Dancing About Architecture 2.24.09
Posted by Ian Wright on 02.24.2009
Primavera Sound fest, Touch & Go to go, new album from St. Vincent, Leonard Cohen live, Dinosaur Jr. and Rufus Wainwright.
The bit at the start
Normally when I take time off work to go on holiday invariably it's to go and see music somewhere. The next trip is no different because at the end of May I'm off to Barcelona for the Primavera Sound Festival. The majority of the acts playing were announced last week and there's nearly 40 bands playing that I've got some interest in seeing. The lineup looks like this …
A-Trak, A Certain Ratio, Alela Diane, Andrew Bird, Angelo Spencer, Aphex Twin, Ariel Pink, Art Brut, The Bad Plus, Bat For Lashes, Black Lips, Bloc Party, Bowerbirds, The Bug, Carsick Cars, Crystal Antlers, Crystal Stilts, Cuzo, Chad VanGaalen, Damien Jurado, Dan Deacon Ensemble, Deerhunter, Dj Mehdi, The Drones, Ebony Bones, El-P, Extra Life, The Extraordinaires, Extraperlo, Fucked Up, Gang Gang Dance, Ghostface Killah, Girl Talk, Girls, Jarvis Cocker, Jason Lytle from Grandaddy, Jay Reatard, The Jayhawks, The Jesus Lizard, Joe Crepúsculo y Los Destructores, Joe Henry, John Maus, Karl Blau, Kimya Dawson, Kitty Daisy & Lewis, Lemonade, Lightning Bolt, The Lions Constellation, The Mae Shi, Magik Markers, Magnolia Electric Co., Mahjongg, Marnie Stern, Michael Mayer, Michael Nyman, My Bloody Valentine, The New Year, Oneida, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Phoenix, Plants & Animals, Ponytail, Rosvita, The Secret Society, Shearwater, Shellac, Simian Mobile Disco, Skatebård, Sleepy Sun, The Soft Pack, Sonic Youth, Spectrum, Spiritualized, Squarepusher, Sunn O))) performing "The Grimmerobe Demos", The Tallest Man On Earth, Throwing Muses, Uffie, The Vaselines, Veracruz, Vivian Girls, Wavves, Women, Wooden Shjips, Yo La Tengo, Zombie Zombie
Sunn O))) might just be the most terrifying musical experience I ever get to have.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Dan Deacon - Bromst
Fucking marvellous.
You news, you lose
Touch and gone.
Last Wednesday was a pretty sad day for indie rock as Touch & Go records announced that it was going to halt releasing new music for the foreseeable future and shift it's focus to it's back catalogue. It also announced that it was shutting down it's distribution arm which handled releases by the likes of Merge, Kill Rock Stars, Drag City, Suicide Squeeze, Flameshovel, Jade Tree, and Post Present Medium. The final planned release by the label will be Crystal Antlers' Tentacles.
Touch And Go began life as a magazine in East Lansing MI. in 1979, and soon after began putting out hardcore releases, and from the mid-80's onwards put out a series of what were to become seminal (because I've never used the word on this blog and now seems like the right time) records by the likes of The Jesus Lizard, Big Black and probably most notably Slint (Spiderland was one of their's). Over the years they've been home to the likes of Don Cabellero, Butthole Surfers (that one ended badly), Dirty Three, Rachel's, Rapeman and Shellac (in fact Steve Albini both as an artist and a producer has a long tangled history with them) and in more recent times have been home to bands like TV On The Radio, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Blonde Redhead.
Awful shame.
Great news.
I'm going to say something a little sexist here. I'm a little surprised that arguably the two most technically proficient guitar players in indie rock today are women. It's such a boy thing, being good at guitar. Not that there's anything wrong with it and it's good to see that we've moved past the chick with bass cliché a little. But there you have it, Marnie Stern makes music that I don't' really like. And Annie Clarke makes music that I utterly adore.
