Franz Side Project Correcto Ready Debut LP

A Glaswegian foursome with Paul Thomson on drums will release its new album in the UK on February 25, but it's not Franz Ferdinand. (They're still crafting their own picaresque journey^* of a new LP.)

Instead, the record comes from Correcto, the group Thomson plays in with Danny Saunders, the Royal We's Patrick Doyle, and artist Richard Wright. Just this week Domino released "Do It Better", the second single from the band's self-titled debut, and the label will follow with the album in a little over a week.

Correcto also have a handful of live dates coming up, starting with a show tomorrow night (February 16) in Glasgow.

Franz Ferdinand have a pair of festival shows as well, though they don't arrive until the summer.

* According to a MySpace blog post... [MORE...]

The National Release Live EP

The National are hardly the flashiest band in the world, but they certainly mastered the slow burn with über-grower Boxer. And any approach that results in a tour with R.E.M. and Modest Mouse seems like a pretty good formula for success.

The band's newest way for us to soak up the Boxer experience is through a digital live EP released through online music service Rhapsody. It's titled Rhapsody Rocks NYC and features four Boxer tunes recorded live at an exclusive show during last year's CMJ Music Marathon. It's available for purchase right now.

Before they join forces with the Rems and the Mouses on the aforementioned tour, the National have a handful of dates, starting with a pair of February shows at the Brooklyn Next festival. [MORE...]

Bill Callahan Kicks Off Tour With Shearwater's Meiburg

Photo by Shannon McClean

Tonight in Beaumont, Texas, Misters Bill Callahan (formerly known as Smog, in and out of these parentheses) and Jonathan Meiburg (generally speaking, the font from which Shearwater flows) will hit the very same stage for the first of many such meetings the two will enjoy on their joint tour of the Southern U.S.

They'll part ways March 8, at which point Meiburg and the Shearwater will prep for the release of Rook, due sometime this year on Matador. As for Bill, well, one only hopes he's accruing weird encounters to write about for his follow-up to last year's stellar Woke on a Whaleheart. Bon voyage, gents. [MORE...]

O'Death Head Out on Tour of Murderous Proportions

Death! And more death! And, also, O'Death! Following a pop-in at SXSW and a brief run around the country with Brooklyn bluesman Langhorne Slim, porch-stompers O'Death will hit the road with Kiss Kiss and their fellow gothic carnage-mongers in Murder by Death. You will know them by the trail of, uh, tour dates.

Oh, and O'Death's contribution to the Gigantic Records 7" series has been out since February 5. They'll reportedly head into the studio later this month with producer Alex Newport to craft a new full-length. [MORE...]

Caribou-boo Leads to Cancelled Dates

Photo by Sanchez and Kitahara

Due to an injury to bandmember Brad Weber's wrist, Dan Snaith and the rest of Caribou have been forced to cancel a pair of dates over the coming weekend all their upcoming UK dates that would have kicked off their UK and European mainland tour.

Dan and them will still play Monday night (February 18) in Glasgow, for now now start the tour February 23 in Saint-Malo, France, and go on to play the millions of other dates they've got on the way. Feel better soon, Brad! [MORE...]

Black Kids Announce Tour With Cut Copy

Photo by Mike White

How do those Black Kids do it? Without a full-length album, a label (on their home continent, anyway), a proper tour of their own home country, or even a fully functional website to their credit (er, "coming soon"), Black Kids have managed to win hearts around the globe.

This has led to something called a "Best New Music" and overseas tours with the lofty likes of Sons & Daughters and Kate Nash, but that's just the beginning for these upstarts, of course.

Now, the Kids have revealed plans to follow their date with Coachella with a full-blown North American tour alongside fashion-forward Aussie new wavers Cut Copy. Never underestimate the power of a catchy tune, people. Or, in the Kids' case, four of 'em.

We'll get that Black Kids album soon enough, though, and former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler is producing it. Cut Copy, meanwhile, unleash In Ghost Colours this spring and have plenty of dates sans Black Kids as well. [MORE...]

Photos: Yeasayer [Brooklyn, NY; 02/14/08]

Photos by Drew Katchen

Hearts were pounding this Valentine's Day at Brooklyn's Music Hall of Williamsburg, but it wasn't all thanks to Cupid. Instead, the borough's own cherubs of percussion-heavy, worldbeat-leaning, kitchen sink pop Yeasayer were spreading the love found on All Our Cymbals and helping showgoers' ventricles sync up with the quartet's infectious rhythms. And, of course, dodging projectile candy hearts all the while.

Also on-hand for the love-in: fellow Brooklynites MGMT and Chairlift, who all joined Yeasayer later in the set for a big ol' hypno-jam.

Yeasayer roll through Philly tonight before skipping the pond for about a month. Then it's back Stateside for a meet-up with Man Man, then back UK-ways for that ATP vs. Pitchfork thinger. Even their travel plans have rhythm!

YEASAYER






MGMT



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Portishead's Third Gets Tracklist, New Release Dates

Front page photo by Eva Vermandel

People of the world, Gloomsday hath cometh. Break out the black raiment, finesse those frowns, and purge your minds of all happy thoughts come April 28 (UK) and April 29 (U.S.), as those are the dates we can now expect Portishead to unleash their latest paean to pain and misery, Third.

