• Canadian indie pop group Stars will release The Five Ghosts, their fifth full-length studio album, on June 22nd, adding to the already impressive list of upcoming releases. This is their first since 2007’s In Our Bedroom After the War, and will be the first release on the band’s own new label, Soft Revolution.

• By now, you should know about Beck’s crazy Record Club that has already brought together a number of notable artists in it’s relatively short history to record a cover of an entire album in a single day. Annie Clark of St. Vincent announced on her Twitter that she, Beck, Liars, and Os Mutantes worked on the most recent incarnation recently.

• Of Montreal performed on a kid’s TV Show, Yo Gabba Gabba. They play an original song called “Bananas Rice Applesauce Toast” about taking care of yourself when you’re sick. Check out video, below, from their segment of the show.

• British singer-songwriter/rock icon Billy Idol is heading back out on the road and will be debuting his new band along the way, as he travels this summer for performances at major music festivals throughout Europe. North American dates are set to be announced soon.

• OutKast’s Big Boi just released a new video for his track, “Fo Yo Sorrows”, which additionally features George Clinton and Too $hort. It was directed by Zach Wolfe and Dr. Dax. Below!

• Band of Horses have found a label and nailed down a release date for Infinite Arms: the disc, due May 18th, will arrive via Brown Records/Fat Possum Records/Columbia Records. The band co-produced the disc with Phil Ek.

• Where is MGMT? Possibly having a private party with you! For 6 U.S. cities, the band is giving clues via this website to the secret location and a password, and the first 6 people to arrive at each one with the password will be “part of a very special MGMT experience,” whatever that might be. Yesterday’s New York clues seemed to be longitude/latitude coordinates leading to a remote spot outside of Poughkeepsie.

• M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel, otherwise known as She & Him, have just put out a video for their new single, “In the Sun.” Their new record, Volume Two, is out March 23rd. And, okay, this video is charming.

• This Week In WTF: D’Angelo was arrested for solicitation, according to the New York Post. He reportedly offered an undercover policewoman $40 for oral sex in New York’s West Village at 2:30 a.m. Saturday night. Really? $40?!? What a cheapskate! In a statement, D’Angelo’s publicist said the singer would plead not guilty and reported he “is in good health and extremely excited about his forthcoming new album.” yikes.

(Washed Out @ NYC’s Mercury Lounge 3/7)

This weekend, Washed Out, Small Black, and Pictureplane kicked off the East Coast leg of a national tour, first with a stop in Connecticut with special guest Tanlines, then with the first of two sold out nights a NYC’s Mercury Lounge.

Up-and-coming dance/trance star Pictureplane (aka Travis Egedy) kicked the night off, tearing through bangers such as “Solid Gold” and “Goth Star” from his 2009 release Dark Rift.  Though the one man/two turntable combo has the potential to bore those not die hard on the DJ scene, Egedy’s killer stage presence and captivating light show did anything but.  The crowd was definitely hyped, some veteran fans danced and screamed “Yeah Travis!”, while those I spoke with after the set who had yet to hear any Pictureplane jams were immensely impressed.

Though Brooklyn band Small Black is technically a duo, they perform live as a quartet,  with a bassist and drummer, to flesh out their lo-fi jams.  The group took the fuzzy, warm tunes, including my personal jam of the moment “Weird Machines”, from their Self Titled EP and rocked them out live.

By the time Washed Out (Ernest Greene) took the stage the house was completely packed and the energy from the two openers was buzzing.  Greene’s performance was compelling from the start.  He plays his gorgeous synth-pop tunes in front of an entrancing LED “ring of fire” of sorts, and the pairing is epic. Greene played songs from his Life of Leisure EP, doing the first half of his set solo before bringing back the members of Small Black to the stage for a couple killer collaborative tracks.  Washed Out and Small Black capped off the night by playing “Feel it All Around” together. While it’s widely agreed that the jam is awesome to begin with (it was named a Pitchfork “Best New Music” song) they pumped it out with such amazing energy I felt like I was falling in love with it for the first time.

Washed Out, Small Black, and Pictureplane play the Mercury Lounge again tonight, before continuing on their way to SXSW.  The tour hits Seattle 3/31 at The Vera Project.  For a full list of dates check out Washed Out’s MySpace.

• Hall & Oates’ longtime bassist Tom “T-Bone” Wolk died Saturday of an apparent heart attack. Wolk played on Kurtis Blow’s “These Are the Breaks” and with the Saturday Night Live house band from 1986 to 1992. “T-Bone was my musical brother and losing him is like losing my right hand,” Daryl Hall said in a statement. R.I.P.

