Today's Hotness: Lilys, Johnny Foreigner, Frightened Rabbit

>> Holy crap! All of our favorite bands popped up on the radar today. Like this video above of The Heez, a/k/a Lilys main man Kurt Heasley, performing "Ginger" recently at some sort of 'zine storefront. And whoah, we think we just heard through the haze of our noise-canceling headphones a Lilys song being used in the episode of "90210" Ms. Clicky Clicky is watching as we type this -- that can't have happened. The video clip posted supra was unearthed by and first posted here by Philebrity yesterday. It features a slightly slowed-down and surprisingly hypnotic acoustic (and truncated -- the first verse is not part of the clip) take on the song made famous by an apparel and scent brand in the '90s. "Ginger" is the opening track to A Brief History Of Amazing Letdowns, which is one of the best EPs ever released. Of course, it is now out of print, and the bankruptcy of Spin Art Records seems to have doomed any hopes of ever getting the record reissued. You know what would be awesome? If Mr. Heasley pulled together all the old personnel (over the last 17 years there have been something like 70 different members of Lilys) and re-recorded the albums, like Camper Van Beethoven just did with certain tracks from its Virgin releases. Heasley is giving away several at the Lilys MySpace, but we'll save you the trip and post some below. Lilys are scheduled to perform at the forthcoming All Tomorrow's Parties event in New York being curated by My Bloody Valentine.

Lilys -- "Ginger" -- A Brief History Of Amazing Letdowns
Lilys -- "Dandy" -- A Brief History Of Amazing Letdowns
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[buy Lilys records from Newbury Comics right here]

>> Thanks to our anonymous tipster who early yesterday hipped us to the fact that Johnny Foreigner had just updated its MySpace yert to show that the Birmingham, England-based indie rock trio will perform at CMJ in Manhattan next month. The trio will perform at something called the Levi's Fader Fort on Oct. 23. A quick trip to the Googles shows that a similar fort was erected during South By Southwest this past spring. Brass tacks: will folks need a CMJ wristband for this? Seems unlikely. It may not matter, as we're not sure if we've got the work vacation days to make it down to Manhattan for the show anyway, but crazier things have happened. Johnny Foreigner's spastically good Waited Up Til It Was Light is released domestically by Nettwerk Sept. 23.

>> It would seem to be the era of the surprise album. Although today's news that superlative Scottish indie rockers Frightened Rabbit will release a live record Oct. 21 was presaged by a new MySpace profile graphic, which gave us pause when we saw it earlier this week. So, yes, Frightened Rabbit's Liver! Lung! FR! live set -- technically its second, if you count this piping hot live release issued through EMusic last year -- will be on shelves in a scant six weeks thanks to its label Fat Cat. When we wrote about the band just last week we had noted the fact that the only new product Frightened Rabbit would have to shill when it arrived in the U.S. for a tour next month was a new single featuring "I Feel Better" b/w "The Twist." Those are hot numbers, but having a whole live album to sell at a kick-ass live show seems like a much better idea. We're hoping that the band is traveling with copies of Liver! Lung! FR! prior to its release, because the quartet performs here in Cambridge Oct. 19, two days before the official release day.

>> Today we heard for the first time (in recent memory anyway -- we have a sneaking suspicion the CD lurks somewhere in the collection) Chappaquiddick Skyline's cover of New Order's amazing tune "Leave Me Alone." Not long after hearing the song we came across this scant item at AngryApe that states Rhino will reissue Sept. 28 (in the U.K. only?) the first five New Order records (from Movement to Technique) in expanded versions including a second disc of b-sides and demos and all that jazz. All that jazz that makes us crazy wondering whether we'll need to buy these, should they come to rest in American racks. It's bad enough The Replacements and The Cure have bled us dry in the last couple years (although we can't wait until Sept. 23 to get the next slate of 'Mats stuff), but now the Mancunian quartet -- which has already released a countless number of hits collections and box sets over the years -- feels the need to go into our wallets again. And we'll probably let them.

>> Speaking of The Cure, Geffen claims that the veteran English alt-rockers currently have four singles in the Billboard Top 20. This astounds us. Especially because we recall only really liking one of said singles. All four tracks will appear on The Cure's forthcoming 13th album 4:13 Dream, which will be released by the aforementioned label Oct. 28. Bradley's Almanac's recent recording of The Cure's live performance in Boston was so good it made us wish we had made the jaunt over the river to see it ourselves, and we very much like the currently lineup of the band, which includes stored sidemen Simon Gallup and Porl Thompson back on bass and guitar respectively. So we're hoping we'll like the new record. The Cure release next week an EP titled Hypnogogic States containing remixes of the first four singles; the list of remixers is frankly sad, save for post-rock act 65DaysOfStatic. On the bright side, all artist royalties from the sale of the EP go to support the International Red Cross.