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Thursday News Threads

Zach, KEXP — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:49:24 +0000

We’re sorry to report that Chris Feinstein, bassist and vocalist for Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, has passed away. Apparently, the 42-year-old was found at home in Manhattan. The cause of death is still unreleased. Beyond the Cardinals, Feinstein has worked with Moby, Santigold, Albert Hammond Jr., and many others.

California indie pop band The Morning Benders have signed to Rough Trade. They’ll be releasing Big Echo, their sophomore album, produced by frontman Christopher Chu and Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor, in early March.

KEXP has been spinning the excellent new GIVE Seattle 2009 compilation regularly — still looking for a holiday gift? it’s a gift that gives back to others! — and this week they’ve released a new video for the Head Like a Kite song “Director’s Cut,” featuring Tilson of The Saturday Knights.

We mentioned it some time back, but now the James Mercer/Danger Mouse collaboration has a release date! The band, Broken Bells, will release their self-titled debut on the ninth of March.

Lil Wayne’s Rebirth has been slated to be released, like, a million times. Technically only six, but still! That’s way too many. It was finally set to be released in February, but was accidentally sent out to more than 500 pre-ordering customers by Amazon! Ouch! Somebody’s a goner!

Broken Social Scene member Jason Collett is generating buzz for his own next release, Rat A Tat Tat, due in March, by releasing the single “Love Is A Dirty Word” for free here.

Florida band (and friends of Modest Mouse) Holopaw have asked 24 visual artists to respond to their new release, Oh, Glory. Oh, Wilderness, the results of which you can see now on their blog, and they welcome you to submit your own artistic interpretations as well.

FM Belfast, one of the bands we were very excited to discover and feature during Iceland Airwaves this year has been remixed by another festival attendee Alaska in Winter. It’s a song you may have heard on one of Kevin Cole’s Music That Matters podcast:

FM Belfast - Underwear (Alaska in Winter remix)

Fans of KEXP’s new metal show, Seek and Destroy, will likely already know that 80s thrash metal’s ‘Big Four‘ will be touring together next summer. This includes Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer, and Megadeth.

Speaking of music that doesn’t often air on KEXP, the inductees of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame are interesting choices. The Stooges, ABBA, Jimmy Cliff, Genesis, and the Hollies make up the 2010 class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Billboard reports. Nominees that didn’t make the cut include Kiss, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Donna Summer, and Darlene Love.

Elliott Smith no doubt will have “new” tracks released posthumously for a long time to come, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be excited for each and every one of them! Kill Rock Stars will be releasing reissues of a couple of his albums on April 6th. “Cecilia/Amanda”, an unreleased solo track, will be available beforehand on the KRS website.

Thursday News Threads

Zach, KEXP — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:55:12 +0000

I missed it, but I guess some people on the internets thought Kanye West was dead. He’s not. You’d think his million blog posts a day would’ve stopped the rumors dead in their tracks, but meh.

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.