Bonnie "Prince" Billy Splits EP with Brightblack, Records New Full-Length with "The Wolfman"
Jason Bateman to reprise role in Teen Wolf III: The Rocking

Despite Will Oldham's lasting popularity, his experiments with facial hair often seem to have had more influence in the indie scene at times than his music. (Cex, this means you. We saw those beard photos.) Still, the semi-reclusive Oldham remains undeterred-- heck, maybe he likes things that way. This year's polarizing Greatest Palace Music proved that the self-styled Bonnie "Prince" Billy's urge to play, record and release music wasn't the same thing as a need to please his audience.

And yet, with the solid slate of Oldham material headed our way, "pleased" will be the only way to describe Oldham fans in coming months (although the phrase "pig in shit" may also apply). The material is already pouring in: A previously tour-only split EP between Oldham and Alabama-based folk-rockers Brightblack has just been made available online at Drag City.

According to a post at Drag City's website, the Bonnie Prince made nice with openers Brightblack, and the two were so jointly inspired by the experience that they challenged each other to record a few covers of the opposite band's choosing. The resulting EP, entitled Pebbles and Ripples, features Oldham covering tracks by Bob Marley and The Grateful Dead, while Brightblack tackle Phil Ochs and George Gershwin. Tracklist:

01 Brightblack: I Kill Therefore I Am
02 Bonnie "Prince" Billy: Brokedown Palace
03 Brightblack: Someone to Watch Over Me
04 Bonnie "Prince" Billy: Babylon System
05 Brightblack: Love Me Tonight
06 Bonnie "Prince" Billy: Lullaby

Greatest Palace Music, which, according to Drag City, will include a video and two B-sides: Also in the works are two CD singles. The first is for "Agnes, Queen of Sorrow", off the aforementioned "Pussyfooting", which is previously unreleased, and... something else, which for some reason they're remaining mum about. Release date? Fuck, your guess is as good as ours, unfortunately. The second single, which also is without specific release date (think fall) is for "No More Workhorse Blues", also culled from Greatest Palace Music, and will contain the video for the song directed by notable pretentious filmmaker Harmony Korine (Gummo, Julien Donkey-Boy).

But the kicker to all this is a new full-length due out this fall. While the title remains a mystery, it's currently credited to "Bonnie 'Prince' Billy & The Wolfman." A new, even darker alter-ego for Oldham? Wolfman Jack? Bill Callahan in a furry suit? Actually, our friends at Drag City have confirmed our unconfirmed reports that The Wolfman is actually former Chavez frontman/Zwan guitarist Matt Sweeney. All the clues are there-- he's hirsute, large, and looks like he might eat you if you mouth off to him.

Meanwhile, as reported previously by Pitchfork, Will Oldham (change of moniker alert!) has reacquired the acting bug, and is presently shooting The Guatemalan Handshake, a peculiar "semi-real" flick in which he appears as a 10-year-old's vanished friend named Donald. On the film's constantly-updated blog, editor Craig Moorhead sez, "He IS Donald, inasmuch as he looks and sounds like the Donald that I saw and heard in my head since I read [the script]." Clear mantle space for your Oscar now, Will. You can always just stick some beer there later.

Drag City: http://www.dragcity.com
The Guatemalan Handshake: http://www.guatemalanhandshake.com

R.E.M. Finish Work on Next Full-Length
Is it too soon to joke about Abu Ghraib?

R.E.M. have taken a page from Michael Moore-- but it's not out of the Unkempt One's script binder, just his calendar. Much as Moore is strategically hoping to put Fahrenheit 9/11 DVDs into circulation a few weeks before this November's presidential election, R.E.M.'s return to new release bins everywhere will take place this October, with a record owing much of its inspiration to political outrage, according to Rolling Stone.

The album is still untitled (as most R.E.M. projects have remained until the last minute), but otherwise nearly complete. Tracks that have been rumored for inclusion at one time or another include "Electron Blue", "Aftermath", "Magnetic North", "Around the Sun", "From a Train", "Make It All OK", "On the Fly", "The Outsiders", "I Wanted to Be Wrong" and "Weatherman". However, the only confirmed tracks at the moment appear to be: "Leaving New York", "Wanderlust", "I'm Gonna DJ" and "Final Straw". That last song has already reached listener ears in an earlier form as part of an online anti-war benefit, but has now been "fleshed out." Yeah, I tried to halt a nation's unstoppable, bloodthirsty rush to battle with a rough draft once, and it totally didn't work. Learn from history, guys.

