The Tetrafol device

Fol Chen, in collaboration with Monome and The Machine Project, has announced the availability of the limited-edition Tetrafol, “a hand-held tangible electronic sound toy.” The Fol Chen track “So Good” is included with the Tetrafol and can be streamed below.

Fol Chen – So Good by WeGetPress

According to the press release, the Tetrafol is:

Circuits enclosed by a wooden tetrahedron detect orientation and motion-gestures to modify the playback of a collection of Fol Chen’s micro-compositions, allowing the user to explore sound through physical manipulation. The battery-powered device has its own internal speaker but can additionally be hooked up to a headphone or amplifier. The circuit and firmware are based on open-source hardware and is itself published as open-source, allowing anyone interested to learn about its deepest inner-workings.

The device will come pre-loaded with the sounds Fol Chen created for new track “So Good”, allowing people to create their own take on the song, but users will be able to upload their own music to the device for manipulation as well.

Only 100 of the hand-constructed Tetrafols will be produced.

Garbage

The official release is several weeks old – I’m behind – but I could let the opportunity slip to pass along the word that one of my favorite bands from the ’90′s, Garbage, have reformed and will be releasing a new album in Spring 2012.

The yet-to-be-named album will be the band’s fifth, and the first in seven years.

Best of 2009

In times like these, everyone needs to support their local record store, regardless of where local might be. Our friends at RED are giving away a free 17-track CD features a boat load of artists (Phoenix, White Rabbits, Cage The Elephant, The Antlers, Brendan Benson, Passion Pit, more) with the purchase of select titles. (Details below). This available a local indie record stores across the US.

The featured RED Best of 2009 titles for purchase as part of this deal include:

Black Crowes (DVD): Cabin Fever
Cage The Elephant: Cage The Elephant
Passion Pit: Manners
Phish: Joy
Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Rodrigo y Gabriela: 11:11
White Rabbits: It’s Frightening

RED Best of 2009 CD track listing

1. Brendan Benson “A Whole Lot Better” (from the album My Old, Familiar Friend)
2. Phoenix “1901” (from the album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix)
3. The Temper Trap “Sweet Disposition” (from the album Conditions)
4. Rodrigo y Gabriela “Buster Voodoo” (from the album 11:11)
5. White Rabbits “Percussion Gun” (from the album It’s Frightening)
6. Mumford & Sons “Little Lion Man” (from the album Sigh No More – released March 2010)
7. The Dodos “Fables” (from the album Time To Die)
8. Port O’Brien “My Will Is Good” (from the album Threadbare)
9. The Whigs “In The Dark” (from the album In The Dark – released Feb 2010)
10. Cage The Elephant “Tiny Little Robots” (from the album Cage The Elephant)
11. Cory Chisel & The Wandering Sons “Born Again” (from the album Death Won’t Send A Letter)
12. Dawes “When My Time Comes” (from the album North Hills)
13. Hot Chelle Rae “I Like To Dance” (from the album Lovesick Electric)
14. Passion Pit “The Reeling” (from the album Manners)
15. Mew “Beach” (from the album No More Stories…)
16. The Antlers “Bear” (from the album Hospice)
17. Black Crowes “Good Morning Captain” (Live & Unreleased) (original version from the album Before The Frost)

The promotion is currently running through the end of January 2010.

