Oslo, Norway's Øyafestival may be one of the smartest summer bashes ever. Every festival I've attended in the great outdoors has the exact same ending: drunk people stumbling around in a sea of discarded plastic cups and other concert paraphernalia. Not so in Oslo. Øyafestival actually pays its patrons for the trash they pick up, as well as promotes a 100% eco-friendly mindset, extending even to the food served during the show. Sure, you can say your fest's earth-friendly, but how many festivals actually receive government certification backing that up? Øyafestival's got it. Here's the proverbial cherry on top: before the festival even starts, 30 different venues in the Oslo city center will put on shows featuring over 100 acts, and they're all free for festival ticket-holders. Lolla-what? Pitchfork who?

Oh, right. The lineup. It SUCKS! It's awful. That's what you sacrifice for such idyllic surroundings. I mean, who wants to see My Bloody Valentine anymore? We get it! You reunited! Bo-ring. Sonic Youth are always a total snooze; Girl Talk just has a secret boner for Britney Spears; N.E.R.D. are soooo 2004; and Sigur Rós are just totally out of place. At least there are four open-air stages, so you won't have to do all of your yawning in one place.

Here's the Big Lebowski:

My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, N.E.R.D., Sigur Rós, Clipse, Girl Talk, Jose Gonzales, Grinderman, Turbonegro (performing Apocalypse Dudes), Mayhem, Dirty Pretty Things, Health, Holy Fuck, Iron & Wine, Isis, Cut Copy, Mogwai, Lars Horntvedt w/KORK, Kid Sister & A-Trak, Notwist, Konono No 1, The Field, Jamie Lidell, Lightspeed Champion, Lykke Li, Diplo, Ida Maria, Yeasayer, The Mae Shi, The Sonics, Kaizers Orchestra, Mayhem, Buraka Som Sistema, The National, No Age, Okkervil River, The Sword, Sunn O))), Dark Meat, The Dodos, Fleet Foxes, Ane Brun, Silje Nes, Supersilent w/ Molvaer, Janelle Monáe, The Night Marchers, Dengue Fever, Booka Shade, The Presets, Kitsune Label Night, Boys Noize Label Night, Pilooski, Coliseum, The Urges, Strip Steve, Les Petit Pilous, A Place To Bury Strangers, Håkan Hellström, El Guincho, The Disciplines, Original Silence, Grand Archives, Whitest Boy Alive, Mental Overdrive, Don Juan Dracula, Nissenmondai, The Death Set, Claude VonStroke, Andrew Weatherall, LA Riots, and Best Fwends

Plus some acts from the Norwegian motherland: Raga Rockers / / Animal Alpha / Casiokids / diskJokke Band / We / Grand Island / El Cuero / Elephant9 / Gerilja / Roger Græsberg & The Anti-Music Bonanza / Thom Hell / Howl / Ingrid Olava / Kung Fu Girls / Lama / Master Piece Of Cake / Moddi / Pirate Love / Sigh & Explode / Tommy Tokyo & Starving For My Gravy / Truls & The Trees + just announced: Lukestar / Haust / Stella Mwangi / Rumble In Rhodos / Ingeborg Selnes / Bjørn Torske / Bonk / Bungalow Ranchstyle / Caddy / Le Corbeau / Like Rats From A Sinking Ship / Magnus Hænglse / Mattias Tellez / Now We've Got Members / Ost & Kjex / Rockettothesky / Shining / Nils Bech / Maribel / Nomber 5s / Hiawata! / Pow Pow

More info on Øyafestival here.

Thom Yorke’s Brother Andy to Release Solo Album

Andy Yorke, the younger brother of Thom Yorke, is set to release his debut solo album, Simple, on Aktiv, coinciding with a live appearance at London's 229. The album features contributions from Nigel Powell and Jason Moulster, both former Unbelievable Truth members (Andy Yorke's first band), who will also join Yorke onstage to perform the songs at the release show and throughout a European tour in the fall.

Unbelievable Truth's last album was released in 2000 on indie label Shifty Disco (after being dropped by Virgin), but the band has since reunited a couple times for one-off shows, as recently as last year. So why is the album filed under Andy Yorke and not Unbelievable Truth? More importantly, is the band better than On a Friday?

Simple comes out July 14 in the UK. Check out some Andy Yorke songs at Last.fm -- I know you're dying to.

Simple tracklisting:

Beatles May Be Featured in Future Rock Band or Guitar Hero Game; I’m Not That Stoked, But I Know A Lot of Other People Probably Are

According to The Financial Times, The Beatles' representatives recently met with Activision (Guitar Hero) and MTV Games (Rock Band) about the possibility of creating a Beatles-themed game.

Yipee...

