business

There must be something irresistible about the folks at . Just over a month ago, the label its business partnership with . Now, former Misra manager Phil Waldorf has created an entirely new label called , in collaboration with the owners of and .

Dead Oceans is off to a good start. This year, the label will release new albums by its first four signees: , , , and . The latter is a collaboration between songwriter Aaron Aites and TV on the Radio s Kyp Malone, and the name of their new album is The Same Song Over and Over.

Dirty Projectors new album is planned for a mid-year release.
Though Dead Oceans will share the Bloomington, Indiana staff of its sister labels, Waldorf will act as its A R from his current location in Austin, Texas. These days, with the record industry in what seems like a constant state of crisis, nobody is immune to the cruel whims of economics.

Not even , arguably the coolest person in the world. When the American arm of the record company , it wasn t just bands like the Raconteurs and the Blood Brothers who were left homeless. Byrne s eclectic label also found itself in the lurch.

The imprint, which has put out albums by the likes of , Tom Z e , Cornershop, and Nouvelle Vague in its almost two-decade-long existence, was without distribution on our shores. According to label manager Yale Evelev, the American distribution problem hasn t been solved just yet. Outside of the U.

S. we are distributed through something called , which is part of V2 Europe, Evelev explained in an email interview. They do a great job and we are very happy with them there.

Now there is a plan afoot that Cooperative Music come over here and set up an office to handle us and the other labels they distribute in Europe: Bella Union, City Slang, Moshi Moshi, etc. However, we have some other options as well in case the V2/Cooperative Music deal doesn t happen as quickly as we would like. Of course, we are always open to other suggestions.

So, what does Luaka Bop have on its schedule that might entice potential partners? How about an expanded reissue of the 1999 Os Mutantes collection , featuring unreleased tracks and videos from the 1960s? Or a live CD/DVD chronicling at London s Barbican last year, their first performance in 30 years?

That s just a piece of what Luaka Bop plans to release this year. This spring will bring the compilation and Futurismo, the latest album by . Futurismo features band members Kassin, Moreno Veloso and Domenico Lancellotti in collaboration with John McEntire (Tortoise, the Sea and Cake) and Sean O Hagan (the High Llamas).

The lovely Futurismo track Ya Ya Ya is available for download below.
First Nebraska, then..

.Kansas. As part of their plan to take over the world, starting with Middle America, the folks at Omaha s have signed a deal to distribute Lawrence, Kansas .

Range Life s first physical release will be former Anniversary songwriter Justin Roelofs self-titled debut as , though the label released the album digitally and on vinyl last year. White Flight will come out on CD March 6, and it will include a documentary titled The Making of White Flight , directed by Brendan Costello and label owner Zach Hangauer.
Range Life has releases by Lawrence bands 1,000,000 Light Years and Fourth of July forthcoming.

Now has one more activity to help him procrastinate the recording/releasing of Detox: making movies. The good doctor and have agreed to a multiyear feature deal, with Dre producing dark comedies before moving onto other areas, such as horror, according to Variety.com.

No word yet on whether or not he will journey into anything a little less morbid.
Dre has created a film company called Crucial Films ( ahead!) to accommodate his new position, and he will deal heavily with the music aspects of his films.

Phillip Atwell, the director of many Aftermath , will co-produce with Dre, and it was New Line s Toby Emmerich who approached him a year ago about the move to movies. He said, I want to be your . There was nothing more he needed to say, Dre said to Variety.

But doesn t Dre already have a Jimmy Iovine?
recently told MTV News UK that they would love to record an r b album with the producer, but with this deal in place, we assume they ll get about the same treatment he gave .
Fast cars, danger, fire knives: all in a day's jog Because nothing screams let s go for a run!

like a guy who raps about the seedy underbelly of the human spirit, is the latest artist to contribute to Nike s series. (You might recall that the was some dude who calls himself LCD Soundsystem.) The s piece, entitled All Day, is a 45-minute continuous mix [that] was created specifically with runners in mind and reflects Aesop Rock s distinct and unique style.

The snippet that we ve heard has a retro space-funk feel, laidback with Aesop s typically gravelly voice flowing on top. Not exactly pump-you-up kind of stuff, but maybe this is just the warmup? Or the cool-down?

In a press release, the man known to his mother as Ian Bavitz had this to say: I wanted to create something that evolved enough that the sound was constantly fresh and attractive, as if the runner were moving through a set of differing cities or landscapes. All Day: Nike + Original Run will be available only at the iTunes store starting February 13. It will set you back $9.

