Of Montreal sinks the States to find us

Our moods will shift, shift back to good again after we hear the rumbling, synth-happy "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse" on Of Montreal's upcoming U.S. tour. After releasing Icons, Abstract Thee the companion EP to this year's full-length Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? in May, the band shipped off overseas and is currently tripping Brits out. Catch them in almost every nook and/or cranny: September: 28 - Carrboro, N.C. @ Cat's Cradle October: 2 - Knoxville, Tenn. @ Bijou Theatre* 3 - Urbana, Ill. @ Canopy Club* 4 - Milwaukee, Wis. @ Pabst Theatre* 5 - Minneapolis, Minn....  read more

R.I.P. Michelangelo Antonioni (1912-2007)

Less than 24 hours after the death Ingmar Bergman, fellow director Michelangelo Antonioni has also died. One of the most important directors in Italy following the era of the neorealists in Italy, Antonioni came to international prominence with L’avventura, which brought his unique visual style and elliptical, oftentimes nonexistent storytelling to larger audiences. After several other successful films, he created the masterpiece and cult favorite Blowup. The film combined an uncompromising depiction of a strained reality with frank depictions of sexuality and drug use. Trailblazing in a number of ways, it eventually went on to be one of the best...  read more

Help yourself to more Sea and Cake this fall

There’s nothing shameful about a second helping of Sea and Cake, especially when it’s been years since you last indulged. The Chicago four-piece will tour the states once again this fall to promote Everybody, its first LP since 2003’s One Bedroom. Grab a plate, get in line and don't fight over the hometown end piece: September: 14 - Minneapolis, Minn. @ Varsity Theater 15 - Madison, Wis. @ High Noon Saloon 17 - Columbia, Mo. @ Blue Note 18 - Memphis, Tenn. @ Young Avenue Deli 20 - Austin, Texas @ The Parish 21 - Dallas, Texas @ House of...  read more

David Bazan, Casiotone tickets on pre-sale

Convenience charges be damned! The music of David Bazan and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone is sad enough without people having to go broke over it. So get excited to get down - in the sorrowful sense, not the dance party sense - by taking advantage of the service fee-less pre-sale for his September dates with CFTPA. Dubbed one of the 100 Best Living Songwriters in Paste Issue 22, the former Pedro the Lion frontman recently released a 10-song, practically-an-album EP titled Fewer Moving Parts. He also covered Radiohead’s “Let Down” (of course) for Stereogum’s OKX: A Tribute to OK...  read more

New Podcast previews Josh Ritter's latest album

Today's podcast has a special sneak peak into Josh Ritter's new album The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter, live tracks from The Alternate Routes, Marc Broussard, and Peter Searcy, and new music from A Shoreline Dream, The Bad Plus and Eldar. Subscribe to the enhanced podcast ~ or ~ Subscribe to the mp3 podcast. ~ or ~ Download mp3 of this episode only. Related links: Paste Culture Club JoshRitter.com TheAlternateRoutes.com Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com ...  read more

Jens Lekman's generous new album

To readers of Paste, Kortedala, a residential neighborhood in Gothenburg, Sweden, is already well known as a prime example of Sweden’s socially minded housing developments of the 1950s. But Kortedala is more than a seminal piece of urban planning, and Swedish singer-songwriter Jens Lekman will prove it to you. It makes sense that Lekman would name his third album Night Falls Over Kortedala, since his beautifully arranged music has much in common with the clean, Nordic lines of postwar Swedish architecture. Also, his studio, Kortedala Beauty Center, is located there. Kortedala will be released on Secretly Canadian on October 9...  read more

Black Lips release video for "Katrina"

What is the best color? Dwight Schrute might say that it is black, since it is the most powerful. And Atlanta-based Black Lips might agree, as they are named for lips of just such a strong, assertive tone. But if their new cinematic statement is anything to go by, the Lips may have just embraced a broader, more lively palette. Our comrades over at The FADER have posted the video for “Katrina,” which can be found right here. “Katrina” is a single from their upcoming album, Good Bad Not Evil, which is out this fall on Vice Records. Expect an...  read more

Keith Richards' autobiography costs only $7 million

Like baby boomers during the A Bigger Band tour, publishing companies are waving obscene amounts of money at Keith Richards, hoping to secure the rights to the Rolling Stone guitarist’s autobiography. Publishers are reportedly offering Richards an advance as high as $7.3 million, a staggering figure when you consider how little of his life Richards probably remembers. Fans are hoping for (and rumors are promising) stories about Richards’ two famous arrests and his flings with fashion models, but here’s hoping ol’ Keith just remembers to be kind to his ghost writer, who will no doubt be undertaking the task of...  read more

Okkervil River tours a lot

Sometimes we presents you with a news headline so succinct, concise, and utterly elegant that to add anything else would seem like overkill. But you know, the word “overkill” sort of looks like the word “Okkervil,” as in “Okkervil River,” as in the Austin-based band whose new album The Stage Names will be released on August 7 on Jagjaguwar Records. Did you see what we just did there? A long list of tour dates: August: 30 - Albuquerque, NM - Launchpad 31 - Phoenix, AZ - The Brickhouse September: 3 - San Diego, N.M. @ Casbah 4 - Los Angeles,...  read more

Jamie Lidell cozies up with Beck in the studio

Above: Not Zach Braff Ah, Los Angeles: the only place on earth where even the mannequins are, well, buxom. The city—Beck and Jamie Lidell’s recent recording place of choice—is home to Infrared Sound Recording Co. Engaging in direct-to-disc recordings at the studio, Pitchfork reports the tourmates are opting for equipment that put their live performances onto vinyl masters, later to be turned into singles. Brit soul-o-meter Lidell and the unpredictable alt-rocker's sessions will be released in the indeterminable future. Related links: 4 to Watch: Jamie Lidell Beck.com The Impenetrable Beck Hansen Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com. ...  read more

