Pitchfork

-- Power Shift is a two-day clean energy rally that kicks off today at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC and runs through March 2. If you care about the future and want to help convince the U.S. government to stop catering to dirty energy, you should head over. To entice the youth of America to show up, the environmentally conscious NYC record label Green Owl got the Roots and Santigold to perform at the event. Santigold will fight for her right to build wind turbines tonight; the Roots get down tomorrow. And since Green Owl was founded by Benjamin Bronfman-- aka the father of political pop artist M.I.A.'s child-- maybe you-know-who will make an appearance...

-- If capitalism as we know it wasn't crumbling under the weight of its own greed right now, I would probably book a ticket to this year's Primavera Sound Festival, which takes place May 28-30 in Barcelona, Spain. Because, along with a Pitchfork-curated stage and already-announced acts including Ghostface, Jarvis Cocker, and My Bloody Valentine, none other than Neil Young will take the Primavera stage on Saturday, May 30. The old guy is touring behind his upcoming "potentially batshit" Fork in the Road LP. Pray for the hits.

-- Who doesn't love Hold Steady keyboardist Franz Nicolay? Sure, he's got that handlebar thing going for him. But every time I've seen the Hold Steady, Franz is the most excited guy in the room-- it's like he's always hearing "Party Pit" for the first time and just magically knows the keyboard part. Nicolay will play with his band of classic rocking rogues at SXSW this year-- including a set at Rachel Ray's party-- but he'll also do a few SXSW gigs supporting his solo album, Major General. Then, in April, he'll hit the West Coast for a solo acoustic tour with Swedish artist Moneybrother. Check the official Franz site for a full list of his upcoming shows. The man is busy.

-- I'm not crazy about reprinting sentences from press releases word for word, but this one about Norwegian hard rockers Ungdomskulen is too good: "They rise like a phoenix from the ashes, literally, the ashes of their rehearsal space, which burnt down a month prior to their booked studio time, and took all of their instruments with it." These guys bring it with such force their entire shit went up in flames, people! What more do you want? Ungdomskulen's new album is called Bisexual and it's out March 2. They're playing gigs in Norway and at SXSW next month.

--  Obama-backed, African-born funk band Extra Golden return with their third full-length, Thank You Very Quickly, March 10 via Thrill Jockey. The Pitchfork Fest vets are set to tour the UK next month and then head to the U.S. in April.