Dancing About Architecture 06.26.07
Posted by Ian Wright on 06.26.2007
Okkervil River and Interpol leaks, I hate Billy Corgan, Nels Cline, Beirut, LCD Soundsystem and Arcade Fire together at last, Kevin Drew and the best of British.
The bit at the start
So over the weekend 2 albums that I've been really looking forward to leaked, Interpol's Our Love To Admire and Okkervil River's Stage Names. I've not had much of a chance to digest both so I'm only going to give very brief thoughts on them.
The Interpol record, as is their habit, opens really strongly with "Pioneer To The Falls" and continues it's hot start with "No I In Threesome" which despite the really stupid name is a super tune. My early feeling is that it's a stronger album than Antics which I felt was really patchy save for a few songs. That being said they've not really developed much and it very much sounds like what you'd expect from an Interpol album. Definitely worth hearing if you're a fan but if you're new to the band make sure you hear Turn On the Bright Lights first.
As for Okkervil River … at the time of writing I've only heard it once but I'm very happy with what I've heard, "Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe" is as good a song as they've ever written and I love the playful way that the album ends but it's still very early days. All Okkervil River albums have had to grow on me and I'm sure if you were to ask me in 2 weeks I'd have a much higher opinion of it but right now I don't think it's a Black Sheep Boy beater but it could well shade Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See, and that's an album I rate very highly.
And further to last week's column, yes I'll be buying them when they come out, and yes, probably on Vinyl.
The new Liars albums leaked too but I've not heard that yet.
Oh shit, I forgot to say hi.
Hi.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Elliott Smith – Figure 8
Somewhat polished but has some of his best acoustic songs.
The Dancing About Architecture MySpace band of the week.
If you like Cold War Kids you'll probably be blown away by these guys. I don't really like Cold War Kids and still think they're really good.
Recommended song: Kid On My Shoulders
Mailbag
411's Mitch Michael's chimes in to put me straight on the Sonic Youth Starbucks deal …
the Starbucks label (Hear Music) isn't limited to Starbucks. They sell those albums all over. Now, some CDs do come out exclusive to Starbucks, but it's usually really specific stuff no one but hardcore fans would want, and then winds up being re-released later on (James Taylor's last Christmas album and that Alanis Morissette deal come to mind).
You news, you lose
Fuck off you fucking asshole.
Anyone who previously thought that Billy Corgan wasn't a colossal douchbag can shut their goddamned traps right now.
News emerged last Friday that 4 versions of the upcoming Smashing Pumpkins album Zeitgeist will be released. There'll be the regular version, the only available at Target version which has an extra track, the only available at Best Buy version which has a different extra track and also the iTunes (I'm not even going to get started on that) version which has yet another bonus track (and if you buy the presale version on iTunes you also get Pumpkins covers by The Bravery, the Acadamy Is …, Panic At The Disco, Test Your Reflex and +44; i.e. 2 of the worst bands on the planet and 3 that I've never heard of).
FUCK
THAT
NOISE.
So basically they're screwing their fans by expecting the hardcore, gotta have everything, fans (of which there are plenty) to buy 3 copies of the album if they want everything legitimately AND they're screwing the regular record stores (be it chain or independent) by supplying them with a less desirable version of the album to the one iTunes or Best Buy or Target will be selling.
I think Sharon Osborne said it best about Corgan when she ended her brief business arrangement with him and referred to him as "a baldy twat in a dress."
Dick.
Siamese Dream is still a great album though, I recommend you download it off a torrent site if you don't own it already.
Standard tracklist:
01 Doomsday Clock
02 7 Shades of Black
03 Bleeding the Orchid
04 That's the Way (My Love Is)
05 Tarantula
06 Starz
07 United States
08 Neverlost
09 Bring the Light
10 (Come On) Let's Go!
11 For God and Country
12 Pomp and Circumstances
Best Buy:
01. Doomsday Clock
02. 7 Shades of Black
03. Bleeding the Orchid
04. That's the Way (My Love Is)
05. Tarantula
06. Starz
07. United States
08. Neverlost
09. Death From Above (bonus track)
10. Bring the Light
11. (Come On) Let's Go!
12. For God and Country
13. Pomp and Circumstances
Target:
01 Doomsday Clock
02 7 Shades of Black
03 Bleeding the Orchid
04 That's the Way (My Love Is)
05 Tarantula
06 Starz
07 United States
08 Neverlost
09 Bring the Light
10 (Come On) Let's Go!
