Miles Davis' On the Corner Given Box Set Treatment

In the vein of The Complete In a Silent Way Sessions and The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions, Columbia/Legacy will release a six-disc box set version of Miles Davis' seminal On the Corner titled, yep, The Complete On the Corner Sessions.

Originally released in 1972 as the studio follow-up to A Tribute to Jack Johnson, On the Corner found Davis using synthesizers and distorted electric guitars in the creation of what was basically funk music, and it remains one of his more divisive records, even among fans of his often-noisier electric period. It also made it onto our "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s" list at #30.

The Complete On the Corner Sessions comes out September 18, and it features newly mixed and mastered versions of these tracks as well as plenty of liner notes-- everything from general memories of Davis to accounts of the album's recording. [MORE...]

Hives Reveal More LP Details, Including Pharrell Collab

Still at work on their Tyrannosaurus Hives follow-up, the Hives continue to dispatch endearingly arrogant little updates regarding the new album's progress.

Here's what we've learned since our last album report. First, the majority of the record, titled The Black and White Album, was recorded with producer Dennis Herring (Modest Mouse, Elvis Costello) in Oxford, Mississippi. Second, they recorded with Pharrell in Miami after he met them in Japan and told them they should all record "something bass guitar based."

The record will also feature the first recordings the band made in their new house in Sweden, Hive Manor. Jacknife Lee (in London) and Tomas Oberg (from Swedish band Bob Hund) also lent their skills behind the boards.

With so many producers and locations, you'd think the Hives would be ready to release the freakin' record already, but frontman Howlin' Pelle Almqvist explains what's taking the band so long in a recent press release: "At this time, we have a lot of songs. In the past, we only had what was on each album. We ask you to bare [sic... or is it? --Ed.] with us as we take the time to wrestle this onto an album. An album of inhuman proportions called The Black and White Album."

In other Hives news, they made it into a Finish Line/Nike+ commercial with one of their new tunes, "Tick, Tick, Boom". You can see the spot below.

The Hives are also touring this summer before they hit the road with Maroon 5 in the fall (still funny!). Their next date is in their home country on August 10. [MORE...]

Okkervil River, Andrew Bird, Casiotone Play Pygmalion
Plus: Shapes and Sizes, Bound Stems, Maserati, Sybris, Headlights, Odawas, Damien Jurado

Okkervil River and Andrew Bird lead the charge at this year's Pygmalion Music Festival.

Among the many others performing are Damien Jurado, Shapes and Sizes, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Bound Stems, Maserati, Sybris, Margot & the Nuclear So and So's, Picastro, Unwed Sailor, Liz Janes, Death Ships, Marla Hansen, Dark Meat, Foundry Field Recordings, Odawas, Yeasayer, Canada, Denison Witmer, and Headlights.

The festival takes place from September 19-22 at various venues in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.

Bon Voyage: Au Revoir Simone Hit the Road

On this, their first-ever U.S. headlining tour, Brooklyn-based three-piece Au Revoir Simone-- still comin' strong with them Bird of Music cuts-- have enlisted the help of hypermelodic Austinite openers Oh No! Oh My! But when the 808's kicking, the vocals are on point, and you're busting out the three keyboard attack, who needs assistance? Au Revoir Simone: breaking out the jams like three Lil Jons at once. [MORE...]

Jourgensen Reveals Last Ministry LP, Cheap Trick Collab

Industrial metal O.G. Al Jourgensen will put his Ministry project to rest after over a quarter century of recording under the name with various lineups.

Ministry's last album, The Last Sucker, will hit stores via Jourgensen's 13th Planet Records on September 18. The follow-up to last year's Rio Grande Blood, it's the third album in a trilogy "aimed at exposing the foils, failures, and fabrications perpetrated by the George W. Bush administration," according to a press release.

The Bush administration also factors into Jourgensen's explanation of the decision to put a halt to Ministry: "I'd rather be behind the console than behind the mic. Plus, I kinda like the synchronicity of Dubya and Ministry riding off into the sunset hand in hand."

