Black Moth, Seven Bells, Bazan Do Suicide Squeeze 7"s
Plus: the Coathangers and, as you know, HEALTH

Another year, another series of shit hot sevens from those sluggers at Seattle's Suicide Squeeze.

That HEALTH 7" we spoke of a short while back, it seems, was only the beginning. In the months to come we can also look forward to nifty song-etched plastic discs from the likes of psych weirdos Black Moth Super Rainbow, Atlanta's raucous Coathangers, the Secret Machines-descended School of Seven Bells, and Pedro the Lion tamer David Bazan.

The HEALTH single lands first, as you know, on February 19. Following not far in its wake is the Coathangers' "Shake Shake", backed with "Dreamboat" and set for release March 18. Skip forward a month and we have School of Seven Bells' "Silent Grips", due April 8 and backed with a cover of Wire's "Used To".

Then, come May 6, Black Moth Super Rainbow summon "Zodiac Girl" with an as-yet-undetermined B-side. Finally, flip all the way to the back of your datebook to mark November 4 as the day the fifth and latest David Bazan Christmas single comes down chimneys. No word yet on the tracks for that, though I sure hope he does Wham!'s "Last Christmas" b/w "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer".

Like highly collectable past 7"s from Suicide Squeeze, all of these are limited to 2,000 copies. [MORE...]

Islands Reveal New Album Title
It's pun-a-riffic!

Photo by Kathryn Yu

Most bands don't announce their tours until word of a new album has already surfaced, but Islands are just tricky like that. Following the post-Unicorns ensemble's announcement of a European and U.S. tour later this winter and spring, they have revealed the title of their new album.

The Return to the Sea follow-up is called Arm's Way (this from the folks who coined the phrase "Islands are forever"). We don't have a confirmed release date yet, nor do we have a tracklist. All we have is "The Arm", a first taste of the album, streaming over at Islands' MySpace now.

Also, Juiced Elfers, the "supergroup" consisting of Islands' Nick Thorburn, ex-Islands dude Jamie Thompson, Les Savy Fav's Syd Butler, and members of AIDS Wolf, have a gig tonight (February 1) in Brooklyn at Glasslands Gallery.

Thanks to reader Mike Kendall from snakesgotablog. [MORE...]

Colin Meloy Sings Sam Cooke Tracklist Revealed

Meloy photo by Nilina Mason-Campbell

Well, at least he's not doing "A Change Is Gonna Come". We all know how that turned out the last time someone tried it.

But Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy is indeed covering five Sam Cooke numbers on his forthcoming tour-only EP Colin Meloy Sings Sam Cooke. And now we know what they are: "Cupid", "That's Where It's At", "Summertime", "Good Times", and "Bring It on Home to Me". (The latter was also recently tackled by M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel, aka She and Him, apparently.)

As reported yesterday, the EP will be available at Meloy's spring solo shows. Joining the Decemberist on backing vocals is Laura Gibson, who will also open the trek.

To hear Meloy take on the Smiths, R.E.M., Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, and Shirley Collins, get your hands on Meloy's live solo album, Colin Meloy Sings Live!, due April 8 on Kill Rock Stars on CD and Jealous Butcher on vinyl. [MORE...]

Microphones' The Glow Pt. 2 Reissued With Bonus Disc

The Microphones' 2001 windswept epic The Glow Pt. 2 is, with love to Cody ChesnuTT, a true headphone masterpiece.

The disc-- which some website called its favorite album of that particular year-- was a triumph for young Phil Elverum (then calling himself Phil Elvrum), who somehow managed to encapsulate the unique beauty of the Pacific Northwest in Pt. 2's crackling sonics and delicate homespun songcraft. So if your copy's as well-worn as mine (damn coffee cup rings) or if you're curious to hear just what was setting Pitchfork's ears aflame around the turn of the millennium, you need only wait until April 8. That's when K Records will issue an expanded version of The Glow Pt. 2 on two CDs and three LPs.

Two CDs? Three LPs? Wasn't that album long enough already? Not for Phil, who has added a bonus disc of previously unreleased material to the set for the reissue, turning a hefty 20 tracks into a colossal 40. Say goodbye to the fire-stompin' elephant on the original cover, as there's brand new art as well. As with anything from Camp Elverum, even if you don't listen to the music, the packaging alone generally justifies the cost. And you should listen to this album, because it's really, really beautiful.

Thanks to reader Anders Bjornberg for the tip!

In related news, Elverum also lent his voice, instrument playing, and recording touch to Karl Blau's latest record. Titled AM and featuring renditions of poems by Winnie-the-Pooh author A.A. Milne, it's due March 18 on Whistler Records. [MORE...]

Brightest Diamond, Au Revoir Simone Hit the Catwalk

Photo by Matt Wignall

In case the various press photos, magazine spreads, and live shots all over the interweb didn't clue you in, My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden and the ladies of Au Revoir Simone are some pretty fashionable sorts. So it's only natural that these gals, along with Gillian Chadwick of Language of Stone-signed folk act Ex Reverie, will find themselves in the throes of haute couture this very afternoon.

