Pit5 Music News Cache

12 Recent Items

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Ex-Tapes n' Tapes Bassist Joins Planes for Spaces

After leaving Tapes n' Tapes last April, bassist Shawn Neary (who played bass on The Loon) recently found a new musical niche in Planes for Spaces. The Minneapolis band, featuring the spacious vocals of Joe January accompanied by a revolving group of musicians including Tim Luntzel (Bright Eyes, Gillian Welch), Ryan Sawyer (Fiery Furnaces, At the Drive-In), and Scott McPherson (Elliott Smith), formed in the spring of 2005 and maintained a weekly residency at Minneapolis' 400 Bar. Last year, they put out an album, Letters From the Waves, behind which the band toured the U.S. with the likes of Death From Above 1979, Lou Barlow, Earlimart, and I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness. This month, PFS crash into California for two shows.

Places to spot Planes for Spaces:

09-20 Los Angeles, CA - Knitting Factory
09-21 San Francisco, CA - The Independent

Stream: Planes for Spaces: Various Tracks

Posted by Laura Pearson in gossip, breakup on Wed: 09-13-06: 12:45 PM CDT | Permalink

The Knife: New Single and Video

Penknives are pretty cool. One minute you're signing an autograph, the next you're carving up somebody's chest. And they just got cooler, as spooky Swedish duo the Knife will release their next single, "Like a Pen", on Brille in the UK on October 16. The track is from the Knife's still fantastic latest album, Silent Shout, out now on Mute in North America.

As for the "Like a Pen" video, it's "Sesame Street" done in the aesthetic of early MTV! An amorphous brown character goes around touching things with a pencil and running away from more humanoid characters in a space maze. Let's just call it "Knife-esque."

[MORE...]

Video: The Knife: Like a Pen

Posted by Amy Phillips and Dave Maher in single, video, tour on Wed: 09-13-06: 12:24 PM CDT | Permalink

The Evens Get Evens

Revenge is sweet, and even though we're not quite sure how we wronged them, the Evens are coming for it. The post-post-harDCore guitar-and-drums duo-- comprised of Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat, Fugazi) and Amy Farina (The Warmers)-- returns this fall for vengeance, in the form of second LP The Evens Get Evens.

Get Evens follows up the band's 2005 self-titled debut, and arrives November 6 via Dischord. Like any full-length the venerable DC label releases, it will probably read "$10 postage-paid" on the back, and that is awesome. Ten tracks, recorded by the band at the Dischord House and mixed by good ol' Don Zientara at his long-running Inner Ear Studios. Ten bucks. Can't be beat.

The Evens will mount a tour in support of Get Evens this November, dates to be announced. It will be, we reckon, the single coolest thing to happen to you in November since that "Even Stevens" Thanksgiving marathon on the Disney Channel. Seriously. [MORE...]

Video: The Evens: Cut From the Cloth (Live)

Posted by Matthew Solarski in album on Wed: 09-13-06: 12:00 PM CDT | Permalink

London Sinfonietta Tackles Aphex Twin, Squarepusher

Ah, the canon of modern classical heavyweights: György Ligeti, John Cage, Steve Reich, Richard D. James, Edgard Var-- wait a minute...Richard D. James!? Isn't that guy, like, Aphex Twin? Yes, yes indeed he is. And Tom Jenkinson is Squarepusher. And both of these IDM icons get the symphonic treatment alongside Ligeti, Cage, Reich, and more on the London Sinfonietta's new double disc Warp Works & Twentieth Century Masters.

Warp Records will release the two CD set-- which sees the celebrated London Sinfonietta reinterpret the music of Warp's finest alongside that of some of the last century's finest-- on September 19. Works & Masters features music recorded during two collaborations between Warp, the London Sinfonietta, and the South Bank Centre (the first as part of the Centre's 2003 Ether Festival at London's Royal Festival Hall, the second from two dates on a Contemporary Music Network tour from 2004). Seems the so-called canon just got a whole lot glitchier.

Squarepusher will release his latest full-length, Hello Everything, via Warp on October 17 (North America) and October 16 (UK). [MORE...]

