Arcade Fire Cast Off on Tour Tonight

After a #2 debut, an abortive effort at a proper European tour, an emergency surgery, a thousand Pitchfork news posts, and a million blog entries, the curtains will finally be drawn on the Arcade Fire's fiercely-anticipated North American tour tonight in San Diego.

By now, you've heard that they're keeping some impressive company on tour; that their "Keep the Car Running" single can be yours May 8 from Merge; that Win's feeling a whole lot better since they sliced his throat open; that they're doing virtually every European festival once this thing wraps. You've pored over lyric sheets and Wikipedia'd every instrument they use. But until you've heard "Antichrist Television Blues" live, or bathed in Regine's sweat, or gently taunted that dude who looks like Jon Heder, can you really call yourself a scholar of the Neon Bible? Dunno, dude. But here's your chance. [MORE...]

Rhino Compiling Jesus and Mary Chain Rarities Box

Not much info yet to report, but according to a representative at the label, Rhino Records is in the process of mining the hallowed Jesus and Mary Chain archives and compiling an extensive rarities box set.

Jim Reid is aiding in the selection process and will approve the final tracklist for the set, which should include about 80 JAMC jams spread over four CDs when it's done. About "a half dozen" of those jams have never graced the ears of humanity before; even more will appear on compact disc for the very first time. Look for the as-yet-untitled collection this fall, and keep your browser situated at Pitchfork for more details as they emerge.

Rarities box set, reunion tour mania, random sibling sideproject...can a full-blown JAMC comeback record be far behind?

In related news, rumors abound that one Scarlett Johansson (the link: Lost in Translation) will join the Reid brothers, singing backup at tonight's gig in Pomona. The official word, direct from the band's publicist: "Anything can happen!!!!" So there you have it. [MORE...]

White Stripes Tour Far Reaches of North America
Introduce this new rock'n'roll fad to citizens of Iqaluit, Nunavut

Fresh off news of their new single in two installments-- and "Icky Thump"'s debut on iTunes today-- the White Stripes' relentless press onslaught continues with an announcement of the first leg of an insanely ambitious North American tour.

As promised previously, this gargantuan jaunt-- in support of Icky Thump, out June 19 here via Warner Bros. and June 18 there via XL-- will whisk the Stripes away to the only 16 States in the Union they've yet to rock during the course of their 10 year career-- and all the blooming Canadian provinces and territories too!

No joke: Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut-- all covered. Nevermind that Nunavut, according to Wikipedia, has less than 30,000 inhabitants spread out over nearly two million square kilometers of land! Might just be the most intimate Stripes show to date.

So does this mean Alaska and Hawaii too? Not yet, but hang tight: Jack and Meg aim to reveal more dates soon.

For now, they'll teach a lesson in Canadian geography beginning June 24 in Burnaby, British Columbia. After nearly a month up north, the Stripes, pending border control approval, finally re-enter the U.S. July 22 for some merry-making out East.

In related news, according to Billboard.com, Jack White's Raconteurs have been recording the follow-up to last year's Broken Boy Soldiers in Nashville, with eyes on a 2008 release. [MORE...]

Banhart, Oldham, Superchunk Cover Guilty Pleasures
Plus: Luna, Mike Watt, Concretes, Petra Haden, Jim O'Rourke, Geoff Farina, Mooney Suzuki

No matter how much people talk about having no guilty pleasures, it's hard to deny that some artists and songs have a little stink on them, rightly or wrongly.

But that's not all bad. There can be a lot of catharsis in screaming from the rooftops about your love for, say, the Deftones (so good!) after so much repression. And when you're a musician yourself, sometimes screaming from the rooftops about your guilty pleasures turns into covering them.

It's under this premise that Engine Room Recordings rounded up some of the biggest names in independent music to have them record versions of their favorite guilty pleasures for a compilation it will release August 7 called Guilt by Association.

Will Oldham, Devendra Banhart, Superchunk, Minutemen/Stooges bassist Mike Watt, Jim O'Rourke, Luna, Petra Haden, Geoff Farina, and the Concretes all contributed to the compilation, which includes covers of songs by Journey, Oasis, the Spice Girls, Destiny's Child, Paula Abdul, Fall Out Boy, Cher, Shania Twain, System of a Down, Blue Oyster Cult, Eddie Money, and the cast of High School Musical. Seriously, this tracklist is amazing.

The folks at Engine Room are also holding a video contest in conjunction with the compilation. The label is currently accepting video proposals for one of three tracks from Guilt by Association: Will Oldham's cover of Mariah Carey's "Can't Take That Away", Devendra Banhart's cover of Oasis' "Don't Look Back in Anger", or Petra Haden's cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing".

