Like girls with ? Step in . The DC trio, fronted by former frontwoman Allison Wolfe, is putting out its debut LP, Zombie Terrorist, next Tuesday, October 24 on .
The album, produced by ex-Q and Not U/Ris Paul Ric man Chris Richards and Don Zientara at the legendary Inner on each and every song. One number, Trophy Wifey , is available for tour of the States, Australia, and New Zealand, hitting up a few while they re at it. The band will again make its way through the U.
S. in January and February, and head to Europe for March and April; these dates have yet to be confirmed.
In space, no one can hear you rawk Fans felt the gravity of J.
Spaceman s last year, but they ll be happy to learn that leader Jason Pierce is in a much better space in 2006. To prove it, he ll be drifting out on a rare ten-gig acoustic tour of the UK, lovingly christened the Acoustic Mainlines tour, and scheduled for take-off tomorrow night.
Playing covers and classics, including both Spiritualized and songs, Pierce will perform with a string quartet, gospel singers, and Spiritualized guitarist Doggen.
He ll also debut material from the new Spiritualized album, slated for release in early 2007, which Pierce has colorfully described in a press release as the work of the devil...
with little guidance from me. Remember that nifty is throwing for their , due out November 7? Well, it has a now, and those elusive have been named, with more being added as we speak.
But what s really exciting is that the label has been kind enough to give Pitchfork a little taste of the action, by allowing us to offer you just one of the many, many treats awaiting those who enroll in the Wow Out! program. As previously reported, the pre-order nets the buyer a poster, a limited edition 7 , and access to download a full live Pavement show (in addition to the two-disc reissue, of course).
What we ve got here is a tiny piece of that concert, which took place April 21, 1994 at the Palace in Los Angeles (not April 24 as we said before--sorry, Pave-dorks). This take on is loose and sloppy (in Pavement s trademark endearing way, of course), stretched out to over seven minutes of riffing, slide whistle solos, and the chanting of GENERATION! over and over again in every possible manner of silly voice.
God, we miss these guys so much. Matador also has the mp3 of from that same concert available for download from their website, as well as the remastered version of Wowee Zowee s first single, . So go listen to those, too.
is in the air as cross America once again. The on a winter trek, much of which will be spent alongside ears to Asobi Seksu at the movies, as the band contributed music to indie flick , which lands in select theaters next month.
Airbrushed t-shirt of the Chicago skyline?
Check. Catatonic hipsters snapping? Check.
Directors Mark Bachara and Michael P. McGrath s uncomfortable shots down the token hot blonde s nightgown? Check-- with a side of tighty whitey dude junk.
I didn t think it was possible, but Andrew WK got even gnarlier when he became the lead singer for .
Kyp Malone of TVOTR, Van Dyke Parks added L.A.
is getting a whole lot freakier this week, as (in conjunction with and today, October 19, through Sunday, October 22, is set to take place at Los Angeles Palace Theater. It was moved from its original locations, the Echo, Ex_Plx, and Lineup highlights, many , include Devendra Banhart, Boris, Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio, Comets on Fire, Fiery Furnaces, Ruthann Friedmann, Six Organs of Admittance, Be Your Own Pet, Wooden Wand, Charalambides, OM, Josephine Foster, Archie Bronson Outfit, Espers, Belong, the Howling Hex, the Nice Boys, and Bert Jansch. Dirty Three s Jim White will drum with White Magic, and the legendary Van Dyke Parks will join Living Sisters, the acoustic trio of Inara George, Eleni Mandell, and Becky Stark (Lavender Diamond).
Picture this: skygreen-hued leopards walking the West Coast in plain robes and Jesus sandals. Ridiculous, but not far off from the image brought to mind by the title of the latest full-length, Disciples of California. While they don t have 12 members (yet-- but you know how these folk collectives get), they do have a gospel to preach, and that s the gospel of good vibes.
