Luaka Bop Gets U.S. Distro, Live Mutantes Due Stateside

When last we checked in with Luaka Bop, the David Byrne-spawned imprint with a flair for the global, the label had found itself in a U.S. distribution-less limbo state following the dissolution of the Stateside branch of V2.

That was back in February. Now, with August on its way out the window, the Bop is back with a brand new distribution deal and a bevy of chic releases on the agenda.

Having partnered with North Carolina-based Redeye Distribution (whose clientele includes Daptone, Gern Blandsten, Kanine, GSL, Yep Roc, and Flameshovel, among others), the newly reinvigorated Luaka Bop will first conjure up that previously mentioned double disc live set from perennial favorites Os Mutantes. Titled Os Mutantes Live at the Barbican Theatre, London 2006, the release pretty much speaks for itself, no? Note also that said London show, from May 22, 2006, was the Mutantes' first in some 33 years and featured guest appearances from Devendra Banhart and Noah Georgeson.

Os Mutantes Live, which dropped UK-ways back in July, is due in the U.S. this November. A separate DVD of the gig is expected to follow in January 2008. For now, check out Os Mutantes Live cut "Ave Lucifer" below.

After that comes What's Happening in Pernambuco: New Sounds of the Brazilian Northeast, the seventh volume in the Brazil Classics series, which the UK got back in March. This compilation collects celebrated sounds from the Northeastern Brazilian state of Pernambuco, including representative cuts from the Mangue Beat movement. Listen to Mombojó's "Cabidela", off What's Happening, by clicking the link below. The compilation is due Stateside in February 2008.

Luaka Bop returns to the Northern Hemisphere with the release of the latest record from sage folkie Jim White. Transnormal Skipperoo includes guest turns from Laura Veirs and Tucker Martine, among others, and was produced by Joe Pernice and Michael Deming. It arrives October 1 in the UK and Europe, with a North American release planned for March 2008. White has a handful of October shows lined up as well, listed for your convenience below.

After that, brace yourselves for the latest release from Brazilian trio the +2s, known for rotating their chief songwriter/producer with each release. This time around, Alexandre Kassin takes the reins for the previously mentioned Kassin+2 release Futurismo. Put out this past April across the pond, Futurismo will finally crash U.S. shores in April of next year. John McEntire (Tortoise, the Sea and Cake) and Sean O'Hagan (High Llamas) guest on the LP.

Finally, Luaka Bop keeps rolling along with the May 2008 (plenty of time to save up for this one!) U.S. release of Nobody Can Live Forever: The Essential Soul of Tim Maia. Esteemed as the "Brazilian Funk Soul Godfather", Maia should strike a chord with the Sun Ra fan in all of us, and this collection sums up his otherworldly charms. [MORE...]

Springsteen Announces Fall Tour With E Street Band

Expect the smile quotient of "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" to take a small dip this fall, as Max Weinberg will take a break from flashing his pearly whites behind the talk show's kit to heed his call as drummer for the E Street Band on Bruce Springsteen's recently announced fall tour.

The gigs begin in Hartford, Connecticut on October 2, the very same day as the release of the Boss' new album, Magic, on Columbia. The band has shows scheduled across the world well into December. [MORE...]

Voxtrot Open for Arctic Monkeys, Postpone Shows

Score another one for the upstarts: Bringing their cumulative full-length album total to a whopping three, Voxtrot will join UK sensation Arctic Monkeys on the latter's previously reported fall tour of the North American continent.

The news came as something of a Favourite Worst Nightmare to Voxtrot, who took to MySpace today to express both delight at the prospect teaming up with the Arctics and dismay at the resulting logistical chaos. Consequentially, Voxtrot have been forced to postpone a handful of their remaining UK dates, as well as a two-week run of West Coast U.S. gigs. The boys assure via MySpace that the bulk of said dates "will be rescheduled before the end of the year." So, with a little patience, everybody wins.

And while you're updating your calendars, might as well make a note that the previously reported UK "Firecracker" single, originally due on August 27 from Beggars/Playlouder, will now come out September 3. [MORE...]

Thurston Edits Punk House Book, Issues Split Box Set

Photo by Jason Bergman

You wake, wipe the crust from your eyes (or don't), have a drink of water (if it's potable, or not), roll over to the other side of the bed (if you have a bed), and then punk out all the live long day. Such is the oddly glamorous life of a punk, and the subject of photographer Abby Banks' new book Punk House: Anarchist Interiors.

Thurston Moore knows a little bit about the lifestyle displayed within Punk House: He's been living it since he was a kid, and, heck, he probably found some way to get feedback in the sonogram. So it's fitting that Moore-- no stranger to dingy basements and beer can pyramids-- is the editor of Punk House. Available in October from Abrams Image, the book explores cheap communal living for the non-granola set through over 300 of Banks' photos and the sage wisdom of Mr. Moore.

