Velvet Underground 7-Inch Singles Collection Coming Soon; For Those of You Across the Pond, That’s 17.78 Centimeters
By Nobodaddy on Aug 25 2009
Quick! Your old friends from college are coming over any minute. They all majored in either Accounting, Business, or Nursing, and so they all have real jobs now (you majored in Art History and work part-time in a used book store that your Alderman is constantly threatening to shut down), and they spend their time and money on things that sound... well, “awfully foreign” to you, like “yo-ga,” and “sa-shi-mi,” and something called “health in-sur-ance.” You’ve got nothing to show for yourself. Shit, they’re gonna be here any second. Why did you ever agree to this? You need a status symbol. You need some upper-hand... some cool... some cred... something that says “yeah, I’m into stuff too"... something rare and arcane and abstruse and impenetrable that can effortlessly connote your intellectual, artistic, and cultural superiority. Argg! If only you had some kind of, I don’t know, internet-exclusive The Velvet Underground Singles 1966-69 7 x 7” Vinyl “Rare Mono” Box Set! That’d hit the spot nicely.
Well, you’re in luck, friend. Sundazed Music, on-line purveyor of all things sunny and crackly and reverberant and vintage, is set to release just such a rarified box set from The Velvets on September 15, and is currently taking pre-orders! This dreamy, steamy singles box, honoring those druggie, lovable “New York Beatles” will neatly compile their 7-inch vinyl output in, yum, rare mono versions (Score! Your friends probably don’t even know what "mono" is!). The set features exact reproductions of your favorite VU singles, packaged in a distinctively designed box (naturally), along with rare “vintage” photos and some brand-ass-new liner notes by Rolling Stone's David Fricke (who also penned the acclaimed notes for that other, now toooootally obsolete 1995 Velvets CD box set Peel Slowly and See. Eww, “CDs”...).
The seven singles included in The Velvet Underground Singles 1966–69 comprise the four singles originally released in the U.S. on the Verve and MGM labels, plus an additional pair of singles that were prepared for release but got sidetracked on their way to market and ended up buying some magic beans instead. There’s also a special radio-only promotional single. And these alternate mono versions promise to differ in “significant ways” from the songs' stereo album versions. And hey, at a totally reasonable $39.98 for the whole shebang, you can actually afford the thing, even with your... pathetic... bookstore... job... oh shit! A knock at the door! They’re here!
Complete tracklist:
1. All Tomorrow's Parties b/w I'll Be Your Mirror (Verve VK-10427)
2. Sunday Morning b/w Femme Fatale (Verve VK-10466)
3. White Light/White Heat b/w Here She Comes Now (Verve VK-10560)
4. White Light/White Heat b/w I Heard Her Call My Name (Cancelled single)
5. Temptation Inside Your Heart b/w Stephanie Says (Cancelled single)
6. What Goes On b/w Jesus (MGM K-14057)
7. VU Radio Spot b/w VU Radio Spot 2 (MGM VU-1)
A Court on the Side of Consumers for Once: Internet Radio Services Don’t Need to License from Labels
By Brom on Aug 25 2009
On August 21, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an original ruling in 2007 “that found [Yahoo’s] Launchcast need only pay the standard Webcaster royalty rates to SoundExchange.” This means Launchcast is still not required to seek permission from the labels to air their music, which is a big relief for internet radio services. If the Court had overturned the original ruling, then services like Pandora, Slacker, and Last.fm would have been seriously affected.
Sony Music Entertainment originally sued Launchcast in 2001, arguing that additional licensing deals were needed since users could “build custom stations around music preferences and skip songs,” which constituted “interactivity.” The Court, however, ruled that since the songs were played in a random order, they were not considered “interactive” like imeem and MySpace.
It’s always good to see the labels getting a good kicking now and again from the justice system. It happens so rarely!
AMA Declares That Carnage from Le Loup’s Upcoming Tour CANNOT BE STOPPED, Requires Nurses to Join for Damage Control
By Elzee on Aug 25 2009
So you thought that Le Loup was a large band composed of nice musicians from DC who play otherworldly music that’s good for driving at night? Think again! According to a recent Associated Press report, the band’s true intentions have been revealed, despite the group’s French-translated trickery. Apparently they are all actually wolves and, in a Gwar-like fashion, will be using their upcoming tour to wreak havoc across the North American continent in hopes of raising the Great Wolf Spirit who will then take over the world. Sounds like an episode of Doctor Who to me.
Anyway, the American Medical Association has declared a state of emergency for music fans everywhere. They have decided that the only solution to this impending disaster is to send medical professionals along with the “band” to save audience members from bleeding out. These nurses have been highly trained to detect the early signs of rabies and, for some reason, lupus. Probably an administrative mix-up in there somewhere.
I guess it’s also possible this means that the band Nurses will be touring with Le Loup on a trip through the U.S. and Canada to promote their respective new albums. Le Loup, after all, is releasing Family on September 22 via Hardly Art, and Nurses already put out Apple's Acre on the Dead Oceans label a couple weeks ago. But no, that would be waaaaaaaay less crazy.
