Dancing About Architecture 09.26.06
Posted by Ian Wright on 09.26.2006
Tim Buckley, Final Fantasy kicks some ass, Jeff Mangum returns, PJ Harvey, Pet Sounds and more.
The bit at the start
Man I'm tired, a week of getting up at 5:30 in the morning and staying up late for 6 days in a row really takes it out of you. Nonetheless I had a great time at the Ryder Cup and it was one of the best atmosphere's I've ever experienced and I'm really glad I was there.
Anyway, I'm in a rush to get out to a gig so lets get started…
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Elliot Smith – Either/Or.
A stone cold classic.
You news, you lose
It's not just about Jeff.
Even if he didn't inspire thousands of people to learn their own really bad version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" like his progeny did Jeff Buckley's dad Tim was a hell of a musician in his own right and if you haven't got it I highly recommend you pick up a copy of his astonishingly good live album from 1968 which was recorded in London.
Some of his later material is quite hard to track down but if you want a decent primer for him you could do a lot worse than buying The best of Tim Buckley when it's released on October 3rd.
The album will contain 18 remastered tracks encompassing all of Buckley' career from the early singer-songwriter era to his later jazz and soul influenced work.
Tracklisting:
01 Aren't You the Girl
02 Song for Janie
03 I Can't See You
04 Carnival Song
05 Morning Glory
06 Goodbye and Hello
07 Sing a Song for You - Take 11
08 Once I Was
09 Strange Feelin'
10 I Had a Talk With My Woman
11 Happy Time
12 I Must Have Been Blind
13 The River
14 Song to the Siren
15 Dolphins
16 Martha
17 Move With Me
18 Look at the Fool
I would imagine that due to Jeff's passing Mary Gaubert has a considerable stake in her ex-husband's material. I wonder if she's as precious about it as she is with Jeff's.
By the way, he managed to make that leap over the course of 9 albums before OD-ing at 28.
The only girl I ever loved was born with roses in her eyes.
Elijah Wood likes his music. The only issue of Spin magazine that I own has a piece on him talking enthusiastically about some music that I'd consider to be pretty lame but that's beside the point, he likes music enough to have started a record label. The first album to be released on Simian Records will be New Magnetic Wonder, the first Apples in Stereo album in 5 years, and here's the big news …
Jeff Mangum is on it.
The 14-song album is due for release on February 7th and also features 12 "link tracks," whatever the hell that means. As well as Mangum the album also has Per Ole Brat set, Bill Doss, John Ferguson, John Fernandes, Pete Fitzpatrick, Bryce Goggin (who also grabs a production credit), Matthew Goodman, W. Cullen Hart, Otto Helmuth, Jeff Holland, Tony Miller, Craig Morris, Adam Sachs, Zach Shaw and more guesting on it. No, I don't know who they are either.
Apparently for this album Robert Schnieder has invented a new musical scale, the "Non-Pythagorean Scale", which just sounds like showing off.
Tracklisting (by the way, the album is coming on a dual sided C.D.)
Side one:
01 Can You Feel It?
02 Skyway
03 Mellotron 1
04 Energy
05 Same Old Drag
06 Joanie Don't U Worry
07 Sunndal Song
08 Droplet
09 Play Tough
10 Sun Is Out
11 Non-Pythagorean Composition 1
Side two:
12 Hello Lola
13 7 Stars
14 Mellotron 2
15 Sunday Sounds
16 Open Eyes
17 Crimson
18 Pre-Crimson
19 Vocoder Ba Ba
20 Radiation
21 Beautiful Machine Parts 1-2
22 Beautiful Machine Parts 3-4
23 My Pretend
24 Non-Pythagorean Composition 3
According to the press release Mangum plays "drums, cow object, backing vocals and handclaps," I don't know about you but I‘d be far happier if he'd done lead vocals, played whatever the hell he felt like, wrote all the songs and made it into a new Neutral Milk Hotel album.
But that's just me.
Polly wanna cracker?.
Looking for a way to commemorate the second anniversary of the death of John Peel? Well you could always pick up a copy of PJ Harvey – The Peel Sessions 1991-2004 which is due out on October 23rd in the UK.
According to Peel's former producer Louise Kattenhorn "John loved the sessions and was thrilled to have Polly record so many for his show. He considered her a wonderful artist and they were great friends."
