Grizzly Bear to Open for Radiohead, Best Gets U.S. Date
Mansfield, Massachusetts live date revealed

From Paul Simon to Feist to TV on the Radio to the LA Phil, Grizzly Bear sure have some Friends in high places, but perhaps none so arena-ready in 2008-- and equipped to generate massive exposure for a smaller act-- as Radiohead.

As confirmed by Radiohead's publicist, Grizzly Bear will open some of the quintessential Oxford quintet's upcoming U.S. shows. We don't know which ones quite yet, so you should probably purchase tickets to all of them, just to be on the safe side.

Speaking of those U.S. shows, At Ease points us to a date on the second leg of the In Rainbows North American tour that has crept onto the interwebs: August 13 at Tweeter Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts (between Boston and Providence, Rhode Island). Better buy tix for that one too.

UPDATE: THEY HAVE ALSO ADDED AN AUGUST 20 SHOW AT THE WHITE RIVER AMPHITHEATER IN AUBURN, WASHINGTON. Thanks to Brianne Eastburn!

And speaking of the U.S., looks like we're getting The Best Of-- reported here mere hours ago in its UK configuration-- too! Our Best Of also comes in single-disc, double-disc, and 4xLP formats, although the first disc snuggles in a 17th track curiously omitted from the UK offering: "Optimistic".

Capitol/EMI will deliver The Best Of over here on June 3. Looks like we'll also get a 30-track download option, and a music video DVD, details forthcoming. Of course, as a true Radiohead fan, you will have to buy all of these too (though we'd be remiss not to remind you that Radiohead did not sanction this stuff). Uh oh, cognitive dissonance! [MORE...]

Radiohead Best Of Details Revealed

Turns out Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien and drummer Phil Selway weren't joshin' when they suggested the band's former label Parlophone/EMI would assemble a greatest hits package to coincide with Radiohead's spring tour. Hence we have The Best Of, due June 2 across the pond, a mere four days before Radiohead's first European In Rainbows date in Dublin [via At Ease and confirmed by an EMI rep].

Not unlike EMI's previous Radiohead cash grab, the discography box set, this Best Of comes in multiple formats to maximize money milking potential. We have the single-disc version, comprising 16 tracks (including "Pyramid Song", woo!). We have the double-disc version, containing the first disc plus a second CD packed with 13 more tracks. And we have the 4xLP limited edition box set, containing the material found on both discs spread across, yes, four pieces of vinyl.

Also not unlike that discography box set, Radiohead did not sanction this release.

You can't really argue with the song selection, though: "Paranoid Android", "Street Spirit (Fade Out)", "Fake Plastic Trees", "Karma Police", and sure, "Creep", all make the first disc, while disc two includes "Airbag", "The National Anthem", and that best known of Radiohead rarities, "True Love Waits". No word yet on a U.S. release for The Best Of.

In other Radiohead news, Thom Yorke's doing some remixing, Jonny Greenwood's debuting some compositions, Bat for Lashes and Liars are opening parts of the tour, animated video and remix contests are on now, UK Radiohead fans can get a live "Videotape" download and an April 1 BBC gig stream right here, and all freeloaded copies of In Rainbows mysteriously self-deleted on Tuesday.* [MORE...]

Joy Division Classics Bundled on Best Of
Control biopic, Joy Division doc due on DVD in June

Hey, here's an idea for a Joy Division greatest hits collection. Two discs: first disc Unknown Pleasures front-to-back plus "Transmission", second disc Closer front-to-back plus "Love Will Tear Us Apart", "Atmosphere", and maybe "Dead Souls". Ba-da-bing!

Okay fine, so a two-disc best-of for a band with only two proper discs to its name might be a little unnecessary. Thus Rhino has compiled the best of the best on The Best of Joy Division, a 14-track, single-disc affair glooming up a North American dorm room near you on April 29.

"Love", "Atmosphere", and classic album tracks "She's Lost Control", "Shadowplay", and "New Dawn Fades" all make the cut, but dudes, where the eff is "Decades"?! Eh, we do get a John Peel session version of "Twenty Four Hours" as consolation.

UK residents, meanwhile, can look forward to a two-disc Best of after all. That one lands March 24 via Rhino, and the second disc collects a whole heap of John Peel session jams, a couple live numbers, and an interview with the band's Ian Curtis and Stephen Morris. Folks can scoop up the first disc (but not the second) digitally if they so choose.

Joy Division will soon be blowing up a digital video disc apparatus near you as well, as DVDs for Ian Curtis biopic Control and the documentary feature Joy Division arrive via The Miriam Collection/The Weinstein Company this spring. Look for the former June 3 and the latter June 17. [MORE...]

