Wilco will continue touring on their successful return to form, The Whole Love with a strong touring schedule that will run through the Midwest in December, and now the West Coast in January and February. The Midwest dates have mostly sold out by now, but ticket details for the West Coast dates will come next week. One would have to question if Nick Lowe will go on tour with the band into 2012, as he did for their recently completed East Coast run, and will again in December. Check the dates after the jump.

10.24 Glasgow, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
10.25 Manchester, Manchester Academy
10.27 Bristol, Colston Hall
10.28 London, Roundhouse
10.29 London, Roundhouse
11.01 Madrid, Teatro Circo Price (Sold Out)
11.02 Barcelona, Palau Musica Catalana
11.03 San Sebastian, Kursaal Auditorio
11.04 Vigo, Pavillon das Travesas
11.07 Basel, Kaserne Basel
11.08 Frankfurt, Alte Oper
11.09 Munich, Circus Krone
11.11 Weißenhaus, Rolling Stone Weekender
11.12 Berlin, Tempodrom
11.13 Utrecht, Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn
11.14 Tilburg, 013
11.29 Dallas, The Music Hall at Fair Park
12.01 Austin, Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theatre (Sold Out)
12.03 Kansas City, Uptown Theatre (Sold Out)
12.04 Des Moines, Val Air Ballroom
12.06 Minneapolis, The State Theatre (Sold Out)
12.07 Minneapolis, The State Theatre (Sold Out)
12.09 Milwaukee, The Riverside Theatre (Sold Out)
12.10 Detroit, The Fillmore Detroit (Sold Out)
12.12 Chicago, Civic Opera House (Sold Out)
12.13 Chicago, Riviera Theare (Sold Out)
12.15 Chicago, The Vic Theatre (Sold Out)
12.16 Chicago, Metro (onsale 10/15 at 10:00am central)
01.19 Denver, Fillmore Auditorium
01.21 Tempe, Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium
01.22 San Diego, Copley Symphony Hall
01.24 Los Angeles, Hollywood Palladium
01.28 San Jose, Civic Auditorium
01.29 San Francisco, The Warfield
01.31 Oakland, Fox Theatre
02.01 Davis, UC Davis Mondavi Center for the Arts
02.03 Eugene, Hult Center for the Performing Arts
02.05 Vancouver, Orpheum Theatre
02.06 Spokane, INB Performing Arts Center
02.07 Seattle, Paramount Theatre
02.08 Portland, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
02.10 Santa Barbara, Arlington Theatre
02.26 Oslo, Sentrum Scene (Sold Out)
02.27 Stockholm, Annexet
02.28 Copenhagen, Falconer Salen
03.02 Brussels, Ancienne Belgique (Sold Out)
03.03 Brussels, Ancienne Belgique
03.05 Paris, Le Grand Rex
03.07 Zurich, Volkshaus
03.08 Milan, Alcatraz
03.09 Bologna, Estragon
03.11 Zagreb, Aquarius

If one needed any indication that Wilco were going to push the boundaries again like they had in the past, they would not need to look any further than the spectacular, towering opener “Art of Almost.” In seven and a quarter minutes, Wilco open their ninth record, The Whole Love with their biggest bang since “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” and maybe even before that. It’s noisy, pounding, and it devolves into an absolute shredfest by the end. While many might call “Almost” a red herring, it fits on this mixed bag of a record, particularly when being followed by catchy single “I Might.” More than any other song on the record, “I Might” could’ve easily been found in the bootleg recordings of the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot sessions. It has that upbeat bounce and catchy melody that make “Kamera,” “Heavy Metal Drummer,” and “Pot Kettle Black” everlasting as well.

This album contains callbacks to Summerteeth (“Sunloathe,” “Dawned on Me”), Being There (“Black Moon,” “Standing O”), and even Mermaid Avenue (“Capital City”) and their debut, A.M. (the title track). The difference here is that these don’t seem like Wilco having to rely on old songwriting methods to do well, but rather, they do a stellar job improving on the older methods. The slower numbers, which on Sky Blue Sky and Wilco (the Album) sometimes felt very flat and emotionless, really come out on this record. For example, “Black Moon” is backed by a gorgeous string section, gorgeous slide guitar, and it sounds like a really good Ryan Adams songs, or an update of Uncle Tupelo’s “Black Eye.” Jeff Tweedy’s lower vocal register is exceptional. How it’s been absent from the last few records is baffling.

However, there are parts of this record that are unlike anything Wilco has ever done. Namely, the brilliant album closer, “One Sunday Morning,” best demonstrates this. For twelve minutes, Jeff Tweedy captivates us with a hypnotically beautiful acoustic guitar picking. He sings in a low voice about how writer Jane Smiley’s boyfriend was condemned by his own father about his lifestyle. When the father died, the boyfriend felt relief. Now this isn’t a subject many can relate to, but the story is powerful, and the emotion felt is an interesting one. “One Sunday Morning” could be easily classified in the same camp as “She’s a Jar” or “Via Chicago” off Summerteeth. It’s not depressing, especially musically, but the emotion felt is very uncertain. Nick Drake’s influence shows here as well, even musically. The emotion felt by Drake’s music is neither happy, nor very sad; it’s a strong juxtaposition between dark and light, and Tweedy pulls this off very well with a backing of breathing pianos and other sound effects. “One Sunday Morning” is one of the best things this band has ever created, and leaves an impression after its conclusion. It begs for repeat listens, much like the rest of the album. And unlike numerous other long closers, it holds your attention for the entire duration for the song, much like Yo La Tengo’s “Night Falls on Hoboken.”

The record’s flow is something of question though. With a totally bombastic opening duo and a gorgeous, cinematic close, you can’t help but feel some drag in the middle at times. Some songs (“Sunloathe,” “Open Mind”) feel somewhat undercooked compared to other counterparts or similar Wilco tracks from the past. The placement of the punk rock punch of “Standing O” is incredibly questionable when placed between the Randy Newman sounding “Capital City” (look for it in a Pixar short near you, which will be awesome) and the gorgeous “Rising Red Lung.” If there’s something that made Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot brilliant, it was the flow and cohesiveness of those records. And even with those, though their live versions may have been blown up into something more full, all songs on those records came across entirely fleshed out, while some of the songs here on The Whole Love seem disappointingly incomplete.

