Brian Wilson Reveals Sunny SMiLE Follow-Up

Former Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson will revisit some familiar themes on That Lucky Old Sun, his forthcoming official (read: non-Christmas) follow-up to 2004's reconstructed opus SMiLE.

A press release describes the new album as "a musical love letter from Southern California" and "an autobiographical travelogue of sorts," while Wilson says it takes the form of an "interwoven series of 'rounds' with interspersed spoken word." A Brian Wilson concept album about SoCal and the sun? Sure, sign us up.

And there's a lot more that is familiar about That Lucky Old Sun. For starters, Wilson wrote the record in collaboration with SMiLE lyricist Van Dyke Parks and current band member Scott Bennett. It also marks his return to longtime Beach Boys label Capitol, which will release the record on CD, deluxe CD/DVD, limited edition vinyl, and digitally. The album comes out in the U.S. on September 2 (September 1 internationally).

Wilson premiered That Lucky Old Sun live last September at London's Royal Festival Hall, and he and his band will introduce it to American audiences with shows at the Hollywood Bowl this September. The group also has a handful of UK and North American shows this summer.

Finally, don't forget that the limited edition singles replica box set The Beach Boys: U.S. Singles Collection - The Capitol Years (1962-1965) comes out June 10 via Capitol/EMI. [MORE...]

Video: Brian Wilson: Heroes and Villains (live) [from the SMiLE LP]

Malkmus, Broken Social Scene, Beach House Play Siren
So do Times New Viking, the Dodos, Annuals

Rhys Chatham Does 100 Guitar Gig, 200 Guitar Gig
Joined at 200 guitar gig by Manuel Gottsching, performing E2-E4

Stream: Rhys Chatham: Guitar Trio

Strokes Singer, Pharrell, Santogold Team for Shoe Tune

Indie fashionistas, shoe-gazers, and just plain mopey readers of this website know it well: the Converse shoe, footwear item of choice for you and your cousin and that guy standing next to you at the show and that cute emo girl on her bike over there. And guess what? The Converse brand turns a full century old this year.

But you knew that already, right? Remember how Kurt, Ian, Karen, Maya, and Hunter told you all about it? Well, you can add three more names to that list: Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas, Pharrell Williams, and Santogold.

To commemorate the Converse centennial, the Nike-owned company has brought these three folks together to dream up a little birthday track produced by Pharrell. It's been confirmed that the jam will be available for free download somewhere on the interweb soon. There will also be a video. However, the song doesn't have a title yet.

Santi White (aka Santogold) spilled the beans to Gigwise last week, describing the song as "such a Pharrell track," adding, "Everybody on it does their own separate thing and we didn't do it together so it ends up being just this weird long song with sort of everybody with lots of their own personalities separate."

Pitchfork heard the track today, and we have to say that her description is quite spot-on. Over a bouncy rhythm indebted to old school soul, the three take turns singing verses that seem to have little to do with one another, and absolutely nothing to do with Converse or shoes in general.

It sounds like a less shiny, more downtown version of the Timbaland/Justin Timberlake/Nelly Furtado jam "Give It to Me", complete with silly disses of unidentified targets ("I find your approach so adolescent / I may look young, but your game is pre-pubescent," Santogold sings.) Pharrell makes the unfortunate decision to try to sing (that has never worked out well in the past), crooning come-ons like "now thank you for coming to my drive-thru." As usual, Julian sounds like he just woke up, making the line "if you wanna be like us you better work every night" kind of comical. There's also a part near the end where everybody sings about how they "just wanna dance."

All in all, it should sound just fine in a TV commercial.

In other news, both Santogold and Pharrell (as part of N.E.R.D.) have plenty of dates on the docket. Julian doesn't seem to be doing much. [MORE...]

