Photos: Paul Simon / Grizzly Bear [Brooklyn, NY; 04/23/08]

Photos by Kathryn Yu

An eclectic collection of music-makers took over the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Howard Gilman Opera House last night to pay tribute to a very worthy cause: the music of Paul Simon.

The first of five nights of "Paul Simon: American Songs" found Grizzly Bear taking on "Graceland" and "Mother and Child Reunion", long-running sister act the Roches doing "Cecilia", Gillian Welch tackling "The Sound of Silence", and ace jazz cornetist Olu Dara interpreting "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" and "Still Crazy After All These Years", plus Simon renditions by Josh Groban and Amos Lee.

Simon himself was there of course, joining the Roches for "The Only Living Boy in New York", teaming with Groban for "Bridge Over Troubled Water", and treating showgoers to "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard", "Mrs. Robinson", and more.

"American Songs" continues at the Howard Gilman Opera House through April 27.

PAUL SIMON with GILLIAN WELCH




GRIZZLY BEAR




PAUL SIMON with THE ROCHES


PAUL SIMON with JOSH GROBAN


EVERYONE

[MORE...]

Radio Slave Project Quiet Village Scores a Silent Movie

Pipe down, willya? Quiet Village are making a Silent Movie over here! Quiet Village-- aka Matt "Rekid/Radio Slave" Edwards and pal Joel Martin-- are set to release their lovely, gauzy, sampledelic debut album on May 12 in the UK and May 13 in the States on !K7. The set arrives with somewhat different tracklistings on either CD or vinyl, but one thing's for sure: if you find yourself "Too High to Move", this is the record to put on. If you can reach it.

Radio Slave have a handful of appearances on the way, both in Europe and North America. After their set at Montreal's Mutek Festival, they'll bring the Village from town to town in the States on an as-yet-unannounced June tour. [MORE...]

Update: Cat Power "Lord" License Agreement Reached

Those following the Cat Power/Jessie Mae Hemphill saga will be delighted to learn that Matador Records and Hemphill's publisher have officially reached a mechanical license agreement regarding Cat Power's cover of "Lord, Help the Poor and Needy" on this year's Jukebox.

As you may recall, the original Jukebox liner notes mistakenly bill "Lord" as "traditional" and "public domain" when it is in fact copyrighted by Hemphill. The story broke out in the midst of negotiations between Matador and Hemphill's publisher David Evans to reconcile the matter. And now, with all the requisite paperwork in order, said matter has been reconciled.

According to Evans, "There is now a fully executed mechanical license agreement between Matador Records and Music River Publishing Co. (a division of the University of Memphis) for Matador's use of the song 'Lord Help the Poor and Needy'."

Additionally, according to Matador, all future pressings of Jukebox will include the corrected credit.

As for Cat Power herself? After resting those ailing vocal cords, she returns to the road in early May to play some rescheduled dates and a bunch more to boot. [MORE...]

Paul Weller Dreams Up New LP With Oasis, Blur Mates

Paul Weller, solo star and former frontman for the Jam and the Style Council, has returned to the spotlight with a lesson for the current crop of Brit-rock whippersnappers. That lesson takes the form of Weller's ninth studio album, the official follow-up to 2005's As Is Now. The new album is called 22 Dreams.

Yep Roc will release 22 Dreams in the U.S. on June 24, while Island will put it out in the UK on June 2. The U.S. version fits the entire double-album length extravaganza on one CD, while in the UK, it will be available as a single CD, a 2xLP vinyl set, and a deluxe 2xCD set.

The deluxe edition features sturdier packaging, a short story by poet Simon Armitage, and a bonus disc of demos, instrumental tracks, and other goodies. One such goodie is the instrumental version of the song "Big Brass Buttons", a collaboration with Bobby Gillespie and Andrew Innes of Primal Scream. (The non-instrumental version is slated for release as a B-side in the future.)

As for the music on 22 Dreams, some of it comes from Weller's whippersnappin' Brit-rock followers, including former Blur guitarist Graham Coxon and Oasis members Noel Gallagher and Gem Archer. In fact, the contribution from the Oasis mates, "Echoes Round the Sun", will be released in the UK May 26 as a double A-side single with "Have You Made up Your Mind".

Until then, Weller has his May full up with UK tour dates. [MORE...]

Beach Boys Box Classic Singles, Brian Wilson Tours

With digital music files fast taking over the audio marketplace, the time for compact disc nostalgia is nigh! (No really, just play along with me here.) And few acts know how to milk nostalgia for all it's worth more than the Beach Boys.

