We don't want to call MF DOOM an unreliable guy. We like to imagine that instead of recording music he is sneaking around doing important stuff like hunting down Osama bin Laden or building seal habitats. Either way, the fact remains: The rumored follow-up to Madvillainy, DOOM's 2004 collaboration with Madlib, remains unfinished.

While we wait for the album, Madlib has stepped in to make up for his Madvillain partner's absence with the release of a record called Madvillainy 2: The Madlib Remix. Madvillainy 2 shares no song titles with Madvillainy, but that just makes it easier to treat this reworking as a new entity.

The digital version of Madvillainy 2 is available exclusively from Stones Throw's online store right now, but still forthcoming is a souped-up edition of the record called Madvillainy 2: The Box. The Box includes the Madvillainy 2 CD, a 7" featuring "One Beer (Drunk Version)", a cassette featuring The Madvillainy Demo Tape which leaked online prior to Madvillainy's release, a Madvillain t-shirt, and a comic book continuation of the "All Caps" video. All of this comes in a box "wrapped in silver like a mask," according to Stones Throw's description.

Stones Throw is manufacturing copies of Madvillainy 2: The Box based on pre-orders, so anyone who wants one should order by August 15 to receive a copy after the guaranteed ship date of September 15. The cost of The Box is steep-- $124.99 plus shipping-- but such is price of so many goodies.

And you know that's not all Madlib's up to. On September 30, he'll unveil his contribution to BBE's series Beat Generation. Titled WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip, the compilation includes tracks from Guilty Simpson, J.Rocc, Murs, Madlib himself, and his thing with Oh No, the Professionals. WLIB AM is anchored by a bunch of offerings from Madlib's Beat Konducta guise, and will bear the stamps of both BBE and Rapster Records.

Speaking of Beat Konducta, Madlib plans to re-adopt the moniker for a fifth volume of instrumental head-nodders called Dil Cosby Suite. That disc may surface as soon as next month. Also in the pipeline: a record called Miles Away from Madlib's Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble.

As for DOOM, if we cross our fingers extra hard, maybe we'll see his ages-in-the-making Ghostface collaboration Swift & Changeable before the year is out?

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Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste has been hinting at a poppier mood for the Brooklyn experimental combo's forthcoming follow-up to the masterful Yellow House and Friend EP releases. As performed last night on "Late Show With David Letterman", new song "Two Weeks" is indeed "sunnier," as Droste had suggested, but it's also full of the soaring harmonies and sylvan intricacies that have made Grizzly Bear's previous works smarter (and awesomer) than the average. Accompanied by Thomas "Doveman" Bartlett, Droste & co. put bouncy Zombies keyboards over atmospheric guitars and clickety-clack drumming. "A routine malaise," Droste croons, a sentiment that's sunny only for a city where the building next door blocks out all your bedroom's natural light. Big thanks to ryann7739 and ratsnratsnrats! of atease web for the tip.

MP3:> Grizzly Bear: "Two Weeks"

Update: Here is the video:

Video:> Grizzly Bear: "Two Weeks" 

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When Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville shows in San Francisco, New York, and Chicago were announced last month, we were told that "no additional shows" would be announced. That, as it turns out, was a goddamned lie, which is good news for residents of three East Coast cities.

Liz and band will tackle Guyville three more times towards the end of August over consecutive nights in Philly, D.C., and Boston. All this, of course, comes in the wake of the deluxe reissue of Guyville from Phair's new label ATO. Let's just hope the Chicago show was an outlier, yeah?

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Photo by Shannon McClean

Man, after this long on the road, Okkervil River's gonna need a few Stand Ins of their own. The ardent Austin band, soon to release a sorta-sequel to last year's fine The Stage Names LP, have thrown a bunch of dates onto the back end of their tour itinerary, which now sees them on the road at least a little (and mostly a lot) every month from this one through November. A set at Lollapalooza next weekend in Chicago gets things started.

The Stand Ins is due from Jagjaguwar September 9 in North America, October 13 in the U.K., September 1 in France, September 12 in Germany, September 17 in Japan, and September 8 throughout the rest of Europe. Got all that?

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Indietracks is sort of an awkward name for a thing, sure, like Dijonnaise. Then again, just like there's no more appropriate term for the intersection of dijon mustard and mayonnaise, what the hell else are you gonna call a festival where indie bands perform on real live trains? Exactly.

So, Indietracks it is. Taking place July 26-27 at the Midland Railway in Butterley, England, the fest packs a mess of indie pop bands onto three boring old static stages, plus, as we cannot possibly mention enough, one stage on a moving train.

