Gossip -- April 2002

Dayton News 
Guided by Voices recently announced that they have resigned with Matador Records for their thirteenth album, currently titled Universal Truths and Cycles. It's due out on June 18th. The 19 tracks were recorded in Dayton in late 2001/early 2002 with Todd Tobias.

Bob Pollard has plans to release Some of the Magic Syrup Was Preserved, a double-vinyl set of 37 tracks from the Guided By Voices archives.  The collection will be released on vinyl only as a two-record set with an eight-page color booklet, according to the Fading Captain page on Guided by Voices' official website. The pressing is limited to 500 copies.

The Breeders have announced the first single from Title TK, "Huffer," which will come out with non-LP tracks "Forced to Drive (Loho version)" and "Climbing the Sun." The single is due out April 29th. A limited-edition ten-inch vinyl album sampler, "Off You," was released in late March.  The Breeders have also announced a number of live dates this May and June in western Europe including stops in England, Ireland, Scotland, Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, and Germany.  Five tracks from the delayed Breeders album, Title TK are available for preview on 4AD's internet radio site, including all three tracks from the "Off You" ten-inch, "Sinister Foxx," and a remake of the Amps' "Full on Idle." Title TK is scheduled for release on May 20th.

Eulogy Records has plans to release Morning Again’s Hand of the Marytyr, a CD featuring their albums Hand of Hope and Martyr as well as a live set from Belgium. This is the first time this format has been available in the U.S.

The Ohio-based More Than Music Festival will be celebrating its 10^th Anniversary on July 5 to 7.  More Than Music’s profits have always been extended to benefit local and national organizations/projects such as Buckeye Regional Anti-Violence, Food Not Bombs, Project Open Hand, and Kaleidoscope Youth Coalition.  Several bands have confirmed their participation in this year’s event including: The Locust, Lightening Bolt, Dead Blue Sky, and The Panthers.

Dead Blue Sky recently finished recording a few songs for release as a “live” 10” picture disc on Italy’s Vacation House Records.  According to the band, the pictures on the disc will be comprised of shots taken during the recording, which was held in March at Rod drummer Chris Common’s Danger Room studios.  The band has provided us with a copy of two of the songs from the session and I assure you that they are off the hook!

As Friends Rust are supposedly searching for a new singer due to Damien quitting. It is rumored that a certain member of Culture who is originally from Dayton, Ohio may have assumed his vocal duties.  No confirmation yet though…

For The Rest of You...
Rhino Records are releasing a singles collection by the Jesus and Mary Chain titled 21 Singles, which ironically contains 21 of their songs in chronological order.  The collection includes several of the bands best efforts including: “Darklands,” “Blues From A Gun,” “Head On,” Reverence,” and “Sometimes Always” (w/Hope Sandoval, aka. Mazzy Star).  It will hit the streets on June 4.

Oasis has announced plans to release their newest album titled Heathen Chemistry in July.                                           

Lovitt Records recently announced that they added Washington, D.C.'s Dame Fate to their roster. According to Lovitt, “Dame Fate offers a healthy dose of their minimalist melancholia pop.”  Their first full-length is due out in May.

Social Distortion should have the band's first album following the 2000 death of guitarist and co-founder Dennis Dannell out before the end of the year. No word yet what label the new album will show up on.

Propagandhi recently revealed that they are working on new material for release with their fourth full-length album later this year.

Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba recorded some solo tracks recently for an upcoming split with Kevin Seconds. This record will be released by Asian Man Records.

Look for Burnt By The Sun on tour with Candria in April.

High on Fire are gearing up for a full US tour with Godflesh and Halo starting April 22nd in San Diego, Calif. Their Relapse Records debut, Surrounded by Thieves, hits stores May 28th.

In Phoenix in late March, Kill Me Tomorrow kicked off a tour that runs through May 10.  They will be joined on the road by Xiu Xiu and Erase Errata.

Athens, Georgia's Azure Ray are set to release their second full-length album, Burn and Shiver, on April 9th through Warm Recordings. Crooked Fingers/Archers of Loaf singer Eric Bachmann did the production duties on this bad boy.

