While Wisconson-based, snarky, smarmy, snarly folk-punk-alterna-blues troupe Violent Femmes impatiently waits their turn in the numbingly long line that currently sprawls outward from the “MID-’80s–MID-’90s BANDS WAITING TO REUNITE, TOUR, PLAY ALBUMS IN THEIR ENTIRETY AT FESTS, AND TALK/NOT TALK ABOUT RECORDING A NEW ALBUM TOGETHER” counter at the DMV or wherever, singer Gordon Gano has chosen to pass the interim time by releasing a new album... for the first time in some seven years (the Femmes must be getting close to the front of that line by now).

Due September 15 on the niche-market-elder-statesmen-loving Yep Roc label, the new album Under the Sun is credited to Gordon Gano & The Ryans and is apparently “a collaboration” between Gano and Bogmen leaders/scorers of tepid films (Fever Pitch, anyone?) Brendan & Billy Ryan. Take it away, glowing press release:

“The music that inspired his collaboration with the Ryan brothers spawned during fertile sessions in the café’s, bars and laundromats of New York City’s West Village [...] Brendan and Billy Ryan bring musicality and new color to Gordon’s visceral lyricism and signature adenoidal drawl. A filled-out next chapter to the music of the Femmes, Under the Sun is the music of a mature band, a band made of men not boys, men who have supplanted wonder for angst, controlled passion for reckless...” blah blah blah, bloop, bleep-bleep blah. You get the idea: it’s the best record ever. It’s for old people. Let’s move on to the details.

The whole shebang was largely recorded at the Carriage House in Stamford, CT and features Gordon “2G” Gano on vocals/guitar/violin. As for the Ryan brothers, Brendan handles keyboards/accordion/horn duties, while Billy tackles guitar/backing vocals. Other must assuredly competent-as-fuck but appositely low-profile contributors include Frank Black... whoops, I mean, Frank Ferrer (sorry to pique your interest like that) of Guns N’ Roses and Psychedelic Furs on drums, and Lonnie Hillyer of Maggie’s Dream and Bernie Worrell on bass. Some real unit-movers, huh? Meanwhile, Phil Palazzolo (The New Pornographers, Neko Case) engineered and mixed the project. There is no tracklist as of yet, but rest assured, if we get our hands on one... uh, and if it’s a slow news day, we’ll go ahead and post one for you.

I imagine The Clientele as some sort of mystery band — the sort of music you hear drifting toward you on a lazy summer breeze in that just slightly magical time as the sun sets, before the moon rises. Dusk, many would say — although, clearly The Clientele would call it “the gloaming.” It’s hard for me to imagine a few normal-looking dudes and one lady sitting around hashing out what kind of drum beat to play when and who owes how much on the rent money for their practice space. So thank God there are Merge Records press releases to make that vital connection between sordid everyday reality and mystical fan hypothesis for me.

Check this out! Sure, the band formed in suburban Hampshire, England several years ago, and practiced in a thatched cottage. Sure, the singer is named Alasdair (MacLean’s the surname), and rumor has it that early on in their career, the group nailed down their stance on Surrealist poetry (pro), versus their collective stance on blues-style solos and aggro shouting (con). I hear what you’re saying. This band sounds like it’s populated by the lovable pre-war British creatures of The Wind in the Willows. But trust me — they do things that aren’t 100% bucolic and Albion sometimes.

Things like... releasing albums! The Clientele have three full-lengths under their belt so far, as well as their debut collection of early 7-inch singles entitled Suburban Light. They also contributed a track to the Sandra Bullock/Keanu Reeves time travel weepie The Lake House. And now they have a new album due October 6 on Merge, Bonfires on the Heath, which sounds like pretty much the most delightful foray into Wuthering Heights territory this side of Kate Bush.

The band is performing later this summer at Merge’s anniversary showcase in New York.

07.19.09 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg

Tracklisting:

1. I Wonder Who We Are
2. Bonfires On The Heath
3. Harvest Time
4. Never Anyone But You
5. Jennifer & Julia
6. Sketch
7. Tonight
8. Share the Night
9. I Know I’ll See Your Face
10. Never Saw Them Before
11. Graven Wood
12. Walking in the Park

Forget the Night Ahead, The Twilight Sad’s sophomore effort, will be out via the Fat Cat label on September 22. The band’s frontman, James Graham, describes the record as “definitely rougher around the edges than the first one. It’s not a flat, technically polished album. It’s very rough but melodic at the same time. We didn’t want to make an album that sounded too produced. This album is more raw than the first one, but again it’s still developed.”

