The deal:

It’s possible that over the past several weeks you’ve noticed the reviews slow to a trickle around these parts. We had our reasons! Cookies weren’t involved! Okay, maybe they were! All of us at Tripwire HQ are pleased to introduce to you today a new chapter in our “take” on music criticism—by handing over the keys. Starting this week and every Tuesday hereafter, we’ll be posting a full album stream through our friends over at LaLa. What we’d like you to do is lend us your brainwaves and tweet whatever crosses your mind while listening. Maybe there’s a riff you can’t get out of your head. A lyric? A moment? An image? If you’re feeling ambitious, spend your 124 characters reviewing the record as a whole. Just toss those tweets over to us at @thetripwire and by the end of the week, we’ll cobble together and share the beautiful mess of a madlib it creates. Or, if you’re a complete Luddite/TwitterHater, you can just leave a review in the comments section. We’re flexible. You’re the boss now.

After releasing a string of fantastic singles, New Jersey lo-fi standouts Real Estate have just debuted their first proper full-length. See why we think it rules and then see if you agree.

When The Swell Season played LA’s Wiltern Theater Wednesday night, Apatow acolyte and our favorite lug Jason Segel, took over the piano bench for a song he penned himself. After watching a few dozen times, we’d be down for a “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” sequel right now—much more so than that Russell Brand-Jonah Hill spin-off currently in production anyway. Way better vampire jams than those flying into theaters today, no doubt.

Sure, it’s great to get the Jay-Z stamp of approval, but Jay lives in a penthouse in Tribeca or something (in our mind dude has like 18 houses- recession be damned). The man isn’t exactly down with the underground anymore.

So it’s nice to see some more, shall we say “indie” rappers also show their love for the G.B. This week Kidz In The Hall leaked the first song from their upcoming Professional Leisure Tour mixtape and to our surprise it was not a bass-heavy trunk jam but a bragacodio-filled re-interpretation of Grizzly Bear’s “Two Weeks.”Check it out here.

This should come as a particular comfort to Grizzly Bear fans, who are still mourning the recent loss of Ed Droste’s Twitter account. The fine folks at Hipster Runoff gave a pretty stellar eulogy of Droste’s departure from the Twitterverse…

Edward Droste (1982–2009)
a Eulogy
Edward Droste, creator and CEO of the popular indie band Grizzly Bear, committed suicide in November of 2009. He is survived by Victoria Legrand, lead singer of the band Beach House. She has vowed to avenge his death by claiming Pitchfork’s album of the year in 2010. Ed has three surviving bandmates, Daniel Rossen, Chris Bear, and Chris Taylor. They have decided to dissolve Grizzly Bear, and continue performing as ‘The Department of Eagles.’ In 10–20 years, they will consider Edward was always known to throw down a solid meme, and was one of the initial supporters of the chillwave movement. In 2 short months, Edward would have found out that Grizzly Bear’s 2009 album Veckatimest was controversially voted the #1 album of the year after a voter fraud scandal in the Pitchfork offices.

(Via: Nah Right & Daily Swarm/Hipster Runoff)

Merge just put out some videos from a Neutral Milk Hotel show at the old Knitting Factory in 1998 in conjunction with the reissue of In The Aeroplane Over The Sea on 180-gram vinyl. They’re good quality and certainly showcase the sound and song of the band. They also weirdly showcase Jeff as a budding style icon, as one Stereogum commenter astutely points out, rocking what can only be considered a precursor to the Anton Chigurh No Country For Old Men haircut. But that’s another story. The only sadness comes in here when we, as (fairly) young music writers, also see this as a tribute to one of the most interesting bands of our time in a way that we will probably never get a chance to see. Oh well, at least we live in the age of YouTube! Check out “Two Headed Boy” and “April 8″ below.

(Via: Stereogum via Merge)

Story by Adam Daniels

Photography by Dorothy Hong

“Do you need a drink?”
”Yes, I need four double whiskeys and four PBRs.”

It was Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson’s record release show at Williamsburg’s Union Pool one year ago, and while he was among a roomful of friends, he was not at ease. Robinson’s former fiancé obliged the request, assuming it was on behalf of the entire band. This was not the case.

Robinson wasn’t a household name in indie rock at the time. But he had a lot of the pieces in place to be one. He had all but conquered Brooklyn through marathon-style touring. There was a close-up of his mug on the cover of FADER magazine, and a camera crew from SPIN was at the record release show waiting to document the event. What transpired after those four double whiskeys could only adequately be described as a shitshow.

He spilled beer on equipment. He picked a fight with a heckler who called him out for singing his songs not all like they appeared on the album, insisting on dedicating every subsequent song to him thereafter. Robinson blacked out just before the third song. This was the beginning of the end of Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson. And the funny thing is, if it wasn’t for the occasion, that particular evening at Union Pool would have only qualified as a mere footnote in his story.