The collection encompasses Harvey's entire career, from her first album Dry to 2004's Uh Huh Her.
Tracklisting:
01 Oh My Lover [Peel session, October 29, 1991]
02 Victory [Peel session, October 29, 1991]
03 Sheela-Na-Gig [Peel session, October 29, 1991]
04 Water [Peel session, October 29, 1991]
05 Naked Cousin [Peel session, March 3, 1993]
06 Wang Dang Doodle [Peel session, March 3, 1993]
07 Losing Ground [Peel session, September 5, 1996]
08 Snake [Peel session, September 5, 1996]
09 That Was My Veil [Peel session, September 5, 1996]
10 This Wicked Tongue [Peel session, November 10, 2000]
11 Beautiful Feeling [Peel session, November 10, 2000]
12 You Come Through [John Peel tribute, December 16, 2004]
Spay your pets.
God only knows if it was really necessary to re-release Pet Sounds yet again to mark the 40th anniversary of the Beach Boys classic (this time on 2 discs) but Brian Wilson is certainly planning on celebrating his masterpieces birthday in style.
Wilson and his current band are all set to go on a mini tour and play the album in it's entirety over the course of 5 nights in the US and 1 in the UK, it's been announced that it'll be the last time that Wilson plays the album in the UK (not even to himself on his MP3 player).
In addition to Wilson's current band one of his former fellow Beach Boys Al Jardine will join Wilson on 4 of the 6 dates and will be the first time the pair have worked together since 1996 much derided Stars and Stripes Vol.1.
No word on if Mike Love will be involved, if not he'll probably be hanging out somewhere being an asshole.
Dates:
11-01 Los Angeles, CA - Royce Hall #
11-12 London, England - Adelphi Theatre
11-17 Boston, MA - Orpheum Theatre *
11-18 Washington, DC - TBA *
11-19 Glensdale, PA - Keswick Theatre *
11-21 New York, NY - Beacon Theatre *
# with Scritti Politti
* with Al Jardine
$20,000, well done Owen. Oh, it's Canadian dollars, never mind.
Last week Final Fantasy won the Polaris music prize, the Canadian equivalent of the Mercury prize or the New Pantheon award for his second albums He Poos Clouds. Beating off a host of quality opposition Owen Pallett walked off with the $20,000 prize.
According to a press release Pallett's reaction to the win was to say, "Confused! But happy and appreciative. Not in a million years. Along with Malajube and Cadence Weapon, I'm one of the few bands with no money behind me, so I'm going to try to put it to good use."
The winner of the prize was decided by an 11 member "Gala Jury" who were part of the 100+ journalists and broadcasters who originally submitted their votes for the best Canadian album between June 1, 2005 and May 31, 2006.
Jury moderator Liisa Ladouceur said that He Poos Clouds won because it is "a record that took us on a journey that was exceptional from start to finish."
For the record here a list of albums whose asses were kicked by Final Fantasy.
Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
Cadence Weapon - Breaking Kayfabe
The Deadly Snakes - Porcella
Sarah Harmer - I'm a Mountain
K'naan - The Dusty Foot Philosopher
Malajube - Trompe L'Oeil
Metric - Live It Out
The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Sunset Rubdown
09-23 Boston, MA - Middle East *
09-24 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom *
09-25 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom *
09-26 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church *#
09-27 Washington DC - Black Cat *
09-28 Durham, NC - Duke Coffeehouse *
09-29 Charlotte, NC - Tremont Music Hall *
09-30 Atlanta, GA - Lenny's *
10-02 Birmingham, AL - Bottle Tree *$
10-03 Newport, KY - Southgate House *
10-04 Columbus, OH - Little Brother's *
10-05 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom *
10-06 Chicago, IL - Logan Square Auditorium *%
10-08 Montreal, Quebec - Ukranian Federation *
* with Beaver
# with the Teeth
$ with Nowhere Squares
% with Office
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio
66e – Fall down seven times stand up eight.
The bit at the end
Mission Of Burma's Roger Miller wrote a pretty entertaining tour diary for pitchfork last week. If you haven't already read it you should head over there and check it out.
I'm going to the Black Keys tonight. Like the White Stripes but not shit because of good drums.
