Not long after their third anniversary, Krakt, local home for “techno with teeth,” announced they were going to be ceasing their monthly night. Tonight’s the finale, so after getting in a few last frames at Sunset Bowl, you should head down to Rebar for one last night of Krakt-ified debauchery.

Here’s the announcement:

KRAKT COMMIT TECHNO SUICIDE.
SUBMIT TO DRUNKEN TAG TEAM GANG BANG BY

PAUL EDWARDS
JUSTIN BYRNES
KRISTINA CHILDS
NORDIC SOUL
JERRY ABSTRACT
GREG SKIDMORE
MILKPLANT
EDDIE

CAUSE MASSIVE ANAL TECHNO HEMORRHAGE.
LEAVE GAPING ORIFICE IN SEATTLE TECHNO SCENE FOR WHINEY RAVER KIDS KIDS TO STUFF WITH SHITTY TRANCE.

LAST KRAKT. SATURDAY AT REBAR.
21+. $5
BOOZE. BITCHES. TECHNO BUKAKKE.

It’s called Stay Down and it’s being released on Flameshovel. The CD release party is happening in Chicago on June 7th, but that’s all the info there is to know right now.

Now please enjoy one of my favorite Smoking Popes songs, “Need You Around,” which is especially delightful on a beautiful day like today:

You’re welcome.

The Daily Swarm is not impressed with the Pop Conference.

Alicia Keys recently gave an interesting interview to Blender…:

There’s another side to Alicia Keys: conspiracy theorist. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter tells Blender magazine: “`Gangsta rap’ was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other. `Gangsta rap’ didn’t exist.”

Keys, 27, said she’s read several Black Panther autobiographies and wears a gold AK-47 pendant around her neck “to symbolize strength, power and killing ‘em dead,” according to an interview in the magazine’s May issue, on newsstands Tuesday.

Another of her theories: That the bicoastal feud between slain rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. was fueled “by the government and the media, to stop another great black leader from existing.”

She also said she hopes to start writing more political songs in the future. Read more here.

Not the crass all-girl dance band, but the automobile…

^{Photo by Tim Wimborne/Reuters}

Via Reuters:

A new musical piece called “Car Orchestra” which features the engines and horns of five utility trucks, known as “utes,” alongside a saxophone, double bass and disc jockey, will debut at a music festival in western Sydney on Saturday.

Michael Atherton, a professor at the University of Western Sydney, says he composed the score to connect the festival with the local culture of the working-class Campbelltown area, inviting a local “Ute Club” to play the piece.

“A festival’s concept of culture should be very broad,” Atherton told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

“People can expect to hear fanfares, jazz-funk sections, percussion solos. They will hear mag wheels played like Balinese gamelans,” he said.

I really hope they post a recording of it somewhere. I want to hear this.

A quick best of:

-Attending a panel about rioting while the Dalai Lama was speaking on the other side of Seattle center (with backup from Dave Matthews). Peace is great and all, but riots make for better music.

-Charles Mudede veering away from his prepared notes (shock horror!) about Brixton and Linton Kwesi Johnson to discuss the situation in Zimbabwe and why he’s a Marxist (“I don’t believe in all this neo-liberal stuff. It’s bullshit, and it makes me angry!”)

-Joshua Clover discussing MIA, Jonathan Richman, Cornershop, Asha Bhosle, the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, Bird Flu, Tamiflu, the Asian financial crisis of 1997, etc. Clover was equal parts poetic and academic; I feel like I have to stop trying to talk about MIA after seeing how it really should be done.

-Dancing with the stars.

by Lauren Max.

The Avett Brothers are playing tonight at Neumo’s tonight. Click here to see yesterday’s preview.

And tonight’s show at the Comet is so good it got a nod in both Up & Coming and Suggests:

^{Shellshag photo by Dave Sanders/brooklyndiy.blogspot.com}

Shellshag, Helms Alee, Akimbo at Comet
Shellshag are known for four things: a relentless tour schedule; a stalwart DIY attitude; jumping on people, throwing their drums, crowdsurfing, and other mischief; and making more fuzzed-out, Breeders-like noise than two people should be able to. Akimbo are known for two things: grinding, fast, melodic metal and the best drummer in Seattle. Helms Alee are known for one thing: stoned freak-outs of the heavy, slow variety. (Comet, 922 E Pike St, 322-9272. 9 pm, $6, 21+.) by Ari Spool

Akimbo, King Brothers, Shellshag, Helms Alee
(Comet) Killer night of music, and perhaps the best place in town to see it—the Comet is a bar that’s meant to be destroyed. Not long ago, Monotonix tried to burn the place down. Bands have stripped there, poured beer all over themselves and the audience (thanks again for that, Ben Lashes), fallen to the floor in a rock-inspired seizure, blown fuses and vocal cords… there’s something about the Capitol Hill hole that makes performers go crazy. Akimbo don’t have the wacky stunts, but they have the sonic sledgehammer that could do some damage to the walls. And Helms Alee are seriously one of the best new bands in the city—the recent addition to Hydra Head’s roster are a fantastic dichotomy of unforgiving, heavy rock and shimmering optimism. MEGAN SELING

And here’s another option for Capitol Hill:

RJD2, Dälek, Happy Chichester
(Chop Suey) I’m not gonna lie; I have a hard time getting into a lot of live hiphop acts. But Dälek… holy shit. This is a band who blew the PA at Graceland years ago, a band who have played with Grandmaster Flash, Sonic Youth, and Tool. MC Dälek’s rhymes and brooding cadence are impressive in their own right, but when paired with producer Oktopus’s walls of dark distorted noise and punishing beats, the result is one of the most intense and innovative sounds in contemporary hiphop. While the departure of turntablist Chang threatened to subtract from the spectacle of Dälek’s live show, their most recent album, Abandoned Language, is easily their strongest work to date and will undoubtedly rule on the Chop Suey stage. BRIAN COOK

Staying off of Pike and/or Pine? Find all the listings in our online calendar.

