Fucking Champ Green Mines Aluminum as Concentrik
Fucking Champs tour

Tim Green from the Fucking Champs (and formerly of Nation of Ulysses) doesn't seem like a likely candidate for hushed synthesizers and glitchy beats, but they're both to be found on Aluminum Lake, the latest from Tim Green's "electronic side project" Concentrick, out August 28 on Drag City.

Aluminum Lake is plenty lovely, but Champs fans can content themselves in the knowledge that their boy Green hasn't gone soft on 'em: the "electronic side-project" facade falls away pretty quick whenever the need for barrel-chested riffage emerges. Hey, it's the dude from Fucking Champs, whaddya want?

Green is also an in-demand producer and engineer, having worked with Joanna Newsom, Sleater-Kinney, Comets on Fire, and many others. As we mentioned recently he's working on the next Citay album.

The Champs will take to the road in September following a few California dates to round out July. [MORE...]

I'm From Barcelona Issue New Single, Tour

I'm From Barcelona don't tour much. They've only got the one record, and it's not especially long or anything. And, despite its disproportionate catchiness and the band's rise to prominence over the giant-twee-band scene about a year ago, I'm From Barcelona are about to release just the second single from Let Me Introduce My Friends. Getting 30 people on board for every idea is tougher than it seems, eh, Lundgren?

"We're From Barcelona," the odds-on favorite for the first I'm From Barcelona track you ever heard (and as proper an introduction to a band as any), will be plucked from its kin by Mute Records come July 31 in the U.S. They'll back it with "Britney", their bah-bah-laden ode to Ms. Spears' tumultuous spring.

'Tis a digital release, the "We're From Barcelona" single is, and though that's hip and all, it seems like a bit of a wasted opportunity for some band-solidarity-boosting arts and crafts. Take 30 folks, throw 'em in a room with some Nutter Butters and a bunch of markers, and when the evening's up, you'd have enough hand-designed slipcovers to last you several pressings. Maybe next time.

After a few European dates, I'm From Barcelona will play their first-ever U.S. shows early next month. Dates after the jump. [MORE...]

Klaxon Breaks Leg Stage Diving, Band Postpones Gigs
Some might even say their Australian "leg" is Klax-off

At a gig over the weekend at Angoulême, France's Garden Nef Party festival, Klaxons man Jamie Reynolds (he would be the Klaxon with the second-funniest hair) busted his shin something fierce. According to a MySpace bulletin, Reynolds "drastically misjudged the [approximately] 12' distance between the stage and the grass" during a stage dive, and broke his leg. You know, unless the verdict is "nah, this isn't happening," any judgment made about a 12 foot jump is probably a misjudgment.

Reynolds, now requiring bed rest and a three-inch plate to hold his tibia in place, has forced the recent Mercury Prize nominees to postpone a string of Australian gigs they'd lined up for next week. Rescheduling should be underway shortly-- and all non-Aussie gigs, including a bunch with Simian Mobile Disco, appear to still be on-- but Reynolds nevertheless wrote that he's "gutted" about the whole experience. "Gutted," of course, is British for "really digging the spongebaths." [MORE...]

Euros Childs Makes a Miracle on LP3

August 27 marks yet another step in former Gorky's Zygotic Mynci frontman Euros Childs' diabolical scheme to flood the marketplace with pristine Welsh pop.

Having already issued two albums in the last 18 months, Childs will drop The Miracle Inn August 27 on Wichita in the UK (and October 23 in the US), then sit back and cackle as his rapidly-expanding catalog squeezes every last copy of Eagle-Eye Cherry's Desireless from the "C" section of record shops everywhere. Why, that's not diabolical; that's downright noble!

Until that fateful day is upon us, Childs has a number of dates on the way, all of them in the United Kingdom, and some of them at venues with spellcheck-unfriendly Welsh names. [MORE...]

