Dancing About Architecture 10.24.06

Posted by Ian Wright on 10.24.2006

Two Gallants vs. The Cops, Wilco vs. Some guy, Scarlett Johansson vs. Me, The new Shins album and festival greatness.

The bit at the start

Former 411er Jim Smallman used to refer to me as a complete gig whore. Not a week would go by where I wouldn't be out at a show at lease once. Things have been a bit slow for me gig wise this year but November is shaping up to be a cracker.

It's starting with I love you but I've chosen darkness next Wednesday which I think should be OK, I just want it to justify not going to see Sufjan Stevens for the third time that night. Then the following Tuesday is a gig I've been waiting 2 years for TV On The Radio play their first ever gig in Ireland and I can't wait. Thursday the 9th sees my band play it's first gig in about 2 months, but I guess that doesn't really count. The next day I'm flying to LA to visit a friend of mine *coughhackseethewrenscough* and the day after that I'm road tripping it up to San Francisco for the Riott Festival featuring Saul Williams, Explosions In The Sky (another I really wanna see those guys live bands), Deerhoof, The Wrens and a whole load of other great bands. Following my return home I'm going to see the Flaming Lips in a little(ish) indoor venue in Dublin.

Then there's stuff that I might go to like Jeff Tweedy and Midlake. Pretty full month.

Can't wait.

Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.

My Bloody Valentine - Loveless



I half believe that humans didn't make this album.

You news, you lose

It's a good thing that Jay Bennett never tried to kiss him.

Anyone who has seen the excellent Wilco documentary "I am trying to break your heart" will have got the impression that Jeff Tweedy deals with confrontation in a very passive-aggressive manner. So it's quite surprising to learn that at a gig in Springfield MO last week he hit a fan who got up on stage with the band.

Pitchfork broke the story last Tuesday when they printed an e-mail they received from a fan who was at the gig, "So some dude jumps on the stage," the fan claimed. "After he gets on stage (who really does this at a Wilco show?), he runs up to Tweedy to give him a fat smooch on his cheek.

"Tweedy freaks out like the retard from [There's] Something About Mary who doesn't like having his ears touched and grabs the dude by his throat. While clinching to his throat, Jeff hauls off and decks him with a punch/open hand slap/shove to the face and [the] dude skirmishes away. Tweedy later apologizes (sort of) and hurries to the point of the set where they bow out before the encore."

Another attendee mailed the fork and told them, "Tweedy had to comment. 'I mean, come on guys, we aren't used to that! You guys have to stay down there."

This could be all hearsay but our intrepid purveyors of horribly pretentious reviews reporters contacted Pat Hagin, managing partner of the concert promotion company and nightclub the Pageant, who confirmed the story … "To give you a little background here, I went down from St. Louis to promote the show at the Shrine Mosque in Springfield. And it's not a venue that does a lot of shows. They're nice people and everything but the security was not what we would normally want to see I guess. And I'm not blaming it on them or anything."

"But anyway, we had one incident before--it's one of those old theaters where there are lots of corridors, and somebody got by security. This woman came up and sat by the side of the stage, and we got her off finally, and back out into the crowd. And then right after that happened, this guy came across the front of the stage, and that story [the rough plot of the accounts above] is pretty accurate, I think Jeff just kind of shoved/punched, pushed him out of the way...And I even heard somebody mention on the radio as I was driving back in from Springfield, that Jeff was certainly justified, especially with Dimebag Darrell and that sort of thing. If somebody jumps on stage with you, its one thing if they're off to the side or they look passive, but when they're actually attempting to make themselves part of the show, it's pretty startling."

"This guy [the fan] was an idiot. There's this video of Keith Richards taking his guitar to somebody getting on stage, it wasn't certainly anything like that. But he [Tweedy] certainly has a right and a need in my mind to feel safe onstage...It really wasn't that big of a deal. He was just trying to establish ownership of the stage...There wasn't any hard contact or anything like that. We got him off the stage...There was no harm done, though. No blood or anything like that."

Hagin also said, "It was an interesting experience all around."

I really don't think Tweedy was at fault here, the only people who belong on the stage are the band and the roadies, this idiot got what he deserved.

I get knocked down, but I get up again.

Last week the Shins announced the tracklisting for their upcoming third album Wincing The Night Away, which was recorded in Oregon City's Supernatural Sound studio with James Mercer and Joe Chiccarelli on knob twiddling duty.

It'll be out on Sub-Pop on January 23rd and will be preceded by a single "Phantom Limb" on 3 different formats on 3 different dates, iTunes (boo) on November 14th, CD on November 21st and on 7" on December 12th. The single will feature 2 non-album b-sides as well as an alternate take of "Split Needles" which will appear on the album.

