Chicago's post rock outfit are set to release a new album, Beacons Of Ancestorship, their first in 5 years. The album is out 22 June on Thrill Jockey Records, but they'll be including a track from it on a Thrill Jockey compilation Records Toreism which will be released on Record Store Day (18 April)

...with a series of European festival performances, replacing longtime guitarist and collaborator Mick Harvey (who left the group in January) with Ed Kuepper on guitar. On the list are: 12 June Norwegian Wood, Oslo, Norway: 13 June Where The Action Is, Stockholm, Sweden: 14 June Provinssirock Festival, Seinäjoki, Finland: 19 June Southside Festival, Germany: 20 June Hurricane Festival, Germany: 21 June Dresden Junge Garde (non-festival performance): 27 June Open Air St. Gallen, Switzerland: 4 July Werchter Festival, Belgium: 10 July T In The Park, Scotland: 11 July Oxegen Festival, Ireland: 19 July Latitude Festival, UK with further performance dates to follow.

John Zorn's New York City not-for-profit space dedicated to experimental and avant garde performance will be curated over the next two months by saxophonist Louie Belogenis in April and experimental musician and film maker Grey Gersten in May. March is currently being curated by composer and drummer Lukas Ligeti. Check out their site here for more info or to help them out by buying their limited edition CD series (the latest a recording of a performance by Zorn, Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson)

Fancy working/re-training in the field of artist management? Alter Ego Management who handle UR (amongst other Detroit acts) are advertising for an (unpaid) intern to work in their office. Experiences gained during the internship include more mundane activities such as picking up and/or dropping off artists at the airport and selling merchandise to the more interesting like tour management and even conflict resolution. Interested? email alteregomgt@gmail.com (make sure to put "Internship" in the subject line) Go here for more information.

Available to New York State-based artists, the ETC's Finishing Funds provides practitioners in New Media and Sonic Art projects with grants of up to $2500 to help them finish projects that are nearing completion. The remit for eligible art forms is quite broad, have a look here for more details. The ETC has been active in providing assistance to media artists and the community of New York State since 1969.

Categories include: Computer Animation; Film; VFX; Digital Musics; Interactive Art; Hybrid Art; Digital Communities. The new, extended application deadline is March 18 (apart from the Media.Art.Research Award). More information? Click here.

So far, the Sónar 2009 lineup includes the return of Orbital, Grace Jones, along with performances by Joker, and Martyn to name just a few. Go here for the full listing...

Antony Hegarty recently opened an exhibition entitled "The Creek" at the Isis gallery in London's West End. Comprised of drawings and collages which take the landscape as their collective theme, the exhibited works "employ a transgender intervention to readjust the colonial topography of the American Dream." January 17th - February 28th, Isis Gallery, 20 Hanway Street, London. Click here for more information

After 13 years of top chart pop butchery, James Kirby's V/Vm and its record label V/Vm Test Records (which Kirby co-founded with Andrew McGregor in 1996) has called it a day. Over the years, and under a variety of monikers, V/Vm released a multitude of remixes and hacks of popular hits such as the release by Chris De Burger & Lion El Glichie "Lady In Red (Is dancing with meat)"/"All Night Long (Butcher All Night)" and a remix of Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Relax". On The official V/Vm website Kirby writes that although V/Vm as an ongoing concern is finished, "I am able to say categorically that the closure will result in more output and new projects appearing" which will begin with a planned 7CD retrospective boxset due out late 2009. Kirby will continue developing his current project The Caretaker, which like V/Vm (a champion of online file sharing) has a large amount of work available online for free download.