Sonic Youth Plan Career-Spanning Art Exhibit

The extraordinary magnitude of Sonic Youth's, ahem, sonic influence is pretty much gospel at this point. But no less pronounced are the band's contributions to the visual culture, by way of artists such as Christopher Wool, Dan Graham, Vito Acconci, Raymond Pettibon, and Richards Kern and Prince.

These folks and more will be celebrated in a forthcoming traveling museum exhibition Sonic Youth is preparing, according a New York magazine report.

"We're putting together this museum show that's utilizing all the artists that we've worked with on different covers and concepts, and that's going to happen for two or three years," Thurston Moore said during a Marc Jacobs party in New York City last week. "It's going to happen in young museums; there's one outside of Paris, there's one in Malmö, Sweden."

The New York story suggests the exhibit will launch this June at the Lieu International des Formes Emergentes (LiFE) in Saint-Nazaire, France, while the Whitney in New York is being considered as well. What's more, Sonic Youth hope to perform at each of the exhibition sites.

The band also plans to start writing its Rather Ripped follow-up this spring.

In other related and not necessarily related news, Daydream Nation the album is headed to a venue Down Under near you, while Daydream Nation the movie should turn up in theaters before long.

A short film co-starring Obama-backer Kim Gordon may be headed to a festival near you soon too, while a DVD directed by the aforementioned Kern and featuring music by Mr. Moore is bound for an adult video store near you March 18. And that's to say nothing of the Sonic Youth member-boasting Rhys Chatham discs due March 4 or the Sonic Youth-boasting "From the Basement" episode airing Stateside March 14. Gotta catch 'em all! [MORE...]

Deerhoof's Satomi Doubles Up for Oneone Project

The recent addition of fourth Deerhoofer Ed Rodriguez should free vocalist Satomi Matsuzaki to strike more of those adorable poses in the live setting. It has also, it seems, freed her to pursue some extracurricular musical interests.

Oneone is a new music-making outfit comprised of Satomi and Saya Ueno of Japan's much-loved Tenniscoats and Maher Shalal Hash Baz's touring band. The fledging duo will play one of its very first gigs tonight, February 13, at Aquarius Records in San Francisco. Billed as an "acoustic" set, the in-store begins at 6 p.m. Pacific this evening.

We can also look forward to a Oneone album in the near future, boasting the mixing prowess of Deerhoof's Greg Saunier and the label stamp of Japan's P-Vine imprint. Oneone also hope to hit up Japan in June for more live action.

Before all that, however, Deerhoof have a little live action of their own brewing. [MORE...]

Art Brut Deliver New Digital Single/EP

Brothers and sisters! Art Brut have a brand new single headed your way, and, you guessed it, it's for decibel-baiting It's a Bit Complicated jam "Pump Up the Volume" (not actually a M/A/R/R/S cover, mind you).

"Pump" hit UK digital retailers this week via Mute, and e-buyers can opt for one of two formats: the single-track version, or a three-track EP boasting "Pump" and two new songs, "Wasted Week-End" and "Our Parents Record Collection".

The mighty Art Brut have tacked on an epic three-date tour of Switzerland since our last report, and they of course have gigs in the UK, Spain, and Italy leading up to it. The next pops off in Dundee, Scotland tonight. [MORE...]

Scarlett Johansson Album Has Tracklist, David Bowie!

Frankly, Scarlett, we do give a damn. Anywhere I Lay My Head, the previously reported debut album from screen thespian Scarlett Johansson, arrives May 20 on Atco/Rhino.

It's an album comprised almost entirely of Tom Waits covers, with one ScarJo original, "Song for Jo", as its centerpiece. And now we know just which Waits numbers get the Johansson touch: "I Don't Want to Grow Up", "Town With No Cheer", and "No One Knows I'm Gone" are among the tunes by the gravel-voiced one that make up the rather odd Anywhere tracklist, reported on Billboard.com yesterday evening.

