Strokes' Hammond Jr. to Release Debut in U.S.

Albert Hammond Jr. has, in a stroke of genius (or common sense), scheduled a U.S. release for his debut solo album, Yours to Keep. The disc will feature two bonus tracks, "Postal Blowfish" (we knew these guys were big Guided by Voices fans!) and "Well...All Right", from the Strokes guitarist, both of which weren't present on the record's original UK pressing, released across the pond last October via Rough Trade.

Yours to Keep will hit the U.S. on March 6 courtesy of Scratchie/New Line Records. A Mexican version will follow, though a specific due date has not yet been confirmed.

As previously reported, Hammond (with guitarist Steve Schiltz and guitarist/keyboardist Marc Eskenazi) is currently making a fool of himself on the road with Incubus. A U.S. headlining tour is scheduled for this spring (dates yet to be announced). And, as mentioned yesterday, Hammond will open for Bloc Party on their upcoming trek through the States. [MORE...]

Kaiser Chiefs Reveal Album Details, Tour

We're not sure if the title of the newly announced Kaiser Chiefs record, Yours Truly, Angry Mob, refers to the rioters the band once predicted, but we do know that the Kaiser Chiefs sure are fond of large groups of revved-up people.

The Angry Mob will invade, pitchforks and torches aloft, internationally on February 26 and in North America on March 27 via Universal. It was produced by Stephen Street at Berkshire's Hook End Manor and mixed by both Street and Cenzo Townshend at London's Olympic Studios.

The disc's first single, "Ruby", is due a week earlier on February 19 on B*Unique on CD, seven inch, and as a download. Each format brags a different B-side: "From the Neck Down" (CD), "Admire You" (seven inch), and "Ruby" (live at Berlin's Kesselhaus in November 2006) (exclusive to the download). These will all be available digitally as well.

The Kaisers will celebrate the album with a series of two-night stands in cities across the UK throughout February and March, and will make their way to the States in early April. Additional U.S. dates are in the works. [MORE...]

Video: My Brightest Diamond: "Something of an End (David Keith Remix)"

As previously reported, My Brightest Diamond and Asthmatic Kitty will Tear It Down on March 6, releasing said remix record, packed with 13 Diamond-grade re-tweakings from Alias, Gold Chains, Murcof, Lusine, and more.

This haunting little visual piece, set to the tune of snippets from NC47's (aka David Keith) remix of "Something of an End" (the original opens MBD's Bring Me the Workhorse), comes courtesy of Seattle-based photographer and filmmaker Zack Bent. It's quite the tease at only two minutes, but Keith's trip-hoppy electronics mix well with Bent's deteriorating, slow-motion Super 8 clips of children frolicking in a bygone era. Nostalgia's the word.



Stream the entire NC47 remix by clicking the link below.

Asthmatic Kitty plans to dish out more of these Tear It Down teaser videos in the coming weeks, so keep your eyes glued to the Internet, always.

Animal Collective Sign to Domino, Tour
Panda Bear reveals Person Pitch details, shares mp3

It's a jungle out there! Lucky for them, however, Animal Collective have used their gift for organization (they're a collective, see) and emerged near the head of the packs of Wolves and Ponies that ravage indie music today. And now, in their quest for eventual domination over humankind, the foursome have signed to Domino Records worldwide, putting them in the company of such fauna favorites as Arctic Monkeys and Caribou.

To celebrate, the Collective will hit the road this spring, having already announced a flock of U.S. dates. Use these opportunities to scoop up the previously reported People EP, which drops January 23 via FatCat, and don't be surprised if more dates crop up soon; these are Animals of a migratory bent, after all.

AC will begin recording the follow-up to 2005's Feels shortly, and as previously mentioned, they have a live box set and a movie in the works.

Collective member Panda Bear, meanwhile, has revealed the details behind his latest solo LP, the one he chatted up in a recent Pitchfork interview. Noah Lennox, as Panda Bear is known in human guise, will release Person Pitch into the wild on March 20 via Paw Tracks worldwide.

The eight-track set marks Panda's third solo release and includes "I'm Not" and "Comfy in Nautica", both reviewed by Pitchfork's Mark Richardson in single form. Download an mp3 of "Comfy in Nautica" below. Perhaps it's just the post-Yuletide withdrawal, but the joint sounds oddly reminiscent of a fuzzed-out Christmas carol to me.

