Dancing About Architecture 11.28.06
Posted by Ian Wright on 11.28.2006
Something of an exclusive Arcade Fire touring scoop, Four Tet, Joanna Newsom and the new Interpol album.
The bit at the start
Damn you America, damn you and your holidays. Thanks to the thanksgiving break there's very little news to report this week. Stupid Pilgrims, once again weirdo fundamentalist Christians are ruining my life and forcing me to write a short column.
But if you're desperate to read more from me then my review of the Mission Of Burma documentary will be going live on the site soon.
How are you?
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Beirut Gulag Orkestar
The greatest New Mexico based Eastern-European/gypsy folk album ever.
You news, you lose
The roof (of the arcade), the roof (of the arcade), the roof (of the arcade) is on fire.
The Arcade Fire have spent much of the past year in a renovated church outside Montreal working on the follow up to 2003's Funeral with very little information leaking out into the public domain about the album. Occasional collaborator/string arranger/touring member Owen Pallet (a.k.a. Final Fantast) did let it slip a few months back that the band had rerecorded live favourite "No Cars Go", which had previously appeared on their debut E.P., but it wasn't certain whether that was with a view to re-releasing it or just so they could get a handle on the new recording gear by working on a song they were already familiar with.
Oh yeah, and there'll be pipe organ on the album.
Frontman Win Butler stuck his head above the parapets last week to post a quick update on how things were going writing, "Hello all,
Mixing is going really well "
So that's nice to know.
What Butler was more concerned about was the fact that you may have noticed that AF's "Rebellion (lies)" has popped up in a commercial for the "Red" campaign for Africa, he went on to address this writing, "For the next few weeks there are some commercials that are going to be running online and on TV surrounding the launch of the Red campaign in the States, in which our song Rebellion will be playing in the background. These ads are for the Red campaign (which is a nonprofit) and not for any of the individual companies which licence the Red brand. We haven't been paid a penny for the use of the song. Having talked to all the people in charge of running the Red campaign and learning about how the whole thing works financially, I am convinced that something of this nature is the only way to get Americans to give large amounts of money to directly fight Aids in Africa in a sustainable way.
People are going to but things at the Gap and wear Converse shoes regardless, so having a way for consumers to choose to direct some of their money to a worthy cause without having to pay extra, makes it possible for people to give money without really dong much of anything To some people this may seem crass and capitalistic, and I sympathise with that position, but in the first week of the campaign they have raised enough money for 10,000 woman to have antiretroviral drugs for a year money and medication which wouldn't have been there without a program like this. The Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and malaria (which directly receives the funds from a percentage of the profits from Red sales) is probably the most direct way to get these people medication, while bypassing the sometimes tediously slow process of politics.
We don't give a fuck about the Gap or American Express, and we are in no way endorsing their products, but as long as scientists are developing drugs that you can give to a HIV positive mother and her newborn baby to stop the transmission of AIDS to the child, the money could be coming from the devil for all I care, as long as people are getting the medication. We didn't want Rebellion to be the 'anthem' of the campaign, so we are just letting them use the song for a few weeks during the Christmas rush to help get the word out there; more as a gesture that we hope this sort of thing takes hold, and that it can be a sustainable way of our fucked up culture giving people something they can actually use.
Just know that we made this decision with a lot of soul searching. It just seemed so snobbish to not engage with the reality of the absurd sums of money that big business can raise without even noticing it.
You can go to this site if you want more basic information.
Hope you are all well,
Luv
win"
Ok, well I'm convinced that the motivations of the band are essentially pure on this one and anyone who throws accusations of "sell-out" at them is a colossal buffoon. I've got my own issues with the Red campaign which I won't get into here because it'd be kinda crass but as a technophile I do urge you not to buy the Red iPod, or indeed any iPod. They're rubbish.
Finally rumours have been circulating about the band going on tour early in the new year. It seems that one date is very likely, April 5th in Lille, France and if that one is legit then it's safe to assume that that date will be part of a more extensive European tour that month. Presumably they'd be playing some North American dates prior to that happening.
Ain't going to the town.
Crispin Glover's musical side project Interpol are currently working on their third album in New York. The follow up to Antics is due for release in mid-2007. A message posted on the band's site reads "The atmosphere and environs of a recording facility affect the sound and feel of an album in the subtlest ways. And we are affected. And it is subtle." As for recording in their hometown the band say that they "are enjoying being local."
Details about the record are still pretty sketchy but working titles for new songs include "The Heimlich Manoeuvre" and "Pawn Shop".
Considering how busy he is I think there must be at least 6 Tets.
Kieran Hebdon (a.k.a. Four Tet) is a busy boy, especially this year when he's already released/collaborated on/remixed more music than I care to mention but he still has a load more irons in the fire to draw his attention away from the latest episode of Lost.
Hebdon recently spoke to Pitchfork about his current plans and it doesn't look like he'll be putting his feet up anytime soon. First up is a remix version of the Aluminium version of the White Stripes' "Forever for her is over for me," which is available from Rough Trade's new online MP3 shop Rough Trade Digital.
"I'm a huge fan of the White Stripes," Hebdon said. "Particularly the last album I really, really liked. It was a nice thing to remix because the instrumentation was so diverse on it."
His take on "The First Big Weekend", Arab Straps first single is going to be the b-side to the retiring Scottish band's final 7", and he's also finished remixing old touring buddy Thom Yorke's "Atoms for Peace" however he has "no idea what the release plan for that one is."
There's also a remix of "Catastrophe and the Cure" by Explosions in the Sky which is due to appear on the bonus disc of the Austin Post-Rockers' forthcoming third album. "They are really good friends of mine," Hebdon said of EITS. "It's one of those things that we always talked about but never got around to. It finally happened."
Next year promises to see Hebdon as busy as ever with Tongues the next instalment of his collaboration with jazz drummer Steve Reid being released as well as the debut album by Fridge, Hebdon's band with Adem Ilhan and Sam Jeffers.
As for a new Four Tet album? Don't hold your breath. "I put out four albums this year," said Hebdon. "It's really, really intense times. I'm just trying to give people some peace and quiet."
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Joanna Newsom
*wub*, I mean I really respect her as an artist.
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 #
12-01 Santa Cruz, CA - Rio Theatre #
12-02 Eugene, OR - Indigo District #
12-03 Portland, OR - Aladdin Theater #
12-04 Seattle, WA - Showbox #
12-05 Vancouver, British Columbia - St. Andrew's-Wesley Church #
12-08 Minneapolis, MN - 400 Bar #
12-09 Madison, WI - Memorial Union's Great Hall (Madison Pop Festival; free show) #
12-10 Lawrence, KS - Granada #
12-11 Norman, OK - Meacham Theater at University of Oklahoma #
02-12 Houson, TX - Orange Show #
12-13 Austin, TX - Parish #
12-14 Marfa, TX - Ballroom Marfa
12-15 Albuquerque, NM - Launchpad
12-19 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall *
12-20 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall *
01-14 Glasgow, Scotland - City Halls ^
01-15 Manchester, England - Bridgewater Hall ^
01-16 Gateshead, England - Sage Gateshead ^
01-19 London, England - Barbican %
* with Alasdair Roberts
# with Bill Callahan
^ with the Northern Sinfonia
% with the London Symphony Orchestra
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio
The bit at the end
You can download a song from the new Shins album (legally) here.
Hopefully next week I'll have a wee bit more to talk about, be safe.
