Nas, Public Enemy, the Roots, MF Doom Rock the Bells
Join Rage Against the Machine and Wu-Tang Clan

The bi-coastal, three-date Rock the Bells festival went from reunion vehicle to probably the best hip hop festival in the country with the recent announcement of its full lineup.

Joining the previously announced Wu-Tang Clan and Rage Against the Machine on all dates are Public Enemy, the Roots, Pharoahe Monch, Mos Def, EPMD, Cypress Hill, Sage Francis, Immortal Technique, and Jedi Mind Tricks.

The artists who will perform only on select Rock the Bells dates are Nas, MF Doom, Hieroglyphics, Mr. Lif, Murs (solo), Felt (Murs with Atmosphere's Slug), Blackalicious, the Coup, Cage, Blueprint, Brother Ali, Living Legends, Grouch & Eligh, Hangar 18, and Lucky I Am.

Hi-Tek, Rahzel, and Supernatural will host the festival, which also features DJs Icy Ice, Rocky Rock, Mike Relm, Mark Luv, and C-Minus.

Currently, your only other chance to see Rage Against the Machine is at Coachella. Nas, however, kicks off a full North American tour in Cleveland on April 2. [MORE...]

Connect Fest Links Up JAMC, Björk, Beasties
And: Primal Scream, LCD Soundsystem, Mogwai, Go! Team, CSS, Idlewild

Hope you're sitting down for this one: in a rustic European setting, over a summer weekend, there's going to be a music festival. Many notable artists will play there, often on the same day. Camping will be available for those who seek it.

Weren't ready for that, were ya?

This year's Connect Music Festival, taking place on the banks of Loch Fyne near the presumably very old Inveraray Castle in Argyll, Scotland August 31-September 2, will host the keep-crumblin', moat-ripplin' headlinin' antics of Björk, the Beastie Boys, and Primal Scream. The bill also includes the resurrected Jesus and Mary Chain, the Yo La Tengo-beloved Only Ones, the best new music made by LCD Soundsystem, the audible spin-art that is the Go! Team, the messy punk of CSS, and a swarm of others. Fret not, dancemongers; though the fest's current lineup may seem bloated with rocker-types, the loungey Frenchies of Nouvelle Vague are the first of what festival organizers promise will be "plenty more" electronic acts in their Manicured Noise Tent.

For the whole of the confirmed lineup, lookee here: Björk, Beastie Boys, Primal Scream, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Mogwai, LCD Soundsystem, the Go! Team, the Only Ones, Idlewild, CSS, Tilly & the Wall, Nouvelle Vague, King Creosote.

Mint Reissues Cub, Maow [ft. Neko Case] Classics

Once upon a time, before she found her true calling in alt-country and New Porn, a spunky gal named Neko Case was drumming and singing up a ruckus with garage rock trio Maow. Even before that, she served behind the kit for a spell with cuddlecore cuties Cub.

Cub would go on to serve up several sugar-coated twee classics, including 1993's EP+ collection Betti-Cola and 1994's Come Out Come Out, while Maow dropped The Unforgiving Sounds of... back in 1996. Vancouver's longstanding Mint Records released all three, and it's Mint that will reissue this trio of notable albums on April 3.

The Betti-Cola and Come Out deluxe reissues boast a handful of additional 7" tracks, including "Chico", "Sweet Pea", "Summer Samba", "Hello Kitty", and "Radio Chinchilla", all the better to help you cuddle like you mean it. [MORE...]

Faust/Nurse With Wound, KTL, J Spaceman Play Venn
Also: Pixeltan, Vladislav Delay/Luomo, Safety Scissors, Ghostigital

Like an actual Venn diagram, artists from different spheres (okay, the diagram has circles, but you get the point) of the experimental music world will converge on various venues in Bristol, England from May 31 to June 3 for the 2007 Venn Festival.

Among the artists performing at the festival are Faust with Nurse With Wound's Colin Potter, Sunn 0)))'s Stephen O'Malley and Peter "Pita" Rehberg as KTL, Spring Heel Jack with Mark Saunders and Spiritualized's J Spaceman (or Jason Pierce), Vladislav Delay/Luomo, Pixeltan, Ghostigital, Goldfrapp/Portishead side project Quadrode, Lawrence, Soft Circle, Yellow Swans (an acoustic set), A Hawk and a Hacksaw (with the Hun Hangár Ensemble), and Maher Shalal Hash Baz ("revolutionary and humble pop from Japan," according to a press release, and of no relation to my Irish-descended self).

Though there are still several acts yet to confrim, the rest of the Venn Festival's current lineup is below. [MORE...]

Andy Partridge Floods Marketplace With Albums
Robert Pollard already prepping ten-disc counterattack

Though the sun may have set on the slightly-geeky pop the boys of XTC spent nearly a quarter-century churning out, reports of his own band's demise must've lit a fire under chief songwriter Andy Partridge, whose Ape House Records will unleash no fewer than four Partridge-family projects on US shores April 3 thanks to their distribution deal with Rykodisc.

