Dancing About Architecture 07.04.06
Posted by Ian Wright on 07.04.2006
Sleater Kinney and JJ72 break up, new Postal Service, Arcade Fire update, The Rapture and the world cup.
The bit at the start
I wasn't around for a column last week, death in the family, a good enough excuse I think. On to football.
It would be easy for me to be obnoxious and gloat about the misfortune of others here but for once I'm going to take the high road and talk about positive things. Namely the resurgence of France and the fact that Zizu's last hurrah could in fact wind up being a shout rather than a whimper. France, and Zidane were awful in the first phase and as I said in my preview of the second phase over in the sports zone it was very sad to see the greatest player of his generation so woefully off the pace. I don't have a clue what's happened since then but the performance against Brazil was a revelation, man and team rolled back the years and looked as good as they did 6 or 7 years ago. A powerful performance from the French and a masterclass from Zidane. Vive Zizu, allez les bleus.
Elsewhere, Germany look like they've got a tidal wave of support behind them that could just sweep them all the way, Italy were impressive against an abysmal Ukraine side and I'm being nice about the other match.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album
Explosions In The Sky – The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place.
The most moving thing I've ever heard. Pinnacle of post-rock.
Yes, I'm counting "post-rock" as one word to get it to obey the 10-word rule.
Mathan says hip-hop gets no respect, no respect at all.
You news, you lose
Why should I care?
Do you remember JJ72? Terrible, overblown Irish whine-rock 3 piece who sold 600,000 copies of their debut in the UK and who did a nice line in sexy female bassists. They even predicted the new wave of Canadian indie when they replaced Dublin born Sexy Bassist #1 with Canadian born Sexy Bassist #2.
No?
Well it doesn't matter, rideable bassists does not a decent band make and the band threw in the towel a couple of weeks ago. Not really newsworthy you might think. Ordinarily I'd agree, but you haven't read the statement they issued announcing the split.
Until about 2 seconds from now that is …
Reader, we are to let thee know,
JJ72's body only lies below;
For could the grave JJ's soul comprise,
Earth would be richer than the skies.
"JJ72 was born during an Easter many seasons ago; today it dies on the cusp of midsummer eleven years later.
"Mark Greaney, Fergal Matthews & Sarah Fox wish to express their deepest and darkest gratitude to all of those with impeccable taste who helped and supported the band.
"We remember everything, from mechanical birds in Japan to angels in arid Arizona, from broken bones and Berlin birthdays to predatory Portsmouth spiders. For those who disliked and perhaps despised (gasp) JJ72, thank you - how did beautiful photographs exist without a negative?! We crafted two monuments of magnificence for the future aural pleasure and pain of all would be JJ believers and doubters....and for those who care not for the passing of the petulant yet powerful pup....shame on you! Thank you to Hilary Woods for being a dazzling damsel and thank you to all who played music in/with the band. You know who you are. "
Wow …
WOW …
What a bunch of pricks.
I'M GLAD YOU'RE ON THE SCRAPHEAP YOU SQUEAKY VOICED FUCK.
Oh wait, singer Mark Greaney is going to pursue a solo career.
Bollocks.
Oh yeah, for the record …
Yay!!!
Arcade Fire are hard at work in their converted church (I hope it converts into a space shuttle) outside Montreal working on a follow up to 2004's Funeral. Up until now details have been pretty sketchy with the only news coming a few weeks ago when string arranger Owen Pallett (a.k.a. Final Fantasy) let it slip that they had 3 minutes of music recorded.
Things became slightly more clear recently though when Win Butler posted the following on the band's site …
"Feeling excited and inspired, learning to play all these new instruments... well, mostly Regine is, to be honest! It's gonna be really interesting how we're going to fit all of these new sounds in a tour bus. This week we are recording a huge fucking pipe organ on 2 songs. What an incredible sound!"
According to Butler they've put 15 songs to tape (tape, how retro) "with little bits left to record," additionally there are "a couple of songs in me and Regine's living room, because the drums sound so great in there." Pallett will drop in this month to add some string magic to the album and there is also talk of recording with "a full orchestra in Budapest just before Tim (Kingsbury) and Natalie's wedding in late July!"
Hand's up who else is excited about 2007 folks? New albums due from The Wrens, Radiohead AND Arcade Fire. Could be a classic year.
I miss my beautiful friend.
If they name it that I'm gonna choke somebody.
"Name what?" says you. "Oh right, should have explained first" says I.
Writer/director Brian Jun recently received the blessing of Mary Guibert, mother of the late Jeff Buckley, to begin work on a biopic of the singer-songwriter who died in Memphis in 1997. In fact she's so enthusiastic about the project that she's going to co-produce the film, whatever that means.
"I can tell Jeff's fans with complete confidence that Brian is not the sort of fellow to sugar-coat or manipulate the facts," said a press release from Guibert. "I know that he's a straight shooter. There's a depth of character to Brian, surprising in someone so young, and I have seen from his filmmaking that he has the courage and the skill to do this the way it should be done."