99. We guess this is what Aesop Rock was talking about back in December, when he about a mysterious project that s not really an album but it kind of is.
V2 Closes Shop on New Releases, White Stripes Are Free
Staff, artists let go; label shifts focus to catalogue releases Get ready for v.

2.0: leaner, meaner, and intrepidly backward-looking, with 90% fewer new releases and 100% fewer employees. According to a Billboard.

com report and verified by a V2 publicist, V2 North America parent company Sheridan Square Entertainment (which purchased the label from its founder, Virgin entertainment mogul Richard Branson, in 2005) has, effective January 12, initiated plans to restructure the imprint s entire operation.
As of last Friday, V2 no longer releases new material from its artists, focusing almost exclusively on maintaining its back catalogue (a task to be overseen by Chief Operating Officer Michael Olsen in Nashville) and pursuing digital ventures. The only exception is the gospel genre, to which V2 will continue contributing new records.

Restructuring also meant terminating all of V2 s employees, including label president Andy Gershon. I wish the best for everybody that s still left at V2 and Sheridan Square, Gershon told Billboard.com, which estimates 35 people lost their jobs this past Friday.

A publicist from V2 declined to comment on the situation.
Artists on the V2 roster-- which include alternative radio heavyweights like , the Raconteurs, the Crystal Method, and Moby-- now return to the auction block; V2 will, however, retain back catalogue rights for these acts. In the case of the Stripes and the Raconteurs, though, things are slightly different.

According to their publicist, the band s contract with V2 has already expired; Meg and Jack are presently in negotiations with other labels, seeking a distributor for their own imprint, , for future releases.
Maybe you heard that the music industry experienced something like a 5% drop in total sales last year. Why could that be?

might have some answers for you, because the 11,004 copies the Brooklyn MC s most recent album sold in its first week are being called a limited-edition pre-release due to an enormous label screw-up, according to MTV News.
Geffen Records released True Magic-- which was, admittedly, -- on December 29, a Friday, which is pretty much unheard of (Tuesday is the standard release day). And since it was put out at the very end of last year-- after holiday shopping was long over and music nerds were too busy reading year-end lists to realize there was still music coming out in 2006-- True Magic was guaranteed to get buried, and it did.

This would have been just another case of a bad album (the last in the MC s contractual obligation) being recognized as such by the label if Mos Def hadn t met with Geffen and decided that, actually, they did want to promote the record and have people buy it. So, with plans to re-release the album in the spring with a different tracklist, Geffen recalled True Magic, even though it had already been shipped to stores. Since retailers are at their own discretion in the case of an already-shipped recall, 11,000 people bought an album that was rushed out because of an early December leak in the first place.

Way to build trust and combat piracy, Geffen!
Parisian dance label , run by Daft Punk s manager Pedro Winter (aka Busy P), and home to Justice, Uffie, Sebastian, DJ Mehdi, and more, has struck a U.S.

distribution deal with via a partnership with . (Justice is already signed to Vice in the U.S.

) To kick off the contract, Vice will release an Ed Banger compilation, , digitally on January 16. The collection features material spanning the label s existence, Flash, Vicarious Bliss, Zongamin, and others. Ed Banger will release the comp itself, also digitally, on December 18 in Europe In addition, Vice will drop digital versions of 12 s and singles from Justice, DJ Mehdi, Sebastian, Krazy Baldhead, Vicarious Bliss, and Zongamin in the future.

Beginning this month, Ed Banger will put on a series of parties across North America and Europe. The shows, which feature a variety of acts from the label s lineup, are currently scheduled through early April.
The disc has Crow cawing through fourteen tracks, including Bam Bam , Chucked , Burns , and I Hate You, Rob Crow .

Living Well boasts two versions of said self-deprecating number, and hilariously, the Single Version is longer than the Album Version . Stream the former by clicking the link below.
Headbangers might want to check their air guitar skillz at the door, however, as Living Well-- the follow-up to 2003 s My Room Is a Mess (Absolutely Kosher)-- features intensely personal lyrics which document Crow s courtship with his wife, their marriage, and the subsequent birth of their first child, according to a press release.

If anybody can make such topics RAWK, however, it s daddy Crow.
Our chilled out patriarch will take to the road in support of the new album beginning in February, dates to be announced. But don t think for a second he ll be slowing down in the time before then-- instead, Crow, whose wristwatch must run at half-speed, is starting a record label.

