Dancing About Architecture 11.11.08
Posted by Ian Wright on 11.11.2008
News on Arcade Fire's next album, Bissell/Sheff split on the way, Deerhoof and others to play Primavera club fest, Hold Steady keyboardist goes solo, Ambient fest, record demos on your iPhone plus the obligatory "and more".
The bit at the start
Hello. It's actually Tuesday morning right now so I'm running a little bit late. Fortunately as I knew I would be swamped in work all day Monday and then going out to see Built To Spill that night I got most of this done on Sunday.
I am now guitar gay for Jim Roth by the way. Holy shit that is one stunningly good live band. And they topped it off with a most unexpected cover version which I'll get to at the end.
But first …
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Dennis Wilson – Pacific Ocean Blue
Brian wasn't the only Wilson capable of making great music.
You news, you lose
Yay.
Well it's been the best part of a year since Arcade Fire wrapped up their Neon Bible tour far off in Australia and Japan and there's been very little news from the Montrealers aside from the occasional Obama campaign gig during the Democratic primaries. Off course there has been activity from the band's members with relation to other projects. Sarah Neufeld and Richard Reed Perry have been working on a new Bell Orchestre album, drummer Jeremy Gera has most likely spent the last few months drumming for various bands that you've never heard of and as I wrote last week former (pre-Funeral) member Brendan Canning is getting his new band Clues off of the ground.
However AF activity news broke last week from the unlikely source of David Byrne (yes the Talking Head) who wrote in his livejournal of his October 30th gig in Montreal, "Arcade Fire drop by. They're in the very early stages of beginning a new recording."
According to the band's management those early stages are merely recording home demos but hey, a start is a start.
WHOO.
I've been waiting for this release for about 2 years now so news that it's on the verge of release puts me in a bit of a cheerful mood. Charles Bissell of The Wrens and Okkervil River's Will Sheff will next month (hopefully) release a split 7" where the pair will cover songs that the other has written. Bissell takes on "It Ends With A Fall" while Sheff has a recording of "Ex Girl Collection" lined up.
Hopefully the single will be available from December 9th via retail, mail order and a gigs thanks to the people at Jagjaguar and a wider release is pencilled in for January.
This is not the first time that the pair have worked together. Bissell spent much of the spring filling in with Okkervil River as their touring guitarist as well as opening for them solo a number of times. The pair will also play together at the New York date of Sheff's upcoming solo tour.
Panda, panda, panda, panda.
Deerhoof (recently restored to a 4-piece and kicking all sorts of ass live with their new lineup) are one of the many impressive names lined up for the Primavera Club festival taking place in Barcelona and Madrid next month from the 10th to 13th of December.
Other bands performing during the week are Thermals, Mogwai (DJing in Barcelona only), the Dodos, Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan (performing their 2008 album Sunday at Devil Dirt), Abe Vigoda, High Places (Barcelona only), Giant Sand, Mika Miko, Darren Hayman and Jack Hayter (playing Hefner songs), Boss Hog, Eli "Paperboy" Reed & the True Loves, and Wovenhand, among others.
Super Mario Hold Steady member.
Seriously, take a look at Franz Nicolay and tell me that he doesn't look like a video game plumber.
No, really.
And you have to mean it.
Because he does.
Anyway, the Hold Steady keyboardist has a solo record due out on January 13th via Fistolo Records. It's called Major General.
The album was mostly produced by James Frazee whose previous credits include work on the newest Hold Steady record, mixed by John Agnello and features guest spots from members of Dresdon Dolls as well as others.
There's thirteen songs on the album, and some might say that what with that and the release this will be a spectacularly unlucky record but that's for you to decide. Here's a list of the songs.
