FN News Roundup: March 20, 2012

Happy Spring, true believers! We've got a glut of great news to share today, check it:

• Oh yes. As foretold by the seers, Neil Young And Crazy Horse will be releasing their new LP Americana on June 5. The legends' first new album since 2003's Greendale AND the first to feature the full Crazy Horse lineup since 1996's Broken Arrow will be a full-on American folk tribute with tracks like "This Land Is Your Land" and "Oh Susannah" (Rolling Stone)


• Tickets for Hot Chip's 2012 summer shows are on sale!!!!! (Hot Chip)


• Check out the video for "Adult" from Ceremony's very awesome new LP Zoo below (Matador)


• Stream Sharon Van Etten's Tramp B-Side "Life of His Own," and then catch her on Conan later on tonight! (Pitchfork)


• Questlove of The Roots continues to be a total badass by curating Shuffle Culture at BAM, a two-night (April 19 & 20) musical experience featuring Reggie Watts, Deerhoof, & more! (BAM)


• Sub Pop will be fully rocking Record Store Day (April 21) with a limited edition blue vinyl 7" of rare & unreleased Beach House tracks, an artist sampler, and much more. You can pre-order Beach House's new album Bloom (out May 15) to get it on limited edition white vinyl. Good times, guys (Sub Pop)

Watch Cake Perform On Conan (2/16)

Sacramento alt rockers Cake have been kicking ass for over 20 years now, and their performance on last night's episode of Conan showed that there's no sign they're about to stop doing that anytime soon. They rocked through "Mustache Man" off of their latest LP Showroom Of Compassion, and you can check out video of that performance below.

Be sure to catch them at Solana Beach's Belly-Up and The Palladium in LA this weekend if you can find a way in, or on tour in April and May elsewhere if you can't / are nowhere near California.

Watch They Might Be Giants Perform "When Will You Die?" & "Ana Ng" On Conan

Looks like Conan O'Brien has been reading our (admittedly very creepy) fan mail! Our favorite late-night host kicked off this week of Conan with an appearance by Wilco, and last night he nicely bookended it by inviting They Might Be Giants to rock his studio.

The Johns were in town to kick off their aforementioned Winter/Spring tour and gave a rollicking (yeah I said rollicking) performance of "When Will You Die?" and the classic "Ana Ng" as a web exclusive after Conan interviewed Napoleon Dynamite about how it feels to be Napoleon Dynamite.

Check both performances out below, and get a ticket to see TMBG at Terminal 5 when they end this round of touring on March 10. Fuck yeah Friday.

Watch Wilco Perform "The Whole Love" On Conan

Conan got off to a great start for the week last night, as Jeff Tweedy and the indie-rock troubadours of Wilco swung by to perform the title track off of their latest LP The Whole Love. Check it out below via The Audio Perv along with a web-only performance of "Dawned On Me," and pick up their new 8-song live collection the band recorded in Chicago on iTunes today.

Future Nostalgia: Watch St. Vincent Perform "Cheerleader" On Conan

Not wasting any time at all, the lovely and talented St. Vincent kicked off her already packed 2012 with an appearance on Conan last night. She performed "Cheerleader" off of my favorite album of 2011, Strange Mercy, but not before paying a quick homage to that time Elvis Costello famously pissed off Lorne Michaels on SNL back in 1977. Nice hat tip there, Annie.

Check out the performance below, and be sure to see her at Coachella on April 14 and 21 if you were able to grab tickets. She'll also be co-headlining two shows out west with tUnE-yArDs on April 17 at Tucson's Rialto Theatre and April 24 at Oakland's Fox Theater, making us New Yorkers extremely jealous in the process.

Watch: Paul Simon Performs On CONAN

So I had a pretty (extremely) rad day yesterday. Not only did I spend the afternoon at Beacon Theater with some great friends watching one of my comedic heroes Conan O'Brien film his 3rd show back in his homeland this week, but the musical guest just happened to be none other than the legendary Paul Simon. After laughing our asses off for an hour and change, it was surreal to see it all capped off with Simon on stage performing "Love Is Eternal Sacred Light" off of his latest album, So Beautiful Or So What.

Check it out below, along with a clip of one of my favorite sketches from the night featuring Conan being completely awesome* at basketball.

(*sucking mightly)

Grace Jones Releases "Hurricane" In The U.S. Today, Stream It In Full

Unforgettable '80s pop culture figure, (kinda freaky) Conan the Destroyer actress, model, musician, fellow Jamaican... Grace Jones has always been larger than life in all aspects of her art. Her new album, Hurricane, is finally available for purchase in the States today - two years after its original release in the U.K. / Europe and 22 years (!!!) since her last album, 1989's Bulletproof Heart.

The U.S. version of Hurricane also includes a bonus disc containing dub remixes of the entire original album, and you can stream the whole thing over at AOL Spinner right now. And because I have no idea when I'll get another chance to throw a clip of Grace Jones in Conan the Destroyer on this blog, check one out after the jump. Valuable dating advice, ladies.

Watch: "Weird Al" Yankovic being fucking hilarious