In addition to Jourgensen, the album features contributions from Paul Raven (Killing Joke, Prong), Thomas Victor (Prong), Sin Quirin (The Revolting Cocks), Burton C. Bell (Fear Factory), and engineer John "Bixby" Bilberry.

A Ministry farewell tour will take place next year, and until then, Jourgensen's only scheduled live appearances are with Cheap Trick-- as they perform Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band from start to finish at L.A.'s Hollywood Bowl on August 10 and 11, as part of a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the album's release. Jourgensen and Sin Quirin will aid the band in performing a version of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" (actually off Abbey Road) that Jourgensen re-arranged himself. [MORE...]

Jonny Greenwood's U.S. Orchestral Debut: Details
Wordless series also features performances by Beirut, Do Make Say Think, Múm

The Wordless Music series of concerts mixing modern classical musicians with indie rockers has unveiled more details of its 2007-08 season, which, as previously reported, includes appearances by Beirut, Múm, and Do Make Say Think. The season begins with the latter's September 14 set at New York City's Society for Ethical Culture alongside the Electric Kompany.

As previously reported, this Wordless season includes the U.S. premiere of Radiohead noisemaker/guitarist Jonny Greenwood's modern classical piece Popcorn Superhet Receiver, which won the Listeners' Award at last year's British Composer Awards. Greenwood has revised Popcorn slightly for its January 16 and 17 performance by the Wordless Music Orchestra, which will consist of 18 violins, six violas, six cellos, and four double basses for the piece. And in true Radiohead fashion, the concerts at which Popcorn is performed are "program(s) of works exploring the subjects of religion, technology, and modernity."

Wordless Music has also expanded its reach beyond NYC for the first time with this season's September 29 performance in Minneapolis by Valgeir Sigurðsson and Nico Muhly, both previous Björk collaborators who are composers in their own rights.

Wordless will announce the details of its winter and spring shows soon. [MORE...]

Of Montreal, Blitzen, Mates of State on Kiddie Comp
Plus: Rogue Wave, Jolie Holland, Great Lake Swimmers, Damien Jurado, Rosie Thomas, Moby

Photo by Ian Foley

Hipster parents, there has never been a better time to be you. Fresh on the heels of such toddler trendsetter fare as Play, Songs for the Young at Heart, See You on the Moon!, The Colours Are Brighter, and All Together Now comes the third installment in Nettwerk's hallowed For the Kids series, the perfect way to ensure your child forsakes the indie world for the "truer" sounds of country music before he/she hits puberty.

According to Billboard.com, For the Kids' third volume boots Raffi from the Hello Kitty boombox on October 2. It includes exclusive jingles from Of Montreal, Rogue Wave, Great Lake Swimmers, Hem, and Moby, alongside tunes from Blitzen Trapper, Anathallo, and Rosie Thomas with Damien Jurado, and previously released selections from Mates of State, Jolie Holland, and Barenaked Ladies. Because really, "barenaked ladies" is among the first phrases we want our lil' whippersnappers to know. Also, this guy.

Proceeds from sales of the disc go to VH1's Save the Music Foundation. This latest edition follows up 2004's For the Kids Too!, which included kid friendly cuts from Nada Surf, Robyn Hitchcock, They Might Be Giants, and Matthew Sweet. [MORE...]

Jens Lekman Talks Kortedala, Haircuts, Steely Dan
"Maybe it's a facial expression I have or something. I attract people who want to mug me."

Photo by Emma Svensson

In the press materials for Night Falls Over Kortedala-- out October 9 Stateside on Secretly Canadian and September 5 Scandinavia-ways on Service-- Jens Lekman calls the titular Gothenburg neighborhood where he dwells "a depressing suburban hell."

"As soon as I've finished this record," he concludes, after claiming he's been mugged more times than he can count, "I will get the hell out of here."

