Tokyo Police Club Cover Rentals, Get Los Camps! Remix
All this and more on Elephant Shell bonus disc

Finally ready to make their honest-to-goodness full-length debut with Elephant Shell, Tokyo Police Club have supplemented the first pressing of the album with a bonus disc of remixes and additional tracks, the latter exclusive to the UK edition.

The extra disc features remixes of Elephant Shell tracks from Field Music, Tom of Los Campesinos!, Dntel, the Good Life, and Flowers Forever. Those UK-only bonus tracks, meanwhile, include a new song-- appropriately titled "New New Song"-- and a cover of the Rentals' "Friends of P" (!).

The total Elephant Shell package hits North American stores April 22 via Saddle Creek, while Memphis Industries delivers the UK release on May 5.

In the meantime, TPC are knee-deep in those previously reported tour dates. The next one is tonight (April 8) in Nashville. [MORE...]

Bob Dylan Awarded Special Music Pulitzer Prize
For being awesome or something

Good thing people are finally coming around to the genius of Bob Dylan, eh? According to the Associated Press, our boy Zimmerman has pulled down a "Special Citation in Music" from the Pulitzer Prize Board due to his "profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power."

A prediction: it's gonna be a long, long time before they lay another one of these on anybody who's ever used the phrase "booty call" with a reasonably straight face. Though Jamie Foxx did win an Oscar, so who knows.

In the 2008 class, Bobby joins an elite crew of newspapers, journalists, authors, poets, and other artists, though he's really in good company on this music prize thing. John Coltrane was awarded the honor last year, while Thelonius Monk grabbed it in 2006 before, and Duke Ellington took it in 1999. All in all, only 38 Pulitzer music citations have ever been given out.

Bob's got Canadian and European tours comin' at you starting in the middle of next month, and a tune on the "Heroes" soundtrack. Though, really, Pulitzer Prize recipient Bob Dylan, it is you who is the hero, and not that time-traveling hug muffin Hiro. [MORE...]

Death Cab, R.E.M., Built to Spill, Black Keys Celebrate Record Store Day With Exclusive Singles

The sheer number of artists participating in Record Store Day-- including Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, and Vampire Weekend, to name just a few-- almost makes all these special events and exclusive releases seem a little less than extraordinary, like we should expect such goodies to come our way every day. That's not true, of course (record stores are an endangered species!), which means the announcement of four more participating bands still has us giddy.

The April 19 celebration of independent music retail now includes the release of exclusive limited edition 7"s by Built to Spill, R.E.M., Death Cab for Cutie, and the Black Keys. The tracklist for each one is after the jump. [MORE...]

Yeasayer, No Age, APTBS Play Nasty Fest
Also: The Mae Shi, Cadence Weapon

Nasty Fest at the Faversham in Leeds, England seems to take its name from a history of lineups featuring bands that incorporate a little extra noise into their indie rock, pop, and rap formulas. We doubt it has anything to do with any sort of grotesque goings-on, because at least in pictures, the club looks like a respectable venue, a place for nice young Brits to listen to live music by nice young musicians. Rock fans never did anything nasty, right?

Relative cleanliness aside, the Faversham will host its ninth annual Nasty Fest on May 17. This year, the 12-hour event features sets by Yeasayer, No Age, Cadence Weapon, the Mae Shi, A Place to Bury Strangers, Soiled Mattress & the Springs, Slow Club, Napoleon IIIrd, and Pulled Apart by Horses, among others.

Hallelujah the Hills Prepare New EP

Hallelujah the Hills are alive with the sound of an EP to follow on the heels of their debut album, last year's Collective Psychosis Begone. Titled Prepare to Qualify, the EP features five tracks previously available online and two that have never seen any kind of release before.

On April 8, the band will make Prepare to Qualify available for free download from its website; you can also purchase the record at shows and via Hallelujah's new label, Misra.

The Hills only have two live dates scheduled for the moment. They'll spend the rest of their time crafting their second full-length, which they are planning to release on Misra early next year. [MORE...]

