Dancing About Architecture 04.07.09
Posted by Ian Wright on 04.07.2009
Laws against scalpers, new music from Joanna Newsom, Merge XX fest, massive amounts of material from Jay Reatard and more.
The bit at the start
Hello, I hope you're well. Or at least weller than I am. I've been stuck in bed for a coupe of days which has been pretty unpleasant. While in my sickbed I read Cormac McCarthy's "The Road". Beautiful, gorgeous prose but my god it's unremittingly grim.
Then I switched to the low-brow and watched the 2004 Mandy Moore/Macauley Culkin vehicle "Saved". It's not terrible but the denouement is really weak. "Mean Girls" is still the queen of teenaged girl films, well that and barely legal 17.
Anyway I want to go back to bed so let's get to it.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Neil Young – Live At Massey Hall 1971
Early performances of many songs that would become classics.
You news, you lose
Scalpers are scum.
New York Senator Charles Schumer has announced that he plans on introducing legislation which targets ticket resellers (i.e. scalpers) such as ticketmater subsidiary ticketsnow. And oddly enough he's being backed by CEO of ticketmaster Irving Azoff.
Though perhaps it's not that big a surprise considering the amount of compromise involved in the legislation. Ticketsnow and their slimy ilk will be allowed to continue to exist but will have to wait a little longer than they do now to start gouging fans for their tickets. If the legislation passes ordinary decent punters will have 48 hours to buy tickets before these horrible motherfuckers swoop in and buy up all the remaining tickets and then jack up the prices. They would also have to register with the Federal Trade Commission.
In a press release Schumer said, "Buying concert tickets has become like taking a trip back to the Wild West-- anything goes. When the scalping market destroys initial ticket sales and all tickets sold at face value are hoarded by resellers before New Yorkers have a chance to buy them, any attempt to keep prices down by the sellers and artists is made impossible. The bottom line is we need to create a fair system where fans get first crack at good seats at a reasonable price."
In the same release Azoff said, "I am very happy to support Sen. Schumer's thoughtful proposal and leadership on this issue. Ticketmaster recognizes that the ticket resale industry needs far-reaching changes to better protect consumers and ensure fair access to tickets. Staggering the resale process to commence 48 hours after an onsale is a very important step in reforming the process and bringing transparency to the onsale process."
Billboard are reporting that Schumer intends to introduce the new legislation during the new senate session which begins tomorrow.
The names of the band's playing are eMerging.
So iconic North Carolina indie label Merge are 20 this year and they're doing a number of things to commemorate it. There's records curated by members of REM, there's a covers album too but the granddaddy of them all is the XX Merge anniversary fest.
Taking place from July 22-26 at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro NC and Memorial Hall at the UNC campus in Chapel Hill the fest will see appearances from the likes of Superchunk, Spoon, Conor Oberst, M. Ward, Destroyer, Polvo, the Rosebuds, Guv'ner, Pipe, the Broken West, and Spent all confirmed and another 14 left to be announced. Of course, the 2 biggest names in Merge history are probably Arcade Fire and Neutral Milk Hotel but I wouldn't hold my breath on either showing up, one are on a year long hiatus with 2 of it's members touring a brilliant Bell Orchestre record and the other, well I think we all know the deal with NMH by now.
Reatarded.
Jay Reatard has re-launched Shattered Records, the label that he founded way back in 2004 and thanks to this move pretty much everything that he's ever released (which considering how prolific he is is a pretty sizeable catalogue) is now available.
Currently Shattered has 20 records available from the likes of the Reatards, Lost Sounds, Bad Times and Final Solutions and coming soon is Greatest Messes, a digital comp of material Reatard recorded before he was calling himself Jay Reatard.
On top of that Shattered will soon commence releasing material by people who aren't Jay Reatard. Next month sees the dropping of After The Ball, the debut solo release by Jeffrey Novak of Cheap Time. And there's also a singles series in the work which will see 6 7" and digital releases by Novak, Chris Knox of Tall Dwarfs, Nobunny, Hunx, Useless Eaters, Box Elders, and Earthmen & Strangers.
