Friday, January 23

News in Brief: Isis, Dan Zimmerman, Appleseed Cast, Charlie Louvin

-- Boston shoegaze-metal warriors Isis have a new album coming out. Wavering Point will be released on May 5 via Ipecac, with the limited-edition vinyl version out April 21. Adam Jones from Tool plays guitar on a couple of songs. And this is just a wild guess, but I'm thinking most of the songs will start out really quiet and pretty and they they'll get epically loud and crunchy and they'll last for about eight minutes. Call me crazy.

-- Singer-singwriter Dan Zimmerman, who for some reason has not yet changed his name to Dan Dylan, will release Cosmic Patriot, his debut album, April 7 on Sounds Familyre. Members of Sereena-Maneesh and Danielson make guest appearances.

-- Kansas's the Appleseed Cast, who still play emo like "emo" still means Braid and Burning Airlines and not, like, some 15-year-old with eyeliner and a MySpace page, will release new album Sagarmatha on February 17 via The Militia Group. They will tour the U.S. hard all through February. Respect their grind.

-- Also touring even though he's 81 years old is country OG Charlie Louvin, who will play dates across the American South and Midwest from February through June. Respect his grind.

Posted by Tom Breihan on January 23, 2009 at 11:35 a.m.

Tags: Album, Charlie Louvin, Dan Zimmerman, Isis, The Appleseed Cast, Tour

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Bill Callahan Set to Drop New Album

Tuba-voiced depressive Bill Callahan used to call himself Smog, but he's been going by his given name ever since 2007's Woke on a Whaleheart. That change in moniker was supposed to signal a transition to happier music (or, at least, to less cripplingly bitter music).

So we'll see just how committed to positivity Callahan still is on April 14, when his longtime label Drag City releases Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle, Callahan's second album under his government name.

Posted by Tom Breihan on January 23, 2009 at 11:30 a.m.

Tags: Album, Bill Callahan, Smog

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No Age, Walkmen, Jamie Lidell on Free Yr Radio Comp

Also Yeasayer, Tokyo Police Club, !!!, White Williams, King Khan No Age, Walkmen, Jamie Lidell on Free Yr Radio Comp

Toyota Yaris and Urban Outfitters may be running the Free Yr Radio campaign due to a good-hearted commitment to underground radio, or they may just be doing it to look cool. OK, whatever, maybe they just want to look cool.

But when those two gigantic companies are teaming up to bring us a compilation of new songs from bands we like and then selling it for a dollar to benefit independent radio stations, who can argue with the results?

To generate money and awareness for these radio stations, next Tuesday, January 27, Free Yr Radio will release The Free Yr Radio 2008 Benefit Compilation (imaginative title!), which features unreleased songs from bands like No Age and the Walkmen and Yeasayer. A lot of the songs on this comp are live versions or, in Tokyo Police Club's case, a remix by garbage-ass Canadian rapper K-Os, but nearly half are straight-up new.

The compilation will be for sale exclusively via Insound, and it'll cost you a grand total of 99 cents, though they're asking you to throw in another buck as a "tip." Because that awareness of independent radio isn't going to generate itself.

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Silver Jews' David Berman Calls It Quits

"I've got to move on. Can't be like all the careerists doncha know." Silver Jews' David Berman Calls It Quits

Photo by Francis Chung

Yesterday evening, a post appeared on the Drag City message board titled "Silver Jews End-Lead Singer Bids his Well-Wishers Adieu". In it, someone purporting to be Silver Jews main man David Berman wrote that the band's January 31 performance at McMinnville, Tennessee's Cumberland Caverns (to be broadcast on Nashville's famed WSM radio station), will be their last.

UPDATE: Drag City has confirmed that Berman did in fact author these posts.

He wrote, "I guess I am moving over to another category. Screenwriting or Muckraking. I've got to move on. Can't be like all the careerists doncha know. I'm forty two and I know what to do. I'm a writer, see?" Then, "I always said we would stop before we got bad. If I continue to record I might accidentally write the answer song to 'Shiny Happy People'."

