Homeboys Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are throwing their hype behind an awesome cause: The Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls. The Camp, which will hold its third session this summer, teaches girls aged 8-18 not only how to play rock music, but how to make zines, promote themselves, and kick ass. It’s an all-volunteer outfit, and proceeds from the benefit go towards scholarships and equipment.
The benefit features not only the Clappers, but also Tamar-kali, Kimya Dawson, and kid wonders Tiny Masters of Today. If that’s not enough, there’s a pre-show auction, where you can bid on great stuff like a private party at Brooklyn Brewery, an electric guitar and guitar lessons, swanky gear from Marc Jacobs and Anna Sui, and all manner of items autographed by celebrities. Murray Hill hosts the whole shebang.
Great bands, the chance to win fancy swag, and a good cause: not bad for fifty bucks.
More information can be found here. Tickets can be found here.
-Cortney Harding

Sound of Silver due March 20
Sounds like a good plan to us: [via Pitchfork]

According to the LCD deacon [James Murphy], the soundtrack to the Beyonce-boasting, Golden Globe-winning musical Dreamgirls moved 60064 units last week and held on to the number one Billboard spot….
“straight up, if everyone who bought the first record bought s.o.s. the week it’s released, then we’re totally #1…. Taking Sound of Silver to #1 has its perks. As Murphy mused elsewhere, “i don’t want to ‘get’ people to buy the record (it always bugs me when i feel like a salesman) but if we could figure out a way to have the people who’d buy it anyway because they want it to do it ALL AT ONCE, then i could go to radio stations and say ‘can you please play north american scum, because it’s on a top 40 record’ and see what they say.
“i mean, no ‘modern rock’ station in the US is going to play a song like that, but at least i want them to say to my face ‘no–because it’s retarded’ rather than what i usually hear, which is ‘duuuuude! i LOOOOOOVE your band, man! daft punk is losing it’s edge is my FAVORITE SONG!! but i just can’t, because my hands are tied here to only play hinder and evanescence’ etc. etc.”

um…. just check it out, and be sure to listen to his tunes and watch his YouTube video. Hat Tip Lindsayism.

This is hilarious:

This looks much more hilarious than the retarded Spade/Farley movie.

With their new record, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, due to be released in February, Of Montreal is hitting the road to begin touring. If you’ve never seen them perform, we highly recommend checking them out:
03-09 New York, NY – Irving Plaza
03-10 New York, NY – Irving Plaza
Here’s a hilarious B-side to their first single:
MP3: Of Montreal: Little Rock [from the She's a Rejecter single]
[Hat Tip Pitchfork]

Other Unrelated Downloads:
Good Weather for Airstrikes has 4 tracks from new “it” band Cold War Kids here. And don’t miss this free Cold War Kids live EP available over at Brooklyn Vegan. [Hat tip Cortney]
Finally…. our favorite source for old school hip hop, morebounce-oz.com, has four very fun tracks from a funky electronic band we’d never heard of before, Thes One.

From The Associated Press

The Defense Department’s rules for upcoming detainee trials would allow terrorism suspects to be convicted and perhaps executed using hearsay evidence and some coerced testimony.
The rules are fair, said the department, which released them Thursday in a manual for the expected trials. However, they could spark a fresh confrontation between the Bush administration and the Democratic-led Congress over treatment of terror suspects….
As required by law, the manual prohibits the use of statements obtained through torture and “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” as prohibited by the Constitution. It allows some evidence obtained through coercive interrogation techniques if obtained before Dec. 30, 2005, and deemed reliable by a judge…
“As a general matter, hearsay shall be admitted on the same terms as any evidence,” the manual states.

Mexican guitarists Rodrigo y Gabriela have just announced a show at the Bowery Ballroom March 21st. You can pick up tickets here. If you’re not familiar, check out this amazing performance on Letterman. [Hat Tip BrooklynVegan]

The Apples In Stereo’s new record, New Magnetic Wonder, isn’t slotted for release until February 6, but we lucked into an advance copy and have been enjoying it immensely. Pitchfork has called it a “little too feel-good” but we’re not sure that’s possible. Check out “Energy,” our favorite single of 2007 thus far.

Download “Energy” here [MP3 via Stereogum]. Buy New Magnetic Wonder here.

De La Soul: 3 Feet High and Rising (press kit)

From So Much Silence

Fumbling around Google the other night while pretending to do some ‚”research,” I came across this amazing piece of hip-hop history via YouTube. It’s a video press kit (about seven minutes in length) for De La Soul’s seminal debut 3 Feet High and Rising[...]
The main theme of the clip, though, seems to center on the group almost defending the album, which probably earned as much abuse as praise for its out-there mentality of peace, love and medallions. De La takes umbrage with being labeled ‚”hippies,” a topic that becomes the driving inspiration behind 3 Feet High’s follow-up, De La Soul is Dead.