• As reported on this blog earlier this week, hip hop pioneer Guru suffered a heart attack that put him in a coma. We are pleased to update you that Guru is now out of his coma and recuperating from surgery.

• In regard to the forthcoming The Apples in Stereo album, Travellers in Space and Time, lead singer Robert Schneider said, “I wanted to make a futuristic pop record, to reach out to the kids of the future.” By enlisting actor Elijah Wood, Schneider takes fans — kids and adults alike — on a romp through the universe:

• Local band/indie rock superstars, Band of Horses, have announced a new album! It’s going to be called “Infiinite Arms” and is supposedly going to be released May 18th even though a label has not been announced.

• Have you heard? Pavement has reunited! It’s official now… 2010 has brought Pavement back to us, having performed their first show in more than a decade on March 1st in Aukland, New Zealand. Check out the video embedded below, featuring clips from throughout their set.

• On the subject of videos, check out the official kings of pop music videos, OK Go. Their new video for their new single, “This Too Shall Pass,” is an awe-inspiring one-shot chain reaction is not to be missed…

• Local Seattle band The Lonely Forest recently signed to local producer/songwriter Chris Walla’s new imprint label, Trans-. It’s falls under the Atlantic umbrella. I, for one, am most curious to see who else Mr. Walla will sign.

• Deer Tick are putting out their third full-length record, “The Black Dirt Sessions,” due out on June 8, 2010 via Partisan Records. It features guitarist Ian O’Neil, who left Titus Andronicus to join Deer Tick full time. Catch them at The Tractor on April 22nd.

• THIS WEEK IN WTF: 46-year-old Bret Michaels sang a duet with 17-year-old Miley Cyrus called “Nothing to Lose.” Together they sing, “Yeah we both know better than this, still we can’t resist slowly get undressed.” Maybe he truly believes he has nothing to lose after all those Rock of Love things took away his dignity. Ugh. Listen below, if you dare/care:

• Hip Hop pioneer Guru suffered a heart attack yesterday and remains comatose and in critical condition. According to DJ Premier, Guru’s former partner in the legendary Gang Starr, the 43-year-old rapper, whose real name is Keith Elam, will undergo surgery today. Our thoughts are with him and his family

• “We Are The World,” it ain’t. As we revealed last month, The Pogues’ frontman Shane MacGowan is ready to release his cover of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell On You” in order to benefit Haiti emergency relief. The version of the song, featuring friends Nick Cave, Bobby Gillespie, Johnny Depp, Mick Jones, Glen Matlock, Chrissie Hynde, Cait O’Riordon, Paloma Faith and Eliza Doolittle will be available as a download-only single on March 8th, though you can pre-order it now from Independent Records Ltd., with proceeds going to Concern Worldwide’s Haiti Earthquake Appeal. And you can watch the video right now:

• The experimental and doom metal cranked out by Southern Lord is often so limited in its vinyl scope that it is often snatched up before the world gets to covet the prize. Fear this scenario no more metalheads, as the venerable label is stepping into the subscription biz with The First Level of Hell. The steep subscription guarantees seven official Southern Lord releases are sent to participants, with the seventh release promising to be a major surprise. The subscription is limited to 550 slots but considering it features the likes of Pelican, Ascend, and Black Cobra, the price and limited amount makes it worthy if you’re a fan.

• Everyone’s high on Neon Indian at the moment (including KEXP listener, Jimmy Fallon), including the cool executives at Mountain Dew! The green-tinted soft drink’s in-house digital label, Green Label Sound will be offering up an exclusive track from Neon Indian later this month.

• Have you not received your fill of Radiohead’s enigmatic singer, Thom Yorke: we aim to please. Yorke recently announced his new band featuring Flea, Joey Waronker, and producer Nigel Godrich will be christened Atoms For Peace. Now, video has popped up on the internets of three new Yorke solo tracks. Would you like to see them? Of course you would:

• 80s underground legend Eddy Detroit, who was a part of the Phoenix scene that birthed Meat Puppets and now-Seattle legends Sun City Girls, is getting the vinyl reissue treatment. Assophone Records is releasing the 1982 cult (and extremely limited) classic that features the talents of Charles Goucher, Alan Bishop, J. Akkari, and too many names to rattle off.

• Not only a big day for a select swatch of the population, April 20th will also prove to be a big day for fans of early Dan Bejar when Merge reissues three fully remastered gems from the early Destroyer. City of Daugheres, Thief, and Streethawk get the plastic disc treatment, with a vinyl reissue of Streethawk also in the works.