Stipe calls "Wanderlust" a pop song, adding, "There's been a lot of pop music in 2004 that's really seductive, and you don't have to think all that much about it. I'm all for that." We bet. But Stipe says that politics, from the 1999 WTO riots in Seattle to America's ongoing war in Iraq, left a big mark on his writing process, with results he calls "pretty hard-core, and fairly political."

"As an American, I feel like the angriest pacifist in the world," Stipe told Rolling Stone, "and I don't think I'm alone in that." R.E.M. will reportedly play a series of pro-Kerry benefits between now and November, but locations and dates for those shows are unknown. However, someone might want to inform Stipe that Kerry voted for the Iraq war-- before he voted against it!

This will be the first album that Stipe, Buck and Mills have recorded with their new full-time drummer, William Rieflin. Rieflin is a veteran of bands like Ministry, Lard, Revolting Cocks-- stop us when we get to any band that's ever used a mandolin-- Pigface, KMFDM, Swans, and Nine Inch Nails. His recorded debut with R.E.M. was last year's single "Bad Day", a political rocker we're guessing the new album will have a lot in common with.

R.E.M.: http://www.remhq.com

The Shins, Death Cab for Cutie, Broken Social Scene to Appear on Wicker Park Soundtrack
"Dude, that is exactly like the music *I* hear in Wicker Park!"

Whoa, didn't realize it was still 2003. I mean, it was cool to talk about indie hipsters embracing mainstream music and mainstream hipsters embracing indie music back in the oh-trizzle, but now I can't watch a goddamn episode of Pimp My Ride without being pummeled by a five-second clip of Franz Ferdinand or Modest Mouse immediately afterwards! Ahh, but I guess I better start getting used to it, 'cause it's only going to get worse. Case in point: the soundtrack for the upcoming movie Wicker Park, planned for an August 24th release.

Super-sexy Josh Hartnett stars in the flick, which will feature music from such indie rock sacred cows as Death Cab for Cutie, Broken Social Scene, The Shins, and Mogwai, some of whom have even contributed unreleased tracks to the album. If you're not sold yet, try this on for size-- there's a Postal Service cover of the Phil Collins classic "Against All Odds", which, ironically enough, was also prominently featured in a movie. Are you kidding me? You're not kidding me:

01 Stereophonics: "Maybe Tomorrow"
02 Lifehouse: "Everybody Is Somebody"
03 Death Cab for Cutie: "A Movie Script Ending (Acoustic)"
04 Snow Patrol: "How to Be Dead"
05 Broken Social Scene: "Lover's Spit"
06 The Stills: "Retour A Vega"
07 Mazzy Star: "Flowers in December "
08 The Legends: "When The Day Is Done"
09 The Shins: "When I Goosestep"
10 Jamie Wyatt: "Light Switch"
11 Mates of State: "These Days "
12 +/-: "All I Do"
13 Mum: "We Have a Map of the Piano"
14 Postal Service: "Against All Odds "
15 Aqualung: "Strange and Beautiful"
16 Mogwai: "I Know You Are But What Am I?"
17 Johnette Napolitano & Danny Lohner: "The Scientist"

So what's the movie about, anyway? Here's the word according to the official website: "Intricately moving back and forth in time and revealing the story from each character's perspective, Wicker Park is an intense psychological drama about a man (Josh Hartnett) caught in an obsessive search for a woman he fell deeply in love with-- a woman who then vanished without a trace. Two years after her disappearance, he catches a fleeting glimpse of her in a local bar and begins a twisting search to find her and discover what really happened." The movie will hit theaters on September 3rd. And, while it may not turn out to be a cinematic masterpiece, at least the music won't be terrible. Well, besides maybe the Collins cover.

