Pitchfork: News - March 5, 2008

12 Recent Items

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Smoking Popes Down With Flameshovel for New LP

Photo by Hayley Murphy

Beloved (and reunited) Chicago pop punk veterans Smoking Popes have signed to hometown indie label Flameshovel to release their first album of new material in over 10 years. (The Party's Over, an album of covers, came out in 2003 after being held up by industry red tape for five years, and 2006's At Metro was a live collection of previous material).

The studio follow-up to 1997's Destination Failure is tentatively titled Stay Down, and Flameshovel will release it this fall. And hey, speaking of 10-year gaps-- that's the exact amount of time by which the Popes' existence pre-dates their new label's.

For an early taste of Stay Down, head on over to Smoking Popes' MySpace to hear "Welcome to Janesville" and "Grab Your Heart and Run". Sounds like the quartet still knows its way around a melody. Good work, fellas!

Stream: Smoking Popes: Welcome to Janesville / Grab Your Heart and Run [from the forthcoming Stay Down LP]

Posted by Dave Maher in signing, album, reunion on Wed: 03-05-08: 08:32 PM CST | Digg this article | Add to del.icio.us | Permalink

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan Team Up Once Again

His voice is pretty damn foreboding, but Mark Lanegan must be an agreeable guy in person. Saturnalia, his collaboration with head Afghan Whig Greg Dulli as the Gutter Twins, just came out this week, but he's also revisiting his partnership with former Belle & Sebastian member Isobel Campbell on a second album.

Campbell and Lanegan's follow-up to 2006's Ballad of the Broken Seas is called Sunday at Devil Dirt, and it will come out May 5 in the UK on V2/Cooperative Music. Like Ballad, the new album features Lanegan tackling lead vocals while Campbell handles the writing, production, and arrangements.

There's no touring planned behind Sunday at Devil Dirt at the moment, but Lanegan has plenty of Gutter Twins dates to keep him busy for now, including a bunch of newly added European ones. That duo's next show is Friday, March 7, in Chicago. [MORE...]

Stream: Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan: Various Tracks

MP3: The Gutter Twins: Idle Hands [from the Saturnalia LP]

Posted by Dave Maher in collaboration, album on Wed: 03-05-08: 05:12 PM CST | Digg this article | Add to del.icio.us | Permalink

Chris Corsano's Young Cricketer Gets Vinyl Release

Experimental drummer extraordinaire Chris Corsano has worked with the likes of Björk, Thurston Moore, and Jandek. On his latest project, The Young Cricketer, Corsano's got another awfully talented collaborator: himself.

Originally self-released on CD-R, Cricketer showcases the percussive powerhouse banging on just about everything but the kitchen sink. The 16-track album has been remastered by J.J. Golden for a vinyl release this week on Family Vineyard. The label only pressed 600 copies, so if you're aroused by such a clatter, you might wanna act fast.

Check out the rather ridiculous tracklist below. [MORE...]

Stream: Chris Corsano: Various Tracks [from the The Young Cricketer LP]

Posted by Paul Thompson in reissue, album on Wed: 03-05-08: 05:05 PM CST | Digg this article | Add to del.icio.us | Permalink

Edwyn Collins Puts Together a Tour

Considering he was facing some life-threatening ailments less than three years ago, Edwyn Collins has been making serious strides getting back on his musical feet.

Last fall the onetime Orange Juice frontman released his sixth solo offering, the superb Home Again, and this spring he's poised for a full-on return to the road.

This tour, as we can safely call it, follows a few scattered live engagements for Collins late last year. It begins April 20 in Birmingham, England, and wraps up just over a week later in London. All too soon, really, but any opportunity to witness this member of the Scottish indie pop royalty doing his thing is a welcome one indeed.

Many thanks to reader Jono Henderson for the tip! [MORE...]

Video: Edwyn Collins: You'll Never Know [from the Home Again LP]

Posted by Matthew Solarski in tour on Wed: 03-05-08: 04:45 PM CST | Digg this article | Add to del.icio.us | Permalink

Numero Starts New Series With Recording Tap Comp

The tireless compilers at Numero Group kicked off their newest series of compilations this week with the CD release of Don't Stop: Recording Tap. This first Don't Stop volume is a chronicle of Jeremiah Yisrael's disco label Tap Records, the source of a couple 12" singles Numero Group has already reissued. Those tunes from Fabulous 3 MCs and Jackie Stoudemire make appearances on Recording Tap, as do contributions from Arnie Love & the Lovettes, Magnetism, and Bonnie Freeman, among others.

