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.

I’ll admit that I have never spent more than $1 on any S PRCSS record. On the other hand, I’ve never been asked to spend more than $1 on an S PRCSS record. I bought “MNML” for 99 cents while writing this story because Justin Moyer said that they were good. He was not wrong. Thus, when I found two more of their records lingering in a Seattle thrift shop, I had no qualms about laying down some cash in order to buy them. As it turns out, this only requiered $1 a piece. The band’s Frenchkiss label mates, the well loved Les Savy Fav, have a song called “Meet Me in the Dollar Bin.” Could this song be about S PRCSS?

Indeed, it cost less for me to buy all three of these records than it did for me to see S PRCSS perform live last year when they played at The Hosiery. But you know what? It was worth it. “A once in a lifetime experience!” I though. Not so, turns out S PRCSS is playing this weekend in Layne Garrett’s basement, where I will surely pay to see them again, although it’s unclear how much. Anyway, here’s the info:

S PRCSS
Trtl Soup
@ Light House
1421 Buchanan St. NW
at 8 p.m. on Friday 3/14

Gorilla vs. Bear has great footage of Beach House playing an in-store in Dallas. The performance–and film quality(!)–kill.

For more of a local vibe, check out this clip of the band performing at the Black Cat last spring:

Yesterday afternoon, Pitchfork announced part of the lineup for its popular Pitchfork Music Festival, which returns to Chicago’s Union Park on July 18 - 20.

One of the bands included in this partial list is the semilocal Afropop quartet Extra Golden. This is especially welcome news, because the African portion of the band has been caught up in Kenya’s recent unrest.

When I enquired with the band’s label, Thrill Jockey, they told me that the PFMF is going to be just one part of an upcoming American tour, “likely including a DC date,” and more recording, too. Good news.

Here’s yours truly on the band’s most recent, Hera Ma Nono, which was released just prior to the post-election chaos in Kenya.

And here’s the band’s Web site, where you can make a donation to help the Kenyan members of Extra Golden.

There’s another Hot Snakes spin-off. The Obits feature ex-Snakes singer Rick Froberg (guitar, vocals). The band also includes a bit of a local angle–Also chiming in on guitars and vocals is Sohrab Habibion. Habibon used to play in the now-defunct Edsel. Good to see Habibon rocking out so thoroughly again!

The Obits will be gracing Comet Ping Pong on March 21.

This just came into my inbox: a new MP3 from John Reis‘ new band the Night Marchers. Reis is most famous as the captain of the mighty Rocket From the Crypt.

Here’s some of the p.r.:

Hot off the release of ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT’S R.I.P. CD/DVD, John “Speedo” Reis has announced THE NIGHT MARCHERS plans for the road that include a trip to SXSW just before their maiden tour around the band’s debut of See You In Magic on April 22nd via Swami Records/Vagrant Records. The Night Marchers is John Reis on guitar and vocals (Rocket From The Crypt, Hot Snakes, Drive Like Jehu), Gar Wood on guitar (Hot Snakes, Beehive & the Barracudas), Jason Kourkounis on drums (Hot Snakes, Mule, Delta 72), and Tommy Kitsos on bass (CPC Gangbangs).

The freebie–”Who’s Lady R U?“–is a burner. Enjoy.

Baltimore’s Wye Oak lands on the influential Stereogum. One of the best music blogs around steps to the duo, who have a gorgeous indie rock record coming out on Merge, for an interview. We learn that singer/guitarist Jenn Waster works as a waitress at the Golden West Cafe which earns her some serious cool points.

For more details, Merge provides. Wye Oak will be hitting the Black Cat on April 13. And you can watch them rock out here:

For your pleasure, a new Notwist MP3 direct from the publicist. Here’s a bit of the p.r.:

St. Nicholas has come early this year. Or is he just very late? It’s best not to dwell too long on questions such as these when it pertains to The Notwist and just be thankful when these moments come to pass. And what, pray tell, are you to be thankful for exactly? The Devil, You + Me, the brand new eleven-track album from the enigmatic German trio.

The Notwist recorded portions of the album with the ANDROMEDA MEGA EXPRESS ORCHESTRA, a way out, 20+ headed classical orchestra that specializes in exciting and sometimes bizarre avant classic interpretations of modern jazz, which compliments perfectly the album’s themes of love, loss, alienation, planetary alignment, the positive side to deception, death, refusal and the titular Devil.

The MP3 is actually better than all the six-years-in-the-making hype, recalling prime Hood and all sorts of desolate, sad, earnest things. Totally worth the download. I forgot how much I missed these kinds of songs.

Big news for fans of glam-rock homages: Destroyer will be playing the Black Cat on April 25. This is also big news for rock critics, indie nerds, people who really like early ’70s-era Dylan, Kermit-style singers, lyrics filled with rock references, and people who dig a singer who has stood next to Neko Case on stage.

Still on the fence? Merge provides info/hype/and sounds.

Baltimore’s Human Bell—seen here performing at the Adams Morgan record store Crooked Beat—just announced a national tour with Japan’s Boredoms, a band that Washington City Paper’s Aaron Leitko described as the most bizarre “ever to have graced the roster of a major label.”

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band might dispute that claim, but I can say for certain that the Boredoms are one of the top-five best live acts I’ve ever seen (Brown’s Island, in 1994, with Sonic Youth and Superchunk).

Human Bell is Dave Heumann, frontman of Arbouretum, and Nathan Bell, best known as bassist for Lungfish. According to both bands’ label, Thrill Jockey, the Boredoms “handpicked” them for this tour.

Here are the dates. Alas, no DC:

Mon Mar 10 Lousiville, KY Ear X-Tacy (in-store)
Wed Mar 12 Dallas, TX Good Records (in-store) w/ Kid Dakota
Thur Mar 13 Marfa, TX TBA
Sat Mar 15 San Diego, CA Canes w/Boredoms
Sun Mar 16 Los Angeles, CA Family (in-store)
Sun Mar 16 Los Angeles, CA Henry Fonda Theater w/Boredoms
Mon Mar 17 San Luis Obispo, CA Boo Boo Records (in-store)
Tue Mar 18 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore Auditorium w/Boredoms
Thu Mar 20 Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom w/Boredoms
Fri Mar 21 Seattle, WA Neumos w/Boredoms
Sat Mar 22 Anacortes, WA Department of Safety w/ Mt. Eerie, Photosynthesis
Mon Mar 23 Missoula, MT The Palace (Badlander downstairs, free show)
Tue Mar 25 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue w/Boredoms
Wed Mar 26 Chicago, IL Congress Theater w/Boredoms, Soft Circle
Thu Mar 27 Chicago, IL AV-Erie

The Boredoms will be at the 9:30 Club on April 3rd