Califone, Dirty Projectors, Black Moth on Esopus Comp

The folks behind bi-yearly magazine Esopus recently decided to make some dreams come true-- through the magic of song!

Guest editor (and Pitchfork contributor) Mike Powell, you see, assembled a crack team of musical types to tackle the sleepytime dreamstuff, however whimsical, weird, or worrying, of Esopus readers-- and now the fruits of their labors have been bundled onto a CD set to accompany the ninth issue of the magazine, which shipped to subscribers this week and will hit newstands the second week of November.

Readers were invited to submit writeups detailing their dreams, and 11 acts-- among them, Califone, Dirty Projectors, Black Moth Super Rainbow, and Ida-- each chose one to interpret musically. If you haven't already done so, do check out the Projectors' "One Kill"-- inspired by subconscious wanderings of an Austin-based Esopus reader-- over in Forkcast. The complete tracklist follows. [MORE...]

Rakim Talks New Album, Tour, History Lessons
"When they created jazz years ago it was the best thing to happen since fried ice cream. But then you look at it now-- it's not so popular... The same thing can happen in hip-hop if we take it for granted and don't cherish it."

Photo by William Kirk

Rakim is back, or at least he's on his way. It's been eight years since he released his second solo album, The Master, and aside from rumors surrounding his signing to and subsequent drop from Dr. Dre's Aftermath label and some reissues, he's been relatively quiet since then.

In the last couple of years, he's taken to playing shows again, and over the course of this year, it came out that he was working on a new album called The Seventh Seal. The record is finally nearing completion, and it will likely hit stores early next year.

Though not a concept album, The Seventh Seal focuses on the theme of tearing hip-hop down to its essentials and building it back up to previously unknown heights. Rakim's done a little non-musical building as well, establishing his own Ra Records, which will not only release The Seventh Seal but also provide a label home, management company, and distribution for other artists.

Before the record comes out, Rakim will release a concert DVD titled The R-kives: Live Lost and Found. The DVD features performances from two shows at NYC's B.B. King Blues Club interspersed with interviews, backstage and tour bus footage, and a few other performances from around the U.S. It will also come with an enhanced CD featuring previously unreleased new material from the God MC.

Finally, Rakim has a previously reported tour coming up where he, Ghostface, and Brother Ali will front live band Rhythm Roots Allstars.

In the midst of all this activity, we spoke to Rakim about process, his return to recording and performing, and his role as an educator in hip-hop.

Pitchfork: What made you decide it was time to starting playing shows and recording an album again?

Rakim: Well, I've always been the type that didn't like to wear out my welcome mat, and I haven't dropped anything new, you know what I mean? But at the same time, you don't want to wait too long. You want to get out there, get your feet wet, test the waters, and reassure within yourself and with the crowd that it's time to do what you do. You get that cool sound from the crowd, and it puts everything in perspective. If I wouldn't have felt the response that I got, then I would've said, "I'm not going to do an album" or "I'm not gonna go on tour. I'd rather drop the album before I try to come out on tour." But the response was real good, and that's what I was speaking on as far as confirming with myself and with the crowd. Because as the artist, I'm modest, man. I don't take anything for granted, and my thing is if I get the welcome mat, then I do what I do. If I don't get the welcome mat, then I either got work to do or it's time to just fall back. I use my experiences as learning experiences.

Pitchfork: How are you rehearsing for your tour with Rhythm Roots Allstars, a live band? Do you work on your parts separately from the band of with them?

Rakim: We're going to sit down and have a few rehearsals so we can give a real good show. I want it to be tight, and I want to make sure that our chemistry is there. The last show that we did in Texas [at SXSW 2007], it was funny because I was supposed to get out there a little early, but I got out there late and we didn't have time to practice. They knew the songs, but we never got a chance to sit there and mesh, so we went on stage that day and winged it. But they're so professional in what they do, and they're so tight that at the end of the day it's just like having a DJ put on a record: You can get up there and kick your verse, and you can turn around and wave your hand and they're going to stop just as a DJ would. So everything worked out perfect, and hopefully too many people didn't realize that we didn't practice. I was surprised everything went real good, so that's another reason why I'm looking forward to this tour. I'm going to be able to do some things that I normally wouldn't be able to do.

