Dancing About Architecture 01.06.09
Posted by Ian Wright on 01.06.2009
Inaugural ball, thoughts on the new Animal Collective and Antony albums, the new Dan Deacon and Röyksopp!
The bit at the start
Hey, happy new year and all that. While I was away a couple of highly anticipated albums for 2009 leaked online.
Probably the most notable, and kudos to Domino for keeping it under wraps for as long as they did, was Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion. It's probably the most accessible thing they've ever put out and my initial thoughts on it are pretty positive. But I'm not quite sure just how much I like it yet. But I do like it, and "Summer Cloths" is an amazing, amazing tune. It's also out in records shops today. I think you should buy it.
What I'm more taken with though is Antony And The Johnsons' The Crying Light. A massive step forward compositionally from the already wonderful I am a bird now it's really grabbed me. I know that some people are put off by his voice but wow this is good.
Also there's the new Andrew Bird. I don't like it much.
But 2 out of 3 ain't bad.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Wavves - Wavves
Lo-fi brilliance from San Franciscan skater kid.
You news, you lose
There is a Mountain Of Snow.
I can't wait to see Dan Deacon again. As I've mentioned in this column before the Baltimore resident absurdist genius puts on one of the funnest live shows I've ever been to. When I do get to see him next he'll probably be touring with material from his new album Bromst which is out on March 24th on Carpark. The tracklisting for the album was announced recently and it looks like this …
01 Build Voice
02 Red F
03 Paddling Ghost
04 Snookered
05 Of the Mountains
06 Surprise Stefani
07 Wet Wings
08 Woof Woof
09 Slow With Horns / Run for Your Life
10 Baltihorse
11 Get Older
Can't wait.
Party with Obama.
There's all sorts of folks lined up to play in DC around the time of Barrack Obama's inauguration in order to celebrate the latest Irish American to take over the Presidency (his ancestors are from Offaly just like our current head of parliament, I don't want to worry you but that guy has fucked us bad). We've got classic and classical covered with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Yo-yo Ma and Anthony McGill but for those who like things a little more left field there's the Big Shoulders Ball: Chicago Celebrates Change in the Black Cat on January 19th with Andrew Bird, Tortoise, Ted Leo and more lined up to play.
Oh and there's loads of rumours floating around about a Springsteen show.
Roy's cop.
It's been 4 years since Röyksopp's last album The Understanding but over Christmas the Norwegian duo announced that their third album, Junior will be out on March 23rd.
There's plenty of big name female Scandinavian talent adding their vocal talents to the effort with Robyn, Lykke Li, Anneli Drecker and the Knife's Karin Dreijer all guesting on the record.
Tracklisting:
01 Happy Up Here
02 The Girl and the Robot
03 Vision One
04 This Must Be It
05 Röysopp Forever
06 Miss It So Much
07 Tricky Tricky
08 You Don't Have a Clue
09 Silver Cruiser
10 True to Life
11 It's What I Want
"Happy Up Here" will be the first single and will be released 2 weeks before the album. The duo are also offering non album track "Happy Birthday" for free on their website.
The YouTube video of the week
23 years gone last Sunday. I can't describe how much I love this song.
If you can you should go to these gigs.
The Hold Steady
15-Jan Chicago, IL House of Blues
31-Jan Brisbane, AUS Laneway Festival
1-Feb Melbourne, AUS Laneway Festival
2-Feb Melbourne, AUS The Corner Hotel
4-Feb Sydney, AUS The Metro Theatre
6-Feb Perth, AUS Laneway Festival
7-Feb Adelaide, AUS Laneway Festival
8-Feb Sydney, AUS Laneway Festival
WITH THE WAR ON DRUGS
31-Mar Albany, NY Valentine's
1-Apr Buffalo, NY Tralf Music Hall
2-Apr Grand Rapids, MI Calvin College Fine Arts Center
3-Apr Urbana, IL Illini Courtyard Cafe
4-Apr Bloomington, IN Jake's Nightclub
6-Apr St. Louis, MO Gargoyle
7-Apr Iowa City, IA Picador
8-Apr Omaha, NE Slowdown
10-Apr Boulder, CO Fox Theatre
11-Apr Salt Lake City, UT Urban Lounge
14-Apr Stateline, NV Harrah's Tahoe South Shore Room
15-Apr Sacramento, CA Harlow's
Dan Deacon
02-19 - 02-23 New Zealand - TBA
02-26 Sydney, Australia - TBA
02-27 Sydney, Australia - Oxford Art Factory (Summer Tones)
02-28 Melbourne, Australia - The Espy (Summer Tones)
03-05 Melbourne, Australia - The Tote
03-06 Brisbane, Australia - The Zoo (Summer Tones)
03-07 Meredith, Australia - Golden Plains Festival
03-08 Perth, Australia - Perth Festival
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio
Panda Bear – Person Pitch
So Cow – I'm siding with my captors
The bit at the end
Quick one this week. Why not ease ourselves into the year gently.
Zooey is getting hitched to Benn Gibbard. Couldn't she get someone more talented to break my heart and destroy my dreams with.
Semi permanent plug for my blog. While I was away I wrote loads about football and some stuff about music.
