No Age Add Dates With High Places and Abe Vigoda
Plus: Photos from last night's No Age/High Places gig in NYC!

Photos by Drew Katchen

Nevermind all those nice adjectives folks heaped on Nouns-- No Age are all about the verbs at the moment. Shriek, thrash, holler, pummel, grin, leap, innovate, crowd-surf...these are but a few of the things you'll see No Age do in the live setting, and the duo is now poised to do those things in even more places with the recent addition of a number of North American dates.

The latest gigs find No Age buddying up with recent Thrill Jockey signees High Places (full disclosure: High Places include the sister of a former Pitchfork staffer) and their Smell-y, Skeletal pals Abe Vigoda. This very apt triptych kicks things off in the U.S. capital on July 8 and keeps rolling more or less straight on through to the Pitchfork Music Festival, at which both No Age and High Places will appear.

All three acts have plenty of dates besides, and No Age and High Places certainly ain't no strangers either. The two two-pieces rocked the crap out of New York City's Bowery Ballroom last night as No Age celebrated yesterday's release of Nouns on Sub Pop. Catch all the hot photo and tour date action below.

No Age








High Places



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Photos: Shearwater / Michael Gira [New York, NY; 05/05/08]

Photos by Kathryn Yu

See, now this is how you do a record release show-- even if the release of the record in question is still nearly a month off. Shearwater pulled out all the stops for last night's gig at New York City's Florence Gould Hall at the French Institute, showing off their soon-to-alight Rook with a little help from the string quartet, trumpeters, woodwind players, and harpist featured on the album.

Even the folks behind Rook's rather eerie cover art, Kahn & Selesnick, turned out to provide projections. Rook arrives June 3 on Matador, and Shearwater will play one more lavish album showcase in their hometown of Austin on May 29, plus plenty more shows before and after that.

Last night also saw a rare appearance from a solo Michael Gira, who's calmed down just a wee bit since his days fronting Swans.

Shearwater








Michael Gira



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Photos: Radiohead [West Palm Beach, FL; 05/05/08]

Photos by Margarita Gonzalez

Having turned the world on its head with a little Rainbows magic, Radiohead are now setting things straight again with a slightly more conventional activity: the performing of music in the live concert setting.

The quintessential quintet kicked off its epic 2008 tour last night at the Cruzan Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, Florida, and pretty much all of your old friends were there: "Airbag", "Just", "Everything in Its Right Place", "Street Spirit (Fade Out)", "Optimistic", "How to Disappear Completely", and more.

Plenty of relatively new acquaintances showed up as well, including "Nude", "Faust Arp", "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi", "House of Cards", "Videotape", and even B-side and Pitchfork.tv hit "Bangers & Mash".

As you peruse the photo selection and the many remaining tour dates below, don't forget to be mindful of your carbon emissions.

Set List:

01 All I Need
02 Bodysnatchers
03 There There
04 Reckoner
05 The Gloaming
06 Morning Bell
07 Nude
08 How to Disappear Completely
09 15 Step
10 Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
11 Idioteque
12 Bullet Proof..I Wish I Was
13 Where I End and You Begin
14 Airbag
15 Everything In Its Right Place
16 The National Anthem
17 Videotape
***encore***
18 Optimistic
19 Just
20 Faust Arp
21 Exit Music (For a Film)
22 Bangers & Mash
*** encore***
23 House of Cards
24 Street Spirit (Fade Out)










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Photos: Britt Daniel [Solana Beach, CA; 05/03/08]

Photos by Natalie Kardos

Britt Daniel left the Spoon in the dishwasher over the weekend and strolled over to Solana Beach, California's Belly Up Tavern to play a previously reported gig with his bare hands.

No worries though, as Britt certainly hasn't ditched his Spoon for good. The guy will reconvene with his trusty utensil of choice for a smattering of late spring and summer shows, including one involving a certain 'fork. It's like a match made in silverware heaven! Or something.