On listening to “Reflection of the Television” (download available here) and “I Became a Prostitute,” two tracks from the new LP, Graham’s comments would seem to hold true. Personally I can’t honestly say I’m excited by this change in direction for the Glaswegians, especially since I thought Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters was brilliant, but we’ll see when the album finally comes out.

Tracklisting for Forget the Night Ahead is as follows:

1. Reflection of the Television
2. I Became a Prostitute
3. Seven Years of Letters
4. Made to Disappear
5. Scissors
6. The Room
7. That Birthday Present
8. Floorboards Under the Bed
9. Interrupted
10. The Neighbours Can’t Breathe
11. At the Burnside

The band will also be appearing at the Monolith Festival and Musicfest Northwest in September:

09.13.09 – Morrison, CO - Monolith Festival
09.17.09 – Portland, OR - Musicfest Northwest

In 1980, Factory Records released The Durutti Column’s The Return of the Durutti Column album in the now infamous Guy Debord-inspired sandpaper record sleeve. Although that is an awesome and inspired situationist packaging notion — protecting the record from and destroying other records around it — there will be no problems with sleeve chafing when Rhino Records releases Factory Records: Communications 1978-92 on July 7 because it is a digital compilation. We should clarify; July 7 is the issue date for "other" DSPs, but the collection is already available now, exclusively on the mighty iTunes. While Factory Records: Communications 1978-92 has already seen the light of day as a concrete, handable, audio format (um, a CD box set), this is the first time many of these tracks have been available in digital download form, if that is any sort of consumer lure.

Anyway, with a song list as good as is printed below, we won’t begrudge Rhino for taking the opportunity to give the people what they might not think they want, but what they most certainly need. Alongside the big-time names (Joy Division, New Order, James, Happy Mondays) are equally crucial works by a number of acts whose post-rock cachet grows every year (Crispy Ambulance, Section 25, Stockholm Monsters, and the aforementioned Durutti Column). The set comes with a digital booklet with liner notes by former NME journalist Paul Morley and a track-by-track analysis by Factory Records historian James Nice.

Use Hearing Protection:

1. Joy Division - "Digital"
2. Cabaret Voltaire - "Baeder Meinhof"
3. Joy Division - "Glass" (2007 Remastered)*
4. OMD - "Electricity" (Remastered Original 7" version)*
5. Joy Division - "She’s Lost Control"
6. The Distractions - "Time Goes By Slowly"*
7. Joy Division - "Transmission"
8. The Durutti Column - "Sketch For Summer"*
9. X-O-Dus - "English Black Boys"*
10. Joy Division - "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
11. Section 25 - "Girls Don’t Count"
12. Crawling Chaos - "Sex Machine"
13. Joy Division - "As You Said"*
14. The Names - "Night Shift"
15. New Order - "Ceremony" (Original Version)
16. Minny Pops - "Dolphin’s Spurt"
17. John Dowie - "It’s Hard To Be An Egg"*
18. Crispy Ambulance - "Deaf"
19. Section 25 - "Dirty Disco"
20. New Order - "Everything’s Gone Green"*
21. Tunnelvision - "Watching The Hydroplanes"
22. The Durutti Column - "Messidor"*
23. Royal Family And The Poor - "Art On 45"
24. Swamp Children - "Taste What’s Rhythm"
25. New Order - "Temptation"
26. 52nd Street - "Cool As Ice"
27. New Order - "Blue Monday"
28. Cabaret Voltaire - "Yashar" (John Robie Remix)*
29. Quando Quango - "Love Tempo"
30. The Wake - "Talk About The Past"
31. New Order - "Confusion"
32. Marcel King - "Reach For Love"
33. Section 25 - "Looking from A Hilltop (Restructure)"
34. Stockholm Monsters - "All At Once"
35. Life - "Tell Me"*
36. The Durutti Column - "A Little Mercy"*
37. James - "Hymn From A Village"
38. Kalima - "Trickery"
39. Quando Quango - "Genius"*
40. Happy Mondays - "Freaky Dancin"*
41. Miaow - "When It All Comes Down"
42. The Railway Children - "Brighter"
43. New Order - "1963" (12" Version)*
44. The Durutti Column - "Otis"
45. Biting Tongues - "Compressor"
46. New Order - "True Faith"
47. Happy Mondays - "24 Hour Party People"
48. New Order - "Fine Time"
49. Happy Mondays - "W.F.L. (We Think About The Future)"
50. Revenge - "Seven Reasons"
51. Happy Mondays - "Hallelujah" (Club Mix)
52. Electronic - "Getting Away With It"
53. Happy Mondays - "Step On"
54. Northside - "Shall We Take A Trip"
55. New Order - "World In Motion"
56. Happy Mondays - "Kinky Afro"
57. The Durutti Column - "Home"
58. Electronic - "Get The Message"
59. Happy Mondays - "Loose Fit"
60. Northside - "Take 5"
61. Cath Carroll - "Moves Like You" (Remix)
62. The Other Two - "Tasty Fish"*
63. Happy Mondays - "Sunshine and Love" (Lionrock Remix)*

