Dancing About Architecture 9.16.08
Posted by Ian Wright on 09.16.2008
Sonic Youth sign to Matador, Radiohead working on next album, Elbow win the Mecury, Nerd stuff and lots more.
The bit at the start
Good morning/evening/whatever, afternoon too. I've had a busy enough weekend covering a showcase festival in Dublin featuring the cream of Irish underground and unsigned bands, as well as a few ones from Scotland that were part of a section of the fest that was curated by Sons And Daughters. Saw some really bad bands, as well as some really good ones. Funnily enough the best Irish bands I saw were in genres I don't typically enjoy. The pop punk stylings of So Cow, the 8-bit wizardry of The Vinny Club and the hardcore meets metal riffage of Bats are all worth checking out.
I also finally got a chance to see the wonderful Frightened Rabbit. Well worth the wait.
But enough of that, lets go.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Parenthetical Girls - Entanglements
The only album to rival TVOTR as the year's best.
You news, you lose
Obligatory Radiohead top story.
Not for Radiohead is sitting back and counting their millions. Colin Greenwood and Ed O'Brien told the BBC last week that the band took the time allowed to them during a recent break from touring to begin wok on the follow up to last years' In Rainbows.
Things are at an early stage, one would probably not be incorrect to say preliminary but O'Brien told the Beeb, "We're still talking about doing some stuff and we're really excited about it. First we came off tour to do some writing and we wanted to just carry on doing it because it was so brilliant."
And that's about all there is at the minute. But goody.
Bye bye David, hello whoever it is that runs their new label*.
Sonic Youth, having fulfilled their obligations to Geffen, have signed to Matador Records who will release the band's next album in "all worldwide territories, save for Japan" next year. The band have not yet begun to record the album but seem to be planning on doing so in the next month or so and the album may or may not be called The Eternal.
Whenever it comes out expect Geffen to issue a "best of" around the same time. That's just the way things go these days.
Terrified Bunnys.
As I may have mentioned a few times before I'm a big Frightened Rabbit fan so this makes me very happy.
October 21st will see the release of Liver! Lung! FR! on Fat Cat records. It's a collection of mainly acoustic songs recorded at a Glasgow gig during the summer which features guest vocals from Twilight Sad frontman James Graham.
In related FR news the bands next single from the wonderful Midnight Organ Fight will be "I feel better". It's out on the 22nd of the month in the UK and will be available on 7" and download.
Liver! Lung! FR!:
01 The Modern Leper
02 I Feel Better
03 Good Arms vs. Bad Arms
04 Fast Blood
05 Old Old Fashioned
06 The Twist
07 Head Rolls Off
08 My Backwards Walk
09 Keep Yourself Warm
10 Poke
11 Floating in the Forth
12 Who'd You Kill Now?
Elbowing the opposition.
Elbow were the somewhat surprising winners of this years' Mercury Music Prize. The Seldom Seen Kid beat off the hotly tipped Burial and Radiohead to take home the prize and the £20,000 in prize money.
Guy Garvey, nice guy that he is declared that winning the award was "quite literally the best thing that's ever happened to us". Which is a terribly uncool thing to say. But really really honest.
I, and a cast of thousands once sang on an Elbow release. So I'll gladly accept any congrats coming this way. We would have won one years ago had Garvey not pushed me out of the band.
One more then I'm going to bed.
Remember Oink?
It was what you used to steal music before it got busted and you got your What and Waffles accounts.
Yeah that one.
Well last week Andrew Ellis, the founder of Oink was charged with "conspiracy to defraud" and his case will be heard in a magistrate's court next Wednesday.
According to torrentfreak.com none of the charges relate to copywrite matter which is quite interesting.
Seeing as Ellis never profited from Oink I wonder how they're going to make things stick if he wasn't charged with copywrite infringement.
The YouTube video of the week
I was at this last week. Madness.
Wonderful.
But Madness.
