Dancing About Architecture 12.11.07
Posted by Ian Wright on 12.11.2007
The Wire, Dan Deacon vs. Greyhound, Stephen Malkmus, Antony and The Johnsons, Silver Jews, The Breeders
The bit at the start
Hello …
In a rush …
Go…
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Miles Davis – Kind Of Blue
The one Jazz album everyone should own.
You news, you lose
The best thing on TV?
Despite having head nothing but great things about it I've never seen a single episode of the Wire. I presume that I'm missing out greatly.
However if you are a fan of the show or just of good compilations in general then you might be interested in knowing that Nonesuch are putting out not one but 2 wire related albums on January 8th.
The first is ...and all the pieces matter" - Five Years of Music From The Wire features a number of songs used by the show over the course of it's run. Including several takes on the shows theme tune, the Tom Waits written "Down In The Hole" by the likes of the Blind Boys of Alabama, the Neville Brothers, and DoMaJe as well as material from the likes of Steve Earle, Paul Weller and the Pogues amongst others as well as selected dialogue.
The second Beyond Hamsterdam: Baltimore Club Tracks From The Wire does what it says on the tin and features Baltimore club tracks (No Dan Deacon though).
Tracklistings:
"...and all the pieces matter."- Five Years of Music from The Wire:
01 "This America, man." (dialogue)
02 The Blind Boys of Alabama: "Way Down in the Hole"
03 "Why would anyone ever wanna leave Baltimore?" (dialogue)
04 Michael Franti & Spearhead: "Oh My God"
05 Rod Lee: "Dance My Pain Away"
06 DJ Technics: "My Life Extra"
07 "The king stay the king." (dialogue)
08 The Neville Brothers: "Way Down in the Hole"
09 "We used to make shit in this country." (dialogue)
10 The Nighthawks: "Sixteen Tons"
11 Lafayette Gilchrist: "Assume the Position"
12 "What the fuck did I do?" (dialogue)
13 Jesse Winchester: "Step by Step"
14 Paul Weller: "I Walk on Gilded Splinters"
15 Solomon Burke: "Fast Train"
16 The Pogues: "The Body of an American"
17 "All the pieces matter." (dialogue)
18 Stelios Kazantzidis: "Efuge Efuge"
19 "Omar comin'!" (dialogue)
20 DoMaJe: "Way Down in the Hole"
21 "If it's a lie, then we fight on that lie."
22 Tyree Colion: "Projects"
23 "Later for that gangsta bullshit." (dialogue)
24 Bossman: "Ayo"
25 Sharpshooters: "Analyze"
26 "Wars end." (dialogue)
27 Masta Ace: "Unfriendly Game [ft. Stricklin]"
28 Ogun: "What You Know About Baltimore [ft. Phathead]"
29 Diablo: "Jail Flick"
30 Mullyman: "The Life, the Hood, the Streetz"
31 "An act of daily journalism." (dialogue)
32 Steve Earle: "I Feel Alright"
33 Tom Waits: "Way Down in the Hole"
34 "You remember that one day summer past?" (dialogue)
35 Blake Leyh: "The Fall"
Beyond Hamsterdam: Baltimore Tracks From the Wire
01 DoMaJe: "Way Down in the Hole"
02 Tyree Colion: "Projects"
03 Rod Lee: "Dance My Pain Away"
04 DJ Technics: "My Life Extra"
05 Ogun: "What You Know About Baltimore [ft. Phathead]"
06 Diablo: "Jail Flick"
07 The Get 'em Mamis: "When You See Us [ft. L. Cash]"
08 Dirty Hartz: "That's Da Sound [ft. Verb]"
09 Bossman: "Ayo"
10 Mullyman: "The Life, the Hood, the Streetz"
11 Lafayette Gilchrist: "Assume the Position"
I love Dan Deacon.
I'm writing this on Sunday afternoon and I think that I'm only now recovered from the seeing Baltimore's finest (I reserve the right to change that opinion when I finally do get around to seeing The Wire) this day last week.
