Maximo Park, Bonde do Role, Patti Smith Do Evolution
Plus: Echo & the Bunnymen, Simian Mobile Disco, Kano, Datarock, Loney, Dear

Hey, here's this great idea. Get a bunch of bands that people like and have them play all day long. Cater to a decent cross-section of young folks, and invite sponsors to bankroll a good portion of the overhead. Hell, tack on a week's worth of satellite events, just for kicks. We'll call it...a festival!

Seems some folks in amalgamated British city NewcastleGateshead will put this brilliant idea to the test in late May. The 2007 edition of the Evolution festival kicks off May 20 and runs through May 28, culminating on the final day with a massive, cataclysmic, day-long outdoor event in the city's Quayside called (groans at the ready)...Freevolution.

Freevolution will feature performances from Maxïmo Park, Bonde do Role, Echo & the Bunnymen, Simian Mobile Disco, Datarock, Kano, Soulwax, Shy Child, Hot Club de Paris, and more. Did we mention it's, like, totally free to attend? Meanwhile, during the days leading up to Freevolution, cool musical entities invade NewcastleGateshead's many venues, entities such as Patti Smith, the Apples in Stereo, Loney, Dear, Emma Pollock, Tunng, 2ManyDJs, Joan as Police Woman, Nouvelle Vague, and others.

Parts & Labor Trek with Mapmaker in Tow
Yes, they have their own personal cartographer

Jerryrigging two albums in as many years has to be a grind, but the workmen of Parts & Labor felt themselves up for the challenge. Heck, they even found time to squeeze out an all-electronic EP in between their two long-players. Fresh off 2006's Stay Afraid, the fruit of Parts' recent labor will emerge May 22 in the form of Mapmaker, another slab of grisly cacophony from the Jagjaguwar signees.

Mapmaker's dozen tracks were recorded and mixed in the band's native Brooklyn, with guest turns from the Good Good's Natalja Kent and P&L labelmates Pterodactyl's Joe Kremer. Standout "King of the Hill" is neither a rumination on the beloved childhood pushing-game nor an exploration of the amusing animated sitcom of the same name, but rather a cover of the Minutemen song, played on a toy keyboard.

The master craftsmen of Parts & Labor will take Mapmaker on the road for a month, joining up with likeminded sonic sculptors ADULT., Erase Errata and Dan Deacon.

In related news, Cardboard Records, run by P&L's Dan Friel, put out the album Red State by Gowns this week. [MORE...]

MP3: Parts & Labor: Fractured Skies [from the Mapmaker LP]

Seefeel's Quique Remastered, Reissued, Awesome

At least one of those releases, 1993's debut Seefeel LP Quique, continues to command considerable sums on eBay since falling out of print some years back. All that price-gouging comes to an abrupt end April 24, as Too Pure reissues the Seefeel classic and influential LP Stateside in deluxe, two-disc format. Rejoice!

Quique (Redux Edition) collects a remastered edition of the original LP and a second disc comprised of rarities, compilation tracks, alternate mixes, and six songs which have not yet graced the ears of man, nor woman. Outside of the band, and probably their friends, and maybe some closer relatives and studio employees and pets-- and those pets may well be dead by now. But we digress!

Quique Redux arrives in the UK May 14 with the same goodies. The release also features super-nifty packaging and liner notes by Seefeel principal Mark Clifford, so that you may see something while you're totally feeling that lovely music. [MORE...]

Stream: Seefeel: Various Tracks

Yoshimi Heads Smalltown Superjazzz Charge

Boredoms/OOIOO firestarter (and Flaming Lips inspiration) Yoshimi teamed with Swedish saxophonist and Thurston Moore/Jim O'Rourke collaborator Mats Gustafsson for the upcoming Words on the Floor LP, one of several collaborative albums due out on Smalltown Superjazz in April.

Yoshimi and Gustafsson used electronics, tenor sax, baritone sax, alto fluteophone, and the rare slide saxophone to create one short three-minute piece and a second, droning track that exceeds 40 minutes in length. Together, those tracks form Words on the Floor, which will be released April 30 on Smalltown Superjazzz.

Two Bands and a Legend is the self-titled debut of a group composed of Cato Salsa Experience, Joe McPhee, and the Thing (good luck!). The album's nine tracks feature the crew doing covers of songs by the likes of PJ Harvey and James "Blood" Ulmer. They even turn in a version of "Louie Louie". Thurston Moore contributes liner notes to the album, which Smalltown Superjazzz will release April 16. The Thing will head out on a tour of the U.S. in April.

