Dancing About Architecture 12.16.08
Posted by Ian Wright on 12.16.2008
An Arcade Fire film, Glasvegas live, a Deerhunter side project, ATP New York, Animal Collective, Phosphorescent covers Willie Nelson and the latest on the new Postal Service record.
The bit at the start
I went to see Glasvegas on Sunday night. I haven't actually listened to their record in about 2 months but it was pretty good.
In terms of lyrics it's about 60% bedwetting singer songwriter navel gazing, 40% football chants and all set to a massive fucking shoegaze wall of noise. I'd probably like them a lot more if yer man wasn't fronting them.
Crowd (somewhat old crowd, or at least older than me, I didn't see too many of the faces I usually recognise at gigs around Dublin there) went fucking mental for them though, give'em another year, or another record and they'll be massive. There seems to be something about them that's very euphoric and anthemic in much the same way Oasis were, they could attract that kind of audience.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Van Dykes Parks – Song Cycle
Inflation adjusted the most financially disastrous album ever. Also brilliant.
You news, you lose
Win and Regine make a movie.
As I'm typing this it's 21:08 on Monday evening GMT and when I woke up this morning I'd been expecting to be able to talk about this in the past tense. Perhaps when it goes live on Tuesday it'll already have happened. But anyway.
At some point on Monday, December 15th it's expected that an Arcade Fire film will appear online at miroir-noir.com. It'll be released physically at some point next year but if you pre-order it from that site you'll get access to an instant free download.
The 70 minute film "follows Arcade Fire through the making and touring of their 2007 album Neon Bible documenting the band at their Montreal studio, the making of promotional films and videos, along with live footage and a few short films made on the road."
When it comes time for a physical release there'll be a standard and a deluxe edition available for punters with the latter featuring "bonus material including Arcade Fire's live performances on [UK television program 'Friday Night With] Jonathon Ross', 'Saturday Night Live', and at [BBC studio] Maida Vale." For those keeping score the Jonathan Ross show was the one where Win Butler smashed a camera and stormed off stage at the finale of the show.
The film was co-directed by Vincent Morisset and Vincent Moon of "Takeaway Show" fame who was responsible for that not all that good National DVD.
ATP, ATP, ATP, NYC, NYC, NYC.
OK, I was wrong. It's not Thurston Moore/Sonic Youth that will curate next September's ATP New York as I'd earlier predicted but rather it'll be The Flaming Lips who takes charge of the Sunday of the event. The Lips will play their day but as yet have none of the other bands that will play that day have been announced.
That's assuming that Wayne and the boys aren't planning on playing a 9 hour set (which would probably only allow them time to play about 12 songs given the amount of audience banter Coyne engages in mid set).
By way of reminder, ATP NY takes place from September 11-13 in Kutshers Country Club in Monticello New York.
Merry new date.
Animal Collective have pushed forward the vinyl release of what is quite possibly the most anticipated new album of 2009 by a couple of weeks.
Merriwether Post Pavilion, accompanied by an instantly redeemable download voucher, will hit stores on 180 gram gatefold vinyl on January 6th in North America. That's 2 weeks before the CD and download release of the album. The UK release date of January 12th remains unchanged.
Domino are also planning a whole bunch of record release parties at various venues and record shops details of which can be found here.
Another Deerhunter side project.
Lotus Plaza is the side project of Deerhunter guitarist Locket Pundt and next year he'll release The Floodlight Collective, his first album under that moniker.
The album will be out on March 23rd on Deerhunter's label Kranky. The album features a guest spot on drums from Pundt's Deerhunter bandmate Bradford Cox.
Tracklist:
01 Red Oak Way
02 Quicksand
03 These Years
04 Different Mirrors
05 Whiteout
06 What Grows?
07 Sunday Night
08 Antoine
09 The Floodlight Collective
10 A Threaded Needle
More songs about Wolves?
Matthew Houck is a talented fella and for his next release as Phosphorescent he's preparing a set of Willie Nelson covers.
To Willie is out on Dead Oceans on February 3rd and apparently is "an unabashed musical love letter".
Tracklisting:
01 Reasons to Quit
02 Too Sick to Pray
03 Walkin'
04 It's Not Supposed to Be That Way
05 Pick Up the Tempo
06 I Gotta Get Drunk
07 Can I Sleep in Your Arms
08 Heartaches of a Fool
09 Permanently Lonely
10 The Last Thing I Needed (First Thing This Morning)
11 The Party's Over
Bad News.
