Pitchfork

Folk rockin' flock Akron/Family have become the newest branch in the formidable family tree of relatively new Secretly Canadian/Jagjaguwar offshoot Dead Oceans. The guys are currently hard at work preparing their follow-up to the Young God-issued 2007 set Love Is Simple for a spring release on their new label, and gearing up for a trio of late 2008 tour dates along the East Coast, including that New Year's Eve Knitting Factory blowout they're curating.

Billboard.com reports that the new record will be the band's first as a three-piece, and that the disc carries inspirations as disparate as American soul, West African music, and "raw, primal noise."

Akron/Family:

12-28 Cambridge, MA - T.T. the Bear's Place
12-29 Burlington, VT - Higher Ground
12-31 New York, NY - The Knitting Factory *

* with Deerhoof, Dirty Projectors, Deer Tick, Megafaun, DJ Thanksgiving Brown