This is the second time that the Buckley story has been slated for the big screen. Last year Train Huston secured the rights to Dream Brother: The Lives & Music of Jeff and Tim Buckley, David Browne's (rather good) 2001 biography of Buckley and his father Tim.
Bye bye.
I'm not hugely into punk, especially punk made post The Clash so for that reason I'm not hugely familiar with Riott Grrl pioneers Sleater Kinney. My last girlfriend loved them though, and I used to be in love with my last girlfriend so by the transitive property then I must love Sleater Kinney. Is that how it works?
Sadly the band I love so much have decided to call it quits. They issued a statement saying, "After eleven years as a band, Sleater-Kinney have decided to go on indefinite hiatus.
The upcoming summer shows will be our last. As of now, there are no plans for future tours or recordings. We feel lucky to have had the support of many wonderful people over the years. We want to thank everyone who has worked with us, written kind words about us, performed with us, and inspired us.
But mostly we want to extend our gratitude to our amazing fans. You have been a part of our story from the beginning. We could not have made our music without your enthusiasm, passion, and loyalty. It is you who have made the entire journey worthwhile."
How nice. Thanks for the memories girls uh, I mean ladies, uh I mean talented group of musicians whose gender does not matter.
The Rapture is coming.
Pieces of the people we love, The Rapture's follow up to 2003's Echoes will be released on September 12th on Motown/Universal (4th in the UK on Vertigo). It will be preceded on this side of the water by "Get Myself Into It" on August 21st but if you're so inclined you can check it out on the band's MySpace page.
Pitchfork spoke to band members Vito Roccoforte and Gabriel Andruzzi about the album and were told that in addition to the single and the title track the album will also feature "W.A.H.U.H" ("Woo, All Right, Yeah, Uh Huh" for the record) and "The Devil". The final tracklisting hasn't been confirmed but they say that the album will be about 50 minutes long and will contain 10 tracks.
When asked about whether or not the new album will bear any resemblance to it's predecessor Roccoforte said "Yes and no. I think the band has a distinct identity. The last album was an eclectic record. I think this one is a little tighter. With Echoes, we really stretched out a lot and tried a bunch of different things. I think on this one, we didn't limit ourselves, but we were able to take a lot of different influences and ideas and just tighten them up and, I feel, execute them a little better."
Knob twiddling duties were split amongst man of the moment Danger Mouse and Britons Ewan Pearson and Paul "Phones" Epworth. "It was kind of a long process," Andruzzi said of deciding which producers to use. "We brainstormed and went through a lot of names of people that we were interested in. Ewan is someone we'd always wanted to work with in some capacity, so we asked if he and Paul would be up for working together. We did one track to see if it was going to feel right, and it felt really right, so we did it. Danger Mouse is someone who came up well over a year ago. Before the Gorillaz album. We didn't even know that was what he was doing. We wanted to try a different approach."
"It was kind of a surprise, once we got into the studio with everybody, to see how that dynamic, that relationship was going to work. But at the same time, before we went into the studio, we had an idea of what we wanted the record to be. We'd been writing songs for months. We had 30 complete songs, and we whittled it down to 20 songs that we actually liked."
"The producers are all really talented people," said Roccoforte. "They were able to see things in it that you might not see. They were good filters for all the songs.
"It was a really nice process. I actually really enjoyed it. In the past, it's been kind of painful. I think a lot of it goes back to that we spent a year where we just wrote. We had a lot of time to creatively explore and sort through a lot of stuff and a lot of songs. So when we went into the studio we kind of had this huge body of work to pick from, and the stuff was a lot more thought out a lot more fully than other times we've gone into the studio. That helped the whole process."
The band are keen to distance themselves from rumours of a falling out with DFA who worked on Echoes and claim the decision not to work with them again was due to scheduling conflicts. "There's no bad blood," Roccoforte said.
WHOOT!!!
Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello are apparently working on a follow up to 2003's brilliant Postal Service album Give Up. In a recent interview with MTV.com Gibbard said "We're slowly starting. We're crawling right now, and whether that crawl turns into a walk remains to be seen. But we'll know more towards the end of the year. I've just been touring so much and trying to find time to make it happen and make our schedules line up." Tamborello said something similar to Pitchfork recently when he told them, "We're talking about wanting to finish an album by sometime next year, because we have to work with Death Cab's schedule and stuff. I definitely want to do another one."
Tamborello also wants Jenny Lewis to be more involved this time around. The Rilo Kiley singer did some vocals on Give Up but depending on her schedule she may contribute some of her own songs to the album. Whatever her involvement the follow up won't be too divergent from what came before it according to Tamborello, "I always have this idea to branch out and try something new, but at the same time, the Postal Service is a really nice outlet. It's so fun to do. Changing it too much or even overthinking it... I just don't want to make it a drag to work on."
According to MTV.com Gibberd told them that only two songs have been recorded thus far but he'll concentrate more on writing and recording when Death Cab For Cutie's tour schedule eases off but worryingly (because I really don't care for his main project) he's "in the very early stages of writing a new Death Cab record, too," which might take priority.