Wicker Park Movie: http://www.mgm.com/wickerpark/

Isis to Release New Album in October
Egyptian deity supergroup Amun-Raw to headline Ankhtoberfest

It's time to get excited: Heavy metal lovelies Isis are set to release a new record October 19th on Ipecac. The LP, entitled Panopticon, will be the band's first full-length since Oceanic, a wonderful record released in 2002 guaranteed to rock your face off with heaping spoonfuls of anthemic metal. Matt Bayles is handling production duties, also known as the man behind all of the band's work since their first LP, Celestial. Should you be an impatient sort (and the owner of a record player), you can pick up the album one or two weeks early on vinyl via Robotic Empire in the U.S. and Trust No In in Europe. The tracks:

01 Syndic Calls
02 So Did We
03 Backlit
04 Altered Course
05 Wills Dissolve
06 Grinning Mouths
07 In Fiction

In the meantime, you may want to check out the band's "Oceanic" remix series, consisting of four 12-inch EPs featuring, well, remixes of the "Oceanic" album material. As of press time, the first two are already out, the third is in production, and the fourth is currently still in the planning stages. Contributors have included Oktopus from Dalek and ambient big shot Tim Hecker. Also available is a CD of live material that the band released all by their little old selves earlier this year.

As far as touring goes, Isis have been noticeably absent on the North American continent. Their only currently scheduled concert of the summer will held at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles on July 29th, and, believe it or not, the concert will be FREE and promises to include plenty of new material. The show will be the last in a series of live music events that will coincide with the museum's current exhibition A Minimal Future? Art as Object 1958-1968, which has already featured performances by such artists as Ireland's Donnacha Costello and William Basinski, creator of the intellectually intriguing and emotionally evocative Disintegration Loops series.

Following that, the band will take a short break until October, when they'll begin their first tour of the United States and Canada in two years. Soon to follow will be tours of Europe, Japan, Iceland, and Australia. Sydney Opera House, anyone?

ISIS: http://www.sgnl05.com
Ipecac: http://www.ipecac.com

Sony, BMG Merge into One Grotesque Abomination
Hideous mutant creature begs for death after painful transformation

Yesterday, Sony Music and Bertelsmann Music Group (aka BMG) announced that they have merged to form the world's second largest recorded music company, coming in a close second to everyone's favorite media conglomerate, Universal Music Group. Sony BMG now controls more than 22% of the global music market, with sales totaling around $8 billion annually. The merger now leaves the music industry with just four major labels: Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, WEA, and EMI.

The European Union approved the deal yesterday, despite opposing a similar merger between Warner Music Group (WEA) and EMI four years ago. Apparently, the EU's main concerns with the merger this time around had to do with fixed pricing on CDs and market collusion (roughly translated: more expensive CDs and fewer music choices), but they ultimately decided they couldn't prove the likelihood of either. Which is sort of amusing when you consider how many bands were dropped from their contracts (nearly 300) when Universal merged with Polygram back in 1998-- doesn't take a fucking brain surgeon to assume a similar scenario here.

Around 2000 of the two companies' staffers are expected to lose their jobs (25% of their total workforce), according to the Hollywood Reporter. However, the companies are insisting that "core Artists and Repertoire business" will not be affected. We don't know if the "core" modifier has any significance, but the burning question on everyone's mind is obviously: What effect will this have on The Raveonettes?

The 50/50 merger was lauded by rich white men prominent in both companies, as Andy Lack, chairman and chief executive of Sony Music said: "We have recognized that the creation of Sony BMG is an appropriate and necessary response to current market conditions." There's no indication as to whether any of the bands on Sony BMG's staggering roster will be threatened, but a quick gander at the artist pages on the companies' respective websites should be enough to get the paranoid juices flowing. Then again, maybe it'll just give Merge Records a few new bands to sign.

Sony Music: http://www.sonymusic.com
BMG: http://www.bmg.com

Wire to Release Classic 1979 Concert on CD/DVD
Punks still suspicious of rumored "fourth chord"

Wire are no strangers to their own history; during their 1990s hiatus, they released two archival collections of unheard 70s material (1995's Behind the Curtain and 1996's weirder Turns and Strokes), remade/remodeled their iconic "12XU" as "Twelve Times You" in 2000, and even named their new label Pink Flag. But in general, if it's not being chopped up, reimagined or otherwise transformed, they've tended toward full-blown past-o-phobia. (They famously brought a Wire cover band on tour with them in the 80s, having no intention of playing songs from their old repertoire themselves.)

