The Streets Work on Fourth LP, Tour

We haven't heard much from Mike Skinner since he broke the record for the longest music video ever recorded with "Deluded in My Mind" all the way back in August. That's because he's hard at work recording the follow-up to last year's The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living in his Fat Control Room studio.

The new album, Skinner's fourth as the Streets, is composed entirely of live instruments. In a recent episode of his online TV show "Beat Stevie", Skinner said the album features "stories about people and places that could have existed since the beginning of time," including "one about a guy who's about to jump off a cliff, one about a kid who's running-- his dad tells him to flip a coin to decide what he's going to do next," and another without a beat ("just me and a harp"). In the SkinnerBlog on his website, he writes, "All my new songs are really fast at the moment." He also mentions off-hand (and we think hypothetically) that the final Streets album will be "the one after this."

The only song title Skinner has given up is the title of his favorite on the album: "Turn Your Life on the Flip of a Coin". He hopes to release the album by this Christmas.

Skinner will take a break from recording this summer to go on the Streets' tour of Scotland in July, which is bookended by an opening gig for Muse in June and a handful of European festival dates in August. Though no other dates are scheduled just yet, he plans to get to the rest of Europe, England, and the U.S. after that.

Finally, Skinner recently remixed a track called "Either Way" by his Birmingham buds the Twang, and they filmed a video for the remix in Brighton with Skinner protégé Professor Green, who also guests. [MORE...]

Menomena Invade Europe
Sign to City Slang overseas, tour

Front page photo by Alicia J. Rose

The friendly men of Menomena are all set to become intimately acquainted with the citizens of the Old World now that they have finally signed to a European label. Their deal with the Berlin-based City Slang is the first label or distribution deal the band have had overseas, and they are prepared to celebrate properly with the imminent release of the "Wet and Rusting" 7" followed by the release of Friend and Foe in late summer or fall.

Menomena will even make their way to land of Euro Disney for the very first time to play a handful of dates toward the end of their previously reported summer tour. That tour, which kicks off June 1 in Seattle, also includes an appearance at the Pitchfork Music Festival on Sunday, July 15 (click here for tickets).

The band have a couple of rockin' posters for the tour, both of which were designed by Tyler Stout and prominently feature drummer Danny Seim's pug/Menomena's manager, Ms. Geddy Lee, as the ghost from the Ghostbusters logo and as Luck Dragon Falkor from The Neverending Story. A third and final installment in the series will be available this fall.

In addition to the posters, Menomena hope to have the vinyl version of Friend and Foe in tow for the tour. They are preparing it now and trying to make sure its artwork rivals the mix-and-match creativity of the CD's artwork.

Finally, the band recently finished the video for "Rotten Hell", and they plan to unveil it soon. [MORE...]

Maserati Craft Inventions, Kick Off Tour

Even though their debut, The Language of Cities, came out in 2002, Maserati's new album is only the second proper full-length release from the Athens, Georgia instrumental quartet. The sophomore record is called Inventions for the New Season, and it comes out June 19 on Temporary Residence Ltd.

Maserati have replaced Phil Horan with Gerhardt Fuchs (!!!, LCD Soundsystem, the Juan Maclean) on drums, and longtime friend-of-the-band Andy Baker produced Inventions at his home studio in Athens.

Inventions will come in CD and gatefold double LP formats. The LP will have more extensive artwork than the CD, and the first 1,000 copies of the LP will come on transparent, red-and-white splattered vinyl.

Maserati race out on a U.S. tour in support of the album tonight (May 25) in Louisville. Their first handful of shows is in support of !!!, which means Fuchs will be on double drum duty.

Finally, Maserati are already planning an Australian tour for November. [MORE...]

Hallelujah the Hills Sign to Misra, Prep Debut, Tour

Assembled from the splinters of little-heard, much-beloved Bostonites the Stairs, recent Misra signees Hallelujah the Hills will issue their full-length debut, Collective Psychosis Begone, on June 5.

Matching the Thermals' Big Gulp pop ebullience with Bob Pollard's gift for claustrophobic harmonies and the Wrens' beauteous brood, the stalwart six-piece will hit the road for a few weeks spinning around the right side of the U.S. this summer. Those who miss the band on this tour are in luck; Hallelujah the Hills have (either ambitiously or facetiously, we're not sure) promised their new label 32 more albums before splitting, which should result in at least another tour or two. [MORE...]

The Broken West Tour the North, South, East, and West

They claim they can't go on, but they did go on... go on tour, that is! (Ouch.)

The Broken West, City of Angels born and power-pop bred, have seedy motels to crash in, the strange scents of long-forgotten cheeseburgers to rediscover in their van, and copies of their Merge-issued debut LP I Can't Go On, I'll Go On to hock. Their tour of North America is in progress now, and along the way, the zippy guitar-rockers will stand upon some of the very stages acts like the National, the Comas, and Fountains of Wayne will take mere minutes later. [MORE...]

Thunderbirds Are Now! Tour
Thunderbirds Are Yesterday! Plot Comeback Tour With Several Original Members

Detroit's own speakers of declarative rock statements, Thunderbirds Are Now!, are gearing up to launch a tour of both the middle and actual West.

Still recontextualizing the zeitgeist behind last fall's Make History record, the Frenchkiss band's heading out with the Junior Varsity and Street to Nowhere. The 'birds will cap off this jaunt with a homecoming set at the Detroit Comerica CityFest July 5; they'll also get crackin' on their post-History LP. [MORE...]

