Arcade Fire to Release "Intervention" Single
Calexico cover on B-side

In the wake of the Hasselhoff video and the possible very-not-hot arrest of Paris Hilton, seems like intervention's on everybody's mind.

So, too, goes the Arcade Fire, who will supplement their current globe-conquerering tour with a 7" single for "Intervention," out on the North American continent July 10 from Merge. (May 21 in the UK.) It's backed by Calexico's take on Neon Bible's "Ocean of Noise."

Of course, we're still just days from the May 8 U.S. release of the "Keep the Car Running" single.

Hey, Arcade Fire tour dates! Haven't posted those in a while. [MORE...]

Anticon Artists Exhibit Art, Release Records, Tour
Alias Collects John Vanderslice, Lali Puna, 13 & God Remixes

Anticon's roster of experimental beat freaks is all over the map, musically and geographically. With tours from Sole, Alias, and Thee More Shallows kicking off in the coming weeks, the Anticon army is set to invade the U.S. in full force. Add new records, a festival, an art show, and one-off dates from Dosh, Why?'s Yoni Wolf, and Bracken to the mix, and you've got an Anticon infestation to look forward to.

First up is an art exhibition called Florida Is a Death Metal Los Angeles (\m/ !) that will open at the Unitard Gallery in Los Angeles on May 12. The show is the second in an Anticon-related series of exhibits, and this installment features visual art by Doseone, Odd Nosdam, Yoni Wolf, Fog's Andrew Broder, Pedestrian, Passage, the Bomarr Monk, Telephone Jim Jesus, Ravi Zupa, Audio Dregs/Fryk Beat label head E*Rock, and Voodoo-Eros label head Militia Shimkovitz, among others.

The exhibit's opening day party will include performances by Jel and Bat Rays, along with poems from Doseone and some turntable action from Odd Nosdam. YACHT was supposed to play as well but had to bail after being asked to open the LCD Soundsystem tour.

A few days later and a couple hours north, in San Francisco on May 18, Yoni Wolf will play with Odd Nosdam (DJing), Telephone Jim Jesus, Bat Rays, and Half-Handed Cloud, with visuals by Video Savant as part of the Mission Creek Arts and Music Festival, which takes place May 10-20 at almost a dozen San Francisco venues.

Mission Creek also features sets by Lavender Diamond, RJD2, Acid Mother's Temple, Comets on Fire, Edith Frost, Daedelus, Mia Doi Todd, and a group called RRIICCEE made up of the Warlocks' Corey Lee Granet, Hole's Eric Erlandson, and Vincent Gallo (??).

In the way of more traditional projects, Alias will release his Collected Remixes on CD and limited red double vinyl on May 15. The collection includes his remixes for John Vanderslice, Lali Puna, 13 & God, and the One AM Radio, among others.

Sole will release his new Mansbestfriend album, Poly.Sci.187, on May 29, and he has a trio of dates with Skyrider left this month.

DJ Mayonnaise will return to the label on July 17 with the cheekily titled Still Alive, his first full-length in eight years.

Thee More Shallows will launched their tour in support of their Anticon debut Book of Bad Breaks last night, and Alias will start his own tour with Sage Francis and Buck 65 on May 23.

Each Anticon act's tour dates are listed below in chronological order of start date. [MORE...]

Peter Hook Pretty Much Confirms New Order's Demise
The good news: you may now stalk him on MySpace

Seems New Order really have heeded the sirens' call and sailed off into oblivion. Speaking to UK radio station Xfm recently, the legendary quartet's bassist Peter Hook more or less confirmed what has been hinted at for some time now: the band is finished.

Hook was asked about his collaborating with Satellite Party, to which he replied: "I spoke to Perry [Farrell], and he asked me to play bass, as he'd heard about New Order splitting up. Well yeah, me and Bernard [Sumner] aren't working together."

Xfm then inquired whether the split was permanent, prompting Hook to say, "Bernard went off for a break with Electronic [with Johnny Marr], but that was different. But it's like the boy who cried wolf this time." We're not entirely sure what he means by that, but it doesn't seem to bode particularly well for our love vigilantes.

