Godspeed You! Black Emperor Questioned as Suspected Terrorists, Continue World Tour
"What do you think this world's gonna look like in 2003?"

Renowned Canadian nontet Godspeed You! Black Emperor were held for questioning as possible terrorists at an Oklahoma gas station on Saturday, while driving from a concert they'd played at Fort Worth, TX's Ridglea Theatre to a show to be held the following Monday at the Blue Note in Columbia, MO. According to Tom Windish, a representative for the band at The Billions Corporation, the band pulled their two vans and white-panel truck, which they use for toting equipment, into an area gas station to refuel. Upon seeing the motley crew of nine musicians, the station's attendant passed a note to a female customer which said that the band were terrorists. It asked her to call the police.

Before even having a chance to leave the station, the group was reportedly approached by police. FBI agents arrived soon after. Some members of the band were held for questioning for roughly three hours before finally being released as innocents. "They get hassled by The Man regularly," said Bruce Adams, co-founder of the Chicago-based label Kranky. "Police pulling them over, anything you can imagine. It's just the feeling in the country right now."

"I just feel very lucky that we weren't Pakistani or Korean," Godspeed You! Black Emperor frontman Efrim Menuck told Pitchfork at the band's Chicago performance on Friday night. "They detained 1,000 people in California, no one knows what happened to them. We're just lucky we're nice white kids from Canada. That's what I feel lucky about." Menuck was reluctant to further discuss the incident, citing that they had already told the story at a performance earlier in the week. Constellation Records, which the band presently records for, had no comment.

Barring further interruptions from the Department of Homeland Security, Godspeed You! Black Emperor will be playing 11 more shows in the States in support of the latest full-length, Yanqui U.X.O., before embarking on a brief jaunt across Canada. In May, they'll launch an extensive European tour, during which they will spend two weeks playing no less than eleven shows in France, before moving on to Spain, Portugal and Greece. Godspeed is also planning a tour of the western United States for later this year, though details have yet to be announced. Dates:

03-24 Newport, KY - Southgate House (w/Black Dice)
03-25 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom (w/Black Dice)
03-26 Detroit, MI - St. Andrews Hall (w/Black Dice)
03-27 Toronto, ON - Palais Royale (w/Black Dice, Polmo Polpo)
03-28 Toronto, ON - Palais Royale (w/Black Dice, Lullabye Arkestra)
03-29 Hamilton, ON - Tivoli Theatre (w/Black Dice, Polmo Polpo)
03-31 Pittsburgh, PA - Carnegie Mellon University (w/Black Dice)
04-01 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom (w/Black Dice)
04-02 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom (w/Black Dice)
04-03 Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw (w/Jackie-O Motherfucker)
04-04 Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw (w/Jackie-O Motherfucker)
04-05 Wheaton, MA - Cole Chapel (w/Jackie-O Motherfucker)
04-06 Boston, MA - The Roxy (w/Jackie-O Motherfucker)
04-07 Portland, ME - Space (w/Jackie-O Motherfucker)
04-09 Halifax, NS - The Marquee (w/Jackie-O Motherfucker)
04-10 Moncton, NB - Oxygen (w/Jackie-O Motherfucker)
04-11 Fredericton, NB - Bailey Auditorium (w/Jackie-O Motherfucker)
04-12 Québec City, QB - L'eglise St-Roch (w/Jackie-O Motherfucker)
04-13 Montréal, QB - Rialto Theatre
04-14 Montréal, QB - Rialto Theatre
04-15 Montréal, QB - Rialto Theatre

05-08 Nancy, France - TBA
05-09 Reims, France - Centre des Congres
05-10 Tourcoing, France - Le Grande Mix
05-12 Paris, France - Cabaret Sauvage
05-13 Paris, France - Cabaret Sauvage
05-14 Nantes, France - Olympic
05-15 Clermont-Ferrand, France - Cooperative de Mai
05-16 Lyon, France - TBA
05-17 Angouleme, France - La Nef
05-18 Toulouse, France - TBA
05-20 Bordeaux, France - Theatre Barbey
05-21 Zaragoza, Spain - TBA
05-22 Barcelona, Spain - Apollo
05-23 València, Spain - Roxy
05-24 Sevilla, Spain - Theatre
05-25 Salamanca, Spain - Auditorium
05-26 Lisboa, Portugal - TBA
05-27 Lisboa, Portugal - TBA
05-28 Lisboa, Portugal - Teatro sa Luiz
05-29 Porto, Portugal - Teatro sa Bandeira
05-30 Vigo, Spain - TBA
05-31 Gijon, Spain - TBA
06-01 Bilbao, Spain - TBA
06-03 Athens, Greece - Gararin 205
06-04 Athens, Greece - Gararin 205
06-06 Thessaloniki, Greece - Mylos
06-07 Patras, Greece - TBA

Godspeed You! Black Emperor: http://www.godspeedyoublackemperor.com
Constellation: http://www.cstrecords.com

The Stooges Reunite for Coachella
"I'm only living to sing this song. Just the same, baby, I need some money, baby."

