Pitchfork

The other day, Stars threw a link to a website into a MySpace blog post that posed a lot more questions than it answered. You were met with a twinkly little piano tune, a heart with moving gears in it, and the hard-hitting query up there.

Today came the answers, in the form of an official announcement that Stars will release the Sad Robots EP on September 1. The EP will be available for digital purchase exclusively via sadrobots.ca, while limited edition physical copies can be picked up in exchange for money exclusively at dates on Stars' upcoming tour.

Sad Robots packs in five all-new tunes and a live version of an old favorite: "Going, Going, Gone", originally from 2001 release Nightsongs. Folks who visit sadrobots.ca (not to be confused with sadrobots.com) after August 31 will also have the opportunity to download that live track in MP3 form for free. Woo, free!

Stars' tour, which finds the band sharing an "all new live show" based on the Sad Robots aesthetic, kicks off September 17 in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Photo by Kyle Gustafson

Of all the musicians that could possibly be obsessed with the number 13, it's fitting that perennial mope/the Cure frontman Robert Smith is currently president of the fan club. In addition to his band's generally dreary disposition, Smith really sealed it by releasing singles around the 13th of every month for the last few months as a teaser for the Cure's 13th studio album.

Now that album has a name, and wouldn't you know it, that name contains the number 13. The record is called 4:13 Dream, and according to the Cure's website, "it will be released on October 13...we think!" Since that's a Monday, that might just be the UK release date. The album comes out in the States via Suretone/Geffen.

If the Cure's recent run of singles is any indication, "The Only One", "Freakshow", "Sleep When I'm Dead", and "The Perfect Boy" will probably appear on 4:13 Dream.

There's still one more 13th to go before the album comes out, and September 13 will see the release of the emo-riffic remix EP Hypnagogic States. Proceeds from the EP's royalties will go to the International Red Cross.

Thanks to reader Rick Andrade for the tip.

It was written in the stars: Manifest Destiny, the Tee Pee Records-sponsored rock'n'roll smokeout, is back for round two.

Bowling over Los Angeles' Echoplex September 7, the Mani-fest serves up a steaming pile of the sludgy stuff for the delight of your ears and the dismay of your pacemaker. This year, Destiny will be fulfilled with low rumbles courtesy of Witchcraft AND Witch, Earthless, the Warlocks, Graveyard, TK Webb & the Visions, Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound, Ancestors, and Night Horse.

See dude? You knew you were gonna get some use outta that skull bong before the summer was up.

Photo by Natalie Kardos

Jeez guys, why don't you just change your name to Webcasthead already? (Actually, on second thought, don't.) In the spirit of various previous webcasts and last-minute announcements such as this one, Radiohead have made the last-minute announcement that they will webcast tonight's (August 28) gig in Santa Barbara, California live, warts and all.

Writes Colin Greenwood on Dead Air Space,

Hello! To celebrate the end of a brilliant tour, we're going to webcast the last show here in America. We'll be playing live in Santa Barbara, at the Bowl. It's one of our favourite places to play; I think we've ended tours there before, once even playing a cover of [Neil Young's] ' cinnamon girl '. It's not too big, in fact it's very intimate, a small arena with a dirt floor, set in pretty countryside. It should be a special night, for lots of reasons, and we're going to try and share as much of it as we can on the webcast. Nigel [Godrich], our producer, will be helping out getting it to you, so if it goes wrong....It's live!

Thank you so much to everyone who's come and seen us this year; it has truly been the most special and exciting tour for all of us.

Webcast details to follow...
x

Colin

Tonight's gig at the Bowl is scheduled to begin to 6:30 p.m. Pacific time, with Liars opening (no word whether they'll be webcasted too, but boy I hope so). Best to set up shop in front of your computer around then and stay tuned to Dead Air Space for instructions. So that's why it's all dreary here in Chicago today...

The newest full-length collaboration between Four Tet electronic manipulator Kieran Hebden and veteran jazz drummer Steve Reid will hit shelves via Domino on November 18.

