Dancing About Architecture 8.25.09
Posted by Ian Wright on 08.25.2009
Thoughts on the Tyondai Braxton and The XX albums, Deerhunter and Oneida live. Plus, news on the new Built To Spill record, new Atlas Sound music, a new R.E.M. live collection, Patrick Wolf apologies, a new album from Do Make Say Think, a gigantic Miles Davis reissue, Daniel Johnston's new album, videos from The Walkmen and Dan Deacon, AND MORE!
The bit at the start
A few random points re: music an me in the past week. Tyondai (Battles) Braxton's new solo album is more interesting than entertaining First track sounds like Peter And The Wolf gone mad. Second track sounds like, well it's been online for a few weeks, so you already know if you care. I didn't like that song much when I first heard it but I will say that the rest of the album, though similar in spirit in terms of sounds is reasonably diverse. Third one is like the clangers as Deerhoof but the closing cut "Dead Strings" is the album's real standout.
Also got around to listening to The xx's near self titled debut album this week. Listening to The xx album. It's fairly meh but I have to admire the discipline required to keep things that sparse and minimalist. Given that amount of space to play in I'd have been going nuts with the overdubs. I don't imagine that they're able to play it live with any degree of panache.
In terms of live music I saw Deerhunter again on Sunday night. They manage to just keep getting better and better though the live highlight of the weekend was Oneida on Saturday night. Raucous and rollocking, an unstoppable freight train of psyche rock crossed with kraut rock jams. "Up with people" was a stunning highlight of the night.
Now, on with the news.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
St. Vincent - Actor
Opening for Grizzly Bear in November. Can't wait.
You news, you lose
Spilt To Bill.
I'm not even going to begin to consider my end of year list until I get to hear the new Built To Spill album, an event that is coming closer and closer each day. There Is No Enemy will be released on Warner's on October 6th and according to Doug Martch it sounds like a Built To Spill record, which is a very very good thing.
Tracklisting:
01 Aisle 13
02 Hindsight
03 Nowhere Lullaby
04 Good Ol' Boredom
05 Life's a Dream
06 Oh Yeah
07 Pat
08 Done
09 Planting Seeds
10 Things Fall Apart
11 Tomorrow
Oh, and here's the album cover for good measure …
Free and legal tune of the week.
We've already heard "Walkabout", the tune from the forthcoming Atlas Sound album Logos which features Panda Bear.
Well in the past week another song from the album (out in Kranky on October) "Attic Lights", featuring Sasha Vine from The Sian Alice Group on violin.
By way of a follow up to last week's story about Patrick Wolf loosing it on stage in Germany and then refusing to apologise for his dickish behaviour afterwards it appears that in the fullness of time Wolf has realised that flinging gear around the stage and seemingly spitting is not appropriate behaviour and has issued the following statement.
A public apology to all involved in the c/o pop shenanigans
I am very sorry that I became too much wolf on stage at C/O Pop. I was singing Shakira's new song "She Wolf" and I felt my animal instinct to protect my audience. My music is very tribal at the moment, I feel I am protective of all of them. It had been a very long day. I slept well but woke at 4 am to fly to Cologne to start a full day of back to back interviews and photos. My band and crew were setting up onstage and I had no idea of stage times as I do not wear a watch and wasn't informed that my set was being cut short before I went onstage by the relevant parties. One of the many people milling around backstage told me that the "music industry conference" had gone on too long. Being someone that thinks the audience comes before the industry, in my tired and promo overloaded tour brain, I took this as a demand for justice for the audience. This is why I directed my aggression, which came at the end of a very heated set, not at a man or woman. I was throwing the stool and the microphone at a black hole part of the stage where no one would get hurt but there would be a statement made... The spit did not land on anyone but was in general a display of "I don't respect you". As I said, my show is very tribal at the moment as there is a lot of good in the world to be fighting for. The words "bitch" and "motherfucker" really are not misogynistic words when you live near Soho, London, so let's put that to rest. My tribe will know that I have over the past 10 years been a public champion for feminism, against ignorance and always fighting in the name of the good fight.