Britt Daniel





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Photos: Arcade Fire / Superchunk Rally for Obama [Greensboro, NC; 05/01/08]

Yesterday, May 1, the Arcade Fire and Superchunk played a free rally for presidential hopeful Barack Obama outside of North Carolina's Greensboro Coliseum. (The North Carolina Democratic Primary is on Tuesday, May 6.) In attendance: art-damaged undergrads and the eager young Obama volunteers pressuring them to vote early.

Superchunk

Superchunk's set was tight and punchy, drawing heavily from their classic album On the Mouth. "Nothing makes you want to vote in 2008 like music from 1993," Mac McCaughan joked, balancing out early Chunk favorites like "Driveway to Driveway" and "Skip Steps 1 & 3" with a cover of the Magnetic Fields' "100000 Fireflies". The audience was respectfully enthusiastic, but when Superchunk broke out "Precision Auto" and nobody went especially apeshit, I wondered if most of them were too young to care much about Superchunk. Watching Laura Ballance pogo to "Package Thief", I didn't feel that far from '93 at all.

Arcade Fire

It seems odd for a band as gloomy as the Arcade Fire to stump for the candidate of hope and change, and it led to some ironic moments. In messianic mode, Win Butler came down into the audience for "Rebellion (Lies)", daring people to dream with a song about the deceit of dreams. But overall, they did a good job of repurposing their music to suit the day. A cover of Bowie's "Heroes" was an uplifting choice. Butler prefaced "Intervention" by saying, "This is a song we wrote before the '04 election, when we realized it wasn't going to happen this time…hopefully, we can write something more upbeat in '08."

Bleak sentiments aside, the Arcade Fire is an almost diabolically inspiring live band; their emphatic renditions of "No Cars Go", "Haïti", and "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" sounded like hope incarnate. "We are fuckin' through with the politics of division and fear," Butler spat before launching into "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)", and while I didn't quite believe him, at least I left wanting to.






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Photos: Goldfrapp [New York, NY; 04/29/08]

Photos by Drew Katchen

After a set at Coachella over the weekend, Goldfrapp sailed into the agreeably climate-controlled confines of New York City's Beacon Theatre last night to work their unique brand of magic before a significantly less sweat-drenched crowd.

The Seventh Tree-huggers have contracted summer festival fever, and boy do they have it bad. You'll find Goldfrapp at Glastonbury, Roskilde, Sónar, Hove, Dour, Electric Picnic, and plenty more during the warm months. Check out the full itinerary and more photos below.

Goldfrapp







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Photos: The Mae Shi / Pre / Panther [Portland, OR; 04/26/08]

Photos by Nilina Mason-Campbell

Aww HLLLYH! Things got just a wee bit perspiration-soaked over the weekend at Portland's East End, and we have L.A. spazz-rockers the Mae Shi, UK noise-makers Pre, and double-duty-doers Panther to thank for that. Check out some quite possibly NSFW photos of all the Epic Fits below, where you'll also find the latest Mae Shi dates. And don't forget to pack a few extra greenbacks for that "Wire"-inspired tour DVD!

The Mae Shi






Pre








Panther



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Photos: Menomena's Record Store Day Foosball Challenge [Portland, OR; 04/19/08]
Plus: Menomena's Danny Seim preps another Lackthereof album, covers the National

Photos by Isaac Slusarenko/Jackpot Records

As music lovers brought their hard-earned cash and labels brought all kinds of goodies to ma and pa shops on Record Store Day earlier this month, Menomena brought it to their fans from across the foosball table.

According to Portland's Jackpot Records, who hosted the epic event and shared the photos you see here, Menomena went 19-2 on April 19, schooling all but two comers over 120 consecutive minutes of intense foosball action. Chalk it up to the full soccer/football regalia-- shin guards and all-- that Menomena's Brent Knopf and Justin Harris broke out to intimidate their challengers.

As for those two lucky victors, they were graced with "I Totally Kicked Menomena's Ass in Foosball" medallions crafted by the Beaver State's own Glass Casters Union (which you'll remember from this story). Nice!

Menomena's Danny Seim donned his DJ best, meanwhile, and spun what Jackpot calls "all college 'pot' vibed music." Selections included the Grateful Dead, Tom Petty, Cypress Hill, and-- why not?-- Neil Diamond, among others.

