MC Spank Rock Talks Downtown Signing, 2 Live Crew
"If it plays out the way I see it in my head, it'll be complete mayhem."

Photo by Nilina Mason-Campbell

In most every way, 2006 was a breakout year for Spank Rock. The party-rocking quartet-- comprised of MC Naeem "Spank Rock" Juwan and DJ-producers Alex "Armani XXXchange" Epton, Chris "Rockswell" Devlin, and Ronnie Darko-- brought club rap to the fore of indie consciousness with YoYoYoYoYo, one of the few independently-released albums not made by white guys with guitars that Joe and Jill Indie were talking about last year. Yo was also the only rap album to make the Shortlist Prize's shortlist, and it scooped up a Plug Award in the hip-hop category. Thom Yorke is a fan, while Beck aficionados even caught Spank Rock opening for the mumbling troubadour in 06, as did Björk followers this year. (Armani XXXchange even remixed the Icelandic siren's "Earth Intruders".)

So where to next, Spank Rock? As Juwan told Pitchfork in an interview yesterday, the only direction to go is forward. "We're gonna start making a record," he said. "Round two."

With that in mind, Spank Rock have signed a worldwide deal with Downtown Records (also home to Gnarls Barkley, Art Brut, and Cold War Kids)-- but before the proposed album hits in early 2008, MC Spank Rock will treat us to an EP inspired by 2 Live Crew, tentatively due in late summer.

"It's this project that was presented to me by this kid named Benny-- Benny Blanco he goes by," Juwan disclosed. "He's a really amazing hip-hop producer; he used to intern with Disco D when I was working with Disco D, so we kind of met each other back then.

"He had this idea to create this EP based off of 2 Live Crew samples, and when he told me he was like, 'How'd you like to be a [part of] it?' I was like, 'I dunno man, it might be cheesy'-- but it actually turned out to be really fun and I'm really proud of it."

No word yet whether Juwan will one-up 2LC on the raunch scale, but the overall sound here shouldn't surprise: "It's just like club banger music, party music."

Juwan and Benny Blanco are still putting the final touches on the EP, which may or may not bear the Spank Rock name-- as it doesn't involve the other three members of the group. It does, however, feature a guest spot from Brooklyn's Santogold.

"I think I want to tour for the EP," Juwan continued. "Depending on how people react to it, maybe we'll have to go out and show 'em some love. I think it'll be fun, man, it will be retarded. If it plays out the way I see it it my head it'll be complete mayhem."

He added, amid laughter, "I just want to try to get a catastrophe charge, like 'Naeem's been arrested for causing a catastrophe!' That's my new goal, I'm going to go for it this next time around." [MORE...]

The New Year Tour West Coast

Former Bedheaders the New Year may not have released much of anything since 2004's The End Is Near, but they still like to get out of the house once in a while.

To prove it, the Touch and Go band are hitting the road for a brief tour of the U.S. West Coast. The first show is tonight, June 20, in Los Angeles, and the last is a mere three days later in Seattle. But hey, it's something. [MORE...]

Get Him Eat Him Tour, Release Single

Fresh off the Absolutely Kosher release of their second album, Arms Down, Get Him Eat Him (lead by Pitchfork contributor Matt LeMay) hit the road tonight for a summer-long tour.

The trek starts and ends in the band's hometown of New York City, hitting most of North America in between. Along the way, they'll play dates with the likes of the Wrens, Xiu Xiu, and Shapes and Sizes.

In July, Catbird Records will release GHEH's "There's a Guy" 7" single, featuring a cover of the Capstan Shafts' "More Lovely Than Likely" (featured in Forkcast today) and a remix of "Present Tenses" by P. Nice. [MORE...]

T.I. Reveals Tracklist, Tour With Ciara
T.I.P. retreats to underground lair, plots next attack

T.I. has finally unveiled the tracklist for his forthcoming album T.I. vs. T.I.P., and while it's tempting to sort the songs into street tracks, club tracks, and skits based on the titles alone, we'll just stick to hoping beyond hope that "Hurt" is a cover of the Nine Inch Nails song.

Grand Hustle/Atlantic will release the King follow-up on July 3, and iTunes is offering two exclusive bonus tracks: "No Sweat [ft. Big Kuntry King & JR]" and the pre-order only "You Ain't Fly".

T.I. has full U.S. tour with Ciara scheduled for later this summer (the Screamfest '07 Tour), but he will play one date in Chicago tonight (June 20) with Lupe Fiasco and Twista. Nick Cannon will host the latter show, which will be broadcast live via the T-Mobile Sidekick's MySpace. Devices with MySpace pages? It looks like the machines really are taking over. [MORE...]