On his MySpace blog last week the synth terrorist wrote the following:
Greyhound bus company is one of the worst run, bullshit companies i have ever had the misfortune to use. they are a total monopoly and take advantage of that with poor service and price hikes and route cancellation. they have bought all the other smaller companies and run them out of their office in dallas. they treat both their employees and customers like shit. they are a cancer.
since i do not drive i used to use them to get to shows (when nothing else was available). on many occasions i had to cancel shows because the bus would be late, my luggage would get lost/stolen, the over sell their buses, and fuck i fucking hate them.
it really upsets me that i am being used to promote them. if i had my way i would see all their buses transport guns to all the people they have fucked over.
like many evil companies they are trying to use subversive advertising and i will not allow myself to be a cog in their wheel of lies and deceit. these rats stink like rotten cum. fuck them with 1000 fires.
in case this message finds its way to someone in the advertising department of greyhound: eat my shorts you dickless pig fuckers.
Wow, Dan's a really nice dude (this is based on him humouring me whilst I spoke total bullshit at him for a good 10 minutes after the show and not telling me to "fuck off" which he would have been quite entitled to do) so what would make him so pissed?
It could be the fact that Greyhound took out a 4 postcard pullout ad in this month's XLR8R mag to show that it's easy for penniless indie-types to get around America on the bus company's service. But why would this piss Deacon off? Well the postcards depict a guy crowdsurfing at a gig by Team Robespierre, Ruins from Japan, Baltimore's Wzt Hearts and …
Well guess who?
As to whether or not Greyhound had a legal right to use the pictures thanks to loopholes about images from public places the company took no risks and didn't bother to contact the folks depicted in the images ethically it's they're not even on shakey ground, they've fallen through a bottomless pit in the earth's surface and will I imagine emerge in Australia soon enough.
And yes, I get that because of physics and gravity and all that stuff that's impossible.
Add this to the things that I took ages to get around to getting into.
The music of Stephen Malkmus.
I've spent the past couple of months catching up on Pavement and it might be some time until I reach his post-Pavement work but for those of you that are on top of these things he's got a new album due out with the Jicks on March 4th via Matador.
Real Emotional Trash will be the first album featuring former Sleater Kinney drummer Janet Weiss and was recorded at Snowghost Studios in Montana by TJ Doherty whose previous credits include Sonic Youth and The Hold Steady amongst others ("Sonic Youth and The Hold Steady amongst others would make a great EP title").
Tracklisting:
01 Dragonfly Pie
02 Hopscotch Willie
03 Cold Son
04 Real Emotional Trash
05 Out of Reaches
06 Baltimore
07 Gardenia
08 Elmo Delmo
09 We Can't Help You
10 Wicked Wanda
Ah Antony, I'd almost forgotten about you.
In December's HARP magazine Antony Hegarty was interviewed and in it spoke about the forthcoming third Antony And The Johnsons album. The Crying Light is due out in the Spring on Secretly Canadian.
The interview can be viewed on Hegarty's site and in it he says that "a lot" of the 25 songs he recorded for the album were "just piano songs" and that the album is "a little more experimental structurally. But some of [the songs] are really normal... I'm hoping to weave things together so it will be a little more of a collage of songs."
Speaking about the album's themes Hegarty said, "It's about landscape and the future. I guess I'm thinking about those things a lot-- about the natural landscape of the world and the landscape inside each person. On my last record, everything was sort of sad and redemptive. And this one, it's more extreme in both directions. Some of the songs are much more joyful, and some of the songs are much less redemptive. And then some of the songs are more thoughtful-- more philosophical. I think this record is just about sitting with things."
This is all very exciting, Antony is a really unique talent and I was a big fan of I am a bird now.
More new album news, this time from Silver Jews.
Lets keep this one pithy and Bill O'Reilly might say, before launching into a lengthy brainless diatribe about something unimportant.
Who? Silver Jews
What? New album.
Called? Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea.
On What label? Drag City.
When? April, probably late April.
That's kinda vague. That's a statement, you're only allowed begin a new line with a question.
