Yazoo/Yaz Plan Reunion Tour, Prep Box Set, EP
Get remixed by Hercules and Love Affair

The 1980s sure were a funny time, and here to remind us just how funny are Yazoo (or just Yaz to us Yanks), reunited after over 25 years apart! Vocalist Alison Moyet and Depeche Mode descendent Vince Clarke have cast aside whatever differences kept them from each other for a quarter century plus and planned a big happy reunion tour.

The "Yazoo Reconnected" trek begins May 26 in Copenhagen and winds its way around Europe before hopping the pond and heading to the U.S. in July.

As for whether Moyet and Clarke are buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and throwing their computer out the window because they want to make a new Yazoo record, well, that remains to be seen. But the duo does have a couple releases of note in the pipeline.

The first is In Your Room, a four disc box set collecting both of Yazoo's studio albums-- 1982's Upstairs at Eric's and 1983's You and Me Both-- along with a disc of B-sides and rarities and a DVD collecting music videos, television performances, 5.1 and stereo mixes of both albums, and a short film entitled 2 Albums, 4 Singles and That Was It.... Whew! Mute will unleash In Your Room in the UK and mainland Europe on May 26.

To get folks primed for the box set and help remind them that Yazoo is not, in fact, some kind of internet search engine, Mute will hit overseas audiences with the Nobody's Diary EP on May 12. Available in both 12" and digital formats, the EP sports the classic track off You and Me Both along with a bunch of remixes, including one from Erasure's Andy Bell.

And the newly revived Yazoo is all about the remixes lately, having posted quite a few additional ones to their website in recent weeks-- including Mute labelmate Hercules and Love Affair's take on Yazoo megahit "Situation"! Let that one wash over you by following the link below. [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...]

Tompkins Square Preps New Anthem, Peter Walker LP

The acoustically minded Tompkins Square label is ready to offer the third installment in its Imaginational Anthem series of compilations celebrating "acoustic guitar mavericks past and present," according to a press release. Volume Three will come out on April 8, as will a box set collecting all three volumes.

Almost a month later, Tompkins Square will unveil the first full-length in 40 years from maverick Peter Walker. The East Indian/ Spanish-influenced player shares Echo of My Soul on May 6. Walker also has a European tour beginning April 9 in Girona, Spain. [MORE...]

A Place to Bury Strangers Issue 7" Box Set, Tour UK

What in the hell is all that racket? Why, it's my brand new Vacancy Records-issued limited edition box set of three A Place to Bury Strangers 7"s! I mean, what else could it be?

That's right, another nifty little vinyl rarity from the Brooklyn sound-bombers is just waiting for your clicks right this very instant. Vacancy are crafting 500 sets of 7"s for three AP2BS favorites, backed with a trio of previously unreleased jams. Crafting very, very, slowly, it should be noted, as every one of these sets features hand screen-painted artwork by the band and Vacancy's Louise Fenton.

The sets are available for purchase on Vacancy's MySpace right this instant, though you're warned not to expect to receive 'em for a couple months yet.

Before the packages gets shipped, A Place to Bury Strangers have a handful of East Coast dates in early April, and their first-ever UK tour in May, including a stop at the recently sold-out ATP vs. Pitchfork festival. [MORE...]

Willie Nelson Celebrates Birthday With Box Set, Tour

To celebrate his 75th birthday on April 30, country legend Willie Nelson is piling on the presents...for us. Legacy has a whole year of releases planned, starting with a four-CD, 100-song box set called One Hell of a Ride.

Featuring tunes from across Nelson's five-decade-spanning catalog, One Hell of a Ride will come out on April 1 with liner notes from Joe Nick Patoski. Patoski's biography of Nelson, Willie Nelson: An Epic Life, will also come out this spring via Little, Brown.

Then on April 29, Legacy will release #1s, a single-disc collection of Nelson's country and pop chart-toppers.

Even more Willie Nelson releases on Legacy have yet to be announced, but for now, we have this: a big long tour starting in February. [MORE...]

Sonic Youth, Tortoise, Godspeed Folk on Chatham Set
Plus: Final Fantasy, Tony Conrad, Lichens, members of Hüsker Dü, U.S. Maple, Fog

One man, one chord, and a pretty enviable list of collaborators: Guitar Trio, perhaps Rhys Chatham's trademark piece, is minimal music deployed on a maximal scale.

Chatham celebrated the iconic composition's 30th birthday early last year by taking it on tour across North America with members of Sonic Youth, Tortoise, Godspeed You! Black Emperor/A Silver Mt. Zion, Hüsker Dü, Fog, Final Fantasy, and more joining in at various stops. Most performances stretched the Trio to include upwards of seven or eight guitarists-- one (Toronto) even featured a six-piece string section-- and by all accounts "epic" was the word.

