Dancing About Architecture 05.29.07
Posted by Ian Wright on 05.29.2007
The National Live, Handsome Furs, Spoon, Pitchfork Fest, ATP, Neko Case’s pants, Robert Pollard, Elliott Smith and Liars
The bit at the start
One of these days I'm going to go on a holiday that doesn't involve seeing live music. But it's not happening anytime soon. Last Tuesday I flew over to London to see the National play the first proper gig of their Boxer tour. Their last Irish gig in November 2005 which I've written about in the past was one of my favourite live experiences ever so they had a lot to live up to for their gig in the Astoria.
Well as it turns out it wasn't quite as good as that but it was still pretty great. The band seemed slightly unsure of themselves playing a few of the new songs live but there were others which they teased out an jammed on a bit that sounded great. Lots of songs from Alligator were played as well but the real highlight for me was an amazing version of "About Today" from last week "Beg, borrow ..." selection the Cherry Tree EP. And it's nice to see that Matt Berninger has lost some of his on stage shyness.
The band will be touring their asses off for the rest of the year and if you get the chance to catch them I urge you to do so.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
TV On The Radio – Young Liars EP
Better than the albums that followed.
The Dancing About Architecture MySpace band of the week.
The Department Of Homeland Security may not like them but I think they're great.
Recommended song: Handsome Furs Hate this City
You news, you lose
Stabbed in the ass.
The final set of additions to the Pitchfork Fest (taking place in Chicago's Union Park from July 13-15, tickets, in all sorts of pricing combinations available from ticketweb) were announced last week and ... well they kinda blew their wad early on with the announcements but it's still worth 50 of your American dollars for the weekend. For what it's worth Mastodon, Junior Boys, The Field, Cadence Weapon, Brightback Morning Light, William Parker Quartet and The Cool Kids (nerdy name) are the final additions.
So the lineup now looks like this (my picks underlined)...
Yoko Ono
Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues (w/ members of Dirty Three, the Delta 72, and Blues Explosion) – I'd ordinarily underline Chan but the band are awful
Clipse
Mastodon Iron and Wine
Battles – I've heard great thing about the live show but can't vouch for them, ask me in a week
Grizzly Bear – Wouldn't recommend them based on the Friday before last but most of my mates who I saw them with loved it.
Voxtrot
Califone
The Twilight Sad
Girl Talk – Cue stage invasion in 5, 4, 3, ...
Dan Deacon
Oxford Collapse
Professor Murder Fujiya & Miyagi
Beach House
William Parker Quartet
Ken Vandermark's Powerhouse Sound
Sunday, July 15:
De La Soul
The New Pornographers Of Montreal
Stephen Malkmus
Jamie Lidell
The Sea and Cake
Junior Boys
Menomena
The Ponys Deerhunter
Klaxons
The Field
Cadence Weapon
The Cool Kids
Craig Taborn's Junk Magic
Nomo
Brightblack Morning Light
Fred Lonberg-Holm's Lightbox Orchestra
What's that? It's someone speaking, and it's leading me.
You might think that breaking up a band but continuing to make music with members of it is counter-intuitive but really, who are you to question Robert Pollard? Did you write the greatest collection of not-written by the Beatles Beatles songs ever? No? Well shut up then.
Pollard's second album with fellow former Guided By Voicer Chris Slussarenko under the name of The Takeovers is due out on June 12th and features quiet the stellar cast of supporting players with Stephen Malkmus (Pavement/ ... and the Jicks), Dan Peters (Mudhoney), John Moen (The Decemberists) and Tad Doyle (Tad) all lending their talents to the record.
Bad Football will be released on Off Records which is currently hosting 3 songs off the album on their website, an additional song is available on the band's MySpace page.
Tracklisting:
01 You're at It
02 Little Green Onion Man
03 Father's Favorite Temperature
04 Molly & Zack
05 Pretty Not Bad
06 Smokestack Bellowing Stars
07 I Can See My Dog
08 The Jester of Helpmeat
09 Kicks at the Gym
10 Music for Us
11 The Year Nobody Died
12 My Will
As it happens I was listening to Drums Not Dead lots last week.
or
TELL THE TRUTH DAMN YOU
I hope it doesn't mean that they've been doing too much coke to think of a decent name (because that's what seems to be the case when bands release eponymous non-debut albums) but Liars released a few details about their upcoming 4th album. Liars will be out on Mute on August 28th on CD, (white) Vinyl and on download.