• Local legend Scott Kannberg, who just happens to be a member of Pavement, is delivering some inside knowledge on the band’s reunion through his blog. The band’s lengthy tour — with many dates and cities sure to be announced (please don’t make Sasquatch your only stop in Washington, guys!) — begins today!

• Now that Olympic coverage has ceased, the late night talk shows are starting to pick up steam, but it’s slow going at first. On Thursday, though, you’ll need to max out your DVR ’cause Spoon, Fanfarlo, Galactic, and Silversun Pickups are all on the same night! Here are the week’s highlights:

  Monday, March 1

  watch a movie

  Tuesday, March 2

  Carson Daly: Phoenix
  Tavis Smiley: Angelique Kidjo

  Wednesday, March 3

  Jimmy Fallon: Erykah Badu

  Thursday, March 4

  David Letterman: Spoon
  Jimmy Kimmel: Galactic
  Jimmy Fallon: Silversun Pickups
  Carson Daly: Fanfarlo

  Friday, March 5

  David Letterman: Corinne Bailey Rae
  Craig Ferguson: Regina Spektor

Twin Sister - Vampires with Dreaming Kids EP On Brooklyn quartet Twin Sister’s recent EP, Vampires with Dreaming Kids, their pretty, old-school guitar melodies start slow and weave through intoxicating layers of male and female vocals. Songs like “Nectarine” and “Dry Hump” create woozily wintery pop vibes that conjure an excuse to choose your warm apartment over the harsh Northeastern February cold; while “Ginger” spices those vibes to an up-tempo level and demonstrates the group’s versatility. Vampires with Dreaming Kids possesses a quality of addictive repeatability and leaves the listener yearning for more.  Luckily, their first official release, Color Your Life, is scheduled for this April on Infinite Best Recordings. Twin Sister has a couple of upcoming shows in Brooklyn and one in Philly before heading off to SXSW.  Check them out this Thursday, February 25 with up-and-coming chill wave star Toro Y Moi at Cameo in Williamsburg.  See the group’s website for a full list of upcoming dates and for a free download of the EP.

Dinosaur Feathers - Fantasy Memorial Possibly the most notable thing about Dinosaur Feathers is their combination of indie rock listenability with experimental complexity.  They seamlessly integrate multiple genres and intriguing sound samples (including recordings of wild birds in Mali, children playing in the streets of Philadelphia, and church bells) into rich, island influenced jams with vocals reminiscent of an upbeat Conor Oberst. Tracks such as “Vendela Vida” and “Know Your Own Strength” hold the perfect combination of dreaminess and drum loops to make you yearn for late summer afternoons or a trip to the beach.  As if you weren’t already… Dinosaur Feathers’ self-released debut album, Fantasy Memorial, comes out Tuesday, March 2nd and is available at their website or Insound.  They’ll be celebrating the release of their album with a CD Release Show Friday, March 5th at Webster Hall.  Tickets are available here.

]]> http://blog.kexp.org/blog/2010/02/28/the-new-york-report-twin-sister-dinosaur-feathers/feed/ 0 http://blog.kexp.org/blog/2010/02/25/thursday-news-threads-71/ http://blog.kexp.org/blog/2010/02/25/thursday-news-threads-71/#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:47:56 +0000 Zach, KEXP http://blog.kexp.org/blog/?p=34223

• White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights [of which the trailer is above] is being hailed as one of the best rock documentaries in the history of the genre. It follows Jack and Meg White’s 2007 Canadian tour where the band played remote towns and provinces, while finding time at each tour stop to make an unusual promotional appearance, playing on city buses, boats, bowling alleys (where they rolled a full game while rocking), and even one free daytime show in which they only played a single note. We in Seattle are pretty lucky to be one of only two cities in the world to get it before it’s March 16th DVD release. It will play 2/26 and 2/27 at the Northwest Film Forum… get tickets now before they sell out!

• A new charity compilation from American Eagle Outfitters and Filter Magazine [I know...] is currently available. They’re calling it Hear to Help and it will benefit Haiti relief via Oxfam America. It features rarities, covers, and remixes from, among others, Grizzly Bear, Beck, Of Montreal, Vampire Weekend, the Breeders, Julian Casablancas, Noah and the Whale, and Camera Obscura.

• LCD Soundsystem has finished their album. According to frontman James Murphy, on the band’s official website, “looks like we added another paris gig. oh, and something else. the fucking record is done.” Catch them May 30th at Sasquatch.

