Wu-Tang: A Beatles Interpolation, Not a Sample; Download the Song Now!

Photo by William Kirk

Remember the big to-do the Wu-Tang Clan made yesterday about how they'd secured the first Beatles sample in history? Turns out, they didn't.

This evening, they posted the following message on their MySpace page, under the headline "**We didn't Sample the Beatles, it was a replay, pardon**":

"The statement that we made yesterday was incorrect and we apologize for any confusion it may have caused. We DID NOT sample the Beatles, I repeat, we DID NOT sample the Beatles, rather we did an INTERPOLATION of the classic George Harrison composition 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps.' In a historic collaboration, Dhani Harrison, son of George, through his friendship with the RZA, played guitar on the song and he himself helped secure the REUSE LICENSE. Also appearing on the song are John Frusciante, guitar player for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Erykah Badu singing the chorus.

'To satisfy everyone's curiosity, the song will be streamed exclusively on loud.com tonight. It will be the first single and video from the forthcoming album '8 Diagrams' in stores December 4.

'Thanks again to Dhani Harrison and the Harrison Estate for helping us make history."

And it's true-- the song is available on loud.com right now-- as an mp3! Check out the link below. Not quite as historic, but still pretty cool. Try to ignore the creepy loud.com whispers though.

New Stephin Merritt Song Coming to Volvo Ad, iTunes

Photo by Clay Walker

That Volvo ad with Stephin Merritt is nice, isn't it? I know I respond more favorably to whatever product's being hawked when said onslaught'o'commerce is soundtracked by one of my favorite maestros making their way through a purty tune (though they really couldn't play that Feist ad any more if they tried, eh?). But, as Merritt's a heck of a songwriter (and "The Wheels on the Bus" is intentionally annoying, if catchy), I'll take a Merritt original over a reinterpretation any day.

So don't touch that dial, 'cause it seems Volvo will follow the "Wheels" ad with another spot later this month featuring "I'm in a Lonely Way", a new Merritt composition. What's more, according to Merritt's website, the tune from that ad will appear on the iTunes store under Merritt's given name October 3. That's today, right? It is, but as of press time, the track's not up just yet. These things take time.

Speaking of which, still no word on what's up with that Magnetic Fields album-- for which we were promised both a title and a release date some three months ago-- due early next year.

Dan Deacon Cancels Several Dates Due to Exhaustion

Photo by Jason Bergman

The road between a headline like "Dan Deacon Adds Even More Dates" (emphasis Maher's) and "shows canceled due to exhaustion" is a short one, paved with good intentions though it may be. In the case of Dan Deacon's, the road took less than a week to travel down, and now, well, here we are.

After missing one gig a short while back due to gunk, Mr. Deacon-- a more dedicated performer than most, we're compelled to add-- has axed a few dates over the next two weeks due to that pesky exhaustion thing. When Britney gets exhausted, we assume the worst; when it happens to Dan, he's just a tired dude.

So, then, tomorrow night in Oberlin is out, as are all dates from October 11-13. The rest of the shows are still happening, including a few in between Ohio and St. Louis. One dares not even dream of standing up a seasoned professional like Tay. [MORE...]

Wire Announce New Read & Burn EP

If the much-loved genius-punks of Wire were thirty years ahead of their time at the time of 1977's unspeakably great Pink Flag, that would mean we're all just catching up with them now (I'm looking at you, every "post-punk" band out there today). And, as such, that makes a Wire EP in the '07 the sound of the 2030s. Care to gaze into the future? Nab Read & Burn 3 when it drops November 12 on the band's own Pinkflag imprint.

Read & Burn 03 is the first in their series of EPs since the second installment dropped in late 2002. And, unlike past Read & Burns, we're assured that this material isn't going to wind up on the next Wire LP (as was the case on 2003's Send). Didja hear that? There's gonna be another Wire album in the foreseeable future! Not to mention they've gotta do seven more EPs to justify having that 0 in there holding the place for double digits. Wooo 2037! [MORE...]

Subtle Reveal LP With TVOTR, Wolf Parade Members
MP3: "Deathful" ft. Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio

Subtle's had a bad run. As we've reported in these pages, in the last two years, the genre-bending Oaklend sextet survived a tour van crash that left keyboardist Dax Pierson a quadriplegic, were robbed in Europe, and their major label debut, last year's For Hero: For Fool, received raves from the critics but less-than-breakthrough sales. Subtle's magnetic, magnanimous frontman, Adam Drucker, aka Doseone, has been a cult phenomenon in avant-hip-hop circles for years, but his intricate lyrics and jawd-ropping live performances have yet to find a wider audience.