Besides “One Sunday Morning,” if The Whole Love should be remembered for anything, it should probably be the production. Sure, the clarity of the instruments and the alien radio static on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was great; there’s a reason that album is a modern classic. The Whole Love is a different case though. This is a band who are continually reinventing themselves, and reinventing what good pop music is. If they work backwards, they’re still moving forward with their sound. The Whole Love is a solid return for Wilco, and hopefully them pushing their sound in more new directions as they have done here, particularly on the first and last tracks.

Recently, the art to Kid Cudi’s next album, Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager, was revealed (as seen above). Today, we’re able to give you the tracklist. Much like End of the Day, Mr. Rager contains five “acts” and 17 songs total. Guests include Cee-Lo, Mary J. Blige, Kanye West (who again executive produced the record), and St. Vincent. The fact that there’s a track named “Marijuana” that’s four minutes and twenty seconds long, and a track called “Ashin’ Kusher” a few track later makes things all too exciting.

Act I: The World I Am Ruling
1. “Scott Mescudi vs. The World” (feat. Cee Lo Green)

2. “REVOFEV”

Act II: A Stronger Trip
3. “Don’t Play This Song” (feat. Mary J. Blige)

4. “We Aite (Wake Your Mind Up)”

5. “Marijuana”

6. “Mojo So Dope”

Act III: Party On
7. “Ashin’ Kusher”

8. “Erase Me” (feat. Kanye West
)
9. “Wild’n Cuz I’m Young”

10. “The Mood”

Act IV: The Transformation
11. “MANIAC” (feat. Cage and St. Vincent
)
12. “Mr. Rager”

13. “These Worries” (feat. Mary J. Blige
)
14. “The End” (feat. GLC, Chip Tha Ripper, and Nicole Wray
)
Act V: You Live & You Learn
15. “All Along”

16. “GHOST!”

17. “Trapped in My Mind”

Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager is due out November 9th via Dream On, G.O.O.D. Music, and Universal Motown.

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico “Femme Fatale” from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Yep, continuing his full album cover of The Velvet Underground and Nico, Beck highly delivered on the above rendition of the Nico-sung track.

We’re all expecting a mindbending cover of “Venus in Furs” next.

In a completely out of nowhere find, Stereogum has received word of a new, 3 song EP being released by Spoon on Tuesday, June 30th. The EP is entitled Got Nuffin and is seen only in Amazon’s download store right now. Clicking the previous link also lets you preview the three new songs. A CD will be available through Merge at some point.

Tracklist and tour dates after the jump.

Got Nuffin:

01. Got Nuffin
02. Tweakers
03. Stroke Their Brains

06.29 Milwaukee, WI – Summerfest
07.09 Austin, TX – Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheatre
07.10 Austin, TX – Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheatre
07.11 Austin, TX – Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheatre
07.22-07.26 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle (XX Merge, date TBA)
07.26 North Lake Tahoe/Squaw Valley, CA – Wanderlust Festival

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico ‘Waiting for My Man’ from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Well there is is, the second song on Beck’s full Velvet Underground and Nico cover fest. A much roots-ier affair than the Velvets’ original, Beck has come through again with a solid cover.

“Femme Fatale” next! Excitement!

Vermont’s finest Phish will release their first studio album in five years (aka since their breakup at the Coventry Festival), titled Joy. The album will be released on JEMP Records later this year, on a date to be announced. You can download the closer “Time Turns Elastic” on iTunes now, if you can’t wait that long.

The tracklist looks potentially exciting, as well as the fact that the band worked with Steve Lillywhite, producer of quite possibly their finest studio effort, Billy Breathes. Containing 10 songs, we’ve heard every single one of them in the live format already except for “I’ve Been Around”. Opener “Twenty Years Later” was played once, at Jones Beach in Wantagh, New York. The other songs (particularly “Kill Devil Falls” and “Ocelot”) made several appearances on tour. A surprise is that “Alaska”, performed in Asheville, North Carolina and known by fans, isn’t to be seen on this tracklist, unless it’s now called “I’ve Been Around”.

Tracklist and late summer tour (announce a fall/winter one already!) dates after the jump.

The track listing for Joy is as follows:

01. Twenty Years Later
02. Backwards Down the Number Line
03. Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan
04. Light
05. Joy
06. Sugar Shack
07. Ocelot
08. Kill Devil Falls
09. I’ve Been Around
10. Time Turns Elastic

Phish’s (sold out) Late summer tour:

07.30 Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
07.31 Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
08.01 Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
08.02 Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
08.05 Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre
08.07 George, WA – The Gorge Amphitheatre
08.08 George, WA – The Gorge Amphitheatre
08.11 Chicago, IL – Toyota Park
08.13 Darien Lake, NY – Darien Lake PAC
08.14 Hartford, CT – The Comcast Theatre (aka Meadows Music Theatre)
08.15 Columbia, MD – Merriweather Post Pavilion
08.16 Saratoga Springs, NY -SPAC

The above image was posted on the Flaming Lips’ Myspace page. We await official confirmation that this is the cover. If it is, definitely the most original and one of the best Lips covers yet.

Dates after the jump. Embyronic comes out via Warners TBA.

06-26 St. Gallen, Switzerland – St. Gallen Festival
06-28 Helsinki, Finland – Pitka Kuuma
07-19 Chicago, IL – Pitchfork Music Festival
07-28 Moore Park, Australia – Hordern Pavilion
07-29 West Melbourne, Australia – Festival Hall
08-15 Del Mar, CA – Del Mar Race Track Infield
08-17 Los Angeles, CA – Greek Theater
08-18 Pomona, CA – Fox Theater
08-20 Portland, OR – Edgefield Amphitheater
08-21 Seattle, WA – Marymoor Amphitheater
08-23 Denver, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheater *
08-26 Atlanta, GA – Chastain Park Amphitheater
08-28 Washington, DC – Merriweather Post Pavilion
08-29 Philadelphia, PA – Festival Pier
08-30 Boston, MA – Bank of America Pavilion
09-04 Barcelona, Spain – Estadi Olimpic $
09-07 Paris, France – Parc des Princes $+
09-09 Nijmegen, Holland – Goffertpark $+
09-13 Monticello, NY – ATP New York

Shot on the final night of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. Warning, the above video does not contain Bruce Springsteen, but it is a video of the reggae-styled fan favorite “NICU”. Video via the Wall Street Journal.

