Pipettes Prep EP, Tour; Debut Gets U.S. Release Date

Praise is not wasted on the Pipettes. After much Fork fawning over We Are the Pipettes last year, the pattern conscious trio have announced a U.S. release date for their debut LP at last. It arrives August 28, via new Stateside home Interscope/CherryTree-- and they're practically hand-delivering it with a North American tour.

The tour will happen two months prior to the album's American release, but if slightly less than perfect timing means we get the Pipettes earlier than expected, then it's time we threw out our polka-dotted day-planners for good!

Plus, the tour is timed extremely well with the June 5 release of the Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me EP on Interscope/CherryTree. In addition to the title track and "I Love You" from We Are the Pipettes, the EP also features non-album tracks "Really That Bad" and "Guess Who Ran Off With the Milkman?" Adorable.

After serenading Europe, Riot Becki, Gwenno, and Rosay kick off their North American jaunt June 1 in Toronto. [MORE...]

Robert Pollard's Best on Final Fading Captain Release
Pressed, printed, stomped, tripped, trapped, tricked, packaged, shipped

Drunkard genius Robert Pollard's a real giver; over the course of his lengthy tenure as one of indie rock's greatest songwriters, he's issued more albums than he's downed Miller Lites, and that cat can suck down a brew-dog. So many albums that even the most official ironman occasionally has to peer into an empty wallet and mutter "maybe next time, Bobby."

Those looking to play catch-up on Pollard's long-running Fading Captain series-- an outpouring of discs by Pollard side projects and friends of the Cap'n himself-- get a little boost May 15, as Crickets: The Best of the Fading Captain Series is released by Luna Music. Sporting 56 tracks splayed over two CDs and 160 minutes, Crickets marks the first appearance of six new Pollard nuggets, including a pair from the recent Silverfish Trivia EP, with the rest representing the best of Fading Captain's 43 chapters.

Though the most dedicated GBV-aholics have already pawned their fillings to pay for much of Fading Captain, the press release chides that Crickets "will be enjoyed by the hardcore fans who own everything and the fringe GBV fan who had trouble tackling the 43 release catalog." The Captain camp is keeping the tracklist under wraps under the compilation drops, leaving us to speculate just how insane it is.

For one of the all-time great namers of things, Pollard sure doesn't like to stick to a moniker for too long: Crickets will mean bon voyage for the Fading Captain Series. On to the next!

Photos: Spoon [Asbury Park, NJ; 04/24/07]

Text and photos by Maria Tessa Sciarrino

At their gig last night at New Jersey's Stone Pony, Spoon treated show-goers to even portions from the past three albums, premiered a few selections from the forthcoming Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (personal favorites of the night and probably the best-sounding of the evening), and used the encore to toss in a track off the recently reissued Soft Effects EP-- a setlist designed to please newcomers and diehards alike.

Unfortunately, the Stone Pony's overzealous fog machine seemed to drain the energy out of the evening. The endless, billowing tufts made it next to impossible to see the band half the time (and this is a small club!); it was probably the the reason why so many bum notes were played. But it didn't seem to matter much to the audience, who enthusiastically cheered the band on to the very end.

Spoon's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga babbles into shops July 10 via Merge; the band's tour, meanwhile, continues tomorrow night in New Haven.




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Bad Brains Reveal Nation Tracklist, Release Date

Break out the tap shoes and jazz hands: the original cast of Bad Brains-- H.R., Darryl Jenifer, Dr. Know, and Earl Hudson-- returns with a vengeance this summer. Come June 26, Megaforce Records will raise the curtain on the Brains' latest, the twelve-act reggae/dub- inflected ode Build a Nation.

As previously reported, Beastie Boy Adam "MCA" Yauch produced the disc, the Brains' first in over a decade. As Yauch told Pitchfork last month, Nation is "more raw sounding than some of [Bad Brains'] other stuff," and "more like the way they sounded live back in the day, seeing them at CBGB's, the amps and the PA at full tilt."

