The Wedge A.M. News Round Up: The Strokes’ debut gets a tribute

July 26th, 2011

Following their tributes to Radiohead’s OK Computer, Björk’s Post and R.E.M.’s Automatic For The People, music blog Stereogum has gathered a cast of musicians to cover The Strokes’ Is This It. Celebrating the rock’n'roll reviving album’s tenth anniversary, the tribute includes Real Estate doing “Barely Legal,” Owen Pallett tackling “Hard to Explain,” Austra attempting “Alone, Together” and The Morning Benders trying “Last Nite.” Best of all, the album is a free download. (Via Stereogum)

Last month we heard about the deluxe edition reissue of Nirvana’s Nevermind without any details as to what would be included. Now we know. The reissue will come in a number of different formats: a single remastered CD; a 2-CD Deluxe Edition featuring the album and its b-sides, as well as the first full official release of the pre-Nevermind demos recorded at producer Butch Vig’s Smart Studios and the boombox recordings of subsequent rehearsals; a limited-numbered Super Deluxe Edition CD that also offers the ‘Devonshire Mixes,’ aka the album as produced and mixed by Vig as opposed to the commercially released final version produced by Vig and mixed by Andy Wallace as well as live recordings of the band’s Halloween 1991 concert at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre on CD and DVD; a 180-gram heavyweight vinyl edition featuring the same 40 tracks as the Deluxe Edition; and the concert on Blu-ray and DVD. (All of these will also be available on digital download). The Nevermind reissue is scheduled for a September 27th release. (Via Consequence of Sound)

One of the reasons Canadian indie music has blossomed over the past 20 years is because of Mint Records. Now a book celebrating the indie label’s 20th anniversary is about to hit shelves thanks to ECW Press. Titled Fresh At Twenty: The Oral History of Mint Records, Kaitlin Fontana’s chronicle looks at “the story of an independent record label and the people who helped build it” as well as how Mint “shaped the sound of Vancouver at the end of the 20th century, [and] helped usher in a golden age of Canadian popular music that still thrives today.” (Via Exclaim!)

If you happened to miss Lykke Li on her most recent North American tour, well, she’s scheduled another one for the fall. Unfortunately, this time she’ll only have one Canadian date – Toronto’s Sound Academy on November 15th – but she’s destined to come back in the new year. (Via One Thirty BPM)

Tomboy only came out back in April, but Panda Bear already has a box set edition of the album set for release on October 31st. The four LP box set will feature the album in full, the “single” mixes of selected tracks, unreleased instrumental/a cappella tracks, “The Preakness” (Panda’s song for Animal Collective’s sneaker mixtape), and a 16-page booklet. (Via Pitchfork)

Tags: Is This It, lykke li, Mint Records, Nevermind, nirvana, Panda Bear, Stereogum, the strokes, Tomboy