Blitzen Trapper Tour With Hold Steady, Self-Release LP

Portland, Oregon continues to hemorrhage great bands, and shows no signs of bleeding itself dry just yet; think of a record from the past six months you've been digging (sans any Swedish vocal twinge), and the joint probably stinks of fir trees and Clyde "The Glide" Drexler.

Blitzen Trapper are presently clawing their way to the top of the Portland pile, and the buzz around their Wild Mountain Nation is as deafening as it is deserving. Finding the unlikely ground between spazz-rock and chicken-fried stomp, Wild Mountain Nation's so fine, Blitzen Trapper don't even need a label to move the sucker. The band'll peddle the self-issued album themselves starting June 12.

The reindeer-grabbers will soon step out on a bunch of dates with noted soft-rocking teetotalers the Hold Steady and Bucks County, PA's banjo-and-beats blenders Illinois. [MORE...]

Photos: The Clientele / Beach House [Hollywood, CA; 05/24/07]

Photos by Akmal Naim

Supporting this month's Best New Music-garnering LP, London's Clientele played a packed show at Hollywood's Knitting Factory last night. Alasdair MacLean and company-- including the band's newest permanent member, multi-instrumentalist Mel Draisey-- gracefully rocked a set half-comprised of songs from their excellent third full-length, God Save the Clientele.

Warming up the stage was another Pitchfork-approved act, the down-to-earth duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally, together known as Beach House. They droned and intoned most of last year's self-titled debut, but also offered a couple of new songs, including "Wedding Bell" and one apparently involving a monster.

THE CLIENTELE




BEACH HOUSE



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Maximo Park Walk 500 Miles on New Single, Tour
They're gonna be the men who fall down at your door

Some bands moan about time on the road, but as they while away the hours on the tour bus-- priming for their nightly onstage herky-jerk-- the fellas of Maxïmo Park must be diggin' their extended vacay. Their already substantial tour just engorged itself further with a string of early October dates in their native England, bringing the grand total of times a person with no credit limit and a penchant for getting busy could conceivably catch Maxïmo in action to, like, a billion.

In other Maxïmo news, they'll issue a single for Our Earthly Pleasures track "Books From Boxes" June 11 in their homeland on Warp. "Books" comes on white or blue 7", CD, or download, and spread over its many incarnations are a few new songs and a take on the Proclaimers' "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" on Jo Whiley's BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge program. Full tracklists for all five formats of the "Books" single and a truly epic tour schedule after the jump. [MORE...]

Dan Deacon Seeks Choir for Tour That Starts Today

Polyphonic Spree: watch your backs! Good bloke Dan Deacon has announced his intention to assemble a different backing choir in each and every city on his upcoming tour (the one that kicks off tonight). The lucky eight will perform Spiderman of the Rings jam "Wham City" with Deacon and don some fetching Spree-style neon robes created by Baltimore artist Stefani Levin and pictured here.

Do you have what it takes to back up batshit spazz-pop's reigning idiot savant? Fire an email off to handy address dandeaconchoir@gmail.com if so, but act fast! The first eight people (four male, four female) per city are in; everyone else must content themselves with singing along from the crowd and wearing the usual fitted New Era caps and neckerchiefs.

Every performance of "Wham City" on this tour will be filmed for the song's forthcoming music video. So if you make it into the choir, you'll be faaaamous.

God only knows what newly invented odors those robes will emit by the time they reach the Pitchfork Music Festival this July.






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Sasquatch! Festival Kicks Off This Weekend

With excitement built into its very name, the latest annual Sasquatch! Music Festival descends into George, Washington's Gorge this weekend. Um, let's rephrase that in slightly less naughty terms: the Sasquatch! Music Festival will occur this Saturday and Sunday within the venue known as the Gorge that is located in George, a settlement in Washington. Better? Good.

Typical fest-mongers like Björk, Arcade Fire, Interpol, the Hold Steady, Neko Case, and Spoon will dazzle the masses, while funny people like Sarah Silverman and Aziz Ansari say funny things and all sorts of vendors and artisans and revolutionaries tempt you with their wares and ideas.

The complete lineup lies just a click ahead, while even more event info can be found on the Sasquatch! website. Notable lineup additions since our initial announcement include Patrick Wolf, the Polyphonic Spree, Blackalicious, Blitzen Trapper, Earl Greyhound, and the Long Winters, who'll attempt to fill the fashionable shoes of a missing-in-action M.I.A. (who was once again locked out of the USA). [MORE...]

The Orb's Thomas Fehlmann Pushes Honigpumpe

Longtime member of the Orb and house music pioneer Thomas Fehlmann's contributions to electronic music's development are incalculable, as is the depth and breadth of his recorded output. Honigpumpe, his latest album, drops May 29 in Europe and June 5 in the States from Kompakt, and continues the sonic explorations Fehlmann has mounted over his two decades at the forefront of house.

Switzerland house junkies can catch Fehlmann this June on his lone scheduled tour stop. However, the Orb will be performing a few times this summer, mostly at European festivals. A new Orb album titled The Dream is currently in the works. It features collaborations with superproducer Youth, Dreadzone's Tim Bran, Steve Hillage, Andy Kane, and Eric Walker. [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.)