The project got it's name due to the way that it was recorded with Tamborello recording the music and mailing it to Gibbard to add vocals to and send back. The pair will continue to use the same methodology this time however instead of using the USPS they're doing things online. Tamborello said, "[Since] this time we know how to do YouSendIt.com, doing stuff online is a lot easier now. So we probably won't be using the actual mail."
If you can you should go to these gigs.
The Black Keys.
Why do I like these guys so much and have such little regard for the White Stripes?
09-06 Seattle, WA - Showbox *
09-07 Portland, OR - Roseland Theatre *
09-09 San Francisco, CA - Fillmore *
09-13 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour *
09-14 Los Angeles, CA - Avalon *
09-15 San Diego, CA - House of Blues *
09-16 Tempe, AZ - Marquee Theatre *
09-23 Berlin, Germany - Wulheide #
09-25 Dublin, Ireland - Music Centre
09-26 Glasgow, Scotland - ABC
09-27 Newcastle, England - Northumbria University
09-28 Leeds, England - Cockpit
09-30 Birmingham, England - Academy 2
10-01 Bristol, England - Bristol University
10-02 Manchester, England - Manchester University
10-04 London, England - Forum
10-05 Paris, France - Trabendo
10-06 Amsterdam, Holland - Melkweg
10-07 Utrecht, Holland - Doornrsje
10-09 Brussels, Belgium - AB Box
10-10 Cologne, Germany - Prime Club
10-11 Hamburg, Germany - Knust
11-02 Boston, MA - Avalon Ballroom
11-03 New York, NY - Nokia Theatre
11-04 Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory
11-05 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
11-06 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
* with Beaten Awake
# with Pearl Jam
Cat Power
06-21 London, England - Barbican
06-24 Santa Barbara, CA - Soho (solo show)
06-28 Los Angeles, CA - Ford Ampitheatre (solo show)
07-01 Detroit, MI - Comerica TasteFest
07-02 Montreal, Quebec - Spectrum (Montreal Jazz Festival) (solo show)
07-05 Greensboro, NC - Flying Anvil (solo show)
07-06 Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle (solo show)
07-09 Pittsburgh, PA - Hartwood Ampitheatre (Allegheny Summer Concert Series)
09-15 Austin, TX - Zilker Park (Austin City Limits Festival)
Dresden Dolls
06-27 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club *
06-28 New York, NY - Nokia Theatre *
06-29 New York, NY - Nokia Theatre *
06-30 Sayreville, NJ - Starland Ballroom *
07-01 Philadelphia, PA - Penn's Landing *
07-02 San Jose, CA - Guadalupe River Park (Live 105 Day in the Meadow) #
07-04 Hampton Beach, NH - Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom *
07-05 Niagara Falls, NY - The Dome *
07-06 Columbus, OH - LC Pavilion *
07-07 Chicago, IL - House of Blues *
07-08 Milwaukee, WI - PW Music Market (Summerfest) *
07-09 St. Paul, MN - Myth *
07-11 Cincinnati, OH - Bogart's *
07-12 Cleveland, OH - Plain Dealer Pavilion *
07-13 Grand Rapids, MI - DeltaPlex *
07-14 Detroit, MI - State Theater *
07-15 Toronto, Ontario - Molson Amphitheatre *
07-16 Montreal, Quebec - Metropolis *
07-18 Pittsburgh, PA - Chevrolet Amphitheatre *
07-19 Indianapolis, IN - Egyptian Room at Murat Center *
07-20 St Louis, MO - The Pageant *
07-21 Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theatre *
07-22 Denver, CO - The Fillmore *
07-24 Salt Lake City, UT - In the Venue *
07-25 Boise, ID - Big Easy *
07-26 Portland, OR - Expo Center *
07-27 Vancouver, British Columbia - Croation Cultural Centre *
07-28 Seattle, WA - The Premier *
07-30 San Francisco, CA - The Warfield *
07-31 Anaheim, CA - The Grove *
08-01 San Diego, CA - Soma *
08-02 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern *
08-05 Chicago, IL - Grant Park (Lollapalooza)
08-18 Hasselt, Belgium - Pukkelpop
08-19 Erfurt, Germany - Highfield Festival
08-23 Edinburgh, Scotland - Edinburgh Fringe Festival
08-25 Leeds, England - Leeds Festival
08-26 Cologne, Germany - Monsters of Spex Festival
08-27 Reading, England - Reading Festival
11-03 London, England - Roundhouse
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio.
Si Schroeder – Coping Mechanisms
The bit at the end
I can't believe there is less than a week left, and it won't be back for 4 years. I'll be 30 then, 30. I can barely remember what my life was like pre-World Cup. Scary thought.
Happy America day Americans, belated happy Canada day Canadians.
R.I.P. Sadie, thanks for all the white socks I never wore.
An actual proper full-length column this week. It's been so long since I've done one I'd forgotten I did them. See you next week folks.
