There is a new VideoSong of the Day out according to thedailywh.at featuring Pomplamoose, Ben Folds, and Nick Hornby. VideoSong is a “what you see is what you hear,” experience (There are 2 rules: 1. What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice); 
2. If you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds)) - which is really cool! Folds wrote all the music and worked with Pomplamoose, while Hornby wrote all the lyrics and it is called "Things You Think." To hear/watch this new song with the catchy why didn’t I think of that chorus:
“Smoke you’ll smoke, and Drink you’ll drink.And try to make sense of, The things that you think,” look here!

Even though it's been a while, there is further news about The Kinks frontman’s latest collaboration album. Twentyfourbit posted that the first official track title has leaked and it is “Destroyer.” The song is off of the band’s 1981 release Give the People What They Want, and is featuring Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan. The song has not surfaced anywhere as of now but Davies’ website was quoted saying: “Ray has recently recorded with Amy MacDonald, Palmoa Faith, Mumford & Sons, Spoon, and Frank Black,” so stay tuned for more track listings and songs because it is still said to be scheduled to have a 2010 release date!!

There has finally been an announcement about Leslie Feist and a new album. It has been almost 3 and 1/2 years since The Reminder was released, but as of August 29th, Feist's collaborator 'Chilly' Gonzales has let the public know in interview with The Guardian (via Consequence of Sound) that recording has commenced. You can view a new Feist song called "He Was Free" below!

Sufjan Stevens may have released the All Delighted People EP just last week, but that hasn’t stopped him from announcing the release of his next full-length album, the follow up to 2005’s smash hit Illinois. The album is titled Age of Adz (pronounced "Odds") and will be released Oct. 12 on Asthmatic Kitty.

Jose Gonzalez will be the subject of a new documentary titled “The Extraordinary Ordinary Life of Jose Gonzales.” The documentary was directed by Fredrik Egerstrand and Mikel Cee Karisson and features a number of surreal segements usually not found in documentaries. You can see the trailer at my Mike Nigro's blog.

Wolf Parade has announced a fall tour to support their latest release, Expo 86. They missed Philadelphia on the summer tour, but will be performing at the Trocadero on November 4. You can see a full list of dates here.

Neil Young (AKA the coolest native Torontonian on earth) has announced that his new album, Le Noise will be released on September 28th. Amazon.com also released the track list that includes a number of songs performed on Young’s Twisted Road Tour earlier this year.

Baltimore-based Album of the Year candidates Beach House have released a new live EP exclusively through itunes. The EP consists of four tracks from Teen Dream, a rendition of “Gila,” from their 2008 Carpark release, Devotion, and a new song called “White Moon,” currently making the rounds as a free stream on Stereogum and Pitchfork.

UK Twee-Rockers Los Campesinos! Have announced a North American tour that will bring them to Johnny Brenda’s in the beautiful Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia on October 12th. Having seen Los Campesinos! In New York City in 2009, I can offer this advice: attend this show.

Super genius Brian Eno has announced his first album for Warp Records is set to be released on November 2nd. It is to be called Small Craft on a Milk Sea, features Jon Hopkins and Leo Abrahams, and will be available for purchase in three formats: Limited Edition Box Set, Collector’s Edition Box Set, and CD & High Quality Download. Full information is available at Brian Eno's Homepage

There is a new New Orleans Benefit compilation CD that will be released on Tuesday August 20th. The album is featuring 31 tracks and some of the highlighted artists are Laura Veirs, Mirah & Thao, My Morning Jacket, & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. It is called Dear New Orleans and all proceeds are to benefit Sweet Home New Orleans and Gulf Restoration Newtork.

Weezer has been making quite a few headlines lately: changing to an Indie Label and using Lost’s most beloved character Hurley's headshot as their next album cover! Well, they have now released their most exciting news, they are determining if they can get enough venues in enough cities to agree to have them for a two night stay. The first night playing The Blue Album in its entirety and the second Pinkerton!!! No dates have been confirmed yet, but I can only imagine it will be a matter of time. See Rivers talk about it here via Altpress.com

Conan O’Brien has announced his debut 7” titled “And They Call Me Mad?” According to Conan, it is an “improvised take on the Frankenstein legend.” It was recorded by Jack White and is backed by an interview between White and Conan. All proceeds will be donated to a charity to benefit Tennessee musicians victimized by this year’s Tennessee flood disaster.

Los Campesinos! frontman Gareth Campesinos! took a dive – literally – earlier this week. After four years of stage diving without incident, he sustained a mild concussion, a ripped ear, a sprained wrist, and a “lump on head”. Get well soon, Gareth.

With the year only half over, NME has decided to publish their list of the 50 Best New Bands of 2010. The list contains a number of Graffiti Radio favorites, including Best Coast, The Drums, Cults, and James Blake. Check it out and let us know what your favorite new bands of 2010 are on the Graffiti Radio Facebook page.

on Sunday August 15th the "Godfather of Bass Guitar," Robert Wilson passed away. He was best known for his work in the Funk and R&B band the GAP - which included his two brothers. He unfortunately suffered and massive heart attack sometime between the later hours of Saturday night and early hours of Sunday morning. Robert Wilson was 53.

Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon has been helping out Kanye West on his upcoming LP due out November 16th. He has offered up vocal parts on at least 10 tracks over the last few months, and it has just been announced that 1 of the songs is definitely on the new LP's track list and is called “Lost in the World.” On top of just vocals he also offered up samples from the song “Woods” off of the band's 2009 Blood Bank EP.

Will Sheff, frontman of Okkervil River played a solo show in New York City’s Living Room last week. This show was a bit different because on top of the normal well known song setlist, he played quite a few new tunes off of the bands upcoming album. Check out the songs "Lay of the Last Survivor" & "Plus Ones" here via twentyfourbit.com

Kill Rock Stars has announced that they will be releasing a new Elliott Smith compilation on November 2. It is titled “An Introduction To…” and contains 14 of the late singer-songwriter’s most popular songs.

Johnny Marr, formerly of The Smiths and Modest Mouse, has written the theme song for a new TV series starring David Cross. The song is called “Life is Sweet” and the show, called “The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret” premiers October 1st on IFC.

Broken Bells have released a new interactive music video for their song “October.” The video allows the viewer to interact with and navigate through a mysterious space world while listening to the song. And if that wasn’t enough, it’s also in 3D! Check it out here.

Twentyfourbit reports that longtime animal rights activist and former Smiths frontman Morrissey has denounced the British Royal guard’s practice of hunting and killing Canadian brown bears for fur to line their hats. Morrissey points out that there are faux-fur alternatives and specifically blames Queen Elizabeth II for allowing the cruelty to occur in her name.

After rumors that they might sign to an indie label after their contract with Geffen expired last year, power pop superstars Weezer have signed to the longtime punk label Epitaph. Their follow up to 2009’s Raditude is titled Hurley and will be out on Epitaph September 14.

The New York Times reports that the Hatian-born hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean plans to run for the presidency in his home country. He said that he felt compelled by the disarray in Haiti that resulted from the catastrophic earthquake in January. While Jean’s actions may bring international attention to a crucial race, critics cite the fact that he has no political experience and has not lived extensively in the country since he was 9 years old.

Comedian Margaret Cho has been busy at work on her debut album that TwentyFourBit.com reports is intended to be “funny, but seriously good.” That album, entitled Cho Dependent, is now set to be released on August 24th and will feature guest appearances by Tegan and Sara, Tommy Chong, Ben Lee, Brendan Benson, Fiona Apple, Andrew Bird, Jon Brion, Garrison Starr, Grant Lee Phillips, Ani DiFranco, Meghan Toohey and Rachael Yamagata. You can stream the album right now for free at MargaretCho.com

With this week seeing the release of their new album, The Suburbs, as well as a Terry Gilliam-directed webcast of their performance at Madison Square Garden, Arcade Fire have found their name mentioned all over the blogosphere and elsewhere. Another reason for the Montreal-based band to be in the news today is that they covered Jay Reatard’s “Oh It’s Such a Shame” at The Mann Music Center in Philadelphia on Monday. You can see a video of Arcade Fire’s version of the song as well as the original at Pitchfork.com

Finally, There has been an official Fleet Foxes update which can be found on their website. It consists of a few dozen photos from their recent recording sessions (not just in a plain old studio!) & a 14 minute behind the scenes documentary from when Robin Pecknold (whose brother made the documentary) opened for Joanna Newsom.

Even though Guided By Voices is playing the 21st Anniversary show for the label Matador in Las Vegas, and doing a Reunion tour with the classic ’93-’96 line up, front man Robert Pollard has recently announced that he will be releasing 5 LP’s over the next 10 months. The albums will consist of solo material, collaborations, and with his full on side projects Boston Spaceship and Lifeguards. The first release is with Boston Spaceship on September 7th called Our Cubehouse Still Rocks.

Bassist Brett and Front Man Doug of Built To Spill have formed a new duo called The Electronic Anthology Project and they have released their first self titled EP. It consists of all Built to Spill songs covered in a 80’s synth pop 12inch remix style and can be found on CD Baby or at their merch table on tour. To hear three tracks from the EP you can visit their Myspace Page.

Famed Monty Python animator, Terry Gilliam, will direct a live webcast of Arcade Fire’s August 5th show at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. The webcast is the next episode in the internet-video series, Unstaged. You can watch the webcast at
Arcade Fire's Vevo page

J. Tillman, both drummer of the Fleet Foxes (who are in the final steps of their 2nd LP tentatively called, Deepwater Horizon) and a solo artist with 6 full length albums under his belt since 2005. He has recently announced that he will be releasing his 7th LP (3rd on the label Western Vinyl) on September 14th. He will then have 13 stops on his tour – the closest to Philly being Baltimore mid-September - with the great Phosphorescent as the opening act!

Animal Collective has announced that they will aiding in the judgment of YouTube videos that will be highlighted at the Guggenheim Museum in the Upper East Side section of NYC. The exhibit is called YouTube Play and will feature video art at the museum this fall. You can submit videos up until July 31st and find all pertinent information (including the full list of jury members) at the Guggenheim website.

