Rainer Maria Hit the Road

Emo veterans Rainer Maria released Catastrophe Keeps Us Together, their sixth full-length, in April and followed it with a month-long jaunt across the U.S. and Canada. They're headed back on the road starting tonight in Phoeniz, and they ain't quitting until September.

The Format, Anathallo, and Streets to Nowhere open all shows, except for Lollapalooza, at which Rainer Maria are playing at noon. Sheesh. [MORE...]

Video: Rainer Maria: "Catastrophe"

Andrew Bird Sets Fall Tour

It's a bird! It's a plane! Wait, yeah, it's a Bird. And what better place for a Bird to be seen than the Minnesota Zoo?

On August 4, Andrew Bird and his ever-present accompanist Martin Dosh will launch yet another U.S. trek with a performance at the Weesner Amphitheatre's Music in the Zoo series. Afterward, the pair will finish off their festival rounds and break for a month before tackling their next full round of dates. [MORE...]

MP3: Andrew Bird:

Arcade Fire Recording Update

Looks like Win Butler's personal diary might differ a bit from the journal entry he dropped in "Win's Scrapbook" on the Arcade Fire website last month. After revealing to his audience that the band would record with a "huge fucking pipe organ" on two songs, Butler left out an important deal. This pipe organ, found in Montreal's Jean Baptiste church, produced a sound big enough to make Butler cry.

In a recent e-mail update, Scott Colburn, producer/engineer for the Arcade Fire's upcoming sophomore release, revealed a juicy peak into the recording process for the band's new album.

"The band went into the church ahead of me and my assistant James Ogilvie," Colburn wrote. "They recorded a sample of the organ playing a chord in different registers. Win called me and told me how excited he was about the organ. He said is [it] was super loud and so overwhelming that it brought a tear to his eye. I promptly called him a pussy.

"When I first walked into the church and saw the organ, I just stood dead in my tracks. 'Now THAT's a fucking pipe organ!' I thought... During the first take, I became overwhelmed by the grandeur of the whole thing. I heard that piece in it's finished state and it was magnificent! Tears rolled out of my eyes. I don't know what came over me, but it was a complete emotional release. The problem was that there were mics all around me, so I really couldn't sob. So I'm trying to hold back any kind of vocal component to this overwhelming joy I was experiencing.

"When the take was over, I took off my headphones and dryed my eyes on my shirt. James asked if i was OK and I said, 'yeah man, that was a great take!' I looked at Regine with my red eyes and said, 'awesome!' and then I thought...'whose [sic] the pussy now?'"

Other highlights from Colburn's update include a segment where the Arcade Fire try to achieve a "Come Together"-like drum sound. Read the full update after the jump. [MORE...]

Video: Arcade Fire: "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)"

Harry Potter to Wyrd Sisters: Fuck You, Pay Me

You don't sue Radiohead. Even if we're only talking Phil Selway and Jonny Greenwood, you do not sue Radiohead! And you sure as hell don't sue Harry Potter. Such was the lesson learned by a few unfortunate folks in Canada recently.

In the fourth Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry, Ron, and Hermione attend a school dance where the tunes are supplied by a band called the Weird Sisters. As Goblet of Fire made its way closer and closer to the big screen, the film's creators hired some big-time rockers to play the band in the movie. Their picks? Selway, Greenwood, and Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker. [MORE...]

Video: The Horrors: "Sheena Is a Parasite" (directed by Chris Cunningham)

Turns out Sheena wasn't a punk rocker after all. In Chris Cunningham's first music video in seven years (his last one was for "Afrika Shox", by Leftfield and featuring Afrika Bambaataa), the director of videos by Björk and Aphex Twin turns Samantha Morton inside out to the tune of British punks the Horrors' "Sheena Is a Parasite". As if we needed more nightmare fodder from the man.

Video: The Horrors: "Sheena Is a Parasite"

Rock Camp for Girls Takes Over America

Ever heard of Coco Chanel and the Zeppelinettes? How about Hellish Relish, the Pink Kitties, or Smokestorm? Maybe not, but familiarize yourself-- these bands, fresh out of Brooklyn's Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, could be the next big thing. The camp, part of the nationwide Rock Camp for Girls network, is training the next generation [ages 6 to 18] of female rockers; its most successful graduate so far has been Jemina Pearl of Be Your Own Pet.

Rock Camp for Girls is a non-profit day camp that offers girls across the country the chance to learn an instrument, write songs, perform live music, make band buttons, t-shirts, and album art, and more. The camp isn't strictly limited to rock music either-- attendees can study hip hop, salsa, pop, and more, or invent their own genre altogether, no boys allowed.

