Yeah, everyone’s linking to it now but thanks to Achtung Baby! for pointing me to this comic strip illustrating Pulp’s “Common People”, done by Tank Girl/Gorrilaz artist Jamie Hewlett. Pity about the resolution, but it’s still readable and great. It originally appeared in a French promo booklet put out by Island Records.

The new Six By Seven album has a title – Artists Cannibals Poets Thieves – and the band promises it’ll be a much darker affair than :04 was. Dedicated to the memory of a band friend who committed suicide, they say it’s a return to high-tension, tightly-wound The Things We Make-era compositions like “Brilliantly cute” and “Something Wild”, quite an about-face from the almost pop, relatively positive sounds of last year’s :04. They also boast that it’ll be the first Six By Seven album to feature no bass guitar, so expect this one to be in-your-face abrasive. And no one does abrasive quite like Chris Olley – it oughta be a good one. It’s out May 23 in the UK though there’ll be early orders available through their partially functional website. I don’t think the band has ever had a website that actually worked, come to think of it.

The phone conversation between Ryan Adams and the Lost Highway execs (click on the bottom right corner of the bundle of worms on his website) has increased my estimation of the man immeasurably. Yeah, I know it’s a joke but it’s still hilarious. If he doesn’t use it, Mechrobioticon is my new band name.

Steve Earle is blogging again! Let’s hope he keeps it up this time.

Popmatters talks to The Futureheads. Via Largehearted Boy.

Elvis Costello talks to Billboard a bit about the re-release of King Of America on April 26.

Toronto weeklies eye and NOW both report on their respective SxSW experiences.

The late Spring/early Summer concert season is definitely heating up – I don’t remember an April/May quite this chock full, like, ever. Last year, I went to five shows total in April and May. This year, the calendar has got twelve and counting, and that doesn’t include shows I’ve passed on which during less-saturated times I’d almost certainly have gone to. Sheee-it. Anyways.

The Radar Bros are at the Horseshoe on April 18 with the Postage Stamps as support, and Sam Prekop rolls in May 28.

Hankies will be at the ready on May 18 when Bright Eyes come back to town on their second tour of the year, this one for Digital Ash In A Digital Urn. It will be at the decidedly awful Docks, however, so the kids will have one more thing to cry about. The Faint will be both Conor’s backing band and opening act.

Rilo Kiley tour More Adventurous around a second time, stopping at Lee’s Palace on May 19, tickets $13.50. YAY. I was so disappointed in the sound at their show at the Horseshoe last year, here’s hoping this one more than makes up for it.

No 24 today… know why? Cause I downloaded the wrong bloody episode. No I don’t know what time it is.

I spent all of yesterday on a train to Windsor, a rental car to Detroit, in Detroit, a rental car back to Windsor and on a train back from Windsor, all for a meeting in Detroit. On the way back, traffic was backed up from the Ambassador Bridge so badly that I very nearly missed my train… and this was after giving myself an hour and a half to traverse the 25 km or so from client site to train station. It was insane. If I hadn’t taken that Ford Focus up on a couple curbs to get around the tractor trailers, broken several traffic laws or if I had caught one less light (though that doesn’t seem like it’d have been possible – stupid goddamn advanced greens in the WRONG DIRECTION), I would likely still be in Windsor curled up on a train station bench. And that’s not even mentioning the fact that when I got over the border, I had NO idea where the train station in Windsor was. I honestly just drove in what I thought was the right direction, making random turns whenever it felt right. I still can’t believe I found the place. Quite probably the most stressful two hour span of my life. This is why I try not to leave the house if at all possible.

np – M Ward / Transistor Radio

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