Wincing the Night Away:

01 Sleeping Lessons
02 Australia
03 Pam Berry
04 Phantom Limb
05 Sea Legs
06 Red Rabbits
07 Turn on Me
08 Black Wave
09 Spilt Needles
10 Girl Sailor
11 A Comet Appears

"Phantom Limb":

01 Phantom Limb (album version)
02 Nothing at All
03 Spilt Needles (alternate version)

The album leaked last week, I haven't heard it yet but if you have let me know your thoughts, I'm really looking forward to this album.

Don't mess with Texas.

So I finally saw the footage of the cop at the Two Gallants show. Based on the two clips I saw I thought they were pretty inconclusive and anyone who is going "Fuck Da Police" based on what I saw is really trying far too hard to be anti-authority.

Anyway, the band commented on the situation last week and their main reaction appears to be surprise "It's been a confusing few days," singer/guitarist Adam Stephens told Pitchfork. "I guess I'm getting over feeling absolutely powerless in a so-called free and democratic society. It's a sobering feeling to have the law be completely lawless, and feel like there's absolutely nothing I could do. I think everyone there that night felt the same."

The Houston PD claimed in the Houston Chronicle that Officer G.M. Rodriguez had been attacked at the show in Walter's on Washington after he entered the venue to investigate a noise complaint. It's alleged that he then went a little bit taser happy. Two Gallants refute the claim that he was assaulted saying, "We were in the middle of a song and there was kind of an instrumental section of the song between verses, and I go over near Tyson with my back to the side of the stage where my microphone was, so I had my back to the whole right side of the stage, facing Tyson," said Stephens. "I might have been down on my knees or something. But when I turned around to sing the last verse, this cop was there."

"I think he was getting on the stage right when I was turning around. Had a flashlight in his hand and it was turned on, he was pointing it at me and walking towards me and yelling at us to stop. And I questioned him--I don't remember my exact words, but I don't think it matters. I asked 'why?', or said 'what's the problem?' just wanting to have some explanation, which I think I'm lawfully due. And I questioned him once and he didn't give me any answer, he just yelled at me to stop again. And I think I questioned him one more time."

"I wasn't rude about it. I had no idea what was going on. I had no idea if there was some huge problem, maybe he needed to evacuate the building for some reason. I didn't immediately think this was an antagonizing situation, but I wasn't about to stop just because he said 'stop.'"

Drummer Tyson Vogel concurs with Stephens' version of events, "I just looked up, and there was this huge guy shouting at Adam. I didn't know what he was doing."

Stephens went on the say, "He didn't give me any explanation after me asking twice. This all happened in a matter of seconds. And at that point, he simultaneously put his arm around my guitar and around my neck and threw me down to the ground. And Tyson was there immediately. As far as I remember Tyson was there pretty much when he grabbed me, because Tyson jumped over his drums. And he threw Tyson down immediately as well, and was on top of both of us trying to do something--I don't know what his intention was."

Sgt. Nate McDuell of the HPD claims that Stephens "used a sexual obscenity and shoved the officer with his shoulder" (some reports claim that Stephens told the cop to suck his dick) but Stephens refutes this, "There's no way I shoved him at all. I think anyone with a little bit of reason, if you just picture the situation, we're there to play music, not to attack police officers. We're playing music and a cop comes in, we had no idea what was going on, why in the world would we immediately attack a police officer for walking into a venue while we're playing? We're not on tour to take down law enforcement. It's just ridiculous to me that someone would make up that rumour, because why would anyone do that? He completely took the first offensive move by throwing us to the ground."

Unsurprisingly Vogel is backing up his bandmate saying, "I never pushed that guy. Neither did Adam. We were just so confused about what was going on. We didn't have time to be angry or want to start a fight."

Stephens continued, "All I remember being on the ground was trying to get back up. I didn't swing at him. I remember trying to push him up off of us, because there was no reason we should have been on the ground. We didn't do anything at all! I still feel like it's in my right to defend myself if I feel like I've done absolutely no crime. I didn't swing at him, I didn't do anything in any way to attack him. But I think we were doing what anyone would have done in that situation, just trying to get back up, try to get back our footing."

The band also deny claims made in the Houston Chronicle that Rodriguez (who is built like a brick shithouse by the way) "suffered bruises and cuts on his arms." Vogel said, "He had blood on his shirt, but that was from me. I cut myself a lot when I'm playing, so my hands were bleeding when he pushed me. And when we were down at the jail, waiting for everything to be processed, we saw him hanging out, going about his business, and nothing was wrong. He wasn't hurt at all."