Yesterday, we gave you the artwork and tracklist. Today, Arctic Monkeys have released a small, 30 second clip of “Pretty Visitors”, a song off their upcoming album Humbug. It’s not much, but the appearance of singer/songwriter Alex Turner with extremely long hair is somewhat exciting, as well as some guy named Josh Homme producing the album. Humbug is out August 24th in the UK and August 25th in the US via Domino. Preorder the CD and LP here.

Arctic Monkeys – “Pretty Visitors”

As with “Autumn Beds”, it’s B-Side “The Whale Song” is now streaming over at The Trip Wire. For those of you, like me, who saw this song live in 2008, or earlier this year, it can only be improved in the studio, and it was. The whale-like guitar is still there, and the song is easily the most menacing thing they’ve released since The Moon and Antarctica. Honestly, it should’ve been the A-Side here, but that’s a whole different argument.

“Autumn Beds” b/w “The Whale Song is out June 23rd. You can get it here or on iTunes, if you haven’t experienced the revival. Modest Mouse fall tour dates and “The Whale Song” after the jump.

Last night at Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain, U2 began rehearsing for their U2360 World Tour. Those of you who are fans of No Line on the Horizon, be excited as there were 7 songs played from that record. The hits were there, in the form of “Where the Streets Have No Name”, “Vertigo”, and “Beautiful Day”, but shockingly, “One”, “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, and “Bullet the Blue Sky” were absent. I’d expect them to be back by tour time though.

And for the diehards like me and a few others of us, “The Unforgettable Fire” (first time since 1990), “Drowning Man” (first time ever), and “Ultraviolet (Light My Way)” (first time since 1993) were performed. Strangely absent were songs from the band’s first 3 albums, as well as all of their 1990s albums with the exception of “Ultraviolet”. Hopefully more from those will appear, as well as “Bad”.

The first show is in Barcelona at Camp Nou on June 30th. Setlist and breakdown by album via U2 Gigs after the jump.

Warmup:
· The Unforgettable Fire – last performed on the Lovetown Tour, 6 January 1990.
· City Of Blinding Lights

Set:
Intro
Magnificent
Get On Your Boots
Elevation
Beautiful Day
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Drowning Man
Breathe
In A Little While
Angel Of Harlem / Suspicious Minds (snippet)
Unknown Caller
The Unforgettable Fire
City Of Blinding Lights
Pride
MLK
Where The Streets Have No Name
Ultra Violet
With Or Without You
Vertigo
Crazy Tonight
No Line On The Horizon
Moment Of Surrender

Breakdown by album:

Boy: 0
October: 0
War: 1 (Drowning Man)
The Unforgettable Fire: 3 (Pride, The Unforgettable Fire, MLK)
The Joshua Tree: 3 (Streets, ISHFWILF, With Or Without You)
Rattle And Hum: 1 (Angel Of Harlem)
Achtung Baby: 1 (Ultra Violet)
Zooropa: 0
Pop: 0
All That You Can’t Leave Behind: 3 (Beautiful Day, Elevation, In A Little While)
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb: 2 (Vertigo, City Of Blinding Lights)
No Line On The Horizon: 7 (No Line On The Horizon, Magnificent, Moment Of Surrender, Unknown Caller, Crazy Tonight, Get On Your Boots, Breathe)
Total: 21

Veteran French pop duo Air will be releasing their fifth studio album Love 2 on October 6th via Astralwerks. First track to be released will be “Do the Joy” on July 7th, and “Sing Sang Sung” will be the real first single on August 25th. Air handled all vocals on this album themselves, unlike Pocket Symphony‘s wonderful Jarvis Cocker and Neil Hannon guest spots.

Let’s get ready to relax. Tracklist after the jump.

01 Do the Joy
02 Love
03 So Light Is Her Footfall
04 Be a Bee
05 Missing the Light of the Day
06 Tropical Disease
07 Heaven’s Light
08 Night Hunter
09 Sing Sang Sung
10 Eat My Beat
11 You Can Tell It to Everybody
12 African Velvet

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

So mostly, it’s a choosing of North End vs. South End, with one stage (Citi) in the middle. Your choice of headliners is:

Friday: Depeche Mode vs. Kings of Leon (this should be an easy one)
Saturday: Beastie Boys vs. Tool
Sunday: Jane’s Addiction vs. The Killers

Also of note, Bon Iver vs. Heartless Bastards, of Montreal vs. Andrew Bird, Arctic Monkeys vs. Blind Pilot, No Age vs. Arctic Monkeys/Santigold, Gang Gang Dance vs. Dan Deacon (maybe the hardest to choose), and the ever challenging Lou Reed vs. Deerhunter vs. Snoop Dogg (dammit).

So there you are Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2009 Lollapalooza schedule. Conflict fight away!

The band gave listeners a taste of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix when they performed “1901″ on Saturday Night Live in early April. The song, with its breakbeats and noodling guitar, features a theme of classical references—something that reappears throughout the record. “1901″ is easily the catchiest, most in your face song on the album, and it should be an indie dance staple for quite awhile. The song is preceded by the fantastic “Lisztomania”; one of the dreamiest songs on the record, with atmospheres right from the Air camp mixed in with the band’s own signature electropop sound.

The album clearly moves into its most experimental stage with the onset of the instrumental “Love Like a Sunset Part I”, which blends so many different sounds that it seems as though you hear something completely new on each listen. Part II of the song follows up nicely, an acoustic drifter after the tsunami found in Part I. The album moves into rockier territory with “Lasso” before slowing down again with “Rome”. “Rome” is highlighted by breaks in the song, with part one being instrumental and part two featuring Thomas Mars going at it alone with heartbeat-like percussion, a Rhodes piano, and some shakers.

