Headlines! Tim Kasher's new song, Juggalos, a cup of pee and more

Lots going on in the last two days.

The first item here is of biggest note to me. I'm really looking forward to a non-Cursive album from Cursive's Tim Kasher.

• Check out the first song from Tim Kasher's self-titled solo debut: "Cold Love."

"Mostly, (the it's about) really boring sex, couples who have run out of steam in their relationships, whose sex life is reduced to going through the motions," he said to Spin.com about the song.

Download below:


• If you hadn't heard yet, Wyclef Jean wants to be Haiti's president. Win Butler of Arcade Fire, who's raised a lot of money for the country's recovery, doesn't think that's a good idea.

• Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart is selling a cup of his own pee to benefit Graveface Records, which lost a ton of merch in a recent flood..

• When will the madness stop? Over the weekend, Insane Clown Posse hosted its annual Gathering of the Juggalos. It pretty much went down like you think it would (mayhem, violence, trashy people). Spin has a report. Rolling Stone has photos. Method Man says he'll sue. Tila Tequila's pretty upset, too.

• Courtney Love settled a lawsuit over Nirvana royalties.

• There's a new video for of Montreal's "Coquet Coquette." What's featured? Cannibalism, of course. The band comes to Sokol Auditorium on Oct. 22. Get your tickets.

• The National has a new song called "You Were A Kindness."

• Rivers Cuomo of Weezer, who was just in Omaha, talks about the band's upcoming album.

• You might not know Ben Shepherd's name, but you do know his band: Soundgarden. The bassist is now saying that, despite the band's reunion, he's broke and homeless. Maybe he'll be able to dry his eyes on the giant check Lollapalooza wrote the band for its headlining gig a couple weeks ago.

• One of the biggest record deals in music history was just signed by Coldplay. The band's haters will apparently have to endure them for awhile longer.

• Forbes recently named the top money-makers in hip-hop (earners, that is, not the other definition). Jay-Z tops the list.

Headlines! Watson Twins tonight, Green Day, Elvis and more

It's been awhile since I've done this, but here's the latest in music news for you, dear reader.

Enjoy!

• Mumford & Sons announced a fall tour that takes them all over the U.S., except Omaha. There's a date in between Denver and Minneapolis that they have nothing booked. Someone in Omaha should book them before someone in Kansas City or Des Moines does.

• Check out a review and setlist of Brandon Flowers' first solo show in Vegas. Did he do any Killers songs?

• Tonight at the Waiting Room is the Watson Twins, who got billing on Jenny Lewis' first solo album and tour and opened for M. Ward last year at Slowdown. I talked to Chandra, one of the twins to preview tonight's show.

• Saddle Creek Records band Land of Talk posted "making of" photos on Facebook for the video of "Quarry Hymns."

• Outside Lands went down last weekend in San Francisco. Rolling Stone has some pretty sweet photos. And Spin names their favorite sets.

• Who's playing the New York Jets' home opener? Green Day and Slash. But not together. If they did, that would be a weird set.

• 33 years ago on this date, Elvis Presley kicked the bucket. CMT looks at their 10 favorite performances by the King.

• YACHT explains how they got the name YACHT. (It's tough to begin and end a sentence with the same word.)

• Has anyone been aching for some Belle & Sebastian? Well, you're going to get plenty now that they've announced an album released date, album cover and TV show.

Headlines! Nine Inch Nails, The Mynabirds and more

How was your weekend? I spent mine going to "Iron Man 2" on Friday, which was pretty epic. Maybe not quite as good as the first one, but on the same level, in my opinion. I also enjoyed the music in the film, which featured a lot more than the AC/DC on the soundtrack you'll find in stores. I especially enjoyed the inclusion of a few Clash songs.

On Saturday, I hit up Paramore at Westfair, which I reviewed. I'm not a big fan, but songs such as "Ignorance" are pretty good rock/pop fare. And Hayley Williams isn't just a cute, red-haired 21-year-old. She can also wail with what I consider a pretty amazing voice. Anyway, it was entertaining.

