Raconteurs chat about upcoming album
Being the literal raconteurs they are, that is, people adept at sharing anecdotes, Jack White and Brendan Benson of the band Raconteurs have chosen a time-tested storytelling medium to drop new details on their next album -- fake instant messaging on fake MS-DOS (as is the style of their website). brendan: jack why don't you want to tell people about the new album we've got cooking? jack: i'll tell them when the time is right. brendan: what time is it right now? jack: three o'clock brendan: but the clock on the wall says 2:10 jack: ok, the time is right.... read more
The Thermals tour North America
The Thermals are gonna visit some Canadian cities they ain't never been to before during some recently announced tour destinations. Holding true to their ever-green, Pacific Northwestern roots, they won't brave (and contribute to the obliteration of) the Saskatchewan wilderness in a Hummer, and good on them for it. The group was last featured on Insound Tour Support 2.0, which premiered in July. September 8 - Portland, Ore. @ Crystal Ballroom (Musicfest NW) October 9 - Vancouver, British Columbia @ Richard's on Richards 18 - Calgary, Alberta @ Broken City 19 - Edmonton, Alberta @ Velvet Underground 20 - Saskatoon,... read more
Listen to everybodyfields and more on new podcast
Let a new Paste Culture Club Podcast be your umbrella. Today's features new music from Romantica, Silver Lakes and Paste Band of the Week, the everybodyfields. Subscribe to the enhanced podcast ~ or ~ Subscribe to the mp3 podcast. ~ or ~ Download mp3 of this episode only. Related links: PasteCultureClub.com theeverybodyfields.com Silver Lakes on MySpace Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com. ... read more
My Bloody Valentine reuniting soon?
Perhaps Creation Records founder Alan McGee wouldn't give two and a half craps about a My Bloody Valentine reunion, calling the group "a joke, my way of seeing how far I could push hype," but we've had our fingers crossed since January, when Magnet quoted MBV's Kevin Shields as saying, "We are 100 percent going to make another My Bloody Valentine record unless we die or something." Yesterday, the Daily Swarm put forth a solid, comprehensive argument that Coachella 2008 would be the most sensible fountainhead for the band's 21st century incarnation-to-hopefully-be, noting that the Pixies, Gang of Four, Bauhaus... read more
Eddie Vedder to perform at Toronto Film Festival
[Above: Vedder, Young, Spiro, Donahue] Weeks after Eddie Vedder's alleged Lollapalooza censorship, which AT&T maintains was accidental, the Pearl Jam frontman will once again voice his distaste for the Iraq war when he performs on Sept. 11 at the Toronto International Film Festival premier of Body of War, a documentary by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro about a U.S. soldier who became paralyzed from a bullet to the spine after one week of duty in Iraq. Vedder contributed two original songs to the production, including "No More," which Pearl Jam played during Lollapalooza as the disabled soldier, Tomas Young, joined... read more
North America loves the 1990s
Scottish rollickers 1990s-who have already turned heads in the UK-are making their way over here for a bi-country romp. Naturally we're a bit fond of them purely for eliciting images of Wayne's World and putting Gak in classmates' hair. Need we say...Latin invasion? Catch them with a smorgasbord of openers, including rock talkers the Hold Steady and Art Brut. October 7 - Philadephia, Pa. @ First Unitarian Church* 9 - Toronto, ON @ The Mod Club* 10 - Ottawa, ON @ Zaphod Beeblebrox* 11 - Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rossa* 12 - Northampton, Mass. @ Pearl Street* 13 -... read more
MF Doom imposters perform shows?
There are rumors and there are rumors. Sometimes they involve Australians. Other times, they just don't make much sense or carry even a semblance of credibility. Sometimes though, they involve sneaky rappers with a weird sense of humor. And sometimes, they're just too intriguing to ignore. This is one of those times. According to a reader letter at ByronCrawford.com, MF Doom hasn't been performing some of his recent shows. In his place, lip-syncing imposters have taken the stage. The reader's description of last week's San Francisco show follows: "Out comes 'Doom' looking about 100 pounds lighter than he has ever... read more
Hear Ben Kweller out on new live tracks
First, Ben Kweller plays all of his albums live -- then, he releases his first live tracks. Recorded last December at a Soho House, a private club in New York City, the EP Ben Kweller: Live and Solo at the Artists Den has been available on iTunes since Tuesday, and features six of the 20 songs played solo acoustic on that almost-winter night. Kweller recently told Paste that work would begin on his next album (or two) in September. "The first one that's going to come out is kind of like a country album with pedal steel. More folksy and... read more
Trailer, tracklist for Sigur Ros film, album
"I sometimes get this strange and sort of uncontrollable urge to want to go home," says Sigur Ros bassist Georg Holm in the trailer for his band's upcoming film about a homecoming tour across Iceland. Who could blame him? Continuing volcanic activity makes a countryside mighty gorgeous. Titled Heima (Icelandic for "at home"), it features the band playing gigs both grandiose and quaint, from national parks to community halls and finally, the largest concert Iceland has ever seen. Directed by Dean DeBois (Lilo & Stitch), it will be released on Nov. 5 alongside a two-part companion record titled Hvarf-Heim, with... read more
Soundtrack to Joy Division film announced
A Joy Division fan MySpace has announced the soundtrack for upcoming Ian Curtis biopic Control, and we can't wait to hear how these moody alternative foundations will be utilized. The MySpace blog notes that the instrumental bits by New Order provide ambiance for the last third of the film and "consist of Hooky's trademark bass lines, some sparse drumming from Morris, and Sumner playing what sounds like a flute sound on a mellotron - not particularly in the style of Joy Division, which was previously mooted." As for the cast version of Transmission, photographer Kevin Cummins -- soon to release... read more
