Ryan Schreiber reports:
Remember Portishead? Some of you have brothers and sisters younger than their seminal 1994 debut Dummy, which single-handedly made the term "trip-hop" a household buzzword. (Ask your dad, he'll know.) But the notoriously reclusive trio of producer/DJ Geoff Barrow, jazz guitarist Adrian Utley, and soul crooner Beth Gibbons haven't uttered a word since their 1997 self-titled follow-up and its near-immediate successor, the 1998 live album, PNYC, which saw the band performing songs from their catalog with the aid of a 20-piece orchestra.

Now, a mere five years later, the band is apparently ready for another go, as their forthcoming album, tentatively titled Alien, is due to drop sometime this winter on Mercury Records. According to an unofficial fansite, who stole all this information from the highly reliable Euro Beat Magazine, the record will run just over an hour in length and will be enhanced with "multimedia" so's you file-traders will have a reason to buy the thing when it finally hits. Tracklist:

01 Open Box
02 Love of Life
03 Broquette
04 Broken Wall
05 Beatless Day
06 Of Liberty for All and None (ft. JD Smack)
07 Alien
08 Signature
09 Minor Pain
10 Traveling Fast to There
11 Tomorrow's Death
12 Broquette (multi mix in F#- slowdown)

But before any of this comes to a 'Head (doh), Portishead vocalist Beth Gibbons will be releasing her solo debut! Indeed, that one even has a street date: October 28th. Titled Out of Season, the record is said to consist largely of "semi-acoustic" and "deeply moving" numbers, and will feature ex-Talk Talk bassist and O.Rang frontman Paul Webb backing her up. Though this album is apparently not a sign of Beth leaving Portishead, she will be heavily promoting the record with a UK tour, if not a US one shortly thereafter. Dates are yet to come, but if there's one thing you know about Pitchfork, it's that we'll list 'em here in this daily newswire with snarky asides when they become available. Tracklist:

01 Mysteries
02 Sand River
03 Tom the Model
04 Snow
05 Romance
06 Resolve
07 May You Never
08 Spyder
09 Drake
10 Funny Time of Year
11 Rustin' Man

Portishead have also just released a DVD of the 1998 performance at NYC's Roseland which became the PNYC live album, which offers insane 5:1 Dolby Surround, as well as the poorly titled but rarely seen film To Kill a Dead Man, which was filmed and scored by the band themselves.

.: Pitchfork Review: Portishead: PNYC: Roseland NYC Live
.: Portishead: http://www.portishead.co.uk
.: Mortiis: http://www.mortiis.com

Alan Haworth reports:
Having fully explored the possibilities of the vocoder on his recent electronica-tinged release, Modulate, the former Hüsker Dü and Sugar heavyweight is ready to release the second album in his new solo trilogy. According to Bob himself, the new record, titled Body of Song, hews closer to earlier, angrier solo material: "For lack of a better term, it's Workbook revisited."

As such, Mould has announced a month of tour dates that will take him around the eastern U.S. to promote Modulate and preview the new material. If you missed Mould on the first leg of this tour, he has replaced his backing band with video images and electronic playbacks. Just like Britney Spears! "A tour can only move as fast as the slowest person," Mould commented recently in an interview with webzine/pop-up ad whore SoundSpike.

In the same interview, he cleared up some Hüsker Dü rumors. Another ex-Hüsker Dü member had been misquoted as saying that Mould wanted to buy the name and tour under it, when in actuality Mould hopes to eventually buy back his back catalog and offer it through his own Granary Music label and distribute the profits in a more ethical way than his ex-labels. I offered to buy the catalog of Hüsker Dü," Mould admits. "[But] I have no interest in using the name... I could get everything reissued and everyone [ex-bandmates] could make some money. Just trying to get it so that we could actually get some money back from the labels that have been screwing us." Tour dates:

10-14 Chapel Hill, NC - Cat's Cradle
10-15 Atlanta, GA - The Earl
10-17 Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club
10-18 Nashville, TN - 12th And Porter
10-19 Louisville, KY - Phoenix Hill Tavern
10-21 Ames, MI - M Shop
10-22 Minneapolis, MN - Women's Club
10-24 Chicago, IL - Metro
10-26 Pittsburgh, PA - Rosebud
10-27 Philadelphia, PA - North Star
10-29 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
10-30 Boston, MA - TT The Bear's
10-31 Northampton, MA - Iron Horse
11-03 Alexandria, VA - Birchmere

.: Pitchfork News: Bob Mould to Rock Cambridge, London, Chili Cookoff
.: Bob Mould: http://www.bobmould.com
.: Granary: http://www.granarymusic.com

Ray Suzuki reports:
Don't put that table fan in your vaccum closet just yet, 'cause we just got word that Canadian twitch-rockers Hot Hot Heat are bringin' their third full-length album, Make Up The Breakdown, October 8th on Sub Pop. Leaning ever so slightly away from the somewhat forced Cure worship of their recent Knock Knock Knock EP, Make Up The Breakdown was recorded by Sub Pop warhorse Jack Endino (Mudhoney, Fastbacks, Soundgarden, Nirvana, yadda yadda yadda), ostensibly to add some grungy crunch to the Heat's brand of bouncy synth-rock. Tracklist:

