Cee-Lo & Danger Mouse Ready Gnarls Barkley Debut

St. Elsewhere, is the name and May 2 is the date. Write this down. It will come to us via Downtown Records/Atlantic, and will be preceded by a proper release of "Crazy" on April 10. While the album is not sequenced yet, other songs confirmed to have made the St. Elsewhere cut include "Go-Go Gadget Gospel", "Feng Shui", and "Necromancing". We also heard a Gnarls Barkley cover of the Violent Femmes' "Gone Daddy Gone" that's been floating around the internet, but the less said about that the better.

Just two days prior to St. Elsewhere's release, on April 30, Gnarls Barkley will play its inaugural live performance alongside Tool, Depeche Mode, Massive Attack, Damien 'Jr. Gong' Marley, Franz Ferdinand, and many, many more, at Coachella. As of this exact moment, no additional tour dates are ready to announce. But stay tuned: if they're anything like Sir Charles, they won't be able to stay out of the spotlight for too long.

Cee-Lo is also working on a project with superproducer Jazze Pha entitled Happy Hour. So far, only one song, "Happy Hour", has been released by the duo, but a full album is in the works. Ciara, the Pussycat Dolls, Mannie Fresh, Aaron Hall, Keith Sweat, and Nate Dogg.

href="http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/tracks/05-10-17.shtml#song2">Gnarls Barkley: "Crazy"
href=http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/tracks/06-01-19.shtml#song2>Gnarls Barkley: "Untitled 1"
href="http://pitchforkmedia.com/news/05-04/13.shtml#danger">Danger Mouse, Cee-Lo Collaborating
* Gnarls Barkley: http://www.gnarlsbarkley.com/
* Cee-Lo: http://www.ceelo.net/
* Danger Mouse: http://www.djdangermouse.com/

Belle & Sebastian and New Pornographers Launch Tour

Will Carl Newman and Stuart Murdoch duet on a cover of "Stayin' Alive"? Find out here:

02-25 Toronto, Ontario - The Docks
02-26 Montreal, Quebec - Metropolis
02-27 Boston, MA - Avalon
02-28 Boston, MA - Avalon
03-02 New York, NY - Nokia Theatre
03-03 New York, NY - Nokia Theatre
03-04 Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory
03-05 Washington DC - 9:30 Club
03-06 Washington DC - 9:30 Club
03-08 Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium
03-09 Louisville, KY - Brown Theatre
03-10 Chicago, IL - Riviera
03-11 Milwaukee, WI - Riverside Theatre
03-12 Minneapolis, MN - Orpheum Theatre
03-14 Dallas, TX - Granada Theatre
03-15 Austin, TX - Stubb's (Matador SXSW showcase) *
03-18 Los Angeles, CA - Wiltern
03-19 Los Angeles, CA - Wiltern
03-21 San Francisco, CA - Concourse at the SF Design Center
03-23 Portland, OR - Roseland
03-25 Seattle, WA - Paramount Theatre

* with Mogwai, Brightblack Morning Light, Jennifer O'Connor

The New Pornos have a few shows coming up sans Belle, including a gig at the Ottawa Bluesfest in July. Because even Canadians get the blues.

Use it:

02-24 Toronto, Ontario - Horseshoe Tavern
03-24 Bellingham, WA - The Nightlight *
04-07 Vancouver, British Columbia - UBC Thunderbird Stadium #
07-16 Ottawa, Ontario - Ottawa Bluesfest

* with Heavenly States
# with the Saltines, Corb Lund, the Weakerthans

Belle and Sebastian recently announced a slew of European dates for May. Their non-Porno tour itinerary looks like this:

