Video: Stephen Colbert Vs. The Decemberists
Nerd fight!!!

Stephen Colbert took a swipe at our favorite Japanese-folk-tale-loving indie proggers when he premiered a new segment called "Who's Riding My Coattails Now?" on last night's "Colbert Report". After showing a fake GQ cover placing him next to Jay-Z in the magazine's "Men of the Year" issue and then accusing Alex Trebek and "Jeopardy" of stealing his ideas, Colbert pointed out Colin Meloy and co.'s previously reported "Re-Animate the Decemberists" contest, which asks fans to take green screen footage of the band performing and add animation to create the video for "O Valencia!". Apparently, it's strikingly similar to his own "Green Screen Challenge", which featured green screen footage of Colbert with a light saber.

How did Colbert respond to this act of plagiarism? He issued a "Second Green Screen Challenge": "to edit me into the Decemberists' green screen challenge... Let's see how well they perform their trademark brand of hyper-literate prog rock when I'm slicing off their legs at the knee." In order to make this happen, he is offering his green screen footage for enterprising fans to use in their entries to the Decemberists' contest, which must be in by December 15 to be considered.

For the record, we are totally behind this idea and hope that November 29, 2006 is forever remembered as the day "When the War Came".

(By the way, this isn't the first time the Decemberists have caught the attention of a mainstream TV talking head. Apparently, there's a guy on SportsCenter who loves 'em.)

Calexico, Notwist Collaborate for Hausmusik Comp
Basement Jaxx, Daft Punk collaborate for house music comp (we wish)

You Can't Always Listen to Hausmusik - But... you might have to make an exception this time. Germany's Hausmusik imprint has stirred up something of a concept compilation by the aforementioned title to celebrate its 15-year anniversary.

For the album, which is due on December 5 exclusively in North America in both CD and double LP with book formats, 14 writers (including Thomas Palzer, Franz Dobler, Katja Huber, Harald, Staun, Didi Neidhart, Julian Weber, Sebastian Dietrich, Rev. Christian Dabeler, Almut Klotz, Roderich Fabian, Nora Scholz, Annemone Fesl and Martin Steinm ller) split into pairs to produce seven stories, each beginning with "Man kann nicht immer nur - hören," which translates to, "You can't always listen to..." Several additional contributors (Martin Dessecker, Doris Lasch, Ursula Ponn, Nadine Spengler, Martin Tom Dieck, Atak, CX Huth, Dominik Binegger, Melissa Gates, Helge Reumann, Xavier Robel, Marion Gerth and Silke Heinrich) produced comic book art, and also lent a hand in the creation of the tales.

The musicians, like the writers, worked in twos, with one artist beginning a song and another finalizing it. Pairs include Calexico and the Notwist, Console and Loopspool, Sodastream and Ms. John Soda, Couch and Squares on Both Sides, and more. [MORE...]

Future of the Left Release First Single

Future of the Left, the previously reported phoenix risen from the ashes of Cardiff giants Mclusky, will release their first 7" January 30 via Too Pure. The single will feature "Fingers Become Thumbs" and "The Lord Hates a Coward" as double A-sides and "The Fibre Provider" as the B-side. There is also a pretty awesome homemade video for "The Fibre Provider" on YouTube now.

The band is planning a full tour for February, but they have two shows scheduled before then. They will play the Luminaire in London on December 1 and the Wheatsheaf in Oxford on December 2.

The Evens Keep It Real on the Road

If you dig Dischord, Fugazi, and/or that DC sound, odds are you'll love the Evens. The no-nonsense Dischord duo-- comprised of District scene stalwarts Ian MacKaye and Amy Farina-- hits the road once again next month in support of its quite solid 2006 sophomore set, Get Evens.

Far from just another night at the rock club, Evens gigs are intimate, wholesome, feel-good affairs, the sort of thing you emerge from with your step just a little bit lighter and your soul feeling just a little bit cleaner. You are hereby duly encouraged to see every single one of these gigs, or at the very least, the one in the town nearest you.

As before, Dischord has compiled links with information on all the venues-- check those here. Best of all: kids under 12 are free! There's never been a better time to raise your little ones right. [MORE...]

Bis Reunite for Anniversary Gigs
Freezepop ponder their relevance

The nineties will have their revenge!! Luscious Jackson are back in action for the kids, Cibo Matto's Miho Hatori recently resurfaced with a solo album, and heck, just this past weekend, emo also-rans Texas Is the Reason played a reunion gig in NYC to celebrate ten-year anniversary of their kinda sorta classic Do You Know Who You Are? Nostalgia for things forgotten is most certainly coloring the air of late.

Also on the revenge of the 90s/tenth anniversary kick: Scottish synth-punk-pop trio Bis, who disbanded in 2003 after nine years together, attaining momentary Next Big Thing status and winning over kids of a sunnier disposition with a bunch of releases on Chemikal Underground, Lookout!, K, and the defunct Beastie Boys imprint Grand Royal. Next year, Bis' 1997 debut, The New Transistor Heroes, turns a whopping ten years old-- which is about the age the members of Bis often seem on record-- and to celebrate, the trio will reunite for two UK shows next spring.