There's Monstrance, the overdub-free, entirely-improvised, self-titled double-disc set from Partridge and mates Barry Andrews and Martyn Barker of Shriekback. There's Orpheus the Lowdown, conceived over thirteen years worth of sessions between Partridge and Slapp Happy singer and Leviathan cartoonist Peter Blegvad.

On the Partridge-free tip, there's The Secret Life of the Milk and Honey Band, a disc of gossamer pop not far removed from Skylarking-era XTC. Finally, there's the hushed tones and gurgling synths of Veda Hille's Return of the Kildeer. If that seems like a lot at once, know that all but Monstrance have seen release on Partridge's side of the Black Sea in the last few years.

Happy Mondays Back at It With New Album, Tour

Fans of Factory Records, sunshine party-pop, and drugs have considerable cause for celebration as yesterday, Monday, March 26, Happy Mondays revealed their intentions to return to the dangerous world of releasing full-length albums.

According to NME.com, their as-yet-untitled LP-- which technically follows up 1992's regrettable ...Yes Please-- will be heralded by a new single in June. As Happy frontman Shaun Ryder told the British weekly, "I'm not the world's best salesman, me...I'm not a salesman at all. I think it's a really great album."

The Mondays-- who reunited in present form back in 2004 and contributed new single "Playground Superstar" to the 2005 Goal! film soundtrack-- tapped Howie B and Sonny Levine to produce their comeback album, which will bear the stamp of new Happy Mondays home Sanctuary Records.

The band made a splash as rave culture peaked with their aptly-named 1990 smash Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches. They also featured prominently in the 2002 Tony Wilson/Factory Records flick 24 Hour Party People.

As previously announced, the Mondays play Coachella in late April. They've also lined up some UK dates for later in the spring. [MORE...]

The Pack Talk Album, Vans, Parents, the Misfits
"Us wearing Vans and skating and having that kind of urban style led to people talking about, 'Oh we're punk rock.' I know some people who would really get mad. You're talking about punk rock, and you don't know what punk rock is. I don't like it."

Hours after I talked to the Pack at South by Southwest, they performed shirtless on the roofs of cars parked in an Amtrak station parking lot during an after-hours Paperthinwalls.com party. Our meeting was a more low-key affair. Young Stunna, Young L, and Lil B (Lil Uno was napping) sat by their hotel pool, fully clothed, and talked about their careers up to this point: their hit ("Vans"), their currently-untitled album (planned for a summer release), and their relationships with hyphy, hip hop, and their mothers.

Pitchfork: What's the deal with your album? It was supposed to come out in February, right?

Young Stunna: Yeah, we actually released an EP [Skateboards 2 Scrapers], which was good at the time. We tried to get the best stuff that we could, and we keep working. We got the EP out for the fans.

Pitchfork: Are the songs from the EP going to be on the album?

Young Stunna: "Vans" should be on there. I'm about 80% sure. There's no reason "Vans" shouldn't be on there. From the EP? No. I mean, there might be.

Lil B: We want it to be fresh songs. We wanted to make the EP a separate album. That was the EP. Now it's time for the album, which is going to kill.

Pitchfork: Since the album comes out in the summer, are you trying to write any big summer jams? L, does the season factor into your beat-making at all?

Young L: Season doesn't really change anything for me, at least consciously. Maybe subconsciously we wanna make a summertime beat, but I don't think I write it to be a summertime beat or anything.

Pitchfork: The hyphy scene has started to blow up, but you guys don't seem to be totally a part of that, so I'm wondering what your relationship is to that scene.

Young Stunna: We grew up around it. That's our culture. At the same time, we come from diverse backgrounds, so you're not going to just hear "hyphy hyphy hyphy hyphy hyphy." You're going to hear this, this, this, this, this, and then some hyphy. So we're part of the hyphy movement, but we're not hyphy. [MORE...]

Fennesz Reprises Sakamoto Collaboration with LP, Tours

In a bid to make the coming spring endless, Mr. Christian Fennesz, laptop provocateur, will unleash his illustrious electronic sounds upon the gathered hordes at a number of European festivals next month. While this is wondrous news for residents of and folks happening through Vilnius, Lithuania, and Ljubljana, Slovenia, it leaves the rest of us a bit cold, and even more desperately in need of a sick Fennesz fix.

Fortunately, not long after his tour, Fennesz will reprise his collaboration with noted composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (The Last Emperor, etc.). The pair's Cendre follows up 2005's Fennesz Sakamoto one-track EP Sala Santa Cecilia and arrives Stateside via Touch on May 15. Cendre collects 11 new joint efforts and has Mr. Fennesz tearing it up on the guitar and laptop, while Mr. Sakamoto throws it down on piano and laptop. That shit is hot.

Keep those ears perked, as Touch should have a Fennesz full-length proper on the way in late 2007. [MORE...]

Spoon Announce New Album Title

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Yes. That's the title.

Herren Talks Prefuse, Savath, New LPs, Collaboration
"I play it for people and say, 'What is this shit? How do you interpret it?' And they're like, 'This sounds like some sad-ass soundtrack.'