Anyway, what did you folks do? See any good shows? Tell me about it in the comments.

While you think of that, feast on these headlines...

• Trent Reznor said that Nine Inch Nails isn't over forever.

• Jazz singer and actress Lena Horne died over the weekend. She was 92.

• Carlos D of Interpol left the band.

• Has anyone ripped on Lady Gaga lately? Not really. Oh wait, Joanna Newsom just did. (And I agree with her, somewhat.)

• What are your favorite albums and "rock moments" from the last 25 years? If you can't think of any, Spin dropped it's big list of 125 best albums and 25 greatest moments.

• Paste featured Saddle Creek band The Mynabirds as one of its "Best of What's Next." Check it out. Recently, Pitchfork gave the band's new disc an 8.0 rating, which is pretty unheard of for a Saddle Creek band. I foresee this disc being one of the most popular SC releases in awhile.

• Ever wonder how a band came up with its name? How about Blitzen Trapper? Eric Earley told Spin how the group got named.

• Liam Gallagher wants to make a film about a certain British band from the '60s. Any guesses? OK, it's the Beatles. Anyone surprised? Me neither.

• Attention fans of Owl City: The next album from the Owl City guy (Adam Young) will be released as Sky Sailing. That is all.

• Today's "Totally Not Related To Music": If you're worried about such things, here are nine useful items for surviving the zombie apocalypse.

Headlines! Maha, Roger Waters, Alex Chilton and more

How was everyone's weekend? I have a birthday coming up, so most of it was spent doing birthday-related activities therefore missing pretty much all shows going on.

In fact, I'm going to be missing a lot of shows in the coming weeks because of some planned vacation. As always, if you hit up a show, send me an e-mail and let me know how it was. I'd love to hear it over the next couple of weeks because I won't be around.

Anyway, onto the important stuff...

• Maha Music Festival already announced Spoon as its headliner. The fest is adding a few more to the lineup tonight at midnight. I'll have a story up over at Omaha.com/music at about that time.

• Speaking of Maha, they're looking for local bands to play the show. Interested parties should e-mail play@mahamusicfestival.com.

• And speaking of show announcements, Roger Waters is coming to town and he'll be performing "The Wall" in its entirety. This is going to be epic. I remember in high school when my friends and I went on a Pink Floyd kick (doesn't everybody?) and we were blown away by "The Wall" concert footage.

• Next Saturday is Record Store Day and there are loads of exclusive releases coming out over the weekend. Here's what you need to know.

• Jake Bellows (of Neva Dinova) is continuing with his song-a-month project over at his site. Pick up"If You Can Wait" for only $1.29.

• It's coming out now that Alex Chilton, who died a few weeks ago of a heart attack, didn't have any health insurance.

• He doesn't sign autographs anymore and Ringo says it's because of eBay.

• There are two John Prine-related releases coming out in June. One is a live collection and the other is Prine songs done by other artists, including My Morning Jacket, Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band and others.

•Today In Rock History: Jan Berry (of Jan & Dean) drives his Corvette into a parked truck in Beverly Hills. It was a few miles from Dead Man's Curve and the accident happened two years after Jan & Dean's song of the same name became a hit.

Headlines! Luigi, Cursive and more

Luigi Waites

• There's really no good way to get into it, so I'll just go for it. Omaha music lost a heavy hitter today as Luigi Waites died this morning. He was 82. I spoke to a lot of people today and everyone talked about how great of a person he was and his great smile and laughter. I last saw him at the Dundee Dell over lunch awhile back and he was as personable as ever, talking to old friends and making time to talk to other folks who told him what a great job he was doing. Read up on what people had to say about the man.

