R.E.M., Patti Smith, Grandmaster Flash Make Rock Hall
Plus the Ronettes and some band called Van Halen

Million-selling albums, sold-out world tours, critical accolades up the wazoo-- yet mom and dad still insist all your rocking and rolling is some phase, some flight of fancy. Finally, however, thanks to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, parents of R.E.M., Patti Smith, the Ronettes, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and Van Halen may finally get it.

The hallowed Hall has named those five acts to its 2007 induction class, a deal to be sealed at a March 12 ceremony at New York's famed Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

Anyhow, moms and dads may now boast to the neighbors how their sons and daughters were nominated by a pack of discerning "rock and roll historians" (according to the Hall's website) and ultimately selected by "an international voting body of about 1,000 rock experts." Furthermore, they may gush, this enormous honor is only bestowed upon five-seven music acts a year, and best of all, like, Elvis got this too.

Last year, as you may recall, the Rock Hall opened its doors to Miles Davis, Blondie, Black Sabbath, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the Sex Pistols (who weren't having it).

The 2007 inductees-- all of whom released their first records at least 25 years ago, per the Hall's eligibility stipulations-- will have the opportunity to perform at the induction gala. Recently deceased Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun will be honored as well.

Ted Leo to Play NYC Benefit for Robbins Family

The support continues to roll in for Callum Robbins, son of J. Robbins (Jawbox, Burning Airlines, Channels) and Janet Morgan (Channels). As previously reported, Cal is afflicted with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (Type 1).

Most recent to lend a hand is Ted Leo, who will perform solo alongside Medications and the Forms at a benefit show for the Robbins family at Brooklyn's Northsix on January 26. Tickets are available here.

Leo, along with his trusty Pharmacists will also appear at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall for the 15th annual Noise Pop festival on March 2, as previously reported. His forthcoming Touch and Go debut album, Living With the Living, is due out March 20.

As announced last week, another Robbins benefit gig boasting the likes of Chin Up Chin Up, Bobby Conn, the Life and Times, Red Eyed Legends, and a "surprise special guest," is slated for Chicago's Empty Bottle on January 27. (Tickets)

Fans looking to aid J., Janet, and Callum can also make a monetary gift on the DeSoto Records website.

T.V. Eye: January 8-15, 2007

Pitchfork's T.V. Picks for This Week:

Monday, January 8:

ABC: "Jimmy Kimmel Live": Twilight Singers (rerun)

Tuesday, January 9:

NBC: "Late Night With Conan O'Brien": Mos Def

Thursday, January 11:

CBS: "Late Show With David Letterman": the Hold Steady
NBC: "Late Night With Conan O'Brien": the Black Keys

Friday, January 12:

ABC: "Jimmy Kimmel Live": Spank Rock
CBS: "Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson": Islands
NBC: "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno": Common

Saturday, January 13:

NBC: "Saturday Night Live": The Shins

Monday, January 15:

MTV2: "Subterranean": the Black Keys

Arcade Fire Reveal Tracklist, Release Date, More Shows
"Do you remember how music used to make you feel?"

It's an Arcade Fire weekend!

Barely 24 hours after revealing their second album's first single, the band has unleashed a slew of information on their thirsty fans.

According to a terrifically silly YouTube video posted by the band, Neon Bible will be out March 5 in Europe and March 6 in North America on Merge Records. It will contain the following songs, clips of which can be heard in said video:

 

01 Black Mirror
02 Keep the Car Running
03 Neon Bible
04 Intervention
05 Black Wave/ Bad Vibrations
06 Ocean of Noise
07 The Well and the Lighthouse
08 (Antichrist Television Blues)
09 Windowsill
10 No Cars Go
11 My Body Is a Cage

The album is "written, arranged, performed and produced by the Arcade Fire", with artwork by Tracy Maurice, the same artist behind Funeral's design.

The band also announced a bunch of UK and European tour dates for March and April, with more to come this week. [MORE...]

Stream: Arcade Fire: "Black Mirror"

"Black Mirror", the first single from the forthcoming Neon Bible is streaming from the Arcade Fire website RIGHT NOW. It's in the "Win's Scrapbook" section of the site.

So what are you doing reading this? Go listen!

The stream is kinda muddy, but you still get a pretty good idea of the song's simmering, distant-thunder undercurrent and strings that climb and descend like a storm on the horizon. A few scraps of lyrics can be made out, including Win's (and then Regine's) repetition of "Their names are never spoken / That curse is never broken" and "Mirror, mirror on the wall / Show me where their bombs will fall".