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Okkervil River
09-12 Lawrence, KS - The Bottleneck
09-13 Omaha, NE - Slowdown
09-14 Madison, WI - Barrymore Theater ^
09-15 Fargo, ND - The Aquarium
09-17 Seattle, WA - The Showbox *
09-18 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards *
09-19 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom *
09-20 Seattle, WA - McDonald Theater *
09-21 San Francisco, CA - Treasure Island Music Festival
09-23 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theatre *
09-24 Solana Beach, CA - Belly Up Tavern *
09-25 Tempe, AZ - The Clubhouse *
09-26 Tucson, AZ - Club Congress *
09-27 Austin, TX - Emo's Outside
09-28 Austin, TX - Zilker Park (Austin City Limits Music Festival)
09-30 New Orleans, LA - The Republic $#
10-01 Birmingham, AL - Workplay Theater $#
10-02 Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club $#
10-03 Athens, GA - Soapbox Laundro Lounge $#
10-04 Richmond, VA - The National $#
10-06 New York, NY - Webster Hall $#
10-07 New York, NY - Webster Hall $#
10-08 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street $
10-09 Millvale, PA - Mr. Small's Theatre $
10-10 Buffalo, NY - Tralf Music Hall $
10-11 Montreal, Quebec - Les Saints $
10-12 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix $
10-14 Chicago, IL - Metro $#
10-27 Copenhagen, Denmark - Loppen
10-28 Lund, Sweden - Mejeriet
10-29 Gothenburg, Sweden - Pusterviksbaren
10-30 Stockholm, Sweden - Debaser Medis
10-31 Oslo, Norway - Storsalen
11-01 Aarhus, Denmark - Voxhall
11-03 Paris, France - L'Alhambra
11-04 Bruges, Belgium - Cactus
11-05 Norwich, England - Waterfront
11-06 Manchester, England - Academy
11-07 Dublin, Ireland - Academy
11-09 Glasgow, Scotland - Òran Mór
11-10 Wolverhampton, England - Wulfrun
11-11 London, England - Shepherds Bush Empire
11-12 Brighton, England - Concorde 2
11-14 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Melkweg
11-15 Hamburg, Germany - Knust
11-17 Berlin, Germany - Postbahnhof
11-18 Munich, Germany - Registratur
11-19 Milan, Italy - Musicdrome
11-20 Rome, Italy - Circolo Degli Artist
11-21 Bologna, Italy - Estragon
11-22 Vienna, Austria - Porgy & Bess (Blue Bird Festival)
% with the Octopus Project
^ with the Walkmen
* with Sea Wolf, Zykos
$ with Crooked Fingers
# with Black Joe Lewis & the Honey Bears
Evangelicals/Parenthetical Girls
09-25 Rochester, NY - Bug Jar
09-27 Toronto, Ontario - Sneaky Dee's
09-29 Ottawa, Ontario - Zaphod Beeblebrox
10-01 Cambridge, MA - Middle East
10-02 New York, NY - Cake Shop
10-04 Washington, DC - Rock and Roll Hotel %
10-08 Mt. Pleasant, SC - Village Tavern
10-09 Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn
10-14 Denver, CO - Hi-Dive
10-16 Boise, ID - Neurolux
10-17 Seattle, WA - The Vera Project $
10-18 Anacortes, WA - Deptartment of Safety
10-23 San Francisco, CA - Hemlock Tavern
10-24 San Luis Obispo, CA - SLO Art Center
% with These United States
$ with Catfish Haven
Evangelicals
09-12 Austin, TX - Beauty Bar
09-13 Dallas, TX - Cavern
09-15 Memphis, TN - Hi-Tone
09-16 St. Louis, MO - Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center
09-17 Dekalb, IL - House Café
09-18 Champaign, IL - Pygmalion Festial
09-19 Muncie, IN - Village Green Records
09-20 Chicago, IL - Beat Kitchen
09-21 Bloomington, IN - The Bluebird
09-22 Covington, KY - The Mad Hatter
09-23 Columbus, OH - Skully's Music Diner
09-24 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Tavern
09-28 Hamilton, Ontario - Casbah Lounge
10-06 Harrisonburg, VA - Clementine
10-07 Greensboro, NC - TBA
10-10 Chattanooga, TN - JJ's Bohemia
10-11 Nashville, TN - The End
10-13 Ames, IA - Maintenance Shop
10-15 Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court
10-19 Bellingham, WA - Whaam
10-20 Tacoma, WA - The New Frontier
10-21 Portland, OR - Backspace
10-25 Los Angeles, CA - Little Radio
10-27 Tucson, AZ - Solar Culture
10-28 Santa Fe, NM - CSF SUB
10-29 Lubbock, TX - Bash Rip Rock's 2
10-30 Norman, OK – Hellopolis
Parenthetical Girls
09-16 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg *
09-18 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church *
09-19 Washington, DC - Black Cat *
09-20 Columbus, OH - Skully's Music Diner *
09-21 Chicago, IL - Beat Kitchen
* with Sunset Rubdown
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
I watched an episode of The Wire while doing this.
The bit at the end
The second Los Campesinos! album leaked last week. I'm still digesting it somewhat but it's definitely not a complete disaster.
* I looked it up, it's Chris.
Semi permanent plug for my blog. I posted a mixtape there last week of recently released and leaked stuff that I'm into. Also reviews of Ponytail and Wildbirds And Peacedrums. Bon Iver covering Okkervil River. Lots of stuff, it's been a busy week's blogging for me.