For example: There’s a free show this afternoon in Ballard at 20/Twenty with Tiny Vipers, Amy Blaschke, and Husbands Love Your Wives. It’s for 20/Twenty’s three-year anniversary. It starts at 4 pm.

Or you could go see Old Haunts, Feral Children, and Coconut Coolouts at the Vera Project!

So many options… what ever will you do…

Black Flag’s decade of hair.

Click to see the full size image.

(ht to WFMU)

Everyday Music is one of the few businesses still open on east side block of Broadway between Denny and John. For the past month or two, all the neighboring stores have been relocating in preparation for the light rail construction that’s supposed to start later this spring. But Everyday has stayed put mostly because they still didn’t have a place to go.

“They wanted us out at the end of March,” says the store’s manager David Miranda. “And we had been searching for a new place since November. For awhile it looked like we were all going to be out of jobs.”

But Everyday has finally found a new home—Miranda happily reports that their plan is to move into the building on the corner of Broadway and Pine, the one with the Jimi Hendrix statue in front of it.

“Our doors are going to be right behind the statue,” he says. The building is set to be developed in two years, so Everday will only be able to sign a year and a half lease, but it will buy them some more time to find a more permanent solution. “We want to stay on Capitol Hill.”

There is another downside—“It’s about half the size of the space we’re in now,” says Miranda. “So were feverishly trying to condense everything.”

Still, a smaller space is better than no space at all. They should be in the new building by June 1st.

Over at the Music Slut, they’ve unveiled the track listing for Coldplay’s upcoming album, Viva La Vida. Here are what the songs will be titled, presumably in order:

Life In Technicolor

Cemeteries Of London

Lost!

42

Lovers In Japan

Yes

Viva La Vida

Violet Hill

Strawberry Swing

Death & All His Friends

Like all right-thinking humans, I loathe Coldplay. But when I happened upon this blog post, I took a moment to imagine exactly how much this album will suck, and it was an interesting exercise. Does the exclamation point on “Lost!” mean that it’s going to be an up-tempo number? Or is it more of a woeful cry of sorrow, as in “O, I am Lost!”? Will “Cemeteries of London” be the ballad I assume it to be, possibly about a deceased aunt or uncle, whose picture will appear in the liner notes for maximum Grammy sympathy votes? Or will Coldplay suddenly start ripping off The Cure, too?

There’s a kind of delight in imagining how much something will suck, before its parameters of awfulness are defined by reality. Here is what I assume: This album will have copious amounts of piano on it. There will be some kind of ‘branching out,’ which will probably mean adopting some other culture’s music in a half-assed way. There will be a ballad, and a slightly up-tempo song. There will be much sensitive mincing on Chris Martin’s part, and there will be some lyrics that bad critics for bad music magazines will pick apart to see if any of them relate to Gwyneth, or Apple, or Moses, or someone else with a weird name, like Barbarus, or Fencey. Within eight months from today, while sitting in my dentist’s waiting room, I will curse one of these songs for existing when I hear it for the two billionth time. These things are true. The rest of the possibilities—and the infinite ways that this album can suck—are breathtakingly wide open.

Go see the King Brothers tomorrow at the Comet. I saw them last night in SF - holy shit - I’ll leave it at that. Bring extra pants - you will crap the one’s you’re wearing.

It’s called “Pity & Fear” and you can hear a snippet of it on NPR’s All Songs Considered.

The new album, Narrow Stairs, will be released on May 13th.

Casey Catherwood did a spotlight on Past Lives in his Underage column this week. They’re playing an all-ages show at the Redmond Firehouse tonight, and they played a most-ages show last night at Club Pop. I was a huge Blood Brothers fan. Thanks to a series of miscalculations and previous engagements I had still never seen Past Lives. I’ve already taken the Jaguar Love demos off my iPod. I had my hopes up.

Talbot Tagora opened with their reverb-soaked, brain churning punk. This band makes me feel like I’m taking crazy pills. As a musician, trying to figure out the logic between their riffs and transitions is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle on hallucinogens. I have no idea how they make the sound they do; their approach is completely foreign to me. But it compels me, draws me toward it. There was a video of Point Break playing behind them. During the last song, “Ephemereal Summer,” the band built to a minor but poignant climax as all the stage lights went red and Ronald Regan used a gas pump as a blowtorch. It was perfect.

DJ Fat Buddy Holly, aka Spencer Moody, got the dance floor moving between sets. There were lots of neon spandex and tank tops. He played that song by Juvenile that sounds exactly like “Back That Ass Up,” but isn’t. The cops showed up and complained about the volume again. Standing directly outside the venue I could barely hear what was going on inside. It was like hearing my roommate’s stereo from across the hall. Who the fuck is complaining about this?

