The Plastic Constellations Issue New LP, Plan Hiatus

There's a damn good chance the next Plastic Constellations LP may be the band's last recorded gasp. The longstanding Minneapolis rockers claim an "indefinite hiatus [is] on the horizon" following the release of We Appreciate You, their fourth full-length.

Frenchkiss will issue the LP April 15, and will play what could prove to be the band's final gig at the label's showcase at SXSW. (No touring is planned beyond that.) They'll be joined by the Dodos, the Big Sleep, "others TBA" (loved their last album), and, perhaps, tears. [MORE...]

Cryptacize Hit the Road With Why?

Photo by Kate Fruchey

Asthmatic Kitty trio Cryptacize will support the February 19 release of their debut Dig That Treasure with a tour that ushers in the spring. Starting in Tucson on March 8, the band will gradually head to colder North American climates, wrapping things up in early April. Along the way, they'll play with the likes of Why?, Brother Danielson, Citay, and Panther.

Prior to the tour, Cryptacize have a show tonight (January 23) in San Francisco alongside Mirah and the Blow.

Finally, the band also directed a new video for Treasure track "Cosmic Sing-a-long". You can check it out at the link below. [MORE...]

Times New Viking Tour With Super Furry Animals

Does this seem a little weird to anyone else? Times New Viking-- among the grittiest-sounding groups that fall under the "pop" descriptor-- plan to spend the second half of February tooling around North America with none other than that highest-of-the-hi-fi acts, Super Furry Animals. I mean, I'm all for it-- great bands, both-- but this is a bit like having Tom Waits open for David Bowie, or the Wu for Kanye. Though, um, if anyone out there could arrange either of those hypothetical events, I know this great office in Chicago that would love to host it...

(It's actually not that weird. I saw Cex open for Super Furry Animals once. Now THAT was weird. - Ed.)

Anyhow. The obstreperous Ohioans will not only tear it up on tour this winter with the wild things from Wales, but they'll celebrate the release of Best New Music inductee Rip It Off (via Matador) with a pair of home state shows later this week.

Expect the reverberations to last well past spring. [MORE...]

M. Ward, Zooey Deschanel Reveal She & Him LP Details
Duo plans shows too!

Photo by WHOLPHIN DVD

All set to give Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová a run for their crossover money, M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel are here with their own acting/songcraft one-two punch. It's that previously reported debut LP under the She & Him banner, Once Volume 1.

Today comes confirmation that the Ward-produced Volume 1 will indeed be released by Merge Records, along with a release date (March 18) and, wonder of wonders, a tracklist! Wait a minute, these songs have the exact same titles as the last eleven entries in my Xanga! Weird!

Far less suspect than that little quip are the two-- count 'em, two-- live performances She & Him have lined up so far for March 2008, including a spot at Merge's SXSW showcase. M. and Zooey may be grammatically impaired, but they sure do look and sing all pretty. [MORE...]

Kompakt Reissues Gas Catalog in Box Set

As the co-head of Cologne, Germany's Kompakt label, minimal techno pioneer Wolfgang Voigt has spent this decade mostly focused on other people's music. But in the previous decade, his albums as Gas helped define the sound Kompakt artists are still perfecting.

Voigt and Kompakt will revisit the Gas catalog with the reissue of the out-of-print Gas, Zauberberg, Kônigforst, and Pop in a single four-CD/two-LP collection called Nah und Fern. Originally released on Frankfurt label Mille Plateaux, these records come restored and remastered for Kompakt's reissue in May.

Also in May, Voigt will publish a book through art and music collective Raster-Noton titled Gas: Loops. The book will present "the visual side of Gas," according to a press release, but its pages' specific contents remain a mystery. Gas: Loops will come with a CD featuring two tracks from the November edition of Raster-Noton's 1999 "20' to 2000" series (where artists were asked to soundtrack the final 20 minutes of the 20th Century), as well as various Gas loops and previously unreleased tracks.

For a deeper, more personal look at Gas, check out our own Mark Richardson's column, "Resonant Frequency #48".

The Ruby Suns Sign to Sub Pop for New Album

New Zealand trio the Ruby Suns (formerly Ryan McPhun and the Ruby Suns) already trot the globe in sound, and with their recent signing to Sub Pop, they'll travel it in terms of actual releases. Their vessel: Sea Lion, the follow-up to their self-titled debut from 2006.

Sea Lion covers "musical styles from African and Polynesian folk music to flamenco, from '80s synth pop to Disney movie soundtracks," according to a press release. Like The Ruby Suns, the sophomore set will come out in the UK and Ireland on Memphis Industries (on March 3). Meanwhile, Sub Pop will take care of North America on March 4.

Our first taste of Sea Lion is "Tane Mahuta", located at the link below. It's an ode to the Waipoua forest near Auckland, New Zealand sung in Maori, and there's a video for the track soon to come.

To warm us up for the album's release, the Ruby Suns will play a series of shows in Australia and New Zealand in January and February. [MORE...]

Be Your Own Pet Announce Awkward Tour

Be Your Own Pet are all set to Get Awkward on both the East and West Coasts in a month or so, as the exuberant youngsters are hitting the road for a two-week trek. Joined in large part by the very un-awkward Raveonettes, the band will preview their forthcoming album, due March 17 on XL in the UK and March 18 on Ecstatic Peace/Universal in the U.S. [MORE...]