The scene is a giant, rock n’ roll cliché. No one knows this more than Robinson. He practically grew up on them, an ardent student of rock biographies while coming of age in Portland. One of the first things Robinson mentions when explaining the issue with the way his own story has been written thus far was the way one of his musical idols created part of his own mythology. “Kurt Cobain never really lived under a bridge you know,” he says. “He made that up himself.”

Cobain and the muddy distortion of 90s alt rock represent just one half of the tones that show up in his music today. The relationship that much more directly spawned Robinson’s just-released second album, Summer Of Fear, was his love affair with classic rock. A heady homage to the golden sounds of Tom Petty and Fleetwood Mac, it’s also a record in which Robinson might have created the youngest divorce rock album ever, devoting much time to the struggles and eventual failure of his engagement to his former fiancé and girlfriend of six years.

But the divorce theme is rarely all that direct in Robinson’s lyrics. Rather, it’s underlying layer of melancholy that tugs at the album’s narrator as he tells various stories. By way of his eponymous self-titled debut, these stories filled the bar last summer in Williamsburg, songs he’d fleshed out while befriending near half the bartenders of North Brooklyn, diving headlong into piles of drugs, sleeping in parks, and wrestling with a heavy brand of cynicism as handed down by his stand-up comedian father. These things came together through Robinson’s compulsive addiction to songwriting, a gift in which a lot of people saw a lot of potential. One such song was “Buriedfed,” a folk explosion similar to Robinson’s relationship with music as a whole: part link to the demons in his own life and part introduction to a string of characters and the way they cope with their own mortality, depression and simple daily existence. The song served as the closest thing to Robinson’s autobiographical introduction. Interestingly, a line from that song more closely resembled the crowd at Union Pool’s introduction to Robinson that night. “Didn’t like people much at all, tasted better with alcohol, you know how that one goes,” he states. That’s who he was that night: the asshole that baited the crowd to call him on it while he used alcohol to cope with expectations. It resulted in a theatrical breakdown. But that breakdown was part of a self-destruct mission Robinson had been stumbling to almost the entire time he’d lived in New York.

By age 16, Robinson felt compelled to move to the city. At 17, his acceptance to NYU made this a reality. At that point, his idea of the city was carved out much more by those same rock biographies.

“I was reading (Legs McNeil’s) “Please Kill Me” and all this stuff about ’70s New York and you know like Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Talking Heads, The Ramones, just like really sort of wanting to bask in that,” Robinson remembers. “Not even really understanding that New York in the ’90s and 2000 was going to be a very, very different place. I think I literally still thought it was going to be like 1979 when I got here.” But the punk scenes of ’70s era New York are little more than legends whose visual cues had been replaced by condos and food chains by the time Robinson moved in 2000. However, the New York City Robinson stumbled upon had its own bubbling scene.

Within weeks, Robinson found himself in attendance at some of the very first Strokes shows. So while the New York scene Robinson envisioned may not have existed, luck and timing gave him a front seat to the first relevant one in rock n’ roll the city had seen since.”I just had like a very zeitgeist-y kind of a, experience, the whole time I’ve been here,” he says.

A few years later he would happen upon a sort of invitation to the city’s next cultural vanguard: the indie music scene developing in and around Williamsburg. On his way to a Grizzly Bear show he stopped in a thrift store and ended up running into and befriending TV On The Radio’s Kyp Malone. They went to the show together, and within a few months he was hanging out with not only Kyp, but the band they had paid to see. Eventually, both would play a vital role in Robinson’s music, initially helping turn his tales and words into actual musical landscapes and then more literally with Kyp on the production side and the Grizzly Bear guys backing him instrumentally.

But even while all this was going on, Robinson lived day-to-day life in a state of near-depression, seeming almost un-phased by the encouraging signs in both his musical and personal life. “I treat good things the way other people treat traumas,” he says. “I kind of push them down and try to get over it, you know?” Throughout his time at NYU, Robinson worked and played as hard as he could. Though he ignored class, he wrote songs and dove into pools of drugs and alcohol with equal abandon. He did it all with youthful abandon, albeit with a much larger arc in mind. Romantic only by rock ‘n roll standards, it was encapsulated further by one pivotal chapter in Robinson’s life and legend: a summer of near-homelessness, carrying a duffle bag and a guitar around while rotating between friends’ couches and strung out nights in Washington Square Park and on Coney Island benches. He likens this much more to being a bit of a troubadour than any sort of dire circumstances, but he also admits he “was getting pretty fucked up all the time then, too.”

But eventually, that all changed. “I went back (to school), ended meeting somebody who sort of helped me get cleaned up and stuff,” he says. That someone was his eventual fiancé. Soon after meeting and falling in love, the two found an apartment in Williamsburg. For a moment, he was on the verge of feeling like he had it all figured out before 25, on the verge of letting himself be happy for a bit without overthinking it.

