Banhart, Oldham, Superchunk Cover Guilty Pleasures
Plus: Luna, Mike Watt, Concretes, Petra Haden, Jim O'Rourke, Geoff Farina, Mooney Suzuki

No matter how much people talk about having no guilty pleasures, it's hard to deny that some artists and songs have a little stink on them, rightly or wrongly.

But that's not all bad. There can be a lot of catharsis in screaming from the rooftops about your love for, say, the Deftones (so good!) after so much repression. And when you're a musician yourself, sometimes screaming from the rooftops about your guilty pleasures turns into covering them.

It's under this premise that Engine Room Recordings rounded up some of the biggest names in independent music to have them record versions of their favorite guilty pleasures for a compilation it will release August 7 called Guilt by Association.

Will Oldham, Devendra Banhart, Superchunk, Minutemen/Stooges bassist Mike Watt, Jim O'Rourke, Luna, Petra Haden, Geoff Farina, and the Concretes all contributed to the compilation, which includes covers of songs by Journey, Oasis, the Spice Girls, Destiny's Child, Paula Abdul, Fall Out Boy, Cher, Shania Twain, System of a Down, Blue Oyster Cult, Eddie Money, and the cast of High School Musical. Seriously, this tracklist is amazing.

The folks at Engine Room are also holding a video contest in conjunction with the compilation. The label is currently accepting video proposals for one of three tracks from Guilt by Association: Will Oldham's cover of Mariah Carey's "Can't Take That Away", Devendra Banhart's cover of Oasis' "Don't Look Back in Anger", or Petra Haden's cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing".

To enter the contest, budding directors should submit a brief email to videocontest@engineroomrecordings.com that contains a video concept for one of the songs as well as a link to their previous work. The first round deadline is May 15, at which time the label and a few of the contributing artists will pick five proposals to make. The winning video will be chosen from the resulting five videos (all completed by July 1) and will become the compilation's official music video, with all of the press and prestige that includes. For more information about the compilation and video contest, visit the Guilt by Association MySpace page.

As for how all this mutual, guilty love came about, Engine Room General Manager Wes Verhoeve told Pitchfork that "the concept originated about five years ago, and we resurrected it in early 2006. Together with Randall Poster and Jim Dunbar, who have served as music supervisors for Zodiac, The Aviator, [forthcoming Dylan biopic] I'm Not There, and several Wes Anderson movies, we pulled together this exciting cast of musicians. Sometimes we'd suggest the songs, but sometimes the artists were already enthusiastically armed with their pop song of choice." Associate producer Morgan Lebus was also instrumental in getting in touch with several artists, including Banhart, Oldham, and the Concretes.

As for these artists' pop songs of choice, Mike Watt has never had any problems showing love for the Blue Oyster Cult, but who could have guessed Jim O'Rourke felt so strongly about the Spice Girls? [MORE...]

Johnny Marr on Crowded House Reunion Album

According to Billboard.com, Time on Earth-- the first album in nearly a decade-and-a-half from Kiwi jingle-janglers Crowded House-- will feature Johnny Marr on a pair of tracks, one of which he helped pen. You know, Johnny Marr from the Smiths, and now, Modest Mouse? Yeah, that Johnny Marr.

The album also features a track House-master Neil Finn wrote alongside the Grammy-grubbing Dixie Chicks, and it's produced in part by Dave Matthews' BFF Steve Lillywhite. Time on Earth arrives July 10 in North America via Matthews' own ATO Records, and July 2 in the UK via Parlophone.

In other Marr news, he'll be on the road imparting his worldly wisdom on Modest Mouse for the next several months. [MORE...]

Interpol Reveal Third Album Details
This is the only version of their assertion that you should ever subscribe to

Monday, it was a release date. Today, it's a tracklist and a title. Tomorrow, will it leak? Who can say, really? They may be playing us like a diminished seventh chord, but, like the salivating dogs that we are, we'll take whatever they dish out.

Interpol's third album-- about which we knew virtually nothing, like, two days ago-- will arrive July 10 via Capitol. As announced on the Interpol message board today, it's called Our Love to Admire, and it has a tracklist (which you may view after the red clicky thing). You heard it here first: it will probably also be kinda droney, coke-y, maybe with a pants-kicker or two, interspersed with some pretty bits.

In other Interpol news, Interpol cooks, and cleans up live. Catch them around the world in the coming months.

You may now proceed to get all fired up about "All Fired Up", and screen print t-shirts that read, "There's No I in Threesome". [MORE...]