Shit sorry, Tracklisting? Here you go …
01 What is Not But Could Be If
02 Aloysius, Bluegrass Drummer
03 Suffering Jukebox
04 My Pillow is the Threshold
05 Strange Victory, Strange Defeat
06 San Francisco B.C.
07 Open Field
08 Party Barge
09 Candy Jail
10 We Could Be Looking for the Same Thing
Well if she can tour with Frank she can tour with her sister.
Not just tour, but make a new album (with her sister, not frank apparently).
The Breeders are back. And with a new album (their first since 2002) called Mountain Battles due out on April 8th in North America and the 7th in the UK you could say that they're back with a vengeance. Recorded all over the place over the course of a number of years by the likes of Steve Albini and … well any name after Albini is anti climactic. Joining the Deal sisters on the record are Jose Medeles and Mando Lopez, who also appeared on Title TK the last Breeders record.
Tracklisting:
01 Overglazed
02 Bang On
03 Night of Joy
04 We're Gonna Rise
05 German Studies
06 Spark
07 Istanbul
08 Walk it Off
09 Regalame Esta Noche
10 Here No More
11 No Way
12 It's the Love
13 Mountain Battles
There's also a few tour dates lined up with plenty more to come:
03-05-08 Toronto, Ontario - venue TBA (Canadian Music Week)
03-12-16 Austin, TX - venue TBA (South by Southwest Festival)
04-25-27 Indio, CA - Coachella Valley Music Festival
The YouTube video of the week
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Wilco
02-22 Cleveland, OH - Lakewood Civic Auditorium
02-23 Philadelphia, PA - Tower Theatre
02-24 New Haven, CT - Schubert Theater
03-02 Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium
03-03 Mobile, AL - Mobile Civic Center
03-04 New Orleans, LA - Tipitina's
03-05 New Orleans, LA - Tipitina's
03-07 Houston, TX - Verizon Theater
03-08 Tulsa, OK - Cain's Ballroom
03-09 Des Moines, IA - Val Air Ballroom
03-18 Sydney, Australia - Enmore Theatre
03-19 Brisbane, Australia - The Tivoli
03-20 Byron Bay, Australia - East Coast Blues Festival
03-22 Auckland, New Zealand - New Zealand Festival
03-23 Wellington, New Zealand - Front Room
03-26 Melbourne, Australia - Palace Theatre
Atlas Sound
02-19 Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn
02-20 Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
02-21 Washington, DC - Black Cat
02-22 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's
02-23 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge
02-24 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall
02-26 Boston, MA - Middle East
02-27 Montreal, Quebec - Casa del Popolo
02-28 Toronto, Ontario - Horseshoe Tavern
02-29 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
03-01 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
03-02 Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock Social Club
03-05 Vancouver, British Columbia - Pat's Pub
03-06 Seattle, WA - Crocodile Cafe
03-07 Portland, OR - Holocene
03-08 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
03-11 Los Angeles, CA – Echo
Yo La Tengo
12-11 Hoboken, NJ - Maxwell's (Hanukkah show)
01-09 Charlottesville, VA - Satellite Ballroom *
01-10 Carrboro, NC - Carrboro Arts Center *
01-11 Charlotte, NC - Visulite Theatre *
01-12 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse *
01-14 Athens, GA - Melting Point *
01-15 Birmingham, AL - Workplay *
01-16 Louisville, KY - 930 Listening Room *
01-17 Nashville, TN - Belcourt Theatre *
01-18 Memphis, TN - Gibson Lounge *
01-19 Springfield, MO - Randy Bacon Gallery *
* with Kurt Wagner
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio
The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume 1
The bit at the end
The last 2 months have been pretty astonishing gig wise and the past 2 weeks have seen be completely reassess my top 10 gigs of the year list with 2 bands rocketing straight into the top 2. However tomorrow could see another change in the list as Owen Pallett is hitting town tomorrow for his biggest Irish headliner to date. Final Fantasy is possibly my favourite live act in the world right now, shockingly he's better every time I see him.
Semi permanent plug for my blog. Okkervil River, Liars, and Thurston Moore live reviews, old Hold Steady MP3's, other stuff.
