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Photo by Matt Wignall

Cold War Kids have gone all FDR with the title of their sophomore album, Loyalty to Loyalty. The Robbers & Cowards follow-up will come out Septembe 23 via Downtown, and its tracklist is after the jump.

The band will hit the road from August through the end of November on a world tour that will touch down in North America, the UK, Australia, and Europe.

Cold War Kids bassist Matt Maust recently co-authored a book, What It Is: What It Is, published by Write Bloody Publishing. It contains design by Maust and words by Paul G. Maziar.

We don't want to call MF DOOM an unreliable guy. We like to imagine that instead of recording music he is sneaking around doing important stuff like hunting down Osama bin Laden or building seal habitats. Either way, the fact remains: The rumored follow-up to Madvillainy, DOOM's 2004 collaboration with Madlib, remains unfinished.

While we wait for the album, Madlib has stepped in to make up for his Madvillain partner's absence with the release of a record called Madvillainy 2: The Madlib Remix. Madvillainy 2 shares no song titles with Madvillainy, but that just makes it easier to treat this reworking as a new entity.

The digital version of Madvillainy 2 is available exclusively from Stones Throw's online store right now, but still forthcoming is a souped-up edition of the record called Madvillainy 2: The Box. The Box includes the Madvillainy 2 CD, a 7" featuring "One Beer (Drunk Version)", a cassette featuring The Madvillainy Demo Tape which leaked online prior to Madvillainy's release, a Madvillain t-shirt, and a comic book continuation of the "All Caps" video. All of this comes in a box "wrapped in silver like a mask," according to Stones Throw's description.

Stones Throw is manufacturing copies of Madvillainy 2: The Box based on pre-orders, so anyone who wants one should order by August 15 to receive a copy after the guaranteed ship date of September 15. The cost of The Box is steep-- $124.99 plus shipping-- but such is price of so many goodies.

And you know that's not all Madlib's up to. On September 30, he'll unveil his contribution to BBE's series Beat Generation. Titled WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip, the compilation includes tracks from Guilty Simpson, J.Rocc, Murs, Madlib himself, and his thing with Oh No, the Professionals. WLIB AM is anchored by a bunch of offerings from Madlib's Beat Konducta guise, and will bear the stamps of both BBE and Rapster Records.

Speaking of Beat Konducta, Madlib plans to re-adopt the moniker for a fifth volume of instrumental head-nodders called Dil Cosby Suite. That disc may surface as soon as next month. Also in the pipeline: a record called Miles Away from Madlib's Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble.

As for DOOM, if we cross our fingers extra hard, maybe we'll see his ages-in-the-making Ghostface collaboration Swift & Changeable before the year is out?

When Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville shows in San Francisco, New York, and Chicago were announced last month, we were told that "no additional shows" would be announced. That, as it turns out, was a goddamned lie, which is good news for residents of three East Coast cities.

Liz and band will tackle Guyville three more times towards the end of August over consecutive nights in Philly, D.C., and Boston. All this, of course, comes in the wake of the deluxe reissue of Guyville from Phair's new label ATO. Let's just hope the Chicago show was an outlier, yeah?

Photo by Shannon McClean

Man, after this long on the road, Okkervil River's gonna need a few Stand Ins of their own. The ardent Austin band, soon to release a sorta-sequel to last year's fine The Stage Names LP, have thrown a bunch of dates onto the back end of their tour itinerary, which now sees them on the road at least a little (and mostly a lot) every month from this one through November. A set at Lollapalooza next weekend in Chicago gets things started.

The Stand Ins is due from Jagjaguwar September 9 in North America, October 13 in the U.K., September 1 in France, September 12 in Germany, September 17 in Japan, and September 8 throughout the rest of Europe. Got all that?

Indietracks is sort of an awkward name for a thing, sure, like Dijonnaise. Then again, just like there's no more appropriate term for the intersection of dijon mustard and mayonnaise, what the hell else are you gonna call a festival where indie bands perform on real live trains? Exactly.

So, Indietracks it is. Taking place July 26-27 at the Midland Railway in Butterley, England, the fest packs a mess of indie pop bands onto three boring old static stages, plus, as we cannot possibly mention enough, one stage on a moving train.

The likes of the Wedding Present, Los Campesinos!, Manhattan Love Suicides, Airport Girl, the Wave Pictures, Comet Gain, Ballboy, Red Pony Clock, Milky Wimpshake, Shrag, St. Christopher, the Smittens, and oh so many others will slide into the station this coming weekend.

Photo by Nilina Mason-Campbell

Low have revealed some tour dates at festivals, a museum, a previously mentioned Obama benefit, and even a "UFO Factory" to keep themselves busy this summer. Aside from the variety of venues, the most notable aspect of these new dates comes in the form of three shows, each tagged as "An Evening With Low". Meaning? Since these shows feature no openers, Low will play longer sets and cover more discography ground than usual. Who knows how far into the back catalog and cover canon they might go?

The fun begins August 27 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and the first "Evening With" gig hits Chicago on September 17.

Music may be figuratively good for the heart, but forthcoming compilation Beaterblocker takes heart-benefiting a step further. According to a press release, Beaterblocker curator Ed Godden created the "experimental mixed genre compilation...in aid of the ACU and Lamb Ward at the Homerton Hospital" in London. Godden's reason for doing so is simple: "I had a heart attack last year, and the album is a thank you to everyone who looked after me. It was scary. I was 21."

Beaterblocker features tracks from Marissa Nadler, Vladislav Delay, Ghosthype, Alex Smoke, Abdullah Flex, Marsen Jules, Klimek, Panda Bear/Ariel Pink collaborator John Maus, and Angel Deradoorian of Dirty Projectors. Its limited first edition will be available from a couple British shops and from the compilation's website on July 25, and all proceeds will go to the Homerton Hospital.

To celebrate Beaterblocker's entry into the world, there will be a free launch party tonight (July 24) at London's Flea Pit, featuring a live set from Abdullah Flex and DJ sets and visuals from Ghosthype, Dead Leaf Echo, Allez-Allez, and Upset the Rhythm. Copies of the compilation will be available for purchase at the launch party.

It used to be a Shellac tour was a rare occasion, but since just before the release of Excellent Italian Greyhound, Steve Albini and co. have toured regularly enough to be considered a functioning band. It's as if they realized people want to hear from them more than once every couple years. Crazy!

Shellac will give the people what they want again this September and October with a short tour of North America, the UK, and Ireland. The tour starts in Royal Oak Pontiac, Michigan on September 15 and includes a couple of ATP-related performances.

Once they're all done running rampant over the UK with their recently released debut LP Limbo, Panto, England's Wild Beasts will bring their audio tribute to that bendy dance and that thing where you don't talk (or something) to the States. Limbo, Panto will hit these shores via Domino on November 4.

These Beasts are sticking awfully close to their native habitat this summer with a scattered series of UK shows this month and next.

Photo by Jacqueline Castel

"Ghost-punks" though they may claim to be, no wavers These Are Powers have nevertheless materialized on the roster of the Dead Oceans imprint. The band, which features ex-Liars bassist Pat Noecker, has signed with the Secretly Canadian/Jagjaguwar offshoot, who will be re-releasing their 2007 LP debut Terrific Seasons and this spring's Taro Tarot EP October 7. A new LP can be expected in the first part of next year, but just exactly when, no one's sure at the moment. Oooh, spooky.

These Are Powers will embark on a monthlong North American tour in early September.