Pipettes Prep EP, Tour; Debut Gets U.S. Release Date

Praise is not wasted on the Pipettes. After much Fork fawning over We Are the Pipettes last year, the pattern conscious trio have announced a U.S. release date for their debut LP at last. It arrives August 28, via new Stateside home Interscope/CherryTree-- and they're practically hand-delivering it with a North American tour.

The tour will happen two months prior to the album's American release, but if slightly less than perfect timing means we get the Pipettes earlier than expected, then it's time we threw out our polka-dotted day-planners for good!

Plus, the tour is timed extremely well with the June 5 release of the Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me EP on Interscope/CherryTree. In addition to the title track and "I Love You" from We Are the Pipettes, the EP also features non-album tracks "Really That Bad" and "Guess Who Ran Off With the Milkman?" Adorable.

After serenading Europe, Riot Becki, Gwenno, and Rosay kick off their North American jaunt June 1 in Toronto. [MORE...]

Robert Pollard's Best on Final Fading Captain Release
Pressed, printed, stomped, tripped, trapped, tricked, packaged, shipped

Drunkard genius Robert Pollard's a real giver; over the course of his lengthy tenure as one of indie rock's greatest songwriters, he's issued more albums than he's downed Miller Lites, and that cat can suck down a brew-dog. So many albums that even the most official ironman occasionally has to peer into an empty wallet and mutter "maybe next time, Bobby."

Those looking to play catch-up on Pollard's long-running Fading Captain series-- an outpouring of discs by Pollard side projects and friends of the Cap'n himself-- get a little boost May 15, as Crickets: The Best of the Fading Captain Series is released by Luna Music. Sporting 56 tracks splayed over two CDs and 160 minutes, Crickets marks the first appearance of six new Pollard nuggets, including a pair from the recent Silverfish Trivia EP, with the rest representing the best of Fading Captain's 43 chapters.

Though the most dedicated GBV-aholics have already pawned their fillings to pay for much of Fading Captain, the press release chides that Crickets "will be enjoyed by the hardcore fans who own everything and the fringe GBV fan who had trouble tackling the 43 release catalog." The Captain camp is keeping the tracklist under wraps until the compilation drops, leaving us to speculate just how insane it is.

For one of the all-time great namers of things, Pollard sure doesn't like to stick to a moniker for too long: Crickets will mean bon voyage for the Fading Captain Series. On to the next!

Photos: Spoon [Asbury Park, NJ; 04/24/07]

Text and photos by Maria Tessa Sciarrino

At their gig last night at New Jersey's Stone Pony, Spoon treated show-goers to even portions from the past three albums, premiered a few selections from the forthcoming Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (personal favorites of the night and probably the best-sounding of the evening), and used the encore to toss in a track off the recently reissued Soft Effects EP-- a setlist designed to please newcomers and diehards alike.

Unfortunately, the Stone Pony's overzealous fog machine seemed to drain the energy out of the evening. The endless, billowing tufts made it next to impossible to see the band half the time (and this is a small club!); it was probably the the reason why so many bum notes were played. But it didn't seem to matter much to the audience, who enthusiastically cheered the band on to the very end.

Spoon's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga babbles into shops July 10 via Merge; the band's tour, meanwhile, continues tomorrow night in New Haven.




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Bad Brains Reveal Nation Tracklist, Release Date

Break out the tap shoes and jazz hands: the original cast of Bad Brains-- H.R., Darryl Jenifer, Dr. Know, and Earl Hudson-- returns with a vengeance this summer. Come June 26, Megaforce Records will raise the curtain on the Brains' latest, the twelve-act reggae/dub- inflected ode Build a Nation.

As previously reported, Beastie Boy Adam "MCA" Yauch produced the disc, the Brains' first in over a decade. As Yauch told Pitchfork last month, Nation is "more raw sounding than some of [Bad Brains'] other stuff," and "more like the way they sounded live back in the day, seeing them at CBGB's, the amps and the PA at full tilt."

Yauch also claimed the band hasn't lost their touch with age: "The way that they move together, the drums and bass and guitar, is almost like one complex instrument." Behold this complex instrument live at a number of upcoming Bad Brains festival dates, and catch the Build a Nation tracklist, just over yonder. [MORE...]

Gibbard, Leo, Chuck D on Clash Doc Soundtrack
Plus: Mos Def, Radio 4, Moby

The book may perennially trump the movie, but that hasn't stopped journalist/filmmaker/activist Antonino D'Ambrosio from spinning his own 2004 tome, Let Fury Have the Hour: The Punk Rock Politics of Joe Strummer, into a silver screen web of intrigue. (Full disclosure: That book features an essay by our senior news editor Amy Phillips.)

