New Faces, as immortalized by KEXP contributing photographer Chona Kassinger

• Seattle band New Faces has decided to split up “due to irreconcilable conflicts.” All of their upcoming shows have been canceled. Good luck to each of the members in their future musical endeavors!

• ha! Remember when Jay Reatard’s band quit mid-tour? Well, I guess they’ve found a new home: with hip new it-band, Wavves. The following video shows former Reatard bassist Stephen Pope and former Reatard drummer Billy Hayes backing up Wavves frontman Nathan Williams.

• What’s with all the NSFW videos lately? Sigur Ros did it, so did Girls, and The Flaming Lips. And now Yeasayer has a nudie interactive video promoting their website and “Ambling Alp” giveaway track.

• In case you’ve been living under a rock, this will serve as your wakeup call that the GIVE compilation is now out. It features tracks from KEXP local favorites like The Cave Singers, Grand Archives, Champagne Champagne, The Maldives, Mad Rad, and The Moondoggies. Soon enough, additional exclusive tracks from The Long Winters, Ben Gibbard, David Bazan, Throw Me The Statue, The Dutchess and The Duke, and more will be released. It’ll be one of the best uses of your $7 for a long time.

• The Magnetic Fields have announced their 2010 tour dates and, sure enough, there are two for us here in Seattle: Town Hall on February 23rd and 24th. Also, I guess, their new album features no electric instruments at all and is influenced by “late 1960s/early 70s orchestral and psychedelic folk.”

• Matador has disclosed that awesome indie-folk group Shearwater will be releasing their sixth album on February 23rd in North America and the 15th elsewhere. It’s called The Golden Archipelago and I, for one, don’t doubt it’s golden-ness. There’s video and associated music over at the Matador blog.

• Rogue Wave is also releasing a new album early next year. Permalight will be released March 3rd on Jack Johnson’s Brushfire Records. Yeah, for real.

• In the face of Facebook, social networking pioneer MySpace has made an effort to stay relevant by reportedly signing an agreement to acquire ad-supported on-demand music service imeem. Rumors abound as to whether or not MySpace will incorporate imeem or let it continue to run separately.

• Acoustic indie supergroup Monsters of Folk just released a new music video for their song, “Say Please.” It’s real pretty and feaures the members as World War II soldiers and entertainers at a frontier town roller-skating rink. Check it out below.

photo by Kyle Johnson

• The road turned sour for King Khan & the BBQ Show earlier this week when the band was pulled over and the road manager arrested in Kentucky, forcing the group to miss a slate of weekend shows. The band is currently out on bail but their manager remains behind bars. St. Louis music blog Riverfront Times has been posting regular updates of the fiasco.

• Nonesuch has recently reissued Wilco’s fantastic second album, Being There, in a LP+CD package. While the album has long been available on vinyl, this marks another way to prove to Wilco naysayers that the band once showed a lot of talent and spunk before they were labeled ‘dad rock.’

• And as Wilco currently tour Europe, their surprise guests for Saturday night at Milan’s Conservatorio — Grizzly Bear — had to bail out due to a traffic accident as they were en route from Munich. While fortunately no one was injured, their tour bus was cracked up enough to require a replacement and held the band up in Austria. They continue their tour with St. Vincent as scheduled.

• In further tour mishap news, Dan Deacon, who has been on the road non-stop all year, it seems, checked in to a hospital last week for what turned out to be acute sciatica. As he recovers from the debilitating back pain, he’s canceled the final five shows of his tour with the intention of rescheduling as soon as he’s better.

• While it’s hard not to groan at the name, United Kingdom import Wolf People will be releasing their debut album, Tidings, through Jagjaguwar on February 23rd (and a day earlier for the citizens of Wolf People’s great homeland). Can we use this opportunity to begin a petition asking bands to stop using animal names such as ‘Wolf’ and ‘Deer’ as a part of their band? It’s getting difficult to keep track.

• No Age just released the title track video from the Losing Feeling EP. Life’s a garden, so dig it:

• The Cormac McCarthy good-time novel turned movie, The Road, is hitting theaters in time for Thanksgiving (a true holiday-inspired film if ever there was one), which means that the Nick Cave & Warren Ellis penned soundtrack for the film is also on the horizon. Mute will be releasing the score digitally on November 23rd with the physical release not slated until January 12th.

