Lupe Fiasco Turns The Cool Into Clothing

While we continue to unpack his lyrics, Lupe Fiasco has crafted another curious-on-the-outside, surprising-on-the-inside treat for his fans: a line of reversible jackets in collaboration with designer Dr. Romanelli.

As you can see from the pictures (thanks to High Snobiety), the jackets feature the artwork from Lupe's latest album The Cool on the black side and a dizzying pink pattern on the reverse. It's like Lupe created the fashion statement equivalent of a concept album personifying different aspects of urban life and featuring a song with lyrics from the perspective of a cheeseburger! Or something.

Back in the music world, Lupe still has a chunk of headlining shows scattered throughout the next few months, which will tide us over until the dates for his tour with Kanye, N.E.R.D., and Rihanna surface.

Finally, congratulations to the Fiascinator on his Best Urban/Alternative Performance Grammy for his song "Daydreamin'" featuring Jill Scott.

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Envelopes Bring The Wind on Second Album
They bring the wind but do not break it

They may be less heralded than countrymen Peter Bjorn and John and Jens Lekman, but Envelopes are happy to buoy Sweden's indie-pop quota nonetheless. And soon, the band will add to the recent glut of musical exports from the land of blue and yellow with the release of sophomore album Here Comes the Wind.

Like the band's debut, Demon, the new album will come out on Brille Records. Its release date is February 18, but folks eager for a taste can scoop up the "Party" single that came out today.

Or, if you're willing to invite something called a "widget" onto your hard drive, you can actually hear Here Comes the Wind in full right now by going here. [MORE...]

Daft Punk, Shins, Hot Chip, Iggy Pop Pose for Playboy
Made you look

Photos by Mick Rock

Adding a little rock'n'roll to the usual T'n'A, the previously reported annual Sex and Music issue of Playboy hit newsstands this past weekend boasting totally smokin' pin-ups of a bevy of your music faves: Daft Punk, Hot Chip, Iggy Pop, the Shins (a move still perhaps ill-advised in light of recent events), Duran Duran, and Gogol Bordello.

By totally smokin' we of course mean totally wholesome and fully clothed-- even perennially topless Iggy has his shirt on! How's that for irony?

If principle or circumstance precludes your person from procuring a copy of the new Playboy despite your penchant for the rock, fear not, for Pitchfork has the goods right here. Additional scandalously SFW photos of the aforementioned-- culled directly from the pages of Playboy-- await (plus there are even more here).

And that ain't the half of it. Like last year, Playboy once again invited these musical types to design special t-shirts incorporating that iconic rabbit insignia for the Rock the Rabbit campaign. The limited-run shirts will go up for sale at Bloomingdale's locations and RockTheBunny.com soon, while the original designs will be auctioned off to benefit Rock the Vote.

Check out tee design selections from most of the above plus T.I., Tokyo Police Club, the Pipettes, Working for a Nuclear Free City, and New Young Pony Club below, and scope the rest of the offerings here. Daft Punk, you win again.



Designs left to right, top to bottom: Daft Punk, Hot Chip, the Pipettes, the Shins, Iggy Pop, T.I., Working for a Nuclear Free City, Tokyo Police Club, Duran Duran, New Young Pony Club





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Boston's Pretty & Nice Sign to Hardly Art

Their name may be Pretty & Nice, but they refer to themselves on MySpace as "the four horsemen of pop doom." Confused? Perhaps one of these Nice young men can help you out. Oh, and they're so Pretty, too! Clearly, it's a win-win.

Tuneful, tightly-wound Beantown foursome Pretty & Nice have become the latest to sign into the Hardly Art family. The band has a full-length and a remix EP to its name at the moment, and Hardly Art will-- as labels tend to do-- put out whatever Friendly & Nice come up with next. For now, though, there's a March tour to attend to, and attend to it they shall. [MORE...]

Gibbard and Fisk's About a Son Score to Be Released

First the theatrical release, then the soundtrack, then the DVD. What's next for fans of Kurt Cobain: About a Son? How about the film's score? Barsuk will release Kurt Cobain About a Son: Original Score digitally on February 19 to coincide with the Shout! Factory release of the DVD. (A limited-edition, hand-numbered double vinyl version of the score will be out in April.)

