Check out Miniature Tigers' session here. Highlights: unreleased tracks "Egyptian Robe" and "Dark Tower." PS. Sorry about the lack of images. Something is wrong with our website. Our top guys are looking into. We should be back to normal soon. -IL

See below for NYC's Lissy Trullie's forthcoming tour. Self-Taught Learner is the name of her EP. It's a good one, check it out. -IL

* = w/ The Virgins and Anya Marina

APRIL
30 - New York, NY - Le Poisson Rouge

MAY
11 - Denver, CO - Blubird Theater*
12 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court*
14 - Seattle, WA - Chop Suey*
15 - Vancouver, BC - Biltmore Cabaret*
16 - Portland, OR - The Wonder Ballroom*
18 - Sacramento, CA - Harlow's*
20 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall*
21 - Los Angeles, CA - El Rey Theatre*
22 - Solana Beach, CA - Belly Up Tavern*
23 - Las Vegas, NV - Beauty Bar*
26 - Dallas, TX - The Loft*
27 - Austin, TX - Emo's Alternative Lounge*
28 - Houston, TX - Rudyards*
30 - Mobile, AL - Alabama Music Box*

JUNE
01 - Orlando, FL - The Social*

The boys are playing Coachella today. If you're not sweating in the desert, don't worry. Check the tour dates below. -IL

4/17 - Indio, CA - Coachella
4/18 - San Francisco, CA - The Independent
4/20 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
4/21 - Seattle, WA - Chop Suey
4/24 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
4/25 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
4/26 - Detroit, MI - Magic Bag
4/27 - Toronto, ON - Mod Club
4/28 - Montreal, QE - Les Saints
4/29 - Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club
5/1 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
5/2 - Washington DC - Black Cat

The Girlfriend Experience is not a documentary. It does, however, have Sasha Grey (pornstar) playing a high-end prostitute. This preview doesn't reveal much (skin or plot, yuck yuck) but check it out below. Soderbergh often makes these artier projects in between films like Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen. I haven't seen Bubble, or the Che films, but something tells me I'll be first in line for this one. -IL (creep)

Silversun Pickups released the follow up to their 2006 smash, Carnavas, yesterday. The album is titled Swoon and people love it, if modern rock radio is any indication of cultural acquiescence these days. (The single "Panic Switch" can be heard everywhere.)

Critics are mixed -- Rolling Stone compared it to In Rainbows, while others still fault Silversun for sounding too much like Smashing Pumpkins during their nineties heyday. It's an understandable concern, but it doesn't stop the Pickups from dishing out some bombastic rock songs. And, hey, shouldn't we all be happy there are at least a couple of bands still playing rock music? -SB

Courtest of PitchforkTV. Check out the new video from Phoenix. Yeah boyyy. -IL

Get ready to laugh your economically depressed face off, because D+T Issue 19, in stores April 21, is the Comedy Issue! Danny McBride graces our cover, and the side-splitting comedian portfolio inside promises rip-snorting good times. Sure, stocks may be falling, but your mood will be rising.

Witty host of The Soup, Joel McHale, is featured in the portfolio alongside fellow comedians such as The Office's Craig Robinson (yep, it's Darryl), Upright Citizens Brigade's Greg Johnson, Jen Kirkman, and Kumail Nanjiani, Parks and Recreations' Aziz Ansari, and stand-up laugh riot Zach Galifianakis.

Get a sneak peek at D+T's comedic geniuses with the exclusive extended online interview with Joel McHale after the jump. Seriously, click the link--you don't want to miss McHale talking about his bro tattoo with Tyra Banks.

So how did you get in character to play Anderson Cooper on Robot Chicken?

How did I get into character to play Anderson... Well, I just imagined my mom was Gloria Vanderbilt, and then I poured some salt and pepper in what hair I have left, and that was about it!

Is Lou really your dog, or the show's?

Lou is a prop who we assemble before every show, and he's getting a little beat up so we're going to have to buy another one.

Hmm. Interesting.

Yup. Weird.

So, what's it like to be a judge on Iron Chef America?

It is awesome! I recommend it a hundred times, because you get to get free food, and some of the best cooks in the world are cooking for you, and to their faces on camera you can tell them, "Ehh, it’s OK."

After Rock of Love Ladies, a kind of standard TV fare in 2009, what's your prediction for the state of TV in, say, ten years from now?

My guess is Bret Michaels will be hosting Live Execution.

Ohh, god.