To enter the contest, budding directors should submit a brief email to videocontest@engineroomrecordings.com that contains a video concept for one of the songs as well as a link to their previous work. The first round deadline is May 15, at which time the label and a few of the contributing artists will pick five proposals to make. The winning video will be chosen from the resulting five videos (all completed by July 1) and will become the compilation's official music video, with all of the press and prestige that includes. For more information about the compilation and video contest, visit the Guilt by Association MySpace page.

As for how all this mutual, guilty love came about, Engine Room General Manager Wes Verhoeve told Pitchfork that "the concept originated about five years ago, and we resurrected it in early 2006. Together with Randall Poster and Jim Dunbar, who have served as music supervisors for Zodiac, The Aviator, [forthcoming Dylan biopic] I'm Not There, and several Wes Anderson movies, we pulled together this exciting cast of musicians. Sometimes we'd suggest the songs, but sometimes the artists were already enthusiastically armed with their pop song of choice." Associate producer Morgan Lebus was also instrumental in getting in touch with several artists, including Banhart, Oldham, and the Concretes.

As for these artists' pop songs of choice, Mike Watt has never had any problems showing love for the Blue Oyster Cult, but who could have guessed Jim O'Rourke felt so strongly about the Spice Girls? [MORE...]

Johnny Marr on Crowded House Reunion Album

According to Billboard.com, Time on Earth-- the first album in nearly a decade-and-a-half from Kiwi jingle-janglers Crowded House-- will feature Johnny Marr on a pair of tracks, one of which he helped pen. You know, Johnny Marr from the Smiths, and now, Modest Mouse? Yeah, that Johnny Marr.

The album also features a track House-master Neil Finn wrote alongside the Grammy-grubbing Dixie Chicks, and it's produced in part by Dave Matthews' BFF Steve Lillywhite. Time on Earth arrives July 10 in North America via Matthews' own ATO Records, and July 2 in the UK via Parlophone.

In other Marr news, he'll be on the road imparting his worldly wisdom on Modest Mouse for the next several months. [MORE...]

Interpol Reveal Third Album Details
This is the only version of their assertion that you should ever subscribe to

Monday, it was a release date. Today, it's a tracklist and a title. Tomorrow, will it leak? Who can say, really? They may be playing us like a diminished seventh chord, but, like the salivating dogs that we are, we'll take whatever they dish out.

Interpol's third album-- about which we knew virtually nothing, like, two days ago-- will arrive July 10 via Capitol. As announced on the Interpol message board today, it's called Our Love to Admire, and it has a tracklist (which you may view after the red clicky thing). You heard it here first: it will probably also be kinda droney, coke-y, maybe with a pants-kicker or two, interspersed with some pretty bits.

In other Interpol news, Interpol cooks, and cleans up live. Catch them around the world in the coming months.

You may now proceed to get all fired up about "All Fired Up", and screen print t-shirts that read, "There's No I in Threesome". [MORE...]

Pipettes Prep EP, Tour; Debut Gets U.S. Release Date

Praise is not wasted on the Pipettes. After much Fork fawning over We Are the Pipettes last year, the pattern conscious trio have announced a U.S. release date for their debut LP at last. It arrives August 28, via new Stateside home Interscope/CherryTree-- and they're practically hand-delivering it with a North American tour.

The tour will happen two months prior to the album's American release, but if slightly less than perfect timing means we get the Pipettes earlier than expected, then it's time we threw out our polka-dotted day-planners for good!

Plus, the tour is timed extremely well with the June 5 release of the Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me EP on Interscope/CherryTree. In addition to the title track and "I Love You" from We Are the Pipettes, the EP also features non-album tracks "Really That Bad" and "Guess Who Ran Off With the Milkman?" Adorable.

After serenading Europe, Riot Becki, Gwenno, and Rosay kick off their North American jaunt June 1 in Toronto. [MORE...]

Robert Pollard's Best on Final Fading Captain Release
Pressed, printed, stomped, tripped, trapped, tricked, packaged, shipped

Drunkard genius Robert Pollard's a real giver; over the course of his lengthy tenure as one of indie rock's greatest songwriters, he's issued more albums than he's downed Miller Lites, and that cat can suck down a brew-dog. So many albums that even the most official ironman occasionally has to peer into an empty wallet and mutter "maybe next time, Bobby."

