04/20 – Atlanta, GA – Drunken Unicorn
04/21 – Auburn, AL – The Independent
04/22 – New Orleans, LA – The Circle Bar
04/23 – Hot Springs, AR – Maxines
04/24 – Denton, TX – Rubber Gloves
04/26 – Scottsdale, AZ – The Rouge Bar
04/27 – Los Angeles, CA – Spaceland
04/29 – San Francisco, CA – The Rickshaw Stop
05/02 – Seattle, WA – The Comet Tavern
05/06 – Saint Paul, MN – The Turf Club
05/07 – Des Moines, IA – Vaudeville Mews
05/08 – Chicago, IL – Reggies Music Room
05/09 – Nashville, TN – The Basement

Pitchfork has announced that Jeff Mangum will perform a “very short acoustic set” at the Chris Knox benefit concert scheduled for May 6th at NYC’s Le Poisson Rouge. Also performing at the concert: Yo La Tengo, Kyp Malone, Portastic, The Clean, Claudia Gonson of Magnetic Fields, Sharon Van Etten, John Mulaney, Robert Scott, David Kilgour and Dimmer. Tickets go on sale at Kickstarter tomorrow, March 30. (This concert follows the release of Stroke, the benefit album for the Tall Dwarfs‘ Chris Knox, which also featured a track by Jeff Mangum.) This would mark the first live performance by the Neutral Milk Hotel frontman since the Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise tour of two years back, for which he performed “Engine” at the encore of multiple shows. This is very, very exciting news – although the focus should remain on the only reason this is happening in the first place: raising money for Mr. Knox’s medical bills, a good cause indeed.

Since I’ve left a gap between posts here, a bit longer than intended, let me catch you up on some other Elephant 6 news:

The long-awaited deluxe edition of Circulatory System’s Signal Morning vinyl LP is finally being shipped to those who pre-ordered back in the summer of last year. It’s worth the wait (mine arrived on Saturday): the exclusive Sides 3 and 4 of the album contain alternate remixes, with a hand-painted sleeve. If you didn’t preorder, there will likely be a few more copies available for sale after all extant orders have shipped: more info is at Cloud Recordings.

Folklore, led by Elf Power’s Jimmy Hughes, is finishing up work on their third album, Home Church Road. If you’d like to see the album get released on vinyl, a Kickstarter fund was started by Jimmy, to which you can contribute. Tour dates are below.

Folklore on Tour

03.30.10 Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live
04.02.10 State College, PA @ Chronic Town w/ The Spinto Band
04.03.10 – New York, NY @ The Cake Shop w/ Blood Warrior
04.15.10 – Geneseo, NY @ SUNY Geneseo (Knight Spot)

The AV Club Decider D.C. just interviewed Beulah’s Miles Kurosky on his (really quite wonderful) new solo album The Desert of Shallow Effects.

Seamonster, the band by Robbert Bobbert artist Todd Webb, has just released a 7″ called Two Birds on Royal Rhino Flying Records/Gold Robot Records/Martyrs of Pop. You can order it here. A video for “Oh Appalachia,” one of the six tracks on the EP, can be viewed here.

Casper & the Cookies also have a new video, for “Sharp!”, a track from last year’s Modern Silence. You can watch it here.

Check out The Superions on MySpace for more videos and streaming music!

Speaking of Christmas music, Casper & the Cookies have posted their holiday classic “Kiss Me Beneath the Christmas Tree” on their MySpace page once more.