Dancing About Architecture Indie Music News 1.19.10
Posted by Ian Wright on 01.19.2010
Lady Gaga, Bono, Justin Timberlake, Sting, Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera and others join together to help Haiti, Jay Reatard passes away, a new Joanna Newsom album on the way, new Panda Bear material, build your own boutique guitar pedals and more!
The bit at the start
It's another week here and 411 towers and 2010 seems to be flying along at a steady pace. There's a lot of stuff that I want to get to this week so we'll have no further delay. First, one of my favourite albums, and then a really sad story.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Joanna Newsom – The Milk Eyed Mender
A reminder of how great she is before LP3 leaks.
You news, you lose
RIP.
Very sad news broke last Tuesday night when it emerged that Memphis Garage Rocker Jay Reatard had died at his home. Rumours started to circulate on Tuesday night of Reatard's passing on Wednesday evening on the Brooklyn Vegan blog and the rumours were then confirmed through the website of Goner Records in Memphis when they posted the following to their site, "It is with great sadness that we report the passing of our good friend Jay Reatard. Jay died in his sleep last night. We will pass along information about funeral arrangements when they are made public." Later news reported that Reatard had been found at his home at 3:30 that morning. He was 29 years old. A memorial service was held for him in his home town on Saturday.
This sad story became a little bit stranger on Thursday when a local Fox affiliate reported that the Memphis police were treating the death as a homicide investigation and were even offering a reward for information leading them to an unnamed suspect. Shortly after however the station removed the story from their website.
In the past week tributes have been flowing in for Reatard. His most recent label Matador were one of the first to chip in with a statement that said, "Jay was as full of life as anyone we've ever met, and responsible for so many memorable moments as a person and artist. We're honored to have known and worked with him, and we will miss him terribly." Pitchfork have collected many of the other comments from musicians here but these comments from Deerhunter's Bradford Cox (who issued a split single with Reatard whereby Reatard and Deerhunter covered each other's songs) merits special attention, "Jay was what few people have the capacity to be. He created an undeniably classic album that contained so much pain transferred to tape in such an explosive way that it made you feel different after hearing it. He was transgressive and honest. His flaws were something he focused on and overdubbed and distorted until they made you forget who he really was-- a person with feelings and a good heart. He loved music and worked hard from a young age to pursue it. He was a self-made and unmade man. I am truly sickened to see him go."
Reatard was a tremendous songwriter who worked at an astonishingly prolific rate but despite not wanting to go against the principal of de mortuis nil nisi bonum (that's right latin on 411mania) I'd be remiss if not mentioning that he did have a reputation as a somewhat difficult character whose on stage behaviour would put any old school rock star to shame. A quick gander around YouTube would quickly result in finding videos of him laying out a kid who got on the stage with him in Toronto and another of him playing with former band The Reatards where mid set he pulled out his cock and started pissing on the stage. And then there was the nasty way that he announced that his band had quit on him on Twitter a few months back. But at the same time there are lots of stories from fans who have nothing but nice things to say about their dealings with the man.
But now isn't really the point to focus on the negative about him, it's not like he was accused of molesting kids which should ruin the perception of him forever or just being a creepy weirdo in general, he was just a dude who may not have been super nice all the time. And most of us are guilty of that.
I think at a time like this it's better to focus on the positives about the man, and that's mostly related to the wonderful and sizeable body of work that he left behind. (By the way, if you're looking for a place to start with Reatard in the wake of his death go with Blood Visions, it's the best garage rock record of the last decade.)
Reatard, after a couple of cancelled gigs in the past 18 months played Dublin for the first time last November. I missed the gig as I'd seen him in Barcelona a few months prior to the Dublin date but according to people I know that were there he and his band tore the place down. Here's my favourite song of his from that gig.
There's a bunch more videos from that gig up on the Hand Job films YouTube channel.
Haiti, mon pays, wounded mother I'll never see.
The big story of the year to date has obviously been the tragedy happening in Haiti. It's been one of those weeks when celebrities, either rightly or wrongly, have been using their fame to try to do some good by encouraging people to donate to charity organisations involved in relief work there.
However interest in helping the people of Haiti isn't a new thing for some people and Partners In Health have been on the ground there for many, many years working with the poor of the country. Arcade Fire have been involved with the organisation for the last few years now (if you went to see the band on their Neon Bible tour you might have noticed that there was a $1/£1/ˆ1, depending on what the country you were seeing the band in, surcharge on your ticket which was donated to PIH for their work in Haiti). The reason for the band's involvement with the organisation is likely down to Regine Chassagne, singer and multi-instrumentalist in the band and wife of Arcade Fire's frontman Win Butler. Though born in Quebec she is of Haitian descent and her parents fled the Duvallier regime there before her birth. Last week Chassagne penned a very touching piece for the British Guardian newspaper in the wake of the Haitian earthquake. It's strongly recommended reading and you can get it here.
