Spiral Stairs, Broken Social Scene Unite for Sled Island
Preston School of Industry working on new LP, buncha awesome bands added to festival

As you may have read a while back in these pages, Preston School of Industry frontman and onetime Pavement foil Scott "Spiral Stairs" Kannberg is serving as guest curator for Calgary Alberta's Sled Island Music Festival, taking place June 25-28 at a number of Calgary hot spots.

Sled Island recently threw quite a few more bands onto its already impressive roster, including Yo La Tengo, Grizzly Bear, Dan Deacon, Okkervil River, Blitzen Trapper, Qui, Tegan and Sara, the Secret Machines, Fucked Up, and Mark "BBQ" Sultan. Oh, and some raggedy lot who call themselves Broken Social Scene. Not bad!

Kannberg's well versed in the BSS M.O., having lent a hand to Kevin Drew's Spirit If... And BSS seem like the kind of people who'd be cool with collaborating with a guy from Pavement again if he was interested. And so it shall be during Preston School of Industry's set at Sled Island, when Kannberg will be joined by members of the Scene, playing mostly material composed specifically for the fest. BSS will play their own set as well.

Preston are also hard at work on a new record set to wrap later this spring. The band have a pre-Sled Island date scheduled as well: On May 17 in Seattle, they'll open for the Posies, who will be playing a 20th anniversary show at Neumo's. [MORE...]

Byrne Update: Musical Building, "Big Love" Soundtrack

Photo © Mark Tusk 2007

Could it be that David Byrne has done all the cool things left to do already?

The former Talking Heads frontman/solo star/musicologist/cultural critic/PowerPoint junkie certainly has enough impressive stuff to his credit to last a few lifetimes, but a lot of his new projects sound, well, a lot like his old stuff. Let's have a look, shall we?

First up is the next in Byrne's Playing the Building series, which finds the master musician retrofitting the long-abandoned Battery Maritime Building on the southern tip of Manhattan with mechanical devices in order to turn the place into a "giant musical instrument." According to Byrne, "mechanical devices are attached to the metal beams and pillars, the heating pipes, and the infrastructure, and are used to make these elements vibrate, resonate, and oscillate"-- thus turning the former depot for Brooklyn-bound ferries into one huge sonic wonderland.

Each and every weekend from May 31 to August 10, the building will be open to the public to come jam, free of charge. Amazing stuff? Oh, for sure. It's just that the guy did much the same thing in Stockholm a couple years ago. If you've seen one giant resonant building, you've seen 'em all, you know?

Then there's Byrne's plan to release a studio album version of Here Lies Love, the song cycle about former Philippines first lady Imelda Marcos that he whipped up in conjunction with, uh, Fatboy Slim. We'd make a gag, except we already had a laugh some years back when Byrne announced the project's existence. No word just yet on when that album will turn up, but "many many special musical guests" are promised.

There's also the recent news that Byrne and Brian Eno have re-teamed for a follow-up of sorts to 1981's landmark My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. This, by its very nature, is treading familiar territory (not that we aren't dying of anticipation over here). And Byrne plans to share some of the new material on a tour without Eno sometime this fall. And to top it off, Byrne is also planning to play some of that old Talking Heads stuff on tour.

Okay, we kid, because we love. Besides, there are a few new ones right here: Byrne's soundtrack work on the HBO Mormon drama "Big Love" will emerge on a record called Big Love: Hymnal sometime in the not-too-distant future. And Byrne will head on down to Zilker Park for the Austin City Limits bash way off in September, presumably with plenty of new stuff to show for himself. I mean, it's David Byrne; even when he's repeating himself, he's still light years beyond most of ya'll suckers.

Cat Power Appears on New Beck Album
Said album might be appearing sooner than you think

Following in the footsteps of Radiohead, Trent Reznor (twice!), the Raconteurs, Gnarls Barkley, and himself, Beck plans to release his new Danger Mouse-produced LP quite quickly-- in the next four to six weeks, to be exact, according to MTV.com

Universal Music Group wouldn't confirm anything, but we discovered that one of MTV's claims is very much true: the new Beck album will indeed feature contributions from Chan "Cat Power" Marshall. Hopefully in a more notable capacity than Beth Orton on Midnite Vultures, eh?

In other Beck news, he's added a few dates to that summer tour of his since our last report. Oh, and did you hear about his new album? It's got Cat Power on it! [MORE...]