Pitchfork: What kinds of things?

Rakim: Just show the power of live music and explain to the crowd and almost teach them the reason why we sampled records. We're going to have a little fun up there. We're going to learn a little something, and we're going to hear some real good music.

Pitchfork: Do you feel like it's your responsibility to teach people about the origins of hip-hop?

Rakim: At this point in hip-hop, [the history] definitely needs to be expressed a little more and put in front of their faces so that they won't forget where the essence of hip-hop came from. If I'm one of the artists that knows about it then yeah, I'm responsible to keep that alive and keep it in the listeners' faces and give them access to it. So hopefully I can do that. To me, at the end of the day, it's just doing my job. If this was something political or something dealing with the world and there was something that I knew, I would feel obligated to inform people. This music thing, there's a lot to know about it. And we're definitely going to have fun with it, but at the same time, we have to keep it alive. This hip-hop thing-- if we don't do it, it will die out. So definitely, I want to do my job.

I think it's important that we cherish this right here. It belongs to the youth. It belongs to the older people who were brought up on hip-hop. It's not just a young music. We created this in the suburbs and the cities and around the parks, and what we have to understand is that that's big. You look at jazz. When they created jazz years ago it was the best thing to happen since fried ice cream. But then you look at it now-- it's not so popular as far as [being] universal. The jazz lovers still support their music, but when you look at it on the wide span it went from being the only thing to one of the many. The same thing can happen in hip-hop if we take it for granted and don't cherish it. We've got to understand that it's that first impression that made hip-hop take the world by storm. And once we start forgetting those recipes, after awhile they're going to look at it like just another music. And not just them. Us. We're going to look at it like it's not special; it's not going to have that same appeal that it had. So of course we've got to understand the root before we start picking from the tree. [MORE...]

Bob Dylan Releases DVD of Newport Performances

What's life without the occasional DVD? No stranger to cross-media promotions, XM radio host Bob Dylan will release The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival 1963-1965 via Columbia/Legacy on October 30.

Collected on the DVD are 80 minutes of Dylan's performances at the titular festival during the titular years, most of which are previously unreleased. Aside from an interview with the project's Academy Award-winning director and producer Murray Lerner, the DVD has no bonus features.

For those who can't confine themselves to the mere home theater experience when it comes to live Dylan, he and his band have a handful of U.S. dates left on their previously reported tour with Elvis Costello. The next of those shows is in Iowa City on October 24.

After that tour ends, the I'm Not There Dylan tribute concert takes place November 7 in New York City. Perhaps not so coincidentally, the I'm Not There soundtrack drops October 30, the same day as the Newport DVD. [MORE...]

Crystal Castles, New Puritans, Teenagers Do Vice Tour

Vice magazine has gone and united the musical offspring of three different countries-- Canada's Crystal Castles, England's These New Puritans, and France's the Teenagers-- for one sure-to-be decadent tour of the UK. And it's all free! Less money for shows means more money to buy you know what.

They're calling it UNITAUR, and it kicks off October 30 in Glasgow. Along the way, these three young bands will cross paths with some special guests, including DJ Mehdi. Oh, and although it's free, sounds like you have to register at the UNITAUR site for passes.

Crystal Castles are also making good on some promises. They've lined up that winter tour of Australia and Japan-- alluded to in our last article about the tour-friendly twosome-- to follow the Vice jaunt. Of course, many of the Japanese dates are waiting confirmation, but we're just so darn fond of honesty and following through on things, we just had to make note.

CC also have some European dates in queue, and hope to tour the U.S. in February. Catch all those dates, plus non-UNITAUR These New Puritans and Teenagers dates, after the jump. [MORE...]

Mum Spread Poison Ivy on Tour
Dismayed audiences still recovering from M.I.A.'s "Bird Flu"

Múm will go smear Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy across the world on a tour that kicks off tomorrow, October 24, in Los Angeles. The trek was originally supposed to start today, October 23, in Solana Beach, California, but that date was canceled due to visa issues.

The trek includes the band's previously reported pair of appearances at the Wordless Music series in NYC, and it ends with almost a month of shows in the UK and Europe.