If you're one of the many waiting for a new Postal Service I wouldn't hold my breath. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone's Rock & Roll Daily he said "It's the record that never seems to want to come out. It's also just never been a priority...There never really was a plan to do a second album." He then went on to say "The anticipation of the second record has been a far bigger deal for everybody except the two of us." "I don't know about it being the indie-rock Chinese Democracy but now that Chinese Democracy has come out, I guess it just becomes the second Postal Service record that will never come out."
There is some small hope though as Gibbard said that Jimmy Tamborello and he do occasionally … "work from time to time together but we have other things that take up all of our time."
But for the time being the pair of them seem to be content to make music nowhere near as good as what they do together.
A scene that never breaks.
Broken Social Scene's Charles Spearin (the dude on guitar with the awesome beard) has a new solo album coming out next year. It's called The Happiness Project and it's got a bit of an interesting back story.
In it Spearin interviews a number of people from his neighbourhood and then did his best to replicate their answers musically.
It's due out on Valentines day via Arts And Crafts and features guest spots from fellow BSS members Kevin Drew and Evan Cranley contributed to the project, as well as Ohad Benchetrit, Julie Penner and Justin Small of Spearin's other band Do Make Say Think.
Tracklisting:
01 Mrs. Morris
02 Anna
03 Vittoria
04 Vanessa
05 Marisa
06 Mr. Gowrie
06 Mrs. Morris (Reprise)
The YouTube video of the week
A live version of one of my favourite songs of the year by one of the most talented and nicest men in Irish music.
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Fucked Up
12-10 Girona, Spain - La Mirona
12-11 Madrid, Spain - Wurlitzer Ballroom
12-12 Durango, Spain – Plateruena Kafe
12-13 Sant Feliu de Codines, Spain - Centre Cívic la Fonteta
12-14 Saint Sebastian, Spain - Mogambo
12-15 Paris, France - Le Mécanique Ondulatoire
12-17 London, England - Underworld
01-16 Ottawa, Ontario - Maverick's
01-17 Montreal, Quebec - La Sala Rossa *
01-18 Portland, ME - SPACE Gallery
01-19 Cambridge, MA - Middle East (Upstairs)
01-20 Brooklyn, NY - Danbro Warehouse #
01-21 Philadelphia, PA - Kung Fu Necktie
01-22 Baltimore, MD - Talking Head
01-23 Charlottesville, VA - Outback Lodge +
01-24 Charlotte, NC - Milestone
01-25 Atlanta, GA - The Earl $
01-27 Gainesville, FL - Sluggo's ^
01-28 Pensacola, FL - Engine Room ^
01-29 New Orleans, LA - Ducbo %
01-30 Houston, TX - Walter's on Washington %
01-31 Austin, TX - Emo's %~
02-02 Albuquerque, NM - The Launchpad
02-03 Phoenix, AZ - Phix Gallery
02-04 San Diego, CA - Casbah !
02-06 Los Angeles, CA - The Echo !
02-08 San Francisco, CA - The Independent !
02-11 Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge
02-12 Omaha, NE - Waiting Room
02-13 Grinnell, IA - Gardner Lounge at Grinnell College
02-14 Chicago, IL - High Concepts Laboratory (early show)
02-14 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
02-15 Pontiac, MI - The Pike Room
02-26 Leeds, England - The Cockpit (Shred Yr Face 2) =
02-27 Glasgow, Scotland - Garage (Shred Yr Face 2) =
02-28 Manchester, England - Club Academy (Shred Yr Face 2) =
03-02 Cardiff, Wales - Clwb Ifor Bach (Shred Yr Face 2) =
03-03 Nottingham, England - Rescue Rooms (Shred Yr Face 2) =
03-04 London, England - Electric Ballroom (Shred Yr Face 2) =
03-05 Brighton, England - Concorde (Shred Yr Face 2) =
03-06 Birmingham, England - Academy (Shred Yr Face 2) =
* with AIDS Wolf
# with Vivian Girls, Pissed Jeans
+ with Vincent Black Shadow
$ with the Carbonas, Bukkake Boys
^ with Iron Livers
% with Iron Age
~ with Annihilation Time
! with Mika Miko
= with the Bronx, Rolo Tomassi
Frightened Rabbit
12-11 Aberdeen, Scotland - Moshulu
12-16 London, England - Brixton Windmill
12-17 London, England - Wilmington Arms (Scott Hutchinson solo show)
12-17 London, England - Brixton Academy *
12-18 Birmingham, England - Carling Academy *
12-19 Manchester, England - Carling Academy *
12-20 Glasgow, Scotland - SECC *