Participating stores:
52.5 (Charleston, SC)
Backdoor (Cotati, CA)
Barts (Boulder, CO)
Boo Boo Records (San Luis Obispo, CA)
Bull Moose Music (ME, NH)
Cactus (Houstin, TX)
CD Central (Lexington, KY)
CD Connection (Jackson, FL)
CD World (Eugene, OR)
Central Square (Santa Rosa Beach, FL)
Criminal Records (Atlanta, GA)
Culture Clash (Toledo, OH)
Dimple Records (Sacramento area, CA)
Disc Exchange (Louisville, KY)
Earshot (Greenville, SC)
earX-tacy (Louisville, KY)
Easy Street (Seattle, WA)
Electric Fetus (MN)
End of an Ear (Austin, TX)
Exile on Main St (Branford, CT)
Finders Records (Bowling Green, OH)
Fingerprints (Long Beach, CA)
Gallery Of Sound (PA)
Gem City (Dayton, OH)
Good Records (Dallas, TX)
Graywhale CD Exchange (UT)
Grimey’s (Nashville, TN)
Guestroom Records (OK)
Homer’s (Omaha, NE)
Hot Poop (Walla Walla, WA)
Independent Records (CO)
Indy CD & Vinyl (Indianapolis, IN)
Jackpot Records (Portland, OR)
Keif’s (Lawrence, KS)
Lakeshore Record Exchange (Rochester, NY)
Landlocked Music (Bloomington, IN)
Looney Tunes (West Babylon, NY)
Lou’s Records (Encinitas, CA)
Luna Music (Indianapolis, IN)
Mad Platter (Riverside, CA)
Magnolia Thunderpussy (Columbus, OH)
Manifest (SC, NC)
M-Theory (San Diego, CA)
Music Millennium (Portland, OR)
Newbury Comics (MA, NH, RI, ME, CT)
Off The Record (Yakima, WA)
Park Avenue CD (Orlando, FL)
Plan 9 (VA)
Pure Pop (Burlington, VT)
Rainbow Books and Music (Newark, DE)
Rasputin Music (CA)
Record & Tape Traders (MD, DE)
Record Archive (Rochester, NY)
Record Exchange (Boise, ID)
Record Exchange/Plan9 (Winston-Salem)
Rhino Records (Claremont, CA)
Rock-a-Billys (Utica, MI)
Rockin’ Rudy’s (Missoula, MT)
Salzer’s (Ventura, CA)
Schoolkids (Raleigh, NC; Athens, GA)
Shake It (Cincinnati, OH)
Silver Platters (WA)
Slow Train (Salt Lake City, UT)
Sonic Boom (Seattle, WA)
Sound Garden (MD, NY)
SpinStreet (Memphis, TN)
Stinkweeds (Phoenix, AZ)
Streetlight (CA)
The Exclusive Company (WI)
Twist and Shout (Denver, CO)
Uncle Sam’s (Miami Beach, FL)
Vintage Vinyl (Fords, NJ; St. Louis, MO)
Vinyl Fever (Tampa, FL)
Waterloo Records and Video (Austin, TX)
Zia Record Exchange (AZ, NV)

Cassettes Won't Listen

- Cassettes Won’t Listen will release a new single, “Perfect Day” on November 17 and will host MTV2′s Subterranean on December 13.

- Brooklyn-based Body Language hits the road opening for Zero 7 on November 27, 2009

- Violens release free ‘Winter Mixtape’ and announce UK tour with White Lies

- Vincent Moon won The Sound And Vision Award for “La Faute Des Fleurs” a portrait of Kazuki Tomokawa at the CPH DOX Film Festival

The Anwering Machine

- The Answering Machine have released their “Obviously Cold” video. The UK band, comprised of Martin Colclough, Pat Fogarty, Gemma Evans and Ben Perry, completed their debut album Another City, Another Sorry on which Dave Eringa (Manic Street Preachers) produced.

“We’re still writing about drinking, sex and arguing but those things go so much deeper than surface level and it took us time to adjust to and understand that,” said Colclough. “We’ve had to redefine the boundaries of relationships, and master the act of survival which everyone our age is having to do. Ultimately we have written an album that we hope a generation and beyond will be able to identify with.”

- Longwave will play their final show of the year at Bowery Ballroom in New York on Saturday, November 14. The band is offering a free download on its site www.longwavetheband.com/bowery daily through Friday. Fans can also enter for the chance to win one of five guest list spots for the Saturday show.

- The Drums have announced details of their next single, “I Felt Stupid” out on November 23 in the UK.

- We Have Band and The xx were recently featured on ABC News “Amplified” http://www.abcnews.com/amplified

- Passion Pit to play Jimmy Kimmel Live on December 8 after performing on the mtvU Woodie Awards show December 4.