The April 28 UK unveiling is updated from a previously reported April 14 release date, while the April 29 U.S. date is entirely new. Mercury/Island will ensure Third finds a place on record store racks, which haven't seen a Portishead disc of any kind since 1998's live offering PNYC.

A lot has changed in 10 years, but Portishead's penchant for parsimonious song titles apparently hasn't. The tracklist for Third, printed in full below, is comprised almost entirely of single- and double-word names; it also includes all those enticing-sounding tracks the Pop Group's Mark Stewart recently sampled.

And how about that cover up there? Beauty in simplicity, I suppose.

Portishead's European trek begins March 26 in Portugal, and the trio has added A Hawk and a Hacksaw and Kling Klang as support on mutually exclusive dates. They'll also headline Coachella on April 26, and let's hope that's but the beginning of their travels on these shores this year. [MORE...]

Baroness Tour With Converge, Genghis Tron

More like Baron-yessss, right, ya'll?

Savannah, Georgia's own Baroness-- they of last year's most kickass Red Album and general metal-based mayhem besides-- will wrap a few European dates this weekend, hash out the details for some proposed East Coast, Southeast, and Texas dates, and prepare themselves for joining forces with Converge, Genghis Tron, and the Red Chord for a three week tour kicking off in late March that could be best described as "loud." Oh, right, also: "awesome." That oughta cover it. [MORE...]

Gnarls Barkley Share Odd Release Date, Video Plans

Gnarls Barkley's follow-up to 2006's St. Elsewhere now has a release date. Downtown/Atlantic will release The Odd Couple on April 8, a date still far enough away to keep a tracklist at bay.

Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse are also in the planning stages of the new album's music video assault, starting with one for first single "Run". Filmmaking team Happy is directing that one, and "Gone Daddy Gone" director Chris Milk will take the reins to the video for second single (already?!) "Who's Gonna Save My Soul".

Gnarls are currently planning an American and European festival tour for this summer, but their only confirmed date so far is a headlining show at the Hollywood Bowl in, of course, Hollywood on July 27.

And for a reminder of how odd a couple they really are, check out the new Gnarls press shot above. Something borrowed, something blue indeed.

John McCain's Daughter: Music Blogger
"I love the vibe and emotion I get from music... I take that energy and run with it."

"Back in my past life," admits 23-year-old Meghan McCain in a recent posting on McCainBlogette.com, "I wanted to be a music journalist."

McCain is the daughter of Arizona Senator and Republican presidential hopeful John McCain, but don't think she's abandoned those music journalism aspirations completely. As one of the three women behind McCainBlogette.com, the potential future First Daughter and her pals have taken it upon themselves to share a series of playlists "of the songs we just can't get enough of."

As young McCain writes, "I love the vibe and emotion I get from music...I take that energy and run with it."

Please, Meghan, tell us what we should be listening to!

Hmm, ok: David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Beach Boys, Madonna, Jay-Z, the Smiths, Björk, Kanye West, the Cure, T. Rex, the Velvet Underground, 2 Pac and Dr. Dre, Elliott Smith, Modest Mouse, TV on the Radio, JAMC, Tom Waits, the Roots, Pulp, Blur, Ladytron, Spoon, Iggy and the Stooges, Goldfrapp, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, "Young Folks", and something called "Lilly Allen", among many others. Hey, we can't argue with those-- and all paragons of Republican values.

But Meghan knows a thing or two about irony. "An interesting thing happens when you're a music fan," she writes in a February 8 posting. "There's always some great irony in between life and art. I posted a link to the Ramone's [sic] 'My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)' yesterday and some people seem to think there's some message in the fact that it was written in part as a criticism of a trip President [Ronald] Reagan made to Bitburg, West Germany in May 1985.

"Wow...I happen to like the song and figured it was a bit of an edgy choice considering the content...BUT those of you who know that, also probably know Johnny Ramone was a proud Republican and big fan of President Reagan who insisted the title of the song be changed to its refrain. So if you've been following along with us these last few months, you already know things aren't always what they seem on the Blogette...enjoy the song...love the irony... and keep watching... it's only bound to get more fun!" Well, um, that settles that, clearly.

And if dad should worry? Burt's got his back.

The Gutter Twins Kick Off Tour Tonight
Add a ton of European dates

Though they've been slowly oozing details and the occasional track over the past several months, tonight, the sludgy stuff pouring out of the Gutter Twins is really gonna start flowing.

This very evening in New York City (happy Valentine's Day, kiddies!), the duo of Screaming Tree/Soulsaver/Queen of the Stone Age/Isobel Campbell collaborator Mark Lanegan and Afghan Whig/Twilight Singer Greg Dulli will play the first of a pretty massive string of dates they've got lined up over the next few months in North America, the UK and Europe. Since the last time we checked, the band have added a ton of European gigs, and, as always, more menace.

P.S. Doesn't Mark Lanegan look kinda like Hellboy in that picture up there? Eerie.

The Twins' debut, Saturnalia, is due March 4 from Sub Pop. [MORE...]

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