Best New Tracks
- Cymbals Eat Guitars: "Tunguska"
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- Das Racist: "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Wallpaper. Remix)"
- DJ Kaos: "Love the Nite Away (Tiedye Mix)"
- YACHT: "Psychic City (Voodoo City)"
- Jay Reatard: "It Ain't Gonna Save Me"
- Mastodon: "Divinations"
Wednesday, June 24
Chris Knox Leaves Hospital After Stroke
When Kiwi punk pioneer Chris Knox suffered a stroke last week, early reports claimed that he might never walk again. But according to the blog that Knox's family and friends started to keep fans updated on his post-stroke recovery, Knox is doing a lot better now.
Today's update says that he's left the New Zealand hospital where he's been since the stroke: "Chris has moved from the hospital & is apparently in good spirits today in his new place of abode." And according to yesterday's update, he's been writing, exercising, and playing games. (via the Daily Swarm)
Posted by Tom Breihan on June 24, 2009 at 1:15 p.m.
Tags: Chris Knox
My Morning Jacket's Jim James to Release George Harrison Tribute EP
It's credited to "Yim Yames"
Photo by Autumn De Wilde
My Morning Jacket aren't doing much at the moment, but angelic-voiced frontman Jim James isn't using that band's downtime to sit around combing his gigantic beard. This fall, James will be on his grind.
We already reported that the long-awaited self-titled album from Monsters of Folk, James's supergroup with Conor Oberst, M. Ward, and Mike Mogis, is due September 22 from Shangri-La in North America, Rough Trade in Europe, Spunk in Australia, and P-Vine in Japan. But before that album even drops, we'll hear even more new music from James.
On August 4, ATO will release Tribute To, James' EP of George Harrison covers, Billboard reports. Under the goofily adorable pseudonym Yim Yames, James takes on six of the late Beatle's songs. Two songs from Tribute To are Beatles jams that Harrison wrote, while the others come from the solo Harrison album All Things Must Pass.
According to Billboard, James recorded the EP a few days after Harrison died in 2001; it's been sitting in the vault since then. James did the whole thing himself, on vocals and acoustic guitar. In the liner notes, James calls Harrison "a prime example of the healing power of music." The Tribute To tracklist is below.
Also, Billboard claims that Monsters of Folk are "expected to" tour in September.
UPDATE: Hear Yim Yames' version of "Behind That Locked Door" here. Also, a portion of the proceeds from sales of Tribute To will go to the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary.
R.I.P. the Orb's Andy Hughes
Trash Menagerie reports that Andy Hughes, British producer and DJ and former member of ambient house titans the Orb, passed away on June 12 after after what a press release calls "a short illness." He was 43.
Hughes contributed to the Orb throughout the 90s, working on such albums as Orblivion, Live 93, and Orbus Terrarum. Later, Hughes went on to produce material for groups like Basement Jaxx.
Hughes' family has asked that memorial donations be made to Kings College Hospital in London.
Posted by Tom Breihan on June 24, 2009 at 12:15 p.m.
Tags: Andy Hughes, Obituary, The Orb
German Court Fines Rapidshare Millions
Billboard reports that a German court has ruled against the file-hosting service and mp3 blog bandwidth-saver Rapidshare. The intellectual property organization GEMA had requested a court order that would force Rapidshare to remove 5,000 tracks from its server, and the Regional Court of Hamburg has ruled in favor of GEMA.
According to the Regional Court, Rapidshare and "other file-hosting sites" have not put enough precautions in place to avoid copyright infringement. And, most damaging, the Hollywood Reporter also reports that the court fined Rapidshare €24 million, or about $34 million.
As I'm writing this, though, Rapidshare appears to be working just fine.
Posted by Tom Breihan on June 24, 2009 at 11:50 a.m.