• Rumours are flying that a new M.I.A. album is going to be released in June. The following posts were tweeted by the singer: “BANNED FROM LEAVING THE U.S, FAMILY BANNED FROM COMING TO U.S TO SEE ME, BABY, RECORDING LP, SIGNING THE DOPEST ACTS THATS HITTIN 2010,” “I THINK IM READY,” and “JUNE 2010.”

• The Depreciation Guild, a band made up of Pains of Being Pure at Heart members, just announced a new record. It’s called Spirit Youth and is due out May 18th on Kanine. They’ll be playing at The Triple Door on March 26th.

Photo by Christopher Nelson. Taken at She & Him's KEXP in-studio in the summer of '07.

• She & Him, aka Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, are putting out their sophomore album, Volume Two, on Merge March 23rd. The first track off that record is below, via Pitchfork.

• Also coming out that day will be a live record from KEXP and personal favorite Bill Callahan called Rough Travel For A Rare Thing. Check out Drag City’s website for more info.

• This Week In WTF: A facebook group called “Can this pickle get more fans than Nickleback?” has attracted more fans in the past two weeks than the actual Nickelback fan page has accrued in its entire time on Facebook. The real WTF part of this: Nickelback has 1.5 million fans on Facebook.

• The 2010 Sasquatch! Music Festival lineup has been announced and features a million bands you probably want to see, including KEXP artists Pavement, Vampire Weekend, Band of Horses, The National, Passion Pit, Nada Surf, The New Pornographers, The Hold Steady, The xx, Dirty Projectors, The Long Winters, The Mountain Goats, Brother Ali, Mayer Hawthorne, Why?, and Japandroids, alongside many others. But will the dancing guy be back?

• Ted Leo and the Pharmacists‘ new album, The Brutalist Bricks, is out March 9th on Matador. The first track is “The Mighty Sparrow,” which you can download below, courtesy of Pitchfork via Matador. Also, be sure to catch Mr. Leo on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” on Monday, March 8th and/or at Neumos March 19th. Here’s another song on the new album:

• Bonnie Raitt will be inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, and Leonard Cohen and Earth, Wind and Fire will join the Songwriters Hall of Fame this year. The Blues ceremony is happening May 5th in Memphis and the Songwriters event is June 17th in New York.

• A new band is in the works, it appears. They’re calling themselves Admiral Radley and feature former Grandaddy frontman Jason Lytle and drummer Aaron Burtch along with Earlimart’s Aaron Espinoza and Ariana Murray. Check out their official website or Twitter account for more.

• Dr. Dre is suing Death Row Records because they apparently haven’t been paying him royalties since 1996, in addition to releasing unauthorized greatest hits albums. In a punny moment, his attorney was quoted as saying, “When it came to paying artist royalties and honoring limits on Dr. Dre recordings that could be released, the ‘new’ Death Row Records, to quote our client, ‘forgot about Dre.’ This lawsuit will make sure they remember.”

• That new version of “We Are The World” came out a few days ago. Meh. Check it out below, if you aren’t one of nine million or so that have already viewed it on YouTube.

• This Week in WTF: Though she’s been divorced twice (first to Sean Penn and more recently to director Guy Ritchie), Madonna is set to appear on NBC’s “The Marriage Ref”. Her spokeswoman, Liz Rosenberg confirmed yesterday that Madonna would make an appearance on the upcoming reality show, which has celebrities and a referee attempt to help couples in marital conflict.

(source)

• British jazz composer, band leader, and saxophonist Sir John Dankworth died this weekend at 82. Inspired by past jazz greats Benny Goodman (on clarinet) and then Charlie Parker (on sax), Dankworth went on to start a performing ensemble; record film and television scores including the theme to The Avengers; direct such heavy hitters as Oscar Peterson, Nat “King” Cole, and Ella Fitzgerald; and even start a theater of his own, The Stables, with his wife and collaborator Dame Cleo Laine. KEXP listeners will immediately recognize the sample to Dankworth’s theme to Modesty Blaise, which was sampled heavily on the Gorillaz track “Rock the House“:

• The Seattle Improvised Music Festival kicks off this week — February 11th to be exact. The 7 day events is spread over two weeks and will feature some of the best avant talent in town and beyond, including scene stalwarts C. Spencer Yeh, Chris Corsano, Wally Shoup, and Bill Horist taking over The Sunset Tavern on Feb. 18th for a set.

• NonStopErotik will be the latest album from the hearts and minds of Charles Thompson’s many identities — this time under the Black Francis nom de plume. The album hits the streets March 30th via Cooking Vinyl.