The Killers have b-sides, want to sell them
The British have easy access to certain things that Americans do not: decent chocolate, egg and prawn sandwiches, Stonehenge... the list goes on a bit longer, and includes commercially released singles, which have lost popularity in these United States. The Killers keep their fellow countrymen in mind, however, and plan to release an album of b-sides by the end of the year. Frontman Brandon Flowers told Billboard that his band has about 15 such songs Killers idolizers over here have never legally paid for heard, "and we wanted to stick them on something for people to get to have them... read more
Ramones come Alive on new DVD
Thanks to the Ramones understanding that brevity is the soul of punk, live footage from 33 of their shows over 22 years fits on roughly four hours of Digital Versatile Disc. Slightly longer than a special edition Lord of the Rings movie and twice as epic, It's Alive: 1974-1996 hits shelves October 2 and features Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee and whoever's in the gang at the time singing "Sheena is a Punk Rocker" three times, "Blitzkrieg Bop" four times and "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" five freaking times. Besides that, there really isn't much repetition amongst the 119 songs,... read more
Jazz-filled memorial service honors Max Roach
A number of actors, poets and fellow musicians are paying tribute to recently deceased jazz drummer Max Roach during a memorial service "awash with jazz" today, which began at 9 a.m with a public viewing and will be followed by an 11 a.m. funeral at the Riverside Church in Manhattan. Among those honoring Roach, who died in his sleep at 83 last week due to complications from dementia and Alzheimer's, are Bill Cosby, Ruby Dee, Maya Angelou, Cassandra Wilson and the masterful jazz pianist Billy Taylor. He is survived by five children. Roach was a part of modern jazz's most... read more
Chemical Brothers announce handful of tour dates
Mum's been the word for the Chemical Brothers. But having been quiet on the touring front for five years, they're choosing-and we quote-"retina scorching visuals" as the vocabulary for their upcoming jaunt on this side of the Atlantic. Their latest release, We Are the Night, came out last month and debuted at #1 in the UK. Bring goggles to: September 21 - New York, N.Y. @ Hammerstein Ballroom 22 - Brooklyn, N.Y. @ McCarren Pool 24 - Chicago, Ill. @ Riviera 26 - Denver, Colo. @ The Fillmore 28 - San Francisco, Calif. @ The Concourse 29 - Los Angeles,... read more
Ben Lee goes New Wave
In a remarkably swift and deconstructivist move, Ben Lee has remade Florida rock band Against Me!'s latest, New Wave. "As heavy and gnarly as it sounds at times, [New Wave] is unmistakably a pop masterpiece," Lee gushed in a MySpace bulletin earlier this week. "I was on a flight from Sydney to Melbourne and had the thought, 'I'd love to cover this album.' The whole thing. Beginning to end. So I did." That Lee would cover an entire album of songs by another artist (and do it well) is not surprising, nor is the fact that his super-melodic take on... read more
Of Montreal virtually meets and greets fans
If you don't live in the 27 cities Of Montreal is hitting up beginning in late September, you still have a chance to see the band. Well, two members of the band, anyway. And you don't really get to "see" them so much as participate in a virtual meet and greet. Tonight, at 6pm, Of Montreal's Bryan Poole and Dottie Alexander will be getting their 3D on to chat live with fans in the Virtual Lower East Side. Much like Second Life, vLES is a 3D online music community where fans can log on, create a digital representation of themselves,... read more
Make a plan to love Bright Eyes on tour
Apparently, you don't have to own a University of Anchorage student identification card to make it into a Bright Eyes show after all. After Conor and company treat Alaskan academia to three back-to-back performances, they're heading all over the country for the real deal: a three-month fall tour, with one notable Hollywood Bowl gig with M. Ward and the L.A. Philharmonic. Click here to read Paste's review of Bright Eyes' latest album, Cassadaga, which premiered in April on Saddle Creek. September 13 - Denver, Col. @ Ogden Theatre* 14 - Boise, Idaho @ Big Easy Concert House* 15 - Spokane,... read more
Rare Joy Division photo collection out soon
Manchester photographer Kevin Cummins is releasing a collection of his iconic Joy Division images in a publication designed like a 1970s statistics textbook, in a good way. Titled Juvenes, it will be available Nov. 1 and includes personal essays by Natalie Curtis, Ian Rankin and others. Cummins was there since the very beginning -- the band's first ever performance as Warsaw, as a matter of fact - though in a recent piece for the Guardian he stated that "somehow that single strip of six frames has long since disappeared." More from Cummins' essay: "Ian & Co were learning how to... read more
Ticketmaster to split with Live Nation
Trouble in rock show-mongering paradise: yesterday, Ticketmaster announced that its contract with dominant concert promoter Live Nation is unlikely to be extended, following a disagreement over how to divy up customer data and all those blood-boiling service charges. A house divided over the spoils of war convenience. "Live Nation has been a valued client for a very long time and we believe we've taken every reasonable step possible to facilitate a renewal, but they seem intent on a direction for their business that leaves us no viable way to work together," Ticketmaster chairman Terry Barnes stated in an employee memo... read more
Man Man tours, possibly avoids Oreos
No, we're not talking about Man-Man (comics), Man to Man (movie) or man-on-man (scandalous link removed). Rather, we're talking Man Man, the wonderfully creative circus of a rock band out of Philadelphia. When we last spoke with lead singer Ryan Kattner (AKA: Honus Honus), he and his bandmates were hitting the road. They're at it again, following the recent mastering of their third album, and it's no surprise considering this quote from our late-October conversation: "[Touring] is pretty much our life right now," Kattner says. "You do get kind of worn out after a while. Playing is great, but it's... read more