Take some self-defense classes first:
10.09.09 - Baltimore, MD - The Ottobar
10.10.09 - Philadelphia, PA - Kungfu Necktie
10.11.09 - New York, NY - Mercury Lounge
10.13.09 - Cambridge, MA - TT the Bear's
10.14.09 - Montreal, QC - Il Motore
10.15.09 - Toronto, ON - The Drake Hotel
10.16.09 - Chicago, IL - Schubas
10.17.09 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
10.18.09 - Omaha, NE - Slowdown Jr
10.19.09 - Denver, CO - Hi Dive
10.20.09 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court
10.22.09 - Vancouver, BC - The Biltmore Cabaret
10.23.09 - Seattle, WA - Chop Suey
10.25.09 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
10.27.09 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
10.28.09 - Los Angeles, CA - The Echo
10.29.09 - Costa Mesa, CA - Detroit Bar
10.30.09 - San Diego, CA - Casbah
10.31.09 - Tucson, AZ - Plush
11.02.09 - Austin, TX - The Mohawk
11.03.09 - Dallas, TX - Cavern Ale House
11.05.09 - Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn
11.06.09 - Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
11.07.09 - Washington, DC - Black Cat
What This Country Needs Right Now Is a Robert Pollard DVD! Good News, There’s One Coming Out
By E. Nagurney on Aug 25 2009
The moments between new releases by Robert Pollard are few and far between, so we must use them wisely. Fill them with wonderful times with your friends and family. Enrich yourself with fine literature and film. Spend time outside appreciating the great outdoors. Discover your true self and how you view the world. Then once your time is occupied by the next Robert Pollard release, you’ll know you didn’t spend the downtime in vain.
Or you could forgo that and fill your life with even more Robert Pollard. Thanks to the good folks at Rockathon and MVD Visual, your precious eyeballs can feast on the glorious Pollard goodness contained on the new DVD, The Devil Went Home and Puked, out October 20. One need not even settle for one era of Pollard, as the film is a video collage consisting of footage from every era of Guided By Voices and solo Pollard since 1994, along with early GBV studio footage. Sounds like a lot of Uncle Bob, but to ensure that you will never find yourself Pollard-less, the DVD also contains nine hard-to-find music videos. If you’ve been spending all your Pollard downtime scouring GBV message boards looking for the video for “Circle Saw Boys Club” or “I-Razor,” then you may now rest, for your search is over.
As for news concerning what Pollard’s been working on lately, I don’t think he’s planning on putting anything out soon. I think he’s probably going to take it easy for a while. Just playing!
St. Vincent Plots 24-Date Fall Tour, Picks Out 24 Outfits Ahead of Time
By Nobodaddy on Aug 24 2009
Okay, okay. White flag. I’ll be the first male admit it: Annie Clark (a.k.a. St. Vincent is proof-positive of ye olde time-honored axiom that “Girls Rule, Boys Drool.” She’s cool, confident, and funny; she bros down and hangs out with dudes all day for months at a time, she covers The Beatles without fear (or even too much reverence), she releases top-notch records like this year’s Actor (TMT Review); she hangs out with Grizzly Bear; she’s a hell of a lot more lucid than that Marnie Stern; she presumably sweats up a storm at all of her shows while shredding the nickel-wound fuck out of that souped-up Harmony guitar like Thurston Greenwood... And yet, through all of that, her lipstick stays just perfect. If that’s not the model of a 21st-century career woman, I don’t know what is.
Don’t believe me? Well, hear the woman roar yourself this fall when Clark and her band of merry men criss-cross the U.S. on yet another victory lap for rock chicks everywhere. Though... actually, now that I think about it, I’m not so sure that the Annie-Clark-ruling-while-boys-drool thing is really all the Women’s Lib victory thing that it’s cracked up to be, since, in this case, the boys are actually just drooling at her. And hell, from the shows I’ve seen, most of the girls are just drooling at her too.
St. Vincent tour:
09.29.09 - Indianapolis, IN - The Murat Theater
09.30.09 - Columbia, MO - The Blue Note
10.01.09 - St. Louis, MO - Firebird
10.03.09 - New Orleans, LA - Tipitina's
10.05.09 - Birmingham, AL - WorkPlay Soundstage
10.07.09 - Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
10.08.09 - Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
10.09.09 - Asheville, NC - Orange Peel
10.10.09 - Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium
10.12.09 - Charleston, SC - Mic Farm
10.13.09 - Knoxville, TN - Bijou Theatre
10.14.09 - Cincinnati, OH - Bogart's - Front Room
10.16.09 - Madison, WI - High Noon Saloon
10.17.09 - Madison, WI - Pabst Theater
10.18.09 - Birmingham, AL - The State Theatre
10.19.09 - Minneapolis, MN - Southern Theatre
10.20.09 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom
10.21.09 - Buffalo, NY - Asbury Hall @ Babeville
10.22.09 - Ithaca, NY - Castaways
10.24.09 - South Portland, ME - South Portland High School
10.25.09 - Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory
10.26.09 - South Burlington, VT - Higher Ground Ballroom
10.27.09 - Providence, RI - Lupo's
10.28.09 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
