Dancing About Architecture 10.07.08
Posted by Ian Wright on 10.07.2008
Atp Australia, Nick Cave - author, Andrew Bird, Springsteen, Au Revoir Simone remixed and the death of an awful band.
The bit at the start
Somewhere, beneath all the fuzz and distorted synth sounds that is the signature of Times New Viking's recorded work there are songs straining to be heard. Good ones too, particularly on the Ohio threepiece's third album, Rip It Off, from earlier in the year. However on their follow up EP to that record, not so much.
Stay Awake is pretty much bereft of the hooks which made the other material of theirs that I'm familiar with worthwhile. Considering how accessible reasonably affordable recording gear is these days I can only assume that their rough sound is an aesthetic choice rather than a consequence of the best gear available to them being of bad quality and when Times New Viking are good things manage to fight their way out the viscous quagmire that is their mixing techniques and latch on to the listener. This EP however sounds to me like a shittily recorded mess, and not in a good way.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Four Tet - Rounds
Played it for the first time in years last week.
You news, you lose
dʇɐ dʇɐ dʇɐ.
Well ATP have already greatly broadened their horizons a lot this year with their first New York event last month and they've even bigger plans afoot for 2009 as next year will see Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds curate the inaugural ATP Australia event from January 9-18.
In conjunction with the Sydney Festival ATP will take place from on January 17-18 at Cockatoo Island featuring Spiritualized, Silver Apples, Michael Gira, Fuck Buttons, Afrirampo, Harmonia, James "Blood" Ulmer, the Saints, former Go-Between Robert Forster, Laughing Clowns, Bridezilla, and the Necks. And of course a headline slot by Cave and crew.
Prior to that the same lineup plus Primitive Calculators, Rowland S. Howard, and the Stabs will be hitting the Mt. Buller Ski Resort in Victoria on January 9-10. On top of that there'll be a slew of gigs in Brisbane from January 12-16 featuring the likes of Fuck Buttons, Afrirampo, Harmonia, and more. But there's more, there'll be a special gig on January 15 at the Brisbane River Stage with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Spiritualized, Robert Forster, and James "Blood" Ulmer, and more.
Well it must surely beat The Big Day Out.
Egghead likes his Booky-wook.
Staying on the subject of Nick Cave for a moment the Aussie icon will publish his second novel The Death Of Bunny Munro in September of next year, a decade after the publication of And The Ass Saw The Angel, his first.
The book, according to billboard anyway, "traces the fortunes of one man and his son on a road trip around the south coast of England following the suicide of his wife," so you can bet that it'll be lighter and more frothy than P.S. I love you.
Canongate has world rights to the novel and the publisher's promo plan includes a signed and numbered limited edition, an audio book narrated by Cave, and an e-book featuring Cave's narration over "an original 'soundscape.'"
The first book by the way, not shit.
Tweet tweet.
Andrew Bird might just be the most frustratingly gifted man currently plying his trade in the indie oeuvre. But it's sorta okay because he uses his talents for good and makes pretty remarkable music.
Next up from the Chicago native is Noble Beast which will be released by Fat Possum records on January 27th.
There's also a new live album which you can buy through his webstore,
Noble Beast:
01 Oh No
02 Masterswarm
03 Fitz and the Dizzyspells
04 Effigy
05 Tenuousness
06 Nomenclature
07 Not a Robot, But a Ghost
08 Anonanimal
09 Natural Disaster
10 Confess
11 Souverian
12 On Ho!
Live in Montreal:
01 Intro
02 Why?
03 Opposite Day
04 Simple X
05 Cannonade
06 Imitosis
07 Spare-Ohs
08 Skin Is, My
09 Darkmatter
Brroooooce.
You know, I don't think any musician since Woodie Gutrie has got the idea of America better than Bruce Springsteen. The fact that he's managed to retain his empathy for the common man and managed to address issues vital to them in his music with credibility despite having been a millionaire rock star for now nearly 3 decades is testament to the man's character. He might write songs for the downtrodden that rages about the injustices they face but despite that there's not a doubt in my mind that the man loves his country.
Over the course of this past weekend Springsteen began a series of acoustic solo shows in support of the Obama campaign. There's also an event on the 16th at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. But even though he's throwing his weight behind the America-hating muslim terrorist he's going to make up for it on the 5th of November when during the New York Comedy Festival he and the wife will play at the "Stand Up For Heroes" concert in New York's Town Hall which will raise proceeds for the Bob Woodruff Family Foundation, which works to ensure that American servicemen "return home to the assistance they need to successfully integrate back into society."
Yay.
