Death Cab for Cutie Ready October Release, Tour
This is the part where you imagine Sean Connery saying "Rocktober"

Bellingham, Washington's finest, Death Cab for Cutie, have set the release date of their third LP, titled The Photo Album, for October 9th. Chris Walla, resident DCFC guitarist and studio whiz, manned the boards once again for the new record, which stands as the band's first full-length foray outside of their old recording space, the Hall of Justice. The album features ten new songs which display a "more confident" side, according to Walla.

An exclusive limited edition version of the record will be available through Barsuk Records and at Death Cab for Cutie shows commencing September 29th. According to bassist Nicholas Harmer, the limited edition will include a bonus disc with goodies including a recorded version of the band's cover of Björk's "All is Full of Love," which has become a live staple. Labelmates the Prom are scheduled to support all shows. Along for other select dates are the Swords Project and Shiner. Tracklist:

01 steadier footing
02 a movie script ending
03 we laugh indoors
04 information travels faster
05 why you'd want to live here
06 blacking out the friction
07 i was a kaleidoscope
08 styrofoam plates
09 coney island
10 debate exposes doubt

Tourdates:

10-05 Seattle, WA - Crocodile Cafe
10-06 Portland, OR - Aladdin Theatre
10-12 Pocatello, ID - Idaho State University
10-13 Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court
10-14 Boulder, CO - Tulagi
10-15 Lawrence, KS - Granada Theatre
10-16 Omaha, NE - Sokol Underground
10-17 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
10-18 Milwaukee, WI - Globe
10-19 Chicago, IL - Metro
10-20 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
10-21 Toronto, ON - Horseshoe Tavern
10-26 Cambridge, MA - Middle East
10-27 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
11-03 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
11-04 Atlanta, GA - Echo Lounge
11-06 Gainesville, FL - Common Grounds
11-07 Orlando, FL - Sapphire Supper
11-09 Houston, TX - Mary Jane's
11-10 Austin, TX - Emo's
11-11 Dallas, TX - Gypsy Tea Room
11-13 Phoenix, AZ - Boston's
11-14 San Diego, CA - Casbah
11-15 Pomona, CA - Glass House
11-16 Los Angeles, CA - El Rey
11-17 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
11-18 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall

Pitchfork Review: http:///record-reviews/d/death-cab-for-cutie/we-have-the-facts-and-were-voting-yes.shtml
Barsuk: http://www.barsuk.com/

The Shins Kick Off U.S. Tour Next Week
On your shins!

08-22 Denver, CO - 15th St. Tavern
08-24 Chicago, IL - Reckless Records
08-24 Chicago, IL - Schuba's
08-25 Cleveland Heights, OH - Grog Shop
08-26 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
08-27 Newport, KY - Southgate House
08-28 St. Louis, MO - Rocket Bar
08-29 Lawrence, KS - Bottleneck
08-30 Norman, OK - Medicine Hall
08-31 Fort Worth, TX - Ridlea Theater Upstairs
08-31 Dallas, TX - Good Records
09-01 Austin, TX - Emo's
09-01 Austin, TX - 33 Degrees
09-15 San Diego, CA - Cane's Bar and Grill
09-16 Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland
09-17 Tempe, AZ - Nita's Hideaway
09-23 Columbia, MO - Mojo's
09-24 Memphis, TN - Young Avenue Deli
09-25 Nashville, TN - Slow Bar
09-27 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
09-28 Washington, DC - Black Cat
09-29 Washington, DC - Black Cat
09-30 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero
10-01 New York, NY - Irving Plaza
10-02 New York, NY - Irving Plaza

Pitchfork Review: http:///record-reviews/s/shins/oh-inverted-world.shtml
Sub Pop: http://www.subpop.com

John Vanderslice Tours Through Time
Fretting hand to vanish suddenly during "Earth Angel"

According to Barsuk Records' website, San Francisco's resident Marty McFly, John Vanderslice, is set to serenade twenty-five American audiences in September and throughout history. Handy-Vandy, as we used to call him in the DeGrassi Junior High locker room, is exerting himself in support of his second solo effort, Time Travel Is Lonely. The tour begins in Los Angeles and concludes in the ex-MK Ultra frontman's aforementioned hometown. In addition to a Pennsylvanian date at a Unitarian Church with Pedro the Lion, Handy-Vandy will share the stage with such acts as Burning Airlines, Arlo, Ashley Stove, Ken Stringfellow, and a hired band of rock 'n' roll musicians called the Pinheads in a 1955 high school gymnasium. Dates:

