2006 may forever be known as the year metal crossed over-- or, at least, the year metal ransacked the casual indie listener s iPod. It was at Pitchfork, anyway: Mastodon s Blood Mountain entered the hallowed halls of Pitchfork s Best New Music section, songs and records from Nachtmystium, Agalloch, and Gojira drew considerable praise from our writers, and, last June, the website inaugurated its first monthly metal column, Brandon Stosuy s Show No Mercy .
For kids who like their coffee black and their metal blacker, good news: black metal overlords and (featuring Nachtmystium frontman Blake Azentrius Judd and members of Isis, Leviathan, Krieg, and Draugar) each have new releases in the pipes for 2007.
First up, Twilight have parted ways with bandmate Malefic (aka ). We wish him the best of luck with Xasthur..
.he still has our support 100%, wrote Judd.
They ve also welcomed new member Aaron Turner (of , Old Man Gloom, begin writing their next record, the follow-up to 2005 s self-titled debut.
We feel that Aaron will bring a new element into our formula and we re very excited to be working with him, enthused Azentrius.
Said album should be wrapped up by autumn, and will NOT [be] recorded on 4 tracks in hotel rooms like the first! Everything will be way more For their third album, the still unfinished Getback, Durham hip hop group are leaving a few people behind.
First, according to HipHopGame.com, they have split with longtime producer . MC Big Pooh told the site that they decided, in the best interest of the group, for Little Brother and 9th Wonder to part ways.
There are no hard feelings and no beef. This is just a decision that had to be made so all three of us could move forward and continue to provide the world with dope music.
Next, Pooh also explained to HipHopGame.
com that Little Brother are in the process of negotiating our release from [Atlantic] due to a difference in philosophies, going into a little bit more detail than he did about the 9th Wonder situation as to what exactly those differences are. We didn t have an A R for The Minstrel Show. We don t have any type of relationship with our current A R.
There are just a lot of internal issues that ended up working against us...
[It s not] a situation where they decided to drop us due to lack of sales. If that was the case, they never would have opened up the budget for us to record Getback.
As for exactly when they will leave the label and who will put out Getback, Little Brother manager Big Dho said, I think we may just put the album out on Asylum to close our deal, but it s definitely a wrap for us at Atlantic.
Little Brother will release a free mixtape titled And Justus for All for download on February 13. DJ mixed the tape, and Pooh said the decision to offer it online was a result of the recent . After the Drama situation, we felt it was in the best interest of all of us to just give this mixtape away, with the current climate of the mixtape scene.
tour or a tour? How about a Xiu Xiu/Sunset Rubdown tour?!
So much emoting it hurts!! From April 12-24, the bands will together for ten shows, all with person Katie Eastburn opening.
Before the big dates, however, Xiu Xiu will get some practice in with a trek with and starting in late March. Sunset Rubdown, on the other hand, will keep on keeping on after Xiu Xiu drop off the joint trek, wrapping the rounds up with Eastburn at their side. As , Xiu Xiu s second collaboration with under the name, Spicchiologi?
, is tentatively slated for a May 29 arrival limited to 1000 copies, was later released on vinyl via . Now, K is gearing up to reissue Poor Aim on CD with seven bonus tracks. It is due in its from Blow buds Strategy, Lucky Dragons, and DJ Alan Fortarte (White Rainbow), shows on the agenda, many of them alongside Of Montreal and YACHT, including one tonight (January 30) at San Diego s SOMA.
YACHT has a handful of his own gigs lined up as well, including two performances at SXSW in March. He plans to release a new album sometime this year.
in a high, squeaky voice.
And nothing says best Easter gift ever like a DVD copy of the movie, !
family-friendly folks at s Home Vision imprint.
Directed, produced, shot, and edited by , A Family Movie (Low, Retribution Gospel Choir), author Rick Moody, and WNYC radio host Composer and saxophonist/composer joined the ranks of Paul McCartney, Quincy Jones, and Led Zeppelin on January 25, when they were announced as the recipients of the 2007 .
