Beirut's Condon Talks New LP, Obsession, Exhaustion
Plus: Photos from Beirut's May 6 show at New York City's Bowery Ballroom

Photos by Kathryn Yu

Forget the 1,000 words. For Beirut wunderkind Zach Condon, a picture can contain an entire album.

Take the yellowed snapshot that graces the cover of Beirut's 2006 breakout debut, Gulag Orkestar, in which a pair of young women recline, perhaps mid-roadtrip, on the hood of a car parked on the side of a rural byway. (It was taken, as Condon later learned, by Russian photographer Sergey Chilikov.)

"I found that photo, and I took it home with me," Zach told Pitchfork recently. "It was hanging on the wall the entire time [I wrote and recorded Gulag], and I always kind of felt like, 'It's got to sound like that. It's got to sound the way that looks.'"

As Condon prepares to put the finishing touches on the Gulag follow-up-- which is about to receive string treatment in Montreal from arranger-of-the-moment Owen Pallett (of Final Fantasy and Arcade Fire) and mixing/mastering in Chicago from Griffin Rodriguez (aka Blue Hawaii of Icy Demons and Bablicon)-- it turns out a visual from a bygone era once again provided inspiration.

"I'm thinking about calling [the new album] The Flying Club Cup," Zach revealed. "Back in the early 1900s, like the 1910s or 1920s, there used to be this hot air balloon festival in Paris-- it's titled after that and after this very bizarre 1910 photo I found [by Leon Gimpel]. It's one of the first color photos ever made, at the World's Fair, and it...shows all these ancient hot air balloons about to take off in the middle of Paris. I just thought it was the most surreal image I'd seen in a long time.

"Immediately it was like, 'this needs to be the album cover for the next album,' Zach continued. "So it's been hanging on my wall in front of the computer for the whole record. There's a lot you can take from a weird image like that."

Appropriately, the Gimpel photograph helped conjure musical ideas that are decidedly less Balkan than Beirut's previous output. Indeed, The Flying Club Cup-- which Zach hopes to have out in September via Ba Da Bing in the U.S. and 4AD overseas-- doesn't sound Balkan at all. "I think [people]'ll laugh if anyone says that about this album," said Condon.

For the new album, Zach has gravitated to the sound of lushly-orchestrated baroque pop. "It's a new obsession every year, a new obsession overcomes me and that's all I can do. " [MORE...]

Bonde do Role's "Office Boy" Remixed by CSS, Architecture in Helsinki
Universe of interns looking for the perfect beat

Bonde do Role-- co-presidents of the Brazil chapter of the Afrika Bambaataa fan club-- have quite a proposition for you: they're going to drop four different singles for the same song, and you're going to want all of them. Seriously.

"Office Boy," a spurt of relative normalcy amidst the trunk-rattlin' hotness Bonde do Role With Lasers, will be a Domino Records-issued UK single four times over May 21. Like any good "Office Boy," the single's versatile: there's a CD, a digital download, and two different 7" incarnations. Take heed, though, as the two seven-inchers feature different tracks, the CD version carries bonus remixes from CSS, Architecture in Helsinki, and Shir Khan, and the digital download is a remix by Brodinski. Clever marketing scheme, or simply a funk onslaught from the up-and-comers? We're leaning towards the latter.

Bonde do Role With Lasers is out June 5 in the U.S. and June 4 in Europe, though it's on iTunes now. Details of the physical singles (and some tour dates to boot) after the jump. [MORE...]

Photos: M.I.A.'s Jamaican Vacation

M.I.A. went to Jamaica last week to make the video for "Boyz", the first single from her forthcoming album Kala, and she was kind enough to share some photos from the shoot. We didn't think we could get any more excited about the follow-up to Arular after hearing "Bird Flu" and "Hit That", (UPDATE: "HIT THAT" IS NOT ON THE NEW M.I.A. ALBUM) but oh man...to paraphrase a certain former M.I.A. tourmate, this shit looks B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Check out that bathing suit!

Kala is out August 21 on Interscope (not June 26, as previously reported), and M.I.A. is busy lining up festival dates to promote it, starting in May at Radio 1's Big Weekend in Preston, England.

[MORE...]

Devendra, Jana Hunter Help Matteah Baim's Sun Shine

No, we're not just posting random photographs for the heck of it now; that waving figure to the left of these words is actually folk chanteuse Matteah Baim, casting her electric guitar into the briny deep. That kind of unfiltered spirit is on display all over Baim's Death of the Sun, out May 7 on DiCristina Stair Builders.

Death of the Sun is the first solo album from the former Metallic Falcons axewoman. Baim and CocoRosie's Sierra Cassady disbanded the Falcons a little while back, but Death of the Sun finds Baim in the equally good company of Jana Hunter, Devendra Banhart, Rob Lowe (Lichens, 90 Day Men), and more.

Baim has a pair of live dates remaining in May and June. [MORE...]

Numero Group Compiles Grand Bahama Goombay
Weren't those the little red dudes you made Mario jump on?

The fine folks of Chicago's Numero Group have plumbed deep in the sun-baked crates of the Caribbean and yanked up Cult Cargo: Grand Bahama Goombay, a compilation of Bermuda Triangle-borne boogie sure to make that floral-patterned shirt you're wearing seem somewhat less ridiculous. Operative term: somewhat.

The comp features a whole slew of lesser-known artists from a bygone era of Baha-mania, in the mold of 2005's Belize City Boil Up. Only, y'know, that was Belize, and this is the Bahamas.