For the Numero fanatics who don't mind waiting for the vinyl, the compilation comes out on LP April 8. Just like the CD, the vinyl comes with two booklets, one telling the story of Tap and the other reprinting sheet music selections from Tap's songbook. But unlike the CD, the 3-LP package is limited to 3000 copies and includes a bevy of bonus tracks. [MORE...]

Posted by Dave Maher in compilation on Wed: 03-05-08: 04:30 PM CST | Digg this article | Add to del.icio.us | Permalink

New Gnarls Barkley Video Too Hot for TV
Plus: New album tracklist

For those of us who spend most of our daylight hours staring at computer screens, Gnarls Barkley's video for "Run"-- the first single from sophomore album The Odd Couple-- is par for the visual course. In fact, it's downright pleasant in comparison to, say, the spazz-out that is M.I.A.'s website.

According to a Billboard.com report and an email from Gnarls' management, however, it turns out the video is not yet fit for MTV airplay. Because of its strobe effects, the video failed the Harding Test, which is used to tell whether or not televised images might trigger epileptic seizures.

While the Happy-directed, Justin Timberlake-starring video obviously needs editing to comply with the Harding Test's standards, Danger Mouse told Billboard.com, "I think [the video] is cool. It works for me. But I'm not necessarily that easily seasick. We can't predict how people are going to interpret it."

The video is currently being tweaked, with designs for it to "premiere" (ha) on MTV's "TRL" tomorrow afternoon.

UPDATE: Apparently all this only applied to the UK, not the U.S.A. The video that is airing tomorrow hasn't been edited. Guess British people are more easily made nauseous than Americans?

Maybe Danger Mouse and his Gnarls Barkley partner Cee-Lo should just wait to tease The Odd Couple with the video Chris Milk is directing for second single "Who's Gonna Save My Soul".

The Odd Couple is set to hit stores via Downtown/Atlantic on the previously reported release date of April 8. The Billboard.com story also gives us an album detail we didn't have before: a tracklist. Check it out after the jump.

They're still planning a summer U.S./European festival tour, but Gnarls Barkley's only confirmed date remains their July 27 appearance at L.A.'s Hollywood Bowl. [MORE...]

Video: Gnarls Barkley: Run [ft. Justin Timberlake] [from the forthcoming The Odd Couple LP]

Posted by Dave Maher in video, gossip on Wed: 03-05-08: 04:03 PM CST | Digg this article | Add to del.icio.us | Permalink

Ladyhawk Take Shots on New LP, Tour

Photo by Scott August

The music of Vancouver's Ladyhawk sure sounds like it was recorded under the bleariest, booziest circumstances, and as it turns out, that's pretty much how the magic happens. Rumor has it (OK, it was in a press release) that their sophomore set Shots-- out now in North American on Jagjaguwar, with a UK release to follow April 7-- was put to tape in an abandoned farm house with a bottomless supply of sangria serving as fuel for the proceedings.

You can take in all that sloppy, sticky glory-- sans the hangover-- on either the record or Let Me Be Fictional, a documentary about the Shots sessions by filmmakers Mona Mok and Rob Leickner that's hitting the festival circuit now. And, hey, if you wanted to fix yourself a drink while you were taking in that Ladyhawk, well, that'd probably be all right with them.

Shots fired, the band has plans for a little North American tour, with a few dates with their fellow British Columbians in Black Mountain. [MORE...]

MP3: Ladyhawk: I Don't Always Know What You're Saying [from the Shots LP]

Video: Let Me Be Fictional: Trailer

Posted by Paul Thompson in album, tour on Wed: 03-05-08: 03:43 PM CST | Digg this article | Add to del.icio.us | Permalink

Feist, Spoon, and Lil Jon, Together at Last
Aw skeet skeet motherfuckers!

Giving Fayetteville, Arkansas' Dickson St. Music Festival a run for its money for the 2008 Pleasantly Deranged Festival Lineup award, here comes Vanderbilt University's Rites of Spring festival.

Taking place at the Nashville, Tennessee campus' Alumni Lawn on April 18 and 19, the spring fling brings together kindred spirits Feist, Spoon, and Lil Jon, in addition to the Avett Brothers, Old Crow Medicine Show, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, DJ Kool, the disease known as Colbie Caillat, and others. (Via Billboard.)

David Silverstein, co-chair of the Vanderbilt Programming Board's Music Group, told InsideVandy, "Vanderilt University's Online Student Community", "I think Lil John will bring a fantastic level of energy for the Vanderbilt student community as well as the greater Nashville area that hasn't been seen on Alumni Lawn. And Spoon will bring a twist to the rock 'n' roll sound I think everyone will enjoy."

At press time, it is unclear whether or not the East Side Boyz will be in attendance.