03-24 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom
05-06 Paris, France - Bataclan
05-07 Ludwigshafen, Germany - Feirenbendahaus
05-08 Amsterdam, Holland - Paradiso
05-09 Brussels, Belgium - AB
05-11 Cologne, Germany - E-Werk
05-12 Hamburg, Germany - Grosse Freiheit
05-13 Malmo, Sweden - KB
05-14 Oslo, Norway - Rockefeller
05-15 Trondheim, Norway - Samfundet
05-17 Stockholm, Sweden - Berns
05-18 Gothenburg, Sweden - Tradgarn
05-19 Copenhagen, Denmark - Vega
05-21 Berlin, Germany - Columbiahalle
05-22 Mainz, Germany - Kuz
05-23 Munich, Germany - Tonhalle
05-24 Milan, Italy - Rolling Stone
05-25 Modena, Italy - Vox
06-21 London, England - Hyde Park (Wireless Festival) *

* with the Strokes, Super Furry Animals

Belle and Sebastian: http://www.belleandsebastian.com/
New Pornographers: http://www.thenewpornographers.com/
Matador: http://matadorrecords.com/

Man Man Demon-ize America

The 'stache-happy crew is touring in support of their stellar sophomore effort, Six Demon Bag, released this week on Ace Fu. Along the way, they'll tear it up not once, not twice, but four times at the Austin festival-- even twice in one day! (Four times in Austin and twice in North Carolina, but no Chicago love?! C'mon, dudes!)

Wearetourdates:

02-24 Brooklyn, NY - Northsix *
02-25 Annandale-on-Hudson, NY - SMOG Club at Bard College
02-26 New Haven, CT - Bar Nightclub
02-27 Easthampton, MA - Flywheel
02-28 Portland, ME - SPACE Gallery
03-01 Providence, RI - AS220
03-02 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge #
03-09 Columbus, OH - Cafe Bourbon
03-10 Lexington, KY - The Dame
03-11 Richmond, IN - Earlham College
03-12 Springfield, MO - Randy Bacon Gallery
03-13 Little Rock, AR - Whitewater Tavern
03-14 Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon
03-15 Houston, TX - Walter's on Washington $
03-16 Austin, TX - Velvet Spade (Solid PR/Ace Fu Records Showcase) %
03-17 Austin, TX - Victory Tavern (Vice SXSW Party)
03-18 Austin, TX - SXSW - Hole in the Wall (day show) ^
03-18 Austin, TX - SXSW - Red's Scott Inn (night show)
03-20 Atlanta, GA - The Earl %
03-21 Greensboro, NC - UNCG Faculty Center
03-22 Durham, NC - Duke Coffeehouse

* with VAZ, Bloodfeathers
# with Awesome Color
$ with Celebration, Six Parts Seven
% with Parts and Labor, Velella Velella, Annuals, Tunng, n0 things
^ with Detholz!, Volcano!

* Pitchfork Track Review: Man Man: "Van Helsing Boombox"

Man Man: http://www.wearemanman.com
Ace Fu: http://www.acefu.com

Howe Gelb Readies Yet Another Album

He's also part of the SW tradition of producing psychedelic rock-punk-folk weirdos (other proud members include Wayne Coyne, Gibby Haynes, and Curt Kirkwood). Is it the cacti?

But, sometimes you have to expand your horizons, and Gelb is no different. He's gone North. Way North. On March 21, Thrill Jockey releases his latest project, 'Sno Angel Like You, which was recorded with the help of Voices of Praise, a Canadian gospel choir. Recorded in Ottawa by Gelb and Dave Draves and inspired by the image of a snow angel (hey, stranger musical muses have been documented), the album isn't quite gospel music.

According to Gelb, the record "was a grand experiment to see if we could mesh the sounds of the muck I make with the dizzying effect of the glorious sound [the choir] makes." Additional contributors include folk singer Susan Odle and Jeremy Gara, now the drummer for the Arcade Fire. Together, the group recorded seven new songs, three Giant Sand numbers, and three Rainer Ptacek (Gelb's first Giant Sand bandmate) songs. Tracklist:

01 Get to Leave
02 Paradise Here Abouts
03 But I Did Not
04 Hey Man
05 The Farm
06 That's How Things Get Done
07 Love Knows (No Borders)
08 The Voice Within
09 Nail in the Sky
10 Howlin' a Gale
11 Robes of Bible Black
12 Worried Spirits
13 Neon Filler
14 Chore of Enchantment