Once Rodriguez had both musicians on the ground various crew and members of other bands attempted to intervene and pull Rodriguez off the pair (which was a really dumb move on their part by the way) "Immediately a bunch of our friends rushed the stage and pulled him off of us somehow," Stephens explained. "I don't really think there was any other way that we could have gotten back up. That guy was huge, and we're skinny little indie rocker kids. It's not like we go to the gym, and we definitely couldn't take this guy on in any way. He was a big dude and he was on top of us, pretty much had us down."

Stephens continued, "It was at that point when the Taser came out, "We were completely confused, I had no idea what was going on. And I remember at that point a lot of yelling back and forth at each other. And then our tour manager Moses is pushing us away and standing between us and the cop and trying to calm the situation down. And a lot of kids were yelling at the cop and all this kind of stuff.

"For some reason, the next thing I remember, he was walking towards the corner of the room, and he was pushing this kid and took out his Taser and started Tasing this kid in the corner, and shoving him against the corner."

"When we saw this, a bunch of us ran over there to at least try to distract him from picking on a totally innocent teenage kid. He turned around and upon seeing a lot of us there, he was kind of frightened a little bit. He thought we were attacking him, but we were just defending this one kid. At that point he turned around and saw Moses and he Tased Moses a couple of times in the chest, and he saw me and he pointed at me, and said something like 'Get down on the ground, you're going to jail' and he Tased me a couple of times in the stomach. It didn't hurt that bad, I think he had it on a low setting, but anyway, I backed off."

At this point Stephens thought that it was better to live to fight another day and scampered out of the club, "Everything after that, it's pretty much what other people have told me," he said. "I can't speak for anything else that happened. I spent the night running away. I spent the next forty minutes running through pitch-black streets in Houston. I just didn't know where I was going. Eventually some really nice kids found me, they went biking out to look for me, and they found me and called their friend to pick me up, and put me on the ground in the back of their car and drove me to another friend's house and kept me there and let me relax and hid me for a little bit."

Vogel was less fortunate and was arrested when backup arrived on the scene to assist Rodriguez and bundled into the back of a cop car where he sat for an hour and a half watching a number of arrests being made, "They were arresting anybody who asked a question," he said. "All these young kids who were at the show and just wanted to know what was going on, they got arrested." Vogel then spent the night in jail before being release on a $1400 bond the next morning.

The band plan to take legal action over the events but at the time of the interview were wary of going into specific details, "At this point I don't know if I should say anything," Stephens said. "We're talking about it. Something's going to happen. It's definitely not over from our side."

Vogel added, "This is about a larger truth. We're not trying to get something else out of it. We just want what's right."

Well there you have it, maybe. It's hard to really decide on the rights and wrongs of the issue and there are probably loads of shades of grey here. It certainly seems as though the Cop overreacted when he tackled Stephens however once you put your hands on a cop what do you expect to happen? The whole situation seems to be a giant mess.

San Francisco gets all the best gigs.

San Francisco's Noise Pop Festival celebrates its 15th anniversary next year and they've really pulled out all the stops when it comes to celebrating that landmark. Taking place from February 27-March 4 and they've already announced some pretty big names for the week.

Teo Leo/Pharmacists, John Vanderslice, and Jolie Holland are all confirmed to play but of the bands announced thusfar the biggest news is that the reunited Sebadoh classic version will appear.

Were it not for the fact that I hate walking up hills I'd wish I live in San Francisco.

ATP, ATP, ATP.

We're still a couple of months away from the Thurston Moore curated, noise heavy, edition of ATP's Nightmare before Christmas but the following one taking place in April is already taking shape.

It's going to be curated by The Dirty Three and is taking place from April 27-29. Nick Cave (playing solo), Low, Magnolia Electric Co., Brokeback (aka Tortoise bassist Douglas McCombs), Tara Jane O'Neil, the Drones, Faun Fables, Grinderman, and Papa M (aka Slint/Will Oldham/Stereolab/Tortoise/Zwan member/collaborator David Pajo), A Silver Mt. Zion and The Dirty Three themselves all confirmed to appear.

I can't wait.

I never thought she'd do anything to hurt me so.

OK, so we all love Scarlett Johansson right? Those pouty lips, that husky voice?

I think all that changed in an instant for me when I learned that she recording an album of Tom Waits covers.

That's right, Tom Waits covers.

Tom "the greatest fucking songwriter of all time" Waits covers.

Now ordinarily vanity projects don't piss me off that much but this is really annoying me, unless it turns out to be good that is.

Scarlett sings Tom Waits is scheduled for release in the new year.

There is no God.

Writing under the influence

Without which this column would not have been possible:

Talk Radio

The bit at the end

Ah who am I kidding? I'd still marry her tomorrow.

Have I plugged Loveless before? I don't care it's one of the most amazing sounding records ever made.

I'm going to Final Fantasy next week, his gig in Dublin earlier in the year was one of the best I've been to all year so I've got high hopes.