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.

• We at KEXP are sad to inform you of two recent deaths. Indie rock songwriter Jay Reatard passed away yesterday morning at the age of only twenty-nine. His most recent release was critically acclaimed and is frequently played here at the station. R.I.P.

• Teddy Pendergrass, one of the most popular R&B singers of our time, died yesterday at age 59 after a long bout with colon cancer. He got his start with Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes in 1970 and had a successful solo career throughout the 70s before becoming wheelchair-bound in ‘82. R.I.P.

• Local indie pop band leader John Roderick, of The Long Winters, and Kathleen Edwards recorded an exclusive track for the GIVE compilation and made a corresponding video, which you can check out below. If it gets your tastebuds salivating [as it should], make sure to check out JRod opening for Ben Gibbard & Jay Farrar later this month at the Showbox.

• Country legend Johnny Cash apparently recorded enough covers in his Rick Rubin American sessions for the label to release another posthumous album. American VI: Ain’t No Grave, the final volume in the series, will be released February 26th, on what would have been Cash’s 78th birthday. It includes covers of songs by Sheryl Crow, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Paxton, and a bunch more, as well as an unreleased original song.

• Local band These Arms Are Snakes is following close in the footsteps of Schoolyard Heroes and Kane Hodder as now defunct El Corazon-type bands. According to their most recent MySpace blog, they’re through.

• Joanna Newsom will finally be releasing the long-awaited follow-up to 2006’s Ys. It’s called Have One on Me and it’s out February 23rd on Drag City here in the states.

• This is old news for a fan like me, but since it’s news to Pitchfork readers and relevant to music KEXP plays, I suppose I should post it here. Okkervil River and Roky Erickson are readying a new record called True Love Cast Out All Evil, out April 20 on Anti-. Brilliant psych-rock legend and literate indie rock backing band? Woo!

• Speaking of Austin-ites[?], longtime KEXP favorites, Spoon, will be setting off on tour with Deerhunter next month. They’ll be coming through Seattle with Micachu and the Shapes, too, playing the Moore on the ninth and tenth of April. Check out Spoon’s new album streaming fully over at NPR and/or buy it Saturday!

• Yoko Ono has recruited Eric Clapton, Paul Simon and his son Harper Simon, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, Bette Midler, Martha Wainwright, Mark Ronson, Sean Lennon, the Scissor Sisters, Justin Bond and more artists for the first Plastic Ono Band show in 40 years: a special concert on February 16th at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.

• A new feature for Thursday New Threads: THIS WEEK IN WTF. Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan and Jessica Simpson are making music together.

• The once elusive Jandek will be returning to the Pacific Northwest in 2010 and he won’t be the biggest name on the marquee. The Portland performance will find Jandek joined by Sonic Youth principle, Thurston Moore. The show is scheduled for April 29th. Maybe we can convince them to trek the three hours north to bless the Emerald City?

• Speaking of Sonic Youth, Lee Ranaldo recently told BBC that the band is already working on the follow-up to this year’s The Eternal. Also in the works is a soundtrack for a French film as well as a DVD release detailing the band’s Daydream Nation tour.

• And speaking of film soundtracks, Grizzly Bear are creating the soundtrack for Blue Valentine, a film slated for preview during January’s Sundance Festival. Movie/music blog The Playlist has more info about the film, said to be “intimate, shattering portrait of a disintegrating marriage.” Fun!

• Say what you want to concerning Dave Matthews, but his ATO Records has a solid roster of mainstream artists and formerly great indie acts (Gomez chief among them). Now word has spread that Drive-By Truckers, one of the best live acts in North America today, has signed with Matthews’ label.

• Thee Silver Mt. Zion have just announced their next album, Kollaps Tradixionales, is slated for a February 16th release via Constellation.

• Onstage in Austin last week, Jay Reatard was attacked by two “fans,” one of which actually struck him, and both of whom were arrested. Brooklyn Vegan has the details. Meanwhile, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were greeted by a booing crowd on the first night of the 10 Years of ATP celebrations at Somerset. Karen O and the group were apparently 45 minutes late, but made up for it by playing one of their most ferocious sets, according to Spinner.

