Dancing About Architecture 02.14.06
Posted by Ian Wright on 02.14.2006
Doherty Watch, The end of Pink Floyd, Kevin Shields’ live return, Radiohead concert dates and My Morning Jacket.
The bit at the start
I went to see Broken Social Scene on Saturday, I've been a big fan for a couple of years now and had very high hopes for the gig but after the previous week's underwhelming performance from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah I was somewhat wary.
I needn't have worried, they were magnificent. They didn't have an opening act play with them but instead went the slightly unusual route of going for over 2 hours. These are the kind of gigs that makes me love music, a great (13 strong) band putting everything they had into the performance, playing fantastic songs and sounding amazing (considering that there was so much going on on the stage the fact that you could hear what everyone was doing was phenomenal).
There's not a single bad thing I can say about this gig; they played all my favourite songs, their interaction with the audience was top notch (at one point Kevin Drew hopped into the crowd and started hugging people) and all I have left to say is that I can't wait for ATP when I get to see them play again.
I've declared my admiration for My Bloody Valentine here many times but Pixies/Slint/Pumpkins/whoever reunions aside they're one band that I've given up hope of ever seeing play live, and considering how he seems to have become something of a recluse I'd also ruled out the possibility of seeing main MBVer Kevin Shields in any sort of live capacity either.
However, Shields did make a rare live appearance alongside Irish singer-songwriter Gemma Hayes at her gig in Camden on February 9th. Shields had watched the majority of the gig from the crowd and when Hayes returned to the stage for her encore she started off by saying "There are two people I've always wanted to play with, Bob Dylan and Kevin Shields from My Bloody Valentine and he's here!" and then said, "If we get this right he's going to come up here and play with us, I'm shaking in my boots."
Shields joined the Ballyporrin singer onstage and played guitar with Hayes on a new song called "Nowhere man and whiskey girl".
You can file this one under unexpected collaborations folks. The first half of Hayes first album is really quite good (although a bit lightweight) but the rest of it and her latest album are really weak, I never would have had Kevin Shields pegged as a fan.
For once I wish I lived in London, again.
Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood are to play live in London on May 1st as part of a charity gig for friends of the earth. The gig, which is taking place at KOKO is part of the Big Ask Live series of gigs which aim to lobby the UK government on the climate change issue.
Yorke has been heavily involved in the organisation since it's inception last year and in May he made a visit to the houses of parliament on behalf of Friends Of The Earth to campaign on climate change issues.
He was also asked by the organisation to meet Tony Blair about it but ultimately decided not to, he explained why he made that decision in his band's blog saying, "Friends Of The Earth have asked me whether I would meet Tony Blair at Downing Street to discuss what our government is not doing about climate change. I don't know if this will ever happen for certain. It is rattling around in the back of my mind and concerns me a lot. I have no intention of being used by spider spin doctors to make it look like we make progress when it is just words.
"I'd love to know what you think but I can't ask. You'd say 'Oh there he goes again interfering and meddling in politics. Why doesn't he get on with the music and shut up? Perhaps because I feel like a hypocrite if don't do anything, and equally feel like a hypocrite if I try getting involved.
"Blair has been uttering nonsense lately about Kyoto and such, real la la stuff... looks like the American right have finally eaten his mind. Why on earth would I meet this man? Or perhaps that is exactly why I should. But i dont have powers of persuasion, i just have temper and an acid tongue."
More excitingly Radiohead are rumoured to be planning a series of smaller shows in the UK around that time in preparation for the release of their 7th album.
I have [strike]never[/strike] heard of these awards.
U2 won fucking everything, there's your obligatory Grammy coverage.
Hey Ya would have been better if they'd used a sample from the Larry Sanders show and changed the title.
Billboard is reporting that Outkast are once again delaying the release of their new album. The soundtrack to "Idlewild" had previously been due to come out on December, then this month but won't now be released until April.
If you care about such things some of the songs on the album are called "Idlewild Blues", "Cock A Doodle Doo", "Foot On The Gas" and "The Train".
Outkast members Andre 3000 and Big Boi will appear in the film and are to be joined by gravel voiced (seriously, Tom Waits listens to her records and goes, "what the fuck is up with her voice?") singer Macy Gray and oscar nominee Terrence Howard.
New old songs.
This item was originally going to be about the reissue of the first Sonic Youth album (out on March 14, shortly after my birthday as it happens, not saying you have to buy me a gift, but you know … it'd be nice) but I would have pretty much been rehashing a story from a few weeks ago (not that it stopped Pitchfork who ran the story I was about to [strike]steal[/strike] cover), instead I'm going to use the same headline I would have used for Sonic Youth and talk about My Morning Jacket.
May 15th see the release of a collection of MMJ demos dating back to when the band were recording At Dawn, their finest album to date, 5 years ago. Also on the release will be demos from the sessions from their debut album The Tennessee Fire. The imaginatively titled Tennessee Fire and At Dawn Demos is the second batch of MMJ rarities following up from 2004's The Sandworm Cometh and The Learning.