I don't want to get all preachy here, I don't think this is the forum to do so but what happened on Hispaniola was a dreadful tragedy, it's estimated that more than 45,000 people lost their lives in the quake. If you have even a couple of dollars to spare and would like to help then an organisation like partners in health are a worthy recipient of your cash and you can donate to them here or if you would like to make an unrestricted gift to PIH where the funds might go to Haiti or it might go to one of their other projects around the world (and those projects still need money) you can do so here. Or if you'd be more comfortable donating to a better known organisation you can consider The Red Cross or Unicef.
-- On January 27, Brooklyn's Bell House will host a benefit for Save the Children and Partners in Health. Ted Leo, the Wrens, Sondre Lerche, Here We Go Magic, Cold War Kids, and the Wahoo Skiffle Crazies will play, and New Pornographers frontman A.C. Newman will team up with the Old 97's Rhett Miller and Nicole Atkins under the name the Seekers. Jimmy Fallon and New York State Senator Diane Savino will be on hand, as will NY1's Pat Kiernan and comedians Eugene Mirman and Todd Barry.
-- On January 20, 21, 24, and 25, New York's City Winery will hold benefits for Wyclef Jean's Yele nonprofit. Patti Smith, the Antlers, the Swell Season, Josh Ritter, Rosanne Cash, David Johansen, Living Colour, comedian Lewis Black, and others will perform.
-- Mogwai are auctioning off a piano that they used on their 2006-2007 world tour, along with various pieces of vinyl and posters, with the money going to Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders.
-- The indie rock and comedy zine Chunklet is auctioning off a whole lot of rare records to benefit Doctors Without Borders.
-- The Red Hot Organization, the folks behind last year's Dark Was the Night compilation, have awarded a $150,000 emergency grant to Partners in Health. In addition, all proceeds from sales of Dark Was the Night for the next 60 days will go to Partners in Health.
-- Steven Drozd of the Flaming Lips will take part in the Bricktown Rotary Celebrity Server fundraiser tonight at the Bricktown Brewery in Oklahoma City, with proceeds going to the relief effort.
-- Tonight in Atlanta, OutKast's Big Boi will team up with Atlanta City Councilman Kwanza Hall to host a celebrity fundraiser at the restaurant Rare. The money they raise will go to CARE's Haitian relief efforts.
-- Surfer Blood and a few other Florida indie bands will play the Lake Worth club Propaganda tonight to raise money for Doctors Without Borders.
-- In Chicago, the Waco Brothers and Eleventh Dream Day will play at the Hideout tonight, and all money will go to Partners in Health.
-- In Houston, much of the city's rap scene will be on hand for a CARE benefit tonight at Warehouse Live. Bun B, Slim Thug, Paul Wall, Trae, ESG, Cory Mo, and others will perform.
-- Similarly, Washington, DC's rap scene will come together tonight at the 9:30 Club's DMV Helps Haiti benefit show. Wale, Tabi Bonney, DC Don Juan, XO, Kingpin Slim, and others will appear, and the money will go to Yele.
-- Lady Gaga will donate all proceeds from tickets and merchandise for her January 24 performance at New York City's Radio City Music Hall to Haiti. Also, proceeds from all purchases made at her web store that day will go to relief efforts, as will proceeds from a special Lady Gaga Haiti relief t-shirt.
-- Thievery Corporation's Rob Garza and OM Records' J Boogie will be at San Francisco's Vessel tonight, raising money for the World Food Programme.
-- Billboard reports that Bono, Justin Timberlake, Sting, Alicia Keys, and Christina Aguilera are among those who will perform during George Clooney and Wyclef Jean's "Hope for Haiti" telethon, which will be broadcast on several networks on January 22, with proceeds going to Partners in Health, UNICEF, Oxfam, the Red Cross, and Yele.
Okay, time for something a little more light hearted.
Great news kids, we're only a month away from the release of the new Joanna Newsom album.
As per her Australian record company Spunk (snicker) ...