Leading up to the unleashing of Person Pitch, FatCat, Paw Tracks, and UUAR (UUnited Acoustic Recordings) will each release (or already have released) a piece of vinyl collecting Panda Bear goodies. FatCat's "Bro's" 12", backed with a Terrestrial Tones remix, hits U.S. and Canadian streets February 21 (it's already out everywhere else). UUAR delivered the aforementioned "Comfy in Nautica" 7" single last year, and Paw Tracks has the previously reported Panda Bear/Excepter split on the way January 23.

And for even more Panda Bear for your money, catch Lennox yapping, yowling, and performing brand new songs on Sérgio Hydalgo's weekly online radio show "Má Fama". If you're Jesus Jonesin' for that, download the episode right here right now. [MORE...]

Video: ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead: "Naked Sun"

He might not be the most chipper chap in chipsville, but it's good to know Conrad Keely and his ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead cronies still have a sense of humor. The Cat Solen-directed (CSS, Bright Eyes, the Decemberists) video for "Naked Sun"-- from ToD's so-so 2006 set So Divided (Interscope)-- starts off like a corny public service announcement against border patrol vigilanteism.

Thankfully it soon spins off into even cornier realms, realms that we'll just say involve an approximation of Silly String and a bunch of Cirque du Soleil rejects set loose in the desert. For a band that often seems overly concerned with being taken seriously, it's an odd delight to witness something so ultimately light-hearted from these guys.

As previously reported, Trail of Dead hit the UK tour trail this February.

Bright Eyes Emotes Across North America
You, like, so want to have his babies

Every now and then we get a little bit terrified and then we see the look in his eyes. Every now and then we fall apart. Thankfully, just as our hearts are on the verge of total eclipsin', we turn around, and-- Bright Eyes!

Precocious four-track emoper turned Paste magazine cover star Bright Eyes, known to those who love him most as Conor Oberst, hits the road this February and March to drum up support for his previously reported sixth full-length proper, Cassadaga (out April 10 on Saddle Creek), and preceding preview EP, Four Winds (out March 6).

From the looks of it, he's playing slightly smaller venues than he did on previous jaunts for I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, which means a full-fledged tour may well follow in which he'll really capitalize on the enormous size of his rabid fanbase. Perhaps he'll also use these more intimate gigs as an opportunity to bust out the old jams and rare cuts collected on last year's Noise Floor?

For a fun Bright Eyes concert drinking game, take shots every time some audience member expresses a desire to have Conor's children-- one shot for females, two shots for males, three for handmade signs and/or t-shirts, and tank the whole damn bottle if Conor actually responds to any of it with more than a drunken grimace. [MORE...]

Whitman, Forrest, Belong, Pioulard Record Ringtones

In the future-- when new music is released predominantly in ringtone format-- what songs will we refer to as the classics? "My Humps"? "Hollaback Girl"? Any Lil Jon-produced track ever?

Well, no matter who ends up as the ringtone equivalent of the Beatles, I think we might have a contender for the "genre"'s version of punk rock: a simple and unassuming little site called toneshared.

Run by the folks behind the Polish Unsound Festival, toneshared is "an expanding collection of mobile ringtones available for free, made by artists especially for the site," according one of the Unsound curators. Like the festival, the site's current library features tones from mainly electronic and avant-garde artists, including Keith Fullerton Whitman, Jason Forrest, Vert, Benoit Pioulard, Turk Dietrich of Belong, Felix Kubin, Richard Chartier, Loscil, KK NULL, Kammerflimmer Kollektief, and Atom Heart. New tones are added regularly, and there are plans to create a section "devoted to anyone who wants to upload tones."

Let the ringtone revolution begin... er, continue.

Video: Clinic: "If You Could Read Your Mind"

In this black-and-white (and occasionally red) surrealist/absurdist video for Visitations track "If You Could Read Your Mind", Clinic largely forgo their traditional surgical masks for cloth-and-rope full-face masks, scarecrow style. The song sounds like the soundtrack to a spy movie, and here are the clues to the mystery offered by the video: oversized fruit, a blank book, choreographed dances, and Renaissance-era costumes. We're not sure what it all means, but we're positive Clinic have some grand explanation for the whole thing that they'll never tell us.

Clinic begin their previously reported tour February 3 in the UK before heading to the U.S. in March. [MORE...]

Burrito Brother Kleinow Dead at 72

On Saturday, January 6, pedal steel guitarist and Emmy-winning visual effects artist "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow died at the age of 72 from Alzheimer's complications, according to a Reuters report.

Kleinow was a founding member of the Flying Burrito Brothers, along with country-rock pioneers (and former Byrds) Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman. The band's music has been highly influential since their debut, The Gilded Palace of Sin, was released in 1969.

