Dancing About Architecture 06.24.08
Posted by Ian Wright on 06.24.2008
The Shins, My Bloody Valentine, Smashing Pumpkins, Tourist Guides by rock stars, No Age and Robert Pollard.
The bit at the start
Good things about going to London this past weekend:
- Being drunk at 4PM on Friday when an entire city was at work.
- Finding Transformer and The Wild, The Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle on vinyl in a second hand record shop in Camden for £12 total.
- London has more pretty women than Dublin does.
- I am continually astounded by just how great a public transport system the tube is. I'm not even a resident of the city but I may buy an Oyster card.
- I got the see My Bloody Valentine play. They were amazing.
- Seeing Irish football legend Packie Bonner in the airport on the way over.
Bad things about going to London this past weekend:
- Sleeping on a sofa has I think given me a chest infection, so bunged am I that I feel as though someone has filled my chest cavity with epoxy.
- This isn't so much a problem for me but for the foreseeable future live music will be ruined for me, it's gonna take something really great to impress me in the coming weeks.
But anyway, this …
lasted for 14 minutes, holy shit.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Guided By Voices – Live From Austin, Tx
30 song collection from their farewell tour.
You news, you lose
MBV fans are used to long waits at this point.
The resissues of My Bloody Valentine's last 2 albums were due out in the UK last Monday. Surprise, surprise they didn't make it to the stores.
According to the Telegraph the reason for the hold up is due to Kevin Shields' failure to complete the expanded liner notes in time. There's no confirmed new release date however Amazon are listing the release dates as July 14th.
As I said when I first wrote about these reissues I'm a little concerned about the idea of those 2 albums getting the remaster treatment, especially as we're in the midst of a loudness war right now which means that many big releases sound like complete crap (on the off chance there's a mastering engineer reading, dude, stereos have volume controls, go easy). But after Friday night I think Kev has earned a little bit of faith from me.
Screw Corgan, steal this mofo off the web. Prick
Smashing Pumpkins/Billy, Jimmy, whoever Billy is fucking at the moment plus one other are set to re-release an expanded version of their debut album Gish later in the year. Details are sketchy right now but according to a post on the band's website a "pre-Gish/Gish" boxset is in the works and there's a possible "Gish tour" in the pipeline for later in the year. Presumably it'll be one of those band plays the album in its entirety deals.
With different versions of the gig depending on who owns the venue they're playing in. All of them pissing on their legacy.
Feeling ill-will towards that band? Me? Never.
Things to do in Hoboken when you're Steve Shelly.
File this under "interesting …" ideas.
Coming soon, from German publishers Rockbuch (if you live in Austria, Germany or Switzerland, not so soon if you don't live in a German speaking place), The Indie Travel Guide.
It's a guidebook written by members of various indie bands where they talk about where to go and what to see in the towns they live.
It's both an utterly ridiculous and completely brilliant concept. If only as a Christmas stocking filler. Anyway, here's who is in it and where they're writing about.
… And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead (Conrad Keely) - Austin, TX
Architecture in Helsinki (Cameron Bird, Kellie Sutherland) - Melbourne, Australia
Art Brut (Eddie Argos, Jasper Future) - Bournemouth and Poole, England
Ash (Tim Wheeler) - New York, NY
Centro-Matic (Scott Danbom) - Denton, TX
Charlatans (Tim Burgess, Mark Collins) - Manchester, England
Dresden Dolls (Amanda Palmer, Brian Viglione) - Boston, MA
Duke Spirit (Daniel Higgins)- London, England
Duke Spirit (Liela Moss) - Cheltenham, England
Duke Spirit (Toby Butler) - North London, England
Editors (Chris Urbanowicz) - Nottingham, England
