Sound Bites: Sleater-Kinney, Tool, Ray Davies

January 16 -- Sleater-Kinney, k.d. lang Bag GLAAD Noms

Rock quartet Sleater-Kinney and country crooner k.d. lang will both be up for the Outstanding Music Album award at the 12th annual GLAAD Media Awards. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation will host four separate ceremonies to announce winners: April 16 in New York; April 28 in Los Angeles; May 12 in Washington, D.C.; and June 9 in San Francisco. The awards — created "to honor individuals and projects in the media and entertainment industries for their fair, accurate, and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives" — also include categories in film, television, and print media. Sleater-Kinney's hard-rocking All Hands on the Bad One will vie for the prize with lang's Invincible Summer, as well as Janis Ian's God and the FBI, Stephen Gately's New Beginning, and Patty Larkin's Regrooving the Dream.

Tool Names Next Album

Tool, in the final stages of tinkering with its new album, has unveiled a title for the long-awaited LP: Systema Encéphale. According to the band's Web site (toolband.com), the follow-up to 1996's Ænima will include "Malfeasance," "U.V.R.," "Numbereft," "Encephatalis," "Mummery," "Coeliacus," "Pain Canal," "Lactation," "Smyrma," and "Riverchrist."

South by Southwest Gets Kinky

Kinks frontman Ray Davies (slated to release a solo album via Capital Records next year) will be the keynote speaker at the upcoming South by Southwest Music and Media Conference. The Texas festival, in its 15th edition, will run March 14-18 in Austin, Texas, and features numerous music industry panels and presentations, as well as performances from hundreds of bands, including Death Cab for Cutie, Sparklehorse, Gary Numan, the Supersuckers, Tab Benoit, and Idlewild.