Wu-Tang Cover Beatles With George Harrison's Son!?
8 Diagrams gets new release date

Photo by William Kirk

Turns out the biggest Beatles news today isn't the John Lennon catalog going digital. It's the latest tidbit from the ever lively camp Wu.

As the RZA revealed in a recent conversation with Rolling Stone, the Wu-Tang Clan will tackle a freakin' Beatles tune on their forthcoming longplayer, 8 Diagrams. And not just any Beatles tune-- "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", which, last time I checked, doesn't exactly bring the motherfuckin' ruckus. Still, lest you think this some idle flight of Wu fancy, the Clan have stepped their game up, enlisting none other than Dhani Harrison-- the 29-year-old son of "Guitar"'s late scribe, George Harrison-- to play acoustic on the track.

"He's the biggest Wu-Tang fan in the world," RZA enthused to Rolling Stone. "He knew all the kung fu shit! That's deep! I told him I would be honored if he played his father’s song."

While they were at it, RZA and the gang also dragged John Frusciante along for the ride.

The Chili Pepper plays lead on the Wu rendition, which is simply called "Gently Weeps" and isn't a cover in the straight sense. Instead it features the Clan rapping over the cover version recorded with Dhani and John, acting out a heroin dealer/heroin user saga. Method Man portrays the victim, while Ghostface turns in "one of the best lyrics I'm ever heard him say" (according to RZA, but we believe him) as the dealer.

8 Diagrams, meanwhile, now has a release date of November 13 on SRC (both this and the whole Beatles thing having been confirmed by the Wu publicist). We won't hold our breath, but we will keep throwing up our Ws.

In other news, it's not too late to win a date with Wu, nor to get amped for the upcoming Raekwon entourage disc. Catch the Clan now on the Rock the Bells tour. [MORE...]

Update: Cat Power Will Open for Interpol at MSG

Photo by Kathryn Yu

So despite having previously heard otherwise, that pretty neat-sounding (but, until today, unconfirmed) Interpol and Cat Power (and Liars!) show at Madison Square Garden we told you about actually is happening.

We apologize for leading you astray, though the truth of the matter is better than the mistruth from yesterday, no?

Full-- we swear, gulp!-- Cat Power and Interpol dates after the jump. [MORE...]

Bright Eyes Cancels UK Dates Due to Illness
Paradoxically, Beastie Boys flourish despite similar affliction

Photo by Paparazzi by Appointment

Alas and alack, young master Bright Eyes has come down with a touch of the bug. Sure, homeboy always looks a bit frail, but we assume whatever's keeping the Nebraskan whiz kid from making this week's English dates would fell even the most brutish amongst us. (God help him if he hasn't had the chicken pox yet).

Here's the scoop, courtesy of the Bright Eyes MySpace blog:

With regret Brght Eyes has cancelled this week's shows and appearance at V Fest (Bristol Aug 15; Liverpool Aug 16; Nottingham Aug 17; V Fest Aug 18 & 19). Illness has forced the cancellation. Bright Eyes would like to express their utmost thanks to all their fans and supporters and sincerely apologize for this unfortunate occurrence.

All seems well for his few weeks out in North America come September, though with a three-night stand planned for Alaska, Mama Oberst might wanna pin some mittens to young Conor's nudie suit. [MORE...]

Atmosphere "Clown" Around on Fall Tour

What clubs across America need is a little Atmosphere. And they'll get it, come September 14, as the emotive hip-hop duo comprised of Slug and Ant takes it to the streets as part of the "Everybody Loves a Clown" tour.

Atmosphere will say rhymes in support of forthcoming Rhymesayers LP When Life Gives You Lemons... (out next spring), as well as yet another installment in the Sad Clown series, the Sad Clown Bad Fall Number 10 EP (available in limited quantities on this tour). They'll be joined by labelmates Grayskul and Mac Lethal for these dates-- which start and end in the Midwest and cover most of the country-- as well as Living Legend Lucky I Am.

