Pitchfork to Launch Online Music TV Channel April 7

The 24-hour music network was such a great concept. What happened? Given music's nearly inexhaustible supply of notable artists and genres, there are no limits to how deeply it can be explored. But despite all the footage we've seen of high-profile rock and pop artists hitting their creative strides, similar documents of independent artists are far less accessible, if they exist at all.

In recent years, independent film networks have dedicated themselves to the respectful and intelligent treatment of classic and underground cinema. But independent music has never had a permanent home. So today, we're proud to announce the April 7 beta launch of Pitchfork.tv, the first-ever music video channel dedicated to documenting independent music as it happens. As a visual extension of the music coverage Pitchfork has provided for more than a decade, and a means of updating and advancing the music television format, the online channel will bring you closer to the artists you love, through original mini-documentaries, secret rooftop and basement sessions, full concerts, exclusive interviews, and the most carefully curated selection of music videos online.

In addition, Pitchfork.tv will become the first online video channel to screen full-length feature films, vintage concerts, and music DVDs free of charge. From the Pixies' 2004 reunion tour film LoudQuietLoud and Todd Phillips' notorious GG Allin documentary Hated, to Jimmy Joe Roche & Dan Deacon's acid-drenched visual art piece Ultimate Reality, Pitchfork.tv will highlight a different film each week in its entirety.

This content is just the beginning. With one of the web's largest, crispest, and highest-resolution displays, Pitchfork.tv truly invites full-screen viewing. And, with all content available on-demand, we're putting you in control of the music you want, how and when you want to see it. Soon, we'll add personal playlist capabilities, so you can watch all your favorites in a row. And later this year, as part of a massive redesign effort, Pitchfork.tv will integrate with its parent site, presenting innovations and further advancements to the world of online music journalism.

Like Pitchfork itself, Pitchfork.tv is an independent company with no investment dollars or special interests, allowing us the freedom and control to stay true to our creative vision. We've waited decades for a music channel that respects our intelligence and reflects our ideals. Now that the technology is here, we're finally able to do it the way that people who really care about music have always wanted to see it done.

Silver Jews Announce Lookout Release Date

Nevermind a light, Silver Jews fans now have an end of the tunnel, period. The wait for David Berman and co.'s sixth album, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea, will end with its June 17 release on Drag City.

The follow-up to 2005's Tanglewood Numbers is the first Silver Jews record played by the touring lineup that formed in 2006 in defiance of Berman's previous refusal to tour: Berman, his wife Cassie, Tony Crow, Peyton Pinkerton, and William Tyler. Lookout Mountain's tracklist has been rearranged a bit since our initial report, and one thing we didn't know then was that "Open Field" is a cover of a Maher Shalal Hash Baz song.

Back to touring, the Jews' May appearances at the Primavera Sound Festival and the Explosions in the Sky ATP are just a couple of stops on a spring European jaunt. Then, for the fall, the band is planning a tour of the U.S. And according to The Tennessean, Berman will give a poetry reading at Nashville's Watkins College of Art and Design on March 12.

For a lot more about the album and everything else going on in the Silver Jews universe, read our recent interview with Berman here. [MORE...]

Tom Waits Planning Summer Tour
OMG! That's that weird guy ScarJo covered!

Photo by Michael O'Brien

Septuplets, full solar eclipses, and Tom Waits tours: some things just don't come around too often. Lucky for us, 2008 is shaping up to be a favorable year, once which will see the elusive Mr. Waits grace stages across the U.S. and Europe.

According to report in "webpaper" The Washington Independent and confirmed by Waits' camp, the gravel-voiced one is in the process of putting together summer tours of the aforementioned locales. No dates just yet, but to be on the safe side, you probably want to start lining up outside your local ticket vendor now.

Waits last toured in August 2006, and people enjoyed it very much.

And hey, that Scarlett Johansson album! Word is it's better than you think.

Crystal Castles Postpone Shows Due to Injury

Photo by Matthew Taplinger

What is it with young bands and car accidents these days? Not yet a week after news of the hit-and-run involving Vampire Weekend drummer Chris Tomson, Crystal Castles have postponed a handful of tour dates because of a car accident involving lead singer Alice Glass.

Glass is suffering from two cracked ribs and will take the next week to recover. However, tourmates HEALTH will soldier on with their recently launched trek. Crystal Castles will resume playing out with their appearances at SXSW, after which they will rejoin HEALTH on the road.

If everything goes according to plan, Glass' recovery will coincide with the March 18 release of Crystal Castles' self-titled debut on Last Gang. [MORE...]

