Monday, June 15

T.V. Eye: June 15-21

Live music on T.V. this week:

Monday, June 15:

CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Camera Obscura
NBC: Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien: Spinal Tap
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Common, Doves (rerun)
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: The Roots (house band)
FUSE: No. 1 Countdown: Bonnaroo All-Stars
FUSE: Fuse Fest: Bonnaroo 2008

Tuesday, June 16:

NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: The Roots (house band)

Wednesday, June 17:

NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Street Sweeper Social Club, the Roots (house band)

Thursday, June 18:

NBC: Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien: The Dead Weather
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Phoenix
CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Metric
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Peaches
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: The Roots (house band)

Friday, June 19:

NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: The Ting Tings
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: The Sounds
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: The Roots (house band)

Saturday, June 20:

FUSE: Fuse Fest: Bonnaroo 2009
PBS: Austin City Limits: Bettye Lavette, Pinetop Perkins (rerun)

Posted by Tom Breihan on June 15, 2009 at 12:40 p.m.

Tags: TV Eye

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Blur Make Live Return

Setlist and videos from the Britpop titans' first reunion gig. Blur Make Live Return

The East Anglian Railway Museum near Colchester, England boasts mini railroad rides, a model train store, and something called "Railway Experience Courses." The offbeat spot also hosted Blur's first show in 1988 and, on Saturday, once again welcomed the Britpop stars for their first gig as a four-piece in nine years, according to the BBC.

And, by all accounts, the two-hour hit fest lived up to expectations, with the reformed group pulling out 28 songs from across their career including first single "She's So High", as well as hits like "Parklife", and "Song 2".

All this bodes well for their upcoming festival dates, which includes a headlining spot at Glastonbury. (Alas, still no U.S. dates for the reunion trek.) The guys still have a few warm-up shows-- including a just-announced secret gig somewhere in London tonight-- before they head to the big stages later this month.

Even better, Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, and company really looked like they enjoyed themselves at the Railway gig, as evidenced by a batch of striking high-quality videos that have made their way onto YouTube. Check out some of the clips-- along with the show's setlist, via NME, and forthcoming Blur tour dates-- after the jump:

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Beastie Boys Team With Nas for New Song

Debut new track at Bonnaroo Beastie Boys Team With Nas for New Song

The Beastie Boys haven't traded rhymes on record with a prominent non-Beastie rapper since Q-Tip showed up on the 1994 classic "Get It Together". But the Beasties ended that streak at this past weekend's Bonnaroo Festival, bringing Nas to the stage to debut an untitled new song.

Rolling Stone says the new track will appear on the Beasties' forthcoming LP Hot Sauce Committee, but that hasn't been confirmed.

Nah Right has some shaky camera-phone footage of Nas' big cameo, though the quality of the footage doesn't really make it clear what, exactly, the song sounds like.

As previously reported, Hot Sauce Committee is tentatively due in September. Santigold has also contributed some vocals. The Beasties debuted a couple of new songs on a surprise bonus 7" in some packages of their Check Your Head reissue.

Posted by Tom Breihan on June 15, 2009 at noon

Tags: Beastie Boys, Bonnaroo, Collaboration, Festival, Nas

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New Order Swap Peter Hook for Blur's Alex James for New Band Bad Lieutenant

Back in 2007, nobody was exactly sure whether synthpop gods New Order were broken up or not. Bassist Peter Hook said that they were; everyone else in the band said they weren't.

Well, it's official now: New Order are broken up. The BBC reports that the non-Peter Hook members of the group have a new group with a new name: Bad Lieutenant. And they've also got themselves a new bassist. (via NME)

Bad Lieutenant consists of founding New Order members (and, along with Hook, former Joy Division members) Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris, along with relatively recent New Order addition Phil Cunningham. The ringer in for Hook? Blur bassist Alex James. According to the BBC, Bad Lieutenant has recorded an album, and it's due in October. They'll also tour later in the year, presumably after James gets done playing this summer's run of Blur reunion shows.

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Chris Knox (Tall Dwarfs, Flying Nun) Recovering From Stroke

New Zealand punk rock great Chris Knox (Tall Dwarfs, the Enemy, Toy Love, Flying Nun Records) is currently in an Auckland hospital recovering from a stroke he suffered on Thursday, according to The New Zealand Herald. While early reports claimed the 56-year-old musician might never walk again, a story from today's Otago Daily Times states doctors are now waiting for swelling to subside before putting forth a prognosis.

The Otago Daily Times story also includes a promising (and generally bad ass) anecdote from a family friend close to Knox: "Someone came in to see Chris [at the hospital] and asked him if he wanted any help with religion. Chris just rolled his eyes...That's the Chris Knox we all know."

Knox's friends and family have started the "Chris Knox had a stroke and everyone wants to know how he is, how the hell are we gonna keep you all updated all at once" blog, which is located here.

Posted by Ryan Dombal on June 15, 2009 at 11:05 a.m.