11 For God and Country
12 Pomp and Circumstances
13 Zeitgeist (bonus track)
iTunes:
01 Doomsday Clock
02 7 Shades of Black
03 Bleeding the Orchid
04 That's the Way (My Love Is)
05 Tarantula
06 Starz
07 United States
08 Neverlost
09 Bring the Light
10 (Come On) Let's Go!
11 For God and Country
12 Pomp and Circumstances
13 Stellar (bonus track)
Science Project you say?
As I said in my recap of Primavera a couple of weeks ago pretty much the only thing that rescued Wilco's set for me when they played there was the brilliance of their current guitarist Nels Cline.
Well when not bailing Jeff Tweedy and the rest of Wilco's asses out of mediocre shows he has been of late working on the latest Nels Cline Singers album which is out today. It's entitled Draw Breath and it's going to be on Cryptogramaphone Records and Wilco drummer Glen Kotche is guesting on it.
This guy is a serious fucking guitar player so if you're a geek for that sort of stuff like I am he's worth hearing.
Tracklisting:
01 Caved-In Heart Blues
02 Attempted
03 Confection
04 An Evening at Pops'
05 The Angel of Angels
06 Recognize I
07 Mixed Message
08 Recognize II
09 Squirrel of God
Is the capital of the Lebanon.
Beirut's follow up to last year's Gulag Orkestrar may or may not be called The Flying Club Cup, but there are a few things that we do know about it. Namely (not the name) the release date, the tracklist and a few other things on top of those titbits.
The album will be out on October 9th on Ba Da Bing records and was mixed and mastered by Griffin Rodriguez. Rather excitingly it's going to feature backing vocals and string arrangements from Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett. It's also likely that the Balkan influence on the last record will be shelved in favour of a more baroque pop sound because he told Pitchfork last month that while working on the album, "I was listening to a lot of Jacques Brel and French chanson music-- pop songs shrouded in big, glorious, over-the-top arrangements and all this drama...very much throwing myself in the world of classical pop music".
Tracklisting (the 00 is not a typo):
00 A Call to Arms
01 Nantes
02 A Sunday Smile
03 Guyamas Sonora
04 La Banlieu
05 Cliquot
06 The Penalty
07 Forks and Knives (La Fête)
08 In the Mausoleum
09 Un Dernier Verre (Pour la Route)
10 Cherbourg
11 St. Apollonia
12 The Flying Club Cup
On the subject of Beirut I saw them on Friday. They were pretty bleh once again. Zach walked out on stage shitfaced drunk and my heart sank because I feared a complete disaster but surprisingly he held it together reasonably well when it came to actually playing. Real unprofessional and unpolished though.
I reckon the tour with The National a while back had a better lineup.
Clear September and maybe some of October too.
Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem are to embark on an autumn tour together that might just result in every hipster in North America getting their skinny jeans a bit warm and sticky.
As yet only 2 dates have been announced (Red Rocks in Colorado on September 17th and the Hollywood Bowl on the 20th) but there are more dates to be announced in the coming weeks.
MY BLOODY VALENTINE WERE IRISH.
If you've got a bit of an Anglophile streak then you'll be very happy that Rhino exists because on October 7th they're releasing a mammoth box set collection entitled The Brit Box: U.K. Indie, Shoegaze, and Brit Pop Gems of the Last Millennium
Featuring a virtual who's who of British music over the last 2 decades of the last millennium the 4 disc set covers pretty much all the bases from the giants of UK indie (The Smiths) to those bands who had one great song them kinda disappeared (The Bluetones, but "Slight Return" is an amazing tune).
Disc one covers all the jangley stuff that was going on the mid 80's from the likes of The Smiths and the LA's before turning its attention to all that Madchester rubbish. Disc 2 focuses mainly on the shoegaze movement and features My Bloody Valentine and a load of bands that wished they were. Disc 3 moves on to Britpop and features most of the mid 90's giants of UK music while Disc 4 throws together the also rans as well as a few bands that probably could have made it on to disc 3.
As is the usual with Rhino a lot of thought has gone into the packaging of the collection and in this case the packaging will be made to resemble an English phone box complete with a battery powered flickering lightbulb and will come with an 80 page booklet featuring photos, interviews, essays, and memories from the likes of Creation's Alan McGee, producers Stephen Street and Alan Moulder as well as number of the acts featured on the collection.