So what do they do? Keep working. Yell & Ice, a remakes and remixes collection based on For Hero: For Fool, comes out on Lex Records October 23. It features contributions from members of TV on the Radio, Wolf Parade and the Notwist, as well as Anticon associates Why? and Chris Adams of Bracken and Hood. Check out "Deathful", featuring Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio, by clicking on the link below. (The full tracklist for Yell & Ice and Subtle's upcoming tour dates cam also be found below.)

Doseone describes Yell & Ice as a labor of love. "Like fuck it, make it fun for these artists that we're cold-calling, that we love," he said. "We're not paying, there's no money turned around on this record-- which I love-- and so it's like, I send this to you, you should take what inspires you and fuck it up a little bit, ruin it, make it pretty, send that to us, we will do the same, and just keep remaking things. What I like is that it expresses, quietly and in a mature way, how committed we are to the depths in our music. That we can go in and remake all these songs because we made a bunch of rights, and we could've made lefts. And they're just as valid."

We recently spoke with Dose about his upcoming albums and projects, Dax Pierson's recovery, and how a cover of Shellac's "Prayer to God" wound up on Subtle's setlist this year. We also talked at length about the storyline behind the three Subtle LPs, A New White, For Hero: For Fool, and the upcoming conclusion, ExitingARM, which will come out as both an album and a website. And much, much more. Stay tuned to the Features section of Pitchfork, where the full interview will be published within the coming weeks. [MORE...]

Morrissey Cuts Dates Due to Burst Pipe, Preps New LP

Photo by Alissa Anderson

Generally, we don't throw "Morrissey" and "bursting" into a sentence together without some reference to a heart swollen with emotion or something. But it was water-- and not salty tears-- flowing through Los Angeles' Palladium last night that caused the icon to axe both yesterday's and tomorrow night's gigs.

Lucky for Moz fans, his current L.A. residency means he's not darting off to Salt Lake City straight away, and tickets for the canceled gigs will, according to NME.com, get you into either the October 8 or 9 gig at the same venue or a refund of your purchase price. But heaven knows I'm miserable now!

But no one can burst the wellspring of misery located within the well-formed skull of Steven Patrick Morrissey. New in the world of hurt is chatter regarding the follow-up to last year's Ringleader of the Tormentors. He recently told the BBC, "The plan is to make a new album after this tour. It's absolutely written and completely ready." He hopes to release the LP in September 2008, though Morrissey's currently without a label. Eh, no big deal. [MORE...]

Photos: White Williams Tour Diary Part 3

Welcome to the fourth installment of the Girl Talk/Dan Deacon/White Williams tour diary, which has been extensively photojournaled by Mr. Williams himself. We're getting to the homestretch here, following our heroes around the great American west, from Houston and Austin to L.A. and San Diego, with a lot of desert in between. Once again, your guide for the journey is Joe (are we supposed to call him White?) himself, whose comments accompany each photo. Be sure to check below to see what roads the three will take when they part ways (after just one more show together!).

DAY 13: Houston, September 24, 2007


Tyler and Joe brushing their teeth upon arriving at the venue.



We're teaching Andrew how to exercise regularly.



Joe carefully balances two Ws in his gentle hands.
[MORE...]

Spiritualized Finish Album, Schedule Euro, U.S. Shows

Those Spiritualized blokes are the last people you'd need to remind that just one hit just ain't gonna cut it. In between a number of Spanish, Danish and British gigs, Spiritualized have snuck a mid-November show at New York's famed Apollo Theater, which promises to be the "first of several" U.S. shows for the veteran psych-rockers. That show-- like many of Spiritualized's recent engagements-- is being characterized as "acoustic mainlines," which means pretty much exactly what it sounds like.

UPDATE: They have since added San Francisco and Los Angeles shows.

While you sit fiending for more, this bit of news won't quell that jones deep down in those bones: That long-promised new Spiritualized LP is coming, but not 'til early next year. According to NME.com, the band has wrapped recording sessions, and frontman Jason Pierce describes the follow-up to 2003's Amazing Grace as "the work of the Devil... with a little guidance from me." Sure you won't consider pushing it up to Halloween? My "Spooky Sound Effects" record is scratched. [MORE...]

Photos: Black Mountain / Cave Singers [Omaha, NE; 10/01/07]

Photos by Paparazzi by Appointment

Canadian bloozy indie rock collective Black Mountain brought their jams of the future to Omaha's Waiting Room Lounge last night, offering selections from their upcoming sophomore release, available in January from Jagjaguwar. (For those who aren't willing to wait for the full-length, the Canadian collective are also peddling an exclusive 12" on this tour.