And as reported yesterday, Smalltown Superjazzz will release The First Original Silence, the debut album from Original Silence, a group featuring Moore, Gustafsson, Jim O'Rourke, members of the Thing, the Ex, and Zu. [MORE...]

Fairport Convention Celebrate 40th With Box, U.S. Tour

Live at the BBC strums its way into shoppes April 9 courtesy of Universal. It features a whole flaming heap of radio sessions recorded between 1968 and 1974-- including several with John Peel-- all once thought lost but recently rediscovered in a treasure chest deep in a mythical forest at the bottom of the ocean, or something. The box is as comprehensive a collection of Fairport BBC recordings as we can ever hope for, and even includes documents of low-quality, "off air" song renditions for the complete Fairport Convention radio experience.

The present Fairport incarnation, helmed by founding member Simon Nichol, takes to the rural pathways of dear Old Blighty next month as part of the 40^th anniversary Fairport "Acoustic" Convention Tour. On May 4, the Fairport acoustic trio-- consisting of Nichol, Ric Sanders, and Chris Leslie-- descends upon the United States for an extensive sojourn.

From August 9-11, Fairport Convention will once again host their annual Cropredy Convention "music and good cheer" festival in tiny Cropredy, England. Performers include Fairport, Jools Holland, the Strawbs, the Richard Thompson Band, and more. View the complete lineup here, and catch Fairport playing a trio of warm-up shows in nearby Banbury during the days leading up to the fest. [MORE...]

Stream: Fairport Convention: Various Tracks

Hot Chip Tour Expands, Band Adds DJ Dates

Last week, it was DJ-Kicks, and now, it's DJ dates. Throughout the warm season, the funk-soul-brothers of Hot Chip will pepper oodles of just-announced band engagements with turns behind the wheels of steel. Chippers Alexis Taylor, Al Doyle, Felix Martin, and Joe Goddard will all hop behind the ones and twos, although not all at once-- no use in crowding the booth. They'll all get back together for summer festival dates both near and far, as well as a few June headlining gigs.

Hot Chip fans still have a chance to catch Alexis Taylor comparing notes on the boom-boom-bap with Scritti Politti's Green Gartside, as the two perform at the Fence Homegame Festival in Fife, Scotland on April 14-15. [MORE...]

Stream: Hot Chip: My Piano [from the forthcoming DJ-Kicks compilation]

Donaufestival Gets Boredoms, Deerhoof, Gang of Four
Also Patrick Wolf, Jamie Lidell, Fennesz, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, ESG, Sunn O)))

For two consecutive April weekends, on the banks of the beautiful blue Danube, indie floatsam and noise-rock jetsam shall cascade through Krems, Austria's Donaufestival. The first, April 19-21, will host Sunn O))), Matmos, the Notwist, Fennesz, and Bonnie "Prince" Billy, among others; the second, April 27-30, packs Patrick Wolf, Deerhoof, Jamie Lidell, ESG, Gang of Four and Boredoms, plus many more

The fest comes complete with a theme-- "Unprotected Games"-- and a resulting mission statement, although I suspect the mission read a little bit better auf Deutsch: "Under the motto 'unprotected games,' the donaufestival 07 atttempts - without claims to a kitsch utopia of change - to confuse the inner and outer view of (social) game systems with unprotected, artistic games, to swap positions on the thin red line between virtuality and reality and to simulate a risky match of reevaluation and anarchic freedom." There's also some stuff about the killing of Bambi's mother.

I wonder where that Will Oldham song about doing it with a mountain fits in.

Tickets are available by venue, day, and weekend, and are available now. Registration for Jamie Lidell's "Workshop" ends March 31, though, so if you ever wondered how to belt your white ass off like Otis Redding, that particular ship's sailing soon.

Also playing: Nurse With Wound, Throbbing Gristle, Larsen and Johann Johannson, Six Organs of Admittance, Jason Forrest, Current 93, Gonzales, Parenthetical Girls, Mocky, Alec Empire, JG Thirlwell, Priestbird, KTL, and Alan Vega.

LCD Soundsystem Do the Festival Thing
James Murphy campaigns against self in bizarre internet ad

So comin' for that number one spot didn't quite play like James Murphy may've wanted. So what? His LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver still moved more units last week than Kidz Bop 11, and in celebration, the North American scum will follow their previously-announced domestic dates with a couple weblogs, a few spins of some deep Stevie Nicks cuts, and a few of the finest festivals Europe has to offer.

