Dancing About Architecture 10.30.07
Posted by Ian Wright on 10.30.2007
Arcade Fire, Les Savy Fav, Neutral Milk Hotel, Oink, Saul Williams, Natalie Portman, Magnetic Fields, Liars and more.
The bit at the start
Howdy folks, I'm in the middle of a fortnight of awesome gigs at the minute with the National, Andrew Bird, Animal Collective and Deerhunter all rolling through town in the next 7 days. They've got a lot to live up to match last week's gig going though with a double dose of Arcade Fire on Tuesday and Wednesday leaving me unable to speak for all of Thursday. I've written so many nice things about Win and Regine's army of indie fury over the past couple of years I'm beginning to run out of things to say. They're a remarkable band and a stunning live act, seeing them play is a consistently life affirming experience; they put so much of themselves into their performances I'm amazed that they're able to do it night after night. One thing I found strange was that it was really easy to make eye contact with the people in the band and have a little moment with them during the gig. I suppose it's a bit intimidating to look up and see 10,000 people watching you play so it helps to personalise things by eyeballing people up the front and trying to connect with them.
Then on Saturday night I saw Les Savy Fav for the first time. It's kinda hard to sum up what that was like so I'll just say this, Tim Harrington is a wild man.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
The Kinks – The Village Green Preservation Society
At the very least Ray Davies = John and Paul.
You news, you lose
Now they're just taking the piss.
The Billy and Jimmy show continues to try to fuck its fans up the ass this week with today's release of yet another single retailer exclusive release of their latest steaming pile of shit album Zeitgeist. This latest edition will be the second Best Buy exclusive version of the album which will feature 3 bonus songs ("Death From Above" which was on the original Best Buy edition, "Steller" from the iTunes exclusive edition and one brand new song "Ma Belle").
The release also comes with a DVD featuring a full-length documentary Inside The Zeitgeist.
Oh and a new colour scheme for the artwork.
As ever, I'm completely disgusted by Corgan pulling this shit (AGAIN) and encourage all readers to download their entire catalogue off the web. Just obviously not from Oink.
Speaking of Oink.
British police raided the Middlesborough home of the man who ran the private Oink torrent tracker website last week as well his father's home and his workplace. And lo people around the world did weep as they could no longer get pretty much any album they wanted within 40 minutes (seriously, that place was lightning fast) at a higher bitrate then available on iTunes for free. And others, well they shit their pants as they worried that the cops were about to bust their doors down too.
OK, I accept the file sharing is against the law but I'm in the "it helps music" camp and seriously, surely police resources (and there was a major amount of man hours spent on this bust) could be better served by going after real criminals. Oh well, I guess I'll have to use Demonoid, IsoHunt, Shareminer, Indietorrents and even google to find my free music. But way to go on busting Oink guys.
Stephin Merritt hates black people apparently.
In other news Sasha Frere Jones is a colossal buffoon.
Anyway, the following appeared on Merritt's website last week:
"The Magnetic Fields are happy to announce that their new album, titled Distortion, will be released on Nonesuch Records on January 15, 2008. The band will perform a small number of U.S. tour dates in February and March. Specific details regarding venues and ticket pre-sales will be announced shortly."
And that's pretty much the story right there. It'll be the first Magnetic Fields album since 2004's i and the second since the 69 love songs trilogy (i.e. The best titled album ever.)
I'm not sure if any of these songs will change your life.
Natalie Portman is set to curate (Can you curate a compilation? Surely you compile a compilation … DUH) a charity compilation in aid of FINCA, a charity which provides financial services to the world's lowest-income entrepreneurs (presumably they don't give anything to the guy who sells gold by the ton for a penny, that's just dumb) that's released on iTunes today. Portman is FINCA's Ambassador of hope, whatever that is, and in an interview with EW.com said … some stuff. None of it particularly interesting but the jist of it is that she digs music and she nearly did guest vocals on the exclusive Beirut track that appears on the comp.