Unfortunately this weekend at the Love Parade Dance Music Festival in North Western Germany, 19 people died and at least 500 more were injured according to the BBC. Police had noticed that the 1.4 million people in attendance were going to overcrowd the grounds and they attempted to completely stop admittance; in doing so this caused panic in the crowd and a stampeded ensued down the entrance tunnel. The festival continued on as planned to help prevent any further panic to those who did not know what had happened, but it has been announced by all organizers that this would be the last Love Parade Festival.

Atlanta based Psych-Rockers Deerhunter will release their new album, Halcyon Digest, via 4AD on September 28th.

The band is asking fans to help promote the album with a printable flyer at Halcyondigest.com.

Also, check out the album's Pitchfork-revealed tracklist, below.

01 Earthquake
02 Don't Cry
03 Revival
04 Sailing
05 Memory Boy
06 Desire Lines
07 Basement Scene
08 Helicopter
09 Fountain Stairs
10 Coronado
11 He Would Have Laughed

Prefuse 73 has announced that his next album will be composed “from start to finish with only the female voice and a strange fascination/obsession in contact microphones.” Prefuse has reportedly enlisted the voices of Dirty Projectors' Angel Deradoorian, My Brightest Diamond's Shara Woden, and Broadcast's Trish Keenan. It will also feature Battles’ Tyondi Braxton’s sequencing skills.

It had been previously announced that the Arcade Fire’s forthcoming album The Suburbs would be released with eight different covers. Today the covers were released online, and it turns out that they’re not that different at all. Each of the similarly-composed covers depicts the same car facing a different suburban home. They can be seen at Consequence of Sound.

Last week it was announced that the classic Guided By Voices lineup would be reuniting for Matador’s 21st anniversary celebration. Now the news has come that the same lineup will be heading out on a full-blown East Coast reunion tour, which will run from September 30th to November 7. Dates can be found at robertpollard.net.

The short list for the Polaris Music Prize, which recognizes the best Canadian album of the year has been announced. Nominees include Owen Pallett, Caribou, Broken Social Scene, Tegan and Sara, The Besnard Lakes and more. The winner will be declared in a ceremony on September 20.

Conor Oberst has reunited two of his former bands for a Concert for Equality to benefit the ACLU’s fight against new immigration laws in Oberst’s home state of Nebraska. Both Bright Eyes and Deseparicidios will perform on July 31 in Omaha. Cursive and a reunited Lullabye for the Working Class will also be performing. Check conoroberst.com for more details.

Two of the most eclectic figures in contemporary music are joining forces: Of Montreal and Janelle Monae have announced that they will be embarking on a fall tour together. Of Montreal frontman Kevin Barnes says that they will marry the two shows together and feature performance art and video along with the two musical performances. The multimedia tour begins September 13 and will run through November 5. You can find a full list of tour dates here.

A new record label called Warmest Chord has been founded with the express purpose of providing exciting physical packaging with all of its releases. Every release will come with a limited edition screenprint, as well as a digital mixtape created by the band whose music is on the release. The first release on Warmest Chord will be Wild Nothing’s Evertide, which will come with glow in the dark screenprint packaging. Check out the Warmest Chord website here

Thrill Jockey has announced that the Boredoms’ drum circle spectacular 77 BoaDrum will get a DVD release in September. The event was held on July 7, 2007 and featured the members of the band performing with 74 additional drummers. There has been no official document of the event until now.

Robert Pollard’s website reports that Guided By Voices will be reuniting in October to perform at Matador records’ 21st birthday fest. The show will feature the band’s “classic 1993 to 96 lineup”. The Matador birthday celebration will take place from Occtober 1st thru 3rd and will feature many more Matador artists. The full lineup of bands and events can be found at Matador's Website.

Dirty Projectors’ frontman Dave Longstreth announced that his band’s collaboration with Bjork – previously thought to be a one-off performance – has been recorded and will be released on June 30th. The piece is titled Mount Wittenberg Orca and will be self-released by the band via the internet. Longstreth says the piece was inspired by a pod of whales off the California coast, and therefore, any profits made from the sale of the album would be donated to the National Geographic Society. You can read more about the project here and order a copy of the album here.

Pete Yorn is staying busy, with two LP releases last year and now with the announcement (thanks Twentyfourbit) that his newest self-titled effort has been produced by the Pixies' own Frank Black/Black Francis. The album was recorded in an intense 5 day session and this is what Frank had to say about it:

"Pete told me he wanted to better define himself as an artist. I think he just wanted to rock out. But as we headed down a path of realization I stripped him down a whole bunch. We battled in the best sort of way. I tried to get the session into a fearless and raw place…"

Pete Yorn is 11 tracks long, due out in late September, and the track list looks like this:

1. Precious Stone
2. Rock Crowd
3. Velcro Shoes
4. Paradise Cove I
5. Badman
6. The Chase
7. Sans Fear
8. Always
9. Stronger than
10. Future Life
11. Wheels

My Morning Jacket is set to play each of their five albums in their entirety over the course five nights at New York City's Terminal 5 venue.

