Dancing About Architecture 6.17.08

Posted by Ian Wright on 06.17.2008

My Bloody Valentine, The Hold Steady, Queens Of The Stone Age, Mogwai, Beck and more.

The bit at the start

It's Monday and in 4 days I'll be in London seeing My Bloody Valentine do their first proper gig in God knows how many years (14? 16? Something like that.)

I say "proper gig" because over the weekend the band played a pair of "open rehearsals" in London. The Friday rehearsal can be downloaded from here and some of it sounds amazing. Some of it sounds shit. So I've got my fingers crossed that the amazing stuff still sounds amazing on Friday and the shit stuff sounds better than it did.

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

Sonic Youth – Sonic Youth



Even sounded insane in standard tuning. Curiosity rather than essential.

You news, you lose

We're gonna start this news report off with a positive jam.

If you're one of those honest types that doesn't steal music off of the internet but are anxiously awaiting the Hold Steady's new album Stay Positive then mosey on down to the band's MySpace and you can listen to the album in it's entirety for free. The street date for the physical release of the record isn't for another month or so but from today you will be able to buy the record on iTunes.

If you do hold out for the physical release though you'll get the chance to pick up some limited edition bonus tracks. "Ask Her For Adderall" will appear on early CD and Vinyl pressings and another 2 songs, "Cheyenne Sunrise" and "Two Handed Handshake" will also go on the CD.

If you like Grizzly Bear ...

… then you're tapping in to something that I'm obviously missing out on because I'm not into those guys at all. The band recently debuted a new song "While You Wait For The Others" on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien."

They're soon to do something very similar again when they appear on "The Late Show With Dave Letterman" on July 2nd because on that show they'll debut another new song, entitled "Nine".

If Klingons could be blonde then Grizzly Bear's flautist would be a Klingon.

Whatever would Gizmo say?

Mogwai have, it seems, of late decided to have some fun with their track titles but they've gone batshit crazy with the ones for their forthcoming album The Hawk Is Howling.

The album will be out in North America on September 23rd and the day before in the UK on Matador for the former and PIAS/Wall of sound for the rest of the planet and the songs on it are called the following:

01 I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead
02 Batcat
03 Daphne and the Brain
04 Local Authority
05 The Sun Smells Too Loud
06 Kings Meadow
07 I Love You, I'm Going to Blow Up Your School
08 Scotland's Shame
09 Thank You Space Expert
10 The Precipice

Silly Mogwai. If Jim Morrison is dead than he can't say that he's dead.

This does not change the fact that what I've heard of the new album stinks to high heaven.

Have you ever wanted to play with Weezer?

In the past decade or so have you wanted to play with Weezer?

Really?

Well now's your chance. In a recent MTV interview Rivers Cuomo said, "We're going to go on a tour. It's called the Hootenanny Tour, and it's coming to your town in June. We're gonna bring ourselves and invite a bunch of Weezer fans down to bring their instruments and, uh, jam with us. I don't know, 100, 200 people, whatever. Everyone come down and bring an instrument-- whatever you can play-- and we'll jam out on our songs."

Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. The first night of this potential fiasco was supposed to happen in Phoenix last night but no word yet on how good or bad it was.

Danger Mouse sure gets around.

Here's some details about the new Beck album.

It'll be out on July 8th.

There are 10 songs on it.

Despite that it's a short record and clocks in at around 30 minutes.

Chan Marshall guests on one song on it called "Walls".

It was produced by Danger Mouse, which is where I got the headline from. That fucker is busy.

Tracklisting:

01 Orphans
02 Gamma Ray
03 Chemtrails
04 Modern Guilt
05 Youthless
06 Walls (ft. Cat Power)
07 Replica
08 Soul of a Man
09 Profanity Prayers
10 Volcano

The YouTube video of the week



Josh Homme is not happy.

If you can you should go to these gigs.

Grizzly Bear

06-25 Calgary, Alberta - Central United Church (Sled Island Music Festival)
07-31 Nashville, TN - Mercy Lounge $
08-01 Chicago, IL - Grant Park (Lollapalooza)
08-02 Louisville, KY - 930 Listening Room $
08-03 Indianapolis, IN - Verizon Wireless Music Center *
08-04 Cuyahoga Falls, OH - Blossom Music Center *
08-06 Montreal, Quebec - Parc Jean-Drapeau *
08-07 Northampton, MA - Calvin Theater #
08-08 Jersey City, NJ - Liberty State Park (All Points West Festival)
08-11 Washington, DC - Sixth & I Historic Synagogue $
08-12 Camden, NJ - Susquehanna Bank Center *
08-13 Mansfield, MA - Tweeter Center *
08-14 Boston, MA - Calderwood Courtyard (Museum of Fine Arts) $
08-15 Toronto, Ontario - Molson Amphitheatre *

$ with Violens
* with Radiohead
# with the New Pornographers

The Hold Steady

06-27 Baltimore, MD - Ram's Head Live !
06-28 Philadelphia, PA - Festival Pier (Paul Green School of Rock Music Festival) ^
06-29 Brooklyn, NY - McCarren Park Pool %#
07-06 London, England - Hyde Park (O2 Wireless Festival)
07-08 Liverpool, England - Echo Arena (Summer Pops)
07-10 Leeds, England - The Irish Centre
07-11 Newcastle, England - Carling Academy 2
07-12 Kinross, Scotland - T in the Park Festival
07-17 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom %
07-18 Pontiac, MI - Crofoot Ballroom %
07-19 Chicago, IL - Union Park (Pitchfork Music Festival) $
07-21 Madison, WI - Majestic Theatre %
07-22 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue %
07-23 Fargo, ND - Fargo Theatre %
07-26 Seattle, WA - Capitol Hill Block Party
07-27 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom %
07-29 San Francisco, CA - Mezzanine %
07-30 Los Angeles, CA - Avalon %
08-02 Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre %
08-03 El Paso, TX - Club 101 %
08-05 Dallas, TX - Palladium Ballroom %
08-06 Austin, TX - La Zona Rosa %
08-08 Oxford, MS - Proud Larry's %
08-09 Athens, GA - 40 Watt %
08-10 Charleston, SC - The Pourhouse %
08-12 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle %
08-13 Norfolk, VA - The Norva %

! with Birds of Avalon
^ with Devo
% with the Loved Ones
# with J Roddy and the Business
$ with Animal Collective, Jarvis Cocker, !!!, Vampire Weekend, Dizzee Rascal, Fleet Foxes, Caribou, Jay Reatard, Titus Andronicus, No Age, Atlas Sound, Extra Golden, Fuck Buttons, Elf Power, the Ruby Suns, Icy Demons, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Boban I Marko Markovic Orkestar

Writing under the influence

Without which this column would not have been possible:

My Bloody Valentine – Open rehearsal from the ICA in London last Friday.
Dodos - Visiter

The bit at the end

The European Championships get a massive 2 thumbs up from me thus far.

I've said it before but after Saturday night I'll say it again, Dan Deacon is the funnest thing on earth that you can buy a ticket for. 2 days later and I'm still feeling exhausted from dancing.

Semi permanent plug for my blog. Lots of stuff on The Dodos, Radiohead and Evangelicals live and My Bloody Valentine live vids.