Dancing About Architecture 02.21.06
Posted by Ian Wright on 02.21.2006
Radiohead go nude, Albarn goes to the theatre, Cam’ron vs. perverts, Mogwai are mean and the Polyphonic Spree have a new album.
The bit at the start
Oh boy, bad week, nothing really to write about this week here either. I had to review the Arctic Monkeys album for someplace else this over the course of the last few days and I spent much of the past week trying to pay attention to Alex Turner's lyrics trying to decide if his turn of phrase meant the album had merit (because the music certainly doesn't).
Thankfully that's over now but I've been pretty much exclusively listening to instrumental music ever since as I don't think I can stomach listening to someone singing for a little while. The Mogwai album mentioned in the "writing under the influence" section is one I bought on Sunday. It's very good but track 7 has these insane crossfades in them that made me feel physically ill, I was just about ready to curl up into the foetal position as it was ending. So now I can't stomach listening to any music.
Well shit.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album
Neutral Milk Hotel – On Avery Island.
Second album is praised more but this is excellent too.
Experience the workings of other people's minds.
It's the second round of the Champions League this week and over in the sports zone I participated in a roundtable preview.
Ben got all the rock news you could possibly want.
Mathan talks about his 5 favourite albums that James Yancey worked on.
You news, you lose
Obligatory Radiohead top story.
I love me some Radiohead, and one of my favourite songs of theirs is a song called "Nude" which they first started working on about 10 years ago and have sporadically been playing live since they were on the "OK Computer" tour. But they've never properly recorded the song because they've never been happy with any arrangement they had for it.
Live versions have been circulating on the web for years and an early version of the song was on the "Meeting People Is Easy" documentary but for a long time it seemed as though the song was destined to be lost forever. However Thom Yorke wrote on the band's blog recently that the song will appear on their upcoming 7th album.
According to Yorke, "Jonny (Greenwood) is hastily writing out scores for a string quartet who are coming tommorow. Right now we are working on 'Nude', it sounds beautiful, as far as I can tell."
I can't emphasise this enough. I LOVE this song, I couldn't count the number of times I've been at a friends flat late at night and was handed a guitar and asked to play something and that was the song I butchered.
Yippppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Sorry, got a bit excited there.
Charmless Man – The Musical.
Back in '96 when he was seen as a faux cockney wideboy who wrote shitty songs about large houses in the country and was feuding with the Gallagher brothers you never would have pegged Damon Albarn to be the Britpop figure with the most staying power. Nonetheless since the turn of the millennium he's really been pushing himself, Blur made a couple of good albums, he's a key figure in The Gorillaz and then there's the Mali music project.
Now it seems that he's turning his attention to the musical theatre and is working on a musical based around the Notting Hill area of London (thankfully neither Hugh Grant nor Julia Roberts have expressed an interest in the project).
The BBC is reporting that Albarn is collaborating with playwright Roy Williams on the musical which will apparently focus on the area's diversity and multiculturalism and is slated to open at the National Theatre sometime next year.
Nicholas Hytner, the director of the national theatre told the BBC, "It will allow Damon to develop his passionate interest in the many musical styles that have emerged from Notting Hill over the past four decades," he then added, "Damon is one of the most unique and inventive musicians of the moment."
I really do applaud Albarn's ambition and work ethic (he's also got a new Blur album and his first solo album in the works) but I can't help but think this is a bad idea. Speaking as someone who admittedly hates musical theatre (with the exception of "Oh Streetcar") I can't imagine this will be anything but horrendous.
Is this a joke?
The Ring Of Honour dude who is the butt of all the jokes in the wrestling zone had better watch out because not only are the folks at perverted justice on his case but now he's got to contend with Cam'ron who, at a recent press conference, announced that he was going to take on internet paedophiles all by himself. MTV.com are reporting that after seeing an MSNBC report on how adults use the web to set up dates with kids Cam'ron has started posing as a child in order to trap these people and videotaping them when they show up to meet the children they've met online.
"When they get there, it's gonna be me and [my manager] Big Joe like, 'What the hell are you doing, you damn pervert? What the f--- is wrong with you, coming to meet a 13-year-old boy?' We're gonna talk to them and not let them leave until we find out what's wrong with them." Cam'ron told MTV.
After 10 of these little sit-downs have been taped (Cam'ron claims 2 have already taken place) a DVD featuring the interviews will be released.
You know that moment of zen thing they have at the end of the Daily Show where they don't comment on a story because it's so ridiculous they can't possibly make it funnier or more absurd, that's what I'm doing here.
Mogwai – "We hate everything."
The Brit awards happened last week, they're like the UK version of the Grammy's but with fewer terrible collaborations. They are however equally as pointless and I hadn't planned on giving them any coverage until Barry Burns, guitarist with Scottish post-rock noise monsters Mogwai laid into the awards ceremony in a highly entertaining manner.
Writing on the band's official site Burns called James Blunt "a twat" and labled Chris Martin "fuckface". Referring to the awards Burns wrote "The Brits. First off let us say a big well done to the Arctic Monkeys for not turning up to the Brit awards and instead playing a gig in Portsmouth.
