Pete And The Pirates have announced a special homecoming show set for this Sunday (July 27). The free gig will be held at the Oakford Social Club, Reading, and will be an acoustic performance. Doors open at 4pm. The band is currently in the midst of a European tour.

CSS have announced dates for a forthcoming UK tour. Lovefoxx and co. are set to kick off their tour on October 5th in support of their sophomore album ‘Donkey‘ which was released July 21 (July 22 in the US). The Brazilian band are set to play dates in Sheffield, London and Manchester among others.

With less than a few weeks to go for the scheduled release, Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong have canceled their debut album. The self-titled album was scheduled to hit store shelves on August 4th however plans have changed and the band won’t be releasing anything until early next year at the latest. Speaking to NME the band’s manager, Raye Cosbert said he told the band to shelve the album because it had been recorded “too early in their career”. The band, along with their label Vertigo/Mercury, agreed with Cosbert and instead will re-record the album and release it in early 2009. No date has been set to record the album.

The shortlist for the Nationwide Mercury Prize was revealed Tuesday (July 22) and the list is filled with both previous winners and first time nominees. Some notable mentions include Alex Turner’s side project The Last Shadow Puppets who made the list for their debut album, ‘The Age of the Understatement‘. Turner’s main band, the Arctic Monkeys, previously took the award in 2006 and were nominated last year, being beaten out by the Klaxons who claimed the prize for ‘Myths of the Near Future‘. Also on the list, Radiohead, for their successful and much talked about release, ‘In Rainbows‘. Notably absent from the list, Coldplay, whose recent release ‘Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends‘ topped the charts worldwide. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London September 9.

Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg has just released a new album for only 49 cents. ‘49:00‘ was released over the weekend (July 19) via Amazon’s MP3 store with the extremely low price tag. The album is being sold as a single MP3 file on Amazon, but customers be warned, you must click the “”Buy MP3 album with 1-Click” button and not the download song button, otherwise the price tag becomes a hefty 89 cents.

Devendra Banhart has recruited girlfriend Natalie Portman for his new music video. The video for the single ‘Carmensita‘ stars the Hollywood actress as a princess who is held captive by an evil king and must be rescued by a bearded prince, played by Banhart. The video, which is embedded below, includes dancing, subtitles and sword fights.

Banhart is currently in the midst of a tour supporting his latest album ‘Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon‘.

Joan As A Police Woman is set for a US tour this summer. The eleven date tour will be kicking off in Philadelphia on September 5 and will continue through several major cities including Chicago, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle before wrapping up on September 25 in New York’s Bowery Ballroom.

The Kooks have mapped out details for a UK tour this winter. The jaunt will begin on November 28th in Bridlington Spa and will continue through several cities. Among the dates are three consecutive nights at the London Roundhouse from December 1st to the 3rd.

TV On The Radio have revealed more details about their forthcoming album. ‘Dear Science,‘, which is the follow-up to 2006’s ‘Return To Cookie Mountain‘, is set for release on September 22 in the UK and the following day, September 23, in the US. The band also recently announced a US tour to kick off on September 5th in Portland, OR. and wrap up with an appearance at the Treasure Island Festival in San Francisco on September 20.

Conor Oberst highly anticipated solo album will be streaming for free in its entirety beginning July 21. The forthcoming self-titled solo album by the Bright Eyes frontman will be available to listen from his website Mergerecords.com two weeks prior to its August 4 release date.

The Rumble Strips have announced details for their first US tour this fall. The month long tour is set to kick off on October 4 in Philadelphia and will include stops in several major cities including Washington, New Orleans, San Diego and Chicago before wrapping-up at New York’s Bowery Ballroom on November 1. The band was previously set to tour the US with Cold War Kids last year but had to cancel due to issues with their visas.

Goldfrapp have announced dates for a forthcoming North American tour. The six date tour will kick off on September 12 at New York’s Radio City Music Hall and will continue through Toronto, Vancouver, Seattle and San Francisco before wrapping up at the Orpheum in Los Angeles on September 21.