But hey, why bother with a 27-year run of uncompromising innovation if you don't throw the fans a bone every so often? In October, Pink Flag will release On the Box: 1979, a DVD/CD set documenting Wire's February '79 appearance on German television. The show was filmed halfway between the release of Chairs Missing (Pitchfork's #33 album of the '70s) and 154 (#85), and, like stone tablets bearing artsy-punksy commandments, those two albums supply most of the setlist's material. The DVD will contain the entire concert as originally broadcast on the show RockPalast, plus an unreleased interview taped at the same time. Fans with a deathgrip on their VHS decks face a mixed blessing: the package will also include a CD with freshly mastered audio of the concert, but for now there are no plans to sell said CD separately.

This concert has long been a favorite of fans and bootleggers for its energy and sound quality, not to mention its mere existence-- few other Wire shows from that era have survived in full, and none of them were filmed with a crowd of German longhairs looking on appreciatively. Re-transferred and remastered, the set may end human strife as we know it, with little children of all nations joining hands to scream "facial movements betray!" into the ears of their joyously sobbing parents. Here's a tracklist from the original broadcast, with the caveat that it hasn't been confirmed as matching the new DVD:

01 Another The Letter
02 The 15th
03 Practice Makes Perfect
04 Two People In A Room
05 I Feel Mysterious Today
06 Being Sucked In Again
07 Once Is Enough
08 Blessed State
09 A Question Of Degree
10 Single K.O.
11 Mercy
12 40 Versions
13 Former Airline
14 A Touching Display
15 French Film Blurred
16 Men 2nd
17 Map Ref. 41° N 93° W
18 Heartbeat
19 Pink Flag

If you can't wait until October, Posteverything.com will have copies for mailorder-- and we quote-- "VERY SOON". OKAY COOL BYE.

Wire: http://www.pinkflag.com
PostEverything: http://www.posteverything.com

Lightning Bolt Tour Europe, Work on New Album
TBAfest may cause problems upon arrival at venue

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to announce that now you, too, can be struck by Lightning! Yes, Lightning Bolt, creators of last year's brutally beautiful Wonderful Rainbow, are coming to a town near you (if you live in Europe), allowing you the opportunity to experience a shocker of a show that could prove to be even more maddeningly awesome than the real thing. The tour will be occurring in late September and all of October this year and looks to be forging through that most famous of continents at a truly grueling pace. What else would you expect of a group with a "singer" who barks through a contact mike taped inside a gimp mask?

Although the tour is still in the process of being booked, the band's fine bookers at Conspiracy were nice enough to offer us the schedule as it currently stands. Go go gadget dates:

09-27 Brussels, Belgium - AB-Club
09-28 Utrecht, Netherlands - Ekko
09-29 Groningen, Netherlands - Vera
09-30 Goteborg, Sweden - Nefertiti
10-01 Oslo, Norway - Cafe Mono
10-02 Stavanger, Norway - Cementen
10-03 Arhus, Denmark - TBA
10-04 Hamburg, German - Hafenlang
10-05 Berlin, Germany - Zentral
10-06 Munich, German - Kafe Kult
10-07 Vienna, Austria - B72
10-08 Milan, Italy - Leoncavallo
10-09 Rome, Italy - TBA
10-10 Bologna, Italy - TBA
10-11 Geneva, Switzerland - Usine
10-12 Bordeaux, France - Zoobizarre
10-13 Barcelona, Spain - Magic
10-14 Lyon, France - TBA
10-15 Paris, France - TBA
10-16 Netherlands, Amsterdam - Occii
10-17 Kontich, Belgium - Lintfabriek

In completely and totally unconfirmed news, rumors have been flying that Lightning Bolt's next album, titled Frenzy, is being pushed back from its originally scheduled release this summer to a 2005 date. The record was said to be constituted entirely of improvised material, but the word on the streets is that the band have discovered a newfound artistic devotion for pre-written material. If this info is accurate (and, folks, that's a big "if"), it could point to two releases from the band within the next 12 months. And they say lightning never strikes twice!

Besides writing and recording new material, the band has been keeping busy contributing songs to compilations such as New York based free-form radio station WFMU's Don't Shoot the Toy Piano Player and 5 Rue Christine's If the Twenty-First Century Didn't Exist, It Would Be Necessary to Invent It. They also recorded a coveted Peel Session with BBC radio personality John Peel at the historic Maida Vale studios in London along with Erase Errata on March 31st. Now if they'd just come do a Barger Session at chez moi.