10-18 The Tennessee Fire
10-19 At Dawn
10-21 It Still Moves
10-22 Z
10-23 Evil Urges
...very exciting!

Each night is set to support a different charity and tickets for the shows go on pre-sale on June 14th, with 5-show ticket packages available. The individual shows will go on sale to the public on Friday, June 18th via ticketmaster

According to Pitchfork an administrator on The Avalanches' message board posted this reasonably straightforward piece of music nerd news: "i hear ariel pink is recording some guest vocals for it and once those are done, the album will be finished (!)." This, refers, of course, to the much-anticipated and long-awaited follow-up to The Avalanches' 2000 masterpiece Since I Left You. The timing of such an announcement couldn't come at a much better time, as Ariel Pink is currently basking in the accolades that his latest album Before Today is receiving.

Sad news in the world of classic funk and soul: Isley Brothers' bassist Marvin Isley passed away on Monday, June 7. Marvin's propulsive low-end work can be heard on classic Isley Brothers cuts like "Fight the Power" and "Who's That Lady?" While cause of death has not been announced, it is known that Marvin has been fighting a severe case of diabetes since the mid ninties, which forced him to leave the band in 1997. The New York Daily News has an obituary here.

On his current tour (entitled Twisted Road and running through June 7th), Neil Young has been debuting new songs along with performing selections from his 40+ year career.

TwentyFourBit.com reports that the songs could be part of Young's forthcoming studio effort produced by Daniel Lanois (U2, Peter Gabriel, Robbie Robertson). Video recordings of "Love and War," "You Never Call," "Peaceful Valley," "Sign of Love," and "Leia" can be seen at TwentyFourBit's website

El Guincho is getting ready to release a set of EPs of covers of traditional South American songs. The first is called "Piratas de Sudamerica" and will be in stores July 12. However, you can hear in its entirety right now over at Young Turks' Soundcloud page.

The Arcade Fire have released the first single from their forthcoming album The Suburbs. You can hear the title track and album cut "The Month of May" on their website right now. The player is even a cool widget that allows you to spin the record forward and backwards, so you can play DJ without worrying about scratching your record!

Billboard reports that David Byrne is suing Florida Governor and senatorial candidate Charlie Crist for one million dollars. Byrne claims that Crist used the Talking Heads song “Road to Nowhere” in a campaign ad without permission or appropriate licenses. Byrne’s lawyer explains that the one million dollar figure comes from previous offers that Byrne has fielded for using his music in advertising.

TwentyFourBit.com reports that Band of Horses' Ben Bridwell joined Pearl Jam this past weekend to perform Temple of the Dog's "Hunger Strike," which originally appeared on the band's 1990 self-titled debut.

Despite not being a particular avid Pearl Jam enthusiast, I admit that this video is pretty fun to watch (it also made me remember that I have always had a bit of a soft spot for this song).

Don't forget that Band of Horses have a dynamite new album out entitled Infinite Arms, last week's Featured New Album on my show. Check out the video of Mr. Bridwell and Pearl Jam doing their thing at YouTube.com

-J.J.

TwentyFourBit posted a nice little Talking Heads video tribute on Friday May 21st featuring Kyp Malone and Harsh Toke, MGMT, and The Arcade Fire. All three bands do the song, "This Is The Place (Naive Melody)." Click here to get to the three videos!

The annual (well since 2002) Sasquatch! Music Festival's lineup has been announced! The festival takes place out in The Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington from May 29th - 31st. Check out the full line-up and band bio's here.
Pitchfork has put together a day and hour lineup:
Saturday, May 29:
12:05 Shabazz Palaces (Sasquatch Stage)
1:20 Fool's Gold (Yeti Stage)
4:30 Patton Oswalt (Rumpus-Room Stage)
5:35 Broken Social Scene (Sasquatch Stage)
6:45 WHY? (Yeti Stage)
7:00 The National (Sasquatch Stage)
7:30 The Hold Steady (Bigfoot Stage)
7:30 The Very Best (Rumpus-Room Stage)
8:30 Vampire Weekend (Sasquatch Stage)
8:40 Dam-Funk (Rumpus Room Stage)
10:00 My Morning Jacket (Sasquatch Stage)

Sunday, May 30:
12:05 Caribou (Sasquatch Stage)
1:30 Local Natives (Bigfoot Stage)
2:35 The Tallest Man on Earth (Bigfoot Stage)
3:10 tUnE-yArDs (Yeti Stage)
3:40 Cymbals Eat Guitars (Bigfoot Stage)
4:15 Avi Buffalo (Yeti Stage)
5:50 the xx (Bigfoot Stage)
7:00 LCD Soundsystem (Sasquatch Stage)
7:00 Girls (Bigfoot Stage)
7:30 YACHT (Rumpus-Room Stage)
8:15 Dirty Projectors (Bigfoot Stage)
8:30 Pavement (Sasquatch Stage)
8:40 A-Trak (Rumpus-Room Stage)
9:45 Public Enemy (Bigfoot Stage)
10:15 Massive Attack (Sasquatch Stage)
11:30 Booka Shade (Bigfoot Stage)

