RecaPitulation: Autolux, Mastodon, High On Fire, Andy Warhol

It’s been an awfully slow news day, but here’s what’s we’s gots (at least so far):

Autolux - the L.A. neo-shoegaze group that only plays second fiddle to the Silversun Pickups - are ready to dig into their first tour in four years. The downcast lo-fi band has been hibernating since it released its Future Perfect debut way back in 2004 through DMZ Records (© T Bone Burnett and Columbia Records), but it’s about ready to crack open a new one, Transit Transit. Five years between releases? They’d make Tool proud. But to Autolux’s credit, the three musicians have been busy collaborating with PJ Harvey, Unkle and Australian artist Kill Pixie for various extracurricular endeavors (tours, gallery performances and so on). The band, which is no longer signed to DMZ, will turn the focus back on its own oeuvre over the course of the tour, which runs from August 28 in San Fran through September 27 in Costa Mesa, California - hitting the Northwest, East Coast, Midwest and Mountain West along the way. …

Move over, Mayhem: What could be the real metal tour of the ‘09 has just been announced. While there will only be four bands on it, there’s not a dud between them: Mastodon, Dethklok, High on Fire and Converge. So that bill basically consists of the past year’s biggest breakout band in metal, one of the most important hardcore (albeit hardcore-turned-metal) acts of all time, the next-best thing you’ll see to Motörhead - and cartoons. And we must say, after witnessing Dethklok fans nearly collapse the second floor with their stomping at a Hollywood show last year, we wonder if the men of “Metalocalypse” might actually shake up venues even moreso than Mastodon. Even if the guys who are performing the songs that accompany the Adult Swim show are aging and more or less inert onstage. It’s the backdrop screen, constantly rolling previously aired and unaired footage from the show, and the audio-visual associations between the show’s songs and images that maybe take the crowds to the next level. Decide for yourself when the bands plow across the U.S. for all of October and most of November. Start date: 10/2 in Portland, OR. End: 11/19 in L.A. …

Here’s an offbeat video, for all you Warhol fans. It’s a 1974 cast rehearsal for “Andy Warhol Presents ‘Man on the Moon: The John Phillips Space Musical,’ ” a bonkers off-Broadway production that fits in alongside his “Dracula” and “Frankenstein” movies:

Boing Boing has an some informative background on the production. We’d be doing them and you a disservice by cribbing their account, so read it here. But we will add that a release containing this footage, plus assorted ephemera like playbills and pics, is on the way.