OASIS: One of those Gallagher blokes perfects his sneer

• Liz Phair has signed to Dave Matthews‘ label.
• Oasis is apparently about to announce a major tour with Ryan Adams in the support slot.
• Stereogum just curated an excellent, free compilation of Björk covers.
• U2 has inked a major deal with Live Nation.
• Poison’s drummer, Rikki Rockett, has been arrested on rape charges.
• After many, many months away from our collective unconscious, Spiritualized is quite busy with new projects and touring.
• Wolf Parade has finally announced the title and release date of its next record.
• The Specials are contemplating a full-on reunion tour.
• Guns N’ Roses has nabbed a top-notch management team, fueling more Democracy rumors.
• Nothing screams the summer festival season quite like … Crocs.
• My Morning Jacket’s latest LP could be the “hardest record” they’ve ever made.
• Slash has weighed in on the Led Zeppelin debate.
• Meshuggah’s had a rough start to their stint on Ministry’s final tour.
• Beanie Sigel is back in prison.
• Depending on who you ask, Keith Richards has quite the smoking problem.
• Interscope has bought a stake in the company that recently acquired Stereogum.
• The New Yorker just wrote an interesting piece on what kind of fans make the best tippers at shows.
• The branding of major tours has apparently gotten a bit out of hand.
• Last.fm is being audited over alleged unpaid royalties.
• Juno’s soundtrack has spawned a sequel.
• Stephen Malkmus just spent some quality time with Fox News.

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Beans … smiling? Maybe this reunion ain’t a bad idea after all.

Photos by Sarah Maxwell

We’ve had some server problems the past couple days (apparently you people still can’t get enough of our Dan the Automator/Mike Patton interview), but everything’s looking mighty fine now so expect a slew of posts today starting with the following shots from last Saturday’s Anti-Pop Consortium reunion at the Knitting Factory’s tiny “Tap Bar.”

The word on the street is the boys killed it, so be sure to check out one of the following sporadic shows if you want a solid preview of the quartet’s in-progress LP:

4/14 Brussels, Belgium - Domino Festival
4/19 Bourges, France - Le Printemps de Bourges
5/9 Lyon, France - Les Nuits Sonores
5/23 London, England - Brixton Academy *
5/26 Mancheter, England - Academy *
5/27 Glasgow, Scotland - ABC 1 *
6/19-21 Barcelona, Spain - Sonar Festival

* with Public Enemy, Dr. Octagon, Edan, MC Dagha

More photos after the jump of course …

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Story by Stefan Németh

Photo by Gerald Zahn

My personal approach to film music is it’s often better to have less sound than too much. Film scores can have their own life, but they always have to serve the story in the movie first. This means I prefer to keep the sound as minimal as possible most of the time. A few notes or a single sound can often be much more pleasant for me, because it does not interpret the optical input too much. The audience has to bring it all together and a little blank space or mystery in a scene leaves it open to the individual how to see things.

So it is with the ambience sounds, the “real world,” which I try to bring into the music in a slightly modified and processed form. This is the link to the recordings done on location. And it is often the starting point for music in the common sense. It makes it possible to find a logical relation between music, sound design and recordings on location.

Németh talks about his favorite film soundtracks after the jump …

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NO MORE HEROES

Photos by Mark Slutsky

Efrim Menuck will be heard. As the guitarist and vocalist of his group, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band (originally formed in 1999 as a side project to the legendary Godspeed You! Black Emperor), Menuck will release his fifth LP, 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons, which contains four lengthy, sweeping songs that showcase the Canadian troupe at its most jarring and abrasive. In the face of desperate times, 13 Blues is a sprawling, in-your-face rock record bubbling with vital commentary that refuses to be ignored. Even the seemingly inoffensive twelve seconds-long tracks of noise that begin the album are somewhat of a clever “fuck you” to iPod-toting casual listeners, according to Menuck.