And then it all fell apart: his relationship and in turn his sobriety. Everything he thought he’d figured out was called into question. Out of this was born Summer Of Fear: a celebration of relapse, depressions and reaffirmed self-doubt.

The concept of Summer of Fear actually began as a screenplay, a running joke between Robinson and friend Christopher Bear, drummer for Grizzly Bear, in which the questionable choices they made each night could be written off as part of a movie rather than some reality rife with consequence. However, somewhat ironically, it is this album born out of the clichés, born out of making yourself a character in your own life, that has the opportunity to finally separate Robinson from his own. It is this album that charts out the personal failures that gave Robinson a second chance to play an active role in his own successes.

Whatever comes next, the Robinson that looks back at you on stage these days is an entirely different creature than the one that created a spectacle that night at Union Pool. While Robinson admits he still knows a few too many bartenders, he no longer drinks at his shows. Headlining a CMJ showcase concert at Le Poisson Rouge the same week Summer Of Fear was released, Robinson could barely get a big goofy grin off his face long enough to look properly solemn to sing about self destruction. He played off of his band, played on his back in three feet of the ground. There’s no denying that he was having fun on stage, a notion even he seemed surprised by when he noted, a few songs in, that he was taking a sip of beer for the first time that night.

This man much more closely resembled the one you imagine when you hear his cries and wails on the first record, a man who despite the demons living in his closet is absolutely at peace within music. The more you talk to him the more you realize this may be the only place he is truly at peace.  And while his music seems almost painfully tied to these demons, maybe the fact that he can now own them on stage is but one triumph. Whatever it has become, it’s forcing the world that already knew him to break the box that contained Robinson before.

Regardless, for now Robinson will go out and relentlessly tour behind an album that champions his own failures and past misadventures. If he can make it through the experience, it might even let his music finally catch up to him. For years now, he’s been singing about traumas that have been replaced over so many times in his life they feel like reopening old scars. But who knows, maybe this time next year Robinson will be testing out some happy songs. Whatever those would sound like. The “Ocean’s 11” line he supplied un-ironically to sum up his day-to-day existence makes it seem like he might slowly be coming around on his own story, one he’s chosen to retell in the third person every night on stage.

“Are you suicidal?”

“Only in the mornings.”

We’re very jazzed to inform you that we linked up with Dangerbird Records co-founder Jeff Castelaz recently, just as he was riding his bike across the country to raise funds for the Pablove Foundation. Along the way, Jeff recorded some video blog entries for us, talking a bit about what he was up to and what he was jamming. Check out the first installment above and if you’re in LA, maybe try and catch a celebratory show at the Avalon tomorrow night as Jeff pedals back into LA.

Band of Horses are headlining, Shirley Manson’s going to be there… it should be a great time. You can snag tickets here.

Photo: Autumn DeWilde

Have you seen Spoon live? They’re crisp, like say, a delicious pastry. They are absolutely not one of those bands who anyone could ever accuse of “studio magic” because their sets beautifully recreate these little jams they have come close to perfecting over the last decade of making indie rock. Well, they’re doing it all over again with Transference this January 26, and surrounding that release date with some live shows. One date is even with Jay Reatard, which is sort of like an experiment on what happens when organized sound meets sonic chaos. So we think everyone wins.

12.03 Kansas City, MO  @ Midland Theatre
12.04 Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre #
12.11 Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom *
12.12 La Jolla, CA @ RIMAC Arena
12.31 Milwaukee, WI @ Riverside Theatre !

02.14 Glasgow, Scotland @ King Tut’s
02.15 Manchester, England @ Academy 3
02.16 London, England @ Electric Ballroom
02.18 Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
02.19 Cologne, Germany @ Luxor
02.20 Berlin, Germany @ Franz Club

# with Phoenix, Passion Pit
* with Black Joe Lewis
! with Jay Reatard

(Via: P4K)

The Pixies are currently in the throes of the North American leg of their Doolittle tour, a wormhole of a trek we’ve been quick to spill much digi-ink over in these parts recently. Via an e-mail from the band’s publicist, we’ve just learned that the band will sandwich in an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon next week when they come to New York for four sold-out nights at Hammerstein Ballroom. So if watching Fallon get goofy is your thing, check your DVR of tonight’s show come tomorrow morning. He’s planning to announce the following: while The Pixies will be kicking things off with “Debaser,” fans/you guys now have the opportunity to choose their Doolittle second jam via Twitter. Fire those in Fallon’s direction (@jimmyfallon) and maybe make it “Hey.” Just an idea.

