Hey Willpower Hit the Road With Le Tigre Offshoot Men

With pursed lips and a sparkle in their eye, Hey Willpower-- the pop-centric side project from Imperial Teen Will Schwartz and Tussle'r Tomo Yasuda-- are geared up to plant a wet, sloppy kiss on North America over the next few months.

First, there's debut effort P.D.A., which the band will not-so-subtly slip into Stateside record stores January 22 via Tomlab. Next there's a handful of dates surrounding the album release. And finally, of course, Hey Willpower will publicly display their affection for all things chintzy on a tour that sets out in full force in late February. Joining them: Men, the similarly dance-y project featuring two-thirds of Le Tigre.

All that Willpower will only get them as far as Austin, though... good thing for them, I hear that's a fine place for a band to be in mid-March. [MORE...]

Brother Ali Spreads Second Round of Truth on Tour

Photo by Jonathan Mannion

This winter and spring, Minnesota MC Brother Ali will unleash his second U.S. headlining tour in support of his most recent album, The Undisputed Truth. And just like he did in the 2007 edition, Ali is bringing his pals along. Abstract Rude, Toki Wright, and BK-One will all join him on "The Truth Is Here" tour.

If you can handle the "Truth", the tour kicks off February 29 (leap day!) in Madison, Wisconsin and continues throughout the month of March. [MORE...]

Photos: Bon Iver [St. Paul, MN; 01/17/08]
Bon Iver adds dates with Phosphorescent

Photos by Stacy Schwartz

Bon Iver's Justin Vernon sure likes guitars. On his debut album For Emma, Forever Ago (our 29th favorite album of 2007), guitars are pretty much the only sound you'll hear in addition to the singer/songwriter's haunted falsetto. And for concerts, he apparently brings a whole stack of them (see below).

Something else he might consider bringing a stack of: copies of the album, which Vernon self-released last year but will be re-released via Jagjaguwar on February 19. Last night at the Turf Club in St. Paul, Minnesota, the audience was clamoring for copies, but Vernon had to tell the sold out crowd he couldn't get away with distributing it just yet.

More photos and tour dates below, including a new set of dates in March with Phosphorescent.

[MORE...]

Pinback Announce Winter Dates

With Rob Crow's army of metronomes all recalibrated after a hefty workout in 2007, one of those bands that he's in-- Pinback, I believe they're called-- has pinned down their first big plans for 2008. Looks like it'll be a tour that sticks to the West Coast for most of February before heading off to Japan at the end of the month. Will the mildly mechanized tones of Pinback go over in the country that brought us Asimo the robot and the Tamagotchi? Yeah, we reckon that oughta work out pretty well. [MORE...]

Daniel Johnston Tours U.S. in February

From his "Devil Town" to yours, that motorcycle of Daniel Johnston's is speeding across the country pretty soon. The beloved singer-songwriter will embark on a winter tour that kicks off on February 5 in Detroit. You won't need reason, and you won't need logic: just get yourself a ticket and be dang proud of it.

In other news from Mr. Johnston, a few of his early records have recently been re-released. [MORE...]

Stones Throw Compiles Videos on DVD
Madlib produces Percee P remix album ft. Aesop Rock, Chali 2na

Stones Throw is ushering in the new year with its usual flurry of releases, tours, and related ephemera, and the biggest of the current batch is the label's second DVD.

In Living the True Gods: Stones Throw 102 DVD is a collection of 15 videos from the label, including offerings from Madvillain (whose previously unreleased "Accordion" video is available for viewing at the link below), Madlib, J Dilla, Oh No, Gary Wilson Quasimoto, Aloe Blacc, and Lootpack.

The DVD comes out February 12 and features extras such as a 2003 interview with J Dilla, a mini-documentary about label head Peanut Butter Wolf and his late partner Charizma, a behind-the-scenes look at Oh No's "Move" video, and live footage of Jaylib and Quasimoto, among others.

But before releasing True Gods, Stones Throw will put out the Madlib-produced remix version of Percee P's Perseverance album. Perseverance: The Remix comes out January 29 (with a digital release a bit earlier) and features guest spots from Aesop Rock, Diamond D, Chali 2na (ex-Jurassic 5), Prince Po, Karriem Riggins, and Madlib himself.

Stones Throw will also release Guilty Simpson's solo debut, Ode to the Ghetto, on March 25. The album features production from Madlib, Oh No, Black Milk, and the late J Dilla.

And finally, at least in terms of releases, a record that's already out: It's the first in Stones Throw's new Rhythm Trax series of "beats on vinyl," according to the label's website. Vol. 1 comes courtesy of Spokane, Washington resident James Pants.

In the live department, Percee P and Guilty Simpson have a big European tour coming up in February. [MORE...]

Toumani Diabate Reveals New Album, Tour

Twenty years after he released Kaira, his international debut, talkative Malian kora master and Björk collaborator Toumani Diabaté will release his new album via World Circuit/Nonesuch February 26. The Mandé Variations is his first solo album on the kora (a traditional West African 21-string instrument) since Kaira, except this one comes entirely without overdubs or accompaniment of any kind.

In support of The Mandé Variations' release, Diabaté will gather up his friends for a tour of the Symmetric Orchestra. The ensemble includes musicians from Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso, who play instruments ranging from the kora and typical rock band elements (guitar, bass, drums) to other traditional African instruments such as the ngoni and the balafon.