Lightning Bolt: http://www.laserbeast.com
Load Records: http://www.loadrecords.com

Pretty Girls Make Graves Tour Europe
Band in chaos after realizing British Columbia is actually in Canada

Pretty Girls Make Graves are embarking on a tour of Europe this summer, bringing their treble-laden post-hardcore to pop-emo lovers across the pond. Their overseas adventure will include three playdates with Matador labelmates Seachange. A Fall tour stateside with precious Barsuk indie-poppers Death Cab for Cutie (as seen in Spin Magazine!) is planned as well, but dates are tentative and Matador ain't talkin'. Imagine: Ben and Andrea shimmying across the stage together, hand in hand, lyrics spewing forth. Sigh. Here's the dates, ladies:

07-31 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards
08-14 Salzburg, Austria - Frequency Festival
08-15 Munich, Germany - Atomic Cafe
08-16 Berlin, Germany - Knaack
08-17 Cologne, Germany - Gebaude 9
08-18 Hamburg, Germany - Molotov
08-20 Paris, France - La Guingette Pirate
08-22 Nottingham, England - Rescue Rooms
08-23 Glasgow, Scotland - King Tut's (w/Seachange)
08-24 Manchester, England - Roadhouse (w/Seachange)
08-25 London, England - Scala (w/Seachange)
08-27 Reading, England - Reading Festival
08-28 Leeds, England - Leeds Festival
08-30 Ieper, Belgium - Ieperfest
08-31 Brussells, Belgium - AB Club
09-01 Barcelona, Spain - TBA
09-02 Madrid, Spain - TBA

In other PGMG news, Matador will be reissuing 2002's Good Health (originally released on Lookout! Records), with their self-titled debut EP tacked on at the end as a bonus. And for you stubborn eccentrics still clinging to your wacky "LPs," you'll be pleased to hear that Matador also plans to make Good Health available on vinyl for the first time, like the kind souls that they are.

Additionally, Matador tells us that the band is set to head into the studio for a new record, due to come out early next year. No indication as to what it will sound like, so use your goddamn imaginations. Jesus.

Pretty Girls Make Graves: http://www.prettygirlsmakegraves.com
Matador: http://www.matadorrecords.com

Luna Prep New LP for October Release on Jetset
And we'll be sure not to review it like six months in advance, like we did with the Macha record

Yes, yes, y'all, the body rock, y'all: Luna are set to release their seventh long-player this fall. The album, entitled Rendezvous, will be released by Jetset Records on October 26th in The Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Four, making it the band's first new material in two years-- which is right about on par with their typical gestation period. In all fairness, frontman Dean Wareham has spent the last couple of years canoodling musically with bassist Britta Phillips (who you might remember as the high-pitched wheeze behind Jem & The Holograms), releasing an album and EP under the very descriptive Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips moniker.

Prior to all this monkey biz, if we may take you back in time for a moment, 2002 brought Luna fans not only the full-length album Romantica, but also the Close Cover Before Striking mini-LP, which was composed of outtakes/covers/instrumentals from the Romantica sessions, and, in the grand tradition of Luna EPs, pretty damn good. Also, this could be an optical illusion, but it looks like the (arguably) best track on that EP, "Astronaut", is making a reappearance on Rendezvous. See for yourself:

01 Malibu Love Nest
02 Cindy Tastes of Barbecue
03 Speedbumps
04 The Owl and the Pussycat
05 Astronaut
06 Broken Chair
07 Star-Spangled Man
08 Motel Bambi
09 Still at Home
10 Buffalo Boots
11 Rainbow Babe

Luna plan to follow the release of the album by launching a tour in the fall that will include-- but not be limited to-- the United States of America. No dates for the tour have thus far been confirmed, but we promise to let you know all about them as soon as we can. However, if you're a hardcore Luna nut and just can't wait until then without something to tide you over, you might want to check out Don't Let Our Youth Go to Waste, a two-disc DVD set documenting the history of Luna frontman Dean Wareham's previous band Galaxie 500, which contains "a compendium of all their music videos, a rare TV appearance, and an archive of over 40 songs performed live, including a couple of songs that were never recorded or released in any other form." Alternatively, you could just sit on your ass.

Luna: http://www.fuzzywuzzy.com
Jetset Records: http://www.jetsetrecords.com

The Decemberists Enter Studio with Chris Walla
"Hey, can you take us in more of a Red Shirt Brigade/Rocky Votolato direction? Hahahahaha."

