Chemikal Underground Opens Digital Download Store

Jumping into the digital indie fray alongside folks like Sub Pop and Touch and Go, Glasgow's revered Chemikal Underground imprint has launched its very own online store for the sale of digital music files.

Cruise on over to the Chemikal Underground shop right now and you'll find every darn release in the label's prestigious catalog-- over 650 songs!-- reduced to refreshingly portable, 256kbps ones and zeros. That catalog includes classics from Mogwai, Arab Strap (plus solo releases from Aidan John Moffat and Malcolm Middleton), CU founders the Delgados, Bis, Aerogramme, and more, not to mention the ultra-rare, ultra-excellent Interpol Fukd ID 12".

Being able to satisfy your Chemikal fix from the comfort of your own computer chair is pretty sweet by itself, but the shop will make things even more worth your while by offering up some rare exclusives. Among them: the sole official Degaldos concert bootleg, Live at the Fruitmarket: Glasgow 2001, Arab Strap's soundtrack to the short film Rogue Farm, and plenty of Arab Strap rarities. And that's just the beginning.

While shaking things up on the world wide web, Chemikal Underground has also been making moves in reality-land. The label recently delivered Aidan John Moffat's naughty I Can Hear Your Heart and Mother and the Addicts' Science Fiction Illustrated, and treated overseas audiences to the latest Radar Bros. LP, Auditorium. Mogwai's groundbreaking Young Team, as previously reported, will get a 10th anniverary expanded reissue from CU, tentatively in April.

Handsome Furs Firm Up Spring Tour

This right here? This fine looking thing (after the jump) represents the full list of places you and yours can cavort and caper with young marrieds Dan Boeckner and Alexei Perry of Handsome Furs on their forthcoming spring tour, which is now even longer than it was before.

Following a stop at the Sub Pop SXSW showcase, the band will hit the road in late March, traversing the East Coast, then the west, and not a whole heck of a lot in between. "Handsome Furs Hate This City"? Nah, it's the long commutes they're really not so fond of. [MORE...]

Ian Curtis, M.I.A., Common, Karen O Sell Converses
Also: Sid Vicious, Joan Jett, Hunter S. Thompson

We tend to associate Common with dapper headwear (and safe sex and vodka), but a new advertising campaign will use the MC's likeness-- as well as those of M.I.A., Sid Vicious, Karen O, Joan Jett, and Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong-- to promote shoes.

Converse is celebrating its first century of existence this year with a campaign called "Connectivity", which gets its name by "visually 'connecting' past and present Converse icons," according to a press release.

In addition to the aforementioned musicians, the "Converse icons" in the campaign include James Dean, Hunter S. Thompson, and NBA star Dwyane Wade. "Connectivity" will also feature a few other, region-specific faces, including Ian Curtis (UK), Jane Birkin (France), and Nina Hagen (Germany).

The "Connectivity" campaign is set to debut this spring.

Mike Patton & Fennesz Plan More Dates Together

In-demand weird sound vocalizer Mike Patton and subdued weird sound synthesizer Christian Fennesz will kick off another European tour together tomorrow evening, February 27.

They have four dates together before splitting up for a few solo gigs. Patton's headlining shows are all with Italy's Zu, and Fennesz's are mostly festival dates. Patton fans in Brussels should note that a scheduled gig at VK for March 5 has been cancelled. But the question remains: When are these two gonna show North America some love?

Patton has also been collaborating with Dan the Automator under the name Crudo. The pair will perform at the 2008 Sasquatch! festival, running May 24-26. [MORE...]

Noise Pop Kicks Off Tonight in San Francisco

Starting this evening and continuing through Sunday, March 2, noise, pop, and pretty much everything betwixt the two shall meet in the City by the Bay, as the 16th annual Noise Pop festival takes over San Francisco. Music, film, art, and something called a "stellastarr*" will line the streets of the fair city, giving the rest of the nation yet another reason to be jealous of San Franciscans.

Since the early run-down we gave back in November with the Mountain Goats, the Magnetic Fields, Cursive, and the Gutter Twins, there has been a ton of new additions to the Noise Pop lineup. Highlights include the Walkmen, A Place to Bury Strangers, She & Him, Holy Fuck, British Sea Power, Helio Sequence, Blitzen Trapper, Quasi, Bodies of Water, the Rosebuds, Tilly and the Wall, the Little Ones, Trackademicks, Fleet Foxes, the Dodos, Throw Me the Statue, Panther, Mika Miko, the Broken West, Kelley Stoltz, Working for a Nuclear Free City, Monotonix, Grand Archives, Film School, MSTRKRFT, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Two Gallants' Adam Stephens, Amplive, those Human Giant characters, and, yes, stellastarr*.