11-12-55 Hill Valley High - Enchantment Under the Sea Dance
09-01-01 Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland
09-01-01 Olympia, WA - Aerospace
09-02-01 Santa Ana, CA - Koo's Cafe
09-03-01 Phoenix, AZ - Modified
09-05-01 Austin, TX - Emo's
09-06-01 Denton, TX - Rubber Gloves
09-07-01 Houston, TX - No Tsu Oh
09-08-01 New Orleans, LA - Mermaid Lounge
09-10-01 Tampa, FL - Orpheum
09-11-01 Orlando, FL - Dante's
09-13-01 Atlanta, GA - Earl
09-14-01 Raleigh, NC - Kings
09-15-01 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
09-17-01 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian
09-18-01 Washington, DC - Metro Cafe
09-19-01 Cambridge, MA - Middle East
09-20-01 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge
09-22-01 Chicago, IL - Schuba's
09-23-01 Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
09-24-01 Lawrence, KS - Replay Lounge
09-25-01 Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court
09-26-01 Boise, ID - Neurolux
09-27-01 Seattle, WA - Paradox
09-28-01 Portland, OR - Blackbird
09-29-01 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill

Pitchfork Review: http:///record-reviews/v/vanderslice_john/time-travel-is-lonely.shtml
Barsuk: http://www.barsuk.com/
John Vanderslice: http://www.johnvanderslice.com

Mazarin Set Release Date for New LP
Group aims to recoup after dismal video album, Watch It Happen: Too Hot for TV

According to SpinART's official website, Philadelphia psych-poppers Mazarin are scheduled to release their sophomore full-length, A Tall Tale Storyline, on September 4th. If it's anything like 1999's fuzz-bathed Watch It Happen, it'll be entirely unessential, but also entirely harmless. The ongoing invention of ex-Azusa Plane drummer Quentin Stoltzfus, Mazarin reflect influences as disparate as folk, shoegazer and traditional indie-pop. The new record will be their first with the SpinART label after a passage from Victoria Records.

spinART: http://www.spinartrecords.com

Members of Mogwai, Belle & Sebastian, Arab Strap, Snow Patrol Form Scottish Supergroup
You could almost make a full set of teeth from them

Oral tradition, codified in the band's official press bio, holds that the kernel for Scottish supergroup Reindeer Section coalesced in the mind of Snow Patrol member Gary Lightbody while he and members of several prominent Glasgow bands enjoyed adult beverages during a Lou Barlow concert at "Nice 'N' Sleazy," a monastic novitiate in Glasgow.

According to Lightbody: "After a few drinks we all got talking and I said that we should all make a record together. Everyone thought it was a great idea but I'm sure they were thinking, "Aye, right, Gary, whatever," and that I'd forget about it when I had sobered up. In fact, the next day I wrote the complete album."

After his uniquely constructive hangover remedy netted an album's worth of songs, Lightbody secured a deal for the collective with Belfast-based Bright Star Recordings, and the album, titled Y'all Get Scared Now, Ya Hear was recorded in Glasgow over ten days. The album will be released in the States on September 25th on PIASAmerica.

Band members include:
Gary Lightbody and Jonny Quinn (Snow Patrol)
Aidan Moffat (Arab Strap)
Willie Campbell, Charlie Clarke, Gareth Russell and Michael Bannister (Astrid)
John Cummings (Mogwai)
Colin Macintyre (Mull Historical Society)
Jenny Reave (Eva)
Richard Colburn, Mick Cooke and Bob Kildea (Belle & Sebastian)
Gill Mills and Andrew Meehan (Hercules)

Tracklist:
01 Will You Please Be There for Me
02 The Opening Taste
03 12 Hours It Takes Sometimes
04 Deviance
05 If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet
06 Fire Bell
07 If Everything Fell Quiet
08 I've Never Understood
09 Raindrop
10 Sting
11 Billed as Single
12 Toute le Monde
13 Nightfall
14 The Day We All Died

Bright Star Recordings: http://www.brightstarrecordings.com/

Low, Windy & Carl to Contribute to 25-Hour Jam
Local farmers, lumberjacks to report "UFO hearings"

Participation in the performance is open to all, though some performers will be featured. Artists confirmed to be part of the performance include Aarktica, Windy & Carl, Rivulets, and a number of Duluth-based musicians, most notably, Alan Sparhawk and the other members of Low. The musicians are invited to play for as long as they like, as long as some type of sound continues. If you can't make it to Duluth to be there in person, the event will be webcast in its entirety through the Elegy website.