Monday, May 31:
3:00 Drive-By Truckers (Sasquatch Stage)
3:25 Quasi (Bigfoot Stage)
4:10 Passion Pit (Sasquatch Stage)
5:10 Japandroids (Yeti Stage)
5:20 She & Him (Sasquatch Stage)
5:40 The Mountain Goats (Bigfoot Stage)
6:15 No Age (Yeti Stage)
6:40 Band of Horses (Sasquatch Stage)
6:50 Camera Obscura (Bigfoot Stage)
8:05 MGMT (Sasquatch Stage)
8:20 The New Pornographers (Bigfoot Stage)
8:40 Neon Indian (Rumpus-Room Stage)

Dear God was one of the first tunes we heard from Monsters of Folk's Monsters of Folk 2009 release. Well now you can listen to The Roots version which is being dubbed Dear God 2.0 - you can listen to it HERE!!

The Roots 9th studio album, How I Got Over, is out June 22nd via Def Jam Records.

Tracklist:
1. "Walk Alone" (feat. Truck North, P.O.R.N., Dice Raw, and Mercedes Martinez)
2. "Dear God 2.0" (feat. Jim James and Monsters of Folk)
3. "Radio Daze" (feat. Blu, P.O.R.N., Dice Raw, and Mercedes Martinez)
4. "Now Or Never" (feat. Phonte Coleman and Dice Raw)
5. "How I Got Over" (feat. Dice Raw)
6. "The Day" (feat. Blu, Phonte, and Patty Crash)
7. "Right On" (feat. Joanna Newsom and Sugar Tongue Slim)
8. "Doin' It Again" (feat. John Legend)
9. "The Fire" (feat. John Legend and Rick Friedrich)
10. "Web 20/20" (feat. Truck North and Peedi Peedi)
11. "Bonus Cut"

Rogue Wave has announced that they will be going on a summer tour to support their 2010 release, Permalight. The tour will start in Nevada at Crystal Bay Crown Club and they will wrap it up in Chicago at Lollapalooza in August.

Also while on tour the will be shooting a video for "Solitary Gun," so stayed tuned!

Tour Dates:
07/14- Crystal Bay, NV – Crystal Bay Crown Club
07/16- Salt Lake City, UT – In The Venue
07/17- Denver, CO – Marquis Theatre
07/20- Detroit, MI – Magic Stick
07/21- Pittsburg, PA – Andy Warhol Museum
07/24- Freeport, ME – Discovery Park
07/26- Northampton, MA – Iron Horse Music Hall
07/28- Norfolk, VA – The Norva Theatre
07/29- Baltimore, MD – The Otto Bar
07/31- Montauk, NY – Surf Lodge
08/3- Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop
08/4- Columbus, OH – The Basement
08/5- Cincinnati, OH – 20th Century Theatre
08/6-8- Chicago, IL – Lollapalooza

Last night, May 18th, Ryan Adams officially released ORION to the world on 180g clear vinyl (which makes it even more cool)! If you are able to find one of these extremely limited presses of Ryan Adam's most legit metal album (which he clarified as "fast country with screaming and crap") you will also receive a download card so you can get these tunes on your hand held mp3 player as well as a nifty poster!

ORION

Side One:
1 Signal Fade
2 Imminent Galactic War
3 Disappyramid
4 Fire Away
5 Defenders of the Galaxy
6 Fire and Ice

Side Two:
1 By Force
2 Ghorgon, Master of War
3 Ariel
4 Electro Snake
5 Victims of the Ice Brigade
6 2,000 Ships
7 End of Days

Tokyo Police Club released their first single to their upcoming LP, Champ, called "Breakneck Speed," not to long ago. Well now that the release of their second album is only 2 weeks away (June 2nd) they have given everyone a bit more of a taste of things to come!

You can stream: "Breakneck Speed," "Favourite Food," "Favourite Colour," "Wait Up (Boots of Danger)," & "End of a Spark" via their website (you can also pre-order Champ there too)!

Check out the video for "Breakneck Speed," which can be viewed here.

The band will also be at the Mann Center in Philadelphia with Passion Pit June 27th!

Toro Y Moi, who has a new 7" coming up in July, has allowed everyone to hear a little bit of what he has been up to lately...2 months early...which is always awesome! Listen to "Leave Everywhere" and see all upcoming tour dates (he is playing through mid-August) here via stereogum!

The "Leave Everywhere" single, that will be joined by "First Date", is out July 20th via Car Park Records.

With the release of The Black Keys 8th studio album just under their belts they seem to continue down the path of staying very busy. The band has just released a video for one of the best songs off the album Brothers, "Tighten Up." Both Dan and Pat have continued on with the path of making their music videos as entertaining as possible (their previous video featured a pool, bikinis, and a T-Rex puppet!) - go the bands myspace page to view the bands latest antics!

The Arcade Fire have publicly announced that they will be releasing a new single (hopefully an LP will follow)!!! The band wrote a postcard addressed to The Internet at 1400 Defense Pentagon, Washington DC 20301. It reads, "Howdy yall - Just finishing up pressing our new 12". Should be in stores in the next couple weeks. God willing. Good luck with finals. See you this summer! AF." - very enticing!!!