* previously unreleased digitally

With a name like Girls, you’d think the group would come up with a really cool album title: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun; Big Girls Don’t Cry; California Girls; Girls, Girls Girls; Fat-Bottomed Girls; and so on. There are so many ways they could’ve played off that, but instead San Fran’s newest hippie punks have decided to title their new record Album. Not The White Album, not The Black Album, and neither The Green Album nor the The Blue Album — it’s just flat-out Album.

Well, Matador took the bait and will release Girls’ debut album, Album, which will be co-released by True Panther Sounds (who also issued the band’s debut 7-inch, "Lust For Life"). The record is said to be a "perfect San Francisco summer record, evoking a narcotic, sunny afternoon in Dolores Park, yet promising the eventual hangover of summer’s departure."

Album will hit stores September 22. I’m expecting an awful album cover.

Tracklist:

1. Lust For Life
2. Laura
3. Ghostmouth
4. Goddamn
5. Big Bad Mean Motherfucker
6. Hellhole Ratrace
7. Headache
8. Summertime
9. Lauren Marie
10. Morning Light
11. Curls
12. Darling

The members of Islands, and especially newly returned drummer Jamie Thompson, have always been staunch opponents of the common cold. Everyone knows that. So, accordingly, the members have concocted a new musical statement that attempts to lessen the effects of the pesky virus.

On September 22, just when cold season is beginning to kick into high gear, ANTI- will release the band’s third album, Vapours, which the band describes as “a record that flits back and forth between moody synthesizers and drum-machine-heavy beats, while remaining firmly rooted in the classic pop sensibilities and multitude of melodic hooks that Islands is known for.”

The new album/cold suppressant is produced by band maestro Nick Thorburn and Chris Coady, who has worked with The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Blonde Redhead, TV on The Radio, and countless other bands that you, the reader, may or may not enjoy. When I conducted a fake interview with Thorburn, he had this to say about the new album: “When you press play on the CD (or vinyl, or mp3, or Mini-Disc) an enchanting wave of effervescent relief will flow outwards from your stereo. All you need to do is breathe in the healing vapors and the cold symptoms will dissolve immediately. Also, the music will be radical.”

Mr. Thorburn also promised to go to the home of every fan and quietly rub their chest until they peacefully fall asleep, just like Mom used to do.

 Musician Rule #547: If you have a cool nickname, you need to release a solo album to show it off. This is precisely what Pavement co-founder Spiral Stairs (a.k.a. Scott Kannberg) has decided to do. Although he has released albums under the name Preston School of Industry, Kannberg is striking out on his own this time around with his first solo album, The Real Feel, due October 20 from Matador.

 Musician Rule #723: You must recruit your famous musician buddies to help out on your debut solo album. In Kannberg’s case, he enlisted some old friends from Preston School of Industry, members of The Posies (Jon Auer mixed the album), guitarist Ian Moore, and Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew.

 Musician Rule #288: Package the vinyl edition of your debut with goodies and make sure you tour to support it. The Real Feel vinyl will feature a different tracklisting and a limited-edition 7-inch. Kannberg is also planning a North American tour this fall.