Yet nothing on Night Falls-- neither cover art nor music-- suggests this dreary descriptor. And indeed, when we phoned Jens the other day for a chat about the new record, we were quite surprised to learn the young troubadour has had a sudden and near-complete change of heart about the place he calls home.

"Ever since I wrote that on my website I think that everything has been changed," Jens disclosed. "For some reason I'm not getting mugged anymore [laughs]. I'm starting to like it, almost. But at one point I was just kind of fed up-- maybe it's a facial expression I have or something, I attract people who want to mug me. But it's just a very sleepy place. People go here mainly to sleep and work. And so, during the daytime, it's an old people's paradise, and then during nighttime it's basically completely empty except for a few people, a few gangsters."

Chalk the 180 up to what may well be a bit of divine intervention. "A few weeks back, this stranger came up to me and said, 'I read somewhere that you don't like this place, and I kind of don't like it either, but I think we have to explore this place first before we judge it, and check it out.' So we just went out for a little safari during nighttime and checked out the neighborhood and it was beautiful. Just completely empty."

Despite the new perspective, Jens still intends to leave Kortadala, at least for a spell. "I have to move. I think I've just decided I have to live somewhere where there's palm trees for a little while. I've lived here my whole life. I was born five minutes from here, so I have to go somewhere just for a year."

He's thinking about setting up shop in Melbourne, Australia, as part of "a huge exploration next year in the Southern Hemisphere. We're actually thinking about going to Antarctica, for a while... I've been saving for years to go there." [MORE...]

Oya Festival Report: Tuesday [Stephen M. Deusner]

Sissy Wish

Photos by Eirik Lande; text by Stephen M. Deusner

Every block of Oslo appears to be under construction. On the walk to the Øya Festival grounds, there are expansive vacant lots with ground barely broken for new structures (including a ridiculous PriceWaterhouseCoopers office), and construction cranes interrupt the skyline in every direction, seemingly outnumbering the buildings themselves. Despite being nearly a century old, Oslo in some ways looks unfinished.

The Øya site itself, in Medieval Park, stands apart from the industrialized city. It lies across the highway from the port, although the massive cargo ships, sightseeing boats, and cruise liners are hardly visible from the site. A small, shallow lake stretches the length of Medieval Park, home to a family of ducks and not much else. Two large stages are set up on either end of the lake, with two smaller stages and numerous booths and tents in between. The set-up sprawls at the foot of a green, spruce-studded hill that could be a banner for Øya's status as the most eco-friendly festival in the world. Emphasizing environmental awareness ever since its first event in 1999, organizers literally wrote the book on green festivals-- their guide is used in Norwegian colleges as well as by music festivals worldwide.

Monolithic




The walk takes us through a more historic section of Oslo, past crowded pubs, pizzerias, and Mediterranean grills-- all of which will be just as full of Oslovians when we walk back at 3 a.m. Located in the Grünerløkka neighborhood, Blå is best known as a jazz and electronica club, but has expanded into indie rock in recent years. The terrace, which overlooks a too-pristine stream, is already crowded once we arrive, and despite a poorly planned bill that will line up three ear-splittingly loud acts back-to-back (which was unfortunate for Monolithic, a two-man band whose superstructured metal riffs fell on mostly deaf ears), the audience will only grow larger and denser.

Prins Nitram

Two of tonight’s biggest Norwegian acts hail from Bergen, a small city about seven hours northwest of Oslo and, despite its size, the center of the Norwegian scene. Most of the country’s most popular exports, such as Kings of Convenience, Magnet, Annie, and Röyksopp, hail from this city in the mountains, as do Sissy Wish and Ungdomskulen, the night’s biggest and best-received acts.

Following Denmark's Prins Nitram-- whose technically impressive act tries to reinvent the concept of “band” on every song, to the point that he played bass, drums, and sang all at once-- Sissy Wish at first look and sound like the Norwegian Yeah Yeah Yeahs. With her bobbed haircut, black leotard with Chucks, and aerobic stage moves Siri Ålberg is indeed the spitting image of Karen O. But her backing band emphasizes versatile new wave hooks, and Ålberg sings more like Cyndi Lauper in the 80s, her girlish voice projecting dramatically and expressively. The set loses some of its momentum when she straps on an acoustic guitar, which limited her movements, or when she trades her Chucks for tap shoes for the final song, but these are minor missteps in an overall dynamic performance.