Morrissey's Greatest Hits Collection Coming to U.S.

Quite a while in the making, Morrissey's Greatest Hits collection is coming to the U.S. March 25 on Decca. And, well, with a solitary exception, you'd have a real hard time distinguishing its tracklist from that of its overseas counterpart, which is out now.

The tracklisting for the U.S. Greatest Hits is identical to that of the UK version, and the limited edition bonus CD, Live at the Hollywood Bowl, is practically the same as well, with the lone addition of a U.S.-only bonus take on new single "That's How People Grow Up" from the same show. Like the UK version, the set will arrive on single CD, limited edition two-fer with the live disc, and a double vinyl edition.

Moz has big plans to hit the road in Europe later this year, and, of course, issue that new studio album now due in the fall. Plans so big, he's not even letting us in on 'em. Yet! [MORE...]

Radiohead Greatest Hits Album on the Way

Give them credit: they've held out longer than most. But come spring, Radiohead will join the Eagles, Van Halen, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Joni Mitchell, Journey, and Mandy Moore in the annuls of acts who have foisted "Greatest Hits" albums upon us. Now you may be thinking: wait a minute, isn't every Radiohead album since The Bends pretty much a greatest hits collection unto itself? Indeed, but don't blame the band for this one.

According to a recent interview with guitarist Ed O'Brien on Canadian radio's The Strombo Show [via ateaseweb.com], not unlike that recent catalog box set, this was all the doing of Radiohead's former label EMI. "They're planning to do a greatest hits for April, May to coincide with our tour," said O'Brien. "That's an interesting one. We won't be doing any promotion for that, obviously."

Radiohead's European tour kicks off June 6, while the surrounding two-pronged North American jaunt is, for the moment, still without dates and venues. And unless the guys plan to stick strictly to B-sides, covers, and In Rainbows disc two material, chances are they'll end up inadvertently promoting the greatest hits set anyway.

Drummer Phil Selway also commented on the matter in an interview with Trinity College Dublin student magazine Analogue. "It's well within [EMI's] rights to do it [sigh]. So we'll have to see."

One thing's for sure, though. This thing damn well better have "Pyramid Song" on it. [MORE...]

Morrissey Reveals Greatest Hits Details, Bonus CD
Moz freaks given chance to shine in Greatest Hits ad

The man they call Moz has accrued quite a catalog of hits since his days fronting the Smiths. But don't take our word for it, just scope the tracklist for Morrissey's latest Greatest Hits set printed below. "Everyday Is Like Sunday", "The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get", the indomitable "Suedehead", and a whole lotta material from the last two albums-- it's like somebody made you the perfect latter-day Moz mixtape, and then, um, made you pay for it.

Greatest hits UK shelves via Polydor/Decca in CD and double vinyl formats on February 11, one week later than previously reported (U.S. details forthcoming). Along with classic jams, most from the man's post-millennial catalog (every one at least a top 20 UK hit, if you'd believe it), the collection also includes two all new cuts: "That's How People Grow Up" (which gets its own single, now on Feburary 4) and "All You Need Is Me". Don't we know it, Morrissey, don't we know it.

Cooler still, a limited run of Greatest Hits sets will come bundled with an eight-track, self-explanatory bonus disc titled Live at the Hollywood Bowl.

And speaking of people who need nothing more than Morrissey in their lives, the Moz MySpace (MozSpace!) has put out a call for the most dedicated/obsessed of fans to step forward. Let's let them explain:

How do you show your devotion to Morrissey?

HAVE YOU ANY MORRISSEY TATTOOS? HAVE YOU EVER GRAFFITI'D MORRISSEY'S NAME ON A WALL? DO YOU OWN AMAZING MORRISSEY MEMORABILIA?

WE'RE LOOKING FOR IMAGES OF YOUR DEVOTION FOR POSSIBLE INCLUSION IN THE NEW MORRISSEY GREATEST HITS ALBUM ADVERT.

PLEASE SEND HIGH-QUALITY JPG IMAGES TO: morrisseyadvert[at]googlemail.com

BE QUICK, WE MUST RECIEVE ALL ENTRIES BY 19 JANUARY 2008.

And speaking of January 19, that's, well, the third night of Morrissey's winter tour. Perhaps he'll bust out a few selections from his next studio album, now due in autumn 2008? [MORE...]

Morrissey Reveals New Single Details
Greatest hits gets UK release date

Now that Morrissey's settled all that label drama and let the NME know what's what, he can finally get back to what he does best. No, not crying, silly. Recording and releasing popular music to soundtrack your tears!