As previously reported, the About a Son score is the original work of Steve Fisk (he produced Nirvana's Blew EP) and Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard.

Radiohead Greatest Hits Album on the Way

Give them credit: they've held out longer than most. But come spring, Radiohead will join the Eagles, Van Halen, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Joni Mitchell, Journey, and Mandy Moore in the annuls of acts who have foisted "Greatest Hits" albums upon us. Now you may be thinking: wait a minute, isn't every Radiohead album since The Bends pretty much a greatest hits collection unto itself? Indeed, but don't blame the band for this one.

According to a recent interview with guitarist Ed O'Brien on Canadian radio's The Strombo Show [via ateaseweb.com], not unlike that recent catalog box set, this was all the doing of Radiohead's former label EMI. "They're planning to do a greatest hits for April, May to coincide with our tour," said O'Brien. "That's an interesting one. We won't be doing any promotion for that, obviously."

Radiohead's European tour kicks off June 6, while the surrounding two-pronged North American jaunt is, for the moment, still without dates and venues. And unless the guys plan to stick strictly to B-sides, covers, and In Rainbows disc two material, chances are they'll end up inadvertently promoting the greatest hits set anyway.

Drummer Phil Selway also commented on the matter in an interview with Trinity College Dublin student magazine Analogue. "It's well within [EMI's] rights to do it [sigh]. So we'll have to see."

One thing's for sure, though. This thing damn well better have "Pyramid Song" on it. [MORE...]

Whiskeytown's Strangers Almanac Expanded, Reissued

What was Ryan Adams like before he was famous? Before he was dating models and actresses and rapping about witches? Come March 4, you'll have a new shot at hanging out with the person Adams used to be. That's when Mood Food/Outpost/Geffen/UMe will reissue the 1997 album Strangers Almanac by his old band Whiskeytown.

Whiskeytown were around from 1994 to 1999, rising up from North Carolina to conquer the alt-country scene. Adams' bandmates Caitlin Cary and Phil Wandscher also went on to successful careers following the band's breakup. Strangers Almanac was their major label debut, following their 1994 album Faithless Street on the indie Mood Food.

Strangers Almanac: Deluxe Edition is a two disc set. The first disc features the original album bolstered by five previously unreleased radio performances. The second disc is a veritable treasure trove: all but two of its 21 tracks are previously unreleased recordings from early sessions for the LP, known by bootleggin' fans as the "Barn's on Fire Sessions". "Kiss & Make-Up", "Indian Gown", "Barn's on Fire", "Streets of Sirens", "Breathe", "Nurse With the Pills", and "10 Seconds" all appear for the first time on any official Whiskeytown release. Acoustic demos of album tracks "16 Days", "Avenues", and "Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart", covers of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams", Gram Parsons' "Luxury Liner", Johnny Cash's "I Still Miss Someone", and the True Believers' "The Rain Won't Help You When It's Over" round out the set.

Back in the present, Ryan Adams is currently busy checking out Fashion Week and posting weird stuff on YouTube. [MORE...]

Godspeed Still on Hiatus, Not Completely Broken Up
"If and when we do call it quits permanently, it won't be because of the Iraq war."

Photo: Eva Vermandel

Godspeed You! Black Emperor-- now there's a great band we haven't heard from in awhile. The Canadian collective has been on "indefinite hiatus" for the past five-or-so years. Members of the band have kept busy with various musical projects since then, the most high-profile being Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La-Band, which features Godspeed members Efrim Menuck, Thierry Amar, and Sophie Trudeau.

Over the weekend, GY!BE popped back up on our radar, thanks to a Drowned in Sound interview with Menuck. The interview was in support of the excellent new Silver Mt. Zion album, 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons, which comes out March 25 on Constellation. (The band will tour this spring; see below for dates.)

In the interview, Menuck commented on the political and personal factors that lead to Godspeed You! Black Emperor's hiatus, including frustrations brought on by the war in Iraq. Drowned in Sound titled their story "Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Iraq war made it impossible to continue". Word spread quickly across the internet that the band had finally, officially, called it quits, and the Iraq war was the reason.

But the truth isn't that cut-and-dry. [MORE...]