The very bad footage you see on YouTube does not explain that the lady to my left is Victoria my long term violinist and good friend who I protect like a sibling and is not the one I am directing my words or aim to when throwing a piano stool. I would rather hit myself then see Victoria hurt by anyone, or any of my band. I'm terribly sorry if anyone was upset by this display of closure on a show, but as a human who works like a dog to keep myself in music during these hard times in the industry, I do have off days and bad moments like every other person in the world - although I am not sorry that I am passionate enough about music to care that my crowd didn't get their money's worth due to curfews and mismanagement of stage times. I hope you agree. The display of aggression was directed at nobody in particular, just life and darkness and hard times. I'm sorry if any people got in the way and I hope you can forgive me for causing any damage due to excess negative personal emotion. As you heard or saw, the audience was encoring for almost half an hour. My next album is about hope and romance and love, so I will bring you a bunch of bright red red roses and a box of After Eights next time from a helicopter when I see you all. So, a summary, major miscommunications backstage x lack of sleep due to very busy schedule x singing many songs about battling x an intense education from the extreme parts of London nightlife/wildlife/streetlife as a teenager x Steve Strange going on very late x a full day of cameras flashing and questions x being 26 years old and should have known better = bad wolf
sorry. peace. pace. truce.
Patrick Wolf
"Hi we're R.E.M. and this is what we do."
Those were Michael Stipe's opening words the last time that I saw R.E.M. play live a few years ago at Glastonbury. Since then I've not really paid attention to their recent material and I've passed on the chance to see them play live whenever the chance has cropped up. That included their 2007 5 night stand at Dublin's 1,200 person Olympia theatre. Apparently the sets were very much ones "for the fans" with set lists being chosen from the entirety of the band's career.
On October 26th R.E.M.: Live At The Olympia will hit the shelves. It's a 2 disc, 39 song set featuring songs from those 5 gigs. There's a special edition on the way also that features a DVD shot by Vincent Moon and Jeremiah (they of the Take Away Shows fame) which will feature 20 tracks from those gigs plus behind the scenes footage.
Tracklisting:
01 Living Well Is the Best Revenge
02 Second Guessing
03 Letter Never Sent
04 Staring Down the Barrel of the Middle Distance
05 Disturbance at the Heron House
06 Mr. Richards
07 Houston
08 New Test Leper
09 Cuyahoga
10 Electrolite
11 Man-Sized Wreath
12 So. Central Rain
13 On the Fly
14 Maps and Legends
15 Sitting Still
16 Driver 8
17 Horse to Water
18 I'm Gonna DJ
19 Circus Envy
20 These Days
21 Drive
22 Feeling Gravity's Pull
23 Until the Day Is Done
24 Accelerate
25 Auctioneer
26 Little America
27 1,000,000
28 Disguised
29 The Worst Joke Ever
30 Welcome to the Occupation
31 Carnival of Sorts
32 Harborcoat
33 Wolves, Lower
34 I've Been High
35 Kohoutek
36 West of the Fields
37 Pretty Persuasion
38 Romance
39 Gardening at Night
New DMST
Do Make Say Think have a new album coming out on October 20th on Constellation records. It's called Other Truths and here is the awesome sounding tracklist:
01 Do
02 Make
03 Say
04 Think
I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more.
November 10th sees the release of The Complete Columbia Album Collection which, as the name implies will bring ALL 52 albums that Miles Davis recorded for Columbia (including Kind Of Blue, the one that everyone has and Bitches Brew, the one that everyone is scared of). The collection will be made up of 70 CD's and one DVD.
The DVD is Live in Europe '67, which will be the first time that will be available on DVD. Also included is a previously unreleased live recording of Davis's 1970 Isle of Wight Festival gig.
The CDs will all come in "Japanese-styled mini LP jackets" and will include bonus tracks that have appeared on Davis reissues over the years. And there's a 250-page book.
The releases is an Amazon exclusive with the price for it all being a hefty $369.98.
Hey Mr. DJ play a song for me.
Daniel Johnston's next album is called Is And Always Was. It will be out on October 6th on Eternal Yip Eye Music/High Wire Music. Johnston's first album in 6 years will not be one of the ramshackle lo-fi affairs that he is most famous for as it's been produced by Jason Falkner formerly of Jellyfish/solo artist/Beck collaborator.
Falkner also plays a number of songs on the album and noted session drummer Joey Waronker played drums.
You can download one of the songs from the album, called "Freedom" here.
