Pitchfork

While New Order frontman Bernard Sumner has worked a nifty DJ sideline for some time now, his bandmate Peter Hook is known more for his towering bass lines and his whiskery scruff than his prowess on the wheels of steel. But move over, Bernie, because The Bearded One is kicking off the "240-Hour Non-Stop Party People" American tour tonight. The man whose four strings have propelled countless 3 a.m. Hook-ups (ugh, sorry) will don headphones and jockey discs at these places and times:

09-29 Baltimore, MD - The Ottobar
09-30 New York, NY - Lotus
10-01 Buffalo, NY - SoundLab
10-02 Chicago, IL - Smart Bar
10-03 Madison, WI - TBA
10-04 Milwaukee, WI - TBA
10-05 Austin, TX - The Parish
10-06 Denton, TX - Hailey's
10-07 Miami, FL - Revolver
10-08 Orlando, FL - The Social

But what if an in-person encounter with a member of New Order is just too intimate? What if your isolation, alienation, and dead emotions force you to keep those you care about at a safe remove? And what if, furthermore, you happen to live within an easy drive of Los Angeles? Then this must be your lucky week, because a selection of New Order's classic videos will be big-screened at the L.A. installment of the video-nerd extravaganza Resfest. Clips by the likes of Jonathan Demme and William Wegman will roll at the Spielberg Theatre at 7 p.m. on September 30.

After the DJ tour, Hook will hustle back to Old Blighty for New Order's set at "Keeping it Peel: The John Peel Day Launch Event" in London on October 12, in honor of the deceased DJ. Besides New Order, the concert boasts an odd but Peel-approved lineup that stretches from Laura Cantrell and Super Furry Animals to the Fall and '70s reggae veterans Misty in Roots. It's actually the night before John Peel Day, which we suppose makes it John Peel Eve.

That's not all Hooky's doing for Peely: in one of the odder collaborations in recent recording history, a BBC Radio One report says that Hook recently joined the Futureheads and Jeff Beck (no, not Beck, Jeff Beck) to record a cover of the Buzzcocks' "Ever Fallen in Love" for a double-disc Peel tribute compilation, due out October 17 in the UK. Our favorite part of this is that now Ian Curtis and onetime Beck bandmate Eric Clapton are only three degrees apart. We're totally going to zing those uppity record store clerks with that one! We can taste the "oh, snap" already!

href="http://pitchforkmedia.com/news/05-09/01.shtml#neworder">New Order To Release DVD, Singles Comp