See, I'm a young buck, a 19-year-old asshole who will never appreciate The Beatles as much as you do. I moderately enjoyed Across the Universe [Editor's note: Scout says the songs on the Across the Universe soundtrack are better than the original versions -- what an idiot.], and I most certainly do not have any Beatles in my music collection [Editor's note: When I asked Scout if he liked Sgt. Pepper's, he said "I like them in fajitas."] But for those of you who enjoy both music-simulation video games and Magical Mystery Tour, this may very well be exciting news to you.

So when should you expect to play some fab four on clunky plastic instruments? We'll let you know once more info is revealed.

Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan Hints at Gish Box Set, Gish Tour, Desire to Cash-In on Gish

Okay, picture this, reader: So, you're Billy Corgan (I know, gross, right?), and you’re down in the dumps. For starters, your manager has just vetoed your awesome idea of changing the spelling of the word “Billy” to include three #1s (Yeah, like “B#1#1#1Y.” Pretty rad, pretty rad!). But more importantly, you’ve recently realized that your "band" (uh, such as it is) -- in addition to having become a hideous self-portrait long distorted from its supernatural absorption of 17+ years of baby-genius fits, forced moans, bad trench coats, unwarranted forays into electronic music, and unapologetically barbarous feasting upon the fresh egos of fellow bandmates -- is saddled with a 1991-era band name in a 2008 world!

Every day you wake up and monologue to yourself (and to the biographer that you've hired to follow you around all day): "god DAMN ‘Smashing Pumpkins’ is a lame band name! If only I could somehow, I don’t know, turn back the hands of time... if only, instead of finally moving on with my life and my music, I could actually transport the whole world back to a time when the name ‘Smashing Pumpkins’ seemed cool and relevant!"

Well, good news, Billy. Now you can.

The solution? Why, you'd simply pull a Liz Phair and immediately make plans to re-release your band's 1991 debut album Gish as a box set later on in 2008. And just to one-up Phair, you'd probably just release it complete with plenty of pre-Gish material from the late-’80s, not only to give the public a sense that 1991 is actually pretty "futuristic," but also so that fans can finally hear the awkward, growing stages of your brain-child and finally understand just how large and imposing of a shadow you actually cast over Alternative/Rock! Ah, you can actually feel your hair growing back as I speak...

But how to spread the word about your re-ushering-in of the 1990s? Well, I suppose the easiest way would be to just get on your website and post a little enigmatic non-post. You know, just enough to get the online publications writing cheeky stories about it in the days and weeks that follow. Something kinda like this:

Does anyone else smell that in the air? Oh yeah, that's Gish!

SP.com has another small byte of information for you regarding your favorite first Smashing Pumpkins album: plans are currently underway that will lead to the eventual release of a pre-Gish/Gish box set!

What is to be included on here, no one knows for sure but it should be noted that its release is expected to coincide with the Gish tour sometime in 2008...

Expect more information as it becomes available.

And boom! Just like that, you're back in business, Billy. Ahh, safe and warm back in the early ’90s where violence toward the plant kingdom was as hip and popular as... well, as some other band besides yours is today! It's a wonder what a little sickeningly desperate nostalgia appropriation can do, isn't it? And look, you even get to tour on this shit, too! It's gonna feel great when you're paying like 83¢ a gallon for that sweet, sweet 1990s gas!

Oh, yeah, "but what about D'arcy and James," you ask? Hey. Don't worry about them, dear reader. After all, you're supposed to be Billy Corgan, remember?

Gish List:

Warmer Milks Go Down that Dusty Road Again

Starting tonight, Warmer Milks will be hitting the road in support of their new cassette EP Slave to Suicide and, of course, their new full-length album Soft Walks, an homage to folk traditions of yore. Both were recently released on Animal Disguise, which is also home to acts like Sic Alps and Eloe Omoe.

Warmer Milks will be carrying a bunch of limited tour merch with them, so all you eBay power sellers better catch them if they come to your town.

Stereolab Do What Is Expected of Them, Tour on New LP

This August, Stereolab are releasing a new LP (TMT News) that will hopefully follow in the footsteps of its nine-million brethren and make me feel like I am riding my bed very slowly through both outer space and France.

Replace “my bed” with “a bus, I assume” and “outer space and France” with “the United States and Canada,” and I’ve just created a neat segue from my moronic approximation of Stereloab’s sound to their impending North American tour. Depending on the speed of my bed in your imagination, you might also want to switch up “very slowly.” Your call, though.

The latter half of the tour will see Stereolab playing with Monade, perhaps better known as Stereolab frontwoman Laetitia Sadler’s other band, which also sounds sort of like Stereolab. Stereolab, Stereolab, Stereolab.

* Monade

# Thanks J. Ketterfool!

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