White Williams, Deerhunter Members Get Weird
As do members of Excepter, Ecstatic Sunshine, Rings

Psych weirdoes of the world, unite and take over. It's not quite globe-shaking, but on April 17, two new bands formed from left-of-center indie luminaries will invade NYC's New Museum as part of the Get Weird series.

The bands are called Fakey and Hex Message. The former is a "power trio" consisting of Joe Williams (aka White Williams), Deerhunter's Moses Archuleta, and Ecstatic Sunshine's Matthew Papich. The latter is a collaboration between Excepter's Dan Hougland, Rings' Abby Portner, gallerist Pascal Spengemann, and artist Andrew Kuo.

Curated by former FADER editor-in-chief Alex Wagner, Get Weird is a performance series at the New Museum that happens on the third Thursday of each month.

Man Man and Yeasayer Kick Off Joint Tour Tonight

Things are bound to get a little hairy once Man Man and Yeasayer take to the stage tonight on the first of many stages they'll share on their previously reported joint tour of North America. I mean, hell, just look at 'em!

Man Man, fresh off this week's release of Rabbit Habits, and Yeasayer, still ridin' high on All Hour Cymbals, will join forces through the rest of April and the first bit of May before wrapping their shared stint at the ATP vs. Pitchfork festival near Rye, England.

Man Man will break briefly to hit Coachella, and they've lined up a pre-ATP date sans the sayers of Yea in Towson, Maryland. Both bands also have a slew of overseas gigs to attend to after they rock ATP, and Yeasayer will take one of the many stages at Lollapalooza come early August. [MORE...]

Leila Signs to Warp for New LP, Opens for Bjork

Iranian electronic producer Leila Arab has signed to Warp for the release of her third LP under her first name. Some eight years in coming, the follow-up to Courtesy of Choice is called Blood, Looms and Blooms, and it features guest appearances from Specials vocalist Terry Hall, Tricky collaborator/solo artist Martina Topley-Bird, and longtime Leila pal Luca Santucci, among others. Warp will release Blooms in the UK on June 9.

Leila has a fair number of live dates supporting Björk in April and May, but our first studio sample of her new tunes will come in the form of two singles. Warp will release the "Mettle" 10"/digital single on April 21, then follow it with the "Deflect" single on May 26.

U.S. release dates for the album and the singles are still being finalized, but Warp is planning for "Mettle" to make its way over in mid-to-late April and Blooms to follow in mid-to-late June.

You can view the alluring cover of Blood, Looms and Blooms, along with Leila's dates, after the jump. [MORE...]

Radiohead Chart With "Nude" Unexpectedly

For all their critical and online popularity, it's easy to forget that Radiohead aren't exactly Alicia Keys/John Mayer/T-Pain in terms of pure sales figures. So when their newest single, "Nude", debuted at number 37 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week-- becoming, on paper anyway, the band's biggest hit since "Creep"-- it came as an interesting surprise.

That surprise is especially interesting because the song probably would not have made the Hot 100 if it weren't for its non-traditional release format. Recall that the band not only released the In Rainbows version of "Nude" last week; they also released five of its component parts via iTunes as "stems" for use in the creation of fan-made remixes. The complete song sold just under 13,000 copies in its first week, but since Billboard counted the cumulative sales of the song and all five stems (totalling just under 60,000), Radiohead = Top 40 stars, at least for the week [via Idolator].

UPDATE: A Billboard.com report posted today notes that "Nude" did not in fact chart on a "technicality", but that the five "Nude" stems were technically considered "remixes" of the track, and thus included in the Hot 100 tally under standard chart policy regarding remixes.

Maybe this means the band will finally live up to its name and fight Usher comeback singles all summer for ultimate car stereo ubiquity. Not that Radiohead will have time to pay attention to the battle, as they hit the road running in early May and more or less don't stop until August is through. [MORE...]

Photos: Gnarls Barkley / Santogold [New York, NY; 04/10/08]

Photos by Kathryn Yu

From "Crazy" to just plain Odd, Gnarls Barkley's Cee-Lo Green and Danger Mouse are certainly an interesting pair. Last night at New York's Highline Ballroom, the neo-soulsters kept their heads on straight to jam through some tracks from their sophomore album, The Odd Couple, plus some Gnarls classics too.

The new disc, you may recall, was thrust upon the public with hardly a peep of advance warning. And then they tried to give all their fans seizures! Does that make them crazy? Possibly.

Meanwhile, rising star Santogold warmed up the crowd with a few cuts from her forthcoming self-titled debut. Find more photos of both acts and a few dates below, then catch Gnarls on "Saturday Night Live" tomorrow evening, April 12.

GNARLS BARKLEY










SANTOGOLD



[MORE...]

Coldplay Reveal Viva la Vida Tracklist

Coldplay, the self-described "very heavy soft rock" troupe you know and your mom loves, have seen fit to unveil a tracklist for their forthcoming Brian Eno/Markus Dravs-produced fourth LP with the silly name. Chris and company couldn't quite hold Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends to the nine tracks they'd reportedly been hoping for, but with a title like that, it's probably best to go big all around. The disc will be released June 16 in the UK on Parlophone and June 17 in the U.S. on Capitol. It will sell well.

Coldplay still have but a trio of dates on what will probably become a rather massive tour undertaking: a spot at the inaugural Pemberton bash along with BFF Jay-Z, and two dates at Japan's Summer Sonic festival.

