Dancing About Architecture 10.17.06
Posted by Ian Wright on 10.17.2006
I predict a riot, Nirvana on DVD, The OC, LCD Soundsystem, Ryan Adams vs. The Internet and Sebadoh reform.
The bit at the start
Hey folks, keeping well I trust. Apparently the rest of you weren't as excited as I was about the Wrens news last week but I did get my first piece of mail in months that wasn't from Brian Berry from a reader about something else so I guess that's ok.
Anyway lets kick things off with an album that I only got into in the last couple of weeks.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Liars Drums Not Dead
The finest "difficult" album of the year.
Mailbag.
Lewis Muirhead writes regarding last week's Beg, buy borrow selection:
impressed to see that someone else agrees with my assessment of The Boss in the 70s. Darkness... is so easily the better album, and yet so few seem to have heard of it. I'd say Nebraska tops them both, but that's another argument for another day.
It may be because Born To Run is such a huge album in terms of sales/career/musical historical significance, plus it's got that monster of a title track that the follow up is overshadowed/overlooked. I listened to the Wolf Parade album in the car last week then put on Darkness and thought to myself that if WP had written Adam Raised a Cain and Streets Of Fire (and they aren't a million miles from the sort of thing they do) every fanboy on the planet's head would explode.
I agree, Nebraska is his best work, he's at his storytelling best there.
You news, you lose
Wasn't there an Onion story about a riot at a Yo La Tengo gig that was similar to this?
Don't mess with Texas.
Definitely don't mess with Texas cops.
A Two Gallants gig in Houston was disrupted on Friday night when a police officer allegedly tasered the band's singer/guitarist Adam Stephens as well as their tour manager and two of their fans, one of whom was a 14 year old boy. Additionally Two Gallants drummer Tyson Vogel and singer/guitarist Andrew Kerwin of openers Trainwreck Riders were arrested.
The incident began when Houston PD Officer GM Rodriguez entered the venue, Walter's on Washington, about a noise complaint. According to Sgt. Nate McDuell Rodriguez "approached management about the noise complaint, filed by a neighbor, and the volume was turned down-- but that as the officer was leaving, the volume went back up." Rodriguez then went on to the stage to confront Stephens who, according to McDuell "then used a sexual obscenity and shoved the officer with his shoulder."
This chain of events is disputed by Stephens who told the Houston Chronicle that "that is 'absolutely' not what happened." Stephens claims that he was sideways and singing when he turned and saw Rodriguez who shined a flashlight in his face and said "Stop," (unfortunately he didn't add "in the name of the law"). Stephens claims he responded by asking "Why?" at which point the officer moved closer to him and once again yelled "Stop." When Stephens asked why again he was grabbed by the neck and forced to the floor.
In the ensuing schmozzle Rodriguez's taser was discharged several times and a 90-year old upright bass belonging to openers Langhorne Slim was destroyed and Rodriguez allegedly sustained minor injuries. However the band claim to have not seen marks on his body.
There's picture and video of the incident here and here, I'm on dialup so I haven't watched the videos so you'll just have to judge the incident for yourself.
You sold out, you sold out (venues all over the world.)
If you feel like getting in shape and are looking for something to listen to on your iPod then LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy and Nike have teamed up to help you shift your gut.
Nike commissioned Murphy to write a piece of music to accompany a workout and the result '45:33' (guess how long it is) and it's now available on iTunes via the Nike+ store for $9.99.
Explaining why he composed this piece of music Murphy said in a press release:
"The idea, to make a long piece of music built around an arc designed for running, appealed to me because it was so anathematic to what you're typically asked to do as an artist: make easily digestible lumps of music for albums, or the radio, or whatever. I'd been thinking of the records I love in which people made one 'song' that took up the entire LP, and realizing that releasing something like this would otherwise be a virtual impossibility for me, I became excited when the Nike+ project came along.
"Our band, LCD, when on tour tends to do a lot of running--mainly to keep sane and resist the inevitability of turning into a bus-bound potato, filled with all that makes one sick. When I was approached to make this 'run,' two different members of the band told me that they ran to two remixes I'd done as DFA-- the UNKLE ['In a State'] and Gorillaz ['Dare'] mixes-- which both were long, sprawling, organic dance songs that eased from section to section for 10+ minutes each. So, the gauntlet had been thrown down to make something longer that was well designed to reward and push at good intervals of a run.