Disciples drops via on October 24, and is referred to as a friends family album in a press release, a nod to the disc s communal recording process-- which took place in a new studio with the new Skyband (drummer Jasmyn Wong and bassist Shayde Sartin).
Still not buying the fraternity angle? The band was all about brotherhood this time around: the Leopards even took modern dance lessons from the Lindner School of Ballet s Vaslav Treacy to master discipline and pulse.
Someday they will be bigger than Jesus. For now they re spreading the California Love around their home state through gigs with . Australian mostly-instrumental rockers will curate the festival in 2007, which will take place April 27-29 at Butlins in Minehead in Somerset, England.
The lineup has yet to be announced, but tickets for the event are on sale now.
Before then, the trio will leave their home continent for somewhere a little closer but no less exotic: Asia. They will play five dates in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Malaysia beginning October 26 at Shanghai s Yun-Feng Theater.
And on October 21, Dirty Three drummer Jim White will play with at the Palace Theater in Los Angeles as part of the festival.
Finally, things get truly multimediary with the exhibition of Dirty Three guitarist Mick Turner s paintings at the gallery in Sydney, Australia. Turner s paintings have served as the cover art for all seven Dirty Three albums, and this exhibition is part of a Sydney/Melbourne gallery swap with , where Turner s March show sold out.
His blank_space show is called New Works: Canvas, Print Bronze . It opens October 19 and runs through October 23.
s modern classical compositions make him perfect for s imprint.
The new-ish Blue Notebooks-- in North America on November 28 and everywhere else on October 23.
The 12-track album features regular Richter contributors Louisa Fuller, Natalia Bonner, Rick Costa, John Metcalfe, Chris Worsey, and Ian Burdge, as well as Soft Machine gent , who reads from Haruki Murakami texts. , Richter contributed to fellow FatCat s sophomore album, Lookaftering, as a producer/co-arranger.
He also mixed and co-produced the self-titled, forthcoming EP by labelmates and Glaswegian upstarts , due November 14 on FatCat. As if that weren t enough, Richter s still doing the film thing, scoring a series of never-before-seen Super 8 Derek Jarman shorts and a new film by Stanislaw Mucha and Kieslowski-collaborator Krzysztof Piesciewicz titled Hope. Finally, Max is also collaborating on music/video project Siberia with British artist Darren Almond, and a music installation/gallery work with New Somehow, Max plans to find the time to tour the U.
S. and the UK in the near future.
Tucker, Hanna, MacKaye in Riot Grrrl Documentary When a musical movement comes along and revolutionizes the way we think and feel, the least we can do is make a documentary about it 15 years later, right?
Right. And so, joining the ranks of is , a documentary film that tells the story of the origins of riot grrrl in the American independent music scene of the 1990s, and how this feminist movement evolved into a revolutionary underground network of education and self-awareness through music, writing, activism, and women-friendly community, according to the documentary s .
Don t Need You features interviews with Sleater-Kinney/Heavens to Betsy s Corin Tucker, Bikini Kill/Le Tigre s Kathleen Hanna, Bratmobile/Partyline s Allison Wolfe, and of course, Ian MacKaye (what punk documentary would be complete without him?
), among others. It also includes rare, archival materials including original riot grrrl fanzines, flyers, and photographs as well as seldom-seen footage from pioneering riot grrrl bands like Bikini Kill, Heavens to Betsy, and Bratmobile.
Decemberists, Albert Hammond Jr.
, the Fall, Malajube added Forget every non-music-related item you know, and make some space in that brain for the 2006 lineup. As , the artist list for the NYC event, taking place October 31-November 4, is downright gigantic, and it seems to be getting bigger by the second. Since our last story, the Decemberists, the Strokes Albert Hammond, Jr.
, the Blow, the Cardigans, Chin Up Chin Up, Malajube, Mary Timony, Gang Gang Dance, the Fall, and many, many more have been added. bands, CMJ will host a series of , including Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan with a special appearance by Borat himself and Oasis-- Lord Don t Slow Me Down with a special appearance by Noel Gallagher himself. Who is more of a comedic character?
