Last time Pitchfork reported on s Zach Condon ( ), we lovingly joked about him having nothing but good luck this year. Um, looks like we totally jinxed the poor guy (sorry dude!).
We ve just received word that Beirut have been forced to cancel the remaining shows on their current tour-- and that Condon has suffered a bought of extreme exhaustion, for which he was hospitalized for a short time this past Saturday in Paris, France. The band was forced to cancel their show in Paris, as well as an appearance on French website s series.
This was an extremely difficult decision to make, wrote a representative for the band s U.
S. label, , about the tour cancellation, and was only decided on after doing everything we possibly could to make it work out.
This is Beirut s first-ever tour, and while the band played some of the greatest shows of their lives, the attendant stress of organizing and traveling with a full-blown, 12-person orkestar took its toll.
Having put all of his energy into each and every performance, Zach was briefly hospitalized for extreme exhaustion.
Looks like the are at it again. As anyone who cruises by today will find, the website has been updated with .
we got 36 title-less tracks; this time, good God, the witches have summoned up eight whole albums.
Really though, we hesitate to call these albums or the things on them songs , because let s face it, they re pretty much tossed-off Garage Band demos. Luckily Adams has a knack for song-writing, however, and most of these off the cuff sketches are already more melodically interesting than much of what indie-land has churned out this year.
Plus they re hilarious, and have titles like Get Scared, Throw Up, Die , Oops, Youre Dead , and of course, Drunk as a Pile of Fuck .
Many of your favorites from the original batch of 36 crop up here-- now with titles-- under one of three apparent Adams aliases: The Shit, who deal in punk rock and hillbilly fuckery, DJ Reggie, who sounds an awful lot like Bran Van 3000, and WereWolph, who cover Creed and Shania Twain and sound positively deranged.
Welcome to the future of the internet, kids.
Strokes' Hammond, Jr. to Open for Incubus And we thought the was the closest they d ever come to meathead grunge/alt-rock. Guess we were wrong.
Strokes guitarist/solo artist has expanded his tour in support of his October solo debut, North America opening for...
. Yeah, think we ll be sitting that one out. He s also added some additional European and UK gigs, which kick off on November 22 in Birmingham.
Now, on to the important questions: ever little makeover? Say, without legs, an arm, and some facial tissue? Well, now s your chance to see him as a full-blown zombie.
his dead body on the ground. He cruises around town, understandably upset about his unfortunate demise, and heads home, where he reaches right through his later comes across some Jesus graffiti and a WWJD? bumper sticker, and heads to the cemetery, where he jumps into his already filled grave, meets his body, and crawls out as a zombie.
Just like Jesus.
It's a world of slow motion and hyper-speed at the same time. Turns out isn t so silent.
Recently, the Swedish singer/songwriter posted four minutes first post, , was added on October 11. The Swede soonish? Well, I have all the songs written, so now I m just working on the recordings.
..If things go well, it might come out before the referring to ( not.
..the snow on the top of the mountain, nor.
..the snowflake that accidentally made its way across the Texas border, but.
..the Gothenburg snow, falling thick and thin over the pine trees ), and most importantly, his love of badminton.
He explains his affinity for the sport, saying, I like it because it s a graceful sport...
if you want it to be. It s a world of slow motion and hyper-speed at the same time, before going on to and promising to get back to his MySpace community about them, signing off, Yours Truly, Jens Lekman. being the honorable man he is, Jens kept his vow, posting another track, , early this month.
So what does the musician see during REM? Doorbells, gymnastics class, beer, relatives and ancestors, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and cinnamon rolls. Of course.
Hood's Bracken Signs to Anticon, Plans Single, LP play the solo card, crafting haunted, dubby glitch-hop manifestoes.
The one-man act released a 12 single, Heathens , in the UK last week on Anticon, and now plans to drop the same limited edition single (1000 copies available worldwide) on American soil November 14, courtesy of the same label. In addition to the title track, this slab of vinyl features three songs, including a remix redone by Anticon mates and .
length, We Know About the Need, arrives via Anticon come January 30.
Mazarin is the name of a 17th century priest, a gallery in France, and an antique chest, as well as part of the title of a Sherlock Holmes movie. It is also the name of Philadelphia indie-psych guru ongoing project since 1999.
..at least until next month.
On December 2, at the Philadelphia bar/restaurant/venue Johnny Brenda s, Stoltzfus and his current bandmates will perform as Mazarin one last time. to , who have apparently been slaves to rock n roll since the 1970s, Stoltzfus has chosen to break up the band. A post on the Mazarin website assures that he will continue making music, though it is unclear under what name.