So I was gladdened to hear last week that Clarke is set to release her second album under her St. Vincent monikor. Actor will be releases on 4AD on May 5th. It was co-produced by Clarke and John Congelton (Modest Mouse). On the last record, Marry My, Clarke played all the instruments herself but this time around she's scaled back the workload a little and just takes care of the vocals, guitar, drums and keys and has brought in help for the woodwinds, French horns and percussion.
The album will be preceded by a single "Actor Out Of Work" on April 20th.
Tracklist:
01 The Strangers
02 Save Me From What I Want
03 Neighbors
04 Actor Out of Work
05 Black Rainbow
06 Laughing With a Mouth of Blood
07 Marrow
08 The Bed
09 The Party
10 Just the Same But Brand New
11 The Sequel
Laughin' Lenny, the live album.
There were loads of legendary songwriters that made their way to the shores of my little island nation last year. I caught a few of them (Broooooce, Tom Waits) and missed a couple of them (Neil Young, Leonard Cohen). It's the latter of that final pair that I most regret not seeing as by all reports each of the three nights he played at the Irish Musuem Of Modern Art were nothing short of wonderful.
Well come the end of next month we'll at least get the chance to experience part of what those European tour gigs from last year were like because Columbia will be releasing a duel CD/DVD set of Cohen's gig in London's O2 arena which stretched to nearly 3 hours. Pretty impressive for a guy in his 70's.
Tracklist:
Disc one:
01 Dance Me to the End of Love
02 The Future
03 Ain't No Cure for Love
04 Bird on the Wire
05 Everybody Knows
06 In My Secret Life
07 Who By Fire
08 Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye
09 Anthem
10 Introduction
11 Tower Of Song
12 Suzanne
13 The Gypsy's Wife
Disc two:
01 Boogie Street
02 Hallelujah
03 Democracy
04 I'm Your Man
05 Recitation w/ N.L.
06 Take This Waltz
07 So Long, Marianne
08 First We Take Manhattan
09 Sisters of Mercy
10 If It Be Your Will
11 Closing Time
12 I Tried to Leave You
13 Wither Thou Goest
Rufus is fabulous.
If you ever want to see a gig headlined by a ridiculously velvet voiced frontman that at the end descends into gay cabaret with everyone in their underwear then Rufus Wainwright is the man for you.
Next month will see Wainwright play two pretty high concept concerts. The first, on March 3rd is at the Highline Ballroom headlining the Rock-It Science Festival where he's sharing the stage with a bunch of scientists who also do music, most of the science dudes you've probably never heard of (the guy from Offspring has a PhD. But he's not playing) as well as Lenny Kaye who plays guitar with Patti Smith.
The following night at the City Winery Wainwright will play the second of his Blackoutsabbath shows which will be candlelit and unamplified to raise awareness for energy conservation.
Dinojaguar
Dinosaur Jr. have signed with wonderful Indiana based indie label Jagjaguar (Bon Iver, Okkervil River, Sunset Rubdown) it was announced last week. Details are still sketchy right now but reports indicate that the MA. indie legends (currently still comprised of the band's classic trio) and will put their first record with the label out in the summer.
The YouTube video of the week
Is on holiday.
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Wilco/Jeff Tweedy
03-26 Burlington, VT - Higher Ground (Jeff Tweedy solo) *
03-27 Northampton, MA - Calvin Theatre (Jeff Tweedy solo) *
03-28 Beacon, NY - Beacon High Auditorium (Jeff Tweedy solo) (Benefit for Hudson River Sloop Clearwater)
04-14 Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theatre
04-15 Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theatre
04-16 Bloomington, IN - IU Auditorium
04-17 Athens, OH - Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium
04-18 Knoxville, TN - Tennessee Theatre
04-20 Athens, GA - Classic Center
04-21 Asheville, NC - Thomas Wolfe Auditorium
04-22 Birmingham, AL - Sloss Furnaces
04-23 Oxford, MS - Lyric Oxford
04-25 New Orleans, LA - New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
05-23 Tenerife, Spain - Tenerife Auditorium
05-25 Malaga, Spain - Teatro Cervantes !
05-26 Madrid, Spain - Teatro Calderon !
