Polvo Sign To Merge... Again

For the second time in 19 years, Chapel Hill's noisy math rock legends Polvo have signed to Merge Records. The band originally released two albums with Merge back in the early ’90s, but its subsequent albums were released via Touch and Go. And now, after spending a good part of March and May recording in Carrboro and at Echo Mountain in Asheville, NC (with Brian Paulson), the band has emerged with In Prism, the group's first album in 12 years, set for release on September 8.

Polvo, who reformed in 2008 at the Explosions in the Sky-curated ATP, are scheduled to play a couple fests this summer, including the Seaport Music Festival with Obits and XX Merge in July with a round of legendary Merge artists including The Magnetic Fields, Superchunk, Lambchop, Spoon, and plenty more. Polvo will also be touring in the fall to promote In Prism, so keep an eye out for a TMT update.

In Prism tracklisting:

1. Right the Relation
2. D.C. Trails
3. Beggar’s Bowl
4. City Birds
5. Lucia
6. Dream residue/Work
7. The Pedlar
8. A Thousand Waves
07-22-09 - 07/26/09 - XX Merge*
07-31-09 - Seaport Music Festival#

# Obits

* Lou Barlow, The Broken West, Richard Buckner, The Clientele, Destroyer, Erectus Monotone, The Essex Green, Guv'ner, Imperial Teen, The Ladybug Transistor, Lambchop, The Magnetic Fields, The Music Tapes, Oakley Hall, Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band, Pipe, Portastatic, Radar Bros., The Rosebuds, Spent, Spoon, Matt Suggs, Superchunk, Tenement Halls, Telekinesis, Versus, M. Ward , She & Him, American Music Club, Wye Oak

RIP: Sam Butera, Saxophonist

From New Orleans' Times-Picayune (via The Daily Swarm):

Sam Butera, the hard-driving, hard-swinging New Orleans saxophonist who was Louis Prima’s longtime musical partner, died Wednesday in Las Vegas following a long illness. He was 81.

Mr. Butera joined Prima’s band in 1954. With singer Keely Smith, they built one of the most popular acts in the golden age of Las Vegas. Mr. Butera cooked up the arrangements that gave the likes of “Just a Gigolo,” “I Ain’t Got Nobody” and “Jump Jive An’ Wail” maximum impact.

“Louis’s ace-in-the-hole was Sam Butera,” said Gia Prima, the fifth of Louis’s five wives and the singer in his band from 1962 to 1975. “That animal attraction that they had, with Sam’s honking sax and Louis’s jumping and jiving—without Sam, Louis couldn’t have pulled it off.”

- Sam Butera Wikipedia entry

I Have It! Yo La Tengo to Release Some More Popular Songs

Yo La Tengo, the 25-year-old Alternative Rock Band, are set to release their 12th full-length, Popular Songs, the follow-up to 2006's I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass (TMT Review) (not counting Fuckbook) on September 8. The album was recorded earlier this year in Hoboken and Nashville by members Georgia Hubley, Ira Kaplan, and James McNew with producer Roger Mountenot. Described by Matador as "the bravest musical statement to date in a career full of ‘em," Popular Songs is purported to be stylistically varied and "at the height of their creative powers." But, to paraphrase Thom Yorke, how can we be sure?

To find out, we turn in fact to Thom Yorke, front man of another Alternative Rock Band, who got a sneak preview of the new Yo La Tengo album earlier this week.

So, what's the deal? Is the new Yo La Tengo album all it's cracked up to be?

Yes. It's fantastic. It's their bravest musical statement to date in a career full of 'em.

Oh, really?

Yes, I truly believe Yo La Tengo are at the height of their creative powers.

Well... boy, I guess that's all I need!

Wait, don't you want to ask about the new Radiohead album? We've been tinkering in the studio lately.

Thom, this is about Yo La Tengo, not you. Newsflash: not everything revolves around you.

Newsflash: I hate your guts!

There you have it, folks. Check out "Periodically Double or Triple," the first MP3 from Popular Songs. Tracklisting and a Buy Early Get Now campaign will be announced shortly via Matador's Matablog. Also expect a fall tour, but in the meantime:
06.04.09 - Paris, FR - L'Alhambra
06.07.09 - Hamburg, DE - Imperial Theatre
06.08.09 - Berlin, DE - Babylon (seated)
06.11.09 - Amsterdam, - Bimhuis
06.12.09 - Brussels, BE - Botanic, Orangerie
06.15.09 - London, UK - Queen Elizabeth Hall
07.13.09 - Brooklyn, NY - Keyspan Park/Coney Is

07.17.09 - Chicago, IL - Pitchfork Festival

Black Dice’s Eric Copeland Discovers Alien in a Garbage Dump After Following Its Paw Tracks for Weeks, Collaborates on 13 Songs

Eric "The Cute One" Copeland, founding member of Black Dice, is going solo AGAIN with Alien in a Garbage Dump August 18 via Paw Tracks. But you, being the fancy-schmancy Black Dice fan, probably already knew this. Shit, you probably own all their albums, all their EPs, all their 7-inches, all their tour-only CD singles, and all side-project releases, not to mention Copeland's 2007 solo debut Hermaphrodite (TMT Review). You also know a friend who's cousin ran into Black Dice at The Pink Pussycat (on West 4th Street in Greenwich Village) jerking off to nudie magz. Hell, you're probably such a big fan of Copeland (Tell-All TMT Interview) that you've already heard the entirety of Alien in a Garbage Dump before we even caught wind of the album!!

