Dancing About Architecture 05.01.07
Posted by Ian Wright on 05.01.2007
Radiohead, the new Interpol album, the shortlist prize, Volunteer Pioneer, Sebadoh, Sigur Ros and The Jesus and Mary Chain.
The bit at the start
A few weeks back I named Volunteer Pioneer as the MySpace band of the week describing them as Neutral Milk Hotel as fronted by Spencer Krug. I didn't know it at the time but a few months ago their harpist Sabrina Duim passed away at a very young age which is a huge shame, not only because of her youth but because after doing a little research on her she seemed like a remarkably gifted young woman.
A bulletin from the band popped into my MySpace saying the following:
Its been a long time coming but its finally here - the Volunteer Pioneer CD/EP, 7 songs tucked inside a limited edition hand silk-screened jacket. Our good friends at Blankspace are helping facilitate EP transactions via mail order and online through Paypal. The cost is only $7.00 (+ $1.50 for shipping).
To get your hands on a copy via mail order, please send a check or money order for $8.50 to:
Blankspace
6608 San Pablo Ave.
Oakland, CA 94608
To get your hands on a copy via Paypal click the "buy now" button on the Volunteer Pioneer myspace page ...
I've not heard the EP but I remain hugely taken with the material on their MySpace page ("Separate Planes" in particular) so it might be worth picking up.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Shearwater – Palo Alto.
Tim Buckley with added dissonance class from Okkervil River offshoot.
The Dancing About Architecture MySpace band artist of the week.
World Slam Poetry champ and punk MC par excellence.
Recommended song: Telegram.
You news, you lose
Head Space.
Following up from last week's column where I reported that you could hear a (brief) clip of fresh Radiohead material on their website Thom Yorke cryptically posted (if you've followed the blog you'd be aware that there's a redundant adjective there) on the band's Dead Air Space blog that they may have almost finished the recording of their new album.
"radiohead starts up again having finally caught up on some sleep next week
i have a cd of what we;'ve been up to...
and you haven't.
yet.
(sorry)
i must listen to it, after taking an ear break
that always makes me nervous
hope you're well"
Or maybe it's a bunch of demos which are nowhere near completion, I dunno, I'm not in the band despite those nightly dreams I had for 5 years.
In other Radiohead news there are rumours that the previously "Japan only" Com Lag EP (which I rather easily picked up in Tower Records in Dublin the week of its release funnily enough) may be reissued for the US and UK markets. If this happens it's worth picking up there's a really marvellous Four Tet remix of "Scatterbrain" on it.
A shortened list.
The final nominees for the 6th annual Shortlist Prize were announced last week culling the original long list of 61 albums down to a far more manageable 10. The final nominees are as follows:
Band of Horses - Everything All the Time
Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The Letting Go
Cat Power - The Greatest
Girl Talk - Night Ripper
Hot Chip - The Warning
Joanna Newsom - Ys
Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope
Spank Rock - YoYoYoYoYo
Tom Waits - Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards
Before I get to talking about who I think the winner will be (Hint, it's one of the 2 woman on the list that has been connected to Bill Callahan, the bastard) I'll quickly run through the albums that wouldn't make me froth at the mouth with anger if they won it.
Beirut, Cat Power, Tom Waits. Of the other nominees either I've not heard (BPB) or wasn't overly impressed with (I thought the shinier sound of the Spektor album cost her some of her charm but I still think she's a fabulously talented woman) but really, as far as I'm concerned there's only one contender here. Even after dozens of listenings I remain completely in awe of the ambition and brilliance of The Ys and promise to hunt down the panel of judges if she doesn't win it and someone like Hot Chip does.
Yeah, Ian in thinking Joanna Newsom is great shocker. There's a good reason why I write about her so often.
"Aaarrrroowwwwwgggggaaaallllttttteee," probably means something in hopelandic.
It's a very busy time for Sigur Ros. The Icelandic post-rockers have a whole slew of projects due for release this year but none of them could probably be considered as the proper follow-up to 2005's Takk.
July sees the release of the Sigur Ros provided soundtrack to Ólafur Sveinsson's 2002 documentary Hlemmur. Hot on the heels of that in August is an as yet untitled EP (tracklist below) and then in October a DVD of their 2006 tour around their home country will be released.
*Deep breath.*
October also see the release of an acoustic album which should be pretty interesting. Finally, possibly the most ambitious release of all is a DVD/CD combo of their orchestral Odin's Raven Magic, a 400 year old Edda poem.
