Lemonheads Tour America, Down Under
VietNam opens most of U.S. trek

Evan Dando might have had time to rest during the Lemonheads' lengthy hiatus, but from this evening through early April, he'll be hard at work.

The reincarnated Lemonheads (the touring band includes bassist Vess Ruhtenberg and drummer Devon Ashley) kick off a sizable U.S. tour tonight in Carrboro, North Carolina.

The band will forge across the States through February, with Kemado Records stoners VietNam opening most of the shows. The Lemonheads then break for a month before journeying to New Zealand and Australia. [MORE...]

Tom Waits Settles Another Goddamn Lawsuit
Can DJ Drama please hire Tom Waits' lawyer?

What is it with European car companies and Tom Waits soundalikes? For the second time in just over a year, the grizzled bard has come out on top in a lawsuit against an auto manufacturer for using what sounds a helluva lot like a Tom Waits song in its advertisements.

It was announced today that the singer-songwriter had settled a suit brought against Adam Opel AG and advertising agency McCann Erickson Germany for the use of what seemed to be a Waits impersonator in Opel television commercials in 2005.

Waits issued this characteristically smirking statement: "I'm glad to be out of the car sales business once and for all."

A McCann Erickson rep said, "We respect Mr. Waits, and deeply regret any embarrassment this may have caused."

Embarrassment? C'mon. Dude is gloating. Remember what he said last time, when he won a suit against Audi for ripping off "Innocent When You Dream"? "Now they understand the words to the song better. It wasn't 'Innocent When You Scheme' it was 'Innocent When You Dream'."

Waits will donate the net proceeds from the settlement to an unspecified charity.

Yo La Tengo Hit the Road

Yo La Tengo are getting down to the business of ass-beating, launching another tour in support of last year's Matador release, I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass.

The show starts tonight in Louisville and continues on across the U.S. through early February. Following their Stateside jaunt, Yo La Tengo will hit Japan, Australia, and Singapore

As previously reported, Yo La Tengo dropped an iTunes live session EP earlier this month. Read up on its lead track, "El Es Gay", here. [MORE...]

Datarock Transmit Grooves on North American Tour
Play European dates too

Photo by Knut Åaserud

They'll bring the tracksuits, the shades, and the ass-shaking grooves-- you just bring the ass. Norwegian disco-pop party duo Datarock ship off to the States and Mexico for a spring tour that will whisk them from Miami's Studio A to Brooklyn's Studio B and everywhere in between-- even to Mexico, a Datarock first!

The groove-laden jaunt kicks off tomorrow night in Berlin. Following a string of European shows, Fredrik Saroea and Ket-ill join Girl Talk, CSS, Diplo, and ADULT. for one hell of a party in Mexico City, then hop the border for a SXSW stint and gigs on all three U.S. coasts (Midwest included, kiddies). So fuck Chromeo-- this is the real shit. [MORE...]

The Rapture Launch Winter Tour

American, European, and Australian Rapture fans will be happy to know that the NYC four-piece begins its quest for tri-continental dance domination this evening.

The Rapture get down in the land of Disney tonight at Orlando, Florida's Club at Firestone, and head across the eastern half of the country before making their way to Europe in late February.

After that, it's off to Australia's traveling V Festival and, finally, Coachella. [MORE...]

Times New Viking Sign to Matador, Prep Second LP
Pillage and plunder settlements of Arial, Courier New, Perpetua Titling MT

Capitalizing on a bull market in indie rock, Matador Records went on a binge signing spree in 2006, bringing a bunch of underground luminaries into the crimson folds of their capote-- including the Ponys of Chicago and Australia's Love of Diagrams-- as well as raucous, lo-fi Ohio trio Times New Viking.

Comprised of Beth Murphy (keyboards/vocals), Adam Elliot (drums/vocals), and Jared Phillips (guitars), the three-piece helped usher noted DIY imprint Siltbreeze-- responsible for early releases from Guided by Voices, the Dead C, and more-- back into the record-pressing game. Times New Viking have garnered mad praise for their 2005 Siltbreeze debut LP, Dig Yourself, and you can bet they have the kids chattering about the intense, fuck-all rock-itude of their live gigs.

