Pitchfork

Bearded Seattle harmoizers blowing the fuck up alert: Fleet Foxes, maybe not the funniest band in the history of the universe, are about to join the extremely short list of indie label bands to perform on "Saturday Night Live". They'll play "Blue Ridge Mountains" and "Mykonos" on the show's January 17 episode. Rosario Dawson, who some might say is way prettier than Robin Pecknold, will be hosting. They'll follow Taylor Swift, this week's musical guest, who (hey!) is also on an indie and who also made a really, really great album in 2008.

-- Nashville's Lambchop will play shows to support their latest LP, OH (Ohio), starting January 22 in Louisville, Kentucky and ending March 7 in Los Angeles. And, unlike last year's solo jaunt, leader Kurt Wagner is bringing the full band this time. Check Merge's site for the full itinerary.

-- After hosting Nine Inch Nails, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Coldplay, and Jay-Z last year, the British Columbia summer festival known as Pemberton is taking it easy this year. According to Billboard, the Live Nation-produced mega concert couldn't get certain permits approved in time to book bands so they're already moving onto 2010. Blame Canada...or whoever was supposed to approve those pesky permits.

-- Montreal DJ/producer CFCF-- who you might recognize from his remix work for Crystal Castles, Sally Shapiro, and Apache Beat-- has signed with Canadian label Paper Bag's digital imprint. His first release will be a seven-song EP called Panesian Nights (out January 20)-- feel free to download the M83-gone-clubbing first single, "Crystal Mines", here. Even more crystal!

-- It takes a lot to get Chicagoans to leave the comfort of their own (hopefully well-heated) homes during these bleak winter days. But Windy City denizens may want to trek out to Schubas next week for the annual Tomorrow Never Knows fest. This year's event is spread across five days (January 14-18) and features Department of Eagles, Cursive, Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, Bishop Allen, the Soft Pack (formerly the Muslims), and a "British Invasion" class from Paul Green's School of Rock. Who wants to see the real Who nowadays, anyway?

Here's the cover for the Thermals' fourth album, Now We Can See, out April 7 on new label home Kill Rock Stars. If you're a Thermals fan, you might be familiar with the cut-and-paste collage aesthetic, as it has been employed on the covers of all three past Thermals albums. However, unlike those other covers, this one doesn't seem to be making an aggressive political statement. Also, nothing is being set on fire.

Have the Thermals gone soft? Has the promise of Barack Obama's presidency lulled them into complacency? Does this album just consist of doe-eyed tender acoustic love ballads? Are we reading too much into this? (Yes.)

With "Weird Al" pushing 50, Adam Sandler pushing family comedies, and Tenacious D pushing nothing in particular, there's a void in the comedy music realm. Enter the Lonely Island, a trio of goofballs featuring "Saturday Night Live" star Andy Samberg and his buddies/"SNL" writers Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, who hope to put Flight of the Conchords on notice with their debut album, Incredibad, out February 10 on Universal Republic. Our exhaustive recent chat with the guys had them giving up all the info you needed to know about the CD/DVD package save an official tracklist and cover art. But now we have those, too, via Spinner.

Of course, you've got modern classics "Dick in a Box" and "Lazy Sunday", but there's also possible future classics like "Dreamgirl" featuring Norah Jones and "Boombox" with Julian Casablancas. (Personal bummer-- "Iran So Far" is apparently MIA. Did Aphex Twin get mad?) Also worth checking out: the group's newest video for "We Like Sportz". LOLz, etc.

Usually, appearing on the cover of Vibe magazine is cause for celebration. But if you're Kanye West, you can usually find reasons to quibble. On the cover of the latest issue of Vibe, Kanye looks like he's got some gray in his beard, and he wants you to know that that is absolutely not the case.

Here's what Kanye wrote on his blog, accompanying the photo: "I DON'T HAVE GREY IN MY BEARD IN REAL LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'M ALL DOWN WITH BEINGS IN MY 30'S BUT DAAAAAAAAMN!!!! THIS IS SOME BENJAMIN BUTTON'S SHIT!"

