will bring about peace in the Middle East next week, when she gets the entire populations of Israel and its neighboring countries to all sing along simultaneously to that one song with the line about cleavage, cleavage, cleavage at her concerts in Tel Aviv on March 10 and 11. Then, after a couple anti-climactic weeks, the piano-playing singer/songwriter will tour North America starting in late March. She ll also hit Coachella and Bonnaroo.
which was released February 14 and is only available via iTunes. She also dropped a live EP, titled Live in California 2006 earlier this month. It is available on CD and digitally on iTunes.
will test their newly formed five-man lineup on the road starting tonight, when their first full tour in support of There s No 666 in Outer Space kicks off in San Francisco. Since we , Hella have added plenty of shows to the tour.
Though , not all of the press for the album has been positive.
In fact, our own Brandon Stosuy panned the record in Spin. Hella have taken the criticism in stride, however, making a featuring Brandon s review. Fiona Apple, Jon Brion to Play L.
A. Benefits for a friend, will join on stage at his favorite Los Angeles venue, , on March 5 and 9. , was diagnosed with cancer last summer, and to lend a hand with the financial burden associated with his treatment, Fiona, Brion, Dave Palmer, David Garza, Nickel Creek s Sean and Sara Watkins, and more will perform at the pair of benefits.
Proceeds will go to Gungi and his people that you just love, really actually LOVE, within five minutes of meeting him, Apple wrote on her . As you may know, I am a girl prone to low days. I don t know how many times I got to soundcheck in a grumpy, nasty, teary rut, and when I saw Gungi, all nearly seven feet of him, across the empty theatre, and we waved to each other and he asked me how I was, I immediately got a jolt of life.
..His face is a pep-talk!
...
His eyes are He s my friend. I love him. He s helped me a lot when I have been in trouble.
Now, he is in trouble, and I want to help him...
If you can come to either of the shows at Largo, they should be pretty fun...
and if you don t come, then maybe you d like to donate 5 bucks or something...
whatever you decide, I thank you, for being there for me, for giving a damn, and for making noise and for listening. In related news, Jon Brion will play a one-off show at the committee. The is a Department of year while doing research on a project of their own design.
global force for mutual understanding. Flash back to the mid-nineties, when a nascent Pitchforkmedia.com was handing out high scores all willy-nilly, and you ll find a glowing 10.
0 review of an EP called by a not-much- talked-about-anymore act called . Whether deserved or not, the record stands, and while 12 Rods back in 2004, former frontman Ryan Olcott continues to hone his craft today-- with .
The Minneapolis-based synth-pop trio-- featuring Olcott (in guise) on keyboards and vocals, James Buckley on bass, and Joey Van Phillips on drums-- issued its debut LP, Flags Forward, this week via Milwaukee s .
The album, which the band celebrated at a few record release gigs this past weekend, follows up last month s Stepchild single. Check out some sample jams on the trio s . They re not exactly 10.
0 territory, but they are, well, interesting. have secured a U.S.
release date for their new album, . will release it Stateside May 8, and it is still scheduled for an April 2 release in the UK. The U.
S. version will include the bonus tracks Pride Before a Fall and Distance Makes . Both will appear as B-sides to the album s first single, Our Velocity , which comes out March 19 in the UK.
As , Max i mo Park have plenty of UK and European dates scheduled, quite a few of which are with Art Brut. A full U.S.
tour is forthcoming.
Smart dude, that Zach Condon. He knows that in order to maintain the rabidity of your fan base, you have to keep them wanting more.
Just a few weeks after the release of the , have dropped a couple more morsels to feed the starving masses: the , currently available only at . (It will be available soon in Europe via .) Thanks to the folks at for pointing out the EP!
Beirut return to the stage at the 4AD SXSW showcase at Emo s on March 14, playing alongside labelmates Blonde Redhead, the Mountain Goats, Emma Pollock and Wolf Cub. They ll also do a live KEXP set on March 16. And on May 6 and 7, they ll play the Bowery Ballroom in their adopted home of New York City.
A video for is in the works, as is Beirut s second album. The band plan to return to their hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico to record in March and April. Griffin Rodriguez, who has worked with Man Man, Bablicon, and A Hawk and a Hacksaw, among others, will be helping out with the recording.
