Songlines Festival

Last week, Glastonbury Festival co-organizer Emily Eavis started a Haiti benefit auction on eBay, with all proceeds going to Oxfam. Among the items donated by rock stars was Damon Albarn's offer to sell an original song to the highest bidder. More items have been added to the auction, including a signed Interpol box set, a stage outfit from PJ Harvey, and a collection of 4AD memoribilia. And if you bid high enough, dance duo Groove Armada will remix your song.

After the jump, we've got more news about benefits for Haiti earthquake relief:

-- Pearl Jam's website reports that Eddie Vedder has put his cover of Bruce Springsteen's "My City in Ruins" from Springsteen's Kennedy Center tribute up for sale on Pearl Jam's Ten Club and iTunes, with sales going to benefit the Haitian relief effort from Artists for Peace and Justice.

-- MTV reports that BET is organizing its own Haiti relief telethon, "SOS Saving Ourselves: Help for Haiti". On February 5, the show will run live from Florida on BET, MTV, VH1, and Centric. Participants will include Diddy, Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige, Ludacris, Justin Bieber, Robin Thicke, and Pharrell Williams, among others.

-- Will.I.Am tells Billboard that he's remixed the Who's "My Generation", with Slash on guitar. (Yikes.) The remix will air on TV during the Super Bowl, where the Who will be the halftime entertainment, on February 7. The next day, it'll be up for sale on iTunes, and sales will benefit earthquake relief. For a good cause, everyone!

-- 24 Hour Service Station has released Burnside Project's "Congratulations" b/w "Synchronized Spinning" single, with the money going to Doctors Without Borders.

-- Indie Rock Coloring Book author Andy J. Miller is auctioning off a copy of the Coloring Book, fully colored by Miller himself, on eBay, with money going to Partners in Health.

-- On January 31, the Feelies' Glenn Mercer will headline a benefit show for the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund at the Hoboken, New Jersey club Maxwell's.

-- In Los Angeles, the Pity Party, Pocohaunted, Letting Up Despite Great Faults, and others will play a January 30 benefit for Operation USA at Cinespace.

-- The folks at the Waxidermy message boards are auctioning off a number of rare records, including a handmade Grouper record, to benefit Haitian relief charities.

Photo via Kanye's blog

Kanye West has kept a fairly low profile ever since he interrupted Taylor Swift at the VMAs, but that appears to be over now. On his blog, Kanye has posted the above photo of himself with girlfriend Amber Rose, accompanying it with a truly dizzying and spectacular all-caps spazzout that manages to link fashion bloggers, mothers lifting cars off their babies, Catholic school teachers, and African kings. His logic may be a little tough to follow, but his verbal swagger is unmatchable. There are rumblings of a new album, and I'd call this whole thing a good sign. Kanye's post is a thing to behold. You can behold it below.