Yauch also claimed the band hasn't long their touch with age: "The way that they move together, the drums and bass and guitar, is almost like one complex instrument." Behold this complex instrument live at a number of upcoming Bad Brains festival dates, and catch the Build a Nation tracklist, just over yonder. [MORE...]

Gibbard, Leo, Chuck D on Clash Doc Soundtrack
Plus: Mos Def, Radio 4, Moby

The book may perennially trump the movie, but that hasn't stopped journalist/filmmaker/activist Antonino D'Ambrosio from spinning his own 2004 tome, Let Fury Have the Hour: The Punk Rock Politics of Joe Strummer, into a silver screen web of intrigue.

According to Billboard.com, a Tim Robbins-executive produced cinematic companion to Let Fury Have the Hour will barnstorm motion picture palaces in time for next year's U.S. presidential election. In addition to tackling the Clash, the film also examines politically-motivated musicians like Manu Chao and Rachid Taha.

And its soundtrack is shaping up to be something to squawk about: Death Cabbie Ben Gibbard and cool dude Ted Leo head the present list of contributors, which also includes Chuck D (who also penned the Fury book's preface), Mos Def, Moby, and Clash-happy NYC act Radio 4 (who'll also provide the film's score).

Shephard Fairey helps Fury further fight the power with original artwork. Learn more about the book that inspired the movie here.

White Stripes Announce Even More Single Details
"Icky Thump" hits iTunes tomorrow

The White Stripes have continued their recent single-mindedness with the announcement of the B-sides to come with various versions of "Icky Thump", the first single from their forthcoming album of the same name.

The single comes in three different forms: white vinyl 7", standard 7", and CD. As previously reported, the white vinyl version will come with an etching on the B-side that serves as a companion to the etching on the "Rag and Bone" single that will come packaged with the June 6 NME. The standard 7" B-side is "Baby Brother", and the CD features "Catch Hell Blues" as track two.

"Icky Thump" will hit the U.S. and Canadian iTunes stores tomorrow, and Third Man/XL will release all three physical versions of the single on June 11 in the UK. The Stripes' festival tour, meanwhile, kicks off June 1 in Germany. [MORE...]

Editors Reveal Details of An End Has a Start, Tour

An End Has a Start, the sophomore full-length from Birmingham brooders (or, if you will, poor man's Interpol) Editors, will be released June 25 in the UK and the rest of Europe via Kitchenware. No word yet on a U.S. release.

Opening track "Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors" will get the digi-single treatment two weeks prior to End's start in stores, with a tangible "Smokers" single coming June 18. A visit to the Editors page gets you a brief (like, almost Radiohead brief) video-clip of new track "Bones" to whet your appetite. Ew, you eat bones!

Editors will scour the European continent for poor diction and misplaced punctuation for most of this summer. Maybe you wanna start with that whole "adding unnecessary vowels to words" thing, boys. [MORE...]

Memphis Issue Wilderness in U.S., Tour Continent

Plenty is made of Stars/Memphis boss hog Torquil Campbell's musical credits, but TC's run as a master thespian deserves a bit of the limelight's glow. Though he performed in experimental theater in New York for years, he also found the time to play Ben in an ABC Weekend Special production of Pippi Longstocking and supply the voice Bill Badger in the animated series "Rupert". Bill Badger! I hope that shit's on his business card.

Bill Badger and his woodland chum Chris Dumont will, as Memphis, issue the 2006 album A Little Place in the Wilderness in the U.S. June 19 thanks to the the hardworking lot in the distribution department at Good Fences. They'll also embark on a brief late-April tour with the Postmarks, a couple dates in New York at the end of May, and a whole bunch of Canadian dates in between with brother in Broken Social Scene Apostle of Hustle. [MORE...]

Thermals to Rock Portland High School for Benefit

Portland schools have the best benefit ideas. Last week, we told you about the auction at Buckman Elementary School that includes swag from Stephen Malkmus, the Decemberists, Modest Mouse, and the Shins, to name just a few. Now, the student government of Portland's Lincoln High School ("Home of the Cardinals") has organized a benefit concert not just for their school but for music education across Portland Public High Schools.

