Explosions in the Sky Cancel All Summer Dates

Due to the serious illness of a family member, widescreen post-rockers Explosions in the Sky are canceling all tour dates through September 1.

The band, who have been touring behind February's All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone, have promised to reschedule as many dates as possible after the summer's over. A list of the canceled shows is below. [MORE...]

Roisin Murphy Preps Singles, Sophomore Album

Former Moloko vocalist Roísín Murphy will follow her thumping groove-pop solo debut Ruby Blue with another collection of zero-cool cooing. Unlike Ruby Blue-- which was boosted in equal measure by Murphy's sultry pipes and knob-spinning by maestro of minutiae Matthew Herbert-- her as-yet-untitled sophomore effort, out this fall on EMI, will be co-produced by a variety of helpers.

Off in the distance though it may be, the album does have a first single: co-written by Roísín and Seiji of West London's Bugz in the Attic collective-- and recently showcased in Forkcast-- "Overpowered" will be released July 2, with a video also on the way. The single will pack remixes of the track from Seamus Haji, Kris Menace, Hervé, and Loose Cannons. Another single will follow in October, in close anticipation of the album's release.

Roísín has also been added to the bill of the previously reported Bestival, which goes down September 7-9 at Newport, England's Robin Hill Country Park on the Isle of Wight.

Os Mutantes, Diplo, Four Tet Join Brazil/UK Collab Fest
Also: Bonde do Role, Gruff Rhys, Optimo

Much like supermodel Gisele Bündchen, the TrocaBrahma festival provides a taste of Brazil with quite a bit of Anglo crossover potential. Unlike Gisele, we're pretty sure the performers at this year's festival-- including Os Mutantes, Bonde do Role, Gruff Rhys, Four Tet, and Optimo's JD Twitch, to name a few-- will appear fully clothed, though you never know with those Bonde kids.

The idea behind TrocaBrahma is to fly a handful of UK artists over to Brazil to pair up with a handful of Brazilian artists on collaborative material. Then, they fly the Brits (or Scots or...Welshes?) and the Brazilians back to the UK to perform the fruits of their labor.

This year, the festival will take place at venues in London, Liverpool, and Glasgow from July 26-29, and the artists pairings are as follows: Os Mutantes with JD Twitch; Bonde do Role, Radioclit, and Amanda Blank (hosted by Diplo); Gruff Rhys and Tony da Gatorra; Four Tet and Open Field Church; King Creosote and Romulo Froes; and Ben Westbeech and Tita Lima (hosted by Gilles Peterson).

To make it even sweeter, the Os Mutantes and JD Twitch performances in Glasgow and Liverpool will be Os Mutantes' first shows in those cities.

Brazil will not be totally devoid of live love, however, as a few collaborative gigs are scheduled at Studio SP in São Paulo for the end of May and beginning of June. On May 8, Bonde do Role, Amanda Blank, and Radioclit performed there. (Sorry, we're a little late on this.) On May 29, it will be Four Tet and Open Field Church. Finally, on June 3, both the Gruff Rhys/Tony da Gatorra and the King Creosote/Romulo Froes collaborations will hit the stage.

All of the artists performing at TrocaBrahma will perform full live sets of their own in addition to the collaborative sets. When the dust finally settles on the festivities, festival organizers will release a series of TrocaBrahma-related podcasts.

Exclusive: Sub Pop's Hardly Art Signs Le Loup

You read that right: another lupine act has joined Wolf Parade and Wolf Eyes in the Sub Pop (extended) family.

Le Loup, which-- as Babelfish tells this non-French speaker-- means "The Wolf", have inked a deal with Sub Pop off-shoot Hardly Art, which will release their debut, The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly, this fall.

The album takes its wordy title from a lavish devotional work by Henry Darger-esque reclusive folk artist James Hampton. The DC-based septet, meanwhile, sprung from the solo work of one Sam Simkoff (banjo, keys, loop pedal), and now also includes Michael Ferguson (guitar), Nicole Keenan (keys, french horn), Dan Ryan (bass, double bass), Robert Sahm (drums), May Tabol (guitar, violin), and Jim Thomson (guitar). Pretty much everybody sings.

Swing by Le Loup's MySpace to sample three tunes. With its steady, insistent banjo and hushed harmonizing, the first, bearing an eponymous title, might call to mind the more subdued moments of Sufjan Stevens or Arcade Fire. The other two tunes, meanwhile, have an electro-acoustic bloopiness that wouldn't sound out of place on a Morr Music release-- or a record by the Helio Sequence, who in fact recommended Le Loup to Hardly Art.

Le Loup play Washington, DC's Rock and Roll Hotel, alongside the Rosebuds and Bowerbirds, on May 22.