The follow-up to last year's Tongues (not to mention this winter's Daxaar, which featured Hebden collaborating with the Steve Reid Ensemble) is called NYC, and it is the duo's tribute to the city where they recorded the album. NYC is Hebden and Reid's fourth album as a duo in just three years.

To support NYC, Hebden and Reid will play a few shows in November and December.

Photos by Jon Behm; Above: Low

On January 20, 2009, after eight long years, George W. Bush's tenure in the White House will come to an end. And hey, quite a few people are pretty excited about that. A number of these excited folks gathered at Saint Paul's Turf Club last night for the previously reported, sold out "Eight Is Enough" concert, where they said a collective "good riddance" to the Bush administration and raised some proceeds for Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

Among the Gopher State revelers: Low, Josh Grier and Jeremy Hansen of Tapes 'n Tapes, Dosh, P.O.S., and more. Let's hope they can keep the enthusiasm going: the Republican National Convention (and any accompanying mayhem) descends on the Twin Cities September 1-4.

Low








Tapes 'n Tapes' Josh Grier and Jeremy Hansen






Dosh

Josh Homme photo by Chris Owyoung

"They want to submerge themselves in a place that's the opposite of where they're from and what they're used to," Queens of the Stone Age frontguy Josh Homme told NME.com about his plans to fly Sheffield, England's Arctic Monkeys to Joshua Tree, California for some Homme-helmed recording sessions next month. Sounds like that ought to do it.

Homme's reportedly bringing the Monkeys out to the desert to, as he puts it, "make something that they dig so much that everyone else can too." This is like their Beatles meet Maharishi moment, isn't it? Or, at least, their Beatles get introduced to pot moment?

The king of Queens also spoke to BBC 6 Music about his intentions to record the Arctics in Joshua Tree. Quoth Homme, "Being Arctic Monkeys, the polar opposite would be Desert Monkeys, so they're going to come out and just experience that, and their idea is to submerge themselves in something else and do some tracks. That's the sort of pressure-free 'lets-do-something-cool' environment that really pays musical dividends at the end, you know? They're a talented bunch of guys-- it's going to be a lot of fun."

What we can glean from this: 1. Josh Homme is still funny; 2. Josh Homme likes the word "submerge."

Homme's camp did not respond to requests for comment, while a rep for the Arctics' label, Domino, would neither confirm nor deny Homme's claims.

Homme and his Queens are lying fairly low following last week's tribute concert for recently deceased Eleven frontwoman/sometime Queens touring member Natasha Shneider. They did, however, put together an auction to raise additional money for the Natasha Shneider Memorial Fund; check that out here.

As for the Monkeys, drummer Matt Helders' Late Night Tales mix is due October 13 on Azuli, and frontman Alex Turner's other act, the Last Shadow Puppets, will hit the road again that same month.

Photo by Katie Kaars

Mike Skinner blogs a lot. Thus, when given the opportunity to interview the Streets' point man earlier this week, we focused mostly on the contents of his recent blog posts, asking him about his forthcoming album Everything Is Borrowed, the fate of his collaborations with Robert Wyatt and Muse, walking through France for his video for "The Escapist", and the end of the Streets.

Over the course of our conversation, Skinner revealed that one of his primary motivations is simply a creative restlessness. "My brain is always working," he said, and he is intent on doing things on his own terms. It's fitting then that the feistiest he got was when discussing the business aspect of music: "It's great to feel like you're not part of this major record label bullshit."

Skinner hasn't abandoned all labels, however. Everything Is Borrowed comes out in the UK via 679 on September 15, and it has just been announced that Vice will give the album its U.S. release on October 7.

Pitchfork: You said on your blog that Everything Is Borrowed will be the second-to-last Streets album. Is that true?

Mike Skinner: Yeah, I want it to all fit into a nice tidy box. I don't want to repeat myself. I want it to stand as a body of work in its own right.

Pitchfork: Was there any specific moment or realization you had that made you feel like you would be repeating yourself after five records?