01 Jeff Penalty [ft. Demander]
02 Hey Dad!
03 World/Inferno Vs. The End of the Evening
04 Dead Sailors
05 Do We Not Live in Dreams?
06 Confessions of an Ineffective Casanova
07 Note on a Subway Wall
08 Quiet Where I Lie
09 Nightratsong
10 X-Games
11 This World Is an Open Door
12 Cease-Fire, or, Mrs. Norman Maine
13 I'm Done Singing
ARE YOU READY TO ROCK stand around stroking your chins and gently nodding as you try to look smart?
This year's Brainwaves Festival is taking place from November 21-23 in Arlington MA, and will feature appearances from Matmos, Marissa Nadler, Silver Apples, Windy Weber (of Windy & Carl) with Thomas Meluch (aka Benoît Pioulard), His Name Is Alive, Manorexia, Coil offshoot the Threshold HouseBoys Choir, Gary Wilson, Rivulets, Major Stars, Little Annie, Meat Beat Manifesto, and a 15th anniversary Kranky celebration gig featuring Stars of the Lid, Lichens, Nudge, Boduf Songs, Strategy, and To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie.
There won't be much dancing but there's some excellent stuff lined up to appear.
Finally, something that might make me consider mayne getting an iPhone.
Oh wait, the dickishly long contract and extra tariff for owning one.
Never mind.
Anyway this is still pretty cool. Sonoma Wire Works have just released an app for the iPhone called FourTrack. It turns your iPhone (or iPod Touch, and no I'm not getting one of them either) into a 4-track recorder.
However, according to Wired's listening post blog there's still a few problems with the program …
The iPhone's built-in speaker is too soft to allow the program to be used in any meaningful way without headphones, and not every pair of headphones has a skinny enough jack to fit into the first-generation iPhone. Plus, there's currently no way to use a high-quality mic, and the software doesn't work on the first-generation iPod Touch -- just second-generation models that can be used with a third-party microphone).
Still though, if you're the type of musician that gets ideas that just pop into their head at inopportune moments it sure beats carrying a Dictaphone around.
The YouTube video of the week
Not from the gig I saw but you get the idea.
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Phosporescent
11-11 Gainesville, FL - The Atlantic *
11-12 Tampa, FL - New World Brewery *
11-13 Orlando, FL - Tanqueray's (ANTI*POP Festival) *
11-14 Pensacola, FL - Sluggos *
11-17 Birmingham, AL - Bottletree *
11-18 Knoxville, TN - The Pilot Light *
11-19 Norfolk, VA - The Boot *
11-20 Washington, DC - DC9 *
11-21 Baltimore, MD - GSpot: Audio/Visual Playground *
11-22 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church *
11-28 Brooklyn, NY - The Bell House
* with Virgin Forest! Drive-By Truckers closing
Will Sheff solo
12-11 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg *^
12-17 San Francisco, CA - Herbst Theatre ("Talking Music: Conversation With Will Sheff")
12-19 San Francisco, CA - Café Du Nord ^
12-20 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Forever Cemetery Masonic Lodge ^#
* with Charles Bissell
^ with Bird of Youth
# with the Tallest Man on Earth
Animal Collective
10-22 Athens, Greece - Gagarin 205 *
10-23 Tel Aviv, Israel - Zappa
10-24 Istanbul, Turkey - Babylon
10-25 Valencia, Spain - Greenspace Festival
11-06 Santiago, Chile - Industria Cultural
11-08 São Paulo, Brazil - Planeta Terra Festival
11-09 Buenos Aires, Argentina - La Trastienda
11-13 Lima, Peru - Centro Fundación Telefónica
* with Axolotl
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio
The Walkmen – Bows & Arrows
British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music
The bit at the end
Another busy couple of weeks coming up for me gig wise. This weekend I'm seeing TV On The Radio who I hope are better than the last, somewhat underwhelming time I saw them 2 years ago, and Jay Reatard the next night who I expect to kill someone in the audience. If it's not me I'll be terribly disappointed. Then the following week I'm opening for Parenthetical Girls, who have made my favourite album of the year. So that's nice.
