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Wednesday, June 24

The Roots to Debut New Single on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" Tonight

On paper, it looked a bit weird when Jimmy Fallon announced that Philly rap vets the Roots would serve as the house band for his late-night talk show, "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon". But thus far, the experiment's been working out beautifully. The Roots are easily the best house band on TV, finding all sorts of fun and unexpected ways to work their vast array of covers into the fabric of the show. They've also backed up everyone from Mos Def to the Lonely Island to Paul Simon. But tonight, the Roots will get to use the "Fallon" stage to premiere a new song of their own.

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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

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My Morning Jacket's Jim James to Release George Harrison Tribute EP

It's credited to "Yim Yames" My Morning Jacket's Jim James to Release George Harrison Tribute EP

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.

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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

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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

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Pavement's Spiral Stairs Set to Release First Solo Album on Matador

Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew guests Pavement's Spiral Stairs Set to Release First Solo Album on Matador

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.

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Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) Side Project Volcano Choir Album Announced

Volcano Choir debut LP out September 22. Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) Side Project Volcano Choir Album Announced

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:

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Virgin Mobile Fest Returns-- for Free

Weezer, Franz Ferdinand, the National, the Hold Steady to play Merriweather Virgin Mobile Fest Returns-- for Free

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.

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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

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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.

Dinosaur Jr.:

06-23 Los Angeles, CA - The Troubadour
06-25 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
06-28 Athens, Greece - Rockwave Festival
06-30 Zagreb, Croatia - Boogaloo
07-04 Halifax, Nova Scotia - Halifax V-Festival
07-25 Yuzawa-Machi, Japan - Fuji Rock Festival
08-14 Wellfleet, MA - Wellfleet Beachcomber
08-16 New York, NY - Central Park SummerStage
09-30 Toronto, ON - Phoenix Concert Theatre *
10-01 Montreal, QUE - Pop Montreal Festival *
10-02 Cambridge, MA - Middle East *
10-03 Cambridge, MA - Middle East *
10-04 Clifton Park, NY - Northern Lights *
10-07 New Haven, CT - Toad's Place *
10-08-09 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club *
10-09 Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of the Living Arts *
10-10 Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall *
10-11 Pontiac, MI - The Crofoot *
10-13 Madison, WI - The Majestic Theatre *
10-14 St. Louis, MO - The Pageant *
10-15 Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre *
10-16 Louisville, KY - Headliner's Music Hall *
10-17 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse *
10-26 Kansas City, MO - The Beaumont Club *
10-27 Omaha, NE - Slowdown *
10-29 Boulder, CO - Boulder Theater *
10-30 Fort Collins, CO - Aggie Theatre *
10-31 Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
11-03 Tempe, AZ - Marquee Theatre *
11-04 Solana Beach, CA - Belly Up Tavern *
11-06 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore *
11-07 Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom *
11-10 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom
11-11 Victoria, British Columbia - Sugar Nightclub
11-13 Edmonton, Alberta - The Starlite Room
11-14 Calgary, Alberta - MacEwan Hall Ballroom
11-16 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - Odeon Events Centre
11-17 Winnipeg, Manitoba - Pyramid Cabaret
11-18 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
11-19 Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall Ballroom
11-20 Cleveland Heights, OH - Grog Shop

* with Lou Barlow and the Missingmen

Posted by Tom Breihan on June 24, 2009 at 7 a.m.

Tags: Dinosaur Jr., Lou Barlow, Mike Watt, Tour

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