In a second message board post, this one titled "My Father, My Attack Dog", this same "DCB" wrote a scathing indictment of Richard Berman, the behind-the-scenes Washington, D.C. right-wing puppetmaster who, he says, also happens to be his father. "My father is a despicable man. My father is a sort of human molestor. An exploiter. A scoundrel. A world historical motherfucking son of a bitch. (sorry grandma)"

We haven't confirmed that Berman himself actually wrote this, or if it's just an imposter. But whoever it is, he or she certainly has adapted Berman's trademark wit.

Posted by Amy Phillips on January 23, 2009 at 8:45 a.m.

Tags: Breakup, David Berman, Silver Jews

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Thursday, January 22

Meet Dead Man's Bones: Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields

Pictured: Zach Shields, Silverlake Conservatory Children's Choir, Ryan Gosling

An Oscar-nominated Hollywood heartthrob and his best friend round up a bunch of instruments-- some of which they don't know how to play-- and a massive children's choir and make a concept album about the supernatural. Seems like a recipe for disaster, right? Guess again.

Meet Dead Man's Bones, a collaboration between actors Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson, The Believer, The Notebook) and Zach Shields. The duo plan to release their debut album, Never Let a Lack of Talent Get You Down, on their own label, Werewolf Heart, this summer. You might have seen their MySpace page, or a video for their song "In the Room Where You Sleep" floating around the web recently. In the clip, Gosling and Shields lead a bunch of kids, all dressed in Halloween costumes, through a spare acoustic lament. It's creepy and catchy. It sounds like a middle school assembly gone goth. And it's pretty damn good.

As far as celebrity music projects go, the quality level on this one is a lot closer to She & Him than, say, Joaquin Phoenix's rap career. While listening to tracks from the Dead Man's Bones album at the office, I've been asked by co-workers if I'm listening to Bryan Ferry or something by the Arcade Fire. No lie.

Earlier this week, Gosling and Shields gave Pitchfork their first-ever interview about Dead Man's Bones. The pair were nervous and excited to talk about the band, and they seem genuinely committed to the project, which is a labor-intensive D.I.Y. undertaking. As Gosling put it, "We've worked on it solid for two years. I made a couple movies because I had to, but this is all we do."

Gosling and Shields met in 2005; Gosling was dating actress Rachel McAdams (his co-star in The Notebook) and Shields was dating her sister Kayleen. "Zach was wearing high heels when I first met him, and we were forced to live in the same house on the first day," Gosling explained, laughing. "I thought, 'Who is this guy, what am I going to do with this character?' And then I thought, 'Well, I guess we'll start a band.'"

The pair bonded over a shared obsession with scary stuff like ghosts, monsters, and zombies, and set out to create a spooky musical theater production, "a Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire kind of show," as Gosling described it. Somewhere along the way, the "theater production" aspect of it fell to the wayside, but the songs remained.

Inspired by musical classroom experiments the Langley Schools Music Project and Nancy Dupree's Ghetto Reality, the two decided to involve children in Dead Man's Bones from the very beginning. "We'd rather see a high school play as opposed to a Broadway show any day," Gosling explained. "Not that Broadway shows aren't great, but there's just something about a high school play...you're not distracted by the achievements, you get to watch the process, the will to make something."

He continued, "You know when you're a kid and you get crayons and papers and just draw whatever you want and it's just a bunch of messy lines, but to you it makes sense, and then they put it on the fridge? From that point on, you're always trying to get back on the fridge, you start drawing things that look like something, like, the more it looks like a horse, the more chance you have of getting it on the fridge. We wanted to get back to that place before we were trying to make the fridge. We wanted to work with people who hadn't been affected in that way yet."

Shields added, "Kids are the best. The line between their imagination and what they know is possible, the older you get the clearer that line gets. You're trying to make something from that perspective, a more imaginative place I guess."

To help Dead Man's Bones acheive that pre-fridge feeling, the pair recruited a choir from the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, the Los Angeles music education facility co-founded by Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The choir members' ages ranged from five to 17. Every Sunday afternoon for several months, Gosling and Shields would rehearse and record with the kids. The "In the Room Where You Sleep" video was filmed on their final day together, during a wrap party that also included a bouncy castle, a taco truck, and a piñata.

