Arctic Monkeys' Turner Preps Last Shadow Puppets LP
Strings by Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett, production by Simian Mobile Disco's James Ford

Arctic Monkeys frontguy Alex Turner writes well into the margins, and it's no real surprise that-- even with his Monkeys' current "one album a year" average-- he's got even more to say than a single band can contain. So he's teamed up with old friend Miles Kane, formerly of onetime Monkeys tourmates the Little Flames and presently of the Rascals (not the "Good Lovin'" Rascals, mind), for a forthcoming LP.

Calling themselves the Last Shadow Puppets, Turner and Kane will release their debut, The Age of the Understatement, via Domino on April 21 in the UK and May 6 in the U.S. The disc features production from Simian Mobile Disco's James Ford (who also helmed the sessions for the last AM disc), and packs in 12 tracks. Orchestration was provided by another young talent: Owen Pallett of Final Fantasy, who conducted the 22-piece London Metropolitan Orchestra for the recording.

The world will get a glimpse of the Last Shadow Puppets on April 15, when Domino unleashes a single for title track "The Age of the Understatement" in 7" and digital formats.

First the first time in some time, there's not a whole lot else going on with those Arctic Monkeys at the moment, though their own Matt Hedlers did recently remix the Hives, so that's something. [MORE...]

Tilly and the Wall Tour, Pressnall Does Flowers Forever

Something happened to Tilly and the Wall's Derek Pressnall. Something weird, inexplicable, and otherworldly. Just what happened isn't exactly clear, but it was a powerful enough trip to cause Pressnall to drop the Tilly stuff for a bit and form Flowers Forever, a new band featuring Pressnall and pals. The self-titled debut full-length from Flowers Forever hit stores today (February 19) from Team Love, and a couple live dates are set to follow.

Fear not, though; Pressnall's break from Tilly, like his break from reality, is only temporary. Here, come see Tilly and the Wall as they tour the country with labelmates Capgun Coup in the coming weeks! Ahh, that's better. [MORE...]

Franz Side Project Correcto Ready Debut LP

A Glaswegian foursome with Paul Thomson on drums will release its new album in the UK on February 25, but it's not Franz Ferdinand. (They're still crafting their own picaresque journey^* of a new LP.)

Instead, the record comes from Correcto, the group Thomson plays in with Danny Saunders, the Royal We's Patrick Doyle, and artist Richard Wright. Just this week Domino released "Do It Better", the second single from the band's self-titled debut, and the label will follow with the album in a little over a week.

Correcto also have a handful of live dates coming up, starting with a show tomorrow night (February 16) in Glasgow.

Franz Ferdinand have a pair of festival shows as well, though they don't arrive until the summer.

* According to a MySpace blog post... [MORE...]

sBACH (Hella's Spencer Seim) Signs to Suicide Squeeze
Sebastian Bach ponders lawsuit for about five seconds before returning to text messaging Axl Rose

Man, this new project from Spencer Seim sounds Hella crazy! Seim, guitarist and founding member of cacophonous Californians Hella, has a new little thing on the side he's calling sBACH.

According to a press release, Seim "promises to have no idea what the record will sound like until he sits down to record." (Though, uh, "kinda crazy" is probably a safe bet, even this far out.) We did note, however, that his MySpace claims "sBACH makes music only old people can hear." Hey, kinda like that other S. Bach!

Suicide Squeeze will release Seim's debut August 19, with an sBACH tour to follow. Since those dates have yet to come to light, and Hella don't seem to be up to much now, we will encourage patience, in ourselves as well as in others.

Laetitia Sadier's Monade Craft Monstre Cosmic, Tour

Though its beginnings lie in the bedroom of Stereolab singer, lyricist, and multi- instrumentalist Laetitia Sadier, Monade has slowly but surely invited more and more folks to the sleepover, transforming into the full-fledged musical unit it is today.