Hook has certainly found plenty else to occupy his time of late. In addition to Satellite Party, Hook has his Freebass supergroup with fellow low-enders Andy Rourke (the Smiths) and Mani (Primal Scream/Stone Roses). The Freebass boys are presently auditioning singers.

Hook's also been playing out recently with David Potts (his former bandmate in Revenge and Monaco), he and New Order have music in the forthcoming Ian Curtis biopic Control, and he DJs regularly (upcoming dates ahead). Perhaps most interestingly, Hook recently hopped on the cyber train and established his own MySpace page, complete with long-winded, poorly punctuated blog entries. In one of these, he begins a paragraph (capitalization his): "SAW A COUPLE OF OLD FRIENDS FROM NEW ORDER DAYS..." One usually doesn't speak of his "such-and-such days" until those dates are behind him. Alas! [MORE...]

Marnie Stern to Slay on Tour
They don't call her Stern for nothin'

If you're gonna be the next Yngwie Malmsteen, you've gotta keep your chops in check. So Marnie Stern-- out to prove not all indie rockers are afraid of their instruments-- will set off (and hammer on!) for an epic intercontinental trek, shredding audiences with her mighty axe.

The fleet-fingered femme will peddle copies of this year's killer In Advance of the Broken Arm (Kill Rock Stars) quicker than you can say "Eddie Van Who?"

Ask her nicely, and she might just unlock Guitar Hero songs you had no idea even existed. [MORE...]

Blur's Rowntree Defeated in Council Election
Oh well, back to being in some band or whatever

Drumroll please...the votes from yesterday's Westminster, London council election have been been tallied, and we now have results for the hallowed Marylebone seat. The victor, as reported by NME.com, is...not Dave Rowntree.

:-(

As previously reported, the Blur drummer traded his drumsticks for Labour Party policy advocacy and announced his intentions to run for the council seat a short while back. On the bright side, one man's election loss is a Blur-loving globe's gain: this development, after all, makes that rumored reunion that much more plausible.

The election instead went to the Conservative Party's Ian Rowley, but really, how many woefully out-of-date internet shrines does that guy have devoted to him?

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Do Pair of Free NYC Shows, Hint at EP

Suspense! Intrigue! Charity! Those wily Yeah Yeah Yeahs conceal plenty behind all that eyeliner. Karen and the fellas just sent out an e-mail/MySpace blog/skywriting plane announcing an impending shot for two sets of 250 fans to get all up in the band's grill.

The e-mail we received was awfully cryptic, but here's what we've been able to glean: Yeah Yeah Yeahs are playing two shows at Brooklyn's Glasslands Gallery May 7, one at 7 PM and one three hours later. Admission is free, but-- seeing as they're in a gallery, after all-- capacity is capped at 250 per show. The 10 PM show comes with this stipulation: no boys allowed. (Yes, it's a girls-only show.) Attendees are required to wear unadorned dark/black clothing. And the proceedings, it clearly states, are to be filmed.

Could a video be in the works? Almost certainly. Perhaps it'll accompany one of the tracks from the "brand new EP" hinted at in the e-mail.

In other Yeah Yeah Yeahs news, movie buffs aplenty have already caught however many seconds "Sealings" shows up in Spider-man III, while fest fanatics can catch the Yeahs in dates at two of the biggies this summer. [MORE...]

I'm From Barcelona Do Cute Little U.S. Tour
Aww, wook at that wee lil' itinewary!

Think of the benefits of touring with 29 people. You get group rates on theatre tickets. There's always somebody awake to drive the van(s), and another dozen folks to entertain and keep that driver awake. And you can do a pre-show mutual massage circle the size of a small hockey rink-- not to mention a killer game of Duck Duck Goose.

So really, it's a wonder it took 29-member-strong I'm From Barcelona this long to take the overseas plunge. Indeed, the Mute-signed indie-pop army has lined up two U.S. dates this summer, one at Chicago mega-festival Lollapalooza and one at Brooklyn's McCarren Park Pool. Yep, just two dates. More dip than plunge, really, but we're tickled pink with twee-giddiness all the same.