Make all the Williamsburg hipster jokes you want, but there have been few sweeter deals in recent memory than the Jelly Pool Parties. They’ve resided in parks within Brooklyn’s music mecca for a half-decade now, but are in jeopardy at the moment because the New York State Parks Department and the Open Space Alliance says their current home at the East River State Park may not be available next summer.

Among others, U.S. Senator (and BK native) Charles Schumer is fighting to keep the concert series alive. He even invites you to give him a ring at 212-486-4430 or email him at phil@schumer.senate.gov to support his efforts. So maybe leave out the details about all the stuff you were hopped up on when you saw Girl Talk, but tell him how the Dirty Projectors show changed your life. Otherwise, while No Age and Dan Deacon may be on the same bill at some point in the future, you may ahve to (gasp) pay for it. (Via: Paste)

At the beginning of “Norway”, the new single from Baltimore’s Beach House, there’s a hint of the second-hand organ that dominated most of their self-titled debut.  But then they come crashing in with pristine, breathy harmonies that make it sound like they’re putting that Sub Pop money to good use.  Over a deliriously warped guitar straight out of Kevin Shields’ playbook, Victoria Legrand steps out on this heady Nordic drama, her voice less obscured than usual.  To top it all off, she accompanies herself and makes like a one-woman Supremes on some misty cascading backup vocals.

Teen Dream is out January 26.

Beach House, Norway

MP3 Download

In just a few days, on November 23rd, there will be a new Animal Collective release upon us. And although we’ve only heard snippets of the Fall Be Kind EP in all it’s polyphonic glory, we’d like to think that the sparkle and carnival whirring of “Graze” is a good indicator that nothing—save for maybe Bob Dylan’s psychotic new Christmas album—is going to able get that sucker out of our hi-fi until the holidays have finally wound down. Check it out above. (via Stereogum)

What do you think the chances are that Robert Pattinson wooed Kristen Stewart with a Bon Iver-powered mixtape? Or wait. MAYBE IT WAS THE OTHER WAY AROUND, YOU GUYS.

Pre-enhancement/leak.

On Monday morning, we reported that pop seamstress Amy Winehouse had taken a quick trip to the hospital after an unfortunate collision between some cold and prescription medications she was taking at the time. Amy’s outspoken father Mitch Winehouse, who has already been quite vocal about his enthusiasm for his daughter’s recent breast enhancements, revealed via his television program that the hospital visit was needed to remedy a leak in said breasts instead. “It wasn’t because she had a cold.” he said. “She’s fine, she just had a little (Mitch points to his chest) leaky something or other.” (via MTV UK)

If you’re one of the 42 million people that have fallen in love with our recent Hotbox at the Levi’s/FADER Fort video series, it’s possible you’ve forgotten (or never knew) that we used to film bands letting loose in front of our fireplace, too. We did. And yes, have a website and a fireplace. In Manhattan. Lissie, recent Fat Possum signee and acquirer of our tender hearts, rambled on by last week before playing a Mercury Lounge show the very same night. She’s a little bit Loretta Lynn, a little bit Veronica Bennett, but mostly just really really good. Check out “I Don’t Know,” “Wedding Bells” and “Everywhere I Go” below, then scour your town, city or village for a copy of her new Why You Runnin’ EP.

For their punked-out new single “Cousins,” the men of Vampy Weeks shot an equally frenetic clip in a city alley. The Garth Jennings-directed clip is above, the single’s out digitally right now and on vinyl December 7th courtesy of XL. And oh yeah, not sure if you knew this, but their sophomore full-length, Contra, is out January 20th. Stay tuned until tomorrow for yet another update on the Road To The Next Vampire Weekend Record.

Recently reunited grunge godfathers Alice in Chains have been making a go at the Billboard charts in the past few weeks behind their new album Black Gives Way To Blue, the comeback effort entering at No. 5 when it dropped a few weeks back. Though they’re headbanging their way through Europe (check their Jools Holland appearance above) at the moment, they’ve just announced lengthy trek through North American venues in coming months. See a complete list of dates below.