Portland residents the Thermals will headline the concert, which will feature opening sets by student band the Bustling Townships and another, as-yet-unannounced group. The concert will take place May 11 at the Cleveland High School Auditorium ("Home of the Warriors"), and tickets will go on sale next week at all of the district's high schools. The price of admission is $10 for PPS students with their school IDs and $15 for everyone else.

A representative of the Lincoln student government informed Pitchfork that music education programs in PPS schools are "feeble at best," so it's pretty cool of the Thermals to give back to their community like this. Those kids will be able to write their very own full-length albums full of existential dread and religious angst in no time!

The show at Cleveland High will now serve as the start of the Thermals' previously reported world tour, which continues through July.

In related news, All Girl Summer Fun Band-- which includes Thermals bassist/bad-ass Kathy Foster-- have been recording their third LP in Portland. [MORE...]

Photos: Matthew Dear's Big Hands [Chicago, IL; 04/21/07]

Thanks to a bassist and a drummer lovingly dubbed Big Hands, Detroit microhouse phenom Matthew Dear was free to bring his vocals to the fore at this past Saturday's Empty Bottle gig in Chicago. Handling laptop, knobs, and the mic himself, Dear previewed this new three-piece ensemble and performed a bunch of songs off the forthcoming Asa Breed, the debonair gent's sophomore full-length, out June 5 via Ghostly International.

Dear provides the tempo at quite a few electronic ragers in the coming months, under both his Big Hands and Audion guises.






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Hot Chip's Taylor Talks DJ-Kicks, New Album
"It's a dance record for the most part...there's no room for things like Willie Nelson on there."

Hot Chip took the plunge into taste-revealing waters with the creation of their forthcoming DJ-Kicks mix, out May 22 via !K7. We recently spoke with Alexis Taylor, the British quintet's frontman, about the mix, the follow-up to The Warning, how the band juggles so much remix work, and their love for Diana Ross.

Hot Chip are still on tour, and their previously reported U.S. dates continue April 25 in Austin. They celebrate their DJ-Kicks comp with a series of newly-minted DJ after-parties in June.

Pitchfork: How did you narrow down tracks for the DJ-Kicks mix? Did you look to your established influences or did you lean toward newer songs that you guys are into?

Alexis Taylor: We were just thinking mainly about what we were listening to right now, so it wasn't a "Hot Chip's Biggest Influences" CD. If it had been, we would've tried to get more Devo and Prince and Robert Wyatt, Funkadelic, various people who aren't represented at all on that CD. But it gets a bit difficult to think that it's going to define us, so we didn't really bother with that.

It was just what we're into right now, what records we bought recently. It's representative of something we might DJ. We wanted to make it an interesting experience for people to listen to at home. It's not meant to be the definitive reasons for Hot Chip sounding the way they do.

Pitchfork: Was there a fear, going into it, of being pigeonholed after revealing what you listen to?

AT: Not at all, no. I don't really care if people know what I listen to. It's actually quite nice to tell people what you like. But it doesn't represent much of what I currently listen to because it's a dance record for the most part, and there's no room for things like Willie Nelson on there.

It's just quite nice to make mix CDs for people to listen to, even if you're making them for your immediate family or friends. And once in a while something like this comes along, and it's involving all five of us. It's slightly different from that, but it's not too far away. We tried to make something that would be interesting to people, and fun. I don't know if it is or not, but that was our attempt. [MORE...]

Dixon Nabs Yorke, Schwarz for Get Physical Body Mix

The staff of German electronic label Get Physical reached beyond their normal stable of artists to name DJ Dixon as the curator of Body Language 4, the latest in the Body Language series of mixes, which came out today (April 24).

Dixon, aka Steffen Berkhahn, joins Jesse Rose and Get Physical artists M.A.N.D.Y. and DJ T on the list of Body Language curators, and for his mix, the Berlin DJ nabbed tracks and remixes by Thom Yorke, Henrik Schwarz, Chromatics, and Timo Maas.

Dixon's mixin' will go live at dates scheduled in Chicago and New York City 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.)