Dancing About Architecture 08.08.06
Posted by Ian Wright on 08.08.2006
Modest Marr, Thom Yorke vs. Tony Blair, Albert Hammond goes solo, Joanna Newsom, Cat Power and more.
The bit at the start
Howdy, I hope that you had a good week. I went to a music festival in a little town in Meath called Oldcastle last weekend and had a blast. In the process I discovered one of the best Irish band's I've ever seen.
I'm not into that whole skinny jeans retro rock thing for the most part but I caught a band called Sick Boy playing on Friday night and was blown away by them. 1 part Stooges + 1 part The Cramps + 1 part really fucking meaning it = a hell of a gig.
I hope this doesn't mean I have to start liking Franz Ferdinand now.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album DVD.
Fugazi – Instrument.
An intriguing portrait of the band recorded over 10 years.
You news, you lose
Yippidy do dah.
The reason thousands of fan boys wish great harm on that guy from Smog a.k.a. Joanna Newsom, when not being completely compelling and enchanting at A.T.P. has been spending much of her time working on her second album with legendary Beach Boys collaborator Van Dyke Parks and we're getting pretty close to hearing the results.
On November 14th Ys will be released on the Drag City label. There's no information on the tracklisting but that'll be forthcoming soon enough. I heard a few of the songs from the album back in May and signs for the record look good. If you live in New York I'd presume that you'll get the opportunity to here some of the new material when Newsom plays the McCarren Pool in Brooklyn on August 24th along with Neko Case and Martha Wainwright.
Joanna Newsome and Martha Wainwright? Girl-folk heaven.
Take that Tony.
Having already sold more than 23 million albums as part of Radiohead we shouldn't have expected the success of The Eraser to do much to lighten Thom Yorke's mood. It certainly hasn't reduced his dislike of Tony Blair who Yorke has been a long time critic of due to Blair's lack of action on the environmental causes that Yorke has an interest in. This time however it's the situation in the Middle East that has Yorke's juices flowing and he made the following posting on the band's blog last Wednesday:
"I've had enough of this. Our government sitting on the fence with the U.S. while World War 3 appears to be breaking out in Lebanon and Northern Israel. We must throw Tony Blair out of office NOW. He does not represent the views of the British people. He does not represent the views of his foreign office and officials. He does not even represent the view of those in his cabinet. He cares far too much about his relationship with Bush, and Murdoch. The man is not fit to be our Prime Minister. It's a nice sunny day. Come on, let's do it. You know it makes sense. A vote of no confidence. Or something. Anything."
Mysteriously the posting was quickly removed from the blog prompting all sorts of conspiracy theories amongst the Radiohead fanbase.
And not a sighting of Dave Chappelle anywhere.
Kele Okereke posting a list of prospective tracks to appear on the forthcoming follow up to Silent Alarm on fansite blocparty.net.
The songs were recorded in Ireland earlier in the year with producer Jacknife Lee. It's unlikely that all the songs listed will appear on the album and those that don't make the cut will probably wind up as b-sides. The candidates are:
A Prayer to the Lord
England
Hunting for Witches
It Started in an Afternoon
Kreuzberg
On
Seroxat
Song for Clay (Disappear Here)
Sunday
Uniform
Waiting for the 7:18
We Were Lovers
Where Is Home?
9 out of 10 Cats prefer Whiskers, this is the other one.
Chan Marshall is, I think we all can agree, rather wonderful. And after a live career beset by occasional freak outs she seems to have found her feet as a live performer with her current backing band the Memphis Rhythm Band and has added several dates to her touring schedule, including one that looks really intriguing.
In addition to a string of "ordinary" Cat Power dates she'll also be joining a lineup that includes Patti Smith, Philip Glass, Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Ryan Adams, Rosanne Cash, Bob Mould, and lots more at a Music for Youth benefit concert named "The Music of Bob Dylan" at the Avery Fisher Hall in New York on November 9. Guess what they'll be doing there?
No it's not the split we were praying would/n't happen (delete as applicable).
The NME reported last week that Albert Hammond Jr. of The Strokes (the curly haired guitarist one) will be releasing a solo album. It's out in the UK on October 9th and it's called "Yours To Keep". The album will see Hammond backed by bassist Josh Lattanzi (Ben Kweller) and drummer Matt Romano (Adam Green) as well as featuring contributions from Ben Kweller, Sean Lennon, Strokes manager Ryan Gentles, Fountains of Wayne's Jody Porter, Mikki James of Thin Lizard Dawn and Sammy James Jr. of the Mooney Suzuki. Thin Lizard Dawn's Greg Lattimer acted as producer.
Tracklist:
01 Cartoon Music for Superheroes (Goodnight)
02 In Transit
03 Everyone Gets a Star
04 Call an Ambulance
05 Blue Skies
06 Back to the 101
07 Bright Young Thing
08 Scared
09 Holiday
10 Hard to Live in the City
I guess after Morrissey you can work with anyone.
Guitar legend Johnny Marr is now an official member of Modest Mouse. Marr and main Mouse Issac Brock had been working together on songs for the follow up to "Good News For People Who Love Bad News" and Brock told Rolling Stone last week that they enjoyed working together so much they've decided to make it more of a full time thing.
"He made a cautious commitment to write and record with us, and then the tighter we got, he was like, ‘okay, let's tour too,'" said Brock "Then he was pretty much a member of the band-- not pretty much. He's a full blown member of the band. It's really fuckin' nice."
Still won't be as good as The Smiths though.
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Cat Power.
08-05 Urbino, Italy - Frequenze Disturbate
08-12 St. Malo, France - Route De Rock Festival
09-10 New York, NY - Irving Plaza (early show) *
09-10 New York, NY - Irving Plaza (late show) *
09-12 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse *
09-13 Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre *
09-15 Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Festival *
09-16 Dallas, TX - Gypsy Ballroom *
09-17 Austin, TX - Stubb's BBQ *
11-01 London, England - Roundhouse
11-03 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
11-04 Brussels, Belgium - Ancienne Belgique
11-09 New York, NY - Avery Fisher Hall (The Music of Bob Dylan)
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Ryan Adams - 29
The bit at the end
It was long weekend in Ireland last weekend and I'm starting to realise precisely how young you are when you start to get old. I was 22 years of age before I had me first ever hangover, I had the most incredible constitution but after a few beers and a 4AM bedtime on Saturday night I work up a headache that I didn't get rid of until the late afternoon. Not fun.
