Dancing About Architecture Indie News Report 2.02.10

Posted by Ian Wright on 02.02.2010

New Joanna Newsom music, more on Franz Nicolay's Hold Steady departure, the new Panda Bear album, reissues of Metal Machine Music and 69 Love Songs, and more.

The bit at the start

Hello all. I rarely do a mailbag thing for this column but I think after the response to my best albums of last year list I think I have to.

Mission accomplished. I have never heard of any of these bands.

and also

All this music sucks.

I love the internets. Best of all was …


Just reading this column gave me dysentery and now I'm dying from having to read names like the Condo Fucks and Fuck Buttons. Wow it must be so cool to be young and be able to use such intelligent words like fuck.

I'm upset, there's shit everywhere and I didn't understand anything on this page. I'm going to heaven now.

Condo Fucks are in fact a Yo La Tengo side project (a point made in the blurb for the record), the members of which must all be pushing 50.

Anyway, on to the news about he sucky music.

Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.

Thao With The Get Down Stay Down - Know Better Learn Faster



Strong follow up to We Brave Bee Stings And All

You news, you lose

New music, album from The Tallest Man On Earth Joanna Newsom.

I'm recycling and reusing my headlines from last week where possible.

Joanna Newsom's third album Have One On Me is out this month (the 23rd) on triple vinyl/CD on Drag City.

Last Tuesday the label put a new song, called "81" up streaming on their website here (See the top right hand corner of the page, under "free music"). It's fucking fantastic.

Or you can download it from the Drag City site here.

Obviously Newsom is quite the big deal in indie circles and a new release has all sorts of parts of all sorts of people all a tingle in excitement, myself included but the whole release of this record has been handled in a really low key way. There's no official tracklisting been announced yet and they only released the album's artwork on Monday. It being this …



But on the subject of the tracklisting, this unconfirmed one has been floating around for a little while now. With over 100 minutes of music it's easy to see why bad boy is going to be spread over 3 discs.

Disc One:
1 - Easy 06:04
2 - Have One On Me 11:02
3 - '81 03:51
4 - Good Intentions Paving Company 07:02
5 - No Provenance 06:25
6 - Baby Birch 09:30
Total: 43:54

Disc Two:
1 - On A Good Day 01:48
2 - You And Me, Bess 07:12
3 - In California 08:41
4 - Jackrabbits 04:23
5 - Go Long 08:02
6 - Occident 05:31
Total: 35:37

Disc Three:
1 - Soft As Chalk 06:29
2 - Esme 07:56
3 - Autumn 08:01
4 - Ribbon Bows 06:10
5 - Kingfisher 09:11
6 - Does Not Suffice 06:44
Total: 42:31

Again, the above tracklisting is UNCONFIRMED.

Bye bye to the hipster Super Mario. Part 2.

I reported last week that Hold Steady keyboardist Franz Nicolay was to leave the band. On Wednesday Paste Magazine posted an interview with the waxed moustachioed musician where is explained his reasoning for leaving the band. He feels that he'd basically done everything that he could do with the band, "They have their one big idea-- making literate, wordy lyrics over big anthemic rock-- and the last two records were about as good as I felt like I could do with that idea," before and tried to explain his decision in terms of a bizarre analogy, "In the Hold Steady, I was kind of a fox in a hedgehog band. The Isaiah Berlin thing about the hedgehogs who have one defining idea and the foxes who have a lot of different ideas. So this is going to let me indulge a lot of those different ideas."

Dude, just say that you'd moved beyond them musically, you'd sound like a douche but at least people would know what you meant.

As for what those other ideas are, Nicolay is pretty excited for what the future holds in store, "I want to explore this vaudeville troubadour idea of going out there all over the world and seeing if I can walk into a room of strangers and entertain them. I think part of the problem of being known as a member of other bands is, if I walk into a room with my name over the door, no one really knows what to expect. I have, in a lot of ways, a blank slate to see what works."

