Ted Leo Announces More Shows

Fans feeling the tyranny of distance between themselves and Ted can catch him at the following shows:

06-14 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero *
07-08 Columbia, MD - Merriweather Post Pavilion !
07-28 Lansing, MI - Temple Club +$
07-29 Chicago, IL - Union Park (Pitchfork Music Festival) %
07-31 Indianapolis, IN - Emerson Theatre +^
08-01 Columbus, OH - Little Brothers +^
08-25 New York, NY - South Street Seaport (Seaport Music Festival) #
09-12 Memphis, TN - Hi Tone Café
09-13 New Orleans, LA - The Parish at House of Blues
09-15 Austin, TX - Zilker Park (Austin City Limits Festival)
09-16 Houston, TX - Walter's

* with Bouncing Souls, Mooney Suzuki, This Day and Age, Eugene Mirman
! with Belle & Sebastian, Broken Social Scene
+ with Jai-Alai Savant
$ with Thunderbirds Are Now!
% with Os Mutantes, Mission of Burma, Yo La Tengo, Spoon, Aesop Rock, Jens Lekman, the National, Danielson, Tapes 'n Tapes, Diplo, Dominik Eulberg, Glenn Kotche, Ada, Tarantula A.D., CSS, Bonde Do Role, Jeff Parker/Nels Cline Quartet
^ with Red Eyed Legends
# with DC Snipers

Fiery Furnaces Launch Tour Tonight

Like on their European tour in May, Eleanor and Matthew are joined by Bob D'Amico on drums and Jason Lowenstein (ex-Sebadoh) on bass and plan on playing "long sets" that cull from all of the band's albums, according to their website. Also, Matthew plans on playing guitar rather than piano.

"We don't like bands that attempt to replicate-- or accidentally replicate-- their records at their live shows," they say on their website. "And we feel well justified in this aversion to that sort of un-natural, un-necessary, mutant-izing or cloning." So don't go showing up at their gigs expecting some mutant cloning, OK? That's just not their scene.

On fire:

06-08 Detroit, MI - St. Andrew's Hall
06-09 Milwaukee, WI - The Rave
06-12 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards
06-13 Seattle, WA - Neumos
06-15 San Francisco, CA - Fillmore
06-15 San Francisco, CA - Amoeba Records (in-store)
06-16 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theatre
06-16 Los Angeles, CA - Amoeba Records (in-store)
06-17 San Diego, CA - Epicentre
06-19 Salt Lake City, UT - In the Venue
06-20 Denver, CO - Bluebird Theatre
06-22 Omaha, NE - Sokol Auditorium
06-23 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
06-24 Chicago, IL - Metro
06-25 Cincinnati, OH - Desdemona Festival
06-27 Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts
06-29 New York, NY - Webster Hall
06-30 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
07-05 Auckland, New Zealand - 4:20
07-07 Melbourne, Australia - East Brunswick Club
07-08 Sydney, Australia - Gaelic Theatre
07-09 Brisbane, Australia - The Zoo
07-14 Ottawa, Ontario - Ottawa Blues Festival
07-15 Toronto, Ontario - Historic Fort York
07-17 Montreal, Quebec - Jacques Cartier Pier

Exclusive: Kele Okereke Talks New Bloc Party Album

On the phone from his London flat yesterday, head Bloc Partier Kele Okereke filled Pitchfork in on the status of his band's sophomore effort. "We haven't finished recording; I guess we're about halfway through," he said. The band was working in Dublin, Ireland until recently; they plan to finish the record later this summer after their upcoming North American tour.

Jacknife Lee is producing the album. In addition to his work with U2 and Snow Patrol, he's also produced Kasabian and Editors, remixed Pink, TLC, Run-DMC, and Christina Aguilera, and released his own big-beat techno albums. (Oh, and he used to be the guitarist in that post-grunge band Compulsion. We don't remember them either.)

