The Devil Stole the Beat returns to Atlanta
[Above: Rising Appalachia live at Decatur CD] The Devil Stole the Beat will return to Atlanta this week, and organizers are promising three nights of performances from some of the country’s finest emerging artists. The event’s eighth installment will kick off with a launch party Wednesday night (Feb. 20) at Cypress Street Bar (6th and Cypress), and continue with artist showcases Thursday and Friday night at Smith’s Olde Bar (1580 Piedmont Ave NE), hosted by BMI and ASCAP. Paste will join PureVolume.com and DiscRevolt as sponsors of this year’s event. The Paste stage will feature performances by artists including Matthew... read more
"World's greatest" music collection on eBay for $3 million
Paul Mawhinney, a 69-year old Pittsburgh man, is selling off his old record collection. Nothing too unusual about that, except that Mawhinney happens to own one of the largest collections of music in the world. The result of 60 years of obsessive music hunting, the collection covers the span of American recorded music, “from Edison to American Idol,” as written on Mawhinney’s website, TheGreatestMusicCollection.com. The collection is up for auction on eBay, and the lucky winner will be purchasing over three million records, 300,000 CDs and the unmerciful envy of every record geek on the planet. To listen to the... read more
Yeasayer reveals “Wait for the Summer” video
How do we know that Yeasayer’s a buzz band? For one thing, it appeared as a Band of the Week back in January on these very (web) pages. And for another thing, when we wrote about Yeasayer’s tour with MGMT, we used the word “buzz” in the title. But perhaps you need some arty, visual evidence to legitimize your enthusiasm. Well, you’re in luck, unbeliever, because the band has just premiered its loopy video for “Wait for the Summer,” off of 2007’s acclaimed All Hour Cymbals. The video features bugs, apples, and general trippiness, resulting in a whole other kind... read more
Nick Hornby adapts An Education for the screen
Three Nick Hornby novels have been turned into films, and one of them even got that honor twice. High Fidelity and About a Boy were both turned into movies, and Fever Pitch was first turned into a British film (for which Hornby wrote the screenplay), and then into a movie with Jimmy Fallon. And now there’s An Education, the screenplay of which Hornby adapted. Unlike his other filmic experiences, Education is not based on a book by Hornby, but on a memoir by Lynn Barber, originally published in Granta. The film has quite the cast, including Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina... read more
Spoon plans tour, preps remix EP
Not content to hide behind their shades (see above), those fellas in Spoon, the pride of Merge Records, are set to release a single/EP April 8, featuring their cover of The Natural History's "Don't You Evah." The track will appear on the EP as it did on last July's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, but the eight-song collection will also include the original version as performed by The Natural History. Additionally, the disc features a new Spoon song, "All I Got Is Me," as well as remixes by Diplo, DJ Amaze, Alan Astor, Ted Leo and Matthew Dear. The final... read more
Bell X1: Flock
There’s Marissa, this week giving the lesbian lifestyle... read more
USA Network acquires rights to all four Indiana Jones films
Amidst a new surge in TV networks buying unreleased movies, the USA Network has managed to land the rights to the fourth installment of the Indiana Jones franchise. Variety reports that USA acquired Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull along with the original trilogy at a total price of about $40 million, depending on how well the movie does box office-wise. With this purchase, the Indy franchise joins a long list of blockbuster sequels USA has racked up, including all three Pirates of the Caribbean, the two National Treasure movies, Ocean's Thirteen and The Bourne Ultimatum. But... read more
Be Kind Rewind
Although filmmaker Michel Gondry is best known for lush, dreamlike... read more
4 to Watch: Throw Me The Statue
Scott Reitherman says his previous band Flag Signs “imploded” before finishing its first recording sessions. Taking control, Reitherman decided to make an album on his own under the moniker Throw Me The Statue... read more
4 to Watch: Bon Iver
Justin Vernon had a rough 2006. His longtime band, DeYarmond Edison, broke up soon after relocating from Wisconsin to North Carolina; then he was slammed with severe mononucleosis, and was bedridden for three months... read more
4 to Watch: Estelle
Though her two-pronged attack as a rapper and vocalist has rightly earned her a reputation as the U.K.’s answer to Lauryn Hill, Estelle Swaray’s breakthrough hit “1980” was a classic more in keeping with Loretta Lynn’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter”... read more
4 to Watch: Thao