MS: No. I mean, I always had plans for it to feel quite consistent. I think the beginning of that was the CD artwork. Early on, I had a very clear idea that all the CD booklets were going to fall under a similar framework.

Pitchfork: Do you have any idea what you'll do after the final Streets album is released?

MS: I'd like to do a film, I think. That'll be the first thing I'll do. But I want to do it all on my own, not seek funding from anywhere else, because I'd rather it didn't end up being the by-committee type thing you get in the film industry.

Pitchfork: Would you like to direct, act, or do something else?

MS: I mean, all of it, really. Because we've always kind of done everything in our own way, with the "Beat Stevie" TV show and my albums as well. There's always been a feeling that we're making up our own rules. With the Streets, I write, I rap, I produce-- I even mastered the new album. They are different disciplines, but it's all just one vision.

Pitchfork: Do you expect to be involved with music at all after the Streets comes to an end?

MS: Totally, yeah. I can't do anything else!

Pitchfork: So it's not like the Streets will be the final music you ever put out.

MS: No, no, no. I've been asked this a lot. I didn't make this big announcement. It was just something that I kind of implied in a blog. It didn't really seem like a very big deal to me at the time, but I get asked about it a lot now. I get sick of it, because it seems like this high drama. It's not really like that to me.

Pitchfork: It's something you planned all along, that this was going to be a contained project with a beginning, middle, and end?

MS: Yeah, totally.

For one week each year, New York City-- normally devoid of live music of any kind-- is overrun by the stuff, and it's all thanks to the CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival. This year's event, as reported a couple weeks back, touches down October 21-25. It was sizzlin' with talent then, and it's positively boiling over with potential Next Big Things now, what with today's announcement of another hearty chunk of the bill.

Lineup additions of note include Neon Neon, Talib Kweli, David Banner, Kid Sister, Charlie Louvin, Black Moth Super Rainbow dude Tobacco, and recent Touch and Go signees the Uglysuit, as well as the Duke Spirit, Late of the Pier, Talkdemonic, Au, caUSE co-MOTION!, Crystal Stilts, Stars Like Fleas, Collections of Colonies Bees, Lukestar, People Under the Stairs, the Brother Kite, We Versus the Shark, Florence and the Machine, Bell, the Awkward Stage, Eux Autres, Immaculate Machine, So Many Dynamos, B.O.B., Bearsuit, the Whip, and-- OMG YES-- Joan Osborne.

All these fine folks and more join the likes of Broken Social Scene, Deerhoof, Crystal Castles, Beach House, the Cool Kids, Róisín Murphy, Lee "Scratch" Perry, and all those other fine folks we talked up last time around.

Of course, CMJ wouldn't be a Film Festival without a few films, and let's not forget the real reason people go to these things: the panels!! Expect edge-of-your-seat thrills at such titillating discussions as "Artist Managers: The New Labels?", "The Keys To Driving A Cost-Effective Recording", and "Partners in Rhyme: How Joint Ventures and Other Economic Models Are Reshaping the Industry". Oh, sarcasm.

Photo by Shannon McClean

Lookout tour bus, lookout stage: David Berman and his Silver Jews are breaking out the foggy atlas and hitting the road. Tonight in Columbus, Ohio, they'll kick off about six weeks' worth of North American dates. The tour will lead the band all the way through Drag City's September 23 DVD release of Silver Jew, Michael Tully's documentary on, well, guess. Throughout the trek, they'll share many a date with their Tel Aviv-based labelmates Monotonix, as well as James Jackson Toth (f.k.a. Wooden Wand).

Also note that Drag City and Pitchfork.tv are still looking for the same thing: your best take on a tune from the Jews' recent Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea. Care to catch a glimpse of yourself over there on Pitchfork.tv (and win a copy of the Silver Jew DVD)? Between now and October 31, send a high quality QuickTime video of yourself playing your favorite Lookout song to Drag City via this email address or mailing address Drag City ATTN: Nicole, PO Box 476867, Chicago, IL 60647. The winner will be announced November 7.