• Massive Attack has just released a new video for their highly anticipated new album, Heligoland (due February 8th), and it is totally NSFW! The Toby Dye-directed “Paradise Circus” is more documentary than video, featuring featuring clips from the ‘73 porn classic The Devil in Miss Jones and its star, the now 73-year old Georgina Spelvin, who talks candidly about her experience. Sorry, but we’re not to show the X-rated clip, but you can view it at Stereogum, Some Velvet Blog, and whole bunch of other music sites.

• … instead, we’ll show this G-rated clip for the frequently requested new single by Hot Chip, “One Life Stand”:

• Ok, there are a few questionable recommendations on our list of talk shows appearances this week, but do you want to not watch Michael McDonald on the chance that his Grizzly Bear collaboration won’t come up during Kimmel’s interview? And how great will Colbert’s report with Snoop Dogg be? More obviously, you’re not going to want to miss Gossip or Franz Ferdinand on Carson Daly, or Raekwon on Fallon. Here are the rest:
  Monday, December 14

  Jimmy Kimmel: Wolfmother (R)
  Colbert Report: Snoop Dogg

  Tuesday, December 15

  Conan O’Brien: Norah Jones
  Jimmy Kimmel: Michael McDonald
  Craig Ferguson: The Broken West

  Wednesday, December 16

  Jimmy Fallon: Raekwon
  Carson Daly: Gossip

  Thursday, December 17

  Carson Daly: Franz Ferdinand

  Friday, December 18

  Carson Daly: Snoop Dogg

  Saturday, December 19

  Saturday Night Live: Muse

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.

• And speaking of “forthcoming,” both Thom Yorke and his band Radiohead should have new albums out within the next year. Yorke has been playing recently in LA with a new band, hitting a couple of small venues with his new band to perform songs from his first solo album, The Eraser, and to preview seven new songs. Meanwhile, Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien has told NME that the earlier rumors of a hiatus were just that… rumors, and the band would return to the studio this winter. And if that wasn’t clear enough, he adds, “We were misquoted. WE WILL BE MAKING AN ALBUM!” Check AtEase for the full story

• A tuft of hair from the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, will be going to auction later this month, along with a set of pictures from Elvis and Priscilla’s wedding day in 1967, a suede shirt worn by the star in 1963, original artworks and a string of signed record sleeves. Maybe I should be saving my hair after haircuts. You know, for the sake of my descendants financial well-being.

Elvis Presley's hair? Soon it can be yours!

• So I guess Jay Reatard’s band quit mid-tour. This kind of adds new meaning to the title of his newest album, Watch Me Fall. Yikes.

• Hardcore band Small Brown Bike is writing new material after breaking up in 2004 and reuniting last month. They’re quoted as saying, “Over the last few months we’ve been writing a ton of new stuff and currently have about ten new songs finished plus a bunch more in various stages.”

• A couple new Seattle indie rock music videos. Check out Modest Mouse’s new video for ‘The Whale Song’ at Pitchfork. Below is Death Cab for Cutie’s video for “Meet Me On the Equinox” featuring basically the entirety of the new Twilight sequel, New Moon. Now I REALLY don’t have to see that movie.

• Ever wonder what David Bowie would look like as a LEGO character? No? Well, anyway, now you can see He’s signed up to be on the new LEGO Rock Band game. Check it out:

Bowie? The band?

• Jimmy Fallon’s late night talk show is among the worst in my opinion, but somebody on his team has been making some pretty good/interesting musical guest choices. December 8th that trend will continue when Fallon will host a reunited Jawbox on his show.

Below, check out Vampire Weekend’s new song, Horchata, from their forthcoming record, Contra. You can also download it from their website.

• Updating a previous news item, it appears that Pavement are doing a lot more than those four NYC shows. Looks like they’re now going to be headlining and curating a weekend of All Tomorrow’s Parties in 2010. BAM!