That's gonna be the way it goes.

If you could get a bro tattoo with Tyra Banks, what would it be, and where?

Ohh, boy. It would probably be a tattoo on my arm that says "Enormous Mistake." That's how I feel about most tattoos.

OK, same question, but with Ryan Seacrest. Would it be the same thing?

Oh, well we already have those--we already have lockets. You know, half of a heart. We each have one half of it. If we had to get tattoos, ooh--my guess is matching barbed wire wrapped around our biceps 'cause we both are just jacked.

OK, last question: Can you tell us something funny or uplifting to cure us of our recession depression?

Uhh... You're great, no matter what anybody says! And hey, just know that we still have it better than almost any other civilization in the history of the earth. We should feel good about that. And you're not out scrubbing garbage or being shot at while you're trying to vote, so, hey, there's that!

But for me, the most depressing thing about this year isn't the economy, and not the state of war and the world--it's really the ending of Battlestar Gallactica.

It's Wednesday morning -- time to get your freak on. Black Dice have premiered a new video, and it's a mind-bender (of course).

The band has also announced new summer tour dates with Animal Collective, Dan Deacon, and more. Full tour dates after the jump.-AM



BLACK DICE

Wed 05/20/09 Empty Bottle Chicago, IL #
Thu 05/21/09 Triple Rock Minneapolis, MN #
Sat 05/23/09 Palace Missoula, MT #
Sun 05/24/09 Holy Mountain Seattle, WA #
Mon 05/25/09 Biltmore Vancouver, BC #
Tue 05/26/09 Backspace Portland, OR #
Fri 05/29/09 OCD Warehouse San Francisco, CA #%
Sat 05/30/09 F Yeah Fest presents at Gilbert's Los Angeles, CA #~
Sun 05/31/09 Rialto Theater Tucson AZ *
Mon 06/01/09 Sunshine Theater Albuquerque NM *
Tue 06/02/09 Boulder Theatre Boulder CO *
Wed 06/03/09 Opolis Norman, OK
Thu 06/04/09 House Of Blues Dallas TX *
Fri 06/05/09 Stubbs Waller Creek Amphitheater Austin TX *
Sat 06/06/09 The Library Oxford MS *
Sun 06/07/09 Bottletree Birmingham, AL
Mon 06/08/09 State Theatre St. Petersburg FL *
Tue 06/09/09 Culture Room Fort Lauderdale FL *
Wed 06/10/09 Club Firestone Orlando FL *
Thu 06/11/09 The Earl Atlanta, GA $
Fri 06/12/09 Local 506 Chapel Hill, NC $
Sat 06/13/09 Sonar Baltimore, MD $@+
Sun 06/14/09 Bowery Ballroom New York, NY $!
Mon 06/15/09 Outside The Lines Boston, MA $
Tue 06/16/09 Il Motore Montreal, QC $
Thu 06/18/09 MOFA Detroit, MI $#
Fri 06/19/09 Garfield Art Works Pittsburgh, PA $
Sat 06/20/09 Kung Fu Necktie Philadelphia, PA $

# = w/ Wolf Eyes
* = w/ Animal Collective
$ = w/ Awesome Color
! = w/ Soft Circle
@ = w/ Dan Deacon
% = w/ Sic Alps
~ = w/ Richard Bishop
+ = w/ Dat Politics

What's better than getting to see rad old movies like The Graduate at the MOMA theater? Getting to see them for $10, as opposed to the $14 or whatever it costs to see regular movies these days -- which, let's face it unless they're Adventureland, aren't going to be anywhere near as good as The Graduate.

Other awesome Nichols movies in the lineup include Primary Colors, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf, Closer, The Birdcage, and Angels In America.

Check here for the complete schedule.-AM

The Mars Volta will release a new record on June 23rd. It's called Octahedron, and for a good reason, I'm sure.

It's the band's fifth album, and the follow up to 2008's The Bedlam in Goliath, which featured the song "Wax Simulacra" that captured the band a Grammy for "Best Hard Rock Performance." Though, it's not like they had stiff competition. Have you heard Motley Crue's "Saints of Los Angeles?" What about Disturbed?