Big deal: seven of the songs were released under the same title as a vinyl EP on Paw Tracks last year, and the other six were released on a vinyl EP titled Al Anon via Catsup Plate. So yeah, you're not so cool after all, MR. FUCKING HOT SHOT.

Alien in a Garbage Dump tracklist:

1. King Tits Womb
2. Alien in a Garbage Dump
3. Corn on the Cob
4. Osni
5. Scones and Bowls
6. Reptilian Space Beings Shapeshifting Bloodsucking Vampires
7. Everybody's Libido
8. Auto Dimmer
9. Al Anon
10. Narc
11. Lunar Bad Land
12. Wolfman
13. Muchas Gracias

Meanwhile, Andrew Black Dice Clay are currently on tour:
06.02.09 - Boulder, CO - Boulder Theatre *
06.03.09 - Norman, OK - Opolis
06.04.09 - Dallas, TX - House of Blues *
06.05.09 - Austin, TX - Stubbs Waller Creek *
06.06.09 - Oxford, MS - The Library *
06.07.09 - Birmingham, AL - Bottletree
06.08.09 - St. Petersburg, FL - State Theatre *
06.09.09 - Fort Lauderdale, FL - Culture Room *
06.10.09 - Orlando, FL - Club Firestone *
06.11.09 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl #
06.12.09 - Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506 #
06.13.09 - Baltimore, MD - Sonar #
06.14.09 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom #
06.15.09 - Boston, MA - Outside The Lines Studio/Gallery #
06.16.09 - Montreal, QC - Il Motore #
06.17.09 - Toronto, ON - The Gladstone Hotel #
06.18.09 - Detroit, MI - MOFA + #
06.19.09 - Pittsburgh, PA - Garfield Artworks #
06.20.09 - Philadelphia, PA - Kung Fu Necktie #
09.12.09 - Monticello, NY - All Tomorrow's Parties

* Animal Collective

+ Wolf Eyes

# Awesome Color

RIP: Koko Taylor, Chicago Blues Artist

From the Chicago Tribune:

Chicago blues icon Koko Taylor died Wednesday afternoon at age 80, after surgery May 19 to correct a gastrointestinal bleed.

“She was recovering slowly but surely, and then she had a real bad night,” said Marc Lipkin, a spokesman for Taylor’s longtime Chicago-based label, Alligator Records. Taylor was recovering from her surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital when she died.

She had performed only weeks earlier at the Blues Music Awards ceremony in Memphis, Tenn., where she received her record 29th Blues Music Award.

- Koko Taylor official website
- Koko Taylor MySpace
- Koko Taylor Wikipedia entry

The Handsome Family Leave Their Family Behind, Go on Tour

Hot off the release of Honey Moon, their brand new record on Carrot Top, The Handsome Family are hitting the West Coast and aren't looking back. Not even if they pass the world's largest farmer's market! The down-home Albuquerque duo of Brett and Rennie Sparks are now on their 20th year of marriage and their 8th studio record as a band. They recently played a number of sold-out shows on the East Coast, so now it's time to see if the West Side will show them the same love. You don't want them thinking the East Coast loves them more than the West Coast now, do ya West Coasters? They wouldn't want that. As for the Midwest, well, no one cares about the Midwest.

Here are the dates, starting off in Ireland:
06.03.09 - Cork, Ireland Crane Lane Club
06.04.09 - Dublin, Ireland - Whelan’s
06.05.09 - Belfast, Ireland - The Errigle Inn
06.06.09 - Galway, Ireland - Roisin Dubh
06.07.09 - Kilkenny, Ireland - Cleere’s
06.26.09 - Albuquerque, New Mexico - TBA
07.14.09 - Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern
07.15.09 - Vancouver, BC - The Biltmore
07.16-19.09 - Dawson City, YT - Dawson City Music Festival *
07.21.09 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir
07.23.09 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
07.24.09 - Santa Cruz, CA - The Crepe Place
07.25.09 - Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland
07.26.09 - Los Angeles, CA - McCabe’s
07.29.09 - Tucson, AZ - The Congress

* Sunset Rubdown

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