When Gelb hits the road, he will do so in support of two albums. The first tour, promoting 2005's Arizona Amp and Alternator, will be a more traditional rock affair. For the second tour, Gelb will be accompanied by Voices of Praise in New York and various UK and European dates occurring earlier in May. Hymn to this:

02-25 Brooklyn, NY - Southpaw
02-27 Montreal, Quebec - La Sala Rossa
03-02 Ottawa, Ontario - Babylon
03-04 Kitchener, Ontario - The Boathouse
03-05 Toronto, Ontario - Horseshoe Tavern
05-27 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom *
05-28 Chicago, IL - Old Town School of Folk Music

* with Voices of Praise gospel choir

Howe Gelb/Giant Sand: http://www.giantsand.com/
Thrill Jockey: http://www.thrilljockey.com

Damien Jurado Tours With Low, Votolato, Clem Snide

In the meantime, Jurado kicks off a short Absence-fueled West Coast tour with Low and Rocky Votolato this weekend. Dates for Eastsidaz will come in the spring, when he'll hit the road with Clem Snide.

A simple hello:

02-25 Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge *
02-27 Salt Lake City, UT - In the Venue *
03-01 Tucson, AZ - Club Congress *
03-02 San Diego, CA - The Casbah *
03-03 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour *
03-04 San Francisco, CA - The Independent *
03-16 Austin, TX - Redrum (SXSW) $
03-20 Dallas, TX - The Cavern #
03-21 Norman, OK - The Opolis #
03-22 Springfield, MO - Outland Ballroom #
03-26 Chicago, IL - Schubas #
03-27 Madison, WI - High Noon Saloon #
03-28 St. Paul, MN - Turf Club #
03-29 Ames, IA - Maintenance Shop #
03-31 Denver, CO - The Marquis Theater #
04-01 Provo, UT - The Velour #
05-02 Atlanta, GA - The Earl %
05-03 Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506 %
05-04 Arlington, VA - Iota %
05-05 Philadelphia, PA - World Café Live %
05-06 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge %
05-07 Cambridge, MA - Middle East %
05-09 Pittsburgh, PA - Club Café %

* with Low
$ with the Divorce, Charlemagne, Some by Sea, Stars of Track and Field, The Catch
# with Rocky Votolato
% with Clem Snide

In related news, Jurado has just made available a tour-only split 7" with Dolorean (the band, not Doc Brown's car). The record features Jurado covering Dolorean's "Traded for Fire" and Dolorean rocking Jurado's "hit" "Ghost of David". Only 600 copies were pressed and you can snag them via Jurado's website. That one right down there:

Damien Jurado: http://www.damienjurado.com/
Secretly Canadian: http://secretlycanadian.com/

Devendra, Bright Eyes, Stipe Rock Against War

Activist mom Cindy Sheehan will speak at the show, setting the stage for her 15-date April speaking tour with authors yet to be announced. Jaeane Garofalo's Air America Radio show "The Majority Report" will broadcast live from the concert and will run interviews with its artists.

Fischerspooner's Casey Spooner told Billboard, "We have been at war for three years. One desperately feels the need for someone to speak some sort of truth, either poetic or factual."

Whether or not performing electroclash songs while dressed up as extras from the musical Cats will bring about such truth remains to be seen.

Iraq Veterans Against the War: http://www.ivaw.net/
Veterans for Peace: http://www.veteransforpeace.org/

Herbert, Rjd2, ?uestlove Cover Radiohead

Get past the corny-as-shit title and you'll hear all your favourite pre-Thief Radiohead cuts getting the downtempo and neo-soul treatment, courtesy of folks like Matthew Herbert, Rjd2, Bilal, the Bad Plus, Sia, Sa-Ra, Cinematic Orchestra, ?uestlove and James Poyser (as The Randy Watson Experience), and Mark Ronson and the singer from Phantom Planet (that's Alex Greenwald for the non-"O.C." set).

