Dancing About Architecture 08.15.06
Posted by Ian Wright on 08.15.2006
Radiohead, Joanna Newsom, I love the Flaming Lips a bit too much, The Shins, Beck and more.
The bit at the start
My little music lets not beat around the bush obsession has over the years really shaped the way that I've lived my life. The thousands of euro spent on CD's and concert tickets. The hours that I've spent not interacting with other people, whether it be walking around with headphones on or sitting alone in my room with my stereo blaring. The fact that I haven't had a "normal" holiday in years and have instead based trips abroad around gigs that I want to go to. The most significant relationship I've ever had started on a trip to New York to see the Wrens play and I planned my trips to see my ex around gigs I wanted to see there. Pretty messed up huh?
At the same time no matter what my "addiction" has cost me; whether I'm talking about it costing me money, time or emotionally I could always comfort myself that unlike being addicted to crack I haven't risked my health because of it.
Until now.
Last Tuesday I began suffering from a bout of what I like to refer to as "constant stabbing chest pain syndrome". I've had problems with it for about 18 months now but usually it goes away after 30 minutes to 2 hours however this time it lasted 2 days (and in fact didn't remit until Sunday, and even now I'm still aware of it, it's just not causing me any discomfort) so I decided to go to see the doctor on Thursday.
Frustratingly he was unable to come up with a conclusive diagnosis and offered some of the following as potential causes:
Stomach acid but that's unlikely as I don't suffer from heartburn or reflux problems.
Stress, but my blood pressure is fine.
A muscle thing.
A hernia in my chest.
Some asshole that I've pissed off has made a doll of me and is sticking pins in it.
I've got one of these
Anyway, the doctor wants me to have an X-Ray and told me to be at the hospital at 8:50 AM on Friday as he has an arrangement with the hospital to have his patients seen on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday without having to make an appointment.
Unfortunately tickets for the Flaming Lips in a 1,000 person venue were going on sale at 9AM on Friday morning.
Long story short* I hope my chest doesn't explode before Wednesday morning.
* And you wouldn't believe the rigmarole I went through to get tickets. It involves frantic f5ing on ticketmaster as the gig sold out with them in a minute before a rushed (but not speeding) car trip up to Dublin and running between 3 indie record stores before finally finding a place that had tickets in stock. Wayne and the boys had better be good.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
The Flaming Lips The Soft Bulletin.
Includes possibly the greatest live song in the world.
You news, you lose
Obligatory Radiohead top story.
There are approximately 1 billion Radiohead tribute albums on the market. There's the goth one, the reggae one, the hip-hop one, basically you can think of a genre and there's a Radiohead tribute to go with it. However this one really takes the cake.
On August 29th Baby Rock Record will release Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of Radiohead.
That's right folks lullaby.
Ooooookaaayyyyyy
What's more this is only the first in a series of lullaby tribute albums with releases scheduled for acts such as Bjork, Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Coldplay, Queens of the Stone Age, the Cure, the Beatles and Tool.
So sayeth the cash in merchants label, "Rockabye Baby! transforms timeless rock songs into beautiful instrumental lullabies. The delicate sounds of the glockenspiel, vibraphone, and other instruments will lull your little one into a sweet slumber. These versions of Radiohead are sophisticated enough for people of all ages, but sweet enough to introduce your child to rock's smartest band. Their album Kid A imagines the scope and power of music created by a newborn child. What will your baby dream about while drifting off to these serene interpretations of Radiohead's best-loved songs?"
Tracklist:
01 No Surprises
02 Let Down
03 Subterranean Homesick Alien
04 Airbag
05 Paranoid Android
06 Knives Out
07 Karma Police
08 There There
09 Everything in Its Right Place
10 2 + 2 = 5
11 Sail to the Moon
That "Knives Out" cover could be really disturbing.
OK, this sounds like it could be an awful idea but the cover art is pretty fantastic
Well Shit.
I saw The Shins play the night that they curated ATP back in May. The good news is that the new material is wonderful.
The bad news is that YOU probably won't get to hear it till 2007. The album was originally due for release later this year but according to Sub Pop it now won't see the light of day until early next year. The band did post a message on their site recently though updating us on the record's status:
"It gives us great pleasure to say that it is just weeks from being done! We can't leak any details, but we have never been more happy with anything that we've ever recorded before. And we can definitely say that it is due to the fact that we've been given so much time to perfect it. The record is the best we've ever done. We hope that you will agree."
