Pitchfork

Photo by Joseph Mohan

Someone from The FADER made their way to a listening party for Kanye West's forthcoming 808s and Heartbreak at Los Angeles' Ace Gallery last night. To the surprise of no one, the whole affair was very lavish, and totally weird. Things went down in a stark room packed with 40 naked ladies-- wearing masks ostensibly made of fake lamb's wool, obviously-- who were backlit by glowing lights as the music went on. The evening's visual portion was designed by Italian artist of note Vanessa Beecroft, and Mos Def, will.i.am, and Rick Ross were all reportedly in attendance [via Idolator].

As for the album, 808s and Heartbreak apparently has Mr. West singing in his beloved Auto-Tune on virtually every track, and features a relatively pared-down selection of guests, with cameos from Young Jeezy (not singing, we imagine) and Lil Wayne (who knows anymore). As the title might suggest, it's a breakup album, with the exception of closer "Coldest Winter", which is about Kanye's late mother Donda West. The Fader report likens the sound of the disc to that of "ADULT. or Thom Yorke solo, with the dispassionate electro beats playing against the plainspoken ache of the vocals." Well all right then.

West then showed up as things were winding down to note that 808s and Heartbreak concerns "emotional nakedness," that the album is "about the freedom to do what you want to do," that Auto-Tune is "the most fun thing ever," and that he'll be issuing another new LP in June. Perhaps he will rap on that one.

808s and Heartbreak, whether you're ready or not, hits stores November 25 from Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam. Kanye, meanwhile, hits the road on Friday for the first of many fall tour stops.

And finally, one more intriguing Kanye tidbit: Lykke Li is set to join Kanye on his contribution to N.A.S.A.'s batshit forthcoming LP, according to a report on Swedish blog PSL confirmed by N.A.S.A.'s publicist. The track is reportedly still in the works.

Ever since she split with the pure pop Pipettes, Rose Elinor Dougall has been crafting music on her own that contrasts markedly with her former band's polka-dotted directness. How fitting, then, that Dougall's calling her very first single "Another Version of Pop Song".

Due on a limited edition 7" December 8 from Scarlett Records, the Lee "Muddy" Baker-produced tune is backed with a remix by Chris Rotter, and packaged in artwork designed by Rose herself. The tune will also appear on Rose's previously discussed full-length debut LP, which is currently scheduled for release next summer.

Rose has already brought her "Pop Song" to the public a few times, and will keep it up through a smattering of live engagements over the next several weeks.

Industrious Canuck crew Constantines have scheduled another round of North America tour dates, beginning tonight (October 15) in London, Ontario. Tim Fite and Obits (the new band featuring Rick Froberg from Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes) will open on various dates of the tour.

Constantines will also issue a new single from Kensington Heights on 7" vinyl soon. Scheduled for release "sometime this fall" via Arts & Crafts, the single will feature album track "Our Age" with a cover of Neil Young's "Fuckin' Up" on the B-side.

Photo by Kathryn Yu

Because, after all, putting out a record with your band, touring the hell out of the year, and remixing every damn song you hear isn't quite enough for some people, Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip-- yes, the one with those glasses-- has just snuck out a solo joint.

It's called Rubbed Out, it was created in "places, planes, hotel rooms, and at home" by Taylor, it includes a cover of Paul McCartney's "Coming Up", and it's available this very moment from Treader. A title like that for a release like this lends itself to lots of amusing gags; have at it, y'all.

In other news, perhaps inevitably, Chaka Khan's new BFFs have a bunch of dates the world over in the coming weeks.

Beastie Boys have expanded their previously reported "Get Out and Vote '08" tour by a factor of two. The number of shows in swing states is at six now, thanks to the addition of dates in Charlotte, Dayton, and Youngstown (Ohio). The new shows will also feature sets from Sheryl Crow, Santogold, Norah Jones, and Ben Harper.

Beastie Boys' political fascinations don't end with this tour. Today (October 15), Beastie Adam Yauch's film distribution company Oscilloscope Laboratories released Frontrunners, a documentary film about the student council presidential campaign at NYC's Stuyvesant High School, to theaters. The film's soundtrack includes selections from various Elephant 6 bands and the Album Leaf.

Frontrunners is just one of many movies Oscilloscope is releasing this fall, both to theaters and on DVD. On October 21, Yauch's basketball documentary, Gunnin' for That #1 Spot, comes to DVD. On Halloween, the company will release a true crime documentary called Dear Zachary to theaters. Finally, on December 10 comes Wendy and Lucy, a new movie from Old Joy director Kelly Reichardt starring Michelle Williams and featuring songwriter/Old Joy actor Will Oldham "as a face-tattooed gutter punk," according to a press release.

Yauch will appear at the Virgin Megastore in NYC's Union Square on October 21 to promote the release of the Gunnin' for That #1 Spot DVD.

Nü-gazers Asobi Seksu are ever closer to releasing their previously reported third album. The still-untitled Citrus follow-up is scheduled for a February release on Polyvinyl, and its first, Forkcasted single, "Me & Mary", will precede it in November.

"Me & Mary" will get a digital and 7" release via One Little Indian in Europe and via Polyvinyl in the U.S. on November 17 and 18, respectively. On its B-side will be non-album track "Breathe Into Glass".

To bide their time until those releases, Asobi Seksu will hit the road for dates in North America and Europe, beginning October 17 with a show at Bard College. Their time in Europe includes quite a few gigs with Ladytron.