The tourists:

01 Shawn Lee: "No Surprises"
02 The Randy Watson Experience with Donn: "Morning Bell"
03 Sa-Ra Creative Partners: "In Limbo"
04 Pete Kuzma with Bilal: "High and Dry"
05 Mark Ronson with Alex Greenwald: "Just"
06 Rjd2: "Airbag"
07 Matthew Herbert with Mara Carlyle: "Nice Dream"
08 Lo-Freq: "Blow Out"
09 Meshell Ndegeocello & Chris Dave: "The National Anthem"
10 The Bad Plus: "Karma Police"
11 Sia: "Paranoid Android"
12 Osunlade with Erro: "Everything In Its Right Place"
13 Wajeed featuring Monica Blaire: "Knives Out"
14 Cinematic Orchestra: "Exit Music (For A Film)"

Wax fetishist? Fourteen Radiohead covers just too much for you? Try Exit Music in smaller, vinyl-ized doses. Rapster plans to issue four turntable-ready EPs featuring selections from the comp, as well as an exclusive bonus: Telefon Tel Aviv doing "Street Spirit (Fade Out)". Due out March 13, April 3, April 24, and May 15, respectively, here's the skinny:

EP 1:

A1 Mark Ronson with Alex Greenwald: "Just"
A2 Sa-Ra Creative Partners: "In Limbo"
B1 The Randy Watson Experience with Donn: "Morning Bell"

EP 2:

A1 Wajeed featuring Monica Blaire: "Knives Out'
A2 Pete Kuzma with Bilal: "High and Dry"
B1 Meshell Ndegeocello & Chris Dave: "The National Anthem"

EP 3:

A1 Matthew Herbert with Mara Carlyle: "Nice Dream"
A2 Rjd2: "Airbag"
B1 Shawn Lee: "No Surprises"

EP 4:

A1 Osunlade with Erro: "Everything In Its Right Place"
A2 Cinematic Orchestra: "Exit Music (For A Film)"
B1 Telefon Tel Aviv featuring Lindsey Anderson: "Street Spirit (Fade Out)"

Speaking of Radiohead, the internet is presently a-buzz with news that the lads have resurrected the OK Computer-era track "Nude" for inclusion on their forthcoming studio record. Also known as "Big Ideas (Don't Get Any)", the recorded version will reportedly feature a string quartet. Wrote Thom on the always-quotable Radiohead blog:

"jonny is hastily writing out scores for a string quartet who are comign tommoro. right now we are working on nude, it sounds beautiful, as far as i can tell. i hope we dont get i'll. there is a lot of sickness about. especially for the children."

You hear that, kids? Beware the contractions!

Rapster Records: http://www.rapsterrecords.com/
Radiohead: http://www.radiohead.com/

Best Buy to Indies: Drop Dead

How can Best Buy get away with that? Isn't that illegal or something? Well, no. Welcome to the wonderful world of co-ops. Co-op campaigns are deals in which labels exchange money or extra CDs ("cleans") for prominent placement in stores, bulk initial orders, sale pricing, and advertising presence. Co-ops exist everywhere, from megastores to Mom and Pops alike. In other words, whenever you see some Next Big Thing featured at the end of an aisle, nine times out of ten, the label paid for that artist to be there.

This isn't intrinsically a bad thing. However, when co-op money is used to lower prices as substantially as Best Buy has, it's independent record shops that suffer the blow: Given the recent plunge in album sales over the past five years, these stores are already struggling. And while it may seem dramatic to say that something like this could make these kinds of stores extinct, the danger is very real. For many, it will be the final straw that puts them out of business.

It's no surprise, then, that Best Buy's "Artists Outside the Mainstream" program has inspired a lightning-quick backlash from small stores and non-participating labels. Tongues are lashing at Saki Store, the blog home of indie distro Carrot Top Distribution and Carrot Top Records (Handsome Family, Antietem, the Coctails, Archer Prewitt). On January 24, CTD, Ltd. President Patrick Monaghan posted a screed lambasting Best Buy and the labels involved in the program. His post inspired a heated discussion that spread across the web, with label executives and store owners joining the fray.