"I train fighting and Jiu-Jitsu three or four times a week, and a big part of that training is treadmill running, so I saw this also as a way to create a run on the treadmill that worked for me (programming changes to speed and incline throughout) and then make sure the music I was making worked along with it. When I was done adjusting things, much to my surprise, the time the run took was 45 minutes and 33 seconds-- the RPMs of records. It was obviously going the right way."
I took the liberty of heading over to babelfish and did a PR bullshit to English translation and it came up with the following:
"They backed a truckload of money up to my house--I'm not made of stone"
Hmm, I wonder if John Cage is gonna sue over the name of this?
In other LCD Soundsystem news Murphy is currently working on a new album due for release next March.
Synergy's YAY.
So apparently TV is the new radio when it comes to getting your music to the masses, and indie is the new (insert whatever was here before it) when it comes to incidental music during TV shows (I think you can thank CSI for that).
On December 5th Warner Brothers will release the sixth in its series of compilations soundtracks for risible teen soap opera The O.C. (which I swear I've never seen an entire episode of but I understand one of the characters likes Death Cab For Cutie a lot). OC Mix 6: Covering Our Tracks features 12 (in some cases vaguely) indie covering songs by other acts, some of whom are indie. But the important thing is INDIE. It's cool and can used to sell Nike's.
Some quite prominent INDIE bands such as Pinback, Lady Sovereign, Band Of Horses, Rogue Wave and Mates of State are set to appear as well as a bunch of no-marks who I've never heard of. Tracklisting:
01 Goldspot - "Float On" (Modest Mouse)
02 Rock Kills Kid - "I Turn My Camera On" (Spoon)
03 Lady Sovereign - "Pretty Vacant" (The Sex Pistols)
04 Mates of State - "California" (Phantom Planet)
05 Pinback - "Wasted" (Black Flag)
06 John Paul White - "Can't Get It out of My Head" (ELO)
07 Rogue Wave - "Debaser" (The Pixies)
08 Syd Matters "Hello Sunshine" (Super Furry Animals)
09 Tally Hall - "Smile Like You Mean It" (The Killers)
10 The M's - "Come Into Our Room" (Clinic)
11 Band of Horses - "The End's Not Near" (The New Year)
12 Chris Holmes "Into Dust" (Mazzy Star)
Finally you can throw out your video recorders.
Nirvana's 1994 video release Live! Tonight! Sold Out!, which features material from the band's 91-92 world tour is to finally be reissued on DVD on November 7th. The film has been remastered in 5.1 surround sound, colour corrected and expanded to include 5 songs from their 1991 performance at Amsterdam's Paradisso (which is the nicest venue I've ever been in). The film was completed following Cobain's death by Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl.
More money for Courtney Love to buy shit with, yay.
For once it wasn't his fault.
Last week the internet was all a flutter about Ryan Adams demanding the shutdown of the message board of fansite RyanAdams.org (which he has no ownership of). The story doing the rounds was that Adams and his management were seeking editorial control over the board's content. This led to a lot of "Ryan Adams is such a dick" type talk over the last week, but in fairness that's not all that uncommon considering some of the things that he does.
Apparently the rumours are untrue though and site owner David Smith told pitchfork last week that "Ryan's management contacted me Tuesday, asking that the board be temporarily shut down. Initially there were reports of censorship or an inability to deal with criticism and negative show reviews. But I've since had the opportunity to discuss the issue directly with Ryan...and apparently sensitive information of a personal nature had been exposed on the board which was a threat to the band. I won't go into details, but he was (understandably so) quite upset about this.
"I would like to stress that taking the board down was a voluntary action on my part. RyanAdams.org is a privately owned domain name, so I don't see a legal recourse. But out of respect for Ryan, I made the decision to comply with his request.
"I don't see the point of running a 'fan site' for an artist who disapproves of it, so the decision was an attempt at maintaining good relations with Ryan and his management."
Since the board was taken down a message intended to "dispel rumors" was posted on the front page of the site, one of the points made was that one of the incidents that caused the shutdown "occurred while the band was in London, and Ryan's hotel room information was posted to the message board. In another incident, personal information about Ryan's parents was posted to the board."
