Vampire Weekend preps new album, Patrick Wolf offers music lessons

Paul F. Agusta ,  CONTRIBUTOR   |  Sun, 05/03/2009 1:05 PM  |  Music

Hello children! It's time for another juicy fresh helping of music news from your friendly neighborhood geek! Thanks for all the feedback as always. Now onto the buzz!

Reverb

Bj*rk's long awaited super yummy Voltaic box set - a 2xCD/2xDVD package filled with Volta-related live footage, recordings, videos, and remixes - now has an official release date: June 23 on Universal Records worldwide. And, for those who are super picky about what their boxed sets should contain, Voltaic will be available in five different versions for all your specific Bj*rk needs. How thoughtful. All your nerdy and intricate format details are as follows:

1. One CD recorded at London's Olympic Studios with the Volta tour live band back in 2007.

2. The Olympic Studios CD and a live DVD of Volta tour highlights from shows in Paris and Reykjavik.

3. The Olympic Studios CD and the live DVD and another CD featuring Volta remixes from the likes of Simian Mobile Disco, Matthew Herbert, Spank Rock, and Ratatat AND a second DVD featuring all of Volta's music videos.

4. Both CDs, both DVDs, and three vinyl records containing the same tracks found on the two CDs.

5. Just the Olympic Studios record on vinyl.

Choose one to your liking! Or if you're geeky and rich enough, buy all of them!

Once a wild one, always a wild one, even when you're close to being in need of adult diapers. At 62 years old, granddaddy punker and The Stooges' frontman Iggy Pop is still pissing people off. This time the fuss is over his appearance in British advertisements for the insurance company Swiftcover.com. A bunch of UK musicians are complaining about the fact Swiftcover.com doesn't actually insure musicians. Billboard Magazine quoted a Swiftcover.com rep as saying, "Swiftcover.com chose Iggy Pop as the face of its advertising because he loves life, not because he is a musician. He is an actor demonstrating the benefits of Swiftcover.com." This is a pretty asinine defense, if you ask me. However, this week, Billboard reports that following a threat by the UK's Advertising Standards Authority to ban the spots for false advertising, Swiftcover.com has decided to alter their policy. They now cover musicians. Thanks, Iggy! Monsieur Pop's new album Pr*liminaires, is out June 2 on Astralwerks in the US (May 25 internationally.) It's a jazz album inspired by French writer Michel Houellebecq. Yeah, a stirring in my gut says this is going to reach a previously unattained level of suckiness (beating out the last Stooges album).

Quiz time, my lovelies! When you think of Britpop, what's the first thing that comes to mind? For me, it's Blur, Pulp, and Oasis. Specifically all those videos Blur did from the early to mid-90's. I'm pretty sure that most of you probably had either Damon Albarn or the Gallagher brothers in mind, right? And you'd be right in doing so. Yet an upcoming three-disc compilation titled Common People: The Britpop Story features neither Oasis nor Blur. Go figure. But the set (available June 8) does feature 1990s UK classics from Pulp, James, Supergrass, the Stone Roses, Gomez, and Super Furry Animals. And a bunch of less notable but still likable relics like Embrace, Rialto, Gay Dad, and Menswear. Despite the fun that this collection will provide, it's still pretty screwed up. No Oasis and Blur, are they nuts?!

A while back, I told you about psych-rock pretty boys MGMT duking it out with French President Nicolas Sarkozy's party for using MGMT's "Kids" in ads without getting permission from the boys. And it was especially ironic and stupid because that same party, the Union for a Popular Movement (UPM) was in the middle of a crackdown on filesharing and piracy. After threatening to sue, the glittery pair agreed to a settlement fee, which they're donating to artists' rights organizations according to a statement from the band. What follows are some incredibly amusing quotes from the band: "Normally MGMT steers clear of mixing music and politics, but the fact that the UMP French political party used our song without permission while simultaneously pushing anti-piracy legislation seemed a little wack," reads the statement.

It goes on: "We didn't want to be *typical Americans' and sue, despite the amazing monetary benefit and chinchilla coats and Navigators it would bring. Instead we're using the settlement fee the UMP presented and donating it to artists' rights organizations. Thank you France for the wonderful food. C'est bon."

In other MGMT news, the so pretty it hurts duo are currently working on their second LP in upstate New York and California, according to an interview with Ben Goldwasser on Australia's Triple J radio. Yummy.

Brit-rock's oddball genius Patrick Wolf loves his fans. Despite his presumably busy schedule, he's giving two musically-inclined Wolf followers - one guy, one girl - a music lesson in London this June courtesy of Patrick himself. To enter, fans can record a video of themselves playing any song they want with any instrument they want and send it to patrickwolfbebocompetition@live.co.uk. Patrick himself will pick the winners. Pick me! I'm a mean kazoo player! Anyway, since the end goal is a music lesson, this might be the rare competition where non-experts have an advantage - after all, why would Patrick want to teach you if you're already a virtuoso? You have until May 31 to send in a video. His new album, The Bachelor, is out June 2 in the US (June 1 elsewhere). First single "Vulture" is now out, along with a very risqu* S&M-tinged music video.

All you indie hipsters out there rejoice! Vampire Weekend is currently in a Brooklyn studio working on their sophomore LP, according to Entertainment Weekly. The guys are tentatively hoping for a September release. Singer Ezra Koenig told EW the band are pretty much done with the songwriting for the LP, and are now sculpting its sound.

"It's definitely going to be a recognizably Vampire Weekend sound, but there are going to be new sounds. We're trying to challenge ourselves not to use the same bag of tricks that we used on the first album - different instruments, stuff like that" says Koenig. Keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij is once again producing the album.

Frankly, I never got into the whole Vampire Weekend hoopla. They pretty much sound like Bishop Allen but, you know, just not as good. But I am interested in hearing what their second will sound like, I might be pleasantly surprised.

That about wraps it up for this week's Reverb. Stay tuned next week!

Meanwhile, do drop me a line at undergroundhum@yahoo.com and if you've got a band or know of any cool bands with gigs coming up, email me the full details and I'll be sure to include it in the next Reverb.

See y'all next week!

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