Dancing About Architecture 06.03.08

Posted by Ian Wright on 06.03.2008

Radiohead vs. Prince, Built To Spill from now on will be perfect, Mogwai, Download festival details, Jim O’Rourke covers the Spice Girls and more.

The bit at the start

Well as I write this it's a gloriously sunny morning and today is a public holiday. For most people that'd be a sign to go out and enjoy themselves. I however can't stand the heat and fortunately I can use this column as an excuse to pull the curtains, not deal with anyone and stay inside until it cools down later in the evening and I get to go see Bon Iver play in Dublin.

Finally this gig is paying off, and it's only taken nearly 3.5 years.

I've been doing this for 3 ½ years, Jesus. I've wasted my life, well, my Mondays anyway.

Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.

The Verlaines – You're Just Too Obscure For Me.



Probably the greatest Kiwi band you've never heard of.

You news, you lose

Happy music for happy people.

Unless my notion of happy is completely askew from everyone else's Mogwai are fucking liars. I remember the first time that I listened to Young Team, I was working on one of these columns (ok, so I was late to the party with them) and was wearing headphones when "With Portfolio" came on. It's a pretty disturbing piece of music, the cross fading completely unsettled me and I immediately stopped typing even though I wasn't giving the album my full attention. By the time the song had finished I was almost curled up into a ball in my chair. It was the most remarkable and dramatic physical reaction that I've ever had from a piece of music.

If you've never heard Young Team it was recently reissued as a 2CD/4LP deluxe edition with loads of extras and the like. It's their first album and a superb place to start with them.

However if you're a more seasoned listener of the Scottish head fuckers then you might be glad to hear that they've got a new album due. It's called The Hawk Is Howling and it'll be out in the UK on September 22nd and the following day in North America.

But aside from the album there's more new Mogwai on the way. The Batcat EP will be released on CD, 12" and digitally in the UK on September 8th and on 12" and digitally in North America the next day. Apparently it'll feature material not on the new album and one of the tracks, "Devil Rides" features former 13th Floor Elevator Roky Erikson on volcals.

Tracklisting:

01 Batcat
02 Stupid Prick Gets Chased by the Police and Loses His Slut Girlfriend
03 Devil Rides (ft. Roky Erickson)

Not sure about the title of that second song.

Regardless of the lineup "Download" is still a stupid name for a festival.

I'm sorry, but it is.

The travelling festival will take place in San Francisco's Shoreline Amphitheatre on July 19th and in LA's Gibson Amphitheatre the following day. The affair then takes a little break before heading over to Camden New Jersey on August 2nd when it takes over the Susquehanna Bank Center.

The lineup for each date won't be the same but in San Francisco you'll be able to check out M83, Cut Copy, Yeasayer, Atmosphere and Brother Ali, Blitzen Trapper, RJD2, Mates of State, Flosstradamus, Tapes 'n Tapes, the Duke Spirit, and Datarock as well as some others.

The LA date loses Cut Copy but sees Caribou, Kaki King, the Night Marchers, and Ghostland Observatory join the bill.

There's wholesale changes for the New Jersey date which features Iggy and the Stooges, the Killers, Man Man, Mates of State, the Stills, the Duke Spirit, the Enemy and Ghostland Observatory.

Whether or not there'll be a fat guy that gets shot at with a cannon. As yet unconfirmed.

Pants on fire.

Liars are one of my favourite bands. But they kinda snuck up on me a little. For each of the last 2 years they've put out an album that has wound up in my top 10 for that year. And I never really think about them that much, but I know that whenever I stick on something by them I'm going to really enjoy it. It's just a shame that they came across so poorly in Kill Your Idols. It could have been worse I suppose, they could have been Karen O and looked like an imbecile on screen.

But I digress (THEY'VE GOT 3 SONGS PEOPLE).

If you live in the UK you can now e-march on over to the UK iTunes store (surely for the sake of cultural accuracy it should be "iTunes shop") and buy the Freak Out EP. The EP features 2 tracks, the title song taken from last year's self titled album and a live version of "Plaster Casts Of Everything" which was recorded at the El Rey theatre earlier in the year. It also comes with 4 music videos.

Freak Out:

01 Freak Out
02 Clear Island (live)
03 Plaster Casts of Everything (video)
04 Houseclouds (video)
05 Let's Not Wrestle Mt Heart Attack (video)
06 We Fenced Other Gardens With the Bones of Our Own (video)

Radiohead vs. Prince.


Hey, did you hear that Prince covered Radiohead's "Creep" during his set at Coachella earlier in the year?

Yeah/no/maybe I think I might have heard something about it. (Delete as applicable.)

Did you see the fan shot footage of it up on YouTube?

Probably not.

You see, Prince may be a genius, but he's also a bit of a dick when it comes to copy write. In the past he's threatened to sue fansites in an effort to close them down and has been really stringent when it comes to making sure that anything that he owns doesn't show up on YouTube or a similar service. This includes that Radiohead cover. Which of course he's entitled to do but in doing so he's not really pleased the band who wrote the song in the first place as a recent AP piece explains:

Thom Yorke said he heard about Prince's performance from a text message and thought it was "hilarious." Yorke laughed when his bandmate, guitarist Ed O'Brien, said the blocking had prevented even him from seeing Prince's version of their song.