Talking about the album to Pitchfork Angus Andrews said that the tracks might have a more traditional structure than their earlier work saying, "I'd never felt like a songwriter 'til this album... If you said I'd be playing guitar solos, I'd have called you a liar."
Hmm, intriguing. It may not be cool to say but my favourite thing on the last album was "The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack" which was the most song like track on the album.
Tracklisting:
01 Plaster Casts of Everything
02 Houseclouds
03 Leather Prowler
04 Sailing to Byzantium
05 What Would They Know
05 Cycle Time
06 Freak Out
07 Pure Unevil
08 Clear Island
09 The Dumb in the Rain
10 Protection
A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.
At least I didn't use the headline "All we hear is radio ..."
Spoon's next album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is set to land on record shop shelves on July 10th via Merge and to help along those important first week sales the first pressing of the album will come with Get Nice!, a 22 minute 12 track EP containing off-cuts, instrumental jams and a few demos, some old ("You Got Yr Cherry Bomb" and "I Summon You"), but mostly all new.
Which is nice.
There's many a fanboy feeling funny, and slightly sticky right now.
If you've ever wanted to get into Neko Case's underwear well here's your chance. Case posed as Miss February in the 2000 Sympathy For The Record Industry promotional calendar in a "a 50s era black lace full length girdle-style bustier with 6 garter attachments made by Lady Marlene."
Case liked the garment so much that she kept it for two years before returning it to its original owner, photographer, Victoria Renard. Renard is now auctioning the item off on ebay with proceeds going to Greyt Expectations Greyhound Rescue.
Oh yeah, here's the outfit in question ...
Too damn handsome for America.
The Handsome Furs were due to start a 6 date US tour last Tuesday but were foiled due to visa issues and had to cancel their quick jaunt down south which marked the release of their marvellous debut album Plague Park.
The band addressed the problem on this MySpace blog post ...
Alexei here.
I want to extend my whole-hearted regrets to those who were planning on coming to our US shows this week. We are so wholly disappointed that we could not play for you. Dan and I have both been wildly excited for this tour. Really.
We are already working on scheduling shows south of the border for the near future. We cannot wait until it works out.
I am very sorry for all who lost out on this. I assure you we feel equal measures of disappointment and loss.
In this last six months, the fists of the US Border Protection Services and The Department of Homeland Security have come down pummelling; making it extremely difficult for touring bands to enter the country. Our record label and booking agent are working hard to get us different visas that will allow us to reschedule the East Coast tour and perform dates out to the Mid-West in July.
Again, we are really upset. We were really looking forward to performing these songs in front of a US audience.
At present the band have a few dates scheduled in LA and Chicago next month which are still on and for Wolf Parade fans let's hope the problems were related to Alexei Perry and not Dan Boekner as they've got dates lined up in the States in August.
ATP ATP ATP
No sooner have a pair of ATP's finished up but the next is announced. This year's "Nightmare Before Christmas" will take place at Butlins Minehead on the weekend of December 7-9 and will be curated by a reformed Portishead. Writing about the event on their website the band said, "We have always loved the All Tomorrow's Parties set up and we're happy our first shows will be there. It's great to have the opportunity to introduce bands we love or have influenced us. We've chosen a diverse collection of artists to play with us and we're really looking forward to it"
I don't know how excited I am at the prospect of Portishead curating to be honest, I can't help but wonder if they're just going to book a load of their mates from Brighton to bore the pants off the attendees.
And when is Kevin Shields going to get off his arse and do one of these?
The Youtube video of the week
My favourite songwriter ever gives a songwriting lesson.
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Casiotone For The Painfully Alone
05-26 New York, NY - The Knitting Factory (NYC Popfest)
06-14 Los Angeles, CA - Echo #
06-15 San Diego, CA - Beauty Bar
06-16 Phoenix, AZ - Trunkspace
06-18 Oklahoma City, OK - Conservatory
06-19 Dallas, TX - Palladium *
06-20 Austin, TX - Emo's
06-21 Houston, TX - Proletariat *
06-23 Murfreesboro, TN - Sweetwater
06-25 Athens, GA - Caledonia
06-26 Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn
06-27 Norfolk, VA - The Boot
06-29 Washington DC - The Red and the Black
07-05 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge
07-06 Cambridge, MA - Middle East ^
07-09 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Tavern
07-20 Seattle, WA - Atlas Clothing
07-21 Portland, OR - Holocene
07-25 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
# with Ladybug Transistor, Papercuts
* with Southerly
^ with Pants Yell!