Those who missed out and those who long to relive the experience alike, you're in luck. On March 4, Table of the Elements will issue "GUITAR TRIO IS MY LIFE!" from Rhys Chatham & His Guitar Trio All-Stars, a massive three-disc set collecting performances of the famed piece from across last year's tour. The set draws its name from an exclamation made by a particularly zealous fan during a previous Guitar Trio performance.

Featured on the release: Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, and Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth (in Brooklyn), John McEntire, Jeff Parker, and Doug McCombs of Tortoise (Chicago), Efrim Menuck and Thierry Amar of Godspeed You! Black Emperor/A Silver Mt. Zion (Montreal), Owen Pallett of Final Fantasy (Toronto), Rob Lowe of Lichens (Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis), Andrew Broder of Fog (Minneapolis), Greg Norton of Hüsker Dü (Minneapolis), and tons more. Check out the city-by-city breakdown here, and while you're at it, have a look at the score. Not so simple after all, eh? [MORE...]

Califone, Sparhawk, Kozelek Help Do Presidential Songs
As do Wooden Wand, Charalambides' Tom Carter, Rosie Thomas, Denison Witmer

In most journalism circles, one of the biggest stories of the next year will be the 2008 U.S. presidential election, but since Obama, Clinton, and Giuliani have yet to form a shoegaze supergroup, we here at Pitchfork must stick to the Radiohead tour updates, Grizzly Bear collaborations, and indie rock nudity.

Nonetheless, Standard Recording Company has thrown us a bone in the politics department in the form of a three-CD box set tentatively titled Of Great and Mortal Men: 43 Songs About 43 U.S. Presidencies. The set's subject matter is apparent, and its backstory doesn't disappoint.

Christian Kiefer, Matthew Gerken (Nice Monster), and Jefferson Pitcher (ex-Above the Orange Trees) wrote nearly all of Of Great and Mortal Men's songs back in February 2006 as part of February Album Writing Month, a songwriting challenge to write 14 songs in 28 days. They pooled their efforts to pen a song apiece about all of the U.S. presidents (3 x 14 = 42, with the George W. Bush tune arriving later), and they came out of it with a heap of demos.

Then, they fleshed (and are fleshing) the songs out with studio contributions from Califone, Alan Sparhawk (Low), Mark Kozelek (Sun Kil Moon/Red House Painters), Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice, Rosie Thomas, Denison Witmer, Marla Hansen (Sufjan Stevens's band), Vince DiFiore (Cake), and Tom Carter (Charalambides), among others.

Kiefer calls the resultant box set "a walk through American history and an inquiry into what makes us Americans as filtered through the lens of our highest public office. There's heartbreak and beauty and criticism and revelation. We're trying to make it work like a big beautiful historical novel."

Of Great and Mortal Men does not yet have a definite release date, but Standard plans to put it out in the summer. The tracklist is here (seriously, it's that simple). Susan Archie is scheduled to design the art for the box itself, and the package will come with 43 cards, each with an image of one of the presidents done by one of 43 different artists.

Finally, Standard will supplement the set with a 44th song, available next November following the election. As soon as the results are official, everyone who bought the box set can go to the label's website and download Mr. or Mrs. 44's song.

Coil Issue Naples as Vinyl Box Set With Bonus LP

The Ape of Naples, the 2005 Coil album assembled partially from late co-founder Jhonn Balance's final recordings, will see a vinyl box set release via Important Records on December 11.

The four LP set spreads the album out over three discs, each featuring laser etchings on their B-sides. The last disc is an exclusive full-length called The New Backwards, which consists of-- Avey Tare & Kria Brekkan style-- backward mixes of Coil tunes.

The set is limited to a run of 1500, and a poster is included in the package. [MORE...]

Animal Collective 2008 Plans: EP, LP Box, Recording
Special prize at the end if you read this whole story

What a year it's been for Animal Collective! Cue the checklist:

* New label: secured
* Globe-trotting tour: wrapped
* Network television: conquered
* Youth: corrupted
* Person: pitched
* Hair, Eye: pulled and rubbed, respectively
* Strawberry: jammed

Time to hibernate, right guys? Hardly. As revealed in a recent AC message board post from Avey Tare (confirmed by the band's publicist), Animal Collective already have a good part of 2008 mapped out. Surprise, surprise, it'll be plumb full of activity.

Thanks to reader Lee for the heads up.

Among their resolutions: a new EP, that LP box set, a couple extracurricular sessions for web and radio (those should actually appear before 2007 is up), some more touring abroad, and a return to the recording studio. And if this sounds an awful lot like a story we ran last year, well, it is, but all the specifics are different save for the LP box.

Anyhow. The EP will include "Street Flash" and three other Strawberry Jam-era tunes. It's being mixed right now by Nicholas Vernhes at Brooklyn's Rare Book Room, and Avey and the guys hope to have it out by the coming spring.

The LP box set, in the works for some time now, should soon see the light of day. Wrote Avey, "plans to start working on the artwork for the 3 lp box are underway...so hopefully it wont be much longer on that." He also asked that folks cease bugging Catsup Plate, the label that will release the box. They'll let you know when that's ready, and you can bet we will too.