Tags: Chris Knox, Tall Dwarfs

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Echo Chamber: Colin Meloy

"Every time someone calls Bonnaroo 'the Roo,' a kitten dies."

-- We hope Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy is wrong, or else a lot of cats were lost this weekend. (via @colinmeloy)

Posted by Tom Breihan on June 15, 2009 at 10:50 a.m.

Tags: Colin Meloy, Echo Chamber, The Decemberists

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Director's Cut: Dinosaur Jr.'s "Over It"

"At what point are you supposed to be over doing stuff that you enjoy-- like skating or playing ear-splitting music-- just because society says it's uncool to do it? My answer: Never." Director's Cut: Dinosaur Jr.'s "Over It"

From the Replacements' "Bastards of Young" to Beyonce's "Single Ladies", great music videos are quick bursts of sound and vision that leave an indelible impression. Director's Cut is a Pitchfork News feature in which we chat with music video directors about their creations. The men and women behind the camera are often overlooked in today's YouTube era, but this feature aims to highlight their hard work while showcasing the best videos currently banging around the internet. A little behind-the-scenes dirt couldn't hurt, too.

This time, we checked in with Mark Locke, the man behind "Over It", Dinosaur Jr.'s ode to skating, biking, and good friends. Mostly filmed over four days while the band was touring Georgia and Florida this April, it shows the reunited group tackling some impressive tricks, falling down, getting up, and-- gasp!-- having what looks like an awesome time. Of course, stunt doubles were employed to pull off the video's tough maneuvers, but there's nothing phony about the warm camaraderie running through the whole thing. It could very well be the feel-good video of the year.

Click on for our chat with Locke, in which he talks about how they pulled it off:

Pitchfork: Did you know if the guys were any good at biking and skateboarding before making this video?

ML: Not really, but I knew they had a huge following in that scene. My initial idea was to do all BMX, but they wanted J on a skateboard because he can actually skate a little bit-- in fact, the daffy trick with Mike Watt in the background (pictured above) is actually J!

Lou and Murph had never been on BMX bikes before the shoot-- I was worried they'd look a bit wooden. Obviously, we had doubles do the tricks, but not everyone can ride in and out of those looking like they mean it, so we were very lucky that the guys tried their best to make it look real. They weren't too keen to do it before we started because they thought it would be a pain in the ass, to be honest. But, in the end, it turned out to be a nice release for them.

Pitchfork: Yeah, Murph looks pretty natural on that bike for such a big guy.

ML: Yeah, especially since his bike had no brakes! To make it look real he had to ride the same bike the stunt guy rode, and the big thing in BMX now is for the bikes to be brake-less. It was most dangerous when Murph had to ride toward some steps as if he's about to jump over them-- he just had to jump off the bike at the last minute.

Pitchfork: Did Lou's bike have brakes?

ML: Lou's had one brake-- better than none.

Pitchfork: Were you into Dinosaur back in the 80s?

ML: Totally. The start of my idea for the video came when I saw a picture of J for the first time in ages and I couldn't believe his white hair. It just really freaked me out...and got me thinking about how my heroes were aging with the rest of us. So I thought: At what point are you supposed to be over doing stuff that you enjoy-- like skating or playing ear-splitting music-- just because society says it's uncool to do it? My answer: Never.

Pitchfork: It's a really joyous video, which is surprising coming from a band not really known for their smiles.

ML: The press has focused on them not getting on-- especially Lou and J-- so I wanted to turn that on its head and show them actually hanging out.

Pitchfork: Specifically, the moment when J puts his hand on Lou's shoulder should be kinda cheesy, but it's actually touching in context.

ML: Yeah, I knew it could end up being cheesy, but I decided to risk it. It's an in-joke for fans, really.

Pitchfork: Who were the stunt doubles?

ML: We got this famous skateboarder Kyle Leeper. And then there were two guys from FBM Bike Company-- Kenny Horton and Joel Barnett-- who worked for Lou and Murph. The one guy obviously had to have his head shaved to match Murph.

Pitchfork: I was gonna say, was it hard for the dude who played J to do tricks with that huge wig.

ML: Actually, I think he quite liked the wig because he wore it when we were just hanging out. It was quite surreal seeing two Js sitting there.

Pitchfork: You shot this while the band was on tour-- did you stay in their bus?

ML: I did, yeah. At first, it was a bit strange hanging with a band that you've loved since you were a kid. But it quickly became very normal and we were just having a laugh. There were times when it would just be me and Dinosaur Jr. watching TV. I'd occasionally look across and just think, "Fucking hell."

Posted by Ryan Dombal on June 15, 2009 at 10:40 a.m.

Tags: Dinosaur Jr., Director's Cut

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News in Brief: Soulsavers, Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs, the Howling Bells, Teenbeat Takeover

-- On August 17 in the UK, V2/Cooperative will release Broken, the third album from the depressive British production crew Soulsavers. The album features a ton of guest appearances from elegantly debauched underground rock royalty. Mark Lanegan, Mike Patton, Richard Hawley, Spiritualized frontman Jason Pierce, and lead Butthole Surfer Gibby Haynes all stop by. (It's due for a September release in the U.S. on Columbia.)