Checking up on this story, I spoke with Vibe Music Editor Sean Fennessey, a former Pitchfork writer and a good friend of mine. Sean, who wrote the Kanye cover story, confirms Kanye's claims: "Having been at the shoot, I can say with certainty that there is no gray in Kanye's beard. Our cover photographer, Nadav Kander, uses lighting techniques that make some features look particularly crispy and his beard has fallen prey to that. I think of it as more of a glisten. So technically this is not some Benjamin Button's shit."

Canadian aspiring teen idol Aubrey Graham, who plays disabled high school basketball star Jimmy Brooks on "Degrassi: The Next Generation", also raps and sings under the name Drake and somehow got himself signed to Lil Wayne's Young Money Records. And no, I don't know how stuff like this happens. The world is a weird place, and when you start worrying about why the guy from "Degrassi" is on Lil Wayne's label, your brain will hurt and you will have to lie down. It's best to just accept it and move on.

Thus far, Drake's Young Money output (none of it actually released, naturally) mostly consists of an inexplicable remix of Lykke Li's "Little Bit" and the Wayne collaboration "Ransom", which is shockingly good mostly because of a nutso super-long Wayne verse that includes Wayne reciting the entire alphabet and ending it with "ZZ Top, yes he rock" even though ZZ Top is obviously a they. Wayne also raps, "I would buttfuck your friend." And "It is just a minute past piss and I'm about to get shitted on."

In a perfect world, we could forget all about Drake's rap career after this song. But no. Drake is muscling his way back into our brains by giving interviews about Wayne's supposedly forthcoming terrible-idea rock album.

In a recent interview with Much Music (no seriously guys, it's the Canadian MTV, stop laughing), Drake announced that Lil Wayne's next album would be a rock album and that he, Drake, would have a song on it. It's "a complete rock album," says Drake, whatever that means. "It's something different in just that whole 808s & Heartbreak, just throwing individuals off."

This is where we mention that Wayne is better when he throws individuals off by saying stuff like "It is just a minute past piss and I'm about to get shitted on" than when he tries to be a rock guy. If you want some idea of what Lil Wayne thinks a Lil Wayne rock song sounds like, click here. Or don't.

No word on whether this rock album is going to be Tha Carter IV or the rebooted Carter III with all new tracks. Also: This album will probably not happen. People love talking about what the next Lil Wayne album is going to be, but Wayne apparently barely has any idea where he is at any given moment of the day, so the idea that he's making long-term master-plans is basically ridiculous.

In related Wayne news, he's currently on headlining the I Am Music tour with the supremely goofy supporting lineup of T-Pain, Keri Hilson, Gym Class Heroes, and Keyshia Cole. Wayne's playing these shows with a live band that both (1) includes Elephant 6 affiliate Heather McIntosh on bass and (2) is terrible. Seriously, his guitarist solos over "A Milli." Why would you solo over "A Milli"? What sense does that make?

You're probably familiar with Natasha Khan, aka the mastermind behind Bat for Lashes, aka that unicorn-loving hippie-goth chick who broke out with 2006's genuinely haunting Fur & Gold. But you are probably not familiar with Pearl, Khan's "destructive, self-absorbed, blonde, femme fatale" alter ego. (Sounds like somebody got a little too into I Am...Sasha Fierce.) Khan and Pearl will do battle all over Bat for Lashes' new album, Two Suns, due out on Astralwerks April 6.

Think split personality albums can be kinda pretentious? Well, you probably shouldn't read this next sentence: A press release goes on to describe Pearl as a "direct foil to Khan's more mystical, desert-born spiritual self" and the end of the LP finds Khan "confronting the end of the illusory world and prepare for wherever the world will take her next." And here we thought Pearl was just the go-to moniker for all 1950s receptionists.

Still, based on the strength of Fur & Gold-- not to mention Khan's creepy, killer voice-- we're holding out hope that she can succeed with the new persona. Plus, Pearl isn't the only guest who'll show up on Two Suns: one of the few singers as goose bump-worthy as Khan, Scott Walker, will wail on closer "The Big Sleep," and Brooklyn-based kindred spirits Yeasayer also make an appearance.

Bat for Lashes will tour the UK in April, with a U.S. tour set to be announced soon. Until then, a list of song names awaits:

Last year, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band tried to break onto the web-rock scene by purposefully withholding their music from the web. Instead of posting a few songs on MySpace, they uploaded a few silly instructional videos about "technology" and "homeostasis" to YouTube.