05-29 Seville, Spain - Territorios Festival, La Cartuja
05-30 Oporto-Braga, Portugal - Teatro Circo
05-31 Lisbon, Portugal - Lisbon Coliseu
06-01 Santiago de Compostela-Galicia, Spain - Palacio de Congresos, Sala Braque
06-03 San Sebastian, Spain - Kursaal
06-04 Barcelona, Spain - Auditori Barcelona
07-11-14 Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo Festival
07-22-25 Detroit Lakes, MN - 10,000 Lakes Festival
08-21 Erfurt-Hohenfelden, Denmark - Highfield Festival
* with Pronto
! with Akron/Family
Leonard Cohen
04-02 Austin, TX - Michael and Susan Dell Hall at Long Center
04-03 Grand Prarie, TX - Nokia Theatre at Grand Prarie
04-05 Phoenix, AZ - Dodge Theatre
04-07 San Diego, CA - Copley Symphony Hall
04-10 Los Angeles, CA - Nokia Theatre L.A. Live
04-13 Oakland, CA - Paramount Theatre of the Arts
04-17 Indio, CA - Coachella Festival
04-19 Vancouver, British Columbia - General Motors Place
04-21 Victoria, British Columbia - Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre
04-23 Seattle, WA - WaMu Theater at Qwest FieldEvents Center
04-25 Edmonton, Alberta - Rexall Place
04-26 Calgary, Alberta - EPCOR Centre's Jack Singer Hall
04-28 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - Credit Union Centre
04-30 Winnipeg, Manitoba - MTS Centre
05-03 Minneapolis, MN - Orpheum Theatre
05-05 Chicago, IL - The Chicago Theatre
05-09 Detroit, MI - Fox Theatre
05-11 Columbia, MD - Merriweather Post Pavilion
05-12 Philadelphia, PA - Academy of Music
05-14 Waterbury, CT - Palace Theater
05-16 New York, NY - Radio City Music Hall
05-19 Hamilton, Ontario - Copps Coliseum
05-21 Quebec City, Quebec - Pavillon de la Jeunesse
05-22 Kingston, Ontario - K-Rock Centre
05-24 London, Ontario - John Labatt Centre
05-25 Ottowa, Ontario - National Arts Centre, Southam Hall
05-29 Boston, MA - Wang Theatre
06-02 Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Mogwai
03-03 Brisbane, Australia - The Tivoli
03-04 Sydney, Australia - Enmore Theatre
03-05 Melbourne, Australia - The Forum Theatre
03-07 Meredith, Australia - Golden Plains Festival
03-08 Perth, Australia - Beck's Music Box
03-20 Dublin, Ireland - Dublin Academy
03-21 Dublin, Ireland - Dublin Academy
03-22 Dublin, Ireland - Dublin Academy
04-20 Houston, TX - Numbers %
04-21 New Orleans, LA - Republic %
04-22 Birmingham, AL - Workplay Theatre %
04-23 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel %
04-24 Carrboro, NC - Cats Cradle %
04-25 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero %
04-27 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg %
04-28 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg %
04-29 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg %
05-01 Boston, MA - Wilbur Theatre %
05-02 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street %
05-03 Montreal, Quebec - Metropolis %
05-04 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix %
05-05 Buffalo, NY - Tralf Music Hall %
05-06 Pontiac, MI - Crofoot Ballroom %
05-08 Chicago, IL - Congress Theatre %
05-09 Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall
05-10 Minneapolis, MN- First Avenue
05-11 Omaha, NE - The Slowdown
05-12 Denver, CO - Bluebird Theatre
05-13 Salt Lake City, UT - In The Venue
05-15 San Diego, CA - Belly Up Tavern
05-16 Los Angeles, CA - Orpheum Theatre
% with the Twilight Sad
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio
Built To Spill – Perfect From Now On
The bit at the end
As mentioned above I wrote part of this while listening to Built To Spill's Perfect From Now On. "Velvet Waltz" is not in Waltz time, I just noticed that.
I saw Crystal Stilts on Thursday. They were pretty awful.
Semi permanent plug for my blog.