At England's Wireless Festival, LCD will finally, FINALLY share the stage with Daft Punk.

Oh, and then there's this little head-scratcher:

Is the notoriously self-aggrandizing Murphy trying to play us all reverse-psychology style in this video? Or is the Library Association of Greater Pennsylvania really gunning for old boy? The truth probably lies somewhere in between-- the video is up on his website, and Google coughs up no such L.A.G.P.-- but whatever its intent, this rash of pomo internet marketing stuff succeeds best at confusing. [MORE...]

Video: LCD Soundsystem: North American Scum [from the Sound of Silver LP]

Interpol, Arcade Fire, TVOTR Play Hove Festival
Fo shizzle my nizzle used to dribble down in Norway

When you refer to "Hove" in the U.S., you're using a ridiculous nickname for either Jesus or Jay-Z. (Or a highway lane.)

In Norway, you're referring to an either ridiculous or brilliant festival that takes place in Arendal from June 26-30.

It's not that we have anything against the Hove Festival, not at all. It's just that the lineup is short-circuiting our brains with its combination of incredibly awesome bands and some more, um, confusing ones.

For instance, who knew you could get Interpol, the Arcade Fire, the Hold Steady, TV on the Radio, Clipse, Mastodon, Queens of the Stone Age, Bright Eyes, Klaxons, Slayer, CSS, and Tokyo Police Club at the same festival? And why would you place them next to Incubus or Damien Rice? And where do Paul Wall and Chamillionaire fit in? And what about Me First and the Gimme Gimmes??? My Chemical Romance???? The mind boggles.

Nonetheless, this is indeed the lineup of the Hove Festival. The rest of the currently announced acts are below.

120 Days, the Killers, Kaiser Chiefs, Nellie Mckay, Lamb of God, Amy Winehouse, Oh No Ono, the 1990s, Unearth, Gojira, Chimaira, Devastations, the Noisettes, 65 Days of Static, X-queen of the Astronauts, Dimension F3H, Hatebreed, Ingrid Olava, Neurosis, Pleasure, Rockettothesky, Sivert Høyem, the Lionheart Brothers, the Presets, William Hut

Video: Jay-Z: Izzo (H.O.V.A.) [from The Bluprint LP]

Soulwax Take Nite Versions, 2ManyDJs Across America

We're talking beats of such radness and freshness, you'll have no choice but to rediscover just what your pelvis can do under hot lights. Just ask the ravers down in Australia and New Zealand, who are getting the decadent Soulwax dancefloor treatment as you read this.

U.S. residents have until April 14 to perfect their raddest, freshest moves, as that's when Soulwax invade Philadelphia as part of their Radio Soulwax Presents tour. And just what is Soulwax presenting on this trek? Well, they'll perform their 2005 Nite Versions album (which features club-ified versions of jams from their Any Minute Now LP) in its entirety, plus the two Soulwax gents who moonlight as 2ManyDJs will spin, with pals JDH & Dave P warming everybody up. If that doesn't make you want to back your groove thang up like a Polaroid picture that just don't care, I don't know what will. [MORE...]

MP3: Soulwax: Miserable Girl [from the Nite Versions LP]

Exclusive: Rosebuds Tour Behind Furies

With all their public smoochin', dopey nicknamin', and all other pervasive acts of perversity, we'd prefer that most young marrieds keep that mess at home. But we'll take as much PDA as we can get from Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp, the blossoming lovers of the Rosebuds, who'll make sweet music together on a month-long second-honeymoon in support of the fetching Night of the Furies, out April 10 on Merge Records.

As we previously reported, fellow knot-tiers Dean & Britta and perpetual sideproject Portastatic are among those slated to remix tracks from Night of the Furies. Just couldn't leave well enough alone, could they? [MORE...]

MP3: The Rosebuds: Get Up Get Out [from the Night of the Furies LP]

Spacemen 3's Sonic Boom Plots U.S. Invasion

Then it's off to Boom's home country for a pair of London gigs, the first of which has him opening for reunited ambient krautrock legends Cluster, and another alongside Bert Jansch as part of a Saint Etienne-curated event at Royal Festival Hall.

Sonic Boom hopes to deliver an LP and EP as Spectrum later this year; he'll also tour Japan and Oceania under that moniker. For a good time, abuse a substance of your choosing and check out all the trippy animated visuals on his website. [MORE...]

Stream: Sonic Boom: Various Spacemen 3 Tracks

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