Not to be confused with the , the Polar Music Prize was founded in 1989 by the late ABBA publisher, lyricist, and manager Stig Stikkan Anderson. According to its website, the Polar Music Prize is given to individuals, groups, or institutions in recognition of exceptional achievements in the creation and advancement of music. The announcement was made in Stockholm at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, which sponsors the Prize.
The city will host both musicians during a weekend of exhibitions, workshops, seminars, film screenings and live performances called Polar Music Prize Week, and Sweden s King Carl XVI Gustaf will give them the award at a nationally televised gala at the Stockholm Concert Hall on May 21. Reich and Rollins will both receive one million Swedish Crowns (approximately 140,000 U.S.
dollars) as part of the award. The Consul General of Sweden will also host a reception and press event in New York City on February 1.
The Polar Music Prize Award Committee s citations explaining the choices of Reich and Rollins are below.
New Avalanches Album in the Works, Finally Oh , since you left us, so much has happened. Girl Talk, for example. And M.
I.A. And Diplo and Gwen Stefani and Fergie and.
..oh we have so much to tell you!
Not that you ve completely vanished since your explosive debut album detonated over six years ago. There s been the occasional remix ( , , ) and DJ set, and various members have popped up here and there, but we haven t heard anything about a new album..
.until now. Yesterday, January 29, a on the Avalanches credited to theavalanchesdotcom offered a progress report, saying that a new album is in the works.
The record will be so fuckin party you will die, much more hip hop than you might expect and much of last year was spent cutting up the spoken word/instructional records we need to tell the albums musical story, and we have some 40 odd songs we re narrowing down and finishing. No release date has been set yet, but one day when you least expect it you ll wake up and the sample fairy will have left it under your pillow. Awesome!
That s even easier than downloading! To satiate fans, the group has posted a few new tracks on their website, including a Wham!/Digitalism mashup and a remix of a Carl Craig remix of their own A Different Feeling (yes, it s a remix of a remix).
The Good, the Bad and the Queen Hit North America have been romping around the UK on their tour, and now they ve announced that the romp will make its way to North America with five dates in March. They re also playing Coachella in April, and there s a nice big gap in between, with the promise of more dates to be announced.
is at home in Sweden right now, cranking out his second solo album (due this year on ), but this spring, he ll head to our shores for a few shows.
After a one-off performance at a music festival in Singapore in March, he ll hit the States in late April/early May for two completely random gigs in Marfa, Texas and Urbana, Illinois. Sandwiched between the two shows is a stop at Coachella, where Gonz a lez will join the Arcade Fire, the Decemberists, the Good, the Bad and the Queen, the New Pornographers, the Rapture, LCD Soundsystem, Girl Talk, Peter Bjorn and John, and many, many in carrying Day Two of the event. Additional dates are in the works.
live show, though, keep your eyes on the tube. This week, , a Award (aka a Swedish Grammy) in the category of Regeringens Exportpris . Yep.
The ceremony airs tonight on TV4 in Sweden. is competing for Best Electronic/Dance Album, and Jos e is featured on four of its songs.
Vashti, ex-Arab Strap, ex-Delgados on Idlewild Lit Comp
Plus Sons and Daughters, Trashcan Sinatras, Aereogramme, James Yorkston, King Creosote Break out the librarian glasses and the Scottish stereotype of your choosing, kids: it s time to get literary in the highlands.
See, indie rockers and their fans have always been a bookish sort, so the marriage of writers and rockers on the forthcoming Ballads of the Book compilation seems only natural.
Why not have a bunch of (mostly) Scottish musicians interpret the writings of Scottish authors and poets in one raging orgy of liberal arts awesomeness? he thought.
And so he set up a chatroom (read: pure conjecture) and invited all his music pals and his literature buddies to pair off. After a bunch of OMGs and LOLs, pair off they did. Before he knew it, Roddy had Vashti Bunyan, ex-Arab Strap gents Aidan Moffat (with the Best Ofs) and Malcolm Middleton, ex-Delgados Alun Woodward (as Lord Cut-Glass) and Emma Pollock, Aereogramme, Sons and Daughters, Trashcan Sinatras, Mike Heron (The Incredible String Band), Alasdair Roberts, James Yorkston, King Creosote, and Karine Polwart commingling with the likes of Morgan, Ian Rankin, and Alasdair Gray.
