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You like the National, do you? How about that Barack Obama fella? Been wondering just when some like-minded sort would come around and combine two loves into some kind of wearable pun/charitable donation? Boy, did you ever pick the right news story to click on. Lookee here:



That handsome gentleman is, of course, Illinois Senator and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. "Mr. November", natch, refers both to the closing track on the National's 2005 album Alligator and to the month in which this U.S. presidential election will be held. No word on whether Obama's a National fan (though he's no stranger to romanticized indie rock), but the National sure do like them some Obama, so they're donating each and every penny from the sales of their Mr. November shirt to the Obama campaign. The shirts, suited for a lady or a dude, are available for purchase through the National's website.

After stepping down from the soapbox, the National will pick back up with their big tour, which finds them all over the place through the rest of the summer.

Exit Cave, enter tour bus: so it goes for Athens, Georgia psycher-outers Elf Power, who will hit the road tonight for the first of many summer tour dates. Of course, you don't have to tell us that; we've been busy preparing the teeny tiny barbells-- they are powerful elves, correct?-- for their arrival at the Pitchfork Music Festival July 19. But they have gigs aplenty besides, including a fair sized European run in late July and early August.

Once all that's settled, Elf Power will refocus those formidable energies on the October 14 release of Dark Developments, a new collaborative LP they recently worked up with their collab-happy fellow Athenian Vic Chesnutt. It's due on Orange Twin.

Photos by Eirik Lande

Due to complications stemming from last week's big server switch-over, these photos did not run last week as planned. But hey, here they are now. Enjoy!

The second annual Hove Festival brought plenty of characters-- onstage and offstage alike-- to the island of Tromøya, off the coast of Arendal, Norway over the week of June 23-27. Among the many, many fest performers depicted below: Beck (with child), the Raconteurs, Animal Collective, Les Savy Fav, Lupe Fiasco, Deerhunter, St. Vincent, Band of Horses, Hercules and Love Affair, Vampire Weekend, the Cool Kids, Black Lips, Black Kids, Yeasayer, and Hove's own Hove/Hova, Jay-Z. Shucks, good thing Hove featuring Jay-Z wasn't held in Hova, Sweden, or else the internet might have imploded.

Beck






Jay-Z


The Raconteurs




Animal Collective


Les Savy Fav




Lupe Fiasco




Vampire Weekend

Photo by Ashley Williamson

Björk is still struggling to beat the bug that kept her from playing a recent gig in Sheffield, England, and the result is that she has cancelled her July 10 show in Helsinki, Finland.

A statement on Björk's website reads, "Sadly, due to medical issues with her voice, Björk has to cancel the show in Helsinki. Ticket holders should return tickets to point of purchase to get a ticket refund. Björk thanks her fans for their understanding and support. The remaining concerts are not affected by this cancellation."

Photos by Drew Katchen

Never accuse RZA of not being a giver. Despite his opening act-turned-backing band Stone Mecca's set falling victim to a few sound problems, the Wu-Tang maestro took the stage at New York City's Webster Hall on Saturday night and delivered a monster set of favorites old and new that stretched nearly an hour past the show's intended curfew.

RZA stayed fairly close to his recent Digi Snacks throughout the night, breaking it up with back catalog gems like Birth of a Prince mantra "Drink, Smoke + Fuck", ODB staple "Shimmy Shimmy Ya", and Wu anthem "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing ta F' Wit". Oh, and jams weren't all the RZA was doling out at Webster; all night, he passed a bottle of Belvedere vodka between himself and the crowd. I suppose these corporate partnerships do come with some perks.

RZA

Shudder to Think have been teasing us with the idea of a reunion ever since their show at NYC's Mercury Lounge last fall. Since then, they've played an Obama-dedicated event and announced a set at the Virgin Mobile Festival in Baltimore this summer, but they've given no word of a full-blown tour...until now.

The tour will take place this summer and fall, with vocalist/guitarist Craig Wedren, guitarist Nathan Larson, and late-era drummer Kevin March recruiting Time of Orchids' Jesse Krakow to play bass and Gosling's Mark Watrous to play guitar, as they did at the Mercury Lounge gig. Unfortunately, original bassist Stuart Hill will not join the proceedings. On the bright side, Adam Wade, Shudder to Think's drummer on their classic Pony Express Record, will join the band on its West Coast dates.