Fear not though Hold Steady fans, Nicolay did also say that he did play on sessions for a new HS record but that they've since rerecorded them with a different keyboardist, so there should be a new album from them soon.

And the name of the new Panda Bear album is ...

Tomboy.

It'll probably be out in September on Paw Tracks.

That's about all there is to say about that right now.

Well, anyone who gets to side four is dumber than I am.

That line is Lou Reed's most quoted comment about Metal Machine Music, his famously impenetrable 1975 double album. The record is set to be reissued this year on 180 gram vinyl, audio DVD and Blu Ray. In conjunction with the release Reed has put together a Metal Machine Trio featuring saxophonist Ulrich Krieger and noise musician Sarth Calhoun to play a series of dates throughout Europe in April.

However the press release is careful to point out that the band "won't duplicate the original," so one could assume that the sets with likely be free noise improve things.

Which might be fucking awful

Well, anyone who gets through the whole thing in one sitting is pretty dumb.

Still on the recycling kick.

Magnetic Fields' mammoth 1999 3 CD collection 69 Love Songs (geddit? It's a mutual oral sex gag) will be reissued as a deluxe vinyl box set by Merge on April 20th. The limited edition collection will feature remastered versions of all the songs on 6 10" records and will come with a scaled up 10" version of the album's original CD artwork. As is the norm with vinyl now, it will include a coupon for an MP3 download.



The YouTube video of the week

St. Vincent performs with David Byrne, Justin Vernon and Bryce Dessner.







If you can you should go to these gigs.

LCD Soundsystem

04-16 Indio, CA - Coachella
04-20 Dublin, Ireland - Tripod
04-21 Dublin, Ireland - Tripod
04-23 London, England - Brixton Academy
04-26 Birmingham, England - Academy
04-27 Leeds, England - Academy
04-28 Glasgow, Scotland - Barrowlands
04-29 Glasgow, Scotland - Barrowlands
05-01 Manchester, England - Academy
05-02 Bristol, England - Academy
05-04 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
05-05 Brussels, Belgium - Ancienne Belgique
05-06 Berlin, Germany - WMF
05-08 Paris, France – Bataclan

St. Vincent

02-03 Victoria, British Columbia - Element *
02-04 Vancouver, British Columbia - Venue *
02-05 Seattle, WA - Neumos *
02-06 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge (early and late) *
02-08 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall *
02-09 Los Angeles, CA - El Rey Theater *
02-10 Solana Beach, CA - Belly Up Tavern *
02-11 Phoenix, AZ - Rhythm Room *
02-13 Denver, CO - The Bluebird Theater *
02-15 Lawrence, KS - Bottleneck *
02-16 Iowa City, IA - The Industry *
02-17 Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall *
02-18 Chicago, IL - Metro *
02-19 Pontiac, MI - The Pike Room at the Crofoot *
02-20 Columbus, OH - Outland on Liberty *
02-21 Pittsburgh, PA - Diesel Club *
02-23 Charlottesville, VA - Jefferson Theater *
02-24 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club *
02-25 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church (Sanctuary) *
03-12 Beijing, China - Yu Gong Yi Shan
03-15 Singapore - Esplanade (Recital Studio)
03-18 Wellington, New Zealand - Pacific Blue Festival Club
03-28 Knoxville, TN - Big Ears Festival

* with Wildbirds & Peacedrums

Lou Reed

04-17 Cambridge, England - The Cambridge Junction
04-18 Oxford, England - O2 Academy
04-19 London, England - Royal Festival Hall
04-21 Paris, France - La Cigale
04-22 Brussels, Belgium - A/B (Domino Festival)
04-24 Copenhagen, Denmark - DR Koncerthuset
04-26 Oslo, Norway - Sentrum Scene
04-27 Bergen, Norway - Ole Bull Scene (Bergen Festival)
04-30 Mallorca, Spain - Teatre Principal de Palma