The movie changed from Point Break to Kids for Past Lives set, but whoever was running the DVD player skipped the opening sex scene. Past Lives reinforced that it was indeed the rhythm section of the Blood Brothers that always had me coming back for more. No one plays the drums quite like Mark Gajadhar - he understands the snare drum like a dominatrix, beating it at all the right times in all the right places. Morgan Henderson plays guitar, but he plays it like a bass, and just like in the Blood Brothers his rhythms are more pronounced than the melodies. Devon Welch’s guitar lines are understated and elegant, Jordan Blilie needs no other singer to share the spotlight. The first part of the set pulled me in, but the last two songs won me over. Scrawled “Strange” and “Chrome” on their setlist, these songs got the entire floor dancing and yelling, proving that if Past Lives feel like it, they can turn up the energy just as high as when they were younger, sassier, and less refined.

Of course, not every white rapper is ICP or Vanilla Ice or even Eminem, just like not every black rocker is Lenny Kravitz.

Case in point: Doseone of Subtle (a man who once bested Eminem in a freestyle battle). Oh, and what’s that? Tonight, Subtle are debuting their forthcoming tryptych-ending comic book concept album, ExitingARM with a laser show?! It’s true:

Friday April 11, 2008 @ 9:15 PM -10:15PM
SUBTLE – ExitingARM (LEX RECORDS) Laser Light Listening Party!!!
Seattle Laser Dome @ The Pacific Science Center
200 2nd Avenue North I Seattle, Washington 98109
$5 cover
All Ages!!!!

Doseone will be in attendance. He will (probably) not be wearing clown make up.

Listen to Subtle’s “The Crow”

Radiohead wrote the song “Karma Police” specifically for this Kentucky man who fishes snapping turtles out of ponds with his bare hands.

His name is Ernie Brown Jr. and he’s known as the Turtle Man. He’s missing his front teeth because he knocked them out with a chainsaw. He’s missing a majority of his brain cells because his mother is his sister. He doesn’t drink, do drugs, or smoke cigarettes, but he does catch the ever-living hell out of snapping turtles with his bare hands.

Watching the video, you just can’t help but hope one the turtles will bite his nuts off. And that is why when he dies and passes into the next world, Ernie Brown Jr. will pass into an eternity of snapping turtles biting his nuts off. He will wake up every day with balls, and every day they will be bitten off by an angry snapping turtle when he does his Indian victory cry.

The good: Eminem will perform at Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday bash.

The bad: Vanilla Ice has been charged with domestic battery.

The fugly: Insane Clown Posse continues to exist.

The Stranger music department is screwed - Copyright debate extends to throwing away promotional CDs

Ever wonder if Radiohead spends as much time planning publicity stunts as they do writing records? - Brits score second-ever U.S. Top 40 hit in unorthodox manner

Seen Vince Neil lately? More like Portley Crue - New Motley Crue song online

More mid-tempo rock for 2008 - Coldplay announce tracklist to new record

David Gilmore is off the hook - Roger Waters now hates Hillary Clinton

Who says disco never made it see the 1980’s. Leave it up to legendary disco songwriter/producer, Patrick Adams to put the critics to rest. In 1980, Adams teamed up with Christine Wiltshire, under the name Center Stage to release a 12” single that featured the classic disco track Never. Wiltshire, like Adams had been a very active member of many great disco projects and productions, including Musique, Phreek, Class Action, and Poussez! to name a few. Over all this 1980 cut works as a nice bridge between 70’s and early 80’s dance music. Nice work again, Mr. Adams.

Download Center Stage’s 1980 single “Never” plus a lot more by clicking here.

By &y.

Super fun being impromptu DJ last night at Slog Happy. I hesitate even to use the term “deejay”—because 1) what a gross set of phonemes, almost on the order of “snack” pronounced by people in Michigan, and 2) because I was basically just babysitting iTunes. There was a great crowd huddled around the bar—so crowded that I feared someone would get pickpocketed or groped. But y’all are good babies. Some of yins were even dancing and asking about the music.

Well, thanks to the www.izardry of our Last.fm account, I was able to dig up exactly what was played and in what order. And no, one dude—that was not “Popzão” I was playing.

1. Hercules & Love Affair – Blind (Hercules Club Mix)
2. Leon Russell – The Ballad of Hollis Brown
3. La’ Chat – Still Gettin’ My Clit LickedESG – Moody (Spaced Out)
4. Deee-Lite – Good Beat
5. Andreas Dorau & Die Marinas – Tulpen und Narzissen
6. The Nick Straker Band – A Little Bit of Jazz
7. Ike & Tina Turner – River Deep, Mountain High
8. En Vogue – You Don’t Have to Worry
9. M.I.A. – Jimmy
10. Black Blood – A.I.E (A’Mwana)
11. Sir Mix-a-Lot – Posse on Broadway
12. Cheeky Blakk – Lemme Get That Outcha
13. Man 2 Man Meet Man Parrish – Male Stripper
14. Scott Walker – Jackie
15. Róisín Murphy – Overpowered
16. David Fanshawe – African Sanctus
17. George Kranz – Din Daa Daa
18. Dennis DJ & MC Cabo – Tire a Camisa
19. Bobby Caldwell – Open Your Eyes
20. Ex-Girlfriend – You (You’re The One For Me) [F.F.X. Special Effects Remix]
21. Kingdom – Buck’N [Radio Edit feat. SR Palm]
22. Patrick Dyer – More

I kept stepping back from what I was doing and realizing how strange it was to be playing so many club tracks at only 7:00, but then I convinced myself that it was like wearing white after labor day—no one cares but assholes. Luckily, at Slog Happy, everyone’s inner asshole is fairly hidden.

Via tinymixtapes.com:

That’s right, some jerk from New Jersey stole Karl Blau’s guitar off a Greyhound bus — classy. But this ain’t just any ol’ guitar. This is the same guitar Bret Lunsford used in Beat Happening!

