To support the upcoming release of Around The Well, a 2CD/3LP collection of rarities, Sam Beam is taking to the road for a small U.S. tour. Each of the city’s sets will be determined by the fans, as voted on at his website. Shortly after each show, you’ll be able to purchase the show recordings at Played Last Night.

Tourdates:

May 4: Seattle (Vera Project)
May 5: Seattle (Triple Door)
May 6-7: San Francisco (Swedish American Hall)
May 8: Los Angeles (Masonic Hall)
May 9: Los Angeles (Troubadour)
May 12: Chicago (Lakeshore Theatre)
May 13: Chicago (Schuba’s)
May 17-18: New York (Abrons Arts Center)

Additionally, proceeding the NYC dates Iron and Wine will be performing along with Flight Of The Conchords for a one-off show at Red Rocks on May 16.

Around The Well will feature songs that span the length of Iron and Wine’s career. To quote Sam Beam…well his webmaster, anyway…“The double-disc collection is broken up into two sections. The first half is an assortment of hushed home recordings, unedited and raw, and the second highlights moments captured in the confines of proper studios with the help of other musicians, friends and engineers.” A few covers will be on the collection, including Flaming Lips’ “Waitin’ for a Superman” and New Order’s “Love Vigilantes”.

If the above graphic from the main page of ironandwine.com, I’m hoping that he’s going to reinvent himself as some kind of hobo hip-hop artist ala Joaquin Phoenix’s recent odd turn.

Maybe not….actually, hopefully not.

Finally, Iron and Wine’s cover of The Postal Service’s ‘Such Great Heights’ will be featured on Around The Well and is a touching and brilliant reinventing of an already fantastic track.

Iron and Wine – Such Great Heights (Postal Service Cover)

Nothing is sadder than a young passing. The electronic duo Telefon Tel Aviv lost a member recently, just two days shy of the release of their third album Immolate Yourself. Cooper was just 31 and in my opinion, in the midst of what would have been a long, fruitful career. You can read a small, but touching bit written by Joshua Eustis, the other half of the group on their myspace blog.

Here is my favorite track of theirs, the title track from 2001′s Fahrenheit Fair Enough. It’s a calming instrumental, skittering with polite blips and beeps that sing like lead vocals.

Telefon Tel Aviv – Fahrenheit Fair Enough

Arthur Magazine is a fantastically bizarre blip of a free publication. Nothing else really exists like it and at the moment the fate of the magazine is in jeopardy. When Jay Babcock, present manager of the mag, bought out the magazine from his ex-partner, he landed himself in a tough financial place. The magazine is looking to collect $20,000 by the first of July, in order to have enough funds to resume publication. At the time of posting, they’re close — just $317.00 away from the final goal. Scrape together a few bucks to give to them via Paypal.Though they’re close to the desired goal, anything above the line can and will help.

Arthur is a geologic sample from far below the surface of any scene. Reading the magazine brings on a grand sugar rush reminder that a million bands will spend their lives intensely focused on music that will fly below the collective radar. I have to tip my hat to any mag that’ll devote as many words as they do to noise music, doom metal, and all things on the periphery.

One of the key features that is worth reading each and every issue is Bull Tongue, a column by Sonic Youth grand master Thurston Moore and Byron Coley (contributor to another great publication Wire Magazine). Each month they dig through and discuss piles of strange records in the most charmingly relaxed manner. A lot of times people are forced to wax pretentious about the obscure and the weird, but Bull Tongue always does so in an breezy manner.

Arthur keeps an archive of recent issues up on the site in PDF form. Go poke through and read some of the fantastic words they’ve assembled over the years. If you like, give a little money to keep a unique entity afloat.

An update to earlier post regarding the tantalizingly ‘free’ Sigur Rós & Björk show to be held in Reykjavik this weekend (June 28th). The good folks at National Geographic will be webcasting the show for all to see.

Tune into National Geographic Music from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET (begins at 8 p.m. BST/London or 7 p.m. GMT/Reykjavik) to see, as they put it on their site…”some Björkage“.

National Geographic was never good at jokes.

And, please, don’t make Sigur Rós into a verb.

Björk, Sigur Rós, & múm participant Ólöf Arnalds will perform together in Reykjavik June 28th in an effort to raise awareness for the growing environmental crisis. While this concert takes place in one of the more beautiful spots on Earth, the ultimate issue with it takes to transport folks from around the world to Reykjavik might create a worse dent along with the awareness. I wouldn’t fault you wanting to go anyway. It’s free, except for the $600+ plane ticket.