Over the past seven years, Mazarin released three albums (1999 s Watch It Happen, 2001 s , and 2005 s ) and several singles. Tourmates the Walkmen covered We re Already There s Another One Goes By on their album from earlier this year, A Hundred Miles Off. In honor of Mazarin s retirement, Stotzfus has made available a new song for free download on , as well as by clicking on the link below.
It s a cover of fellow Philadelphia band Blood Feathers Your Advice , and in typical Mazarin fashion, it layers woozy psychedelia over a folksy underpinning. Joining Stoltzfus on the track are members of the band Apollo Sunshine. Mazarin are currently taking requests for songs to be played at their final shows.
To send one in, email exclamation points can barely contain how excited we are to announce s upcoming album, Myth Takes. The follow-up to 2004 s Louden Up Now, it features typically ChkChkChk-ian song titles like All My Heroes Are Weirdos and Bend Over Beethoven , and hopefully lots of cowbell. Brooklyn eight-piece will release their latest work on March 4, 2007, courtesy of .
While previously only on Warp overseas, and in America, the band is now signed to Warp worldwide. for his taste in tunes. In the past, he s put together shows around material from the Talking Heads, the Smashing Pumpkins, the Beatles, and more, apparently.
For the 2006 season, Rees brought the music of to the Tucson community, and several rehearsal videos made their way to YouTube. And then the links to those videos cruised over to our inboxes thanks to Pitchfork reader Max Traylor. performance.
It begins with all 250+ students chanting Fitter Happier , and from there kicks into a booming, The National Anthem , which features a couple of impressive, with the marching band singing, This is what you get. This is what you get when you mess with us. Safe to say, it s pretty spectacular.
..and even more so when you factor in the perfectly aligned field formations accompanying the music.
We can t make out whether or not those formations are actually shapes that have anything to do with Radiohead, but still, they re pretty fucking cool. of all, the majestic ending that follows Karma show. Parts one and three are linked below.
Report: Be the Riottt! Festival [San Francisco, CA; 11/11/06] With sparsely-attended Veterans Day festivities underway in San Francisco s Civic Center plaza (because nothing pays tribute to our esteemed men and women of war quite like a high school drill team in miniskirts and garters performing LeAnn Rimes Can t Fight the Moonlight ), the city s young and adventurous began lining up outside the nearby for the inaugural festival.
Put together by burgeoning music/art/culture website , Be the Riottt!
basically united those two towering bastions of underground music: white dudes with guitars and black dudes with microphones and turntables-- with a few laptops and ladies tossed in for good measure. By genre statistics, however, the fest boasted a pretty diverse lineup, with heavy doses of indie rock (the Rapture, the Wrens, Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, Metric, Tokyo Police Club) and hip hop (Clipse, Living Legends, Zion I, Sage Francis, P.O.
S.), a few sprinkles of dancier stuff (Girl Talk, the Presets, Weird Science), and a couple random screamo bands snuck in for no apparent reason (Fall of Troy, Heavy Heavy Low Low).
Riottt!
birthed this baby with a bang, and was kind enough to treat Pitchfork to a Frisco trip to witness the blood, the sweat, and the joyous tears of that birth live. A quiet Riottt! this most certainly was not.
Band of Horses, Silversun Pickups Score Big When we look back on the state of indie rock in 2006, it s going to appear very dreamy, jangly, and fuzzy--at least according to the . The annual event honoring the previous year s best in independent music has announced the , and Seattle s Band of Horses and Los Angeles Silversun Pickups lead the charge with seven nods each. They will compete for honors such as Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year with the likes of Beirut, Belle and Sebastian, Cat Power, Girl Talk, Grizzly Bear, J Dilla, Joanna Newsom, Neko Case, the Hold Steady, and the Knife.
PLUG also celebrates the best in various genres (hip-hop, metal, Americana, punk, electronic/dance, etc.), extra-musical aspects such as music videos, album packaging, record labels, and concert venues, as well as many media categories, including Record Store of the Year, Radio Station of the Year, Magazine of the Year, and Music Website of the Year (ahem). The PLUG nominations have been chosen by of artists, journalists, label employees, and other music industry insiders (including, yes, myself and several other Pitchfork staffers).
The winners, however, are chosen by YOU. Anyone can vote, from today through January 26, 2007, at the PLUG website. The will take place at NYC s Irving Plaza on February 10, 2007.
, the PLUG organization is building excitement for the big day by hosting the PLUG City Highlights Tour, taking place in cities across North America in the months leading up to February 10. Events have already taken place in Miami, Austin, and Toronto, with plans for shindigs in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Brooklyn, and Portland, OR, in the works. In fact, the Brooklyn event will occur this Friday, November 17, at the Syrup Room, featuring performances by local bands the Harlem Shakes, Takka Takka, Dragons of Zynth, and Illinois.
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