Dancing About Architecture 12.15.06
Posted by Ian Wright on 12.15.2006
I’m late, I’m sorry. Arcade Fire, Big Day Out, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, video podcasts, noisepop and more.
The bit at the start
Hello, apologies for being late this week but I've been getting slammed in work over the past few days. I'm not sure why as we're hardly a seasonal business but the past few days have been particularly busy, especially as I've spent 2 of them being unsure as to whether or not I'd have to go onto a site at 11PM so I haven't even been able to prep the column. To top it off, as I'm finally able to sit down and start the column now (Wednesday afternoon) I've discovered that my phone lines have gone haywire in the past couple of hours and I don't have a net connection so who knows when I'll get to post this. As things stand there's only one story I know enough about off the top of my head to write about.
But it hasn't all been horrible, I caught Gang Of Four on Sunday night and followed it up with Dinosaur Jr. the next night so I'm on quite the old man rock kick at the moment. Since those gigs I've decided that Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand et. al. should just give up because they'll never come anywhere close to being as good as Gang Of Four and also that anyone who goes to see Dinosaur Jr. without earplugs is very silly. I saw them without plugs in May and I was deaf for 13 hours, I left the gig on Monday being able to chat to the people I went with no problem.
Deafness nay, looking like you've got abnormal orange growths in your ears yay.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
M Ward – Post War
It's quite simply lovely. The M stands for Matt.
You news, you lose
The only story I'm able to write about until my net connection comes back.
If you've got any plans to maybe see Arcade Fire live when they tour their new album next year then you'd better get your tickets early because those mofos are gonna sell out fast. The band announced last week that they'd be playing a series of 5 very intimate gigs in London next month with a capacity each night of under 900 people. Tickets went on sale last Friday at 9 A.M. London time and minutes later they were all gone, leaving yours truly cursing the gods at my misfortune as forget about getting tickets for 2 nights as I'd planned I couldn't even get a single ticket for any night. Unsurprisingly tickets began cropping up on eBay almost immediately with pairs going for up to £200 sterling. In an effort to combat this the band have since issued a statement saying that if they're able to match eBay sellers with people who have bought the tickets online then they'll cancel tickets and that has meant that bidding hasn't been as frantic as it could have been although the band's threat is going to be rather hard to enforce. Another factor which could be slowing down the illicit ticket selling is the fact that a source close to the band has said that the band are planning lots of dates in the future which are yet to be announced (for my own part I have it from their booking agent that they have "plans for Ireland later in 2007"). These dates are rumoured to be in May but that information is as yet unconfirmed.
But it's not just folks on this side of the Atlantic that have had difficulties getting tickets for Arcade Fire. A couple of days ago it was announced that the band would be doing another 5 night stand in intimate surroundings, this time in their base of Montreal. Tickets went on sale at 9AM on Wednesday morning and tickets for the shows (300 person capacity, Jesus I'd love to be at one of those) were sold out within 3 minutes. I believe the correct response is to would be "Merde/Shit".
Still on the AF front, according to their P.R. company the as yet untitled follow up to Funeral is due in March. It's believed that once again it will be released in North America on Merge but whoever is going to get to milk the cash cow in Europe is unclear. A source (oh look, I've got sources now, just like a real journalist, but without the bitterness and the lunchtime booze problem) at Rough Trade informed me last week that "we're not sure whether we're doing their new record at this stage." (and they apparently lost £2.5 million last year so they could really do with it) and according to Drowned in Sound there's a major bidding war going on with pretty much every label and their dogs trying to get their hands on it.
What with selling out venues in seconds and the label frenzy over the album it certainly looks as though 2007 could be a huge year for Arcade Fire and if the album does deliver we could be referring to them next December as one of the biggest bands in the world.
It's Thursday and I finally got my connection back.
And to celebrate I'm going to talk about Australia for once (even rarer, I'm not making fun of the guy from the vines). The antipodes largest music festival The Big Day Out is going to tour it's way around New Zealand and Australia in January and February taking in Auckland on January 19, Gold Coast on January 21, Sydney on January 25, Melbourne on January 28, Adelaide on February 2, and Perth on February 4.
The Full lineup can be found here but some of the bigger names slated to perform include The Killers, Tool, Violent Femmes, The Streets, Peaches, Muse, Lupe Fiasco, Lily Allen, Diplo, Spank Rock, Hot Chip, Macromantics, Kasabian, Justice, the Presets, the Drones, the Vines (I ain't saying nuthin') and The Sleepy Jackson; which looks like a reasonable lineup for a mainstreamish festival that wouldn't spend my Aussiedollars on.
But that's just me.
What's that noise?
San Francisco's noise pop festival is truly a thing of wonder, attracting some wonderful acts each year. Now in it's 15th year it will run from February 27th to March 4th Mezzanine, Bottom of the Hill, Café du Nord, Great American Music Hall, Independent, Swedish American Hall, Slim's, and the Fillmore playing host to the festival. While the lineup isn't quite as impressive as last year (no Flaming Lips for a start) it's growing and still looks pretty good with Sebadoh (in their reunited original lineup), Ted Leo/Pharmacists, John Vanderslice, and Jolie Holland, Okkervil River's Will Sheff, Clinic, Hella, French Kicks, Josh Ritter, the Black Angels, Macromantics, Richard Swift, Autolux, Midlake, Earlimart, Vic Chesnutt, Ghostland Observatory, Midlake, Pop Levi, and Seawolf.