Ingmar Bergman dies at age 89

Ingmar Bergman, the greatest Swedish director and one of the hallmarks of art cinema theaters for the past 50 years, died earlier this morning at his Faro island home near the coast of Sweden. A cause of death is not yet known but it's believed to have been from natural causes related to his age. Bergman was noted for bringing a personal, almost novelistic quality to films previously unknown. While he had been directing plays and even some films for several years at the time, his breakthrough came in 1950 with Summer Interlude (Sommarlek). With this effort, telling the story...  read more

We Are Wolves make Magique happen

We are Wolves, former Paste Band of the Week, will release its sophomore album, Total Magique on Dare to Care records this October. Yep, another wolf band, yadda yadda yadda. Wanna make somethin’ of it? Call the group Nous Sommes Loup if it makes you feel more hip/keeps your brain better organized. The Montreal electro-punk band occasionally sings in French, after all. Only two shows are scheduled so far, but the number is bound to multiply, like the deer and lemming population in this country after we turned the band’s animal namesake into an endangered species. Amirite? September: 20...  read more

Redwalls announce new album, tour dates

Former British Invasion cover band (turned-British Invasion throwback band) the Redwalls will release their self-titled MAD Dragon Records LP on Oct. 23. Steering clear of the layered effect on previous releases, The Redwalls was recorded live to tape and produced by Tore Johansson (Franz Ferdinand, OK Go). The Chicago-based group mentions one song that “mixes dance beats with a powerful attack of guitars” and another containing “old school ass shaking 60s stomp.” So it seems they’re still throwing it back, but with varying degrees of launch, if that makes sense. Get a preview when they begin touring on Wednesday: August:...  read more

First annual Blackwater lineup announced

The walls in America’s oldest European settlement will reverberate roots-rock and soul on Sept. 2 during JJ Grey & MOFRO’s first ever Blackwater Sol Revue. As if the alligator farm in St. Augustine, Fla. wasn’t thrilling enough, now the tourist town will host Grammy award-winners Los Lobos, “swamp funk” artist Tony Joe White, MOFRO itself and others for a festival christening a newly renovated amphitheater. The festival lasts but a day, freeing the rest of the weekend for good times at the beach, fort and - no foolin’ – Fountain of Youth National Archaeological Park. If you want to fill...  read more

Stream Travis Morrison's All Y'all

Former Dismemberment Plan front man Travis Morrison has served up a streaming plate of All Y’all on his soothingly-lavender/fuscia homepage, weeks before the new album's official Aug. 21 release on Barsuk. Mostly written in 2005, bits and pieces of All Y’all floated in the mystical, sad land of unsung songs while Morrison spent time in church choirs and volunteer organizations. Finally, in late 2006, he and the Hellfighters brought the tunes back to life in recording sessions with ex-Dismemberment Plan guitarist, Jason Caddell. No tour plans so far – just some hometown D.C. shows on Sept. 1 at IOTA...  read more

Architecture in Helsinki adds U.S. tour dates

Come fall, Aussie sextet Architecture in Helsinki will be in places like Philadelphia, Chicago, and even Salt Lake City. The group’s third album, Places Like This, will be released in the U.S. on August 21, and AiH will be touring stateside in October and November. The group is currently touring Europe and will make their first ever stop in Helsinki on August 18 (a can’t miss for those of you who missed I’m From Barcelona’s show in Barcelona.) U.S. tour dates: October: 10 - Philadelphia, Pa. @ Starlight Ballroom 11 - New York, N.Y. @ The Gramercy Theatre 12 -...  read more

Bottom of the Hudson bassist dies in auto accident

[Above: Image of Trevor Butler from the band's MySpace] Brooklyn-based rockers Bottom of the Hudson lost 28-year-old bassist Trevor Butler in a fatal van accident yesterday, according to a statement from Absolutely Kosher records. Drummer Greg Lytle has stabilized in intensive care, while members Eli Simon, Michael Prince and William Chesterton Chambers suffered minor injuries. The accident happened on the group’s drive home after its final East Coast tour date, when a tire blew out on I-40 in Clinton, N.C. and sent the tour van out of control, “flipping multiple times.” Both Butler and Lytle joined Bottom of the Hudson...  read more

Dwight Yoakam sings the hits of Buck Owens

When country music legend Buck Owens paired up with relative newcomer Dwight Yoakam in 1988 to record “Streets of Bakersfield,” the duet became Owens’ first single in 16 years. Owens was motivated to record new albums and perform nearly every weekend at Bakersfield’s Crystal Palace, including the night of his fatal heart attack in March, 2006. In his honor, Yoakam’s band began adding Owens’ classics to its setlist. Eventually, the homage developed into Dwight Sings Buck, a 15-track tribute album featuring covers of “Act Naturally,” “My Heart Skips a Beat” and other hits, out Oct. 25 on New West Records....  read more

I’m From Barcelona loves Britney, plays shows

The demise of Britney Spears may have isolated her fan base, but at least she has 29 Swedish fans. Sort of. I’m From Barcelona’s b-side and tribute “Britney” will be available on the group's digital single “We’re From Barcelona”-the second off the band's debut Let Me Introduce My Friends-at the end of July. The ensemble band will also get its first U.S. passport stamp to come play in the States. Unfortunately, if you’re not from the Windy City or Big Apple, you can't catch them live: August: 4 – Chicago, Ill. @ Lollapalooza 5 – Brooklyn, N.Y. @ McCarren Park...  read more

The White Stripes Play Us a Little Number

Jack and Meg White celebrate a decade playing together as The White Stripes by releasing yet another stellar album, Icky Thump...  read more