Jenny Lewis Guests on VietNam’s Debut
Band releases digital EP, tours with the Lemonheads

Recent Kemado signees VietNam are preparing for the January 23 release of their debut full-length with a three-song digital EP, three CMJ shows, and a tour with the Lemonheads.

The Brooklyn quartet's self-titled LP was recorded in Los Angeles and, as such, some relatively famous names contributed to its creation. Jenny Lewis, Paz Lenchantin (Zwan, A Perfect Circle), and the Future Pigeon horn section are all featured on the album; Jason Lader and Beachwood Sparks' "Farmer Dave" Scher helped produce it. VietNam also features contributions from not one but two members of that indie-est of bands, Maroon 5: a guest spot from keyboardist Jesse Carmichael and production from bassist Mickey Madden. The entire album can be streamed here.

The band will whet the appetites of hungry fans with the digital release of the "Welcome to My Room" EP on November 3. The EP's title track and "Hotel Riverview" are both also featured on the full-length, but the third song is the non-LP track "Goodbye", which was recorded live at Trinity St. Paul United Church in Toronto.

To top it all off, VietNam will kick off a North American tour with the Lemonheads after playing three dates at CMJ in New York this week, the first of which is with fellow up-and-comers Bound Stems, Professor Murder, and Annuals. [MORE...]

Gnarls Barkley Reissue, Upgrade St. Elsewhere
Set to tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2007

Cribbing the "put out the Christmas trees before Halloween" move from your local K-Mart, Gnarls Barkley have announced the holiday release of a limited edition St. Elsewhere CD/DVD package.

The set, due November 7 on Downtown/Atlantic, is, according to a press release, "bound in a deluxe o-card adorned with 3-D lenticular rendition of the album art." Looks like Danger Mouse picked up a few tricks from Gorillaz.

The St. Elsewhere reissue includes a new 92-page booklet featuring a flipbook and other expanded artwork, while the DVD holds four Gnarls Barkley videos: "Crazy", "Smiley Faces", "Gone Daddy Gone", and the never-before-seen "Go Go Gadget Gospel". Audio tracks from the pair's April 16 "Top of the Pops" performance ("Crazy") and May 19 "Later with Jools Holland" stint ("Gone Daddy Gone") will also be included.

According to their MySpace blog, Gnarls Barkley are contemplating radio-play for the "TotP" "holiday version" of "Crazy", and they want fan input.

In other news, Gnarls Barkley aren't completely blowing off October 31. Earlier this week, the duo linked to a YouTube video from its MySpace. The clip documents a Donnie Darko-themed Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse photoshoot for URB Magazine, and it's pretty silly.

Next month, the boys will knock off a short European tour before returning to the States for a Bang! Music Festival appearance and a San Francisco New Year's Eve Eve stint with the Flaming Lips. They will embark on a three-month trek through the U.S. with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in January, though dates for this are currently unconfirmed.

Finally, Gnarls Barkley took home a "Left Field Woodie" trophy at mtvU's 2006 Woodie Awards last week. The event will be broadcast on November 2. [MORE...]

Justice Invade America

Break out the vodka, apple juice, Coca Cola, and human-sized crosses, because Justice are crossing the pond for a rare trek through the U.S., and their tour rider requirements must be met. And, after all, they. are. your. friends., and must be treated as such.

The Parisian duo have sandwiched their brief American jaunt between two chunks of European and Japanese performances. Select dates will feature the pair alongside such party-starters as the Rapture, MSTRKRFT, Hot Chip, and Digitalism. [MORE...]

Stream the Entire Sufjan Christmas Box Set!
Bonus: Sufjan reviews horror films

Happy Halloween, kids! What better way to celebrate than with 42 Christmas songs? That's right, thanks to the folks at Asthmatic Kitty, Sufjan Stevens' previously reported Songs for Christmas box set is now streaming in its entirety on the AK website. All five discs of it. So while you're slipping into that George W. Bush mask or that sexy maid negligee this evening, groove to such holiday favorites as "Silent Night", "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!", and, um, "Did I Make You Cry on Christmas Day? (Well, You Deserved It!)".

Also, Songs for Christmas is now available for pre-order, with a shipping date of November 14. It arrives on store shelves on November 21--just in time for Thanksgiving. The perks of waiting for the physical product are manifold, as the five-disc set comes with stickers, an essay by Rick Moody, a music video and a comic book by Tom Eaton, a "Christmas Songbook with lyric sheets and chord charts," and, last but not least, the "Official Original Christmas Family Portrait of Santa Sufjan painted by Jacques Bredy."

Asthmatic Kitty is in a very generous mood today, and their cup runneth over with Suf-goodies. In addition to the box set streams, AK has posted a series of horror film reviews by Mr. Stevens himself, which reveal the man to be quite the connoisseur.

"I've watched so much gore that modern horror films look farcical," Sufjan explains. "I'm no longer a fan of the teenage slasher. It's not scary anymore. It's just messy and tedious."

Damn! So much for the whole mild-mannered indie-folk pansy reputation.

