Joe Lally (Fugazi) has just started a new tour in Italy, France and Switzerland and will be releasing his third full-length album, Why Should I Get Used to It, in April-May 2011 on Dischord/Tolotta. This new album was recorded in Rome, where Joe now lives, and features extensive contributions from his tour-mates, Elisa Abela and Emanuele Tomasi.

Visit Joe's website here: www.joelally.com

Daniel Higgs of Lungfish and Pupils has joined Sweden's Skull Defekts on their new album, Peer Amid, on Thrill Jockey. This album, in a bit of a departure from the more esoteric experimental music Dan has produced over the last couple years, represents a return to a more grounded "rock" form. Dischord is selling this album, as well as all of Daniels' other projects, on the webstore.

Ian Svenonius (Nation of Ulysses, Make Up, Weird War) has returned with a new Chain and the Gang album, Music's Not for Everyone on K Records. We have the album available here on our web-store as well as many other releases (and a book!) from Ian's various projects.

Fred Erskine, who played bass in Hoover, has a new band called Freddie T. and the People. The uptempo debut album, People In, can be previewed here before your purchase!

Former Q and Not U member Harris Klahr has put out a three-song 12" under the name Clear Band. The record is in an edition of 300 copies and comes on clear vinyl.

In other Q and Not U news, John Davis will take Title Tracks on a European trek in the coming months. For now, though, the band has a gig at St. Stephen's Church in D.C. on February 26. More details to come!

Office of Future Plans, the latest project from Jay Robbins of Jawbox, has put out its first 7". The band features Darren Zentek (Kerosene 454/Channels), Brooks Harlan and Gordon Withers. The initial pressing is limited to 500 copies and comes with an mp3 download card.

The debut album from Poor But Sexy, Let's Move In Together, came out this week! You can see the video for "Cherry Delicious" before getting your copy. The band features Jason Caddell of the Dismemberment Plan on guitar.

We've also got a slew of new releases in from Big Neck Records. The late Jay Reatard is featured on Lost Sounds - Memphis Is Dead and We Heart the Blowtops.

Since the early 1980s, American filmmaker Jem Cohen has been creating a unique oeuvre of shorts and features that extends the principles of portraiture to nonfiction cinema. Working in collaboration with his artist subjects, usually over several years and in a range of formats, Cohen's work both documents and transcends conventions. Shorts and excerpts from works in progress, introduced by the artist himself, are followed by Instrument, his feature on the musical group Fugazi. This program is the initial installment of a new quarterly film event, "American Originals Now." Program details follow the jump.

Jem Cohen: Recent Shorts and Other Works
February 12 at 2:30PM
East Building Concourse, Auditorium

Director Jem Cohen in person

A program of new shorts surveys a range of concerns, from artists' creative processes to life lived on the streets of contemporary America. Cohen's patient lens portrays steady labor, scenes from the everyday, or simply hanging out, always colliding with provocative soundscapes. Titles include Anne Truitt, Working (2009, 13 minutes), a portrait of an artist and trusted friend; Half the Battle (2008, 12 minutes), "a reflection on the phenomenon of the touring musician"; Night Scene New York (2009, 10 minutes), observations of Chinatown commissioned by the Museum of Chinese in the Americas; and a few rousing excerpts from works in progress, including a feature recorded in Vienna, Austria. (Approximate running time 90 minutes)

Instrument
February 27 at 5:00PM
East Building Concourse, Auditorium

Members of Fugazi in person

One of Washington's most successful bands, Fugazi is the epitome of DIY (Do It Yourself) ethics. Its members are both subjects and collaborators with Cohen on this documentary, part of the 2000 Whitney Biennial and winner of many awards. Incorporating more than 10 years of recordings, Instrument weaves personal and concert footage, observational film, collected sound, and Fugazi's own original music into an epic portrait of the band, their environment, and the counterculture of the 1980s and '90s. "I thought of bringing 'dub' to documentary—of a project where unadulterated real-time performances, abstract, rough-hewn Super-8 collages and archival artifacts would collide and conjoin in a way that honestly represented musical experience"—Jem Cohen. (1999, digiBeta, 115 minutes)

Beginning this Saturday, February 12, the National Gallery will highlight the work of Jem Cohen, who directed the Fugazi documentary Instrument. Cohen will present shorts and excerpts from works in progress along with the film. Fugazi members will be in attendance at a screening of the film on February 27. For more information, visit the National Gallery of Art on the web.

Instrument can be purchased on DVD through the Dischord webstore. We also carry the film's soundtrack.

Jem Cohen also directed Benjamin Smoke, a documentary about the legendary underground musician.

The new Fort Reno Summer Concert Series website is now live. Demo submissions for the 2011 season will be accepted from February 14th until March 12th with eligibility details listed on the site. Fort Reno has hosted concerts by local DC area bands every summer on Monday and Thursday evenings for over 40 years. Be a part of it!

www.fortreno.com
Fort Reno on Twitter

A box of each of these titles has come into our posession, and we're down to the very last of them. Because the covers are a bit dinged (not bad at all, just not in mint condition), we're offering them at a discount for $8. You can buy the Make-Up LP here and the Jawbox LP here.