In other Goldfrapp news, the band is set to release the ‘Caravan Girl‘ Digital EP on July 22. The EP includes a live acoustic version of ‘Monster Love’ and an Animal Collective remix of ‘Little Bird’. They are also slated to release an iTunes Original Session compilation in August. The session will include new versions of ‘Strict Machine’, ‘Ooh La La’ and ’Paper Bag’, among others.

Tokyo Police Club have mapped out US dates in support of their debut album ‘Elephant Shell‘ which was released in May. The tour is set to kick off in September with a performance in Baltimore, MD on September 8. The twelve date jaunt will be wrapping up with an appearance at the Voodoo Festival in New Orleans on October 25.

Jarvis Cocker is reportedly teaming up with director Wes Anderson for a forthcoming film. Cocker is said to be written a handful of tracks for a children’s film Anderson is making that will be an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox‘. Speaking to Time Out Chicago, Cocker said, “I’ve been doing some stuff for a children’s film Wes Anderson is doing, an animated feature. I’ve written three, four songs, and some of that might become bits of the score.”

Anderson’s previous works include ‘The Royal Tenenbaums‘ and ‘The Darjeeling Limited‘.

Following Bjork’s ‘outburst’ at her concert in China earlier this year, the Chinese government has announced that it will impose severe restriction on foreign performers. In a statement posted on its website today (July 17), the Chinese government said, “Any artistic group or individual who have ever engaged in activities which threaten our national sovereignty will not be allowed in.” That’s not all, Reuters reports that the government will also ban entertainers who, while performing in the country, “threaten national unity,” “whip up ethnic hatred,” “violate religious policy or cultural norms” or “advocate obscenity or feudalism and superstition.” The government also said it must pre-approve the content of encore performances.

All this comes after Bjork’s recent performance in Beijing where she made a vocal show of support for freedom in Tibet, which has been oppressed by the Chinese government and has been the scene of violence in recent months.

After the incident Bjork said, “I stand by what I said.”

The Enemy have mapped out their first ever US tour. Their jaunt will kick off with an appearance at this year’s Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, IL on August 1st and will run through August 11th where they will play the Bowery Ballroom in New York. The band is also set for dates in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Mongrel, the indie super-group we wrote about recently has just posted new tracks online at  Myspace.com/wearemongrel. The group features Arctic Monkeys‘ Matt Helders, former Monkey Andy Nicholson, Babyshambles‘ Drew McConnell, and Reverend and The Makers‘ Jon McClure.

As Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. releases his solo album, bandmate, drummer Fabrizio Moretti prepares his side project release. Moretti’s side project, Little Joy, is a collaboration with his girlfriend, Binki Shapiro and their friend Brazilian singer-guitarist Rodrigo Amarante, formerly of Los Hermanos. The album, which according to Rolling Stone is reminiscent of Antonio Carlos Jobim, Vince Guaraldi and “Sixties wall-of-sound” girl groups, is set for an autumn release via Rough Trade records in the US.

CSS highly anticipated sophomore album, ‘Donkey‘, just got a whole lot better for fans Stateside. Fans who pre-order the album, which is due out July 22 in the US via Sub Pop, will receive a three-song bonus CD-R with two tracks not found on ‘Donkey‘, as well as a demo version of the track ‘I Fly‘ from the new album. Only those who head over to the Sup Pop web store before the release will get the bonus disc, so go there fast.

CSS will also be bringing their Donkey love to the US when they kick off the North American leg of their tour July 30 in Minneapolis, MN.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O has debut demo tracks from her new side-project, Native Korean Rock. The demos are currently available to hear at the bands Myspace page at Myspace.com/nativekoreanrock. Among the tracks posted is ‘Sunset Sun‘ which features Karen O on vocals and acoustic guitar. Native Korean Rock played a live show last night (July 21) in New York at Union Pool, with more live shows expected in the near future.