Hence, the 18-track Ballads of the Book arrives March 5 via , with support from the . To celebrate, Roddy s recruited a number of Ballads contributors for a , going down tonight (i.e.
, pretty much right now) at Glasgow s Royal Concert Hall. Performers include Idlewild, Yorkston, Heron, Polwart, Roberts, and more.
Also: Nelly Furtado, Snoop Dogg, Fall Out Boy, the Hives, Elton John, She Wants Revenge (?
!) will follow his monster 2006 collaboration with Justin Timberlake on with an album under his own name, his first since Under Construction II with Magoo in 2003, according to Billboard.com.
Timbaland has a whole new batch of collaborators for the album, which is titled Shock Value and due out March 27 on /Blackground/Interscope. Those involved include Timberlake, Jay-Z, Nelly Furtado, M.I.
A., Elton John, Snoop Dogg, Fall Out Boy, the Hives, She Wants Revenge, and Mosley Music Group signee Keri Hilson. Its first single-- (featuring Timberlake and Nelly Furtado)-- will premiere this week.
Timbaland prot e g e Nate Hills (aka ) told Billboard that Shock Value is sequenced like a movie, with Timbaland using his ridonkulous guest list to venture into the alternative world and the real pop world. He has so many different sounds, from hip hop to pop to rock on this album. And he pulls every single one of them off perfectly.
Timbaland is currently on tour with Justin Timberlake, and-- according to Billboard.com-- debuting snippets from Shock Value during his mini-set each night.
For a guy who died over 32 years ago, has been awfully prolific these days.
Not content simply to loan his music to TV adverts and serve up 2004 s Made to Love Magic , Drake s ready to haunt emotional young people well into 2007.
First up, the deceased has a new LP on the way, tentatively due in late spring or early summer on Island UK. Titled Family Tree, the disc collects some extremely rare Drake material, none of which has been mastered or released officially.
While a few of the tunes have crept onto bootlegs, much will grace fans ears for the very first time. At least, that s what they tell us-- the tracklist is not yet confirmed.
Next, festival attendees will have several opportunities to indulge in their love for all things Drake.
The favorably-received 2000 documentary -- featuring Drake s actress sister Gabrielle Drake, his producer Joe Boyd, his arranger Robert Kirby, and Paul Weller-- will screen at the Convention Center Theater at 11 a.m. on March 17.
Once sufficiently depressed, drag your feet on over to ACC Room 15 at noon, where Gabrielle, Joe, and special guest Robyn Hitchcock will discuss Nick s legacy at a panel titled Nick Drake Remembered .
Then get a glimpse of the man himself at the A Place to Be photo exhibit, going down at the Habana Annex on March 17 from noon to 6 p.m.
This marks the first curated exhibit of Drake s official photographs, most of which were taken by the late British photographer Keith Morris. Several living musical acts will pay tribute to Drake throughout the day.
Finally: If you imbibe enough, you just might catch Drake s ghost playing a few tunes in between sets from Girl Talk and the Pipettes at .
P.S. , classical pianist/radio host reinterprets Drake favorites as part of , going down at UCLA s Royce Hall theater on February 16.
Expect O Riley s Drake takes to appear on Second Grace: The Music of Nick Drake, out this April via World Village/Harmonia Mundi.
Since the of Type 1 Spinal Muscular Atrophy last month, support in the form of benefit concerts and raffles has poured in, with benefits in and taking place last weekend.
The mighty Steve Albini is joining the charge along with the rest of , who will play a second Chicago benefit for the young Robbins at Subterranean on April 27.
Shellac in a tiny club? That s worth skipping Coachella for, right? As , the band was recently added to the lineup of the festival, which makes two Shellac shows inside of a month (their festival appearance is on May 19).
Those of you who smell the approach of a new Shellac record are onto something, as one is promised later this year. Other than that, we know about as much as you do.
Finally, for those who either don t live in New York City or Chicago or simply aren t able to make it to a benefit, you can still go to donate money to the Robbins family on Cal s behalf.
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