Hence we have The Beach Boys: U.S. Singles Collection - The Capitol Years (1962-1965), weighing down a record store shelf near you on June 10. The limited edition Capitol/EMI box set contains an absurd sixteen compact discs, each standing in for a classic Beach Boys single (plus one bonus disc) that sure as hell wasn't originally released on an iridescent piece of plastic.

Not only do these CD singles contain A-sides and B-sides, but most also boast alternate versions, different mixes, and live cuts, making for 66 tracks in all. You'll also get reproductions of the original single artwork and a 48-page photo book, all "housed in a striking 1960s hotrod and surfboard-inspired red and yellow box with wood inlay." If all this sounds a tad excessive, know that you can also opt for a digital version of the U.S. Singles Collection.

In related news, the mighty Brian Wilson returns to the road this summer. He'll bring a ten-piece band to Great Britain as June turns to July, then hop the pond for some U.S. shows a few days later. He'll also rock a Rainforest Foundation benefit in May alongside Feist, Sting, Billy Joel, James Taylor, and others. You might say Wilson gets around, gets around...oh nevermind. [MORE...]

!!!, DJ Shadow/Cut Chemist, MSTRKRFT Do Camp Bisco

Camp Bisco is an annual outdoor festival put on by Philly "trance fusion" jam band the Disco Biscuits. It is, as you can imagine, not something we would generally cover in these pages.

Still, we like certain hairy folks with penchants for stretchin' it out-- yes, I'm looking at you, Martsch-- around these parts, and buried amidst all the bands named for chemical compounds and various doobage innuendo at 2008's Camp Bisco are some fine, fine music makers even the notoriously sober indie rock set can dig on.

!!!, DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist, MSTRKRFT, Eliot Lipp, and Amplive will join in on the Biscuits' celebration of longwindedness, along with a dude who knows a little bit about, er, Bisco: big Snoop Dogg. The good times go down July 17-19 at Mariaville, New York's Indian Lookout Country Club, which gives you a few months to find a creative new place to hide your stash on your person.

Because, after all, "creativity is amazing."

Hold Steady Sign Overseas Deal With Rough Trade
Add tour dates, Franz does cool stuff

When it's released sometime this year (soon, please), the Hold Steady's fourth LP, Stay Positive, will find its way to Stateside shelves once again from Vagrant Records.

However, unlike previous Hold Steady platters, Stay Positive will make a break for the UK and Europe thanks to a new licensing deal with Rough Trade. Why, here's an uncharacteristic quote from Hold Steady front-dude Craig Finn to sum up the process: "We are really excited to begin this relationship with Rough Trade. From the Smiths to the Strokes, they have consistently released music from great artists and we are honored to be a part of the roster. Rough Trade records have been part of my own collection since I started buying my own records in the early 1980s."

The Hold Steady themselves have big plans to head to the UK soon enough, with a brief May tour they'll kick off with their set at the ATP vs. Pitchfork festival. But before that, they'll hit Webster Hall as part of the Tribeca Film Festival and rock the hell out of Wesleyan University on May 7 at a students-only event. There are a few more U.S. dates sandwiched between yet another run in the UK in July, and another stop in the States in late July at Seattle's Capitol Hill Block Party.

Still, if you're fiending, you'd be advised to catch Hold Steady member Franz Nicolay's Major General-- featuring Dresden Doll Brian Viglione, Yula Nanuchka, and Jared Demander-- when they open for Nicolay's favorite band American Music Club at Brooklyn's Music Hall of Williamsburg on April 26. Nicolay also appears on Jennifer O'Connor's next LP, due soonish from Matador. [MORE...]

Interpol, Death Cab, Gnarls, Justice Do Quart Fest
With Liars, the Streets, Dizzee Rascal, Battles, the Hives

They've been holding the Quart Festival in Kristiansand, Norway every year since the mid 1990s, and, by now, they've gotten pretty damn good at it. Sure, the lovely lowlands locale helps, and there's also a skateboarding contest, but the talent pool's the real draw.

This year, Quart's bottled up a heady brew for its fest, taking place July 2-5. Interpol, Death Cab for Cutie, Liars, the Streets, Justice, Battles, Dizzee Rascal, Gnarls Barkley, Spank Rock, Holy Fuck, Trentemøller, Future of the Left, Asobi Seksu, Kool Keith, Lykke Li, I'm From Barcelona, Audion, Shining, Edan and Dagha, the Hives, Saul Williams, Anti-Flag, Parts and Labor, Röyksopp, UNKLE, O'Death, Datarock, Kate Nash, Young Knives, Digitalism, and more will all take the stage. As will Kings of both Convenience and Leon.