New Jersey/East Coast readers: keep your eyes peeled. There are many identifying characteristics on this mighty axe, so it shouldn’t be hard to spot hanging in a pawn shop window or strapped around some dude trying to play the intro to “Today” by The Smashing Pumpkins. Contact us if you have any leads, and we can put you in contact with Mr. Blau. Trust me, you don’t want to see him without that guitar.

^{Photo of Karl and the guitar by Derek Vincent}

Thanks to Billy for the tip.

Today, it’s hard being you. Because there’s a ton of shit going on tonight and there’s only one you and now you’re gonna have to choose.

^{Illustration by Kyle T. Webster}

D. Yellow Swans are playing at the Vera Project tonight with Iron Lung. Sam Mickens interviewed the band in this week’s paper:

Deez Yellow Swans’ existence has coincided with a seeming insurgence of noise music in popular indie culture. Has this been a primarily positive trend or are there now a glut of noise-music sucker MCs?

PETE SWANSON: I think it’s been [partially] a positive thing, but some things have been diminished due to the growing popularity of abstract music. On the plus side, there’s the growing ability for weirdo bands to be sustainable—for folks to pay for practice spaces, to not lose money on tour, to be able to get shows at all, which wasn’t the case even five years ago. There’s also been a great network established for the distribution of completely obscure releases by even more obscure bands. And a good deal of respect has been given from a lot of media outlets, which has sort of established oddball stuff as being more valuable than it was considered previously. All that is great. The flip side is that there are ONE MILLION noise acts now, which is overwhelming, and the majority of them are not extremely interesting. Another thing that’s occurred is this fragmenting of noise into tiny subgenres.

Read the whole interview here.

Here’s a handful of picks from this week’s Up & Coming section:

Wolves in the Throne Room, Priestbird, the Better to See You With
(Comet) Wolves in the Throne Room have ascended to the upper echelon of the American underground black-metal scene over the course of a few short years on the strength of two excellent full-lengths of classic Burzum-inspired guitar-driven soundscapes and their unique and well-articulated philosophy on the importance of black metal as a counterpoint to the soulless and culturally shallow state of our society in the modern age. Not bad for a group of dudes who live on a farm outside of Olympia who used to play in a punk band called the Hoodwinks. Rumor has it that their recent gigs are performed in almost complete darkness, with only a row of candles for illumination. And they get bonus points for not wearing corpse paint. BRIAN COOK

The Avett Brothers, Jessica Lea Mayfield, Jason Webley
(Neumo’s) Last year’s Avett Brothers album, Emotionalism, was deservedly on a lot of critics’ 2007 top 10 lists because it was brave and familiar. The Avetts’ emo-as-fuck Americana is bitterly romantic and utterly sincere. The lyrics aren’t trite and the minimalist orchestration is pointedly antigloss, both of which fortify the music’s palpable honesty. Songs are stories and vocal melodies are belted out fearless and unaffected. Everything about the Avett Brothers, from acoustic instruments (played like the Violent Femmes at maximum rock out) to clear (yet delightfully ragged) brother-perfect harmonies, is heartwarmingly ballsy. MARK DONUTS

Eels
(Showbox at the Market) Recently, Eels frontman Mark Oliver Everett wrote an open letter to the president, inviting him to one of their upcoming shows, hoping to rebuild the bridge that Bush burned when he used the band’s album Daisies of the Galaxy as an example of popular music that sends bad messages to kids. “Mr. President, I know that you’re a Christian, and Christ taught forgiveness. So in the spirit of forgiveness and fence mending, I’d like to let bygones be bygones and invite you and the First Lady to attend our Washington, D.C., concert,” he wrote. As far as I know, the president did not attend. But tonight, imagine Bush standing there next to you while the band play “inappropriate” tunes like “It’s a Motherfucker,” “Son of a Bitch,” and “Old Shit, New Shit,” which are all actually thoughtful songs—not the expletive-laced anthems the Republicans seem to think they are. MEGAN SELING

Cat Power
(Showbox Sodo) Cat Power’s Chan Marshall no longer walks offstage halfway through her live show. She no longer melts down onstage in tears with her head in her shaking hands. She’s collected herself. These days, Chan is all presence and sentience. She’s all voice—that hazy and beautifully pained Georgia voice that coats and sifts into your ears then drifts away like skywriting. This tour, Cat Power is focusing on songs from her latest CD of covers called Jukebox. She’s also letting her four-piece backing band (featuring John Spencer guitarist Judah Bauer) play all the music so she can concentrate that much more on vocals. That’s right, no piano or guitar for Chan. Just vocals and skywriting. And the songs of Joni, Frank, Patsy, and Janis. TRENT MOORMAN

Need more? We got more. Bug in the Bassbin suggests Broken Disco’s one-year anniversary party:

For Broken Disco’s anniversary, the promoters have opted for an all-out party assault, guaranteeing both a sweaty ceiling and noise complaints from Chop Suey’s pesky neighbors. They’re going big, bringing in a slew of out of towners instead of the usual single headliner, representing a pretty wide swath of the all-inclusive Broken Disco sound. Topping the bill is Tittsworth, the D.C.-area DJ who drops a heavy dose of Baltimore club in his catch-all party-jam sets. Former Laptop Battle champion Starkey comes from Philly, roughed-up beats in tow. Portland’s Copy will illustrate the unironic usage of keytar, while Kansas City duo Tactic will kick things off with a set heavy on their own bouncy remixes.

Underage suggests Past Lives at the Old Fire House in Redmond, My Philosophy’s got Flowmotion with Sonny Bonoho at Nectar, and the Score backs the Vera Project show along with Paul Rucker at the Good Shepherd Center.