Amazon has listed that the single is to be called "Subrubs/Month of May" and it will be available June 1st --- supposedly this is lie, only time will tell. Either way we will be hearing from The Arcade Fire this summer and that's all that matters.

The list for this year's Austin City Limits during October 8th, 9th, & 10th has been announced. For those who don't know The Austin City Limits Music Festival is an annual three-day music festival in Austin, Texas' Zilker Park. The Festival usually brings more than 130 bands on eight stages with genres that include rock, country, folk, indie, Americana, hip-hop, reggae, and bluegrass. View the full line-up Here. Some highlights are:

Phish, The Strokes, The Flaming Lips (all of who are headliners), Spoon, LCD Soundsystem, Vampire Weekend, Monsters of Folk, Band of Horses, Sonic Youth, Yeasayer, The Black Keys, Local Natives, Beach House, The xx, and many more!

Jimmy Fallon's Late Night house band - better known as The Roots, have announced that they will be releasing their 11th album (9th studio) June 22 on Def Jam called How I Got Over. Click here to download "How I Got Over." The album has a few guest appearances including:
- A Cameo from Jim James (of My Morning Jacket)
- Joanna Newsom Sample
- Beanie Sigel
- Young Chris (of the Young Gunz)
- Phonte (of Little Brother & The Foreign Exchange)

Vampire Weekend is currently on quite the world tour supporting their latest and second LP, Contra, with no specific openers...that is until August 28th! Starting then in British Columbia's outdoor Marion Malkin Memorial Bowl Theatre in Vancouver they will be joined by the Dum Dum Girls (supporting their first LP) and the amazing need no for an introduction Beach House. This trio will be playing together through Vampire Weekend's three date stint at New York's own Radio City Music Hall in mid-September

According to Gorilla Vs. Bear,, Panda Bear (aka Noah Lennox) is set to release his first single from his upcoming 4th solo album, Tomboy, due out in September via Paw Tracks. This first - in a series of limited edition 7" - single, will not only just be the title track from the upcoming LP but also, "Slow Motion."

Two new live videos have popped up on the internet that contain both impressive artists and songs. Enjoy!

1.) Wilco - "Deeper Down"
2.) Ben Folds - "Say Yes" (Elliot Smith Cover)

The Local Natives have a new video for their song, "World News," off of Gorilla Manor. It is 4:37 long and it is worth every nonsensical minute! It is directed by Matthew Lessner who has done music videos for The Dirty Projector's "Stillness is the Move" & Foreign Born's "Early Warnings."

Watch/Enjoy it HERE, via stereogum!

It seems that True Blood, an HBO original series, is following in the foot steps of the Twilight Saga's soundtrack of the 2009 release New Moon. The line-up of artists is equally stacked but the true question is, will the music back it up this time? Many people found that the New Moon soundtrack was not up to snuff on the quality of music it provided...hopefully True Blood's will be - out May 25th via Elektra!

Tracklist:
1. M. Ward: "Howlin' for My Baby"
2. Jace Everett and CC Adcock: Evil (Is Going On)
3. Beck: "Bad Blood"
4. Robbie Robertson: "How to Become Clairvoyant"
5. Jr. Walker and The All Stars: "Shake and Fingerpop"
6. Screamin' Jay Hawkins: "Frenzy"
7. Lucinda Williams and Elvis Costello: "Kiss Like Your Kiss"
8. Buddy and Julie Miller: "Gasoline and Matches"
9. Chuck Prophet: "You Did (Bomp Shooby Dooby Bomp)"
10. The 13th Floor Elevators: "You're Gonna Miss Me"
11. Eels: "Fresh Blood"
12. Thievery Corporation: "The Forgotten People" (Bon Temps Remix)
13. King Britt and Sister Gertrude Morgan: "New World in My View"
14. Bob Dylan: "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'"

Listen to Jamie Lidell's title track single, Compass, to start to get a feel on where his third album is heading - out May 18th via Warp. It's interesting to hear music that is rooted in R&B/Soul and than expanded into many genre's that include but are definitely not limited to: singer/songwriter, ambient, and electronic loop layering. The expansion into these genre's makes much more sense when you look at the list of artists that have helped him in making the album: Beck, Feist, Chris Taylor (Grizzly Bear), James Gadson, and Pat Sansone (Wilco). Read a full interview here via Pitchfork.

Hulu is currently offering a collection of 41 high definition recordings from last summers' Austin City Limits. There is only one small hitch, there is a 30 second advertisement before each video - it seems to be worth the wait though! Some of the artists they are offering up are: The Walkmen, The Dodos, Bon Iver, Andrew Bird, Thievery Corporation, Dead Weather, Alberta Cross, & School Of Seven Bells.
Go here to see them all!

Daniel Quine Auerbach, lead singer of The Black Keys, seems to have gone under some serious surgery for the bands latest video! He now seems to have the body of a hand puppet T-Rex!! The song for the video is "Next Girl," coming off their upcoming release Brothers out May 18th via Nonesuch. You can Watch the video here!