Tags: Legal, Rapidshare
Pavement's Spiral Stairs Set to Release First Solo Album on Matador
Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew guests
After Pavement broke up, guitarist/vocalist Scott Kannberg, better known as Spiral Stairs, recorded a couple of albums with new band Preston School of Industry. But up until now, he's never recorded an album under his own name-- or his own pseudonym. That's about to change.
As revealed on the Matablog this morning, Matador will release The Real Feel, the first official Spiral Stairs solo album, on October 20.
Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) Side Project Volcano Choir Album Announced
Volcano Choir debut LP out September 22.
Home page photo by Cameron Wittig
Back in May, Bon Iver's Justin Vernon told us about Volcano Choir, his new project with fellow ethereal Wisconsinites Collections of Colonies of Bees. "We started collaborating three years ago and just this year we started to realize we had nine or 10 tracks almost done," he said. "I sing on it, but there aren't a lot of lyrics-- it's definitely more on the experimental side of things."
Now we have all the official info: Volcano Choir's debut LP, Unmap, is out September 22 (Sept. 21 in the UK) via Jagjaguwar.
Meanwhile, Bon Iver are busy working on their long-playing follow-up to For Emma, Forever Ago in between summer gigs, including a stop at Glastonbury this weekend. Volcano Choir tracklist and Bon Iver dates below:
Virgin Mobile Fest Returns-- for Free
Weezer, Franz Ferdinand, the National, the Hold Steady to play Merriweather
Over the past couple of years, the Virgin Mobile Festival has reigned as one of America's biggest multi-day music festivals. Last year, the Virgin people brought Bob Dylan and Lil Wayne to the same venue on the same day, which is some kind of achievement.
But this year, speculation abounded that a tanked economy would lead to no more Virgin Fest, especially as summer arrived without any sort of announcement.
But the Virgin Festival will be back on August 30, this time with a few changes.
Echo Chamber: Lee Ranaldo
"We did a record with Starfucks... er, Starbucks. It's interesting because it was kind of a compilation-- celebrities picking their favourite Sonic Youth songs. When we put it together, we thought it was going to be the biggest sell-out of our career. At the time we did it, Starbucks was the only company in America that had figured out how to sell records when all the labels were falling on the floor. But by the time ours came out... It's the rarest record we've ever released. It's impossible to find in the shops. I don't know how many they made-- literally a few hundred."
-- Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo will be going elsewhere for his grande venti lattes, thank you very much. (via the Quietus)
Posted by Tom Breihan on June 24, 2009 at 9:35 a.m.
Tags: Echo Chamber, Lee Ranaldo, Sonic Youth
Dinosaur Jr. Announce Fall Tour
Thus far in 2009, fuzz-rock giants Dinosaur Jr. have been responsible for both "Over It", the best music video of the year, and Farm, the best post-reunion comeback album since, uh, their last post-reunion comeback album. They've also toured a ton of way-too-small venues in out-of-the-way towns.
So now it's victory lap time for Mascis, Barlow, and Murph. Their summer tour will take the trio to the larger-sized venues where they belong, including a stop at New York's Central Park Summerstage. Lou Barlow will serve double duty, opening a number of these shows. Dates below.
Tuesday, June 23
Dirty Projectors in Auto Accident
Update: Everybody's OK!
UPDATE: Here is the official statement from the band:
"Dirty Projectors' van flipped outside of Detroit, MI on their way up to Toronto. Although the crash was serious, we're happy to report that all members of the band have been safely discharged from the hospital. The band will be flying home to New York in the morning to regroup and rest. Unfortunately, the band will have to cancel Toronto and Montreal. Thank you for understanding and sending your well wishes."
The Dirty Projectors show at Lee's Palace in Toronto tomorrow night, June 24, has been canceled. According to an email from the show's promoter, the band was in a "pretty bad" auto accident.
We're awaiting more details on the situation.
The band's tour in support of their Best New Music'd new album Bitte Orca is supposed to continue across North America in July, and then head to Europe. Dates below.
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