Tracklisting:
Disc 1:
01 The Smiths - "How Soon Is Now?"
02 Cocteau Twins - "Lorelei"
03 Felt - "Primitive Painters"
04 Shop Assistants - "Somewhere in China"
05 The Mighty Lemon Drops - "My Biggest Thrill"
06 The Cure - "Just Like Heaven"
07 Echo & The Bunnymen - "Lips Like Sugar"
08 The Jesus and Mary Chain - "April Skies"
09 Spacemen 3 - "Walkin' With Jesus (Sound of Confusion)"
10 The Primitives - "Crash"
11 The Wonder Stuff - "Unbearable"
12 The Stone Roses - "She Bangs the Drums"
13 The Charlatans UK - "The Only One I Know"
14 Happy Mondays - "Step On"
15 Primal Scream - "Loaded" [single version]
16 Inspiral Carpets - "This Is How It Feels"
17 The Trash Can Sinatras - "Obscurity Knocks"
18 The La's - "There She Goes"
19 The Sundays - "Here's Where the Story Ends"
Disc 2:
01 Ride - "Vapour Trail"
02 Pale Saints - "Sight of You"
03 My Bloody Valentine - "Only Shallow"
04 Lush - "For Love"
05 The Telescopes - "Flying"
06 Chapterhouse - "Pearl"
07 Catherine Wheel - "I Want To Touch You"
08 Bleach - "Trip & Slide"
09 Curve - "Coast Is Clear"
10 Five Thirty - "You"
11 Moose - "This River Will Never Run Dry"
12 The Family Cat - "(Thought I'd Died) And Gone To Heaven"
13 The Dylans - "(Don't Cut Me Down) Mary Quant in Blue"
14 Thousand Yard Stare - "0-0 A.E.T. (No Score After Extra Time)"
15 Ned's Atomic Dustbin - "Grey Cell Green"
16 Birdland - "Shoot You Down"
17 Manic Street Preachers - "Stay Beautiful"
18 Teenage Fanclub - "Star Sign"
Disc 3:
01 Suede - "Metal Mickey"
02 Swervedriver - "Duel" [radio edit]
03 Eugenius - "Breakfast"
04 Superstar - "Barfly"
05 New Order - "Regret"
06 James - "Laid"
07 Nick Heyward - "Kite"
08 The Boo Radleys - "Lazarus"
09 Saint Etienne - "You're in a Bad Way"
10 Stereolab - "Wow & Flutter"
11 Blur - "Tracy Jacks"
12 Oasis - "Live Forever"
13 Pulp - "Common People"
14 These Animal Men - "Speed King"
15 Mega City Four - "Wallflower"
16 Echobelly - "Insomniac"
17 Gene - "Sleep Well Tonight"
18 Menswe@r - "Sleeping In"
19 Supergrass - "Alright"
20 Cast - "Alright"
21 Elastica - "Stutter"
Disc 4:
01 Dodgy - "In a Room"
02 Ash - "Girl From Mars"
03 Sleeper - "Sale of the Century"
04 Marion - "Sleep"
05 Kula Shaker - "Tattva"
06 Ocean Colour Scene - "The Riverboat Song"
07 Babybird - "You're Gorgeous"
08 The Bluetones - "Slight Return"
09 Super Furry Animals - "Something 4 the Weekend"
10 The Divine Comedy - "Something for the Weekend"
11 Cornershop - "Brimful of Asha"
12 Silver Sun - "Service"
13 Spiritualized - "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space"
14 Mansun - "Wide Open Space"
15 Hurricane #1 - "Step Into My World"
16 The Verve - "Lucky Man"
17 Rialto - "Untouchable"
18 Catatonia - "Mulder and Scully"
19 Placebo - "You Don't Care About Us"
20 Gay Dad - "Oh Jim"
What's with the fucking Unicorns?
Following up from last week's story about the Kevin Drew solo album more details were released last week.
The album (Spirit If) will be out on September 18th on BSS's Arts and Craft Label and features some pretty out there track titles. Anyway, here's the artwork and after that is the tracklist.