Dan Muller

This Friday will mark a very sad day for us here at Three Imaginary Girls. Harvey Danger will be playing their last all ages show ever at the Vera Project on Friday, 8/28, and the final 21+ show the following night at the Crocodile. Harvey Danger is a TIG favorite, a soundtrack to many of our wasted youths, and much more than the sum of the success of “Flagpole Sitta.” Though, as of the end of this week, they may be no longer be a group, we look forward to their future successes with eager ears, though we may need a month or two to pout…a lot. If you too are a Harvey Danger fan, perhaps wallowing in sorrow at one of these shows might just be a balm to your achy-breaky indiepop heart.

8/22/09: “International Pop Overthrow” — Gary Reynolds & The Brides Of Obscurity/The Liar’s Club/GE5/Guns & Rossetti/Goldie Wilson/The Broadcast Debut/Spygirl at the Mars Bar
International Pop Overthrow is celebrating its 12th year of bringing together pop bands who want to play in a festival setting from all around the world and to celebrate pop music. You may just catch the new next big band in pop music! This 5-night festival started on 8/19 and will until 8/23, with all the shows at the Mars Bar.

8/23/09: The Dead Kenny G’s at the Sunset
The Dead Kenny G’s are the quiet storm of punk music. They will make you shimmy and shake with sexy jazz beats, but make you wanna jump off an amp too, but reaaaaal slow.

8/24/09: Shoemaker Brothers/Koko & The Sweetmeats/Todd Joseph at the Comet
The Shoemaker Brothers are 4 brothers from Shelton Washington, all of whom are incredibly talented musicians who “won’t stand for being pigeonholed.” They use elements of folk, blues, and beautiful lyrics to create evocative, gauzy music. They are touring on their most recent, self titled album, the Shoemaker Brothers.

8/25/09: Hellogoodbye/Fun/Limbeck/My Favorite Highway at the Chop Suey
Hellogoodbye describe themselves as sounding like “Tom Hanks in his younger years.” Do they mean Turner and Hooch younger, or Bosom Buddies younger? Either way, the beats are flirty and playful, and the lyrics are sweet, surprisingly enough not unlike a young Mr. Hanks. Hopefully these guys make enough money on this tour to not have to dress like ladies to make rent.

8/26/09: The Cult at the Moore Theatre
No introduction is needed here. Go and breathlessly await “She Sells Sanctuary,” and sway to the dreamy English sad bastardry.

8/27/09: Jay Reatard, Sonic Boom in-store {7pm, Ballard}
Do you like stomping, clapping, and big beardy weirdies? Come ready to feel good and put a little dance in your pants. If nothing else, you can pick up that copy of “John Tesh at Live at Red Rocks” album you’ve been looking for.

8/28/09: Harvey Danger {final all-ages show}, Vera
Bring a hanky, kids…

“Meet me up on ninety-nine. Beneath the Marco Polo sign. I’ll be the one with a box of wine and a hundred dollar car…”

Mary Kwatkosky-Lawlor (Imaginary Mimi)
*Three Imaginary Girls*

In high i-pod rotation:
The Fruit Bats
The Young Fresh Fellows
The Pastels and Tenniscoats

(Three Imaginary Girls is a Seattle-based website that showcases the great music of the Northwest and beyond to music lovers worldwide. We post a Seattle live show calendar to help you fill your day-planner with loads of great shows, as well as record reviews, live show reviews, and an imagi-blog to entertain you throughout the day.)