We already knew Dave Sitek produced and members of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Celebration, and Stars Like Fleas play on it, but here's the kicker: a pair of tracks ("Falling Down" and "Fannin' Street") feature guest vocals from none other than David Bowie! That's right: the other girl from Ghost World has recorded Tom Waits covers with David Bowie. Minds = blown.

As far as the covers themselves, "I Don't Want to Grow Up" will probably turn some heads. The Billboard.com report describes the track as having "drum machine beats straight out of a New Order song." Oh boy.

Waits gave the project his blessing, however. "I sent him some of the early, early recordings," Johansson told journalists at a press conference yesterday, "and he said, 'Go ahead.'

"I've heard he's very pleased."

While Johansson has no immediate plans to tour the Anywhere material, she is considering the possibility of "getting everybody together" for a festival appearance. [MORE...]

Amplive's Radiohead Remixes Now Available

After a bit of legal wrangling, Bay Area DJ/producer Amplive's Rainydayz Remixes project is here to stay. (Rainydayz being the Zion I member's reimagining of Radiohead's In Rainbows with assistance from MCs like Too $hort, Del the Funky Homosapien, Chali 2na, and his Zion I partner MC Zumbi.) And it's available for download now by following this very link.

In addition to the MP3s, Amplive is releasing a track from Rainydayz Remixes to his iLike iCast every 24 hours until he's all out, which apparently means you can put it on your Facebook or something. Seeing as we're all still trying to add each other on Friendster over here, we'll just stick to what we know: Rainydayz tracklist and Amplive, er, live dates after the jump. [MORE...]

Handsome Furs Announce Spring Dates

Touring with Handsome Furs is all Dan Boeckner seems to do these days, so maybe it's time to start calling Wolf Parade the side project. Either way, Boeckner and Alexei Perry are heading out in support of last year's Plague Park once again this spring.

The duo's new headlining dates are all on the East Coast in late March and early April, starting with a show in Miami on March 27. UPDATE: Looks like a West Coast tour is taking shape. They'll also play Sub Pop's SXSW showcase. [MORE...]

Working for a Nuclear Free City to Tour U.S., UK
Working for a Canada-free tour

After a few UK dates over the rest of the month, Manchester, England's Working for a Nuclear Free City will sandwich a brief U.S. tour with appearances at Noise Pop and SXSW. In between, they'll work on bringing cities devoid of the pleasures of dance rock the same kind of reversal effect they've had on the nuclear problem. Get thee to Tehran, fellas. [MORE...]

Mark Linkous Discusses the State of Sparklehorse
Working on new album, looking for a label, improvising with Fennesz, teaming with Danger Mouse, the Flaming Lips, and Gruff Rhys

Although Sparklehorse has stayed out of the spotlight for most of the time since the release of 2006's Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain and a subsequent tour, main man Mark Linkous has been keeping plenty busy. When Pitchfork chatted with the amiable, soft-spoken singer/songwriter last week, he opened up about his collaboration with Danger Mouse (featuring the Flaming Lips, Super Furry Animals' Gruff Rhys, and many others), his In the Fishtank session with Christian Fennesz, and the material he's working on for the next Sparklehorse album. He's also looking for a new label. Industry folks, take note!

Pitchfork: It's been a little while since we've heard new music from you. What have you been up to?

Mark Linkous: Well, I'm working on what I hope will be my next record and writing a lot of new songs that are sort of atypical of a lot of Sparklehorse stuff we've been doing. I've been trying to write really simple songs to make them sound like they're coming out of a satellite that's crashing into a gas giant or something.

Pitchfork: [laughs] Where did that image come from?

ML: I don't know; I tried to imagine if you were in another satellite or if you were floating in space and you heard these amazing pop songs that were short and really simple, not unlike Buddy Holly songs, but you wanted to fuck 'em up in a way, but not gratuitously. So I don't know, you know those sort of suicide probes that absorb as much information as they can before crashing into the sun or some kind of other unfriendly atmosphere.

Pitchfork: That seems like the kind of thing that would maybe translate into how you produce the record?