The album reaches its pinnacle at “Countdown (Sick for the Big Sun)”. The song features great lyrics, including a chorus of “we’re sick for the big sun” and the fantastic, “do you remember when twenty-one years was old?”

At just 36 minutes, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix flies by while still managing to force listeners to pay attention—and maybe even dance a bit in the process. The combo of “Girlfriend” and “Armistice” is an unlikely ending, but by the time the toy pianos fade out on the latter, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix has already proven it’s point: that Phoenix is one of the leading bands in the Europop world, and are likely to score a crossover hit along with their contemporaries.

Today, Wilco posted a news item on their site that featured the tracklist for their still untitled new album. The band also stated that the record has been mastered and is scheduled for a late June release on Nonesuch.

Tracklist after the jump.

01. Wilco The Song
02. Deeper Down
03. One Wing
04. Bull Black Nova
05. You And I
06. You Never Know
07. Country Disappeared
08. Solitaire
09. I’ll Fight
10. Sunny Feeling
11. Everlasting
12. Dark Neon

-Ryan Nichols

Photo by Via Chicago user Högsta Domstolen.

Every year, for Second City, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy lets people bid on Living Room shows, where he actually goes to someone’s house and plays a very intimate acoustic show. Well, he did one the other night (April 4th), and members of Via Chicago were there, and Jeff was nice enough to play them 11 new Wilco songs, not acoustic, but over the speakers as the real thing. However, the (still untitled) record was unmastered and the tracklist is not confirmed, but its simply an order Tweedy threw together. Quotes, the “tracklist”, and the setlist from the show are after the jump.

Supposed order, from bbop:

01. Wilco the Song
02. Bull Black Nova
03. One Wing
04. You and I
05. Solitaire
06. You Never Know
07. Conscript/I’ll Fight
08. Deeper Down
09. My Country Disappeared
10. Sonny Feeling
11. Everlasting Everything

Quotes on the sound of the new album from Via Chicago users:

“In my opinion, this album does not sound like Sky Blue Sky.”

“I was excited for the album to be released before, but after hearing it last night, the 2.5 month wait feels excruciating. I agree with Brianne: I don’t think it sounds like SBS. I also don’t think it gives off a “strong country vibe” as Rolling Stone suggested. I love Sky Blue Sky, and I love what I heard last night. They are not, however, alike.”

“Agreed. The “country” tag probably came from the handful of songs with Nels on the slide, but if that’s country, I’d like to know which country we’re talking about (or planet, even).”

“There are some really interesting sounds on the new album… I really enjoyed it! It is full of really lush layers .. everyone in the band stands out on the songs at different points. ”

“It was a real treat to hear the new album. I honestly can’t do it justice after only one listen, but June can’t come soon enough. Some very cool, intense songs that will be amazing live. Poppier than the last album (which I love), and like Wilco’s entire catalogue, totally unique. Don’t expect another SBS, YHF or Summerteeth. Don’t expect a cherry to taste like a pear. A “beginner’s mind” will not disappoint.”

“You and I is a vocal sharing duet, not a vocal trading duet – if that makes sense. Somehow before we listened I’d been imagining the latter, so I was a little surprised when I asked what they’d do for Feist’s parts live, and Jeff said “Not sing them?” Now I understand.”

“If I’m remembering correctly, it’s Spiders-esque. Not quite as heavy-sounding, if that makes any sense, but definitely influenced by Neu! and the like. The Krautrock lives!”

“I don’t think I can make any particularly insightful comments about Glenn’s percussion after one listen. There aren’t any crazy drum solos that I remember, like on Let’s Not Get Carried Away or something like that. It just sounds like Glenn (although I heard that Jeff mentioned to someone at the show, at a specific point — I’m not sure where — that a particular sound had come from Glenn throwing a beanbag against a wall or something).

As far as the sound, knowing that one of the band’s goals was to use the studio more as an instrument, I think they succeeded at that. I’m not sure if it’s because of the overdubs or what, but to me there was a “layered” element that maybe wasn’t as present on, say, Sky Blue Sky, which, if I’m not mistaken, was mostly played live in the studio.

Someone had told me he thought this record was a natural progression of everything that has come before. I didn’t really understand what he meant at the time, but I get that a little more now. It’s not radically different than what this lineup has produced, but it doesn’t necessarily seem like more of the same either.”

“I will say this, I think there is a little bit more of a pop element on this record that maybe was missing from the past couple of efforts. A couple of songs are really catchy, and I mean that in a good way.”

“There were chimes in at least two songs.”

“I’d agree with the layering mentioned previously. There was a lot going on in some of the songs, in a good way, and I’m really eager to listen again and pick out more specifics. It’s a little overwhelming to take in on first listen, with one of the album’s creators sitting behind you. There are also phrases I keep remembering from some songs, and I want to get more of the story. And the stuff I remember seems a little dark – from S(u/o)nny Feeling and Bull Black Nova.”

and the setlist:

That Year
Flatness
I’m A Wheel
Nothing’severgonnastandinmyway(again)
Summer Teeth
Pot Kettle Black
Christ For President
When You Wake Up Feeling Old
Sky Blue Sky
Six Months in a Leaky Boat [Split Enz (Tim Finn)]
I Got You [Split Enz (Neil Finn)]
Jesus, etc.
I’m Always In Love
——————–
Radio King
I Can’t Keep From Talking
Barstool Blues
Woodgrain
More Like The Moon
Glad and Sorry [Faces]
Laminated Cat
Fake Plastic Trees [Radiohead]
At My Window Sad and Lonely
Blood of the Lamb
How To Fight Loneliness
—————–
I Wanna Be Your Dog [The Stooges]
Gun
California Stars
Dreaming [Blondie]
Sir Duke

Expect the new Wilco record in late June via Nonesuch.

-Ryan Nichols

 Last night, at the Independent in San Francisco, Green Day took the stage for the first time in three years to rehearse new material from their upcoming album 21st Century Breakdown. The show also served as a trial run, as the band plans on playing the full album front to back for their upcoming world tour. The band played over a two hour set which consisted of numerous older songs in addition to 21st Century material. Pictures are from Green Day Authority as well as the setlist, which are after the jump. 