Wiley Brings Playtime to U.S.

Grime retiree/not retiree Wiley will release his previously reported (and discussed) new album, Playtime Is Over, in the U.S. on September 11.

Just like the recently released UK version of the record, the U.S. version of Playtime will be issued by Big Dada Recordings. Our first report of the album's tracklist, however, was a little incomplete. It has 16 tracks instead of 15 because of the inclusion of "My Mistakes", which recently got the video treatment.

Wiley has a handful of live appearances scattered throughout the summer and early fall, the first of which is tomorrow night (June 21) in London. [MORE...]

The Ponys Hit the Dusty Trails of North America

Having recently returned from an expansive tour of Europe (including nearly a half dozen synapse-slicing days and nights in the Netherlands), Chicago's wildest stallions the Ponys are all rested up and ready to take their Matador-issued, Pitchfork-recommended Turn the Lights Out to the dim glow of North American rock clubs.

The foalsome foursome will mount up for a hometown "Eff Cancer" benefit tonight (June 20) alongside travelers from afar Superchunk and the Mountain Goats. They'll then slip up to Manitoba for a spot at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, and, finally, kick things off real proper-like July 15 at the Pitchfork Music Festival, alongside, y'know, everybody. Including you, we hope. [MORE...]

Jarvis Reads Icelandic Folktale for Daytrotter Series

Photo by Kathryn Yu

Recall late last summer, when a certain voice cut through the sweltering heat to deliver an enthralling Icelandic folktale for all the world's amusement? That voice was the voice of Jarvis, as disseminated via the man's Jarvspace, and you have to admit that even though he was reading a kids' story, it still kinda got you a little hot and bothered.

Swing by Jarvspace now and you won't find any of these "Jarvcast" readings (just some choice tunes). You can, however, hear one right now thanks to the folks at Daytrotter.com, who've inaugurated a new series of celebrity musician readings called "Bookery". Jarvis contributes the first reading, sharing Icelandic tale "Bukolla and the Boy". Hearing Mr. Cocker speak is of course a treat-- but as far as fairytales go, this one kinda sucks, with the only vague lesson being something about persevering to reach your goals. Oh, and having a magic cow helps.

Daytrotter promises more readings from their "favorite people", with proposed texts including fairy tales, passages from books, poems, "Penthouse forum letters, comics, monologues, [and] horoscopes." So keep checking back for more storytime goodness.

Jarvis hits us with the "Fat Children" single in July and rocks a number of festivals this summer. The Jarvis-curated Meltdown Festival is going on in London right now. [MORE...]

M.I.A. Cancels Glastonbury Appearance

M.I.A.: perpetual victim of circumstance, or total flake? We're quite fond of the Sri Lankan Q.T., so we're inclined to go with the former; but, at times like these, it's hard to say whether she's got her reasons, or is just being ba-na-nas. According to The Guardian, the rude girl has canceled her appearance at this weekend's Glastonbury festival without explanation. This comes hot on the heels of her more clearly-elucidated ducking of last month's Sasquatch festival here in America.

Of course, Glastonbury attendees will still get a chance to see Arcade Fire, Björk, Modest Mouse, Bloc Party, Arctic Monkeys and so forth. As one might expect from what is among the largest festivals on this or any other planet, the list is still formidable, despite the loss of Ms. Arulpragasam.

In other M.I.A. news, she's got that album coming out in late August, and a bunch of tour dates left, provided all goes well.

In other recent Glastonbury news, the gates are currently open, though the rockin' won't start 'til Friday. And Hard-Fi have been added to the bill, though not in M.I.A.'s place. [MORE...]

Photos: The White Stripes [New York; 06/19/07]

Photos by William Kirk

To celebrate the release of their fantastic new album Icky Thump, the White Stripes have launched a full-scale attack on America's two largest cities. First, New York: On Monday night, they rocked "Late Night With Conan O'Brien", playing "Icky Thump" and "Effect and Cause". Then, last night, they hit up the Fillmore New York (ugh, we hate writing that) at Irving Plaza, treating a relatively small number of fans to tunes from the new album as well as old favorites. Pitchfork photographer William Kirk was one of the lucky few who got in, and he's sent back these snaps from the show.

Today, it's off to Los Angeles, where Jack and Meg will set up shop at "Icky Thump Records"-- aka the old Tower Records location on Sunset Boulevard-- for an in-store set tonight. Stay tuned to the Icky Thump Records YouTube channel for play-by-play coverage.

More Stripey photos and tour dates below.

[MORE...]