• Are you searching for the perfect holiday gift for your friend or family member who can’t get enough Neu! or Can? Look no further than the recently released Krautrock: Cosmic Rock and Its Legacy, released by UK imprint Black Dog Publishing. The book promises a comprehensive journey through the neglected and forgotten genre from its beginning.

• This week’s late night talk show appearances start off slowly but quickly pick up as Neko Case and The Avett Brothers turn up on Fallon, Death Cab on Kimmel, and Ray Davies serenades Letterman. Elvis Costello on Colbert this Wednesday should be a hoot:

  Monday, November 16

  nothing of interest here. move along.

  Tuesday, November 17

  Jimmy Fallon: Neko Case

  Wednesday, November 18

  David Letterman: Ray Davies
  Colbert Report: Norah Jones
  Jimmy Fallon: The Avett Brothers

  Thursday, November 19

  Colbert Report: Elvis Costello

  Friday, November 20

  David Letterman: Lyle Lovett
  Jimmy Kimmel: Death Cab for Cutie
  Jimmy Fallon: Elvis Costello

Photo by Jo Marie Riedl

• 24-year-old drummer Ben Hills, of Seattle band The Shy Ones, passed away early yesterday morning from a fire on Capitol Hill. RIP, Benny. You will be missed.

• On a more uplifting note, legendary guitarist, songwriter and producer Steve Cropper, best known for his work with Stax Records, Booker T. & The MGs, and the Blues Brothers, will be presented with the EMP Founder’s Award this evening at 8pm in Sky Church. The third annual Founders Award Celebration tonight will also feature local musicians Mike Musberger, Jeff Fielder, Andrew McKeag, Ty Bailey, Craig Flory and Skerik performing selections from Cropper’s songbook and other classic soul hits.

• Remember that Flaming Lips video they were shooting in Portland? With naked people on bicycles? Well, it’s done and totally not safe for work. But totally seeing-penises-and-boobies safe. Um, Wayne Coyne also appears naked… convinced yet?

• Sesame Street is celebrating their 40th year. Rolling Stone, in their otherwise worthless blog, posted the 40 best musical performances on the show. Some of them are truly brilliant: Stevie Wonder, Johnny Cash, Michael Jackson, and plenty more.

My Morning Jacket on American Dad!

• My Morning Jacket will be appearing on American Dad next Sunday, November 22, in an episode titled “My Morning Straitjacket.” Huh. In related news, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James is appearing on Portland indie singer-songwriter Laura Veirs’ seventh album, July Flame, on her own Raven Marching Band Records January 12th.

• The Low Anthem just put out a new rad stop-motion video for their song “Charlie Darwin.” Below!

• The Magnetic Fields are putting out a new album January 26 on Nonesuch. It’ll be called Realism and will have 13 new tracks.

photo by Gail Butensky

• The year before the Year of Pavement just keeps getting bigger. This time the news of an added performance directly affects Washington, as the group has been announced as a participant of the 2010 edition of the state’s Memorial Day pastime, Sasquatch!, which falls on the weekend of May 29-31st. Those too lazy or too cranky to camp for a weekend hold out hope the reunited group hits the city limits as well sometime next year. But those eager to attend Sasquatch again next year can pick up a special discounted 3-day festival pass right now!

• In sad news from last night, drummer Jerry Fuchs, who’s played with LCD Soundsystem, !!!, The Juan MacLean, and most recently Maserati, died after a five-story fall in an elevator shaft. While attending a fund-raiser in Williamsburg, he and a friend tried to jump after they got stuck between floors. The friend landed safely, but Fuchs’ clothing apparently caught inside the elevator. More here.

• Morrissey walked off stage again on Saturday night, but this time it wasn’t due to illness or chest pains but rather because some “fan” in the audience struck him on his head. While only on his second song, the statesman crooner bent down to greet some fans in front of the stage and was struck above the eye by a hurled water bottle. At that, he said “good night” and left the stage. 7,999 disappointed fans at Liverpool’s Echo Arena have one moron to thank for the abbreviated show.

• Lost among the littered battlefield of mediocre hip-hop is the mind, soul, and power of KRS-One, whose MC capabilities and genius have gone largely unnoticed for over two decades. Perhaps the 800-page book, The Gospel of Hip-Hop: The First Instrument will change that. The rap legend’s tome discusses the origin of hip-hop, from the culture to the language to the history.