ML: Yeah, I'm trying to keep [the songs] short and simple but with a lot of cool noises and not be so anal about every little aspect of every track.

Pitchfork: Is that different from the way you've worked in the past?

ML: Well on, like, the first album... when people want me to sign records they usually always have Vivadixie[submarinetransmissions], and I think that's a lot of people's favorite record. And that was sort of when I was just learning what I was doing. So I think maybe I'm trying to forget or not be so conscious about plastic circuitry and just go for the feeling, not unlike that pact between Lars von Trier and all those guys. It was called Dogme something [Dogme 95 --Ed.]. It was between Lars von Trier and [Thomas] Vinterberg. They had this pact that they would make these movies, and if the lighting was terrible but the performance was great, they would use the great performance. Didn't use any music that wasn't playing in the scene, like coming off a radio or something. And yeah, the main ideal was to go for emotion and not technology. I mean when you watch Breaking the Waves, some of those scenes, the interior scenes, technically they're barely... you can't hardly see what's going on. [MORE...]

Thom Yorke Turns NPR DJ on Valentine's Day

No doubt about it: the members of Radiohead love playing records. And what better day to spread that love than Valentine's Day (February 14, yo), the very date of Thom Yorke's forthcoming guest DJ stint on NPR program "All Songs Considered"?

Yorke follows in the paw prints of past "All Songs Considered" guest DJs like Conor Oberst and Joanna Newsom, and in addition to dishing out some choice cuts-- including, we hope, "Hottest Record in the World" "Archangel" by Burial-- Yorke will also chat with host Bob Boilen about In Rainbows, The Eraser, and how the Radiohead frontman goes about discovering new music. Say, Mr. Yorke, I know this website...

To find out what time this episode of "All Songs Considered" will air in your area, head here, and look out for a downloadable podcast version come Thursday afternoon here.

Following a Radiohead tour announcement and an Eraser benefit auction contribution, this dispatch hereby completes the Thom Yorke Pitchfork hat trick for this, the 12th day of the 2nd month of 2008. Hallelujah, amen. [MORE...]

Constantines Reveal New Album Details

Kensington Heights: It's not just the name of the subdivision daddy's moving into with that nice lady he met at the grocery store. It's also the new album from Canada's Constantines. Their new label Arts & Crafts will issue the disc April 15 in the band's homeland, and it'll make its way to the States April 29.

Those of you lucky enough to have nabbed a copy of last month's limited edition "Easy Money" 7" are already privy to the disc's leadoff track.

The band aren't exactly lighting up the live circuit at the moment, though they've got a couple dates lined up for March. The first is a stop at New York's Mercury Lounge, and the second is an appearance down at South by Southwest. [MORE...]

Dalek, Isis Members on Tracy Wilson (Dahlia Seed) LP

Lo, to be just another name in the Rolodex of Tracy Wilson. The former Dahlia Seed-ling has amassed quite a circle of friends in the decade or so since the demise of her beloved group, and just about all of them pop up on Decimal, her new LP under the Ringfinger heading.

Members of Dälek, Isis, Jessamine, Fontanelle, Cave In, Film School, Engine Down, Jah Division, Denali, and others help Wilson with the finer points of Decimal, of which J Robbins and Dälek's Oktopus each produced a portion. The album's been available for a minute in a digital way, though Magic Bullet's vinyl-only physical release of Decimal didn't arrive until today (February 12).

Wilson appears to have no plans to tour at the moment, but she is blogging, which is sort of like a tour... of her mind. Check that out here. [MORE...]

T.V. Eye: February 12-17, 2008

Live music on TV this week:

Tuesday, February 12:

NBC: Late Night With Conan O'Brien: Band of Horses
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Louis XIV

Wednesday, February 13:

FUSE: The Sauce: Cassie

Thursday, February 14:

CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Bebel Gilberto

Friday, February 15:

NBC: Late Night With Conan O'Brien: Yeasayer
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Regina Spektor

Saturday, February 16:

FOX: Fearless Music TV: Sondre Lerche

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.)