Those looking to play catch-up on Pollard's long-running Fading Captain series-- an outpouring of discs by Pollard side projects and friends of the Cap'n himself-- get a little boost May 15, as Crickets: The Best of the Fading Captain Series is released by Luna Music. Sporting 56 tracks splayed over two CDs and 160 minutes, Crickets marks the first appearance of six new Pollard nuggets, including a pair from the recent Silverfish Trivia EP, with the rest representing the best of Fading Captain's 43 chapters.

Though the most dedicated GBV-aholics have already pawned their fillings to pay for much of Fading Captain, the press release chides that Crickets "will be enjoyed by the hardcore fans who own everything and the fringe GBV fan who had trouble tackling the 43 release catalog." The Captain camp is keeping the tracklist under wraps until the compilation drops, leaving us to speculate just how insane it is.

For one of the all-time great namers of things, Pollard sure doesn't like to stick to a moniker for too long: Crickets will mean bon voyage for the Fading Captain Series. On to the next!

Photos: Spoon [Asbury Park, NJ; 04/24/07]

Text and photos by Maria Tessa Sciarrino

At their gig last night at New Jersey's Stone Pony, Spoon treated show-goers to even portions from the past three albums, premiered a few selections from the forthcoming Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (personal favorites of the night and probably the best-sounding of the evening), and used the encore to toss in a track off the recently reissued Soft Effects EP-- a setlist designed to please newcomers and diehards alike.

Unfortunately, the Stone Pony's overzealous fog machine seemed to drain the energy out of the evening. The endless, billowing tufts made it next to impossible to see the band half the time (and this is a small club!); it was probably the the reason why so many bum notes were played. But it didn't seem to matter much to the audience, who enthusiastically cheered the band on to the very end.

Spoon's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga babbles into shops July 10 via Merge; the band's tour, meanwhile, continues tomorrow night in New Haven.




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Bad Brains Reveal Nation Tracklist, Release Date

Break out the tap shoes and jazz hands: the original cast of Bad Brains-- H.R., Darryl Jenifer, Dr. Know, and Earl Hudson-- returns with a vengeance this summer. Come June 26, Megaforce Records will raise the curtain on the Brains' latest, the twelve-act reggae/dub- inflected ode Build a Nation.

As previously reported, Beastie Boy Adam "MCA" Yauch produced the disc, the Brains' first in over a decade. As Yauch told Pitchfork last month, Nation is "more raw sounding than some of [Bad Brains'] other stuff," and "more like the way they sounded live back in the day, seeing them at CBGB's, the amps and the PA at full tilt."

Yauch also claimed the band hasn't lost their touch with age: "The way that they move together, the drums and bass and guitar, is almost like one complex instrument." Behold this complex instrument live at a number of upcoming Bad Brains festival dates, and catch the Build a Nation tracklist, just over yonder. [MORE...]

Gibbard, Leo, Chuck D on Clash Doc Soundtrack
Plus: Mos Def, Radio 4, Moby

The book may perennially trump the movie, but that hasn't stopped journalist/filmmaker/activist Antonino D'Ambrosio from spinning his own 2004 tome, Let Fury Have the Hour: The Punk Rock Politics of Joe Strummer, into a silver screen web of intrigue. (Full disclosure: That book features an essay by our senior news editor Amy Phillips.)

According to Billboard.com, a Tim Robbins-executive produced cinematic companion to Let Fury Have the Hour will barnstorm motion picture palaces in time for next year's U.S. presidential election. In addition to tackling the Clash, the film also examines politically-motivated musicians like Manu Chao and Rachid Taha.

And its soundtrack is shaping up to be something to squawk about: Death Cabbie Ben Gibbard and cool dude Ted Leo head the present list of contributors, which also includes Chuck D (who also penned the Fury book's preface), Mos Def, Moby, and Clash-happy NYC act Radio 4 (who'll also provide the film's score).

Shephard Fairey helps Fury further fight the power with original artwork. Learn more about the book that inspired the movie here.

White Stripes Announce Even More Single Details
"Icky Thump" hits iTunes tomorrow

The White Stripes have continued their recent single-mindedness with the announcement of the B-sides to come with various versions of "Icky Thump", the first single from their forthcoming album of the same name.

The single comes in three different forms: white vinyl 7", standard 7", and CD. As previously reported, the white vinyl version will come with an etching on the B-side that serves as a companion to the etching on the "Rag and Bone" single that will come packaged with the June 6 NME. The standard 7" B-side is "Baby Brother", and the CD features "Catch Hell Blues" as track two.

"Icky Thump" will hit the U.S. and Canadian iTunes stores tomorrow, and Third Man/XL will release all three physical versions of the single on June 11 in the UK. The Stripes' festival tour, meanwhile, kicks off June 1 in Germany. [MORE...]

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