Photos: KCRW's A Sounds Eclectic Evening [Universal City, CA; 04/14/07]

Photos by Anoulay Tsai

SoCal airwave overlords KCRW welcomed a diverse bunch of recent favorites to Los Angeles/Universal City's Gibson Amphitheatre Saturday night as part of the Nic Harcourt-hosted A Sounds Eclectic Evening 6 station fundraiser. The Shins, Lily Allen, Cold War Kids, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Breakestra, and Bitter:Sweet all performed, with the moneys raised put toward digitizing KCRW's ginormous music collection. Turns out the promised "special guests" wound up being...Travis. Was it because we lied when we were 17?

THE SHINS




LILY ALLEN



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+/-'s Chris Deaner Joins Kelly Clarkson's Band!
Here's the thing: they started out friends

UPDATE: CHECK OUT OUR INTERVIEW WITH DEANER HERE!

This just in: Chris Deaner of indie-popsters +/- has a new gig hittin' the skins with Kelly Clarkson.

No, not like that! He's drumming for her in concert, but not on her upcoming My December LP. As if Kelly Clarkson could get any cooler after working with Mike Watt!

According to Absolutely Kosher, Deaner's label, Kelly loves the video for +/- cut "Steal the Blueprints", which Deaner directed. However, her involvement in From Justin to Kelly renders all her opinions re: audio-visual media automatically suspect.

Deaner has expressed no plans to leave +/-, who have got a week-and-a-half's worth of European dates lined up in May. Leaving plenty of time for Deaner to rest up before Kelly plays Live Earth on July 7. [MORE...]

Wiley Talks New Album, Dizzee, Future
"I've got loads of different formulas, so many that I could do Nelly Furtado's album. I could do anyone's album in the world. I know it now."

Retiring at the age of 28 is a strange move. But even though British MC/producer Wiley is just two years shy of 30, he has already pioneered a genre, founded a scene, weathered the violence of that scene, and watched its members rise, fall, and fail to break through. So his weariness is understandable.

But Wiley's retirement seems to be more along the lines of Jay-Z's. Though he plans to make his new album, Playtime Is Over, his last solo album, he will still produce, record, and run his own Eskibeat Recordings as part of his mission to bring grime to the world.

But first things first: Playtime Is Over comes out June 4 via Big Dada, and Wiley will precede it with the release of the "50/50 / Bow E3" single on May 7.

Pitchfork had the opportunity to speak with Wiley recently about the new album, getting older, and his relationship with Dizzee Rascal and the grime scene in general.

Pitchfork: What's the story behind the title Playtime Is Over?

Wiley: Playtime Is Over is basically saying I feel I'm getting older and can't be a kid forever. I'm sorting out my pension maybe. These next six or seven years will be the time when I have to set myself up for the future, innit? So that's why I just thought, "28 years old, fun time's over." Now I've got to start making sure I've got houses and property and stuff, so that when music's over, I'm not struggling to turn up money.

Pitchfork: Was there a moment when you first realized all of this?

Wiley: Yeah, when I had my first child. And then it took about a year to sink in after that. [laughs]

Pitchfork: What sort of other things are you thinking about getting into?

Wiley: Still music, but I've got guys who are a little younger, like 15, 16, and they're very clever. They're more with-the-times than we were when we were their age. So I'm going to make sure that they get through, and I'm just going to spread the word of grime around the world. I understand that I've done my thing. I've done my years. I just need to spread the vibe now and get it around everywhere else in the world.

Pitchfork: Do you think that grime has a chance to make it big in places where it hasn't yet?

Wiley: Yeah. It's just going to take 20 years is all. It's going to take 10, 15 to 20 years, and I've done the first six or seven.

Pitchfork: What's it like to have awareness of yourself as a founder of grime and of the fact that it's still such a new scene?

