RTX, Imaad Wasif Embark on Joint Tour

Long haired freaky people need only apply for this one: Imaad Wasif With Two Part Beast and Royal Trux spinoff RTX will burn up the road together over the coming weeks, beginning tonight (June 19) in Oakland.

Wasif and his bifurcated Beast are touring in support of March's self-released Strange Hexes, while RTX, well, she'll take any excuse to melt your face. The two will jam the hell out at quite a few spots before things break off in early July and pick right up again with their extended solos on, uh, extended solo tours. [MORE...]

Devendra Wears Penis Skirt While Showcasing New Band Megapuss (Probably NSFW)
Plus: Megapuss album due this year

Photos by Ben High of Spectre

Forkcast got the jump on this one, but us news freaks here have the details. Wacko Renaissance man Devendra Banhart and Priestbird percussionist/ multi-instrumentalist Greg Rogove have gone and started a band called Megapuss (not to be confused with that other group of weird folkies, Megafaun-- or Megadeth, for that matter.)

As you can see in the photos above and below, Megapuss made their live debut last night (June 18) at Los Angeles' Hammer Museum, treating the gathered to eight originals and a "loose" cover of Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", according to a FADER report. The originals included "Duck People, Duck Man" (sung by Aziz Ansari-- why not?), "Crop Circle Jerk '94", "Chicken Tits", "Hollywood", and "Surfin".

Oh, and they projected what appear to be nude photographs of Devendra behind the band. And Devendra wore a skirt made out of penises. (Or maybe it's a belt? FADER thinks it's a skirt.) Los Angeles, you never fail to bewilder.

And indeed, as it turns out, Megapuss won't be stopping there. According to Devendra's publicist, the band has already finished recording "an album's worth of material which will be released in 2008." According to FADER, Devendra announced that the album will be called Surfin.

In the meantime, check out the recently Forkcasted "Crop Circle Jerk '94" and hummus paean "Duck People Duck Man" over at the Megapuss MySpace, and marvel as Megapuss bring their goofy thing to L.A. fashion spot Not to Be Reproduced tomorrow night, June 20. We sure hope the penises make it, because shucks, this story could use a few more penises. Say, that reminds me of another news story...

Devendra has a few dates of his own too, and you'll find those down there. Below the penises.








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MBV Reissues Delayed as Shields Fusses With Liners
Also: Graham Coxon, Spectrum/Sonic Boom to open MBV shows

Shocka! Something involving My Bloody Valentine is being delayed!

You may recall us mentioning those reissues of MBV's (extremely positive adjective goes here) Isn't Anything and Loveless albums, both of which were due in the UK from Sony BMG June 16. That was Monday. You may also recall going to the record store this week, with the reissues nowhere to be found.

The reason? The Telegraph reports [via the Daily Swarm] that Kevin Shields hasn't quite finished penning the liner notes that will accompany the sets. Is this guy some kind of a perfectionist or something? A Sony rep confirms this, and adds that a new release date hasn't been scheduled yet. [An Amazon UK listing says they are coming out July 14.]

Kevin and company did however manage to firm up the support slots for a handful of their forthcoming dates, and it's an impressive bunch: Blur guitarist Graham Coxon, Pete "Spectrum/Sonic Boom" Kember, and Le Volume Courbe, with whom Shields has collaborated in the past. The tour picks up this Friday (June 20) at the first of many shows at London's Roundhouse. [MORE...]

M83 Preps "Kim and Jessie" Single

Photo by Kathryn Yu

M83's stunner "Kim & Jessie"-- plucked from the many other potential singles on the gorgeous, Best New Music'd Saturdays=Youth LP-- is getting its moment in the sun. Mute will release the "Kim and Jessie" single July 21 in Europe and July 22 in North America.

Arriving digitally and on a 12", the tune will be joined by remixes from Montag and DatA.

Having recently wrapped a jog through North America, M83 will return in the middle of next month to play a couple California dates as part of the traveling Download Festival. [MORE...]

Nine Alleged Guns N' Roses Democracy Tracks Leak
I can almost taste the Dr. Pepper now

For those still thinking actual democracy in China is a more likely prospect than seeing Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy in this lifetime, well, think again. Maybe.

According to several reports, nine tracks purported to be from the famously delayed album surfaced online yesterday. The party behind blog Antiquiet, who posted the songs for download and streamed them for a spell as well, called them "mastered, finished versions that you probably haven't heard" and declared them to be "from the new Guns N' Roses album." That is, until Antiquiet "got a call from Guns N' Roses" and responded by removing the streams and files and striking through most of their claims. Not by choice, we'll presume.

A Billboard.com report notes that at least six of the nine tracks have leaked previously in less-complete-sounding form, including "Better", "The Blues", "Chinese Democracy", "IRS", "Madagascar", and "There Was a Time". As for the other three? They go by the names of "Rhiad and the Bedouins", "If the World", and, uh, the track without a name. (Idolator, however, claims that first one is actually called "Rihad and the Bedouins". If that's so, Google certainly hasn't caught on yet.)

Those leaked tracks are no doubt still lurking in some dark corner of the web, though we wouldn't know a thing about it, because leaking is evil.

Axl Rose has of course been "working" on Chinese Democracy since 1994, however this latest development brings every last person in America one step closer to savoring a delicious free can of Dr. Pepper (you can wire me the money, guys) before the year's end. Oh right, and one step closer to actually hearing some kind of new Guns N' Roses record or something?

Hercules and Love Affair Add Quite a Few Dates

Photo by Kathryn Yu

Let the Herculean feats continue! After he road-tests it all across Europe, looks like Andrew Butler will take his Hercules and Love Affair good times party cavalcade back to the U.S. for a handful of mid-summer performances.