"The whole idea about working with kids and their imagination is true," Shields said. "Everything out there that we threw at them they totally embraced and went for it." So they weren't weirded out by all these songs about death? Nope. Rather, as Gosling said, "It wasn't weird enough."

Integral to the creation of Dead Man's Bones was the pair's motivation to keep things as raw and real as possible, stripped down to reveal even the limitations of their musicianship. When it came time to record the album, Gosling and Shields created a set of White Stripes-esque rules to follow so as to not taint the purity of the process. Rules like no click tracks or electric guitars, no more than three takes, and playing all of the instruments themselves (along with producer Tim Anderson of Ima Robot). Gosling played cello and piano for the first time, while Shields took up the drums. Their desire to work under these conditions stemmed from bad music industry experiences in the past.

"We had both made music before, and both of us hated what we did," Shields said. "We worked with people who were super professional, really accomplished musicians. And I always felt-- I think Ryan felt the same way-- everyone I was working with, I was trying to step up to their level and be as good as they were, technically. When we recorded before, everyone we worked with, they tried to make us good, and you know, we're not, we're amateurs. They would put it through a click track, have us do a million takes, Auto-Tune my voice because I can't sing well."

Gosling's singing also suffered under the weight of conventional studio expectations. On the Dead Man's Bones album, Shields' indie-everyman voice complements Gosling's more mannered tone, which exhibits a bit of Roy Orbison (or, some might say, Bryan Ferry) tremolo. However, encouraging Gosling to display his natural talent wasn't all that easy. Shields explained, "I'd hear him do karaoke, or when he thinks nobody's listening, like he's in the other room singing, with his natural voice, when he's singing and nobody's listening, it has this old quality, like this 50s kind of croonery feel. Every time I would hear him singing, without trying to sound like anything, that's how he sings. So we were trying to record one session, and they were trying to make us both sound so modern, which he doesn't. I was like, 'You know, you should just sing in your natural voice,' and they kind of made fun of us. They were like, 'Oh that's goofy, that's silly.'"

Gosling added, "I was always embarrassed because I sang like that, so I always tried to make my voice sound more contemporary."

To combat those pressures, the duo went for a lo-fi aesthetic. Gosling said, "There was always some kind of function on the computer, a filter that would assimilate the thing that you wanted, and we didn't understand why you couldn't just record the thing that you wanted. Like, why you had to do the computerized version of it, why can't you just record it? It's more fun that way anyway, because you have to design a way to get that sound. For instance, if you want something to sound like it was on a PA system after a wedding and there's a few people dancing, why not just create that situation and record that?"

The album is currently in the final mixing stage, and the pair is currently discussing distribution options to have it come out in June. Gosling and Shields are in the process of making videos for all of the songs, working with the likes of sculptor Arthur Ganson and the creators of the Adult Swim show "Robot Chicken".

The next step for the band is taking the show on the road. Dead Man's Bones' first gig is slated to be at a showcase for their label, Werewolf Heart, on March 21 at SXSW. The plan is to work with a different local children's choir in each city they visit-- a labor-intensive, but ultimately rewarding, idea. "I think it'll keep it interesting for us, because every time we'll get to work with new kids and get new ideas and hopefully tailor each performance to that experience," Gosling said. "And, you know, we can't play bars with kids, so we'll have to put together a night-time version of our act, which we're working on. I think we're excited about that, we're excited about how many different ways we can dress it up, with different kinds of choirs and artists, and it should be interesting."

Gosling and Shields (and producer Tim Anderson) set up Werewolf Heart to not only release the Dead Man's Bones album but also the next Ima Robot album, as well as the debut from the Goat, a supergroup of professional skateboarders.

"It seems like an interesting time to come into music, because it seems like everybody's leaving, every office we go into the guy's packing up, and pulling all the final things from his desk in a box," Gosling said. "It seems like, you can't make money anymore, so people are trying to figure out how it all should work. My impression just seems to be like, it's kind of the Wild West in a way. Whatever you think of you can do, and that's really terrifying but also an exciting situation to be in, because you realize that you can create the way that this goes down for you...So people are in it because they want to be, and not because they think it'll be profitable for them. It seems like it's good creatively, but you also have to figure out how you want to present your music, because the old model doesn't work anymore."

