Dancing About Architecture 10.10.06
Posted by Ian Wright on 10.10.2006
HUGE WRENS NEWS. Tributes to The White Stripes and Daniel Johnston and loads of other acts. NEW MUSIC FROM DINOSAUR JR and Mogwai as well as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Clap.
The bit at the start
OK, normally this would go in the news section but it's so big (in my mind anyway) that it's getting top billing.
You know how I regularly/occasionally/whenever I get the chance to insult Wind-Up records because of the way that they fucked over The Wrens? Well I guess that I'll have to stop doing that now as they've decided to finally reissue Silver and Secaucus (both are amazing by the way, but very different from The Meadowlands), the 2 albums that the Wrens recorded for the then Grass records in the 90's. They'll hit the stores on November 14th but if you can't wait then Silver is up on iTunes at the minute.
This is pretty surprising news considering that Wind-Up turned down a $100,000 offer from the band's current label Absolutely Kosher last year, not least to the band who only found out about it after they signed a publishing deal with Rough Trade recently. "Our eyes shot out of our heads," singer/guitarist Charles Bissell told Pitchfork. "We were like 'WHAT?!'"
"We only found out about it through our publisher who was contacting them to get other information," Bissell explained. "[Wind-Up] were like, 'Oh it's funny that you mention this because we're going to be re-releasing the records.'"
Bissell believes that it may have been the offer from AK a year ago which spurred the move from Wind-Up, "If you have some crap in your kitchen drawer and someone's like, 'Oh, you know what, I'll give you a hundred thousand dollars for that old pen,' suddenly, you might be like, 'maybe we'll take care of this.'" Wind-Up's official reason for the re-issues are far more artistically motivated and about treating the material right than financial with label head Alan Meltzer saying that he'd sat on the albums for some long "Because the music is too important to keep in some vault. We have been on such a huge growth curve as a company, we felt we were never able to do justice to the material in terms of the necessary marketing, promotion and in-store placement."
Ah yes, marketing, promotion and placement. They haven't actually done any of that yet and there is no mention of the albums on the Wind-Up site although they claim that that will be fixed soon (personally I think they know people will go there and see the Wrens alongside Creed, Evanescence et. al. and realise how shit all their other acts are. Oops, I'm supposed to stop insulting them now aren't I?)
So how do the Wrens actually feel about the re-issues? Well according to Bissell "If someone's putting out your records from ten years ago, regardless of the circumstances or weird stuff that's going on, in a way that's what counts. There's so much weirdness and bad blood over a period of time that you end up having very complicated, mixed feelings. But ultimately that is what matters."
Drummer Jerry MacDonnell is seemingly happy to let the bad blood go and told Billboard, "If Alan Meltzer is reading this, maybe he wants to go grab a movie and bury the axe." Bissell concurs, telling pitchfork, "In a day-to-day sense, we never think about this stuff. It's not really relevant to us. We don't get up in the morning and think about Alan Meltzer. It's like complaining about some bad breakup from 10 or 11 years ago."
However just because the albums are coming out soon it doesn't mean that The Wrens will actually be seeing any money from this development because the band still owes Wind-Up a large advance on the promotion from the albums the first time around and Wind-Up will hoover up all the cash unless "they negotiate or sort out or change what the recoupable balance is, or unless they sell a whole lot of copies."
There's a whole load of other Wrens related developments as well, contrary to Billboard reports the band are not "25% through the new album" but they are still working away on the expanded re-release of the Abbot 1135 EP and are in the middle of "redoing parts of it, remixing it. We'll rerecord some guitars, some chorus. A verse will change here, a chorus will change there. And record the bass and guitars accordingly." There's also a split single coming up featuring Bissell and Okkervil River's Will Sheff where they play a song written by the other, the songs in question are "Ex-Girl Collection" and "It Ends With A Fall" as well as more split single's with The Western Keys and one for the People In The Position To Know label. The band are also working on the music for a film called Losing Ground as well as a remix of a band "name starts with an 'X'," I wonder if they have any labelmates starting with an X', Xiu Xiu perhaps?
And not for something really cool. There's a number of songs that the band haven't performed live due to their complexity on record. The solution? Invite their fans to become the 5th Wren. The band posted the following on their website recently
"There are a bunch of songs we either don't do or don't do all that well only 'cause there are simply too many parts on the record and we can't figure a way around not playing the parts live and can't cover it with the four of us. The solution? The 5th Wren.
"Essentially, we're gonna write out the tab/standard notation for the extra parts for a handful of songs-- could be a guitar part, could be a baritone, could be a piano-- and post them on the site. Anyone who cares to will be invited to learn the part, there'll be an email sign-up form to reserve that part for that particular song when we're playing at a venue near you, and then come on up and kick out the funk, motherjammers. Should be fun. Will start this week in time for the Ohio-area shows and then should be adding another song/part every week or so."
That's quite possibly the coolest thing that I've ever heard a band do with their fans.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Darkness On The Edge Of Town.