"WHEN IT'S ALL SAID AND DONE, REMEMBER THE FEARLESS, REMEMBER THE DREAMERS, REMEMBER THOSE WHO REPRESENT THE GHETTO...THE FAIRY TALE OF NOTHING TO SOMETHING. I'M BRIEFLY SADDENED BY NEGATIVE COMMENTS, BUT I HAVE TO REMEMBER THOSE PEOPLE ARE SCARED, INCAPABLE OR JUST PLAIN IDIOTS. WE ARE THE FUCKING ROCK STARS BABY. NO COCAINE, JUST LIFE MY NIGGAS!! NO COCAINE, JUST LIFE! IT'S FUNNY TO ME WHEN FASHION BLOGGERS DOWN OUR OUFITS AND THEN SUPER JOCK OUTLANDISH SHIT ON THE RUNWAY BUT THEN THEY DRESS MAD PRUDE AND DON'T LIVE FASHION. WE LIVE IT MAN. FUCK THAT, WE LIVE IT!!! WE LIVE IT SO HARD PEOPLE LIVE THROUGH US! WE REPRESENT YOUR INNER SPIRIT!! THE CHILD IN US ALL, THE BRUTAL HONESTY, THE NAIVETY, THE BRAVE WARRIOR, THE ADRENALINE THAT ALLOWS A MOTHER TO LIFT A CAR IF HER CHILD WAS TRAPPED UNDER IT! REMEMBER, THERE WAS A TIME WHEN EVERYBODY DISSED MICHAEL JACKSON EVERY CHANCE THEY COULD. IMAGINE THE PRESSURE OF BEING A TRUE ICON. VERY FEW HUMAN BEINGS ARE STRONG ENOUGH TO TAKE CONSTANT HATE!!! IF WE DON'T DO WHAT YOU FEEL IS THE SHIT, YOU BEAT US UP VERBALLY AND MENTALLY, LIKE A CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER BEATING A CREATIVE STUDENT INTO SUBMISSION. I CAN HEAR YOU SCREAMING 'COLOR INSIDE THE LINES!!!' WELL FUCK YOUR COLORING BOOK, COLOR BY NUMBERS APPROACH TO LIFE. AT THE END OF THE DAY WHO ARE WE HURTING??? OH "THE NEW BLACK???" SINCE BARACK IS PRESIDENT BLACKS DON'T LIKE FUR COATS, RED LEATHER, AND FRIED CHICKEN ANY MORE?! WHEN YOU TRULY UNDERSTAND CULTURAL SETTINGS, BOUNDARIES, AND OUR MODERN DAY CASTE SYSTEMS, THEN YOU CAN FEEL THE GLORY AND PAIN FROM THE DAYS OF KINGS IN AFRICA TO THE NEW KINGS OF THE MEDIA. LET THE BALL PLAYERS DANCE AFTER THEY SCORE! IT'S LIFE MY NIGGAS, IT'S LIFE! REMEMBER CLOTHING IS A CHOICE. WE WERE BORN NAKED!!! FRESH IS AN OPINION, LOVE IS OBJECTIVE, TASTE IS SELECTIVE, AND EXPRESSION IS MY FAVORITE ELECTIVE. NO MORE POLITICS OR APOLOGIES!!!"

Photo by Autumn de Wilde

Kentucky's own My Morning Jacket are getting ready to return to what they do best-- playing marathon shows that make you believe in the rejuvenating powers of rock and/or roll. After a year away from the stage, the group will hit nine U.S. cities starting April 20 in Birmingham, Alabama. They'll be joined by New Orleans' famed Preservation Hall Jazz Band on all dates. (MMJ frontman Jim James recorded two songs with the Jazz Band for an upcoming benefit album out February 16.)

The list of shows are one click away:

My Morning Jacket:

04-20 Birmingham, AL - Alabama Theater *
04-21 Nashville, TN - Municipal Auditorium *
04-23 Atlanta, GA - Chastain Park *
04-24 New Orleans, LA - Jazzfest *
04-27 St. Augustine, FL - St. Augustine Amphitheater *
04-28 Charleston, SC - Family Circle *
04-30 Raleigh, NC - Koka Booth *
05-01 Columbia, MD - Merriweather Post Pavilion *
05-02 Columbus, OH - LC Outdoor Pavilion *

* with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band

-- Last year, the pioneering indie pop label Slumberland celebrated its 20th anniversary with shows in New York and D.C. In March, they'll follow it up with two California shows. Reunited Slumberland bands Boyracer, the How, Go Sailor, and Henry's Dress will join some of the label's newer bands at San Francisco's Rickshaw Stop on March 27 and the very next night at the Echo in L.A.

-- On March 23, Kill Rock Stars will release Live Recordings, TV-Clips & Roadmovies, a CD/DVD combo from O.G. Swiss postpunks Kleenex/LiLiPUT. The CD will include two complete live shows from 1979 and 1983, and the DVD will include Roadmovie, a documentary about their 1982 European tour, as well as live clips from Swiss TV.

-- Harlem rap monarch Cam'ron has formed a new group with fellow Harlem rapper Vado. Calling themselves the U.N., the duo will release their first album, Gunz N' Butta, on March 23 via E1 Music.

-- The dance-oriented Ultra Music Festival will hit Miami this March 26-27. The bill includes Passion Pit, Major Lazer and Diplo, A-Trak, Crookers, Carl Cox, Benga, Skream, Felix Da Housecat, Groove Armada, and tons and tons of incredibly popular trance DJs.

On February 15, Virgin will release Peter Gabriel's covers album Scratch My Back, on which he'll sing his version of songs by artists like Arcade Fire, Radiohead, Bon Iver, David Bowie, and others. After that, Gabriel plans to release I'll Scratch Yours, an album of the artists Gabriel covered on Scratch My Back taking on Gabriel's own songbook.