Of the above the one I'd most like to see is the Will Sheff show, he's fast becoming one of my favourite songwriters and have spent much of the past month learning how to play some of his songs and in doing so I've been getting a schooling in the art of song writing. He manages to use really simple progressions without many (as my dad would say) "fancy chords" but everything sounds great. Additionally he's a wonderful lyricist and when he sings the way he phrases his lines is impeccable.
Anyway, I'm digressing, more information can be found at noisepop.com and badges are available from today but presumably tickets for individual shows should be available.
TV On The Internet
A few months ago I ran a story about how superproducer extraordinaire Nigel Godrich's plans to launch a video podcast and that Thom Yorke, The White Stripes, Beck, Four Tet and others all slated to appear. Information on the venture hadn't really been forthcoming since then and I for one thought that the project had been shelved.
It seems I should have more faith because the first episode of "From The Basement" will be available on iTunes from December 18th with the cost per track being set at £1.89 or the whole episode for £9.48.
The episode will feature Yorke performing "new" Radiohead songs ‘videotape' and ‘down is the new up', The White Stripes playing ‘Blue Orchid', ‘Ugly as I seem' and ‘Red Rain'; while Kieran Hebdon and Steve Reid played a once off improve piece called ‘Mom's Marmalade'.
The second episode will be available in February.
Clap Your Hands Say hurry up.
If you're desperately waiting for he new Claps Your Hands Say Yeah then you just might be David Bowie. But even if you're not then you won't have to wait much longer. The self released album is getting a physical release on January 30th but you'll be able to download it from their website on the 16th. The album is entitled Some Loud Thunder and there are currently two songs from it available from their website for download, ‘Love Song No.7' and ‘Underwater(You And Me)', I don't have broadband so I've got no clue if they're any good but going by their track record it's 50/50 as to whether it's magnificent or total crap.
Tracklisting:
01 Some Loud Thunder
02 Emily Jean Stock
03 Mama, Won't You Keep Them Castles in the Air and Burning?
04 Love Song No. 7
05 Satan Said Dance
06 Upon Encountering the Crippled Elephant
07 Goodbye to Mother and the Cove
08 Arm and Hammer
09 Yankee Go Home
10 Underwater (You and Me)
11 Five Easy Pieces
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Arcade Fire
Good fucking luck getting tickets.
01/29 London, England - St John's Church, Smith Square
01/30 London, England - St John's Church, Smith Square
01/31 London, England - St John's Church, Smith Square
02/01 London, England - Porchester Hall
02/02 London, England - Porchester Hall
02/06 Montreal, Quebec - Ukrainian National Federation
02/07 Montreal, Quebec - Ukrainian National Federation
02/08 Montreal, Quebec - Ukrainian National Federation
02/09 Montreal, Quebec - Ukrainian National Federation
02/10 Montreal, Quebec - Ukrainian National Federation
Explosions In The Sky
02-19 Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw *
02-20 New York, NY - Society for Ethical Culture Concert Hall #
02-23 Cologne, Germany - Gebäude 9
02-25 Amsterdam, The Netherlands - Paradiso
02-26 Brussels, Belgium - ABBox
02-27 Paris, France - La Maroquinerie
03-01 London, England - KOKO
03-07 Houston, TX - Numbers ^
03-08 New Orleans, LA - The Republic ^
03-10 Ybor City, FL - Crowbar ^
03-11 Sunrise, FL - Markham Park (Langerado Music Festival)
03-12 St. Augustine, FL - The Alcazar ^
03-13 Atlanta, GA - Lenny's Bar ^%
03-14 Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle ^%
03-15 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle ^%
03-16 Charlottesville, VA - Starr Hill Music Hall ^%
03-17 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club ^%
03-18 Philadelphia, PA - Starlight Ballroom ^%
03-20 New York, NY - Webster Hall ^%
03-21 Cambridge, MA - Middle East ^%
03-23 Montreal, Quebec - Ukrainian Federation ^%
03-24 Toronto, Ontario - Opera House ^%
03-26 Detroit, MI - Saint Andrew's Hall ^%
03-28 Chicago, IL - Metro ^
03-30 Omaha, NE - Sokol Underground ^%
03-31 Lawrence, KS - The Bottleneck ^
04-02 Dallas, TX - Granada Theater ^
* with Mountains
# with Ayano Kataoka
^ with Eluvium
% with the pAper chAse
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio
Okkervil River – Black Sheep Boy
The bit at the end
I now know what I'll be doing with my Christmas, learning how to work the following, which I took delivery of today:
Whoa, Thursday evening. This it really late, was it worth the wait? No I don't think so either. I'll be back next Tuesday with another column which this time might not be so rushed. Take care.
