Burning, Mogwai’s concert film collaboration with Vincent Moon and Nathanael Le Scouarnac, will hit U.S. screens this fall. Following its release on August 24th (packaged with accompanying live album Special Moves), there will be full screenings of the film in multiple locations around the country. More cities will be announced, so please stay tuned for more details!

Download free MP3 "New Paths to Helicon, Pt. 1" from new CD!

Weathercraft
by Jim Woodring (Fantagraphics Books)

The graphic novel has just been administered a psychotropic enema. Thankfully for the literary-constipated with ever-narrowing moral codes, balance can be restored by absorbing all that comprises Jim Woodring's creative zeitgeist. In this case, it is his first graphic novel that does just that. In this installment, Whim ("brittle-bodied biscuit-bastard") and Manhog (pig-human hybrid) dance the cosmic pas de deux in the alternate universe, The Unifactor.

For the uninitiated, Mr. Woodring has been creating parallel universes for over twenty years and is the creator of the celebrated wordless FRANK comics, the first being FRANK IN THE RIVER released in 1992. If you've not sipped from his well, well, be prepared for the ultimate thirst quencher.

15-60-75 (The Numbers Band): The Inward City (Hearpen)

To understand 15-60-75 AKA The Numbers Band, one first needs to understand the mathematic fundamentals of their name. For in that simple universal equation lies the core of what they do so well. I-IV-V, 1-4-5 chord progression, the standard 12 bar blues progression. And so is most pop music. Cuz 15 times 4 equals 60 plus another 15, or 15 times 5 equals 75. Dig? But to really dig into their music, one has to see them live.

Did LeBron James quit on the Cleveland Cavaliers two nights ago against the Celtics of Boston? On July 1st is he leaving the city that has venerated him as their King, their Savior of Cleveland sports, their emperor who would deliver their first championship parade in five decades?

As a St. Vincent-St. Mary and University of Akron alum, and a longtime New Yorker (since 1981), I have suffered through all of the Cleveland sports miscues and misadventures since our last championship in 1964 (Cleveland Browns) when I was 7 years old! Since then, many Northeast Ohio sports fans feel like Charlie Brown trying to kick that proverbial football through the championship uprights only to have Lucy yank it away at the last second, time and time again.

Guru AKA Keith Elam (17 July 1962–19 April 2010)

Back in '86 when I moved back to New York from Los Angeles, I'd seriously considered starting a label with my friend Stu Fine. We had several think-tank meetings trying to figure out what the label was, but more importantly what it wasn't. Both of us were fervently passionate about music. He was gaga over hip-hop, I was certainly a fan as I was managing The Nastee Boyz outta Newark. They were budding young entrepreneurs that were not only creating some of the dopest and craziest tracks of the day but were publishing the very first rap magazine called The Hip Hop Hit List. I wanted the label to include other genres of music; well, actually rock and alt-country, but Stu could see the value of narrowcasting to corner the growing rap and hip-hop market. Stu, being a massive baseball fan, came up with the name Wild Pitch Records. I liked it, didn't love it, as football was my main sport.

Punk rock royalty Jon Spencer and Cristina Martinez and Dutch electronic heroine Elisabeth Esselink, aka Solex, bring you the single "Galaxy Man" taken from the forthcoming album Amsterdam Throwdown, Kingstreet Showdown!. "Galaxy Man" is 2 minutes and 40 seconds of life-affirming therapy! You know you want this punked-up slab of electro fury!

Download and share free track "Galaxy Man" today!

TURN OFF YOUR LIGHTS!!!

A truly profound event happens this Saturday: all over the world, people will be turning their lights off for one hour to save energy and "cast a vote" against global warming and climate change. Individuals, entire residential and office buildings, even entire towns and cities are participating. In its first year, 2007, over 2.2 million people participated; in 2008, 50 million. So far this year almost 3,000 towns and municipalities in over 84 countries will be participating, with the numbers growing daily. Global landmarks such as the Empire State Building, Petronas Towers, Great Pyramids of Giza, and Golden Gate Bridge will be dimmed. The goal is for 1 billion people to participate.

Ah, finally. One of my favorite Scottish rock bands returns! Teenage Fanclub will release a brand new album on June 8, 2010 and launch a UK tour. Only 5 long years since Man-Made was released to universal acclaim, so it is no overstatement to say the new album is keenly anticipated. While most bands are lucky to have one great songwriter, Teenage Fanclub boasts three, hence Shadows is overflowing with the kind of gorgeous, harmony-driven classics you'd expect to find on a greatest hits album. For those of you who love jangle pop rock, DOWNLOAD "Baby Lee" for FREE now!

Le Poisson Rouge was ablaze last night, and not just Immodesty (photo left), although she was in full ermine regalia, albeit until she shared her bodacious body with the ravenous crowd.

All hail the Queens of Burlesque. An international cavalcade of women that would melt even the flimsiest veneer of even the most stoic prude. This is not your granddaddy's bump-and-grind of days gone by.

Some of the hottest gals on scene strutted, shook, shimmied, stretched, whipped, and preened to the catcalls, table thumping, and whistles of adoring guys and dolls en masse.