01 Naked in the City Again
02 No, Not Now
03 Get in or Get Out
04 Bandages
05 Oh, Goddamnit
06 Aveda
07 This Town
08 Talk to Me, Dance With Me
09 Save Us S.O.S.
10 In Cairo

Hot Hot Heat has also put a couple of new recordings down with Death Cab for Cutie's Chris Walla for inclusion on the album's first single, which is tentatively kinda sorta planned for December. The early favorite is "Bandages," seeing as they're shooting a video for that one shortly, but "No Not Now" is also a possibility as they've already got a video in the can for that one. Can you believe how far they're taking this 80's retro thing? Shooting videos? Oh wait, I forgot, they actually air those in Canada.

Anyhoo, the Hot Hot Heat kidz are packing up their gear and bringin' it all over this enchanted fiefdom of amber-waving grain, mountains' majesties, and all that shit. The Pattern, Karate, Engine Down, Dismemberment Plan, VHS or Beta, and the Greenhornes are among the bands you might see them swapping fashion tips with. Mainly The Pattern. Tour dates:

10-01 Wolfville, Nova Scotia - Acadia University
10-02 Antigonish, Nova Scotia - St. FX University
10-03 Halifax, Nova Scotia - The Attic
10-04 Halifax, Nova Scotia - The Pavillion
10-05 Fredericton, New Brunswick - Upperdeck Sports Bar
10-06 New York, NY - Village Underground
10-07 Brooklyn, NY - Luxx
10-09 Bowling Green, OH - Howards Club
10-10 St. Louis, MO - Rocket Bar (w/ Karate)
10-11 Lawrence, KS - Replay Lounge
10-12 Denver, CO - Climax Lounge
10-16 Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland *
10-17 Anaheim, CA - Chain Reaction *
10-18 San Diego, CA - The Casbah *
10-19 Tempe, AZ - Nita's Hideaway *
10-20 El Paso, TX - Wildhares Booze and Adventure *
10-22 Dallas, TX - Gypsy Tea Room *
10-23 Austin, TX - Emo's *
10-24 Houston, TX - Mary Janes *
10-25 New Orleans, LA - El Matador *
10-26 Atlanta, GA - The Earl *
10-27 Carrboro, NC - Go Rehearsal *
10-29 Washington, DC - Black Cat *
10-30 Philadelphia, PA - The Owl Cove *
11-01 Cambridge, MA - Middle East *
11-02 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge (Sub Pop CMJ Showcase)
11-04 Chicago, IL - Fireside Bowl (w/ Radio 4, VHS or Beta)
11-07 Seattle, WA - Graceland (w/ Dismemberment Plan, Engine Down)
11-08 Seattle, WA - Graceland (w/ Dismemberment Plan, Engine Down)
11-12 Portland, OR - Black Bird (w/ The Greenhornes)

* with The Pattern

.: Pitchfork Review: Hot Hot Heat: Knock Knock Knock EP
.: Hot Hot Heat: http://www.hothotheat.com
.: Sub Pop: http://www.subpop.com

Ray Suzuki reports:
In what will inevitably be an album experience ten times more psychedelic, entertaining and disorienting than anything ever committed to aluminum by those jam-wankers Phish, VH-1 is dropping the unintentionally hilarious album For The Kids November 5th on Nettwerk. So let's just get out of the way that it's a benefit album for Save The Music and there's a buncha crap from like Barenaked Ladies and Hootie and Remy Zero on there, but hear us out. First of all, they roped Tom Waits into appearing on the record, which is always cool, and amid the Raffi wannabes like Cake and Sixpence None The Richer you'll find names like Billy Bragg & Wilco (who contribute Mermaid Avenue II's "My Flying Saucer") and Ivy (who cover "Sing" about ten years too late for that alt-rock Carpenters tribute). But far and away, the jaw-dropping highlight of this album has got to be Sarah McLachlan's no-doubt completely earnest cover of "The Rainbow Connection." Oh, friends, you can't buy cheese like that even in Wisconsin! Tracklist:

01 Cake - Mahna Mahna
02 Barenaked Ladies - La La La La Lemon
03 Sarah McLachlan - The Rainbow Connection
04 Guster - I've Got To Be Clean
05 Dan Zanes - Wonderwheel
06 Glen Phillips - Have a Little Fun
07 Five For Fighting - The Hoppity Song
08 Billy Bragg & Wilco - My Flying Saucer
09 It's All Right To Cry - Darius Rucker
10 Ivy - Sing
11 Remy Zero - Bright Eyes
12 Dan Wilson of Semisonic - Willie The King
13 Bleu - Snow Day
14 Chantal/Raine Maida - Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
15 Sixpence None The Richer - Good Night Children Everywhere
16 Tom Waits - Bend Down The Branches

.: Nettwerk: http://www.nettwerk.com