EP tracklist:
01 Von (new version)
02 Salka
03 Lagið í gær
04 Rokklagið
No, I can't pronounce those last 2 either.
Oh good.
Last Monday this picture ...
appeared on the frontpage of Interpol's website hinting that we were coming very close to the release of Interpol's third album. If that wasn't enough to throw the blogosphere into a tizzy then along came some confirmed details the next day.
As you can gather from the picture the album will be out on July 10th in the US it's entitled Our Love To Admire and this is the tracklisting:
01 Pioneer to the Falls
02 No I in Threesome
03 The Scale
04 The Heinrich Maneuver
05 Mammoth
06 Pace Is the Trick
07 All Fired Up
08 Rest My Chemistry
09 Who Do You Think
10 Wrecking Ball
11 The Lighthouse
"No I in Threesome"? Seriously Paul?
OK.
Take a break Lou.
Lou Barlow is probably indie rock's busiest elder statesman right now as not only has he been gearing up for the release of the first new classic lineup Dinosaur Jr. album in forever (OUT TODAY OMG LOLZER) but July 10th see's the reissue on Domino (and the first time it's ever been available on CD) of The Freed Man, Sebadoh's first (pre-Jason Lowenstein) album. The album features a monumental 52 tracks, 31 of which didn't appear on the original release.
Tracklisting:
01 Healthy Sick
02 Level Anything
03 Soulmate
04 Ladybugs
05 Close Enough
06 True Hardcore
07 Julienne
08 Wrists Sebadoh
09 Amherst Hanging House
10 McKinley's Lament
11 Solid Brown
12 Narrow Stories
13 Bridge Was You
14 Drifts on Thru
15 Overturns
16 Yellow Submarine
17 Squirrel Freedom Overdrive
18 Little Man
19 Land of the Lords
20 Bolder Sebadoh
21 Believe
22 Deny
23 Wall of Doubt
24 Crumbs Sebadoh
25 I Love Me
26 K-Sensa-My
27 Lou Rap
28 Punch in the Nose
29 Resistance to Flo
30 Stop the Wheel
31 Loose n Screw
32 Oak Street Raga
33 Last Day of School
34 Jealous Evil
35 Moldy Bread
36 Made Real
37 Cindy
38 Nest
39 My Decision
40 Fire of July
41 Jaundice
42 Design
43 Dance
44 Cyster
45 Powerbroker
46 The Lorax
47 Pig
48 Hung Up
49 Slow to Learn
50 Elements
51 Attention
52 Your Long Journey
He's everywhere except at a Smiths reunion.
Johnny Marr it seems is far from content from drawing Smith's royalties checks and being the newest member of Modest Mouse but he's also provided guitar on two songs (one which he co-wrote) for the upcoming reunion album from Crowded House.
The brothers Finn also drafted in some songwriting help from The Dixie Chicks (no, seriously) and the album, entitled Time On Earth, is produced by U2 knob twiddler Steve Lillywhite. The album will be out on July 2nd via Parlophone in the UK and 8 days later on ATO records in North America.
Tracklisting:
01 Nobody Wants To
02 Don't Stop Now
03 She Called Up
04 Say That Again
05 Pour Le Monde
06 Even a Child
07 Heaven That I'm Making
08 Silent House
09 English Trees
10 Walked Her Way Down
11 Transit Lounge
12 You Are the One to Make Me Cry
13 A Sigh
14 People Are Like Suns
Jamc sandwich.
This truly is the summer of the Jesus And Mary Chain. In addition to the reunion tour and rumoured new album Rhino Records have announced that they are in the process of compiling a rarities boxset. Main JAMCer Jim Reid is assisting the selection process and will approve the final tracklisting for the collection which should eventually reach 8- tracks spread across 4 CDs, half a dozen of which are previously unreleased in any format and many of which have never been released on CD before.
One thing's for certain, footage of Bobby Gillespie not acting like a complete fucking shitbag will not be included in the collection as there is no evidence that such a thing exists.
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Interpol
05-27 George, WA - The Gorge (Sasquatch!)
