It’s been a while, for MAGNET anyway, since we’ve updated you on what Robert Pollard (pictured) is up to, so here we go. Deep breath. A solo record, Elephant Jokes, is out September 11. Download “Symbols And Heads” and “Jimmy” October sees another outstanding Boston Spaceships LP, Zero To 99, and December brings the third edition of Guided By Voices’ Suitcase. Also planned for the rest of 2009 are Licking Stamps And Drinking Shitty Coffee, a double-vinyl live Spaceships outing, and The Devil Went Home And Puked: Robert Pollard’s Rockshow, a “video collage” of career-spanning live footage and other hijinks. (Watch the trailer.) … Singer/songwriter Grant-Lee Phillips’ new effort, Little Moon (Yep Roc), is out October 13. Phillips fans will be happy to know that he considers the LP the best recording of his career. You make the call … Looking for a free Lou Barlow mp3 from his forthcoming Merge record, Goodnight Unknown? Download “Gravitate” … On September 18, the Toronto Film Festival will host the premiere of The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights, a documentary of Jack and Meg’s 2007 Canadian tour. Watch the White Stripes trailer … The latest from Athens, Ga.’s Vic Chesnutt, At The Cut (Constellation), is due September 22. The follow-up to 2007’s North Star Deserter again features Fugazi’s Guy Picciotto and members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Silver Mt. Zion. Download “Chain” … Reissues are all the rage these days, but leave it to the nerds in the Feelies to do it just a little bit differently. Bar/None is re-releasing the band’s Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth on CD and vinyl, but since the band felt the records should stand on their own without bonus tracks, they will include cards featuring download information for the bonus cuts … In 2007, Sufjan Stevens premiered The BQE, a film-and-musical suite exploring New York City’s Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The quite-large undertaking (36 performers, along with film footage and, we shit you not, hula hoopers) will be out on CD and DVD October 20 via Asthmatic Kitty. As per, the package also includes a booklet and a bunch of other stuff … Fountains Of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics for “Much Worse Things,” a duet performed by Stephen Colbert and Elvis Costello on A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift Of All! The most interesting tidbit about this tidbit is that Schlesinger has now been nominated for an Emmy, Oscar, Tony, Grammy and Golden Globe. And what have you accomplished, exactly?