Editors (Russell Leetch) - Birmingham, England
Figurines (Kristian Volden) - Copenhagen, Denmark
Gossip (Beth Ditto) - Portland, OR
Adam Green - New York, NY
Hot Hot Heat (Steve Bays) - Vancouver, British Columbia
Idlewild (Roddy Woomble) - Edinburgh, Scotland
Kaiser Chiefs (Peanut) - Leeds, England
Kooks (Hugh Harris) - Brighton, England
Sondre Lerche - Bergen, Norway
Maritime (Davey von Bohlen, Dan Hinz, Dan Didier, Justin Klug) - Milwaukee, WI
Maximo Park (Paul Smith, Lukas Woller) - Newcastle, England
Malcolm Middleton - Falkirk, Scotland
Nada Surf (Matthew Caws) - New York, NY
Pipettes (Gwenno) - Brighton, England and Cardiff, Wales
Rapture (Vito Roccoforte) - New York, NY
Razorlight (Björn Agren) - Lidköping, Sweden
Rogue Wave (Gram LeBron) - San Francisco, CA
Rogue Wave (Patrick Spurgeon) - Oakland, CA
Serena Maneesh (Emil Nikolaisen) - (Oslo, Norway)
Shout out Louds (Adam Olenius, Bebban Stenborg) - Stockholm, Sweden
Snow Patrol (Tom Simpson) - Glasgow, Scotland
Sonic Youth (Steve Shelley) New York, NY and Hoboken, NJ
Stars (Evan Cranley) - Montreal, Quebec
Strokes (Albert Hammond Jr.) - New York, NY
Swayback (Eric Halborg) - Denver, CO
Teenage Fanclub (Norman Blake) - Glasgow, Scotland
Tokyo Police Club (Dave, Josh, Greg, and Graham) - Toronto, Ontario
Voxtrot (Ramesh Srivastava) - Austin, TX
I hope they call it "Shin Splints Records".
The Shins somehow managed to shift more than 100,000 copies of their crappy last record in the first week of release early last year (as opposed to their awesome first record and very good second one which didn't sell as well), how many of them were sold to paid up members of the Natalie Portman appreciation society I'm not sure but that success has made the band rethink their label situation and there is a chance that the band may depart from long time home Sub Pop in favour of front man James Mercer's Aural Apothecary imprint.
The band's manager Ian Montone recently told Billboard that their next deal could "be more of a [pressing and distribution] deal than a traditional record deal. That partner could very well remain Sub Pop, who have done a remarkable job with the band and have a great staff of people who really love music."
Seemingly the main focus for their next deal is to retain ownership of their master tapes and to "team up with a label partner that will assist with additional marketing, radio, and various costs." They want to "have the best of all possible worlds -- control and ownership, as well as the ability to still partner with a label and take advantage of traditional infrastructure."
At this point in their careers it's certainly the right time to think about this sort of thing, they've a proven record when it comes to moving units now and they may never get a chance to strike such an artist friendly deal again. If only they'd start writing good songs again then I'd be happy.
I was sorely tempted to quote 2 unlimited in this headline.
You wouldn't really think that a band like No Age would have a tribute band would you? I mean, they're great and all, Nouns is one of the best records of the year but a tribute band?
Really?
Yes,
really.
They're called New No Age.
Randy Randall of No Age certainly approves of the idea (who doesn't love having their ego massaged?) and when he heard about the project he contacted the duo (Josh Taylor and Kyle Mabson) and the three of them have since started writing fresh material.
The new band is called Cockpit and they played their first gig in LA last week.
Some news stories are just too perfect.
Robert Pollard never stops
Barely a fortnight has passed since the release of the last Robert Pollard solo record and details have already begun to emerge about Dayton's most prolific songwriter's next release.
Pollard is part of Boston Spaceships, a new band featuring Decemberists drummer/Perhapst leader John Moen and regular Pollard foil Chris Slusarenko (Guided by Voices, the Takeovers). The album is called Brown Submarine and is out on September 9th via Guided By Voices Inc. and the band will embark on their first tour later that month.
Tracklisting:
01 Winston's Atomic Bird
02 Brown Submarine
03 You Satisfy Me
04 Ate It Twice
05 Two Girl Area
06 North 11 A.M.
07 Zero Fix
08 Psych Threat
09 Andy Playboy
10 Rat Trap
11 Soggy Beavers
12 Ready to Pop
13 Still in Rome
14 Go for the Exit
07-16 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix Concert Theatre
07-17 Montreal, Quebec - La Tulipe
07-19 Brooklyn, NY - Coney Island (Siren Festival)
07-27 Niigata, Japan - Fuji Rock Festival
08-01 Chicago, IL - Grant Park (Lollapalooza)
08-24 Brighton, England - Komedia
08-25 Bristol, England - Thekla
08-27 Nottingham, England - Rescue Rooms
08-29 Argyll, Scotland - Hydro Connect Festival
Sigur Ros
06-20 Neuhausen ob Eck, Germany - Southside Festival
06-22 Scheeßel, Germany - Hurricane Festival
06-24 London, England - Westminster Methodist Central Hall
06-28 Reykjavík, Iceland - TBA *
07-05 Werchter, Belgium - Rock Werchter Festival
07-06 Arras, France - Main Square Festival
07-08 Vienna, Austria - Arena
07-09 Lausanne, Switzerland - Les Docks
07-11 Florence, Italy - Giardino di Boboli
07-12 Rome, Italy - Cavea Auditorium
07-13 Milan, Italy - Arena Civica
07-14 Zurich, Switzerland - Volkhaus
07-17 Benicàssim, Spain - Benicàssim Festival
07-19 Southwold, England - Latitude Festival
08-01 Melbourne, Australia - Festival Hall
08-02 Sydney, Australia - Hordern Pavilion
08-03 Byron Bay, Australia - Splendour in the Grass
08-07 Oslo, Norway - Øya Festival
08-08 Gothenburg, Sweden - Way Out West
08-09 Copenhagen, Denmark - Beat Day Festival
08-11 Cologne, Germany - Palladium
08-12 Wiesbaden, Germany - Schlachthof
08-13 Berlin, Germany - Tempodrum
08-15 Saint-Malo, France - La Route du Rock Festival
08-17 Biddinghuizen, Netherlands - Lowlands Festival
08-18 Dresden, Germany - Alter Schlachthof
08-19 Prague, Czech Republic - Arena HC Sparta Praha
08-20 Warsaw, Poland - Palladium
08-22 Riga, Latvia - Arena
08-24 Helsinki, Finland - Kulttuuritalo
08-26 St. Petersburg, Russia - TYUZ Theatre
08-27 Moscow, Russia - B1
08-29 Stradbally, Ireland - Electric Picnic Festival
08-31 Argyll, Scotland - Hydro Connect Festival
09-17 New York, NY - United Palace Theatre
09-18 New York, NY - United Palace Theatre
09-19 Boston, MA - Bank of America Pavillion
09-20 Montreal, Quebec - Quai Jacques Cartier
09-22 Toronto, Ontario - Massey Hall
09-23 Detroit, MI - Fillmore
09-24 Chicago, IL - Chicago Theatre
09-25 Minneapolis, MN - Orpheum
09-27 Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre
09-28 Salt Lake City, UT - Great Saltair
09-30 Tempe, AZ - The Marquee
10-01 San Diego, CA - Copley Symphony Hall
10-02 Los Angeles, CA - The Greek Theatre
10-03 Berkeley, CA - The Greek Theatre
10-05 Seattle, WA - Benaroya Hall
10-06 Portland, OR - Arlene Schnitzer Theatre
10-07 Vancouver, British Columbia - The Chan Centre
10-22 Nagoya, Japan - Geijyutsu Hall
10-24 Osaka, Japan - Koseinenkin Hall
10-26 Tokyo, Japan - Forum
* with Bjork, Ólöf Arnalds
Boston Spaceships
09-25 Cincinnati, OH - Midpoint Music Festival *
09-26 Cleveland Heights, OH - Grog Shop *
09-27 Washington, DC - Black Cat *
09-29 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's *
09-30 Boston, MA - Paradise #
10-01 New York, NY - Highline Ballroom *
10-03 Ann Arbor, MI - Blind Pig *
10-04 Dayton, OH - Dayton Music Festival
10-06 Chicago, IL - Double Door *
10-07 St. Paul, MN - Turf Club *
10-09 Champaign, IL - Higher Ground *
10-10 St. Louis, MO - Bluebird *
10-11 Memphis, TN - Hi-Tone *
10-14 Austin, TX - The Parish *
10-15 Dallas, TX - The Loft *
10-17 Atlanta, GA - The Earl *
10-18 Nashville, TN - Mercy Lounge *
* with the High Strung
# with Big Dipper
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Black Flag - Damaged
The bit at the end
Those G n' R leaks. Genuinely some of the worst shit I've ever heard.
Semi permanent plug for my blog. All sorts of things went up there this week.