Thao Nguyen’s scrappy folksongs—a blend of acoustic strums and brainy lyrics—have already earned the 23-year-old songwriter heaps of critical acclaim... read more
Black Kids announce U.S. tour dates
The boogie-lovin' Jacksonville, Fla., five-piece known as Black Kids had a hell of an '07. Starting in August, they wowed the crowds at Athens Popfest, which was swiftly followed by a cascade of blog posts and swooning reviews of the band's sole output to date: a self-released demo/four-song EP entitled Wizard of Ahhhs that, until recently, the band was offering for free download on its website. The poppy upstarts garnered a dedicated post on the New York Times blog during the weeklong, can't-stop-the-music CMJ Marathon, and there's no rumble strips in sight for '08, either. Black Kids have already been... read more
Catching Up With... The Mountain Goats
"The way I talk transcribes so badly," says Mountain Goats frontman John Darnielle. "You will find out. My sentences are very, very long, and you don't know where to put any punctuation marks. I just wind up sounding stupid. This erudite-yet-modest singer-songwriter... read more
Peacock to star Ellen Page, Cillian Murphy
Shooting will begin this May on Peacock, the psychological thriller slated to star the intriguing Ellen Page (our Juno darling) and the unsettling Cillian Murphy (most famously of Batman Begins villainy, but also part of our Art House Powerhouse 100 this year for his work in Sunshine and The Wind That Shakes the Barley). Michael Lander will embark upon his directorial debut, having co-writen the film with Ryan Roy. The film, being shot for Mandate Pictures (who also gave us the aforementioned Juno, as well as The Grudge films, and the whole Harold and Kumar franchise), takes place in the... read more
Cat Power extends Jukebox tour into summer
After a brief tour hiatus, Cat Power will return to North America in promotion of this year's covers album Jukebox, toting her blend of Memphis soul from 2006's The Greatest along for the ride. Pitchfork reports the singer-songwriter will paint the west cost with her multifarious discography from Vancouver down to Mexico City. The tour's schedule so far will go as follows: February 29 - Los Angeles, CA @ Wiltern March 4 - Auckland, New Zealand @ The Powerstation 7 - Cairns, Australia @ Tanks Arts Centre 8 - Brisbane, Australia @ The Tivoli 9 - Sydney, Australia @ Enmore... read more
John Landis returns to big screen with Ghoulishly Yours
Known for directing projects such as Animal House, An American Werewolf in London and Michael Jackson’s mini-epic “Thriller,” John Landis will soon return to making movies on a grander scale. Aside from a documentary, a few television spots and a movie on HBO, this will be Landis’ first project since Blues Brothers 2000 in 1998. This time around, he will return to the silver screen with a controversial biopic on the life of EC Comics’ forefather in Ghoulishly Yours: William M. Gaines. Gaines caused a stir in the magazine publishing world with his somewhat grotesque horror comic books in the... read more
Eddie Vedder books a handful of pre-Bonnaroo solo dates
Eddie Vedder has announced six North American shows in April. This should suffice for all the west coasters who can't make it to Pearl Jam's headlining performance at Bonnaroo this summer. Kiwi artist Liam Finn will be bringing the lightning as opener. And fans will have the rare opportunity to hear Vedder play his new material from the Grammy-nominated original soundtrack for Into the Wild. Vedder also received a Golden Globe for best original song for the track “Guaranteed.” Tickets start going on sale this Friday and will be $65 plus fees. April 2 - Vancouver (The Centre) 5 -... read more
Which musical artist should Michel Gondry work with next?
Michel Gondry's latest film, Be Kind Rewind, hits theaters this Friday. The director also has impressive music-video experience. Which artist would you like to see him work with next? [1035 votes total] Kanye West (53): 5% Wilco (211): 20% M.I.A. (89): 9% The Arcade Fire (229): 22% Gnarls Barkley (67): 6% Radiohead (185): 18% Erykah Badu (21): 2% R.E.M. (35): 3% TV on the Radio (96): 9% Other (49): 5% Full Results Comments... read more
Johnny Depp, Law, Farrell paying tribute to Heath Ledger
UPDATE: According to MSNBC, Tom Waits will play the devil in this movie. Awesome. -- One of the questions left unanswered by Heath Ledger's tragic death was what would happen to his unfinished works. While immediate speculation mostly focused upon his portrayal of The Joker in The Dark Knight, Ledger was actually in the midst of another film at the time of his death. Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus had Ledger playing a lead role, and his passing possibly put the entire feature in jeopardy. Gilliam is somewhat infamous for his production problems, but here it seems he... read more
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