It took 28 years and a duet with Kate Pearson, but Iggy & The Stooges are reuniting this April at the Coachella festival. While that, in and of itself, counts as tres Pitchfork-worthy news, that ain't all there is! The remaining living members of the influential Detroit garage band-- Iggy Pop, guitarist Ron Asheton and drummer Scott Asheton-- will be joined onstage by thunderstick god (read: bassist) Mike Watt. (Insert your own piss bottle joke here, our reservoir has run dry.) Watt steps in for David Alexander, who died 28 years ago in 1975, which is like before me and your moms and shit had you. Hopefully the band will be able to drag Watt away from San Pedro long enough to get him to Coachella in Indio, CA for the performance Sunday, April 27th.

Love The Stooges, but can't get to Coachella? Take heart in the fact that the band has also rejoined forces in the studio. The band has recorded four new songs that Pop has set for inclusion on his upcoming 2003 release on Virgin Records. The album, of which little is known, also features contributions from Green Day, and Pop's "other" band The Trolls. As for an album we do know something about, Iggy Pop: From the Front Row Live! is set for a DVD-audio release on Silverline this upcoming April 22nd. The performance was recorded at the Ritz in New York City during Pop's 1986 Blah Blah Blah Tour. Not exactly Pop's career zenith ("Zombie Birdhouse", anyone?), but hey, if you're all about the dude, you're not complaining. Here's the tracklist:

01 I Wanna Be Your Dog
02 Shades
03 Fire Girl
04 Lust for Life
05 Hide Away
06 Baby, It Can't Fail
07 Sister Midnight
08 Some Weird Sin
09 I Got a Right
10 Down the Street
11 Five Feet One
12 Nightclubbing
13 Winner and Losers
14 China Girl
15 Blah Blah Blah
16 Real Wild Child
17 Gimme Danger

Iggy Pop: http://www.iggypop-virginrecords.com/
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival: http://www.goldenvoice.com/coachella/
Silver Line Records: http://www.silverlinerecords.com/

Bens Kweller, Folds, Lee Join Forces as The Bens
Mitchum wants royalties, you bastards

We here at Pitchfork deserve a little credit. And by "we," I refer, of course, to Rob "Ben" Mitchum, who namechecked several Ben's from the indie rock community in his review of Ben Kweller's 2002 release, Sha Sha. The first two Bens mentioned in the review are Ben Folds and Ben Lee. Coincidentally enough, it's those very two Bens who have joined forces with Kweller to create indie-rock-supergroup-of-the-week The Bens. We're assuming they chose this name because The KLF was already taken. Either that, or they read us for career advice. Royalties, gents? Yes?

So give the 'Fork a little love for pulling some Miss Cleo-type shit and foreseeing this collaboration over six months ago. Next bold prediction: Ben Harper and Ben Lee team up, record concept album about To Kill a Mockingbird. In the meantime, the trio has recorded a four-song EP, and are finishing a tour of Australia this week. Remaining dates, Aussies:

03-24 Melbourne, Australia - Palais Theatre
03-26 Adelaide, Australia - Thebarton Theatre
03-28 Perth, Australia - Burswood Theatre

After each member finishes up his respective solo tour, The Bens plan on heading to the studio to record a full-length album; a U.S. tour should follow soon thereafter. If and when touring takes place, expect to find Kweller drumming and Lee bassing. As Lee told Entertainment Weekly, "You see [a collaboration like this] a lot more in the hip-hop world. But once we started throwing ideas around, it felt like the right thing." Because even shaggy-haired indie boys ain't immune to the hot bling, yo. Also according to Lee, the project indulges the trio's love of Gary Numan-ish new wave and traditional indie rock. So... they're a Hot Hot Heat cover band?

.: Ben Lee http://www.ben-lee.com

Ben Folds: http://www.benfolds.org
Ben Kweller: http://www.benkweller.com

New Cardigans LP to Feature Guest Spots from Members of The Hives, Soundtrack of Our Lives
Bawlin' Julian Casablancas locked out of the studio

After a break of nearly five years, Swedish pop-rockers The Cardigans are finally returning with their fifth full-length album, Long Gone Before Daylight. The group promises their latest effort, which is seeing release today in England on Stockholm/Polydor Records, will turn down the electronics and turn up the rock since it was recorded with a "live in the studio" feel, and since they used less keyboards and more Swedish garage-rock guest stars. Guests musicians include The Hives' Howlin' Pelle Almqvist, Ebbot Lundberg from The Soundtrack of Our Lives, and Nick Royale from Hellacopters.

"We've decided to give it a shot, one more time and think we are not too old to rock 'n' roll," the group writes on its official website. "After a long pause allowing the band members to rest and work on solo projects [Nina Persson's A Camp, Magnus Sveningsson's Righteous Boy, and Peter Svensson's and Titiyo's Come Along], the Cardigans are back!" Okay, Okay, we got it. The band has been documenting the processing with a recording diary on their official site, but rather than wade through that drivel, suffice it to say that the album was recorded in studios all over the old country with producer Tore Johansson, and their friend Per Sunding acting as the overall producer for the finished product.

The Cardigans also have plans for a world tour in the Fall of 2003, though no dates have been announced as yet. The album's first single, "For What It's Worth", was released on March 10th in the UK. Tracklist:

01 Communication
02 You're the Storm
03 Good Horse
04 And Then You Kissed Me
05 Couldn't Care Less
06 Please Sister
07 For What It's Worth
08 Lead Me into the Night
09 Live & Learn
10 Feathers & Down
11 No Sleep

The Cardigans: http://cardigans.com

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