Joanna Newsom ‘Have One On Me' – February 19 on Spunk
Today, Spunk is thrilled to announce the forthcoming Joanna Newsom album ‘Have One On Me', due for release February 19. This is Joanna's third full length album and is a sophisticated and enchanting collection of work from this unparalleled talent. Her last record ‘Ys' was a conceptual masterpiece of ethereal harp, lush vocals and expansive, complex orchestrations arranged by Van Dyke Parks, and was recently voted one of the Albums of the Decade by Pitchfork and Mojo Magazine.
The album is released in Australia via Spunk February 19, and released the rest of the world February 23.
Build your own ZVex pedals
I've got about 20 or so guitar pedals lying around my house. About 25% of them are "gain" (distortion/OD/fuzz) pedals and my favourite of those is currently the ZVex Fuzz Factory Vexter unit that I bought last year. In the field of the boutique stomp box market Zvex is probably the best known line with the "Super Hard On" and "Fuzz Factory" units probably being the most well known individual pedals but beyond those Zachery Vex also produces a number of other pedals that are very interesting and seem to be full of character like the "Seek Wah", the "Lo-Fi Looper" and the Probe line of pedals which are probably a little bit out of my price range when you factor in exactly what they do and how much use I'd get out of them. I'm going to New York next month though and I'll probably spend a couple of hours in a guitar shop one afternoon messing about with a few of the above mentioned.
Later in the year ZVex will launch the "Inventobox," a pedal that will allow pedal enthusiasts the chance to build their own version of his circuits and mess about with them to create their own customised pedals. The unit will be available from April and will be priced at around $400.
For the record my current want list for fancy pedals ...
- Sitori Sonics Tapeworm delay, the oscillator controls make the whole thing sound like a lot of fun and when I asked St. Vincent about hers after our interview last year she had good things to say about it. I've actually tried to order one of these before but paypal seems to hate my credit card.
- Mid Fi Electronics Glitch Computer.
- Death By Audio Octave Clang.
Panda panda panda panda, not a Deerhoof story.
Noah Lennox, aka Panda Bear of Animal Collective has a new solo album out this year and is currently engaged on a lengthy European tour (I'll be seeing him on my 30th birthday in Dublin in March, the prefect excuse to stop anyone from throwing me an annoying birthday party). His recent live sets have been said to be made up entirely of new material and a version of Animal Collective's "Daily Routine."
This being 2010 OF COURSE there are bootlegs out there and the Ramin Tom blog has audio of the entire set. You can choose either the whole set as a single file or individual songs.
And of course, there's stuff on YouTube.
The YouTube video of the week
How to make "Smack My Bitch Up" in Ableton.
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Spoon
02-14 Glasgow, Scotland - King Tut's
02-15 Manchester, England - Academy 3
02-16 London, England - Electric Ballroom
02-18 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
02-19 Cologne, Germany - Luxor
02-20 Berlin, Germany - Frannz Club
03-17 Austin, TX - Stubbs (NPR SXSW showcase) %
03-18 New Orleans, LA - Republic %@
03-19 Birmingham, AL - Workplay Soundstage %@
03-20 Atlanta, GA - Tabernacle %@
03-22 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club %@
03-23 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club %@
03-24 Richmond, VA - The National %@
03-26 New York, NY - Radio City Music Hall %@
03-27 Boston, MA - House of Blues %@
03-29 Toronto, Ontario - Sound Academy %@
03-30 Royal Oak, MI - Royal Oak Music Theater %@
04-01 Chicago, IL - Aragon Ballroom %^
04-02 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue %^
04-03 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue %^
04-05 Denver, CO - Ogden Theater %^
04-06 Denver, CO - Ogden Theater %^
04-07 Salt Lake City, UT - In the Venue %^
04-09 Seattle, WA - Moore Theater %^
04-10 Seattle, WA - Moore Theater %^
04-11 Vancouver, British Columbia - Orpheum Theater %^
04-13 Oakland, CA - Fox Theater %^
% with Deerhunter
@ with the Strange Boys
^ with Micachu and the Shapeser see.