"Really? He's blocked it?" asked Yorke, who figured it was their song to block or not. "Surely we should [have the right to] block it. Hang on a moment." Yorke added, "Well, tell him to unblock it. It's our...song."

I've seen video of the performance in question (actually I think this particular video is likely to become something of a crusade on YouTube due to the vast swatches of Radiohead fans out there and it'll keep getting upped over and over again), it's really not very good. Some might even go so far to call it completely shit.

Built To Spill all over the place.

Considering how obsessed John Sellers is with both Pavement and more severely with Guided By Voices the fact that he named his book/love letter to indie rock "Perfect From Now On" goes to show the regard the he has from Built To Spill's 1997 opus.

Now considered by many to be a 90's indie classic Built To Spill are to follow the path already trod by the likes of Slint with Spiderland, Sonic Youth with Daydream Nation and a whole host of others and go on a tour playing their seminal album in it's entirety. The tour will kick off in early September in San Francisco before switching over onto the East coast and then into Europe (including the band's debut Irish shows in Belfast and Dublin, I can't wait).

However there's (a little) more. Doug Martsch has said to Billboard that the band will encore with material from the rest of their back catalog.

Oh and there's a new album on the way.

Here's the tour dates.

06-06 Lawrence, KS - Wakarusa Festival
06-07 Minneapolis, MN - The Cabooze
07-03 Quincy, CA - High Sierra Music Festival
07-19 Boise, ID - Expo Idaho Fairgrounds
09-08 San Francisco, CA - Slim's *
09-09 San Francisco, CA - Slim's *
09-10 Hollywood, CA - Troubadour *
09-11 Hollywood, CA - Troubadour *
09-12 Pioneertown, CA - Pappy and Harriet's *#
09-17 New Haven, CT - Toad's Place *
09-18 Northampton, MA - Calvin Theater *
09-19 Monticello, NY - ATP New York *
09-20 Philadelphia, PA - The Trocadero *
09-21 Philadelphia, PA - The Trocadero *
09-22 Richmond, VA - The National *
09-23 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club *
09-24 Baltimore, MD - Rams Head Live *
09-25 New York, NY - Terminal 5 *$
09-26 New York, NY - Terminal 5 *$
09-27 Boston, MA - Orpheum Theatre *
10-01 Nijmegen, Netherlands - Doornroosje *
10-02 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Melkweg *
10-03 Utrecht, Netherlands - Tivoli *
10-04 Groningen, Netherlands - Take Root Festival *
10-05 Brussels, Belgium - AB Box *
10-06 Aarhus, Denmark - VoxHall *
10-07 Copenhagen, Denmark - Loppen *
10-09 Stavanger, Norway - Folken *
10-10 Mons, Belgium - USF *
10-11 Oslo, Norway - Rockefeller *
10-12 Gothenburg, Sweden - Sticky Fingers *
10-13 Stockholm, Sweden - Debaser Medis *
10-14 Malmo, Sweden - KB *
10-15 Bielefeld, Germany - Forum *
10-16 Bochum, Germany - BHF Langendeer *
10-17 Stuttgart, Germany - Universum *
10-18 Heidelberg, Germany - Karlstorbahnhof *
10-19 Nuremberg, Germany - K4 *
10-21 Vienna, Austria - Flex *
10-22 Innsbruck, Austria - Weekender *
10-23 Saint Gallen, Switzerland - Palace *
10-24 Bologna, Italy - Locomotive *
10-25 Rome, Italy - INIT *
10-26 Verona, Italy - Interzone *
10-28 Clermont-Ferrand, France - La Cooperative *
10-29 Barcelona, Spain - Apolo *
10-30 Madrid, Spain - Caracol *
10-31 Bilbao, Spain - Azkena *
11-01 Angouleme, France - La Nef *
11-03 Paris, France - Maroquinerie *
11-04 London, England - Koko *
11-05 Bristol, England - Thekla *
11-06 Oxford, England - Zodiac *
11-07 Leeds, England - Brudenell Social Club *
11-08 Glasgow, Scotland - King Tuts *
11-09 Belfast, Northern Ireland - Limelight *
11-10 Dublin, Ireland - Academy *

* performing Perfect From Now On
# with Camper Van Beethoven
$ with Dinosaur Jr., Meat Puppets

The YouTube video of the week




If you can you should go to these gigs.