You might wanna lug that big change jar down to the Coinstar pronto; now's the time to start planning all those cab rides you'll be taking, should you be among the many attending the 2008 CMJ Music Marathon and Film Festival in New York City October 21-25.

After several lineup updates, the CMJ folks have finally released the fest's computerized schedulematron via the fest website, letting you know just when and where you'll be zigging and zagging around the Big Apple next week. You can break down your time at CMJ by day, venue, and band; as for how you'll swing both Róisín Murphy at Mansion and Jay Reatard at Bowery Ballroom on October 24, well, you're on your own there.

Photo by Kirstie Shanley

Over the next couple days in Reykjavik, Iceland, music industry sorts will gather for You Are in Control, an international conference dealing with issues in music and media. One such presenter is Jane Dyball, head of business affairs for Warner/Chappell, the publishing company responsible for the work of that Radiohead band. Dyball's presentation concerns all kinds of data surrounding last October's release of In Rainbows, which, as you may have heard, completely changed the music business forever and stuff.

Well, not really; but according to a report on Dyball's figures from "digital music business information and strategy company" Music Ally-- which has been confirmed by Radiohead's publicist-- In Rainbows certainly worked out well for the band.

The writeup suggests that there have been three million purchases of In Rainbows thus far, from digital sales through the band's webstore in the run up to the album's release, the discboxes, the eventual physical release of the album on CD, and through other digital outlets. More specifically, the band moved around 100,000 of those (very nice!) discboxes, and the physical CD has sold 1.75 million units to date worldwide. Not bad for a thing you could get for free.

The report characterizes the In Rainbows experiment as a success, noting "for Warner it served to prove a point that by licensing directly (i.e. outside the collecting society network) and by offering a genuine one stop shop for licensing (i.e. combining all the digital rights into one offer from a single entity) the publisher was able to generate far more money for both themselves and the band than would have been possible under the traditional system."

Music Ally also notes that the last several Radiohead releases sold in the hundreds of thousands, not millions, so the buzz-building nature of the band's release plan certainly lit a fire under consumers. To that end, the report offers that "the fact that Radiohead had made more money before In Rainbows was physically released than they made in total on Hail to the Thief is surely evidence enough that the initiative was a tremendous success." Better album, too.

There were, of course, some hang-ups; the thing hit BitTorrent almost immediately after its release, and it's "clear that the BitTorrent downloads did indeed greatly outnumber those from Radiohead's official site." In fact, the band and their management kept a pretty keen eye on the digital sales of the disc through their website, "and were watching the average price daily with a view to potentially withdrawing it any moment should it drop too low."

They did, eventually, pull the free download option off the site, but the point seems to be this: what they did worked awfully damn well-- for Radiohead, for this particular album, at this particular moment. The article notes this as well: "In fact, if anything, the only trouble with the whole thing was that it was just arguably too successful. The whole 'pay what you like' experiment became the story rather than the music itself. And that's not so Radiohead. The band and Thom Yorke initially found themselves answering questions about why they chose to do what they did rather than being asked about the music itself."

So, back to the music, then. Thom's on that new Björk single, and the band recently joined the artist advocacy group Featured Artists Coalition. Having finally wrapped that Japanese tour, they've got no live dates on the way at the moment, opting instead to work up the successor to In Rainbows. New Radiohead album? AAAAAAAHHH!!!

Photos by Drew Katchen

So maybe Fucked Up's nutty 12-hour marathon show yesterday at Rogan on Manhattan's Lower East Side didn't feature guest appearances from everybody the band promised-- guess the Edge and Akon had better things to do?-- but the unique concert did rope in some notable names.

Les Savy Fav's Tim Harrington turned up to join the band on covers of hardcore classics by Agnostic Front and Underdog, while Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig surprised many of the gathered by turning in spirited covers of songs by the Ramones, the Descendents, and Blitz. Other guests (not pictured) included J Mascis, Moby, Vivian Girls, original Cro-Mags frontman John Joseph, and Matador's own Gerard Cosloy. Fucked up? Sure, but only in the best of ways.

Fucked Up's The Chemistry of Common Life LP is out now on Matador, and the band keeps right on rolling with a tour that continues tonight in NYC.

Tim Harrington




Ezra Koenig








Fucked Up

Photo by Ryan Muir

Keep the dreidel; gimme the indie rock. Jersey's own Yo La Tengo have announced their plans for their nearly-annual run of Hanukkah shows, which will go down each and every night from December 21-28 at Hoboken's venerable Maxwell's venue. The gigs will feature a set from the locals, plus some comedy and at least one more musical act.

In keeping with tradition, however, Yo La Tengo aren't planning to tell you just who's opening before you attend. As frontman Ira Kaplan writes in a post on the band's MySpace blog, that's "mostly because we won't know until the last minute, but-- we cannot tell a lie-- also because we're ornery that way." Money for the shows goes to charity, and as such, the band is soliciting suggestions for possible organizations to receive the donations.

Ira did eliminate one possibility as to the band's mystery guests: it will not be fellow Garden Staters the Feelies. Kaplan points this out by way of inviting folks out to Yo La Tengo's New Year's Eve show at nearby Montclair, New Jersey's Wellmont Theater, which will see the trio joined by those very Feelies and also Vivian Girls.

For now, however, YLT have a few dates in eastern Asian to attend to.