Hardly Art's inaugural release, as previously reported, will be Arthur & Yu's lovely In Camera, out June 19.

ESG Drummer Arrested for Workers' Comp Fraud

44-year-old ESG drummer Valerie Scroggins was arrested last Thursday (May 3) on charges of grand larceny and insurance fraud, according to a report by The New York Times.

Scroggins faces the charges as a result of collecting $13,348 in workers' compensation this past September from her day job as a bus driver for New York City Transit, before heading out on ESG's European tour. She claimed she had hurt her shoulder on the job and could not report to work, a story that was validated at the time by the diagnoses of at least two doctors to which NYCT sent Scroggins.

The transit agency is making its case based on videotape of the European ESG shows taken by investigators, in which Scroggins is shown "energetically playing the drums." And if you've ever seen ESG live, you know that this woman is one hell of a drummer.

In a recent news conference, James Manning-- director of the agency's special investigations unit-- called the doctors' original diagnoses into question by saying the types of injuries claimed by Scroggins and three other transit workers recently arrested on similar charges "did not lend themselves to definitive diagnoses," according to the NYT article.

Stacey Richman, Scroggins' lawyer, challenged the agency's claims with a statement of her own regarding the video of her client drumming on tour: "I don't believe there's any movement that conflicts with the medical diagnosis."

Scroggins pleaded not guilty at her Thursday arraignment. In addition to the charges she faces at the impending trial, NYCT will ask her to return the money she collected in workers' compensation, according to Brooklyn district attorney Charles J. Hynes.

Bjork, Arcade Fire, Stripes, Wilco Play Austin City Limits
Dylan, Decemberists, Spoon, LCD Soundsystem, Bloc Party, PB&J, QOTSA, MMJ, YLT too!

Though we slaved for literally minutes over last week's crossword-encrypted announcement of this year's Austin City Limits Festival bill of fare, frankly, if it's not a word search, we're not gonna crack it. So we were awfully pleased to find we'd been let off the hook today.

The fest, taking place in Austin, Texas' Zilker Park September 14-16, has officially announced their 2007 lineup, and it packs an even greater wallop than the headache we accrued attempting to solve 9-across. What's a twelve-letter word for "prog-folk book readers"?

ACL Fest's talent pool has a spacious deep end, with Björk, Arcade Fire, the White Stripes, Wilco, Bob Dylan and his Band, the Decemberists, Queens of the Stone Age, Yo La Tengo, Spoon, Bloc Party, the National, LCD Soundsystem, Peter Bjorn and John, My Morning Jacket, Arctic Monkeys, Blonde Redhead, Kaiser Chiefs, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, M.I.A., Andrew Bird, Muse, Midlake, DeVotchKa, Regina Spektor, the Broken West, Stephen Marley, Patterson Hood, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Crowded House, the Little Ones, and Willy Mason. A full lineup is available now through the festival website.

Built to Spill Get Three Vinyl Reissues
You were right when you said everything sounds better on LP

Photo by Maria Tessa Sciarrino

Idaho noodle-makers Built to Spill will receive the vinyl reissue treatment, as a trio of their albums will dig their way into the black plastic grooves on June 5 courtesy of Warner Brothers Records.

1997's Perfect From Now On, 1999's Keep it Like a Secret and last year's You in Reverse will be released in a limited edition of 2,000 copies each, as 2xLPs.

(Hey, I heard this rumor that if you play You in Reverse in reverse, it tells you how to make a clock out of potatoes.)

This is the first time on vinyl for You in Reverse, though the older two LPs have been remastered since their prior vinyl issues on Up Records. An extra incentive to shill out the extra dough: bonus tracks! Keep it Like a Secret features the b-side "Forget Remember When", while Perfect From Now On adds the previously unreleased "Easy Way".

On June 4, Rykodisc will release You in Reverse in the UK, with the "Conventional Wisdom" single following on June 11.

Built to Spill are currently in Sweden, setting off on one of their many previously announced dates. How many, you ask? Why, here's a list: [MORE...]

Hot Hot Heat Form Happiness LTD. in September
Synthpoppers, Inc.

The time is 2002. The place is a folding chair on the coffee-and-Yellowtail-stained throw rug of your first college boyfriend's dorm room. You've spent hours staring deep into the eyes of his Strokes poster, you've run out of patience for his Donnie Darko and Royal Tenenbaums DVDs, and now, you're in the mood for a little dance party.

Hot Hot Heat were there.

Hot Hot Heat-- those squealin', synthy Canadian guys with the walls of hair and the "Bandages"-- wanna make you believe in the magic of 2002 all over again this fall, with the September 11 release of Happiness LTD. on Warner Brothers. The album, HHH's fifth, is their first since 2005's Elevator, and was produced in part by Green Day/My Chemical Romance hitmaker Rob Cavallo. Frontman Steve Bays described the record as "drastically different... unpredictable... [and] yet somehow it maintains an overall timelessness".