 Musician Rule #45: Preview a song to drum up attention for your debut. You can listen to a track from The Real Feel entitled “Maltese Terrier” right here.

 Musician Rule #72: Ridiculous album artwork always helps. No seriously, it does.

Devendra Banhart, that one dude, has finished his sixth full-length release. Recorded in a house in Bolinas, CA, the album features Banhart alongside Noah Georgeson (guitar, vocals), Luckey Remington (bass, vocals), and Rodrigo Amarante (guitar, vocals) — all of them weighing in on the song arrangements. The album is currently untitled, which is why I’ve decided to call it Wake Up, Friend: I’m Airing Out the Wild Side (For You).

The album is expected sometime in the fall, but since he left the awesome Young God after 2004’s Niño Rojo and has since departed with XL Recordings after two releases (Cripple Crow and Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon), "that one dude" is now label-less. We’ll keep you updated on a firm release date and label. As for the title? We’ll just go with mine.

Eternal cult favorites Big Star are attempting to make one last splash for widespread listener appeal by giving you everything they ever recorded (except for the official albums!) in one nice, neat little package. The band announced plans to release a four-disc box set containing a motherload of record store employee-approved demos, live material, alternate takes, and other rarities.

The band have been cult favorites almost from the get-go, persevering through listener apathy, horrible distribution, and multiple personnel changes. However, despite the challenges, Big Star have cemented a place in history as a “Great Band That No One Listens To,” inspiring a wealth of musicians throughout the years to aspire to the same thing. Indeed, the sad truth is that, when the collection, Keep an Eye on the Sky, drops on September 15 via Rhino, it will most likely go unnoticed by the majority of music listeners. Though clearly a damn shame, most Big Star fans have come to grips with the fact that their questions of “Have you ever listened to Big Star?” are generally answered with a confused look and a “...huh? who?”

The box set will consist of 98 tracks spanning the years 1968-’75 and will include songs from pre-Big Star bands Rock City and Icewater, as well as solo work from band founders Alex Chilton and Chris Bell. Also included in the deal will be plenty of unreleased work from the sessions for all three Big Star albums. “Just when you’re thinking everything has been released, apparently it hasn’t," Big Star drummer Jody Stephens told Billboard, brilliantly.

The fourth disc of the set serves as an audio document of the band playing live in January 1973; it contains a collection of tracks from three nights when Big Star opened for soul legends Archie Bell and the Drells. Stephens recalls the experience: “Not exactly our crowd. After our performances, you can hear one person clap. Not a lot of energy coming back from the audience. The good thing about that particular recording is that there were mics set up in the room. It wasn’t a board feed, where those can be kind of dry."

So, what’s the lesson here? Should you spend your time with a band that most people don’t even know about? Yes. To make a long story short, I recommend checking out the box set or, perhaps more appropriately, checking out Big Star. Break the cycle and help yourself. Discover “Rock’s Lost Band.” You won’t regret it.

Either he’s stinging from Triumph the Insult Comic Dog’s PWN at Bonnaroo or he’s just not satisfied with the amount of panties he receives in the mail, but either way, TV On the Radio frontman Kyp Malone has decided to strike out on his own with solo venture Rain Machine. Malone has hit the stage under this moniker, but the lucky ducks he chose for the first record are none other than ANTI-, home of Tom Waits, Nick Cave, and Neko Case. Apparently, Malone’s been waiting for the right moment, saying, "I’ve been writing and recording songs alone since I moved to NYC in 2000, at first alone because I didn’t know anyone, then through the years by choice because of a particular freedom that going it alone afforded... I didn’t like how ‘Kyp Malone’ looked on mock ups of t-shirts and fliers, thus Rain Machine."

The debut album will be produced by Ian Brennan (Lucinda Williams, Jonathan Richman) and drop sometime this fall. Rain Machine promises the density and luxury of TVOTR and then some, as Malone describes the sound "a nearly full spectrum of frequencies audible to the human ear — a reflection of a variety of emotions and situations real and imagined, some rhythm and some rhyme." Okay... you got me. I didn’t like this pair much anyway. Too much lace. Where are the stamps?