Video: London Sinfonietta: Chain I

Posted by Kati Llewellyn and Matthew Solarski in album, collaboration on Wed: 09-13-06: 11:00 AM CDT | Permalink

Devendra, CYHSY, Stars Design Shirts for Charity
So do Wolfmother, My Brightest Diamond, and more

Who's that in my closet? Is it R. Kelly? Nope-- it's Devendra Banhart, Stars, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, My Brightest Diamond, Wolfmother, Hayden, King Creosote, and Joseph Arthur! They're in there waiting to help you get dressed, all in the name of charity.

Charities, that is. The Yellow Bird Project, a Montreal-based non-profit organization, has recruited a handful of indie rock stars to design shirts for girls and boys everywhere. They cost $25 apiece (pretty good, as they're American Apparel), with all money going to the charity of the designer's choice.

For instance, Wolfmother have drawn up a "Free the Gnomes!" print and selected the Teenage Cancer Trust as their charity. Clap Your Hands are directing all funds received in exchange for their crying-man-on-a-plane design to Art for Change. Devendra, the first artist to contribute a shirt, will raise money to benefit the Ocean of Love (whose name sounds like a potential Devendra Banhart song title, come to think of it).

Posted by Kati Llewellyn in benefit, fashion on Wed: 09-13-06: 10:46 AM CDT | Permalink

Girl Talk Remixes Beck, Grizzly Bear

Good googly moogly! Girl Talk is on fire. As we continue to recover from his crazy-awesome show here in Chicago last weekend, Gregg Gillis has revealed that he's been in the studio (read: bedroom) recently, working on remixes for Beck, Grizzly Bear, Teddybears, and Peter Bjorn and John.

Beck likes Girl Talk so much he not only tapped Gillis as an opening act for a London show a couple weeks ago, but also commissioned not one but two remixes of his new song "Cell Phone's Dead" from the un-DJ. One remix features live instrumentation and the other samples. We can't wait to hear the results.

Girl Talk is on the road right now, with shows scheduled all the way through December. [MORE...]

MP3: Girl Talk: Smash Your Head [Infinite Mixtape #22]

Posted by Amy Phillips in remix, tour, remix, tour on Wed: 09-13-06: 09:00 AM CDT | Permalink

Mission of Burma Documentary Coming to DVD

Legendary Boston post-punks and Pitchfork Music Festival alums Mission of Burma have already proven their resurrected greatness, and now they will share the intimate details of their Lazarus story with the world. On November 21, MVD Visual will release Not a Photograph, a 70-minute documentary DVD about the band's 2002 reunion and the obstacles they had to overcome to make it the success it was and still is. Not a Photograph was directed by David Kleiler, Jr. and Jeff Iwanicki, and, in addition to the recent performances, it includes archival footage from the band's original incarnation, including a performance by the Moving Parts, bassist Clint Conley's and guitarist Roger Miller's first band together.

And don't forget-- as previously reported, Miller will share his next Mission of Burma tour diary exclusively with Pitchfork. The tour begins this Friday, September 15, at Seattle's Crocodile Cafe.
[MORE...]

MP3: Mission of Burma: 2wice

Posted by Dave Maher in dvd on Wed: 09-13-06: 07:00 AM CDT | Permalink

The Pogues Get Expanded Reissue Treatment

When the Pogues finished playing, you howled out for more. And, saints be praised, Rhino Records answered.

Now grab a pint or two and get ready to curl up all over again with the Celtic folk-punk band's first five albums, like you've never quite heard them before. Red Roses for Me (1984), Rum Sodomy & the Lash (1985), If I Should Fall From Grace With God (1988), Peace & Love (1989), and Hell's Ditch (1990) will each see an expanded and remastered reissue on September 19, courtesy of Rhino.

In total, the releases will feature 31 bonus tracks, including a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Women" and four songs from the band's 1986 EP, Poguetry in Motion. Classic.

The Pogues themselves, meanwhile, take their patented drunken antics on the road this fall. [MORE...]

Video: The Pogues: Fairytale of New York

Posted by Kati Llewellyn in reissue, tour on Tue: 09-12-06: 04:45 PM CDT | Permalink

Menomena Unveil Tracklist, Exclusive MP3
Below: Danny Seim promises to be more aware of venue ceiling fire sprinkler run-ins this time

Menomena are barely a month into their big Barsuk signing and they've already worked out a tracklist and release date for their upcoming record, Friend and Foe. The 12-song workout will storm the nation on January 23 of next year. The album's first single, "Wet and Rusting", is available as an exclusive download by clicking on the link below.

