October 6, 2006

Weekend Hotness: Dinosaur Jr., Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!!

Dinosaur Jr. -- Photo courtesy of Flickr user Broken Bones>> Billboard reports here today that resuscitated indie giants Dinosaur Jr. are close to finishing the original line-up's first new set in almost two decades. The band expects the as-yet-untitled collection will be released next spring. The Dinosaucerouses have also set a release date for a much anticipated DVD capturing the band during its 2005 live dates. The video, which was directed by Mascis' brother-in-law, will hit retail May 8, 2007. Perhaps the best news of all? Bassist Lou Barlow reports that bandleader J. Mascis had insurance on much or all of the motherlode of gear that was stolen from the band earlier this year. That doesn't replace the gear, which includes some Jazzmasters from the late 1950s. But it certainly makes paying for replacement gear a lot easier. [Photo credit]

>> Is it not cool to like The Clap any more? After PantsFork's exclusive on Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!!'s forthcoming album details, we didn't notice nearly as much piling on and rehashing as Pfork stories typically spawn. So here's a little: The band plans to issue its anticipated sophomore set on its own label Jan. 30. The band made waves with its self-titled debut, and many of those waves were generated by the band's decision to self-release the set domestically and via a singular deal with distributors ADA (if memory serves). The new set was produced by Dave Fridmann, famous for work on records by Mercury Rev, Sleater Kinney and Flaming Lips.

>> While there is a lot of bad news to speak of regarding the devastating health problems plaguing pop-punk legend J. Church's Lance Hahn, there are a couple recent bright spots. Mr. Hahn recently took an IQ test and it turns out he is a genius. Wild, huh? More good news: his heart is apparently back to normal. Finally, there are some fund-raising efforts in the works to help Mr. Hahn defray his stratospheric medical bills. Perhaps most exciting is a tribute CD featuring covers of J. Church numbers by a number of notable bands whose names we can't track down right now.

>> Hey, there is a new Secret Mommy release, titled The Wisdom EP. Warp has the details here. Fans will be familiar with Secret Mommy proprietor Andy Dixon's penchant for making music with sound samples, and won't be surprised that The Wisdom EP relies on field recordings of Mr. Dixon's wisdom teeth being pulled. Dixon plans a new Secret Mommy full-length for early 2007 entitled Plays. We talked about Secret Mommy's prior full length Very Rec at Junkmedia's World of Sound here last year [if that link doesn't work, click here and scroll down to Oct. 25, 2005].

>> You may recall that we gave New York Times scribe Kelefa Sanneh a bit of static for his piece on "American Hardcore" (which we are excited to see next weekend when it arrives in Cambridge), so on balance we'd like to point out that we greatly enjoyed this sentence from his review of The Hold Steady's triumphant Boys And Girls In America: "They toured, getting sucked into their own songs." Read Mr. Sanneh's complete review here.

>> You might not think of "Miami Vice" when you hear New Order's "Confusion," but maybe now you will. [White Noise Revisited]

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