21st Century Breakdown is out May 15th via Reprise. 

Green Day, The Independent, San Francisco, April 8th, 2009:

 Setlist:

Welcome to Paradise
21st Century Breakdown
Know Your Enemy
Viva la Gloria
Before the Lobotomy
Christian’s Inferno
Last Night on Earth
East Jesus Nowhere
Peacemaker
Last of the American Girls
Murder City
Restless Heart Syndrome
Horseshoes and Handgrenades
Drama Queen/Static Age
21 Guns
American Eulogy
See the Light
——————
American Idiot
Jesus of Suburbia
She
Christie Road
J.A.R. (Jason Andrew Relva)
F.O.D.
Longview
Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?
Brain Stew [abandoned]
Going to Pasalacqua
—————————
Macy’s Day Parade
King for a Day
Minority

Videos:

Green Day – Desperate

Photos from Green Day Authority.

-Brent Koepp and Ryan Nichols

For their third studio album, It’s Blitz!, the band called back TV on the Radio guitarist/producer Dave Sitek, who has produced most of the band’s releases, as well as Nick Launay, who produced 2007′s Is Is EP. Yeah Yeah Yeahs establish their control from the start, when the electronic rumble of opener and lead single “Zero” comes pulsating through your speakers. “Shake it like a ladder to the sun” won’t become the new “shake it like a Polaroid picture”, but its still a good line to open the record and it will probably be a big shout along at future shows. The song has an absolutely monster chorus which almost climbs that ladder to that sun, before coming back to earth with the disco freakout “Heads Will Roll.”

“Heads” is almost a total contrast to “Zero,” but it’s on the same note in the sense of the band moving in a new direction. With its numerously repeated lines and breakbeat drumming, it’s already leading the charge to be a future club banger, and will (hopefully) see numerous remixes in the future. Following “Heads”, the record cools down after the powerful one-two punch of “Zero” and “Heads”, with Karen O taking a very relaxed vocal tone on “Soft Shock” and “Skeletons”. This is far from being a bad thing: with the right atmospheres and light drumming, Karen O taking this hushed of a vocal register is actually a thing of beauty.

Elsewhere, the bass gets big, on “Shame and Fortune,” which is one of the album’s catchiest songs. “Runaway” is this album’s “Maps”, a hushed song vocally that builds into a wide-open tale of lost love. “Dragon Queen” is an extremely dance-y number, and the ambient pop of “Hysteric” features a shout of the song’s title that might be the closest thing (using the term loosely) to the shouts of the band’s early days. Again, the band return to the quiet sound at the end of the album for the march of “Little Shadow”. Karen begs the question of “Little shadow, to the night, will you follow me?” When the destination is this good, that isn’t much of a question.

Yep, direct from Robin Pecknold’s Twitter. Hopefully this isn’t an April Fool’s joke, as even as lasting as the band’s debut and EP are, we obviously want more material from the Foxes.

Stay tuned for future updates.

-Ryan Nichols

Modest Mouse played The Late Show with David Letterman last night, hot off their Spring tour without Johnny Marr. The band, who is releasing a 7″ single for Record Store Day (April 18th) went on to Letterman to promote new single “Satellite Skin”, which is backed by “Guilty Cocker Spaniels”. This is the first of four 7″ singles which will lead up to a new EP (to be released in early August) entitled No One’s Next and You’re First.

Video of “Satellite Skin” from Letterman and “Guilty Cocker Spaniels” from Los Angeles on February 24th after the jump.

“Satellite Skin”

“Guilty Cocker Spaniels”

-Ryan Nichols

Due to unforeseeable issues, we had to delay and put off publishing the interview. But we are happy to finally present it. Check back soon for the latest on Wind’s Poem.

130BPM: First off, I wanted to talk about the re-issue for The Glow Pt. 2. You re-issued it this year, what was your inspiration to re-release this now?

Phil Elverum: We had to re-press it anyway, because it was going out of print on CD and vinyl. So everything needed to be re-manufactured anyway. So I thought, might as well make a fancy version.

130BPM: Some fans were asking about the meanings of a few of the songs off that album, the title track in particular, some interpreted it to be a song about suicide. Was it?

Elverum: No. I’m not into suicide.

130BPM: Well others have thought the same thing about “I Want to Be Cold”.

Elverum: Yeah … what is a suicide song?

130BPM: You have a point.

Elverum: *laughs* I guess there are songs that are themed around killing yourself. Metal bands, where that is there whole thing – someone should kill themselves because existence is torture. But you know, that really isn’t me.

130BPM: Yeah, you never seemed the type, but this is how some people thought of the songs.

Elverum: I mean, it’s understandable I guess. The words “I want to be cold”, that seems dark, but, I think they are the opposite of that. They are about being alive, and in spite of all the dark feelings you have. Having this vitality is over powering.

130BPM: I noticed there are recurring themes on each of the Microphones’ albums. Like on It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water, there is obviously water, on The Glow Pt. 2 there is fire, and then on Mount Eerie there was…

Elverum: It was rock. Loosely in the elements theme, it was talking about rock, like the mountains.

130BPM: The Glow Pt. 2 and Mount Eerie are kind of bridged together by “My Warm Blood” and “The Sun” – is that the way they are supposed to be?

Elverum: Yeah. I like to have all my stuff tied together.

130BPM: I’ve always been curious about the story of Mount Eerie. In the story you die because vultures eat you. What happens after that?

Elverum: On the album there is this last song called “Universe”. And in the song its like “I disappeared”, I forget. It’s pretty ambiguous *laughs*

130BPM: A lot of fans view The Glow Pt. 2 as your greatest piece of work. However, hardcore fans will say that Mount Eerie is your masterpiece. How do you feel about that?

Elverum: I don’t know, these are just records I made, I have no big perspective on them. I may be too close to have any career-scale perspective. I just wanted to try this record Mount Eerie, where it was something beyond just a bunch songs put together, and was one cohesive thing.

130BPM: And you continued that story with the release of Mount Eerie pts. 6 & 7 which came with a hardcover book. The photos in that book were amazing.

