Interpol, Arcade Fire, TVOTR Play Hove Festival
Fo shizzle my nizzle used to dribble down in Norway

When you refer to "Hove" in the U.S., you're using a ridiculous nickname for either Jesus or Jay-Z. (Or a highway lane.)

In Norway, you're referring to an either ridiculous or brilliant festival that takes place in Arendal from June 26-30.

It's not that we have anything against the Hove Festival, not at all. It's just that the lineup is short-circuiting our brains with its combination of incredibly awesome bands and some more, um, confusing ones.

For instance, who knew you could get Interpol, the Arcade Fire, the Hold Steady, TV on the Radio, Clipse, Mastodon, Queens of the Stone Age, Bright Eyes, Klaxons, Slayer, CSS, and Tokyo Police Club at the same festival? And why would you place them next to Incubus or Damien Rice? And where do Paul Wall and Chamillionaire fit in? And what about Me First and the Gimme Gimmes??? My Chemical Romance???? The mind boggles.

Nonetheless, this is indeed the lineup of the Hove Festival. The rest of the currently announced acts are below.

120 Days, the Killers, Kaiser Chiefs, Nellie Mckay, Lamb of God, Amy Winehouse, Oh No Ono, the 1990s, Unearth, Gojira, Chimaira, Devastations, the Noisettes, 65 Days of Static, X-queen of the Astronauts, Dimension F3H, Hatebreed, Ingrid Olava, Neurosis, Pleasure, Rockettothesky, Sivert Høyem, the Lionheart Brothers, the Presets, William Hut

Video: Jay-Z: Izzo (H.O.V.A.) [from The Bluprint LP]

Exclusive: Rosebuds Tour Behind Furies

With all their public smoochin', dopey nicknamin', and all other pervasive acts of perversity, we'd prefer that most young marrieds keep that mess at home. But we'll take as much PDA as we can get from Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp, the blossoming lovers of the Rosebuds, who'll make sweet music together on a month-long second-honeymoon in support of the fetching Night of the Furies, out April 10 on Merge Records.

As we previously reported, fellow knot-tiers Dean & Britta and perpetual sideproject Portastatic are among those slated to remix tracks from Night of the Furies. Just couldn't leave well enough alone, could they? [MORE...]

MP3: The Rosebuds: Get Up Get Out [from the Night of the Furies LP]

Soulwax Take Nite Versions, 2ManyDJs Across America

We're talking beats of such radness and freshness, you'll have no choice but to rediscover just what your pelvis can do under hot lights. Just ask the ravers down in Australia and New Zealand, who are getting the decadent Soulwax dancefloor treatment as you read this.

U.S. residents have until April 14 to perfect their raddest, freshest moves, as that's when Soulwax invade Philadelphia as part of their Radio Soulwax Presents tour. And just what is Soulwax presenting on this trek? Well, they'll perform their 2005 Nite Versions album (which features club-ified versions of jams from their Any Minute Now LP) in its entirety, plus the two Soulwax gents who moonlight as 2ManyDJs will spin, with pals JDH & Dave P warming everybody up. If that doesn't make you want to back your groove thang up like a Polaroid picture that just don't care, I don't know what will. [MORE...]

MP3: Soulwax: Miserable Girl [from the Nite Versions LP]

Spacemen 3's Sonic Boom Plots U.S. Invasion

Then it's off to Boom's home country for a pair of London gigs, the first of which has him opening for reunited ambient krautrock legends Cluster, and another alongside Bert Jansch as part of a Saint Etienne-curated event at Royal Festival Hall.

Sonic Boom hopes to deliver an LP and EP as Spectrum later this year; he'll also tour Japan and Oceania under that moniker. For a good time, abuse a substance of your choosing and check out all the trippy animated visuals on his website. [MORE...]

Stream: Sonic Boom: Various Spacemen 3 Tracks

Human Giant Talk Ghostface, MTV, YouTube
"If you've seen our stuff, you know it's very similar to 'Pimp My Ride'. We're building sketch comedy."

