RecaPitulation: Mirah, Quasi, Melvins, Riceboy Sleeps

Catching up with Mirah: The lifelong K Records family member - can you believe she’s been with the label for almost 20 years? - will be hitting up a couple of WA bashes in the near future. For one, she’ll play at the What-the-Heck Festival in Anacortes, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Kimya Dawson, Calvin Johnson, Mecca Normal, Mt. Eerie and more. That gala is scheduled for July 17-19. About a month after that, from August 21-23, Ms. Mirah will swing by the Helsing Junction Sleep Over - which is not yer average music event. The organic farm will host swimming, camping, the screening of indie movies - not to mention additional performances by Lake, Tender Forever and Desolation Wilderness. Last but not least, K is hocking Mirah playing cards. Yeah, no, we’re not kidding. …

Quasi fans are gonna have to sit on their hands a bit longer: The double dragons’ new Kill Rock Stars album - which some people have already set aside a comfortable place for in their library - is being stalled a few months, till late February. Better be the best dose of sloppily honest, sexually awkward garage-rock serenades we hear all next year. …

In happier KRS news, neo-Can duo Panther is emerging again with “Entropy,” a new 12-inch, on September 29. That’d be six new songs and two remixes, and - what the hell - a digital download of the album, for those of you keeping score at home. …

Like Quasi’s upcoming effort, that Twilight Sad album we told you about earlier this week is dropping a little bit later than planned. Instead of September 22, the FatCat release Forget the Night Ahead will now be dropping October 6. We’re not sure we’re going to have any fingernails left by then. …

You gotta love the Melvins. If they were to make a remix album, would it be like any other remix album that’s been made before? Of course not. For their September 29 revisionist collection - coming, of course, on Ipecac, the lauded label we recently profiled - Buzz and Dale handed over multiple tracks to multiple studio sorcerers. Each of those people then plucked elements of more than one song and wove them into single “remix” tracks. The cast of contributors features mostly obscure characters, although Lee Ranaldo, Matmos and Merzbow are also into the “mix.” Oh, puns. …

Punk-rock PR all-star, “This American Life” music consultant and LA Weekly contributor Jessica Hopper is puttering around the U.S. to back her new book, “The Girls’ Guide to Rocking.” She will read selections from the inspirational, instructional tome for aspiring female musicians at the stops, and, fittingly, there will be music too. Mika Miko plays at an outdoor event on Wednesday in Santa Monica, and during the August shows, Hopper will be accompanied by a sister duo and girl band. Go here for more. …

We’re not sure if we’re hearing angels singing or if it really is the new project by Sigur Rós singer Jonsi Birgisson, Riceboy Sleeps. Pure and divine, the vocals are so penetrating you forget there is hardly any instrumentation accompanying them. Let your ears melt over “Boy 1904,” a track featured on one of this year’s most divine musical interventions:

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A wee bit more on the project, now that we’ve caught your ear: The other half of Riceboy Sleeps is Birgisson’s partner, Alex Somers, and they originally planned the endeavor as a visual-art undertaking. But such is art, always taking you where you would least expect. Get really to gulp the whole eponymous album on July 21, when it comes out through XL.