You decide!
As usual, there will be a number of in addition to the multimedia extravaganza. This year s George Clinton, Janeane Garofalo, A-Trak, Gibby Haynes of Butthole Surfers, Nina Persson of the Cardigans, Hi-Tek, Dr.
Know of Bad Brains, Steve Earle, Adam Green, the muthafuckin Insane Clown Posse, and Pitchfork Senior News Editor Amy Phillips.
Video: Peter Bjorn and John [ft. Victoria Bergsman]: "Young Folks" Well, it s not exactly brand new-- it s been on YouTube for like two months-- but in light of our recent love affair with Scandinavian indie pop overlords s fantastic new album Writer s Block (which scored the band yesterday), we figured this video for its first single Young Folks is ripe for posting.
Plus, it s only, like, one of the best tracks of the year. If you haven t heard the song yet, it was entry in our series back in late August, where we called it, in typical Pitchfork stylee, a superlative summertime ditty replete with maracas, happy-go-lucky bumbling bass, and an infectious whistled melody that can t help but incite smile riots. The video, on the other hand, is probably creepier than it means to be, with emotionless cartoon characters singing the starry-eyed hook, bobbing their heads all seasickly, and jamming together at what looks to be a pretty depressing party.
Check it here: All photos by unless otherwise indicated.
As the first night of the 2006 festival got underway, the kids poured into the freezing cold streets of the vibrant city of Reykjavik-- a precursor to the madness to come as the weekend approaches, the bands get bigger, and the crowds get drunker. This night was mostly made up of Icelandic bands, of which there seems to be an endless supply-- and several of these very young musicians proved their mettle.
At , a venue right off the main shopping street of the city center, the teenage (pictured above)-- a rambunctious bunch of kids-- injected a healthy dose of bossa nova into their blend of keys, samplers, and guitars. They wrapped up their set with an impromptu cover of Wu-Tang Clan s Ain t Nothin ta Fuck Wit . Apparently, neither are they.
Retro Stefson were followed by the workhorse power-pop of . But the highlight of the night was the singer-songwriter , performing at a small bar called Dillon. His backing band, consisting of trombone, cello, bass, and drums, lent his raw, folksy, Springsteen-esque rock a vigor much appreciated by the small crowd.
Finally, last night ratified the dubious concept of Icelandic hip hop, with and performing to a rapturous crowd at . Rapping in English and Icelandic, these crews brought the motherfucking ruckus like they invented the shit.
And it only gets better from here.
Keep your mouse situated at the Fork for more photo installments from the Iceland Airwaves festival, which continues through Sunday.
Adam Cox (23), and Matthew Fitzgerald (20) in a July 2003 automative accident, left us devastated. Now, will release the r , and we honestly couldn t be (You Left Me) , the Hearts sing, I know I ve had you under my wheels for so long now / You re moving on.
If you love something, set it free, right? Faces , it s a grower. Best part-- it kind, mild-mannered could have at last Monday s Springfield, MO Wilco show?
We were too...
until Pitchfork reader Melissa Hanson sent links to YouTube videos of both the At roughly a minute into the Woody Guthrie-penned favorite Airline to Heaven, a crazed fan flies out of the audience and onto the stage, raising his arms above his head and, you know, rocking out. Tweedy plays it cool until said fan goes in for a smooch. Tweedy is rightfully taken aback and swats the dude s face before going in for the choke (a light one, admittedly).
Totally justified, in our humble speech, and Wilco picks up Airline to Heaven from where they left In the second clip, Tweedy apologizes to the crowd, saying, I feel terrible. I don t like to fuckin punch somebody in the face. Why would I?
It sucks. It sucks, man. At this point, someone from the audience calls out ( lyric) we can make it better.
Tweedy responds, We can make it better than that! good time, but now I feel like going and sitting down somewhere. But I know we can t do that.
