Pitchfork

Emerging from a long slumber, he wipes his eyes. He yawns, stretches, and carefully climbs out from the cave. Hibernation's over, bitches! D.C. music-maker Chad Clark and his band Beauty Pill are back from their indefinite hiatus, making it, well, somewhat definite. There's a new track, a tour, album plans, and a lineup change, and everyone is still looking lovely.

In fact, Clark wrote a MySpace blog post yesterday titled "You should always be in love with your bandmates" that said "I just wanted to say that I have the most lovely bandmates. You should always be in love with your band. Not actually in love, mind you. That's bad. But, y'know, you should always love your bandmates. Love is good." Aww.

The new song, a demo titled "Ann the Word", can be streamed on Beauty Pill's brand new MySpace page and features multi-instrumentalist/semi-new band member Jean Cook on vocals. The finalized version of the track brags a hefty guest list, including Zeena Parkins on electric harp, Colin Stetson on bass clarinet, Kenta Nagai on shamisen, Joel Hamilton on loop-duty, and Carol Bui playing a guitar solo. A new album is in the works, though details remain vague at this time.

The band's member list now includes Clark, Cook (replacing Rachel Burke), Devin Ocampo (replacing Ryan Nelson), Basla Andolsun, Drew Doucette, and Chad Molter. As for what happened to the former members, check out Clark's recent MySpace post for the rundown.

Last night, Beauty Pill launched a small U.S. tour, one date of which will see them play alongside Danielson, Man Man, and more at Kentucky's Southgate House for the Lite Brite Indie Pop and Film Test.

The band is planning a fall trek, but for now, this is what we've got:

07-21 Kalamazoo, MI - Kraftbrau #
07-22 Milwaukee, WI - Cactus Club
07-23 Dekalb, IL - House
07-24 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle ^
07-25 Detroit, MI - Lager House
07-27 Toledo, OH - Thunderbird
07-28 Newport, KY - Southgate House (Lite Brite Indie Pop and Film Test) %
07-29 Pittsburgh, PA - Modern Formations Gallery

* with Them vs. Them
# with Hornet, Sah
^ with Dogme 95, Maps & Atlases
% with Danielson, Man Man, Johnnytwentythree, Jonny Lives