Condon and co. will also head up to Canada in May to work with Owen Pallett on the next album. My, do those kids have pluck.
And the bigger kids are taking notice: by Kaiser Chiefs and the Walkmen to open a string of shows on the coupling s North American tour, Annuals will now also join as the art-rock vets in support of the forthcoming 23 (out April 10 on ), which your humble reporter is fairly obsessed with right now. So much so that he s .
, Annuals must first plow through a Noise Pop appearance, a short tour with Aqueduct, and about three dozen SXSW showcases and parties before riling the masses up for the aforementioned indie stars.
In a slightly more congruous pairing, cinematic L.A. brooders open a stretch of dates for Blonde Redhead as well.
This summer, Jason Swinscoe will return with the first album since 2002 s Every Day. The new record, titled Ma Fleur, was conceived as the soundtrack to an imagined film. Swinscoe made use of a scriptwriter and photographer Maya Hayuk for inspiration, bringing unfinished pieces to them and writing more music based on their responses in the forms of short story scripts and photographs.
It s out on on May 7 in the UK and June 5 on in North America.
Swinscoe collaborated with longtime bassist Phil France on Ma Fleur s arrangements. He also assembled a trio of vocalists, each of which he used to voice specific characters or thematic elements of the Ma Fleur story.
Legendary soul singer and previous Cinematic Orchestra collaborator Fontella Bass plays the part of the elderly protagonist, and Lou Rhodes plays a character in mid-life. The youngest member of the trio is Montreal s Patrick Watson, who sings on the beautiful album closer To Build a Home .
Ninja Tune is offering the radio edit of To Build a Home as an MP3 download if you sign up for the Cinematic Orchestra mailing list .
It s worth it, but if you d rather not provide an email address, you can stream the song from the group s .
The Cinematic Orchestra will tour Europe and the UK in April and May, with plans to play select North American venues in July. So far, only an NYC date has been announced.
A full tour is in the works for the fall.
Seems has finally parsed down (or tossed aside entirely) the into one concise, 13-song album. Ryan s ninth full-length proper, Easy Tiger, enters the physical universe June 5 via .
Possibly named for a line Mr. Adams often gets in bed, Easy Tiger s not-yet-sequenced baker s dozen is reprinted below for your speculative pleasure. Will Goodnight Rose be a rollicking alt-country romper?
Will Oh My God, Whatever, Etc. involve cheap beat boxes and witch impersonations? Lord we hope so.
I guess it s the first time we re presenting ourselves to a lot of people, s Ramesh Srivastava told Pitchfork when asked about his band s long-awaited debut, so maybe we ll just name it after us.
And self-title it they did.
Voxtrot, the debut LP from, yes, Voxtrot, arrives May 22 ( ) on / .
The 11-track set follows three favorably received EPs-- Raised by Wolves, Mothers, Sisters, Daughters Wives, and Your Biggest Fan-- and contains entirely new material. Tracks include Firecracker , which Ramesh cited as one of his favorites and called an odd marriage of styles, as well as previously mentioned jams Kid Gloves and Blood Red Blood .
Voxtrot-- whose Trouble single dropped just this past Monday in the UK-- wrap up a European tour this weekend, then return to North American for SXSW, a gig in Mexico, and a proper spring jaunt in late May.
New R. Kelly Album Due in May
T.I.
guests on new single I'm a Flirt (Remix) The crown prince of Cloud Cuckoo Land, r b god -- whose fall from grace landed him in some zany lyrical nether-realm that culminated with 2005 s Trapped in the Closet saga-- has a new LP on the way. As reported on Billboard.com, Kelly will issue the as-yet-untitled follow-up to 2005 s TP.
3 Reloaded on May 29.
The new album will include latest single I m a Flirt (Remix) , featuring guest verses from T.I.
and T-Pain. It s a remix because the piano romp originally appeared under the same title on Bow Wow s 2006 LP The Price of Fame. On Kelly s version (stream below!
), we learn to keep our women far away from the self-proclaimed king of r b because he s a dog on the prowl when I m walking through the mall. Furthermore, The moral of the story is cuff your bitch/ cause hey/ I m black, handsome, I sing, plus I m rich. You ve been warned.
Kelly recently missed a court appearance for his child porn trial because his appendix burst. Apparently, he was trapped in the hospital. Do you have a news tip for us?
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