For Sufjan's thoughts on Night of the Living Dead, Decasia, Eraserhead, Hell House, Glen or Glenda?, and, yes, An Inconvenient Truth (scariest movie of all time!!!), click here.

Stevens' list is part of Asthmatic Kitty's growing "sidebar" section of their website, in which artists, label employees, and friends share their thoughts on a variety of topics. In addition to the Sufjan horror-fest, there's a Castanets tour diary, Half-Handed Cloud's visit to a museum exhibit about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Shapes and Sizes' thoughts on Sebadoh, World Series game recaps, album reviews, and much more.

Sonic Youth Unveil Rarities Comp Tracklist

Just in time for indie rock OGs everywhere making their holiday wish lists, Sonic Youth's previously reported rarities compilation, The Destroyed Room: B-sides and Rarities, comes out December 12 on Geffen. And now, it has a tracklist. Three of the 12 tracks are previously unreleased, and most of them are culled from their 21st Century output, including the 2001 Noho Furniture Sessions. Noho-ho?! [MORE...]

!K7 Turns 21, Parties, Preps Henrik Schwarz DJ-Kicks

Hey party people: buy !K7 a drink this November, as the venerable electronic/dance imprint celebrates the big twenty-one. Originally launched as a video production company in 1985, !K7 has gone on to release quality records by some of the dancefloor's biggest names-- including this year's Herbert smash, Scale, and the DJ-Kicks series.

To commemorate this coming of age (as U.S. law would have it, anyhow), !K7 will host three nights of hijinx in London from November 14-16. !K7 and two of its subsidiaries-- hip-hop/soul label Rapster and indie imprint Ever-- will each curate a night apiece of live music and photo exhibitions, going down at London's Phonica, Luminaire, and KOKO. Performers include Herbert, France's Cyann & Ben, and new !K7 signing Henrik Schwarz. Full details below.

Adulthood doesn't mean slowing down for always-prolific !K7, however, as the label keeps churning out those DJ-Kicks mixes. The latest, featuring Berlin-based Schwarz, hit shops abroad earlier this month and graces U.S. shores on October 31.

A relative newcomer, Schwarz gained notoriety for a spate of 12"s and a few high profile remixes, including tries at Coldcut and Alex Smoke. His DJ-Kicks disc sees him mixing a broad palette of styles, with everything from James Brown, D'Angelo, and Marvin Gaye rubbing up against cuts from Rhythm & Sound, Arthur Russell, and Schwarz's own material. Click on the interview below to hear Schwarz discuss his influences, selections, and computer-based mixing process.

Folks who scoop up the CD version of this DJ-Kicks will be pleased to find a special download code that provides access to an alternative version of Schwarz's mix, while 12" purchasers will be treated to an exclusive download track.

And start practicing those club moves now, because according to a press release, the next installment of DJ-Kicks will be mixed by none other than Hot Chip. [MORE...]

Photos: Jamie Lidell [Austin, TX; 10/26/06]

Last Thursday at the Parish in Austin, Texas, Phoenix-based laptopper Back Ted N-Ted threw down such a Warp-like platter of skittish beats and fractured (but groovin') samples that I began to wonder whether Jamie Lidell would be returning to his Super_Collider and Muddlin Gear days. The short answer turned out to be: not quite. A one-man show, Lidell stepped up to his table of gear and mic stand and gave the crowd (a good portion of which seemed stuck on Jamie after they saw him open for Beck) a heaping dose of Multiply soul.

But it wasn't all Motown tributes and nods to Otis Redding-- Lidell had, after all, graced the stage barefoot and in a black-trimmed, leopard-print robe like a prizefighting kickboxer, and he burst into a giddy smile when greeted by the sizable audience's welcome. He was having fun and he wasn't going to be playing Multiply by the numbers.

Lidell's latest album did provide most of the night's material, but over the course of the set he manned several extended beats and breakdowns from behind the decks, often injecting winding combos of scats and beatboxing, both of which were heavily processed in real time by Lidell. Deviations from the recordings managed to unfold as a balance between assured production and playful programming.

All of this came to a head on the encore, when Lidell flipped on the beat for "Multiply". The crowd went apeshit singing along to the chorus, and, in response, Lidell offered up the mic to certain crowd members from his perch on the stage. That fun over with, Lidell swung over to the sample machine and laptop to perpetuate the song a few more measures before doing that weird thing that European performers do as they exit the spotlight, where they clap for their appreciative audience. I think he bowed abruptly several times, too.

For more photos and tour dates, see below. [MORE...]

MP3: Tweedy Explains Punching Incident
"I'm quick like a knife, cat-like reflexes."

Move aside, grainy YouTube videos and official band statements. When Jeff Tweedy punches a dude in the face, he provides fans with the accurate (and juicy) details.

One such fan is Pitchfork reader Tyler Gould, who sent an MP3 account of the incident, straight from the horse's mouth. The recording was made on October 27 at the Foellinger Auditorium in Champaign, Illinois, where Tweedy was playing a solo show.

He begins his explanation by joking with fans, "The distance between where I'm standing and where you are is in no way, shape, or form a result of being attacked the other day."