• Jaga Jazzist, on the heels of figurehead Lars Horntveth’s solo album from earlier this year, are readying the release of One-Armed Bandit on January 25th. To curb some of the anticipation, the Norwegian nine-piece will be releasing the album’s eponymous single, “One-Armed Bandit” November 23rd.

• While some would wish Grizzly Bear into hibernation for the winter, others are likely gleeful with word of a new video for “Ready, Able”:

• In a nod to the 1990s business model, indie stalwart Matador swallowed up indie upstart True Panther Sounds in a recently finalized deal. True Panther may be familiar to those who picked up a copy of the debut album from Girls. I’m having flashbacks of Interscope/Death Row proportions!

• It’s a pretty dismal week for talk show appearances this week. Besides a rerun of Yo La Tengo on Carson Daly tonight, the only one we’re looking forward to is The Cribs with Johnny Marr on Letterman on Thursday.

• As mentioned Monday on this here KEXP blog, The Pixies will be playing on Conan tomorrow. What wasn’t known is that they’ll be breaking out the classic “Here Comes Your Man,” which is kind of exciting to this guy, at the very least.

• Rachel Yamagata will be hitting the road in support of The Swell Season, who recently performed an incredible set of music for a select group of KEXP donors. Ms. Yamagata doesn’t have the 11/22 Seattle date listed, though.

• Chart news: Michael Jackson is back at #1 this week with This Is It. A little more surprising is that, last week, The Flaming Lips cracked the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 album charts for the first time with their new record, Embryonic. They were the top new entry at #8 if you don’t count the new Twilight movie soundtrack, which got #2.

• So, I don’t want to keep writing about Weezer, but they keep doing bizarre newsworthy things. This time, they’ve collaborated with singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles (?), rapper Chamillionaire (??), and Kenny G (???). See the results here.

• And speaking of weird collaborations while taking any opportunity to talk about the Pixies again: apparently Weird Al Yankovic will join the Pixies on stage to sing “I Bleed” for a benefit show on December 8 at LA’s Echoplex. Actually, for two nights, December 8 & 9, Black Francis will host a benefit for Winston’s Village, where he’ll perform solo, with members of the Pixies, Flea, and his wife Violet Clark (with whom he performs as Grand Duchy). A bunch of other artists, including Love and Rockets, will also take the stage.

• Apparently the entire Beatles catalog will be released on a special apple-shaped 16gb USB drive later this year--12/8 to be exact--which could have nothing to do with the holiday season. Along with the 14 studio albums, the drive will feature 13 “mini-documentaries.”

• Kings of Leon could use a whole load of somebodys to buy from their new clothing line. If you’re interested in being such, check it out at the store’s website/blog.

• Just when you thought this post couldn’t get any more commercial, check out the following, well, commercial, featuring Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz, Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo, Blink-182’s Travis Barker, and Kanye West’s Taylor Swift. Ugh:

• Spoon have finally given non-Texas concert goers something to be giddy about. The group has announced that album #7, Transference, will be available January 26th. Not only a great way to kick off a new year but also a new decade.

• KEXP’s own Jon Kertzer, host of such entertaining fare as The Best Ambiance, has teamed up with local independent entity Sub Pop to form the world music label, Next Ambiance. The label’s first release is right around the corner: December 1st. Mark it down because it’s when you can get your digital hands on the digital music of Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni ba’s I Speak Fula.

• Last week, KEXP debuted worldwide the new single from Yeasayer on the Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole. Now, you can listen to “Ambling Alp” as often as you want by heading over to the band’s website and downloading the song for free!

• Hors d’Oevres, the under the radar second album from Annie Sachs AKA Tickley Feather, has spawned a video for “Trashy Boys”:

• Delaware-based microlabel 905 Tapes announced their 100th release this week and it’s a stunner. Ready December 18th, Deaf in the Valley will be a double cassette and art ‘zine box set featuring heavy hitters such as Thurston Moore, Growing, John Olson, and Sick Llama contributing both music and visuals alongside some of 905’s most fearless acts. The set is limited to 200 units, so if you need a reason to get into cassette collectibles or, I don’t know, you like good music and art and want to be blown away, then you better nab it.

• The Barcelona-based Primavera Festival has announced that the reunited-for-a-year-of-touring geek gods, Pavement will be headlining a night of the fest’s May 27-29th runtime. Pavement has also announced that their global tour will be hitting Japan as well. Do they realize that most of us only care about North America? Canadians are so egocentric.

