Dancing About Architecture 10.31.06
Posted by Ian Wright on 10.31.2006
Tons of Sonic Youth News, A new Pixies album and Jeff Tweedy explains himself.
The bit at the start
You're lucky that you're getting a column out of me this week.
Well lucky might be a bit strong considering the questionable quality I produce but I was pretty close to not being in a position to write this week's edition of Dancing About Architecture.
The reason for this is Owen Pallet, a.k.a. Final Fantasy.
I went to his show in Dublin last night and at this stage almost a day later I can't think of a more apt phrase to sum it up then the one I used as he walked off stage following the THIRD encore "Holy Mother Of Fuck".
Simply one of the best gigs I've ever been to.
He's playing in Belfast tonight and as it's a holiday here today I spent much of the day being on the verge of cancelling all my plans and driving the 3 hours up there to see him again tonight.
Ultimately I decided that last night was so perfect it wouldn't possibly reach the same standard tonight so I did what I was supposed to do.
And now I'm running late and have to write this week's column, but we all know where I'd rather be.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Wilco A Ghost Is Born
Tweedy could arguably be the finest songwriter of his generation.
You news, you lose
I suppose they're too well established now to change the name to Sonic Middle aged at this point.
And besides, when they formed in New York all those decades ago I'm sure Thurston, Kim and Lee didn't envisage lasting this long.
Anyway there loads of Sonic Youth news doing the rounds this week, some of it is even interesting.
First up, there's a b-sides/rarities compilation on the way. Entitled The Destroyed Room: B-Sides And Rarities it'll be out on December 12th on Geffen. Compiled by Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo the collection is made up of b-sides from singles, tracks off of other compilations and bonus tracks from international version of Sonic Youth records. No tracklisting as of yet but knowing the way these things works it'll probably be announced in the coming week.
That release will see them come to the end of their current deal with Geffen, who they have been with since they released Goo a million years ago. When asked by billboard whether or not they would resign with the label Kim Gordon poured water on the idea saying, "I don't really think they want us to stay. They fired a few key people working on [Rather Ripped] a week before it came out...So, I don't know."
But the band are probably to busy to think about all that because as usual they've got about a million other projects in the works at that minute. Along with Moore, ex-Youther Jim O'Rourke and others Gordon had the US premier of her multimedia film Perfect Partner (which sounds like the title of a Jennifer Aniston Rom-Com from when she was still in "Friends"). The film combined projection and live music and was premiered at New Jersey's State University. It's just a hunch but I'd hazard a guess that they dispensed with inconvenient things like plot for that one.
In other Sonic Youth news, which I'm going to give to you in handy bullet points:
- Thurston Moore is working on a new solo album.
- If you can tolerate improved noise then you can buy the Melbourne Direct 12" on Saucerlake Recordings which features Sonic Youth classic minus Kim Gordon plus Jim O'Rourke.
- Moore and Gordon are exhibiting at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center's "Music Is a Better Noise" exhibit in NYC. It opened last week and will continue up till January 8th.
- Lee Ranaldo has a music/film collaboration of his own (oh the fights he and Kim must have had over who had the idea first) with multimedia artist Leah Singer called Drift which is scheduled to be performed in such far flung locales as New York (well duh!), Helsinki (where they send kids who can't roll their "r"s to special classes) and Belgium (really? Belgium?).
- The Lee Ranaldo project, which includes Steve Shelley will perform along with Cat Power, Patti Smith, Philip Glass, Ryan Adams, and others at Music For Youth's "The Music of Bob Dylan" benefit event in New York's Avery Fisher Hall in New York on November 9th.
- Not forgetting Steve Shelly's own projects, his Two Dollar Guitar project has a number of dates lined up, in fact here they are:
11-06 Brooklyn, NY - Zebulon *
11-10 Carrboro, NC - Reservoir #
11-11 Greensboro, NC - Flying Anvil ^
11-12 Columbia, SC - The Art Garage #
11-13 Atlanta, GA - The Earl #
11-14 Mt. Pleasant, SC - Village Tavern #
11-16 Arlington, VA - Iota Club and Café #%
11-18 Boston, MA - P.A.'s Lounge #
11-19 Florence, MA - Artifacts 20th Century $
11-20 Portland, ME - Space Gallery #
11-26 Bari, Italy - Time Zones #
11-27 Naples, Italy - Rising South #
11-28 Faenza, Italy - Clandestino #
11-29 Turin, Italy - Skylab #
11-30 Giussago, Italy - Ortosonico #
12-01 Verona, Italy - Lucignolo #
12-02 Genoa, Italy - Milk Club #
12-04 Catania, Italy - TBA
12-14 Paris, France - TBA #+
* with Tall Firs
# with Chris Brokaw
^ with Richard Buckner
% with Micah P. Hinson
$ with Thurston Moore, J Mascis, Dredd Foole
+ with Lee Ranaldo, Awesome Color
- About a million other things happened in the world of Sonic Youth since I started this column.
God bless bootleggers.
Last week I reported that Jeff Tweedy punched a fan who had come up on stage while Wilco were playing in Springfield, MO.
Tweedy played a solo show in Champaign, Illinois on Friday where he spoke about the incident. What he said was recorded by a fan who sent the recording on to Pitchfork.
He began by saying, "The distance between where I'm standing and where you are is in no way, shape, or form a result of being attacked the other day."
At this point the crowd loudly screams, drowning out what Tweedy says next but he does say "I know I punch like a girl" toward the end of the cheer.
He then said, "Actually, I was pretty surprised. I really let that dude have it...
"Somebody jumped on stage the other night at a Wilco show, did the 'Woooo!' you know, like to his friends or whatever, 'Look at me! I'm really drunk and on crystal meth or something!' It's Southern Missouri, you know, so..."