(Editor's note: Where oh where was this camp when I was spending my summers making bracelets in the Arts & Crafts cabin?) [MORE...]

Stream: The Killers "When You Were Young"

And we have a title: The new Killers album will be called Sam's Town, and it's due out October 3 on Island Def Jam in the U.S.

I guess Sam's Club would have gotten them into some nasty copyright fights.

We also have a full version of the first single, "When You Were Young", for your streaming pleasure. I like it. A lot. Everyone else in the office hates it. I am not surprised.

Stream: The Killers: "When You Were Young"

Pixies Plan Live Acoustic DVD

Nearly 40 years after Bob Dylan plugged in the amp heard ‘round the world at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, the Pixies ventured a step back into the acoustic world at that same festival with a set of stripped-down versions of 22 of their best songs. Now the rest of us finally have something to show for it: the Pixies: Acoustic - Live in Newport DVD.

August 22 will see the release of the DVD on Eagle Rock Entertainment. In addition to the band's entire freshly reunited 2004 festival set, the DVD features a 21-minute behind-the-scenes look at rehearsals for the show (their acoustic debut!), including an attempt at deconstructing "Debaser", which ended up being cut from the final set list. [MORE...]

Video: The Pixies: "Velouria"

Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs: "Cheated Hearts"

Remember when we told you that you could do your best Karen O impression and end up in a Yeah Yeah Yeahs video? Well, we weren't lying, but it's too late now. The "Cheated Hearts" video is here, and it's chock full of look-alikes and cute kids (make sure to watch to the very end for the cutest).

The video made its world debut on Yahoo! Music yesterday, and the band are adamant about thanking their fans for all the hard work and ‘tude they put into their performances. However, it's not all fans and games, as the NY trio make several appearances in the video themselves.

According to a press release, "You can spot them among the doppelgangers. Or can you?" Hmm... might they be the ones with the professional looking footage labeled "New York, NY?" Come on, dudes, give us some credit.

Stream: Yeah Yeah Yeahs: "Cheated Hearts"

Wrens, Frank Black, Long Winters on TMBG Tribute

Bar/None is taking They Might Be Giants full circle. In honor of the 20^th anniversary of TMBG's eponymous first album, which came out on Bar/None in 1986, the new Jersey label (in conjunction with MM3 Records) has released Hello Radio, a tribute album to everyone's favorite educational rockers.

Contributors to the disc include Frank Black, the Wrens, OK Go, and the Long Winters. [MORE...]

Video: They Might Be Giants: "Ana Ng"

Weezer Finished?

Rivers Cuomo finally made it across the sea. According to an MTV.com interview with the Weezer frontman yesterday, not only is he married and hanging at his in-laws' place in Japan (ahh, it all falls into place), he may be saying goodbye to his band for good.

It's no surprise that Weezer are, at the very least, on hiatus right now. Not much has happened with the band since they dropped Make Believe back in 2005, including regular conversation.

"Well, the band is all back in Los Angeles, and I sometimes I speak with Patrick, and I occasionally e-mail with Brian and Scott, but we've never mentioned getting together," Cuomo told MTV. "Really, for the moment, we are done. And I'm not certain we'll ever make a record again, unless it becomes really obvious to me that we need to do one."

There you have it. Not that the dudes are fighting or anything dramatic like that (they all served as groomsmen at Cuomo's wedding last month); it may, in Weezer's collective mind, simply be time to move on. We couldn't agree more. [MORE...]

Video: Weezer: "Perfect Situation"

Devendra Plans New LP, Film

Nothing like finding an updated entry in front of the color-changing orb on Devendra Banhart's official website, especially when it brings tidings of a new album.

In late September, Banhart will begin recording his next record, the tentatively titled Smokey, though he warns readers that this name will most likely be given instead to a movie accompanying the album ("its [sic] a one or so hour collection of tours, the writing and recording of the album, and images that make up Devendras [sic] home and life, it will have sound but be mostly scored").

The album, his second for XL Recordings, will be recorded "mostly in California (half on the land and half on the sea, a boat is being rented to track on) and a little in Rio De Janeiro." The music is described as "half extremely mellow, breezy, one quarter melancholic drone bummer, and one quarter equatorial pop." Since "its [sic] been a rough year," "the album is about simple hopes."

Possible guests on the project include Vashti Bunyan, Linda Perhacs, Vetiver, Cibelle, Bat for Lashes, Moon and Moon, Bert Jansch, Hecuba, the Metallic Falcons' Matteah Baim, and more. Production will be handled by Banhart, Noah Georgeson, and possibly Arto Lindsay. [MORE...]

Stream: Devendra Banhart: "Chinese Children"

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.)