The Symmetric Orchestra tour begins January 24 in Seattle and extends across the U.S. before heading Down Under a little later, in March. [MORE...]

Silje Nes Serves Up FatCat Debut in North America

Looks like Atmosphere aren't the only ones benefiting from their association with a big kitty these days. Norwegian songstress and sonic tinkerer Silje Nes will issue her debut, Ames Room, on FatCat Records March 11 in the U.S. and Canada (it's available elsewhere now). FatCat caught wise to Ms. Nes via a demo some years back, and were impressed enough with what they heard to welcome her into the fold.

Nes has herself a handful of European and UK dates on the way before she opens the door to Ames Room, and she plans to hit SXSW in the days that immediately follow. A full U.S. trek is being planned for March. [MORE...]

YACHT Designs Clever Sleeves for New MacBook Air

Front page photo by Kathryn Yu

YACHT's Jona Bechtolt: party-starter, penny picker-upper, and now, shrewd businessman. Within days of the unveiling of Apple's impressively-thin new laptop, Bechtolt is all poised to cash in on MacBook Air hysteria (hyst-Air-ia?).

Taking to heart Steve Jobs' claim that the MacBook Air will fit in a standard manila business envelope (seeing is believing), Bechtolt and frequent collaborator Claire L. Evans devised the perfect accessory: the manila envelope-styled protective laptop sleeve (pictured above). The pair readily admits it's an "obvious" idea, but who cares when it's also probably a massively lucrative one?

"AirMail", as they're calling it, is available for pre-order now. Bechtolt and Evans plan to ship these things out in about two weeks, to coincide with the arrival of the first wave of MacBook Airs.

Straight from the product's website: "The AirMail laptop sleeve is handmade out of durable upholstery-grade vinyl, and lined with fuzzy, soft fleece. All AirMail sleeves have the same dimensions as standard interoffice manila envelopes, which will serve to remind you-- and everyone around you-- that your new MacBook Air really is the thinnest laptop in the world!" Um, nerd alert!

Thanks to reader Joseph Darragh for the tip.

Catch YACHT and his trusty MacBook on a handful of upcoming gigs, including two this weekend. Then you can say you knew him before he went all parvenu and started buying real yachts-- Ah! Now your whole scheme becomes clear, Bechtolt! [MORE...]

Thurston Moore Soundtracks Adult DVD (Possibly NSFW)
Also co-writes book about no wave

Front page photo by Jason Bergman

Thurston Moore has written the soundtrack for a porno!

Calm down. It's more of an artsy adult film than an honest-to-goodness porno. And if you're up on your Sonic Youth history, it's really not that completely out of the blue.

A press release describes the hour-long movie, Extra Action (And Extra Hardcore), as the result of what happens when photographer/filmmaker Richard Kern tells his "unpretentious, unadorned, and definitely undressed" "real women" to "roll around and do something interesting for a few minutes." The DVD comes out March 18 via MVD, and in addition to Thurston's original score for Extra Action, it features previously unreleased Kern flicks as extras.

Kern's name will be familiar to Sonic Youth fans for his videos for "Death Valley 69" and "Scooter and Jinx" , as well as the cover of Evol, which featured a still from his film Submit to Me Now. He has also directed videos for the Breeders and Marilyn Manson.

Expanding Moore's multimedia attack, Abrams Image Books will publish No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York. 1976-1980 by Thurston and Byron Coley on June 1. It's a photographic and oral history of the very scene Pitchfork's Marc Masters documented in his recent feature "NO!: The Origins of No Wave" and his book No Wave.

Finally, Sonic Youth have those Down Under dates in February, and Thurston himself has a pair of solo dates bookending the tour. The first is a DJ set on January 26, and the second is a March appearance in NYC opening for Roky Erickson. [MORE...]

CYHSY Play Planned Parenthood Benefit Show
The Great Buck Howard, that movie they're in, debuts at Sundance this weekend

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah don't mind if you make babies. They just wanna make sure you're well prepared to do so. So in lieu of introducing "Clap Your Hands Say Not Tonight, Honey"-brand contraception into an already overcrowded marketplace, they're donating the proceeds from their January 22 show at New York City's Bowery Ballroom to Planned Parenthood of New York City. Score! Er, responsibly, of course.

Hey, speaking of scoring, The Great Buck Howard-- the Tom Hanks/John Malkovich vehicle in which the band appears and provides a few new tunes-- will debut at the Sundance Film Festival over the weekend.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah hit Australia in February for the Laneway Festival and beyond. [MORE...]

X Gear Up for 31st Anniversary Tour
John Doe tours with Wilco

What do you get when you put Exene Cervenka, John Doe, Billy Zoom, and D.J. Bonebrake in a big shiny bus and tell 'em to have at it? Why, you've got the "13-31 Tour", an all-too-rare series of live outings from the original lineup of seminal Los Angeles rockabilly-tinged punkers X in celebration of the 31st (holy hell!) anniversary of their formation. What did you think I was gonna say?

Yes, X will be doling out many a Wild Gift on stage this spring, from a youngster-schooling appearance at SXSW to, you guessed it, a gig where it all began, Los Angeles. And just in case you don't feel like leaving that house that you call home to catch all the steamy single-X action, one of the band's SXSW appearances will be taped for an hour-long DirecTV special. Ooh, special!

Seasoned road warrior John Doe has quite a few dates of his own before the so-called "13-31 Tour" kicks off, including a whole bunch with some band called Wilco. [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.)