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Friday, June 12

New Release: BLK JKS: After Robots

New Release: BLK JKS: <i>After Robots</i>

Artist: BLK JKS
Album: After Robots
Release Date: September 8
Label: Secretly Canadian

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Weezer Get an Online Radio Station

Weezer Get an Online Radio Station

What does Rivers Cuomo listen to at home? I'm guessing it's all Kiss all day, but we'll get a better idea next month when Weezer get their own online radio station.

According to Billboard, Clear Channel Radio and Frontline Management are starting something called a.p.e. (artist personal experience) radio, which will allow artists to produce their own 24-hour online radio stations. The stations will play songs chosen by the artists alongside interviews and commentary. The program will launch in July with Weezer, as well as stations from Christina Aguilera and the Eagles.

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2009 Pitchfork Music Festival Two-Day Passes Sold Out!

"Write the Night" voting ends tonight 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival Two-Day Passes Sold Out!

You snooze, you lose. Two-day passes for the 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival, which takes over Chicago's Union Park July 17-19, are now sold out. Three-day passes are long gone. So if you want to hit up the world's most well-run, well-curated, and all-around pleasant music festival (yes, we're biased), your last option is to pick up individual day passes. Day passes for all three days are still on sale, but Sunday night is going fast.

In more other fest news, the voting for "Write the Night: Set Lists by Request" ends tonight at 11:59 p.m. If you want to help pick the songs that the Flaming Lips, Built to Spill, the Jesus Lizard, Yo La Tengo, and Tortoise will play, there's no time to waste!

And finally, we've added more excitement to the already crowded list of extra-musical activities going down at the festival. So check below for info on the PMF Recycling Store and the festival's food accommodations, as well as the schedule of artists playing this year.

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Sonic Youth Get Signature Fender Guitars

"These guitars rock Sonic style!" Sonic Youth Get Signature Fender Guitars

Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo have spent decades taking apart, restringing, and generally mangling their collection of guitars in service of the Sonic Youth sound. And from looking over the ridiculously extensive gear guide on Sonic Youth's website, Moore and Ranaldo's favorite toy is the Fender Jazzmaster. So it makes sense that both Moore and Ranaldo would get their own signature Jazzmaster guitars sooner or later.

The band announced on their Twitter last night that their signature Jazzmasters would be out on July 1 and that these guitars would "reflect decades of roadtested customization knowledge". Moore's guitar is green, Ranaldo's is blue, and both of them have a ton of customized features, all lovingly cataloged on the Fender website. Each guitar will come with a 24-page color zine designed by Ranaldo that the Fender website calls "the definitive insider's guide to all things Jazzmaster in the world of Sonic Youth."

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Sigur Rós Celebrate Agaetis Byrjun's 10th

Deluxe reissue due out next year. Sigur Rós Celebrate <i>Agaetis Byrjun</i>'s 10th

Sigur Rós are looking to the future with new projects and solo albums and another full-on Sigur Rós LP all on the way. But they're also looking to the past a bit. Hard to believe it's been 10 years since their breakout record, 1999's Ágætis Byrjun, first started blowing minds and making grown men cry.

To commemorate the tin/aluminum anniversary, the group have created a smart little microsite featuring behind-the-scenes info, quotes from the band about Ágætis Byrjun, and a video and download of their song "Hafsól" recorded at the Reykjavik Opera House exactly 10 years ago today, June 12. (The song was featured on their 1997 debut LP, Von, as "Hafssól", and showed up in a new form on 2007's Hvarf/Heim compilation.) There's also some cool audio, video, and photos related to the album.

The site also reveals that an Ágætis Byrjun deluxe reissue is due out in late summer 2010, and will feature "some very interesting added material."

And, going along with the nostalgic spirit, that photo up there is a vintage 1999 shot, too. Ah, memories.

Posted by Ryan Dombal on June 12, 2009 at 12:20 p.m.

