Here is everything that happened in music this morning. Everything.
• This morning Sufjan Stevens announced a big tour in support of his upcoming album, Carrie & Lowell, which comes out March 31 on Asthmatic Kitty (and is named after Sufjan’s parents). The tour hits Portland on June 8 for a show at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.
• Faith No More also announced some tour dates, including a stop at the Keller Auditorium on April 17. Since Faith No More is far more terrible than you remember, here’s another upcoming Keller date: Mark Knopfler on September 13.
• Who’s not coming to Portland? The Jesus and Mary Chain. The Scottish bubble-glum groundbreakers have announced a series of shows to celebrate Psychocandy‘s 30th anniversary, including a Seattle show at the Showbox on May 14.
• Death Cab for Cutie premiered a chill new tune and also announced a rash of dates over the next few months. Conspicuously absent were springtime Seattle and Portland dates, which likely means DCFC will be playing the Sasquatch! Festival at the end of May. This adds DCFC to our Sasq-watch!™ list, which already includes Lana Del Rey, Paramore, and the War on Drugs.
• Operators, the great new band from Wolf Parade/Handsome Furs’ Dan Boeckner that set Pickathon alight last summer (and also tore the roof off the Doug Fir when they opened for Future Islands), has a new song! Check out “Ecstasy in My House” on Stereogum. Weirdly, it quotes the lyrics of Bowie’s “Modern Love” for some reason.
• Tom Petty and his Full Moon Fever collaborator Jeff Lynne have been added to the songwriting credits of Sam Smith‘s “Stay with Me,” according to a report by the Sun. The out-of-court settlement, which actually went down in October, happened when Smith’s camp was made aware of the resemblance of “Stay with Me” to Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.” And it does indeed sound very similar—except, you know, a lot crappier. With the success of Smith’s song, the presumably already ludicrously wealthy Petty and Lynne both stand to make a lot more money. Meanwhile, Jackson C. Frank died penniless and alone.
• Katy Perry’s upcoming Super Bowl song, a collaboration with Lenny Kravitz, has leaked! Or, at least, Tim Heidecker would like you to think so.
• Meow the Jewels, the feline-themed reworking of El-P and Killer Mike‘s excellent Run the Jewels 2 is a thing that is happening. El-P shared some preview snippets on his Instagram. Expect El-P to go insane in about three to five weeks. Meow the Jewels raised more than $65,000 on Kickstarter. Meanwhile, Jackson C. Frank died penniless and alone.
• Some guy quit some band that you quit listening to in 2000. [UPDATE: Or did he?] [MORE UPDATE: Yep. He did.]
• The pop-up inner gatefold for the new Father John Misty album [below] is adorbs. I Love You, Honeybear—due out on Sub Pop on Feb 10—also comes with a massive lyric poster and an “Exercises for Listening” pamphlet with explicit instructions for each song. (Oh, let’s add Father John Misty to the Sasq-watch!™ list while we’re at it.)
“Meanwhile, Jackson C. Frank died penniless and alone.”
I love you.