Angus MacLise (ex-Velvet Underground) gets rare albums reissued and a retrospective; still no love for Squeeze

By Squeo on

Angus MacLise (ex-Velvet Underground) gets rare albums reissued and a retrospective; still no love for Squeeze

Whoa whoa whoa, stop right there, Velvet Underground superfan! I see that copy of Mistrial under your arm, and now you’re checking the credits on the back cover of Caribbean Sunset? Come on, man, put both of those back. I understand what you’re going through, you want to discover that old VU magic in any related slice of music, however tangential. I’ve been there, for sure (still searching for a copy of Sterling Morrison’s Tugboat Tunes Vol. 1), but at a certain point you really need to step away from those core members and their solo albums that sound like stale leather and start delving into the much more rewarding recordings of VU’s shadowy early members. There’s Walter De Maria and his immersive Cricket Music/Ocean Music, there’s Henry Flynt and his hillbilly violin workouts, Fluxus sound pieces, and rippin’ protest rock, and at the very top of the Velvet pyramid sits the mystical poet, traveler, and musician Angus MacLise.

Information on MacLise’s personal history and artistic output has been piecemeal over the years, with a couple music collections released in 1999/2000 on Siltbreeze (available for free at UbuWeb) and the occasional anecdote from those who knew him (Lou Reed claims he left VU because they were playing shows with set starting/stopping times), so it’s exciting (and long overdue) that the mysterious fellow is getting a comprehensive retrospective at an NYC art gallery. Dreamweapon: The Art and Life of Angus MacLise (1938-1979) had its opening at the Boo-Hooray Gallery last Tuesday and is still around until May 29, with a different showcase of MacLise’s music for each day (taken from more than 100 hours of material entrusted to La Monte Young 30 years ago).

The exhibition, curated by Johan Kugelberg and Will Cameron, also displays artwork, photographs, manuscripts, calligraphy, and other ephemera associated with MacLise, resulting in the closest thing to a life narrative that this underground legend’s going to get. A fancy exhibition catalog has been made for the occasion in an edition of 1000 copies, and an even fancier version that includes a CD of unreleased music and poetry is available (if you’re filthy stinking rich) in an edition of 100.

For those who don’t live in New York, Boo-Hooray has two new collections of music available on LP for the discerning mind-imploder: Dreamweapon I, which collects live recordings of MacLise’s collaborations with Tony Conrad and Jack Smith, and Dreamweapon III, which gathers some more audio evidence of MacLise and Conrad collaborating. Did I mention this guy was also a founding member of The Theatre of Eternal Music? This guy’s roots go deep. Go to the exhibition, snag both LPs, dim the lights, take in the sounds, get inspired to buy a bongo.

• Boo-Hooray: http://www.boo-hooray.com

Have you hyped up and blogged about EMA’s new LP and tour yet? Well get a move on!

By Emceegreg on May 16 2011

Distortion, you say? Rhythmic beats? Female vocals? Well, now I just have to log into my WordPress and blog about this. Oh, wow… I have two followers now! Time for a really weak music blog entry… go!

Ahem. Ex-Gowns singer and guitarist Erika M. Anderson released her first tape last year, Little Sketches on Tape, under the moniker EMA. Get it? It’s her initials. Now, in 2011 — the year of the rabbit — EMA will release her debut album Past Life Martyred Saints on May 10 via Souterrain Transmissions. Listen to “Milkman” off the album over at the Chocolate Grinder.

EMA recently toured with Kurt Vile and now she’s embarking on a tour with Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. (get it?) and playing a low-key festival called Pitchfork. Uh-oh… may have just lit a match under the blogosphere’s hairy ass with that last phrase. Yeah, so to conclude: EMA is perfect to hype up, and she’s a chick, so we can be all like, “Oh, I like her music and she’s hot… blah… blah.” Thanks for reading my blog post.

Past Life Martyred Saints tracklisting:

01. Grey Ship
02. California
03. Anteroom
04. Milkman
05. Coda
06. Marked
07. Breakfast
08. Butterfly Knife
09. Red Star

Dates:

06.03.11 - Los Angeles, CA - The Echo *
06.04.11 - San Francisco, CA - Rickshaw Stop *
06.06.11 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios *
06.07.11 - Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern *
06.09.11 - Boise, ID - Neurolux *
06.10.11 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court *
06.11.11 - Denver, CO - Hi-Dive *
06.13.11 - Omaha, NE - The Waiting Room *
06.14.11 - Iowa City, IA - The Mill *
06.15.11 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry *
07.15.11 - Chicago, IL - Pitchfork Festival @ Union Park

! Scout Niblett
* Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.

• EMA: http://www.emaemaema.net
• Souterrain Transmissions: http://www.souterraintransmissions.com

Arcade Fire release fancy schmancy deluxe edition of The Suburbs with game-changing glossy booklet

By Liz Louche on May 16 2011

Canada’s second-most-well-known rock group, Arcade Fire, are playing a dangerous game. (Sorry, #1 will always be Alanis Morissette, even in the post-apocalyptic future, where the world is controlled by a one world government consisting of super intelligent, human-sized cats and the few people remaining reminisce in LOL-speak about a nostalgic past, a time they had never known, where Alanis Morissette ruled the airwaves, thanks to her vitriolic song about a benevolent TV character known only as “Uncle Joey.”) That game, of course, is not giant cat-baiting, D&D, or even The Most Dangerous Game, but instead the DELUXE EDITION REISSUE game.