Video: Human Giant: Camping Weekend

Photos: Explosions in the Sky / The Paper Chase / Eluvium [Chicago, IL; 03/28/07]

Eluvium's Matthew Cooper couldn't conjure much visual spectacle at last night's sold-out Metro gig, cooped up behind a laptop, keyboards, processed guitar, and assorted knobs and wires, but that wasn't really the point. His transcendental soundscapes-- several reenacted from this year's Temporary Residence LP Copia-- cast an even more meditative spell when blared over the Metro's enormous speakers, and those of us who weren't talking over them were very much lost in them.

One of these things is not like the others; can you guess which? The Paper Chase's John Congleton produced Explosions in the Sky's latest, All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone, but that, four dudes, and Texas are pretty much all the two bands have in common. If Explosions were destined to soundtrack high school football in slow motion, the Paper Chase are best suited for erratic super-8 footage of demolition derbies-- with Freddy Krueger and Norman Bates and other figures who straddle the line between horror and kitsch behind the wheel. Indeed, paranoia and gallows humor take centerstage in most of Congleton's lyrics, and he has enough lyrics to make up for both of the instrumental acts his band was shoehorned in between.

The band's still tight and ferocious, at their best on relentless numbers like last year's "The Kids Will Grow Up to Be Assholes". This, of course, was totally not their scene, and Congleton wasn't oblivious to the sea of perplexed and annoyed faces. "I should have been looking at you guys!" he announced after the set, addressing an enthusiastic bunch near the bar who chirped their approval.

Anyway, this is what the kids came to see. And even if they are Godspeed-lite, never quite soaring nor plummeting to the extremes that Canadian post-rock collective frequently inhabited, Explosions in the Sky still command reverential respect from fans. Network television has certainly helped, but let's not discredit the fab four behind the music, who've perfected a formula for tugging heartstrings with mere guitar strings-- and just pouring on the catharses live.

Bassist Michael James brings the muscle, his tremolo wrist working faster than a hummingbird's heart, while guitarist Munaf Rayani adds the passion, gesticulating and falling over in some kind of sonic ecstasy. Laud guitarist Mark Smith for balancing the equation with restraint, his leads often carrying the most emotional heft as well. And drummer Chris Hrasky? I guess he's the cute one.

EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY







[MORE...]

Bjork Trickling Out Volta Teasers

As reported on Seattle weekly The Stranger's Line Out music blog, a YouTube user called "VoltaVideos" posted a clip called "Earth Intruders"-- also the name of the first single from Volta-- a couple days back. It features some abstract, pulsating images, some music that might be construed as the "universal tribal beat" Björk recently discussed with Pitchfork, and the closing text, "we are the earth intruders."

Not long after that, web-trollers stumbled upon a mysterious MySpace profile belonging to one Gerome Voltaire of "itshardtofindabandname" from Iceland. The page includes four audio clips, each clocking in under 20 seconds: "Thereza Is He", "Denoisering", and the identical, percussion-heavy "O Is for All Ages" and "Oh It Is".

The MySpace also includes two videos similar to the "Earth Intruders" clip. One titled "V" depicts a jittery, out-of-focus image that bears striking resemblance to that colorful flaming Björk photo up there. It includes the words, "did I imagine it would be like this?", set against a lush, ambient track that's soon invaded by light percussion.

A second MySpace video, titled "o", features the same tribal drumming audio as the "O" and "Oh" clips and depicts the statement, "I have been filled with steam/ for months/ for years" atop what appears to be a close-up of another Björk photo.

"What I'm presenting here at the moment," writes the enigmatic Gerome on his MySpace, "is something I recorded at some listening session in Reykjavik with an Icelandic artist, which I then cut up and added noises and images to. I hope she doesn't mind." We'd wager that she probably doesn't.

Assorted videos in the same vein have since appeared on YouTube, including a clip titled "save?" that one might interpret as addressing the heated topic of abstinence: "should I save myself for later/ or generously give?"

So do Timbaland or any of Volta's other guest stars factor into any of these? Your guess is as good as mine. Either way, the rich, relatively organic-sounding (by Björk's standards) tidbits of sound here have us pretty durn stoked.

Catch Björk's stage spectacle, intruding on an Earth venue near you soon. [MORE...]