These latest dates actually fall between the current run of European live activity and a whole heap of late summer overseas gigs added since our last report, making them blah blah-- dude, have you heard that Hercules and Love Affair LP yet? Best get on that. Oh right, it's not out in the U.S. yet, though Mute will right that wrong on June 24. [MORE...]

Santogold Hops Aboard the Coldplay Tour

It turns out that Coldplay have Friends in some unexpected places. The massive British band recently extended an invite to rising Philly-via-Brooklyn pop star Santogold to open a stint on their gargantuan world tour. Santogold already had scheduled quite a few dates of her own in support of her recently released debut Santogold.

Well, Santogold said yes, and here we are with a handful of stadium shows in late July and early August featuring Coldplay and Santogold.

Of course, both artists' other headlining dates remain intact, and coincidentally enough, each of their next shows is on June 23. [MORE...]

Girl Talk's Feed the Animals Available Now!
Physical release date revealed, too

Just a few short days ago, we got Gregg "Girl Talk" Gillis on the phone for a little chat about his new album, Feed the Animals. He had finished the follow-up to 2006's Night Ripper early last week, had it mastered over the weekend, and expected to deliver it to the Illegal Art website through a pay-what-you-please policy "Wednesday or Thursday." Well, it's Thursday, and Girl Talk's Feed the Animals is available to download now. Ain't this technology something?

There's a bit of a caveat to the downloading process of which we weren't aware until the thing went live. Though whatever you wanna pay gets you the full album in 320 kbps MP3s, you'll get a fair little inquisition should you opt to pay nothing. Paying $5 or more will get you the album in those colossal, lossless FLAC files, plus access to a single file containing the whole disc. Opt to pay $10 and all that can be yours, plus Illegal Art will get you a CD copy of the set when it's released September 23 for a $3 shipping fee (in the States, anyway). The vinyl will follow on Wham City sometime this fall.

One bit of weirdness: there appears to be an honor system at work here, at least for now, since you can pledge $5 or more and download the FLAC files without actually paying anything. But shhh, we didn't tell you that.

Girl Talk returns to the road one week from tonight in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. [MORE...]

Manchester Luminaries Celebrate Tony Wilson
Epic conversation features New Order members, Peter Saville, Steve Coogan, Alan McGee

The people of Manchester, England keep finding more and more nice things to say about the late, great Tony Wilson. However, the legacy of the Factory Records head/journalist/larger-than-life personality will be but one of many, many topics at hand at the city's Tony Wilson Experience, a 24-hour "intelligent conversation" taking place at Cathedral Gardens in Manchester City Centre on June 21-22.

Gathering together at that place and time for a series of workshops will be the likes of New Order members Stephen Morris, Gillian Gilbert, and Peter Hook, Joy Division documentary filmmaker Grant Gee, designer and Wilson's Factory Records co-owner Peter Saville, actor Steve Coogan (who portrayed Wilson in the movie 24 Hour Party People), Creation Records label head Alan McGee, and Control screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh, among other luminaries.

They will pay tribute to both Wilson and Manchester's artistic community past, present, and future by chatting with a select group of 200 young people involved in the arts, hoping to inspire and mentor them. Organizers hope the event serves as the first step towards founding a creative arts summer school in the city, and plan to bring the day's chatter to folks outside of Manchester via podcasts. Very, very long podcasts.

Broken Social Scene, Roots, De La Soul Play SLC Series
With Neko Case, Andrew Bird, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Cool Kids

People of Salt Lake City! That Thursday night Lamaze class down at the Y has just got to go. At least until September, that is.

Every Thursday night from July 10-August 28, your fair city's Gallivan Center will once again play host to a series of totally free shows they call the Twilight Concert Series, and the benefits far outweigh the nonexistent cost. Things kick off with the Roots on July 10, and evenings with Andrew Bird and Josh Ritter, De La Soul and the Cool Kids, Nada Surf and Tim Fite, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Broken Social Scene and the Big Sleep, and a Neko Case/Crooked Fingers two-fer will follow.

All that entertainment, for free? Just remember to breathe.

Thanks to reader Adam for the tip. [MORE...]

Fleet Foxes to Open for Wilco
Jeff Tweedy adds solo dates

Hairy dudes with acoustic guitars will be in abundance at four dates this August in cities like Boise and Spokane, where there is certainly no dearth of hairy dudes. Wilco have tapped Fleet Foxes to join their summer tour, a jaunt that already includes such stellar openers as Bon Iver and Retribution Gospel Choir.

The Chicago vets have also added shows with Andrew Bird and Jennifer O'Connor since our last report. What's more, frontman Jeff Tweedy now has a trio of solo dates taking place in September under Sky Blue Spanish skies-- not to mention a set at the "Kidz stage" at Lollapalooza.

For their part, Fleet Foxes have a summer tour of their own in support of their self-titled debut. They'll traverse quite a bit of North America before meeting up with Wilco, including a stop in Chicago at the Pitchfork Music Festival. Recent Hardly Art signees the Duchess and the Duke will open most of those shows. [MORE...]

The Impossible Shapes Serve Up Seventh LP, Tour

Photo by Jonathan Cargill

Bloomington, Indiana rockers the Impossible Shapes have gone the Sigur Rós route in naming their new album. The title of the Secretly Canadian band's seventh full-length is an unpronounceable sigil (i.e. magical symbol) representing desire. Fortunately, they're giving us an out by alternately calling it The Impossible Shapes.

The Impossible Shapes arrived this week via SC, and the Shapes will hit the road in late June for some North American touring in its support. [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.)