Robcore, as he s lovingly titled it, delivers its inaugural release-- Wake Up Swimming by Other Men-- on March 20. will handle distribution for Robcore.
And finally, Crow s Pinback-- who have a new LP on the way in 2007-- contribute to the O.

C. Mix 6 with a cover of Black Flag s Wasted , . Word on the beach is it s pretty god-awful.

When we with graphic artist/musician Zak Sally, he was on ABC News talking about his love for the band . We were confused--but not as confused as Sally himself. In a recent interview, the former bassist described the incident to Pitchfork as just another case of someone asking me to do something bizarre out of the blue.

It all started when Sally-- who dabbles in freelance writing when he isn t too busy creating graphic novels or running his publishing imprint, -- pitched a piece about one of his favorite bands to his local alt-weekly, Minneapolis City Pages. I pitched them because it was something I ve been thinking about and wanted to write about at some point, Sally explained. But.

..I really wanted to get into the show for free.

And then I couldn t! I couldn t go see them! Which I m still kind of fuming about.

The City Pages piece was by the Village Voice, one thing lead to another, and the next thing he knew, Sally was on World News Tonight . The whole thing was a surprise to me, he said. It was absurd in a good way.

Video: Nirvana: Live! Tonight! Sold Out!

! Trailer On one hand, it seems kind of pointless to post a trailer for a film that hit VHS in 1994, but on the other..

.well, what the heck do I have planned for the weekend? version of Nirvana s Live!

Tonight! Sold Out!!

for a before-and-after color-correction comparison, loads of guitar smashing and other nutty stage antics, an intriguing definition of the band s music, and--I shit you not--an Unfortunately, the grainy trailer (maybe that s just YouTube s version of the grunge aesthetic?) doesn t do justice to the have. Plus the in-your-face yellow font is kind of obscene.

As , Live! Tonight! Sold Out!

! will see a November 7 release via Geffen/UMe. Go ahead, purchase it.

The world s alternative children made Kurt Cobain #1 on Forbes sixth annual list, placing him ahead of Elvis, John Lennon, Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, and a slew of others. Yes, it has something to do with , Forbes.com says.

Expect to catch some Nirvana songs in an evil military recruiters episode of CBS CSI: Miami, slated to air sometime next month. Um, no, we re .
Looks like we re in for five more festival-filled summers here in Chicago.

Yesterday, s organizers signed a contract with the city to hold their annual extravaganza in downtown s Grant Park through 2011. In exchange for the privilege of bringing boatloads of bands to the beautiful lakefront location, Lollapalooza will pay five million dollars to the s , reports the Chicago Sun-Times. The money will go towards our ability to fund new projects, youth programs and greening initiatives throughout Chicago s parks, according to a quote from Parkways Foundation president Laura Barnett in a press release.

The 2007 festival will take place August 3-5, and according to the Sun-Times, may include up to 15,000 more people allowed per day, bringing the daily total up from 60,000 to 75,000, if the event sells out. That s a lot of Porta Potties. Just two weeks after that founder Slim Moon will vacate his position as president of the label next month to take a job in A R at , has revealed that they plan to shutter their experimental sister label, , for the foreseeable future.

According to Maggie Vail, Kill Rock Stars current vice president of A R (and director of West Coast operations as of Moon s departure in November), 5RC will put out its currently scheduled 2006 and 2007 records and then become dormant. 5RC s final releases include Unanimous Bangers, due out on LP and digital download only on November 14, s Summary, out February 20, and In Advance of the Broken Arm, from new signing and guitar virtuoso , out February 20. It is undecided whether s will come out on 5RC or Kill Rock Stars.

As for the rest of 5RC s roster, which includes bands like , , , and , Vail said that some will move to Kill Rock Stars (as and have done). However, since many 5RC artists are not under exclusive contracts and are free to release records on other labels, Vail said that she was not sure what path every act would take.
Haha you Pitchfork jokers, what a hilarious hoax headline.

Next, you ll tell me Sufjan Stevens is pregnant! Like, JK LOL, right dudes? No.

Not kidding, and certainly not laughing. This is 4 SERIOUS, guys. According to a recent report on (yes, that was the sound of a kitten dying) and confirmed by Waits publicist, aesthetically pleasing and indie-savvy film starlet is not only singing, but recording an album of covers.

Scarlett Sings Tom Waits, as it s called, will tentatively see release next spring via recently-revived offshoot Atco. It s not Scarlett s first vocal foray-- she recorded a version of Gershwin brothers standard for this year s corny Unexpected Dreams: Songs From the Stars charity compilation.
That s pretty much all the info we have right now, but stayed tuned to Pitchfork, your one-stop ScarJo rumor shop, for more details and the latest hot pix.