• St. Vincent has recently unveiled an uncut video for “Marrow.” Would you like to watch it? Did you catch her on Austin City Limits? Be thankful for reruns.

• The Fall, the November 17th album from Norah Jones will be getting the remix treatment with a little help from The Beastie Boys, Beck, and Santigold. We know you want to hate her but you just can’t, can you?

• You’re not going anywhere on Friday night: The Pixies on Conan, Regina Spektor on Ferguson, and country legend Ralph Stanley on Letterman. Actually, each night this week has at least two strong contenders for your valuable DVR space. Here are the highlights of the talks hows this week:
  Monday, November 2

  Conan O’Brien: Tegan & Sara
  Carson Daly: Arctic Monkeys (R)

  Tuesday, November 3

  Jimmy Kimmel: White Rabbits
  Tavis Smiley: The Swell Season

  Wednesday, November 4

  Conan O’Brien: The Bravery
  Jimmy Fallon: Monsters of Folk
  Jimmy Kimmel: Slayer

  Thursday, November 5

  Jimmy Fallon: Sean Lennon
  Carson Daly: Matisyahu
  Jimmy Kimmel: Florence and the Machine

  Friday, November 6

  David Letterman: Ralph Stanley
  Conan O’Brien: The Pixies
  Craig Ferguson: Regina Spektor
  Carson Daly: Peaches

• Ted Leo has a new song. And he played it at CMJ for the internets. It’s called “One Polaroid A Day” and I embedded it below:

• So, I guess, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys will be performing at Yankee Stadium for the second game of the World Series tonight. Whatever. Go Phillies!

• Like covers? I do. And I often discover them through awesome cover blogs like CopyCats and session blogs like Daytrotter. It was from the latter that I discovered a new cover by Magnolia Electric Co. Get going and check out their version of Warren Zevon’s “Lawyers, Guns and Money.”

• Speaking of covers! Remember that Dark Was the Night compilation that came out earlier this year? It’s raised a respectable $668,358 for the Red Hot Organization, and consequently AIDS awareness, so far.

• Tegan and Sara put out a new record Tuesday. They also released a video for it’s first single: “Hell.” Check it:

• Morrissey is currently recovering from a collapse on stage Saturday night. The former frontman of The Smiths and long-time solo performer has been touring his new b-side compilation, Swords, and was carried offstage at the Oasis Leisure Centre in Swindon after appearing visibly ill. Shortly afterward, Morrissey was admitted to the Great Western Hospital as a precautionary measure and has since been released after he was determined to be in stable condition. Check for further updates and rescheduled tour dates on his website.

• Kemado, most likely known to the indie set as the label that has wrought Dungen, has unveiled a brick and mortar record (and we mean album as in record) store in NYC named Co-Op 87. Also in on the venture are NYC-based small labels as well as sister label Mexican Summer. The store has its own built-in analog studio, which was utilized this week to record what can only be called in-stores that will become singles sold via Co-Op 87 as early as December.

• 40+ years after those first releases, Michael Yonkers has finally emerged as a unique, if lately discovered, voice of the 60s folks scene. De Stijl, which has reissued a handful of Yonkers’ old material, is up to its plucky tricks again as the self-titled Michael & the Mumbles descends November 3rd.

• Seattle natives The Blood Brothers are being revisited via Epitaph with the re-release of four of the band’s five studio gems. The fun kicks off November 17th, with each disc sporting an enhanced portion, while Burn, Piano Island, Burn will feature a DVD as part of the package as Young Machete and Crimes will feature a bonus disc of living performances and collected singles.

• It’s been quite awhile since we’ve heard from Julian Casablancas, but his solo album Phrazes for the Young is looming and now comes word that The Strokes frontman is going large for the album with a deluxe box set due in December. The set will not include the standard CD version of Phrazes, but also includes the album on LP, a disc of demos and b-sides, a DVD of solo performances, a poster and a pin—all boxed and bowed in very lovely packaging.

• Say goodbye to The Rakes, who have called it a career seven years and three albums in. That third album, Klang, is set for a US digital release Tuesday. With the breakup comes a laundry list of cancelled gigs, including a few West and East Coast American dates.

