N.E.R.D. Reveal Seeing Sounds Album Details

N.E.R.D., the Virginia Beach R&B/rock trio consisting of the Neptunes (aka Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo) and pal Shae Haley, have finally revealed the details of the album that has been rumored since earlier this spring.

The follow-up to 2004's Fly or Die is called Seeing Sounds, a nod to the neurological phenomenon known as synesthesia (aka when one sensory stimulus is experienced across multiple senses; or, as it's known to the rest of us, being really high).

Seeing Sounds comes out June 9 via Polydor in the UK and June 10 via Star Trak/Interscope in the U.S. A UK single for "Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing in Line for the Bathroom)" is due July 7.

N.E.R.D. just finished up Kanye's "Glow in the Dark" tour. They have a couple meet-and-greets scheduled for the next couple weeks, and they hit a few festivals this summer. And in related news, apparently Pharrell is designing chairs. [MORE...]

Thurston, Jim O'Rourke Ready New Original Silence LP
Plan single gig in Norway that'll probably turn up as Original Silence LP4 in a few years

Front page photo by Alessandro Capodanno

Fans of logic and order will, at the very least, appreciate the title of The Second Original Silence, the second LP from free jazz/noise supergroup Original Silence. The glorious mess contained within, however, may not sit too well with that set-- more for the rest of us, I suppose.

As you may recall, Original Silence is comprised of Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, man-about-town Jim O'Rourke, Swedish saxman Mats Gustafsson, Terrie Ex of the Ex, Paal Nilssen-Love of the Thing, and Zu's Massimo Puppilo. The Second Original Silence and follows last year's The First Original Silence. This new one was recorded at a September 28, 2006 performance at Rome, Italy's Brancaleone, and is due out on CD, LP, and digital August 11 from the Smalltown Superjazzz imprint. That cool cover art up there is by Kim Hiorthoy.

Original Silence have but a single gig forthcoming: a set at Oslo, Norway's Oya Festival on August 7. But Thurston, well, you know that dude's got bands for days, and those bands have gigs aplenty coming up. As for O'Rourke, he's got a new album in the pipeline and a bunch of recently reissued old albums out now on Drag City. [MORE...]

N.E.R.D., Spank Rock, Kid Sister Play Hard Fest
With MSTRKRFT, A-Trak

Like the sunburned, pina colada-sipping cousin to the more Sparks-splattered-parka affair that was Hard NYE, the Hard Summer festival will get the hipsters shaking July 19 for long night of debauchery and a lifetime of Cobrasnake-captured memories.

Going down at downtown L.A.'s Shrine Expo Hall, your summer's gonna get a lot harder thanks to N.E.R.D., Spank Rock, Kid Sister, MSTRKRFT, DJ A-Trak, Steve Aoki (obvs), the Bloody Beetroots, Jason Bentley, Kill the Noise, Miles Dyson, Mr. White, Destructo, and the promise of "much more." There will also be a skate park.

The all-ages fest goes 'til 4 AM, so make sure mom knows just where to pick you up after.

Mogwai Reveal EP (Ft. Roky Erickson), LP Release Date
Also add shows, start quiet then get loud

Photo by Shannon McClean

With their classic debut all fancily reissued and available for the purchase, Mogwai have recast their gaze towards the future. Their new LP, The Hawk Is Howling, is due September 22 in the UK and September 23 in the U.S. on Matador, and just a few weeks before its release, the post-rock vets will issue a very cool-sounding EP with a little help from a bona fide psych icon. (Via NME.com, confirmed by Matador.)

The Batcat EP begins with a pair of non-album cuts: there's "Batcat", of course, plus the unfortunately titled "Stupid Prick Gets Chased by the Police and Loses His Slut Girlfriend". But it's the closer, "Devil Rides", that really fascinates, as it sports vocal contributions from freakout legend/13th Floor Elevators frontman Roky Erickson. It's due on CD, 12" and digitally September 8 in the UK and on 12" and digitally (not on CD) September 9 in the U.S.

With an EP and LP all lined up, there's only one thing left on the rock action checklist: a tour. Mogwai have a mess of dates over the coming months, including a trio of just-announced UK gigs off in October. Word of a full-out fall tour can be expected closer to the fact. [MORE...]

Raveonettes Swap One Foo for Another on Tour

Look! Up on the stage! Is it a pair of escaped Calvin Klein models? Is it the Jesus and Mary Chain? No, it's the Raveonettes! Wait, is it the Raveonettes??

Well, sort of. Determined to take it to the road this spring and summer despite the fact that female half Sharin Foo, very much with child, is in no condition to tour, the Raveonettes have settled on a unique solution: recruiting Sharin's sister Louise "Loui" Foo to stand in for the singer/bassist/guitarist at their upcoming live engagements.