Elverum: Thank you!

130BPM: Now you took all those photos, correct?

Elverum: Yeah. But there were some of them where I was in the picture, so I set it up, and had my brother or sister take them. I can’t fully remember, but I had help.

130BPM: Let’s talk about the recording of Dawn, which you did back in 2002. I’m curious about your inspiration for that. Going out to remote Norway, and how you wrote this book, had a new album and you came back as this new band, it’s fascinating.

Elverum: The songs on the album Dawn were from that time, I wrote them from that time, but I actually recorded them a year ago at my house. I didn’t get a chance to record them in Norway, because there was no electricity. And I never really got around to recording them until last year. I know that it confusing. They are old songs, but weren’t recorded all that long ago.

130BPM: There were a lot of live recordings of songs from Dawn from 2004 and 2005, so fans were familiar with them, but then you listen to Dawn and they sound different in a way.

Elverum: Yeah I know, I try to keep it changing.

130BPM: Which is good. Getting back to Dawn, what actually inspired you to go off to Norway?

Elverum: I think it was kind of a romantic idea I had since I was a teenager. I think a lot of people have that “wouldn’t it be cool to move to some place where no one knows me, and re-invent myself” idea at some point in their lives. And so, I don’t know, I just did it. In 2002 I went on this long tour, it was open ended, I didn’t have a return ticket. It just seemed that’s how it went. *laughs*. The idea kind of just happened accidentally, the idea of getting a cabin in the North. The more I kind of just asked around “Oh, where should I live, I want to go to Norway” it just seemed like a cool place, had I never been there before, so I didn’t know. But from the outside, it sounded like it was pretty amazing. So I just figured how to go there. I got a lot of contacts for people that set up shows. Set up as many shows as I could, traveled around.

130BPM: So you were talking around, and somehow you got this cabin, and you spent three months there?

Elverum: It was actually four months. But yeah, the book is pretty short. The period that the book covers isn’t very long. But I had the cabin for four months total.

130BPM: So there was no electricity at all in this cabin? You were roughing it in the wild…

Elverum: There was actually solar electricity, but the cabin was mostly in the shadow, no sun. Yeah I didn’t have anything to plug in anyway, so it didn’t matter.

130BPM: So you ended The Microphones with the album Mount Eerie, and then came back using the same name for releasing the new stuff?

Elverum. Yeah, well it’s because that album Mount Eerie, I never really felt satisfied with the ending. And I felt like it was an idea that was pretty potent and ambiguous. I also just liked the name better. So I took the name and kept on trying to explain this idea or like continuing this weird myth.

130BPM: So after this you had No Flashlight. Was that the only true Mount Eerie album?

Elverum: You know, it might be. The only *laughs* normal one. Because the rest of them are all kind of like – “well here’s this kind of semi-themed novelty project”. A lot of singles and EP and stuff, but yeah that’s true.

130BPM: Any info on the new album?

Elverum: I have nothing to say about the new album, because it doesn’t exist yet. I’m still working on it, and I haven’t been working on it because of this long tour. But we’ll see what happens.

130BPM: I’m curious about the old pressings of No Flashlight which has an amazing cover, will that ever get a re-pressing?

Elverum: Well, yeah definitely I want to keep the record in print. But I think I might do a second pressing of the artwork. Because I don’t know, if I have to re-print something anyways, I always kind of feel like I might as well re-design it and put more versions out there into the world. I’m into inconsistency and surrealism *laughs* and keeping people confused.

130BPM: You’ve been quoted to say Eric’s Trip is you favorite band ever, is that true?

Elverum: Well ever, that’s intense. But yeah, they’ve been very influential on me, for sure.

130BPM: You do a lot of original stuff obviously, but you’ve also been known to collaborate. You and Julie Dorion have before on Lost Wisdom. Your singing styles are very similar, and compliment each other well. Is it an EP, or an album? It’s only 21 minutes.

Elverum: Yeah, it’s pretty short. I decided not to call it an EP, and just to think of it as a short album. I don’t know why.

130BPM: People have said they wanted it longer. But I actually like it as a short album. It’s a nice quick listen.

Elverum: Yeah! We didn’t wear out our welcome.

130BPM: On Lost Wisdom you also collaborated with…

Elverum: Fred Squire. Yeah, he played electric guitar on the album, and sang a couple background vocals. But yeah, it was pretty simple, live. We just recorded it with one microphone.

130BPM: Now it was a quick recording from my understanding?

Elverum: Yeah totally, it was really casual. We didn’t even know we were recording an album. We were just kind of doing one song at a time, just for fun. We didn’t have plans to release it. We were kind of just like “hey here is one of my songs, would you like to run it and sing along, okay.” So after two days of just hanging out, doing that, we had two songs. But yeah, it was definitely unplanned – it wasn’t pre-mediated.

130BPM: Some of the songs you already had written before?

Elverum: Two of them were new and in fact one of them was written in the studio, on the floor while those guys were waiting for me to press record.

130BPM: Now, “Voice In Headphones”, that is about Björk correct?

Elverum: Yeah kind of. It’s about one of her songs, a song called “Undo”.

130BPM: Now that you have collaborated with Julie, whom would you like to collaborate with next?

Elverum: Oh I don’t know. I’m a weird person to collaborate with I think. In fact, Lost Wisdom wasn’t even really collaboration. It was just like “here’s my songs, sing on them, if you want”. They didn’t change the songs at all. So, I think I have a hard time actually truly collaborating, truly creating something with someone. Because Lost Wisdom was basically just decorating my songs, and making them more beautiful. I think when I’m creative, I’m usually am the type of person that has a hard time letting go of the control. I have kind of a complete vision and I just want to do it my way. I don’t know, I kind of don’t want to collaborate. I don’t really have a dream collaboration, because I want to learn how to do that first.

130BPM: Wind’s Poem, as you’ve said you haven’t really worked on this much yet, right?

Elverum: Correct.

130BPM: Wind’s Poem going to stay the title?

Elverum: Yeah, I think so *laughs*

130BPM: Now you excited a lot of people when you put “colossal new album” on your site.