Tags: Sigur Rós

 

Festivals in Brief: Traffic, Melt!, Witchseason Weekender, Truck

Festivals in Brief: Traffic, Melt!, Witchseason Weekender, Truck

What: Traffic Festival
When: July 9-11
Where: Turin, Italy
Who: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Santigold, St. Vincent, Primal Scream, Ladytron, Underworld, Crookers, Bloody Beetroots

What: Melt! Festival
When: July 17-19
Where: Ferropolis, Germany
Who: Aphex Twin and Hecker, Animal Collective, Röyksopp, Bloc Party, Phoenix, Fever Ray, Klaxons, Foals, Gossip, Crystal Castles, Trentemøller, !!!, Diplo, Patrick Wolf, Passion Pit, Oasis

What: Witchseason Weekender
When: July 18-19
Where: London, England
Who: Fairport Convention, Mike Heron, Clive Palmer, Richard Thompson, Alasdair Roberts, Robyn Hitchcock, Trembling Bells

What: Truck Festival
When: July 25-26
Where: Steventon, England
Who: Supergrass, Ash, Damo Suzuki, YACHT, A Place to Bury Strangers, Vieux Farka Toure, We Were Promised Jetpacks

Posted by Tom Breihan on June 12, 2009 at 11:40 a.m.

Tags: Festival, Melt!, Traffic, Truck, Witchseason Weekender

 

Mount Eerie Preps "Black Metal" Album

Mount Eerie Preps "Black Metal" Album

The music Phil Elverum has made over the years hasn't been that far removed from that of, say, Xasthur. The man behind the Microphones and Mount Eerie shares a few predilections with underground black metal: creeped-out lo-fi atmospherics, otherworldly despair, the sense that we're dealing with a fragile loner desperate to keep the rest of the world out. Doesn't hurt that the man's last name sounds like some Lord of the Rings sub-species, either.

Last year, Elverum made the connection a little more concrete with his Black Wooden Ceiling Opening EP, the first release where he explicitly experimented with black metal dynamics. The result, especially the bottomlessly sad opener "Appetite", made for some one of the most hypnotically wracked music of Elverum's career.

On August 18, Elverum will blow that experiment out to album length when P.W. Elverum & Sun releases Mount Eerie's Wind's Poem, which is being touted as his "black metal album." Elverum recorded the album himself in various locations around his hometown of Anacortes, Washington. Nick Krgovich of No Kids dropped by to add some harmonies, but as with most Microphones/Mount Eerie releases, this is basically all Elverum here. That's the cover above, and the tracklist is below.

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Oberst/James/Ward Album Confirmed

Oberst/James/Ward Album Confirmed

Travel with me to the recent past-- yesterday, to be exact. Way back then, we published a story titled "Conor Oberst/Jim James/M. Ward Album Finally Coming Out?" Well, that question has been answered.  And the answer is yes (thank god).

The Monsters of Folk supergroup-- which also features producer/Bright Eyes member Mike Mogis-- release their self-titled debut on September 22 via Shangri-La in North America, Rough Trade in Europe, Spunk in Australia, and P-Vine in Japan. A press release says so and everything.

According to the release, "all four members play every instrument on the album" and the music ranges from "road-worn" to "intimate" to "sun-soaked." The sometime tourmates recorded the LP in Malibu, California and Omaha, Nebraska over a two-year period between other projects. Track titles include "Whole Lotta Losin'" (Zeppelin tribute?), "Temazcal" (named after an ancient sauna), and "Losin Yo Head" ("Yo"!). The rest of the song names are below:

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New Release: Felix Da Housecat: He Was King

New Release: Felix Da Housecat: <i>He Was King</i>

Artist: Felix Da Housecat
Album: He Was King
Release Date: August 25
Label: Nettwerk

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The Cribs' Gary Jarman Talks Johnny Marr Collaboration, New Album

"He has that real strong gang mentality-- that's why it works." The Cribs' Gary Jarman Talks Johnny Marr Collaboration, New Album

After making something of an indie breakthrough with 2007's punchy, Alex Kapranos-produced Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever, brotherly UK trio the Cribs have gone and added another member to their band. You may have heard of him-- he used to be in this kinda-melodramatic 80s group called the Smiths?

Ladies and gentlemen, Johnny Marr is a Crib.

The famed guitarist really does seem to be a full-fledged member of the band-- he's played with them, practiced with them, and helped write their as-yet-untitled new album due in September on Warner Bros. (First single "Cheat on Me" is out this summer.) "It's a really big deal to us," gushed singer-bassist Gary Jarman last week, calling from his house in Portland, Oregon. But the affable and self-aware Jarman was quick to point out that Marr doesn't require any special treatment: "He has that real strong gang mentality-- that's why it works."

We chatted with Jarman about his new band mate, the Cribs' risky-sounding new LP, and why he was happy to get out of England:

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