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Tuesday, June 23

News in Brief: Common, Reverie Sound Revue, the Octopus Project, Cornbury Festival

News in Brief: Common, Reverie Sound Revue, the Octopus Project, Cornbury Festival

-- Common has paid his Hollywood dues playing supporting roles in not-great movies like Smokin' Aces and Wanted. Last week, he reported on his blog that he's landed his first starring role. He'll star opposite fellow rapper-slash-actor Queen Latifah and the ridiculously gorgeous Paula Patton in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 director Sanaa Hamri's forthcoming film Just Wright. "I'll get to play an NBA star," says Common. "I get to live out my dreams in this movie."

-- Broken Social Scene contributor Lisa Lobsinger also fronts a Canadian indie rock band called Reverie Sound Revue. Their self-titled debut album is out today on Boompa.

-- On July 14, Peek-A-Boo will release Golden Beds, the new EP from Austin-based instrumental rock quartet the Octopus Project. The enhanced EP includes seven music videos, including one live track from last year's Austin City Limits fest. The band is touring the American South right now.

-- July 11-12, a truly bizarre and heterogeneous group of bands will come to Oxford, England for the Cornbury Festival. The bill includes pop queens Sugababes, college rock vets the Pretenders and the Lightning Seeds, punk legends the Damned, Britpop leftovers Dodgy, and relative young'uns the Boy Least Likely To and Magic Numbers.

Posted by Tom Breihan on June 23, 2009 at 4:45 p.m.

Tags: Album, Broken Social Scene, Common, Cornbury, EP, Festival, Film, Reverie Sound Revue, The Octopus Project

 

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis Score Sex Trade Documentary Film

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis Score Sex Trade Documentary Film

Photo by Steve Gullick

Nick Cave and scarily bearded Bad Seeds/Grinderman/Dirty Three member Warren Ellis already have a few film scorescredits under their belts. Together, the duo scored the 2005 Cave-penned Aussie Western The Proposition, the depressing-sounding 2007 neurosurgery doc The English Surgeon, and the way-underrated 2007 meditative drama The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. And now they're at it again.

On their MySpace page, Cave and Ellis mention that they have scored The Girls of Phnom Penh, which is described as "Matthew Watson's second film about the consequences of Cambodia's 'virginity trade'". Sounds unbearably sad! The as-yet-unfinished film is due later in the year.

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Rhino Releases Factory Digital Box

Rhino Releases Factory Digital Box

The legend of Factory Records lives on, this time through our computers. Today on iTunes (and in wide release on July 7), Rhino has released a digital box set called Factory Records: Communications 1978-92 that collects 63 tracks from throughout the storied Manchester label's 14-year history. Many of the tracks were previously unavailable digitally.

Communications features a tracklist similar to A Factory Box Set, out now in the UK. It was compiled by journalist Jon Savage (author of the seminal punk book England's Dreaming) and features liner notes containing track-by-track details by historian James Nice. You can listen to six tracks from the set, by Joy Divison, New Order, and Happy Mondays, here.

Tracklist below.

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Jay Bennett's Death: Overdose

Jay Bennett's Death: Overdose

The Associated Press (via Billboard) reports that the May 24 death of former Wilco member Jay Bennett has been ruled an overdose. According to Champaign, Illinois County Coroner Duane Northrup, Bennett died from an overdose of the pain killer fentanyl. The Associated Press reports, "the drug is found in patches commonly prescribed to treat chronic pain."

Bennett's death is being investigated as an accident.

Posted by Amy Phillips on June 23, 2009 at 2:10 p.m.

Tags: Jay Bennett, Obituary, Wilco

 

Sunny Day Real Estate Reunite!

Tour and reissues set for fall Sunny Day Real Estate Reunite!

Seattle proto-emo heroes Sunny Day Real Estate have broken up twice, in 1995 and 2001. But they're back together again for a North American reunion tour, and this time, all four original members are on board.

After the band's 1995 breakup, bassist Nate Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith joined Dave Grohl's Foo Fighters. When Sunny Day got back together in 1997, Goldsmith rejoined, but Mendel remained a Foo. This time, though, Mendel is back in the fold.

In a statement from Sub Pop, Mendel said, "I wasn't around for the second version of the band that recorded the third and fourth albums, so I've always had a feeling of unfinished business there. We had all these outsized ideas back then, 'Everyone's going to learn a new instrument,' and 'Let's do a rock opera,' but before we could get anywhere with them, the band broke up. We left behind all these weird and beautiful songs, though, and they've stuck with me all this time. I'm really happy that we get a chance to play them together again."