And check out that new photo posted with the song! Combined with that new press shot and the image accompanying "Intervention" on iTunes, looks like our Canadian buddies have gone goth. [MORE...]

Xiu Xiu, BARR, Grouper Get Artsy-Fartsy
As do Lucky Dragons, Woelv, This Song Is a Mess but So Am I

The lord above must have graced Xiu Xiu with an abnormally large creativity gland, nestled somewhere in the base of Jamie Stewart's spine ("there's a buzz in my backside," see), because how the hell else do you account for the trio's superhuman prolificacy of late? LPs, EPs, tours, Polaroids, videos, photo books, and now-- Ches Smith drum-roll please-- art.

According to Xiu Xiu historian and archivist David Horvitz, the band contributes a "sound sculpture" to the Horvitz-curated art show "Is That All There Is to Fire?", running from February 24-March 31 at Los Angeles' High Energy Constructs space. The show, like many art shows before it, celebrates boredom-- only deliberately.

Ironically, this boredom-influenced showcase should be anything but. In addition to their sound sculpture, Xiu Xiu will perform live, as will Creepshow partner in crime Grouper, sing-talker BARR, Freddy Ruppert (aka noise terrorist This Song Is a Mess but So Am I), and trippy Californians Lucky Dragons. Geneviève Castrée, aka Woelv, aka Phil Elverum's French Canadian wifey, will contribute a vocal recording.

Art comes courtesy of folks like BARR's Brendan Fowler (who contributes a "text piece"), Uta Barth, Krysten Cunningham, Ken Ehrlich, Zack Houston, Brandon Lattu, Lindsay Ljungkull, John Sisley, Mia Nolting, Miya Osaki, Mylinh Trieu, and Horvitz himself. Barth, Ehrlich, and Horvitz share writings on boredom as well, as do Linda Theung and Lia Trinka-Browner.

Horvitz is still looking for donations and sponsors for "Is That All There Is to Fire?", so if this sounds like something you'd like to be a part of, drop him a line or a few grand at the link here.

Video: Deerhunter: "Strange Lights"

Get psyched (and psychedelic) for the January 29 Kranky release of the new Deerhunter album Cryptograms with the video for the lovely "Strange Lights". Directed by James Sumner, the clip features a swirl of colorful (and, yes, sometimes strange) lights projected onto frontman Bradford Cox. It induces the warm, fuzzy kind of headache one gets after a rollercoaster ride.

For something completely different, check out Sumner's take on the abrasive Cryptograms track "Lake Somerset". Recommended for anyone who likes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. So recommended for everybody.

Deerhunter have a busy few months ahead, with plans to hit SXSW and open for the Ponys in April. But first, they have a few shows scheduled later this month and then in early March, when they'll open for Sparklehorse and Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter. [MORE...]

Calexico, Rogue Wave, Pink Mt'tops on Charity Comp
Also: The Faint, Bettie Serveert, Creeper Lagoon, Boyskout

Just because the holidays are over doesn't mean you can pack away your generosity along with those rotting candy canes and the neon green 2OO7 glasses. The season for giving is going on right now, dudes-- and next season too, and, like, always. And with that in mind, the charitable folks and circus-mongers at San Francisco's Three Ring Records have assembled a choice compilation benefiting the homeless.

At the Crossroads: A Benefit for Homeless Youth collects unreleased, hard-to-find, and classic jams from a number of indie favorites, including Calexico (who contribute their version of "All the Pretty Horses", only available prior on a tour EP), Rogue Wave (with a new tune called "Basketball"), Pink Mountaintops (who serve up the unreleased "The Solo Sex") and the Faint (who share Wet From Birth's "I Disappear").

Other contributors include indie old-timers Creeper Lagoon and Bettie Serveert, as well as solid Three Ring acts like Boyskout, the Ebb and Flow, Scrabbel, and the Scattered PAGES (who deliver an innocuously faithful rendition of the Smiths' "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want", which you may download below).

The compilation hits stores January 9 and every single one of the 12 dollars you spend on it goes directly to At the Crossroads, a San Francisco-based "Street Youth Support Program" that "reaches out to homeless youth and young adults at their point of need, and works with them to build healthy and fulfilling lives." [MORE...]