And finally, if that’s just not enough for you, you can find your own goddamn good time in our calendar.

He’s supposedly getting $4.8 million to do it.

And Nick is playing great music that I don’t recognize but want to dance to anyway. You should be here.

Don’t worry, I won’t actually dance. I need a few more Diet Cokes before that starts to happen.

I just met NaFun. He’s talking about the grocery bag tax.

Oooh, now Nick is playing “Posse on Broadway!”

Gabe Mintz played his solo set of rattling and smiling scrawl at the Comet last night. The songs flail him and throw his head around. He sounds great live. There’s something about the way he plays and sings. A gangly call. Dirty, but on. Loosed, but unleashed only to the songs.

Top two pictures by Christopher Nelson.

A: TAG Body Spray running a record label.

From Billboard.com:

Island Def Jam Music Group and Procter & Gamble’s TAG brand are teaming for a joint-venture hip-hop label, which will be led by Island Urban president Jermaine Dupri.

“My goal is to find artists that have longevity written all over their face,” says Dupri, adding that TAG is expected to launch two artists per year during the course of the three-year deal.

According to Dupri, Proctor & Gamble, which produces TAG body spray, approached Island via ACME Brand Content Company for the joint venture. P&G views the union as a great way to reach its pop culture-influenced teen demographic. The label launch is also part of TAG’s initiative to cultivate relationships with the urban community through programs that give opportunities to aspiring MCs.

Neither IDJ or P&G would comment on speculation that TAG artists will be supported with up to, but not limited to, $10 million in marketing dollars, an unprecedented figure for any contemporary new artist.

“Most artists get probably $1 million for a marketing budget,” says Dupri. “The TAG artists will receive 10 times the typical marketing support. It will give these artists a chance to be and feel just as big as a Kanye West because the marketing budget is 10 to 20 times as much as the average. While it’s not actually $10-20 million, the numbers are up in that area and further north.”

Looks like the wealthy deodorant industry has some money to throw into the dying music industry.

Music from the Center of the Universe is a brand new compilation of Bellingham bands—Cicadas, No-Fi Soul Rebellion, the Russians, the Mission Orange, the Love Lights, Megatron… it’s a pretty good comp, as far as comps go. There are 20 songs total. The Cicadas track slays, the Russians’ song is killer, the Black Eyes & Neckties love them some Murder City Devils (and so do I). There are some singer songwriters, some dance tracks, it’s mostly fine. I do not like the 10 Killing Hands song, though. There’s an annoying synth that’s constantly buzzing and it makes me feel like bugs are eating away at my brain. I couldn’t listen all the way through.

But the part I love, love, love is the artwork. I love cute things, especially cute animals. I also like flowers and shit like that. I’m a girl. I had a canopy bed when I was a kid. Fuck you.

Anyway, look at this!

In the middle of all the flowers are cute little animal heads—pandas, ducks, kitties, raccoons, elephants, dogs in hats, walruses, bunnies, baby cows, etc…. this print is all over the front, back, and inside. It’s the best album art of 2008. I want to wallpaper one of the walls in my apartment with it.

Well done, Scott Rickey of feraldesigners.com!

You can buy your own copy at www.clickpoprecords.com.

From the old press-release inbox comes this little gem:

9 April, 2008 (Berkeley, CA) - This July the ever-growing relationship between comics and music reaches new heights as Tori Amos and Image Comics release COMIC BOOK TATTOO, a 480-page, full color anthology adapting the themes and ideas behind her songs into a lush volume of sequential art. “I have been surprised, excited and pleasantly shocked by these comics that are extensions of the songs that I have loved and therefore welcome these amazing stories of pictures and words because they are uncompromisingly inspiring,” says Amos. “It shows you thought is a powerful formidable essence and can have a breathtaking domino effect.”

…

[COMIC BOOK TATTOO’s Editor Rantz] Hoseley added, “While the connections between comics and music have been long established by generations of creators, Comic Book Tattoo is the pure distillation of how these two art forms inspire and feed off of each other across all the classifications, genres and styles of comic storytelling. Like Tori’s music, these stories run the gamut of human experience, emotion and imagination brought to life by some of the most compelling and innovative creators in the field of comics.”

COMIC BOOK TATTOO, a 12” x 12” 480-page anthology, will be in stores July 23rd.

I went to a Tori Amos show once. I was young, and in love, and painfully stupid. Never again, not even in comic book form.

Via Fashion Windows:

Gaspard and Xavier’s (Justice) love for leather jackets has almost become their trademark, together with the large light up cross that shines throughout their shows. Their love for leather jackets recently brought them to the design table of Surface to Air Paris studio. Together, they designed X & G’s dream leather jackets.

The result: a limited edition series of 3 jackets (150 pieces), and 2 jeans, conceived and designed by Justice for Surface To Air. With a very exclusive distribution, the line will be available beginning June at the following locations: Surface To Air Paris, Surface To Air Brazil, Colette, Barneys, Lane Crawford, Isetan, Le Bon Marché, Paris Texas, Asylum, Le Shop, Incu.

Stereogum has more photos.

David Schmader’s Showgirls: The Movie event will kick off this year’s festivities; the critically-acclaimed writer and performer will host his annotated screening of one of America’s most amazingly awful films at The Triple Door on May 14th at 7 PM.

On June 11th, Austin, TX-based psych rock champions The Black Angels play with LA’s The Warlocks at Neumos , while on June 12th, Saddle Creek recording artists Two Gallants will be at the Tractor Tavern with The Quiet Ones and Facts about Funerals; doors for both shows are at 8 PM.