Photos: M.I.A. [Brooklyn, NY; 07/25/07]

Photos by Jason Bergman

It was more than a little ironic when M.I.A. went missing-in-action last night at Brooklyn's Studio B, but the humor was mostly lost on the audience who had to wait for nearly three-and-a-half hours-- with no opening act-- before the London diva finally took the stage around midnight.

But maybe being greeted with boos and catcalls is just what Maya needed to kick the night off right. Joined on stage by Hollertronix DJ Low B, M.I.A. pumped out a set of her hodgepodgy dance tunes, like the crazy-good "Bird Flu", whose presentation, as usual, featured a video of a 6-year-old boy getting down like mad. More photos and tour dates below.






[MORE...]

Wilco Announce Fall U.S. Dates

Photo by Shannon McClean

This Wilco tour goes on, and on, and on, don't it? Having kicked off way back when they were a country-rock band, continued through when they were an experimental art band, and keeps going now that they're... well, whatever they are now, Wilco's jumbo jaunt has expanded yet again, with a few U.S. dates thrown on the back of their itinerary just for kicks.

Maybe Volkswagen kicked in a really boss tourbus they just don't care to leave. Or maybe-- just maybe-- they really dig it out there on the open road, cutting loose at cool festivals in idyllic locales, all that sky blue sky stretched out before 'em. Fancy that! The show in their hometown of Chicago on September 12 is a benefit for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.

Thanks to reader Jack for the tip-off.

In other Wilco news, axeman Nels Cline just put out a new solo disc, with trap-work from drummer Glenn Kotche. And Tweedy's been gettin' his comedy on. [MORE...]

Okkervil River Add Dates to Tour

These days, Okkervil River are all about expansiveness. All set to drop the spacious Stage Names-- which they'll flesh out further with a previously-reported bonus demo disc-- Okkervil are expanding their tour into the fall and over to another continent. They've got a pair of curiously sparse dual UK runs set to follow a month or so of North American gigs, all coming hot on the heels of Jagjaguwar's August 7 release of The Stage Names. See? Expansive!

Next up for Okkervil: a triple-live LP, featuring overdubs by Spiritualized's Jason Pierce and several tracks co-written with Sufjan. Er, maybe not. [MORE...]

The Blow Announces Fall Tour

Photo by Sarah Cass

Khaela Maricich has sole custody of the Blow again (though we hope Jona Bechtolt has visiting rights, for the music's sake). However, she wants you to know it's not your fault she and Jona aren't together anymore and that she still loves you very much, so she has scheduled a tour of the U.S. for the fall.

Paper Television in tow, Maricich will perform at the PDX Pop Now! Festival in Portland on August 3, and then it's almost an eight-week wait until the tour begins in earnest in Minneapolis on September 30. [MORE...]

Wu, Nas, Monch, Rage Kick Off Rock the Bells Tour
Tour also features Talib Kweli, MF Doom, the Roots, Mos Def, UGK, Mr. Lif

Rock the Bells-- which we called "probably the best hip-hop festival in the country" back in March-- starts its reign as the best hip-hop tour in the country** tonight, July 26, in Mansfield, Massachusetts.

The tour's lineup has expanded in recent weeks and months, and depending on which show you attend, you may see a fair number of the following acts:

Wu-Tang Clan, the Roots, MF Doom, Nas, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, UGK, Public Enemy, Rakim, Rage Against the Machine, EPMD, Pharoahe Monch, David Banner, M.O.P., Erykah Badu, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Cypress Hill, Slum Village, Hieroglyphics, Blackalicious, the Coup, Felt, Sage Francis, Murs, Boot Camp Clik, Immortal Technique, Living Legends, Jedi Mind Tricks, Brother Ali, Cage, Mr. Lif, Grouch & Eligh, Hangar 18, Blueprint, Lucky I Am, DJ Mike Relm, DJ Icy Ice, DJ C-Minus, DJ Rocky Rock, Rahzel (as a host), and Supernatural (also as a host).