It all started with a post by Bis' Amanda "Manda Rin" MacKinnon on the web forum for Data Panik, the band she formed just last year in the wake of Bis' demise. Manda asked fans if they wanted to see Bis play again, fans (all twelve of them) said "hell yes!", et voila, Bis will return to tell it to the kids of London and Glasgow in 2007.

At present, there are no plans for reunion activity beyond the two shows, however Data Panik parted ways in August, so you never know. For now, however, Manda Rin will concentrate on a solo record, which, as she writes on Data Panik's website, will be inspired by the B-52's, Le Tigre, and CSS. [MORE...]

MP3: Peter Bjorn and John: "Let's Call It Off (Girl Talk Remix)"

Maniac mash-up mobster and Best New Music honoree Girl Talk, whose mother calls him Gregg Gillis, reinvents Writer's Block standout "Let's Call It Off" from fellow Best New Music cats Peter Bjorn and John. And by reinvents, I mean trades the bumbling bass for some synthetic steel drum and cowbell sounds and a little low-end background melody.

It's pleasant enough, but frankly I expected something slightly less rudimentary and slightly more mind-melting from this guy, given his Night Ripper chops.

Then again, it's probably a total banger when cranked to 11 in the club with a half-naked Gillis spazz-dancing and crowd-surfing all over you and your stage-crashing friends, everybody perspiring like it's a rain forest up in there.

Calexico Tour to Promote Border Issue Awareness

Calexico may have been nominated for the PLUG Awards' Americana Album of the Year category, but it isn't just stars and stripes they're interested in tackling in 2006.

The Tucson clan will launch a short December tour this weekend (December 2), and in addition to taking Annuals, the Broken West, and Los Lobos along for the ride, Calexico are bringing some special guests: reps from Humane Borders and Music for America, two organizations dedicated to raising awareness about humanitarian issues resulting from immigration and border control (specifically Mexican) regulations.

In addition to their North American plans, Calexico have a Japanese tour lined up for January with-- what? Can this be true? Iron & Wine?! What a surprise! Then it's back to the States for a pair of shows at Lincoln Center in New York City, as part of the American Songbook series. [MORE...]

Menomena Head West for Handful of Dates

Attention citizens of the West Coast: turns out Menomena didn't forget you guys. After skipping out on its Califoregonington friends last time around, the Portland trio is taking its live show to five star cities to your left (or right, if you buy into that whole the-world-is-round thing), and they're bringing local buds 31Knots along for the ride.

Tonight, the fellas kick things off in their hometown. They'll wrap the tour up come mid-December with two gigs alongside Pink Mountaintops.

As previously reported, Friend and Foe, Menomena's debut full length for Barsuk, is due January 23, 2007. [MORE...]

Def Jux Offers Deal, Mr. Lif Collab Through mtvU

Definitive Jux is teaming with the college-only mtvU to offer the best unsigned hip-hop "DJ, emcee, producer, or band amongst the college audience" a chance at a record deal, according to a press release. The winner of the contest will receive a digital EP deal (though we're not quite sure how this would work for just a producer) and an appearance by Mr. Lif on his/her lead single and in its video, which will premiere exclusively on the network and its website.

Enrollment in the competition is ongoing and ends December 14. mtvU will unveil the top 25 entrants on December 19, after which college students can vote for their favorite artists until January 19. Interested artists can begin building their profiles in this "Best Music on Campus" competition over at www.bestmusiconcampus.com.

And of course, in keeping with the spirit of mtvU, only "artists or groups where at least one member of the act is enrolled at an accredited college or university" are eligible. We're pulling for Lil Wayne. He's still in college, right?

Panda Bear Talks Animal Collective, Solo Work
2007: When Animals Attack!

Like the endangered species from which he gets his name, Noah "Panda Bear" Lennox, does not hibernate. He's too busy chewing the bamboo shoots of musical creativity. (Terrible analogy. Just terrible. I'm sorry. I'll stop now.)

Although he and his band Animal Collective have laid relatively low in 2006, touring a bit and releasing just a smattering of tracks and a reissue, 2007 looks to be a blockbuster year for Lennox. In a recent interview, he updated Pitchfork on the status of Animal Collective's next album, the Animal Collective live box set, his own solo album, and many, many other projects.

Animal Collective's year will start off with the January 23 FatCat worldwide release of the People EP, previously available only on the band's just-wrapped Australian tour. As previously reported, it features the tracks "People", "Tikwid", "My Favorite Colors", and "People (live)".

Also in January, the band will begin recording the follow-up to 2005's Feels, at a studio in Tucson, Arizona. Lennox said that they hope to release the album in the fall, "but I couldn't say for sure." Although reluctant to reveal any potential song or album titles ("I have a feeling the other AC boys would be mad if I told you, just because we like to have the thing be new and fresh for everyone if we can"), he did say that "there will be some songs on the album that we've never played live. We wrote them and prepped them but consciously avoided playing them live so that they would be totally new for everyone on the album." Brief tours of America and Europe are in the works for the spring of 2007.