Energetic NYC-based drums and keys phenoms Matt and Kim play with Yacht, No-fi Soul Rebellion and Feral Children at Neumos on June 14th while legendary, critically-acclaimed emcee Talib Kweli plays with Common Market, Grayskul and Gabriel Teodros at the Showbox for NFTN on June 15th; doors for both nights are at 8 PM.

There’s also a whole slew of local bands playing: Math and Physics club, Boat, The Maldives, Abodox, Andy Werth, Black Nite Crash, Curtains for You, Open Choir Fire, H is for Hellgate, Star Anna, Past Lives, Tulsi, Billy Joe and the Dusty 45s, The Girls, Ali Marcus, Amateur Radio Operator, Lonesome Rhodes and the Good Company, Grand Hallway, See Me River and the Dead Horse Creek, Partman Parthorse, Strong Killings, The Oswald Effect, The Heavy Hearts, Goldie Wilson, Peter Parker, Massy Ferguson, Carrie Clark and the Lonesome Lovers, Levi Fuller, Kate Tucker and the Sons of Sweden, Black Whales, Lesbian, Fucking Eagles, Onry Osborn, D Black, Mos Generator, New Faces and others will be announced soon.

I credit Dr. Pepper - Chinese Democracy is done?!

I’m a person just like you, but I’ve got better things to do - Thurston Moore narrates SXE documentary

I care. - Threadbare reunion show!

Pinhead Gunpowder is still cooler - Yes, Foxboro Hot Tubs are Green Day

Insert inappropriate “The Bitch Is Back” joke here - Elton John raises 2.5 million bucks for Hillary; criticizes U.S. misogyny

As Megan noted in her Up & Coming, the Dillinger Escape Plan are playing tonight, and there’s not an especially good reason to care anymore. I’m sure they’re still going to be tough and technical, but the addition of goth-punk singles and swoop-hair falsetto back ups will turn any respectable band into a dead scene.

If you are going though, be sure to get there for the first band, as they’re the only act on that bill that’s worth being excited about anymore - Barefoot Barnacle. They’re local, instrumental, and they fucking shred. I first saw them in the basement of a party I crashed, and compared them to old, good D.E.P. Their songs are intense and complicated, and succeed in the hardest part of being an instrumental metal band: never getting repetitious and boring. It’s about time they got on some big bills like this, these boys can throw down with the best of them.

A pickup is what captures vibrations from stringed instruments and converts them into an electrical signal that can be amplified and recorded and slayed like a beast if you solo in a particular way.

There are two basic pickup types, magnetic and piezoelectric. Piezoelectric work for all kinds of strings. Magnetic pickups work only with steel strings, and are made of magnets and coils. Single coil pickups are so sensitive, they’ll hum with interference from transformers and fluorescent lamps. Dual coil or “humbucking” pickups use two out of phase coils to cancel this interference.

Acoustic pickups are tricky. Robin Pecknold from Fleet Foxes talks about the trickiness:

What kind of pickup do you use for your acoustic guitar? What are your pickup thoughts?
Robin: I think all acoustic pickups sound pretty bad. I’ve never heard one that sounds anything close to the natural sound of a guitar. So much of an acoustic guitar’s sound is dependent on the room you are in and the resonance of the guitar’s wood and most pickups seem to just capture this rubbery weird Dave Matthews Band sound. Also when you are playing an acoustic guitar live, with some bad sounding pickup, and then running it through a thin sounding DI box straight into the main speakers, there’s really no way in my opinion to make that sound good.

So what do you do to get a decent acoustic sound?
The best way would be to just put a nice microphone on the guitar but that is never loud enough if you are playing with a band. I am currently using a Sunrise brand pickup that you attach inside the sound hole. I bought it because I didn’t want to drill a hole in my guitar like most other pickups. They also sell this Sunrise brand pre-amp that you plug the guitar into which seems to make it sound a little better or maybe just makes it louder. Then instead of running the guitar into a DI box, I run it into this 1967 Twin Reverb that I got for really cheap because it was non-operational and needed to be fully rebuilt. It still doesn’t sound like a normal acoustic guitar, but it gives it a lot more depth and “bigness,” and you can adjust the settings on the amp to better suit whatever room you are in. It’s not a perfect solution but I don’t think there is one, that’s why the invented the electric guitar!!

Like all normal people, I love Brain Eno, and have been enjoying a lovely spring Eno renaissance, involving the first two Roxy Music records, a few of the ambient discs, and, of course, the peerless “pop” quartet.

But the specific subject of this post comes from Before and After Science, the final installment of Eno’s ’70s pop run, praised by my beloved Robert Christgau for its “oblique, charming tour of the popular rhythms of the day, from Phil Collins’s discoid-fusion drumming on ‘No One Receiving’ to the dense, deadpan raveup of (find the anagram) ‘King’s Lead Hat.’”

When Christgau tells me to do something—buy Have Moicy!, ignore Panda Bear—I usually do it, because I trust him. But goddamn me if I could honor his command to find the anagram in “King’s Lead Hat.”

For months I lazily puzzled over it, until the answer was handed to me an a Wikipedia-scented platter. Now that I know what it is, it seems impossible that I was ever incapable of seeing it.

Hint for those who haven’t figured it out: It involves Eno’s comrade in the bush of ghosts.

Answer for those who are even dumber than me: here.

Carry on.