In other words, 2002 4 lyfe.

The ageless Hot boys are warming up crowds on dates with the Killers and the Oohlas through May. [MORE...]

Franz Ferdinand, Bonde do Role Design Domino Tees
So do the Kills, Psapp

Going against the current trend of fan-created videos and fan-created remixes, a few Domino Records bands are actually doing something themselves. Franz Ferdinand, Bonde do Role, the Kills and Psapp have all contributed limited-edition designs to the Domino Records T-Shirt Club, to be distributed one at a time with help from Airside starting in July.

We can't show them to you-- only club members will get to see the shirts, and only then upon receipt-- although expect a picture or two to show up online to inspire jealousy in cheapskates. Registration for your hot ticket to memorabilia-town ends June 30.

Odds are 3:1 the Franz tee is XXS-only and striped like a mime's.

CYHSY to Score, Appear in Hanks/Malkovich Film

Recall those erstwhile Clap Your Hands Say Yeah dates, postponed recently under mysterious circumstances? Well today, the band's publicist kindly lifted the veil of intrigue surrounding the nixed gigs. Turns out the (omg unsigned!) quintet was forced to bail on a few Midwestern cities because they had a date with Hollywood.

Don't be bitter though, this sounds like a goodie. According to Clap's publicist, the band's in Los Angeles now shooting scenes for the upcoming film The Great Buck Howard, which also stars some up-and-comers like Tom Hanks and John Malkovich, along with Colin Hanks and Emily Blunt. How this film will stack up against cinematic giants such as Uncle Buck remains to be seen.

Clap Your Hands also wrote new songs for the film's score, and it was indeed duties related to these new compositions that called the crew away from a slice of their tour a couple weeks back. The band hopes to make up the missed dates in the fall, and sudden stardom hasn't (yet) thwarted their plans to work the European festival circuit this summer. [MORE...]

Xiu Xiu Polaroids Bundled in Book With Bonus CD
CD to include tracks from Xiu Xiu, Casiotone, Yellow Swans, Barr, Dead Science, Grouper

By now even the casual Pitchfork reader may have stumbled upon those notorious Xiu Xiu tour Polaroids (and those other notorious Xiu Xiu tour Polaroids), taken by the band's documentarian/roadie David Horvitz last year on film submitted by fans.

Not content merely to haunt the darker corners of the interweb, it seems Horvitz's attempts to capture the candid touring travails of Xiu Xiu will soon shock and awe (and confuse) unwitting moms and dads from the shelves of bookstores everywhere. Xiu Xiu: The Polaroid Project: The Book, due this September from publisher Mark Batty, collects within its colon-happy pages a whole bunch of Horvitz's snapshot ephemera, along with interviews and words from the pen of Jamie Stewart himself. That's pen, you perverts, not-- oh, nevermind.

And because no self-respecting book of indie music Polaroids is complete without a bonus CD, The Polaroid Project will include just that. While the tracklist for said accouterment has not yet passed final inspection, confirmed contributors thus far include Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Barr, Yellow Swans, Grouper, the Dead Science, This Song Is a Mess but So Am I, High Places' Mary Pearson, Xiu Xiu's own Ches Smith, and, of course, Xiu Xiu.

The Polaroid Project, mind you, is not to be confused with Horvitz' recent handmade photobooks.

If you're not quite prepared to plunge into an entire tome of Xiu Xiu visuals, Horvitz has a pair of digital photobooks in .pdf format (plus info on another book of his photographic wares), up at the Xiu Xiu website now. Per his instructions, you should enlarge the .pdf photos files to inordinate sizes and attempt to decipher them as though your computer screen were a magnifying glass. College procrastinators and office interns bored to tears, your day has just been made.

As far as we can tell, Xiu Xiu are, miraculously, not touring at the moment. UPDATE: WE SPOKE TOO SOON! THEY HAVE FOUR DATES SCHEDULED IN EUROPE IN JULY! AND ONE IN CANADA IN JUNE! SEE BELOW.

They of course have dozens of peripheral and provisional projects popping presently, and it's safe to assume they'll be bombarding the Pitchfork news page again soon. [MORE...]

All Smiles Tours With Menomena
All Smirks Tour With Art Brut

Flash those pearly whites to Jim Fairchild, and he'll probably return in kind; the former Grandaddy axeslinger and current All Smiles mouth-model is setting out tonight on a hefty tour in support of his satisfyingly slick Dangerbird-issued Ten Readings of a Warning LP. The happy camper will share quite a few bills with loopy Stumptown act Menomena. [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.)