My Morning Jacket, who is currently wrapping up their spring tour with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, is starting to tease fans with some new material - which will hopefully result in a LP sooner rather than later! You can hear the two tracks that they have been teasing at their shows, "Friends Again" & "Carried Away," via You Ain't No Picasso.

Over the last few weeks there has been much talk about Wolf Parade. Dan Boeckner has had a few interviews where he has talked about the upcoming album and that may in fact be a double LP or even an EP & LP release!

Well as of right now you can listen to, two tracks, "Ghost Pressure" & "What Did My Lover Say (It Always Had to Go This Way)" off the upcoming album entitled, Expo '86 and read an interview with Spencer Krug via Pitchfork.

Interpol is back! They recently posted a new song, "Lights" from their as-yet-untitled fourth studio album. You can check it out (as well as a very 2001: A Space Oddessy-esque animated intro) at the band's website.

On Tuesday April 27th iTuneswill be releasing a cover of Radiohead's, No Surprises done by Regina Spector. All proceeds from the sale will be going to Doctor's Without Borders. You can listen here, but please if you do enjoy it, purchase it for a great cause

The great poet Shel Silverstein, who passed away in 1999, has a new tribute coming his way. This will not be a poetry tribute in honor of his amazing books, Where the Sidewalk Ends or A Light in the Attic, but to the music that he created! It is being called Twistable, Turnable Man: A Musical Tribute to the Songs of Shel Silverstein and is officially out June 8th on Sugar Hill. The list of contributing artists is almost unbearably impressive too, check out the track list below!

Tracklist:
1: My Morning Jacket: "Lullabies, Legends and Lies"
2: Andrew Bird: "The Twistable, Turnable Man Returns"
3: John Prine: "This Guitar Is for Sale"
4: Dr. Dog: "The Unicorn"
5: Kris Kristofferson: "The Winner"
6: Sarah Jarosz With Black Prairie: "Queen of the Silver Dollar"
7: Bobby Bare, Jr. with Isabella Bare: "Daddy What If"
8: Black Francis with Joey Santiago: "The Cover of the Rolling Stone"
9: The Boxmasters: "Sylvia's Mother"
10: Ray Price: "Me and Jimmie Rodgers"
11: Todd Snider: "A Boy Named Sue"
12: Lucinda Williams: "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan"
13: Bobby Bare: "The Living Legend"
14: Nanci Griffith: "The Giving Tree"
15: My Morning Jacket: "26 Second Song"

The School Of Seven Bells formed when Benjamin Curtis of The Secret Machines and the twin sisters in On!Air!Library! decided to leave those bands, move in together, and begin to make music back in 2007. In 2008 they released their first LP entitled, Alpinisms, and now they have announced a new LP entitled, Disconnect From Desire, out on July 13th via Vagrant. Check out their Website for more information.
Tracklist:
1. Windstorm
2. Heart Is Strange
3. Dust Devil
4. I L U
5. Babelonia
6. Joviann
7. Cammarilla
8. Dial
9. Bye Bye Bye
10. The Wait

M.I.A. has announced that her third full length will be out on June 26. Rap-Up reports that two blimps flew over Jay-Z's set at the Cochella Valley Music & Arts Festival on Friday, April 16. One announced her upcoming festival appearances, while the other reading "New Album 6.26.10".

"Get high like paper/Fly like planes," indeed.

Guru, best-known as the MC for the influential Hip-Hop duo, Gang Starr, passed away on April 19th of multiple myeloma. The rapper had reportedly been in a coma since February.

Though Guru enjoyed a fruitful solo career that dates back to 1993, it was his early-90s Gang Starr work with DJ Premier that cemented his place as a Hip-Hop legend. Their 1992 release, Daily Operation, stands in the eyes of many as one of the greatest Hip-Hop albums ever released; Stanton Swihart of AllMusic.com describes it as thus: "For an underground crew, Gang Starr has always had a knack for crafting memorable vocal hooks to go with the expert production, and they multiply both aspects on Daily Operation. Every song has some attribute that stamps it indelibly into the listener's head, and it marks the album as one of the finest of the decade, rap or otherwise."

You can see the Jon Caramanica-written obituary that appeared yesterday in the New York Times here: NYTimes.com

The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney, the Strokes’ Fab Moretti and Nikolai Fraiture, Norah Jones, Sean Lennon, and many more at set to appear at NYC’s downtown venue, The Bowery Ballroom, on May 27th. They are all going to be there to celebrate and play the music of the infamous Bob Dylan (also his upcoming 69th birthday) in what is being dubbed “Dylan Fest 2010: A Night To Get Drunk And Celebrate the Songs of Bob Dylan!”

What is quite possibly the best thing about what will hopefully be a lovely warm night in NYC, is that tickets are only 13 bucks!

2009 was absolutely amazing for French Indie Rock Band Phoenix, and it seems that so far this year, they have decided to stay on that same track. The band has already released a free live 8 track EP, entitled Live In Sydney, and now they have announced that they will be credited for scoring a movie too!

