Dancing About Architecture 4.15.08
Posted by Ian Wright on 04.15.2008
Deerhoof, Islands album thoughts, Coldplay, Wolf Parade Album details, Brian Jonestown Massacre.
The bit at the start
When I left Whelan's back in February having seen Islands play one of their first gigs in a long time despite my disappointment at the somewhat curtailed set I was feeling really enthusiastic about the slew of new material that they'd showcased that night. It seemed far more epic and grand than the material that had featured on Return To The Sea or anything that Nick Thorburn (neé Diamonds) had done as a Unicorn for that matter. My one fear was that much of the material sounded a little samey.
Aside from the sheer brilliance of many of the songs the great thing about the first Islands album, which featured a core trio plus numerous Montreal scene luminaries, was the way it dipped so effortlessly into Various styles. Country, calypso, post-rock and underground hip-hop all got a look in. Touching upon so many different styles was a big risk but due to the strength of the material it worked.
Islands in it's current incarnation is a far more settled 6-member band and because of that perhaps it's understandable that their second album has a much more uniform sound. And it's early days so I'm not sure whether or not if that's the reason that I don't like this album as much as the last one but it does feel a little like it's a one trick pony. That shouldn't matter really, there's plenty of albums which sound consistent that I love, so I think there's only one other possibility. The songs just aren't as good.
That's not to say that it's a bad album or that the songs are bad it's just that Islands set themselves such a high standard last time around and the fact they've failed to match it, much as fellow Montrealers Arcade Fire "failed" with Neon Bible (though I still really liked that record), is a disappointment. Third times the charm though and Wolf Parade have a new album out in a few months.
I'm sorry, were talking about Wolf Parade before I interrupted myself.
Despite earlier reports it's not going to be called Pardon My Blues and there's a good chance that nor will it be named Kissing The Beehive but whatever the fuck it's called the new Wolf Parade album will be out on Sub Pop on June 17th. There'll be 9 songs on it and according to Dan Boeckner it'll be "proggy".
Apparently once the current Sunset Rubdown and Handsome Furs touring commitments are taken care of there'll be a massive Wolf Parade Tour.
Tracklisting:
01 Soldier's Grin
02 Call It a Ritual
03 Language City
04 Bang Your Drum
05 California Dreamer
06 The Grey Estates
07 Fine Young Cannibals
08 An Animal in Your Care
09 Kissing the Beehive
Anyways, The Brian Jonestown Massacre have a new album out today called My Bloody Underground on Newcombe's own "A recordings" label.
Tracklisting:
01 Bring Me the Head of Paul McCartney on Heather Mill's Wooden Peg (Dropping Bombs on the White House)
02 Infinite Wisdom Tooth / My Last Night in Bed With You
03 Who Fucking Pissed in My Well?
04 We Are the Niggers of the World
05 Who Cares Why
06 Yeah-Yeah
07 Golden-Frost
08 Just Like Kicking Jesus
09 Ljosmyndir
10 Automatic Faggot for the People
11 Darkwave Driver / Big Drill Car
12 Monkey Powder
13 Black Hole Symphony
As I say pretty much every time that I mention BJM. I saw them at ATP a couple of years ago and I don't walk out of gigs very often but in their case I made an exception. Directionless jammy shite.
Power, power, power.
Goodness Deerhoof are prolific. 12 albums released since 1996 (the last being last year's Friend Opportunity) are readying a new album due for release in October on Kill Rock Stars.
Wow, short story.
Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends.
Is the stupid title for the new Coldplay album (remember when they started off so well with "Shiver"? What a shame.) It'll be out on June 16th on Parlophone in the UK and the following day on Capital in North America. I'm yawning already.
01 Life in Technicolor
02 Cemeteries of London
03 Lost!
04 42
05 Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love
06 Yes
07 Viva la Vida
08 Violet Hill
09 Strawberry Swing
10 Death and All His Friends
The YouTube video of the week
Trailer for Vincent Moon's National documentary.