Beginning at 1 p.m. Eastern today (i.e. right now), the aforementioned and other female musicians of note will model designer Alice Ritter's spring collection at NYC's Bubble Lounge. Ritter, a former music publicist, will even offer up a CD compilation of all the partaking acts to those who drop by today.

My Brightest Diamond open for the National on two Brooklyn dates later this month, while Au Revoir Simone recently wrapped up their little tour and recorded a cover of David Bowie's "Oh You Pretty Things" for a forthcoming !K7 compilation. Ex Reverie's debut, The Door Into Summer, arrived late last month on Espers dude Greg Weeks' Language of Stone imprint. [MORE...]

Holy Fuck Remixed by No Age on New Single
Add UK dates, give us an excuse to curse a lot

Holy Fuck, the Canadian instrumental collagist troupe/frequent remixers of things/pottymouths, will be remixed by L.A. rabble-rousers No Age on their latest single. (Seems like it should be the other way around, no?)

Radiohead fave "Lovely Allen", culled from last year's great LP LP, will see release on 7" and 12" in the UK April 7 on Young Turks. The 7" includes the original track and a studio version of "Super Intuit", while the 12" gives you four very lovely "Allen"s, with Minotaur Shock and Riton joining Mr. Spunt and Mr. Randall in fucking around with Holy Fuck.

As for these Fuckers, well, they may find themselves gorging on one of Rachael Ray's many casseroles at SXSW. Whether or not that little taste of insanity goes down, though, they've got dates aplenty with fellow sonic gourmands Super Furry Animals and A Place to Bury Strangers. They've also added a brief UK tour in April since we last check in on 'em. Pardon my French, but Holy Fuck is that a lotta dates. [MORE...]

Beck's Odelay Reissue Contains Wrong Lyrics
Where it's at! I got blue-blood babies and a dictaphone!

It always seems like those tricked-out "Deluxe Edition" reissues of favorite albums are so meticulously crafted, from the art to the bonus tracks to the people interviewed in the liner notes. But never say "always."

It turns out the "Deluxe Edition" reissue of Beck's sampledelic Odelay that shipped this week came with a lyric booklet full of mistakes. According to a press release, "The first pressing of the recent Odelay: Deluxe Edition was found to have gone out with un-proofed lyrics that were taken from a lyrics website as placeholders for layout purposes. Beck apologizes for this unfortunate oversight and is making arrangements for the corrected lyrics to be available gratis via Beck.com. Subsequent pressings of the Odelay: Deluxe Edition will also include the corrected lyrics."

Carla Bozulich's Evangelista Announce Tour

Photo by Michelle Cotham

Hello Voyager, their full-length debut, is set for a March 11 release via Constellation, so it's fitting that Carla Bozulich and the rest of her Evangelista ensemble (featuring members of A/Thee Silver Mt. Zion) would kick off a tour in its support the day afterward. Call it a Voyager voyage (wakka wakka!).

While the tour is already respectably sized at a little over a month long, even more dates are forthcoming, so pay attention to Constellation's tour page for the latest updates.

In other Bozulich live news, Scarnella, her duo with Nels Cline, will play a rare set at L.A.'s Pehrspace on February 4. [MORE...]

Roots, TVOTR Members Cover Civil Rights Song for Film

Executive produced by Danny Glover for Louverture Films, Soundtrack for a Revolution is a forthcoming documentary showcasing "some of America's top contemporary musicians as they perform new and vibrant renditions of the Civil Rights Movement's freedom songs-- songs originally sung by civil rights protesters in mass meetings, on picket lines, in paddy wagons, and in jail cells throughout the American South."

According to an OK Player report yesterday, the Roots have teamed with TV on the Radio members Kyp Malone and Tunde Adebimpe to record one of these songs for the film and its corresponding soundtrack. Roots MC Black Thought reportedly sang on the track.

Since the film is presently in production, there's no word quite yet when and where it will surface. Okayplayer reports that the Blind Boys of Alabama, Soulive, and Anthony Hamilton also collaborated on a track, while Corey Smyth (who co-founded Blacksmith Music with Talib Kweli) devised the Soundtrack project and Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman are directing.

The Roots, meanwhile, have been preparing their Game Theory follow-up under the title Rising Down. According to an NME.com report, Common, Mos Def, and Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy (fresh off production work with Lupe Fiasco) will appear on the record, while a separate OK Player report indicates that Q-Tip and Fiasco himself are involved as well, among others.

The Roots also have a few shows lined up, including spots at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and the awfully douchey looking King of the Mountain extreme snow sports bonanza (which also features the awfully un-douchey Dinosaur Jr.). [MORE...]

Kid Sister Signs to Downtown Records
"Downtown is little! But they're not too little to get things done. They're like a medium. A medium fry."

Photo by Brendan Smith

"The other day, we were doing a show with Akon," Kid Sister tells me apropos of not so much, "which was ridiculous. I was unloading my baggage and going through my stuff, my outfits for the show, and inside my luggage, I found a [Midwest grocery/drug store chain] Jewel-Osco sale paper. I'm like, 'Really? It's all out there for the world to see. Ooh, ten for ten!'"