"I don't really see any way you can blame the customer," Monaghan told Pitchfork. "Hell, what decision is a consumer supposed to make, assuming they actually want to pay for their music, when faced with a $7.99 vs. $13.99 CD? I also don't think you can blame Best Buy. You can't shame the sociopath, so what good does it do to try? In my humble opinion, the blame falls on the labels and bands who are participating in this co-op advertisement deal."

Monaghan continued, "It's a question of extreme pricing and sale. If there is no indie retail to help build new bands, we are left with MySpace, the unfiltered Internet, and ad/TV/movie placement to introduce people to new bands. Retail would be left to the Best Buy/Starbucks axis. That's not too appealing of a scenario to me."

Mac McCaughan, Superchunk/Portastatic frontman and co-owner of Merge Records, responded point-blank: "Obviously, Merge's job is to get our artists' records in as many stores as possible, and make them available to as many people as possible who want to buy them," he commented on Saki Store. "Someone who discovers an artist because the 'popular' record is on sale at Best Buy will then hopefully be driven to find out more about the band. [Then,] they'll have to get the back catalogue at a store that sells mostly music."

According to the labels involved in "Artists Outside the Mainstream", Best Buy never mentioned the $7.99 price plan when discussing the program. The promotional paperwork specified only print circular placement, special positioning, and sale pricing, but no disclosure of how low that sale pricing might be.

In this sense, the labels, prevented from price-point negotiations under 2002 price fixing legislations, were truly blindsided. As Secretly Canadian's Nick Blandford wrote to the label's retailers and distros, "To say that [the price] was a shock to us is an understatement. Before approving the program, we specifically confirmed with ADA, Secretly Canadian's exclusive distributor, that Best Buy would not receive any sort of discount."

Matador president Gerard Cosloy told Pitchfork, "I don't deny for a second that using hot indie titles as a loss leader is a total sucker punch to mom and pop record stores. But without diminishing the significance of such an event, cool record stores should have something else up their sleeves besides using Best Buy as the bogeyman. We've used Best Buy for years, but the vast majority of our time and energy has been devoted to selling records through independent retailers. To date, we've yet to do any instores with Best Buy or any exclusive titles with a chain store or non-music retailer, and we continue to come up with specific releases [like the 99¢ Cat Power seven-inch and Interpol remixes] that you can't purchase anywhere other than indie retail."

So how do artists feel about the situation? "Artists have never complained to us that their record was in a chain store or on sale at a chain store," McCaughan told Pitchfork. "However, artists have often complained if they couldn't find their records in a chain store."

McCaughan was blunter on the Saki Store blog, arguing that "if [Merge] announced to our bands, especially bands that sell a lot of records, that their CDs would only be available at the cool stores and no longer at any chains, the roster of artists that Merge fans love would evaporate. If you don't think that's true, then you're living on a different planet."

"In any event," Cosloy told Pitchfork, "it should be stressed that [Matador] is pretty circumspect about which titles we choose to put into a co-op program at the chain level. Unless an artist's sales history, touring, press or airplay justifies such a thing, you won't see us trying to place 30,000 CDs on the shelves of your favorite appliance retailer."

Although the $7.99 promotion has ended, and most of the "Artists Outside the Mainstream" titles are now selling for a sensible $12.99, the principle remains: Don't take your local independent record stores for granted.

* Saki Store Blog: http://sakistore.blogspot.com/

Lady Sovereign, Vitalic, Lidell, Juan Maclean to Play M3

Described as "part festival, part trade show, and part industry confab", the M3 (Miami Music Multimedia) Summit is the hottest thing the city has seen since a stubbly, houseboat-dwelling cop named Crockett met a big-city sophisticate named Tubbs. Or at least since the last MTV awards.

M3 runs from March 22-26 and aims to meld DJ culture, the technology industry, fashion, art, and whatever else is hip, marketable, and related to electronic music into one sweaty South Beach stew. Not coincidentally, it takes place at the same time as the Winter Music Conference, the dance music colossus that takes over Miami from March 24-18.

