Dancing About Architecture 07.17.07
Posted by Ian Wright on 07.17.2007
HUGE, GIANT, My Bloody Valentine news, a shoegaze documentary, Daniel Johnston, PJ Harvey, The Polaris Prize and the best albums of the year so far.
The bit at the start
Well the Daniel Johnston gig in Dublin came and went and to be honest I don't really know how to feel about it. I found the whole experience to be quite emotionally draining because at times he's very difficult to watch. He twitches like crazy and is constantly chewing on his lips and sticking out his tongue. I suspect that the cause is the medication he's on to control his problems rather than his illness himself.
At the same time it was really quite beautiful, the songs are brilliant (even if they all seem to be in G) and the performance is incredibly raw (ridiculously so, it's hard to get why someone who has been playing guitar for about 20 years can play it so poorly) and it was really quite moving. A few of the people in the group I was with told me afterwards that there was a number of times during the set that they felt like crying.
As for the crowd, for the most part I thought they were great. Everyone really seemed to want Daniel to be good and to get through it but there was a small element that seemed very patronising to him. The guy is severely bipolar/paranoid schizophrenic, not a moron, and what some of the people in the crowd were doing was akin to patting him on the head and going "great job little buddy". Johnston picked up on it himself I think when after about the 20th "we love you Daniel" of the night he responded with "WE love you too," dude was the only one on stage at the time.
All that being said, giving Nazi salutes from the stage not cool.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Pavement Slanted And Enchanted
An undeniable lo-fi classic of epic proportions.
The Dancing About Architecture MySpace band of the week.
A guy from Galway based in Seoul who I think has probably listened to a lot of Weezer. Some songs are in Korean.
Recommended song: Moon Geun Young
You news, you lose
HOLY SHIT THE BEST NEWS IN THE WORLD.
The following appeared on the Cluas.com discussion board on Monday
Hello!!,
Quint here, formerly known as Antistar. I used to post here about a year ago before the upgrade nightmare but enough of that...I went over to see Mogwai at Somerset House, London but while waiting for them to come on who should walk past only the Godlike genius that is Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, creator of 'Loveless', one the greatest albums of all time and my all-time rock hero. Anyway, to cut a long story short and thanks to about 4 pints-worth of Dutch courage, I approached him as I would have regretted it for the rest of my life if I hadn't. He is one of the nicest,unassuming guys you could ever meet. So much for the 'never meet your heroes' rule. I asked him any chance of a new album or tour and here's the scoop...
2 new albums: One an anthology of unreleased material from the nineties, and a completely new album.
A tour in 2008!
He also mentioned that they were asked to play a gig 'at some museum in Dublin later in the year' as he put it, I presume this is POD marquee thing at IMMA in late Oct/November but he didn't seem that sure whether they were going to play as they are not ready yet to play live until the proper tour next year....
There have been rumours before about MBV reunion but this was from the main man himself and he seemed pretty definite about their upcoming plans....here's hoping!
Apparently Shields has been at plenty of gigs around London of late and when approached has been telling people very similar things.
Fingers crossed, if you don't own Loveless then you should really do yourself a favour.
Stare at your kicks.
On a semi related note
Shoegaze as a genre is, in my opinion kind of a made up one but many of the bands associated with it did make some remarkable music (well, My Bloody Valentine did, some of the others managed to be very good from time to time) and the upcoming film Beautiful Noise will focus on the bands of that era.
Directed by Queens raised LA based filmmaker Eric Green he and partner/editor Sarah Ogletree told Pitchfork that he hoped the film would be "a celebration of these records" in reference to the work of MBV and The Jesus And Mary Chain and Cocteau Twins.
"It's basically about the Cocteau Twins, the Jesus and Mary Chain, and My Bloody Valentine, and what an indelible impact they had on modern music.
"The bulk of the movie is in the late 80s-early 90s, which is a pretty interesting time period, because a lot of these groups were picked up by major labels in the U.S. Around 1990, people thought that this was going to be the next big thing. And then there was a huge backlash, and [shoegaze] was turned over for, let's say, more press-friendly genres.
"But I think this music had a lasting impact on me and other people and I think it's important that a story from that time period be told."
The story will be told by a whole host of figures from that era including My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields and Debbie Googe, Jesus And Mary Chain's Reid brothers and Douglas Hart, and Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymonde, and also Robert Smith (the Cure), Neil Halstead (Slowdive), Mark Gardner and Andy Bell (Ride), Emma Anderson (Lush), Adam Franklin (Swervedriver), Toni Halliday (Curve), Bobby Gillespie (Primal Scream), David Pearce (Flying Saucer Attack), Ian Masters (Pale Saints), Martin Carr (the Boo Radleys), producer Alan Moulder and Creation records founder Alan McGee whose label put out much of the material by those bands. Also interviewed were post shoe-gaze figures like Wayne Coyne, Trent Reznor and Wayne Coyne as well as members of nu-gaze bands like Asobi Seksu, Serena-Maneesh, Ladytron and Autolux.
