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Exclusive: Illinois to Open for the Hold Steady

Long gone are the days of Kansas, Boston, Chicago, and the United States of America, the days of bands who actually, scandalously named themselves after places they were from (or their mass transit system, as it were). Now, in the age of indie irony, we have a band called Canada from Michigan, a band called Idaho from L.A., a band called Iran from 'frisco, and today, a band called Illinois. Where do Illinois call home? You guessed it: Pennsylvania.

Turns out the four gents of Illinois will be stirring up a shitstorm of geographical confusion this spring, as they hitch a wagon to the Hold Steady's tour caravan in late May, opening a raging kegger's worth of dates for those Minneapolis booze-rockers. Young Illinois should know how to razzle-dazzle large crowds by then, having just wrapped up a sold-out tour with the UK's latest boy band export, the Kooks.

Illinois contributed to the centuries-old legacy of the Land of Lincoln by releasing the What the Hell Do I Know? EP last month via Ace Fu. [MORE...]
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Of Montreal's Barnes Talks Nudity, Karaoke, New Tunes
"I don't really care, I'm not ashamed or whatever. I'm kind of a little bit flattered that it would get so much attention."

We've certainly seen a lot of Kevin Barnes lately, but we haven't heard much from the Of Montreal frontman since he and his band hit the road in support of their excellent latest album, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? So last week, we phoned Barnes to catch up about the reaction to Hissing Fauna and those infamous photos, as well as his plans for the future (hint: they involve karaoke and performing at the Pitchfork Music Festival on July 15 at Union Park in Chicago).

Shortly after Pitchfork posted a reader's photos of Barnes naked on stage at a performance in Las Vegas in February, we were contacted by Playgirl magazine, who sought to buy the photos. (We are told that they will appear in an upcoming issue.)

When we spoke to him, Barnes seemed unsure as to what all the fuss was about. "I was just doing it, just because it was something I had wanted to do for a while," he offered. "I assumed that probably, with the way things are nowadays, that it would find its way to the internet, but I didn't think it would really lead to a spot in Playgirl magazine or anything like that... I don't really care, I'm not ashamed or whatever. I'm kind of a little bit flattered that it would get so much attention." [MORE...]

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Frog Eyes Add Dates, Openers to Valedictorian Tour

Photo by Sarah Cass

Number one in the class, and yet the valedictorian weeps. Why, Frog Eyes, why?? I guess we get to find out May 1, when Frog Eyes' latest collection of unsettled songcraft, Tears of the Valedictorian, rattles the shelves at a record vending establishment near you.

The very day that Absolutely Kosher/Scratch LP hits, Frog Eyes leap from the lily pad to the Mercer-mobile, embarking on a tour of considerable duration across the U.S. and Canada. Since our last news blast, Frog Eyes have slipped in a whole heap of dates and tacked on some choice openers. Arrive early for Jagjaguwar's latest sons and daughters Alex Delivery, Kosher labelmate Chris Garneau, the affirmation fiends that comprise Monitor-signed Brooklynites Yeasayer, and Frog Eyes' own touring guitarist Ryan Beattie (aka Himalayan Bear), all of whom trade opening duties across various stretches. [MORE...]
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Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Kick Off Tour, Just Miss T.I.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah will kick off their previously reported tour tonight in Providence. After they finish with North America, they'll head to Australia in late May and Europe in the summer.

CYHSY's tour partners for most of their North American dates are Elvis Perkins in Dearland, who will hopefully provide a better match for the band than their pairing with T.I. at a Duke University concert this past weekend.

According to an email from reader Jeff Harrell, the show at Cameron Indoor Stadium drew mostly T.I. fans: "Besides myself and a small group across the floor, no one was moving or even really applauding... [Singer] Alec [Ounsworth] made fun of the lack of enthusiasm several times, finally getting a roar from the audience when he announced that the next song was the last."

T.I. apparently found the band's set unnecessary, dude, as he arrived to the show late and then performed for 40 minutes of his scheduled hour, according to Duke newspaper The Chronicle. Duke University Union officials told The Chronicle that T.I. then neglected the "accommodations" he asked for in his rider and instead went to dinner at P.F. Chang's China Bistro.

DUU officials are now considering a lawsuit against the rapper for a violation of his $70,000 performance contract. But if they wanted vigilante justice, they could always go to the 'jects, where the Gs at, to retrieve the money themselves.

Anyway, the point is, if T.I. had come early to catch Clap Your Hands, and then stuck around to hang out with the band afterwards, none of this would have happened. [MORE...]

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Chemical Brothers Are the Night on New Album
Klaxons, Midlake, Fatlip guest

Photo by Hamish Brown

The Chemical Brothers will release their sixth LP, We Are the Night, via Astralwerks on June 19. The duo's last album was 2005's Push the Button, and like that record and the ones before it, Night features a bevy of guest stars.