Amon Tobin Meets Kronos Quartet in Foley Room

For the follow-up to Chaos Theory-- his 2005 soundtrack for the Splinter Cell 3 videogame-- Ninja Tune electronic auteur Amon Tobin took a different approach to recording. Inspired by the "foley rooms" used to create and record film sound effects, Tobin forsook his usual vinyl sources for found sounds on the aptly titled Foley Room. According to a press release, his samples ranged "from tigers roaring to cats eating rats, from wasps to falling chickpeas, kitchen utensils to motorbikes to water dripping from a tap" and also included sounds from the Kronos Quartet, Stefan Schneider, and Sarah Pagé.

Ninja Tune will release Foley Room in late April along with a DVD documentary of the recording process titled Foley Room: Found Footage, but "Bloodstone", the album's first single, will precede it with an exclusive iTunes pre-release on January 9 and a complete digital and limited edition 12" release on January 23. [MORE...]

Grizzly Bear Yellow House Film Sync Discovered!

We've all heard how if you cue up Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon at the proper moment at the beginning of The Wizard of Oz (third MGM lion roar or something like that), and take copious amounts of drugs, you'll be amazed to find the two sync up rather tellingly. But what about the modern classics, records like Pitchfork's eighth favorite album of 2006, Grizzly Bear's Yellow House?

Seems Yellow House syncs cinematically after all, according to the unnamed blogger behind 12 Computers (so named in honor of an apparent OK Computer/12 Monkeys sync). 12C has discovered that the Grizzlies' sophomore LP aligns in all-too-convenient fashion with Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro's 1995 dark fantasy flick La Cité des Enfants Perdus (aka The City of Lost Children).

The eerie, visually-dazzling French film stars Ron Perlman as a sub-literate circus strongman who befriends a young street urchin and embarks on a quest to save his "little brother" from a diabolical inventor, his midget wife, and their hapless cloned henchmen. Jeunet went on to direct Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, aka Amélie, which is probably your favorite film ever, as it should be.

The evidence for a Lost Children/Yellow House sync is fairly compelling: track titles like "Little Brother" seem to directly reference characters in the film, songs begin and end in tandem with scenes, and ambiguous lyrics apply rather aptly in the filmic context to City's protagonists, antagonists, and dramatic situations. Check out the detailed run-down from 12 Computers, who goes so far as to wager that the sync is deliberate.

The blogger has also discovered a somewhat more dubious sync between Thom Yorke's The Eraser and Stanley Kubrick's dark comedy classic Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Looks like my Friday night plans have been made!

As previously reported, Grizzly Bear bring their Yellow House love to lost children in cities across the U.S. and Canada beginning next month. Oh! And apparently if you play Yellow House backwards it will subliminally coerce you into killing Paul and worshipping Satan. [MORE...]

Chin Up Chin Up, Bobby Conn Play Robbins Benefit

Last month, DeSoto Records revealed that Callum Robbins, the ten-month-old son of J. Robbins (Jawbox, Burning Airlines, Channels) and Janet Morgan (Channels) had been diagnosed with Type 1 Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Fans were urged to donate to help offset the family's medical bills.

Well, you really came through this time. Over the holidays, J. Robbins posted on his website, thanking donors and the fine folks at DeSoto for their assistance. As a result of the support the Robbins family has received so far, Callum is soon to be the proud owner of "his first adaptive high chair/play chair...one that supports his back and trunk and will help him make the most of his limited arm mobility."

But the outreach doesn't stop there. A Robbins benefit show has been scheduled for January 27 at Chicago's Empty Bottle, with all proceeds going to J and his family.

Artists lined up to play the event include Chin Up Chin Up, Bobby Conn, the Life and Times, Red Eyed Legends, and more to be announced, including a "surprise special guest". Purchase tickets here.

Also, we'd like to note that DeSoto bought back the rights from Atlantic to re-release Jawbox's final two albums, For Your Own Special Sweetheart and Jawbox. They are now available on iTunes.

Walkmen Announce Australian, U.S. Tours

The Walkmen are going to have to pick up the pace to at least a jog (and later, a swim) if they want to make it to Australia by next month...and then back to the States just a few days later.

The New Yorkers have announced that they will tour Down Under in late February and early March, playing a few club shows before and after a three-day stint at the St. Jeromes Laneway Festival. Then, they'll spend most of March crossing the U.S. with recent Merge signees the Broken West (formerly the Brokedown) and L.A. act Ferraby Lionheart. [MORE...]

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.)