March 8, 2006

Today's Hotness: Clark, Tom Vek, Dresden Dolls

>> Warp has released a new EP from Clark, f/k/a Chris Clark. The mini set is called Throttle Furniture, and it precedes a full-length expected before the end of the year. Mr. Clark rose to relative prominence in the electronic music community via his 2003 sophomore release Empty The Bones Of You. You can listen to Throttle Furniture here in those frustratingly brief thirty-second snippets that digital storefront Bleep.com doles out. The venerable label also announced it has signed Battles' Tyondai Braxton and plans to release a solo effort from the multi-instrumentalist later this year.

>> Startime International is prepping the masses for a fresh wave of Tom Vek-a-mania by offering a b-side for download ahead of Mr. Vek's appearance Thursday night on the American teen soap "The O.C." The label is also selling an EP at ITunes to capitalize on the hype a bit. Here's a link to the ITunes EP; right click and save as for an MP3 of the bumpin' track "Things Are Here To Stay."

>> Recent posts from Lou Barlow at the Loobiecore forum indicate that some things about the resuscitated Dinosaur Jr. are the same as they ever were. Mr. Barlow notes that the project is "J's deal and he's not exactly inviting me to write (not discouraging me either but..)... I think I may get 1 or 2 in if I really assert myself." More details at the FreakScene message boards here.

>> Cabaret punkers Dresden Dolls get the feature treatment here from Billboard today. Frontwoman Amanda Palmer discusses how being a more experienced songwriter makes her more comfortable with musical simplicity. The duo's next set, Yes, Virginia..., streets April 18 on Roadrunner.

>> Thurston Moore here tells Brit hypesheet NME that the forthcoming Sonic Youth record is influenced by so-called '70s bands like Blue Oyster Cult, the theme song to erstwhile television comedy "Friends," and early, thrashy Go-Gos. While this is likely true, it'd be really funny if Thurston was just telling them made-up crap for fun.

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