06-02 Atlanta, GA - HiFi Buys Amphitheatre (99X Big Day Out)
06-21 Dusseldorf, Germany - Dusseldorf LTU Arena
06-23 Scheesel, Germany - Hurricane Festival
06-24 Neuhausen ob Eck, Germany - Southside Festival
06-25 Dresden, Germany - Dresden Alter Schlachthof
06-28 Arendal, Norway - Hove Festival
06-29 Stockholm, Sweden - Accelerator
07-01 Werchter, Belgium - Rock Werchter
07-05 Lisbonm Portugal - Superbock Superrock
07-07 Naas, Ireland - Punchestown Racecourse (Oxegen)
07-08 Balado, Scotland - T in the Park
08-11 Tokyo, Japan - Summersonic Festival
08-12 Osaka, Japan - Summersonic Festival
08-24 Reading, England - Reading Festival
08-25 Reading, England - Reading England
The Pipettes
04-25 Hamburg, Germany - Grunspan
04-26 Berlin, Germany - Maria/Zitty Party
04-27 Munich, Germany - Backstage Werk
04-28 Florence, Italy - Viper
04-29 Placentia, Italy - Fillmore
04-30 Bologna, Italy - Estragon
05-01 Conegliano, Italy - Zion Rock Club
05-03 Paris, France - Trabendo
06-01 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace
06-02 Washington, DC - Black Cat
06-03 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
06-04 Boston, MA - Great Scott
06-05 New York, NY - Highline Ballroom
06-07 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
06-08 Minneapolis, MN - 7th St Entry
06-10 San Diego, CA - Casbah
06-11 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour
06-12 San Francisco, CA - Popscene @ Rickshaw Stop
06-14 Seattle, WA - Chop Suey
06-15 Vancouver, British Columbia - Plaza Club
Peter, Bjorn and John
05-01 New York, NY - Webster Hall #*
05-02 New York, NY - Webster Hall #*
05-03 Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts #*
05-04 Boston, MA - Paradise #*
05-05 Montreal, Quebec - Le National #*
05-06 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix #*
05-07 Columbus, OH - Wexner Center #*
05-08 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle (early show) #
05-08 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle (late show) *
05-09 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue #*
05-11 Calgary, Alberta - MacEwan Ballroom *
05-12 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore *
05-13 Seattle, WA - Neumos *
05-14 Portland, OR - Doug Fir *
05-15 San Francisco, CA - Bimbo's *
05-16 San Francisco, CA - Bimbo's *
06-23 Vienna, Austria - Donau Festival
06-29-30 Stockholm, Sweden - University of Stockholm (Accelerator Festival)
07-01 Istanbul, Turkey - Radar Live
07-05 Kristiansand, Norway - Quart Festival
07-06 Roskilde, Denmark - Roskilde Festival
07-21 Valencia, Spain - Benicàssim
07-22 Gurten, Switzerland - Gurtenfestival
07-27 Berlin, Germany - Berlinfestival
07-29 Niigata, Japan - Fuji Rock Festival
08-04 Baltimore, MD - Pimlico Race Course (Virgin Festival)
* with Fujiya & Miyagi
# with Au Revoir Simone
Jesus And Mary Chain
04-26 Pomona, CA - The Glass House
04-27 Indio, CA - Empire Polo Field (Coachella)
05-21 New York, NY - Webster Hall
05-22 New York, NY - Webster Hall
07-04 Lisbon, Portugal - Super Bock Super Rock
07-13 Madrid, Spain - Summercase Festival
07-14 Barcelona, Spain - Summercase Festival
08-12 Hildesheim, Germany - M'era Luna Festival
08-31 Argyll, Scotland - Inveraray Castle (Connect Festival)
09-01 Stradbally, Ireland - Stradbally Hall (Electric Picnic)
Mogwai
05-11 Zurich, Switzerland - M4 Festival
05-13 Edinburgh, Scotland - Liquid Rooms
05-18 Minehead, England - Butlins Holiday Centre (ATP vs the Fans)
05-26 Seville, Spain - Monastery Cartuja
06-16 Barcelona, Spain - Sonar
06-23 Scheeßel, Germany - Hurricane Festival
06-24 Neuhausen ob Eck, Germany - Southside Festival
07-12 London, England - Somerset House
07-14 Birmingham, England - Supersonic Festival
09-01 Argyll, Scotland - Inveraray Castle (Connect Festival)
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
My Bloody Valentine – We Have All The Time In The World
Voxtrot – Raised By Wolves EP
Ride – Nowhere
Shearwater – Palo Alto
The bit at the end
It now seems Patrick Wolf isn't quitting music and was instead just throwing a temper tantrum. Drama queen.
This next month is looking pretty good gig wise. Cat Power next week, The National in London and Primavera right at the end.
Pete Doherty may be broke. I didn't think crack was that expensive.