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Sunset Rubdown
05-14 Rotterdam, Netherlands - Rotown
05-15 Brighton, England - The Great Escape Festival
05-16-18 Minehead, England - Butlins Holiday Centre (Explosions in the Sky ATP)
05-19 Manchester, England - MoHo Live
05-20 Dublin, Ireland - Crawdaddy
05-21 Bristol, England - Thekla Social
05-22 London, England - The Luminaire
05-23 Antwerp, Belgium - Trix
05-24 Wetzlar, Germany - Franzis Wetzlar
05-25 Berlin, Germany - Zapata im Tacheles
05-26 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
05-28 Copenhagen, Denmark - Loppen
05-29 Hässleholm, Sweden - Siesta Festival
05-30 Gothenburg, Sweden - Pusterviksbaren
05-31 Stockholm, Sweden - Debaser
06-02 Utrecht, Netherlands - Ekko
06-03 Paris, France - Festival Vilette Sonique
06-06 Barcelona, Spain - Sala Apolo
06-08 Lisbon, Portugal - Galeria Zé Dos Bois
Handsome Furs
04-11 San Diego, CA - Casbah #
04-12 West Hollywood, CA - The Troubadour #
04-13 Costa Mesa, CA - Detroit Bar #
04-14 Visalia, CA - Howie & Son's Pizza
04-15 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
04-17 Eugene, OR - WOW Hall *
04-18 Portland, OR - Someday Lounge *
04-19 Seattle, WA - Neumos
04-20 Bellingham, WA - Old Main Theatre
04-21 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards
04-22 Calgary, Alberta - Republik
# with Mr. Tube & the Flying Objects
* with Arthur & Yu
Man Man/Yeasayer
04-11 Brooklyn, NY - Masonic Temple
04-12 Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club
04-13 Montreal, Quebec - Le National
04-14 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace
04-15 Columbus, OH - Wexner Center
04-16 Chicago, IL - Logan Square Auditorium
04-17 Madison, WI - The Annex
04-18 Minneapolis, MN - Varsity Theatre
04-19 Omaha, NE - Slowdown
04-20 Denver, CO - Bluebird Theater
04-21 Salt Lake City, UT - In the Venue
04-23 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
04-24 Santa Barbara, CA - Soho Restaurant & Music Club
04-27 Phoenix, AZ - Brickhouse
04-29 Dallas, TX - The Loft
04-30 Austin, TX - Emo's Outside
05-02 Birmingham, AL - Workplay Theatre
05-03 Atlanta, GA - Lenny's Bar
05-04 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
05-09-11 Rye, England - Camber Sands Holiday Centre (ATP vs. Pitchfork) *
* with the Hold Steady, Jens Lekman, Caribou, Hot Chip, Vampire Weekend, Les Savy Fav, No Age, Bon Iver, Of Montreal, Los Campesinos!, Times New Viking, Glass Candy, Dirty Projectors, Meat Puppets, the Black Angels, Jay Reatard, Marissa Nadler, Wooden Shjips, Deerhunter, Hot Chip (DJ set), Shit and Shine, Sebadoh, Ween, Redd Kross, Pissed Jeans, Fuck Buttons, Apse, A Place to Bury Strangers, the Clientele, Black Mountain, Various Production (DJ set), Harmonia, Girls Against Boys, Born Ruffians, Howlin Rain, Car Sick Cars, Even
Man Man
04-27 Indio, CA - Empire Polo Field (Coachella)
05-05 Towson, MD - Pearlstone Atrium
05-11 Dublin, Ireland - Whelan's *
05-12 Glasgow, Scotland - Stereo
05-13 London, England - Cargo
05-14 Manchester, England - The Phoenix
05-15 Bristol, England - Start the Bus
05-17 Brussels, Belgium - Les Nuits Botanique
05-19 Aarhus, Denmark - Voxhall
05-20 Copenhagen, Denmark - Loppen
05-21 Gothenburg, Sweden - Henriksberg
05-22 Oslo, Norway - Garade
05-23 Stockholm, Sweden - Debaser
05-24 Malmö, Sweden - KB
05-25 Berlin, Germany - Knaack
05-26 Dortmund, Germany - FZW
05-28 Milan, Italy - La Casa 139
05-30 Barcelona, Spain - Parc del Fòrum (Primavera Sound)
05-31 Grenoble, France - Le Ciel
06-01 Mâcon, France - La Cave a Musique
06-02 Paris, France - Nouveau Casino
06-03 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
06-04 Njimegen, Netherlands - Doornroosje
06-05 Groningen, Netherlands – Vera
* w/ The Former Soviet Republic. That's me playing solo with guitar, synth and percussion loops.
Yeasayer
05-12 London, England - ULU
05-13 Dublin, Ireland - Whelan's
05-14 Belfast, Northern Ireland - Speakeasy
05-15-16 Brighton, England - Great Escape
05-17 Leeds, England - The Faversham (Nasty Fest)
08-01-03 Chicago, IL - Grant Park (Lollapalooza)
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio
Phosphorescent – Pride
Jim O'Rouke – Remove The Need
Bonnie "Prince" Billy – I See A Darkness
The bit at the end
One good thing about everyone in work going on holiday is that I can have this finished mid afternoon and have Monday evening to myself. Long may I shoulder the entire workload of my company.
I've been listening to quite a bit of Jim O'Rourke's more out there stuff in the past few days. I think I need something unashamedly poppy to fix my brain. Suggestions in the comments box please.
Semi permanent plug for my blog. Thoughts on Holy Fuck Live, new material from Wolf Parade and Islands as well has whinging about football.
"Apparently once the current Sunset Rubdown and Handsome Furs touring commitments are taken care of there'll be a massive Wolf Parade Tour."
There goddamn better be.
Posted By: James Palm (Registered) on April 15, 2008 at 05:34 AM
Stereogum and Pitchfork have posted one of hte songs form the new WP album.
Posted By: Ian Wright (Registered) on April 15, 2008 at 07:26 AM
My favorite column on this website! You shouldnt hate on the Jonestown. Have you heard the album "Take it From the Man"? One of the greatest/funnest rock n' roll albums of all the 90's!
And please, Wolf Parade, come to ATL!!
Posted By: Chris A. (Guest) on April 15, 2008 at 12:21 PM