We re not going to do that. We re not going to let the bastards Wilco have issued a statement about the incident. It reads, It was clear fairly early on that security was a bit lax at the Shrine Mosque.
We mistake?) so the band and crowd could be as close together as possible. The band prefer it that way.
.. While we certainly do not encourage that kind of behavior, we were prepared to let it go, as he was, it seemed, heading back into the crowd.
Just when it from behind. Jeff did not see him approaching, but felt the guy s hands on his head. To this, Jeff reacted.
As Jeff put it...
I really regret what happened last night. I wish it had gone another way..
. and i suspect had i felt safer on that stage, had security been doing a better job all night long, well things would have gone differently. He approached me from behind.
.. and I reacted in defense to get him away.
I didn t know what his intentions were...
and I had to get him off of me. I m sad that it happened at all. For the full piece, click .
We ve all been there: lying in bed late at night, mind restless, pondering the mysteries of life, when the thought seizes us-- How awesome would it be to party on a satellite that s orbiting the Earth? Ex- /Porno for Pyros chief has been there too, but instead of just writing about it in his Live Journal, Perry did something about it. He formed a band.
That band, , debuted in nascent form last year, playing a gig in L.A. and a set at 2005 in Chicago.
They ve since signed to Columbia Records, and have a full-length, self-titled debut slated for release in March of next year. Pitchfork recently spoke to Farrell, who was more than happy to chat about the new project s sound and concept, rock vs. hip hop, parties in space, party people, party drugs, Lollapalooza, and partying.
We're probably one of the biggest bands in Scandinavia today. seem to come from another world-- and no, we don t mean Denmark. On this year s epic (a recent Pitchfork ), the dream-rock combo explores realms most of us abandoned long ago at the onset of adulthood, while proudly hinting at its alternative rock, shoegaze, and indie influences.
From their soaring atmospherics to their childlike lyrical content to their eerie animated backdrops, Mew seem intent on drawing you into their own odd universe-- and if you re willing to suspend disbelief for an hour or so, it s well worth the plunge.
The band is currently in the midst of an ambitious North American tour, opening for NME lovechildren . In between shows, Pitchfork sat down for a chat with the impresario behind Mew-- vocalist, guitarist, lyricist, and visual artist Jonas Bjerre-- about fairy tales, J Mascis, and yes, .
Pitchfork: The record seems to take itself pretty seriously, but what happened with that cover art?
Jonas: Well, there s this company in Paris called , They ve done a lot of work for Bj o rk, and everything they ve made we really like a lot. We decided to approach them to make the cover, and intact and uncompromised.
a band of our type to put our faces on the cover. It s usually more of a pop thing, but the way they did it was so strange. And the way that way, the result of all our combined chemistry together.
Pitchfork: So you re satisfied with the way it came out?
Jonas: Yeah. It took us a while to get used to the idea, but now I really like it.
I think it s very artistic. I m quite happy with it.
Jonas: A lot of our lyrics are very abstract, and when we get asked about them we kind of try to rationalize them and explain them.
But a lot of them come from a very subconscious place. If I were to make an attempt, I d probably say that the kite is a symbol of our music, because it s very fragile, made of canvas that can be ripped apart very easily, but at the same time it soars very high, and I think that s true of our music as well. It has both of those sides: very fragile, and still very strong in points.
But I think it s better to leave the image up for interpretation.
Pitchfork: You got J Mascis to sing on Why Are You Looking Grave? How did you manage that?
Jonas: We ve kind of bumped into him over the years a few times. A long time ago when we d just started the band, our old guitar player met him in Copenhagen, where he was doing a show and he d lost his luggage. So t-shirts and stuff, and he also gave him a Mew t-shirt which he played in that night, which was really nice for us.
And then [Mascis] was playing a show in L.A. while we recorded there, so we went to see him afterwards backstage, and convinced him to come sing in the studio.
We really like his voice, and I think it s a great contrast to mine. 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.
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.