With his mind on all things both dirty and claustrophobic, Thurston-- not one to sit still for too long-- has also concocted a new release. No, not September's "total pop record" Trees Outside the Academy, but the "fierce" and "charging" Thrash Sabbatical, a collection of vinyl releases split between Thurston and a trio of clattermakers. There's a 12" with L.A.'s Men Who Can't Love, and a 7" apiece with Barrabarracuda and Kevin Shields, who is not THAT Kevin Shields. The whole thing is out now on Deathbomb Arc.

Thurston, both under his own name and the Sonic Youth banner, will be out on the road for a good portion of the next few months. He's added a date to his solo tour since our last check-in, Halloween night at a Visalia, California pizza joint. Spending all hallow's eve making a racket at a local business? That, my friend, is way punk. [MORE...]

Knife, Cat Power, Stipe, Animal Collective in Visionaire
Also: Sonic Youth members, Antony, Yoko Ono, David Byrne, Sunn0))), Danger Mouse

"Multi-format album of fashion and art" Visionaire will take the form of five 12" vinyl picture discs [pictured above] for its 53rd issue, "Sound", which will come out in December.

"Sound" features contributions from David Byrne, the Knife, Animal Collective, Cat Power, Michael Stipe, Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo, Antony and the Johnsons, Andrew WK, Yoko Ono, Beastie Boy Adrock, Danger Mouse, U2, Courtney Love, Malcolm McLaren, Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Sylvian, Laurie Anderson, UNKLE, Sunn O))), Gang Gang Dance, Christian Marclay, Miss Kittin, Trevor Jackson, Nigo, Robert Wilson, DJ Spooky, Doug Aitken, Karl Lagerfeld, Alexander McQueen, and Helmut Lang, among many, many others from the worlds of art, fashion, and, of course, music.

These contributions amount to over 100 minutes of previously unreleased audio experiments, samples, spoken word pieces, and even actual songs.

The images on the picture discs were created by a number of artists you might recognize from their work on your favorite album covers, including Peter Saville, Cindy Sherman, Raymond Pettibon, and Robert Longo.

"Sound" comes in an edition of 4,000 numbered copies, and the full package includes the five records, an acrylic dome case, a booklet with credits and instructions, two CDs containing all of the audio content, and a battery-operated toy car that plays the records through a self-contained needle and speakers as it drives along the grooves.

Best happy meal ever.

Danger Mouse Busy With Gnarls, Keys, Topley-Bird

He's the greatest! He's fantastic! At least, that's how artists seeking some creative direction (and affable backing tracks) seem to feel. And no matter the project, he'll be there. Yep, Danger Mouse, the collabo-mongering beatmaker, has a new crop of far-flung studio companions and at least one familiar (albeit perpetually costumed) partnership soldiering on. Amazing! Astounding!

First, settle those bets, naysayers: there's a second Gnarls Barkley album on the way. Seems Cee-Lo Green and DM have holed themselves up in their Atlanta-area cave, waiting for the perfect time to strike with the follow-up to last year's St. Elsewhere. Looks like "the perfect time" to drop the sophomore set is around the turn of the new year.

Then there's the new album he's producing for London's Shortwave Set. The disc, tentatively titled Replica Sun Machine, features a 24-piece orchestra helmed by the legendary Van Dyke Parks and further input from the Velvet Underground's John Cale. That disc is set for release early next year.

And that Black Keys/Danger Mouse/Ike Turner collaboration we've been muttering about has turned into yet another gig for DM: the Akron bluesmen (who've never worked with an outside producer before) and Danger Mouse have been crafting the follow-up to last fall's Magic Potion. That record is slated for shelves from Nonesuch in early 2008.

Oh, and how's this for a blast from the past? Martina Topley-Bird, the aeriform accompanist from all those Tricky albums you keep meaning to revisit, will release her Mouse-assisted sophomore solo set, The Blue God, in early 2008 on Independiente.

Expect to see Danger Mouse on the cover of every single magazine's February issue.

Marissa Nadler Joins Peter Bjorn & John/Clientele Tour

It's shaping up to be quite an epic battle between the forces of Happy and the forces of Sad on the upcoming Peter Bjorn and John/Clientele tour. Previously the odds seemed turned in favor of the sunny-day Swedes, who had cunningly sabotaged the most recent Clientele album (this year's God Save the Clientele), turning it into something that's actually rather upbeat and thus an ally to Happy.

Now the scales have tipped once again, as gloom-addled songstress Marissa Nadler has joined the war of moods for seven late-September engagements. If Nadler's latest piece, Songs III: Bird on the Water, provides us any clues, the lady will most assuredly lend her woebegone talents to the cause of Sad. Will Nadler and the Clientele's back catalog cast all in melancholy's shadow? Or will PB&J rally the troops with that ubiquitous battle cry, the one that involves forcing air through pursed lips? The suspense!