You'd better not be lying to us guys. Albuquerque can't be that big a place, I'll hunt you down if you're leading me along.
In slightly better news.
I reported last week that the new Joanna Newsome record Ys would be released on November 14th on the Drag City label. The tracklisting for the Van Dyke Parks arranged (and scored, and conducted) album was announced last week and is as follows:
"Only 5 songs?" you ask. Yes, 5 long songs. And I've heard some of them, they're good.
Beck in Black.
The NME reported last week that the next Beck Album, due out at the start of October shall be entitled The Information. The album was produced by Nigel Godrich (OK Computer, Kid A, Amnesiac, Hail To The Thief, a bunch of albums that aren't by Radiohead).
Songs featured on the album include "Cell Phone's Dead", "Think I'm in Love", and "Nausea" and as I reported AAAAAGGGGGGGGEEEEEESSSSS ago the cover art comes as a blank sheet with some stickers inside so you to make your own art, and will come with a DVD of videos for each song.
DVD eh? So that's where the budget for the cover shoot went.
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy.
08-11 Madison, WI - Madcity Music Exchange (free in-store)
08-12 Minneapolis, MN - Roadrunner (free in-store)
08-13 Iowa City, IA - Record Collector (free in-store)
08-14 Lawrence, KS - Love Garden (free in-store)
08-15 St. Louis, MO - Vintage Vinyl (free in-store)
08-17 Grand Rapids, MI - Vertigo (free in-store)
08-18 Detroit, MI - Stormy Records (free in-store)
08-19 Toronto, Ontario - Rotate This (free in-store)
08-20 Buffalo, NY - New World Record (free in-store)
08-21 Cleveland, OH - Bent Crayon (free in-store)
10-23 Solana Beach, CA - Belly Up Tavern
10-29 Santa Cruz, CA - The Attic *
10-30 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall *
10-31 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall *
11-03 Portland, OR - Mission Theater *
11-04 Portland, OR - Mission Theater *
11-05 Portland, OR - Mission Theater *
11-06 Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern *
11-07 Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern *
11-09 Vancouver, British Columbia - St. James Hall *
11-10 Vancouver, British Columbia - St. James Hall *
11-11 Vancouver, British Columbia - St. James Hall *
* with Shary Boyle
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
08-10 Boston, MA - City Hall Plaza (free show) *
08-11 Brooklyn, NY - McCarren Park Pool #
08-12 Brooklyn, NY - McCarren Park Pool #
08-16 Paredes de Coura, Portugal - Paredes de Coura
08-18 Burgos, Spain - Sonorama Festival
08-19 Hasselt-Kiewit, Belgium - Pukkelpop Festival
08-20 Biddinghuizen, Holland - Lowlands Festival
08-22 Malmo, Sweden - Malmo Festival
08-24 Cologne, Germany - Monsters of Spex Festival
08-25 Reading, England - Reading Festival
08-26 Leeds, England - Leeds Festival
08-29 Vienna, Austria - TBA
08-30 Warsaw, Poland - Fabryka Trzciny
09-02 Glasgow, Scotland - Victoria Park (Indian Summer Festival)
09-03 Stradbally, Ireland - Electric Picnic
09-28 La Jolla, CA - RIMAC Arena at UCSD
09-30 Mountain View, CA - Download Festival
10-01 Los Angeles, CA - Palladium
10-02 Los Angeles, CA - Palladium
10-04 Tempe, AZ - Marquee Theatre
10-06 Dallas, TX - Gypsy Ballroom
10-07 Austin, TX - Stubb's BBQ
10-08 Houston, TX - Warehouse Live
10-09 Tulsa, OK - Caine's Ballroom
10-12 Pompano, FL - Cinema
10-13 Orlando, FL - Hard Rock Live
10-14 Atlanta, GA - Tabernacle
10-16 Nashville, TN - War Memorial
* with TV on the Radio
# with Sonic Youth
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio
The bit at the end
I bought myself a new bass amp and flange pedal on Saturday. I don't think I've ever loved an inanimate object more that I do that amp. I spent a good 45 minutes that evening on my knees in front of it with the flanger and my "You Dirty Rat" beside me fiddling with the controls on them and playing with feedback. I managed to get some wonderful sounds out of them but in the long run I guess I'd have been better off practicing my scales.
That great live song by the way is "Race For The Prize".
Keep an eye out in the sports zone for the European football pre-season roundtable which I'm participating in.
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