Tracklisting:
01 Tokyo Police Club: "Be Good"
02 Beirut: "My Night With the Prostitute From Marseille" [exclusive]
03 Tom Brosseau: "Plaid Lined Jacket"
04 Curumin: "Tudo Bem Malandro"
05 The Shins: "Australia (Bjorn Yttling Mix)" [exclusive]
06 Brett Dennen: "Ain't No Reason"
07 Sean Hayes: "Turnaroundturnmeon"
08 Thee More Shallows: "Oh Yes, Another Mother"
09 Angus & Julia Stone: "The Beast"
10 Antony & the Johnsons: "Paddy's Gone"
11 Vetiver: "Idle Ties"
12 Norah Jones: "Broken"
13 Devendra Banhart: "There's Always Something Happening" [exclusive]
14 M. Ward: "What Is a Soul?" [exclusive]
15 Wooden Wand: "Forgiveness Figg (Bethany Hotel Blues)"
16 Rogue Wave: "How We Landed" [exclusive]
Wow that Radiohead breaking the record industry thing happened awful quick.
Poet/MC/activist and all round awesome dude Saul Williams announced the release details of his upcoming Trent Reznor produced album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! which will be available from tomorrow (Wednesday) via Williams' website. For a $5 contribution you can have your choice of the album as 192 or 320 kpbs DRM free mp3's or in uncompressed FLAC format. If you're unwilling/unable to pay then you'll still have access to the 192kbps mp3 version. You can preregister for the download now.
Writing on the NIN website Trent Reznor said, "There are obvious similarities in how Radiohead just released their new record and the way we've chosen to. After thinking about this way too much, I feel we've improved upon their idea in a few profound ways that benefit the consumer." Most notably the choice of bitrate.
Williams believes that the overriding theme behind the album will enable him to expand on it to a greater degree in the live arena and give him more freedom as a performer saying, "The NiggyTardust! concept sets me free to do more on stage with costume, etc. than one might expect from a regular Saul Williams show. It allows me to put my theater training to use. I've also thought long and hard about all the discussion surrounding racial epithets etc. and chose this title as a means of furthering the dialogue while also showing how creativity will outlive and outshine hatred of any kind."
Tracklisting:
01 Black History Month
02 Convict Colony
03 Tr(n)igger
04 Sunday Bloody Sunday
05 Break
06 NiggyTardust
07 DNA
08 WTF!
09 Scared Money
10 Raw
11 Skin of a Drum
12 No One Ever Does
13 Banged and Blown Through
14 Raised to be Lowered
15 The Ritual
TELL THE TRUTH DAMN YOU.
I swear I can handle it.
It's getting near that time of year when I begin thinking about what my favourite albums of the year are. Chances are that when it comes time to draw up the top 10 Liars will feature for the second year running, this time with their latest eponymous album. If you'd like to hear how some of the songs on the album sounded way back when then Mute recordings are currently offering 4 demos of songs from Liars free of charge on their site. All you have to do is go here and sign up for the Liars mailing list and Bob's your uncle.
The YouTube video of the week
I'll never see Jeff play his songs. I know that but I can dream can't I?