Louise Foo certainly has the credentials. Not only does she share genetic material with an actual member of the Raveonettes, but she's also long been involved with the music scene in the band's native Copenhagen, and she even directed that creepy-ass stop-motion clip for their "Aly, Walk With Me". Hell, if the Ohmarymary art collective co-founder hits the stage donning that mask she's crafted up there, fans will never know the difference.

The not-quite-Raveonettes' travels begin this weekend in Denmark and include festival stops here and there around Europe, plus one lone U.S. gig. Lust Lust Lust is out now now now on Fierce Panda and Vice, and the 'ettes are presently working up a trio of EPs. [MORE...]

Stooges, Man Man, M83, Cut Copy Play Download Fests
With Yeasayer, the Killers, Atmosphere and Brother Ali, Blitzen Trapper, Mates of State

The lineup for the fourth annual Stateside edition of the multi-day, multi-city Download Festival is upon us, and like a cluttered desktop folder saving the finest of the web's offerings for later, it's a little bit all over the place. But by design, of course: the Download Fest comes to San Francisco's Shoreline Amphitheatre July 19, hits L.A.'s Gibson Amphitheatre the following day, July 20, and heads to Camden, New Jersey's Susquehanna Bank Center on August 2.

Not everybody's making the long haul from the Bay all the way to New Jersey, so we've broken it down this way. The San Francisco show on July 19 features, among others, M83, Cut Copy, Yeasayer, Atmosphere and Brother Ali, Blitzen Trapper, RJD2, Mates of State, Flosstradamus, Tapes 'n Tapes, the Duke Spirit, and Datarock, among others.

They'll lose Cut Copy somewhere outside of Bakersfield, picking up Caribou, Kaki King, the Night Marchers, and, er, Ghostland Observatory just in time for the L.A. show. (M83, Yeasayer, Atmosphere and Brother Ali, Blitzen Trapper, RJD2, Mates of State, Flosstradamus, Tapes 'n Tapes, the Duke Spirit, and Datarock will all play in L.A.)

Though there's certainly some overlap, this nifty game of addition and subtraction doesn't work too well for the Camden showcase, so we'll just lay that one on you straight: Iggy and the Stooges, the Killers, Man Man, Mates of State, the Stills, the Duke Spirit, the Enemy, and, yes, Ghostland Observatory join the bill just across the river from Philadelphia.

Record Plant Apologizes to APTBS, Prints Up New 12"

A few weeks back, if you'll recall, we spun the sad yarn of A Place to Bury Strangers and their punishingly loud master tapes. It seems, when trying to craft a bunch of vinyl singles for "To Fix the Gash in Your Head", APTBS' trademark sonic assault took all its frustrations out on a rare 10" press, destroying the machine in the process.

Well, the folks who run the record plant apparently felt kinda bad about keeping the record buying public from all that glorious racket. By way of apology (hey, not your fault these dudes don't do the subtlety thing, like, at all), they have printed up 100 hand-numbered, one-sided, bright yellow 12"s featuring the Lillica Libertine remix of "Gash" and the Clapp's remix of "Ocean".

The original 10", sporting both remixed tracks from the 12" plus their original incarnations, is also available now in a limited edition of 500. And those who hunt down the yellow 12" will get a CD sporting all the tunes from the 10". Both come courtesy of Meal Deal Records.

Not content to merely leave a trail of destroyed recording equipment in their wake, A Place to Bury Strangers will take the direct route to eardrum annihilation this summer on a smattering of shows. Next up is tonight's set at Barcelona's Primavera Sound fest. [MORE...]

Lykke Li Sends Debut Album to U.S., UK

Photo by Nilina Mason-Campbell

Last time around, Lykke Li only had a Little Bit to offer her burgeoning Stateside fanbase. But for her next U.S. move, the Swedish popstress is throwing the book at us. Yes, Li's debut LP, Youth Novels, finally hits the States August 19 from the lady's own LL imprint. Just in time for a little late summer, er, reading. It'll make its way to the UK June 9, a mere week after LL sticks a single for "I'm Good, I'm Gone" onto shelves across the pond. Youth Novels is available now in the singer's native Sweden.

Lykke's got a whole bunch of live appearances in the UK coming up fast, with dates all over Europe throughout the summer. She's also got hot jams on the recent Moshi Moshi and Licking Fingers compilations. [MORE...]

Robyn Hitchcock's Mid-1980s LPs Collected, Expanded

Clear some room in the "H" section of your record pile: here comes another enormous box set from veteran music-maker Robyn Hitchcock, this one focusing on the onetime Soft Boy's mid-1980s output with the Egyptians.