He went on to talk about the lack of security at the venue, The Shrine Mosque, "During the show, lots of different things were happening; there were people getting pushed around in front, some girl came up on stage and sat down and started playing piano. While this was all being taken care of, we had a little break and we played our whole set and we came off, and there was this girl laying around, flopping around on the floor. Tried to get rid of her, she sat down and played the piano, so basically everybody was taking care of that... "
"So we're standing there...we're starting a song 'Airline to Heaven', got the guitar, we're playing...I don't know if you know this, but when you're playing guitar, it's kind of like you're wearing handcuffs...so i see this nice little boy who looks like he's Devandra Burnhart [spelling representative of Tweedy's pronunciation] or whatever his name is...He actually stepped on a young woman's wheelchair to get onstage. I'm not kidding, that's the truth. That's how he got onstage! I'm not exaggerating; he just hopped up onstage, right up her wheelchair. "
"And I'm playing, and the thoughts in my head are going, "Okay, okay, here he comes. Okay. He's just going to wave to his buddies and there he goes, okay... "
"Any other night, I would have said he could probably have fondled me or something and I would've known within five or six seconds tops, a couple of guys in big yellow shirts would have been like pummeling him. Not that he needed to have that happen, but...So anyway the next thing I know, I feel this hand on my forehead. I'd just had it. I'd had it at that point...I'm quick like a knife, cat-like reflexes."
At this point it seems Tweedy demonstrated some of his moves by beating up the air on the stage and then said, "The next day, 'Tweedy Attacks Fan," right?"
I still say that Tweedy was 100% in the right to have done what he did, that guy was an idiot and if there had been security there to kick his ass then no one would have ever heard about the incident.
You can download the full clip of Tweedy explaining himself here.
Wait, now it is happening?
In an interview with The NME last week Frank Black said that there is a new Pixies album in the pipeline, maybe.
"Since we got back together we've played almost everywhere we can," said Black. "I know we like playing and everyone likes touring together, so to keep doing that and not record anything is kind of like being a county fair band. We don't want to do that, so the only thing we can do is become a vital band again."
"So it's just a matter of doing it, I guess."
The one thing stopping it happening is the participation of Kim Deal, "We're rehearsing in January, if we can persuade Kim to come out of her house. We offered to go to her but we figured if we book the rehearsals she'll show up."
Ohh catty.
In other Pixies news there's a new DVD on the way and Black isn't too happy about it, particularly the way that it's portrayed drummer Dave Lovering, Black told the NME, "David, who was rock solid for a couple of years, his dad died. He was OK, but as it got towards the end of the tour he started drinking heavily. He messed up a couple of songs and it was all caught on film."
"But they re-edited this to look like it happened in the middle of our tour and it looked like this whole tour careered into this drunken stupor with David. It really wasn't like that at all-- he was really solid for, like, 90% of it."
Sounds like a bit of bad faith at the very least on the part of the documentary makers but in any case loudQUIETloud hits the shops on November 7th.
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Micah P. Hinson
10-26 Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland *
10-27 Pomona, CA - Pitzer College
10-28 San Francisco, CA - Café du Nord
10-30 Portland, OR - Doug Fir #
10-31 Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern
11-03 New York, NY - North Six (CMJ)
11-04 Chicago, IL - Schubas
11-06 Kalamazoo, MI - Kraftbrau Brewery
11-07 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace ^
11-08 Montreal, Quebec - Green Room ^
11-09 Boston, MA - T.T. the Bear's ^
11-10 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge ^
11-15 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's
11-16 Arlington, VA - IOTA Club and Café %
11-17 Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
11-18 Atlanta, GA - Lenny's
11-20 San Antonio, TX - Limelight
11-21 Austin, TX - Emo's
11-22 Denton, TX - Hailey's
* with Matt Pond PA
# with Figurines
^ with Oakley Hall
% with Two Dollar Guitar
Joanna Newsom
My favourite harp wielder has expanded her North American tour:
11-04 Salt Lake City, UT - Depot
11-05 Denver, CO - Bluebird Theater
11-06 Omaha, NE - Scottish Rite Masonic Community Center
11-07 St. Louis, MO - Blueberry Hill
11-08 Chicago, IL - Logan Square Auditorium (two shows)
11-09 Columbus, OH - Little Brother's
11-10 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom
11-11 Pittsburgh, PA - Andy Warhol Museum
11-13 New York, NY - Webster Hall *
11-14 Boston, MA - Somerville Theatre *
11-15 New Haven, CT - Toad's Place *
11-16 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church *
11-17 Washington, DC - Black Cat *
11-18 Greensboro, NC - Gail Brower Huggins Performance Center
11-19 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse
11-20 Nashville, TN - Mercy Lounge
11-21 Knoxville, TN - Blue Cats
11-22 Asheville, NC - Diana Wortham Theatre
11-24 Louisville, KY - Headliners
11-25 Birmingham, AL - Bottle Tree
11-29 Malibu, CA - Malibu Performing Arts Center
11-30 Los Angeles, CA - El Rey Theater
12-03 Portland, OR - Aladdin Theater
12-04 Seattle, WA - Showbox
12-05 Vancouver, British Columbia - St. Andrew's-Wesley Church
12-11 Norman, OK - Meacham Theater at University of Oklahoma
12-19 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall #
12-20 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall #
* with P.G. Six
# with Bill Callahan
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Boards Of Canada Music Has The Right To Children
Sun Kil Moon Ghosts Of The Great Highway
Xiu Xiu Fabulous Muscles
The bit at the end
Slow news week, this suits me just fine as it means I'll get to bed before 1A.M.
Serves me right for pirating, I burned copies of the new Joanna Newsom and Shins albums off a friend's computer tonight. When I got home I found that the CD wouldn't work. So disappointed.
