Go record shopping on Tuesday. Seriously.

As if last week's release of Ted Nugent's Scream Dream reissue wasn't enough to get your ass to the record store, June 6th is shaping up to be the blockbuster day for summer music releases. Hitting stores will be new stuff from Sonic Youth, Boards of Canada, Kieran Hebden, Mojave 3, Peter Brotzmann, The Robot Ate Me, Smoosh, Psapp (the band from the Grey's Anatomy theme song) and the Metallic Falcons. We're also going to hear the long-awaited best of Impulse Records compilation, which will include out-of-print and hard-to-find material from the legendary roster, as well as a few tracks by John Coltrane himself.

A partial list is below. You'll have to make it to Newbury Comics to discover the rest.

Release Schedule, 06/06/06:
Be Your Own Pet - S/T (Universal)
Boards of Canada - Trans Canada Highway (Warp)
Bouncing Souls - The Gold Record (Chunksaah)
Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out of This Country (Merge)
Head Automatica - Popganda (Warner Bros.)
Ice Cube - Laugh Now, Cry Later (Lench Mob)
Jarboe - The Conduit (Atavistic)
Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid - The Exchange Sessions, Vol. 2 (Domino)
Metallic Falcons - Desert Doughnuts (Voodoo-EROS)
Micah P. Hinson - The Baby and the Satellite (Jade Tree)
Mojave 3 - Puzzles Like You (Beggars)
Oakley Hall - Gypsium Strings (Brah)
Peter Brotzmann - Alarm (Atavistic)
Portastatic - Who Loves the Sun (Merge)
Psapp - The Only Thing I Ever Wanted (Domino)
Rhys Chatham - Angel Moves Too Fast to See (Table of the Elements)
The Robot Ate Me - Good World (5RC)
Smoosh - Free to Stay (Barsuk)
Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped (Geffen)
Various Artists - The House That Trane Built: The Best of Impulse Records (Impulse!)

Thom Yorke's new album leaks!

Thom Yorke's solo album The Eraser, set to be released by XL Recordings on July 11th, has been leaked. You can download the album below. Happy listening!

1. The Eraser
2. Analyse
3. The Clock
4. Black Swan
5. Skip Divided
6. Atoms for Peace
7. And It Rained All Night
8. Harrowdown Hill
9. Cymbal Rush

Thanks to all who posted mp3's: A Soundtrack to Everyone, Blogs are for Dogs, Funtime OK, Contrail, etc.

Rapper faces three years in prison for calling France "a slut"

Straight from the NME:

A French rap star is to appear in court today (May 30) charged with offending public decency with a song in which he referred to the country as a "slut" and vowed to "piss" on national heroes Napoleon and Charles de Gaulle.

Monsieur R is facing three years in prison or a €75,000 (£51,000) fine after an MP from the ruling UMP party launched legal action against him over his current album 'Politikment Incorrekt', reports The Guardian.

In the video for the song 'FranSSe', Monsieur R, whose real name is Richard Makela, appears dressed as a gendarme with two naked women rubbing against the French flag as he rapped: "France is a bitch, don't forget to fuck her till she's exhausted/You have to treat her like a slut, man." At another point in the song, he sang: "I piss on Napoleon and on General de Gaulle."

MP Daniel Mach proposed a law making it a criminal offence to insult the dignity of France and the French state upon hearing the album. He has since taken action against Makela, 30, for making and disseminating "violent and pornographic messages" to which minors could get access.

It's one thing to have your music banned, but quite another to be threatened with three years of jailtime. Yeesh.

Beyonce, Bonnie "Prince" Billy announce September releases

In strangely similar fashion, former Destiny's Child Beyonce Knowles and indie folk hunchback Bonnie "Prince" Billy have announced their plans to release albums this fall. According to Billboard, "the world's hottest woman" has set September 4th as the release date for her sophomore effort, to be titled B-Day. The first single, "Deja Vu" will hit airwaves this summer. It's produced by Jay-Z. Surprise, surprise...

Two weeks later, Drag City will issue Bonnie "Prince" Billy's 6th studio full-length, titled Then the Letting Go. This clears up a lot for those of us that thought that he was in Iceland and not recording an album. Not much is known about the new project, other than that its first single, "Cursed Sleep", will be released as a 7" and CD EP in July. According to Pitchfork (who did very rudimentary investigating) more details will be released on the Drag City website in the coming weeks.

For now, enjoy the Will Oldham of yore:
Will Oldham - "Death to Everyone (Live)"

Scott Walker - The Drift (4AD)

"I'm the only one left alive..."

The Drift is Scott "Sinatra on acid" Walker's first full-length in 11 years. I hadn't heard his stuff until a few weeks ago, and let me tell you, it is enormously fucked up. I think I read something in NME about how this is the perfect music to lie on your floor in complete darkness and sodomize yourself to. Great comparison. Imagine Nick Cave fronting Glenn Branca's 100 guitar orchestra -- his voice is effortlessly enormous, only reinforced by an almost violent backing band.

The faint at heart (or ear) will be driven away by just about everything -- the atonal string section, his high-pitched wail, and his strange topics. How does hearing someone sing about Mussolini's mistress being buried alive sound? Or cossacks raping Russian children? Or gouging eyes out? Mmm. That one's my favorite.

Like The Fiery Furnaces' Blueberry Boat and CocoRosie's Noah's Ark, this is not for everybody. But somewhere between punching donkeys and cursing Christ there's a very powerful record here. It's hard to find, but it's there.

Scott Walker - "Jesse"