The Vidablue, after a lot of haggling with ex-Phish people and lawyers, are changing their name to Ten Grand.  According to a member of the band, “None of us quit and the songs are still the same, we just had to change the name or face lawyers and courts. The keyboard player from Phish started a band with the bass player for the Allman Brothers called Vida Blue, and they called the actual guy Vida Blue who demanded royalties for using his name.  If we didn't change it we would have had to pay that guy a ton of money we didn't have or want to give him.”

By now everyone has heard about the rock and roll mayhem provided by the Icarus Line at SXSW when Aaron North, one of the bands guitarist, smashed a display case containing a guitar that once belonged to Stevie Ray Vaughan and tried to play it.  Considering that the late Vaughan is revered in Texas, North was chased off the stage by security.  Their set was at the Hard Rock Café, which followed a set by ex-At The Drive In band Sparta is all the buzz on MTV News.  According to a reliable source, though “the fuzz” was expected to show up at a later SXSW set by the band and arrest North, he managed to avoid being arrested and their set was blistering. 

To the dismay of pre-teen emo girls everywhere, a punk news message board reported, "Dashboard Confessional’s Chris Carabba has recently announced his retirement from the music industry. He has come to the conclusion that he would rather follow a career in teaching, which was where he was before joining Further Seems Forever. He will release his previously unreleased tracks on an EP in the summer. I have close connections with his manager and assure you this story is true.” My guess is that it’s not true….those ambitious, tricky punks are always trying to figure out ways to get the emo kids to cry. Dashboard Confessional's latest CDEP, Summers Kiss is now shipping from Eulogy Recordings.

Just a day after it was officially announced that the new Rage Against the Machine featuring Chris Cornell would play the Ozzfest this summer, unconfirmed reports have surfaced stating that Cornell has left the group.  No one from the RATM camp has confirmed nor denied this rumor. Cdnow.com is reporting that Chris Cornell’s manager Jim Guerinot of Rebel Waltz, Inc. has confirmed that Cornell has left the band. Guerinot also said that the album the group has already recorded will be released by Epic sometime this summer. 

Amen fans have taken to the web in hopes of forcing Virgin Records to either release the new Amen album or release control of the master tapes for the album to the group. Amen had reportedly completed recording the material for their third album and turned the master tapes over to Virgin Records but it appears that the album will not see the light of day. Virgin reportedly will only release the master tapes back to the band if the group reimburses the label for $200,000 they laid out for the recording of the new material. 

The Beachwood Sparks are back with a new EP, Make The Cowboy Robots Cry, a collaboration with ex-Strictly Ballroom bassist and current Dntel main man Jimmy Tamborello.  In addition, the band has a new drummer, Jimi Hey, of Strictly Ballroom and The Rapture fame.

Millencolin and The (International) Noise Conspiracy have now been added to the bill for the Hultsfred 2002 Swedish summer festival.  Other new noteworthy artists are Rammstein and New Order. For those of you planning to a trek to Sweeden, the price for this year’s festival has been set to around 1200 SKR, that's about $115 U.S. dollars.

The folks from Superchunk have announced plans to release a brand-new series of limited-edition Superchunk releases titled, The Clambake Series.  The series will be available through the Merge site, at shows, and in select retail stores. The first release, titled Vol. 1: Acoustic In-Stores East & West, is an 18-track collection of acoustic recordings from in-store appearances in North Carolina, Washington and Texas during Superchunk's fall tour. The pressing is going to be limited to 1500 copies.

According to allcentral.com, a new Descendents album is currently in production, with a tentative spring to early summer release date.  No name or date has been announced.

The Stryder has completed work on their sophomore release, Jungle City Twitch, for Equal Vision Records. The album release date is on June 11th.

Tiger Army plans to release a CD-EP on Hellcat Records sometime this year titled The Early Years. The release will have 5 songs including tracks from the long out-of-print first vinyl EP and some other unreleased material, recorded in 1996 and 1997.

Philadelphia’s premier political hardcore band, Kill The Man Who Questions is calling it quits after over five years together.  Their final show is on April 21 in Philadelphia.