Tracklisting:
01 The Way That He Sings (Demo Version)
02 Hopefully (Demo Version)
03 Just Because I Do (Demo Version)
04 Bermuda Highway (Demo Version)
05 Lowdown (Demo Version)
06 Honest Man (Demo Version)
07 At Dawn (Demo Version)
08 I Needed It Most (Demo Version)
09 Lead Me Father (Demo Version)
10 Phone Went West (Demo Version)
11 Chills (Demo Version)
12 Just Because I Do (Version 1)
13 Heartbreakin Man (Version 1)
14 Evelyn (Version 1)
15 The Bear (Version 2)
16 If All Else Fails (Version 1)
17 Picture Of You (Version 1)
18 I Think I'm Going to Hell (Version 1)
I guess that's it then.
People holding out for a full Pink Floyd reunion after last year's Live 8 performance can give up hope. Guitarist and co-frontman David (don't call me Dave) Gilmour has declared the band to be officially "over".
Following recent newspaper speculation that the band would play a series of London dates this year Pink Floyd issued a statement denying this rumours but it never mentioned that they would never play together again. However in a recent interview Gilmour told Italian newspaper La Republica, "The band? It's over. Reunited because of the good cause, to get over the bad relationship, and not to have regrets.
"I think I've had enough. I am 60. I don't want to work much anymore. It's an important part of my life, I have had enormous satisfactions, but now it's enough. It's much more comfortable to work on my own."
Gilmour also emphasised that his unwillingness to reform the band have nothing to do with his feelings towards bassist Roger Waters who was reunited with the band onstage at Live8 for the first time after he left the band in 1983.
"The issue about Roger is irrelevant, because even without him I don't want to go on as Pink Floyd. I'm happy with my life. Playing as Pink Floyd is a business too big for me now. When you move as a band, all is gigantic, the expectations are enormous, the pressures very high. We have been asked to play one hundred gigs!
"I am fine as I live now. It was fantastic but now I don't feel like any more."
The Doherty Watch: I wouldn't bet on it.
After receiving a community service order instead of a jail sentence for pleading guilty to possession of drugs in London last week Pete Doherty has vowed to Channel 4 news that he intends to stay clean.
He told the interviewer that he wanted to start "a drugs free life" and "wasn't much of a junkie anyway" (the phrase "little bit pregnant" comes to mind) and that he's aware of the difficulties that he's facing and intends to "get an anti-heroin implant".
He added, "I've just been helped. I'm not going to make light of the fact that I've been given a great chance, and take crack and heroin."
Now I've said a lot of really tasteless things about Doherty in the past, I think he's a bad musician, a poor songwriter and possibly not much of a human being and I really resent the way he's become a star based on his addictions (despite helping him on his way in some small way) but I do hope that if he really wants to he'll be able to get clean.
Then people will realise how shit his music is and he can disappear from public life completely.
A guy can dream can't he?
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Bloc Party
03-02 Brighton, England - Concorde *
03-03 Manchester, England - Academy 3 *
03-05 Glasgow, Scotland - King Tuts *
03-06 Leeds, England - Cockpit *
03-07 Newcastle, England - Northumbria University Stage 2 *
03-09 Nottingham, England - Rescue Rooms *
03-10 Bedford, England - Esquires *
03-11 Norwich, England - Waterfront *
04-25 Ft. Lauderdale, FL - Revolution
04-27 Tempe, AZ - Marquee Theatre
04-28 Las Vegas, NV - The Joint #
04-30 Indio, CA - Empire Polo Field (Coachella)
* fan club dates
# with the Go! Team
Calexico and Iron And Wine
04-21 Manchester, England - Academy
04-22 Bristol, England - Academy
04-23 London, England - Forum
04-25 Frankfurt. Germany - Mousonturm
04-26 Utrecht, Netherlands, Tivoli
04-27 Bourges, France - Le Printemps de Bourges
04-28 Brussels, Belgium - Cirque Royal
04-29 Copenhagen, Denmark - Amager Bio
04-30 Stockholm, Sweden - Berns
05-01 Oslo, Norway - Rockefeller
05-02 Gothenburg, Sweden - Trädgårn
05-04 Berlin, Germany - Columbiahalle
05-05 München, Germany - TonHalle
05-06 Graz, Austria - Orpheum
05-07 Wien, Austria, Arena Wien
05-09 Zagreb, Croatia - Pauk
05-10 Treviso, Italy - New Age
05-11 Milan, Italy - Rolling Stone
05-12 Lucerne, Switzerland - Boa
05-13 Zürich, Switzerland - Volkshaus
05-14 Haarlem, Netherlands - Patronaat
05-15 Krefeld, Germany - Kulturfabrik
05-16 Eindhoven, Netherlands – Effenaar
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
The Long Winters – Ultimatum
final:3 – final:3
Cat Power – The Greatest
Rollerskate Skinny – Shoulder Voices
The bit at the end
Kind of a slow news week this time around, hopefully some more interesting stuff will happen in the next week. Till then keep on … whatever the hell it is you do-ing.
