--This weekend saw a rash of New York band breakups, according to Brooklyn Vegan. Avant-twee Brooklyn quintet (and sometime Voice contributors) the Harlem Shakes have called it quits, maybe (get your sourcing game up, Viggo!). And sad sincere erstwhile local quartet Pela have definitely broken up. The announcement: "It is with great sadness that we write you today. Pela's collective journey has come to an end. Over the past 2 years we've faced tremendous obstacles. We recorded an album twice, had a falling out/legal battle with our old label, fired 2 managers, had a big record deal fall through, and Billy had a hand injury followed by a foot injury." Then they say thank you.

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--Tickets for the October 16-18 New Yorker Festival, which will feature plenty of musicians--Neko Case, Bon Iver, Loudon Wainwright III, Ian Hunter, Jace Clayton, and Melvin Gibbs, to name a few----and a really ace concert at the Bell House with Liturgy and Dirty Projectors, are on sale now. Things are already selling out, so you may want to leave the Pavement page over at Ticketmaster alone for a few minutes and get yourself set up before it's too late.

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Travers with Dylan and Donovan.

--Mary Travers, the star and siren of folk's Peter, Paul and Mary, died yesterday. Though the Times obit is weirdly fixated on the beards of the two men that usually flanked her, Pete Yarrow and Paul Stookey, Travers was the consensus star of the group--her voice was at the center of everything they did. And though the trio's music holds up somewhat indifferently to these ears, give Travers and her bandmates credit for being on the right side of history: Peter, Paul and Mary performed at the 1963 March on Washington, were in Selma and Montgomery in '65, did benefits for Cesar Chavez, and were arrested in front of South African Embassy protesting against apartheid. Travers stayed both politically and musically active up until her death, at 72, from complications related to leukemia. It was a life to be proud of.

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--After getting a bit more publicly excited than we care to remember about Thorns of Life, last fall's short-lived collaboration between Jawbreaker/Jets to Brazil's Blake Schwarzenbach, Aaron Cometbus, and (The L Word's) Daniella Sea, we figured we'd just go ahead and keep quiet about forgetters, Schwarzenbach's new band with Against Me! OG Kevin Mahon, even though we--(ahem)--saw them play back in August. But since the cat seems to be out of the bag...check the band out at their website, or at Lit Lounge this Friday, where they'll play with Golden City, Solar Power Sun Destroyer, and Thought and Memory.

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--Taylor Swift was on The View this morning, talking about what it was like to be the other person on that infamous VMA stage: "I think my overall thought process went something like: 'Wow, I can't believe I won... This is awesome... Don't trip and fall... I'm gonna get to thank the fans, this is so cool... Oh, Kanye West is here!... Cool haircut... What are you doing there? And then, Ouch. And then, I guess I'm not gonna be able to thank the fans.' " Our guess is that transcription is not verbatim, and that there were probably a few other things in there between the 'Ouch' and the fans. But yeah, the fans!

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--Further details have been revealed about Fucked Up's November 5th live reprise of their entire Chemistry of Common Life at Brooklyn Masonic Temple. The band has revealed the special guests they'd teased earlier this week: Andrew W.K., the Vivian Girls, Titus Andronicus, and Katie Stelmanis will be on hand to join the band as they cruise through one of the better records of 2008. Tickets are on sale now.

--Death by Audio's sculptural maze opened last night with a performance from Pterodactyl, Gowns, Dan Friel, and a bunch of others. The big news for tonight? A Place to Bury Strangers have hopped on a bill that already included the Sian Alice Group, Nine Experimental Dental School, and Reading Rainbow (and a two-hour open bar!). The whole thing goes through October 2nd--more details, here.

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--The Knitting Factory is back. After getting chased out of Tribeca last year, the venue has rebounded, and will open up again at their new location in Williamsburg at Metropolitan and Havemayer (a/k/a the old Luna Lounge) for the first time tonight. Les Savy Fav, the comedian Hannibal Buress, and "special guests" will kick things off this evening, and Boss Hog go tomorrow. After that, and a Helado Negro show next week, things look a bit light, but we're sure by the time CMJ rolls around, the venue will be up and running at full speed.

--Unsurprisingly, people are scalping the fuck out of the $54.50 tickets to Jay-Z's Friday Answer the Call show at Madison Square Garden. The Daily News found tickets available for as much as $45,000, which Kanye might want to look into, as Mr. West has had his Jay-Z ticketing difficulties before. Otherwise, expect to pay black market prices somewhere in the neighborhood of $200-$3000. It's not like the proceeds from this show were designed to go to charity or anything. "We are truly disheartened that certain individuals would choose to benefit from what is meant to be a 100% charitable event," Jay-Z said in a statement. "We do not support any profits made from reselling any ticket that was meant to be purchased by honest fans."

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--Yo La Tengo's excellent new Popular Songs comes out today, and by way of celebrating the band and album artist Dario Robleto will be at the D'amelio Terras Gallery tonight, signing copies of the record. There will a giveaways, including a chance to win tickets to the band's surely triumphant stand at Roseland later this month.

--Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3 also comes out today, after he and his label moved up the record release from the originally scheduled date of Friday, September 11th, which would've been the eight anniversary of the first Blueprint Ironically, that record also earned its iconic release date after it was moved up on the release calendar in order to combat bootlegging--likely, the same reason Jay is not waiting till Friday to release his already thoroughly leaked 11th studio album. Plus, as Rolling Stone points out, "the move also all but ensures Jay-Z the Number One spot on next week's Top 200." In other news, T-Pain has started an incredibly belated feud with Sean Carter, presumably because of "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)", the same song T-Pain appeared to vigorously co-sign when Jay-Z played it at the BET Awards. Some dudes have short memories. Quote: "Fuck Jay-Z." Also: "I think if anything is dead, it should be him." Classy!

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--After touring relentlessly since releasing Dear Science last September, TV On The Radio are going on hiatus. Frontman Tunde Adebimpe talked to MTV News backstage at California's Outside Lands festival and said the band is planning to take at least a year off to squash animosity within. "We've been on tour for almost a year now, and towards the end of the year, you do end up getting things out during the show, subliminally, that you can't get out with someone on a bus," he said. "Because you can say something to someone on the bus, and then after you've let it out, you realize you've got six hours sitting across from that person. Like, 'Remember when I called you a dick a while ago? That was just, uh, caffeine and all sorts of sleep depravation talking, and I really didn't mean it, and I hope you don't take it to heart, even though I can tell that you are because you're not talking to me.' It's basic cabin fever."

--Want to meet Andrew W.K.? Of course you do. He'll be giving away his new album, which will be released Tuesday, in Midtown tomorrow. Per Twitter: Sept. 5th, 5:55pm, 55th and 5th in Manhattan - I'll be there with 5 copies of '55 CADILLAC.'"

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--We'd be remiss to not mention friend of SOTC Brandon Stosuy's latest Show No Mercy, which features the debut of the Khanate project Gnaw (Shawn Bosler: "In that paranoid world where extreme metal intersects with extreme noise--a world where Merzbow sells brain implants in Neuromancer-like bazaars to kids in Godflesh T-shirts--Gnaw are the jack-in/boot-up soundtrack"), SNM standby guitar wizard Mick Barr, Castavet, and Period. Sunday night at Public Assembly. We will be in the building.

--Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II--a record that we thought would never, ever, come out, even as recently as when we ran an interview with the guy in July--leaked to the internet yesterday. Think real hard right now about finding "Cold Outside" and taking the next few hours off. Preferably in a quiet, dark, and chilly room somewhere. It's out officially next week, September 8th, the same day Rae's spectacular show at Santos goes down.

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