January 28, Moz will issue his inaugural release for Polydor/Decca: a tri-format UK single for "That's How People Grow Up", one of two new tracks on his forthcoming fifteen-track greatest solo hits collection (due UK-ways February 4; U.S. date TBA). Recorded with You Are the Quarry producer Jerry Finn (who's also helming sessions for Moz's next solo LP, due this fall), "Grow Up" will be backed by a handful of live takes on Moz/Smiths classics culled from 2007 tours on a CD and a pair of 7"s. No word yet on a U.S. release for the single.

In addition to his plethora of '08 releases, Morrissey's got that previously announced European tour he'll kick off in mid-January. Three tracklists and a tour itinerary after the jump. [MORE...]

Nas Reveals Greatest Hits, Talks Controversial LP Title
No, it's not just Illmatic with "Ether" stuck at the end

Until he finally made nice with Jay-Z and found himself in the Def Jam fold for Hip Hop Is Dead, Nas was a Columbia man. The ace MC's former label has compiled a dozen of Nas' pre-Dead "greatest hits," tacked on two bonus cuts, named it Greatest Hits, and pressed the collection for release on November 6. Not surprisingly, the set leans heavily on Illmatic, with a few highlights from the rest of Nas' Columbia catalogue thrown in for good measure.

There's a pair of new tracks, too, sort of: the Cee-Lo laced "Less Than an Hour", which first appeared on this summer's Rush Hour 3 soundtrack, and opener "Surviving the Times", which appears here for the first time anywhere.

And, as any frequent peruser of the world wide interweb is no doubt aware by now, Nas has stirred up quite some controversy with the title he's chosen for his next LP of new material: Nigger. Nas stood by his choice in a recent interview with MTV.com, however, concluding "We're taking power from that word." It's well worth reading the whole interview; at the very least, check out the portion excerpted here:

"I'm a street disciple. I'm talking to the streets. Stay out of our business. You ain't got no business worrying about what the word 'nigger' is or acting like you know what my album is about without talking to me. Whether you in the NAACP or you Jesse Jackson. I respect all of them...I just want them to know: Never fall victim to Fox. Never fall victim to the shit they do. What they do is try to hurry up and get you on the phone and try to get you to talk about something you might not know about yet.

"If Cornell West was making an album called Nigger, they would know he's got something intellectual to say. To think I'm gonna say something that's not intellectual is calling me a nigger, and to be called a nigger by Jesse Jackson and the NAACP is counterproductive, counter-revolutionary.

"I wanna make the word easy on muthafuckas' ears. You see how white boys ain't mad at 'cracker' 'cause it don't have the same [sting] as 'nigger'? I want 'nigger' to have less meaning [than] 'cracker.' With all the bullshit that's going on in the world, racism is at its peak. I wanna do the shit that's not being done. I wanna be the artist who ain't out. I wanna make the music I wanna hear.

"We're taking power from the word. No disrespect to none of them who were part of the civil-rights movement, but some of my niggas in the streets don't know who [civil-rights activist] Medgar Evers was. I love Medgar Evers, but some of the niggas in the streets don't know Medgar Evers, they know who Nas is. And to my older people who don't know who Nas is and who don't know what a street disciple is, stay outta this muthafuckin' conversation. We'll talk to you when we're ready. Right now, we're on a whole new movement. We're taking power from that word."

The LP is due December 11 via Def Jam and is expected to feature production work from Diddy, Jermaine Dupri, DJ Toomp, and long-time Nas associate Salaam Remi, according to MTV.

Though Nas' tour itinerary-- like that of most rappers-- is a little tough to pin down, he's got a few Australian shows lined up in the weeks to come. Hip-hop may be dead, but those frequent flyer miles don't expire until the new year. [MORE...]

The Libertines' Best Collected on Time for Heroes

There's a reason people continue to talk about the Libertines several years after their last record, and it's got nothing to do with glass pipes or long-suffering supermodels. They were, for a time, one of the finer things going on in British rock, and even if both Carl Barât and Pete Doherty spent the rest of their lives striving to make good on the promise of Up the Bracket, they'd still be able to say they made two great records-- and a few fine tracks-- together.

So with the band deep in what appears to be a permanent identity crisis if not an official breakup, here comes Time for Heroes - The Best of the Libertines, a 13-track collection due October 29 in the UK and December 4 in the U.S. from Rough Trade. Heroes collects tracks from both Bracket and 2004's self-titled effort, as well as a handful of well loved singles and B-sides.