The summer releases are starting to heat up again. This week, there’s a strong showing from the Pacific Northwest from The Cave Singers, who will be performing during KEXP’s broadcast from the Bumbershoot Music Lounge on Labor Day weekend, and Portland band Ramona Falls, who will be live on KEXP next Friday (8/28). NW label Sup Pop is unrolling Pissed Jeans, and Anacortes, WA, project Mount Eerie ascends with Wind’s Poem. Among the must-buys this week are several by excellent male songwriters who defy the “singer/songwriter” stereotype: Brendan Benson, whose guitar playing and singing in The Raconteurs, for many people, surpasses Jack White’s; Jack Penate, whose upbeat pop songs belie offbeat vocals and subversive lyrics; Jay Reatard, who’s been cranking out scuzzy garage/punk guitar rock like nobody’s business while also continually refining his sound; and Joe Henry, whose superior songwriting is surpassed only, and just barely, by his Grammy winning work as a producer.

Folky weirdos should take note of the latest from Six Organs of Admittance and the debut of Denmark’s Choir of Young Believers. Also of note, Madrid’s DePedro, the project of Jairo Zavala, who’s been touring regularly and performing with Calexico. Check out the rest of the list at Largehearted Boy, but not before sampling these:

• Seminal rock group the Pixies have announced their full schedule for their Doolittle tour. The band will be performing their classic album in its entirety with a few surprises along the way. The Seattle dates are November 11 and 12 at the Paramount Theater; be sure to check out our presale, which starts today at 10AM and runs to Friday at 10PM. Use the password “KEXP”.

• Master MC and accomplished actor Mos Def has assembled a fall tour behind his latest effort, The Ecstatic. A Seattle date is scheduled for August 28 with no word on the venue quite yet.

• You know you love yourself if you cover your own album. Twice. Indie-pop sibling duo The Fiery Furnaces plan to re-record their album I’m Going Away, with siblings Matt and Eleanor Friedberger each releasing their own versions of the album.

• Unlike most bands, Weezer seem to get less mature with age, as evidenced by two new songs they debuted at a recent show in South Korea called “I’m Your Daddy” and “The Girl Got Hot.” Apparently they sound just like the titles. If you must, check ‘em out at Stereogum.

• Memphis maniac rocker Jay Reatard is hitting the road this August for a batch of free all-ages in-store performances. Can you say awesome? He’ll be in Seattle for two shows, August 26 at East Street Records and August 27 at Sonic Boom Records playing songs from his new album, Watch Me Fall, out that same month. You can also look forward to a Jay Reatard documentary. Check out the trailer here.

• Ex-Be Your Own Pet frontwoman Jemina Pearl has set tour dates and a release date for her upcoming solo album, Break It Up, on Ecstatic Peace. She’ll be at Chop Suey on October 19.

• Don’t worry: The Mountain Goats won’t be touring the Christian rock circuit any time soon (not that there’s anything wrong with that!). But you might get that impression when first reading about the new album, The Life Of The World To Come (due on 4AD on October 6), which features a dozen songs named after Bible passages, like “Genesis 3:23.” “It’s not a screed,” claims songwriter John Darnielle, who assures us he hasn’t “had some sort of religious awakening.” He says rather vaguely that “It’s twelve songs the Bible taught me, kind of.”

• If you’ve never watched the kids show Yo Gabba Gabba, you’re missing out. The show has already featured tons of rad performances from bands like Tilly And The Wall, The Ting Tings, MGMT, and Chromeo, and now Super Furry Animals are getting in on the action. The Welsh band are hard at work writing a song for the show but there’s no word yet if they’ll appear in person.

• Someone had to say it, but who thought it would be David Byrne? They typically polite veteran of rock not so subtly pointed out on his blog that U2’s spending “$40 million to build the stage” and their estimated “200 semi trucks crisscrossing Europe” for their upcoming world tour is a bit “overkill, and just a wee bit out of balance given all the starving people in Africa and all.” Byrne, who admits to being a little bit peeved for getting bumped from Letterman during the week-long U2 residency, is at least thankful that Live Nation, who’s promoting both his and U2’s tours is allowing him to play clubs who might not otherwise be able to afford it.

• Pearl Jam is promoting their upcoming album Backspacer with a scavenger hunt. After collecting nine images, created by Tom Tomorrow, across the interweb, fans will be treated to a download of some sort. You can start your collection at Spinner.