The crowd goes wild, overpowering whatever Tweedy says next, but there's a definite "I know I punch like a girl" toward the end of its eruption.

He continues, "Actually, I was pretty surprised. I really let that dude have it...

"Somebody jumped on stage the other night at a Wilco show, did the 'Woooo!' you know, like to his friends or whatever, 'Look at me! I'm really drunk and on crystal meth or something!' It's Southern Missouri, you know, so..."

He then explained the lack of security at the gig, which took place October 16 at Springfield, MO's Shrine Mosque. Result? "During the show, lots of different things were happening; there were people getting pushed around in front, some girl came up on stage and sat down and started playing piano. While this was all being taken care of, we had a little break and we played our whole set and we came off, and there was this girl laying around, flopping around on the floor. Tried to get rid of her, she sat down and played the piano, so basically everybody was taking care of that...

"So we're standing there...we're starting a song 'Airline to Heaven', got the guitar, we're playing...I don't know if you know this, but when you're playing guitar, it's kind of like you're wearing handcuffs...so i see this nice little boy who looks like he's Devandra Burnhart [spelling representative of Tweedy's pronunciation] or whatever his name is...He actually stepped on a young woman's wheelchair to get onstage. I'm not kidding, that's the truth. That's how he got onstage! I'm not exaggerating; he just hopped up onstage, right up her wheelchair.

"And I'm playing, and the thoughts in my head are going, "Okay, okay, here he comes. Okay. He's just going to wave to his buddies and there he goes, okay...

"Any other night, I would have said he could probably have fondled me or something and I would've known within five or six seconds tops, a couple of guys in big yellow shirts would have been like pummeling him. Not that he needed to have that happen, but...So anyway the next thing I know, I feel this hand on my forehead. I'd just had it. I'd had it at that point...I'm quick like a knife, cat-like reflexes."

At this time, based on crowd reaction, we believe Tweedy demonstrated these special abilities before continuing, "The next day, 'Tweedy Attacks Fan," right?" referring to, um, various publications.

For Tweedy's full account, download the MP3 below. [MORE...]

MP3: Of Montreal Daytrotter Session

Prescient Kevin Barnes somehow knew to (falsely) claim hailing from Quebec's indie hotspot long before it was the fashionable thing to do. And while Of Montreal in fact have their origins in wacky Athens, Georgia, that hasn't stopped Barnes and company from becoming one of indie's most beloved acts in recent years, Canadian or not.

Expect the collective squeal of a thousand live-journalers, then, since Barnes dropped by the Daytrotter studios recently to perform acoustic renditions of two brand new tunes and two Of Montreal favorites: Satanic Panic in the Attic's "Lysergic Bliss", The Sunlandic Twins' "Requiem for O.M.M.2", and a pair of jams from quizzically-titled new disc Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? (due January 27 via Polyvinyl)-- "Suffer for Fashion" and "Eagle-Shaped Mirror". Evil people who've been rocking leaked copies of Hissing Fauna might recognize the latter song as "Bunny Ain't No Kind of Rider", but we wouldn't know anything about that.

All four live sessions are available for download now at Daytrotter. Of Montreal, meanwhile, play Mexico City's Azteca Stadium on November 11 as part of Corona Fest.

The Ark Change Their Minds and Cancel Tour

Despite the previous report that all was finally well in the Ark camp after a week of "diplomatic entanglements" following lead singer Ola Salo's mindless "joke" about planes flying into the White House during the band's set at the Swedish Embassy's recent location-christening celebration in Washington, D.C. (and now you're up-to-date), the glam rockers have indeed cancelled the rest of their U.S. tour dates.

Citing "exhaustion" as "the main reason" behind the cancellation in a letter on their website, the band promised to reschedule the dates "later this fall or early spring."

The one date they did not cancel is at New York's Bowery Ballroom on November 20. Read the full text of the letter below. [MORE...]

Breaking News: Weed Makes You Listen to Indie Rock
Pitchfork staff admits to not actually liking Sufjan, just being really, really high

According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, smoking the wacky tabacky turns you into a poseur. Even worse: an indie rock poseur.

Listen to this PSA. Just listen to it. And then just try to tell me it doesn't make you want to put down the bong and start listening to rap music.

Full transcript below. [MORE...]

Video: Mew: "Special"

Mew's "Special", from this year's quite magical And the Glass Handed Kites, gets this gorgeous, black-and-white cinematic treatment courtesy of director Martin de Thurah (The Futureheads, Röyksopp) and cinematographer Kasper Tuxen (Radiohead, Röyksopp). Actually, this would make a pretty bad-ass perfume commercial too. Cue breathy, accented voice: Special. A new fragrance by Mew.

Do you have a news tip for us? Anything crazy happen at a show you attended recently? Do you have inside info on the bands we cover? Is one of your favorite artists (that's not somebody you know personally) releasing a new record you'd like to see covered? You will remain completely anonymous, unless we are given your express permission to reveal your identity. (Please note that publicists, managers, booking agents, and other artist representatives are generally exempt from this rule, but will also be granted anonymity if requested.)