Here the musician speaks with self-titled about 13 Blues’ social, personal and political themes, losing his record collection and why he thinks the members of Radiohead are just a bunch of “con men.”

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The Artist: Houston-based anti-heroes with a penchant for stage-diving and mic-swallowing.

Their Latest Release: Quantum Fucking (French Kiss, 2007)

The Showcase: French Kiss @ The Mohawk, 3.12.08

The Set in a Sentence: A blues hammer to the head that left a few bruises and a lot of spilled beer.

And a Letter Grade: A

Photos after the jump …

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 SILVER MT. ZION: & the Tra-La-La Band, bitches

[Photo by Mark Slutsky]

By Aaron Richter

As you all certainly know by now, new releases hit record-store shelves and digital-download services each Tuesday. So every week self-titled presents a new release you’d be stupid not to own (Buy It), one worth checking out if you’re the curious type (Burn It) and something you might have heard about but probably should avoid (Skip It). Simple, ain’t it?

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Text/Photos by Aaron Richter

You know you’ve got something great going on when you can upstage a band as great as Holy Fuck. Brooklyn-based trio A Place To Bury Strangers did just that—on this final stop in the two bands’ recent tour together—by cranking their amps to an uncomfortably high volume, so loud we couldn’t look away for a second. Which isn’t to say that Holy Fuck gobbled a dick. Strangers were just so damn good. Sorry we don’t have any photos but the place was just packed for them, obstructing any chance of a decent shot.

Also of note: Someone who looked exactly like Bob Balaban was taking photos of Holy Fuck on his cell phone, Broseph to our right with a puka-shell necklace nodded off after a strong hit of pot, and Asian Broseph to our left was selling baggies of white stuff (we’re guessing Elmer’s Glue) out of his satchel. Full review after the jump …

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The Artist: The underground’s greatest living guitar god.

Their Latest Release: Trees Outside the Academy (Ecstatic Peace, 2007)

The Showcase: Lou Reed Tribute @ The FADER Fort, 3.13.08

The Set in a Sentence: One of the only signs of life in a rather stale paean to one of rock’s reigning nihilists.

And a Letter Grade: A-

Photos after the jump …

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The Artist: Philly’s finest sludge merchants.

Their Latest Release: Hope For Men (Sub Pop, 2007)

The Showcase: Sub Pop @ Bourbon Rocks, 3.14.08

Their Set in a Sentence: David Yow for a Y2K world as led by a guitarist that builds quite a fence of barbed wire chords despite looking like a teddy bear.

And a Letter Grade: A

Photos after the jump …

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BILLY CORGAN: Am I gonna have to smash your gourd, son?

• The Smashing Pumpkins are done with records, but all about releasing strings of songs.
• Lou Reed has announced a short tour fresh off his SxSW appearances.
• The new Raconteurs record leaked to iTunes for a second earlier today.
• Hurray for Baltimore, but good luck getting this new Dan Deacon-curated box set.
• Elvis Costello’s new album is coming out on vinyl and MP3, but not on CD.
• Les Savy Fav has a live album on the way.
• The “50 Most Controversial Album Covers of All Time,” eh, Gigwise?
• Interscope has already dropped Simian Mobile Disco. First …Trail of Dead; now this. What’s going on guys?
• Here’s a decent story on all the Converse hullabaloo lately.
• Hey, Lemmy’s earned this kind of shit. After all, dude’s a card-carrying AARP member and he’s still tougher than you.
• Entertainment Weekly has revealed its tidy “Indie Rock 25″ list.
• Pulp fans are gonna find this series of Archie comics to be quite brilliant.
• The Beach Boys have finally settled their long-running internal lawsuit over use of the band’s name.
• Queen are close to completing their first album without Freddie Mercury.
• Could Prince still get added to Coachella?
• Could a ‘little black box’ save the music industry?
• Bob Marley’s fam is refusing to license any of his songs to a biopic produced by his widow Rita.