Plus, you'll get to hang out in baseball stadium parking lots (totally not lame!). Maybe Barry Bonds will wait until August 18 to break the home run record, and you'll catch the ball in the middle of Murs' set and be totally rich for life! Wait... nope, the Giants are away that day. Just the music then.

** unless Christopher Wallace is resurrected for a Don't Look Back-style Ready to Die tour and brings Outkast along with him to do Aquemini [MORE...]

Win a Bong From BYOP Side Project Turbo Fruits
They call them mellow yellow

Turbo Stein (Be Your Own Pet guitarist Jonas Stein), Turbo John (BYOP drummer John Eatherly), and Turbo Max (does anyone know this guy's real name?) are allowing Turbo Fruits fans to personally experience the band's songwriting inspiration with a contest based on a track from their recently released self-titled debut.

From now until midnight August 12 (technically August 13), anyone willing to count the number of times Stein says the word "volcano" in the Turbo Fruits song of the same name can enter to win a Storz & Bickel Volcano Vaporizer, the apparatus that inspired the song and which the contest's official rules call "the BMW of bongs."

According to the contest's other rules, if the winner of the contest is under 18, he or she will instead receive the cash equivalent: $540, i.e. enough to just buy tons of weed to smoke out of a more Volvo-esque bong. Also, "members of Turbo Fruits and their families are ineligible to enter," meaning Mama Stein might have to pay a visit to Carlos D or Man Man if she has to feed the need.

Turbo Fruits have a handful of U.S. and UK tour dates scheduled for the forthcoming weeks, and we advise attendees not to make any sudden movements at these shows. [MORE...]

Maps Remixed by the Field, Tours
Wait! They don't love you like he loves you

Recent Mercury Prize nominee Maps will issue a single for We Can Create's "You Don't Know Her Name" on Mute July 30 in the UK and July 31 in the U.S.

The single, on CD and 7" in the UK and digitally in the U.S., features a remix of "You Don't Know Her Name" by the Field.

Maps has a number of tour dates on the way, including a few in North America come September. Hey, if Maps gets lost, does he read himself? [MORE...]

Mysterious Fred Armisen Drum DVD Due on Drag City

Photo by Matt Jordan

Who is Jens Hannemann, and what is he doing in a Drag City DVD about drumming? And just what exactly does he have to do with "SNL"'s Fred Armisen? There's no earthly way of knowing for sure, but here's what we've managed to come up with:

Yuk-maker Armisen is a longtime drum aficiando, having sat on the stool for Chicago punks Trenchmouth in the early 90s. He somehow happened upon Jens Hanneman's "Complicated Drumming Technique" and decided the man's technique was just complicated enough for inclusion in the first installment of his Fred Armisen Presents DVD series on Drag City. The DVD features Hanneman demonstrating his technique, presumably while Armisen adopts an accent and eggs him on.

Hmm...come to think of it, that gentleman claiming to be Jens Hanneman at the recent Will Oldham video store gig looks an awful lot like Armisen. Could they in fact be... one and the same?!?!

An e-mail from a Drag City publicist denies all, claiming that "as far as Jens being Fred, he doesn't look at all like him. He's got really long hair." You know, this guy has really short hair... and so does Steve Jobs.

The publicist continues, "It's instructional, not comedy. I suppose people who don't understand music might find it funny, but that's not the intent. Jens is an intense guy with his own style of drumming-- I think that Fred, as a percussionist himself, thinks that Jens has something to say."

Drag City also suggests that the DVD -- out in October -- will only be available at music colleges and instrument stores, but we're not sure what to believe anymore.

We do, however, believe that Fred’s on the new Les Savy Fav record, and has a show July 30 at Chicago’s Hideout, celebrating the first anniversary of Drag City's comedy series the People Under the Stares.

The Hideout? You mean that little club that's getting Bloc Party and Art Brut to play their summer festival? Now that I find hard to fathom.

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.)