I wonder if Adams left a message on someone's answering machine this time.
Homer Simpson's favourite band.
Lou Barlow must have a major case of the nostalgias. After spending much of the last 2 years touring with the reformed Dinosaur Jr. he announced on his website recently that the classic Sebadoh lineup of himself, Eric Gaffney and Jason Lowenstein is to reform.
He wrote, "Sebadoh Classic will be touring this spring 2/25/07 → 4/07. Sebadoh Classic = Gaffney-era... III → Bubble and Scrape. Eric, Jason, and I will be heading out together..."
On a related note Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol is a huge indie fan and often namedrops Sebadoh, The Shins and Amusement Parks On Fire (who I'm opening for in December but that's another story) as bands he's really into. Why does he write such bland music then?
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Cat Power
10-28 Las Vegas, NV - Vegoose Festival
11-01 London, England - Roundhouse
11-03 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
11-04 Brussels, Belgium - Ancienne Belgique
11-05 Paris, France - Grand Rex
11-06 Berlin, Germany - Volksbühne
11-07 Zurich, Switzerland - Kaufleuten
11-09 New York, NY - Avery Fisher Hall (solo, Bob Dylan tribute) *
11-16 Memphis, TN - New Daisy Theatre
11-17 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel
11-18 Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club
11-19 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
11-20 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
11-22 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix Concert Club
11-23 Montreal, Quebec - Metropolis
11-25 Los Angeles, CA - Orpheum Theatre
11-26 San Francisco, CA - Fillmore (early show)
11-26 San Francisco, CA - Fillmore (late show)
11-28 Seattle, WA - Showbox
11-29 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore
12-02 Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Club CCIB
12-07 Rennes, France - Transmusicale Festival #
12-09 Munich, Germany - Bavarian Open Festival #
* with Patti Smith, Philip Glass, more
# with Judah Bauer, Jim White
The Decemberists
10-17 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom *
10-18 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom *
10-19 San Francisco, CA - Warfield Theater *
10-20 San Francisco, CA - Warfield Theater *
10-21 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern *
10-22 Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theater *
10-24 Austin, TX - Stubb's BBQ *
10-25 Dallas, TX - Gypsy Ballroom *
10-26 New Orleans, LA - House of Blues *
10-27 Atlanta, GA - Tabernacle *
10-29 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club *
10-30 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club *
10-31 Northampton, MA - Calvin Theater *
11-01 Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory *
11-03 New York, NY - Hammerstein Ballroom #
11-04 Boston, MA - Orpheum Theater #
11-05 Montreal, Quebec - Metropolis #
11-04 Toronto, Ontario - Kool Haus #
11-07 Pontiac, MI - Clutch Cargo #
11-09 Cleveland, OH - Agora Theater #
11-10 Columbus, OH - Lifestyle Communities Pavilion #
11-11 Chicago, IL - Riviera Theater #
11-12 Minneapolis, MI - First Avenue #
11-14 Denver, CO - Paramount Theater #
11-16 Missoula, MT - Wilma Theater #
11-17 Seattle, WA - Paramount Theater #
11-18 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom #
02-02 Sheffield, England - Leadmill
02-03 Dublin, Ireland - Village
02-04 Glasgow, Scotland - ABC
02-05 Manchester, England - Academy 2
02-07 Nottingham, England - Trent University
02-08 London, England - Shepherds Bush Empire
02-09 Southampton, England - University
02-10 Brussels, Belgium - Botanique
02-12 Cologne, Germany - Prime Club
02-13 Hamburg, Germany - Knust
02-14 Berlin, Germany - Postbahnhof
02-16 Fribourg, Switzerland - Fri-son
02-17 Bologna, Italy - Estragon
02-18 Munich, Germany - Ampere
02-19 Vienna, Austria - Flex Club
02-21 Amsterdam, the Netherlands
02-22 Paris, France - La Maroquinerie
* with Lavender Diamond
# with Alasdair Roberts
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio
Rest Burning in water, drowning in flame.
The Redneck Manifesto Seven Stabs
The bit at the end
Recording is officially the worst "cool thing" about being in a band. So fucking boring.