T.V. Eye: April 07-2008

Live music on regular TV (not Pitchfork.tv) this week:

Monday, April 7:

CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: The Mars Volta (rerun)
NBC: Late Night With Conan O'Brien: Hot Chip
Syndicated: Ellen Degeneres Show: Kylie Minogue

Tuesday, April 8:

CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Kenna with the Neptunes (rerun)

Wednesday, April 9:

NBC: Late Night With Conan O'Brien: Tapes 'n Tapes
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Human Giant

Thursday, April 10:

NBC: Late Night With Conan O'Brien: They Might Be Giants
CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Del the Funky Homosapien
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Switches
FUEL TV: The Daily Habit: Pinback

Friday, April 11:

NBC: Late Night With Conan O'Brien: AA Bondy
FUEL TV: The Daily Habit: Rogue Wave

Saturday, April 12:

NBC: Saturday Night Live: Gnarls Barkley
FOX: Fearless Music TV: Frightened Rabbit, Peter Moren, Architecture in Helsinki

Thunderbirds Are Now! Side Project Mania!

Photo by Jon Shaft

Dedicated Pitchfork news readers should already know of at least two Thunderbirds Are Now! offshoots/associates-- Friendly Foes and Javelins-- and now the time has to welcome a couple more.

Arranged Marriage is a relatively new project combining the powers of TAN! keyboardist Scott Allen and his dad, 53-year-old Brad Allen. The cross-generational pairing shares singing, songwriting, and playing duties, and hopes to release a self-recorded album this very year. The senior Allen, Brad, has previously helped Thunderbirds Are Now!, Javelins, and other Detroit area acts lay albums to tape in the Allen family's basement studio, and he put out an EP called Nifty at Fifty back in 2005. Um, cool dad alert!

Scott's brother and TAN! bandmate Ryan Allen, meanwhile, still has his previously mentioned Friendly Foes. The trio plans to hits the recording studio next month, with designs on putting together an album and maybe an EP too with producer Dave Feeney (who twiddled knobs on TAN!'s 2005 LP Justamustache). Friendly Foes have a few gigs lined up as well, listed below.

The non-Allen half of TAN!, Matt Rickle and Julian Wettlin, of course have their Javelins project. That trio will issue the previously mentioned LP Heavy Meadows on July 1 via Suburban Sprawl Music. Check out an MP3 for Heavy's "Out in the Sand" below, and look for a few Javelins dates down there too.

Restless musical souls that they are, Rickle and Wettlin have yet another trio up their collective sleeve, Sword Legs. In Ryan Allen's words, this crew crafts "pretty funky, smooth, yacht rock type stuff," so watch out for them.

And speaking of Suburban Sprawl Music, the label recently issued a seven-track remix EP from Detroit's Child Bite featuring four remixes by, yes, Scott Allen.

Finally, Thunderbirds Are Now! (hey, remember them?) have begun writing and cutting demos for the follow-up to 2006's Make History, tentatively due next year on Frenchkiss. To help pass the time until then, the spastic quartet has two local shows on the docket with Enon.

Whew! [MORE...]

HEALTH Go DISCO for Remix Album
Remixes from Crystal Castles, Pink Skull, CFCF, Curses!, every other blog house person ever

Photo by Matt Taplinger

More than most noise bands, Los Angeles' HEALTH seem to be fond of music you can actually dance to. So much so that they've commissioned a bunch of their beat-addled friends to rejigger the songs from their debut album for a remix album.

That remix collection, titled HEALTH//DISCO, will be released by Lovepump United on May 13. Featuring remixes from Pictureplane, Pink Skull, CFCF, Acid Girls, Curses, Thrust Lab and others-- not to mention that great Crystal Castles take on "Crimewave"-- the band have apparently taken quite a bit of effort to make this no mere cash-grab but, rather, a stand-alone album worthy of front-to-back plays.

HEALTH/DISCO features an enhanced section called DISCO+ that includes remixes from Toxic Avenger, Nastique, Lovely Chords, Captain Ahab, and more.

