I've got loads of different formulas, so many that I could do Nelly Furtado's album. I could do anyone's album in the world. I know it now.
Retiring at the age of 28 is a strange move. But even though British MC/producer is just two years shy of 30, he has already pioneered a genre, founded a scene, weathered the violence of that scene, and watched its members rise, fall, and fail to break through. So his weariness is understandable.
But Wiley s retirement seems to be more along the lines of Jay-Z s. Though he plans to make his new album, Playtime Is Over, his last solo album, he will still produce, record, and run his own Eskibeat Recordings as part of his mission to bring grime to the world.
But first things first: Playtime Is Over comes out June 4 via , and Wiley will precede it with the release of the 50/50 / Bow E3 single on May 7.
Pitchfork had the opportunity to speak with Wiley recently about the new album, getting older, and his relationship with and the grime scene in general. Pitchfork: What s the story behind the title Playtime Is Over?
Wiley: Playtime Is Over is basically saying I feel I m getting older and can t be a kid forever.
I m sorting out my pension maybe. These next six or seven years will be the time when I have to set myself up for the future, innit? So that s why I just thought, 28 years old, fun time s over.
Now I ve got to start making sure I ve got houses and property and stuff, so that when music s over, I m not struggling to turn up money.
Pitchfork: Was there a moment when you first realized all of this?
Wiley: Yeah, when I had my first child.
And then it took about a year to sink in after that. [laughs]
Pitchfork: What sort of other things are you thinking about getting into?
Wiley: Still music, but I ve got guys who are a little younger, like 15, 16, and they re very clever.
They re more with-the-times than we were when we were their age. So I m going to make sure that they get through, and I m just going to spread the word of grime around the world. I understand that I ve done my thing.
I ve done my years. I just need to spread the vibe now and get it around everywhere else in the world.
Pitchfork: Do you think that grime has a chance to make it big in places where it hasn t yet?
Wiley: Yeah. It s just going to take 20 years is all. It s going to take 10, 15 to 20 years, and I ve done the first six or seven.
Pitchfork: What s it like to have awareness of yourself as a founder of grime and of the fact that it s still such a new scene?
Wiley: I realized that even though Grandmaster Flash and those guys, Afrika Bambaataa, they all started it [hip hop], they re not here today. It shows that you can t last forever.
It s like being a baseball player: You were the homerun hitter. Then you don t play no more, but you watch baseball. You re always going to have that drive to play inside you.
And that s why some days you ve got to just know it s better to step back and look at the future.
Long before the MTV glitz and glamour, the , the Raconteurs, the indie film appearances, and even the are they married, or are they siblings (or both!)?
? query-storm, was slapping bass for a beloved Detroit garage rock combo known as . Occasionally he d hop to lead guitar, and every once in a great while he d sing lead on the Farfisa-happy act s traditionalist rock n roll jams.
The Hentchmen, still very much alive and kicking, turn 15 this year, and to celebrate they re hitting us with a disc of early hits called Hentch.Forth.Five.
The 14-track set collects tunes originally released back in 1998 on an EP, a 12 , and two singles, all remixed, remastered, [and] touched up by Dan Currie, according to lead Hentchman John Johnny Volar e Szymanski. It should be out in about two months on , which celebrates its own 10th anniversary this year.
All 14 tracks feature White in one capacity or another.
Our candy-striper plays bass on a bunch, contributes lead guitar to three tunes, and lays down a lead vocal on Some Other Guy , plus backup vocals on several other tracks. It s a unique opportunity to hear Jack just prior to the release of the Stripes self-titled 1999 debut.
The Stripes, , have Icky Thump out June 19 via Warner Bros.
and a bunch of festival dates lined up. The Hentchmen, sans White, rock a quartet of dates in late May and late June.
When he screams, now it makes a sound Rejoice and be glad!
scholar Win Butler s -- which necessitated both a massive Euro-tour cancellation and sinus surgery-- appear to be a thing of the past. In a message posted on the , Win offered a positive prognosis, and detailed his wellness regimen:
Just wanted to let you all know that the surjery (sic) was successful, and I am recovering nicely. Thank you for all of your thoughts and emails.
..
I will probably start singing again this week some time to try and get ready for the shows in North America.
It has been a blessing in disguise to be forced to stay home and read, and sleep (pick up Cormac Mcarthy s [sic] The Road if you are feeling like a little post apocalypse...
don t let the Oprah Book Club Sticker scare you away)...
Regine and I have even started working on some new songs...
, freak-folk s resident male pin-up, is back in the studio recording his fifth full-length, the follow-up to 2005 s .
Banhart is producing the album along with friend and touring bandmate Noah Georgeson. Other contributors to the record include Vetiver s Andy Cabic, Espers Otto Hauser, Joanna Newsom s brother Pete, Los Hermanos Rodrigo Amarante, Luckey Remington, Greg Rogove, former Metallic Falcon Matteah Baim, and Banhart s touring band.
The album does not yet have a title or release date, but it will come out on .
Banhart has only one gig scheduled at the moment, at in Seattle in September.
Wilcos wobble, but they won't fall down What with their deadpan musicality and meticulous lyricism, it seems at times like those gents take themselves very, very seriously.
Then they go and do something like issue teeny toys of themselves. So misunderstood, indeed. Portland-based toy company will launch a series of limited-edition Wilco figurines at this July.
There rsquo;s Jeff Tweedy (a longtime UNKL fan, we re told), and, uh, the five other guys in Wilco. Not included: a talking Jay Bennett with which you can stage bickering matches with your Jeff doll.
In other Wilco news, will shine on May 15, they just pegged to of North American dates on their previously announced world tour, and their handsome mugs will wind up in due out June 1.