Hold onto your monocles: Those lovably literate lads The Decemberists have announced plans to return to the studio to record the follow-up to last year's quite corking LP, Her Majesty The Decemberists. According to a post from frontman Colin Meloy on the band's official website, the Pacific Northwestern troubadours have written more than just a handful of new songs, and are gearing up to set them to tape with Death Cab multi-instrumentalist and all-around hotshot producer Chris Walla, with the intent of having the finished product in sweaty little record stores around the country come February or March of next year. With luck, its lyrics should be rife with archaic nautical imagery, as per the band's previous work, or else we music writers may be forced to, you know, get all "creative."

In the meantime, The Decemberists are more than happy to offer an appetizer to their forthcoming grande feaste, and are putting the finishing touches on it as we type. The foode in question is a CD single for the Her Majesty fan-fave "Billy Liar". In addition to the title track (obviously), the single will also include-- for whatever reason-- the album version of "Los Angeles, I'm Yours". Ahh, but the news does get better, as two additional tracks which were recorded during the Her Majesty sessions are set for inclusion: "Sunshine", which has never been released in any form, and "Everything I Try to Do, Nothing Seems to Turn Out Right", which, until the single's Kill Rock Stars-established release date of Septembre 13th, will only have been available on the label's recent double-disc compilation, Tracks and Fields.

Additionally, despite having already spent a good portion of 2004 on tour, The Decemberists are going to brave the harsh elements of a Weste Coaste summer for a cute little mini-tour in Septembre. Three of the dates will be part of the Kill Rock Stars Traveling Revue, which will see the group playing with Pitchfork faves Xiu Xiu and Deerhoof, as well as The Gossip and Mecca Normal. And did we mention their performance on Septembre 4th at Bend, Oregon's Les Schwab Amphitheater, at which they'll be opening for the goddamned Pixies? Well, we did now. The Decemberists are also planning a jaunt to the UK, likely in October, but as we don't have the Euro dates yet, feast your Yankee eyes on these delectable delights:

08-06 Portland, OR - Nocturnal
09-04 Bend, OR - Les Schwab Ampitheater (w/Pixies)
09-09 Seattle, WA - Neumos (w/Xiu Xiu, The Gossip, Deerhoof, The Punks)
09-10 Portland, OR - Roseland Theater (w/Xiu Xiu, The Gossip, Deerhoof)
09-11 Olympia, WA - Eagle's Hall (w/Deerhoof, Mecca Normal, Xiu Xiu)

And finally, as we have previously reported more than once, Meloy's ruminations on his wasted youth and its relationship to The Replacements' classic album Let It Be is being published by Continuum Press as part of their 33 1/3 series. It will be on bookshelves and inside man-purses everywhere August 16th.

The Decemberists: http://www.decemberists.com
Kill Rock Stars: http://www.killrockstars.com

Superchunk Ready New Live LP, Portastatic to Release Studio Album and EP
Mac McCaughan terror level raised to orange; Americans advised to duct-tape jeans

Were you at M10K? You know, Merge Records 10th Anniversary party in 1999, when Superchunk (as well as 14 other bands) played a live set at the Cats Cradle? If you said "masturbating to Home Improvement and choking down a tub of Blue Bunny ice cream," you're in luck: The 'Chunk have decided to release that live set as the third installment in their Clambakes series of official bootlegs-- and they're planning on having it out in time for Merge Records' 15th Anniversary Party, which will, naturally, mark the 5th anniversary of the actual live performance in question. That's a damn lot of anniversaries.

Titled When We Were 10: Live at the Cats Cradle 1999, the band's official website reveals the performance to have been "not only mohawk-wiltingly hot and sweaty, but also...one of our rockingest shows ever, if we may be so immodest." But hold up, there, pioneers: The first two Clambakes releases were limited edition dealios, and while the site isn't saying whether that's the case with this one, we must follow our frame-of-reference and assume that it is possible that this record may be of a similarly fleeting nature. Therefore, hardcore Chunklets may want to get themselves off to the label's 15th Anniversary Weekend celebration (which begins Thursday, July 29th), where the record will be selling like the hott merch it certainly is. Or, you can just travel your mouse on over to the Merge website, where the band will later be hawking it. Tracklist:

01 Unbelievable Things
02 Cursed Mirror
03 Skip Steps 1 & 3
04 Throwing Things
05 Hello Hawk
06 Smarter Hearts
07 Nu Bruises
08 The Question is How Fast
09 Watery Hands
10 Pink Clouds
11 Driveway to Driveway
12 Hyper Enough
13 Martinis on the Roof
14 Like a Fool
15 Slack Motherfucker
16 Cast Iron
17 Precision Auto

Now, as you may have noticed, Superchunk have been noticeably lacking in the new LP department since the release of 2001's Here's to Shutting Up, although they have been releasing material in the form of singles, live albums, compilations, and DVDs. Well, we're sorry to have to tell you this, but don't expect that trend to change anytime soon. However, the band's website does note that they recently recorded three new tracks at Duck Kee Studios, one of which ("Freaks in Charge") appears on Merge Records' newly released 15th Anniversary compilation, Old Enough to Know Better.

Pitchfork spoke with Superchunk frontman Mac McCaughan via email, who revealed that the other two tracks will either be released as a seven-inch, or that the band will "possibly put them towards a new album, but with some family expansion happening within the band (I've got a 1-year old daughter and Laura is expecting a baby this fall), our time table for albums and tours has become elongated over the last couple years." Basically, the band is enjoying their success and their families, and though a new Superchunk album may be a bit longer in coming as a result, you can't help but be happy for them. Unless you're an asshole.

Yet, take heart children! In the very same email, McCaughan revealed to us that LO! he has, under the banner of his solo side project Portastatic, "started writing songs and recording demos for [a new] album" which is "tentatively titled Every Generation Gets Bit in the Ass." Additionally, he's begun work on an EP to be released early next year by the Spanish label Houston Party. And yes, finally, Portastatic will be opening for Guided by Voices on several dates of their fall farewell tour-- not to mention some shows in Brazil in late October, where the good sex is.

Superchunk: http://www.superchunk.com
Merge Records: http://www.mergerecords.com

Múm Compose Score for Independent Film
Audience to realize after credits that music was playing

John Herman reports from the UK:
Iceland's favorite band of shipwrecked music people have crafted the soundtrack to a short film. No, we fooled you again, it's not Sigur Rós... although to tell you the truth, it's getting hard to tell them apart. Anyway, according to the film's official site, The Raftman's Razor tells the story of two teen boys who spend the summer trying to figure out the secret of their favorite oddball comic book hero, the Raftman. He drifts out to sea without food, water, any noticeable superpowers, or hope of survival. He simply shaves, thinks an odd philosophical thought, and stares at the ocean.

"Múm got involved with the project because I was a big fan," director Keith Bearden told Pitchfork via e-mail. "I thought their music was melodic, atmospheric and kind of dreamlike. The movie is structured like a memory, a little distant and warped, so I felt like they'd be perfect-- if I had my wish, they would do the music. So I sent them a script through their record company and manager. They didn't know me from Adam. I crossed my fingers, and expected nothing. A month or so later, I got an e-mail from Orvar saying they loved the story.  We had other people who were interested, but Múm were always number one on my list."

According to Bearden, working with the band was very interesting. He said they were "so busy, and so far away, we never actually worked with them. We sent them a series of rough cuts, and follow[ed] that up with e-mails. Often we wouldn't hear back from them. We went on faith. I used to get up at 5 a.m. US.A. time to call them in Berlin, and their phone would cut out because someone had stepped on it and it was held together with tape. But the music arrived right before they left to go on tour, and it worked great." The Raftman's Razor will premier the weekend of September 18th in NYC. There is also talk (perhaps scuttlebutt?) of packaging the film with the music as a DVD/CD package.

In other Múm news, the band is just wrapping up a North American tour in support of their recent LP Summer Make Good. Dates:

07-16 Orlando, FL - The Social
07-17 Miami, FL - I/O
07-19 Atlanta, GA - Echo Lounge
07-20 Charlotte, NC - Neighbourhood Theatre
07-21 Pittsburgh, PA - The Brew House
07-23 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
07-24 Washington, DC - Black Cat
07-25 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
07-26 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom

Mum: http://www.noisedfisk.com
Fat Cat: http://www.fat-cat.co.uk
The Raftman's Razor: http://www.raftmansrazor.com

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