Just don't hold Jason Mraz's presence against them.

Crystal Castles Caught Up in Artwork Controversy
Band lines up sizable tours of North America, Europe

Image via Torontoist

If you've attended a Crystal Castles show in the last couple years, in between all the strobe flashes you may have encountered the image up there. Perhaps you saw it on a t-shirt, or, if you made it to one of the really early CC shows, on a 7". Or maybe you picked up a copy of the "banned cover edition" of Crystal Castles' debut LP that Last Gang Records was selling for a minute.

That image there was created by UK-born, Tokyo-dwelling artist Trevor Brown (link NSFW)-- using Madonna's likeness, of course. Here's where things get sticky. According to Torontoist, the members of Crystal Castles, Alice Glass and Ethan Kath, allegedly found the image (without a credit) on a flyer a couple years ago. They took to using it on t-shirts and the aforementioned limited run 7", under the assumption that if it got around enough, the artist behind it would step forward, and some kind of usage/payment agreement could be reached.

Well, eventually Brown did indeed step forward, and he wasn't happy. The resulting saga is a long-winded and convoluted one, a veritable case study in he-said/she-said, further complicated by a number of auxiliary parties involved: Last Gang Records and recently appointed Crystal Castles manager Mikey Apples, to name two.

Torontoist has an excellent summary of the situation to date. In essence, Brown contacted the band and claims they promised him remuneration for the use of the Madonna image on more than one occasion, but never received any money. Crystal Castles and their camp claim Brown never responded to numerous letters from the band, and is just gunning for publicity. Brown went public with his grievances earlier this year, prompting Apples to intervene and eventually offer Brown a contract. Brown, however, refused to sign away his rights to the image, as required by Apples' contract.

And that's pretty much where we're at today. When contacted by Pitchfork, Crystal Castles elected not to comment on the matter, via their publicist. Oh, and John Darnielle is siding with Brown.

No word on how Madonna feels about all this.

Significantly less complicated is Crystal Castles' touring itinerary, featuring quite a few recently minted European and North American dates. The duo also recently issued a single for the absolutely killer "Courtship Dating" in the UK, and they'll serve up their self-titled debut over in Europe on April 28. [MORE...]

Essie Jain Readies Second Album for June Release

Photo by Shervin Lainez

Essie Jain-- the British-born songstress with the "timeless" voice-- has returned rather quickly with her follow-up to last year's We Made This Ourselves (which, incidentally, was just issued in Europe on Leaf).

Entitled The Inbetween, the new ten-track set was put to tape in Astoria, New York by contributors Patrick Glynn and Jon Mizrachi. The disc is due on Ba Da Bing June 3. May 13

Ms. Jain has a handful of European tour dates in the coming months, and we can expect a U.S. visit in the summer and fall. [MORE...]

Cut Copy Tour With Shocking Pinks, Juan Maclean

As Cut Copy gear up for the North American leg of their tour in support of the recently released In Ghost Colours, the Australian dance trio has added dates in its homeland. The tour, which spans a full two weeks in June, features opening sets from DFA dudes the Juan MacLean and Shocking Pinks, adding to CC's already impressive roster of tourmates.

Cut Copy's next show is in London tonight, and at the end of their current itinerary is an appearance at the final day of the Pitchfork Music Festival.

In addition to the Australian shows with Cut Copy, both Shocking Pinks and the Juan MacLean have some solo dates. [MORE...]

Shocker: Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III Pushed Back
Maybe it's writer's block? Nah.

Well, this was bound to happen. Lil Wayne's long-time-coming Tha Carter III will not, as previously reported, be released May 13 via Young Money/Cash Money/Universal Motown.

The new street date for the highly anticipated disc from Automatic Weezy now stands at June 10, though one should probably refrain from sending out invitations to any listening parties just yet. Wayne's talked quite a bit about how he doesn't want any leaked material to appear on the retail version of Tha Carter III, and that might be what's holding it up. Plus, he's a pothead-- you try getting one of those folks to adhere to a deadline.

No official word yet as to whether that incredible cover is, in fact, the genuine article, though it is still up on Amazon, and on purely aesthetic terms, it's way better than the other kinda boring grayscale one I've seen elsewhere.

Very real are a pair of Wayne dates over the weekend, listed after the jump. [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.)