Posted by Amy Phillips in festival, wtf on Wed: 03-05-08: 02:17 PM CST | Digg this article | Add to del.icio.us | Permalink

Akron/Family Welcome Megafaun, Dodos Folks on Tour

Talk about your blended family units. On their U.S. tour, going down right about now, the boys of Akron/Family aren't simply receiving a little help in the warm-up department from Megafaun. They're also bringing members of the opening band into the Family when they do their weird, wooly thing to cap off the night.

Megafaun join the hootenanny this month, while the Fam adopts new Frenchkiss signees the Dodos in April and beyond. That Family, they're really going places! Places like the ones right down here. [MORE...]

Stream: Akron/Family: Don't Be Afraid, You're Already Dead [from the Love Is Simple LP]

Posted by Paul Thompson in tour, collaboration on Wed: 03-05-08: 01:45 PM CST | Digg this article | Add to del.icio.us | Permalink

Laurie Anderson Explores Homeland on Tour, Album

Photo by Laurie Anderson

Multimedia art-rocker Laurie Anderson will unveil her latest politico-musical project, Homeland, on a hefty 2008 tour that spans the globe. The Homeland album, however, won't be out until early 2009 on Nonesuch.

According to a press release, Homeland is "part political dialogue, part poetry song cycle," and it includes musical elements ranging from "Tuvan throat singers, jazz improvisers, and New York experimental artists" to "violin, groove-oriented electronics, and traditional instruments such as the Chinese erhu."

On the conceptual level, Homeland tackles "a breadth of contemporary issues, from the war and the media to America's growing surveillance culture and the environment."

All of these elements will come together for the aforementioned live performances of Homeland, which begin March 26 in NYC and extend all the way into the fall.

Before the Homeland tour begins, however, Anderson has a pair of unrelated appearances. First is a lecture she's giving about Andy Warhol's "Electric Chair" silkscreen series in Washington, DC on March 15. Three days later is her previously reported set at "SPEAK UP!: A Benefit Concert for Peace in Iraq & Justice at Home". [MORE...]

MP3: Laurie Anderson: From the Air (Dan the Automator Remix)

Posted by Dave Maher in album, tour on Wed: 03-05-08: 01:35 PM CST | Digg this article | Add to del.icio.us | Permalink

Tindersticks Feeling Hungry on New Album, Tour
Hunger manifests itself in plaintive, heartfelt balladry

Tindersticks! Okay, so they don't quite lend themselves to exclamations the way Guillemots do, but that doesn't mean we're any less stoked about their new record.

The Hungry Saw arrives April 28 overseas in CD/vinyl/digital formats on Beggars Banquet and marks the first album of new material by the full band since 2003's lush and lovely Waiting for the Moon. A 7"/digital single for the title track, backed with a tune called "Back to the Earth", precedes the album on April 14.

And actually we can't say "full band" without qualifying it a bit, as the reduced Tindersticks lineup featured on Saw includes core members Stuart A. Staples, Neil Fraser, and David Boulter, with additional help from drummer Thomas Belhorn and bassist Dan McKinna. Frontman Staples, as you may recall, released the solo album Leaving Songs back in 2006.

Your first taste of The Hungry Saw, a lush and lovely tune called "The Flicker of a Little Girl" featured on Forkcast, is available right now for your listening and downloading pleasure at the Tindersticks MySpace.

And what's an album and a single without a tour? Tindersticks have one of those in the works, kicking off April 29 in Copenhagen. [MORE...]

MP3: Tindersticks: The Flicker of a Little Girl [from the forthcoming The Hungry Saw LP]

Posted by Matthew Solarski in album, single, tour on Wed: 03-05-08: 01:30 PM CST | Digg this article | Add to del.icio.us | Permalink

Aloha Greet the U.S. on Tour

Offer a warm salute to gentle sound-melders Aloha, who have lined up a bunch of U.S. tour dates for March and April, including a stop-in at SXSW. The next goes down March 10 in Rochester, and all this tuneful uprooting comes in celebration of the recent Aloha EP Light Works on Polyvinyl.

The band has also welcomed longtime associate Nick Anderson into the Aloha flock for good, and they presently share drummer Cale Parks with the White Williams live act. Once Aloha wrap this round of touring, they've got big plans to work up their next LP for a fall release. And now, if you please, you can say "Aloha" to this news blurb in the sense of farewell, for we are done here. [MORE...]

MP3: Aloha: Body Buzz [from the Light Works EP]

Posted by Paul Thompson in tour on Wed: 03-05-08: 01:00 PM CST | Digg this article | Add to del.icio.us | Permalink

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Fri: 04-04-08: 05:30 PM CDT
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