When asked if Lee's dance music career has affected the sound of the record, Okereke replied, "We're really in the elementary stages of recording, but I think he's very up for shaking up how we finish things. So I'll know that by the end of the summer once the album has been recorded. It seemed we listened to the same sorts of things and our ideas seemed to be really on the same page."

Okereke said that Lee made him a mix CD of "tracks that he found inspiring", including "lots of classical, actually, lots of György Ligeti. I was really impressed by the use of dissonance and space and texture." The mix also included music by Isolée, and Amerie's "1 Thing", which Okereke called "one of my favorite songs of the last ten years."

He added, "I was literally obsessed with that song. The thing about that song, what I find really inspiring about modern r&b, is it really sounds like it was assembled on the computer, the pickings of samples and building the song around that. There's a sense where it seems to be just stuck together, and that's something that I'm hoping we can try to somehow bring out in the record that we're making. Essentially, yeah, we're a live band, but I'd like to get some bricolage going on."

While we'd love to hear what Rich Harrison could do with Bloc Party, one producer the band doesn't plan on working with in the near future is Paul "Phones" Epworth, who helmed their debut, Silent Alarm. "I think Paul's a great guy, a great producer, but it probably wouldn't have done us any favors working with the same producer two albums in a row," Okereke said. "We're trying to work with different people, it gives you different aspects of your sound, which is really crucial."

Okereke confirmed that the album will feature the songs "Waiting for the 718", "Uniform", "Perfect Teens" (formerly known as "Machine"), "England" (formerly "Blue Moon"), and "Song for Clay" (formerly "Merge on the Freeway"), inspired by the main character of Bret Easton Ellis' novel Less Than Zero. The songs "Cells Shaped Like Stars" and "Kreuzberg" are also being considered, but aren't definitely going to be included.

While the album title hasn't been confirmed yet, Okereke said that he has some ideas. "It's really, to me, very much an album about living in the city and I think a lot of the themes resonating on the record are pretty much about everyday living in the metropolis. So I guess the title's really gonna represent that for me."

He also mentioned that the band plans to bring in a string section and outside vocalists to contribute to the album. Strings and guests on a sophomore album?! Shocker!

Bloc Party hit the road later this month, traveling across North America before a couple of English festival dates.

Get this party started:

06-24 Toronto, Ontario - Olympic Island *+
06-25 Chicago, IL - Union Park (Intonation Festival)
07-28 Boston, MA - Bank of America Pavilion @#
07-29 Brooklyn, NY - McCarran Pool @#
08-01 Anaheim, CA - The Grove +$
08-03 Los Angeles, CA - Greek Theatre #+$
08-04 Berkeley, CA - Greek Theatre #+$
08-05 San Diego, CA - Street Scene Festival #
08-08 Mexico City, Mexico - TBA
08-09 Houston, TX - Warehouse Live #
08-10 Austin, TX - Stubbs BBQ #
08-19 Chelmsford, England - Hylands Park (V Festival)
08-20 Staffordshire, England - Western Park (V Festival)

* with Feist, Raising the Fawn, J Mascis
+ with Broken Social Scene
@ with Secret Machines
# with Mew
$ with Two Gallants

Air, Jarvis Cocker Guest on Charlotte Gainsbourg LP

Singer/actress/Serge Gainsbourg spawn Charlotte Gainsbourg has this formula down pat. Everyone may have forgotten her 1986 debut Charlotte Forever (or never really known it in the first place), but a recent Billboard story reports that the daughter of everyone's favorite creep will be collaborating with Air, Jarvis Cocker, and producer Nigel Godrich on her new album, 5:55.

Cocker and the Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon contribute lyrics, and David Campbell (aka Beck's dad) arranges strings on the album, which is scheduled for release August 28 in Europe and September 4 in the UK. A North American release date has not yet been scheduled.