Passion Pit
01-15 Auckland, New Zealand - Big Day Out Festival
01-17 Gold Coast, Australia - Big Day Out Festival
01-20 Sydney, Australia - Metro Theatre
01-22 Sydney, Australia - Big Day Out Festival
01-23 Sydney, Australia - Big Day Out Festival
01-25 Melbourne, Australia - Corner Hotel
01-26 Melbourne, Australia - Big Day Out Festival
01-29 Adelaide, Australia - Big Day Out Festival
01-31 Perth, Australia - Big Day Out Festival
02-04 Osaka, Japan - Club Quattro
02-05 Tokyo, Japan - Duo
02-06 Tokyo, Japan - Astro Hall
03-01 Brussels, Belgium - Botanique
03-03 Bristol, England - Academy
03-04 Leeds, England - Met Uni
03-05 Manchester, England - Academy
03-06 Glasgow, Scotland - ABC
03-08 Norwich, England - UEA
03-09 Nottingham, England - Rock City
03-11 London, England - HMV Forum
03-13 Dublin, Ireland - Olympia
03-26 Miami, FL - Ultra Music Festival
03-28 Buffalo, NY - Town Ballroom *
03-29 York, PA - Pullo Center *
03-30 Cleveland, OH - House of Blues *
03-31 Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall *
04-02 Chicago, IL - Congress Theater *
04-03 Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall *
04-04 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue *
04-05 Kansas City, MO - Beaumont Club *
04-07 Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre *
04-08 Salt Lake City, UT - In the Venue *
04-10 Eugene, OR - McDonald Theatre *
04-11 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore *
04-12 Portland, OR - Roseland Theater *
04-14 Davis, CA - Freeborn Hall *
04-15 San Francisco, CA - The Warfield Theatre *
* with Mayer Hawthorne
Camera Obscura
01-18 Auckland, New Zealand - Monte Cristo Room
01-19 Wellington, New Zealand - San Francisco Bathhouse
01-21 Sydney, Australia - Beck's Festival Bar (Sydney Festival)
01-22 Brisbane, Australia - The Zoo
01-23 Melbourne, Australia - Corner Hotel
01-25 Perth, Australia - The Amplifier
01-28 Tokyo, Japan - Fever *
01-29 Tokyo, Japan - Fever ^
02-27 Santa Maria da Feira, Portugal - Antonio Lamoso Teatro
03-20 Bandung, Indonesia - The LA Light Indiefest
03-21 Yogyakarta, Indonesia - Java
04-03 Iowa City, IA - Blue Moose Tap House (Mission Creek Festival)
04-04 Madison, WI - High Noon Saloon
04-05 Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall
04-07 Lawrence, KS - The Bottleneck
04-08 Norman, OK - Meacham Auditorium (University of Oklahoma)
04-09 Austin, TX - Emo's
04-10 Denton, TX - Hailey's
04-11 Houston, TX - Warehouse Live Studio
04-13 Mexico City, Mexico - Lunario
04-14 Guadalajara, Mexico - Lydo's Show Center
04-16 Las Vegas, NV - Club Aruba at the Aruba Hotel
04-20 Visalia, CA - Cellar Door
04-21 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
04-23 Eugene, OR - WOW Hall
04-24 Bellingham, WA - Nightlight Lounge
04-25 Portland, OR - Berbati's Pan
* with Hideki Kaji
^ with Miki Furukawa, OGRE YOU ASSHOLE
The Fiery Furnaces
01-21 Newport, KY - Southgate House
01-22 Indianapolis, IN - Radio Radio
01-23 St. Louis, MO - Old Rock House
01-24 Tulsa, OK - Cain's Ballroom
01-26 Little Rock, AR - Revolution Music Room
01-27 Dallas, TX - Lounge on Elm Street
01-28 Austin, TX - The Parish
01-29 Houston, TX - Walter's on Washington
01-30 New Orleans, LA - One Eyed Jacks
02-02 Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club
02-04 Asheville, NC - The Grey Eagle
02-06 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
02-17 Strasbourg, France - La Laiterie
02-18 Paris, France - Trabendo
02-19 St. Malo, France - L'Omnibus (La Route du Rock Festival)
02-20 Bordeaux, France - L'Espace Satrie
02-22 Barcelona, Spain - Razz 3
02-23 Madrid, Spain - Moby Dick
02-24 Valencia, Spain - Wah Wah
02-26 Lisbon, Portugal - Santiago Alquimister
02-28 Istanbul, Turkey - Indigo
05-15-17 Minehead, UK - Pavement ATP Festival
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio
Retribution Gospel Choir – 2
Cymbals Eat Guitars – Why There Are Mountains
The bit at the end
I watched Big Fan last night. Having heard Patton Oswalt talk about his issues with depression in his stand up act he was actually really well suited to the role.
There's been a whole bunch of good albums released/leaked this year already. I'd like to get to talk about them at length soon but for now you should check out the new albums by Retribution Gospel Choir, Owen Pallett, The Besnard Lakes and Titus Andronicus.
You can follow me on twitter, I'm endlessly fascinating.