11.20 Antwerp, Belgium @ Trix Zaal
11.21 Wiesbaden, Germany @ Schlachthof
11.23 Dortmund, Germany @ FZW
11.24 Prague, Czech Rep. @ Lucerna
11.25 Warsaw, Poland @ Stodola
11.27 Budapest, Hungary @ Petofi Csarnok
11.29 Vienna, Austria @ Gasometer
12.30 Munich, Germany @ Thearterfabrick
12.02 Milan, Italy @ Alcatraz
12.03 Fribourg, Switzerland @ Fri-Son
12.04 Paris, France @ Bataclan
12.06 Nottingham, UK @ Rock City
12.07 London, UK @ Brixton Academy
12.11 Las Vegas, NV @ The Joint (KXTE radio show)
02.12 Los Angeles, CA @ Gibson Amphitheatre (KROQ Acoustic Xmas)
02.02 Vancouver, BC @ Orpheum Theatre
02.04 Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre
02.06 Salem, OR @ Salem Armory
02.11 Oakland, CA @ Fox Theatre
02.17 Phoenix, AZ @ Dodge Theatre
02.19 Denver, CO @ Fillmore
02.21 Kansas City, MO @ Midland
02.22 St. Louis, MO @ Pageant
02.23 Louisville, KY @ Louisville Palace
02.25 Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
02.27 Myrtle Beach, SC @ House of Blues
03.01 Nashville, TN @ Municipal Auditorium
03.02 Charlotte, NC @ Fillmore
03.03 Washington, DC @ DAR Constitution Hall
03.05 Richmond, VA @ The National
03.06 Mashantucket, CT @ Foxwoods
03.08 New York, NY @ Terminal 5
03.12 Atlantic, City, NJ @ Borgata
03.13 Philadelphia, PA @ Tower Theatre
03.14 Boston, MA @ Orpheum
03.16 Montreal, QC @ Metropolis
03.17 Toronto, ONT @ Sound Academy
03.19 Detroit, MI @ Fillmore State Theatre
03.20 Chicago, IL @ Aragon Ballroom
03.21 St. Paul, MN @ Roy Wilkens Auditorium

You may remember reading about the Twitter-riffic dissolution of Jay Reatard’s band a few weeks back or even about the time he asked the Cola Freaks to join him shortly after that. Though we heard whispers about this in a bar late last week but were quickly distracted by a beer, Pitchfork reported yesterday that Wavves’ Nathan Williams has recently adopted a new backing band: bassist Stephen Pope and drummer Billy Hayes, formerly the rhythm section behind Reatard. Please note: these two are not to be confused with members of Reatard’s earlier band The Reatards. They are however, featured prominently in audiovisual evidence up top, a recent YouTube clip of the new three-piece shaking the stage at a recent show in Mexico City.

The vacancy in Williams’ lineup came as former drummer/wild man Zach Hill mangled his hand while playing drums recently. If you’ve ever seen dude hit a drum, that should make some sense. From his mouth to your brain:

so last week in los angeles at wavves practice i somehow mangled/broke/exploded my left hand while playing drums.it was immediately apparent that my injury was a little serious. after stopping practice i was unable to make a fist and my lacerations wouldnt stop bleeding. i visited a clinic and found i had two small fractures. one to the knuckles and one on my pointer finger plus some tweaked ligaments(unable to grip). this isnt a first for me but unfortunately the timing of its forced me to NOT be joining nate on the upcoming european wavves tour. bummer! the entire wavves tour will still go down as scheduled with some friends filling in and backing nate. they’re gonna handle it! hit up the shows! on the upside i should be straight in the hands within a few weeks and will be spending this period working on the new marnie stern album and finishing up my next solo release etc,etc,etc! PEACY P

Photo: Time Life Pictures/Time and Life Pictures/Getty Images

In an article for the Seattle Weekly titled “How I Met Dave Grohl, the Biggest Guy in Rock and Roll,” former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic waxes poetic about the musical prowess and undying dedication of his former bandmate, Dave Grohl.

Describing his first interaction with Grohl, Novoselic reminisces: “I remember going to the airport and picking this dude up. He was easygoing–just like some guy named Paul McCartney told the Times. He brought up his drum set–a yellow TAMA with a 26″ kick. The man understood John Bonham (Led Zeppelin) and Dale Crover (the Melvins), and this kick proved it. We wasted no time and rehearsed the next day. I knew Dave was coming, so beforehand I’d found a rehearsal place in Tacoma’s north end.

“It was a productive session, but the next night Kurt and I just messed around at practice for some reason. We all left together, and I could feel that Dave was a little distressed. That shows his serious work ethic. Don’t get me wrong, Nirvana had a good work ethic, but perhaps Dave was feeling a little remorse at that moment for betting it all on these two guys from Washington.”

Those two guys, he goes on to explain, ultimately pulled through, and the group became the Nirvana that we know and still miss today. Novoselic concludes, “For me, the years 1990 to 1994 seem like 10 years. So much went on, and of course so much went wrong. But life went on after Nirvana. I love the Foo Fighters. Dave kept that work ethic and focus, and that’s why he’s the greatest rock musician in the world today.”

When a band drops an unreleased jam on Minnesota public radio, chances are most people outside of the Twin Cities won’t really catch on. But when that band is Girls, chances are most people outside of the Twin Cities will be trying to figure out how to cop said jam. The kid-tested, Pitchfork-approved act busted out a San Francisco treat for the listeners of the Land of 10,000 Lakes in the form of “Heartbreaker” – a mid-tempo lament that finds lead Girl Christopher Owens pining for a lost youthful love. “When I said that I loved you honey, I knew that you would break my heart.” I think this dude needs a hug. Check it out below or over at the Current, where you can take in a gab sesh with Mr. Owens and hear live takes of Album faves “Ghost Mouth” and “Lauren Marie.”

