In an interview with HipHopDX.com, inimitable rapper Doom (formerly MF Doom) admits to hiring actors to play him in concert and lip-sync to his music.

In the same interview, Doom says that the next Madvillain album will be done in the next two months, and that it may hold closer to a 50/50 split of lyrical content and production with Madlib.

Melodic chug instrumentalists Irepress will be back on the road in June and July, making extended stops in a number of southern and southeastern states.

Yakuza saxophonist Bruce Lamont begins a European tour next week with metal quartet Minsk.

Mixing swing with metal and operatic vocals, Swedish experimentalists Diablo Swing Orchestra are recording a new album for a September release on Ascendance Records.  The album is titled Sing-Along Songs for the Damned & Delirious.

Chicago rapper Qwel has released Jump the Gun, a limited-edition tour CD that was recorded last month with Dallas Jackson of Jackson Jones.

Prog/math rockers Stinking Lizaveta will begin a three-week tour through the Midwest and South in May.

Owning a great name, Yeti vs. Yeti is a new experimental rock duo consisting of bassist Brendan Joyce and drummer Dave Marsalek, the latter from Doppler Shift.

Bob Log III

For 15 years, Bob Log III has knocked out fucked-up, floor-stomping rhythms for adventurous show-goers, performing in full-body cannonball suits with a telephone-receiver mic fastened to a motorcycle helmet.  His one-man-band MO consists of crazy blues riffs, drum-machine beats, solo kick-drum rhythms, and steel-stringed slide guitar.

True to form, My Shit is Perfect is quintessential Bob Log with elements of stop-start timing, lighting-fast picking, and mostly incomprehensible lyrics.

Gouseion: More Friends for the Fire EP (Run Riot)

Electronic producer Cassidy DeMarco returns with another release as Gouseion, purveyor of buzz-saw synthesizers and big beats.  For this EP, DeMarco stresses backing harmonies and scales back the power of his drum samples, resulting in a dancier mix whose appeal reaches beyond raves.

Released less than six months after his last full album, Nijikon, this EP is a digital-only release.

Gouseion: "We're in High School"
Gouseion: \"We\'re in High School\"

Bushman's Revenge: You Lost Me at Hello (Rune Grammofon)

Led by the down-tuned riffs of Even Helte Hermansen, the guitarist for the outstanding Norwegian prog-jazz group Shining, Bushman's Revenge filters a heavy rock trio through the lens of an improvisational jazz outfit.

The group cites inspiration as much from Black Sabbath and Jimi Hendrix as Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler, and You Lost Me at Hello oddly sounds a bit like all of it, even if it leans on the first two.  Boundless free jazz meets structured rock and roll on the album, which comes recommended for fans of both styles.

Pulling Teeth: Paradise Illusions / Paranoid Delusions (Deathwish Inc.)

Punching in at five songs and 23 minutes, this doubly themed release takes hardcore group Pulling Teeth in a crushing and despairing direction.  The group's full-throttle tempos, speed picking, push beats, and wailing solos are still present, but the final product is a more-complete, ominous concoction that adds a few melodic breakdowns.

Rahim AlHaj: Ancient Sounds (UR Music)

Iraqi political refugee Rahim AlHaj found asylum in the USA in 2000, finally free of the torture and imprisonment that he suffered at the hands of Saddam Hussein for aligning himself with anti-Hussein groups.

A master of the oud, AlHaj now lives in New Mexico, where he was able to vote last November for the first time in his entire life.  His beautiful Arabic style, full of microtones and complex rhythms, has taken small elements of Western structure over the years, although this duet recording with sarod master Ustad Amjad Ali Khan is rather traditional.

Stinking Lizaveta: Sacrifice and Bliss (At a Loss)

Splashing together prog rock, math rock, stoner/psych rock, and bits of Eastern flavor, Stinking Lizaveta accomplishes quite a bit for having a semi-standard rock-trio lineup.  Guitarist Yanni Papadopoulos shines with his technical and diverse creations, and he adds keyboards and theremin as sonic supplements.  Sacrifice and Bliss comes strongly recommended for instrumental-tech-rock geeks.

In an interview with Billboard, bassist Doug McCombs shared details on the upcoming album from jazzy post-rock instrumentalists Tortoise — its first full album of original material since 2004. Still untitled, the album will be released April 21 on Thrill Jockey and feature layers of synthesizers as well as "unconventional drumming and percussion."

The release date for the new Isis album, Wavering Radiant, has been set for May 5 via Ipecac.

Italian sludge-jazz trio Zu has announced the first of its dates for a world tour, which stretches from the end of January through April. Mike Patton (who sings on a pair of tracks from the band's great new album, Carboniferous) joins Zu to perform as the Zu / Mike Patton Quartet for a pair of dates in March.

More bands have been confirmed for the newest incarnation of Neurosis' three-day rock festival, Beyond the Pale at Roadburn 2009. The concerts, from April 23-25, will now include Grails, Earth, and Tribes of Neurot.

Get a free download of Busdriver's song about Obama, "Will He (Inaugural Tribute)," at his website.

Mastodon will debut a new track ("Divinations") from its upcoming album, Crack the Skye, on next week's installment of the BBC Radio 1's "Rock Show."

After 25 years, founding member and multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey is leaving Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.

The An Albatross Family Album, one of our favorite releases from 2008, is now available on (white) vinyl from the Eyeball Records webstore.

Long-form psychedelic collective Dark Meat, with its 17 members, has announced a string of concert dates that cover the West and the South. The group also has a pair of new 7" records for sale; one is a split with Long Legged Woman.

Ches Smith's Congs for Brums began a two-week European tour on Tuesday. Smith lends his percussion skills to Secret Chiefs 3, Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog, Trevor Dunn's Trio-Convulsant, and Xiu Xiu.

An interview with Italian prog-metal group Ephel Duath can be streamed here. In the twelve-minute clip, the group discusses its new album, Through My Dog's Eyes, which will be released on Earache next week (January 26). The band, essentially a duo, recently replaced long-time singer Luciano Lorusso George with Guillermo Gonzalez.

Experimental folk group Akron/Family (now a trio) has announced that a new album, Set 'em Wild, Set 'em Free, will be released on Dead Oceans on May 5.

Prog/math rockers Stinking Lizaveta have a new album, Sacrifice and Bliss, that will be released on March 31.

Theater director Richard Foreman is staging a presentation of Astronome, the second album from John Zorn's Moonchild quartet, to run at New York's Ontological-Hysteric Theater for two months, starting on February 5. The Moonchild quartet consists of Zorn, Mike Patton, Trevor Dunn, and Joey Baron.