A Hawk & A Hacksaw Tour With Hun Hangar Ensemble

Photo by Adam Faraday

As an unexpected addendum to last year's A Hawk and a Hacksaw and the Hun Hangár Ensemble EP, A Hawk and a Hacksaw have divulged the details of their first North American tour in years. Fittingly, the duo of Heather Trost and former Neutral Milk Hotel drummer Jeremy Barnes will arrive on our shores supplemented by members of the aforementioned Hun Hangár Ensemble from Budapest, Hungary.

When they get here, one of A Hawk and a Hacksaw's stops is at the Pitchfork Music Festival. Before they arrive, however, they have a bunch of European shows to play this month. [MORE...]

Bjork/Antony/Oldham Arranger Nico Muhly Preps LP

In just a little over a quarter century on this earth, Nico Muhly has collaborated with the lofty likes of Philip Glass, Björk, Antony, Will Oldham, the National, Rufus Wainwright, and many others. Which, of course, makes the rest of us mid-twenty-somethings feel both lazy and mildly angry.

But don't be mad at Muhly, who's doing us all a favor: he's helping coax classical music out of the dusty symphony halls of yore and off into a brand new era of sound. He did it in 2006 with his Speaks Volumes LP, and he'll have another go come July 22 when Brassland issues his sophomore set, Mothertongue. The disc sports contributions from a trio of frequent Muhly compatriots: violist Nadia Sirota, folkie Sam Amidon, and Icelandic producer Valgeir Sigurðsson.

Muhly plans to tour around the release of Mothertongue with Amidon and Doveman, though those dates have only begun shaping up. For now, head over to Muhly's terrifically entertaining blog, and see what other kinds of peer pressure he can inflict upon you from afar. [MORE...]

Cee-Lo Co-Writes Jennifer Hudson Song for Sex and the City Movie Soundtrack

Photo by Kathryn Yu

We don't picture Cee-Lo as much of a cosmo drinker, but he's certainly done Odder things than co-write a song for an Oscar winner for the soundtrack of the forthcoming Sex and the City: The Movie. The movie hits theaters May 30, and its soundtrack comes out May 27 on New Line Records.

Mr. Green's contribution to Sex and the City: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack comes in the form of "All Dressed in Love", which he wrote with previous collaborator MC Jack Splash of Plantlife. Dreamgirls star Jennifer Hudson, who plays a personal assistant to Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City, performs "All Dressed in Love". To top it all off, the song appears over the movie's end credits.

While Green/Splash/Hudson's contribution to the soundtrack is probably the most promising, the disc also features tunes from Al Green (featuring Joss Stone), Nina Simone, the Bird & the Bee, Morningwood, and Run-D.M.C. (featuring Steve Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith).

Run-D.M.C. working with guys from Aerosmith? That could be groundbreaking!

P.S. Gnarls Barkley are touring festivals this summer. [MORE...]

Steve Albini Recording New Scott Weiland Album
No, really

Few names in music are linked with artistic integrity as often as Steve Albini's. And few folks wouldn't know artistic integrity if it started eating their eyeballs quite like Scott Weiland. Yet ying and yang have come together to birth, yes, the next Scott Weiland solo album.

As Weiland noted in a recent interview with kindred spirit Howard Stern, he's currently recording the follow-up to 1998's 12 Bar Blues with Mr. Albini and No Doubt drummer Adrian Young [via Idolator].

And yes, Weiland's publicist has confirmed that everything in the previous sentence is indeed true. (Remember, Steve Albini produced a Bush album back in the day.)

The Weiland opus is tentatively due for November release. Don't know about you, but I sure hope he sings about masturbation on this one too.

Ask Albini what the hell he was thinking when Shellac turn up at a European venue near you. Their recently expanded touring itinerary lies just after the jump.

And OMG, and did you hear? Stone Temple Pilots have reunited and they are touring all over this spring and summer like it's their job. Which, um, it is. Pardon me while I ceremonially crank that "Vasoline" MP3 I got off Napster when I was 16. [MORE...]

Nomo Prepare New LP, Contribute to Art Installation

Michigan ass-shakers Nomo have returned with their third worldly LP. The follow-up to 2006's New Tones is called Ghost Rock, and it comes out June 17 via Ubiquity.