• In much more lighthearted news, Cursive did a cover of "We Built This City" by Starship for the Onion's A.V. Club. No surprise here, but it's way better than the original. And, as far as I'm concerned, kind of a hilarious choice. The idea behind the project was that the Onion created a list of songs and an artist gets to choose which one to cover. That song is then crossed off the list. What did Tim Kasher have to say? "I think we picked 'We Built This City' because we saw that that was far and beyond the best song selection of all the songs you sent. We snagged it before anyone else could get it," he said. Tim, I'm not sure other groups would be chomping at the bit for that one, but a good choice nonetheless. Personally, I think they should add it to the live repetoire. It's that awesome.

• The Lollapalooza lineup was revealed today! Who's going to be there? Arcade Fire, the Strokes, Lady Gaga, Green Day, a reunited Soundgarden and Phoenix, of course. Other bands I'm excited for: Black Keys, MGMT, New Pornographers, Frightened Rabbit, Blitzen Trapper, Minus The Bear, Rogue Wave and others. See the full lineup. Anyone else thinking of going? I'll probably be there again.

• Over at NPR's All Songs Considered, The Mynabirds were included in the spring music preview.

• Bob Dylan was barred from entering China. Apparently they don't like his counter-culture status. My question: Does anyone considers him counter-culture anymore?

• Oh, Jack White, you crazy kid. The Internet as a "nuisance?" Who would believe that the Web - where you can share cute cat pictures with your friends and family - could ever be considered annoying?

• One of my favorite bands from SXSW, Codeine Velvet Club, released its debut today. Go have a look-see.

• Another big story today is how bar hours could be extended in Omaha. Will shows around here start later? Or will more local openers fill out the time left open by a later closing time? The latter is what I'd like to see, but we'll have to wait to find out.

• Who wants more Kanye? Anybody? Fret not. The great interrupter will be putting out another record in June.

• Baseball season is upon us and Paste explores the best music about our nation's pastime. (Oh, and something about Rickey Henderson and Centro-matic).

World-Hearld photo

Headlines! Maha, Hold Steady, tribute bands and more

Over the weekend, I didn't catch much music. I'm still in that SXSW overload mode, but that's started to wear off and I'm ready to see some shows. I got to O'Leaver's very late on Saturday and caught Little Black Stereo (picture), who was very good. At one point, Son of 76's Josh Hoyer and Matt Cox hopped onstage and sang Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" with LBS. It was incredible.

But now the weekend is over, it's Monday and that means headlines!

Quickly, before we get to all of the rock music news, here's what I have coming down the pipeline this week: Black Eyed Peas concert broadcast review tomorrow night (read my concert films story), Three Days Grace concert and review on Wednesday evening AND Stir Concert Cove announces its lineup on Thursday evening (let's hope for a hipper lineup this year).

So, that's what you can expect from me, along with the usual random blog posts.

Onto the important stuff...

• If you didn't hear yet, Maha Music Festival announced its headliner for this year: Spoon. It's a good start, and much better than last year's headliner (Dashboard Confessional), but they're going to need to keep filling in the rest of the lineup with good names. Supposedly, we'll get the rest of those names announced next month.

• Today marked the release/leak of a new Hold Steady track, "Rock Problems."

• Spinner documents 20 outrageous tribute bands.

• Adept at graphic design? Local boys It's True need help designing a sticker. If they pick yours, you get a nifty prize.

• Hayley Williams of Paramore (coming to town May 8) covered Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance."

• The Gorillaz dropped a video game for "Plastic Beach."

• Ricky Martin is gay, apparently.

• Chris Bridges (you know him better as Ludacris) is headed door-to-door to help out the U.S. Census.

• Former Saddle Creek artists, Tokyo Police Club dropped a new mp3 today.

• Note to musicians: Skateboarding is a dangerous sport, especially right before you're about to go on tour. Ask Devendra Banhart, who broke his leg and had to cancel tour dates.

• Who likes drunk girls? LCD Soundsystem, that's who. Or at least, that's what they named their new track.

• Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine makes an appearance in Cyprus Hill's new video.