Photography by Stacey Fuller
Haiku by Andy Cohn

john rocks the beacon
Guitar face in full effect
Had his own napkins

In an interview that went live on New York Magazine’s Vulture blog late yesterday, film director (and Tripwire fave) David Lynch revealed that his next project will be a documentary-style look at famed guru Maharishi Mahesh. If for whatever reason you describe yourself as Beatles-obsessed, that name may already ring many bells: the now deceased Mahesh gained renown in the 60s as many Western musicians, namely the Fab Four, attended his meditation courses in Rishikesh, holy city to the Hindus and Indian gateway to the Himalayas. Lynch says he’s planning on beginning production next month, though according to NME, has not confirmed the inclusion of any of the surviving Beatles. The filmmaker, who has recently been campaigning for the introduction of meditation in schools “worldwide,” did however promise the project will “hold a lot of abstractions.”

What do the Migration Act of 1958, images of indigenous peoples, ponies, cloudy mountainsides, and crashing waves have in common? They all feature prominently in the promotional video for Shearwater’s forthcoming album, titled The Golden Archipelago and slated to be released in North America on February 23 (and February 15 everywhere else) via Matador. The sun-drenched prog track serving as the background music to this epic video seems to promise more of the same great tunes from the band, and makes me want to head to Australia, stat.

If you’ve heard anything from the San Francisco’s Dominant Legs, then you too are probably rediscovering that itch for Tracy Chapman and the heart massage her vocals proffer. While some kids are turning to muddy guitar riffs and beachy keen melodies, it’s nice to know Mr. Legs’ head resides in a time when vocals were dominant. Har. That and lights were used with purpose during music video shoots. See what we mean above.

Put this down in your calendars as the most epic event to ever occur in December: former Velvet Underground members Lou Reed, Maureen Tucker and Doug Yule will appear together at the New York Public Library on December 8, along with journalist David Fricke, as part of the “LIVE from the NYPL” series. The reunion partly celebrates the release of The Velvet Underground: New York Art, a book of unreleased photographs, band-related artwork by Andy Warhol, press clippings, and Reed’s handwritten lyrics and music, amongst other amazing VU memorabilia.

The event will be held at the Celeste Bartos Forum in the Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 5th Avenue and 42nd Street. General admission tickets are $25, and $15 tickets are available for library donors, students and seniors on the NYPL website.

Far be it from me to quote Rachel Zoe, whose raisin-y face I fear and detest, but there can be no more apt saying than this: I die. (via Billboard)

Having been strapped pretty tightly to our seats during the King Khan and BBQ’d Shrooms saga this week, we ‘d feel remiss if we didn’t inform you of the band’s recent statement, one they issued just after the cancelation of shows in St. Louis and Lawrence, Kansas. And oh yeah, after they bumped heads with law enforcement in Kentucky over some hallucinogenic contraband.

On November 16, 2009 Kristin Klein entered a guilty plea to 2nd degree possession of a controlled substance in Christian County, Kentucky. Ms Klein was driving a rental vehicle that was randomly stopped at a safety checkpoint. Officers located a controlled substance in the cab of the vehicle. Ms Klein was unaware of the contraband and the validity of her license was indeterminable at time of arrest. Under KY law a driver of a vehicle is responsible for its contents. Therefore, Ms Klein entered a guilty plea and is scheduled to appear on April 2, 2010 to provide proof of her valid license.

King Khan & BBQ Show are driving through the night to make their Los Angeles show at Troubadour tomorrow. Tonight’s show in Phoenix is cancelled, but all further west coast dates and will to be honored. Kristin Klein is safe with the band and continuing her tenure as tour manager.

Via the band’s website, Anton Newcombe’s BJM vehicle has announced a date for the forthcoming New Year’s Day release of Who Killed Sgt. Pepper? Judging by that title, it will probably sound like something you’ve already heard before, as fetishized, reheated and filtered through the braincanals of well, Newcombe. Take that as you will. Streaming for the moment as well is “Tempo 116.7 (Reaching for Dangerous Levels of Sobriety)” a forgettable cut from their Smoking Acid EP, one that somehow escaped our radar this year.