The National
Not playing a headlining Dublin gig till (Mr.) November, doubly glad I made the trip to London now.
05-25 Berlin, Germany - Magnet
05-28 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom *
05-29 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom #
05-30 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom %
05-31 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom $
06-01 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom @
06-02 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's
06-04 Montreal, Quebec - Cabaret !
06-05 Toronto, Ontario - Opera House !
06-06 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick !^
06-07 Chicago, IL - Metro !^
06-08 Minneapolis, MN - 400 Bar !^
06-09 Madison, WI - High Noon Saloon !^
06-11 St. Louis, MO - Duck Room !^
06-12 Louisville, KY - Headliners Music Hall !^
06-13 Atlanta, GA - The Earl !^
06-14 Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo Music Festival
06-15 Cincinnati, OH - 20th Century Theater !^
06-16 Columbus, OH - The Basement !^
06-18 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom !^
06-19 Pittsburgh, PA - Rex Theater !^
06-20 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club !^
06-21 Boston, MA - Middle East Downstairs !^
06-25 San Diego, CA - Casbah *
06-26 Los Angeles, CA - El Rey Theater *
06-27 San Francisco, CA - Bimbo's 365 Club *
06-28 Portland, OR - Berbati's Pan *
06-29 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards *
06-30 Seattle, WA - Neumos *
07-07 Roskilde, Denmark - Roskilde Festival
07-08 Naas, Ireland - Punchestown Racecourse (Oxegen Festival)
07-10 Stoke-on-Trent, England - Sugarmill
07-11 Nottingham, England - Rescue Rooms
07-13 Dour, Belgium - Dour Festival
07-14 Herk, Belgium - Rock Herk Festival
07-15 Southwold, England - Latitude Festival
08-17 New York, NY - South Street Seaport +
11-01 Dublin, Ireland - Village
11-02 Glasgow, Scotland - ABC
11-03 Sheffield, England - Leadmill
11-04 Manchester, England - Academy 2
11-06 Birmingham, England - Irish Centre
11-07 London, England - Shepherds Bush Empire
11-09 Bristol, England - Anson Rooms
11-10 Portsmouth, England - Pyramids
11-11 Paris, France - Elysée Montmartre
* with the Broken West
# with Doveman
% with My Brightest Diamond
$ with Elysian Fields
@ with Philistines Jr.
! with Shapes and Sizes
^ with Talkdemonic
+ with Takka Takka, the Forms
Spoon
06-10 San Diego, CA - KZBT Independence Jam
06-16 Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo
06-29 Calgary, Alberta - Sled Island Festival
07-04 Detroit, MI - Comerica CityFest
07-11 New York, NY - Battery Park (River to River)
08-04 Chicago, IL - Grant Park (Lollapalooza)
08-05 Baltimore, MD - Virgin Festival
09-14-16 Austin, TX - Zilker Park (Austin City Limits Festival)
Andrew Bird
05-23 Utrecht, Netherlands - Tivoli
05-24 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
05-26 Beverungen, Germany - Orange Blossom Special
05-28 Berlin, Germany - Lido
05-30 Coimbra, Portugal - Teatro Académico Gil Vicente
05-31 Lisbon, Portugal - Cine-Teatro São Jorge
06-01 Braga, Portugal - Theatro Circo
06-02 Madrid, Spain - Sali Mynt
06-03 London, England - Homefires Festival
06-04 Paris, France - La Cigale
06-07 London, England - Scala
06-08 Manchester, England - Academy
07-07 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl *
07-14 Glasgow, Scotland - Indian Summer Festival
07-15 Suffolk, England - Latitude Festival
09-01 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards
09-02 Seattle, WA - Bumbershoot Festival
09-15 Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Festival
09-20 Madison, WI - Wisconsin Union Theater
* with the Decemberists, Band of Horses
The Wrens
06-09 Seattle, WA - Crocodile Cafe *
06-23 Ottawa, Ontario - Barrymore's Music Hall (Capital Idea! Festival)
06-24 Chicago, IL - BAM! (Belmont Arts & Music) Festival
07-20 Denton, TX - Hailey's #
07-21 Austin, TX - Emo's #
* with Young Galaxy
# with Get Him Eat Him
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Elliott Smith – A bootleg from DC from a few years back.
Fight Like Apes – How Am I Supposed To Kill You When You Have All The Guns
The bit at the end
I'm going away to Barcelona on Wednesday for Primavera. Someone may post a Dancing About Architecture next Tuesday but I won't be. See you in a fortnight.
