Pitchfork: Today

News: Coldplay Announce North American Tour

Fri, 09 May 2008 11:00:00 -0500

Now that Coldplay have revealed the release details, first song, and cover art for Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (which, if their previously pleasant/innocuous musical habits hold, could win an award for most incongruously violent album cover ever), it's time for the band to unveil the live portion of their world domination plan. They've done just that with the announcement of the North American leg of their upcoming world tour (via Billboard.com / Coldplay's website).

Even more dates are yet to be announced, but following that pair of free shows, the tour is scheduled to kick off June 29 in Philly.

Viva la Vida comes out just a week and a half earlier: June 16 via Parlophone in the UK and June 17 via Capitol in the U.S. [MORE...]

MP3: Coldplay: Violet Hill [from the forthcoming Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends LP]

News: Vampire Weekend, Battles, Deerhunter Play Accelerator

Fri, 09 May 2008 10:30:00 -0500

So do Band of Horses, Stars, Fuck Buttons, St. Vincent, Hercules and Love Affair

The Accelerator festival will rev through Stockholm, Sweden once again in 2008. Just like last year, Accelerator has an ace lineup, including sets from Band of Horses, Vampire Weekend, Hercules and Love Affair, Battles, Stars, Deerhunter, El Perro del Mar, St. Vincent, Fuck Buttons, Black Kids, MGMT, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Those Dancing Days, Foals, the Teenagers, Wildbirds & Peacedrums, and Duffy.

Accelerator 2008 will take place in Stockholm's München-Bryggeriet (translation: München Brewery) on June 24 and 25.

News: Stereolab Announce North American Tour

Fri, 09 May 2008 09:35:00 -0500

When we spoke with Stereolab's Tim Gane a few weeks back about the veteran group's forthcoming album Chemical Chords, he mentioned a North American tour the band were plotting around September. Let it never be said Mr. Gane is not a man of his word.

Plans for Stereolab to wind their way across the continent are presently in place, with the dates kicking off September 20 in Costa Mesa, California. Openers for the first leg of the tour are still up in the air, but Laetitia Sadier will play double duty on the second leg, as her side project Monade is scheduled to take the stage before Stereolab.

Chemical Chords is due August 18 worldwide and August 19 in the U.S. via Duophonic UHF Disks/4AD. [MORE...]

Video: Stereolab: Three Women [from the Chemical Chords LP]

News: Talkdemonic Prep New LP, Tour With Helio Sequence

Thu, 08 May 2008 15:05:00 -0500

The third LP from Portland's symphonically synthy duo Talkdemonic, Eyes at Half Mast, is due September 2 from the Arena Rock Recording Company. The band road-tested the set's 14 tunes over months of extensive touring, bringing those tunes to the height of their demonic-ness before committing them to tape.

Talkdemonic have plans to get back out there in June with a handful of dates well in advance of Half Mast's release, most of which find them in close proximity to fellow PDXers the Helio Sequence. [MORE...]

Video: Talkdemonic: Mountain Cats [from the Beat Romantic LP]

News: Andrew Bird, Jon Brion, Fiona Apple in L.A. Club Doc

Thu, 08 May 2008 14:45:00 -0500

Plus: Flight on the Conchords, Patton Oswalt, Fred Armisen, Sarah Silverman, Aimee Mann

Earlier this week, Los Angeles venue Largo closed its doors for the last time. Fear not, left coast live music nuts: Largo will open an entirely different set of doors when they move to the former Coronet Theatre next month. But in celebration of the Largo Los Angelenos have come to know and love, owner Mark Flanagan and filmmaker Andrew van Baal have teamed up for Largo, a new documentary film about the storied nightspot.

And what a sendoff the Largo flick will be, sporting as it does musical performances from Andrew Bird, Flight of the Conchords, Fiona Apple, Jon Brion (who held a residency at Largo for some time), Eels frontman Mark Oliver "E" Everett, David Garza, Jackson Browne, Grant Lee Phillips, Tom Brousseau, Aimee Mann and hubby Michael Penn, Men at Work vocalist Colin Hay, Nickel Creek, and a whole slew of others.

Largo also made a point to make with the funny, and a ton of yuk-makers pop up in the film, including P4k office boy Fred Armisen, Zach Galifianakis, Patton Oswalt, Sarah Silverman, Greg Proops, Paul F. Tompkins, and John C. Reilly. The film makes its world premiere June 22 at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

Video: Largo: Trailer

News: Country Music Legend Eddy Arnold, R.I.P.