Colin Meloy's Solo LP Gets Vinyl-Only Bonus Track

Not everybody's vinyl-only bonus track gets its own headline story over here at Pitchfork news, but yet again, not everybody we cover wrote The Crane Wife.

Hearts went pitter-pat last week when we reported that Decemberists frontman/coffee shop heartthrob/toy monkey enthusiast Colin Meloy's forthcoming live solo acoustic disc, Colin Meloy Sings Live!, would arrive in April from Kill Rock Stars. But there's more!

It turns out that the vinyl incarnation of Colin's album won't be dropping via Kill Rock Stars at all, but rather from their buds at Jealous Butcher, which was responsible for the vinyl release of all of the previous KRS Decemberists LPs. It will come on two discs of 180 gram audiophile quality virgin vinyl, and sport as a bonus track a cover of the oft-covered "Blues Run the Game" by 60s folkie Jackson C. Frank. The vinyl, like the CD, emerges April 8. More Meloy, you say? Pile it on.

Colin and those Decemberists will close out January with four dates, the first of which is tonight in Portland. [MORE...]

Chuck D, Atmosphere's Slug Chat on Public Radio
Brother Ali guests with live performance

There must be something in the water up there in Minnesota, something that encourages the dispensing of artistic wisdom in public forum. That, or Atmosphere MC Slug just likes to talk.

Not even five months after he regaled Twin Cities area residents as part of the Making Music series, Slug will once again school his fellow Land of 10,000 Lakers, this time as part of Minnesota Public Radio station The Current's Fakebook series.

And this time it's looking like Slug may learn quite a few lessons as well, from one of hip-hop's elder statesmen. Joining Slug and host Mary Lucia for the April 19 conversation is none other than Public Enemy's Chuck D, a man we could all, in fact, stand to learn a lot from.

Also appearing: Brother Ali, in the midst of his "The Truth Is Here" tour, who will perform songs throughout the evening.

A limited number of tickets are available for the event, which pops off at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul. Those who cannot attend can of course tune in to The Current-- and hey, while you're at it, why not check out archived streams of past Fakebook happenings featuring such fine folks as Tapes 'n Tapes, Bound Stems, Amy Sedaris, and Chuck Klosterman?

Finally, don't forget Slug and Atmosphere's primary piece of advice, headed your way April 22: When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold.

Liars' Angus Andrew Suffers Back Injury

Photo by Daniel Cantó

Between the shrieking, the sweating, the dresses, and the equipment-climbing, Liars' live shows are fairly notorious for their intensity. But when Angus Andrew threw his back out this past weekend, it wasn't from any stage contortions or primal spirit channeling. Instead, it happened as he "stooped to retrieve a tiny pillow from the couch in his L.A. home," according to a post on the band's MySpace blog.

When Andrew reached for the pillow, "a seismic bolt tore through the fabric of his lower back rendering him immobile on the living room floor." His bandmates arrived later to help him out, but the pain stuck around. Their efforts are documented in detail in the blog post (which we have reprinted in its entirety after the jump).

Liars are set to go on a U.S. tour with No Age starting Friday, January 25 in San Francisco. And while their posting that "It's a week 'til our first show and Angus can't feed himself" potentially calls the status of that tour into question, the band's publicist says there is currently no change in plans. At the moment, Andrew is resting up in California. [MORE...]

White Hinterland Sign to Dead Oceans, Prep LP

Way back in the bygone hinterland of your mind, you may recall the name Casey Dienel, who released a very nice LP under her own name called Wind-Up Canary a couple years ago. Well, Casey's got herself a new thing called White Hinterland, and a new label called Dead Oceans. The two relatively new outfits are joining forces for Phylactery Factory (Haha! It rhymes!), White Hinterland's debut LP, due out March 4.

Dienel will make a few appearances in the next little while, including a stop at SXSW. She plans to follow that up with a national tour, with most dates to emerge later. [MORE...]

Reynolds' Rave & Dance Book "Remixed," Reissued

It may be hard to fathom, but dance music did not actually originate with Daft Punk. There was a whole decades-long history of beats and breaks moving people on drugs in clubs before our favorite French robots arrived, and British critic Simon Reynolds ably documented it in the book Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture, known in the UK as Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture.

Originally published in 1998, the book delves into the histories of electro-driven scenes in Detroit, Chicago, London, Ibiza, and across the globe, spanning sub-genres from house to techno to trance to hardcore to jungle to rave to big beat to trip-hop. It's a book stuffed to the gills with information, and its insights into how drugs like ecstasy can offer a point of access to the music are fascinating.

Of course, plenty has happened in the world of dance music since Generation Ecstasy/Energy Flash was first published, and that's where a new edition comes in. On February 1, Picador will publish the updated version of the book, complete with six new chapters and 40,000 new words. Covered in the additions are developments such as grime, microhouse, dubstep, and garage, among others. (Note that the "20th anniversary" mentioned on the cover refers to the onset of the rave boom, not the book's original year of publication.)

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