• When Bono isn't singing for U2, he does a bunch of other crap, including world-saving and whatnot. He also, apparently, has an investment firm. And it's one of the worst around.

• Inspired by Matt & Kim baring all, Erykah Badu is another in a string of artists getting nekkid in their music videos. (Warning: Badu's video contains blurred out nudity.)

• Check out Weezer's new video for "I'm Your Daddy."

Headlines! Julian Casablancas, Lady Gaga, Beck and more

It's been a busy day of writing about concert films, writing about the Maha Music Festival, telling my SXSW story to more people at the office and clearing out about two months worth of newspapers from under my desk.

But I still found time for you, dear readers. Here are some music headlines for you...

• Julian Casablancas (of The Strokes) started his tour last night in New York City. He's headed to Omaha on April 22 and I'm working on an interview.

• Hole, who apparently had a great re-start at SXSW, released the track list and album art for their new record.

• A new single from LCD Soundsytem has leaked.

• Lady Gaga is getting sued by her ex who claims he wrote her songs.

• Jack White's latest group, The Dead Weather, has a new video. Their sophomore record, "Sea of Cowards," was also announced today. It will be out in May.

• A band that I like very much, Gaslight Anthem, released their new single online. Good stuff and not as weird as I expected after hearing their interviews.

• Sublime's new singer is getting compared to original singer Bradley Nowell (who died in 1996). Apparently, he's very flattered.

• Pitchfork reviewed the Bright Eyes/Neva Dinova re-release of "One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels" that has new material on it. They weren't too kind to the record, though they had good things to say about Jake Bellows. They also take a subtle dig at Saddle Creek.

• There's new music from Beck in the Scott Pilgrim trailer.

• Speaking of Beck, his record club is covering INXS. This should be interesting.

• The multi-talented Neko Case won the vote over at Adult Swim, so her pilot will air on Sunday at Cartoon Network.

• Led Zeppelin (surprise!) isn't going out on tour. In other news, Robert Plant is headed out with another band.

• Today in Rock History: Sun Records in Memphis releases its first single in 1952. Happy Birthday
to Elton John (63) and Aretha Franklin (68).

Headlines! SXSW, MGMT and indie rock sandwiches

I missed the blog early this week, so I apologize for that. Today, I've got some headlines for you.

On the blog tomorrow, I'll have a Q&A with the Flobots. They canceled an Omaha show from December because of one of our epic snowstorms. The show was rescheduled for tomorrow night at the Waiting Room. Marc Leibowitz of One Percent Productions told me that tickets to canceled December show were refunded, so you have to buy new tickets tomorrow.

• The lineup of local bands performing at SXSW has increased to eight with the addition of Brimstone Howl. The rest: Digital Leather, Eagle Seagull, It's True, Little Brazil, UUVVWWZ, Thunder Power and The Mynabirds. For those of you headed to Austin, I'll be doing a SXSW preview piece in the paper next week that will include all of their performance times. I'll also be in Austin, so hit me up if you're going to be there.

• An industry report says that new artists have $1 million spent on them (everything from creating the album to promoting it). The report also says bands still need labels.

• MGMT has a new song out, "Flash Delirium," which you can download over at their site. It's good, not great.

• Omaha news: Brooks & Dunn are booked at the Qwest in July for part of their farewell tour.

• Unrelated to music: They want to cast John Krasinski (Jim from "The Office") as Captain America. While he may seem like an All-America boy, Krasinski doesn't exactly scream "action hero" to me. I think this could be terrible.

• Nik Freitas and Nate Walcott (both of Conor Oberst's Mystic Valley Band and Walcott of Bright Eyes) are playing with Broken Bells. That band is James Mercer of The Shins and Danger Mouse, half of Gnarls Barkley, producer extraordinaire and creator of Jay-Z/Beatles mashup "The Grey Album." Check out Broken Bells on Letterman.