Thurston Moore, Jim O'Rourke Turn Noise Into Silence
Form avant supergroup with members of the Ex, the Thing, others

Picture Ornette Coleman sitting in with the Stooges (the old Stooges, that is) as they tear through "L.A. Blues" and you'd be in the neighborhood of free jazz/noise rock/construction noise hybrid Original Silence.

This ear doctor's dream come true-- made up of producer-of-strange-things Jim O'Rouke, Kim Gordon's husband Thurston Moore, Swedish hornblower Mats Gustafsson, Terrie Ex of the Ex, Paal Nilssen-Love of the Thing, and Zu's Massimo Puppilo-- will issue their inaugural tinnitus-inducing screed April 23.

Squeaks, squalls, and saxophone calls abound on the totally-improvised, two-track The First Original Silence LP, committed to tape at a September 2005 concert in Reggio Emilia, Italy and due from the Smalltown Superjazzz label. The First is the first in a planned series of Original Silence releases. We've heard it. It's loud.

The two tracks are called "If Light Has No Age, Time Has No Shadow" and "In the Name of the Law".

Some other band Thurston Moore's in will be playing through their magisterial Daydream Nation in a few spots in conjunction with All Tomorrow's Parties' Don't Look Back series, not least of which being our Pitchfork Music Festival. Wait, you're kidding, right? You're not?! Score!

Peeping Tom Tour, Spy on People

Perverts and pervettes mark your calendars: Mike Patton is taking the collaboration wagon known as Peeping Tom on the road.

The Mr. Bungle/Faith No More/Fantômas/Tomahawk frontman hasn't announced who will accompany him on these dates, but if he's working from the album's guest list, there could be appearances by anyone from Kool Keith to Massive Attack to Norah Jones. And if by some beautiful twist of fortune Kool Keith and Norah Jones end up on the same stage, we will promptly purchase the entire Hear Music back catalog.

The North American Peep shows start in Dallas tomorrow night, March 30 and end with an appearance at Coachella. Then in June, they travel Down Under. [MORE...]

Video: Peeping Tom: Mojo [from the Peeping Tom LP]

Jarvis Wants YOU to Open His North American Shows

As Jarvis wrote on his Jarvspace yesterday, "I'll keep this quite short: we are playing in North America soon & need support bands for New York (2 shows), San Francisco, Seattle & Vancouver - do you think you could help?" Jarvis stressed that he wants local bands for each gig, and that links to music and such would be extremely helpful. Drop a note to Jarvspace to apply.

In related news, Jarvis curates the Meltdown festival, taking place across several venues at London's Southbank Centre from June 16-24. A populist through and through, Jarvis has also called upon his MySpace buds to suggest Meltdown-worthy acts. You know what to do.

Jarvis' self-titled solo debut finally crashes U.S. shores April 3 via Rough Trade. Catch him in select North American cities this spring. [MORE...]

MP3: Jarvis: Don't Let Him Waste Your Time [from the Jarvis LP]

David Vandervelde and Richard Swift Tour
Vandervelde also opens for Spoon

Gratuitously-lengthy band names shall reign supreme when the glammy grace and thunderous Technicolor riffage of Moonstation House Band-leader David Vandervelde meets Dressed Up for the Letdown fashion-plate Richard Swift and his Sons of National Freedom on a whole mess of dates next month. Both Secretly Canadian artists have still-warm albums and white-hot shortform releases to plug. Let's explore, shall we?

Vandervelde will release Moonstation's leadoff track "Nothin' No" as a single June 19, backed by a take on the twinkly "Feet of a Liar" from his hour in the Daytrotter booth, a new one called "Cute Pretender", and the probably wordless "Dancing Sea Gulls Instrumental". May 22, Swift's "Kisses for the Misses" will find itself trapped inside a seven-inch-wide ring of plastic, surrounded by "Cowboy Song #6" and a cover of Prince's "Paisley Park".

The two men will split amicably after an April 22 stop in Gotham City, as David's tour leads him Spoonward and Richard heads to the land of the crumpet. [MORE...]

MP3: David Vandervelde: Feet of a Liar (Daytrotter Sessions version) [from the Moonstation House Band LP]
MP3: Richard Swift: Paisley Park [from the Kisses from the Misses single]

Boom Bip Releases EP, Tours

Stream: Boom Bip: Various Tracks

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