Broken Social Scene

05-01 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
05-03 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theatre
05-07 New York, NY - Webster Hall
05-13 London, England - Brixton Academy *
05-14 Minehead, England - All Tomorrow's Parties
05-17 London, England - Heaven
05-18 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Melkweg
05-19 Cologne, Germany - Burgerhaus Stollwerck
05-21 Paris, France - La Maroquinerie
06-19 Toronto, Ontario - Toronto Island *#
* with Pavement
# with Band of Horses

Jonsi

april 6 vancouver, canada vogue theatre
april 7 vancouver, canada vogue theatre
april 9 seattle, wa the showbox sodo
april 10 seattle, wa the showbox sodo
april 13 portland, or roseland theatre
april 15 berkeley, ca zellerbach auditorium
april 16 san francisco, ca palace of fine arts
april 18 indio, ca coachella
april 21 denver, co paramount theatre
april 22 lawrence, ks liberty hall
april 24 minneapolis, mn pantages theatre
april 25 minneapolis, mn pantages theatre
april 26 milwaukee, wi the pabst theatre
april 27 chicago, il vic theatre
april 28 chicago, il vic theatre
april 30 toronto, canada sound academy
may 1 toronto, canada sound academy
may 2 montreal, canada metropolis
may 3 philadelphia, pa electric factory
may 5 boston, ma house of blues
may 6 boston, ma house of blues
may 8 new york, ny terminal 5
may 9 new york, ny terminal 5

My Morning Jacket

04-20 Birmingham, AL - Alabama Theater *
04-21 Nashville, TN - Municipal Auditorium *
04-23 Atlanta, GA - Chastain Park *
04-24 New Orleans, LA - Jazzfest *
04-27 St. Augustine, FL - St. Augustine Amphitheater *
04-28 Charleston, SC - Family Circle *
04-30 Raleigh, NC - Koka Booth *
05-01 Columbia, MD - Merriweather Post Pavilion *
05-02 Columbus, OH - LC Outdoor Pavilion *

* with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band

Frightened Rabbit

01-29 Melbourne, Australia - Laneway Festival
01-31 Sydney, Australia - Laneway Festival
02-02 Sydney, Australia - Metro Theatre *
02-03 Sydney, Australia - The Filth at Beach Road Hotel
02-04 Melbourne, Australia - The Palais *
03-04 York, England - Duchess of York
03-05 Manchester, England - Club Academy
03-06 Aldershot, England - West End Centre
03-08 Bristol, England - Thekla
03-09 Oxford, England - Academy 2
03-10 London, England - Koko
03-12 Birmingham, England - Academy 2
03-13 Sheffield, England - Leadmill 2
03-14 Norwich, England - Arts Centre
03-17 Austin, TX - SXSW
03-18 Austin, TX - SXSW
03-19 Austin, TX - SXSW
03-20 Austin, TX - SXSW
04-17 Indio, CA - Coachella
04-19 Tempe, AZ - The Clubhouse
04-21 Houston, TX - Walter's
04-22 Dallas, TX - Loft at Palladium Ballroom
04-23 Little Rock, AR - Revolution
04-24 Atlanta, GA - The Masquerade
04-25 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
04-27 Washington, DC - Black Cat
04-28 New York, NY - Webster Hall
04-29 Boston, MA - Paradise
04-30 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
05-03 Montreal, Quebec - Petit Campus
05-04 Toronto, Ontario - Opera House
05-06 Newport, KY - Southgate House
05-07 St. Louis, MO - The Old Rock House
05-08 Chicago, IL - Metro
05-09 Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theatre
05-10 Minneapolis, MN - Varsity Theater
05-12 Denver, CO - Bluebird Theatre
05-13 Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
05-15 Vancouver, British Columbia - Biltmore Cabaret
05-16 Seattle, WA - Neumo's Crystal Ball Reading Room
05-17 Portland, OR - Berbati's Pan
05-19 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
05-22 San Diego, CA - Casbah

* with Echo and the Bunnymen

Writing under the influence

Without which this column would not have been possible:

Talk Radio

The bit at the end

That's me done. I'll be back in a week.

You can follow me on twitter, I'm endlessly fascinating.

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