Rupture Label Preps Think About Life, Fucked Up EPs
Plus: Comet Gain, Tyvek

Is Fucked Up the conclusion you come to every time you Think About Life? Or do you shrug it all off and decide, eh, Love Is All? Either way, what you need is some delicious vinyl, bro! And NYC imprint What's Your Rupture has you covered.

The upstart label, having already dished out stylus-satisfying releases from the Long Blondes and Love Is All (and a choice comp), will soon serve up several more turntable-ready platters, and even one digital compact disc (wowee!).

First up, on July 31, What's Your Rupture drops a new 12" EP from notorious Canadian shit-starters Fucked Up. Titled Year of the Pig, the release somehow manages to combine Chinese Zodiac occultism with an indictment of sexism and violence in our culture. Fucked Up plan to have advance copies of Year of the Pig available on their tour, which kicks off tonight (June 20) in Cleveland and is sure to involve much blood and bodily harm.

That same day, WYR will unleash the latest release from Michigan rockers Tyvek. Titled Summer Burns, it spans four tracks and two 7" records. Tyvek also have the distinction of being the only band on a July 21 Brooklyn Southpaw bill you can tell your mom about (the others being Fucked Up and Pissed Jeans; a pity Anal Cunt aren't in town that night as well).

Next up, WYR delivers a four-track CDEP from our brothers up north in Think About Life. The as-yet-untitled release arrives September 11, and was recorded in Montreal with David Bryant of Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

Finally, September 25 marks the release of a 7" from indie vets Comet Gain. This one features "Love Without Lies" on the A and "Books of California" on the B, and will precede a What's Your Rupture-stamped compilation of Comet Gain material culled from just after the band's 1997 lineup overhaul. That's tentatively due in October. [MORE...]

Devendra, Andrew Bird, Danielson on Janet Reno Comp

Devendra Banhart photo by Lauren Dukoff

Some two years ago, the Pitchfork news page was graced with an unlikely pairing of names: Devendra Banhart and Janet Reno (just imagine the children there). Since then, Banhart's only gotten wackier, while Reno's been toiling away night and day plotting her descent into the vile world of recorded music. We are thus pleased as punch to report that Reno's Song of America compilation is finally ready to crash the charts.

The lineup has expanded considerably since our last report, and the set-- due September 18 via Split Rock Records/31 Tigers-- now spans 50 songs and three discs. In addition to Banhart's cover of Malvina Reynolds' "Little Boxes", Song of America also includes Andrew Bird's take on early 20th century jam "How You Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm" and Danielson's version of another early radio classic, "Happy Days Are Here Again".

The set also includes tunes from Janis Ian, John Mellencamp, Marah, Martha Wainwright, Blind Boys of Alabama, Bettye LaVette, Old Crow Medicine Show, and plenty of folks we won't pretend to have heard of. Among the songs tackled: "Yankee Doodle", "Go Down Moses", "Battle Hymn of the Republic", "Home on the Range", and "The Times They Are A-Changin'". The track breakdown by disc is not yet known, but all tracks are listed below in running order.

We could attempt to explain what this is all about, but we'll let Janet herself do that (via the press release): "The historical detail of the songs fascinated me and I suggested that Ed [Pettersen] record a whole album of songs focusing on key periods in American history, in order to tell our story to young people who might find joy in learning history through music."

And truly, there's never been a better time to get your granddad into Danielson. [MORE...]

The Rapture Add More Tour Dates

While the current crop of presidential hopefuls wile away the hours praying they won't say anything foolish, their respective staffs are also hard at work finding the perfect auditory complement to their political platforms. It remains to be seen whether Kansas senator Sam Brownback will indeed opt for AC/DC's classic "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", but for the rest of the pack, we'd like to offer this suggestion that we suspect may have gone overlooked at Camp Kucinich: Virtually any song by New York whizzbangers the Rapture. The band's sloganeering seems tailor made for stump speeches, meet-and-greets, or awkward encounters with Sean Hannity of Fox News. (He seems like a spitter.)

Think about it! GONNA GET MYSELF INTO IT! GONNA VOTE FOR OBAMA! Or, even better... HE-E-E-Y! SISTER SAVIOUR! VOTE FOR HILARY! Or, if you're running for Congress, why not use "House of Jealous Lovers"? Eh?

The Rapture won't be available for any live campaign events throughout the summer, though; they'll be out partying with an elite group of donors, of which you could be a member! The band keeps adding dates to that massive stretch we told you about, and as long as the $30-a-plate fundraisers keep rolling on, the Rapture will continue to fight for the little people. The little dancey people. Hey, tiny dancers! [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.)