Oh, and according to Fox News Roger Friedman, Waits is one of the premier singer-songwriters in the business. So, best respect-- because lord knows this is, first and foremost, a business. So it wasn t exactly gone, but beloved Berkeley/Oakland-based indie pop imprint is officially back in action, having recently revamped its website and issued two new 7 s-- the label s first releases in three years.

King of Slumberland Michael Schulman (or Mike Slumberland, if we go by the indie pop system of nomenclature) told Pitchfork that while he has been keeping the label s mailorder operational all the while, the release front has been dormant because of real job/life responsibilities that just take too much time...

to really give enough attention to Slumberland and the rise of downloading and the near-collapse of sales of records/CDs.
While I wouldn t exactly blame downloading/freeloading for the decline in sales Slumberland (and other small labels I know) has experienced, Mike went on to explain, it s pretty clear that there are generations of music fans coming up that don t necessarily collect small bits of plastic of the music they like. For good or ill, labels like Slumberland have to deal with the economics of selling hundreds rather than thousands of any given release.

OK, overweight hipsters. Time to turn off our computers and hit the pavement. We ve got some pounds to sweat off, and the s James Murphy is our personal trainer.

commissioned Murphy in his guise to write a piece of music to accompany a workout; the result, titled 45:33, will be available for iTunes download tomorrow via . Yes, it s one 45-minute, 33-second-long track, and it s going to cost $9.99.

This isn t Nike s first foray into workout-music patronage, as the Crystal Method created a mix for Nike+ this past summer. Nor is it LCD s first foray into corporate sponsorship, having . The idea, to make a long piece of music built around an arc designed for running, appealed to me because it was so anathematic to what you re typically asked to do as an artist: make easily digestible lumps of music for albums, or the radio, or whatever.

I d been thinking of the records I love in which people made one song that took up the entire LP, and realizing that releasing something like this would otherwise be a virtual impossibility for me, I became excited when the Nike+ project came along. Our band, LCD, when on tour tends to do a lot of running--mainly to keep sane and resist the inevitability of turning into a bus-bound potato, filled with all that makes one sick. When I was approached to make this run, two different members of the band told me that they ran to two remixes I d done as DFA-- the UNKLE [ In a State ] and Gorillaz [ Dare ] mixes-- which both were long, sprawling, organic dance songs that eased from section to section for 10+ minutes each.

So, the gauntlet had been thrown down to make something longer that was well designed to reward and push at good intervals of a run. I train fighting and Jiu-Jitsu three or four times a week, and a big part of that training is treadmill running, so I saw this also as a way to create a run on the treadmill that worked for me (programming changes to speed and incline throughout) and then make sure the music I was making worked along with it. When I was done adjusting things, much to my surprise, the time the run took was 45 minutes and 33 seconds-- the RPMs of records.

It was obviously going the right way. So what does the thing sound like? In the interest of delivering only the finest in hard-hitting interweb indie rock reporting, I loaded the track onto my iPod yesterday and went for my regular run.

GM Bryan Jay Miller to Pitchfork: We're really stoked. Hey folks, we d like to save woxy, began a simple September 19 on the message boards of , the venerable Cincinnati-based radio institution that-- citing financial shortcomings-- last month after 23 years of playing quality music to the masses.
We re very well funded and humbled by the great work the people here have done, the mysterious post continued.

Please tell the fab four at woxy to contact us. Most thought it a hoax, but the post s author-- Bill Nguyen, co-founder of CD-trading service -- was quite serious.
Today, his noble offer saw fruition, as WOXY returned to the internet airwaves at 10:10am EDT, 10/10/06.

Now partnered with Nguyen s La La, WOXY is not only back, but it has a few new surprises up its sleeves. Allow us to spoil them for you.
The first: listener-generated playlists, or what WOXY and La La have deemed Citizen Radio .

Beginning in a matter of weeks, WOXY fans will be able to program their very own set of favorite tunes over at lala.com, drawn from the extensive and always growing WOXY digital catalog. Quite a few test playlists are already up and running at La La s .

With La La s help, WOXY also has designs on extending its much-loved series of live sessions by erecting additional studios in cities across the country. As with the main Cincinnati studio, these satellite Lounge Acts studios will host national touring acts; they ll also record sessions from promising local talent. The first will go up in San Francisco in the near future, and WOXY and La La hope to establish more in Austin, New York, Chicago, Seattle, and elsewhere eventually.