All in all Green has 47 interviews in the can including one with Kevin Shields that he's very happy with, "He has to be one of the most fascinating people I've ever met. He really lived up to all the expectations. He's amazingly warm and generous. He doesn't just talk about music; he's very well-read about politics and science. Part of him is amazing, genius-- the other part of him, he's really a down-to-earth, friendly guy," and that he's 99% there with the interviews but doesn't want to rule talking to anyone else out till everything is edited together.
While he admits that the film is certainly for fans of the bands he's focussing on Green "hope[s] to appeal to the person that may not have heard of these groups and hasn't heard too many of their records. [Perhaps] if they see it they'll want to go out and buy a few records by some of these groups. I think these are amazingly influential bands that had some popularity, but weren't as popular as they should've been."
As to when the film will be done, don't hold your breath "I've been on it for two and half years. When it seems we're getting closer and closer, things come up. But, we're getting close-- it could be a couple weeks, it could be a couple of months."
Sounds pretty interesting, could be good but I do worry that it might be a bit fanboyish.
To bring you my album details
PJ Harvey's upcoming 7th album is to be called White Chalk, but you may have known that over a week ago.
However since then a few more details have emerged. First off the record will be released in the UK on September 24th though there's no US release pencilled in as of yet. Oh and what's that? It's a tracklist.
01 The Devil
02 Dear Darkness
03 Grow Grow Grow
04 When Under Ether
05 White Chalk
06 Broken Harp
07 Silence
08 To Talk To You
09 The Piano
10 Before Departure
11 The Mountain
Run it up the flag polaris.
The nominees for this year's Polaris Prize (the Canadian equivalent of the Mercury and Shortlist Prizes, or if you're Canadian and staunchly nationalistic those two are the UK and US versions of the Polaris Prize) were announced last week and the list is jammed with many of the usual Canadian suspects such as Arcade Fire and Feist.
The album is open to any Canadian album released in the past year and the winner, "judged solely on artistic merit", will be announced on September 24th and will scoop the prize of $20,000 (presumably in Canadian money).
And the nominees are
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse
The Dears - Gang of Losers
Julie Doiron - Woke Myself Up
Feist - The Reminder
Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye
Miracle Fortress - Five Roses
Joel Plaskett Emergency - Ashtray Rock
Chan VanGaalen - Skelliconnection
Patrick Watson - Close to Paradise
To be honest I've not heard many of those records but I have enjoyed the Arcade Fire and Besnard Lakes albums. Feist, I don't really get when she's not in Broken Social Scene.
The Dancing About Architecture Top 5 Albums Of The First Half Of 2007.
So we're more than half way through 2007 and it's been a pretty good year for music. Certainly the best in a couple of years. These are the albums that have most floated my boat in 2007 thus far. Coming close to making the list were Deerhunter, Andrew Bird, Dinosaur Jr., Elliott Smith, LCD Soundsystem and Battles
5. The Handsome Furs Plague Park
Just when you thought that all the Wolf Parade side project brilliance was coming from Spencer Krug along comes shouty guitar playing Wolf Parader Dan Boeckner and his fiancé Alexei Perry.
The band have in recent months had difficulty entering the US due to visa problems. I reckon America is just scared of the awesome.
4. Panda Bear Person Pitch
I don't get Animal Collective, at all.
I find them just slightly more listenable than Wolf Eyes.
All he same their drummer Noah Lennox's solo effort here is a wonderful collection of Beach Boys inspired pop songwriting.
3. The Hold Steady Boys And Girls In America
Only released over here early in the year The Hold Steady's third album is a lot more accessible than their previous efforts even if they've cut back on telling tales about Holly, Gideon and Charlemagne somewhat. Craig Finn may be the America's finest lyricist under 40.
2. Arcade Fire Neon Bible
No, it's not as good as Funeral, but it was never going to be. It is however still a marvellous album and more than proves that the Montreal band's debut was far from a fluke.
1. The National - Boxer
I actually don't think I can put into words how much I love this album. Maybe I'll be able to manage it in 6 months when it, in all likelihood, tops my end of year list.