Both Grayskul and Mac have hot Rhymesayers albums in queue. The former shares Bloody Radio on September 11, while the latter follows in the illustrious footsteps of Regina Spektor and Maria Taylor, dropping 11:11 on October 9. [MORE...]

The Fiery Furnaces Announce Fall Tour

Photo by Amy Giunta

The Fiery Furnaces have announced the first round of cities to receive live tastes of the duo's forthcoming Widow City this fall. Though their next show is August 26 in NYC, Les Friedbergers will begin the actual tour in Newport, Kentucky on October 9, the same date as the album's U.S. release on Thrill Jockey.

The Furnaces aren't without love for the UK, though. They have one gig in London on November 11 as part of ATP's Thrill Jockey anniversary party, and Thrill Jockey will release Widow City in the UK on October 15. [MORE...]

Love Is All Ride "Swedish Invasion" Tour to Brazil

It's been far too long since we last heard from sax-happy Swedes Love Is All, so today's news, while a small joy, is a joy nonetheless.

The combo is still hard at work on material for the follow-up to Nine Times That Same Song-- according to a recent MySpace post, they've already recorded, yes, nine songs-- but they will sneak out of the studio for a little Brazilian getaway. It's the latest "Swedish Invasion" tour, which finds Love Is All sharing bills with fellow Swede smile-makers Suburban Kids With Biblical Names and Hello Saferide.

The tour kicks off September 14 in Recife and wraps up a few days later in São Paulo; we have Brazil's Coquetel Molotov and the Swedish Institute to thank for this darling foreign exchange program. Also, as declared on MySpace, LIA's Markus Gorsch "will bring his Speedos." Look out, ladies! [MORE...]

Battles Take on Even More Tour Dates

The most important war is the one at home, and Battles know this. So this fall they will return to North America for a mid-sized tour after they finish fighting the good fight over in Europe in support of this year's totally killer Mirrored.

The band's world tour now extends into mid-November, but its next show is tonight, August 14, in Berlin.

Also, this is funny. [MORE...]

Yes, Hold Steady Are on The Nanny Diaries Soundtrack
Scarlett Johansson strikes again!

So there's this new movie coming out, The Nanny Diaries. It's a chick flick to the max; according to a press release, the movie stars indie rock star Scarlett Johansson as "Annie Braddock, a would-be anthropologist from New Jersey forced to survive - as a nanny - among the treacherous tribes of New York City's Upper East Side." (Oh noes!) And apparently the Hold Steady's "Stuck Between Stations" is on the soundtrack.

Due August 21 on Artists' Addiction Records, The Nanny Diaries Original Motion Picture Soundtrack also includes such estrogen-pumping fare as Lisa Stansfield's "All Around the World" and Odyssey's "Native New Yorker", as well as Lily Allen's "LDN". But "Stuck Between Stations"? Really? A song about boys and girls in America "sucking off each other at the demonstrations?" I mean, I can understand if you're doing a film about drunk teenagers in a convenience store parking lot in suburban Minneapolis. Or a film about middle-aged rock critics who gather in a bar in Brooklyn to reminisce about when they were drunk teenagers in a convenience store parking lot in suburban Minneapolis. Then a Hold Steady song would make sense. But a Scarlett Johansson date movie?!

Whatever, it's cool. Craig Finn, get that paper! [MORE...]

New Buffalo Goes Somewhere, anywhere on Tour

Australian singer, songwriter, and producer Sally Seltmann, aka New Buffalo, will bring her sophomore album, Somewhere, anywhere, to North American shores on August 28. The follow-up to 2004's Last Beautiful Day will come to U.S. and Canadian residents via Arts & Crafts.

Seltmann has plenty of New Buffalo tour dates lined up as well. Right now, she's on tour in her home country, playing pretty much every city that exists Down Under. Her next gig is in Brisbane on August 17. She will, however, make four appearances in the U.S. opening for Stars in October. [MORE...]

