Wilco, M.I.A., Pumpkins, Rage, Spoon Do Voodoo Fest
Plus: Clap Your Hands, Common, Galactic [ft. Mr. Lif, Lyrics Born], Quintron

Jana Hunter and Castanets Gear Stolen
Just as they stole our hearts in song, only much crappier

For the love of god, could all you petty thieves get together and agree to leave the indie musicians of the world alone? It's bad enough they struggle for recognition; now they've gotta struggle to keep their stuff? Can't you rip off Daughtry or something?

Following in the unfortunate footsteps of the Concretes, the Dears, Film School, Xiu Xiu, and other victims, the Jana Hunter and Castanets tour van was robbed right under the nose of Castanet Ray Raposa. So what's the story, mourning glories?

Hunter sent out the following message over the weekend:

So, the story is, last night we played in tucson at solar culture. afterward, we loaded our stuff up, went downtown, had a drink, and went to a house to crash on the floor. en route, we damaged a door, making it such that the door won't close and such that eventually, before we return the vehicle to the rental company, we'll have to pay on the order of 2 grand to replace the door.

seeing as how we had an unsecured vehicle, ray (castanets) slept in the van. sometime during the night, some brave fuck(s) very quietly opened the back door and took what they could carry. we assume their were more than one of them given all the shit they managed to walk away with. we're gathering what serial numbers we can, but in the meantime, here's a rudimentary list:

JH gear-
fender classical guitar (ser.#9505151116)
new boss 20xl loopstation
boss reverb/delay pedal
original digitech whammy pedal
original b k butler tubedriver overdrive pedal
peavey 6 mixer (ser.#k0344300)
shure beta 98/s
custom flashlight circuit-bended thing

Castanets gear-
late 60's blue fender music master guitar
line 6 delay pedal
boss tremolo
mutron volume/wah pedal
boss tuner pedal
digitech metal master
ebow
slides/cables

That's some cold-blooded stuff right there!

Despite the setback, Jana, Ray and the rest will continue their string of dates together without their circuit-bended thing. They've set up an e-mail address-- mutualincarnation@gmail.com-- at which they'll gladly accept Paypal donations to help them replace their gear.

Go see 'em! They need your love now more than ever. [MORE...]

MP3: Jana Hunter: Valkyries [from the There's No Home LP]
Stream: Castanets: Like a Pen [the Knife cover]

Okkervil River Announce Fall Tour

MP3: Okkervil River: Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe [from the forthcoming The Stage Names LP]

Pharoahe Monch Talks Desire, Artistic Process, Asthma
"If you're a nerd with two-inch-thick glasses and you're making a great song, I'm going to buy into your product before I'm going to buy into somebody who's fresh out of prison who actually murdered three people and has an album and it just sucks."

Pharoahe Monch's second solo album has been a long time coming. After a run of three records with partner-in-crime Prince Po (or Prince Poetry) as Organized Konfusion, Monch closed out the 90s with the release of his first solo album, Internal Affairs, in 1999. The album-- on underground hip hop powerhouse label Rawkus (also home to Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and Big L at the time)-- cemented Monch's status as one of the genre's premier lyricists. And he followed it up by effectively disappearing.

Label politics played a part in the disappearance, though an exact explanation of his absence from music is still seemingly non-existent. No matter, since last year Monch started making noise again, leaking songs and making videos and a mixtape to promote a (finally) forthcoming new album.

That album, Desire, will finally arrive on record store shelves tomorrow, June 26, via SRC Records. It's an ambitious record full of Monch's trademark tongue twisters and extended metaphors as well as an Elvis homage of sorts ("Body Baby") and a partial Public Enemy cover ("Welcome to the Terrordome"). Last week, Monch spoke to Pitchfork about the album, his writing style (and some of his more illicit metaphors), and how his near-lifelong battle with chronic asthma has affected his career path.

Monch has a couple weeks' worth of tour dates this summer, most of which are part of the Rock the Bells festival and tour. His next show is on June 29 in New York City.

Pitchfork: How does it feel to be releasing your second solo album almost a decade after your first?

Pharoahe Monch: It's awesome. It feels great. I love the record. The time thing is really not an issue with me, because I feel like if I would have released this record under Geffen or [in] another situation, it wouldn't be what it's going to be. And it's going to be really good.

Pitchfork: Is this the record you would have wanted to release as a follow-up to Internal Affairs?

