The divine Ms PJ – Polly Jean Harvey – will be at the Phoenix on October 15 to promote her new record Uh Huh Her. This isn’t a Lollapalooza make-up show since she wasn’t slated to play the Toronto date anyway. Tickets on sale September 17, no pricing info yet. I would like to go to this show but I really think I’m tapped out for the month of October. I’m at eight shows in 23 days – that’s just getting out of hand. But for more PJ goodness, head over to Bradley’s Almanac – he’s got an mp3 of PJ doing “The Letter” on The Tonight Show. Image from www.pollyharvey.co.uk.

The release of Elliott Smith’s final album From A Basement On The Hill will be accompanied with a live DVD, Elliott Smith – Olympia, Washington, featuring a live performance from the Yoyo A Go Go festival in the titular city in 1999. It’ll be mixed in 5.1 surround sound, even. The album is out October 19, the DVD November 30.

The Decemberists have posted some exclusive video footage from the recording of their new record. I was so hoping to hear Colin say, “Car…. Game on!” but alas, no luck. The Infanta is due out next March but if you don’t want to wait that long, their EP for Billy Liar is out next week. Scuttlebutt from Cap’n Catbirdseat.

Zoilus and K Records say that Calvin Johnson will be at Lee’s Palace on September 28, but Lee’s seems to think that The Black Keys will be there that night, with no mention of Mr Beat Happening anywhere. Maybe it’ll be a bass-less face-off?

The Rocky Mountain News asks Jay Farrar why he’s gotten political. Jay is just thankful they didn’t ask him what’s up with his new haircut. From Largehearted Boy.

The Beat has some stills from the forthcoming Sin City film, directed by creator Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez. Looks neat.

MSNBC takes a look at the current big-time crossover in the DC Universe, Identity Crisis. I found the piece surprisingly non-patronizing for comic book story from a major media outlet. I’m reading Identity Crisis and it’s surprisingly dark for a DC comic – and though it’s only three issues in, it seems to be getting darker. I can understand why some of the faithful are upset, of the Big Two, DC has always had the lighter storylines (gross generalizations, yes – I’m not including stuff like Dark Knight) and operated on a more fantastical scale. Even when they killed off The Flash and Supergirl, it was in a cosmic-scale battle, thus avoiding any real hitting-at-home for the reader. To off a long-standing character in such a mundane and gruesome manner is very un-DC. I, for one, applaud them for tackling one of the big questions of superhero comics – how effective can secret identities really be and if these super-villains are such evil geniuses, why can’t they figure out how to hit their enemies where it really hurts? I’m very interested in how this is going to play out.

np – Drive-By Truckers / The Dirty South

Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.