Apparently, Thom Yorke is already planning to cover Gabriel's "Wallflower", and now you can hear another track from the project: Magnetic Fields leader Stephin Merritt giving his version of "Not One of Us", a song from Gabriel's 1980 self-titled album (the one with the melty-face cover). Merritt's cover, interspersed with Merritt's own commentary about it, is streaming right now on Gabriel's website. (Via Stereogum.)

Sounds like Merritt's back to using synthesizers! But be advised: He also uses copious amounts of vocal effects, or what Merritt calls an "evil dwarf choir."

Tomorrow, Merritt's cover will go on sale at iTunes, along with Gabriel's version of the Magnetic Fields' "The Book of Love".

On March 1 in the UK and March 9 in the U.S., anthemic Scottish yelpers Frightened Rabbit will release album number three, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, via FatCat. And you know what that means: Touring time!

The members of the band have a busy, busy few months ahead of them. They'll start off in Australia before touring the UK and then making it over to North America in time for SXSW and Coachella. We've got all their dates below.

The Winter of Mixed Drinks will be proceeded by the single for "Nothing Like You" on February 23 (February 22 internationally), which you can hear (along with B-side "Learned Your Name") over on the FatCat website.

Frightened Rabbit:

01-29 Melbourne, Australia - Laneway Festival
01-31 Sydney, Australia - Laneway Festival
02-02 Sydney, Australia - Metro Theatre *
02-03 Sydney, Australia - The Filth at Beach Road Hotel
02-04 Melbourne, Australia - The Palais *
03-04 York, England - Duchess of York
03-05 Manchester, England - Club Academy
03-06 Aldershot, England - West End Centre
03-08 Bristol, England - Thekla
03-09 Oxford, England - Academy 2
03-10 London, England - Koko
03-12 Birmingham, England - Academy 2
03-13 Sheffield, England - Leadmill 2
03-14 Norwich, England - Arts Centre
03-17 Austin, TX - SXSW
03-18 Austin, TX - SXSW
03-19 Austin, TX - SXSW
03-20 Austin, TX - SXSW
04-17 Indio, CA - Coachella
04-19 Tempe, AZ - The Clubhouse
04-21 Houston, TX - Walter's
04-22 Dallas, TX - Loft at Palladium Ballroom
04-23 Little Rock, AR - Revolution
04-24 Atlanta, GA - The Masquerade
04-25 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
04-27 Washington, DC - Black Cat
04-28 New York, NY - Webster Hall
04-29 Boston, MA - Paradise
04-30 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
05-03 Montreal, Quebec - Petit Campus
05-04 Toronto, Ontario - Opera House
05-06 Newport, KY - Southgate House
05-07 St. Louis, MO - The Old Rock House
05-08 Chicago, IL - Metro
05-09 Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theatre
05-10 Minneapolis, MN - Varsity Theater
05-12 Denver, CO - Bluebird Theatre
05-13 Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
05-15 Vancouver, British Columbia - Biltmore Cabaret
05-16 Seattle, WA - Neumo's Crystal Ball Reading Room
05-17 Portland, OR - Berbati's Pan
05-19 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
05-22 San Diego, CA - Casbah

* with Echo and the Bunnymen

Lou Reed and his Metal Machine Trio bring music inspired by Reed's infamously abrasive 1975 album Metal Machine Music to the live stage in Europe for a string of dates this April. Accompanied by sax player Ulrich Krieger and noize maker Sarth Calhoun, Reed is set to play many discordant soundscapes, though a press release makes it clear he "won't duplicate the original" Metal Machine Music.

The tour coincides with a reissue of the LP on 180 gram vinyl, audio DVD, and-- for those who want their sonic corrosion crystal clear-- Blu-ray. The reissue is available to order on Lou's site now.

Dates below:

Lou Reed:

04-17 Cambridge, England - The Cambridge Junction
04-18 Oxford, England - O2 Academy
04-19 London, England - Royal Festival Hall
04-21 Paris, France - La Cigale
04-22 Brussels, Belgium - A/B (Domino Festival)
04-24 Copenhagen, Denmark - DR Koncerthuset
04-26 Oslo, Norway - Sentrum Scene
04-27 Bergen, Norway - Ole Bull Scene (Bergen Festival)
04-30 Mallorca, Spain - Teatre Principal de Palma

Remember Frente!? The Australian band that had a mid-90s alt-rock hit with a cover of New Order's "Bizarre Love Triangle"?