"Why would you go? I think you have to pay to go anyway, which is a joke."
Turning his attention to the night's big winner The Kaiser Chiefs he wrote about them winning … "best 'rock act' which is just mental. They're not a rock band. (I met one of them in Japan and he was lovely, if a little scared by my over-affable-drunkenness but they're no rock band)."
Chris Martin's comments at the ceremony also drew Burn's ire, "Coldplay's Chris Martin hinted he may avoid the limelight. 'People are fed up with us and so are we,' he said. No shit fuckface".
But my favourite part of Burn's rant was where he talked about James Blunt, who won 2 awards on the night, " I have spewed blood down dirty toilets with more talent than him. Twat."
That's some bile and hatred right there folks, Morrissey should take lessons from the guys in Mogwai on how to say mean things. By the way "My Father, My King" is one of the most stunning pieces of music ever recorded and if you've never heard it you're really missing out.
Anyway, the Brits, some crappy bands won some awards, yawn.
I thought they were dead.
Are you ready for some of the happiest fucking music ever made? Well if you're not then tough because the Polyphonic Spree are readying their third album "The Fragile Army" which will be released at the start of July.
The band have finished 14 songs at the Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls Minnesota and plan to overdub guitar and vocals in Texas and Chicago in the coming weeks.
The album, the follow up to 2004's "Together We're Heavy" is being produced by John Congleton and will probably sell really badly despite the band going over really well at this summers' festivals.
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Islands
02-17 Montreal, Quebec - Club Lambi *
02-24 Toronto, Ontario - Kool Haus #@
02-25 Toronto, Ontario - Kool Haus #@
02-26 London, Ontario - Centennial Hall #@
02-27 Kitchener, Ontario - Elements Nightclub #@
02-28 Kingston, Ontario - Queen's University (Grant Hall) #
03-01 Montreal, Quebec - Metropolis #
03-02 Peterborough, Ontario - Club Vibe #
03-03 Ottawa, Ontario - Surface #@
03-04 Ottawa, Ontario - Surface #@
03-06 Quebec City, Quebec - Cabaret du Capitole #
03-07 Boston, MA - The Roxy #$
03-09 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club #$
03-10 New York, NY - Webster Hall #$
03-11 Philadelphia, PA - Starlight Ballroom #$
03-12 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle #$
03-13 Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club #$
03-15 Dallas, TX - Gypsy Ballroom #
03-17 Austin, TX - Caribbean Nights (SXSW) !
03-21 San Diego, CA - House of Blues %
03-23 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theatre #^
03-24 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore #
03-26 Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom #%
03-27 Seattle, WA - The Showbox #%
03-29 Victoria, British Columbia - Legends #& (early show)
03-29 Victoria, British Columbia - Legends #& (late show)
03-31 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom #&
04-01 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom (early) #&
04-01 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom (late) #&
04-04 Calgary, Alberta - MacEwan Hall #&
04-06 Edmonton, Alberta - Shaw Conference Centre #&
04-07 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - The Odeon #&
04-08 Winnipeg, Manitoba - Burton Cummings Theatre #&
* with Subtitle, Noah23, Madadam
# with Metric
@ with Holy Fuck
$ with Men, Women & Children
! with We Are Wolves, Belaire, Vietnam
% with End of Fashion
^ with Every Move a Picture
& with Panurge
TV On The Radio
03-06 London, England - ICA 04-21 Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon *
04-22 Houston, TX - Warehouse Live *
04-23 Dallas, TX - Gypsy Tea Room *
04-24 Austin, TX - Emo's *
04-26 Tucson, AZ - Club Congress *
04-27 Tempe, AZ - Marquee Theatre $
04-28 San Diego, CA - Casbah *
04-29 Indio, CA - Empire Polo Field (Coachella) #
05-01 San Francisco, CA - The Independent *
05-02 San Francisco, CA - The Independent *
05-04 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom *
05-05 Seattle, WA - Showbox *
05-06 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards*
05-13 East Sussex, England - Camber Sands Holiday Centre (All Tomorrow's Parties) *^
* with Celebration
# with Depeche Mode, Daft Punk, Franz Ferdinand, Sigur Rós, My Morning Jacket, Ladytron, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Cat Power, Animal Collective, Devendra Banhart, The Walkmen, Lady Sovereign, Deerhoof, et al
$ with Bloc Party
^ with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars, Oneida, The Blood Brothers, Imaginary Folk, Services, The Magik Markers, Ex Models, Zusammenn
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Tom Dunne's Pet Sounds on Today FM, Monday to Thursday, 19:00 – 22:00 GMT
Mogwai – Young Team
Broken Social Scene – Feel Good Lost.
The bit at the end
I'm not sure if I'm gonna be around next week. My Wrens road trip starts next Tuesday and there is a chance that I'm going to explode with excitement before that. If that were to happen then I'd have to spend a few days reassembling myself and mightn't have time for the column.