The Dillinger Escape Plan, the Bled, Heavy Heavy Low Low
(El Corazón) Remember when the Dillinger Escape Plan would hit the stage with a face-melting mix of math, metal, and psychotic noise that tore through your head with the wrath of 100,000 wasps? The band would thrash themselves across the stage, instruments and limbs flying everywhere. There’d be blood, sweat, and fire—it was one of the most intense performances money could buy and they scared the shit out of most people. Oh, how time changes everything. The only remaining original member of the band is Ben Weinman. And a recent performance on Conan O’Brien with weird falsetto backing vocals and no climax, was 100 percent terrible. They’re finally approachable enough for the Alternative Press–reading crowd—their new form of crazy is jumping on Conan’s desk. Oooh, crazy. MEGAN SELING

The Shackeltons, the Hands, New Faces, Born Anchors
(Neumo’s) If there’s a band I should hate in this city, it might be the Hands. I’m not a huge fan of the Blakes—their rock-and-roll revival feels contrived to me. The leather jackets, the shaggy hair… it’s all a little much. But the Hands, who essentially do the same thing (blast through raucous garage-rock anthems from another era) are so much fucking fun, I can’t deny ‘em. Their new self-titled record has a few misses (the slick production feels a little hollow), but it has a handful of hits, too—like the song “Praying Hands Will Make Fists (or Be Chopped Off).” MEGAN SELING

Joshua Morrison, the Lovely Sparrows, Debonair
(Tractor) Joshua Morrison grew up in Monroe, Washington, playing guitar and driving into Seattle to see shows. In 2004, Morrison joined the army and served in Iraq, recording his first EP of songs upon his return to Fort Lewis. Morrison plays whisper-soft, emotionally heavy, folk-influenced acoustic rock in the tradition of local singer/songwriters like Rocky Votolato, Dave Bazan, Damien Jurado, and Mat Brooke. His debut album, Home, is a quiet, peaceful affair, sublimating whatever stress or pain Morrison has suffered into calm, reflective ballads of love and homecoming. ERIC GRANDY

Those are just the shows we covered in Up & Comings. Find more stuff in our exhaustive and searchable calendar.

A few important details didn’t make it into this week’s feature, in which I obsess over the Microphones’ totally obsession-worthy and just reissued 2001 K album, the Glow pt. 2. I’ll try to set things right here:

-Most importantly, the article should’ve contained the information for Mount Eerie’s upcoming show at the Vera Project with Why? It’s going to be an amazing show, and the only reason you’re excused from going is if you decide to go see No Kids and Dirty Projectors at Chop Suey instead. Here’s that show info:

Thursday April 17 | 7:30 PM @ the Vera Project
WHY? (Anticon)
Mt. Eerie
Julie Doiron
Generifus
$9 ($8 w/ club card)
Always all-ages

-I should’ve mentioned that Phil Elverum hardly ever plays any of the songs off of the Glow pt. 2 anymore, that when he returned from abroad as Mount Eerie, he kind of did forget or let go of his songs, you can’t stay in the same water twice and all that.

-I also should’ve mentioned a couple other upcoming Elverum-related releases: Mount Eerie’s Black Wooden Ceiling Opening, due out May 27th on PW Elverum & Sun, and an upcoming D+ “best of” retrospective.

Sorry for the omissions.

I know it’s old news, but I still can’t get over Common’s endorsement of the Lincoln Navigator…

One of the best and smartest rappers in the history of hiphop. One of the few rappers to shape the music into comprehensive philosophical and intellectual project. Indeed, Common was at one point (between 95 and 01) the mind of hiphop. For him to support this type of car in our times constitutes not only a betrayal but also exposes the fatal hole in his project: it could not connect the truths of the street with global truths. And street truths are useless if they are limited to the streets.

Says one commentator on this post:

The new Lincoln Navigator gets 12 miles to the gallon, consumes 24.5 barrels of petroleum and emits 13.1 tons of CO2 each year, successfully contributing to the genocide of Middle Eastern people, and the relentless destruction of our ecosystem. What will become of the children’s hopes and dreams in the wake of these crises?

Common, open your eyes and see that the world is a ghetto.

By whprwhil records.

For some reason this album, of her three traditional disco albums, did the least well, and seems unpopular to this day.

But this album is fantastic! The medley on the first side, of all original tunes, that goes from sin to redemption has become one of my favorite listens in the last couple of weeks.

By 1979 the public had become tired of the disco “sound”, and this album by Grace was no exception, but this albums’ credentials are stellar and its sound is singular, even for the time. In fact right now I’d say its one of my favorite albums from the setting of the disco era.

Thor Baldursson, co-hort of Moroder and member of Munich Machine did production duties on this one, and even duets with Grace on my favorite song, “Suffer”. Tom Moulton does the mix so it’s all got that wonderful propulsive drive. But the album goes even further with its concept first side. “Sinning” has Grace singing about being a devil-may-care “bitch”, “Suffer” has her under the thumb of a punisher whose audible whippings make her moan and groan, “Repentence (Save Me)” has her asking for forgiveness, and the last song “Saved” has - I kid you not - Grace Jones singing hi-nrg gospel/disco.

The flip has the popular gay anthem “On Your Knees” (which incidentally went nowhere upon its release), and “Don’t Mess With The Messer”.

If you’re a Grace Jones fan, but don’t know of her amazing work pre-Compass Point work, you need to hear those albums to understand what a force she was in the ‘70’s, before being totally re-created in the ‘80’s by Sly and Robbie.

If you want to hear what I’m talking about try this link.

Through the air of the darkened 10th and Pike corner, there appeared the mystical figure of Slats. He leaned leisurely upon the fire hydrant with one leg crossed half sitting, engrossed in a cell phone conversation. I approached and asked him his thoughts on making it to the International Line Out Finals.