Kranky: http://www.brainwashed.com/kranky
Elegy: http://www.elegy25.com

Princess Superstar Release Delayed
Tease!

New York sexual emcee Princess Superstar has delayed the release of her fourth full-length record, Princess Superstar Is. It is currently set for a January 29th U.S. release. If you absolutely cannot wait, and you don't mind paying insane import prices, the UK release date is October 10th. The delay is reportedly due to the Princess' wish for the record release to coincide with a U.S. tour in the early months of the year.

Princess Superstar Is, the highly-anticipated follow-up to 2000's Last of the Great 20th Century Composers, gives the masses what they've always longed for: grammatically incorrect, existential flows up the ass. The debut single features guest Kool Keith and is puzzlingly titled, "Keith N Me." The full-length features guest appearances by Bahamadia, High & Mighty, Sinista, Chops of the Mountain Brothers, Mr. Len from Company Flow, 7Even, Jim Slade, Jzone, Beth Orton, the Herbaliser, Curtis Curtis and more, and features a track called "You Get Mad at Napster." Indeed. Both single and long-playing releases will be co-released by !K7 and Rapster Records, the latter being home to the Masters of Illusion, Kool Keith and Kutmaster Kurt.

Princess Superstar: http://www.princesssuperstar.com/
Corrupt Conglomerate: http://www.corruptconglomerate.com/

Simon Joyner Tours with That Bright Eyes Kid
"He was just so fucking adorable I couldn't resist"

Simon Joyner has planned a short U.S. tour in support of his ninth solo album, Hotel Lives. Joyner, also known as Omaha, Nebraska's answer to Leonard Cohen and Nick Drake, began the tour in Boston and New York, where he played three highly anticipated shows in two days with Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst, who played a rare solo set. Oberst has described Joyner as his biggest lyrical influence on a number of occasions. The pair plan to continue the tour in late September, playing a handful of dates around the U.S. For now, here's what we got:

09-07 Minneapolis, MN - Woman's Club
09-08 Chicago, IL - Schuba's (two shows)
10-04 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
10-05 Los Angeles, CA - El Ray Theatre

Pitchfork Review: http:///record-reviews/j/joyner_simon/hotel-lives.shtml
Pitchfork Review: http:///record-reviews/b/bright-eyes/fevers-and-mirrors.shtml
Saddle Creek: http://www.saddle-creek.com

Olivia Tremor Control Reemerge with New Name
Music from the sequel to the unrealized film script Dusk at Cubist Castle

Inside was a CD and a message: "Hello from Cloud Recordings. Enclosed is a disk by Circulatory System, a new project featuring members of the Olivia Tremor Control with help from friends in Neutral Milk Hotel. This is the first release on our own label. The release date is August 28th."

The record's cover art is a painting by Will Hart, a twisted, almost magic-eye variation on the artwork from the Olivia Tremor Control's debut album, Dusk at Cubist Castle. And in fact, the music on the disc is quite clearly the logical follow-up to that album, if quite a bit darker. Though they've lost a member (namely The Bill Doss, who's left to focus on his new psych-country project, A Sunshine Fix), Circulatory System is, for all intents and purposes, a new album by the Olivia Tremor Control. After all, every track is written by Will Hart, in the exact same vein-- both musically and production-wise-- as Dusk at Cubist Castle, and features every member of the OTC except Doss.

An eerie, heavily layered psychedelic pop album, the self-titled Circulatory System album features almost as many musicians (21) as it does tracks (22). Among the artists on the record: OTC members John Fernandes, Pete Erchick and Eric Harris, and Neutral Milk Hotel members Jeff Mangum, Julian Koster, Scott Spillane and Jeremy Barnes. The almost hour-long disc is the debut release on the Olivia Tremor Control's own Cloud Recordings, and, as mentioned in the above letter, will see release on August 28th. MP3s of two of the album's tracks, "Yesterday's World" and "Now," are available at the official Cloud Recordings website, linked below. Tracklist:

Side One:
01 Yesterday's World
02 Prehistoric
03 Diary of Wood
04 Outside Blasts
05 Joy
06 The Lovely Universe
07 Round
08 Inside Blasts
09 Illusion
10 Waves of Bark and Light

