Pitchfork

As the UK home to the Pixies, Cocteau Twins, Lush, Throwing Muses, TV on the Radio, Mountain Goats and Dead Can Dance, 4AD Records has enjoyed 25 years of artistic consistency and occasional waves of revenue. To show off their formidable legacy, the label will issue an 25th anniversary compilation on November 22, and will celebrate with a round of London concerts by the best and brightest of the label's past and present.

The Pixies must be worn out from all that reuniting, because they're one of the few major 4AD alums not slated for the celebratory concert series. Entitled "1980 Forward", the shows will span a little more than a week, and feature the only 2005 European appearance by TV on the Radio, two-night stands each by the Breeders and Kristin Hersh, Mojave 3 and Mark Kozelek performing Red House Painters songs, and an art exhibition by 4AD's house artist, Vaughan Oliver, at the two Breeders' shows. (Expect a lot of pastel colors and words you can't read.) All of the concerts will be held in London, and that ubiquitous group known as "Special Guests" will open most of the nights... ooh, mysterious. Dates and lineups:

11-17 TV on the Radio - The Scala
11-18 Minotaur Shock, Magnetophone - The Luminaire
11-19 The Breeders - Blackheath Halls *
11-20 The Breeders - Blackheath Halls *
11-21 Kristin Hersh (performing the songs of the Throwing Muses)- The Scala
11-22 Kristin Hersh (performing songs from Hips and Makers and onwards) - The Scala
11-23 The Mountain Goats - Bush Hall
11-24 Celebration - The Water Rats
11-25 Mojave 3 and Mark Kozelek (performing the songs of the Red House Painters) - Conway Hall
11-27 Blonde Redhead, Johann Johannsson - The Scala

*with Vaughn Oliver art exhibition

4AD's website will be redesigned next month by Oliver, and his design firm, v23, has also created handmade packaging for a special limited-edition "bespoke" version of the anniversary compilation (that means you get to make your very own custom mix of 4AD catalogue tracks). No word yet on the tracklist for the regular compilation, but M/A/R/R/S' "Pump Up the Volume\x94 better not get left out.

In other 4AD news, a Cocteau Twins four-CD box set will also come out on November 22, and there is an "intriguing" release currently in production from 4AD founder Ivo Watts-Russell's Hope Blister project. Ooh, I hope it's a collection of Wolfgang Press covers.

"