The album tentatively includes eight tracks, which means the record will likely be over sixty minutes. They can really cram it in there! We'll post more about the record as we hear it. -SB

What's the event you say? Why don't I just quote the press release. "Bill Goldstein, of the New York Times and WNBC's "Saturday Today" in New York, will moderate a discussion between the creative team of Stephin Merritt (composer), David Greenspan (book writer), Leigh Silverman (director), and Jayne Houdyshell (Coraline), and take questions form the audience. The evening will conclude with a first-ever public performance of one of Coraline's songs; performed on the ukelele and sung by composer/lyricist Stephin Merritt."

Click here for more information and tickets. -IL

Caroline Polachek from Chairlift made this music video for NY's Violens. If this whole music thing doesn't pan out for her, she should just don the director's cap. This is brilliant. -IL

By Amelia Kreminski

Tim Kasher is a pretty relatable guy. He plays Metallica Guitar Hero and talks with a familiar and friendly lilt in his laidback voicemail message: "Hi, this is Tim, please leave a message..."

But after listening to the six melancholic, sometimes inky-black albums of his career as lead singer for Cursive, one would assume he's got the weight of the world pressed on his shoulders. The band's latest LP release, Mama, I'm Swollen, dropped March 10, and is no exception in Kasher's opus of solemn sounds and tristful texts.

Between the haunting, bittersweet electric guitar echoes and softly whispering cymbals of "Mama, I'm Satan," Kasher laments, "The darkness of mankind stirs in us all." His soft, anguished vocals sway like cattails in tepid swamp water through the minor-chord lullaby of "From the Hips." The album closes with a masterful creation, the six-and-a-half minute "What Have I Done," both uplifting and heart-wrenching with Kasher's gentle libretto silhouetted by a twisting melodic maze.

"The gods must be laughing down at me," he intones after the first couple minutes of the song, following the statement with three "ha's" that hang limply on sustained guitar hooks, as fragile and drooping as the antique beauty of dead flowers in a vase.

So what's on Tim Kasher's mind? What kind of ideas float through the songwriter from Omaha's head, filling his musical repertoire with such heavy-hearted albums? Death+Taxes called him up at his home in L.A. to find out. Find out more details on Cursive's new album, Kasher's screenwriting projects, why rock and roll is "youthful and obnoxious" (and why that's a good thing), and more about the ever-popular Metallica Guitar Hero after the jump.

Tell me about your new album. What themes are present throughout?

We didn't really set out with anything specific, but I guess it turned out with themes of fighting societal norms. Very loosely, I just wanted to write about this time in my life. [The ideas of] being in my early thirties and [being conscious of life] getting later and later. [The time] when people have to start making decisions about what they're doing with their lives and the reluctance to want to--the preference to make no decisions, I guess.

Do you think the attitude of needing change that is present in your album is the same attitude of needing change that is present in our current political atmosphere?

I think that it's too early to tell [if people in America don't want to change]. I think that when Obama's campaign for change officially came out everyone was, at least, for a moment, excited. But... in this country in particular, probably, a certain attitude probably prevails where it's like, Well, we don't really want to change. [Laughs] It's kind of like when we all get excited about exercising around the New Year but we don't really do it.

Where do the religious and political themes present in so many of your albums come from?

I suppose it's just kind of interests that come up. For Happy Hollow, we really didn't intend for it to be a religious record--it's just that every song kind of kept popping up. We were just trying to write something that was based on a small town, and it kind of became prevalent--religious themes. And, you know, the religious symbolism on this record doesn't seem like it really covers religion. It seems like it really covers ethics, which is kind of different. That's just stuff that we struggle with, I guess.

In the song "Mama, I'm Satan," you mention "the darkness of mankind." What does this mean to you? Also, do you think there is a brightness to mankind?

Yeah, I think there's a brightness. But the darkness of mankind is not really even just mankind--it's nature as well. It's that nature is just inherently...evil, for lack of a better word. Evil seems very satanic, and I don't think nature is necessarily that, but I think that--fear is built into nature, and that seems evil. And the food chain is evil--I mean evil's just not the right word, but at least, thematically, for writing lyrics, that's where I used darkness. Humans definitely take it a lot of steps further, [for instance, with something like] torture. Torture serves no purpose in nature.

In the song "What Have I Done" you say, "I've spent the best years of my life waiting on the best years of my life." I found this idea extremely relatable--I feel like many of us fall into that trap. Why do you think this is? Is it a problem present only in an American culture, perhaps because we are more affluent?

I don't know. I'm not really sure if that's only American--my hunch would be that it's kind of human. But I bet in a lot of ways it is more American, because we're raised with the idea that we have something coming to us. But I think that a lot of what that line is about is our assumption that when we grow up, something kind of big is going to happen to us--we don't really take in the present very much because we're always waiting for something to happen.