01 Farewell to the Pressure Kids
02 Tbtf
03 F-ked Up Kid
04 Safety Bricks
05 Lucky Ones
06 Broke Me Up
07 Gangbang Suicide
08 Frightening Lives
09 Underneath the Skin
10 Big Love
11 Back Out on the...
12 Aging Faces / Losing Places
13 Bodhi Sappy Weekend
14 When It Begins
The YouTube video of the week
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Ryan Adams
06-22 Toronto, Ontario - Enwave Theater
06-24 Burlington, VT - Higher Ground
06-26 New York, NY - Hiro Ballroom
06-28 Philadelphia, PA - The Fillmore at the TLA
06-29 Boston, MA - Somerville Theater
07-10 Charlottesville, VA - Paramount Theater
07-11 Louisville, KY - Brown Theater
07-12 Germantown, TN - Germantown Performing Arts Center
07-14 Austin, TX - Paramount Theatre
07-19 Los Angeles, CA - Wilshire Ebell Theatre
07-21 Santa Cruz, CA - Catalyst
07-26 Portland, OR - Aladdin Theater
07-27 Seattle, WA - Moore Theater
07-28 Vancouver, British Columbia - Orpheum Theater
07-30 Boise, ID - Big Easy
07-31 Salt Lake City, UT - Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre
08-03 Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre
09-01 Turin, NY - moe.down
The Rapture
06-28 Moscow, Russia - B1 Maximum Club
06-30 Istanbul, Turkey - Solar Beach Festival
07-04 Lisbon, Portugal - Superbock Super Rock
07-07 Montendre, France - Free Music Festival
07-08 Maubeuge, France - Les Ramparts
07-09 Frankfurt, Germany - Mousonturm
07-12 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Melkweg
07-13 Dour, Belgium - Dour Festival
07-14 Glasgow, Scotland - Indian Summer Festival
07-15 Suffolk, England - Latitude Festival
07-17 Njimegen, Netherlands - Valkhof Affaire Festival
07-18 Zurich, Switzerland - Moods Theatre at Schiffbau
07-20 Benicassim, Spain - Benicassim Festival
07-21 Dublin, Ireland - Lovebox Festival
07-22 London, England - Lovebox Festival
07-25 Los Angeles, CA - Mayan Theatre
07-26 Los Angeles, CA - Mayan Theatre
07-27 Berkeley, CA - Greek Theatre *
07-29 Seattle, WA - WAMU Center *
07-31 Denver, CO - Red Rocks *
08-03 Chicago, IL - Grant Park (Lollapalooza)
08-05 Toronto, Ontario - Arrow Hall *
08-07 Montreal, Quebec - Bell Center *
08-09 New York, NY - Keyspan Park *
* with Daft Punk
Okkervil River
07-14 Concord, NH - Capitol Center for the Arts (Sneakers and Speakers benefit)
07-15 Providence, RI - Jake's Bar and Grille
09-03 San Diego, CA - Casbah
09-04 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour
09-05 San Francisco, CA - Independent
09-08 Portland, OR - Berbati's Pan (MusicFest NW)
09-09 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards
09-10 Seattle, WA - Neumos
09-13 Denver, CO - Marquee Theater
09-14 Omaha, NE - Waiting Room
09-15 Iowa City, IA - Picador
09-18 Chicago, IL - Logan Square Auditorium
09-19 Urbana, IL - The Canopy Club (Pygmalion Festival)
09-21 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace
09-22 Hamilton, Ontario - Pepper Jack's Café
09-23 Montreal, Quebec - La Sala Rossa
09-24 Burlington, VT - Higher Ground
09-25 Boston, MA - Middle East
09-26 Northampton, MA - Iron Horse
09-28 New York, NY - Webster Hall
09-29 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's
09-30 Washington, DC - Rock and Roll Hotel
10-02 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
10-03 Athens, GA - 40 Watt
10-06 Houston, TX - Walter's on Washington
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Interpol – Our Love To Admire
White Rabbits – Fort Nightly
Elliott Smith – 2000-02-20 bootleg from Washington
The bit at the end
Following my shitty Primavera and last year's Champions League final I was pretty down on Barcelona as a place. But considering the fact that Thierry Henry signed for Barcelona on Friday night I think I can now safely say that it's my least favourite city that I've ever been too.
I WANT TEVEZ, or Torres, or Villa, or Alves, but not fucking Anelka, unless his brothers are executed first.
ADDENDUM: I tried to post this column around midnight my time last night but found that the site had crashed. It took me a while to find out the reason. I really don't know what to say. I've not watched wrestling regularly in years but I'm not lying when I say that I used to be a huge fan and when I was Chris Benoit was my absolute favourite. Details are still really sketchy so I won't comment further. It's just really fucked up.