We can’t imagine the folks over at NME altogether hated New York Magazine’s current cover story detailing how New York once again became an epicenter of musical creativity (hint: use rent prices to force nearly every struggling artist and venue into one borough, have loft mixer or something). After all, it did get MGMT on the cover. And the Brits seem to love those crazy chaps and their face paint. But they also don’t seem to want to let New York (the city or the mag) get too cocky. So they released a list today (their top 100 albums of the 2000’s) crowning The Strokes 2001 debut Is That Is? as the high watermark of the decade and reminding the city that their best music is behind them. Suck on that, Longstreth. (Via: NME)

The Uptown Bar, once deemed “The House The Replacements Built”, was piled into the ground with a wrecking ball earlier today. City Pages has some photos of the desruction. The venue, which was sold earleir this year, hosted a month of so of farewell shoes as a tribute to the Twin Cities’ rock mecca it once was. The bar had made plans to re-open at a South Minneapolis location, but complications and liquor permit restrictions have prevented this from happening at this point. For now, it serves as a memory of a musical era in the Twin Cities as well as the band and legacy that was born out of it. Check the sweet video retrospect 89.3 The Current did in its honor above. (Via: Daily Swarm via City Pages)

What does one do when they need to “break free” you ask? Well, Freddie Mercury slips on his finest cleaning-the-house garb and dances around between fabulous tableaux scenes of housewife gone leather-pants-clad and shirtless human beast eating grapes with stage smoke and backup dancers. If there were such a thing as human print, then this video would be a great representation of just that.

This week New York Magazine analyzed “The Oprah Effect” in terms of music sales in relation to her stamps of approvals and show performances. Their results seem to liken an artist being on her show to say, Obama mentioning said artist in his inauguration speech and then following up with the exact URL to purchase his or her album on Amazon. Just ask Michael Buble, whose album Crazy Love sold 132,000 copies in three days after his label moved the release of his album to coincide with his Oprah appearance. Granted all of our Moms would have totally bought that record eventually, but probably not that day.

Presumably, within days every major record exec in America will be forming a business plan to try and persuade the talk-show queen to create a music club similar to her book club with some sort of split-profit sharing. This is all well and good until she James Frey’s Bon Iver or something and finds out his cabin in Wisconsin wasn’t even really wood. (Via: The Daily Swarm)

Do you feel like your life has been lacking a certain intensity lately? Wake up at night just yearning for a reason to bang your head in triumph once again? Well, have we got a show for you.

After being forced to cancel some European and Canadian dates for lead singer Tom Araya’s back surgery, Slayer is back on the road again, teaming up with metal juggernauts Megadeth and fellow veterans Testament to roam much of the U.S. (and fill in those Canadian dates they missed). The headlining duo haven’t toured the U.S. together for almost two decades.

Appropriately, the tour is called American Carnage. Nuff said. Dates and video preview below.

1.18 Seattle, WA @ WaMu Theatre
1.19 Portland, OR @ Memorial Coliseum
1.21 San Francisco, CA @ Cow Palace
1.22 Long Beach, CA @ Long Beach Arena
1.23 Phoenix, AZ @ Dodge Theatre
1.25 Denver, CO @ Magness Arena
1.26 Albuquerque, NM @ Tingley Coliseum
1.27 El Paso, TX @ El Paso Coliseum
1.29 Houston, TX @ Verizon Wireless
1.31 Nashville, TN @ Municipal Auditorium

2.01 Duluth, GA @ Gwinnett Arena
2.02 Louisville, KY @ Broadbent Arena
2.04 Minneapolis, MN @ Roy Wilkins Auditorium
2.05 Chicago, IL @ UIC Pavilion
2.06 Detroit, MI @ Cobo Arena
2.09 Wallingford, CT @ Chevrolet Theatre
2.11 East Rutherford, NJ @ Izod Center
2.13 Camden, NJ @ Susquehanna Center
2.14 Lowell, MA @ Tsongas Arena
2.16 Quebec City, QC  @ Pavillon de la Jeunesse
2.18 London, ON @ John Labatt Centre
2.19 Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre
2.20 Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
2.22 Moncton, NB  @ Moncton Coliseum
2.23 Halifax, NS  @ Metro Centre

We posted a now defunct Vanity Fair video yesterday in which those dirty dogs in Vampire Weekend gave you a piece of their worldview. Though we’ve already shared some 4,457 Vampy Weeks tour dates with you in the past few weeks, we feel obliged to also inform you that the band will be performing the West Coast holiday show circuit next month in addition to a free show in Sydney next week AND a slew of shows in their native New York around the January 10 release of their deliriously excellent new LP, Contra. People can call them classists or say their music is wussy, but you’d have to be a Class A bonehead to suggest these dudes don’t grind. Cover art above, tour dates below.

11.23 Sydney, Australia @ Notes on Enmore

12.10 Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom (94.7FM “A December To Remember” concert series)
12.11 Oakland, CA @ Oracle Arena (Live 105 “Not So Silent Night 2009”)
12.12 La Jolla, CA @ RIMAC Arena/UC San Diego (FM949 “Holiday Hootenanny”)
12.13 Los Angeles, CA @ Gibson Amphitheater (KROQ “Acoustic Christmas)
12.15 Seattle, WA @ WaMu Theater (KNDD The End’s “Deck The Hall Ball ‘09”)

01.12 Los Angeles, CA Henry Fonda Theater
01.17 New York, NY United Palace Theater
01.18 New York, NY Webster Hall
01.19 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom

Sandor Vlah and Gyula Takaes are two strong men from Budapest, Hungary who go by the name of The Golden Power. El Perro Del Mar is, as you may have already learned via video introduction, a young woman from Sweden by the name of Sarah Assbring. Under the direction of the Control Group, they’ve joined together to create one of the more beautiful/uncomfortable music video experiences we’ve had in a while.