Ghost Rock features percussion from Hamid Drake and Adam Rudolph on several songs, while former Roots bassist and frequent Prefuse 73/Sam Prekop collaborator Josh Abrams lent his low-end talents to "Rings".

In addition to a handful of Nomo headlining dates and festival sets this spring and summer, bandleader Elliot Bergman has an art show with His Name Is Alive's Warren Defever and Hitoko Sakai at Detroit's UFO Factory. Running through April 29, "The Silver Piano" features a display of over a hundred electric kalimbas the three  musicians crafted. An electric kalimba performance will take place at the space on April 26. [MORE...]

Patti Smith and Kevin Shields' Coral Sea Coming to CD

On two magical nights-- June 22, 2005 and September 12, 2006-- punk godmother Patti Smith and My Bloody Valentine genius Kevin Shields took the stage together at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall. Their collaboration was called the Coral Sea, and took both its name and inspiration from Smith's 1996 book The Coral Sea. The book and the performance served as tributes to the legendary late artist Robert Mapplethorpe, who was Smith's close friend. (He took the iconic photograph that appears on the cover of Smith's 1975 debut album Horses.)

Fortunately for those of us who couldn't make those shows, Smith and Shields have put together a double-disc set chronicling the two performances. The Coral Sea will be released on July 11 on PASK, a new imprint run by Smith and Shields.

The live album has no tracklist; it consists of Smith’s spoken word performance accompanied by Shields on "guitars and effects," according to a press release. Although Cat Power appeared at the 2005 performance, she is not featured on the album.

The stage at one of the Coral Sea performances, featuring an image of Mapplethorpe

No word on whether or not the duo will take the stage together ever again, but both of them have plenty going on in their own rights. Shields has that whole reunion thing and that ATP thing to attend to. Smith is the subject of the new documentary Dream of Life, has an art exhibition on view at Fondation Cartier in Paris, collaborated with Patrick Wolf, and wrote a song for the new Augusten Burroughs book. [MORE...]

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...]

Islands' Thorburn + Jim Guthrie = Human Highway
"Hot man-on-man vocal action."

Islands songwriter/frontman Nick Thorburn now has another name to add to a musical oeuvre that includes his main band, Th' Corn Gangg, Juiced Elfers, and Reefer (not to mention his previous work in the Unicorns).

The new group is called Human Highway, and it's a duo consisting of Thorburn and fellow Canadian songwriter Jim Guthrie. Guthrie is the man responsible for 2003's quite nice Now, More Than Ever.

Moody Motorcycle is Human Highway's debut album, and it was crafted in a week of sleeping and recording on Guthrie's couch in downtown Toronto. Thorburn told ChartAttack.com, "the Human Highway album is gentle, like lullaby-type stuff. We're really inspired by Everly Brothers harmonies, singing. And Jim is just such an amazing singer... It's really low-key, just like good times."

A press release describes the group's music as "a sound reminiscent to that of 50s/60s soul and doo-wop." Guthrie says that the album features "hot man-on-man vocal action."

Suicide Squeeze will release Moody Motorcycle in the U.S. on August 19. Secret City will release the album in Canada on the same date.

Islands' Arm's Way comes out May 20 via Anti-, and the band has a big tour going on right now. [MORE...]

David Byrne and Brian Eno Working Together Again

Almost three decades since Brian Eno and David Byrne worked together on Talking Heads records, and 27 years after the original release of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, the pair are collaborating together again.

After performing with Paul Simon April 9 at a Brooklyn Academy of Music event, Byrne told NME.com his current plans include "finishing up a record with Brian Eno, a musician that I worked with 30 years ago. We did a record together of songs, and that'll come out." He added, "I'm also working on a collaboration with Fatboy Slim, also songs. I don't know when that'll be done, but sometime."

Byrne expounded upon the new collaboration with Eno to the New York Daily News (via the Daily Swarm): "Brian had written a lot of music but needed some words, which I know how to do. What's it sound like? Electronic gospel. That's all I'm saying."

The Daily Swarm reports that the Byrne/Eno album will come out via Nonesuch before the end of 2008. Also, a joint U.S. tour with a setlist of "at least 40% Eno-era Talking Heads material" is in the works.

For now, the only known show from either artist is Byrne's appearance at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in September. Meanwhile, Byrne is busy worrying about the mortgage crisis and Eno is working with U2. Eno also helped out Coldplay on their forthcoming album.

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.)