Though reunion rumors continue to fuel the ever-incendiary British press, both Carl and Pete have their own stuff going on at the moment. Amazingly, the more fucked Libertine is the one with the most going on at the moment; Babyshambles have a new album and a tour, while Carl Barat's Dirty Pretty Things have a new track entitled "Radio Song" (not an R.E.M. cover, apparently) on the soundtrack to the David Schwimmer/Simon Pegg/Michael Ian Black flick Run Fatboy Run.

Warm up that arguing muscle: Time for Heroes' tracklist (as well as those Babyshambles dates) is after the jump. [MORE...]

De Stijl Signs Distro Deal With Sub Pop
Preps releases from Michael Yonkers, Ed Askew, Charlie Nothing, Smegma's Ju Suk Reet Meate

The folks behind Minneapolis label De Stijl have decided to continue the relationship they began with Sub Pop-- with the 2003 unearthing of the Michael Yonkers Band's Microminiature Love-- in the form of a full-on distribution deal. The deal sees the mostly-vinyl-only label embracing the CD format (welcome!), and there's already a whole slab of new-release beef on the De Stijl plate.

The first release under the new deal is Jakob Olausson's Moonlight Farm, which is available now. The next two releases are both scheduled for late summer. The first is a solo album by Smegma's Ju Suk Reet Meate titled Do Unseen Hands Make You Dumb? and originally recorded in 1978 and 1979. It comes out August 7 and features liner notes from John Olson of Wolf Eyes, who's collaborated with Smegma in the past. The second release is Michael Yonkers' follow-up to the 1968-recorded Microminiature Love, titled Grimwood and originally put to tape in 1969. That's due September 11.

There are two other albums the Sub Pop/De Stijl team currently have planned for release. The first is Ed Askew's Little Eyes, an unreleased 1970 recording that De Stijl finally put out on vinyl in 2003, and will release on CD on September 25. It will come supplemented by previously unavailable live tracks and liner notes by music journalist Bryon Coley. The second is 40 Years of the Ding: A Charlie Nothing Anthology, a collection comprised of psychedelic saxophonist Charlie Nothing's recordings for John Fahey's Takoma label, as well as a privately pressed LP, three singles, and choice cuts from innumerable cassettes. The anthology is scheduled for release in January.

Go-Betweens Frontmen Release Solo Best-Ofs

The extended hiatus Aussie indie-pop mainstays the Go-Betweens-- whose co-frontman Grant McLennan passed away in May of last year-- took during the 1990s was as creatively fertile a period for both McLennan and his compatriot Robert Forster as their many years together.

To spotlight this interregnum, a baker's dozen of each Go-Betweeners' solo work will be compiled on Intermission: The Best of the Solo Recordings 1990-1997. The discs, culled from McLennan and Forster's eight solo albums (four apiece), will be available individually from Beggars Group on June 19. Each member selected his own best songs, McLennan doing so shortly before his passing.

In February, we reported that the Rare Victory label had a tribute to McLennan and the Go-Betweens in the works, with contributions from the likes of the Clientele, Portastatic and Trembling Blue Stars (and, since we last wrote, Stars of the non-trembling or blue sort). We also reported that Rare Victory was accepting submissions for "Love Goes On", the tribute's title track and tune from the 16 Lovers Lane LP, for inclusion on the compilation. Baltimore's Private Eleanor emerged victorious, and you can hear their take on the tune and the four runners up by clicking right here. The tribute will be made available September 25. [MORE...]

Frank Black Does Best Of, Plans LP as Black Francis
Tours Europe

Primary Pixie Frank Black will release his first "best of" compilation June 12 via Cooking Vinyl. Frank Black 93-03 will be a double-disc set covering material from 1993's self-titled solo debut through 2003's Catholics-supported disc Show Me Your Tears.

The first disc features 22 studio tracks in chronological order. The second is comprised of live versions recorded at late 2006 shows in Pittsburgh and Regina, Saskatchewan. Cooking Vinyl will release three different versions of the second disc, one each for the North American, European, and Japanese releases, and the European and Japanese versions of the compilation will come out June 4, a week before the North American edition.

Also featured on 93-03-- as a "hidden track" that will likely close out the first disc-- is a new song called "Threshold Apprehension", which is the first single from a forthcoming Frank Black album-- as Black Francis!-- titled Bluefinger. Black took inspiration for Bluefinger from 20th Century Dutch painter and musician Herman Brood, and he plans to release the album on Cooking Vinyl in September.

"Threshold Apprehension" will also have a separate single release outside of the compilation. It will be available for digital download May 7, and a limited edition 7"/digital download combo will make its way to indie rock fans on May 25.

Black and his band have a ton of European club and festival dates this summer, starting on June 15 in Interlaken, Switzerland. [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.)