Joining in the fun WAS former PGMG-ers the Cave Singers, who just released their debut on Matador. The Singers will join the Mountain for all the American dates on their lengthy fall tour, continuing tonight in Chicago. All their dates and more photos below.

BLACK MOUNTAIN




THE CAVE SINGERS



[MORE...]

A Place to Bury Strangers Open for BRMC

"Unwitting" "Sex and the City" fans A Place to Bury Strangers are planning to spend a lot of live time in their NYC homebase this month supporting their self-titled debut, if only because they seem scheduled to play about half a million (read: four or five) shows at CMJ.

Nonetheless, there are plenty of perfectly acceptable places for stranger burial outside the New York metropolitan area, and the band is clued into this fact enough to also place a handful of other dates on the calendar. Most of these shows find them supporting Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, so bring your reverb helmets.

APTBS' next show is in Washington, D.C. on October 11. [MORE...]

Menomena Collaborate With Friend Artist Live
Foe artist shafted for obvious reasons

Photos by Pierre-Yves Arnoux

Menomena are serious about their art. Their Friend and Foe LP from this year had interactive artwork that allowed for a variety of different permutations. The sweet posters for their first-ever European tour featured drummer Danny Seim's pug/Menomena's manager, Ms. Geddy Lee, in a pair of movie roles. And now, on five dates of their already scheduled second tour of Europe, the band is collaborating onstage with Friend and Foe visual artist Craig Thompson (also known as the guy behind the sweet graphic novel Blankets.)

Seim explains the collaboration like so: "[Thompson]'s stretching a giant (approx. 3'x9') piece of butcher paper horizontally across the back of the stages and visually interpreting our set behind us with a brush & ink as we play. Pretentious? Maybe. But super fun all the same."

The first of these five, non-consecutive collaborations took place September 29 at the Nouveau Casino club in Paris. After the encore, Thompson tore his creation from the wall and, with the help of the band, tore it into pieces and passed the pieces out to the crowd. "He's ten times the rock star that we are over here," says Seim. For proof, there is YouTube documentation here. For more photos of the show itself, see the post-jump.

The next Menomena show is a collaboration with Thompson, and it takes place tonight, October 3, in Amsterdam. The next two collaborations are in Milan and Barcelona over the next week and a half. [MORE...]

Pop Montreal Kicks Off Tonight

Kicking off tonight in the Real City and running through the weekend is the 2007 Pop Montreal Festival, celebrating film, art, crafts, and several dozen of the best bands in, oh, the whole entire universe. Who are we talking about? Let's roll those credits once again:

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, the National, Sunset Rubdown, Grizzly Bear, Caribou, Man Man, Patrick Wolf, Bun B, Islands, Silver Mt. Zion, Magnolia Electric Co., Fujiya & Miyagi, Black Mountain, Final Fantasy, Patti Smith, Half Japanese, Pere Ubu, Oakley Hall, A-Trak, Kid Sister, the Cool Kids, Kavinsky, Qui, Eric's Trip, A-Trak, MSTRKRFT, Buck 65, Chromeo, DJ Krush, Hot Hot Heat, Sebastien Grainger, Yeasayer, Cadence Weapon, Think About Life, Julie Doiron, Born Ruffians, Bobby Conn, DJ/Rupture, HEALTH, Aa, Chad VanGaalen, Earlimart, Daedalus, Lightning Dust, Fucked Up, the Stills, Shapes and Sizes, Young Galaxy, Miracle Fortress, Johnny and the Moon, the Narrator, Georgie James, Most Serene Republic, Old Podrida, the Watson Twins, Tiga, DJ Mehdi, Cody ChesnuTT, Cause Co-motion, AIDS Wolf, Jay Reatard, a Jamaica to Toronto: Soul, Funk, and Reggae showcase featuring the Mighty Pope, Jay Douglas, and Everton "Pablo" Paul... and MORE.

Alas, the Federation (yes, the hyphy Federation) seem to have disappeared from the bill since we last reported about the festival. Of some consolation to hip-hop fans: Bun B has been added to the lineup.

The Pop and Policy conference at McGill University runs concurrently with Pop Montreal; it features four days of panels about the music business, with the likes of Patti Smith, Nick Thorburn of Islands, Murray Lightburn of the Dears, and Buck 65 conversing with industry people on a series of panels.

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.)