Thu, 08 May 2008 13:55:00 -0500

The world lost a country music legend today. Singer Eddy Arnold, a chart staple for many years, passed away near Nashville this morning, according to reports in The New York Times and on Billboard.com. He was just a week shy of his 90th birthday.

Arnold rose to prominence in the years immediately following World War II, earning the nickname "The Tennessee Plowboy" and deploying a string of hits that dominated the country charts from the late 1940s on through the late 1960s. Indeed, his presence on the country charts is unmatched to this day. Arnold continued recording well into this decade, releasing his 100th album, After All This Time, in 2005. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1966.

Later in his career, the crooner shed his plowboy image and adopted an urban gentleman look that complemented his songs' new lush arrangements. Those songs, which include hits "Make the World Go Away", "Somebody Like Me", and "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye", often towed a line between the traditional country & western style and a more mainstream pop sensibility. Two of Arnold's songs were later covered by Elvis Presley, whom Arnold is said to have influenced.

The singer, whose wife passed away earlier this year, is survived by two children, two grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Eddy Arnold: "Make the World Go Away"

Eddy Arnold: "The Richest Man (in the World)"

News: Yazoo/Yaz Plan Reunion Tour, Prep Box Set, EP

Thu, 08 May 2008 10:00:00 -0500

Get remixed by Hercules and Love Affair

The 1980s sure were a funny time, and here to remind us just how funny are Yazoo (or just Yaz to us Yanks), reunited after over 25 years apart! Vocalist Alison Moyet and Depeche Mode descendent Vince Clarke have cast aside whatever differences kept them from each other for a quarter century plus and planned a big happy reunion tour.

The "Yazoo Reconnected" trek begins May 26 in Copenhagen and winds its way around Europe before hopping the pond and heading to the U.S. in July.

As for whether Moyet and Clarke are buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and throwing their computer out the window because they want to make a new Yazoo record, well, that remains to be seen. But the duo does have a couple releases of note in the pipeline.

The first is In Your Room, a four disc box set collecting both of Yazoo's studio albums-- 1982's Upstairs at Eric's and 1983's You and Me Both-- along with a disc of B-sides and rarities and a DVD collecting music videos, television performances, 5.1 and stereo mixes of both albums, and a short film entitled 2 Albums, 4 Singles and That Was It.... Whew! Mute will unleash In Your Room in the UK and mainland Europe on May 26.

To get folks primed for the box set and help remind them that Yazoo is not, in fact, some kind of internet search engine, Mute will hit overseas audiences with the Nobody's Diary EP on May 12. Available in both 12" and digital formats, the EP sports the classic track off You and Me Both along with a bunch of remixes, including one from Erasure's Andy Bell.

And the newly revived Yazoo is all about the remixes lately, having posted quite a few additional ones to their website in recent weeks-- including Mute labelmate Hercules and Love Affair's take on Yazoo megahit "Situation"! Let that one wash over you by following the link below. [MORE...]

Video: Yazoo: Various Tracks
Stream: Yazoo: Situation (Hercules & Love Affair Mix)

News: Adem Takes on Aphex Twin, YLT, Bjork, Breeders on LP

Wed, 07 May 2008 16:30:00 -0500

Who is that man behind the colorful dots and recently featured in Forkcast? Why it's Adem Ilhan, Kieran Hebden's Fridge bandmate and releaser of solo albums under his own first name. Thanks to the folks at Domino, the third of Adem's solo albums will arrive quite soon. The label will issue Takes in Europe on May 12 and in North America on June 3.

Takes is a covers album collecting Adem's, ahem, takes on some of his favorite tunes released between 1991 and 2001. This includes tracks by Björk, Yo La Tengo, Aphex Twin, Smashing Pumpkins, Low, Tortoise, PJ Harvey, and the Breeders, to name just eight of 12.

Providing an even niftier listening experience, the instrumentation on Takes is typically unusual. There are sounds on the record from an Appalachian dulcimer, an EBow, harmoniums, glockenspiels, a banjolele, an autoharp, and found items such as cups and bike locks. There are also pianos, violins, and acoustic guitars.

Takes' tracklist, complete with original artists in brackets, lies after the jump.

Adem has a handful of shows scheduled this month in support of Takes, all in his native England. [MORE...]

MP3: Adem: To Cure a Weakling Child / Boy/Girl Song (Aphex Twin covers) [from the forthcoming Takes LP]

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