The film portion of the festival includes the Germs biopic What We Do Is Secret, the documentaries Wesley Willis's Joyrides and You Weren't There: A History of Chicago Punk 1977-1984. There is also an art show featuring Autumn de Wilde's photographs of Elliott Smith, a design/craft fair, and panels and mentoring sessions.

The festivities take place at a plethora of San Francisco locales over the next several days. For a detailed schedule, hit up the Noise Pop website, or just wander around San Francisco aimlessly until you hear the sweet, sweet music.

Radiohead Plan Japan Tour, Confirm Toronto Date?

Hello? Gee, hey Radiohead! How ya been? It's been, like, nearly five days since we ran a story on you guys. I know, right? Sooooo, what ya'll been doin'? Oh I see. Uh huh. Uh huh. That's nice.

A reportedly confirmed date in Toronto, you say? August 15 at the Molson Amphitheatre, according to Much Music's Red Hot blog [via At Ease]? Shucks, guys, you shouldn't have!

Ooh, and a little travel out East, eh? Gigs in Osaka and Tokyo? Cool! Any idea where or when exactly? Oh I see, you don't know yet. Uh huh. Just sometime in October. Well that's still pretty sweet.

And just those two All Points West performances in the NYC area, huh? Oh hey, how about that San Francisco fest thing? Still just a rumor for now, I see.

Well guys, I have to go fetch my laundry, but it's been cool. Don't worry, I will. OK, catch you next time! Keep it real, dudes! [MORE...]

Joe Gibbs, Legendary Reggae Producer, R.I.P.

Photo via reggae.co.uk

Pioneering Jamaican producer Joe Gibbs, an instrumental figure in the growth of the sound of reggae, died at a Kingston, Jamaica hospital Thursday, February 21, according to a post on the Guardian's blog by Pitchfork contributor Dave Stelfox (via Idolator). He was 65 years old.

Gibbs began his career in the United States, where he trained as an engineer. Upon his return to Jamaica, he sold records out of his TV repair shop. Encouraged by the success of his vinyl sales, Gibbs added a recording studio to his office at the rear of the shop, which took off even further.

Gibbs' Amalgamated label was vital to the development of rocksteady, a somewhat more deliberate, bass-heavy version of the ska sound popular in the country at the time. His studio was soon home to fellow legends-in-the-making as Lee "Scratch" Perry and Winston "Niney the Observer" Holness.

As reggae's popularity continued to rise both in Jamaica and abroad, Gibbs scored his first big success beyond the island in 1970 with Nicky Thomas' "Love of the Common People", which hit #10 on the UK charts. It was around this time that Gibbs and partner Errol Thompson-- known jointly as "The Mighty Two"-- firmed up their house band, the Professionals, which included bassist Robbie Shakespeare and drummer Sly Dunbar (aka the unstoppable rhythm section known as Sly and Robbie).

With the band in place, Gibbs began to enjoy an untold string of hits that stretched into the 1980s. Gibbs and Thompson worked with legendary figures like Dennis Brown and Gregory Isaacs, and helped craft such unparalleled recordings as Althea and Donna's 1977 smash "Uptown Top Ranking" and Culture's hugely influential Two Sevens Clash LP.

Gibbs scored an international hit in 1980 with JC Lodge's "Someone Loves You Honey", a cover of a tune by American country singer Charley Pride. But according to Allmusic, the song was at the center of a lawsuit between Pride and Gibbs, which left Gibbs financially devastated. Gibbs took up recording again periodically later in life, though he never enjoyed the same success he experienced in the 60s and 70s.

A series of CDs compiling Gibbs' most famous productions are available, and according to Allmusic, 17 North Parade plan to issue Joe Gibbs Reggae Anthology in May.

Photos: Bill Callahan / Jonathan Meiburg [Mount Pleasant, SC; 02/23/08]

Photos by Drew Katchen

Backed by Shearwater's Jonathan Meiburg and Thor Harris, and having shed the Smog moniker he so long carried, Bill Callahan took the stage at Mount Pleasant, South Carolina's Village Tavern this past Sunday. All clad in ill-fitting suits, the crew bore resemblance to a down-on-their-luck, drowsy wedding band as they rolled through tunes off Callahan's Woke on a Whaleheart and old favorites like "Cold Blooded Old Times".