If the alluring mix of spandex, rollerblades, and A&R guys isn't enough of a draw by itself, the lineup of artists appearing at the summit is pretty damn impressive. Coldcut will play their first American show since 2000, and Gilles Peterson, Peter Kruder, She Wants Revenge, Lady Sovereign, Bugz in the Attic, Jamie Lidell, Hot Chip, Booka Shade, DJ Hell, Richie Hawtin, The Juan Maclean, Vitalic, Mark Farina, sthe National Trust, DJ Marlboro, Kudu, Sa-Ra, and many more will also appear.

In addition to the music, M3 will also host panels, speeches, workshops, and poolside networking parties. All this fun in the sun is enough to make any snowbound citizen feel a little less than enamored with everyone from the Magic City. Everyone but "The Golden Girls".

M3 Summit: http://www.m3summit.com/

Terrestrial Tones to Release Third Album

But fear not, noiseniks: your heroes have not completely abandoned you for hippie-dom just yet. As Terrestrial Tones, Dave Portner (Avey Tare of Animal Collective) and Eric Copeland (of Black Dice) have come to bring an end to all this smooth palatability.

The duo's third LP, Dead Drunk, is anything but safe. Due out on AC's Paw Tracks label, with the CD version coming March 7, and vinyl following on March 21, the album was recorded while the pair roomed together in Paris last summer. They employed the help of "African food stands, forgotten European pop records, discarded American analog pedals and junk, old Soviet electronics," according to the group's PR. Apparently, flea markets were involved.

Get wasted:

01 Car Fumes
02 The Sailor
03 Gargoyle
04 Plowman
05 Magic Trick
06 Future Train
07 This Weekend Wow

Black Dice: http://www.blackdice.net/
Paw Tracks: http://www.paw-tracks.com/

Maritime Ready Second LP, Lose Bassist

Maritime released their debut album, Glass Floor, on DeSoto in 2004. It wasn't so hot. They started working on their second LP almost immediately. And now, a year and a half later, their labor bears fruit. On April 18, Flameshovel will release We, The Vehicles. (Word on the street is that it's not bad at all. In fact, it's good.)

The band sez: "Maritime remains solidly tethered to pop perfection, but has taken space to let that pop cycle through all its permutations." It will be up to Us, The Listeners to decide if they really let it cycle through all its permutations, or if they just gave up after cycling through, like, 8 out of 10 of them.

They, The Songs:

01 Calm
02 Tearing Up the Oxygen
03 People the Vehicles
04 Parade of Punk Rock T-shirts
05 We Don't Think, We Know
06 No One Will Remember
07 Young Alumni
08 Don't Say You Don't
09 German Engineering
10 Twins
11 Protein and Poison
12 Before You Were Born
13 Call Me Home

The vinyl version of the LP will come out on Foreign Leisure on March 7. Look for a copy on eBay by the time the CD is out, because they're only printing 1,000 of these babies, on blue vinyl no less. Take that, iTunes!

When Maritime head out on tour in support of Vehicles, don't look for Axelson on stage. Earlier this month, Axelson posted on the Maritime website that he is no longer sailing the high seas with von Bohlen and Didier. "After a little more than two years of playing in the band, I decided it was time for me to call it a day on touring," he wrote. "I've been on the road a ton in the past 7 years of my life and wanted to stay closer to home. It's been nothing but fun playing with Maritime and we're all on good terms, I just wanted them to be able to tour as much as they felt necessary without me holding them back."

Justin Klug (Decibully) will take over on bass duties, and along with touring guitarist Dan Hinz, Maritime will hit the road in March.

Cheer up, emo kid:

03-13 Springfield, MO - Outland Ballroom *
03-14 Tulsa, OK - 1974 &@
03-15 Austin, TX - Lava Lounge Patio #%@ (Flameshovel SXSW showcase)
03-17 Austin, TX - Lucky Lounge (Riot Act Media SXSW party) @#$
03-18 Houston, TX - Walter's on Washington ^!
03-19 Little Rock, AR - Vino's ^
03-24 Madison, WI - Club 770 +
03-25 Milwaukee, WI - Cactus Club
03-27 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle =

* with Playing With Matches, Allister, Tight Phantomz, Short Histories of Powerful
& with Appleseed Cast, Criteria
@ with Russian Circles % Lying in States, Low Skies
# with Bound Stems
$ with Metal Hearts, Crystal Skulls, Headphones
^ with Aloha
! with the Velvet Teen
+ with Rainer Maria, Head of Femur, Mendoza Line, Mike Park, the City on Film
= with the Race, Matthew Kerstein

Maritime: http://www.maritimesongs.com
Flameshovel: http://www.flameshovel.com/

Exclusive: Tyondai Braxton Signs to Warp

Wait, what? It's not Toni? It's Tyondai Braxton? Oh man, I was getting all pumped for her to work with Boards of Canada next. Oh well.