And speaking of Animal Collective in concert, Lennox offered an update about the AC live box set: "I'm really psyched about it and I guess I can speak for all of us in that respect," he said. "I don't know exactly when it will be released, as we're all being kind of relaxed about that part of it. I guess we feel like the Hollinndagain reissue just came out so it's no rush for us to get out another live recording type thing. But I imagine it will be done and out in the spring of next year, like May or something.

"It's going to be three LPs worth of jams: one side of our first New York shows and stuff from around the Danse Manatee time, one side of acoustic jams (including some recordings from home-- most of us used to live together and we would play quite a bit just around the house after work and on the weekends), one side from around the Here Comes the Indian time, one side of solo jams (I think this is mostly from shows that just Davey [Portner, aka Avey Tare] or I did), one side of what we called "The Pumpkin Trilogy" which is a three-part jam from around the time between Danse Manatee and Here Comes the Indian (same time as the Hollinndagain tour), and one side of live Sung Tongs." Whew!

Animal Collective are also working on a film project with director Danny Perez, the friend behind their "Who Could Win a Rabbit" video. Will it be Animal Collective's Purple Rain? Or their Glitter? We'll find out soon...

"We worked together for a while coming up with the scenes and parts and that sort of thing," Lennox said. "Then this past September we started filming it. Sometime in the next four months or so, after Danny's done editing all the footage, the AC will make the music for it." [MORE...]

Arcade Fire Lend Song to (Red) Charity Ad
Win Butler: "The money could be coming from the devil for all I care, as long as people are getting the medication."

If you happen to turn on one of those TV things this holiday season, you might just hear a certain familiar jam wafting through the decked halls of your household. Seems the Arcade Fire have lent one of their Funeral anthems, "Rebellion (Lies)", to Bono and Bobby Shriver's Product (Red) campaign, dedicated to raising money to fight the AIDS crisis in Africa.

Product (Red) has partnered with a number of high profile companies (mega-corporations, some would call them)-- including American Express, Motorola, Converse, the Gap, Apple, and Emporio Armani-- all of whom are selling special (Red) merchandise and have pledged to donate a portion of their profits to The Global Fund, an organization bankrolling treatments for AIDS and other epidemics around the world.

But it's these corporate ties-- and perhaps the increased exposure for everyone's favorite indie treasure-- that might have some Arcade Fire fans seeing red, quite literally. By which I mean, figuratively. To preempt such grumblings, Fire-man Win Butler recently made his logic clear in a post on the Arcade Fire website.

"Having talked to all the people in charge of running the Red campaign," wrote Win, "and learning about how the whole thing works financially, I am convinced that something of this nature is the only way to get Americans to give large amounts of money to directly fight AIDS in Africa in a sustainable way."

[MORE...]

Radiohead Sponsor Video Contest; Jonny Wins Award

Hey you! Dude with the shining light bulb above your head! Check it: here's a chance to put all those shiny ideas to work-- and it involves Radiohead.

London-based "educational charity" D&AD (Design & Art Direction) has announced the 29th edition of its Global Student Awards design competition, and among the "briefs" (i.e., prompts): a Radiohead-sponsored challenge to create a music video for Thom Yorke's "The Clock", from the man's 2006 debut solo disc The Eraser. Apparently there are some other categories and it's a prestigious contest or whatever, but holy shit! Radiohead!!

According to the contest website, "All full or part time students enrolled on higher education courses anywhere in the world (HND, BTEC, BA, BSc, MA, MSc, MD or equivalent) can enter" and participants "don't necessarily need to be studying a creative course to enter." So hop to it, young scholars-- the final deadline is March 23, and winners receive money, honor, and cute, stubby pencil statues. Contest details are linked below in stunning .pdf format.

And speaking of bright folks, hats off to Radiohead's own lead guitarist, Jonny Greenwood, who picked up the Listeners' Award at BBC Radio 3's British Composer Awards last Friday, November 24 in London. As previously reported, Greenwood's BBC-commissioned composition Popcorn Superhet Receiver (stream it by clicking below) was nominated for the prize back in October. The people voted for this one, and selected Greenwood's piece over two concertos, possibly because people like popcorn more than violas.

As part of the honor, lucky Jonny gets a whopping £10,000 from the PRS Foundation, to use toward his next composition. Jonny's award-funded opus will premiere in 2007, according to the PRS website. The BBC, meanwhile, named Greenwood composer in residence back in 2004.

And finally, it wouldn't be a Radiohead-related story without another cryptically exciting snippet from the band's blog, Dead Air Space. This time, from Thom Yorke's November 20 post: "we had a good week in the studio last week. finally things are growing".

We may interpret this to mean Radiohead may in fact possibly record and/or release an article of music in or around the near future, potentially for sure.

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.)