Oh, and, um, LOL. [MORE...]

Black Moth Super Rainbow Link With Waxploitation

Let the wackiness continue. The Pennsylvania weirdoes known as Black Moth Super Rainbow have found a new group of enablers for their hijinks in the folks at Waxploitation, the humanitarian-oriented label, publisher, and management company.

Waxploitation's relationship with Black Moth Super Rainbow covers the management and publishing realms, although BMSR technically remains unsigned at this time. Waxploitation will, however, aid Black Moth member Tobacco as he unleashes a solo project called Fucked Up Friends in the near future on Anticon (details forthcoming). Check out a Tobacco/Aesop Rock meetup from the upcoming LP over in Forkcast.

In other Black Moth Super Rainbow news, the crew will release the "Zodiac Girl" 7" via Suicide Squeeze on May 6. They also have a pair of live dates coming up. [MORE...]

Animal Collective, Silver Jews Do Super! Mon Amour
Plus: Bon Iver, Fuck Buttons, Crystal Castles, El Guincho

Make way for Paris' inaugural Super! Mon Amour festival! From May 22-27, the likes of Animal Collective, Silver Jews, Bon Iver, Fuck Buttons, Crystal Castles, El Guincho, Tunng, Monotonix, Telepathe, and more will help spin the exclamatory yarn of Super! Mon Amour for the first time ever.

The tale of Super! Mon Amour will be told at a plethora of Parisian nightspots over the six-day span, although the love festivalgoers find there will no doubt last much longer.

Ponytail Get Spiritual on Second Album, Tour

Hotly-tipped Baltimore noise-poppers Ponytail are set to lay a good one on us this spring with the release of their sophomore LP, Ice Cream Spiritual.

Spiritual hits June 17 on Baltimore's own We Are Free, and the disc will be preceded by an iTunes-only single for the recently-Forkcasted "Celebrate the Body Electric (It Came From an Angel)".

Until then, catch Ponytail at one of their upcoming East Coast engagements. [MORE...]

Thao and the Get Down Stay Down Open for Rilo Kiley
Add European dates aplenty as well

Photo by Nilina Mason-Campbell

Despite the urging of her constant companions, you can't keep a good Thao down. And we know of few Thaos quite as good as Thao Nguyen. In that spirit, Thao and her Get Down Stay Down will get up and continue touring tonight (April 10) in Claremont, California, then stay out on the road more or less through the middle of June.

With her tour with Xiu Xiu coming to a close this weekend, Thao's going in a slightly more mom-friendly direction with her next traveling companions: She'll join Rilo Kiley on a slew of the Cali combo's previously-reported tour dates.

"THANK YOU for taking us along for a three week jaunt on the east coast," Thao writes on her MySpace blog, adding, "Jenny Lewis sorry in advance for all of us who will try to hang out with you and touch your hair." We're guessing that didn't come up much with Jamie Stewart.

Oh, hey, and here's a nifty video of Thao and the Get Down Stay Down performing "Me on Top of You" in front of some folks:



It's like we're on top of them! Whoa dude. [MORE...]

Classic Sub Poppers the Fluid Plan Reunion Shows

Denver rockers the Fluid were the first non-local band to sign to esteemed Seattle label Sub Pop. Since the combo's mid-80s/early-90s heyday on Sub Pop, the label has seen quite a few artists pass through its doors: Nirvana, Afghan Whigs, Sleater-Kinney, Soundgarden, the Shins, Low, Sebadoh, Iron & Wine, the Postal Service, and Band of Horses, to name just a handful.

Just looking at some of those names (and the fact that we used the phrase "mid-80s/early-90s heyday") lets you know how long the Fluid have been gone. But let's not dwell on the past, because the original fivesome is reuniting in June and July for a few gigs where fans can relive all the sweaty magic in person.

The first of these shows is a June 20 appearance at Denver's Bluebird Theater, and the other two so far are July 12 and 13 at Seattle's Marymoor Park for the Sub Pop Records 20th Anniversary Festival. The latter event promises to be a scorcher, and more information about it is expected to surface soon. [MORE...]

Sun City Girls' Bishops Pay Tribute to Gocher on Tour

Photo by Catherine Lewis

Following the untimely passing of percussionist Charles Gocher over a year ago, folk/rock experimentalists Sun City Girls ceased functioning as an active group. Gocher and the Girls' legacy, however, will live on in the form of a tour featuring the remaining two band members, brothers Alan and Richard Bishop. The tour is called "The Brothers Unconnected: A Tribute to Sun City Girls and Charles Gocher", and on it, the Bishops will travel across North America from May into July.

Most stops on the tour will open with the viewing of a 40-minute collection of Gocher's video works called The Handsome Stranger. Following that, Alan and Richard Bishop will play two acoustic sets of tunes from across the Girls' 27-year history, including some penned by Gocher.

"The Brothers Unconnected" won't only be an occasion for commemorating Sun City Girls' live performances. These dates will also present opportunities for fans to pick up two tour-only releases: a limited-edition vinyl live album and a special "Brothers Unconnected" tour CD.

In other SCG release news, Drag City will release the soundtrack to Harmony Korine's Mister Lonely-- which features contributions from Sun City Girls and Spiritualized's J. Spaceman-- on April 22. The film itself will follow with a theatrical release in May. [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.)