My head is throbbing just thinkin' about it all. I could barely keep off the Mrs. when I finally staggered home and crawled into bed.

But where does one begin?

From the neck down?

Few can predict the success of new adult comic books and graphic novels. There are many of us who relish the fringe area of this literary wonderland. No doubt that numerous titles come and go, yet some remain permanently etched in our psyche, such as Peter Bagge's Hate and Bob Burden's Flaming Carrot. Imagine my joy when I happened upon the new four-part, limited-edition cover series from IDW Publishing featuring everyone's favorite mutant, Bat Boy (half-boy, half-bat found living in a cave). "I've been a big Bat Boy fan since I saw him in the paper about 10 years ago," says IDW publisher and editor-in-chief Chris Ryall. That the Weekly World News supermarket tabloid, one that created absurdly outrageous faux news stories for 30 years, could be turned into a compelling narrative seems like a very risky endeavor in today's volatile print world, but Mr. Ryall has hit it out of the park.

The devastation continues. But there are still simple ways to pitch in. Scott Harrison of Charity Water is asking that all current donations be made straight to two affiliated partner charities. Wyclef Jean suggests texting "Yele" to 501501 to automatically donate $5 to the Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund. It will be charged to your cell phone bill. If you prefer donating your money to someone who is actually in Haiti, send Ms. Alison Thompson -- filmmaker and relief effort worker who helped rebuild an entire village in Sri Lanka, documented in her award-winning documentary The Third Wave -- a PayPal payment through her new website with Sean Penn entitled J/P HRO. And check out my friends at One.org for practical relief efforts. peace, Dusty

Sometimes the stability of an individual's world is fatally rooted in the life of another. When that person dies the surviving entity is paralysed, and a state of emptiness consumes them. In the case of the fashion designer Alexander McQueen, his anchor was his mother, Joyce. For all his bravado, swagger and attitude, and he had these aplenty to shower on the unsuspecting, her death heralded his own. Although he seemed to be coming to terms with his loss, McQueen hanged himself in his Mayfair flat on the eve of her funeral, a month shy of his forty first birthday.

Reasons to be cheerful in this bleak economy should be the celebration of the death of excess. We don't need to be fat and lazy and entitled because we happened to be born into one of the wealthiest countries in the world. The scales have been tipped. We need to refocus our attention on things that are significant in our lives. Even if culture seems trivial, it truly mirrors our times. And with that in mind, let me present my culture picks for 2009. Some of it may resonate with you, and some of it may appear gratuitous. Regardless, it helped soothe my muse.

Jeff Zenick - I collect outsider art AKA art brut; self-taught artists who've never perfected their craft in a formal university capacity. Folks like Howard Fintzer gathered loads of press back in the early '80s by rendering wonderfully unique LP covers for R.E.M. and the Talking Heads.

My holiday gift for all of you is a Christmas tune that I recorded a few years ago with a little help from my friends Dan Levine (They Might Be Giants) on bass, David Ogilvy on acoustic guitar, Larua Fay Lewis on vocals, and Kenny Margolis (Cracker) on accordion and keyboards. Holiday songs are never easy to write and this one was certainly borderline bleak. Thankfully Kenny's uplifting accordion and keyboard lines rescued it from utter downer mode. Please share "Christmas (Is Coming Down)" with your family and friends and have a Happy and Healthy Holiday! peace, Dusty

Legendary blues artist T-Model is 80-something years old! His Mississippi driver's license says he's 84. His U.S. passport says he's 87. And he says he's 88. He started playing guitar based on Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, but T's only got one style: his own. T's illiterate, so no use in talking to him about tuning. They call it "open T" because it's his own unique sound.

To celebrate the release of his seventh album -- the entirely acoustic, live, one-take with no overdubs sessions -- The Ladies Man, on January 12th, 2010, here's the free MP3 of "Two Trains".

Architects of a sound in the early '80s unlike any of their contemporaries, Pylon still sounds unlike anything else out there. The B-52s and R.E.M. have both gone on record as stating that Pylon are one of the best bands in the county, and listening to DFA's re-release of their legendary sophomore effort Chomp, it's evident why Pylon is still regarded as an icon of the legendary Athens, GA scene.

Download the incredibly infectious "Beep" to hear the band at their very best, playing concentrated doses of post-punk that have inspired generations of followers ever since. And check their website for the music video of "Beep," edited by Pylon’s Michael Lachowski. It documents the band as they traveled the U.S. back in the day. (Photo: Laura Levine)

Brooklyn group Clare and the Reasons is pleased to announce a west coast tour with the legendary composer/arranger/producer/songwriter Van Dyke Parks in February 2010. Parks collaborated with the group on their celebrated debut release, The Movie, and Clare and the gang are eager to join up with him once again behind the release of their new album, Arrow, out now on Frog Stand Records.

As the band prepares for tour, they are releasing a cover of Genesis' song "That's All" (now with more tuba!). Click on the link for the free mp3 download.

The Bay Area psych-rocker quartet The Mother Hips have just released their seventh full length effort, Pacific Dust. The Hips are excited to share their "California-soul" with fans all over North America.

To celebrate, the band is giving away this breezy, freewheeling track -- "Third Floor Story". Their U.S. tour began this week!