The YouTube video of the week
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Justice
07-28 Fuji, Japan - Fuji Rock Festival
08-11 London, England - Field Day Festival
08-14 Santander, Spain - Santander Summer Festival
08-15 Saint-Malo, France - Route de Rock Festival
08-17 Biddinghuizen, Netherlands - Lowlands Festival
08-18 Hasselt, Belgium - Pukkelpop Festival
08-19 Cannes, France - Pantiero Festival
08-25 Liverpool, England - Creamfields
09-06 London, England - KOKO
09-07 Sheffield, England - Plug
09-08 Glasgow, Scotland - Arches
09-22 Melbourne, Australia - Parklife
09-29 Brisbane, Australia - Parklife
09-30 Sydney, Australia - Parklife
10-01 Perth, Australia - Parklife
10-09 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theater
10-10 San Francisco, CA - Mezzanine
10-12 Seattle, WA - Neumos
10-13 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom
10-16 Minneapolis, MN - Foundation
10-17 Chicago, IL - Metro
10-18 Toronto, Ontario - Republic
10-19 Montreal, Quebec - Metropolis
10-20 New York, NY - Webster Hall
10-21 Philadelphia, PA - Starlight Ballroom
Battles
07-17 Montreal, Quebec - La Sala Rossa
07-18 Boston, MA - Paradise
07-19 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church Sanctuary
07-20 Brooklyn, NY - Studio B
07-21 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar !
07-29 Mt. Fuji, Japan - Fuji Rock Festival
08-10 Oslo, Norway - Øya Festival
08-11 London, England - Field Day Festival
08-12 Aulnoye-Aymeries, France - Les Nuits Secrétes
08-16 Hasselt, Belgium - Pukkelpop
08-17 Biddinghuizen, Holland - Lowlands Festival
08-18 Brecon Beacons, Wales - Green Man Festival
08-20 Cardiff, Wales - The Point
08-22 Liverpool, England - The Barfly
08-23 Galway, Ireland - Roisin Dugh
08-24 Dublin, Ireland - The Village
08-25 Reading, England - Reading Festival
08-26 Leeds, England - Leeds Festival
08-31 New York, NY - Seaport Music Festival
10-10 Bristol, England - Blerkeller
10-11 London, England - KOKO
10-12 Leuven, Belgium - Depot
10-13 Heidelberg, Germany - Enjoyjazz Festival
10-14 Amsterdam, Holland - Melkweg
10-15 Rouen, France - Club 106
10-16 Paris, France - Trabendo
10-17 Manchester, England - Academy 2
10-18 Edinburgh, Scotland - Liquid Room
10-19 Newcastle, England - Stage 2
11-01 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
! with Deerhunter
Sunset Rubdown
10-07 Boston, MA - Middle East
10-08 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
10-09 New York, NY - Bowery
10-10 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
10-11 Washington, DC - Black Cat
10-12 Raleigh, NC - Local 506
10-13 Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn
10-15 New Orleans, LA - Spanish Moon
10-16 Austin, TX - Emo's
Joanna Newsom
08-17 Brecon Beacons, Wales - Green Man Festival
09-11 Hamburg, Germany - Kampnagel
09-12 Amsterdam, Holland - Paradiso
09-13 Frankfurt, Germany - Dreikoenigs-Kirche
09-14 Prague, Czech Republic
09-16 Vienna, Austria - WUK
09-18 Munich, Germany - Muffathalle
09-19 Zurich, Switzerland - Rote Fabrik
09-26 Fribourg, Switzerland - Fri-Son
09-28 London, England - Royal Albert Hall
Andrew Bird
08-06 Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theater (solo show) ^
09-01 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards
09-02 Seattle, WA - Bumbershoot
09-08 Chicago, IL - Hideout Block Party
09-10 Knoxville, TN - The Bijou Theater
09-11 Asheville, NC - The Orange Peel
09-12 Durham, NC - The Carolina Theatre
09-13 Atlanta, GA - The Variety Playhouse
09-15 Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Festival
09-17 Lawrence, KS - The Granada
09-18 Louisville, KY - WL Lyons Brown Theatre
09-19 Bloomington, IN - Buskirk Chumley Theater
09-20 Madison, WI - Wisconsin Union Theater
09-21 Urbana, IL - Pygmalion Music Festival
09-22 Iowa City, IA - The Englert Theatre
09-24 Buffalo, NY - Asbury Hall at the Church
09-25 Toronto, Ontario - The Opera House
09-26 Montreal, Quebec - La Tulipe
09-28 South Burlington, VT - Higher Ground
09-29 Baltimore, MD - Sonar
09-30 Richmond, VA - Toad's Place
10-02 Pittsburgh, PA - Carnegie Music Hall
^ with Peter Bjorn & John
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Little Xs for Eyes MySpace songs.
Talk Radio
Cherry Falls in the background. My god it's dreadful.
The bit at the end
Next week I'll be doing my top 5 gigs of the year to date.
Keep an eye out for the 411 mania top 100 albums list, the first instalment went live yesterday featuring contributions from yours truly.