Posted by Amy Phillips on January 22, 2009 at 4:20 p.m.

Tags: Dead Man's Bones, Interview, Ryan Gosling

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Peter Bjorn and John Reveal Album Cover, Tour Dates

Look! It's all made of WORDS! Peter Bjorn and John Reveal Album Cover, Tour Dates

We already gave you a tracklist for Living Thing, the forthcoming album from world-conquering Swedish pop trio Peter Bjorn and John. And now they've given us an album cover, too. That looks like a drawing, so it's probably safe to say that Peter Bjorn and John didn't actually kill those deer themselves.

Almost Gold Recordings/Startime International will release the album in the U.S. on March 31. (Wichita will put it out in the UK on March 30.) The band will hit up SXSW, and come April, they will be in the U.S. and Canada for a few weeks' worth of shows. There's an album/ticket pre-order deal going on over at their website right now. Chairlift is set to open the entire tour.

Those guys must have a lot of faith in their busdriver's skills if they think they're making it from Kentucky to Toronto in one day!

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Stephen Colbert: The Techno Remix Challenge

Stephen Colbert, that master of modern web integration, is at it once again. The blowhard's blowhard is calling out for fans to remix a recent interview with Stanford University Internet law professor Lawrence Lessig, in which the pair talked about the legalities of copyright in reference to remixing.

A fan remix of a talk show chat about remixing. Meta-tastic.

Specifically, Colbert is looking for a mix with a "pumping k-hole groove." He explains the challenge (and gives up some insane footage featuring himself in glow-in-the-dark war paint) here.

Chronic remixers-- looking at you, Diplo, Girl Talk, Justice-- this is your chance at true celebrity.

Of course, this isn't the first time Colbert has reached out to the music community at large for nonsensical laughs. You may recall The Great Decemberists Guitar Solo Challenge (easily the most culturally rewarding endeavor in that band's entire history, IMO), his recent Christmas record with Feist and Elvis Costello among others, and his would-be beef with Kanye West. Too bad Kanye is all anti-beef now.

Posted by Ryan Dombal on January 22, 2009 at 3:20 p.m.

Tags: Stephen Colbert, TV

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More Arcade Fire Soundtrack and Obama Ball Details

They covered "Born in the U.S.A."! More Arcade Fire Soundtrack and Obama Ball Details

In a recent interview with us about the recent Arcade Fire concert film Mirror Noir, Win Butler described his band's current mindset thusly: "We have no idea what we're doing, but I feel like playing with you this afternoon, so how about we have some tea and play songs for a little bit." Quaint! So while the official next Arcade Fire album may be a ways off, new music from the crew is imminent.

Butler, Regine Chassagne, and Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett have finished their "Hitchockian" instrumentals for Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly's upcoming film The Box. The movie stars Frank Langella as a creepy weirdo (shocker) who convinces Cameron Diaz's character to press a button on a box-- which grants her $1 million but also kills a random person. In an MTV.com interview, Kelly describes the music as "very lush, and kind of a very bombastic, emotional score." MTV.com reports, "they recorded 80 minutes of original music with a full orchestra, including strings, brass and a rich, polyphonic keyboard called a Mellotron. Singer Régine Chassagne contributed vocal elements to the score."

Sounds like Arcade Fire to us. IMDb says The Box is due in theaters November 6, and Kelly mentions that it's very possible that the score will be available as a separate release.

And, oh yeah, the band opened for Jay-Z at last night's inaugural event for Obama campaign staffers. If this bill is any sort of cosmic indication of Obama's future, he should solve the economic crisis in about four days. Seriously: Jay-Z and Arcade Fire back-to-back, playing in honor of something truly great. Did Win and Jay talk about making music with their wives? Win's staunch support of The Blueprint 2? The weather? Please say it was the weather!

Unfortunately, we weren't there. But ace concert photog and Obama staffer Bao Nguyen was-- read his report and check out photos and the setlist on BrooklynVegan. (Yes, Arcade Fire did "Born in the U.S.A." No, Bruce didn't come out.)

