Freshly sharpened pencils, lumpy apple slices and All Tomorrow’s Parties: it must be back-to-school time! Located in upstate New York at a country club with a capacity of only 2,800, this music festival sounds exactly like the liberal arts colleges I would have sacrificed myself at age 17 to attend. But instead of semesters of boredom and years of loans, this is just one big orgiastic weekend, September 11-13, partially curated by free love-enthusiasts The Flaming Lips.

The Sunday lineup, hand-selected and headlined by the Lips, includes Super Furry Animals, Boredoms, Crystal Castles, Deerhoof with Martha Colburn, and best of all, No Age performing Hüsker Dü with Bob Mould. I’m seeing colors right now. Check out the full line-up here.

In related Flaming Lips news, a new digital EP, titled “Songs from The Future Album Embryonic” is available to ATP ticket purchasers for free, and at basement bargain price for the rest of us. The three-song sampler should get you salivating for their first studio full-length in three years, coming out this fall… It’s about damn time.

What the hell? Something like 50,000 people die from the regular flu in America every year (this is not an official number, we’re paraphrasing what a friend told us), and not one tour has been canceled in our lifetime because of it. This swine flu is starting to piss us off.

As we reported yesterday, Young Jeezy and the English band Kissmet were both “forced” to cancel shows because of the influenza strain (The Daily Swarm has since added the black metal band Mayhem to their growing list of cancellations), but this one hurts. Mainly because of how little Cornelius tours. More than two months ago, we were so excited to announce Cornelius’ short U.S. and Mexican tour — playing shows with Deerhoof no less — so you can see why we’re bummed. In a short, simple press release, his camp stated:

Due to the Swine Flu concerns and increased governmental travel restrictions, Cornelius’ tour in Mexico and the United States has been canceled.

Sincerely,
The Cornelius Group

Like we said, total bummer. Maybe the time off will give him a chance to schedule some East Coast dates to make up for it. Hint, hint.

Since moving on from Mika Miko, the band’s former drummer Kate Hall has packed up her drum kit and has instead picked up a video camera. The musician turned artist has made music videos for bands like Erase Errata and Abe Vigoda, and now she has added Deerhoof to her portfolio; directing the video for the band’s latest single “Numina” off of 2008’s Offend Maggie.

We have to say the video is very good, but if you suffer from motion sickness, you might want to think twice before you watch the almost four-minute long video. It’s aesthetically pleasing, with interesting visual effects thrown into the mix, but the shaky home-video-like, hand-held recording, with the upside down footage hopping around, could cause a slight headache. With that warning in place, the video and the track do work well together; encompassing a calm California vibe, yet giving us the strange urge to hang upside down waving our arms around.

Along with making music videos, Hall dabbles in printmaking, painting and photography, and even painted a mural at the LA venue, The Smell. We hope the former drummer continues on in her artistic path, because we’d like to see her direct more videos. She certainly seems to have the chops to do it at least.

Deerhoof – “Numina”

We’ve been anticipating Blur’s reunion since we first heard about it, and were even more excited when they confirmed the addition of Crystal Castles, Deerhoof and (to a lesser extent, it’s nothing personal) Vampire Weekend to the line up for their reunion shows at Hyde Park. But the hype keeps growing with the announcement of two intimate shows for fans before their awaited reunion. See how nice they are? They hype up the Hyde Park shows so it’s not as annoying when you’re told they won’t be Blur’s first shows back as originally advertised.

The warm up shows will be played at East Anglian Railway Museum, in Colchester, England on June 13 and London Goldsmith’s College, on June 22. Proceeds for the June 13 sow will be donated to the museum’s charity and the Aldham Village Hall Restoration Project. The band announced the warm-up shows to their fan club, and tickets for the shows are on sale now for Blur fan club members, and further preview show announcements are due out shortly.

Hot off the presses this morning from across the pond — Blur have announced the roster of bands who’ll join them in Hyde Park for their highly anticipated reunion gigs this July. Among the chosen ones are Crystal Castles, Vampire Weekend, Foals and more.

The band gave the official word to NME this morning, and the hand-picked line-ups for the two nights are as follows: July 2 features Foals, Crystal Castles, Friendly Fires and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, and July 3 features Vampire Weekend, Amadou & Mariam, Florence And The Machine and Deerhoof.

Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koening told NME.com, “I think the Hyde Park show will be pretty phenomenal. People have been waiting a long time to see Blur reunite and it’s flattering to be invited to play at all. This will be my first time seeing Blur live and I’m psyched.”

We spoke with guitarist Graham Coxon about the reunion last month, and while we forgot to ask him who would be opening, he did speak about the process of reuniting and rehearsing the old songs.

Blur will also play Manchester’s MEN Arena June 26, with Klaxons and Florence And The Machine supporting. Ticket info for all three shows is available here.

Cornelius is often revered and respected among those in the music community. And ever since the release of his 1997 breakthrough Fantasma, he’s almost become a mythical creature in these parts. He can fill stadiums in his homeland of Japan, but trips to our continent are far and few between. This is why we’re so bummed his first trip to the States this year will only bring him to the West coast.

The Japanese pioneer of today’s ever popular one-man-band, Cornelius released Sensurround — a DVD chronicling his Sensuous Synchronized Show — last year, and will be bringing the Sensurroud sound to fans in California and Mexico this spring. Supporting him on the U.S. dates will be the always awesome Deerhoof. So if you’re lucky enough to live on the West coast, we highly suggest going to check out this rare appearance (and then send us pics).

Cornelius tour dates
05.08.09 – Mexico City, Mexico (Lunario)
05.09.09 – Guadalajara, Mexico (Festival De Mayo
05.12.09 – San Francisco, CA – (The Fillmore)*
05.13.09 – Santa Cruz, CA – (Rio Theater)*
05.14.09 – Los Angeles, CA – (Mayan Theater)*
05.16.09 – Pomona, CA – (The Glasshouse)*
* with Deerhoof

In another sign of the horrific cultural times in Manhattan, the burough is losing yet another iconic mainstay to its incestuous neighbor to the East, Brooklyn. But not before giving it a proper send-off with a star-studded show curated by Akron/Family.

When the Knitting Factory leaving its location at 74 Leonard St. (it’s second Manhattan location), it will be leaving the island it’s called home for 21 years. And new Dead Oceans signee Akron/Family is helping give it a proper send-off for a New Year’s Eve party of mythical proportions, featuring Deerhoof, Akron/Family, Dirty Projectors, Deer Tick, Megafun and “many more.”

From Knitting Factory Promotions Director Tim Putnam: Sorry it is so late, but here is the final listing for the last Knitting Factory show in Manhattan at the 74 Leonard St. location. It is a great one and we couldn’t be more excited about it. Akron/Family curates New Year’s Eve featuring performances by Deerhoof, Akron Family, Dirty Projectors, Deer Tick, Megafaun, tons more — a full-club event! We’ll have more on the show as it just all came together.

Tickets for the New Year’s Eve / Knitting Factory sendoff are $35 and can be purchased here.