If there's one thing we can count on from Prefuse 73's Scott Herren, (now going by his full name: Guillermo Scott Herren), it's that he always has a ton of collaborations and side projects going almost simultaneously. So far this year, those projects are limited to three: a new Prefuse 73 album, a new Savath & Savalas album, Golden Pollen, scheduled for a June 19 release on Anti-, and a full-length collaboration with Japanese MC Twigy, tentatively due out in May.

We caught up with Herren recently to talk about these three projects as well as his relationships with hip hop, his collaborators (including Battles' Tyondai Braxton), and the language barrier.

Pitchfork: What's your relationship with Tyondai Braxton?

Guillermo Scott Herren: He's one of my best friends. I took Battles everywhere with me on the last official Prefuse tour, for Surrounded by Silence. I took them from Japan to Italy to Spain, just because I really believed in them, and I wanted to show the world what they could do. I wanted to bring them to a Prefuse audience because I thought we had a lot of similarities, and Tyondai and I always-- when we're talking about our own music-- we always find these ties. Our influences are very similar, even though they come out different. And I was like, "There's no way my crowd is not going to respond to these guys. They're just as banging as any beat." Anybody that brings any kind of heat with hip hop or whatever-- if they get what I'm doing, they're going to get what they're doing.

Pitchfork: Was the response good?

GSH: Yeah, it was great. I think it opened a lot of people's heads up. They were just like "Holy shit!" when they would drop their beats.

Pitchfork: Have you heard the full-length, Mirrored, yet?

GSH: Yeah, I'm supposed to be working on a remix, but instead I'm working on the Prefuse record because there's so much work to be done with it.

Pitchfork: Do you know which track you're remixing yet?

GSH: Not yet, but I'm sure it will be fitting. It will be fun. This Prefuse shit is just out of control. There's so much to do because it's two records, and they're totally different. My head's got to split in half and do two different things.

Pitchfork: How are they coming along? There's no release date set yet, is there?

GSH: The timetable is definitely "TBA." The goal that we've made with each other, me and Warp, is that I would try to turn it in by June, and thank God for Warp being supportive and calling me to make sure I'm okay. Like, "You've got a lot of work, are you okay?" and I'm like, "I'm cool, I'm cool. My brain hasn't melted yet." [MORE...]

Pioneering Producer Joe Meek Reissued Thrice-Over
He never met an effects pedal he didn't like

This coming Tuesday, April 3, Sanctuary Records Group will beam down three reissue packages bearing the mark of Joe Meek, the 60s songwriter and producer whose work on the Tornado's interplanetary "Telstar" and his own avant-garde LP I Hear a New World helped usher in a brave new world of noise into pop music.

How important was this guy? Put it this way: dude has recording equipment named after him. And the White Stripes are honored to be using one of his synthesizers.

The Joe Meek EP Collection boxes a dozen discs of Meek's production, while Vampires Cowboys Spacemen & Spooks collects 60 wordless Meek-works including a congregation of crazy covers of Meek-era standards like "Wipeout" and "The Can-Can." Meek freaks will also be treated to Joe Meek's Freakbeat: 30 Freakbeat, Mod and R&B Nuggets, the title of which suggests its contents rather well.

Stephen Marley Talks Mind Control, Family, Jail
"I could tell by the coldness of the walls, by the crampedness of the floor, that this place was not meant for man, much less a righteous youth!"

Having just released his debut solo album, Mind Control (Universal Republic), on March 20-- and about to embark on a tour of North America on March 29-- Stephen Marley took time out of his busy schedule to speak to Pitchfork.

His work with his brother Damian ("Jr. Gong") on Damian's 2005 album, Welcome to Jamrock, and on Mind Control's awesome "The Traffic Jam" has an exciting ferocity to it, but Stephen was kind and warm over the phone as he talked about his family, his career, and the arrest that landed him in a Tallahassee jail for possessing a certain Jamaican natural remedy.

Pitchfork: You've been away from the Melody Makers-- the group you were in with your siblings Ziggy, Sharon, and Cedella-- for a while now.

Stephen Marley: As a group, but not as a family.

Pitchfork: How is being a solo artist different for you than being a member of a group?

SM: Well, being a solo artist you have to carry the whole show. It's more focused on you. You're in the driver's seat. You're not the shotgun. You're not the passenger. You're the driver, so you have to keep your eyes open and know where you're going.

Pitchfork: Is there more pressure?

SM: Yeah, there's a little more pressure, but to me, it's good pressure. I like challenges.

Pitchfork: Challenges like--

SM: Being in the spotlight!

Pitchfork: Or being in jail? You have those three songs on the album that are inspired by your experience of being put in a Tallahassee jail for marijuana possession. What was that like?

SM: Well, it was an experience still. I mean, it wasn't a great bad experience. It was an inconvenience. It wasn't justified, where they put us for this plant that we had. It wasn't justified, because I was behind bars with people that cut people's throats. And at the same time, I can go out to any bar on any given day and have as many shots of Jack Daniels and be as drunk as I want to be. So it didn't feel right, and it made me very curious as to why, really, do they fight this plant so much when it has so many different uses, you know?

Pitchfork: Have you found any answers to that question?

SM: Mind control [laughs]. [MORE...]

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