In fact, aside from a short break in November, the Icelandic post-rockers will go non-stop until mid-December. That's a lot of calamine lotion. [MORE...]

Vanderhoof Leaves Akron/Family for Buddhist Center

The sheer number of bearded dudes holding guitars onstage at any given Akron/Family event being what it is, you'll have to forgive the absence of one (even one as notable as occasional lead vocalist and original member Ryan Vanderhoof) for escaping notice until now.

Turns out Vanderhoof departed the group "amicably sometime between the completion of [2007 release] Love Is Simple and the start of the band's U.S. tour [which just wrapped up this past weekend]," according to Akron/Family's publicist. This leaves Seth Olinsky, Miles Seaton, and Dana Janssen as the core members of A/F, although the band is often supplemented by their recent tour buddies, namely Greg Davis and members of Megafaun.

As for Vanderhoof? Seems "he went to live in a Buddhist Dharma center in the Midwest." So there you go.

Though they're down a dude-- and short some stuff, still-- Akron/Family will soldier on with a European tour in a month or so. Those dates after the jump. [MORE...]

Portishead Album One Day From Completion
Challenge Madlib to soccer match?

Photo by Grumpy Man DJs

From close, to, well, closer: in fact, as Geoff Barrow of Portishead tells it, the band's third proper LP is just one day away from completion. Barrow, checking in on the band’s blog, says Portishead spent a few days in London finishing things up, but are back in Bristol making executive decisions regarding album art and plotting their return to the stage. "i think one more day messing about with it and it will be done," Barrow writes. "then into the wonderful world of mastering.. [joke]" He doesn't actually like mastering all that much, see.

Barrow then mentions that megaproducer Madlib will join the band at the ATP Nightmare Before Christmas event they're curating. He adds "im putting a footy team together for a little 6 a side comp for a laugh." Does that mean he's challenging Madlib to a soccer match? Ooh, we hope so!

The three-day Nightmare begins December 7 at Butlins Holiday Centre in Minehead, England.

Jens Lekman Kicks Off U.S. Tour Tonight

Photo by Sigurd Fandango

Here's a new one: Jens Lekman's kicking off his U.S. tour tonight in Bloomington, Indiana with a 21-minus show. Yep, you've gotta be illegal to ride this ride, as Jens warms himself up with a special set for the kiddies at the John Waldron Arts Center before taking the stage later that evening at Jake's (a 21+ affair). Nice guy, that Jens.

Stateside fans of sample-heavy Swedish pop both young and old can have at Jens for the next three weeks or so as young Mr. Lekman croons his way across the country. He'll skip out in mid-November before embarking on a UK trek later in the month. And, just in case you don't meet Jens' stringent age requirements, you can catch him on that Arthur Russell tribute EP, or (finally) pick up the nifty Night Falls Over Kortedala in the U.S. from Secretly Canadian. [MORE...]

Merge Preps New American Music Club, Radar Bros. LPs

Merge Records is a trusty source for things musical in nature, and this spring, they're got a couple discs lined up from a pair of veteran acts practically guaranteed not to disappoint.

First up is Auditorium, the fifth LP (and third for Merge) from the Radar Bros. Out January 29, Auditorium was recorded entirely at vocalist Jim Putnam's home studio. Jim and the lads will step out in public every Monday night in January at Los Angeles' Echo, where they'll play for the low low admission fee of zero dollars. Can't beat that price!

The ninth LP from veteran sadsack Mark Eitzel and his kinda-recently-rejuvenated American Music Club, entitled The Golden Age, is due from the label February 18. Eitzel and longtime partner Mark "Vudi" Pankler are joined by "new guys" Sean Hoffman and Steve Didelot on the disc. In The Golden Age, expect a wealth of longing, heartbreak, and songs about the city by the bay (the band's former home). In spring of 2008, expect a full-bore American Music Club tour, though in the meantime, you'll have to catch 'em in Cali. Or wait until February and head to Europe. [MORE...]

The Cool Kids Sign to Chocolate Industries
Their raps melt in your ears, not in your stereo

The bike-obsessed, retro-not-retro dudes known as Chuck Inglish and Mikey Rocks, aka Chicago rap duo the Cool Kids, have made the switch from the Fool's Gold label (run by buddies A-Trak and Nick Catchdubs) to Chocolate Industries for a flurry of forthcoming releases.

