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Monday, June 22

Wu-Tang Clan Brings Us Chamber Music

Wu-Tang Clan Brings Us <i>Chamber Music</i>

It's not quite the same thing as a Wu-Tang Clan group album, but the forthcoming Chamber Music compilation, due June 30 from E1 Music/Universal, is a welcome flashback to the era when it felt like a new Wu-affiliated album came out every week. For this one, the Brooklyn soul crew the Revelations laid down backing tracks, which Clan abbot the RZA oversaw and edited. You know you're dealing with a genuine Wu-Tang project when there are songs called "Radiant Jewels" and "Enlightened Statues" on there.

Six Wu-Tang members show up at least once on the album: RZA, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, Inspectah Deck, U-God, and Masta Killa. Various other veterans of New York rap's hoodies-and-Tims era also show up, including Sean Price, Masta Ace, Cormega, M.O.P., and Kool G Rap.

The leaked tracks "Harbor Masters" and "Ill Figures" make this thing sound like some serious heady throwback evilness, the kind of thing that will keep us wearing out our rewind buttons until Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II finally comes out.

Tracklist below.

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TVOTR's Kyp Malone Signs to Anti- for Solo Project, Rain Machine

TVOTR's Kyp Malone Signs to Anti- for Solo Project, Rain Machine

Photo by Eric Martin

Kyp Malone is going solo. TV on the Radio's prodigiously bearded, falsetto-voiced zen master has a solo project, and he's calling it Rain Machine. This fall, the first Rain Machine album will be released on Anti-.

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ATP Announces 10th Anniversary Festival

Explosions in the Sky, Deerhoof, Tortoise, Shellac join the birthday party ATP Announces 10th Anniversary Festival

The folks behind All Tomorrow's Parties, the international festival juggernaut, are throwing themselves a birthday party! December 11-13, the Butlins Holiday Centre in Minehead, England will play host to the Ten Years of ATP Festival, which will celebrate a full decade of Steve Albini whupping drunk fools at poker.

The ATP folks have invited their closest friends to play this shindig, so past ATP curators and ATP recording artists will be on the bill. Right now, the lineup includes Explosions in the Sky, Deerhoof, Shellac, Dirty Three, Tortoise, Melvins, the For Carnation, Papa M, Fuck Buttons, the Drones, Sleepy Sun, Bardo Pond, and Mudhoney, with more bands to be announced.

Posted by Tom Breihan on June 22, 2009 at 10:45 a.m.

Tags: All Tomorrow's Parties, ATP, Festival, Ten Years of ATP

 

Triumph Takes on Bonnaroo

Insult comic dog vs. Beasties, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV on the Radio, Neko Case, Jenny Lewis Triumph Takes on Bonnaroo

Perpetual "Conan" mainstay and Eminem foe Triumph the Insult Comic Dog made the trip to Bonnaroo this year, gleefully shooting every fish in every last barrel that you'd expect. Obvious rimshots abound: "Is there nothing you Phish fans can't make out of hemp? I mean, besides deodorant?"

On "The Tonight Show", Triumph had words for the likes of TV on the Radio and the Beastie Boys ("You're like a living Pep Boys logo.") And sharp-eyed wielders of camera phones caught Triumph all over the festival grounds, interviewing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and singing atonal duets with Jenny Lewis and Neko Case. Videos below. (via Stereogum)

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Flaming Lips Set LP Title, Digital EP

Plus digital bootlegs Flaming Lips Set LP Title, Digital EP

Front page hoto by Aaron Vanimere

Alert the fearless freaks! The Flaming Lips have confirmed the title of their forthcoming album. As previously hinted, it will indeed be called Embryonic, and it will indeed be a double album. No release date has been set yet.

The Lips have a summer full of tour dates coming up, including a set at the Pitchfork Music Festival. For several dates on the tour, they're offering a special bundle when you purchase a ticket online. Your ticket will come with a digital EP featuring three Embryonic tracks ("Convinced of the Hex", "The Impulse", and "Silver Trembling Hands") as well as three previously released B-sides. Plus, after the show, you'll also get a digital bootleg of the performance you just saw. Pretty sweet deal, huh?