Also, if you're so inclined you can pay $75 to join the Shattered Records Club in return for which you'll get an expanded edition of Greatest Messes, Reatard's forthcoming Matador album (due in August) on mp3 and CD or LP, all the Shattered Single Series singles plus two exclusive bonus singles, a T-shirt, a download of the Reatards' debut album Teenage Hate, and a bunch of other stuff.
Greatest Messes tracklist:
01 The Reatards: "Break Down"
02 The Reatards: "Stacye"
03 The Reatards: "I'm So Gone"
04 Lost Sounds: "I Get Nervous"
05 Nervous Patterns: "Not Living in a Modern World"
06 Lost Sounds: "Better Than Somethings"
07 Lost Sounds: "Plastic Skin"
08 Destruction Unit: "Race Time"
09 Final Solutions: "In a Coma"
10 The Reatards: "Bummer Bitch"
11 Lost Sounds: "I Don't Count" (outtake from first 7", March 1999)
12 The Reatards: "Sick When I See"
13 Terror Visions: "World of Shit"
14 Lost Sounds: "Frozen in Time"
15 Final Solutions: "I See You on a Path"
This news(om) makes me happy
Elvin indie queen Joanna Newsom debuted a load of new material at a secret gig in Big Sur recently. Billed as "The Beatles's" she and her band played for 2 hours at the Fernwood Resort. Devin Woolf from the Naturalismo blog was at the gig and wrote, "The makeup of her new songs combines the strong melodic presence of songs on The Milk-Eyed Mender with her continued instrumentational prowess and maturation beyond Ys. It was unclear how many of the songs covered in the course of the two and a half hour set would ever be recorded, but there was never a sour note or 'should be cut' moment to be heard. If anything a double album here would make perfect sense, and be one of the most enjoyable albums I've heard in ages."
Some of the songs stretched out beyond 12 minutes in length and a thrid of them were on piano with the rest on the harp.
The YouTube video of the week
Pretty awesome Iron And Wine cover
If you can you should go to these gigs.
The Vaselines
05-10 Los Angeles, CA - El Rey Theater
05-11 San Francisco, CA - Bimbo's
05-12 Seattle, WA - Neumos
05-13 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
05-15 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace
05-16 Chicago, IL - Metro
05-18 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
05-28 Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Sound Festival
Man Man
04-22 Knoxville, TN – The Square Room
04-23 Little Rock, AR – The Rev Room
04-24 Dallas, TX - Lounge on Elm St.
04-25 Norman, OK - Norman Music Festival
04-26 Nashville, TN - Mercy Lounge *
04-27 Birmingham, AL - Bottletree *
04-28 Pensacola, FL - Sluggo's *
04-29 Orlando, FL - Social *
04-30 Orlando, FL - Social *
05-01 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse *
05-02 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle *
05-03 Washington, DC - Black Cat *
05-04 State College, PA – State Theater *
05-05 Pittsburgh, PA - Diesel *
05-06 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick *
05-29 Kansas City, MO – Beaumont Club ^
05-30 Minneapolis, MN – Cabooze ^
05-31 Chicago, IL – Congress Theatre ^
06-04 Baltimore, MD – Ram's Head Live ^
06-05 Boston, MA - House of Blues ^
07-04 Rothbury, MI - Rothbury Festival
* with Cursive
^ with Gogol Bordello
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio
Phosphorescent – To Willie
The bit at the end
Right, off to bed, see y'all next week. Oh by the way, the St. Vincent album leaked over the weekend. I after one listen I think that it's an ambitious and admirable leap forward in terms of composition and sounds that ultimately not as satisfying as Marry Me. Anyone that's heard it think the closing motif from track 2 is lifted from holy fuck?