Gainsbourg previously appeared on Badly Drawn Boy's 2002 album Have You Fed the Fish? and Madonna's Music (she's the French chick at the beginning of "What It Feels Like for a Girl").

Deerhoof, Six Organs Added to Thurston Moore's ATP

The festival, which takes place December 8-10 at Butlins Holiday Resort in Minehead, Somerset, England now features: Sonic Youth, Iggy & the Stooges, Deerhoof, Wolf Eyes, Wooden Wand, Six Organs of Admittance, Bardo Pond, Jackie-O Motherfucker, Charalambides, My Cat Is an Alien, the Skaters, Melvins, Magik Markers, Alexander Tucker, Sunburned Hand of the Man, and Richard Youngs. Yikes!

Tickets include three days of shows and three nights of accommodations, so concertgoers can sleep soundly even as the Nightmare rages on.

Scissor Sisters Reveal New Album Details

Although the band has yet to reveal a complete tracklist, Ta-Dah will probably feature some of the new material that the Sisters have been performing live on stage all the way since Live 8 last year. According to Billboard.com, "Hairbaby", "Monkey Baby", "Paul McCartney", "She's My Man", and "Everybody Wants the Same Thing," are all likely candidates for the final track list. The band is also rumored to have collaborated with another one of their idols, Roxy Music singer Bryan Ferry. So much fabulousness...I think I'm going to explode!

More information about Ta-Dah will appear on the band's new website, which arrives on the interweb June 30.

This summer, the Scissors Sisters will take their glam-pop around the globe, headlining festivals (and one Bestival) in amusement parks, in open air cinemas, even under the big top at Sydney, Australia's Luna Park. It'll be a leather-pants-wearing, disco-ball-whirling circus. As opposed to the other kind.

Take your mama:

07-02 Werchter, Belgium - Rock Werchter 2006
07-07 Gydnia, Poland - Heineken Open Air
07-09 Novi Sad, Serbia - Exit Festival
07-15 New York, NY - Coney Island (Siren Festival)
07-20 Benicassim, Spain - Benicassim Festival
07-23 Byron Bay, Australia - Splendour in the Grass Festival
07-26 Syndey, Australia - Luna Park
07-29 Niigata, Japan - Fuji Rock Festival
08-11 Budapest, Hungary - Sziget Festival
08-12 Leipzig, Germany - Maggs Music Hall (Sonne, Mond & Sterne Festival)
08-17 Salzburg, Austria - Frequency Festival
08-18 Hasselt, Belgium - Pukkelpop Festival
08-19 Biddinghuizen, Holland - Lowlands Festival
09-10 Isle of Wight, England - Bestival

Art Brut, Stars, Man Man to Play Siren Fest

July 15 is this year's lucky date, and Man Man, Scissor Sisters, Serena Maneesh, the Rogers Sisters, Deadboy & the Elephantmen, and Priestess have just been added to the lineup, which also features Stars, Art Brut, Tapes 'n Tapes, the Stills, She Wants Revenge, the Cribs, Celebration, Dirty on Purpose, and the MisShapes DJs.

Pretty good lineup, but until the Voice brings Chuck Eddy back, we're still totally mad at them.

Grandaddy's Lytle Auctions Absurd Items for Charity

In two eBay auctions (one started on May 26, the other starts today), former Grandaddy frontman Jason Lytle put his "most prized possessions" up for the bidding. These include the aforementioned trucker hats, as well as sunglasses, books from his library (including Liberace's biography!), copies of Grandaddy's latest album Just Like the Fambly Cat with one-of-a-kind hand-drawn cover art, posters, pins, and a needlepoint cat pillow with the inscription "Meow Meow Meow". Most of this stuff is autographed.

Besides helping fans cope with the loss of Grandaddy, the auctions will benefit two charitable causes, the Emmett O'Loughlin Fund and the National Wildlife Federation. While you're watching the bids, you can pass the time with the action-packed 'Grandaddy Game' (linked below).

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.)