PM: It's taken a lot of different forms, and I think, as my second effort, I wanted it to be what the people are getting right now. I wanted the proper control, and I didn't want to worry about putting the current, trendy r&b artists on a chorus, none of those things. A lot of times when you're steadfast [in] your integrity you have to have patience as well. As [much] as the hiatus was [because of] regular label politics and things gone wrong with the label situation, I was just enjoying my freedom for a good period of time, touring and having a good time.

Pitchfork: Do you feel like you play a different role in the scene now than you did eight years ago?

PM: Definitely, because of the way things have changed. I think my attitude when I signed with Rawkus was kind of similar to now. I was like, "Yo, I think I can give you two to three records that can compete in the marketplace with what's going on currently and give you tangible music that's on the cusp, but still ahead of its time," and I was just so enamored with how wack things were then.

I just was like, "Musically, it's such an easy thing to compete," where before, when you had Tribe and Brand Nubian and Leaders of the New School and the Pharcyde, and all these different artists pushing the envelope, it was like, "Uh, maybe we should go back to the drawing board. Uh, maybe we should uh--." That was good for the barometer of hip-hop, because it kept pushing the envelope. Every time one of those albums came out, you were like, "Wow." They stretched it. Whether they stretched it politically or stretched it musically, they stretched it at the time. In '99 I think Rawkus-- I don't want to say it was easy for us, but it was nothing to be competitive with what was out there.

Pitchfork: But that actually inspires you?

PM: Yeah. Before I signed with them, I was like, "I can give you records that can more than compete with what's going on in the industry, business-wise," and [it's] the same thing now. The difference is, this record is a total reflection of all that I am emotionally, without being concerned with what's going on in the industry. And you can call me a fool, and I know the label will hate to hear this, but I'm not really concerned with what's going on in the industry right now. From what I hear from the complaints and what I hear when I do turn on the radio once a week, it's pretty fucking bad.

Pitchfork: And you feel like it's your job to offer a positive alternative?

PM: People should listen to whatever the hell they want to listen to. I just want a fair share at showing people that there are alternatives to the approach to making hip-hop records and expressing yourself. I only get frustrated when the equality of that is taken away. Even on my side of things, let's say the record goes double platinum and people say, "How the hell did he do that in an industry that's not selling records? He just came through with this record, and it caught on and spread through word of mouth, and people love the record." Let's say that happens and record labels are like, "Do you have anything that sounds like that guy, Pharoahe Monkey or whatever his name is?" and people start sounding like my shit. I'll be the first one to say, "Come on, let's get off the ride-the-wind, trend shit," and that's what you get a lot of. Whether it's the East Coast or the West Coast or down South or the hot producer, it's just bad for the culture, for the musical form to be like, "Pharoahe's hot right now. Let's get him to produce some..."-- you know? It's just ridiculous, man. [MORE...]

Stream: Pharoahe Monch: Let's Go [from the forthcoming Desire LP]

M.I.A., Twilight Sad, Voxtrot, Cursive Play Siren Fest
Also: Black Lips, Lavender Diamond, New York Dolls, Matt and Kim

The Village Voice's Coney Island-inhabiting Siren Music Festival will take place this year on July 21, and its lineup includes M.I.A., Voxtrot, the Twilight Sad, New York Dolls, the Black Lips, Matt and Kim, Cursive, Lavender Diamond, We Are Scientists, the Detroit Cobras, Elvis Perkins, Dr. Dog, Noisettes, White Rabbits, and various DJs.

The free, all-ages festival will happen rain or shine, and the event's organizers plan to add even more acts to the lineup in the coming weeks.

[Editor's note: Even though the Voice has been taken over by evil robots, we still heartily endorse the Siren Festival. Plus, since Coney Island is about to be demolished and turned into a 21st century tourist nightmare, you might as well enjoy the old school rides and freak shows while they're still there.]

Diplo Launches Heaps Decent Non-Profit

You knew all along master blaster Diplo was a mad decent dude. What may not have crossed your mind was just how decent the dude could be. The Hollertronix whiz kid has announced the creation of Heaps Decent a "non-profit music initiative" that "aims to connect current popular recording artists with students from underprivileged communities around the world and reinforce the positive influence of music education through technical skill development and public performance."

Heaps Decent got its start following Diplo's stint on this winter's Big Day Out tour, when he headed out on his own on an Australian mini-vacation, visiting a number of remote locales. While there, the DJ/producer met a group of indigenous Australian youngsters interested in hip-hop. With help from Ed Banger's DJ Mehdi, the Australian label Modular, and sponsors Apple, Obey, Serato/Rane, and Ableton, Diplo held a series of workshops for students from the Northern Australian locale Maningrida and from a Southern Australian New South Wales juvenile justice center. These sessions resulted in the creation of the single "Smash a Kangaroo", which will be available on iTunes soon and is currently streaming on the Heaps Decent MySpace page).

