Pitchfork

It's a good time to be a Kinks fan. More accurately, it's a good time to be a Ray Davies fan. It has to be karma or something. After waiting patiently for so long, you guys deserve the musical gifts your man is about to shower upon you in the forms of an EP, an LP, an exclusive club performance, and an appearance on "Conan".

First up is the benefit EP Thanksgiving Day, which drops November 22 (two days prior to the eponymous holiday), with the title track arriving on iTunes a week earlier, on November 15. Davies describes the five-song set as part of an attempt to "discover America;" we hope he discovered more than 7-11 parking lots and race riots. Tracklist:

01 Thanksgiving Day
02 Yours Truly Confused N10
03 London Song
04 Storyteller
05 Thanksgiving Day (Alternative Mix)

All net proceeds from the sale of the EP will benefit music education programs in New Orleans. So if you're not gonna buy it for the music, at least do it for the children!

After Thanksgiving Day's release, Ray is gonna hit the promotional circuit real quick. He'll perform the title track live on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" on...wait for it...Thanksgiving Day. (Actually, more like Thanksgiving Late Night.) The following Monday, November 28, he and his band (not the Kinks, sorry) will play a one-off show at the Supper Club in New York City.

But what is all this action leading up to? It just so happens that, come February, Davies will release his first-ever solo album. We know, we know, it's hard to believe that Ray Davies has never released a solo set before, but we've thought about it long and hard, and Return to Waterloo and that Storytellers thing just don't count. And Davies' marketing people seem to agree with us.

Entitled Other People's Lives, the disc hits February 7. Odds are it will really get you then. Tracklist:

01 Things Are Gonna Change (The Morning After)
02 After the Fall
03 Next Door Neighbour
04 All She Wrote
05 Creatures of Little Faith
06 Run Away From Time
07 The Tourist
08 Is There Life After Breakfast?
09 The Getaway (Lonesome Train)
10 Other People's Lives
11 Stand Up Comic
12 Over My Head
13 Thanksgiving Day