Reckless Records House Band: Longtime no-wave scene fixture Jim Magas (Magas, Lake of Dracula) has formed a new group, the Violent ARP Band, which he describes on his blog as “high-velocity avant heavy sludge.” The band members are all fellow employees of the local Reckless chain: Matt Jencik (Don Caballero, Papa M) on bass, Eli Caterer (Smoking Popes) on guitar, and Dave “King of Metal” Hoffa (Chicago Thrash Ensemble, Authority Abuse) on drums. They plan to start playing out this spring.
Girl Talk’s Gregg Gillis opened his set at an Olympics party in Vancouver this past weekend with his own edit of the Olympic theme. The packed show was sponsored by the city of Vancouver and attended by Mayor Gregor Robertson; it closed with a 12-minute fire- and waterworks display.
In other Olympic news, Ted Leo told Gossip Wolf this week “I don’t like Brent Musburger as much as I used to.” Leo + Pharmacists play the Bottom Lounge on the 13th.
Antony & the Johnsons may have their new album Swan Lights out as early this fall. A rep for his label, Secretly Canadian, told Gossip Wolf it’s not officially on the schedule yet, but they’re expecting it “end of 2010, early ’11 at the latest.” The rumored first single, “Insanity Is Vaporous,” may be inspired by Lou Reed‘s iPhone app, Lou Zoom.
Over 300 dancing fools helped Bald E. and Mother Hubbard of the Life During Wartime Dance Party & Social celebrate the seventh anniversary of their monthly Hideout dance party last Saturday. Bald E. told Gossip Wolf they plan to keep going “at least ten years.” They’ll also be spinning the Hideout’s annual SXSW send-off bash on the 13th, to raise gas money for local luminaries making the trek to Austin including Hollows, the hood Internet, Tyler Jon Tyler, Plastic Crimewave Sound, and the Waco Brothers.
Universal Music Group announced last week that the Rolling Stones‘s Exile on Main Street will be reissued May 18 with ten previously unheard songs. The new tracks were cleaned up by Don Was, who used his hair.
Pogues front man Shane MacGowan told Spinner at the NME Awards that he’s planning a TV cooking show. Apparently no one has informed him that for most people unscrewing the top from a bottle of gin doesn’t count as “cooking.”
Local garage-rock linchpin Hozac Records has dibs on the hotly anticipated Dum Dum Girls debut LP. After releasing the all-girl LA band’s first 45 via the HoZac Hookup Klub, they’re issuing the first 1,000 albums, with the first 200 on gold vinyl. Sub Pop, who recently signed the band, will release the CD and subsequent vinyl editions. HoZac will announce preorder details on Friday, March 5.
Bad timing: Amy Davidman, a booking agent for the Chicago-based Windish Agency (where she works for Dirty Projectors, among others), left town for Santiago, Chile, with her wife, artist Aspen Mays, the week of February 22. Both were unharmed in last Saturday’s earthquake, but their apartment was destroyed. They’re staying with friends who are also hosting Brazilian Sub Pop recording artists CSS, who were in Chile to DJ and got stranded by the quake.
Folks are fiending so hard for info on the Lupe Fiasco album due later this year that they’re reporting the novel Lupe is writing as “breaking” news. Actually, Lupe mentioned the book—working title “Reflections of a Window-Washer”—in an interview with Entertainment Weekly over three years ago. In other news, Thomas Pynchon‘s new hip-hop record, Pig Bodine Don’t Hurt ‘Em, is set to drop in May.
Norah Utley, the rocker behind the local Shit Sandwich label (Headache City, CoCoComa) gave birth to a daughter, Ramona, earlier this week.