- RED Distribution has produced a benefit compilation for the non-profit organization Malaria No More. Indie Rocks! A Benefit Album For Malaria No More is comprised of 14 songs from artists including Juliette Lewis, The Walkmen and Youssou N’Dour, in addition to an exclusive unreleased live track from Third Eye Blind, and an exclusive cover track from Peter, Bjorn, & John. On November 17, 2009, the digital-only release will launch on Amie Street with a four week exclusivity period. The album will then be available to all participating digital service providers. RED and Amie Street will be donating 100% of the proceeds to Malaria No More.

Track Listing
1.) Peter Bjorn & John – Summer Breeze (Exclusive)
2.) Juliette Lewis – Fantasy Bar, from Terra Incognita
3.) Jeff The Brotherhood – Bone Jam, from Heavy Days
4.) The Grates – Two Kinds Of Right from Teeth Lost, Hearts Won
5.) Third Eye Blind – Bonfire (Exclusive, Live in NYC)
6.) Dirty Little Rabbits- Hello, from Simon
7.) Wild Light – Adult Nights, from Adult Nights
8.) The Walkmen – Four Provinces, from You & Me
9.) State Radio – Let It Go, from Calling All Crows
10.) Those Darlins – Wild One, from Those Darlins
11.) Great Lake Swimmers – Pulling On A Line, from Lost Channels
12.) Kate Miller Heidke – Politics in Space, from EP Kate Miller-Heidke
13.) Yonder Mountain String Band – Fingerprint, from The Show
14.) Youssou N’Dour – Fight Malaria

- 60 Watt Kid has released a for “Virtual Plastic Surgery”:

60 Watt Kid – Virtual Plastic Surgery from JOSH on Vimeo.

Red Collar will release a limited edition (500 unites) vinyl version of their debut album Pilgrim on December 1, 2009 via Loose Charm Records.

Twin Tigers

Twin Tigers are on tour with The Antlers and Minus the Bear. The Athens-based band will be releasing their debut LP Gray Waves early in 2010.

Boston’s Mean Creek announced they they will be touring with the Whigs this fall.

The xx

The Quietus is reporting that The xx guitarist Baria Quereshi has left the group. The band played their most recent show as a three-piece, but has canceled European dates while determining the future of the band. While, according to the story, the band has labeled her leave as temporary, the future may be up-in-the-air for a London-based band whose emergence has highlighted this year’s parade of new music.

Pitchfork.com is reporting that label sources say Quereshi’s departure is due to exhaustion, and that the band will resume its tour on November 3 in Frankfurt, Germany.

The band’s Web site and social networking pages do not reference the cancellations.

The xx emerged earlier this year with their debut LP, xx, which was released on August 17, 2009 in the UK (October 6, 2009 in the US). The band, formed at the Elliott School (noted alums, Four Tet, Hot Chip) in London, consists of members Romy Madley Croft, Qureshi, Oliver Sim and Jamie Smith all in their early 20′s. The band recently finished playing CMJ in New York and was previously on tour with The Big Pink and Micachu.

The complete The Quietus article can be found here: http://thequietus.com/articles/03092-the-xx-down-to-three-split

First, let me mention how much I’m enjoying listening to this track from Brooklyn’s Secondstar. Secondstar is a project by Liam Carey which is self-described as, “alt-folk-rock with guitar, banjo, layered vocals, some horns, drums, cello and whistling – with bunches of harmonies”. The song, “Great Machine” is from the Teeth EP.

Chuck Prophet has a new album out October 27.
MP3 – Chuck Prophet – Let Freedom Ring

Black Apples are a psychedelic surf rock out of LA recently signed to BMI.
MP3 – Black Apples – 20 Years at Sea

Syntaks are a Danish ambient pop duo whose debut album Ylajali is out November 3, 2009 via Ghostly International. (I would have loved to have posted the single for “Sudden Dream” but the file was too large.)

DJdc interview albums The Soft Pack (f.k.a The Muslims) have released a pretty awesome version of Phoenix’s “Fences”.