Entitled Luminous Groove, the previously mentioned box collects Hitchcock solo joints Fegmania!, Element of Light, and the live set Gotta Let This Hen Out!, coupling each with a handful of bonus cuts exclusive to the Luminous Groove collection. In addition, there's a pair of discs entitled Bad Case of History, one sporting previously unreleased studio recordings, and the other chock full of unreleased live material.

The set is due on five CDs or eight LPs August 5 from Yep Roc. And, much as they did last time, the folks at Yep Roc are already hinting at another shelf-bending forthcoming Hitchcock collection, this one centered around the man's days in the Soft Boys.

Mr. Hitchcock has a number of tour dates in Europe and North America throughout the spring and summer. [MORE...]

Liars Issue Freak Out EP, Add Dates

Photo by Nilina Mason-Campbell

Surprise surprise! UK listeners, you're but a few keystrokes away from a new EP from the lads of Liars. Available now in the UK iTunes store, it's the Freak Out EP, matching its titular tune (lifted from last year's Liars LP) with a live take on "Clear Island" from a stop at L.A.'s El Rey Theatre earlier this year.

What's more, the set comes with four videos you've probably been weirded out by before: the clips for "Plaster Casts of Everything" and "Houseclouds" from Liars, "Let's Not Wrestle Mt Heart Attack" from Drum's Not Dead, and the Karen O-directed clip for "We Fenced Other Gardens With the Bones of Our Own" from They Were Wrong So We Drowned. You can thank Mute Records for springing this one on you while we thank reader Guy Van Pajamas for the tip.

Their first leg on the Radiohead tour but a memory at this point (and they seem to have had a great time), Liars have lined up quite a few more dates throughout the spring and summer-- including several nights with old friends Deerhunter-- before picking back up with the green thumb crew on a few U.S. dates in August. [MORE...]

Deacon, Stern, Pallett Play Bang on a Can Marathon
Along with the music of the Beatles, Brian Eno, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Stockhausen

It begins, innocently enough, at 6 p.m. tomorrow, May 31, in the Winter Garden at New York City's World Financial Center. It ends a dozen delirious, sweat-soaked hours later in the very same spot. What in the hell is this glorious half-day of non-stop rapture? Why, none other than the Bang on a Can Marathon, leading bleary-eyed music-lovers into the early light of June over the weekend.

And who, you may ask, will join in this perverse spectacle? Well, Marnie Stern will be there, bending the strings on her own jams. Owen "Final Fantasy" Pallett will both do his own set and join Bang on a Can All-Stars in a reading of a new Pallett creation entitled Twelve Polearms. SIGNAL will take on Pitchfork.tv star Steve Reich's Daniel Variations, and Alarm Will Sound are doing "Revolution 9" by, well, you know. Pieces by Brian Eno, Terry Riley, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Arnold Dreyblatt, and John Adams will be performed as well. And the totally un-wacky Dan Deacon will join Kevin O'Meara and Jeremy Hyman in a 4 a.m. take on Deacon and Jimmy Joe Roche's notorious Ultimate Reality. Though, really, does reality ever get much more ultimate than hanging with Dan Deacon in the wee hours of the morning on the south tip of Manhattan?

Survey Invites Musicians to Speak Out on Health Care

Not to belittle the healthcare woes of Owen Pallett or any of our other musical brothers and sisters up in Canada, but at least they (ideally, anyway) are entitled to government-funded health care. The same cannot be said, of course, for the citizens of the United States, who must either secure health insurance at discounted rates through an employer, pay for their own health insurance, or simply go without coverage.

Many working musicians of the United States find themselves in the latter two categories-- an issue that the Future of Music Coalition, to name one organization, has addressed in earnest.

But for musicians and others in the state of Massachusetts, the health insurance dilemma has only gotten hairier. A recent sweeping health reform bill essentially requires that all residents of the state obtain health insurance "that is deemed affordable to them at their income level," or else face a tax penalty. This "individual mandate", as it is known, is explained in detail here.

According to Andrew Cohen, a specialist in health care policy with Boston-based national research and advocacy group The Access Project, Massachusetts is the only state to enact an individual mandate thus far, though other states are considering similar laws.

The concern here is that these policy-makers are passing health care legislation such as the individual mandate without fully considering the financial burden on citizens-- including musicians and others who earn their bread in the arts.

This issue is something the Boston-based Access Project affiliate The Artists Foundation hopes to call attention to by administering the state's first artists census.

Using a similar survey conducted in Minnesota in 2007 as a model, the "Stand Up and Be Counted" online questionnaire is available now to all artist residents of Massachusetts. By filling it out, residents can help generate an artists profile for their state-- something that, one hopes, will have some bearing on lawmakers' future health care policy decisions.

If this applies to you, by all means, fill it out; if not, pass it along to someone who could benefit from it, and use this internet thing right here to keep abreast of health care shakeups in your area.

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.)