Posted by Ryan Dombal on January 22, 2009 at 2:45 p.m.

Tags: Album, Arcade Fire

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News in Brief: 50 Cent, Øya Festival, Maserati, Zombi, Cryptacize

-- According to AllHipHop.com, 50 Cent is working on a song with British pop star and fellow perspective-free blowhard egomaniac Robbie Williams. This will mark the end of the absolutely hilarious rich-guy tiff the two got into a couple of years ago. (You will not regret reading that AllHipHop story.) 50 is also going to be producing movies, now, apparently. He's launching a production company called Cheetah Vision, hopefully inspired by this guy. And he's claiming that one of the first movies will be The Dance, which will star both Nicolas Cage and 50 himself. If this movie actually happens, it'll make for a truly mesmerizing clash of overacting and underacting.

-- The Arctic Monkeys and Röyksopp will headline Norway's Øya Festival this summer. Also on the bill: Bon Iver, Crystal Antlers, Monotonix, Chairlift, and a whole ton of Norwegian bands. The fest jumps off August 11-15 in Oslo.

-- Triumphal Athens instrumentalists Maserati and Pittsburgh fake-horror-movie soundtrackers Zombi will release a split EP on Temporary Residence February 3. This album, which is all new material, will doubtless be pretty badass, but Temporary Residence is limiting it to 1000 copies because they hate us.

-- Cryptacize, the new band from former Deerhoof guitarist Chris Cohen, will release second album Mythomania April 21 on Asthmatic Kitty. Even with that name, Cryptacize is unfortunately not a death metal band. You can hear a megamix (or mini-mix, if you will) of snippets of the album, created by Burning Star Core's C. Spencer Yeh, here.

Posted by Tom Breihan on January 22, 2009 at 2:15 p.m.

Tags: 50 Cent, Album, Arctic Monkeys, Collaboration, Cryptacize, Festival, Maserati, Robbie Williams, Röyksopp, Zombi, Øya Festival

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Death Cab for Cutie, She & Him, Band of Horses' Ben Bridwell Cover Love Songs for Starbucks

So do Department of Eagles, Rogue Wave, Richard Hawley, um, Katy Perry...

For you to be in any way remotely amped about this story, the following things have to not make you want to barf: Starbucks, Valentine's Day, NPR-sounding MOR indie, Katy Perry blatantly grabbing for indie cred, cutesy fake-vintage cover art, the idea of anyone covering Coldplay for anything other than a joke, love in general.

Still with me? On January 30, Starbucks Entertainment will release Sweetheart: Our Favorite Artists Sing Their Favorite Love Songs. Starbucks already pulled this trick in 2005, and apparently the world demanded a sequel.

The tracklist includes A.C. Newman's previously reported cover of a-ha's "Take on Me", Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses covering George Harrison, Department of Eagles doing a Leiber and Stoller song made famous by Elvis, Rogue Wave doing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and that Katy Perry cover of Sam Sparro's "Black and Gold" that lit up the mp3 blogs a few months back.

Also, both halves of the newly engaged indie supercouple Ben Gibbard and Zooey Deschanel will be represented here via the Death Cab and She & Him selections, and maybe they'll be singing to each other because awww. (They're covering songs which, respectively, 311 and Marilyn Manson have already had their way with. Make of that what you will.)

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Friday, January 23

News in Brief: Isis, Dan Zimmerman, Appleseed Cast, Charlie Louvin

Bill Callahan Set to Drop New Album

No Age, Walkmen, Jamie Lidell on Free Yr Radio Comp

Silver Jews' David Berman Calls It Quits

Thursday, January 22

Meet Dead Man's Bones: Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields

Peter Bjorn and John Reveal Album Cover, Tour Dates

Stephen Colbert: The Techno Remix Challenge

More Arcade Fire Soundtrack and Obama Ball Details

News in Brief: 50 Cent, Øya Festival, Maserati, Zombi, Cryptacize

Death Cab for Cutie, She & Him, Band of Horses' Ben Bridwell Cover Love Songs for Starbucks

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Phil Spector Sentenced to 19 Years to Life

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