Wiley: I realized that even though Grandmaster Flash and those guys, Afrika Bambaataa, they all started it [hip hop], they're not here today. It shows that you can't last forever. It's like being a baseball player: You were the homerun hitter. Then you don't play no more, but you watch baseball. You're always going to have that drive to play inside you. And that's why some days you've got to just know it's better to step back and look at the future. [MORE...]

Young Jack White on Hentchmen Anniversary Comp

Long before the MTV glitz and glamour, the Icky Thump, the Raconteurs, the indie film appearances, and even the "are they married, or are they siblings (or both!)??" query-storm, Jack White was slapping bass for a beloved Detroit garage rock combo known as the Hentchmen. Occasionally he'd hop to lead guitar, and every once in a great while he'd sing lead on the Farfisa-happy act's traditionalist rock'n'roll jams.

The Hentchmen, still very much alive and kicking, turn 15 this year, and to celebrate they're hitting us with a disc of early hits called Hentch.Forth.Five. The 14-track set collects tunes originally released back in 1998 on an EP, a 12", and two singles, all "remixed, remastered, [and] touched up" by Dan Currie, according to lead Hentchman John "Johnny Volaré" Szymanski. It "should be out in about two months" on Italy Records, which celebrates its own 10th anniversary this year.

All 14 tracks feature White in one capacity or another. Our candy-striper plays bass on a bunch, contributes lead guitar to three tunes, and lays down a lead vocal on "Some Other Guy", plus backup vocals on several other tracks. It's a unique opportunity to hear Jack just prior to the release of the Stripes' self-titled 1999 debut.

The Stripes, as previously reported, have Icky Thump out June 19 via Warner Bros. and a bunch of festival dates lined up. The Hentchmen, sans White, rock a quartet of dates in late May and late June. [MORE...]

T.V. Eye: April 16-22, 2007

Pitchfork's T.V. Picks for This Week:

Monday, April 16:

NBC: "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno": Lily Allen
NBC: "Late Night With Conan O'Brien": Black Keys


Wednesday, April 18:

Syndicated: "The Ellen DeGeneres Show": Lily Allen
CBS: "Late Show With David Letterman": Son Volt

Thursday, April 19:

CBS: "Late Show With David Letterman": Tokyo Police Club
NBC: "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno": OK Go
NBC: "Late Night With Conan O'Brien": Annuals
CBS: "Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson": Paul Wall

Friday, April 20:

NBC: "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno": OK Go
CBS: "Late Show With David Letterman": Regina Spektor
NBC: "Late Night With Conan O'Brien": Paul Weller
IFC: "The Henry Rollins Show": Ryan Adams
ABC: "Jimmy Kimmel Live": Morrissey

Saturday, April 21:

NBC: "Saturday Night Live: Björk

Arcade Fire's Win Butler: "Recovering Nicely"
When he screams, now it makes a sound

Rejoice and be glad! Neon Bible scholar Win Butler's recent health troubles-- which necessitated both a massive Euro-tour cancellation and sinus surgery-- appear to be a thing of the past. In a message posted on the Arcade Fire's website, Win offered a positive prognosis, and detailed his wellness regimen:

"Hi!

Just wanted to let you all know that the surjery (sic) was successful, and I am recovering nicely. Thank you for all of your thoughts and emails...

I will probably start singing again this week some time to try and get ready for the shows in North America.

It has been a blessing in disguise to be forced to stay home and read, and sleep (pick up Cormac Mcarthy's [sic] "The Road" if you are feeling like a little post apocalypse...don't let the Oprah Book Club Sticker scare you away)...Regine and I have even started working on some new songs...

anyway see you all soon

luv
Win"

Hey now, bud, I thought sleeping was giving in!

Win must've spent some of his time away Blackberrying, as Arcade Fire's been busy lining up some top-notch openers for their upcoming tour, and getting ready for the U.S. release of the "Keep the Car Running" 7", due out on Merge May 8. And, since it wouldn't be a day in Pitchfork news without us posting Arcade Fire tour dates, they're all yours after the jump. [MORE...]