And in the tradition of things so crazy they just might work, the band got some blog attention, released an EP co-produced by Scott Colburn (Arcade Fire, Animal Collective), played a few shows, got signed to Dead Oceans, and now they're ready to release their self-titled debut album on March 10. Only in 2009, folks, only in 2009.

Blog-ready gimmicks aside-- they also boast a 13-year-old drummer, Marshall Verdoes, who happens to be singer-guitarist Benjamin Verdoes' brother-- MSHVB are currently taking a more traditional route to their music career: touring behind their album all over the country this spring. It might not be sexy but it works. Track list and dates below.

According to the band's publicist (they have a publicist!), the long-whispered-about doom-metal supergroup Shrinebuilder is totally going to happen! They're recording an album and everything! This is so awesome.

The band's absurd lineup: Saint Vitus/Obsessed/Spirit Caravan/Hidden Hand guitar hero Scott "Wino" Weinrich, gigantic Neurosis/Tribes of Neurot leader Scott Kelly (pictured), former* Sleep and current Om bassist Al Cisneros, and Melvins drummer Dale Crover. Former Om drummer Chris Hakius was also originally supposed to be involved, but he dropped out around the same time he left Om. And that's fine; we're not about to start complaining about Dale Crover being involved.

Real talk: This is something like a stoner-metal Mount Rushmore, and the album is probably going to make us want to celebrate by going out and killing a lion and then using the lion's skull to make a bong.

Right, the album: The band is scheduled to begin recording this weekend in Los Angeles with producer Toshi Kasai. Kelly's Neurot Recordings is set to release the album this summer. And almost as badass, Kelly has promised to liveblog the recording sessions on his perfectly-named We Burn Through the Night blog. To put things in perspective, a recent entry begins: "I was raised in the corner of the room. Backed up against the wall. Isolated. Tormented. Dominated. Intimidated." If Kelly writes his studio blog like this, we can't hit subscribe fast enough.

In other Neurosis news, the mysterious band will play a can't-miss show in Atlanta on February 28 with Mastodon, Torche, Harvey Milk, and others opening. And they're curating the Beyond the Pale event at the Roadburn festival in Tilburg, Netherlands, on April 25. The Roadburn lineup includes Neurosis themselves, Om, and a Saint Vitus reunion. That's three quarters of Shrinebuilder's lineup right there, so we could be looking forward to a surprise onstage debut, perhaps.

Some gut reactions based on the first round of bands named for this year's SXSW Music Festival, which will take place in Austin March 18-22:

1) Only two "crystal" bands...so far (Crystal Method and Crystal Stilts).
2) Most Stereotype-Edifying Japanese Band Name: Tokyo's Futumomo Satisfaction.
3) Straight-Up Worst Band Name: Toronto's Candy Coated Killahz.
4) Most Irresponsible Band Name: Florida's This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb.
5) Please be a band of robots in overalls: Austin's Hickoids.
6) Surprisingly strong hip-hop showing! (See: 8Ball & MJG, Killer Mike, Kid Sister, Dead Prez.)
7) Jonas Brothers Tribute Band? London's Virgin Passages.
8) Most Awesomely Emo Band Name: Ireland's We Should Be Dead.
9) Maybe more people will pay attention to our band if we type the name in all caps and put an exclamation point at the end: London's EBONY BONES!
10) Only two "black" names...so far (Black Skies and Black Cherries).

And here's a list of artists playing SXSW you may actually care about: 8Ball & MJG, Akron/Family, Amanda Blank, Asher Roth, Asobi Seksu, Ben Kweller, Blaqstarr, Blue Scholars, Buraka Som Sistema, Buck 65, Charles Hamilton, Crystal Method, Crystal Stilts, Dead Prez, Explosions in the Sky, Ida Maria, Invincible, Kid Sister, Killer Mike, the Knux, Mika Miko, P.O.S., Peter Bjorn and John, Primal Scream, Reflection Eternal, Sage Francis, St. Vincent, the Temper Trap, White Lies.

For a list of all the bands set to play SXSW so far go here.