Instead, you can check out the recent DVD release of Screaming Masterpiece. The documentary, which focuses on the the ever intriguing Icelandic music scene hit the shelves back in ’06 and features live clips from a variety of the country’s top talent.

As an added consolation prize, here’s a track from Sigur Rós’s upcoming LP Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust. The simple song, almost completely unadorned by Rós-ian standards, lets the acoustic guitar provide most of the backing for Jonsi’s ever otherworldly voice. A promising prospect for the new album, which releases on June 24th via XL.

Sigur Ros – Illgresi

Gearing up for a benefit hosted by NYC’s art collective The Kitchen, ex-Talking Heads frontman/artful blogger David Byrne created a fantastic forced-interaction art piece. In honor of the May 21st’s spring gala benefit honoring Christian Marclay, Byrne has stitched together 100 effects pedals designed to be walked across as the patrons enter the space randomly engaging them with each cautious step. The above photo shows a peek at the work in progress.

If you’ve ever spent any time, as I have, hunched over a few random pedals idly twisting knobs to force out some squelches and echoed bleets, the prospect of this massive citylike grid of noiseboxes brings more than a bit of joy. I’m also a fervent fan of forced participation art. The more unsuspecting the better, in my book.

The only thing I could probably fault the revered Mr. Byrne would be for the Twin Peaks pun in the title of his post. “Pedal Walk With Me”? Let that be the greatest sin committed.

The Kitchen Spring Gala Benefit takes place Wed. May 21st at The Puck Building – 295 Lafayette Street. Tickets start at $600.00.

I think this flyer wins. Screw the specifics, nobody needs to know the cover…let’s just put the spooky visage of Hurley floating over a desert. I’m sold.

If you’re in Chicago, skip Lost and go see Mahjongg at the Empty Bottle.

As it stands, I’d probably not skip Lost for this show (a potent combination of laziness and dedication to that damn tv show), but my situation is solved by not living in Chicago anymore.

Both the Machinegong EP & Raydoncong 2005 are tinny, weirdo gems, full of danceable quirk. This year’s record Kontpab, released on K Records has yet to fully win me over but I guarantee that tonight’s Empty Bottle show will be well worth seeing.

Just when I had taken a moment to wonder, “What did happen to The Notwist?” a leak of their new album The Devil, You & Me appeared, floating around the fringes of the interwub and without hesitation, grabbed it.

The album is a half step forward, moving on from Neon Golden, stressing less the glitchy backing and relying more on elements that album composed as a band. For The Devil, You & Me, the subtlety from 13&God carries over to many of the songs as they solemnly click along, propelled by an undercurrent of noise or subtle electronic backing. Where formerly the electronics would step to the spotlight, defining the construct of the song, it now feels like they function as the undercurrent that drives each. The beautiful digital harshness of Neon Golden has taken backstage to more organic measures to set the tone: delicate acoustic strumming underpins the album closer ‘Gone Gone Gone’ and a terse swirl of strings ducks in and out of the tension of “Where In The World”.

Markus Archer’s vocals stand strong as the core of most every track on The Devil, You & Me. His voice is a comforting coo that occasionally strains when stretching around moments of the brightest melody. There’s something wonderful in Archer’s voice that varies so little in tone yet conveys so much emotion. The beauty in The Devil, You & Me, and as well The Notwist on a whole, is that there is something so uncomplicated yet expressive to every track on this album. With this record, they continue to build on the emotional dynamic established with Neon Golden, creating something beautiful, enveloping, and worthy of repeat listenings.

Check out the notwist’s homepage for the video for the lead single ‘Where In The World’. As well you can purchase the 7inch single, which features a b-side remix of The Devil, You & Me track ‘Sleep’ by Odd Nosdam, who, in my opinion, turns everything he touches into hazy awesome.

Take a listen to the album opener “Good Lies” which was released via their label City Slang.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD “GOOD LIES”

The Devil, You & Me releases in Europe on May 2nd.

Hiatus has become breakup and it’s ultimately no surprise. In the six years since Godspeed You Black Emperor released Yanqui X.U.O, I could only hope that they’d get their shit together and release something new…but it’s not going to happen. In an interview, former GYBE guitarist gives the full details on why the band is no more. Even though A Silver Mt. Zion remains (and will release a new album in a month), there’s nothing that can truly replace GYBE.

Read all of what ex-”frontman” Efrim Menuck had to say in the Drowned In Sound interview.

I won’t even begin to poke fun at the whole “blame the war” factor in the band’s break-up. Seriously, it’s better without jokes.