Mars, lead singer for the band, is director Sofia Coppola’s boyfriend and after hearing Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix’s epic seven and a half minute track, “Love Like a Sunset,” she became convinced that the band would have to do the music for her upcoming movie, Somewhere! Look for the release date to be set for sometime this fall!!

There has been some serious hype going on over the Canadian Super Group Broken Social Scene lately. If you have not heard, they have announced that they will be releasing their first official LP, Forgiveness Rock Record, in five years. It is currently set to be released on May 4th via Arts & Crafts!!

Well, now on top of that they will be releasing an EP on May 4th as well! If you pre-order or purchase the album (Vinyl or CD) from them or an independent record store you will get the EP entitled, Lo-Fi for the Dividing Nights as well. It is an impressive 10 tracks long and is a collection of “soundscapes” that band members recorded during the making of the LP!

If you can’t wait for May 4th to hear the new album you can also stream it here for free!!

All-caps noise rockers HEALTH have just released a new song from their forthcoming DISCO2 remix album (out June 22 on Lovepump United). It's the only un-remixed song that will be featured on the album. Check it out at HEALTH's MySpace page.

Domino Records released a statement earlier this week that influential jazz drummer Steve Reid passed away Monday night after a battle with cancer.

Reid had performed with an impressive lineup of musicians in his 40-year career, including Miles Davies, Fela Kuti, James Brown Sun Ra, Quincy Jones, and Ornette Coleman. In recent years, he led the Steve Reid Enseble, and collaborated with Kieran Hebden (Four Tet).

More LCD Soundsystem news: This Is Happening isn't officially out until May 18, but James Murphy is so nice that he's letting you hear the album in its entirety for free over at LCD Soundsystem's Website.

Even though most tribute albums don’t usually come out while the person being honored is still alive, in John Prine’s case it is not happening that way, the album is even being released on his own label! It is being called Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine, and is due out on June 22nd. The album is also sporting a major line up of great artists, some of the highlights are: Justin Vernon, Conor Oberst, My Morning Jacket, The Avett Brothers, Sara Watkins, Drive-By Truckers, and Deer Tick!

About four years before there was Grizzly Bear, Daniel Rossen was in a duo called Department Of Eagles with former freshman year roommate, Fred Nicolaus. Well now since they have been around for just about a decade they are releasing Archive 2003-2006. It is a collection of tracks from songs recorded after their 2003 album, The Cold Nose, and from tracks that the duo recorded in practice rooms at NYU. The album is set to be released on July 20th via American Dust Records.

Even though it has been just over three years since LCD Soundsystem has released their last LP, Sound of Silver, they have been recently making quite a few headlines sporting new songs! The new album, This Is Happening, which is out May 17th on DFA Records, has already had a fair amount of press with released songs and two more have made it out! Listen to them here at We All Want Someone To Shout For.

Wolf Parade have announced that their third full-length album will be titled Expo 86 and will be available late June or early July on Sub Pop. Co-frontman Dan Boeckner has stated that the band recorded nearly 80 minutes of material for the album, which could be released as a double LP, or as a single album with another EP released later in the year. One thing, he told Pitchfork, is that "We want to release it all. I don't feel that any of the songs are ugly cousins or duds."

In the an interview with Exclaim, Boeckner also explains that the band has lost keyboard player Hadji Bakara, who has "quit music" to persue a doctorate in English literature full-time.

The band has also announced a world tour to promote the album. Dates can be found on the band's MySpace page.

Portand-based cut-and-paste-rockers Menomena have announced the follow-up to their outstanding 2007 album, Friend and Foe. Their third full-length album will be called Mines and will be released July 27 on Barsuk.

Also, as seen on the left, Menomena also have awesome new press photos where they skateboard in empty pools. I'm sold.

Tokyo Police Club have their first single out, "Breakneck Speed," from their upcoming album, Champ, out June 8th. You can listen to it/get a free download here:
http://tokyopoliceclub.com/

Titus Andronicus has released their first video from their album The Monitor via their myspace page. It certainly displays the bands attitude properly and is a seriously action packed 3 minutes and 34 seconds!! View it here:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=103846998

Alex Chilton, lead singer and songwriter for Big Star, a Memphis-based band who has enjoyed a steadily growing cult-following since their dissolution in the mid-70s has passed away of an apparent heart-attack at the age of 59.

Chilton experienced success both as a member of the '60s band, The Box Tops, as well as a solo-musician before re-uniting a modified version of Big Star many years after that group broke-up.

Big Star is often cited as an influence for many bands that followed, and is especially apparent in the Alt-Country movement that began in the early-1990s.

Link to an article posted yesterday by The Commercial Appeal:

"Memphis music loses 'Big Star...'"

Things may or may not be getting weirder (though Cardinology still remains the weirdest thing he's done due to its unrelenting lameness) for Ryan Adams who will soon be releasing a vinyl-pressing of his "most legit METAL record," Orion. Follow the link to hear a song from the album..and maybe e-mail someone (anyone, re...ally) and advocate for the release of Machrobioticon's Helicopter Soup (if only I could find that phone recording..). I am going to get a copy and it is going to be good, maybe "Summer Jam 2010" good. Follow the link below for more.

Ryan Adams-Orion

-J.J.