On May 16, Joe Lally will be hitting the road, opening his huge tour in Pittsburgh. He’s scheduled to play the Black Cat on May 28. Dischord has the dates. [Label needs to learn how to spell Pittsburgh correctly].

Hey hey, there’s a live chat with Travis Morrison this morning at Washingtonian.com. Ask him about the New York City tap water, or maybe how it feels being a “predecessor to the dance-rock movement,” or his days as a cab driver, or even something about computers. He knows a lot about computers.

Dischord will be holding court at this weekend’s MaCRoCk festival at James Madison University. The festival–which stands for Mid-Atlantic College Radio Conference–has been an annual affair for some time now. It started in 1996. I think I went to the second one. Back then it was small–a few nights of bands, a few tables set up for labels to sell their goods. [Full disclosure: I skipped seeing Elliott Smith!]

The festival has grown to be a big deal.

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The Apes got back in town last night. I got in touch with injured organist Amanda Kleinman this afternoon. She shot the Bag an e-mail update:

“We got back last night. We were supposed to drive back directly after the show Sunday night at Bard College in upstate NY and then one of the wheel bearings went bad so we were stuck for an extra day.

I finally got to a doctor today. I don’t have to have surgery. But I’m going to be pretty immobile for at least six weeks….

I’ll tell you, touring with a freshly broken ankle gives new meaning to ‘keeping it real’. I spent a whole lotta time dragging myself around like a seal. Crutches suck. As soon as I get to a location with a wireless signal, I’m going to upload a bunch of blogs from the rest of the tour.

There is a show at Velvet Lounge with us and Health (from LA) next Friday night.

Maybe I can find work in the city? And mug a dude on a segway? I’ll figure it all out.”

Yesterday, we learned that the Apes’ Amanda Kleinman broke her ankle. A quick scan of the Apes’ tour blog reveals more. The blog item appears to be written by Kleinman:

“Minneapolis

We had our first great show in MN. After the show, we met Lori B., the drummer from Babes in Toyland. She took us home with her. I went to bed at 3:30 am. At 4:30 am, Erick hears a knock at the bathroom door (it was me, no memory of going downstairs). I tell him to get out because I have to throw up. He opens the door and I collapse to the ground. He helps me up and heads toward the stairs. Then I fall again. He gets freaked out, obviously. I crawl up stairs. Somehow I broke my ankle. I tried to tell at 4:30 am but he wasn’t processing and I wasn’t speaking clearly.

We got to the hospital at 12 noon the next day. I leave 6 hours later with a cast the size of a moon boot. They said I have to get home ASAP for reparitive surgery.

I wont be home till Monday morning. We aren’t cancelling shows.

See you soon.”

–photo courtesy of the Apes.

Last Friday, the Ruby Suns opened for locals Le Loup at the Black Cat. My camera only had enough juice for the Ruby Suns.

I couldn’t believe that the Suns took an opening slot. The New Zealand trio’s new album–Sea Lion–is amazing. I can claim some amount of ownership since I dug their debut a few years back. But this one is a huge leap–ping-ponging between afro-pop references, ’80s dance beats, and zany psych interludes. It’s what Neutral Milk Hotel would sound like now.

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Another bit of news from my inbox–some p.r. from Girl Talk:

Taking a short break from constant touring around the world throughout the past couple of years, Girl Talk’s Gregg Gillis is finally hard at work creating his fourth album, tentatively titled Wild Peace IV: Feed The Animals, Raise The Dead. Wild Peace IV…, the follow up to Night Ripper, one of 2006’s most talked about albums, is slated for a late spring/early summer release. Upon completion it will be available online via Illegal Art, and will be pressed on CD to be released by Illegal Art, and pressed on vinyl to be released by Wham City Records.

“I’ve been compiling new material for this album over the past two years. It’s been a similar work process as my previous releases. I come up with little pieces of new material to experiment with at the live performances each week, and the general direction and style of the album naturally evolves over time. I play with many of the core ideas at shows, so if you’ve seen me live recently, you’ve heard new material that will show up on this release.

This album is going to be dense with samples like my previous releases, but I’m trying to give some of the parts more room to breathe. I’m focusing less on sporadic chops and more on having pieces of the album build. The new material definitely has its share of quick cuts, but it’s less dependent on that style. I think it’s more dynamic because of it.” — Gregg Gillis

Just got this dramatic bit of news in my inbox:

The Apes, missed their show in Chicago on Thursday Feb. 20. After playing their Minneapolis show on Wednesday, Feb. 19, Amanda Kleinman of indie rock super stars Apes, was sleep walking at the home of Lori Barbero, drummer of legendary girl grunge band, Babes in Toyland, and ran into a wall, repeatedly. After trying to unsuccesfully wake her bandmates after realizing what she’d done, Kleinman eventually found her way to a Minneapolis hospital. 10 hours and many X Rays later, the diagnosis came in. Kleinman had a fractured ankle, needed surgery, but the remaining shows went on.

Amanda Kleinman will have a substantial boot size cast on her leg for the April 4 show at the Velvet Lounge in DC with Health.

What a trooper!

This town needs a real music festival. We have tons of various film festivals. But no real week-long blow out ala SXSW. Someone needs to start organizing a music fest that showcases District-Baltimore talent. Wouldn’t it be cool to see the Evens alongside BackYard alongside Dan Deacon alongside Head-Roc?

This show–from last night–comes close. Or this D.C. band showcase which DCist writes up. In the meantime, the Lullabyes blog has pretty awesome MP3s of Beach House live at SXSW. [Note: you have to scroll down the site to find it]. Or you can just go here.

–photo courtesy of Lullabyes.

A friend just sent me a link to a PopMatters post about the demise of Silver Spring’s Harp Magazine. I asked a colleague who would know and I was told that it is indeed true.

Looks like the issue with Dain Bramage’s Dave Grohl on the cover might be the magazine’s swan song.