Deerhoof Enlist New Member

From duo to trio to quartet to trio to-- eh, I'm sure we're missing a few configurations there-- Deerhoof's lineup adjustments have been almost as erratic as their music. And thanks to the recent addition of Ed Rodriguez on guitar, the mighty Deerhoof are four once more.

Mr. Rodriguez certainly gets around, having played in such acts as XBXRX, the Flying Luttenbachers, Sicbay, Iceburn, Colossamite (along with present Deerhoof member John Dieterich), and Gorge Trio. As Deerhoof is concerned, Rodriguez is in it for the long haul, serving as a permanent touring and recording member of the band.

Playfully heckle this newest recruit at either of Deerhoof's previously reported, Final Fantasy-curated Maximum Black Festival appearances, or at a California gig the week before.

And in case you weren't aware, Deerhoof helped Los Campesinos! realize their zine dreams, and Greg Saunier gives good interview. [MORE...]

Timbaland Launches "Mobile Album" With Verizon

Being the futuristic producer that he is, Timbaland has to constantly be thinking of ways to innovate. Recently, his brightest idea has been "sanding down the already smooth edges of blown-out radio rock (see: OneRepublic)," but his newest experiment is a little more intriguing, at the very least.

According to a press release, Timbaland will follow-up the massive success of Shock Value by creating a "mobile album" available exclusively through V Cast, Verizon Wireless' music & video service.

The "mobile album" looks like this: For the rest of 2008, Timbaland produces a song a month, collaborating with a different artist each month, all while touring the U.S. on the Verizon Mobile Recording Studio Bus. Behind-the-scenes footage will make its way to V Cast subscribers via a Timbaland channel. According to Billboard.com, within days of when a song is produced, it will become available as a download, ringtone, and ringback (whatever that is) via V Cast and Verizon. Then, at the end of the year, Verizon will release a compilation of all the tracks in some form or another.

Timbaland explained his involvement in creating the "mobile album" to Billboard.com as follows: "Every place don't get a CD [but] everybody has a mobile phone." It's hard to believe that people without the means to play CDs would nonetheless have cell phones, but Timbaland's other reason for working on the project makes a little more sense: professional pride. "Just producing a mobile album has never been done. I'm the first to ever do it."

The first song from the project, which features Timbaland protégé Keri Hilson, will debut today (Feb. 8) at a pre-Grammy party. According to Billboard.com, some attendees of the party could collaborate with Timbaland on future installments of the "album." Among the party's guests are Paramore, Flo Rida, Chris Cornell, Natasha Bedingfield, and, of course, OneRepublic.

Long Blondes Reveal North American Tour, Tracklist

See that right there? The thing with the torn up zebra standing on a daybed and staring into its own butt? That's the very image that will grace each and every copy of the Long Blondes' sophomore set, Couples. How romantic!

As you know, the Erol Alkan-produced LP arrives April 7 in the UK and April 8 in the U.S. from Rough Trade, with a UK single for "Guilt" "Century" arriving March 24. And, hey, we even got a Couples tracklist for you. Now all we need is the music. Oh, right, right, April.

The Blondes have added more than a "couple" (ha) tour dates to their previously reported trek, with a spin around the UK leading them into Europe proper, followed by few weeks in North American starting in mid-May.

You know what they say about Long Blondes, don't you? Long tours! Geez guys, ya'll filthy. [MORE...]

Wipers' Sophomore Album Gets Vinyl Reissue
Jackpot label also plans Jandek, New Dawn reissues

Portland record store and start-up label Jackpot Records will follow its 2006 vinyl reissue of Wipers' 1980 debut album Is This Real? by giving the same treatment to the second Wipers album, Youth of America.

Nirvana trivia buffs know Wipers as one of Kurt Cobain's favorite bands, and 1981's Youth of America saw guitarist/bandleader Greg Sage eschewing the debut's shorter songs for six long compositions. Since the album's release, its title track has received covers from both Mission of Burma and the Melvins.

For Jackpot's vinyl reissue of Youth of America on February 11, Greg Sage mastered the album from his original tapes; the release also restores the record's original artwork.

Wipers aren't the only band Jackpot will reissue this year. The label has plans for a vinyl reissue of Jandek's Ready for the House and a CD/LP release of New Dawn's complete recordings. [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.)