According to Billboard.com, a Tim Robbins-executive produced cinematic companion to Let Fury Have the Hour will barnstorm motion picture palaces in time for next year's U.S. presidential election. In addition to tackling the Clash, the film also examines politically-motivated musicians like Manu Chao and Rachid Taha.

And its soundtrack is shaping up to be something to squawk about: Death Cabbie Ben Gibbard and cool dude Ted Leo head the present list of contributors, which also includes Chuck D (who also penned the Fury book's preface), Mos Def, Moby, and Clash-happy NYC act Radio 4 (who'll also provide the film's score).

Shephard Fairey helps Fury further fight the power with original artwork. Learn more about the book that inspired the movie here.

White Stripes Announce Even More Single Details
"Icky Thump" hits iTunes tomorrow

The White Stripes have continued their recent single-mindedness with the announcement of the B-sides to come with various versions of "Icky Thump", the first single from their forthcoming album of the same name.

The single comes in three different forms: white vinyl 7", standard 7", and CD. As previously reported, the white vinyl version will come with an etching on the B-side that serves as a companion to the etching on the "Rag and Bone" single that will come packaged with the June 6 NME. The standard 7" B-side is "Baby Brother", and the CD features "Catch Hell Blues" as track two.

"Icky Thump" will hit the U.S. and Canadian iTunes stores tomorrow, and Third Man/XL will release all three physical versions of the single on June 11 in the UK. The Stripes' festival tour, meanwhile, kicks off June 1 in Germany. [MORE...]

Editors Reveal Details of An End Has a Start, Tour

An End Has a Start, the sophomore full-length from Birmingham brooders (or, if you will, poor man's Interpol) Editors, will be released June 25 in the UK and the rest of Europe via Kitchenware. No word yet on a U.S. release.

Opening track "Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors" will get the digi-single treatment two weeks prior to End's start in stores, with a tangible "Smokers" single coming June 18. A visit to the Editors page gets you a brief (like, almost Radiohead brief) video-clip of new track "Bones" to whet your appetite. Ew, you eat bones!

Editors will scour the European continent for poor diction and misplaced punctuation for most of this summer. Maybe you wanna start with that whole "adding unnecessary vowels to words" thing, boys. [MORE...]

Memphis Issue Wilderness in U.S., Tour Continent

Plenty is made of Stars/Memphis boss hog Torquil Campbell's musical credits, but TC's run as a master thespian deserves a bit of the limelight's glow. Though he performed in experimental theater in New York for years, he also found the time to play Ben in an ABC Weekend Special production of Pippi Longstocking and supply the voice Bill Badger in the animated series "Rupert". Bill Badger! I hope that shit's on his business card.

Bill Badger and his woodland chum Chris Dumont will, as Memphis, issue the 2006 album A Little Place in the Wilderness in the U.S. June 19 thanks to the the hardworking lot in the distribution department at Good Fences. They'll also embark on a brief late-April tour with the Postmarks, a couple dates in New York at the end of May, and a whole bunch of Canadian dates in between with brother in Broken Social Scene Apostle of Hustle. [MORE...]

Thermals to Rock Portland High School for Benefit
UPDATE: with Menomena!

Portland schools have the best benefit ideas. Last week, we told you about the auction at Buckman Elementary School that includes swag from the Decemberists, Modest Mouse, and the Shins, to name just a few. Now, the student government of Portland's Lincoln High School ("Home of the Cardinals") has organized a benefit concert not just for their school but for music education across Portland Public High Schools.

Portland residents the Thermals will headline the concert, which will feature opening sets by student band the Bustling Townships and another, as-yet-unannounced group. UPDATE: it's Menomena! The concert will take place May 11 at the Cleveland High School Auditorium ("Home of the Warriors"), and tickets will go on sale next week at all of the district's high schools. The price of admission is $10 for PPS students with their school IDs and $15 for everyone else.

A representative of the Lincoln student government informed Pitchfork that music education programs in PPS schools are "feeble at best," so it's pretty cool of the Thermals to give back to their community like this. Those kids will be able to write their very own full-length albums full of existential dread and religious angst in no time!

The show at Cleveland High will now serve as the start of the Thermals' previously reported world tour, which continues through July.

In related news, All Girl Summer Fun Band-- which includes Thermals bassist/bad-ass Kathy Foster-- have been recording their third LP in Portland. [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.)