Should we live more in the present?

Well, certainly. I don't know. It's probably different for different people. There's a certain selfishness to living in the present, but if you don't somehow take in the present then you're taking it for granted.

I watched an interview with Cursive online in which you called rock and roll "youthful and obnoxious." I was quite amused by this--what exactly do you mean by rock and roll being something that is "youthful and obnoxious"?

Well, it is, but I don't think that's such a bad thing. I mean, I'm an obnoxious person and I challenge myself to never drop that. You know, I think the less obnoxious I've become over the years, the more adult I've become, and I don't really have much curiosity about becoming an adult. So rock and roll and just playing shows, it's a good outlet for that. It's actually an amazing outlet. I would encourage everyone [laughs]--you know, I would encourage yourself, if you're not in a band, to get in one. There are a lot of benefits to yelling. I don't think I realize how good I have it sometimes, as bottled up as I think I can be sometimes. I get a chance to scream on stage. It's just kind of like you can rant and have a tantrum, and I think that's what I do, and it's totally obnoxious.

Do you feel like you should be doing something else? Do you think rock and roll is an industry of teens and twenty-somethings?

In the States, it is a young person's industry, which is completely unfortunate. In other countries, there aren't these societal lines for when you're supposed to stop listening to music or something like that. We're much more prone to be playing Switzerland and have 50-year-olds in the crowd. It took a while to get used to it, but now I love it--it makes complete sense.

But no, I don't think it's something I should stop doing, or anyone who's moving on in the decades or whatever. I mean I'm still really quite young, I just give myself a hard time for doing this for a long time. It does, in some ways, conflict with suburban life and domesticity, which is nice, because I don't have too much interest in those things. It does come into conflict with that as you get older and you try to maybe blend a little bit of both. But, you know, truck drivers probably have it worse off than musicians do. So it's not just that the musician's trade is the only one where you're out traveling all the time.

Have you ever considered doing something else, and quitting the musician's life altogether?

No. I think a long time ago I decided that I am a songwriter and that's just something that I need to keep doing, and I'd be doing myself a disservice if I stopped cataloging what I write. I think that would be the worst time in becoming an adult, really, if I somehow realized that I'm disinterested in songwriting. That being said, I can't assume, nor do I assume, that I'd be so privileged to have a live audience for a lifetime of songwriting, but I know that I will [keep writing]. In other words, if I make it seventy, I'll still be writing songs, I just might be writing for my family.

I read that you've been working on writing screenplays. How is that project going?

It's going well. I wrote a few of them, and I guess I've slowed down. I haven't started a fourth just yet, because I've been working harder on getting one of them made. Although I think the practice to continue writing them is excellent. I think what I said about songwriting I could say about writing in general--it's something that I'll continue doing throughout my life.

How are writing screenplays different from writing songs? Is this a different creative outlet?

Yeah, it is. It's a lot more focused, which is what I try to do with albums, some more so than others as far as trying to build them systematically. It takes a lot more discipline. Music [is] a hobby, which is really the way I think you should keep it. I don't like to consider it like work. Music writing--it's stupid to define it. It's just really enjoyable, you know? [Laughs] Really, it's just like playing with toys, and I think that there's a lot more discipline to writing long stories. So screenplays are--they're much easier just as far as jumping into a longer story form because it's so skeletal still. You only have to write like a hundred pages or so, so it's a good baby step into writing.

Do you think you'd ever write a novel?

I don't know. I really can't know what level of discipline I [could] achieve or if I'd ever have the time. That seems like a privilege in itself, just to have enough time and be financially secure enough to hole away and write an entire novel. Not that I wouldn't love to--I'm kind of just proud that I've pushed myself into screenwriting, and I hope I can keep pushing myself into more forms of writing.

So you said you're trying to get one of the screenplays produced. Is that going well?

Yeah, it is. I had some setbacks last fall. The company I was working with--it just didn't work out, but I'm working with some other people now, and it's just something that's low-budget. But it really has gone well. I've been pretty lucky so far, as far as getting people interested in it, and I'm working on getting it shot sometime this summer.

What is it about? Can you give me a summary?

It's called Help Wanted Nights, and it's about a guy whose car breaks down in a small town and he kind of gets involved with the town folk over the span of a week while his car's getting fixed. He kind of delves into the lives of these characters.