He acknowledged and was jovial. I asked him what he was going to do if he won. He said, “I don’t know. It depends on what I win. I voted for Crunchberries and John Oates.”

I told him if he wins, he gets to be President of the Stranger for a day. And that he would also get a biscuit from KFC.

…are getting married.

Via Yahoo News:

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Serj Tankian, the frontman for Los Angeles rock band System of a Down, is so dedicated to saving the planet that he wants to launch a virtual concert tour to reduce his carbon footprint.

“I’ve had an idea for a long time, which might sound a little crazy, but I really want to look into holographic touring,” Tankian told Billboard.

“I think we could reduce our need to travel if we could project ourselves into meetings and concerts. We have the technology, and we’re not using it right now.”

He suggested that he could broadcast a show in real time from his home studio, and he could interact with fans as if they were in the same room.

“After all, it’s not like the audience can touch me, anyway,” he said with a laugh.

He also stresses that shows wouldn’t be limited to clubs and bars and that ticket prices would cost less. Read the whole story here.

What do you think? Would you pay, say, ten bucks to see a holographic image of Kanye West perform instead of $66 to see the real deal?

George Strait took the #1 slot, but REM managed to debut at #2 on this week’s Billboard chart—it sold 115,000 copies in the first week.

It’s the highest position that band’s ever held.

R.E.M.’s previous studio album, “Around the Sun,” debuted at No. 13 in 2004 with 59,000 copies. The band last made a big impression with 1996’s “New Adventures in Hi-Fi,” which opened with 226,500 units, narrowly missing out on the No. 1 spot.

Who will be crowned International Line Out Champion?

Barfly – The Verbal Sirloin Shot Putter from the Saturday Knights?
or
Slats - The Broadway Brawler from Pain Cocktail?

(Final Four - here.) And the tip off:

And the consolation finals:

According to “MTV News” Harmonix (the makers of Rock Band) are releasing a new game… “Record Label!”

Says the news story:

“Record Label is our most ambitious project to date, and is destined to take music fantasy to an entirely new level,” claimed Alex Rigopulos, co-founder and CEO of Harmonix. “Sony BMG has given us the inside track on the music industry’s day-to-day operations, as well as the resources to really swing for the fences and make the game we’ve always wanted to make.”

Whereas Guitar Hero and Rock Band awarded points for live musicianship, Record Label challenges players to work the trenches and strive to push the bands in their stable up the charts, and dominate the industry by any means necessary.

“Let’s be honest, it’s as close to the real thing as anyone without family on the inside is ever likely to get,” confides Kevin Kelleher, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Sony BMG. “But things on our side of the fence aren’t always pretty. So whether you’re paying off DJs under the table for additional radio play, faking your own artists’ album reviews, or simply determining what private information you want the spyware on their CDs to collect for you… we guarantee that you’ll be able to experience all the pleasure, satisfaction and unaccountability of being a real-life Sony BMG executive.”

Except not. It’s a hoax.

CrunchGear posted about the fake story here.

Zing!

Movement: Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival (DEMF) announced more lineup additions today, adding a bunch of solid acts to the Memorial Day shindig (including Seattle’s Jerry Abstract). Here’s the latest (emphasis my own, all caps courtesy of the festival):

ALEX SMOKE -live ALEX UNDER -live ALLAND BYALLO BENNY BENASSI CARL CRAIG COBBLESTONE JAZZ -live DAVIDE SQUILLACE DBX -live DEADMAU5 -live DEEPCHORD PRESENTS ECHOSPACE -live DEREK PLASLAIKO DERRICK THOMPSON DIESELBOY & MC MESSINIAN DUBFIRE EGYPTIAN LOVER -live ELECTROBOUNCE.COM PRESENTS DATABASS GHETTO TECH ERIC JOHNSTON -live GIRL TALK –live GUILLAUME & THE COUTU DUMONTS -live HEARTTHROB -live JAMES ZABIELA JERRY ABSTRACT JORIS VOORN -live JOSH WINK JUSTIN KRUSE AKA KRUSE KONTROL JUSTIN LONG KONRAD BLACK LEE BURRIDGE MAGDA MARCO CAROLA MATHIAS KADEN -live MATTHEW HAWTIN MIKE GRANT MIKE HUCKABY MINX MOBY NEWCLEUS –live PAR GRINDVIK -live PAUL RITCH -live PEANUT BUTTER WOLF PETE ROCK REGGIE “HOTMIX” HARRELL RICHIE HAWTIN SHAWN MICHAELS SOUNDMURDERER SPEEDY J -live TECH ITCH TERRENCE PARKER THE COOL KIDS -live TYCHO -live ZIP

The Fall vs. RSPCA - Mark E Smith in trouble for killing squirrels

The tree was in on it - New theory suggests Sonny Bono was murdered

Move over, Marilyn - New Charles Manson record

At last check, at least 381 people care - Dead To Fall broke up

A Skin, A Night - Documentary on The National out May 20th

Later this month, the Defected label will be releasing Dimitri From Paris’s new mix compilation, “Return to the Playboy Mansion”, which I’ll be doing a full review of once I get my hands on a copy. However, I bring the compilation up because it will feature plenty of great obscure disco cuts including a classic cut by Lorraine Johnson entitled, “The More I Get, The More I Want” that I’ve been listening to a lot lately. This break through cut from Johnson was released back in 1977 and was written by legendary soul songwriters/artists McFadden & Whitehead. During the sa