Elverum: Yeah, I know. I kind of wish I hadn’t put that, because now there is all this expectation. Of course whatever I come out with is not going to be as colossal sounding as what everyone is expecting.

130BPM: When I hear “colossal”, I think of the latter stuff on The Glow Pt. 2, like “Samurai Sword”, and all the crazy noise ones. I’m not expecting some two hundred-piece band.

Elverum: Yeah, I know. It was kind of stupid for me to kind of brag about it like that.

130BPM: You did What the Heck Fest in your hometown, and you performed some new material there. Will those songs be on the new album?

Elverum: I don’t remember what songs I played at What the Heck Fest. The thing is, I don’t know what songs will be on the album until I put the master tapes together. I want to just record a bunch of stuff and then put together a great album from it. So, it’s too early to say.

130BPM: That’s fine. I think fans are happy with Lost Wisdom, and Dawn for now. Black Window Open Ceiling as well, which was really unexpected.

Elverum: Yeah, it’s been a busy year. That’s why I’m giving myself plenty of time with this new one. I feel like I put out three albums this year. I bought myself a little of time.

130BPM: And you’ve also done a lot of touring.

Elverum: Yeah, it’s been a crazy year.

130BPM: Speaking of touring, you don’t play typical clubs. You play churches, cafes…

Elverum: That’s true. I mean, I only play all ages shows, so that kind of narrows it down a lot.

130BPM: Now, how do you decide on these venues?

Elverum: Usually I don’t. It’s either I get invited by some person in the town that happens to arrange shows in that place, or I’ll know a person in the town, and we won’t know where to put the show on, and they will just figure it out. They will ask around. I have some resourceful friends in various places.

130BPM: Yeah, we’ll have to talk about that.

Elverum: You know, it’s hard to answer that. My relatives ask me that, because I will be staying for Thanksgiving. “How do you find these places?”. And it’s just different in every city.

130BPM: I hear you are very taper friendly at your shows, as long as they aren’t profitable.

Elverum: Yeah sure. Everything is free.

130BPM: Now I’m going to go through and ask some questions that your fans sent us. Some of them are stupid, like “will you cover my song” – obviously that is no.

Elverum: *laughs* That’s true, it’s probably unlikely. I have a hard enough time playing my own songs.

130BPM: Somebody asked if there will be a focus on an element theme on the new album.

Elverum: Wind. I think it’s going to be heavy on the winds theme. And throw in the poetry.

130BPM: So the album title is pretty much a given.

Elverum: *laughs* Yeah, it’s pretty literal.

130BPM: So just like the other albums, it had “Water” in the title, was about water, the glow was the fire, it’s literal.

Elverum: Well no, it’s so much, well maybe I don’t know. Wind, it’s actually wind as a metaphor for destruction and change.

130BPM: One of your fans asked what kind of equipment will you use when recording Wind’s Poem, and how will it effect the finished product.

Elverum: I’m going to use the same equipment as usual, I guess. *laughs* All kinds of stuff. Actually I have a friend who is a metal worker, and we’re talking about making a gong. Melting down metal and pouring it and making a mold. I’ve been researching how giant gongs are made. I want to make one. So hopefully we’ll do that.

130BPM: Another fan asked, what can we expect from Wind’s Poem, but obviously you don’t know yet.

Evlrum: Exclusively gong. You can tell them that *laughs*

130BPM: Do you think anything further will come from your collaboration with Julie and Fred?

Elverum: Yeah, perhaps. They live on the other side of the continent, so it’s hard to meet up. But it’s sure was fun playing with them. So maybe some day.

130BPM: Here is the final question. Apart from Wind’s Poem, what do you see on the radar for your label in 2009?

Elverum: Um, not much. Some little things. I’m putting out a 7’inch by Adrian Orange. Another little booklet thing. Putting out some more tape, like printing packing tape. So just little things like that, so no big releases.

Interview done by Ryan Nichols

Transcribed by Brent Koepp

Today on Matador Records’ Matablog, the label announced information of Sonic Youth’s 16th album, The Eternal. The record was produced by John Agnello (who we hear is working with Dinosaur Jr.) and the band themselves. This is their first album on Matador, and it will be released June 9th.

Also to note, this is Mark Ibold’s studio debut with Sonic Youth, so we have that to look forward to, and according to the blog post, “shared vocals” by Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, and Lee Ranaldo will appear.

The tracklist will follow, and the late John Fahey’s cover painting is above.

1. Sacred Trickster
2. Anti-Orgasm
3. Leaky Lifeboat(for Gregory Corso)
4. Antenna
5. What We Know
6. Calming The Snake
7. Poison Arrow
8. Malibu Gas Station
9. Thunderclap For Bobby Pyn
10. No Way
11. Walkin Blue
12. Massage The History

The Eternal is out June 9th via Matador.

-Ryan Nichols

Doug Martsch likes basketball, so he did an interview about it. Turns out, he dropped the name of Built to Spill’s new album, which he says is titled There Is No Enemy. Expect it in Fall 2009 via Warner Brothers.

-Ryan Nichols

Our good friends over at Motor Mouth Media have informed us that a reissue of R.E.M.’s Reckoning should be coming soon. There aren’t many details yet, but apparently it is in the planning stages. Hopefully it will be in the vein of the Murmur reissue. Could a Fables of the Reconstruction reissue be far behind?

More details when we hear them.

-Ryan Nichols

Now Springsteen, despite being an international superstar, can still be as ambitious as he wants, and opens Working on a Dream with “Outlaw Pete”, an 8 minute epic that is one of the best songs he’s written in years. Swirling strings, Tommy-like calls of “can you hear me?” and the tale of a man’s life from birth to death. The song is a 21st century counterpart to The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle. Elsewhere, other experiments like the bluesy harmonica and funky electric piano cries of “Good Eye” fit right alongside that bullet microphone that the Boss used on the Devils and Dust and Magic tours, often during “Reason to Believe”. Here it works perfectly alongside other E-Streeters’ harmonic vocals. Other surprises include “Queen of the Supermarket”, a tale of a crush on the cashier at the local mart. Its whimsical nature traces back to the early days of Springsteen, where his lyrics would often go after young crushes and fantasies about women. And even more of a surprise, the Boss drops a rare F-bomb next to Patti Scalifa’s vocals.