Granted, we're not entirely sure they're carting along every third trombonist and kazoo understudy, nor do we know if the full 29 will be onboard for the outfit's upcoming festival gigs in Europe. But we do know that twee, like puppies, makes us very, very deliriously happy. And on a breezy spring day like this, what more can one ask for? [MORE...]

Photos: Arctic Monkeys [Portland, OR; 05/02/07]

Photos by Nilina Mason-Campbell

As seems to be their custom, Arctic Monkeys pummeled through their set at Portland's Roseland Theater last night, not stopping to make conversation with the audience, only playing the tracks. The UK foursome launched into it with "Brianstorm" B-side "If You Found This, It's Probably Too Late", and didn't let up until they arrived at closer "A Certain Romance"-- tackling some twenty songs in just minutes over an hour and pretty much exhausting their thin catalogue.

Arctic Monkeys' spring tour with Be Your Own Pet continues tonight in Seattle. They've also snuck in a bunch of dates overseas since Pitchfork's last report.








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CSS Open for Gwen Stefani, Get Remixed by Hot Chip
Let's make love and listen to Return of Saturn

From touring with Diplo to cavorting with everyone's favorite green goblin Paris Hilton at Coachella to, this summer, opening for Gwen Stefani, CSS have proven time and time again one unerring truth: they have a lot of blonde friends. The Brazilian baile-dancers will warm up eight crowds for the Lonely Goatherd in the UK, who herself is currently out with Lady Sov and Akon. Wonder what that green room is like.

In other CSS news, they'll put out the "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above" remix single in the UK May 14 and on July 10 in the U.S. on 12" vinyl on Sub Pop. It with reworkings of the track by Hot Chip, Simian Mobile Disco, and Calvin Harris. Fresh! [MORE...]

Great Lake Swimmers Tour, Unleash Ongiara

If you've ever peered down into the murky waters of Lake Michigan, you find that the beach'll do just fine, thanks. So take note of the bravery of maverick alt-countryman Tony Dekker, aka Great Lake Swimmers, who-- following his present overseas excursion with band-- will hit the dusty trails of the U.S. in search of adventure next month.

The jaunt aims to drum up support for Great Lake Swimmers' otherworldly third album Ongiara, out May 8 on Nettwerk. Ongiara features ten tracks of languid folk and guest spots from, among others, Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett. [MORE...]

Califone Expand, Kick Off Tour

Sometimes, Califone once pointed out, good weather follows bad people. So if you're out at a gig put on by the raggedy folk troupe and the sun is shinin', well, you know that Tim Rutili must be making some mischief.

No, it's not like that; summer's here, and the time is right for a little hazy Dobro and hush-plucked banjo. Such is Califone, the lovable low-key Chicago institution hitting the road tonight for a month of dates, many of which you're already aware. One expects they'll run through quite a bit of the lovely Roots & Crowns, and perhaps take a spin around "Ladders", the song they contributed to the Trials of Darryl Hunt soundtrack. Heck, they'll play 'em all; those guys have quite the stamina. Eric Johnson of the Fruit Bats supports Califone for bunch of these shows.

Califone, as we recently revealed, might just exceed their set times at this summer's Pitchfork Music Festival, and we couldn't be happier about it. We just hope they bring some of that good weather with 'em. [MORE...]

Albert Hammond, Jr. Plots Spring/Summer Jaunt

At the rate the Albert Hammond, Jr. train is going, the Strokes may be facing a downtime between albums of Radiohead-like proportions. The curly-haired noodler has announced his spring and summer dates, and he's got enough shows to keep him busy through the end of August.

After a few weeks of club dates in the U.S. and Mexico, Hammond and his band (bassist Josh Lattanzi, drummer Matt Romano, guitarist Steve Schiltz, and guitarist/keyboardist Marc Eskenazi) will head over to Europe for two fistfuls of festival dates.

Hammond and co. start things off May 20 in San Francisco, and joining them on their U.S. dates will be Cambridge, Mass. group the Dead Trees. [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.)