UPDATE: While Fool's Gold loves the Cool Kids, they were only signed to the label for a single. So there wasn't any kind of "switch" involved, as implied here.

First, in late November, comes the single for BMX anthem "Black Mags". Then, their long-awaited EP The Bake Sale will follow in late January. Finally, Chocolate Industries-- the former home of Lady Sovereign-- will release their debut full-length in the middle of next year. If previous reports stand, that record's title is Totally Flossed Out.

The Cool Kids are about to kick their kickstands and pedal in high gear across North America on their previously reported tour with M.I.A. The first non-CMJ date of the tour is October 29 in Miami. [MORE...]

Mars Volta Head to Bedlam in January, Plan NYE Show
New Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Quintet LP on the way, too

Might wanna think about warming up that blacklight now, kiddies: The Bedlam in Goliath, the latest blueprint from those engineers of enormity in the Mars Volta, will be released January 29 on GSL/Universal. Produced by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and featuring guest noodles from John Frusciante, the disc sports a tidy dozen tracks. Man, some of 'em must be, like, not all that long!

To toast Bedlam and ring in '08, the band has booked a New Year's Eve gig at San Francisco's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. For the special show, they promise "una serata con amici e sorprese presentata in un modo straordinario", which roughly translated, means "free bagels for everybody" "one evening with friends and surprise introduced in an extraordinary way". According to a press release, "costumes are required."

January 29 being some three-odd months away, fans will need something to tide them over in the interim. Lucky thing Omar's got all those records he did in Amsterdam way back when, and another one's on the way. The Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Quintet's The Apocalypse Inside an Orange drops November 20 on Infrasonic Sound Recordings. A 60-minute double LP, Orange squeezes in seven brand new tracks and a previously unheard take on "Jacob Van Lennepkade" from Omar's self-titled album. The Quintet features three Mars Volta members: bassist Juan Alderete de la Pena, drummer/percussionist Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez, and horn player/percussionist Adrian Terrazas Gonzales, as well as keyboardist "Money" Mark Ramos-Nishita, who has worked with the Beastie Boys. [MORE...]

Photos: Glass Candy / Bunny Rabbit / High Places / Partyline [Chicago, IL; 10/20/07]

LadyFest Chicago would have been hard-pressed to assemble a more eclectic lineup for this, the penultimate show of its week-or-so long festival of gigs, panels, film screenings, workshops, and the like, which wrapped up this past weekend.

Each act that took the stage at AV-aerie (before a crowd that was sometimes frustratingly listless) took a decided detour from the one before it. Glass Candy-- set to play ATP vs. Pitchfork next spring-- topped the bill, marrying witching hour synth sorcery with the stage acrobatics of vocalist Ida No, possibly the most fit and flexible person I've seen outside of a circus.

Glass Candy's fine-tuned tunes were a far cry from Bunny Rabbit's goofy, gritty, raunchy raps about sex, killing dolphins, and sex. Joined by DJ/hype-lady Black Cracker, CocoRosie pal Bunny did what she could to give the evening's proceedings a jolt, but the pair probably suffered the most from this generally blank-faced crowd. Interaction is key with hip-hop, after all, and despite their efforts these two weren't getting nearly enough of it.

Also a duo, but on another stylistic tip altogether, High Places preceded Bunny Rabbit with perhaps the night's most eye-opening set, full of delirious rhythms and jumprope song vocals, part Animal Collective, part gamelan, part "Iko Iko", and all fun. (Full disclosure: High Places includes the sister of a former Pitchfork staffer.)

Partyline, featuring Allison Wolfe of Bratmobile fame, charged through a rapid-fire set of spunky punk tunes (augmented by Wolfe's frequent cheerleader kicks), and chatted excitedly through every spare second in between. And that had precisely nothing to do with the sprawling, slowburn country of Lady Lucille, the evening's first performer. Something for everyone, indeed.

Glass Candy are on the road now with Architecture in Helsinki.

GLASS CANDY








BUNNY RABBIT


HIGH PLACES


PARTYLINE

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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.)