Flaming Lips tour dates below:

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Friday, June 19

Trent Reznor Logs Back On

"Fuck you, trolls. I'll tweet if I feel like it." Trent Reznor Logs Back On

Just a little more than a week ago, Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, the most entertaining celebrity Twitterer this side of Shaq, announced that he was done with Twitter and with every other social networking site because of the rampant assholism on the internet: "I will be tuning out of the social networking sites because at the end of the day it's now doing more harm than good in the bigger picture and the experiment seems to have yielded a result. Idiots rule."

Well, call it a victory over haterism because Reznor is back up in this motherfucker! And by "this motherfucker", I mean "Twitter".

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Radiohead's Kid A, Amnesiac, Hail to the Thief Get Deluxe Reissue Treatment

B-sides, videos, live performances galore! Radiohead's <i>Kid A</i>, <i>Amnesiac</i>, <i>Hail to the Thief</i> Get Deluxe Reissue Treatment

Capitol isn't done with Radiohead yet! Thom Yorke and co. may no longer have any ties to their old label, but Capitol has the band's entire pre-In Rainbows catalog at its disposal. And if there's still money to be made off of these old Radiohead records, best believe Capitol is going to make it.

Last year, the label released a Radiohead greatest-hits collection without the blessing of the band. We hated it. But this past March, the label released expanded double- and triple-disc versions of their first three albums, and we loved it.

See, there's a difference between good reissues and bad reissues. The full-album reissues are the good kind. With those first three albums, Capitol crammed in every B-side and rarity they could find, and in doing so they actually managed to flesh out those classic titles (and one not-so-classic title) even further. And, of course, the albums themselves are still great. We dropped 10.0s on the expanded versions of both The Bends and OK Computer, and we're probably not done handing out rave reviews yet.

On August 25, Capitol will complete their expanded reissue project with the next three Radiohead albums: 2000's Kid A, 2001's Amnesiac, and 2003's Hail to the Thief. Once again, these reissues come stuffed to the gills with B-sides, live songs, studio sessions, and everything else that didn't make it onto the actual albums. And the even-more-deluxe Special Collectors Editions will also come with DVDs, which will include music videos and TV performances.

Every Radiohead album after Pablo Honey is arguably a masterpiece; even Hail to the Thief has its staunch defenders. So we are eagerly awaiting these reissues, whether the band is happy about them or not, unfortunately.

The complete breakdown of this batch of reissues is below.

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Black Lips + King Khan + Mark Sultan = Almighty Defenders

Black Lips + King Khan + Mark Sultan = Almighty Defenders

Hey remember back in January when Black Lips had all that drama in India and they ended up getting the hell out of the country as quickly as possible? Well, as we reported, they ended up safely in Berlin, where they hung out with their buddies King Khan and BBQ (aka Mark Sultan).

While everybody was in town, they formed a big ol' supergroup together and recorded an album. The Lips/Khan/BBQ teamup has been given the name the Almighty Defenders, and they'll release their self-titled debut September 22 on Vice Records.

The Almighty Defenders played their first show June 17 at NXNE. Apparently, they wore choir robes. Black Lips are on tour now; they'll hit the Pitchfork Music Festival on July 18. The King Khan & BBQ Show is also on the road.

Tracklist below:

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Video: Sigur Rós Live on the Interface

Icelandic quartet Sigur Rós stopped by Spinner's studio and laid down a few tracks from Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust.

Check out the four tracks, plus an interview with the band, below.

"Vid Spilum Endalaust"

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Premiere: Cymbals Eat Guitars: "Tunguska" [Stream]

Premiere: Cymbals Eat Guitars: "Tunguska" [Stream]

Best New Music honorees Cymbals Eat Guitars will have a new 7" out via Transparent in the UK on July 20, and only Pure Groove will be selling it. The single even comes with a free prize for the first 300 buyers: a slap bracelet! (Hey, remember 1990, when we were all accidentally slitting our wrists? Fun times!).

We've got the B-side for you to check out now, the dreamy, time-sig-shifting "Tunguska" (which name-drops the aforementioned bracelets). And head over to the band's MySpace where you can download the track, in exchange for your email address.

Posted by Tyler Grisham on June 19, 2009 at 1:35 p.m.

Tags: Audio, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Premiere

 

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