• Music from the Bright Eyes/Neva Dinova collab is leaking out. Check out "Happy Accident," the first new Bright Eyes stuff since "Cassadaga."

• Wayne Coyne says The Flaming Lips are thinking of coming up with a new movie. Did anyone else see "Christmas on Mars?" It was weird. Like, way weird.

• Once again, Smashing Pumpkins are holding open auditions for new members. This time, it's bass and keyboards. Billy Corgan hired a 20-year-old drummer the same way last year.

• Someone opened a Wilco-themed restaurant called "Sky Blue Sky Sandwiches" (or something like that) and now another place has Ryan Adams-themed meals. Another site gives its suggested names for indie rock-themed food, from Codfish Kwassa Kwassa to Clap Your Hands and Say Yams. The original post is only a few things, but the best stuff is in the comments. Great stuff.

• Supposedly, Muse is going to show up at SXSW.

Headlines! Rolling Stones, top earners and more

Today, I finally listened to the latest John Mayer record that came out in November (he plays in town Thursday) and finally read the full Playboy interview that he got in a lot of trouble for. Other than those few controversial paragraphs, it was a great interview and a very interesting insight into a hugely popular artist and how he deals with it.

Is he kind of a jerk? Yeah. Is he a good musician? Yeah. He's a great guitarist and, depending on your view, a good pop singer/songwriter. I'm more a fan of his guitar work, but that's me.

I also listened to The Mynabirds' new record (out April 27 on Saddle Creek) and enjoyed the first listen quite a bit (full review later).

I tried to listen to She & Him's new record, "Volume Two," (out March 23 on Merge) but was thwarted by some anti-piracy thing that won't allow me to listen to it on my computer. I guess I'm going to have to try my car stereo or my actual stereo at home. I wonder if they realize how few people (press people especially) listen to music on a stereo any more. (Again, full review later.)

Onto headlines... It's not a crazy day, but there is some interesting stuff and good music going down today. Check it out:

• The Rolling Stones issued "Exile On Main Street" with a few new tracks.

• Billboard released their list of the top 40 money makers in music last year. U2 tops the list and Metallica, Kenny Chesney, the Jonas Brothers and Madonna are all in the top 10.

• Producer Brian Eno is talking about the new Coldplay album.

• Pavement is officially back. The group played their first show in 10 years in New Zealand last night. Spin has photos, a setlist and a review. The closest they'll get to Omaha on their tour is Kansas City on Sept. 11. (dates here)

• Bass player and band leader for Hall & Oates, Tom "T-Bone" Wolk died over the weekend. They were set to perform on Jimmy Fallon for his 1-year anniversary, but canceled.

• Paramore is making a new video (they're also in town in May). Check out some behind the scenes stuff.

• Have you listened to the stream of the Gorillaz new record yet? You should check it out. It comes out next Tuesday.

Today in Rock History: Patti Smith marries Fred "Sonic" Smith of the MC5 in 1980. Jim Morrison is arrested onstage in Miami in 1969. Happy Birthday to Roger Daltrey (66).

Headlines! Aerosmith, Little Brazil and more

Wow, so I had such a busy Wednesday that I completely missed doing headlines. My bad.

Here's a double dose... I tried to include every bit of music news that has happened all week. It's a lot of stuff. Enjoy.

• Anvil played at the Olympics in Vancouver.

• Local band Little Brazil announced their second SXSW showcase.

• Aerosmith isn't breaking up. Or finding a new singer. Or following any of those other rumors. They made a video.

• Dan Deacon and his band faked something about a dead cat on Judge Judy.

• Neko Case had some kind of animated short or cartoon on Adult Swim last week.

• The subject of Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" has been speculated upon for a loooooong time. She finally reveals who it was about. Sort of.

• Thom Yorke of Radiohead revealed his new band's name, is touring and somebody recorded three of the songs and put them on YouTube.

• Eric Earley of Blitzen Trapper talks about the band's new album. I loved their last album and the EP.