While Matador has dibs on the act's third LP, which they'll record later this year, Siltbreeze will issue Times New Viking's sophomore long-player, Present the Paisley Reich, on February 12. And speaking of those celebrated gigs, TNV have two coming up in their native Columbus, Ohio, where they'll likely be hawking copies of a recent split 7" with hometown buds Psychedelic Horseshit. [MORE...]

Scott Walker Documentary Drifts Into Theatres
Film features Radiohead, David Bowie, Jarvis, Brian Eno, Damon Albarn, Johnny Marr

So this Scott Walker guy-- wasn't he, like, some kind of crooner back in the day? And what's all this I keep hearing about his reclusiveness? And why are folks so gosh darn excited about this Drift album? It gives me the creeps, man!

Fear not, my inquisitive friend, for the answers to all these questions and more lie just beyond the theatre door. (Hey, like, that rhymes.) Anyway, the previously reported documentary Scott Walker: 30 Century Man-- which charts the eclectic career of the enigmatic singer/ songwriter-cum-noisemaker-- will finally land in London film palaces this April.

The film also boasts quite an array of interviews with a first-rate collection of Walker devotees: David Bowie, members of Radiohead, Jarvis Cocker, Damon Albarn, Brian Eno, Johnny Marr, Alison Goldfrapp, the Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon, Richard Hawley, Cocteau Twin Simon Raymonde, one-time One Dove chanteuse Dot Allison, Ute Lemper, and even Sting.

Verve Pictures will deliver the Stephen Kijak-directed, Grant Gee DP'd picture-- executive produced by Walker championeer Bowie-- to cinemas this spring. 30 Century Man is tentatively slated to open April 27 at London's Curzon Soho, with openings in other theatres to follow.

It's unclear whether the film will cross the Atlantic anytime soon, but we have our fingers crossed a few dozen times over. UPDATE: The doc will likely be screened at SXSW.

German audiences (and film nuts) are in luck, however: 30 Century Man will screen four times at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival, which runs from February 8-18. For details, click here.

Shining Put Their Noses to the Grindstone on New LP

Norwegian jazz/metal/prog quartet (and motorcycle helmet enthusiasts) Shining will release Grindstone-- their follow-up to 2005's awesome In the Kingdom of Kitsch You Will Be a Monster-- on January 29 in Europe and February 20 in North America via Rune Grammofon.

All Shining members have "various instruments" credits on Grindstone, which is downright post-rockian in its commitment to song titles both long and absurd (witness the debut of a song with the same title as their last record and another with its title in Morse Code!). According to a press release, Grindstone finds the band continuing In the Kingdom's commitment to "moving between complex riffing, filmic soundscapes, [and] jazz, classical and modern composition." [MORE...]

Neko Case Launches Bi-Continental Tour

Neko Case has got her work cut out for her in the first half of 2007, with tours taking her across Australia and North America. Tonight in Adelaide, she kicks off a series of Down Under dates. Upon her return to North America in early February, Case will support country legend Merle Haggard on the West Coast.

She'll cruise the continent for the rest of the month, rounding it out with two performances as part of Lincoln Center's American Songbook series.

Case starts back up again in late March, playing scattered shows before a stop at the Stagecoach festival, the country music gathering put together by Goldenvoice, the people behind Coachella.

Speaking of Coachella, as previously reported, the New Pornographers are scheduled to appear at that festival on April 28. [MORE...]

Pollard Preps Self-Released EP, LPs for Merge, Ipecac
Silverfish Trivia, Standard Gargoyle Decisions, Sgt. Disco: Spam email subject lines make great album titles!

Robert Pollard's prolificacy is so large that he needs not one, not two, but three record labels to contain his output. Right now, the former Guided By Voices king is prepping a mini-album for his own label, Prom Is Coming, as well as another solo full-length for Merge and a Circus Devils album for Ipecac.

(Yes, Ipecac. Mike Patton's label. So right now, Robert Pollard is labelmates with both Camera Obscura and the Melvins.)