National, CYHSY Members Guest on Takka Takka LP

MP3: Takka Takka: We Feel Safer at Night [from the We Feel Safer at Night LP]

Photos: Explosions in the Sky ATP [Sunday]

T.V. Eye: May 19-25, 2008

Monday, May 19:

NBC: Late Night With Conan O'Brien: Devotchka
CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Estelle

Tuesday, May 20:

NBC: Late Night With Conan O'Brien: Mates of State

Wednesday, May 21:

NBC: The Tonight Show With Jay Leno: Al Green
NBC: Late Night With Conan O'Brien: Atmosphere
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: the Kooks

Thursday, May 22:

ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Death Cab for Cutie
FUEL TV: The Daily Habit: The Heavy

Friday, May 23:

FUEL TV: The Daily Habit: Atmosphere
CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Duffy

Saturday, May 24:

PBS: Austin City Limits: R.E.M.
NBC: Saturday Night Live: Gnarls Barkley (rerun)

Photos: Explosions in the Sky ATP [Saturday]

Report: No Fun Fest [New York, NY; 05/16-18/08]

Photos and write up by Daphne Carr Above: Thurston Moore and Nancy Garcia

Standing outside smoking or rifling around downstairs in the sub-basement merch area-- that's where the action is at No Fun. A three-day festival curated by brazen Brooklyn impresario Carlos Giffoni, No Fun is a semi-annual gathering of the noise tribes in a convenient locale for trade, talk, criticism, and rage. Noise is the currency, and it is valued primarily in units of harshness, measured in volume and consumed on the skin as much as in the ears.

This year, No Fun moved to Manhattan after four years at the extreme outlying venue the Hook. As suspected, the three-room, two-stage Knitting Factory setup provided city-club problems as the upstairs "mainstream" folks and the downstairs drones went back-to-back, not concurrently, causing a siege rush approximately every 35 minutes for the 21 or so hours that made up this year's fest. The Knit's needfully tight security had the thankless job of policing the order and flow of a crowd convened in celebration of disorder and chaos. No Fun patrons and the Knit staff clashed particularly in the downstairs room, where the "stage" is level with the audience, thus conducive to moshing. This morning, a noise message board was already filled with complaints about the "Black Panther" discipline of the venue's mostly black security, a critique lodged in the morality-free zone that is the noise underground. The problem is one for Giffoni, of course, since he has the equally thankless job of bringing over 50 artists who shall not be contained into a commercial setting without being put in jail, going bankrupt, or going insane-- kudos to him for the effort.

Carlos Giffoni

At No Fun, the jokes wrote themselves: Day one's schedule of bands opened with Sickness and day three ended with the Haters. All emotions between would be explored in time. But the term "noise" can be expansive, so the bill was open. Krautrocking electronic legends Cluster were the big draw for Saturday, and were the purveyors of the most consonant, melodic moments of the weekend. As befitted Hans-Joachim Roedelius' flowing white tunic, the Cluster show went the high road of scientific experimentalism but was met with the considerable challenge of finding now technology for their 70s future sound. They ended up with a musique conrete meets synth showroom experiment that explored sub-rumbles against tintinnabulation samples.

Cluster

Friday highlighted drone legend Tony Conrad in collaboration with M.V. Carbon (formerly of Bride of No No and currently of Metalux). As an elder statesperson, Conrad didn't have to make his set loud to be heard. First with an electric monochord, then amplified violin, and then ukulele, Conrad amplified primarily through his considerable magnificent gestures, his eyes lulling behind great glasses, tongue dragging in his lips in concentration, body rolling to its own seasick pitch. Carbon primarily played electric cello, playing straight woman to Conrad with her stock position and stern face. Her tones turned into a fruitful, noisy conversation with Conrad's as his strings splintered.

Tony Conrad and M.V. Carbon

Thurston Moore's Friday collaboration with dancer/musician Nancy Garcia was considerably less well-wrought. Moore looms large over No Fun, and his presence is a requirement but not really a highlight. His guitar noise gave Garcia a promising beginning for her Flashdance/ballet mashup, but as she crawled from dance to drums to guitar and back to body, Moore never left his lockgroove, as if he were the constant and she the novelty. Rather, her considerable palette of sounds and gestures demanded a dynamic response.

Thurston Moore and Nancy Garcia
[MORE...]

Photos: Explosions in the Sky ATP [Friday]

Photos: The Mountain Goats / Rock Plaza Central at AIDS Walk Benefit [Brooklyn, NY; 05/16/08]

Liz Phair to Perform Acoustic Guyville in NYC
Shows to follow in Chicago, San Francisco

Video: Liz Phair: Never Said [from the Exile in Guyville LP]

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