RecaPitulation: Fiery Furnaces, Family Curse, Grooms, Tim Curry, Les Paul

Quote of the day: "I’m running on the gay marriage, no religion, legalization and taxation of marijuana platform." -Brad Pitt, on his "potential" push to become mayor of New Orleans

Finally, someone in the music world has developed the balls to enter the public scrum that is the health-care debate. Our respect and admiration for the Fiery Furnaces just increased about a zillion-fold after hearing that the indie-rock patriots will be battling the deathers with a series of concerts raising awareness about the necessity of real reform. Joined by White Rabbits for most of the trek, the Furnaces are sucking it up and playing 10 gigs in the South, where the concentration of “anti-socialism” nutcases is highest. The campaign begins Sunday in Richmond, Virginia, and ends August 26 in Charlottesville; go here for more info. Don’t get hurt out there, guys - it’s a toxic climate, and the last thing you’ll want to have to do is go to the ER. …

Deep underground is a new band we’ve been falling for: the Family Curse. Take just about every type of loud music you can think of - noise-rock, industrial, hard electronic, heavy rock - put them in a particle accelerator, and this is what you get:

“Bodies in Rooms”

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What’s the opposite of easy listening? Hard listening? Yeah, that’s definitely what this is. The second album by the Seattle band - which features Mark Tweed, a guy who might have a longer résumé than Bob Pollard - White Medicine will be available at pharmacies (or record stores) in October via the waaay indie artist collective Fainting Room. …

Another band we were introduced to this morning is Grooms, a Sonic Youth-sounding act from (where else?) Brooklyn. The co-ed trio - which used to go by the goofy name Muggabears - have played with Wavves and plan to formally introduce themselves on October 13 with their Rejoicer debut (Death by Audio). We don’t got any of their downloads to share, but Stereogum has one. …

Also bubbling in our iTunes this morning is an 18-track free sampler from Lefse Records (pronounced LEFF-suh). Particularly cool: Neon Indian’s “Should Have Teen Acid With You,” a bleepy, loopy two-minute sketch; A Grave With No Name’s kitchen-sink-sounding “Open Water”; and Cuckoo Chaos’ quiet-as-a-pin-drop acoustic confessional, “Slowly Counting Down to Nothing.” Simply called Lefse Records Compilation, you can snag it here. …

Finn Riggins are in a sharing mood too: On their MySpace page, the poppy post-punks - try saying that 10 times fast - are offering a glimpse of their upcoming album with two newly posted songs, “Dali” and “Wake.” Oh what fun it’ll be to ride through Vs. Wilderness when it arrives through Tender Loving Empire on October 13. Shortly after that, Finn Riggins will pack their bags and join fellow Boise band Built to Spill on the road. …

We’re also lapping up the Big Pink’s A Brief History of Love (September 22, 4AD), now that we have the Jesus and Mary Chain-sounding band’s full-length in advance. Go here to grab the MP3 for “Dominos” that we unveiled late last month. …

Champaign-Urbana, you got it good. For the Pygmalion Music Festival, the Illinois college town will welcome the likes of Low, Wavves, the Books, Autolux, BLK JKS, YACHT, Iron and Wine, New Ruins and a bundle of other bands we’d fall head over heels to see. In its fifth year and involving 15 venues, the four-day-long fest is the closest thing the Midwest has to a SXSW. And wouldn’t ya know it, the Horse’s Ha - who we just profiled, like, two seconds ago - are also on the bill. Frequent-flier miles, prepare to be used … oh, wait, shit, we’re all out. …

Metal-management maestro, rock journalist and all-around cool dude Ryan J. Downey has some exciting news: His Superhero Artist Management - home to Bleeding Through, Throwdown and Tiger Army, as well as producers, filmmakers and more - has merged with another lauded management firm, Blood Company (Norma Jean, Atreyu). For more 411, go to BC’s new site. Props. …

If we were to throw the L.A. party of our dreams, Ozzy, Lemmy and Jack Black would have no trouble getting on the guest list. And lookee here: Those gents - along with Mastodon, Emperor, Carcass, Skeletonwitch, Enslaved and loads more - are providing their voices and/or music for a new EA video game called “Brutal Legend.” Weirdest of all? Also in the mix is Tim Curry - yes, he of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and “It” note. Why are we talking about Tim Curry today? We’d hate to pass up an easy opportunity to bust out this Pennywise pic:

We could take or leave Big D and the Kids Table and the A.K.A.s - OK, leave, mostly - but we also gotta give credit where credit is due: The bands are rolling up their sleeves and participating in the latest Warped Tour-sponsored environmental clean-up. EarthEcho International and the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary are also putting on the push to beautify the NorCal bay, which’ll happen Tuesday and involve dozens more Warped Tour musicians and crew members. Go here for more Warped Tour “eco-challenges.” …

Do All That Remains ever run out of energy? Especially fronman Phil Labonte, who spends every show bolting around the stage like the bastard son of Angus Young? The perpetually touring Prosthetic band has signed on for a ridiculously long tour that’ll start September 22 in Albany and end November 17 in Toronto. The trek is being sponsored by “HardDrive,” a radio show on United Stations, the biggest independently run (and independently owned) radio network in the country. …

Taking Dawn, one of the bands that’ll be opening for ATR, have hopped aboard the DragonForce train too. That’s right, the Guitar Heroes from London are coming around again with yet another stretch in support of last year’s Ultra Beatdown. They’ll noodle their way from West Hollywood on September 18 through Philadelphia on October 11. …

Un-holy smokes: Goatwhore have a scathing new video for “Apocalyptic Havoc,” directed by Red Chord collaborator Dave Brodsky. Since the death-metal band’s latest album, Carving Out the Eyes of God (Metal Blade), made our recent list of best ‘09 metal, we can’t resist sharing the clip:

And if you really consider yourself to be a fan of music, please pause and remember Les Paul, who died earlier in the day from pneumonia-related complications. We can only hope the mainstream media covers the 94-year-old legend’s passing as thoroughly as they did Michael Jackson’s.