Sadier is still at the helm, joined at present by bassist Marie Merlet, keyboardist/guitarist Nicolas Etienne, drummer David Loquier, and multi-instrumentalist Joe Watson (also of Stereolab). Monade will issue its third LP (and second as a full band), Monstre Cosmic, February 19 in the U.S. and February 18 in the UK via Too Pure/Duophonic. The disc also features guest vocals by Luna Parker's Rachel Ortas and string work by members of the Bordeaux Conservatoire. And, like just about anything Laetitia sings over, it is lovely, and there are synths aplenty.

Monade have a handful of dates in Europe and the UK in February and March. Stereolab, too, have a show on the way: July 19 at Tønsberg, Norway's Slottsfjell Festival. [MORE...]

Deerhoof's Satomi Doubles Up for Oneone Project

The recent addition of fourth Deerhoofer Ed Rodriguez should free vocalist Satomi Matsuzaki to strike more of those adorable poses in the live setting. It has also, it seems, freed her to pursue some extracurricular musical interests.

Oneone is a new music-making outfit comprised of Satomi and Saya Ueno of Japan's much-loved Tenniscoats and Maher Shalal Hash Baz's touring band. The fledging duo will play one of its very first gigs tonight, February 13, at Aquarius Records in San Francisco. Billed as an "acoustic" set, the in-store begins at 6 p.m. Pacific this evening.

We can also look forward to a Oneone album in the near future, boasting the mixing prowess of Deerhoof's Greg Saunier and the label stamp of Japan's P-Vine imprint. Oneone also hope to hit up Japan in June for more live action.

Before all that, however, Deerhoof have a little live action of their own brewing. [MORE...]

Parts & Labor, Shooting Spires Line Up Tours

Jagjaguwar Mapmakers Parts & Labor will do a little more cartography this March on a three-week U.S. tour with SXSW smack dab in the middle. The band also has a solitary show before the tour, which takes place tomorrow, February 2, in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Also before the P&L tour is a February outing from bassist/vocalist BJ Warshaw's Shooting Spires side project, in support of his self-titled bedroom-spun debut. For the tour, Warshaw has expanded the Spires lineup from just himself to a four-piece band. [MORE...]

Death in Vegas, APTBS, Dirty on Purpose Dudes Link Up
Plan album, tour as Black Acid

You've been warned against the brown acid time and again, but the Black Acid? Gobble that one down and, brother, you've got yourself a real trip on your hands. You'll see visions of Richard Fearless of Death in Vegas, be tormented by haunting, echoey voices that sound eerily like that of Oliver Ackermann of A Place to Bury Strangers, and find yourself dragged through the darkest recesses of your soul by Doug Marvin of Dirty on Purpose. When it's all over, you may just be in possession of a newly blown mind.

Black Acid may not be an ingestible commodity, but boy oh boy is it a potent mixture indeed. Combining the face-melting capabilities of bandleader Fearless with those of Ackermann, Marvin, and Nymph's Matty McDermott, the troupe has prepared an LP for release before the summer.

The band's Fearless leader will take Marvin and a ragtag bunch of Acid-heads on the road next month for a Black Acid tour sans Ackermann, who's all over the record but has this other band to attend to.

Death in Vegas freaks, no need to freak: Fearless and his DIV compatriot Tim Holmes are spending this year concentrating on solo projects before heading back to the Strip for some carnage. [MORE...]

Rob Lowe, U.S. Maple Guys Form Singer, Issue Debut

Photo by Robert A.A. Lowe

A quartet of accomplished Chicago musicians has formed under the confusing name Singer to release its debut album on Drag City. Comprised of Rob Lowe (Lichens, 90 Day Men), Ben Vida (Bird Show, Town and Country), and U.S. Maple members Todd Rittmann and Adam Vida, Singer features "all four of these kids singing, harmonizing new chords over their communal cacapho-din," according to a press release.

Singer's debut album, Unhistories, will arrive March 25 via Drag City. And not only is it full of the band's vocal and instrumental interplay, it also supposedly "claims to address the homeless crisis with a physical solution." We smell an Obama running mate!