Menomena's upcoming tour with labelmates the Long Winters and What Made Milwaukee Famous launches next Monday. It will be followed by a December West Coast stint with fellow Portlanders 31Knots. [MORE...]

MP3: Menomena: Wet and Rusting

Posted by Kati Llewellyn in album, tour, single, audio, exclusive on Tue: 09-12-06: 04:16 PM CDT | Permalink

Video: Darkel: "At the End of the Sky"

Air-stronaut JB Dunckel's previously reported solo debut, Darkel, comes out September 19 on Astralwerks, and this is the video for its first single, "At the End of the Sky". Apparently, the end of the sky has skyscrapers, spiders, and gumballs all thrown into a video game version of space. The music is the kind of fuzzy and lush harmony-heavy pop you might expect after Talkie Walkie, but I'm still not sure if the androgynous main character in this cartoon is supposed to be Dunckel or a 21st Century Little Red Riding Hood.

Stream: Darkel: Various Tracks

Posted by Dave Maher in video on Tue: 09-12-06: 03:22 PM CDT | Permalink

Fennesz, Cornelius, Devine Remix Ryuichi Sakamoto

OK kids, time to expand the vocabulary. Today we've got a noun, bricolage, meaning 1) (according to Dictionary.com) "something made or put together using whatever materials happen to be available," 2) an Orange Juice-chugging guitar band from the UK, and 3) (pl.) the title of master composer/musician Ryuichi Sakamoto's upcoming remix project.

Stock boys everywhere will pack record store shelves with Bricolages on September 19, courtesy of KAB America. Artists including Cornelius, Craig Armstrong, Richard Devine, Fennesz, Alva Noto, and others formed this 13-track release by remixing material that happened to be on Sakamoto's 2005 solo release, Chasm.

Sakamoto took home an Oscar, a Grammy, a Golden Globe, and a whole slew of other awards for his score to Bernardo Bertolucci's 1987 best picture The Last Emperor. So he's a pretty big deal. In fact, he's taking an executive producer credit (in association with Norika Sora, Evan Balmer, Justin Kleinfeld, and Eric Giambertone) for Bricolages. Nothing like seeing your name in the liner notes, right? [MORE...]

Video: Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto: Trioon I

Posted by Kati Llewellyn in remix, album, compilation on Tue: 09-12-06: 03:15 PM CDT | Permalink

Black Key Carney's Label Releases Two More LPs
Black Keys carny's label releases two more blues-flavored lines of cotton candy

Patrick Carney is a busy, busy man. His band the Black Keys put out a new album today, and they're in the middle of a lengthy world tour (see dates below). He also records bands in his basement and then puts out their albums on his record label.

Audio Eagle, which Carney runs with Jamie Stillman (ex-Party of Helicopters), and which is distributed by the Black Keys' former home, Fat Possum Records, has two new albums in the pipeline-- both from Ohio bands, both due out September 19. The first, Houseguest's High Strangeness, is the debut LP from the quintet recently praised by McSweeney's magazine (and we thought they only liked Death Cab and Sunn0)))) and described by Carney as "like the Feelies on speed... or the Feelies on Adderall and speed."

The second, Beaten Awake's Let's Get Simplified, is the result of the pairing of four dudes (formerly of such bands as Party of Helicopters, Six Parts Seven, the Man I Fell in Love With, and Harriet the Spy) and "a chaos pad," according to their MySpace page. Right now, Beaten Awake are on tour with the Black Keys, with plans for a full-scale fall/winter tour in the works. Let's Get Simplified's press release promises lyrics about "the Cleveland Browns, kittens, and voyeur masturbation." Baseball, cuteness, and sex-- looks like Beaten Awake covers all the bases.

Houseguest and Beaten Awake will play a co-record-release show at Akron's Lime Spider on September 29.

Meanwhile, the Black Keys will tour the U.S. and Europe on through 2007. [MORE...]

MP3: Houseguest: King of Crystal Skies

MP3: Beaten Awake: A&E

Posted by Mairead Case and Amy Phillips in signing, album, tour on Tue: 09-12-06: 03:09 PM CDT | Permalink

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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.)

Wed: 09-13-06: 12:24 PM CDT
The Knife: New Single and Video