Fatlip (formerly of the Pharcyde), Klaxons, Midlake, Willy Mason and all contribute to We Are the Night, and the first single-- "Do It Again [ft. Ali Love]"-- is due out soon.

The Chemical Brothers will take to European clubs and festival stages this summer starting with a May 25 date in Bucharest. A U.S. tour is in the works for September. [MORE...]

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A-Trak and Catchdubs Launch Fool's Gold Label
Releases from Kid Sister, Cool Kids, Kavinsky, Trackademicks on the way

Between touring with Kanye West, starting a clothing line, and his remix work, A-Trak already has quite an impressive resume. And now, thanks to a partnership with New York DJ Nick Catchdubs, he can re-add "label owner" to his list of job titles for the first time since the demise of his previous label, Audio Research.

A-Trak and Catchdubs' new label is called Fool's Gold. They have enlisted graphic artist Dust La Rock to design the label's logos and sleeves, and A-Trak's brother and former Audio Research partner (Chromeo's Dave 1) will also play a role behind the scenes.

Fool's Gold's focus will be on releasing hip hop, electro, and music that combines and borrows from both genres in new ways. And when it comes to release schedules, Catchdubs said in an interview with Pitchfork that the two want Fool's Gold "to be like when Rawkus first came out and was dropping 12"s every month. That's what we're shooting for."

They're on their way to that goal with their first release, Kid Sister's Armani XXXChange-produced "Control" single. The 12" will come out this month, with the A-Trak-produced "Damn Girl" on the B-side along with DJ Gant-Man's juke remix of "Damn Girl".

The second Fool's Gold release will be a bootleg 12" of select tracks and blends from A-Trak's Dirty South Dance mixtape, and an EP by Chicago rap duo the Cool Kids will follow that. The Cool Kids EP will feature four songs: "88", "I Rock", "Gold and a Pager", and a new one they are recording now.

The next two releases will be 12" singles by Bay Area DJ Trackademicks and Parisian electro producer Kavinsky, whose 12" release will coincide with his opening spot on Daft Punk's North American tour with the Rapture this summer.

Releases in the Fool's Gold future include work with London house producer Sinden, a DJ Gant-Man EP, a single from Chicago MC and Friend-of-Kanye GLC, and albums by Kid Sister, the Cool Kids, Trackademicks, and A-Trak himself. [MORE...]

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Stripes' Icky Thump Release Date, Cover Art Revealed

The sixth LP of Motor City mayhem (now Nashville mayhem?) from the White Stripes now comes complete with a release date! Icky Thump will hit European shelves June 18 via XL Recordings, and the rest of the world from Warner Brothers the following day, June 19.

To date, every White Stripes album cover's been black and white and red all over, and Icky Thump’s not gonna break no precedent, finding Jack and Meg donning Bedazzled suits and sitting on logs. Fair enough.

Thanks to reader Alex Iniguez for the heads-up!

As we previously reported, Icky Thump has a tracklist, and the band is touring. [MORE...]

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Monks Tribute Comp [ft. Gossip, Fall, Faust] USA-Bound
Plus: Mouse on Mars, Raincoats, Jason Forrest, Silver Apples + Alan Vega, Jon Spencer

Looks like the transatlantic feedback is finally crossing that ocean for real. Silver Monk Time-- the previously reported tribute to international proto-avant-pop act the Monks that landed overseas last October-- will finally crash U.S. shores June 19 via Play Loud!

Play Loud! also brought us last year's documentary Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback, which in turn provided impetus for this covers compilation and even a few live appearances from the aging Monks themselves.

Silver Monk Time includes cuts from the Fall, the Gossip, Faust with original Monk Gary Burger, Mouse on Mars, Jason Forrest, Silver Apples with Alan Vega (ex-Suicide), the Raincoats, Jon Spencer with Solex, Alec Empire (ex-Atari Teenage Riot) with Burger, Monika imprint chief Gudrun Gut (ex-Einstürzende Neubauten), and Quentin Tarantino's beloved 5.6.7.8's, among others.

The Transatlantic Feedback, meanwhile, continues screening at film festivals around the world. The doc recently scooped up prizes at Würzburg International Film Days and San Francisco's Beyond Film Festival, and will appear at the Festival of German Films in Australia and Prague's Music on Film/Film on Music event later this year.
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Long Blondes Coming to America Thanks to Beggars

Yes! Pitchfork's 48th favorite album of 2006, the Long Blondes' Someone to Drive You Home, is finally coming out in North America. Released last year in Europe on Rough Trade, the stylish post-punk troupe's debut will hit our shores June 5, thanks to the good people at the Beggars Group.

The North American version of Someone to Drive You Home comes loaded with four bonus tracks, as well as the video for the single "Once and Never Again". The Blondes plan to support the release with a brief North American tour in June, followed by a more extensive one in September. They'll also spend the summer festival-hopping in Europe, Scandinavia, and Japan.