Tim Kasher Talks Good Life, Screenplay, Move to L.A.
It's exploratory, it's exciting, it's a way [so that at] 80 years old or something I can look back and say, 'And then there was that time when I moved to L.
A.' Tim Kasher has moved to L.A.
Take a minute to let that sink in. Tim Kasher, a godfather to the storied Omaha scene , bread to America s breadbasket, helmer of two of s most vital and long-standing bands (one of which he named after Nebraska s original state slogan, for crissakes)-- dude s packed up and skipped town. He warned us in song that he d leave Omaha, and now he s gone and done it.
Still, from the sound of it, this is a move the / frontman has been mulling over for a long time. And we should be excited for the guy.
It s just something I ve always wanted to do, Kasher told Pitchfork recently.
It s exploratory, it s exciting, it s a way [so that at] 80 years old or something I can look back and say, And then there was that time when I moved to L.A.
While he insists this isn t the reason for the move ( I don t like the vibe of moving to go make it somewhere or something like that, ) Kasher-- like many who go the way of L.
A.-- has a screenplay in hand. A screenplay adapted from a Kasher-penned play, really, and it s called Help Wanted Nights.
Like a sign one might see outside a diner or something? Yeah, exactly, said Tim, adding, it should have commas, but you don t put commas on marquees and stuff, so I thought I d leave it that way.
According to Kasher, Help Wanted Nights involves roughly a week in a bar in a small town where a stranger s car breaks down.
..so, he fraternizes with the regulars, getting too wrapped up in their sordid lives.
Something like that.
If that sounds familiar, Kasher s with you. I didn t hide my appreciation for Tennessee Williams or Edward Albee too much.
It also doesn t fall far from the Good Life tree.
Indeed, Help Wanted Nights the play/screenplay in turn helped inspire Help Wanted Nights the album, Kasher s fourth with the Good Life, tentatively due for release via Saddle Creek on September 11, 2007. There was definitely talk about what s appropriate or inappropriate, Tim explained when asked about the release date.
I think [the label] just saw it as the most logical release date for when we were done with recording it.
Help Wanted Nights features the same Good Life line-up heard on 2004 s : Kasher, Stefanie Drootin, Ryan Fox, and Roger Lewis.
And while this won t exactly be his Album of the Decade, everything s very idealistic, mused Kasher.
It s like if I could ever get that performance to be put on or to be shot, then this would be some kind of soundtrack for that. It was kind of the impetus for writing this record. Tortoise's McEntire, Herndon, Bitney Team Up for Bumps side projects are born, retired, and revived at a pace that completely belies the band s name, so it doesn t come as a huge surprise that three of members of the band-- John McEntire, John Herndon, and Dan Bitney-- are releasing an album of instrumental percussion under the name .
The surprise is that they re releasing the album, simply titled Bumps, on , that bastion of excellent underground soul and hip hop.
That s not to say it s not a nice surprise. In fact, the possibility of Bumps becoming the go-to sample source for a new generation of hip hop heads is mighty intriguing.
The three-piece suit could become the new gold chain.
Stones Throw will release Bumps on June 19. , Tortoise will launch their North American summer tour in Columbus, Ohio on June 14.
Deerhunter, Menomena, Klaxons, Fujiya Added to Pitchfork Music Festival! The lineup just keeps growing, and today, we re thrilled to announce the latest additions to the roster of our first-ever three-day festival, taking place July 13-15 at Union Park in Chicago. Of course, they all join Pitchfork Music Festival performers Cat Power, New Pornographers, Clipse, Stephen Malkmus, De La Soul, Iron and Wine, Of Montreal, Girl Talk, Jamie Lidell, Grizzly Bear, Battles, the Ponys, Professor Murder, Ken Vandermark s Powerhouse Sound, and, of course, (in collaboration with ).
Best of all, that s just a taste of the many artists who ll be performing at this year s fest, for which we still have yet to announce two more artists who, like Sonic Youth, will be performing their classic albums in full as part of Friday s ATP/Don t Look Back festival kickoff. Well, this was unexpected! After and and shows to her neverending journey in support of her debut album , has apparently canceled her entire May-June American tour.
According to several clubs at which Lily was scheduled to play, the reason for the quashed tour is scheduling conflicts, and it will be rescheduled in the fall. So far, 11 dates, stretching from Kansas to Florida, have been removed. However, representatives from Lily s camp would not confirm that the entire tour would not be taking place.
No word yet on whether Lily s still playing Coachella or Bonnaroo or this weekend s KCRW Sounds Eclectic Evening.
Is a show really a Les Savy Fav show unless someone accepts Skittles straight from Tim Harrington rsquo;s mouth? Methinks not.
Mildly uncomfortable audience participation is as much as mainstay of the LSF experience as spiny riffage, barking vocals, or sweat descending into your nether regions.
But on any given night, there s only so many mouths one can feed regurgitated candy to, and those Les Savy freaks are widening their reach with a new approach to fan-fellowship. They d like it very much if you d visit their website, learn a few lines from a few new choice cuts ( Nine Teen Ninety Nine , The World , and Resent the Rent ) and then call 718-228-8954 and sing them into their voicemail.
A chance to go all Idol with Les Savy Fav? Sweet slimy bon-bons!
In other Fav news, looks like the grumblings about scheduling another UK date around their May 19 date at the festival will amount to little more than that, as, according to their website, the idea of booking a gig sounds like work and they, therefore, are gonna just keep it easy.
Too lazy to slate a show and getting ringers for vocal duties? How sinfully slothful! Do you have a news tip for us?
Anything crazy happen at a show you attended recently? Do you have inside info on the bands we cover? Is one of your favorite artists (that's not somebody you know personally) releasing a new record you'd like to see covered?
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