Meiburg also opened the show, in anticipation of Shearwater's forthcoming Rook on Matador. He, Callahan, and Harris head to Birmingham, Alabama tonight, then continue their roll through the American South into early March.

BILL CALLAHAN




JONATHAN MEIBURG

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Photos: El Guincho [Barcelona, Spain; 02/22/08]

Photos by Daniel Cantó

It's not a bad time to familiarize yourself with Barcelona's El Guincho, whose Alegranza! recently earned Best New Music distinction from some website you may be reading right now. Heck, before you know it, you might just be running into this guy-- born Pablo Díaz-Reixa-- at festivals and clubs around the globe.

For now though, catch him right here in photo form (depicted at his hometown's Apolo this past Friday night), then around his native Spain and the UK in the coming weeks.






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El Perro del Mar Lines Up World Tour
Leads Swedish invasion of North America with Lykke Li, Anna Ternheim

Photo by Johanna Hedborg

From the Valley to the Stars and from the tour bus to just about everywhere comes Sarah Assbring and El Perro del Mar this spring. Set to release new album From the Valley to the Stars on Wednesday in her native Scandinavia on Licking Fingers, El Perro del Mar will stick to her home country of Sweden for a couple of shows later this week, followed by a full-on European tour with countrywoman Lykke Li. When they two have had their ways with their home continent, it'll be off to North America in May, when El Perro del Mar will be joined nightly by Lykke Li and Anna Ternheim (yes, she's Swedish too). That trek may wouldn't have anything to do with the Control Group's April 22 release of From the Valley to the Stars in the U.S., now would it? I thought it might!

And hey, we never ran the tracklist for the new El Perro del Mar album, did we? It's there, after the jump. [MORE...]

Photos: Jay Reatard [Chicago, IL; 02/22/08]

Photos by Joseph Mohan

The hurricane known as Jay Reatard blew through the South Side of Chicago Friday night, tearing up Reggie's and leaving a wake of no-fi garage destruction in his wake. No blood was shed though, thankfully.

Jay heads to Australia next week before hitting up SXSW (including our very own day party with the Windish Agency on Friday, March 14 at Emo's) and then hitting the road with the Black Keys. In mid-April, he's back in the headlining slot again.

This whirlwind of activity is set to drum up attention for his series of singles for Matador, the first one of which, "See/Saw", drops April 8.

More photos and dates below.




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Christian Music Legend Larry Norman, R.I.P.

Often regarded as the "father of Christian rock", long-running music-maker Larry Norman passed away at his Salem, Oregon home early on the morning of Sunday, February 24, according to his official website. He was 60.

Norman first emerged in the 1950s, and signed to Capitol Records in 1966 as part of the group People!, whose debut I Love You (originally titled We Need a Whole Lot More of Jesus, and a Lot Less Rock and Roll) arrived in 1968. Though outwardly Christian, People! would open for such secular giants of the era as the Doors, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, and the Byrds.

Norman soon left People! and embarked on a solo career that would span the ensuing decades. Along the way his sometimes progressive views would draw the ire of more religiously conservative peers. He also won fans from across rock, including Bob Dylan, Pete Townshend, U2, Van Morrison, John Mellencamp, Danielson, and even Frank Black, who joined Norman onstage at a 2005 concert.

The influential singer and songwriter was twice invited to perform at the White House, and was inducted into the Gospel Music Association's Hall of Fame in 2001.

Arena Rock Recording Company has plans to release a Norman retrospective entitled Larry Norman: The Anthology on May 27.

Norman dictated the following message just prior to his death:

I feel like a prize in a box of cracker jacks with God's hand reaching down to pick me up. I have been under medical care for months. My wounds are getting bigger. I have trouble breathing. I am ready to fly home.

My brother Charles is right, I won't be here much longer. I can't do anything about it. My heart is too weak. I want to say goodbye to everyone. In the past you have generously supported me with prayer and finance and we will probably still need financial help.

My plan is to be buried in a simple pine box with some flowers inside. But still it will be costly because of funeral arrangement, transportation to the gravesite, entombment, coordination, legal papers etc. However money is not really what I need, I want to say I love you.

I'd like to push back the darkness with my bravest effort. There will be a funeral posted here on the website, in case some of you want to attend. We are not sure of the date when I will die. Goodbye, farewell, we will meet again.

Goodbye, farewell, we'll meet again
Somewhere beyond the sky.
I pray that you will stay with God
Goodbye, my friends, goodbye.

Larry

Larry Norman: "I Wish We'd All Been Ready" (live in 2000)

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