In the privacy of his own dwelling, however, Seim has been spinning a whole lot of the National's "Fake Empire", which he covers on his latest album under the Lackthereof banner. Your Anchor also packs in nine Seim originals and arrives July 22 on Barsuk Records. It's technically the ninth Lackthereof full-length, following a bunch of CD-Rs, 2004's Christian the Christian, and the very recent My Haunted.

Finally, Menomena have a trio of upcoming gigs, including a pair of European festival performances. They bring it next to Middlebury, Vermont on May 2.

Menomena Record Store Day Foosball Challenge







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Photos: Cut Copy / Black Kids [Portland, OR; 04/28/08]
Plus: Black Kids serve up "Hurricane Jane" single

Photos by Nilina Mason-Campbell

Two bands riding high on recent Best New Music-inducted releases, Cut Copy and Black Kids, just started taking the continent by storm on a joint tour. Last night found the hook-happy pairing at Portland's Doug Fir Lounge, with Cut Copy showing off their Ghost Colours and Black Kids inviting many ooohs and Ahhhs.

Still no album yet from those Black Kids, but they do have another single in the pipeline. "Hurricane Jane" tears through UK record shops June 23 on CD and two different 7"s, backed with "You Only Call Me When You're Crying" and "Power in the Blood" and courtesy of Almost Gold Recordings.

Black Kids and Cut Copy continue the whole playing live shows together on consecutive evenings in different cities thing through mid-May, and both acts have quite a few dates beyond as well.

Cut Copy








Black Kids







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Photos: Wulapalooza: Blitzen Trapper / The Blow / Panther [Salem, OR; 04/26/08]

Photos by Nilina Mason-Campbell

Wulapalooza packed in several of the Pacific Northwest's finest over the weekend at Salem, Oregon's Willamette University. Blitzen Trapper, the Blow, and Panther left the dingy club settings they typically haunt to embrace the sunny outdoors and the verdant surroundings of WU's Brown Field. Nothing like a little color to further enliven these already energetic acts.

Blitzen Trapper










The Blow






Panther



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Photos: Les Savy Fav / The Dodos [San Francisco, CA; 04/27/08]
Both bands add dates, Dodos plan UK release for Visiter

Photos by Francis Chung

Poses were struck, clothing was removed, and fans' fingers were, um, liberally sucked on at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall over the weekend. It was, yes, just another night with Les Savy Fav, who unleashed their previously reported live album After the Balls Drop today (April 29). Songwriter and Frenchkiss labelmate Meric Long opened with his outfit the Dodos, and later lent his trombone skillz to Les Savy Fav's glorious racket.

Those Dodos have already delivered a Frenchkiss to their home country in the form of debut LP Visiter, and now they're ready to show some love to the rest of the world. Having signed on with Wichita Recordings, the Dodos will release Visiter in the UK on July 7. The label will herald the album with the single release of "Red and Purple" in June.

Both the Dodos and Les Savy Fav have plenty more live engagements on the docket, recapped for your viewing convenience below. If you look closely, you'll notice Les Savy Fav are due to rock ATP vs. Pitchfork in May, while both acts barnstorm our own Pitchfork Music Festival in July.

Les Savy Fav








The Dodos



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Photos: Triptych Festival [Glasgow, Scotland; 04/26/08]

Photos by Shannon McClean

That may be it for Scotland's Triptych Festival, but let no one accuse the multi-city event of not going out with a bang. Spanning three cities and three days (hence, Triptych), the festival welcomed an eclectic cast of performers and featured quite a centerpiece: a day-long bash at Glasgow's Tramway, boasting the likes of hometown heroes Mogwai, Dirty Projectors, Clinic, Frightened Rabbit, Magik Markers, Malcolm Middleton, Correcto (featuring Franz Ferdinand drummer Paul Thomson), and more. Scope some shots from that Saturday spectacle below.

Mogwai






Dirty Projectors






Clinic






Correcto




Magik Markers


Frightened Rabbit




Malcolm Middleton

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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.)