Mission of Burma are poised to sonically obliterate the West Coast on a short tour starting this Friday in Seattle. After a summer of playing shows and festivals (including the Pitchfork Music Festival) in support of their much-celebrated full length , the post-punk legends are heading out for seven dates with . And we re pleased to announce that guitarist Roger Miller will be sharing his diary from the tour exclusively here on Pitchfork.
Look for regular entries starting Friday. As another added bonus, show attendees who wish to display their Burma love in convenient wall-decoration form can mail their ticket stubs to s Mission of Burma Poster Giveaway (625 Broadway, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10012), along with a return address, and the label will mail back two Burma posters in return. It s the hottest thing in snail mail since .
In other news, Mission of Burma recently appeared on the Chicago Public Radio show . So here we are just peacefully cruising for YouTubes, when what should fall into our laps but internet links to totally illicit video footage from ? (Incidentally, readers, we love hearing about Ben Gibbard s latest yacht-pop cover and everything-- uh no, seriously-- but these are the kinds of tips you should be sending us.
) Bear in mind, the shoddy camerawork here (and kinda crummy sound quality) captures about 1% of the intensity of witnessing s maniac maelstorm first-hand or having your face sheared off by the truly unstoppable , but you know what-- if you couldn t make it out, it s better than not having seen it at all. Here s to waiting on the DVD: Remember once upon a time when the ugly duckling grew up to be a beautiful, confident swan? Sorry kids, but in the indie rock world, that just doesn t happen.
Take our friends . Earlier this year, they put out an EP (Sex Brain) about that whole sexual awkwardness deal we re all too familiar with. Starting tonight in Washington, DC, join their empathy party as it hits the East Coast for a month-long tour.
The Swans will make the trip as a trio (acoustic guitar, violin, bass) and will be traveling by way of a 1995 Ford Taurus. Accompanying the Black Swans on the road is , aka Lou Rogai, who will be selling copies of his new limited edition vinyl 12 featuring a live set on Princeton s WPRB. A bunch of buzzed, under-sexed co-eds crammed elbow-to-elbow in a small capacity club?
Sounds like a blast. In other Black Swans news, they have a new full-length on its way, due in 2007. The record was co-produced and mixed by fellow Ohioan Pat Carney of .
On their , chart-topping Brit rockers re-define empire as an adjective, meaning: to be the best, to have won...
Something that is superb, great, and agreeable. You are empire. Hmm, something tells me the OED is not down.
But let s try it out:
The sandwich I had for lunch today was pretty empire.
Ehhh yeah. Better than money as an adjective.
But not much. Linguistic revisionism aside, Kasabian s second LP Empire hits the States and Canada September 19, thanks to the RCA puppy dog. The disc offers 11 tracks written by the band-- Tom Meighan (vocals), Sergio Pizzorno (lead guitar, keyboards), Chris Edwards (bass), and Ian Matthews (drums)-- during two extreme years on the road (touring with Oasis, no less).
Jim Abiss (Arctic Monkeys, Paul Oakenfold, Placebo) produced the album, and the K gang recorded it at in Wales.
Kasabian will seek to expand their Empire later this month as they embark on a North American tour with krazy-kewl Danes , who are, incidentally, totally empire. Pop quiz, hotshots: what do an old abandoned pencil factory, recording artist s apartment, and producer s (Calexico, Laura Cantrell) hallway have in common?
They re all places where Buckner recorded his eighth studio album, Meadows. The ten-track LP hits stores via Merge this Tuesday, September 12 (pencil it in!).
Although Meadows was recorded in Brooklyn, it sounds a lot like a long road trip through the spacious American West: Buckner s road-weary voice steers the vehicle, supported by musical contributions from other passengers, including Doug Gibbard (Guided By Voices, Cobra Verde), Kevin March (GBV, Those Bastard Souls, Dambuilders), Steven Goulding (Mekons, Graham Parker, Waco Brothers), and Foster (who also produced Buckner s albums Since and Devotion + Doubt).
Buckner has been touring away these final days of summer with recent Saddle Creek signing . The two rambling men will continue criss-crossing the country through the end of this month, and then Buckner will forge on alone for a string of October dates.
Like the hydra s heads and Mickey Mouse s deviant brooms, the celestial, cinematic post-rock stylings of curiously-named New York trio never die-- they just multiply. Although the band in early 2005, its ex-members have quickly set to work crafting more dreamy music in various outfits: singer/guitarist Alley Deheza teamed with Secret Machine Benjamin Curtis to form ; Alley s sister Claudia journeyed with Guillermo Scott Prefuse 73 Herren to ; and Phillip Wann-- with pal Jay Giampietro and, initially, Claudia-- established .
The C.
Deheza/Herren collabo A Cloud Mireya, first of all, has already dropped its debut, , on vinyl. Those averse to the stylus can take heart: the album arrives September 12 in CD format, thanks to . A press release claims that production values were ignored during the recording of Singular-- which collects songs Deheza and Herren put together over the last three years-- and that the tunes keep their natural state, evoking the moments they were first played.
Raw!
I would go to Guillermo with a song, complete with structure, lyrics, and melodies, and we would figure out the instrumentation from there, Deheza told Pitchfork via e-mail. He would focus on drums and textures while I hummed out parts to him for the other instruments.
The actual playing on the recording I left mostly to him since I knew it would come out better that way.
Guillermo even sang with Deheza on tracks Illusional and Winter Sleep . And get ready for the cute-meter to explode: Singular isn t the couple s only baby.
Herren and Deheza recently welcomed bouncing baby boy Alejandro Elias into the world. Singular s opening track is even dedicated to the little guy. Cute-cute-kaboom!