First up: the self-released mini-album. Last month, we reported that Pollard told Billboard.com that he had wrapped up his next album for Merge, Silverfish Trivia, due in the fall. Well, Silverfish Trivia has evolved into a 22-minute, seven-song mini-LP, and it's due April 17 on Pollard's new label, Prom Is Coming.

Prom Is Coming is Pollard's replacement for the Fading Captain Series-- it is not, as Pollard previously told Billboard, called Record Company Records. Pollard cranked out the mini-album with producer/right hand man Todd Tobias, with Chris George of Invert contributing string arrangements.

28 more songs have already been written for Pollard's next full-length solo album, tentatively titled Standard Gargoyle Decisions and penciled in for a September release on Merge. Although Pollard has already fulfilled his original contract with the label (with the release of last year's From a Compound Eye and Normal Happiness albums), a new one is being created.

Sgt. Disco will be the Ipecac debut from Circus Devils, Pollard's collaboration with Tobias. Due in July, it's 32 tracks long and is "sort of like an indie rock Fantomas" with "more experimentation than you'd expect or have heard from Pollard in the past", according to a publicist. [MORE...]

Perry Farrell's Satellite Party Gets Ultra Payloaded

Book your reservations now, revelers: former James Addiction/Porno for Pyros frontman Perry Farrell has a party planned that should make all that new rave hoopla look like your 1st grade Chuck E. Cheese's birthday non-bash. It's called Satellite Party, and as Farrell enthused to Pitchfork last fall, "it could be the best work I've ever done."

Satellite Party transmit their debut full-length-- a concept record, titled Ultra Payloaded Satellite Party, about partying it up on a satellite orbiting the Earth-- on May 15 (Columbia). The eleven-track set features contributions from a whole mess of folks, including New Order bassist Peter Hook, Red Hot Chili Peppers Flea and John Frusciante, Thievery Corporation, film composer Harry Gregson-Williams, and the mysterious pop product known only as Fergie.

Stoners will be especially pleased to learn that Jim Morrison makes an appearance on Ultra Payloaded as well: Farrell unearthed a previously unheard Morrison spoken-word vocal for the album's closing track, "Woman in the Window". Other Party jams include "Celebrate", "Awesome", "Mr. Sunshine", and first single "Wish Upon a Dog Star".

As for the disc's sound, thus spake Farrell: "[It's] this great hybrid of sound, using electronics and hip hop beats and the power and strength of rock'n'roll, and even symphony."

"We know that [2007] is our year," Farrell also told Pitchfork last October, so expect plenty of touring, late night TV appearances, promotional events, and partying. For now, the Party is slated to rock the ESPN Winter X-Games tomorrow (January 25) in Aspen, Colorado-- and don't be surprised to find them at Farrell's own Lollapalooza this summer. [MORE...]

The Decemberists Offer iTunes Live From SoHo EP
Upon realizing that Bowery flophouses don't have the best acoustics, the band settled on recording in a computer store instead

Colin Meloy and his band of folksy, proggy, pop-rockers-- the Decembersomethings, maybe you've heard of them?-- have become pretty ubiquitous recently due to their ability to capitalize on some fortunate opportunities and their willingness to shill for The Man (and, okay, charity) on occasion.

The Decemberists are continuing the latter pursuit on their exclusive-to-iTunes Live From SoHo EP, which is currently available from the digital music store.

The six-song set was recorded at the Apple Store in New York City's SoHo neighborhood in November during CMJ. (Apparently, Live From the Apple Store just didn't have the same ring to it). It includes songs from each of the band's full-lengths, three of which are from last year's The Crane Wife.

According to Pitchfork's own report from the show, these songs feature "the band in 'stripped-down acoustic storytelling' mode" with "the Apple Store's excellent sound system coaxing out the nuances of the Decemberists' folksier side." And according to trusted iTunes commentator "Anonymous", "the sound that the decemberists make is like no other, i love colins voice, and i think all the songs have a good melody, its easy to listen 2, wats not 2 love." [MORE...]

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