The likes of the Wedding Present, Los Campesinos!, Manhattan Love Suicides, Airport Girl, the Wave Pictures, Comet Gain, Ballboy, Red Pony Clock, Milky Wimpshake, Shrag, St. Christopher, the Smittens, and oh so many others will slide into the station this coming weekend.

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Nothing, and I mean nothing, warms the cockles of my heart like ominous, tribal, droning, post-punk abstraction. OK, a video illustrating the joyous energy all the tom-tom pounding and shrill noise-making can generate in a live setting actually does enhance the experience. The clip for These Are Powers' "Cockles", from the Brooklyn band's soon-to-be-reissued 2008 Taro Tarot EP, starts casually, with some live pre-song chatter and footage of fans with glow sticks. From there it's a rapidly edited compilation of shots from several of the band's raw-and-ready small-venue shows. Lead vocalist Anna Barie grins beatifically, closing her eyes as she bangs on a tambourine or sings, "It's all in your heart." Thus warming the cockles of said organ, regardless of your tolerance for "ghost-punk" or other made-up genres.

[from the Taro Tarot EP; out now on Hoss and due as a reissue 10/07/08 on Dead Oceans]

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Photo by Nilina Mason-Campbell

Low have revealed some tour dates at festivals, a museum, a previously mentioned Obama benefit, and even a "UFO Factory" to keep themselves busy this summer. Aside from the variety of venues, the most notable aspect of these new dates comes in the form of three shows, each tagged as "An Evening With Low". Meaning? Since these shows feature no openers, Low will play longer sets and cover more discography ground than usual. Who knows how far into the back catalog and cover canon they might go?

The fun begins August 27 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and the first "Evening With" gig hits Chicago on September 17.

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Music may be figuratively good for the heart, but forthcoming compilation Beaterblocker takes heart-benefiting a step further. According to a press release, Beaterblocker curator Ed Godden created the "experimental mixed genre compilation...in aid of the ACU and Lamb Ward at the Homerton Hospital" in London. Godden's reason for doing so is simple: "I had a heart attack last year, and the album is a thank you to everyone who looked after me. It was scary. I was 21."

Beaterblocker features tracks from Marissa Nadler, Vladislav Delay, Ghosthype, Alex Smoke, Abdullah Flex, Marsen Jules, Klimek, Panda Bear/Ariel Pink collaborator John Maus, and Angel Deradoorian of Dirty Projectors. Its limited first edition will be available from a couple British shops and from the compilation's website on July 25, and all proceeds will go to the Homerton Hospital.

To celebrate Beaterblocker's entry into the world, there will be a free launch party tonight (July 24) at London's Flea Pit, featuring a live set from Abdullah Flex and DJ sets and visuals from Ghosthype, Dead Leaf Echo, Allez-Allez, and Upset the Rhythm. Copies of the compilation will be available for purchase at the launch party.

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Photo by Jimmy Edgar

Remember the title of Metro Area man Morgan Geist's years-in-the-making solo jaunt when listening to the Italo-techno-r&b of advance mp3 "The Shore". From the Brooklyn producer's forthcoming Double Night Time on Environ, this phosphorescent track conjures moonlit desolation rather than tropical idyll, with Junior Boys' Jeremy Greenspan contributing limpid, mannered vocals (as he does elsewhere on the album). There can be a humbling beauty in walking alone by the water at night, but it's no day at the beach.

Unlike Geist's 2006 single with Greenspan, "Most of All", which had dreamy electric guitar, "The Shore" is almost exclusively electronic. A bassline of jittery funk trades off with flashing organ sounds on the verses, programmed percussion hissing like the waves down on the beach. The choruses find some release in ascending synth runs. "It's OK to let it out," Greenspan coolly repeats. Sustained keyboard chords recalling Hot Chip's "Made in the Dark" spread out toward the conclusion, made more disorienting by stereo-panned bleeps. Despite some clunky lyrical phrasing, it's here that Greenspan's narrator finds a way to forget-- at last!-- the person whose memory he's been drowning in these waters all along.

[from Double Night Time; due in September on Environ]

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It used to be a Shellac tour was a rare occasion, but since just before the release of Excellent Italian Greyhound, Steve Albini and co. have toured regularly enough to be considered a functioning band. It's as if they realized people want to hear from them more than once every couple years. Crazy!

Shellac will give the people what they want again this September and October with a short tour of North America, the UK, and Ireland. The tour starts in Royal Oak Pontiac, Michigan on September 15 and includes a couple of ATP-related performances.

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