Devendra Banhart Working on New Album

Devendra Banhart, freak-folk's resident male pin-up, is back in the studio recording his fifth full-length, the follow-up to 2005's Cripple Crow.

Banhart is producing the album along with friend and touring bandmate Noah Georgeson. Other contributors to the record include Vetiver's Andy Cabic, Espers' Otto Hauser, Joanna Newsom's brother Pete, Los Hermanos' Rodrigo Amarante, Luckey Remington, Greg Rogove, former Metallic Falcon Matteah Baim, and Banhart's touring band.

The album does not yet have a title or release date, but it will come out on XL Recordings.

Banhart has only one gig scheduled at the moment, at Bumbershoot in Seattle in September.

Wilco Become Toys!
Wilcos wobble, but they won't fall down

What with their deadpan musicality and meticulous lyricism, it seems at times like those Wilco gents take themselves very, very seriously. Then they go and do something like issue teeny toys of themselves. So misunderstood, indeed.

Portland-based toy company UNKL will launch a series of limited-edition Wilco figurines at San Diego’s Comic-Con this July. There’s Jeff Tweedy (a longtime UNKL fan, we're told), and, uh, the five other guys in Wilco.

Not included: a talking Jay Bennett with which you can stage bickering matches with your Jeff doll.

In other Wilco news, Sky Blue Sky will shine on May 15, they just pegged Low to open a bunch of North American dates on their previously announced world tour, and their handsome mugs will wind up in a picture book due out June 1. [MORE...]

Photos: Modest Mouse [Seattle, WA; 04/15/07]

Photos by Michael Alan Goldberg

Mouse on fire: Modest Mouse kicked off their crazy-anticipated North American tour in support of We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank with a gig last night at Seattle's Paramount. It was the Pacific Northwest titans' first since docking Ship atop the Billboard 200 album charts-- and to the best of our knowledge, as far as celebratory gestures went, Isaac Brock stuck to the bottle and left the knife at home.

Catch Modest Mouse gnawing their way to a city near you this spring.








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Tim Kasher Talks Good Life, Screenplay, Move to L.A.
"It's exploratory, it's exciting, it's a way [so that at] 80 years old or something I can look back and say, 'And then there was that time when I moved to L.A.'"

Tim Kasher has moved to L.A.

Take a minute to let that sink in. Tim Kasher, a godfather to the storied Omaha "scene", bread to America's breadbasket, helmer of two of Saddle Creek's most vital and long-standing bands (one of which he named after Nebraska's original state slogan, for crissakes)-- dude's packed up and skipped town. He warned us in song that he'd leave Omaha, and now he's gone and done it.

Still, from the sound of it, this is a move the Cursive/Good Life frontman has been mulling over for a long time. And we should be excited for the guy.

"It's just something I've always wanted to do," Kasher told Pitchfork recently. "It's exploratory, it's exciting, it's a way [so that at] 80 years old or something I can look back and say, 'And then there was that time when I moved to L.A.'"

While he insists this isn't the reason for the move ("I don't like the vibe of moving to go make it somewhere or something like that,") Kasher-- like many who go the way of L.A.-- has a screenplay in hand. A screenplay adapted from a Kasher-penned play, really, and it's called Help Wanted Nights.

Like a sign one might see outside a diner or something? "Yeah, exactly," said Tim, adding, "it should have commas, but you don't put commas on marquees and stuff, so I thought I'd leave it that way."

According to Kasher, Help Wanted Nights involves "roughly a week in a bar in a small town where a stranger's car breaks down...so, he fraternizes with the regulars, getting too wrapped up in their sordid lives. Something like that."

If that sounds familiar, Kasher's with you. "I didn't hide my appreciation for Tennessee Williams or Edward Albee too much. It also doesn't fall far from the Good Life tree."

