Jeff Tweedy Produces New Record From Mavis Staples

Picture by Spencer Tweedy, hoisted from his excellent blog

Leave it to Jeff Tweedy to take all of his rock and roll cred and retroactively apply it to a fantastic vocalist that trumps him in experience by more than a few decades. Put differently: Tweedy has just produced a record, entitled You Are Not Alone, for R&B legend Mavis Staples.

After reading this fantastic interview over at Pitchfork, we're more than a little excited about the record. Not only was it recorded in Wilco's loft with the Wilco gang present and accounted for, but it contains new compositions from Tweedy as well. In short, it should be a very, very, fun record - and sound great to boot!

While we have yet to hear any material from the album, we will say this: we're waiting with bated breath. Tweedy and Co. have been producing some great material as of late, but in some ways have drifted a bit from Wilco's country roots. It'll be great to hear Tweedy at work with an artist who's truly a part of the foundation of American music.

Elsewhere On The Interwebs: Karen O, Malkmus, U2, Arcade Fire

We were doing our morning perusal of the interwebs, and stumbled upon a few choice items we thought might catch your interest. If you're so inclined:

• The New York Times interviews Karen O
• A Stephen Malkmus interview at Pitchfork that slipped by us in February
• Pitchfork.tv interviews U2
• The Arcade Fire documentary Miroir Noir - one week only!

Check those out, we'll see you Monday!

Nothing To Do Tonight? Watch A Pavement Doc Over At Pitchfork!

As part of their "one week only" series, Pitchfork.tv is hosting the Pavement documentary Slow Century this week. While the documentary isn't exactly the most original thing in the world (more of a summary than new material), it is a great intro to the world of Pavement for the uninformed. It features a ton of good archival footage, and in general is just a good time. Highly recommended.

Video: Pavement - Slow Century

New Frightened Rabbit Track In Australian Zine

Picture from the HAD Archive

Yum. Tasty. More Frightened Rabbit, complete with "sad, sad, sex". Does it get better than that? We thinks not. Seriously though, apparently the Australian zine The Lifted Brow got their hands on a new Frightened Rabbit Track "Last Tango In Brooklyn", and Pitchfork was kind enough to dig up an mp3.

The track is a quick acoustic lament of love lost, and melodically reminds us a fair bit of "The Twist" from the band's last record. Although production wise, it's far simpler then the stuff on Midnight Organ Fight. All in all, we're not totally shocked that the track ended up as a giveaway, since it seems a little less compositionally complete then the band's album material. That being said, we're pretty much suckers for these guys at the moment, so anything they put out there, we're gonna gobble up.

mp3: Frightened Rabbit - Last Tango In Brooklyn (Link courtesy Pitchfork)

Now You Can Watch Silver Jew From The Comfort Of The Internets!

Well, you read our review, now you can watch the film and see for yourself! The ever over-achieving pitchfork.tv is hosting the film Silver Jew as part of their "One Week Only" series. As is implicit in the title, the film's only there for a week, so enjoy it while you can, and let us know what you think. Happy Friday!

Video: Pitchfork.tv - Silver Jew

Tasty New Broken Social Scene Video For Churches Under The Stairs

Frankly, we're tempted to make a pair of offshoot blogs: one that tracks Ryan Adams' online meanderings, and one that monitors pitchfork.tv for awesome new content. Put differently, if you're not checking out pitchfork's tv site on a daily basis, you're really missing out. The site continues to provide awesome, high quality video on a consistent basis. So, without further adieu, here's the latest coolness: the brand new, uber official, video for Broken Social Scene's "Churches Under The Stairs" - awesome. Yes, indeedy.

Some Interviews You Might Like To Read

Both David Byrne and My Bloody Valentine will be in San Francisco in the coming weeks, so we thought we'd take a minute to pass a couple of interesting interviews your way. Pitchfork has an interview with David Byrne on his latest, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, and the New York Times has a nice sit down with Kevin Shields about the MBV reunion. Enjoy!

David Byrne is at Davies Symphony Hall October 6th and 7th
My Bloody Valentine are at the Concourse Design Center September 30th

New Walkmen Video: In The New Year

Don't you wish you were a mainstay of indie rock reporting so that killer acts like The Walkmen would call you up to premier their new video? Yeah, well us too. But in the meantime, enjoy the fact that Pitchfork TV kindly allowed us to embed this video for In The New Year, and leave it at that.

Travis Morrison Gets Kicked In The Nuts Again

In what seems to be turning into some sort of running gag, Pitchfork has once again completely reamed Travis Morrison (formerly of Dismemberment Plan) over a new disc: All Y'All. Their now-famous review of his previous album has been used a number of times as an example of the unreasonable amount of sway that the 'fork has over the indie rock scene these days. I've actually really enjoyed both of these solo releases quite a bit and don't understand the hellbent criticism. Anyway, I was disappointed to see that all of his currently scheduled dates are extremely DC-local: I hope the negative vibe isn't keeping him from getting out and about, particularly to the West Coast. We'll have to see. In the meantime, ignore the negative hype, and decide for yourself. The full album is currently streaming over at Travis' site.

mp3: Travis Morrison - As We Proceed