Will Bryant reports:
Grandaddy are beginning the process of recording their third full-length, according to a lengthy screed posted by guitarist Jim Fairchild on the band's website. Beard enthusiast/chief songwriter Jason Lytle has demoed approximately twenty songs for the project, including "I'm on Standby," "The Warming Sun," "Fifty Percent Less Words," "Build a Box," "Yeah Is What We Had," "The Go In the Go for It," "Now It's On," and "Emit Anymore," which Fairchild describes as "something like the ballad version of 'Master of Puppets.'" (There's a ballad version?!) Ahh, to hear Lytle crooning, "I will occupy/ I will help you die/ I will run through you/ Now I rule you too."

The new material runs the gamut from uplifting anthems of hope to highly abbreviated rave-ups to the "potentially epic" beauty of "The Warming Sun," according to Fairchild. Grandaddy are recording the album on a 24-track machine in their own recently constructed studio. "We're professional now, with a technician coming from the big city to align our new [machine], allowing us to begin work in earnest," Fairchild reports.

In other Grandaddy haps, the band are starting an indie label of their own with a posthumous release from the now-defunct band Arm of Roger, who recorded the "really bizarre but inspired and listenable record" The Ham and It's Lily in 1998. Members of Grandaddy remembered the Tracy, California combo from a show opening for Giant Sand and just couldn't resist the opportunity to release the band's bizarro output, which includes "Down with the Animals," "Robot Escort," and "The Pussy Song."

Lytle, Fairchild and Grandaddy drummer Aaron Burtch recently lent a hand to ex-Pond vocalist/guitarist Charlie Campbell's new project, Gold Card. The Grandaddy crew arranged and recorded "The Rabbit Song" for the album, which is expected around year's end on Off Records. Lytle and Fairchild have also taken turns rocking the drum kit for Earlimart's new recording-- perhaps the one instrument neither consider themselves particularly proficient with.

And lastly, Grandaddy wish to completely disavow Will Records' February release Concrete Dunes, which purports to be an all-new b-sides collection but, according to the band, actually "consists primarily of The Broken Down Comforter Collection," a 1999 import title. "The additional material does not merit a rerelease in our opinion, and could be considered grossly opportunistic. I think that it's probably illegal for us to discourage you from buying it, so I won't actually verbalize that sentiment." However, Pitchfork is completely unfettered in this regard. 0.0!

.: Pitchfork Review: Grandaddy: The Sophtware Slump
.: Pitchfork Review: Grandaddy: The Broken Down Comforter Collection
.: Grandaddy: http://www.grandaddylandscape.com

William Cameron reports:
Have Primal Scream lost their "Rocks"? They return to us August 5th with their new album Evil Heat, but the band who once brought us the fantastic "Swastika Eyes" (a wicked criticism of ex-Secretary of State Madeline Albright) seems to be suffering, like so many others, from a post-September 11th rethink of their art. Prior to the terrorist attacks, they had, at some shows, performed a song called "Bomb the Pentagon" which attacked U.S. foreign policy. The track was subsequently re-recorded, given new lyrics and renamed "Rise." Bassist Mani told New Musical Express that politics are now out of their system and that the new album is "a celebration of life."

This album does not, however, suffer from a lack of superstar guest contributors-- the impressive list includes Kevin Shields, the Jesus and Mary Chain's Jim Reid, Two Lone Swordsmen's Andy Weatherall, Regular Fries' Jagz Kooner, and Robert Plant (!) who reportedly plays harmonica on "The Lord Is My Shotgun." A collaboration with supermodel Kate Moss on a cover of "Some Velvet Morning," however, looks like it may not make the cut. In an interview for Irish magazine Hot Press, Bobby Gillespie said Moss' voice sounds "really European, like a young Nico." This could be the first time Kate has been left out of anything since the awkward high school days that supermodels always try to convince us they've had!

NME has caught this shy and all-too-modest band as describing their new song "Skull X" as "a fucking guitar holocaust" and "Autobahn 66" as an "absolute classic." The UK release date for the first single, "Miss Lucifer," is July 15th. Tracklist:

01 Deep Hit of Morning Sun
02 Miss Lucifer
03 Autobahn 66
04 Detroit
05 Rise
06 The Lord Is My Shotgun
07 Skull X
08 City
09 A Scanner Darkly
10 Space Blues No. 2

.: Pitchfork Review: Primal Scream: Exterminator
.: Primal Scream: http://www.theprimalscream.com

Will Bryant reports:
The June 9th Washington, D.C. Benefit For Bridget show which featured a reunited Velocity Girl, Mark Robinson and others has raised around $4,200 for ex-Unrest singer Bridget Cross' legal bills, according to benefit organizer Don Smith. "I had hoped for something between $3,000-3,500, so $4,200 was really great," Smith told Pitchfork via e-mail this week. "The benefit was a huge success, I want to publicly thank everyone who showed up. I also want to thank Dante, Yalan and Angie at the Black Cat, Dan Searing for DJ'ing, the Sounds of Kaleidoscope, Mark Robinson and everyone in Velocity Girl."

As previously reported, the former member of Unrest, Air Miami, and Velocity Girl was incarcerated in Alaska last year for an incident in which the singer and her boyfriend, a South African national, were arrested for fleeing a bar brawl in which a railroad worker was slashed with a knife. Cross and her companion, Franswa Fernandez, were stopped by Alaska authorities for driving under the influence and eventually jailed for their involvement in the bar melee, which was reportedly sparked by verbally abusive railroad workers deriding Fernandez's race. Cross' legal bills amounted to $30,000; Fernandez' bills may top $100,000.

An eBay auction of TeenBeat-related paraphernalia which was to have coincided with the show has been postponed to September, according to Smith, "because of a number of donations which came in late." The September auction will be held in conjunction with a New York City-area concert with artists yet to be announced. If your band would like to participate, or you would like to donate items to the auction, please contact Benefit For Bridget through their website.

.: Pitchfork News: Velocity Girl to Reunite in June for Benefit
.: Benefit For Bridget: http://www.geocities.com/benefitforbridget

Ray Suzuki reports:
Two planned tributes to Dee Dee Ramone will be rescheduled, according to a report on Allstar news, after Dee Dee's widow, Barbara Zampini, requested that they not be held last week. Dee Dee had scheduled an all-Ramones cover show with his current band at Los Angeles' Key Club on June 14th-- a show which, eerily, was advertised the same day that the former Ramones bassist was found dead of an apparent drug overdose. Rather than cancel the gig, the promoters simply changed the ad to make the show a tribute to Dee Dee, promising "members of Guns 'n' Roses." A second tribute at the Cat Club, which was to have featured Dee Dee's backup band, was also nixed.

However, Dee Dee's posthumous memoir Legend of a Rock Star is still on track for release this month, according to publishers Thunder's Mouth Press. The memoir covers Dee Dee's solo career, much as his 1998 Lobotomy: Surviving the Ramones covered his glory years-- unsparingly, and with a voice all his own.

.: Pitchfork News: Dee Dee Ramone Found Dead at 50
.: Ramones: http://www.officialramones.com
.: Dee Dee Ramone: http://www.deedeeramone.net