Having recently wrapped a trek with Crystal Castles, HEALTH have big touring plans of their own, which find them in the States this month, and the UK and Europe well into June. [MORE...]

Colin Meloy Kicks off Solo Tour Tonight

"Symbiosis" is the sort of two-dollar word Colin Meloy likes to throw around in his songs, and, indeed, there will be plenty of that multisyllabic mirth on display tonight as Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy sings (live!) in support of tomorrow's release of Colin Meloy Sings Live!.

The show tonight is the first of quite a few Colin's doing in support of the new LP, which sees the light tomorrow on CD from Kill Rock Stars and vinyl from Jealous Butcher. Though that won't be the only live document he'll be carting around: the tour-only EP Colin Meloy Sings Sam Cooke will be available for purchase wherever you and Meloy may meet.

As for the Decemberists, well, Colin hasn't forgotten about them. They've got a single show on the docket at the moment: May 24, they'll join fellow cuties Death Cab and Rogue Wave for a show at Bend, Oregon's Les Schwab Theater.

For a taste of what's in store, head over to Forkcast. [MORE...]

Photos: The Dodos [New York, NY; 04/06/08]

Photos by Drew Katchen

Though their namesake is an extinct bird that cannot fly, San Francisco duo the Dodos seem to get around pretty easily. In the past few months, singer/guitarist Meric Long and drummer Logan Kroeber have crisscrossed the States a number of times.

On Sunday, a sold-out crowd gathered at New York City's Mercury Lounge to hear songs from the Dodos' new Frenchkiss album (and Best New Music selection) Visiter, and to watch a jittery Long and Kroeber play vigorously enough to cover themselves and their instruments in generous amounts of sweat.

Vancouver's No Kids and Norway's Silje Nes opened. Check out photos of all three acts and Dodos dates below.

THE DODOS





[MORE...]

Scout Niblett Embarks on Big Spring Tour

Tomorrow night in Seattle, Scout Niblett-- the gal with the laser-beam eyes-- will make the first of many, many stops on an extensive, intercontinental spring tour. Scout will stick to North America through early May before embarking on a European trek that stretches into June. Locations scouted and tickets doled out, are they? Well, then, This Niblett can tour now. [MORE...]

Deerhunter to Debut Microcastle in Brooklyn on Friday
Kind of like Don't Look Back, but for an album that hasn't come out yet. Don't Look Forward?

Photo by Daniel DiScala

When it was announced that Atlas Sound would perform a show this Friday, April 11, at an undisclosed Brooklyn location with some "secret buds", naturally, the internet started a-buzzin'. Would said buds be Bradford Cox's fellow Georgians the Black Lips? Nah; they're off in Europe. His old pal Karen O and her Yeah Yeah Yeahs? Feasible, but just a guess.

Well, at last, all is revealed: Cox revealed on the Deerhunter blog today that the guests would be none other than Moses Archuleta, Josh Fauver, and Lockett Pundt-- aka the other members of Deerhunter. Indeed, the April 11 gig is a proper Deerhunter show, the first in some time.

But not just any old Deerhunter show (as if such a thing existed): according to Cox's post, the band will be performing their new album, Microcastle, in its entirety. As recently reported, Deerhunter have been recording at Brooklyn's Rare Book Room Studios with producer Nicolas Vernhes.

So why did the Atlas Sound show turn into a Deerhunter show? Writes Bradford, "we have had such a great time recording with each other and rehearsing in the studio that we thought it would be fun to try and pull off an impromptu show with borrowed equipment."

The location of the show is still secret, though-- only ticket holders will be notified as to where it's taking place. For info, head to the website of promoter Todd P.

In other news from Deerhunter, et al, they've got a number of other dates on the way, including their stop at the fast-approaching ATP vs. Pitchfork festival. As for Bradford, he recently helped Karen O craft some tunes for the Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack, while his Atlas Sound-- who'll appear at this summer's Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago-- will issue the Let the Blind LP in an expanded edition May 5 in Europe on 4AD. [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.)