Battles completely destroyed Local 506 in Chapel Hill, NC Saturday night. If this show was any indication, the new record, Mirrored (due May 15th), is going to be amazing.
John Stanier (Tomahawk, ex-Helmet) on the drums is a fucking machine. Playing to all those loops is pretty much like playing to a metronome for 90 [...]

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I wouldn’t envy the task of following-up the accolades bestowed upon an album like Funeral. It was one of those fluke cultural bubbles, wherein a band rides a wave of impenetrable hype that escalates its record sales from 0 to pop-culture-reference-point in a matter of a few heavy-handed reviews. The trouble is The Arcade [...]

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Former Smiths bassist Andy Rourke (not one of Morrissey’s favorite people since he testified in Mike Joyce’s case against the former Smiths leader for back royalties) is organizing the line-up for the Versus Cancer Benefit, taking place in Manchester, England on March 30th. Echo & the Bunnymen, Peter Hook (New Order), Noel Gallager, Paul [...]

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Bjork’s album art has always been, uhh, eccentric, but Volta may be in the running for hands down ugliest- not only for Bjork album covers but also for the year. Here’s to hoping Timbaland doesn’t make her music sound like Japanese enema porn raining down on an elfin, Icelandic songstress.

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Nasty Little Man reports that Spoon has confirmed a July 13th release for its as yet untitled sixth full-length. The band is staying with the fine men and women at Merge. And, just for fun, here’s the tracklist, replete with colloquial misspellings (which presumably make much more sense when pronounced with Britt Daniel’s [...]

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The White Stripes are set to follow-up 2005’s Get Behind Me Satan with 13 songs recorded in Nashville, TN collectively - and ill-advisedly - known as Icky Thump. I’ve never understood why an album’s tracklist is newsworthy. Who cares what the songs are called? Is it just a matter of checking to see if [...]

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I was much more excited about Rhino’s Cure reissue series before they came out. So far, the band’s first seven albums (from 1979’s Three Imaginary Boys through 1987’s Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me) have been given the deluxe make-over. Rhino is doling them out in sets of three, and the good stuff has [...]

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It’s a slow news day when NME reports that 90’s big beat phenomenon The Chemical Brothers will release We Are the Night on Freestyle Dust/Virgin this June. It’s the follow-up to 2005’s somewhat overlooked Push the Button.
Only one show in the foreseeable future will take place at London’s Roundhouse, preceding the release on May 31st.
http://www.thechemicalbrothers.com/

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According to ExtraTV of all places, No Doubt plans to record a follow-up to 2001’s Rock Steady, says lead singer Gwen Stefani: “I’m sniffing around with No Doubt; we’re going to record another record next.”
And to celebrate 20 years as a band, No Doubt has just opened a YouTube channel with rare and exclusive [...]

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Bjork’s performance at this year’s Coachella kicks off her tour a few nights prior to the release of Volta, her seventh studio album. This alleged “world tour” is only running 16 dates, three of which are in New York and two in Canada. Seems pretty slack to me, but that’s probably because I’m annoyed [...]

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With a remix record (Interpretaciones del Oso) having just hit shelves a few weeks ago, Minus the Bear is finishing up the follow-up to 2005’s Menos el Oso with former member, Matt Bayles, behind the desk. Bayles left the band last year to focus on production and has recently worked with Mastadon and Isis. [...]

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Universal has acquired the rights to the frist 11 Elvis Costello albums, which run from 1976’s My Aim is True through 1986’s King of America. Despite the fact that two prior reissue sets from Rykodisc and Rhino and have bled Costello fans completely dry in the past decade, Universal claims this new batch will [...]

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Salon has a piece today reporting the FCC’s rulings in regard to payola and internet radio. Good news and bad news. The good news is moron-rock like Nickelback will have an infinitely harder time getting radio play. The bad news is internet radio broadcasters will have to pay royalties retroactive to the start of 2006, which will pretty [...]

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Surely, the likes of Sufjan Stevens, Bjork, Prince, and Elvis Costello will outweigh Sara McLachlan’s and Annie Lennox’s self-important Joni Mitchell interpretations (Mitchell herself despises 99.9% of contemporary female artists that cite her as an influence anyway), but nothing can save the presence of James Taylor’s moniker on that CD. Am I really [...]

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On its Myspace page (which it hasn’t check in over a year), under the “Sounds like” section, Hella’s description reads: “If crack was music, thrown into a blender with fruits. yeah.” And, honestly, that’s not too ridiculous of a way to characterize its frenetic, musically dense, freeform sound. Your first few encounters with Hella [...]

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Eccentric fruitcake producer, Phil Spector, is about to go on trial for the murder of Lana Clarkson, a former waitress/actor, who made an egregous error in judgment by joining Mr. Spector for a nightcap in his Hollywood castle in February of 2003. 
Set your Tivos, as this freakshow trial will be televised, of course. Spector’s responses to the allegations have [...]

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The reunion bandwagon leaves no one behind. Even the unintentional inventors of post-rock, Slint, whose 1991 masterpiece, Spiderland, spawned many a pale imitation. Its home, Touch and Go, has posted an update on the band’s latest, reluctant regrouping: “Slint has been preparing for shows this summer. They want to play music together and have decided [...]

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After touring five countries in support of her debut, Alright Still, Allen admits she’s “slightly bored”, adding on her Myspace blog, “Life is weird at the moment. Is it really important to break America? If it is I have to write my life off for the next 9 months, playing the same gig answering [...]

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Madonna will guest star on next season’s Nip/Tuck, which suits both the show’s unabashed ridiculousness and Madonna’s non-acting career perfectly. She’ll probably strip and get humiliated by Julian McMahon’s Dr. Troy, which, admittedly, could be amusing. If anything, the woman does remain well-toned. Then, she can write a another shambolic children’s book to cleanse herself of [...]

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