New York Hardcore band Burn announced the release of Last Great Sea, a 3-song demo recorded in 1992, to be released on Revelation Records April 2, 2002. A portion of all proceeds from this recording, will be donated to Amnesty International USA (AIUSA).  Revelation Records and Burn will be making a donation of fifty cents from the sale of each CD to help both raise awareness and funds for Amnesty Internationals vital human rights work. 

One their way home from playing at the Big Wheel Recreation showcase at SXSW last week, the Cancer Conspiracy had one of the most tragic misfortunes that a band can endure happen to them.  While staying in Queens, NY, their van was stolen with all of their equipment and merchandise in it.  Nothing has been recovered yet. 

The Stereo will be touring Europe throughout the month of June, so if you visit overseas, good news for you! The tour is sponsored by Visions Magazine.

Kill Rock Star’s Unwound have one final show in their hometown of Olympia, Washington on April 1^st.  Unwound are calling it quits after more than ten years of rocking.  Unwound may be doing a video retrospective and live record.  There are no plans to film or tape their final show.

Artists and songs have finally been confirmed for the Ramones tribute album, tentatively titled We're A Happy Family. The current track listing is as follows: Rob Zombie ("Blitzkrieg Bop”), Eddie Vedder ("I Believe In Miracles”), Red Hot Chili Peppers ("Havana Affair"), Marilyn Manson ("The KKK Took My Baby Away”), the Offspring ("I Wanna Be Sedated"), Green Day ("Outsider"), Motörhead ("Rockaway Beach"), Rancid ("Sheena Is A Punk Rocker”), Billy Corgan ("I Want You Around") and Static-X ("Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment").

Jack Black and Kyle Gass, known to the masses as Tenacious D, are gearing up to embark on their biggest headline tour to date starting March 25 in Pompano Beach, FL. Tenacious D will also be invading the Midwest with Kid Rock.

On March 8, Bauhaus/Love And Rockets mainman Daniel Ash and his crew were on their way to the Santa Ana, CA, gig of his tour when a car hit the SUV in which they were traveling, forcing their vehicle to flip several times. Ash and members of his crew were treated and released from the hospital; bassist Patina Crème’s had to be admitted.

Last year Jimmy Tamborello, under the name Dntel, released Life Is Full of Possibilities. Among the tracks was "(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan," a collaboration with Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard.  According to Pitchfork Media, Tamborello and Gibbard are currently working on a record together under the name Postal Service.

Tim Kinsella is returning with another new band called Friend/Enemy. This latest Kinsella project will be releasing a full-length on Perishable Records in May. The album was recorded in two sessions last November and this January at Clava Studios with Graeme Gibson.

The Texas trio Spoon are back in the studio for their follow-up, which is tentatively titled, Bring It, and is scheduled for an August release on Merge. The sessions are being produced by Spoon's Britt Daniel and Jim Eno with Mike McCarthy (Trail of Dead).  The band also plans to release a new seven-inch with an album cut and two non-LP tracks in early summer. Merge also plans to reissue Spoon's 1998 A Series of Sneaks on June 4th, which was initially released on Elektra Records. The album will include the tracks from Spoon's Agony of Lafitte EP, which was originally issued by Saddle Creek.

Geoff Farina, co-founder of lo-fi pop duo the Secret Stars and Karate vocalist, will release another solo album, Blobscape on Kimchee in the near future.  This is Farina’s first instrumental and third solo effort.  Karate just released a two-track EP on Southern titled, Sing/Cancel. Karate's forthcoming full-length is expected this September.

Knitting Factory have announced plans for an upcoming Elvis Costello tribute album. The Throwing Muses' Kristin Hersh has signed on for the project, as well as Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo. According to Pitchfork Media, the label has also contacted the management teams for Wilco, Elliott Smith, and Herbie Hancock.  It is tentatively reported that the record could see the light of day in January 2003.

Moby's new album, 18, is due in stores May 14th. Moby collaborated with a number of vocalists on 18, including MC Lyte, Sinead O'Connor, Angie Stone, and Saddle Creek/Warm favorite Azure Ray.

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