Side Two:
11 Now
12 A Peek
13 Fingers
14 Days to Come (In Photographs)
15 Symbols and Maps
16 The Pillow
17 Stars
18 Should a Cloud Replace a Compass?
19 Time or Dateline
20 How Long?
21 Your Parades
22 Forever

Pitchfork Review: http:///record-reviews/o/olivia-tremor-control/black-foliage.shtml
Cloud Recordings: http://www.cloudrecordings.com

Ladies Take Over Chicago, NYC
Probably not a good time to yell "show us your tits"

Ladyfest East will take place from September 6th-9th in New York City. On this stop, the lineup includes such performers as Nicole Blackman, Bitch and Animal, the Hissyfits, Gynomite with Maggie Estep, and Ari-Up (from the Slits). A two-disc benefit compilation featuring a number of artists performing at Ladyfest East, along with up-to-the minute schedule information, is available from the Ladyfest East website. All proceeds from Ladyfest East will benefit the Rape and Incest National Network (RAINN), founded by the crazy old cool Tori Amos. Did we mention her upcoming covers album? Yeah, we didn't think so.

Ladyfest Midwest: http://www.ladyfestmidwest.org
Ladyfest East: http://www.ladyfesteast.org

C Average to Tour the United States
Roll 2d6 to determine gas mileage

Kill Rock Star's dirtiest über-metal rock gods, C Average, will be kicking some ass across this great nation of ours beginning in September. According to the KRS website, they'll be joined by the Tight Bro's from Way Back When and Cherry Valance in an attempt to keep cock-rock alive and advance their search for the Holy Grail. Whether you call their fury true metal, hard rock, or a soundtrack for your favorite Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book, you can catch C Average at the following locales:

09-04 Missoula, MT - Jay's Upstairs
09-06 Minot, ND - The Liberty
09-07 Fargo, ND - Ralph's
09-08 Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
09-09 Chicago, IL - Fireside Bowl
09-10 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
09-11 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
09-12 Columbus, OH - High Five
09-13 Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop
09-14 Pittsburgh, PA - Mr Roboto Project
09-15 Brooklyn, NY - North Six
09-16 Boston, MA - Middle East
09-17 New York, NY - Brownies
09-18 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
09-19 Washington, DC - Black Cat
09-20 Raleigh, NC - Kings
09-21 Asheville, NC - TBA
09-22 Atlanta, GA - The Earl
09-23 Chattanooga, TN - Jacob's Ladder
09-24 Memphis, TN - TBA
09-25 Fayetteville, AR - Clunk Record Store
09-26 Austin, TX - Emo's
09-27 Houston, TX - Not Su Oh
09-28 Dallas, TX - Bar of Soap
09-30 Albuquerque, NM - TBA
10-01 Flagstaff, AZ - Robot House
10-02 Tucson, AZ - 7 Black Cats
10-03 San Diego, CA - Casbah
10-04 Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland
10-05 San Francisco, CA - TBA
10-06 Oakland, CA - TBA
10-07 Chico, CA - Blue Room
10-08 Eureka, CA - The Vista
10-09 Portland, OR - Satyricon

Pitchfork Review: http:///record-reviews/c/c-average/second-reckoning.shtml
C Average: http://www.olywa.net/caverage/
Kill Rock Stars: http://www.killrockstars.com

Rainer Maria to Tour East Coast
Our thugs will hand out promotional beatings after the show

Ah, fall. The leaves change color, there's a chill in the air, and emo kids dig their ratty-ass cardigans out from the backs of their closets to ward off the chill of heartbreak. But fear not, little tykes! Rainer Maria is headed out on a lengthy fall tour. Yay!! You know Rainer Maria-- they're that band with the male/female vocals, the pseudo-poetic lyrics, and the loud-soft-loud guitars. Watch for a sudden increase in the backpacks-and-blank-books per capita at the following venues:

09-13 CMJ Polyvinyl Showcase - Mercury Lounge
09-22 Washington DC - Black Cat
09-23 Richmond, VA - VCU
09-24 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
09-25 Athens, GA - 40 Watt
09-26 Atlanta, GA - Echo Lounge
09-27 Tallahassee, FL - FSU
09-28 Orlando, FL - Sapphire Supper Club
09-29 Miami, FL - Churchill's
09-30 Tampa Bay, FL - Orpheum
10-02 Murfreesboro, TN - Red Rose Coffee
10-03 Louisville, KY - BRYCC House
10-04 Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop
10-05 Buffalo, NY - Mohawk

Rainer Maria: http://www.rainermaria.com

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