That’s right, the Brit/Juno/Grammy Award-winning indie rockers are releasing a gussied-up deluxe CD/DVD version of The Suburbs on Merge come August 2 in the US. The new, improved, and probably more expensive version includes a longer version of the song “Wasted Hours (A Life That We Can Live),” plus unreleased tracks “Speaking in Tongues,” which features David Byrne, and the Byrne-free “Culture War.” The DVD includes Spike Jonze’s Scenes from the Suburbs, a companion documentary called, shockingly, Behind the Scenes from the Suburbs, and the music video for the song “The Suburbs.” In sharp contrast to the deluxe editions of other CDs, there’s not a booklet. JUST KIDDING! THERE’S A BOOKLET! Is there ever! It includes 80 hot pages of lyrics and photos taken from the Scenes from the Suburbs film shoot.

• Arcade Fire: http://www.arcadefire.com
• Merge: http://www.mergerecords.com

Wet Hair cancel West Coast tour after Shawn Reed injures his knee wrestling a polar bear

By Harold Shueberg on May 16 2011

Mega-bummer on the Wet Hair tour front. Seems that front man/Night People curator/cool dude Shawn Reed has wrecked his knee up somethin’ fierce. Since getting around for the guy is basically not an option and some surgery is in the works, the band is gonna have to cancel that West Coast tour with Rene Hell that all you kids were wetting your britches over.

Sucks, I know, but according to a statement from Shawn, the shows that were scheduled with Broken Water are still going to happen, just minus Wet Hair. Any shows involving Wet Hair and Rene Hell are nada. If you’re unfortunate enough to live in the Midwest, the band is still set to play their record release show in their homestead of Iowa City, which I’m pretty sure is happening this weekend. Also, that psychic gem of a new album of theirs, In Vogue Spirit, is still being released on De Stijl. Hear a track from it over at the Chocolate Grinder and read our review here. Hopefully with some proper recovery the band will make up for the lost tourdates sometime toward the end of the summer. Best of luck to ya, bro.

• Wet Hair: http://www.myspace.com/wethairgoldsounds
• De Stijl: http://www.destijlrecs.com

Scott Walker scores Jean Cocteau-penned dance performance at London’s Royal Opera House; fingers crossed for more meat-punching

By Liz Louche on May 13 2011

Some artistic collaborations are so wondrous, so meant to be, that the mere limits of space and time cannot hobble them with their silly constraints and rules and the fact that one-half of the team is dead. Like that old commercial where the late Fred Astaire dances with a Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner, for instance. That commercial is kinda unsettling and inappropriate, you say? BAH. That’s what makes it ART. Or, say, how North Korea is still building sculptures of Kim Il-Sung (1912-1994), the country’s “Eternal President.” WHAT? You say that’s propaganda? Okay, okay, yes, that’s 100% true. Well, how about musical genius Scott Walker composing tracks for Jean Cocteau’s play-turned-dance-piece “Duet for One Voice?” Yes, FINALLY. THAT is ART. A-R-T.

This isn’t the first time Walker has done the high culture dance thing. In 2007, he composed And Who Shall Go to the Ball? And What Shall Go to the Ball?, a 24-minute instrumental piece performed by the London Sinfonietta Orchestra and commissioned by CandoCo, a contemporary dance company made up of disabled and non-disabled dancers. The Cocteau piece debuts as part of the Royal Opera House’s Cocteau Voices nights in London. “Duet for One Voice” will feature choreography by ROH Associate Artist Aletta Collins and a score by Walker. Another piece, Poulenc’s opera “La Voix Humaine” will appear alongside the Walker/Cocteau performance.

• Scott Walker: http://www.4ad.com/scottwalker
• Royal Opera House: http://www.roh.org.uk

David Lynch’s electronic album is done, but he won’t talk about it until he Skypes with the International Music Summit on May 26

By Erika H on May 13 2011

Last November, David Lynch’s electronic single hit iTunes and the internet for streaming, and “Good Day Today” immediately became the #1 song in the US, up there on Billboard next to Nelly and Rihanna (if David Lynch were truly the purveyor of alternate realities). Early this year, Sunday Best unleashed a physical package of the single, backed with a second Lynch track, “I Know,” and a handful of sweet remixes (available online here). You can see the trend: time passes, more is available. If you were excited by those little tidbits, hold on to your socks: David Lynch’s whole electronic album is finished.

Unfortunately, we don’t have too many more details, because David Lynch is saving them for a talk at the International Music Summit in Ibiza on May 26 (for those of you not up on your geography, Ibiza is a small island off the coast of Spain). As is Lynch’s style, he’s not physically going to be in Ibiza, but will give the keynote speech by projecting his handsome visage across the sea via Skype. (The future is here: an enlarged face looming on a screen over hundreds of adoring followers, hanging on his every word. Just think about it!)

Here’s Lynch’s official statement:

I’m excited to talk to those attending the International Music Summit in Ibiza… Twelve months ago Jason Bentley from KCRW gave a track I made with my engineer Big Dean Hurley to Ben Turner and Rob da Bank of Sunday Best Recordings, and we return this year to chat about the full-length album we have just completed. I look forward to chatting with them and everyone else in attendance on May 26th live from my own studio in Los Angeles. We’ll talk about the music and how it came to be and exist. We had such a blast making it and I am honored to be a part of the International Music Summit.

I wonder what his username is?

• David Lynch: http://davidlynch.com
• IMS 2011: http://www.internationalmusicsummit.com

[Artwork: Nini Sum]

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