This is Shudder to Think's first official reunion since 1998, and, as anyone who's noticed our plethora of exclamatory punctuation in stories about the band could have guessed, we're pretty psyched.

Not that they needed to justify it, but both Wedren and Larson had funny things to say about their reason for scheduling this reunion tour. "No, we did not get fat," said Larson in a press release, adding, "If anybody can send me guitar tabs for the Pony Express material, I'd greatly appreciate it."

Wedren was a little more straightforward, saying, "Our music is continuing to seep out, like syrup from a tree or the remains of a sweet, sticky picnic. Every day, new people-- many too young to have caught us during the first go-round-- are contacting us after 'discovering' our music. I'm constantly meeting people who feel the same way about our music that we do, and it makes me feel indescribably good. This tour is our way of saying 'thank you.'"

The tour is confined to North America at the moment, but more dates are in the works, so who knows what's in store?

Step into your local Best Buy October 7 to get a copy of Crooked Fingers' new disc Forfeit/Fortune, and the blue-shirted greeter will likely meet your inquiry with a puzzled look and perhaps a sweet deal on a spindle of 100 CD-Rs. That's because, for Forfeit/Fortune, former Archer of Loaf Eric Bachmann's now long-running songwriting venture has inked a deal with Red Pig/Constant Artists Inc. This deal makes the new record available digitally, through the Crooked Fingers website, and through 20 "key independent retailers in the United States." And that's it.

Says Bachmann, "I'm pretty sure [indie retailers] sold a lot more of my records to fans than Borders or Wal-Mart or Satan." You know, I think he may be on to something.

In any case, you've got options. There's the standard edition. There's a deluxe digipak coupled with a DVD that contains performance footage, the first video from the album, and an interview with Bachmann himself. And, if you hit up the Crooked Fingers website, you can preorder a "premium collection," which gets you the DVD-bolstered deluxe edition along with a silkscreen print of the album art and a t-shirt.

But enough about the how; let's move on to the what. Forfeit/Fortune features guest work from Silver Jews' Brian Kotzur, strings from Tom Hagerman of DeVotchKa, and an album-closing duet with Neko Case called "Your Control". The disc reportedly sports the "fullest and most eclectic orchestration" yet from a Crooked Fingers release, and Bachmann himself wrote and arranged all the string and horn parts.

Bachmann and his Fingers will do the walking around North America in the late summer and early fall, touring with Okkervil River and, for a few dates, Neko Case.

Photos by Sigurd Fandango; Above: My Bloody Valentine

We've still got plenty of Roskilde coverage to come this week, but until then here's the second half of our photo roundup from Denmark's massive festival. Saturday packed in the action, with a performance by the reunited My Bloody Valentine, plus some dancefloor filling sets courtesy of Girl Talk and Chemical Brothers. Sunday's finale featured Jay-Z, Cat Power, and Hot Chip. Photos of these folks and plenty more can be found below, while Thursday's and Friday's shots reside here.

My Bloody Valentine






Jay-Z








Hot Chip








Girl Talk








Cat Power

Another day, another breathless entry into the annals of the Kanye West luxury items/media outreach blog. This one springs from yesterday's rumors that our occasionally testy friend Mr. West would be entering anger management classes. Not so, according to Kanye:

Do yall remember when people said my fiance was pregnant????  What happened to that rumor????? I guess after we broke up it was just forgot about????  I'm just using that as an example of how people make up stuff and everybody runs with it. I had my own family asking me about that. Now the media is saying I'm going to anger management something or 'nother. I have never had any conversations about anger management. If anything, I need anger enhancement!! lol! I get off the plane in Hawaii today and the world is saying my management team said blah blah blah...  SIIIIIIGGGHHHH!  I told the media you can't make up lies about me because I have a media outlet myself. Oh and sidebar I don't know if everyone has realized this yet but I don't do interviews if there's anything I wanna say I'll say right here on my own blog.

If there's anything you need, man, it's a new keyboard with an unstuck 'crazy' key. ;)

Just two years after the release of her stellar, slept-on Son LP, Argentinian experimental songwriter Juana Molina will return with the more rhythm-forward Un Dia. The set-- Molina's fifth overall, and her fourth for Domino-- is due October 7.

Molina is currently spending a little time with Feist on a North American tour before doing a little puddle-jumping to close out the summer.