The best of his 70's work. Tops Born To Run.
After telling Brandon that I'd put this in unless I forgot I nearly forgot.
If you want to listen something that sounds like the new Killers single but is about a million times better check out the album I mentioned above.
You news, you lose
"Zi-who?" you ask. "No, Zizu" says I.
Despite the fact that it's supposed to be painfully dull there's a good chance that both I and 411's resident football guru Tim O'Sulliven will wind up catching "Zidane: a 21st Century Portrait" when it's released in the cinema. And while R n' B devotee Tim will have to suffer through close ups of Zidane sweating a lot at least I can take solace from the fact that my favourite Scottish noise merchants Mogwai are providing the soundtrack.
Or maybe I won't have to and I could just buy the soundtrack when it's released at the start of November. Before that a limited edition 2-track 10'' ("Black Spider" / "Half Time") is due for release on October 23rd. "Black Spider" will also be available for download on that date.
Tracklisting:
01 Black Spider
02 Terrific Speech 2
03 Wake Up and Go Berserk
04 Terrific Speech 1
05 7.25
06 Half Time
07 I Do Have Weapons
08 Time and a Half
09 It Would Have Happened Anyway
10 Black Spider 2
Why aren't they calling it Aluminum?
For goodness sake enough with these "reinterpreted" tribute albums already. After the rash of Radiohead tributes of late (crunk and lullaby versions) as well as orchestral versions of Metallica and Aphex Twin material now the White Stripes are due to have an orchestra play their material.
The project is the brainchild of Richard Russell, the founder of XL Recordings who the Jack n' Meg show are signed to. Russell has recruited British TV and film composer Joby Talbot as well as "many of the UK's finest young classical musicians".
The project is entitled "Aluminium" and their self titled debut is available for pre-order on November 6th. It's understood that the material won't be a wholly "classical" (in the Baroque vs. Classical vs. Romantic vs. Modern sense) album with many features of modern orchestral music such as odd percussion, dissonance and odd tempos cropping up. Aluminium will be available through the group's website and will be limited to 3,333 CD and 999 Vinyl copies and features artwork from long time White Stripes collaborator Rob Jones, the Vinyl LPs will also include an original Jones screen print. If that's not enough you can also buy toys if you're so inclined.
According to Russell Aluminium has been endorsed by Jack White and has said that, "Jack said that the music is beautiful, and that he's flattered, and that it's an honour." Another fan of Aluminium is choreographer Wayne McGregor who is set to use several of their pieces for a ballet to be performed at London's Royal Opera House next month.
Tracklisting:
01 Aluminum
02 I'm Bound to Pack It Up
03 Why Can't You Be Nicer to Me
04 Astro
05 Never Far Away
06 Little Bird
07 Let's Build a Home
08 Who's a Big Baby
09 The Hardest Button to Button
10 Forever for Her
I wonder if they're still as bad live as when I saw them.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are currently working on their second album. But it's not all being locked away in a studio 24 hours a day 6 days a week (they might be observing the Sabbath after all) for the band. They occasionally grant interviews to Pitchfork to talk about it, which is what guitarist/keyboardist Lee Sargent did last week.
Sargent told the fork that they recently finished recording on the Dave Fridmann produced album which is due out on January 30th and had just received the master for the album. "There might be some revisions to it," he said, "but we're done."
Describing the record Sargant says that those expecting "CYHSY vol. 2" may be in for a bit of a surprise saying, "The songs are really different-- it's an entirely different thing from the first one. There are certain elements that tie it to the first one, but there's a lot more going on, we had the resources to make it a little more involved...[and] we just had a lot of time to try out some different things," and that the arrangements are now more complex than before.
Those readers with long memories for useless facts may remember that (as with Tape n' Tapes with The Loon) Clap Your Hands Say Yeah initially put out their debut album themselves and sold 10,000+ copies of it in the states before they started licencing it out in other territories, the band have decided to buck the trend of indie bands signing to majors and will stay with if not the one that brung them to the dance then the one who saw them at the dance on their own and thought that their outfit was sexy and then picked them up like the sluts that they are. "It's going to be the same arrangement as the first one," said Sargent. "Wichita is going to put it out in the UK, and they get distributed by V2 in other parts of the world, but we're going to hold onto it in the U.S. and do it the same way we did the first one." It's not so much an ultra indie ethos which means that they're not signing to anyone in the US, it's just that, "The first one worked out nicely doing it that way, so there's really been no discussion to even consider changing that arrangement."
Talking about working with a producer whose previous credits include The Flaming Lips, Sleater Kinney and Low Sargent said that it was "Awesome." "He's just really good at colouring the songs, and his production is unique-- he makes things really sort of gritty, but in a nice way. He has really tasteful approaches to adding little things here and there, and just...fills out the songs."
Do people even bother writing songs anymore?