UPDATE: PITCHFORK WAS GIVEN INCORRECT INFORMATION REGARDING WHO, EXACTLY, SET UP THIS PROGRAM. HEAPS DECENT IS BEING RUN BY DIPLO ALONG WITH PARTNERS ANDREW LEVINS AND NINA AGZARIAN. THE AUSTRALIAN SESSION WAS PUT TOGETHER BY DIPLO AND ROSIE DWYER. MODULAR AND DJ MEHDI WERE NOT INVOLVED, THOUGH JUSTICE AND BUSY P FROM ED BANGER DJ'ED A FUNDRAISER. 

Diplo plans to bring the project to other locations throughout the world, starting with a session in Rio de Janeiro's Rochina favela in January.

Meanwhile, Diplo's got plenty of music on the way-- including a couple tracks on M.I.A.'s forthcoming Kala-- and a bunch of tour dates all over this world of ours. [MORE...]

Video: Heaps Decent: Making of Smash a Kangaroo
Stream: Heaps Decent: Smash a Kangaroo

Aa Play the Touring gAame

Photo by Tod Seelie

Aa (aka BIG A little a...so many "a"s!!!!) will hit the road this summer in support of their debut CD/DVD full-length, gAame.

The Brooklyn band have a show tomorrow (June 23) at Coney Island, and after that their tour begins in New York City on July 8.

The day before kickoff, members of Aa will play in Brooklyn Bridge Park with Boredoms (and a ton of other rhythm freaks) as part of the latter band's previously reported "77 Drum" performance experiment. But good luck picking the Aa dudes out of a mass of 77 sweaty heads and 154 flailing arms (barring any Leppard-like participants). [MORE...]

Video: Aa: Walk Again [from the gAame LP]

Os Mutantes Schedule More Shows

Our suspicions were correct! Os Mutantes are not just, as previously reported, playing two U.S. shows and disappearing back into the psychedelic mists of their Brazilian homeland. Instead, they have a respectable-sized tour assembled for the month of July, including four U.S. dates and a handful more in the UK and Europe.

The Tropicalia legends' last three dates are part of their previously reported participation in the TrocaBrahma festival, which finds them collaborating with Optimo's JD Twitch.

The band's tour still begins July 11 in Chicago. [MORE...]

Stream: Os Mutantes: Various Tracks

Luscious Jackson's Gabby Glaser Makes a Solo Splash

Stream: Gabby Glaser: Various Tracks [from the Gimme Splash LP]

Matmos Tour, Collaborate With So Percussion
So so def

Though they're hardly strangers to artistic union, Matmos' most frequent collaborators seem to have always been "Pawn Shop Dude", "Crazy Guy at the Junkyard Who Threw a Broken Banjo at Drew's Head," or "Cow Who Sacrificed Her Uterus." (Or "Person Writing Angry Email to Pitchfork," since Drew Daniel is a contributor to this here website.)

Recently, the experimental duo have been crafting their divine detritus alongside Brooklyn pipe bangers So Percussion. According to a post on Matador's News Update, Matmos "just got back from a bucolic recording session in Montana where [they] worked on a new collaborative sextet project with So Percussion, ate BBQ, and played a wild and beer-soaked show for the townsfolk of Whitefish." Yee-haw! Video from said bucolic recording session can be seen by clicking on the link at the bottom of this story.

Those sessions have birthed a series of European and American tour dates on which Matmos and So Percussion will run through their newly-minted Montana-born material. The trek culminates in a pair of shows at NYC's Lincoln Center, and "each night will feature different special top secret guest stars." Seeing as it's Matmos, that could be anybody from Björk to a broken Teddy Ruxpin, but either way, it should be cool.

Matmos will follow their dates with a relocation from San Francisco to Baltimore in August. Don't be surprised if Amanda Blank pops up on their next album. [MORE...]

Video: Matmos and So Percussion: Various Tracks [live at Snowghost Music]

The Nels Cline Singers Draw Breath for New LP

MP3: The Nels Cline Singers: Square King (edit) [from the The Giant Pin LP]
Stream: The Nels Cline Singers: Various Tracks

Photos: Superchunk / Mountain Goats / Ponys [Chicago, IL; 06/20/07]

Superchunk:



[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.)