The reunion tour kicks off September 17 in Vancouver, and yes, they will play California. To celebrate, on September 15, Sub Pop will reissue the band's two original-lineup albums: the stone classic 1994 debut Diary (one of the best-selling albums in Sub Pop history) and the 1995 follow-up LP2 (better known as The Pink Album). The reissues will include bonus tracks and new liner notes. This is going to rule.

Dates below.

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Listen to Primavera Sets on WFMU

Deerhunter, Dan Deacon, Vaselines, Jesus Lizard, Saint Etienne, more Listen to Primavera Sets on WFMU

Weren't able to make it to the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona last month? (Apparently it was quite dramatic.) New Jersey freeform radio station WFMU broadcast live from the fest, letting the rest of the world hear what was going down on the Pitchfork stage and beyond.

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Echo Chamber: Dirty Projectors' Dave Longstreth

Echo Chamber: Dirty Projectors' Dave Longstreth

"[Greg Ginn] was in some documentary recently, where they managed to interview him. And he was soooo stoney. He was on another plane. And it felt like this kind of… not to draw a Stephen Dedalus thing, but I would've loved to be there with him in that kind of moment, responding to it. [Dirty Projectors' former label] Dead Oceans made an effort to get in touch with him, to get his approval, also from a pragmatic, copyright approach. He was just out. Not available."

-- Dirty Projectors frontman Dave Longstreth, on the Black Flag mastermind and Rise Above cover subject. (via the Beta Blog)

Posted by Tom Breihan on June 23, 2009 at 11:55 a.m.

Tags: black flag, Dave Longstreth, Dirty Projectors, Echo Chamber

 

Senior Citizens Interview Fiery Furnaces, Bash Wilco, Dirty Projectors

Senior Citizens Interview Fiery Furnaces, Bash Wilco, Dirty Projectors

"Breakfast at Sulimay's", the Woodshop Films web series where three Philly diner habitues review new indie jams, is back! This time, they're giving their ridiculously quotable verdicts on new tracks from Yo La Tengo ("I could lay a number on this one! That's a humpin' song!"), Wilco ("11th release, they haven't learned much"), and Dirty Projectors ("Take a look at me. Do I look like I'm into Oriental music to you?"). Ann is totally dressing up for these things now, too! Though the pink in the hair might be a bit much, Ann.

Also, Joe Walker, the drummer-hating obvious star of the group, interviewed the Fiery Furnaces in a new video. In the clip, Joe reveals that he used to sing with a group who made a few novelty records and that he was an actor in the Army during World War II. Character development! He also sings to the group, reminisces with them about Johnny Mercer, and recommends that they try lobster rolls when they play Cape Cod.

Videos below.

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Arctic Monkeys Unleash Album Art, Dates

Arctic Monkeys Unleash Album Art, Dates

The story so far: Sheffield brat-pop upstarts Arctic Monkeys have a new album coming out, their third. It's due August 24 in the UK and August 25 in the U.S. via Domino, and it's called Humbug. The band worked with two producers for this one: Old collaborator James Ford of Simian Mobile Disco and new friend Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age. And now we've got the album cover. It's that picture above, and the washed-out 70s-looking photo supports my theory that this will be the Monkeys' stoner-rock move. Intriguing!

Also, the Monkeys have added a few shows to their festival-packed touring schedule. In August, they'll play three small American club shows amidst all the big outdoor stages. Dates below.

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Beastie Boys Reveal Hot Sauce Details

Ill Communication and Hello Nasty reissues on the way Beastie Boys Reveal <i>Hot Sauce</i> Details

The Beastie Boys have sent an info-jammed email out to their supporters, laying out the next few months of activity. First, they'll continue with their project of reissuing their old albums. Ill Communication is out July 14, and Hello Nasty is due on August 25. Also, the New York trio will play an intimate show at Chicago's Congress Theatre on August 6, just two days before their headlining set at Lollapalooza. Also, according to the Beastie Boys newsletter, "The music industry is saved." We'll have to see about that one.

All that is great, but the part of the email that we care the most about is the part where they talk about their new album. And yes, they've got details. First off: There's been an amendment to the album's title. It'll now be called Hot Sauce Committee Part 1. Also, the LP is due for release on September 15. The tracklist is below.

UPDATE: The cover is now available. Check it out up top.

Thanks to Jeffrey Ryan for the heads up.

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