Today's Hotness: American Hardcore, Mobius Band, Hold Steady

>> This one's a bit of a head scratcher (well, not really, we guess it is just a distro deal, but anyway...). The documentary American Hardcore, based on an awesome book of the same name featuring music acts about as far removed from the '70s and '80s mainstream as physically and sociologically possible, has teamed up with major Hollywood studio Sony Pictures Classics and YouTube for a contest. Basically, winners get to attend one of several premieres for the film, shoot some video, see the documentary and post your video on YouTube. We'd totally enter except we don't have a video camera. Anyway, all the details are here, and the news takeaway is that there are planned premieres of "American Hardcore" in Boston, Los Angeles, Manhattan and San Francisco. According to a blog about the film, American Hardcore screened most recently in a small town in Germany; it was the first showing since Sundance last January. Haven't seen the trailer for the flick yet? There are actually two: watch here and here.

>> Coolfer here name-drops :: clicky clicky :: faves Mobius Band, stating folks from Columbia Records A&R recently attended a show. Coolfer says the visit was more curiosity than interest, but who knows? If Columbia can pull this off, we hope they act on the Mobius Band track jacket idea we had earlier this year. We won't even demand a cut of the action -- just a free jacket.

>> Aversion here checks in on the web site being used to promote the forthcoming set from The Hold Steady and notices that its video promotion is sort of stiffing. A feature of the BoysAndGirlsInAmerica.com site allowed fans to upload video of themselves talking about, um, being boys and girls in America, or something. So far not many have taken the band up on the offer. This sharply contrasts with the relatively broad participation in a similar feature at Yo La Tengo's IAmNotAfraidOfYouAndIWillBeatYourAss.com that we discussed last week. The Hold Steady's Boys And Girls In America streets Oct. 3 on Vagrant.

>> Beginning Friday, the same day its West Coast tour begins, legendary post-punk act Mission of Burma will begin posting a tour diary at Pantsfork. Details here.