Mogwai

06-25-28 Calgary, Alberta - Sled Island Festival
06-30 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix Concert Theatre
07-13 Joensuu, Finland - Ilosaarirock Festival
07-18-19 Madrid, Spain - Boadilla Del Monte (Summercase Festival) *
07-18-19 Barcelona, Spain - Parc del Fòrum (Summercase Festival) *
08-06 Oslo, Norway - Oya Festival
08-11 Belfast, Northern Ireland - Belsonic Festival
08-30 Utrecht, Netherlands - De Beschaving Festival
08-31 Antwerp, Belgium - Rivierenhof
09-21 Monticello, New York - ATP New York
10-21 Edinburgh, Scotland - Corn Exchange
10-23 Manchester, England - Academy
10-24 London, England - Hammersmith Apollo

* performing Young Team

Liars

05-30 Padua, Italy - Unwound
06-01 Milan, Italy - Magnolia
06-04 Graz, Austria - Postgarage
06-05 Zagreb, Croatia - Teatar & TD
06-06 Ebensee, Austria - Kino ^!
06-09 Lisbon, Portugal - Santiago Alquimst
06-12 Barcelona, Spain - Daydream Festival
06-13 Athens, Greece - Synch Festival
06-17 London, England - Koko ^
06-18 Liverpool, England - The Kazimer ^
06-19 Manchester, England - Academy ^
06-21 Dublin, Ireland - Andrews Lane
06-22 Cork, Ireland - Lane Theatre
07-02 Bergen, Norway - Landmark
07-04 Kristiansand, Norway - Quart Festival
07-04 Helsinki, Finland - Tavastia
07-05 Roskilde, Denmark - Roskilde Festival
07-10 Ancona, Italy - Ancona Festival
07-11 Bari, Italy - Bari Fesival
07-12 Liege, Belgium - Les Ardentes Festival
07-17 Guimarães, Portugal - Centro Cultural Vla Flor
07-19 Dublin, Ireland - Analog Festival
07-20 Brooklyn, NY - McCarren Park Pool #
08-19 Vancouver, British Columbia - Thunderbird Stadium *
08-20 Auburn, WA - White River Amphitheatre *
08-21 Portland, OR - Hawthorne's
08-23 San Francisco, CA - Outside Lands Festival
08-24 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl *
08-25 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl *
08-27 Chula Vista, CA - Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre *
08-28 Santa Barbara, CA - Santa Barbara Bowl *

^ with Deerhunter
! with High Places
# with Fuck Buttons
* with Radiohead

Radiohead

06-06 Dublin, Ireland - Malahide #
06-07 Dublin, Ireland - Malahide #
06-09 Paris, France - Bercy #
06-10 Paris, France - Bercy #
06-12 Barcelona, Spain - Parc del Fòrum (Daydream Festival) *#^$
06-14 Nimes, France - Arenes #
06-15 Nimes, France - Arenes #
06-17 Milan, Italy - Civica Arena #
06-18 Milan, Italy - Civica Arena #
06-20 Neuhausen ob Eck, Germany - Southside Festival
06-22 Scheeßel, Germany - Hurricane Festival
06-24 London, England - Victoria Park #
06-25 London, England - Victoria Park #
06-27 Glasgow, Scotland - Glasgow Green #
06-29 Manchester, England - Lancashire County Cricket Club #
07-01 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Westerpark #
07-03 Roskilde, Denmark - Roskilde Festival
07-05 Werchter, Belgium - Rock Werchter Festival
07-06 Arras, France - Main Square Festival
07-08 Berlin, Germany - Wuhlheide
08-01 Chicago, IL - Grant Park (Lollapalooza)
08-03 Indianapolis, IN - Verizon Wireless Music Center %
08-04 Cleveland, OH - Blossom Music Center %
08-06 Montreal, Quebec - Parc Jean-Drapeau %
08-08 Jersey City, NJ - Liberty State Park (All Points West Festival)
08-09 Jersey City, NJ - Liberty State Park (All Points West Festival)
08-12 Camden, NJ - Susquehanna Bank Center %
08-13 Mansfield, MA - Tweeter Center %
08-15 Toronto, Ontario - Molson Amphitheatre %
08-19 Vancouver, British Columbia - Thunderbird Stadium *
08-20 Auburn, WA - White River Amphitheatre *
08-22 San Francisco, CA - Golden Gate Park (Outside Lands Festival)
08-24 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl *
08-25 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl *
08-27 Chula Vista, CA - Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre *
08-28 Santa Barbara, CA - Santa Barbara Bowl *
10-01 Osaka, Japan - Municipal Central Gymnasium
10-02 Osaka, Japan - Municipal Central Gymnasium
10-04 Tokyo, Japan - Saitama Super Arena
10-05 Tokyo, Japan - Saitama Super Arena

# with Bat for Lashes
* with Liars
^ with Low, Clinic, Modeselektor
$ with Ensemble Nacional de España de Música Contemporánea, performing pieces by Jonny Greenwood and Radiohead
% with Grizzly Bear

Writing under the influence

Without which this column would not have been possible:

The sound of silence, not the song. I've just not been listening to anything.

The bit at the end

I got a Tom Waits ticket last week. I'm so fucking happy about it. If God has any plans to take me in the short term I just hope it's not before August 2nd. That wouldn't be nice at all.

Hey, the European Championships start this week. I'll be partaking in the roundtable preview over in the sports zone on Friday.

Till next week.

Semi permanent plug for my blog. Review of and material from the new Broken Social Scene record and a minor tribute to Jeffrey Lewis were posted in the past 7 days.