Bits and Bobs: Wavves, Badly Drawn Boy, Terry Gilliam, Arcade Fire, Kanye West, BigChampagne

- Nathan Williams is bringing his Wavves, which means madness, back to Atlanta following the release of his second Fat Possum Record, King of the Beach, out August 3. Wavves will be hitting Drunken Unicorn September 30, and tickets go on sale at noon today. You can check out the whole of the new record over on Fat Possum’s website.

- The lovely Badly Drawn Boy has released a demo of the track “In Safe Hands,” a song from his upcoming record It’s What I’m Thinking, Pt 1, coming out in October in England. Check it out on Stereogum.

- For those sporty-minded ones reading the blog, you might be interested to know Athens is hosting its first half-marathon on October 23 and 24. There will also be a pasta dinner and reception available. Proceeds all go to benefit AthFest, Inc. More information and registration at athensgahalf.com.

- Incredible filmmaker and Monty Python lad Terry Gilliam is going to direct Arcade Fire‘s webcast of their Madison Square Gardens show. Oh the giddy excitement! Paste has the story.

- Kanye West debuted some of his new stuff at a – very – low-key event at the Facebook headquarters. We’re talking chill here – he’s standing on what looks like the table in the conference room, with no backing track, no mic, no people, just the man and his words. Slightly bizarre but we like getting surprises like his from Kanye. And he’s looking sharp. Check out the  videos over on Pitchfork.

- And speaking of Facebook, popularity, music and the like, half-locally-owned-company BigChampagne (an Atlanta/Beverly Hills based company) has been stirring the music industry press over the past week or so with the release of their Ultimate Chart, which basically does what it says on the tin: using all the data from “Song and Album Sales, Radio Airplay, Online Audio and Video Plays, and Fans/Friends/Followers.” The top 10 right now ranges from Lady Gaga to B.O.B. to Eminem, so we’d say it’s pretty darn accurate!