Now about this Tyondai character. He's signed to Warp Records! Actually, it isn't all that surprising, considering the fact that Braxton's math-rock supergroup Battles is also signed to the veteran electronic music label. The band, which also includes Ian Williams (Don Caballero, Storm and Stress), John Stanier (Helmet, Tomahawk), and Dave Konopka (Lynx), is in the process of completing their Warp full-length debut. The label recently reissued two of their EPs as the single-disc compilation EP C/B EP.

On his own, Braxton is a composer working at the intersection of free jazz, avant-garde rock, and experimental electronic music. He has collaborated with Prefuse 73, released a split with Brooklyn noize-poppers Parts & Labor, and put out several solo discs. He also makes funny guitar faces when he plays.

Braxton's solo Warp debut is slated for late 2006, after the release of the Battles LP. In the meantime, Braxton is preparing for a special multimedia performance in New York City in March. It sounds pretty trippy. Here's what Braxton had to say about it:

"It's called 'memoryrememberme' and it's a solo show I'm doing on top of the outrageously-crafted wooden platform the Danish architect [Uffe Surland Van Tams] made for me with this totally amazing light show that makes it look like I'm haunting the room. The performance space is called 'Swing Space' and is an abandoned bank transformed by Pratt Architecture students into this unbelievable space."

Whoa. Dude.

Braxton has one other solo show scheduled, taking place this Friday, February 24, in Sweden. So his itinerary looks a little somethin' like this:

02-24 Malmo, Sweden - Inkonst *
03-10 New York, NY - 15 Nassau St.
03-11 New York, NY - 15 Nassau St.

* with Midaircondo

Battles recently announced a European tour that will take them across the continent in April. They'll play several shows with fellow sound adventurers Black Dice and Wolf Eyes.

Love is a battlefield:

04-12 Reims, France - Centre Culturel du Crous
04-13 Brussels, Belgium, - Ancienne Belgique Box (Domino Festival) *#
04-14 Rotterdam, Holland - Motel Mozaïque Festival *
04-15 Aarhus, Denmark - Fabriken
04-16 Hamburg, Germany - Hafen Klang *
04-17 Berlin, Germany - Volksbuhne Theatre *$
04-18 Cologne, Germany - Gebaude 9 *$
04-19 Luxembourg, Luxembourg - Kulturfabrik *
04-20 Fribourg, Switzerland - FriSon
04-21 Paris, France - Nouveau Casino (Warp Show) %
04-22 Poitier, France - Comfort Modern
04-23 Nantes, France - La BaraKaSon
04-25 London, England - Dingwalls
04-26 Leeds, England - Brudenell Social Club
04-27 Newcastle, England - Global Café at University of Newcastle @
04-30 Bourges, France - Printemps Festival
04-05 Krems, Austria - Danube Festival $

* with Black Dice
# with Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid
$ with Wolf Eyes
% with Luke Vibert, Chris Clark & Radioactiveman
@ with Schneider TM

Battles: http://www.bttls.com/
Tyondai Braxton: http://tyondai.jmzrecords.com/
Warp Records: http://www.warprecords.com/

Do you have a news tip for us? Anything crazy happen at a show you attended recently? Do you have inside info on the bands we cover? Is one of your favorite artists (that's not somebody you know personally) releasing a new record you'd like to see covered? You will remain completely anonymous, unless we are given your express permission to reveal your identity. (Please note that publicists, managers, booking agents, and other artist representatives are generally exempt from this rule, but will also be granted anonymity if requested.)