For goodness sake enough with these "reinterpreted" tribute albums already. After the rash of Radiohead tributes of late (crunk and lullaby versions) as well as orchestral versions of Metallica and Aphex Twin material now the White Stripes are due to have an orchestra play their material (C&P rules). Now there's a Cuban Folk tribute to Radiohead (again) Franz Ferdinand, the Arctic Monkeys, U2, Coldplay, the Kaiser Chiefs, Faithless, Jack Johnson., Maroon 5 and Sting on the way. This time however there's a bit more of a collaboration between the original artists and the tribute payers.
Out on November 14th Rhythms del Mundo reunites members of the Buena Vista Social club under the leadership of arranger Demitrio Muniz. After obtaining permission from the original acts the band, which features Barbarito Torres, Amandito Valdes, Virgilio Valdes, Angel Terri Domech, Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal, Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez, Omara Portuondo and the late Ibrahim Ferrer, have written brand new backing tracks to be played under the original vocals.
Sound cool to you? Me too actually. What's even cooler is that proceeds from the album will go to Artists Project Earth, a charity for victims of natural disasters and helps to raise awareness of climate change problems.
Now the only question is does the material actually sound cool?
Tracklisting:
01 Coldplay - "Clocks"
02 Jack Johnson - "Better Together"
03 Arctic Monkeys - "Dancing Shoes"
04 Dido & Faithless - "One Step Too Far"
05 Ibrahim Ferrer - "As Time Goes By"
06 U2 and Coco Freeman - "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
07 Maroon 5 - "She Will Be Loved"
08 Kaiser Chiefs - "Modern Way"
09 Omara Portuondo - "Killing Me Softly"
10 Vanya Borges feat. Quincy Jones - "Ai No Corrida" *
11 Sting - "Fragilidad"
12 Vanya Borges - "Don't Know Why" *
13 Aquila Rose & Idana Valdez - "Hotel Buena Vista"
14 Coco Freeman & Franz Ferdinand - "The Dark of the Matinee"
15 El Lele de Los Van Van and Radiohead - "High and Dry"
16 Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo - "Casablanca" [bonus track] Ow, my fucking ears.
Seriously, considering the number of massive Marshall stacks he uses on stage how is J Mascis not deaf?
Anyway, he Murph and Lou Barlow are all set to release their first album of new Dinosaur Jr. material in 17 years sometime next year. However Barlow believes that it will just be a once off event. Speaking to billboard he said "We spent the better part of two years touring together, so we might as well make a record together."
"We probably won't do anything else, but then again, we'll see."
The album was recorded in Mascis' home studio in Amherst, MA and could feature songs entitled 'By The Fire', 'This Is All I Came To Do', 'Back To Your Heart' and 'Stop'.
There's also a live DVD due out in May featuring material recorded on the band's reunion tour of the last couple of years.
This one is for the Devil.
For goodness sake enough with the "reinterpreted" tribute albums already. After the rash of Radiohead tributes of late (crunk and lullaby versions) as well as orchestral versions of Metallica and Aphex Twin material now the White Stripes are due to have an orchestra play their material (C&P and the "strike" tag rules). This time it's the man who Kurt Cobain referred to as the best songwriter in the world and star of a recent documentary Daniel Johnston whose material is getting the cover treatment. I Killed The Monster is out on Second Shimmy Records and features contributions by Daniel Smith and Sufjan Stevens, ex-Minuteman Mike Watt, Kimya Dawson, Dot Allison, Joy Zipper, Jad Fair and producer Kramer (no, not that one), who is responsible for putting the record together.
Speaking of Johnston, he's contributing a track, "You Made My High School", to the upcoming 50minutes compilation, a benefit album for the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture which is due out on October 30th. The record features 50 artists doing songs that are only a minute long.
I Killed the Monster tracklisting:
01 Dot Allison - "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Your Grievances"
02 Daniel Smith & Sufjan Stevens - "Worried Shoes"
03 Joy Zipper - "Held The Hand"
04 Kramer - "Bloody Rainbow"
05 R. Stevie Moore - "Cathy Cline"
06 Kimya Dawson - "Follow That Dream"
07 Lumberob - "Honey I Sure Miss You"
08 Jad Fair & Kramer - "True Love Will Find You in the End"
09 Rope, Inc. - "Tears Stupid Tears"
10 Jack Medicine - "Blue Skies Will Haunt You From Now On"
11 Chris Harford - "Going Down"
12 Mad Francis - "Rowboat"
13 Jeffrey Lewis - "The Adventures of God as a Young Boy"
14 Major Matt Mason - "Mind Contorted"
15 Toby Goodshank - "Now"
16 The Dick Panthers - "Go Fast and Go Some More"
17 The Sutcliffe's - "Foxy Girl"
18 Kickstand - "Cosmic Kid"
19 Emily Zuzik - "Love Wheel"
20 Mike Watt - "Walking the Cow"
21 Tess - "It's Over"
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio
A mix CD someone gave me on Friday.
The bit at the end
I saw "Kids" for the first time last night. Awesome soundtrack.