Grand Bahama Goombay can be yours May 8 on CD and LP. The vinyl version comes with a bonus track: an instrumental version of Sylvia Hall's "Don't Touch That Thing". [MORE...]

Sage Francis Does Death Dance on Tour
New LP features contributions from Jolie Holland, Buck 65, Alias

Personal journalist Sage Francis will release his newest album, Human the Death Dance, May 8 on Epitaph.

The MC roped in Jolie Holland, Alias, and Buck 65 for collaborations on Death Dance, and the album also includes songs written specifically for a forthcoming movie titled Pride & Glory.

The album's first video-- for the Ginsberg- and Bukowski-name-checking "Got Up This Morning"-- features cameos from Buck 65, Atmosphere MC Slug, Brother Ali, and Jolie Holland, who sings on the track.

Francis will embark on "The Death Dance Tour" with a live band in tow and buddies Buck 65, Alias, and Buddy Wakefield also on the bill. The tour begins May 23 in Cambridge, Mass., but it is book-ended by in-stores and Francis' appearances at Rock the Bells. [MORE...]

QOTSA, NIN, Hella Members on New Goon Moon LP

Goon Moon-- the slop-metal mega-group featuring current Nine Inch Nail Jeordie White (aka Twiggy Ramirez of Marilyn Manson fame) and Chris Goss (ex-Queens of the Stone Age, Masters of Reality)-- will issue Licker's Last Leg May 8 on Ipecac.

Licker, the second full-length from Goon Moon, ropes in guest spots from Hella's Zach Hill, QOTSA front-bro Josh Homme, and NIN/Devo/Vandals drummer Josh Freese. In "The Golden Ball", Goon Moon packs a five-part mini-epic, and in "Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You", Licker also sports what may very well be metal's first Bee Gees cover. [MORE...]

Keren Ann Preps Keren Ann for U.S./UK, Tours

Featherweight French-language Norah Jones-y sigh-popper Keren Ann has taken the self-referential route with her fifth album by naming it after its creator. She's also taken fast-lane into the English-speaking world's heart by filling that album with songs in the very language you are reading right now.

Keren Ann's already in stores in most of Europe, but it'll hit the UK June 4 thanks to Capitol/EMI, and Stateside May 8 on Blue Note. Hey, that's Norah's label! BFFs 4 life.

Keren's also traveling around North America for a spell in June. [MORE...]

No Age Tour, Unveil Weirdo Rippers

That No Age, they're going places! From an unsolicited shout-out from Deerhunter dress-donner Bradford Cox to a recent distribution deal from FatCat Records to some well-received SXSW gigs, ex-Wives Randy Randall and Dean Spunt are sitting awful pretty. And things are only getting sweeter: their debut full-length Weirdo Rippers hits Europe and such June 11 and North American August 28 from FatCat.

No Age'll venture out on a European tour this summer with fellow L.A. punkers Mika Miko; dates for the tour are still firming up, but Californians will get a few cracks at No Age over the next month. [MORE...]

Excepter, Dirty Projectors Members Play NYC Art Maze
Plus: Fischerspooner's Bromley, Ohsees, Skeletons & the Kings of All Cities, Ecstatic Sunshine

A stage, a floor, a speaker, a band; they are the near-universal trappings of live music. Mix a little NYC avant-garde art in there, however, and you've got some new twists and turns. Quite literally, in the case of "You Are Here", a mixed-media installation at the 44th Street Chashama Gallery featuring a maze-like sculpture and a mess of experimental rock bands.

Visitors to the May 6-27 run of "You Are Here" will travel through a maze assembled by Trouble and the B-keepers (aka Zs saxophonist Sam Hillmer and artist Laura Paris), in which they'll happen upon musicians doing their thing. The maze'll be up nearly all of May, which, of course, means a plethora of musical acts will wind their way through during the performance's run.

Noise-makers such as Dirty Projectors mastermind Dave Longstreth (May 14), Skeletons and the Kings of All Cities (May 19), Ohsees (May 13), Ecstatic Sunshine (May 6), Zs (May 27), Ben Bromley of Fischerspooner (May 10), J. Graf of Metalux (May 26), John Dwyer of Coachwhips/Pink and Brown (May 12), John Fell Ryan of Excepter (May 6), and Excepter offshoot Lake (May 27) will be among those soundtracking the labyrinth.

A bunch of other bands/DJs/multimedia artists inhabit the dead ends all May long. Drop by on the days mentioned above, or, for perhaps even more fun, amble through the maze entertainment unbeknown.

Ryan Adams' Easy Tiger Tracklist Revealed
Note to self: don't suck

The tracklist for Ryan Adams' ninth (is it really only ninth?) studio album Easy Tiger was just posted to Billboard.com, featuring such melon-scratchers as "Halloweenhead" and "Oh My God, Whatever, Etc." And what's a guy with an album named Gold doing a song called "Tears of Gold"? OMG, whatever, etc.

Curious titles aside, standout songwriter turned web jester turned Stonehenge crumbler Ryan Adams seems to have taken a bit more time than usual on this Easy Tiger of his, even enlisting the help of your mom's fave-rave Sheryl Crow. If their duet, "Two", even remotely approaches the heights of her Kid Rock-boosted "Picture", we're all in for a treat when the next dentist appointment rolls around.

Adams still has four Mid-Atlantic tour dates planned, all yours (along with the tracklist) after the jump. [MORE...]

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...]

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