Sissy Wish

Four hours and three aggressively loud bands later, Ungdomskulen close out the evening with an energetic set of spastically danceable indie rock. Sporting thick black glasses and a beard to rival Doug Martsch’s, singer/guitar player Kristian Stockhaus bounds about the stage enthusiastically, as if to demonstrate how the audience should respond to the band’s squirrelly riffs and elaborate structures. He only stops moving to sing in an endearingly cracked voice, but vocals aren’t the band’s primary concern. Instead, with a friendly aggression that recalls the Rapture (without the dance-punk baggage) or Klaxons, the band run headlong into their songs, playing loud and fast as they lock into one solid jam after another. Each number churns enough momentum to be an effective closer, so it’s a little surprising and even disappointing when they unceremoniously end their set and begin packing up their equipment.

Ungdomskulen

Prefuse 73 Returns With Preparations

Guillermo Scott Herren will revive his Prefuse 73 alias this fall for the new album Preparations, out via Warp on October 23. As Herren mentioned when we chatted with him in March, it's a double album... but only if you buy a physical copy. That's right: as an added incentive to support your local record shop, the digital version of Preparations will not come with the second disc. And you'll be missing out, because that second disc is called Ensembles and is, as promised, a collection of modern classical compositions composed and played by Herren using mostly cello, flute, piano, bass, and clarinet.

As Herren said, "One side of the record is totally beats, and [on] the other side, I'm notating the beats, and they all sound like modern classical music. I feel like half the kids that buy it are just going to throw the other CD away and keep the beat side. I don't know what to expect."

Preparations' first single is "The Class of 73 Bells", featuring School of Seven Bells. It will be released as a limited edition 12" on September 18 in the U.S. and September 17 in the UK on Warp. School of the Seven Bells is the new band of ex-Secret Machine Benjamin Curtis, and ex-On!Air!Library twin sisters Claudia and Alejandra Deheza. (Claudia has also worked with Herren under his Savath & Savalas guise and as A Cloud Mireya.)

Another exciting guest on Preparations is John Stanier, drummer for Warp labelmates Battles. He pounds on "Smoking Red".

Though Herren unfortunately had to leave his Savath & Savalas tour with Jose Gonzalez, he has a fair number of dates scheduled this fall as Prefuse, and even more are forthcoming.

Savath fans have a little something to look forward to as well. Though there's not much information about the release just yet, but Herren recently hit the Savath MySpace blog to announce that Savath and Soft Circle's Hisham Bharoochaa are preparing a limited edition split 12" and digital single. [MORE...]

Photos: Yeah Yeah Yeahs [New York, NY; 08/07/07]

Photos by Kathryn Yu

Yeah Yeah Yeahs rocked Webster Hall in New York last night as part of their not-so-massive summer tour, which has them playing only four more dates before August is up-- including a set at Mansfield, Massachussetts' Download Festival. No, not that Download Festival... this Download Festival!

As usual, Karen O was all glitter, glam, and gumption: she even pulled a Bradford Cox and tried to deep throat the mic. You'll have to follow the jump for that shot, plus the YYYs' remaining tour dates.

[MORE...]

Bonde do Role Extend Tour, Prep New Single

Party starters Bonde do Role have used their magical show-adding Lasers to, yes, add shows to the end of their previously reported tour. The new dates occur in the UK in November.

Also for UK ears is the Brazilian trio's newest single, for LP track "Solta o Frango". The single features remixes by Ladytron and Bitchee Bitchee Ya Ya Ya, and it will come out on CD and seven-inch via Domino on September 3. Gee, UK tour dates, new single out September 3-- sound familiar? [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.)