La La is essentially a CD-trading network that allows users to list CDs they want, and those they already have. By drawing from a vast body of subscribers, it facilitates multi-party trades for a small fee ($1.00 per exchange, with $0.

20 going to the artist, plus $0.75 shipping)-- so if Manny in Missoula has OK Computer but wants Loveless, Billy in Boise has Loveless but wants Cracked Rear View ( cause he s crazy like that), and Ginny Sue Beth in Dallas has Cracked Rear View but wants OK Computer-- well, a few postage stamps later, everybody s satisfied. And, when trades involve deceased artists, La La donates that $0.

20 to its , dedicated to address[ing] the economic challenges [working musicians] face -- health care, and the like.
Pitchfork recently chatted with WOXY General Manager , a 13-plus-year veteran of the station, about the partnership with La La and the new direction for WOXY. child of Russ Solomon and a boatload of shareholders, which died at age Reuters reports that following a 29-hour auction on Friday, most of the bankrupt chain s million (outbidding Trans World Entertainment by $500,000).

Tower s closing might mean bad news for its vendors. According to Reuters, the sell-off of its inventory, especially that contained in its merchandise-packed indie distro company, , when their product is Sacramento pharmacy. Solomon, a 15% shareholder, did not enter a bid According to Reuters, on Friday, an e-mail Solomon sent to his staff read, The fat lady has sung .

.. she was was off key.

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. That day, employees held a barbecue at the company s West Sacramento headquarters. ABC.

go.com reports that some 3,000
On the bright side: make your own t-shirts! Here at Pitchfork News, we try to give as much coverage to the underdogs and little guys as we give to the stalwarts of the indie world.

So it is my pleasure to introduce you to a relative unknown named . Who knows but that, with time, he even an to we eight in single ?
Okay, you got me.

This time, however, our Beck news is slightly upsetting. Though his most recent album, The Information, was released on Tuesday in the U.S.

and on Monday in the UK, it seems that the UK s Official Chart Company (OCC) will deny him access to the charts there.
The decision was made in reaction to the DVD and stickers that come with the album, which, according to a press release have been construed by the OCC as an unfair advantage over the other albums released last week. Come again?

! They re not even trying to recategorize the package as video instead of audio ? They re just calling it an unfair advantage ?

Didn t they get the memo about how the music industry is scrambling to add incentives to get people to buy albums instead of downloading them for free? Wow, congratulations OCC, you re the next big winners on my just-invented TV show, Exercises in Missing the Point . Beck told Billboard.

com, It s an unconventional package, but it shouldn t be penalized for that. Any art on a CD is an incentive to buy and listen. Ultimately, it doesn t matter.

The response from the fans has been so strong, and that is the most important thing. In continuing with the interactive art theme, Beck also announced yesterday that the merch available at his upcoming shows will be a DIY affair. Says a press release, Fans will purchase a blank t-shirt with a set of iron-on decals, arrange the graphics on the shirt as they see fit, and have the shirt pressed up on the spot.

There are four different sets of decals available as well as four different t-shirt colors, so the variations are endless. Actually, they re not endless. There is definitely a set number of variations.

We re just too lazy to do the math to figure out exactly what that is. Also, for those of you who plan on seeing Beck on his current tour of the U.S.

, let it be known that there was a typo in our last Beck tour . His show in Nashville will be on October 13, not October 12. and might not seem like they have much in common.

One label is known for launching pioneering riot grrrl bands (Bikini Kill, Bratmobile), experimental outfits (Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu), and indie rock titans (Sleater-Kinney, the Decemberists). The other, a Warner Bros. subsidiary, specializes in world music (the Nonesuch Explorer Series, Youssou N Dour, Caetano Veloso), NPR fare (Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin), and Wilco (Wilco).

But the pair just got a lot tighter with the announcement that the founder/head honcho of Kill Rock Stars, Slim Moon, will leave his position at KRS sometime this fall to work in A R for Nonesuch. Moon s wife, Portia Sabin, will take over both Kill Rock Stars and its imprint. Vice President David Bither.

Earlier this year we reported on the of Studio Distribution, long-running distributor for dozens of respected electronic and dance labels. The distro went kaput for unspecified, financially-related reasons, leaving the labels and artists it distributed out thousands of dollars-- and leaving numerous imprints abroad without a means of getting their releases on U.S.

shelves.
Enter brothers Mark and Andrew Knight, two former Studio employees who have started to pick up some of the pieces after Studio s dissolution. Fiercely independent, KGD exclusively distributes and markets titles for about 35 labels, including Citizen, Tresor, Mantis, Mental Groove, and Ministry of Sound Germany.