Do you think you write about small towns a lot because you're from Nebraska, a pretty rural state in general?

I find a lot of romanticism in small towns. I think that's something that might be unique to people who are raised in those kinds of areas. I think if I were raised in Connecticut I'd probably be writing about seaside experiences a lot more.

Besides your hometown and background, what else inspires your art? What music were you listening to when you wrote Mama, I'm Swollen? What are you listening to now?

I've been listening to a lot of harder, louder music lately. I think it's just a little thing I've been going through because I picked up Metallica Guitar Hero. So I kind of got into hard rock again, probably just for a brief stint.

Generally, what I'm listening to doesn't reflect on what the records sound like, and if I ever recognize that it does, then I'll stop listening to [the music it sounds like]. I try to be conscientious of when I'm becoming derivative with my songwriting and if I'm becoming too overtly influenced by something that I'm listening to at the time. But over the last year, as far as stuff that I'm trying to learn from, I think it's a lot of jazz, and just the other day I was listening to Amy Mann and Portishead.

Do you have writers or visual artists that inspire your music?

Yeah, that's really the stuff that inspires me a lot more. I guess I've been reading a lot of Philip Roth and Cormac McCarthy. That had kind of more noticeable influences on some of the tones of the album, kind of like the way we talked about the darkness of mankind--it's a lot of what Cormac McCarthy has gotten me interested in.

Your next tour will kick off on April 24 in St. Louis, and end May 9 in Chicago, but you just came home from a tour that included at stop at SxSW. How did the famous Austin music festival go for Cursive?

It really went pretty well. We did a lot of shows and we all were kind of unsure how we would feel about it, but my hunch was right--as long as you're down there you might as well be playing shows, because it kind of just gives you something to do. I get a little restless traveling and being in other cities if there's nothing to do. [Laughs] In other words, I'd rather be at home working on something instead of just sitting around. So I liked playing multiple shows a day, and I think it went pretty well. I'm not a SxSW hater--there's kind of a division amongst musicians of people who love and hate it. I think it's an OK time. My only frustration with it is the way it kind of mixes with spring break a little bit, which is maybe not the point of music appreciation.

Do you have any good tour stories from SxSW?

Probably not. [Laughs] It's like when someone's telling good jokes, and you can never remember your own. I can never remember any jokes.

Check out D+T's review of Mama, I'm Swollen here or in the March/April issue of the magazine, available in stores now.

Michel Gondry's new DVD of music videos, Michel Gondry 2: More Videos, goes on sale tomorrow and is available through Gondry's site: www.michelgondry.com.

In case you don't know, Gondry is the man behind the 2004 masterpiece Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, as well as many of the greatest music videos ever made.

The new DVD includes Bjork's "Declare Independence," The White Stripes' "The Denial Twist," Radiohead's "Knives Out," and The Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter," among many others.

The next feature Gondry is directing will be The Green Hornet, starring Seth Rogen, which will hopefully be another home run of Sunshine proportions, (unlike last year's disappointing Be Kind Rewind).

Full track listing for More Videos after the jump.-AM
1. Michael Andrews ft. Gary Jules "Mad World"
2. Paul McCartney "Dance Tonight"
3. Thomas Dolby "Close But No Cigar"
4. Björk "Declare Independence"
5. Steriogram "Walkie Talkie Man"
6. The Willowz "I Wonder"
7. Beck "Cellphone's Dead"
8. The White Stripes "The Denial Twist"
9. Donald Fagen "Snowbound"
10. Cody ChesnuTT "King of the Game"
11. Sinead O'Connor "Fire On Babylon"
12. Queen with Wyclef Jean ft. Pras & Free "Another One Bites the Dust"
13. Radiohead "Knives Out"
14. Dick Annegarn "Soleil du Soir"
15. Sananda Maitreya "She Kissed Me"
16. Sheryl Crow "A Change Would Do You Good"
17. The Black Crowes "High Head Blues"
18. Leafbirds "It Can All Be Taken Away"
19. The Rolling Stones "Gimme Shelter"
20. Energy Orchard "How the West Was Won”

David Bowie's son Duncan Jones co-wrote and directed the Sam Rockwell-starring sci-fi flick Moon. It looks like a cross between Solaris and 2001. Check out the preview below. Also, for fun, try and guess who the computer's voice on board Rockwell's spaceship belongs to. Answer after the jump. -IL

If you missed it, here it is. Yeah Yeah Yeahs on SNL. Booyah. -IL