• Conan O’Brien is the one to watch this week with guests Wolfmother, Julian Casablancas, and The Swell Season, all promoting new albums. Also, be sure to check out Craig Ferguson, who has Rodrigo y Gabriela on Wednesday and Fruit Bats on Friday. Here are this week’s highlights:
  Monday, October 26

  Conan O’Brien: Wolfmother
  Jimmy Fallon: Har Mar Superstar

  Tuesday, October 27

  David Letterman: Florence and the Machine
  Conan O’Brien: Julian Casablancas

  Wednesday, October 28

  Craig Ferguson: Rodrigo y Gabriela
  Jimmy Fallon: “Weird Al” Yankovic

  Thursday, October 29

  David Letterman: Weezer
  Conan O’Brien: The Swell Season
  Jimmy Fallon: Mastodon

  Friday, October 30

  David Letterman: Weezer
  Conan O’Brien: Alice in Chains
  Craig Ferguson: Fruit Bats
  Jimmy Fallon: Andrew Bird

• Yeasayer signed to Secretly Canadian for the North American release of their highly anticipated 2nd album. It’s called Odd Blood, and it will be released on February 9, 2010. They join the ranks of artists like Jens Lekman, Damien Jurado, Magnolia Electric Company, and Antony and the Johnsons on Secretly Canadian.

• The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s October 29th/30th concerts at Madison Square Garden have gotten more incredible: Ozzy Osbourne will perform with Metallica, Buddy Guy will join Eric Clapton, B.B. King is pairing with Stevie Wonder and Annie Lennox and Lenny Kravitz are teaming with Aretha Franklin.

• Below you’ll find a new People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) advertisement featuring the members of Animal Collective. They’re teaming up to show support for ending seal slaughter in Canada. Huh.

• Uh, really? Some guys from his label say Lil Wayne is going to be releasing not one but TWO new albums before the end of the year! According to Cash Money CEO Birdman, The Rebirth, “the dubious Lil Wayne rock album that’s been pushed back a few times, will come out this year. And so will Tha Carter 4, the next entry in Wayne’s… Carter series. Birdman even has a projected released date for Tha Carter 4: December 15.”

• MGMT’s new album now has a name. Their label confirmed it will be titled “Congratulations” and will be released “sometime next year.” They’re playing some of the new stuff live these days, including the title track:

• Yep, it’s Death Cab news of the week! As you probably know, Ben Gibbard is making his big screen debut in the movie “Brief Interviews With Hideous Men.” Stereogum just posted clips from his performance. Now Zooey isn’t the closest he’s come to acting.

• Trent Reznor is, I guess, married now? Congratulations to him and his lucky(?) new bride. Check out the extremely awkward photographic evidence here.

• Courtney Love has reunited her band Hole for the first time since 2002, after they formed in ‘ninety four after Love was widowed. I guess we’ll see.

• If we only lived in Britain we could enjoy the 10 new stamps that immortalize some of most popular British musicians and albums. According to NME, albums from the likes of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, New Order will be part of the collection, due January 7, 2010.

• The Flaming Lips have always been pegged as a drug band, but aside from the heavy drug of Steve Drozd chronicled in such great cinema as Fearless Freaks, principle Wayne Coyne has been quick to brush aside such assumptions. However, the recent announcement that the Lips would be doing a front-to-back cover album of Pink Floyd’s epic Dark Side of the Moon may make Dorothy and Toto point fingers all over again. The supposed iTunes-only release features help from Henry Rollins, Peaches, and cousin Dennis’ band, White Dwarfs. No concrete release date has been announced.

• Drummer extraordinaire Chris Corsano is set to release a collaborative album with double bassist (not politician and renowned philanderer) John Edwards later this month. The limited LP, titled Tsktsking, will be released via London imprint Dancing Wayang.

• The phenomenon known as Rock Band and Guitar Hero has sucked in the building block king, Lego. Lego Rock Band, due November 3rd, has unveiled the rock personalities and songs included in the game. Blur, David Bowie, Supergrass, The Police and Iggy Pop contribute tracks and their Lego likenesses to the game among a heaping helping of acts popular and niche.

• Jemina Pearl, former chanteuse of Be Your Own Pet, debuted her video for “I Hate People” this week and you may recognize a personality or two that lend their prowess to the song and video:

• It’s pretty much all repeats on the talk shows this week. The two new performances you should check out are both on Jimmy Kimmel: The Temper Trap on Thursday (they’ll also be live on KEXP at 7AM that day!) and Echo & the Bunnymen on Friday.