Well, last year, former Frente! leader Angie Hart put out an album called Eat My Shadow featuring a duet with none other than Bonnie "Prince" Billy. The lackadaisical country-folk tune is called "Little Bridges" and you can stream it at Hart's MySpace right now. (Via TwentyFourBit.)

Israeli garage rockers Monotonix are known for their live insanity-- they hang from ceilings, jump of off each other, and sometimes play drums on top of their audience. (Check Flickr for plenty of visual evidence.) Somehow, the band has never suffered a serious injury during a show-- until now.

"We never stopped a show in 700 shows, but yesterday it seemed like we should," wrote the band in a MySpace post, referring to their January 27 gig at West Palm Beach, Florida's Respectable Street Cafe, during which singer Ami Shalev broke his leg.

Originally chronicled in the Broward-Palm Beach New Times, the injury and its aftermath sounds nothing but surreal. As shown in a YouTube video (embedded below), after realizing he couldn't go on with the show, Shalev asked the crowd if there was a "doctor or paramedic" in the house, to which one particularly brazen patron responded, "Fuck you, pussy!" Eventually, a wrestling coach stepped in to help out.

But the weirdest part of the story occurred when Shalev got to JFK Memorial Hospital. "The doctor showed up asking for autographs," the band writes on MySpace, and "nurses kept coming in and out of the room with monotonix show videos playing on their ipods."

According to the MySpace message, "the highlight of the evening was the doctor showing us youtubes of his 12 year old son playing drums while Ami is getting pain killer shots to his butt from the nurse. there was a commercial TV in the hospital room and the bill was tremendous." But who needs health care reform, right?

Monotonix canceled a Georgia gig last night but are tentatively planning to play shows in Charlotte and Asheville, North Carolina today and tomorrow.

Scary post-break YouTube video (via Broward-Palm Beach New Times):

Mark your calenders! April 17 brings the 2010 edition of Record Store Day, a celebration of independent record stores. In years past, artists have released exclusive items for Record Store Day, and 2010 looks to be no different.

Last year, Portland punks the Thermals released a split 7" with Kill Rock Stars labelmates Thao With the Get Down Stay Down for Record Store Day.  And when Record Store Day rolls around again this year, the Thermals will drop another split single. This time, they'll share space with former tourmates the Cribs, and both bands will contribute brand new songs: the Thermals' "Separate" and the Cribs' hopefully Zoolander-inspired "So Hot Now". The split's limited to 2000 copies, so show up early.

In other Thermals news, the band is taking their ridiculously fun live show on the road in the next few months. First, they'll play a bunch of California dates with Thao. Then, they'll tour Australia, following it up with a few dates in mainland China-- whoa. And when that's done, they'll hit the Eastern seaboard with Past Lives. We've got all those dates below.

And they're also working on a new album with producer Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie. The LP, scheduled for a September 7 release on Kill Rock Stars, is tentatively titled Personal Life. So yeah, busy few months!

The Thermals:

02-05 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall *#
02-06 Santa Barbara, CA - Velvet Jones *
02-07 Solana Beach, CA - Belly Up Tavern *
02-09 Costa Mesa, CA - Detroit Bar *
02-10 San Luis Obispo, CA - Downtown Brewing Company *
02-11 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour *
02-12 Berkeley, CA - UC Berkeley (Lower Sprout Plaza) *
02-13 San Jose, CA - The Blank Club *
03-07 Brisbane, Australia - Lost Weekend Festival
03-09 Sydney, Australia - Oxford Art Factory
03-10 Armidale, Australia - University of New England
03-11 Wollongong, Australia - Wollongong University
03-12 Newcastle, Australia - Newcastle University
03-17 Beijing, China - Mao Live
03-18 Shanghai, China - YYT Live
03-19 Chengdu, China - 7-Live
03-20 Wuhan, China - VOX Live
04-07 Orlando, FL - Social ^
04-08 Tallahassee, FL - Club Downunder ^
04-09 Gainesville, FL - University of Florida (Rion Ballroom) ^
04-10 St. Augustine, Florida - Cafe Eleven
04-12 Wilmington, NC - The Soapbox Laundrolounge ^
04-13 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle ^
04-14 Charlottesville, VA - The Southern
04-15 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church ^
04-16 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar ^
04-17 Hamden, CT - The Space ^
04-18 Cambridge, MA - The Middle East ^
04-20 Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Bowl ^

* with Thao with the Get Down Stay Down
# with Grass Widow
^ with Past Lives