Elsewhere, Springsteen takes advantage of this new E Street sound, and on songs like “This Life” he sings clearer and in much more of a pop manner than he ever has. The album has one major song that holds up like the others, and it’s the title track. Mostly its because his voice doesn’t sound as strong as it does on other songs, but Max Weinberg and Garry Tallent sound better than they have in years. “My Lucky Day” is Springsteen’s best ’80s hit that didn’t come out in the ’80s, led by his wild vocal tradeoffs with Steven Van Zant in the chorus, as well as a textbook Clarence Clemmons solo.

The record makes a downward ascent to the end, with “Kingdom of Days” discussing an elderly couple who have lived a great life together, the very fun “Surprise, Surprise”, which talks about a very happy birthday, and then the slowly meandering “The Last Carnival”. The song could be interpreted two ways, either as a sequel to the classic “Wild Billy’s Circus Story” or as a tribute to the late Danny Federici, who recorded some parts of the album before his death. The carnival in the song packs up and leaves town, while the character longs of being with “handsome Billy” at the carnival again. It’s a somewhat sad but hopeful end to this record. Danny will be in all of our memories, and this song reminds us of the fun he had in the band.

Now if you consider “The Wrestler” as part of the album, and not just a bonus track, the album is fully complete. Springsteen wrote the song for the movie of the same name, but it fits him and the band perfectly. Despite all the hardship of a 30 year career, including loss of a very close friend, they still carry on, as they always have. Age is no obstacle for the E Street Band and its ringmaster. He’s not afraid to let you know, he’s just going to keep working on new dreams.

You are looking at the album art for U2′s highly anticipated new album No Line On The Horizon. The band, who has put themselves on the cover for the last several releases, finally goes with something reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts I-IV.

No Line On The Horizon was produced by the classic U2 team of Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, and Steve Lillywhite. The Rick Rubin sessions were apparently not used on the record at all.

The first single is “Get On Your Boots”, which comes out on February 15th digitally, and is supposed to hit radio next week. It will then be performed at the BRIT Awards. The album drops in Ireland on February 27th, in Europe March 2nd, and in North America on March 3rd.

Tracklist after the jump:

No Line On The Horizon:

01. “No Line On The Horizon”
02. “Magnificent”
03. “Moment of Surrender”
04. “Unknown Caller”
05. “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight”
06. “Get On Your Boots”
07. “Stand Up Comedy”
08. “Fez – Being Born”
09. “White As Snow”
10. “Breathe”
11. “Cedars Of Lebanon”

-Ryan Nichols

Just take a look at this tracklist:

01 Beck – Bob Dylan’s “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat”
02 Scissor Sisters – Roxy Music’s “Do The Strand”
03 Lily Allen ft Mick Jones – The Clash’s “Straight To Hell”
04 Duffy – Wings’ “Live And Let Die”
05 Elbow – U2′s “Running To Stand Still”
06 TV On The Radio – David Bowie’s “Heroes”
07 Hot Chip – Joy Division’s ‘”Transmission”
08 The Kooks – The Kinks’ “Victoria”
09 Estelle – Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition”
10 Rufus Wainwright – Brian Wilson’s “Wonderful/Song For Children”
11 Peaches – Iggy And The Stooges’ “Search And Destroy”
12 The Hold Steady – Bruce Springsteen’s “Atlantic City”
13 The Like – Elvis Costello’s “You Belong To Me”
14 Yeah Yeah Yeahs – The Ramones’ “Sheena Is A Punk Rocker”
15 Franz Ferdinand – Blondie’s “Call Me”

Excited? So are we.

TV on the Radio covering “Heroes”, Beck covering “Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat”, and Elbow covering U2′s “Running to Stand Still” are our most anticipated.

The compilation is called Heroes and comes out February 16th/17th via EMI.

As the title says, Chapel Hill/Durham, NC based Merge Records will be throwing a festival from July 22-26th, to be held in the wonderful state of North Carolina. No other info at the moment, so all we can do is speculate. One thing we know is that I surely will be there. The other thing we can guess is that it will be in the Triangle region of NC, since Merge is based here. Lineup guesses, “past and present Merge artists” include Arcade Fire, Spoon, Dinosaur Jr., Magnetic Fields, and label founders Superchunk. Anyone hoping for a Neutral Milk Hotel comeback will seriously have to cross fingers.

In other Merge news, Holy God, this is awesome.

Classic jam band Phish has announced some tour dates for the Summer of 2009 in this awesome video (for the non-Phishheads out there, that song is “Punch You In The Eye”). This tour is their first since 2004, when the Vermont legends “broke up”. However they really felt like playing together again, so they are doing so. Surely, numerous bootlegs will appear from these and the previously announced shows at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia.

Also to note is the fact that there aren’t any dates during the Bonnaroo Festival (which I personally will be attending). Rumors were that Phish and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band would headline. Too good to be true?

And for those of you hardcore Phans, the group is releasing a seven DVD set of the 1996 Clifford Ball festival where the band played over three days with 9 hours of music and six different sets. As a bonus, the jam they had on a flatbed truck during the late night hours is included, a behind the scenes, and wristbands from the show will also be included. Buy at Dry Goods.

And the dates of course, after the jump.

03.06 – Hampton, VA, Hampton Coliseum
03.07 – Hampton, VA, Hampton Coliseum
03.08 – Hampton, VA, Hampton Coliseum
06.04 – Wantagh, NY, Jones Beach
06.05 – Wantagh, NY, Jones Beach
06.06 – Mansfield, MA, Great Woods/Comcast Center for the Performing Arts
06.07 – Camden, NJ, Susquehanna Bank Center
06.09 – Asheville, NC, Asheville Civic Center
06.16 – St. Louis, MO, Fox Theatre
06.18 – Burgettstown, PA, Post-Gazette Pavilion
06.19 – Noblesville, IN, Deer Creek Music Center
06.20 – East Troy, WI, Alpine Valley
06.21 – East Troy, WI, Alpine Valley