-- Matthew Sweet and the Bangles' Susanna Hoffs love the 70s. The power-pop mercenary and the Bangles frontwoman will soon release Under the Covers, Vol. 2, their second collection of covers. The album is due July 21 from Shout! Factory. Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham, Yes's Steve Howe, and George Harrison scion Dhani Harrison all make guest appearances.

-- On July 28, Australian narco-rockers the Howling Bells will release sophomore album Radio Wars on Nettwerk. They'll open for Coldplay on tour this summer.

-- A whole mob of Nuggets-era mainstays will converge on Montreal August 6-8 for the Teenbeat Takeover Wooly Weekend! festival. ? and the Mysterians, the Electric Prunes, Love (minus Arthur Lee, of course), and Seeds frontman Sky Saxon will all take part. Fun fact: Despite the festival's name, it's been a while since any of these dudes were teens.

Posted by Tom Breihan on June 15, 2009 at 9:40 a.m.

Tags: Album, Festival, Matthew Sweet, Soulsavers, Susanna Hoffs, Teenbeat Takeover, The Howling Bells

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**Pixies' Minotaur Box Set Revealed**

It's two feet tall and looks like the Monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Pixies' <i>Minotaur</i> Box Set Revealed

Front page page photo by Renaud Monfourny. Above: the Limited Edition Minotaur box set

Holy cow, are we in a boom time for mouth-watering box sets right now or what? (See: the news story directly below this one.)

Pixies superfans are in for a real treat with Minotaur, the previously reported gargantuan box set that rounds up the band's studio recordings and videos with a live DVD, new artwork, and a book. Now, we've got the rundown of Minotaur's contents, as well as a glimpse inside the set, which is available for presale starting today at the Artist in Residence website. It will ship to buyers between late September and mid-October.

Minotaur will be available as a $175 Deluxe Edition and a $495 Limited Edition (not $450, as previously reported). The Limited Edition is pictured at the top of this story. Here's what the Deluxe Edition looks like:

For the details of what's inside the box set, plus video of what it looks like, click below.

In a Minotaur press release, Pixies drummer David Lovering says, "It's beyond my expectations. I thought it was going to be your typical box set, but it's monstrous, I've never seen anything like it." And indeed, this thing is pretty astounding. Packaged by designer Vaughan Oliver and photographer Simon Larbalestier (the team behind all of the Pixies' original artwork), with brand new artwork for everything, it looks like something that belongs in a museum, rather than a record shop. The Limited Edition weighs 25 pounds and stands two feet tall. 25 pounds and two feet tall! Be careful that it doesn't fall on any small children or pets!

Here's what's in the Deluxe Edition, all stuffed inside a "custom dual-chambered slipcase":

Come on Pilgrim (1987), Surfer Rosa (1988), Doolittle (1989), Bossanova (1990), and Trompe le Monde (1991) on 24k gold-plated CDs, mastered for 5.1 surround sound
Come on Pilgrim (1987), Surfer Rosa (1988), Doolittle (1989), Bossanova (1990), and Trompe le Monde (1991) on DVD/Blu-Ray discs, mastered for 5.1 surround sound
DVD/Blu-Ray of a previously unreleased 1991 performance at Brixton Academy in London
DVD/Blu-Ray of every Pixies video
54-page art book

Seems like a hell of a lot, right? Well, the Limited Edition includes everything that's in the Deluxe Edition PLUS:

Come on Pilgrim (1987), Surfer Rosa (1988), Doolittle (1989), Bossanova (1990), and Trompe le Monde (1991) on 180-gram virgin 12" vinyl, cut from the original analog tapes
Faux fur hardcover 96-page art book
Two 48" X 36", double-sided, fold-out, four-color wall posters
A 22" X 14" Giclée print of brand new Larbalestier photo

Whew! Only 3000 copies of the Limited Edition will be made, but all of them will be signed by all four Pixies and Oliver. Oh, and the whole shebang comes housed in a "custom clamshell container that resembles the Monolith from the classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey," according to a press release. Good god.

Here's a video with more eye-popping images of Minotaur:

And here's a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the box set:

Posted by Amy Phillips on June 15, 2009 at midnight

Tags: Box Set, Pixies

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Friday, June 12

The Warp Box Set Sure Looks Pretty

Ooooooooooooh! The Warp Box Set Sure Looks Pretty

Back in March, we told you that the pioneering IDM/not-IDM label Warp Records would celebrate its 20th anniversary this year with a box set and parties around the globe. Well, now we know everything about the Warp20 (Box Set) except for the exact tracklist. But hoo boy, this thing is purty.

Warp started out as the home to experimental electronic types like Aphex Twin and Autechre, and those groups' cover art used to invariably depict crazy futuristic-looking space polygons. Well, Warp has kept that proud tradition alive with the design of the Warp20 box set, which looks incredible. The set will include five CDs, five 10" records, and a 192-page book.

Check below for more photos and more details on the set's contents.