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Caribou
10-26 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour *
10-27 San Francisco, CA - Slim's *
10-28 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge *
10-29 Seattle, WA - Neumos *
10-30 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards *
10-31 Victoria, British Columbia - Sugar *
11-02 Edmonton, Alberta - The Starlite Room *
11-03 Calgary, Alberta - The Warehouse *
11-04 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - Amigos *
11-05 Winnipeg, Manitoba - The Collective Cabaret *
11-06 Fargo, ND - The Aquarium *
11-07 Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock Social Club *
11-08 Chicago, IL - Metro *#
11-09 Cleveland Heights, OH - Grog Shop *
11-10 Toronto, Ontario - Opera House *
11-15 Brighton, England - Audio
11-16 Cardiff, Wales - Clwb Ifor Bach
11-17 Reading, England - South Street
11-18 Birmingham, England - The Glee Club
11-19 Cork, Ireland - Crane Lane Theatre
11-20 Dublin, Ireland - Whelans
11-21 Belfast, Northern Ireland - The Limelight
11-22 Sunderland, England - Independent
11-23 Manchester, England - Roadhouse
11-24 Leeds, England - Brudenell Social Club
11-25 Nottingham, England - The Social
11-26 Bristol, England - Thekla
11-27 London, England - Dingwalls
11-28 Paris, France - La Fleche D'or
11-29 Brussels, Belgium - Palace
12-01 Utrecht, Netherlands - Le Guess Who? Festival
12-02 Schorndorf, Germany - Manufaktur
12-04 St. Gallen, Switzerland - Palace
12-05 Nürnberg, Germany - MUZ Club
12-06 Vienna, Austria - B72
12-07 Berlin, Germany - Lido
12-08 Hamburg, Germany - Übel and Gefährlich
12-09 Copenhagen, Denmark - Loppen
12-10 Malmö, Sweden - 90kr
12-11 Gothenburg, Sweden - Pusterviksbaren Järntorgsgatan
12-12 Bergen, Norway - Ladmark
12-13 Oslo, Norway- Garage Grensen
12-14 Stockholm, Sweden - Restless Romance
12-15 Barcelona, Spain - Razz Club
05-09-11 Rye, England - Camber Sands Holiday Park (ATP vs. Pitchfork Festival) ^
* with Born Ruffians
# with Battles, White Williams
^ with Hot Chip, Les Savy Fav, No Age, Of Montreal, Man Man, Los Campesinos!, Glass Candy, Dirty Projectors, Meat Puppets, the Black Angels, Shit and Shine, Sebadoh, Ween, Pissed Jeans, Fuck Buttons, Apse
The Decemberists long and short of it tour
10-28 Chicago, IL - Vic Theater ("Long of It") *
10-29 Chicago, IL - Vic Theater ("Short of It") *
11-01 New York, NY - Terminal 5 ("Long of It") *
11-02 New York, NY - Terminal 5 ("Short of It") *
11-03 Boston, MA - Orpheum ("Long of It") *
11-04 Boston, MA - Orpheum ("Short of It") *
11-06 Winston-Salem, NC - Millennium Center ("Long of It") *
11-07 Winston-Salem, NC - Millennium Center ("Short of It") *
11-09 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club ("Long of It") *
11-10 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club ("Short of It") *
11-11 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club ("Long of It") *
11-12 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club ("Short of It") *
11-13 Pittsburgh, PA - Carnegie Music Hall (WYEP benefit show)
11-15 Columbus, OH - Lifestyle Communities Pavilion ("Long of It") *
11-16 Columbus, OH - Lifestyle Communities Pavilion ("Short of It") *
11-18 Milwaukee, WI - Riverside Theater ("Long of It") *
11-19 Milwaukee, WI - Riverside Theater ("Short of It") *
11-23 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore ("Long of It") *
11-24 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore ("Short of It") *
11-25 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore ("Long of It") *
11-26 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore ("Short of It") *
11-29 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern ("Long of It") *
11-30 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern ("Short of It") *
12-01 San Diego, CA - Spreckels Theatre ("Long of It") *
12-02 San Diego, CA - Spreckels Theatre ("Short of It") *
12-05 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom ("Long of It") *
12-06 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom ("Short of It") *
12-07 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom (fan's choice) *
12-08 Seattle, WA - Moore Theatre ("Long of It") *
12-09 Seattle, WA - Moore Theatre ("Short of It") *
* with Laura Veirs and Saltbreakers
Saul Williams
11-02 Pullman, WA - Washington State University
11-07 London, England - Bardens Boudoir
11-09 Zurich, Switzerland - Tonhalle
11-12 New York, NY - The Box
11-13 Storrs, CT - University of Connecticut
11-14 Bridgeport, CT - Housatonic Community College
11-17 Chicago, IL - Studio E
01-23 Laramie, WY - University of Wyoming
02-01 Fairfax, VA - George Mason University
02-15 Tacoma, WA - Pacific Lutheran University
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio
Arcade Fire bootleg from Manchester a few days ago, they covered the fucking Smiths man.
Sunset Rubdown bootleg, don't know from where or from when.
The bit at the end
Have a nice week dudes and dudettes, I'll see ya in 7.