For a complete list of clients, click . Long Island City-based dance vinyl distributor is presently in charge of physical distribution for KGD Media, and the two now share offices.
There s a lot of great music out there, especially from Europe, that needs a decent home in the States, Mark Knight stated in a press release.

Additionally, with music enthusiasts continually diversifying their tastes, we acknowledge this as a vital component to our success.
As for the fates of other labels formerly distributed by Studio, several have been picked up by parent company , while others have taken distribution matters into their own hands. If you re an indie musician, supporting yourself is standard operating procedure.

But while some methods of self-support are taken for granted, others are almost ignored entirely. Just ask Jenny Toomey, former frontwoman of , co-head of the now-defunct label, and Executive Director of the . Indie bands need to learn how to sell their own CDs at gigs or silkscreen their own t-shirts or sometimes sleep on floors to save money.

[Those] things are just givens in the DIY scene. Getting your own health insurance should be one of those things, Toomey said in a recent interview with Pitchfork.
In order to accomplish this, the FMC has launched HINT, the .

Funded by a grant from the , the HINT program offers free, confidential thirty-minute phone consultations in which the ins and outs of insurance are explained to musicians in order to help them find the resources that will best meet their needs. It is the FMC s hope that these consultations will demystify the process of obtaining affordable health insurance and assist in identifying organizations aimed specifically at helping musicians.
HINT has been around for about a year, but Toomey said the FMC is pushing the program now because I just don t think it s getting enough usage.

We initially believed this was something that, If you build it, they will come. But I think there s a lot of shame and a lot of denial in the music community about [getting health insurance]. A lot of musicians are young, so they deny.

If you can convince yourself that you don t need to spend another hundred dollars a month to protect yourself from financial ruin, you ll do that.
When your parents were your age, they didn t have those new-fangled mp3s. They had to walk to record stores with their own two feet, carrying piggybanks full of quarters earned from diligently mowing lawns all summer.

..in 80 degree heat!

(And, on some days...

90 degree heat!!) That s how they got hold of their music.

Well kids, your parents are living in the past. Sure, piggybanks and record shops still abound (and we duly encourage patronage of the latter), but with the iPod, the music-streaming cell phone, and artists unloading exclusive digital releases by the gigaload, there are some pretty spiffy options these days for obtaining music. And now, enter , who seek to expand those options by becoming the first all digital reissue label (according to a press release), offering rare and out-of-print recordings, all as mp3s.

The label launches October 5 through the Anthology and will feature full albums, single tracks, and original album artwork available for download. Individual songs will go for 98 cents an mp3, and though Anthology will be the main resource, select titles will also be available via iTunes, eMusic, Rhapsody, and other digital retailers. The label emerged when founder Keith Abrahamsson (who also works for New York s ) noticed that amid increasing demand for digital music, obscure titles were in short supply at popular retail outlets.

Thus, Anthology will function both as a regular reissue label and an outlet for less-mainstream music. The first set of releases will be available upon the service s launch, including Swedish psych band P a rson Sound, New York City post-punk group China Shop, On-U Sound dub artists African Head Charge, Minneapolis punk outfit Suicide Commandos, Jersey hard rockers Sainte Anthony s Fyre, Walter Schreifels post-hardcore project Moondog, and German psych/kraut rockers My Solid Ground. According to the label, Anthology is not intended to be the antidote to crate digging, but a resource for music fanatics who would otherwise not hear these rare titles.

Plus, the music is supposed to be more affordable for both the label and the consumer. You know, so you don t have to mow as many lawns as your parents did. know Clear Channel Communications, the mastodon-sized company that controls over 1200 U.

S. radio stations. And most of us are also familiar with HOB Entertainment, Inc.

via its numerous House of Blues venues and amphitheaters in 12 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces.

Live Nation, formerly Clear Channel Entertainment, which spun off from the parent company in December? Live Nation has 153 worldwide venues of its own, and the company produced over 29,500 live events last year alone. last two in a blender and hit CRUSH, because, according to various news sources, Live Nation has announced that it is in the process of purchasing HOB for $350 million in a deal that will go through by the end of the year.

Live exactly this means for concertgoers, we re not totally sure. There have been no announcements of changes in policy or ticket pricing, but just weeks ago HOB CEO Greg Trojan told Billboard, I don t see [a sale] happening, so you never 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.