Deerhunter, No Age, Busdriver Say Fuck Yeah! in L.A.
Plus: Lavender Diamond, Times New Viking, Pissed Jeans, Indian Jewelry, Boom Bip, Mae Shi

Despite the ubiquity of Lohan-related headlines in your normal news outlets, there's certainly been a movement in Los Angeles in recent times away from the coked-out starlet scene and into some fairly radical art and music. Blessed be the city that reclaims its once-mighty reign of creativity, and blessed be a festival celebrating L.A. (and all that dare enter its smoggy haven) under the umbrella of Fuck Yeah!

Over two nights (and a sure-to-be-rollicking kickoff party on its eve), the L.A.-based Fuck Yeah! fest will gather Deerhunter, Lavender Diamond, Busdriver, Times New Viking, No Age, Boom Bip, Indian Jewelry, Midnight Movies, Bobby Birdman, the Mae Shi, Pissed Jeans, Jay Reatard, Foreign Born, Abe Vigoda, Great Northern, Langhorne Slim, the Explosion, Imaad Wasif, Thee More Shallows, XBXRX, and far more names than this sentence can contain into various Los Angeles locales August 25 and 26. This marks the fourth incarnation of this potty-mouthed party.

Funnymakers Bob Odenkirk (yes yes, we do recall there were two people in "Mr. Show"), Jonah Ray, the Cracked Out boys, and way more will fill in the gaps betwixt all that heavy rock and/or roll. We should point out that this fest will feature the Explosion's very last West Coast show ever, and the one and only reunion date of the Fuse! (exclamation theirs). That said, get thee to the City of Angels! Fuck yeah!

Kanye + Pharrell + Lupe = Child Rebel Soldiers Album?

Anyone who took Kanye West's recent Can't Tell Me Nothing mixtape for a spin encountered a Thom Yorke-sampling track from a little something called CRS. Short for Child Rebel Soldiers, this bona fide hip-hop supergroup consists of West, Pharrell Williams, and Lupe Fiasco. And while that tune, "Us Placers", is the trio's only recorded material to date, it seems we can expect more.

As Lupe told Billboard.com recently, the crew hopes to cut an album. "Now [our labels are] working it out. Whoever is going to pay is going to pay a whole hell of a lot. Everybody is excited." And indeed, it's not like those other two have anything else to do right now.

Lupe himself will follow up last year's semi-smash Food & Liquor with The Cool, now due out November 20. For now, he has four gigs lined up in the coming weeks, while Kanye-- who hits us with Graduation (with new, improved cover art) on September 11-- has planned a few engagements as well.

Mr. Fiasco also shared some words that might leave his fans ill at ease. "I'm just wearing down," he told Billboard.com. "I'm never doing mixtapes again, not even Internet ones. My whole energy for making hip-hop music is slowing down. I've been doing it for seven years. I still don't think I'm famous. I'll do what I have to do to promote my next album, but I'm not enthused about doing seven albums. I'll do my three, and then I am going to keep moving to the next phase of life and maybe grow trees."

Yeah, we've heard that one before. [MORE...]

"Chocolate Rain" to Fall on Girl Talk and Dan Deacon
Nora The Piano-Playing Cat in Talks With Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem

If you've got a computer and a forward-happy friend or two, you're already hip to Tay Zonday and "Chocolate Rain", the twinkly, croaking hook-overload that's swept through the internet like a Ghirardelli thunderstorm over the last few weeks.

One might have thought 2007's answer to William Hung was in danger of letting up, but not so: Girl Talk and Dan Deacon (clearly dudes with well-developed senses of irony and a penchant for goofy touring partners) have invited the M&M maestro to perform at their October 5 gig at First Avenue in Minneapolis.

We're a little too WTF'ed out to make much sense of this, but we did recall that yesterday, Girl Talk posted a MySpace bulletin hinting at a "special guest" that he predicted would "probably sell a bunch of tickets" to the Minneapolis show. I naively assumed it would be Prince, though this, somehow, seems even more unlikely. Tay Zonday! That "Chocolate Rain" guy! Who could've guessed?

Thanks to the Daily Swarm for the tip. Girl Talk and Dan Deacon dates after the jump. Alas, Tay Zonday has no more shows scheduled. [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.)