Indeed, Help Wanted Nights the play/screenplay in turn helped inspire Help Wanted Nights the album, Kasher's fourth with the Good Life, tentatively due for release via Saddle Creek on September 11, 2007. "There was definitely talk about what's appropriate or inappropriate," Tim explained when asked about the release date. "I think [the label] just saw it as the most logical release date for when we were done with recording it."

Help Wanted Nights features the same Good Life line-up heard on 2004's Album of the Year: Kasher, Stefanie Drootin, Ryan Fox, and Roger Lewis.

And while this won't exactly be his Album of the Decade, "everything's very idealistic," mused Kasher. "It's like if I could ever get that performance to be put on or to be shot, then this would be some kind of soundtrack for that. It was kind of the impetus for writing this record." [MORE...]

Tortoise's McEntire, Herndon, Bitney Team Up for Bumps

Tortoise side projects are born, retired, and revived at a pace that completely belies the band's name, so it doesn't come as a huge surprise that three of members of the band-- John McEntire, John Herndon, and Dan Bitney-- are releasing an album of instrumental percussion under the name Bumps.

The surprise is that they're releasing the album, simply titled Bumps, on Stones Throw, that bastion of excellent underground soul and hip hop.

That's not to say it's not a nice surprise. In fact, the possibility of Bumps becoming the go-to sample source for a new generation of hip hop heads is mighty intriguing. The three-piece suit could become the new gold chain.

Stones Throw will release Bumps on June 19.

Don't forget, Tortoise will launch their North American summer tour in Columbus, Ohio on June 14. [MORE...]

Deerhunter, Menomena, Klaxons, Fujiya Added to Pitchfork Music Festival!
Also: Oxford Collapse, Beach House, Craig Taborn's Junk Magic, Dan Deacon

The Pitchfork Music Festival lineup just keeps growing, and today, we're thrilled to announce the latest additions to the roster of our first-ever three-day festival, taking place July 13-15 at Union Park in Chicago.

Atlanta psych-rock powerhouses Deerhunter, Portland-based experimental pop trio Menomena, dance-rock juggernaut Klaxons, sleek Brits Fujiya & Miyagi, Sub Poppers Oxford Collapse, neo-slowcore duo Beach House, fantastically insane one-man-band Dan Deacon, and boundary-breaking jazz ensemble Craig Taborn's Junk Magic.

Of course, they all join previously announced Pitchfork Music Festival performers Cat Power, New Pornographers, Clipse, Stephen Malkmus, De La Soul, Iron and Wine, Of Montreal, Girl Talk, Jamie Lidell, Grizzly Bear, Battles, the Ponys, Professor Murder, Ken Vandermark's Powerhouse Sound, and, of course, Sonic Youth performing their landmark 1988 album Daydream Nation (in collaboration with All Tomorrow's Parties' Don't Look Back).

Best of all, that's just a taste of the many artists who'll be performing at this year's fest, for which we still have yet to announce two more artists who, like Sonic Youth, will be performing their classic albums in full as part of Friday's ATP/Don't Look Back festival kickoff.

Here's the lineup so far:

Friday, July 13:

Sonic Youth performs Daydream Nation

Saturday, July 14:

Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues
Clipse
Iron and Wine
Girl Talk
Grizzly Bear
Battles
Fujiya & Miyagi
Oxford Collapse
Dan Deacon
Beach House
Professor Murder
Ken Vandermark's Powerhouse Sound

Sunday, July 15:

New Pornographers
Stephen Malkmus
De La Soul
Of Montreal
Jamie Lidell
Menomena
Klaxons
The Ponys
Deerhunter
Craig Taborn's Junk Magic

Tickets are on sale now at Ticketweb. Three-day passes cost $50, Friday night costs $15, Saturday and Sunday individual passes cost $25, and a Saturday/Sunday pass costs $35.

Keep up on all the latest festival news and details by bookmarking the Pitchfork Music Festival webpage and by tuning into the Pitchfork Music Festival podcast.

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.)