• Completely unrelated to music: John Krasinski (Jim from "The Office") wants to be Captain America. That would be terrible. Just about anyone else in the world would be better.

• Pavement is getting ready for those reunion shows and Spin was lucky enough to hang out in their rehearsal space.

• Miles B. A. Robinson, who made my favorite album of last year, did a video interview.

• Beyonce says she "killed" her alter ego "Sasha Fierce" and doesn't need her any more. I think she needs to get over herself.

• Stephen Merritt of Magnetic Fields was once in a band called Zinnia. And you can now download those songs.

• Prince has a new track, "Cause and Effect."

• Beck, Julian Casablancas of the Strokes, Grizzly Bear and a bunch of others are doing a Haiti benefit album.

• In the ongoing saga of Abbey Road Studios, the place was declared historic, so it can't be torn down or majorly altered.

• Vampire Weekend guitarist Rostam Batmanglij talks about how his homosexuality affects his music.

• There's a new LCD Soundsystem record coming out. I've liked them for awhile, but I just started getting into them again because a friend and I were playing guitar and we covered one of their songs in his basement. Good stuff.

• Yeasayer talks about their new album. They're coming to Omaha in April.

• There's a new track streaming from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

• The Hold Steady is putting out a new record. I've been having a Hold Steady kind of week and listening to them a lot.

• Spin does a little "where are they now?" thing with folks from Elastica, Against Me!, White Zombie and others.

Headlines! 311, Brad Hoshaw and more

It's Monday. And you know what that means, right? Oh yeah... music headlines.

Feast on music news!

• 311 is going to live webcast their 311 Day performance (March 11... 3-11... get it?) from Las Vegas. The marathon show typically lasts around 5 hours.

• Apparently, EMI isn't going to sell Abbey Road Studios after all.

• Brad Hoshaw played in-studio over the weekend for The Daily Grind. Check it out.

• The Lollapalooza lineup was leaked (again). Looks like Green Day, Lady Gaga and Soundgarden. Also looks like I might be going back.

• Paramore has a new video. If you didn't know, they're coming to town in May.

• Coldplay is talking about a new album.

• Lil Wayne opened up a Twitter acount. Allow me a moment to contain my excitement...

• I've never seen it, but apparently Of Montreal's live show is crazy crazy. A documentary is going to, uh, document it.

• You gotta check out this piece on mixtapes and how the cassette culture has evolved.

• Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 talks about how he prepares for the road.

• The New Pornographers have a new song out. Does Neko Case ever sleep?

• Local station, 89.7 The River, announced the lineup for their annual Rockfest: Godsmack, Rob Zombie, Papa Roach, Hellyeah, Skillet, Halestorm. I have no idea who those last three are. And didn't I see Papa Roach at Rockfest about nine years ago? Pretty sure I did. Details at The River's site.

Headlines! Back three times a week

For you folks, I like providing a list of headlines for you and summing up the most important and interesting music news so you don't have to go trolling Pitchfork, SPIN, Twitter and everything else in the world. I already do it as a part of my job and I can save you some time.

I'll be posting headlines every Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week to give you a complete picture of all of the stuff going on. If you have a news tip or something you see that's interesting, drop me an e-mail (kevin.coffey@owh.com).

Anyway, here's today's headlines!

• They were talking about tearing down Abbey Road studios. But Anthony Lloyd Webber is stepping in to save it.

• Pearl Jam is going to play Saturday Night Live. My brother, a huuuuuuge PJ fan, will be very excited.

• The Gaslight Anthem is talking about their new album. It's called "American Slang" and it will be out in June.

• Broken Social Scene dropped their album art today and offered a free download.

• Vampire Weekend released a new video. Who's in it? Jake Gyllenhaal, Joe Jonas, Lil Jon and RZA.

• Billboard released their photos of the year. Some of them are great photos. Others are bad shots of cool moments.

• Lil Wayne got eight root canals. At once. Ouch.