Kleinow also contributed as a session musician to albums by John Lennon, Joni Mitchell, and Fleetwood Mac. He founded a new group called Burrito Deluxe (named after the title of the Burrito Brothers' second album) in 2000, and his last public performance was in October 2005 at a Parsons tribute festival.

When he was not playing music, Kleinow-- born in South Bend, Indiana but a California resident at the time of his death-- also made his mark in the TV and film industries as a multi-faceted visual effects artist. His credits include The Empire Strikes Back, The Right Stuff, both Terminator films, Gremlins, "The Outer Limits", "Land of the Lost", "Gumby", and miniseries "The Winds of War", for which he shared an Emmy.

As a piece of trivia that immediately made us smile, his last work in the field was as animation supervisor for Master P and Silkk's "Ghetto Rain" music video.

Mos Def Album Magically Disappears
Benefit scheduled to cover costs of major label's head-from-ass removal surgery

Maybe you heard that the music industry experienced something like a 5% drop in total sales last year. Why could that be? Mos Def might have some answers for you, because the 11,004 copies the Brooklyn MC's most recent album sold in its first week are being called a limited-edition "pre-release" due to an enormous label screw-up, according to MTV News.

Geffen Records released True Magic-- which was, admittedly, kind of crap-- on December 29, a Friday, which is pretty much unheard of (Tuesday is the standard release day). And since it was put out at the very end of last year-- after holiday shopping was long over and music nerds were too busy reading year-end lists to realize there was still music coming out in 2006-- True Magic was guaranteed to get buried, and it did.

This would have been just another case of a bad album (the last in the MC's contractual obligation) being recognized as such by the label if Mos Def hadn't met with Geffen and decided that, actually, they did want to promote the record and have people buy it. So, with plans to re-release the album in the spring with a different tracklist, Geffen recalled True Magic, even though it had already been shipped to stores. Since retailers are at their own discretion in the case of an already-shipped recall, 11,000 people bought an album that was rushed out because of an early December leak in the first place. Way to build trust and combat piracy, Geffen! [MORE...]

Exclusive: MP3: !!!: "Heart of Hearts"
Plus tour dates!!! Including Coachella!!!

Aww, we missed you guys. !!! are back in action with a characteristic dancefloor odyssey ready for maximum maxi-single play. The six-minute "Heart of Hearts" is from the previously reported Myth Takes album, due out March 6 on Warp. And it's available as an exclusive download by clicking on the link below.

The punk-funk crew have also just announced a massive tour that will take them around the world from February through August. They'll hit the UK, Japan, Australia, Europe, Scandinavia, and your bedroom, with a stop at Coachella marking the end of the trek's first leg. Let's hope customs doesn't mistake all those percussion instruments for drug paraphernalia. [MORE...]

PB&J, Patrick Wolf, 120 Days Head Dutch Fest
Also: Loney, Dear, Planningtorock, Digitalism, Magic Numbers, Poni Hoax, Ed Banger acts

There's never been a better time to discover Groningen, Holland than this coming weekend. For three days, beginning Thursday, January 11, the Dutch city that isn't Amsterdam or the Hague plays host to a pair of music events that should whet your whistle for all things European and up-and-coming.

First up: EuroSonic, going down January 11 and 12, brings together an impressive crop of the latest and lamest (namely, Uffie) acts blowing up the old countries in the new millennium. For those two nights, venues across Groningen will play host to Swede-pop luminaries like Peter Bjorn and John, Loney, Dear, and Hello Saferide, dancefloor-divebombers like Digitalism, Datarock, Styrofoam, Lo-Fi-Fnk, and several Ed Banger cats (SebastiAn, Krazy Baldhead, the afore-dissed Uffie), and genre-benders like Patrick Wolf, Planningtorock, and Tunng.

Also of note: an orgy of UK buzz bands including the Magic Numbers, Hot Club de Paris, Duke Special, Humanzi, Larrikin Love, Shitdisco, and Young Knives, Finland's Islaja, France's Poni Hoax, UK folkie James Yorkston, Swedish songbird Anna Ternheim, and Norwegian studs 120 Days.

The evening after, January 13, 20-year tradition Noorderslag whips the locals into a frenzy over the hottest Dutch talent. These bands are so damn hot we haven't heard of a single one of them (that's a different Boris), but who knows, perhaps nestled amid 16 Bit Lolita's, Hospital Bombers, and De Nieuwe Vrolijkheid is the next Golden Earring.

Check out the complete artist list and venue info here.

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