Hercules and Love Affair Ready Debut LP, Drop Single

We've made a bit of a fuss about Brooklyn disco dude Hercules and Love Affair (aka producer Andy Butler) over in Forkcast recently, which is great if you sit on the internet all day trolling for hot new underground sounds instead of doing things like going outside, reading books, eating food at restaurants, and occasionally talking to people while buying music from them. We heavily recommend all those activities, however, so in the interest of balance, know that the month of March holds actual releases from Hercules and Love Affair.

First up is the digital and physical release of lead single "Blind" via DFA/EMI, available now in the UK. Like several other tracks on Hercules' forthcoming self-titled debut, "Blind" features vocal contributions from Antony Hegarty, and the CD and 12" versions of the single include a remix of the track from Chicago house legend Frankie Knuckles.

Speaking of Hercules and Love Affair, DFA/EMI will release the album on March 10 in the UK. But if you must stay inside and get it, the iTunes version of the record will include previously unreleased track "I'm Telling You" as a bonus.

And if you're looking to leave the house, catch Butler DJing in London this month, and Hercules and Love Affair playing live in June. [MORE...]

Photos: Arcade Fire Members Rock for Obama, Part 2 [Cleveland, OH; 03/03/08]

There's a lot of romance surrounding Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Imagine, for a moment, that New Mexico governor Bill Richardson was the candidate lodged in a late winter dogfight with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Would Albuquerque natives the Shins be playing rallies prior to the March 4 primary in Ohio? My guess is no.

With the polls indicating a shrinking Clinton lead, most of the Arcade Fire made the 14-hour trek from Montreal to Ohio to drum up support for Obama, playing in Nelsonville on Sunday, March 2, and performing two free shows last night, March 3, at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland.

Braving long lines, rain, and a rapidly descending temperature, the throngs of Obama supporters/Arcade Fire fans packed the one-time Croatian dance hall in the slowly-but-surely gentrifying Waterloo neighborhood. There was a surprisingly stark contrast between the two sets: the early show was an almost somber affair, while the second set was a raucous revival of sorts.

The band kicked off the early show with a subdued cover of David Bowie's "Heroes". Win Butler quipped that the last time they played on the Beachland stage there were one hundred people in attendance (he was understating that a bit), and that the increased attendance "means Barack Obama should be the president." He offered up "Intervention" as a cry for help after the 2004 election, adding a scorching run through of John Lennon's "Gimme Some Truth" as the answer to that cry. The short set wound down with what seemed to be a perfunctory "Wake Up" and a somewhat stale arrangement of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come".

The late set was an almost entirely different event. Will Butler proved to be a far more adept political speaker than his brother, firing the crowd up with the assertion that "if Barack Obama doesn't become president, this whole movement will not mean anything...history doesn't remember the candidate that didn't win."

Opening this set with "Intervention", the band was clearly operating on a more vital level than a couple of hours earlier. This was especially evident in the increased urgency added to a burning "Antichrist Television Blues" and a more energetic, almost punked-up repeat of "Gimme Some Truth".

After a short speech from Obama spokesman Kevin Griffis (who was personally responsible for the Ohio rallies, as his series of emails with Win Butler led to the hastily-arranged shows), the band revisited "A Change Is Gonna Come" (again without the undesired effect). The second set's infectious energy was recaptured with a searing "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)", with Win delivering the second half of the song from the floor among the packed crowd. The crowd responded accordingly, and the combination of dancing and shoving was nearly the polar opposite from the stoic nature of the earlier group of attendees.

This set's take on "Wake Up," which closed the night, found the band in their typical post-show impromptu balcony formation, creating the sort of crowd participation befitting a rally for participatory democracy.

There is plenty to make voters cynical in our country, and a skeptical reaction to a band of native and transplanted Canadians holding a political rally for an American presidential candidate is fairly predictable. But for a state with such a late primary (traditionally, the early March voting in Ohio has offered little aside from the opportunity for voters to cast a petulant vote of displeasure with the prohibitive candidate), the closeness of the Democratic race was a rare chance to attract this sort of attention before the general election. The decidedly young crowd reveled in the occasion, swept up in equal measure by the band and the romance of Obama's campaign. A bleak and rainy day awaits voters on Election Day, but the fighting spirit that the Arcade Fire brought with them to northeast Ohio proved that the possibility for less-cynical politics has a willing audience in Cleveland.

[MORE...]

Man Man Kick Off World Tour
Warning: shows may be Rabbit Habit-forming

No strangers to the epic expedition, Man Man begin their newest live journey tonight, March 4, in Baltimore. The three-month-long itinerary includes dates with Yeasayer, Islands, Dirty Projectors, and an appearance at the ATP vs. Pitchfork festival. It's a regular oddball parade!

Of course, the reason for Man Man's touring season is the April 8 arrival of their third LP, Rabbit Habits, via new label Anti-. Check out the album cover right up there. [MORE...]