Before jumping into the PBJ fray, Nadler has a series of training exercises, with the latest set for August 28 in Santa Cruz. [MORE...]

M83 Brings Shades to U.S., Reveals More LP Details

M83 main man Anthony Gonzalez will release the previously reported first volume of Digital Shades, his ongoing series of ambient records, in the U.S. on September 4 via Mute. Appropriately, the release will be a digital one.

The forthcoming proper album follow-up to Before the Dawn Heals Us is still in the works, with Gonzalez working with producers Ken Thomas (Sigur Rós, Suede, Cocteau Twins, the Sugarcubes) and Ewan Pearson (the Rapture, Ladytron). It is still tentatively scheduled for release in early 2008.

Mastodon, Deerhunter, Black Lips Do Burn to Shine

With Volumes Four and Five (Seattle and Louisville) still in post-production, Burn to Shine-- the unique DVD series that collects footage of a city's bands performing in a space slated for demolition-- recently rolled into Atlanta for its sixth and latest shoot.

According to a Dry Ink report/interview, Mastodon, Deerhunter, Black Lips, Shannon Wright, Snowden, the Selmanaires, and the Coathangers were among the Atlanta bands that tore through one song apiece-- just before bulldozers and/or flames tore through their makeshift performance venue (or what was left of it after Mastodon played). Burn to Shine maestros Christoph Green and Brendan Canty (Fugazi) oversaw this production as well, which also included performances from the Liverhearts, the Mighty Hannibal, Delia Gartrell, the Carbonas, and the All Night Drug Prowling Wolves.

As previously reported, the forthcoming Seattle edition will feature Ben Gibbard, Eddie Vedder, the Long Winters, David Bazan, Tiny Vipers, and others, while Louisville gets Will Oldham, the Shipping News, and Magik Markers, to name a few. No word yet on release dates for either of these volumes, nor the ATL one, but I'm still totally asking Santa for all of them.

Orange Juice's Edwyn Collins Returns Home Again

Former Orange Juice singer Edwyn Collins will release his sixth solo album on September 17 in the UK via Heavenly. The record is a few years coming because of the stroke Collins suffered in 2005 after recording the songs. Fortunately, he recovered to the point where he could mix the album with engineer Seb Lewsley this past winter, and the result is the self-produced Home Again.

The album's first single, "You'll Never Know", will precede it on September 10.

Collins' recovery keeps moving along, and one of his most immediate goals is to get to a point soon where he and his band can play out in support of Home Again. [MORE...]

Lou Reed Works With the Killers on New Track
Hey babe, take a walk on the brightside

A couple years back, I recall seeing a very out-of-place-looking Lou Reed at some MTV event or another talking to Gideon Yago, decrying the network's recent resistance to rock music. Yago asked Reed just who he'd like to see replacing endless repeats of "Engaged & Underage" or whatever, and, with nary a blink, Reed replied "Okkervil River."

In that moment-- and with his embraces of Antony and Conor-- Lou showed himself to be both a man who takes his heartwrenching theatrics with at least a spot of nuance and, ad infinitum, the original hipster. So what in the heck is Lou Reed doing on a track with the nuance-free, not-exactly-hip Killers?

Singing, it turns out. According to NME.com, Reed recently hit the studio with Flood and Alan Moulder to duet with Brandon Flowers on "Tranquilize", a track from the moustachioed band's forthcoming B-sides, rarities, and now totally incongruous collabos compilation.

Pardon our incredulity. It's not that the Killers aren't awesome in their way, but "their way" is sort of the same thing Lou Reed's spent much of his career standing outside of. Also, don't bands generally wait until they have more than a couple albums before they drop a rarities comp? And wouldn't you think Lou Reed would maybe choose a band a little more road-tested (or with a bit more gravitas) than the Killers for a rare guest appearance? Perhaps Lou, like the rest of us, wishes he wrote "Mr. Brightside", too.

The Killers are touring. Expect nightly guest spots from Laurie Anderson and Tom Verlaine. [MORE...]

Photos: Fuck Yeah Fest [Los Angeles, CA; 08/25-08/26/07]

Photos by Akmal Naim

America...Fuck Yeah! And indeed, the American city of Los Angeles played host to the latest Fuck Yeah Fest this past weekend, spewing affirmative expletives across five city venues. Deerhunter, Lavender Diamond, No Age, Pissed Jeans, Busdriver, and Boom Bip all performed, as did Indian Jewelry, Bobby Birdman, Foreign Islands, Midnight Movies, and loads more.

Catch but a slice of the action in the photos to follow.

DEERHUNTER


LAVENDER DIAMOND


NO AGE


BOOM BIP

[MORE...]

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