The recording studio return happens "early next year," and while we can't yet forecast just what will come out of it, know that Animal Collective "are excited about it and that yes, we are trying to record near the beach!"

As for the radio/web sessions, keep your eyes and ears peeled for a forthcoming "Take Away Show" from the guys, as well as a BBC broadcast featuring "our most recent live versions" of "Doggy" and "Hey Light", plus "two newer jams." UPDATE: The broadcast in question is the Monday, November 19 session of the Rob da Bank show on Radio 1. It will happen at 2:00 GMT, and will be archived here for seven days afterwards.

Hang in there, you've reached the home stretch, patient reader! And it involves touring, naturally. In addition to a forthcoming fest appearance at the Explosions in the Sky ATP, AC have confirmed a few dates in Japan and intend to hit up Europe in the Year of the Rat. Plus they'll "perhaps [play] at least one show in April in the USA," so there's that.

Annnnd if you've made it this far, congrats, here's your prize. [MORE...]

Psych Pop Rarities Collected in Remastered Rubble Box

You got your Nuggets, sure, but when you run those nuggets through the sifter yet again, you wind up with a whole lotta Rubble.

Volumes 11-20 of the legendary Rubble psych-pop series (mining similar chronology as the famed Nuggets set, if a largely different slew of artists) have been remastered and re-boxed as The Rubble Collection: Volumes 11-20, due for reissue November 20 via Fallout Records. Each of the 1,000 limited edition, numbered boxes features over 150 tracks from names familiar-- the Lovin' Spoonful, the Pretty Things, Blossom Toes, Soft Machine-- rubbing up next to the likes of Boeing Duveen & the Beautiful Soup and the Portobello Explosion. Tasty!

The new edition of Rubbles comes with a revised booklet chock full of band histories, rare photos, and discographies, because, really, the Crazy World of Arthur Brown isn't half as crazy until you've learned just what led Arthur down that loopy path.

Radiohead Box Set: Label's Idea, Not Band's

The announcement earlier this week that Parlophone/EMI would be issuing a box set of Radiohead's previously released albums took many fans by surprise. Sure, the set looks purdy, but it doesn't come with any bonus tracks or new artwork or liner notes. And that USB stick sure is clunky. Plus, why would Radiohead want to release this thing on December 10, right when everybody will be getting their pre-ordered discboxes of In Rainbows? Seems a little fishy.

On Monday, Boing Boing posted an item about the box set. Yesterday, it was updated with the following:

"A publicity-shy reader writes, 'I think people need to know that the band isn't some greed machine. I can tell you with 100% certainty that EMI is putting out all those reissues without the band's participation, blessing, permission or involvement at all. They are doing it as retribution for the band's decision not to go with them in releasing the new album. Despite their contract being expired, EMI had been counting on the revenue from the forthcoming album. When the band put out the digital version of the album themselves, EMI threatened them with re-releasing their entire catalog on the same day the discbox of IN RAINBOWS was being sent out, Dec 10, unless the band gave EMI the standard physical release of the album. Of course the band/managers told EMI to piss off and were appalled that at such an important point in the band's career that their former partners would do this to them.'"

We checked in with representatives from both the band and the label. According to the Radiohead camp, the box set was indeed not the band's idea. They did not confirm any in-fighting, though. EMI agreed that the box was a label initiative, and said that the band's management was offered the opportunity to participate in the project, but declined. As for the release date, EMI maintained that no maliciousness was intended. Rather, it's simply box set season--who doesn't want to find a nicely packaged multi-CD bundle under the tree on Christmas morning?

As for that other Radiohead release we're all looking forward to, it's maybe possibly coming out January 1, maybe possibly on ATO/Side One in the U.S., the band is maybe possibly doing a webcast about it on Friday and maybe possibly touring behind it next year.

Radiohead's First Seven LPs Collected in Box Set
No, the seventh album isn't In Rainbows. It's the live album.

Each and every one of Radiohead's Parlophone albums will be re-released in a brand new box set December 10, the perfect holiday gift for the music fan who either doesn't own any Radiohead albums or wants to own all of them all over again.

The box includes all six pre-In Rainbows studio discs, from 1993's Pablo Honey through 2003's Hail to the Thief, plus 2001's live set I Might Be Wrong. The limited edition CD version of the set comes tucked snugly into new digipacks featuring the original album artwork.

Reserving those last inches of space on the shelf for your pre-ordered In Rainbows discbox? Well, the box set is also available as a DRM-free 320 kbps MP3 download, as well as a limited edition USB stick (made to look like that spooky grinning bear thing!) collecting all the records in CD-quality .WAV format, complete with digital artwork.

As you've probably heard already, Radiohead are on XL now... outside North America, anyhow. And they'll be touring next year, although where and when exactly we don't know just yet.

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.)