yours, Band of Horses kick off their winter world tour Sunday night in their home base of Charleston, South Carolina. The boys will be joined on the American leg by well-coiffed crooner Cass McCombs, and by some guy named Sufjan February 13 when they take the stage at Carnegie Hall for the Tibet House benefit. That show also features Philip Glass, Nawang Khechog, Marisa Monte, Television's Tom Verlaine, and Ray Davies of the Kinks.

From there, it's off to the UK and then, finally, eastward into the European sunset for these horsemen.

May your thick layer of reverb and your frontman's formidable face-mane assist you in your travels, dudes. [MORE...]

Cursive Plan Scattered Gigs, Working on New LP

If Cursive's upcoming live itinerary seems a touch on the scant side, well, they have a good excuse. The band are currently crafting the tearjerkers that'll pepper their follow-up to 2006's Happy Hollow, and have, according to their website, "booked some shows around different writing sessions." You know, to pass the time, get the juices flowing, and let the kids hear just what they've been up to recently.

After from a hometown gig later this month, Cursive will reemerge for three dates in California (including a stop at Noise Pop) and, finally, a little Midwest run in early April. The record will emerge once the damn thing's all written and recorded, though, um, I thought the writing in Cursive was supposed to go a little quicker than that of, oh, Prints? Wacka wacka! [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.)