Daft Punk to Release Electroma on DVD and Blu-Ray

Photo by Kirstie Shanley

It looks like North Americans are in for another summer of Daft Punk. The beloved French-humans-posing-as-robots will bring their robots-on-a-quest-to-become-human film Electroma to DVD on July 22 via Vice Records. The silent, experimental feature directed by Daft Punk themselves will be available on both DVD and the shiny new Blu-Ray format. The package is a metal case with imprinted cover images, and a 40-page book of stills from the movie.

In anticipation of the DVD's release, there are two screenings of Electroma scheduled for next week in Florida. [MORE...]

Ben Gibbard, Ted Leo, Patton Oswalt Help Out WFMU

Poster by Neil Numberman 

In the interest of upstaging those geezers in Yo La Tengo (and raising money for this year's WFMU pledge drive), Tom Scharpling-- host of the aptly titled Best Show on WFMU-- will be welcoming some very special guests to his show tonight.

Fellow Jerseyite Ted Leo, Death Cab frontman/Postal Servicer Ben Gibbard, and Comedian of Comedy Patton Oswalt will all be stopping by the studio tonight from 8pm to 11pm EST, musicking and comedying to help win your pledge money. (For your reference, WFMU can be found at 91.1 FM in the New York-New Jersey area, 90.1 FM in the Hudson Valley area, and streaming at wfmu.org everywhere.)

"So what's in it for me?" you ask. Well, a pledge of any amount will give you the self-satisfaction of on-air shout-out. In addition to Ted Leo playing songs for dollars, Yo La-style, Scharpling and co. have made sure that a more substantial pledge is well worth it. A pledge of $75 or more during the show will land you the fabulous Best Show WE DID IT AGAIN Fun Pack, featuring some stickers, a t-shirt, a bitchin' poster, and a brand new, totally exclusive Patton Oswalt EP titled Frankensteins and Gumdrops.

To receive these fabulous prizes, you must pledge live during the Best Show, by calling 1-800-989-9368, or on the internet at wfmu.org. In a world increasingly devastated by Clear Channel's army of darkness, WFMU remains one of the last bastions of truly independent freeform radio, and is 100% listener sponsored and supported. So yeah, give them your money.

For those of you unfamiliar with The Best Show, now is as good a time as any to join the fold. Aside from being a uniformly excellent musical program, Scharpling's show is host to some of the funniest on-air bits this side of, uh, anything. So tune in and pledge pledge pledge! Big Money needs to get pizz-aid!

Spiritualized Details: U.S. LP, Mister Lonely Soundtrack

Looks like Jason Pierce aka J. Spaceman aka Jason Spaceman won't limit the pleasure of enjoying the new Spiritualized album to UK residents only. Us U.S. folk will get our taste of Songs in A&E on June 3 via Fontana International/Spaceman Records. (Yes, it's Songs in A&E, not Song's in A&E, as previously reported. That erroneous apostrophe came courtesy of a post on the Spiritualized MySpace page. -- Ed)

The album's first single will be "Soul on Fire", and it will be released on CD and as a download.

What's more, the soundtrack to the upcoming Harmony Korine movie Mister Lonely, which features music by Spaceman and the Sun City Girls, now has a tracklist and release details. The soundtrack is scheduled for an April 22 release on Drag City, but the film will hit theaters at the end of March.

As previously reported, Spiritualized performed as part of the iTunes Live: London Sessions series of concerts last week. A five-track EP of songs recorded at the performance will be available on iTunes UK starting next week. According to a post on the Spiritualized website, the EP includes "two previously unreleased acoustic mainline versions of tracks from Songs in A&E plus three others."

Then, of course, Spiritualized kick back into tour mode starting in late April. [MORE...]

Justice Kick Off North American Tour
Add European dates in late spring and summer

Photo by Natalie Kardos

Once again, it's time to pick up those cross-shaped glowsticks and prepare for a pummeling, because Justice begin their massive North American trek tonight, March 3, in Austin, Texas. The MySpace Music Tour takes them places with Diplo, Chromeo, Fancy, and Ed Banger labelmates Busy P and DJ Mehdi.

Recently added to Justice's never-ending world tour are a handful of spring and summer dates in Europe. [MORE...]

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Via Audio Tour

With Pershing set to descend April 8 via Polyvinyl, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin have gone and done the unthinkable: they have booked a tour! Yes, folks, a tour! What will these crazy young men do next, share an mp3 off their new record or something? Ah, whoops.

Joining they of the long-ass band name will be New York City's Via Audio and Oakland's Port O'Brien. Each handles opening duties on a separate stretch of dates, with the whole succession of live nightly shows thing kicking off in earnest April 12. Someone Still Loves blah blah etc. have a few scattered dates before then, as do Via Audio. Dare to guess where you might find out MORE about all this?? [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.)