• Pitchfork has the exclusive video for Spoon’s first single, “Written in Reverse,” from their new album Transference:

• Warp has just announced the May 4th release date for Cosmogramma, the latest from versatile phenom Flying Lotus. Radiohead’s Thom Yorke is said to be among the lyrical guests.

• New Vice signees, Growing, are putting some video muscle behind their upcoming April release, Pumps. The trio has produced two grainy throwbacks to the days of avant music cinema for the tracks “Hormone” and “Drone Burger,” which you can watch below:

• Dresden Dolls’ Amanda Palmer has always engaged in bizarre theatrical projects, and her latest is no exception: Evelyn Evelyn is the name of her new duo, formed with sometime Seattle resident Jason Webley, and features the fictional pair of conjoined twin performers Lyn and Eva Neville, who according to the story, pursue a musical career and are discovered via MySpace by… Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley, who happen to “produce” the project. All very meta, to be sure. Rounding out the cast of characters in this project are, among others, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Andrew W.K., Tegan and Sara, Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance), and Frances Bean Cobain! Read more here.

• If you like your rock and roll with a heavy dose of still photography, perhaps you should hit up “Taking Aim,” the latest exhibit to creep into EMP|SFM. The exhibit, which runs through May 23rd, centers on the photography work and personal selections of legendary singer/songwriter Graham Nash.

• The highlights of this week’s late night talk show appearances start slow but end the week with a punch: The Editors and Yeasayer on Wednesday on Kimmel and Fallon respectively, and then The Soft Pack on Letterman on Friday. There’s enough to keep you up for a few nights at least:

  Monday, February 8

  time to sleep off the Super Bowl haze

  Tuesday, February 9

  Jimmy Fallon: Regina Spektor

  Wednesday, February 10

  Jimmy Kimmel: The Editors
  Jimmy Fallon: Yeasayer

  Thursday, February 11

  Jimmy Fallon: Kings of Convenience

  Friday, February 12

  David Letterman: The Soft Pack

Jay Reatard's cause of death has been determined

• It has been revealed that Jay Reatard died a couple weeks ago of “cocaine toxicity, and that alcohol was a contributing factor in his death.” Stay away from the cocaine/alcohol combo, kids.

• The Strokes are heading back to the studio to record a long-awaited follow-up to their 2006 record, “First Impressions of Earth.” They’re working with producer Joe Chiccarelli (White Stripes, Shins, My Morning Jacket) and say they plan to post “video vignettes” from the sessions on their website.

• We missed this news when it was announced late last week, but The Pogues’ frontman Shane MacGowan has gathered some of his pals to cover Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell On You” in order to benefit Haiti emergency relief. Nick Cave, who’s covered the tune himself with The Birthday Party, joins Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie and Johnny Depp (yes, that Johnny Depp) for what promises to be a world of experience crammed into one room. And a great way to aid an important cause!

• #1 Billboard hit scorers, Vampire Weekend, just did La Blogotheque’s “Les Soirees de Poche” series, playing a 6-song acoustic set of new and old songs for a bunch of really excited French people. Check out the video below:

• All around awesome/nutso singer/actor Tom Waits is apparently collaborating with In Bruges director Martin McDonagh on a new stage musical. I guess this isn’t a new thing for Waits, who also has co-written three other musicals for the stage: The Black Rider, Alice in Wonderland, and “Woyzeck. Whatevs. I’m down.

• A great new local band called Ravenna Woods just put out a great new video [below] shot in a great local venue, taken from their great new album. Did I mention these guys are pretty great?

• Frontman Jónsi Birgisson, frontman of popular KEXP band Sigur Rós is releasing his first solo album on April 6th called “Go.” He’ll be embarking on a tour that month, beginning in our beloved Pacific Northwest. He’ll play two shows in Vancouver, BC before hitting the Showbox SoDo here in Seattle on the 9th and 10th of April, followed by one night in Portland at the Roseland Theatre on 4/13.

new She & Him album cover

• She & Him, made up of M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel, are releasing their second record, Volume Two, on March 23rd via Merge. In related news, Zooey is starring in and executive producing a half-hour HBO pilot based on famed rock follower Pamela Des Barres’ 1987 memoir, I’m With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie.

• THIS WEEK IN WTF: Steven Tyler is threatening to sue his bandmates if they make good on their promise to hire a new singer for their next tour. What’s most weird to me is that he wants to continue to write, record, and perform with the group, but is willing to totally alienate himself from them by handing them a lawsuit. Sounds like those drugs are working, Steven.