Foals giddy-up back to America

Steve GullickThe last time Oxford’s Foals were in town back in September, guitarist Jimmy Smith’s constantly malfunctioning amp and pedals provided frontman Yann Philippakis with enough rage-fuel to transform a technical disaster into a seething, edge-of-violent triumph, much to the delight of the completely jam-packed Lee’s Palace.

One expects they’ll have the state of their gear checked and double-checked before their return engagement on April 30 at the Phoenix (tickets $16.50), though. And that’s fine because as memorable as that last show was, it’ll be nice to hear them showcase their Mercury Prize-shortlisted record Total Life Forever with two fully functioning guitars.

The date is part of a Spring tour that is presumably built around a Coachella appearance and will feature a rather odd bill of Foals, Brooklyn twee-poppers Freelance Whales, still touring last year’s Weathervanes, and hotly-tipped New Zealanders The Naked & Famous, whose debut Passive Me, Aggressive You will be out on March 15.

MP3: Foals – “Spanish Sahara”
MP3: Freelance Whales – “Generator Second Floor”
Video: The Naked & Famous – “Young Blood”

Other Mercury Prize alumni coming back to town are Friendly Fires, who’ve made a May 30 date at The Phoenix, tickets $20. There’s been no official announcement about the release of their second album but one assumes that it will be out before they head over here. Update: Full North American dates are up, album has working title of Pala.

MP3: Friendly Fires – “Jump In The Pool”

Australia’s Cut Copy have slated a North American tour in support of their new record Zonoscope, due out February 8. Look for them at The Sound Academy on April 7 and download a track from the new record over here.

MP3: Cut Copy – “Lights & Music”

Last week they announced the April 4 release of their new record Blood Pressures and now, via NME are this Spring’s world tour dates for The Kills; Toronto gets them May 1 at the Sound Academy. That’s right, groan away. I’ll wait.

MP3: The Kills – “URA Fever”

Milo Cordell of The Big Pink tells NME they’re considering a hip-hop direction for their second album.

The Scotland Herald talks to Stuart Braithwaite ofMogwai in Japan. Their new record Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will arrives February 15 and there’s a new MP3 and video from said record available to download. Mogwai play The Phoenix on April 26.

MP3: Mogwai – “San Pedro”
Video: Mogwai – “Pano Rano”

The Guardian has a feature piece on British Sea Power. They play Lee’s Palace on March 30.

“The World Is Yours”, the lead track from Glasvegas’ Euphoric Heartbreak, is currently available to stream – the record is out April 4.

Music For Kids Who Can’t Read Good wins today’s Patrick Wolf news prize – they’ve got the name of Wolf’s new record – Lupercalia – and a download of the first single from the record, “Time Of My Life”. A quick look on the Twitter indicates that said album has been given a May 23 release date in the UK and a stream of the second single, “The City”, is available on Soundcloud. I daresay that if these songs are indicative of what the album will be like, Mr. Wolf has managed to outdo himself yet again.

Baeble Music has a Guest Apartment session and The Herald-Sun an interview with Kate Nash.

The Fly has an acoustic video session with The Joy Formidable, whose debut The Big Roar is out in the UK next week and in North America March 15.

Elly Jackson of La Roux discusses collaboration plans for album number two with NME.

Clash interviews Adele, whose second record 21 arrives February 22.

MusicOMH talks to Anna Calvi, whose self-titled debut arrives March 1 and who plays Wrongbar on March 11.

NPR has a second video from PJ Harvey’s forthcoming Let England Shake, due out February 15.

Video: PJ Harvey – “The Words That Maketh Murder”

In talking to Gigwise, Blur’s Dave Rowntree confirms the band will do “something” this year, but offers no more information than that. And yes, as I was typing that out I realized how pointless a news item this was but whatever.

MusicOmh has words with Richard Thompson.

And do swing by the recently-launched Aggregation Magazine, whose mandate is simple but too long for me to recap here but whose latest issue includes contributions from yours truly on topics that have nothing to do with music. And the latest issue of Under The Radar – the Sufjan cover – has an interview with myself and other music bloggers on the topic of blog hype; the issue has been out since December but I only just got a copy so I made sure I didn’t sound like a total ass before mentioning it. Only a partial ass, as per usual. End self-promo/flagellation.