12-29 Woodford, Australia - Woodford Folk Festival
12-20 Glenworth Valley, Australia - Peats Ridge Festival
12-31 Phillip Island, Australia - Pyramid Rock Festival
12-31 Sydney, Australia - Purple Sneakers ^
01-16 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's
01-17 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
01-18 Allston, MA - Great Scott
01-19 Washington, DC - Rock and Roll Hotel
01-22 Urbana, IL - Courtyard Café
01-23 Ames, IA - Maintenance Shop
01-24 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
* with Biffy Clyro
^ with the Teenagers
The War On Drugs
12-10 Rock Island, IL - Huckleberry's Pizza Parlor
12-11 Chicago, IL - Schubas
12-12 Bloomington, IN - Bear's Place
12-13 Pittsburgh, PA - Brillobox
12-14 Brooklyn, NY - Union Hall
12-15 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge
12-18 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's
02-19 Oostende, Belgum - Manuscript
02-20 Lille, France - L'Aeronef
02-21 Clermont, France - La Cooperative Club
02-22 Bordeaux, France - Le St X
02-25 Evreux, France - L'Abordage
02-26 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
02-27 Groningen, Netherlands - Vera
02-28 Den Bosch, Netherlands - W2
03-01 Antwerp, Belgium - Trix
03-02 Brussels, Belgium - Botanique
03-04 Munich, Germany - Orange House
03-05 Leipzig, Germany - NATO
03-06 Hanover, Germany - Café Glocksee
Deerhunter
02-11 Prague, Czech Republic - Rock Café
02-13 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
02-14 Rotterdam, Netherlands - Rotown
02-15 Bruges, Belgium - Cactus
02-16 Brussels, Belgium - Botanique
02-17 Zurich, Switzerland - Rote Fabrik
02-19 Mulhouse, France - Le Noumatrouff (Generiq Festival)
02-20 Dijon, France - Antheneum (Generiq Festival)
02-19 Saint-Malo, France - Omnibus (La Route du Rock Festival)
02-22 Paris, France - La Maroquinerie (Les Nuits de l'Alligator)
02-24 Lyon, France - Ground Zero
02-25 Dundingen, Switzerland - Bad Bonn
02-26 Berlin, Germany - Magnet Club
02-27 Leipzig, Germany - Nato
02-28 Cologne, Germany - Luxor
03-03 London, England - Scala
03-04 Manchester, England - Deaf Institute
03-05 Glasgow, Scotland - Stereo
03-06 Belfast, Northern Ireland - Black Box
03-07 Dublin, Ireland - Whelan's
03-08 Liverpool, England - Korova
03-09 Brighton, England - Audio
03-11 Dresden, Germany - Beatpol
The Tallest Man On Earth
12-09 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge *
12-10 New York, NY - Town Hall #
12-11 New York, NY - Town Hall #
12-12 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg #
12-14 Boston, MA - The Wilbur Theatre #
12-15 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero #
12-17 Louisville, KY - Headliners #
12-18 Chicago, IL - The Vic #
12-19 Madison, WI - Barrymore Theatre #
12-20 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Forever Cemetery ^
12-22 Santa Barbara, CA - SOhO Restaurant & Music Club
12-23 Visalia, CA - Cellar Door
12-26 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore %
12-28 Portland, OR - Ron Tom's
12-29 Seattle, WA - Sunset Tavern
* with Marissa Nadler
# with Bon Iver
^ with Will Sheff (Okkervil River)
% with Two Gallants, Crystal Antlers
Antony And The Johnsons
02-02 Glenside, PA - Keswick Theatre
02-03 Washington, DC - Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
02-04 Columbus, OH - Southern Theatre
02-07 Knoxville, TN - Big Ears Festival
02-08 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse
02-12 Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre
02-13 Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theater
02-14 Minneapolis, MN - Pantages Theatre
02-17 Toronto, Ontario - Queen Elizabeth Theatre
02-19 New York, NY - Town Hall
02-20 New York, NY - Town Hall
02-22 Boston, MA - Berklee Performance Center
02-24 San Francisco, CA - Nob Hill Masonic Center (Noise Pop)
02-27 Vancouver, British Columbia - Vogue Theatre
02-28 Seattle, WA - Moore Theatre
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio
The bit at the end
This is the final "news column" of the year. Next week will be a "best of list" column and then that's it until the new year.
I saw a Guided By Voices cover band on Saturday. Tremendous fun.
Semi permanent plug for my blog. Loads of shit this week. I've been busy.