Some days are good to just max and relax with your friend Q-Tip or make a folk-influenced brand of vocal jazz that is incredibly pleasing to the masses/your parents. Other days, you’ve got to fight the man. And one of our favorite ways to fight the man: more windows!

We imagine this to be the general mindset of songstress Norah Jones as she navigates her way through a classic Brooklyn brownstone battle. You see, earlier this year, Jones purchases a brownstone home in Brooklyn’s idyllic Cobble Hill for $4.99 million. Now the nieghborhood says her request to add “10 double-hung windows to the side brick wall” goes directly against the architectural spirit of the neighborhood’s predominantly Greek Revival design and that “breaking this precedent is wrong.”

Jones has responded defiantly, as any good man-fighter is wont to do, by writing a kind-spirited e-mail explaining she went through the appropriate request process and is simply trying to keep the neighborhood “beautiful and peaceful.” This may seem like Jones is playing a bit nice. But we’re pretty sure one of the emoticons was startign to get those angry eyebrows. Owned. (Via: Gothamist)

So the arrest that caused the Canadian duo to cancel a couple Midwest dates, that was for “allegedly possessing hallucinogenic mushrooms.” Life lesson kids, don’t do shrooms on a suspended license. Or at least, not in Kentucky? (Via: Stereogum)

The men of Vampire Weekend sat down recently with whom we can only presume was a cameraperson and an interviewer (just a guess!), tackling questions of great existential and philosophical weight in Vanity Fair’s “Proust Questionnaire.” Their new album Contra drops January 12th. They’re touring like wild men. And they are, as we’ve known and the above video further suggests, very thoughtful.

Behind their latest and greatest, Popular Songs, Yo La Tengo are currently winding their way through nearly every European city you’re currently daydreaming about. When they’re done smelling the flowers over there, they’re planning on playing some more dates in Japan, perhaps another spot more glamorous then the desk chair to which you/we’re glued. Life is tough. And while that tour may be massive and cosmopolitan, it does overlook a cities in Middle America still thirsting to hear new Yo La Tengo songs stretched out in a live setting. So that’s where they’re going come January, at which point they’ll head off on a tour down the center of our country and, in an even more thoughtful move, play shows that’ll require no additional surcharges when you buy a ticket at local record stores of their choosing. You can get all additional info here as well as see that aforementioned stretch of European and Japanese dates here.

Yo La Tengo Tour The Heartland:

01.22 Pontiac MI @ Crofoot Ballroom
01.23 Madison, WI @ Barrymore Theatre
01.24 St Louis, MO @The Pageant
01.26 Lawrence, KS @ Granada Theatre
01.28 Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
01.29 Austin, TX @ Antone’s
01.30 Dallas, TX @ Granada Theatre

In case you thought you wouldn’t be satisfied with the extra hour of Tom Waits’ banter from his upcoming live album, fret no more. Now Tom’s Orphans, Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards is being reinvented as a limited edition seven-LP vinyl with six new tracks. The album, which classicly highlights Waits’ bizarrely wonderful form of storytelling, will come out December 8, and also includes rare gems like Waits covering the likes of The Ramones and Fats Waller. Plainly stated, if you’re gearing up for a long winter, this collection added on top of the Glitter and Doom live album should be enough Tom Waits material to get you through. And that’s never a bad thing.

NME is reporting that one-time chanteuse Amy Winehouse was hospitalized last night in London after some cold medicine she was taking interacted harshly with prescription medication she’s currently using for her “recovery,” that which a source told the Daily Mirror she is expected to make in full. No official word yet on whether her career might do the same! Zing! Sorry. No seriously, it’s early and that was a little too corny. Get well soon, Amy.

This is quickly becoming a month of early holiday season treats for American-based Hot Chip fans. First came the announcement that One Lofe Stand, their much anticipated follow-up to Made In The Dark, will see a February release date. Then that wonderful new song of theirs. Now comes the news they’re bringing their non-stop electropop show stateside again this April. They’re also pairing with Tripwire faves The xx for all these dates, which should prove to be an interesting tour dynamic. Dust off your dancing shoes and check the dates below.

4.16 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
4.19 – Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre
4.20 – Toronto, ON @ Koolhaus
4.22 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5
4.24 – Washington, D.C. @  9:30 Club