These weird juxtapositions-- playing with Akon one night, clipping celery coupons the next-- seem to follow Kid Sister around. There was her "Pro Nails" video, shot on the cheap in a Chicago nail salon with a pop-in from one of the biggest rappers in the world. There's the retail job she still keeps in between tour stops, dropping in to sell children's clothes on Black Friday just because "it's the right thing to do, you know?" The woman known to her mom as Melissa Young is something of a celebrity, but nobody seems to have told her that.

But she's moving up. Kid Sister has just signed to Downtown Records, home of Gnarls Barkley, Spank Rock, Mos Def, Art Brut, Justice, and other artists you generally wouldn't think of as bargain shoppers. (Well, maybe Art Brut.) On the phone with Pitchfork Thursday afternoon, she insists "I wasn't really anywhere before, so it isn't a move! Just a move from my kitchen to the living room, and then to Downtown." And then, as always, she laughed.

Still, one has to wonder about Fool's Gold, the label owned and operated by her boyfriend, DJ A-Trak, and DJ Nick Catchdubs. Fool's Gold has released two Kid Sister singles, "Control" and "Pro Nails". She explains, "They're still involved as far as packaging goes, and A&Ring the project. Everything we worked on before we will continue to work on with a little bit of help! Put a little proton pack on our backs for a little bit of a boost!"

Kid Sister says the label decision has been quite a while in the making. "We've been talking about and discussing, figuring out what would be the best home for me in terms of a label with a little bit more muscle. That's been going on for months and months, nine months or a year. Vice was trying to get me over a year ago, and I was just like "hmmm." It was a developing deal, and I feel like you never really have to go for those. So I kinda let that go, and maybe it's good that I did!"

Kid Sister will issue her debut album, tentatively titled Koko B. Ware (after the pro wrestler), "hopefully June/Julyish." "It's almost done, actually! I've just gotta get into the studio!" She adds, "I haven't had a second to breathe since the ["Pro Nails"] video dropped. I'm only telling you because you asked, but it's one of those things where, did I ever expect it to get this crazy this fast? No. 'Cause it had been a pretty steady kind of ascension. It wasn't meteoric like somebody might call it. For me it was nice and slow and steady and good, and then the video dropped and the 'Benny Hill' song came on."

Then she sang the Benny Hill song for a minute. [MORE...]

Nick Cave, Dizzee, Jose Gonzalez Play PLUG Awards
Also: St. Vincent, Patton Oswalt

Time is running out if you were planning to use various pseudonyms to stuff the PLUG Awards online ballot boxes with votes for Sally Shapiro as Female Artist of the Year (not that anyone I know would do such a thing). The polls close February 8!

Which means it's high time to get excited about the upcoming PLUG ceremony for the handing out of award-stuffs. As hosts and guest performers are concerned, this year's festivities-- which go down March 6 at Terminal 5 in New York City, as you know-- more or less follow the winning example laid out by last year's festivities.

You have your veteran act and Impact Award recipient: last year it was Stephen Malkmus, this year it's Nick Cave, who'll perform with the Bad Seeds. You have your indie parvenus, here represented by St. Vincent and José González. You have your token hip-hop act: Dizzee Rascal.

And of course you have your funny-guy host, drawn from the upper echelons of indie comedy. In 2007 it was David Cross; for 2008, say hello to (the much funnier, IMO) Patton Oswalt.

Which is all to say this should add up to an excellent cavalcade of indie-sized delights. Will Battles and Of Montreal capitalize on all the nominations? Will Vampire Weekend sweep the whole damn thing on write-in votes? Will there be an upset in the category of Female Artist of the Year involving a certain Swedish disco princess?? Consider our breath bated.

And in the interest of full disclosure, we should remind you that several Pitchfork staffers were involved in the PLUG nomination process.

Black Lips Kick Off Tour With Added In-Stores
Also play Camelot for Kids benefit in Chicago

Photo by Daniel Arnold

Me, I wouldn't take those Black Lips anywhere with a "you break it, you buy it" policy; whatever it is, it seems like they'd break it, and I'd wind up with the check.

So the shopkeeps who have invited this wily bunch into their emporiums of commerce better be aware of the risks they're taking, lining up a mess of Black Lips in-store appearances during the band's forthcoming tour (which kicks off tonight in the ATL, their hometown). But, oh, the rewards: those roughshod Black Lips, tearing it up live and in person amongst the record racks like bulls in a china shop. Remember, lads: look, don't touch.

And if we can trust the Black Lips with our precious vinyl and CDs, perhaps we can trust them with our children as well? On March 1, between an in-store and their proper gig at Logan Square Auditorium, Black Lips will invite youngsters to witness their soundcheck as part of a Camelot for Kids program. Camelot for Kids, as you may recall, seeks "to help children with extraordinary needs" and has previously enlisted Busdriver and Fujiya & Miyagi to this end.

Finally, these pages have been abuzz with Lips of Black of late, so let's run it down: the band has a little new live thing for your downloading pleasure, a few noteworthy tourmates, a penchant for team sports and, of course, big plans for the second weekend in May. [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.)