Great news everyone. Dirty Pretty Things have announced that they're splitting up.
Carl Barât's horrendous post-(the also horrendous)Libertines band formed 3 years ago and released 2 albums to the general indifference of most right thinking music fans and have now decided to call it quits. In a message on their website the band said, "It's been a glorious three years which we all would gladly live out again, but it is time for us to try new things. (not The Libertines)."
The band's final tour began last week and will wrap up in Paris on the 25th of November.
Now if we only get Pete Doherty to give up music we'd be all set.
Revoir Simone Au
It's been a while since Au Revoir Simone put out their last album of delicate indie pop and next month the band, though their "Our Own Sweet Recording Company", will release a remix album entitled Reverse Migration. The album sees every song on The Bird Of Music remixed and will see contributions by Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip, Jean-Benoît Dunckel of Air , the Teenagers, Montag, Best Fwends, and Keith Murray of We Are Scientists.
There's also a couple of bonus tracks if you buy it from various online digital stores but I'm not going to go into details of those because that sort of thing pisses me off.
Tracklisting:
01 Slow Club: "The Lucky One"
02 Au Revoir Simone: "Sad Song (Pacific! Remix)"
03 Au Revoir Simone: "Fallen Snow (The Teenagers Remix)"
04 Au Revoir Simone: "I Couldn't Sleep (Darkel Remix)"
05 Au Revoir Simone: "A Violent Yet Flammable World (Montag Remix)"
06 Keith Murray: "Don't See the Sorrow"
07 Au Revoir Simone: "Dark Halls (Best Fwends Remix)"
08 Au Revoir Simone: "Night Majestic (Matt Harding Remix)"
09 Au Revoir Simone: "Stars (Disco Pusher Remix)"
10 Au Revoir Simone: "Lark (Ruff and Jam Remix)"
11 Au Revoir Simone: "The Way to There (Mark-Anthony Tieku Remix)"
12 Alexis Taylor: "Sad Song"
13 Au Revoir Simone: "The Lucky One (James Yuill Remix)"
According to Heather D'Angelo's blog the band are currently working on their new album. That news makes me go "whoop".
The YouTube video of the week
The best song off of the best thing that Owen Pallett has ever done. Can't wait for the next album.
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Deerhunter
10-31 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse @*
11-01 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel @
11-02 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle @
11-03 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar @
11-04 Washington, DC - Black Cat @#
11-05 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church @#
11-06 Princeton, NJ - Terrace F. Club @#
11-07 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg #@
11-08 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom $@
11-10 Boston, MA - Paradise $@
11-11 Montreal, Quebec - Theatre Plaza %@
11-12 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace %@
11-13 Pontiac, MI - Crofoot Ballroom !@
11-14 Cleveland Heights, OH - Grog Shop !@
11-15 Chicago, IL - Metro !@
11-16 Madison, WI - High Noon Saloon !@
11-17 Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock Social Club !@
11-20 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards ~@
11-21 Seattle, WA - Neumos ~@
11-22 Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theater ~@
11-24 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall ~@
11-25 Los Angeles, CA - El Rey Theatre ~@
11-28 San Diego, CA - Casbah @
11-29 Phoenix, AZ - Modified Arts @
12-01 Dallas, TX - Palladium Loft @
12-02 Austin, TX - Emo's @
12-03 Houston, TX - Warehouse Live @
12-04 Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon @
12-05 New Orleans, LA - One Eyed Jacks @
12-06 Birmingham, AL - Bottletree @
@ with Times New Viking
* with Pylon, Jay Reatard
# with Knyfe Hyts
$ with Vivian Girls
% with Neighborhood Council
! with Disappears
~ with BARR
Andrew Bird
10-03 Bethlehem, PA - Zoellner Arts Center at Lehigh University (solo show)
10-04 Ithaca, NY - State Theatre of Ithaca (solo show)
10-06 New York, NY - Hiro Ballroom
10-07 New York, NY - Hiro Ballroom
10-07 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg ("Barack Rock")
10-08 Portsmouth, NH - The Music Hall (solo show)
10-09 Albany, NY - The Egg (solo show)
10-10 Northampton, MA - Calvin Theatre (solo show)
10-19 Los Angeles, CA - Largo at The Coronet (solo show)
10-20 Los Angeles, CA - Largo at The Coronet (solo show)
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio
Phantom FM
The bit at the end
Urrrgh, feeling sick. Winter has arrived in Ireland and it's kicking my ass.
Semi permanent plug for my blog. Mostly I've been writing about football this week, also some stuff on Sonic Youth and there's a cut from that TNV EP.