Singer have two hometown shows coming up in February. [MORE...]

Bloc Party's Russell Lissack Fires Up Pin Me Down
"Cryptic" on Kitsuné comp, 12" due in April

When we reported on the Kitsuné label's Maison 5 compilation last week, there was one band we had a little trouble putting our finger on. That band was Pin Me Down, whose "Cryptic" made the Kitsuné mix. As it turns out, Pin Me Down contains a familiar face: Bloc Party guitarist Russell Lissack.

New York based songwriter Milena Mepris rounds out the duo, who met in 2004 when Mepris' former band Black Moustache opened a NYC gig for Bloc Party. They've been largely crafting tunes intercontinentally, employing email to shoot tracks back and forth over the pond that separates 'em. Hey! Just like the Postal Service!

But soon enough, Pin Me Down will take this mysterious new project beyond the realms of the "Cryptic". Kitsuné has a 12" remix single for the track tentatively set to arrive April 21. The Kitsuné Maison comp, meanwhile, is due worldwide February 4.

But a brand new band ain't all the good stuff coming from Mr. Lissack lately. According to NME.com, Lissack, a vegetarian, recently served as a guest judge in the selection of a new design for a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) t-shirt.

It may be a little hard to believe, but Bloc Party aren't touring at the moment, and apparently have no plans to any time soon. They will, however, play the NME's Big Gig at London's O2 Arena February 28, alongside Klaxons, Kaiser Chiefs, Manic Street Preachers, and the Cribs. And they've still been making their fair share of compilation appearances lately, what with the tunes they contributed to the Xfm Debut Sessions disc and the Green Owl environmental comp.

Sunn O)))'s O'Malley Does KTL LP/Tour, Art Collab LP
KTL also gears up for Kindertotenlieder theater performances

Photo by Gisele Vienne

When he isn't crafting .01 mph metal jams with Sunn O))) or helping run the Southern Lord imprint, Stephen O'Malley is doing, well, heaps of other things.

One of those things is KTL, his doom-laden collaboration with Mego label chief Peter Rehberg (aka Pita). Since joining forces in 2006, KTL have managed to hit us with four full-length releases already. The latest, Live in Krems, dropped just this month on Editions Mego. The vinyl-only, four-song set was recorded, you guessed it, live in Krems, Austria at last year's Donaufestival on April 30, 2007. It's limited to a mere 500 copies, so you'd best get on that.

KTL will join Earth and Sir Richard Bishop for a European tour that kicks off February 13. Later, in April, they'll set up shop at Paris' Théâtre de la Bastille for a five-night run of the theatrical piece that was the basis for their formation and the source of their name: Kindertotenlieder. That means "Songs on the Death of Children", so you know this is going to be heavy.

Kindertotenlieder will head to Spain for two May performances as well.

Come February 5, look out for another new release carrying the trusted O'Malley name. 6°Fskyquake is a collaborative effort between O'Malley and Hungarian black metal vocalist extraordinaire Attila Csihar. In addition to having the perfect black metal first name, Csihar was also the dude who put the Nightmare in this past December's ATP Nightmare Before Christmas event, appearing with Sunn O))) as the terrifically horrifying tree-creature seen here.

Consisting of a single 33+ minute title track culled from an original eight-and-a-half hour piece, 6°Fskyquake was created in conjunction with a pair of summer 2007 exhibits featuring work by sculptor Banks Violette. The CD version comes to us thanks once again to Editions Mego. [MORE...]

Black Moth Super Rainbow Busy With Tour, Side Stuff
Power Pill Fist releases sophomore album

Black Moth Super Rainbow will trot out their wacky-vocal wares on tour this March. Starting March 10, the band will Gum up the U.S. for three weeks, including a stop at Graveface Records' South by Southwest showcase.

Appearing at that same SXSW showcase will be Power Pill Fist, the equally out-there side project of BMSR bassist Ken Fec. Fec's second album under the Power Pill Fist moniker is called Kongmanivong, and it comes out via Graveface on February 26. [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.)