Tracklisting:
01 Mind Movies
02 Fake Records of Rock and Roll
03 Queenie the Doggie
04 High Horse
05 Without You
06 I Had Lost My Mind
07 Freedom
08 Tears
09 Is and Always Was
10 Lost in My Infinite Memory
11 Light of Day
A couple of new videos to wrap things up.
Dan Deacon – Paddling Ghost
The Walkmen – On The Water
The YouTube video of the week
Radiohead perform "These Are My Twisted Words" live for the first time.
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Camera Obscura
08-29 Stockholm, Sweden - Popaganda Festival
09-25 Leicester, England - Leicester Musician
09-26 Southend, England - Village Green Festival
09-28 TBA, Belgium - TBA
09-29 Osnabruck, Germany - Glanz & Gloria
09-30 Copenhagen, Denmark - Loppen
10-01 Gothenburg, Sweden - Parken
10-02 Oslo, Norway - Parkteatret
10-03 Stockholm, Sweden - Strand
10-05 Malmo, Sweden - Debaser
10-06 Aarhus, Denmark - Woxhall
10-07 Hamburg, Germany - Knust
10-08 Berlin, Germany - Postbahnhof
10-09 Prague, Czech Republic - Cross Club
10-10 Vienna, Austria - Flex
10-12 Munich, Gemany - 59to1
10-13 Zurich, Switzerland - Abart
10-14 Milan, Italy - Casa 139
10-15 Lyon, France - TBA
10-16 Paris, France - Maroquinerie
10-18 Tourcoing, France - Grand Mix
10-19 Brussels, Belgium - Ancienne Belgique
10-20 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
10-22 Norwich, England - Waterfront
10-23 Brighton, England - Komedia
10-24 Exeter, England - Phoenix
10-25 Bristol, England - Thekla
10-26 Lancaster, England - Library
10-27 Leeds, England - Cockpit
10-29 Glasgow, Scotland - Barrowlands
11-03 London, England - Shepherd's Bush Empire
11-05 Zaragoza, Spain - Casa Del Loco
11-06 Salamanca, Spain - Multiusos Sanchez Paraiso
11-07 Valladolid, Spain - Fair of Valladolid
11-08 Madrid, Spain - Sala Heineken
11-09 Barcelona, Spain - Apolo
11-18 New Orleans, LA - Tiptina's *
11-19 Birmingham, AL - Bottletree *
11-20 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse *
11-21 Norfolk, VA - Attucks Theatre *
11-22 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg *
11-24 Northampton, MA - Pear Street Ballroom *
11-25 Rochester, NY - The German House *
11-26 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix *
11-27 Pontiac, MI - Crofoot Ballroom *
11-28 Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall *
11-30 Bloomington, IN - Bluebird *
12-01 St. Louis, MO - Off Broadway *
12-02 Oxford, MS - The Lyric Oxford *
12-03 Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club *
* with Papercuts
Daniel Johnston
09-03 Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom
09-04 Seattle, WA - Neumos
09-05 Vancouver, British Columbia - The Venue
09-07 Calgary, Alberta - Knox United Church
09-08 Edmonton, Alberta - Meyer Horowitz Theatre
10-02 Austin, TX - Austin City Limits
10-13 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
10-14 New York, NY - Highline Ballroom
10-15 Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club
10-16 Montreal, Quebec - UK Fed
10-17 Toronto, Ontario - Mod Club
10-22 San Francisco, CA - Regency Ballroom
10-23 San Diego, CA - Cain's
10-24 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theatre
11-01 Brighton, England - Concorde
11-02 London, England - Union Chapel
11-03 Manchester, England - Town Hall
11-04 Edinburgh, Scotland - Queens Hall
11-05 Gateshead, England - The Sage
11-06 Leeds, England - Brudenell Social Club
11-07 Cardiff, Wales - The Gate
11-08 Bristol, England - Trinity Arts Center
11-11 Den Bosch, Netherlands - W2
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio
The XX – xx
Mount Eerie – Wind's Poem
The bit at the end
I'm out of here, back in another week. On Thursday I'll be seeing Wilco, it'll be the first time I've seen them in a couple of years and only the second time overall. Fingers crossed they'll be much better than last time.
I'm beyond delighted with the way that Arsenal have begun the season. Roll on Old Trafford at the weekend.