As for new Long Blondes music, the band has contributed a song, "The Unbearable Lightness of Buildings", to the Tate Modern art gallery's Tate Tracks project. The project commissions artists to write songs inspired by pieces in the gallery, then offers the songs on headphones hanging in the gallery next to the work. "The Unbearable Lightness of Buildings" was inspired by Jannis Kounellis' painting "Untitled", and has been available in the Tate since April 1. Starting May 1, the song will be streaming from the Tate Tracks website. [MORE...]

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Xiu Xiu Subject Us to Old Recordings via 7"

Haha, JK. I'm excited about old school Xiu Xiu recordings. You should be too. According to Austrian imprint Beatismurder-- who will drop Xiu Xiu's Untitled David Horvitz Picture Disc 7" this month-- we should "imagine a more reduced Knife Play-era Xiu Xiu" to "get an idea about what the 3 tracks on this [release] sound like." If you swear by Knife Play, this here's some swell news. Uber-swell, even.

As its non-title suggests, the 7" features photography from Xiu Xiu documentarian David Horvitz, along with three proto-Xiu jams that Jamie Stewart recently rediscovered on an ancient cassette tape, which is this primitive mode of audio storage that predates the mp3.

Xiu Xiu just put out the Remixed & Covered double-disc set, the final release on 5RC (R.I.P.). If you believe the Xiu's antics-ridden website, "the 'Covers' disc has Claire Huxtable, Rudy Huxtable, Cliff Huxtable, Denise Huxtable, Theo Huxtable and Dillweed Huxtable playing Xiu Xiu songs. The 'Remixes' disc has Ghandi [sic] and Malcolm X remixing a Xiu Xiu song each." Dillweed, huh?

As previously reported, sleep-averse Stewart joins an elite indie panel entrusted with selecting the best XBXRX video in the history of ever. Xiu Xiu, meanwhile, embark tomorrow night on the portion of their spring tour that involves Sunset Rubdown. [MORE...]
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Sanctuary Records to Cease New Releases in U.S.

The American home to Morrissey, Idlewild, Tegan and Sara, Jonny Greenwood's reggae comp, and more, England's Sanctuary Records Group will soon cease its front-line operation in the United States and focus exclusively on catalog releases. This is according to a Billboard.biz report and confirmed by a spokesperson at the imprint. UK operations will presumably continue as before.

Ex-Cranberries frontlady Dolores O'Riordan's Are You Listening?, out May 15, will likely be the label's final new release in the U.S. Meanwhile, the status of Tegan and Sara's latest LP, The Con, is unknown at this time. That record was slated to come out July 24.

As of June 30, the label will shift focus entirely to its catalog-- which, according to a Sanctuary spokesperson, will include both existing titles (including the Wedding Present, the Pentangle, Joe Meek, and more) and future reissues. The Sanctuary Records Group umbrella includes the Attack, Castle, Trojan, Vapor, and Fantastic Plastic sub-labels, among others.
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Man Man, Oakley Hall, Buckner on WUAG Comp
Also David Bazan, Hem, Talkdemonic, Swearing at Motorists

Greensboro, North Carolina college radio station WUAG has assembled another double-disc compilation of local and national artists to follow up last year's 18 Watts Is Better Than None. The new compilation is titled Taylor 25: A Nostalgic Retrospective, after the room in which the recordings take place and the approximate number of years the station has occupied that room (it will move to a new building this fall).

Like 18 Watts, Taylor 25 features the national acts on one disc and the local ones on another. Among those national acts are Man Man, Oakley Hall, Hem, Richard Buckner, Nicolay, Swearing at Motorists, Jolie Holland, and Tara Jane O'Neil.

Taylor 25 comes out today, April 10, and WUAG will follow its release with four nights of shows featuring Taylor 25 artists from April 11-14. Non-comp contributors Parts & Labor will play the first show with the Foreigners, Boa Narrow, and the Bronzed Chorus at Greene Street, and Emperor X will play the last show with the Never and Embarrassing Fruits at Chapel Hill's Local 506 club. [MORE...]
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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.)

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File-icon Fri: 04-27-07: 10:00 AM CDT
Modest Mouse, Interpol, TVotR Play Accelerator Fest

File-icon Fri: 04-27-07: 06:00 AM CDT
Exclusive: Patrick Wolf Explains His "Retirement"

File-icon Thu: 04-26-07: 08:30 PM CDT
R.I.P. San Fadyl of the Ladybug Transistor

File-icon Thu: 04-26-07: 06:20 PM CDT
Exclusive: Spoon Reveal Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Cover Art

File-icon Thu: 04-26-07: 05:00 PM CDT
Clap Your Hands Say No to Four Dates

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