Meanwhile: Come October 31, L.A. imprint will release the debut full-length from ex-O!
A!L! member Phillip Wann s Daylight s for the Birds, Trouble Everywhere.
Kimchee Records co-honcho Andy Hong produced the ten-track set, which features most of Daylight s current incarnation, including Wann, Giampietro, drummer Brad Conroy (ex-Boggs), and new vocalist Amanda Garrett (one-time backing vocalist for Elliott Smith). Expect five new dream-pop acts to emerge when this one calls it quits-- which won t be anytime soon, we hope! Those new tunes sure are lovely.
Your attention, please. Now turn off the light. The are back!
Understand, do you understand? It was announced today that will reunite with the beloved (and, OK, pretty strongly hated, too) 80s/90s alt-rock band that made his decadent, quasi-misogynistic leerings famous. Dulli, bassist John Curley, guitarist Rick McCollum, and drummer Michael Horrigan plan to gather in the band s former homebase of Cincinnati, Ohio in two weeks to work on their first new songs since their final album, 1998 s 1965.
(Check the vintage promo photo up there!) Although it s not the classic Gentlemen-era lineup, hey, we ll take what we can get. After four days of rehearsal, the band will head to Ardent Recording Studios in Memphis, Tennessee to record with Jeff Powell, who worked with the band on Gentlemen, Black Love, and 1965.
The new material is slated to be included on an Afghan Whigs retrospective collection entitled Unbreakable, due out in March or April on Rhino. As of right now, only two songs are scheduled to be recorded, but hopefully the sessions will result in more. However, Dulli hasn t abandoned his current band, the Twilight Singers, as they are set to kick off their second American tour of the year on October 24 at San Francisco s Great American Music Hall.
(They ll play Los Angeles House of Blues the next night, October 25; the full tour itinerary will be announced next week. The Twilight Singers will also head to the UK and Europe this winter.) Dulli drinking buddy will join the band for the entire tour.
To put it mildly, I am pretty fucking stoked.
Old Yoshimi had a band..
. Experimental Japanese avant-rock practitioners -- led by Yoshimi P-we of Boredoms/Pink Robots fame-- plan to shock, awe, and confound kids across America with new full-length Taiga, due September 12.
This is the hardworking fourpiece s third album on and fourth U.
S. release (not counting, of course, a few LPs only available in Japan)-- not bad for a once fictitious band: OOIOO originally formed as a made-up group for a 1996 magazine article, and went on to open for Sonic Youth.
Energetic frontwoman/songwriter Yoshimi produced the album, which features a line-up of P-we on vocals, Kayan on guitar, Aya on bass, and AI-- making her OOIOO debut-- on drums.
Although there are no Lennons on Taiga (Sean appeared on Gold and Green), there are contributions from the likes of Yo2ro Tatekawa (Hanadensha) on drums, Thiam Misato on percussion, and Tonchi on steel pans.
Taiga, meaning big river in Japanese and forest in Russian, sounds like a back-to-nature affair, featuring chants, screams, tribal rhythms, and bird calls. Nature themes seem to work well for OOIOO, as their sound from album to album-- like the natural world-- continues to grow, change, complexify, and evolve.
Belgian mash-up masters (aka 2ManyDJs brothers David and Stephen Dewaele, along with Stefaan Van Leuven, Dave Martijn, and Steve Slingeneyer) have the most ridiculously annoying in the history of the internet. Had to say it. Moving right along, Soulwax return September 12 with the U.
S. release of Nite Versions on . Inspired by the idea of extending and expanding songs to make them dancefloor-friendly ( la Duran Duran s disc of the same name and the Human League s Love and Dancing), the Soulwax LP clubifies tracks from the band s last release Any Minute Now.
We re not trying to make some tribute to the 80s here, said Stephen in a press release, We re making something that s referential to the whole notion of the 12 single from lsquo;Blue Monday , lsquo;French Kiss , or lsquo;Pigbag , to the present day and like-minded people and friends like Tiga, DFA, and Gomma.
The 10-track album includes Soulwax s club version of E-Talking , their Kawasaki Dub of NY Lipps , and the Daft Punk cover, Teachers . On the latter track, instead of name-dropping their techno/house inspirations (as do Daft Punk), Soulwax list all their rock influences: Cheap Trick, T.
Rex, Sonic Youth, Jane s Addiction, AC/DC, the Clash, MC5, etc.
The lsquo;wax will bring their club-friendly confections to the dance-happy masses across the U.S.
and Canada this month.
Three guys and a girl hell bent on creating nationality and gender confusion for concert promoters and casual music fans the world over-- yep, it s . The multi-culti quartet has announced the follow-up to 2005 s eponymous debut, called Talk to La Bomb and set to make a splash on September 12 via Verve Forecast.
The Girls recorded Talk to La Bomb at in New York, with Bowie-producer and old Car grabbing co-production credits (the latter for song Last Call ), along with the band themselves. Listening to the new disc, you might think Ocasek contributed some guitar, and that s because he did.
Also joining the band on La Bomb: Clark Gayton (trombone, baritone, saxophone), Peck Almond (woodwinds), Jorge Continentino (flutes, saxophone), James Zollar (flugelhorn, trumpet), and Mauro Refosco (percussion).
Oh, and just when you thought not-actually-Brazilian frontwoman Sabina Sciubba couldn t get any cooler, she goes ahead and sings in five different languages. True story.
The band has a bunch of performances scattered over the next couple of months, both in the U.
S. and Iceland. Do you have a news tip for us?
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