Away from home, he’s a tourist... Gang of Four North American tour starts this weekend!

By David Nadelle on

Away from home, he’s a tourist... Gang of Four North American tour starts this weekend!

Simon Reynolds calls them a “stark and severe” combo who dazzled with “taut, geometrical paroxysms.” I call them “the sandwich era’s stucco Panini” who “dawdled in doodles and pushed the wowee zowee envelope into the seventh stratosphere… exclamation Marx!!” Passionate cultural savants and directionless lunatics alike will agree it is great to have Leeds’ legendary politico-spouters Gang of Four back. The band, featuring founders Jon King and Andy Gill, will embark on a North American tour starting tonight in Toronto before heading to slates of dates in Australia and Europe.

All of this live commotion is mostly due to the Gang of Four’s recently-released, first album in 16 years, Content (TMT Review). Reviews have been mostly favorable and the record profitable, with the “Deluxe Can” version of the album (containing the album on CD, a history of the world image montage, a book of smells, a book of emotions, a book of lyrics, and a vial of Gang of Four blood) gaining the band an unlikely set of rabid Vampire Diaries fans.

Dates:

02.04.11 - Toronto, ON - Phoenix Concert Theatre #
02.05.11 - Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Art #
02.07.11 - Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club #
02.08.11 - New York, NY - Webster Hall
02.09.11 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club #
02.10.11 - Pittsburgh, PA - Club Café
02.11.11 - Chicago, IL - Metro
02.12.11 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
02.14.11 - Spokane, WA - Knitting Factory
02.15.11 - Vancouver, BC - Venue
02.16.11 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox at the Market
02.17.11 - Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom
02.19.11 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
02.20.11 - Anaheim, CA- House of Blues
02.21.11 - Los Angeles, CA - The Music Box
02.24.11 - Auckland, New Zealand - The Power Station
02.25.11 - Brisbane, Australia - The Hi Fi
02.26.11 - Brisbane, Australia - Soundwave Festival
02.27.11 - Sydney, Australia - Soundwave Festival
03.01.11 - Sydney, Australia - The Gaelic Theatre
03.02.11 - Melbourne, Australia - Corner Hotel
03.04.11 - Melbourne, Australia - Soundwave Festival
03.05.11 - Adelaide, Australia - Soundwave Festival
03.08.11 - Perth, Australia - The Bakery
03.18.11 - Paris, France - Trabendo
03.19.11 - Brussels, Belgium - Botanique
03.25.11 - Cologne, Germany - Luxor
03.26.11 - Berlin, Germany - C-Club
03.27.11 - Hamburg, Germany - Docks
04.08.11 - Rome, Italy - Alpheus
04.09.11 - Nonantola, Italy - Vox Club
04.10.11 - Milan, Italy - Magazzini Generali

• Gang of Four: http://www.gangoffour.co.uk
• Yep Roc: http://www.yeproc.com

Nodzzzz add one more z, not really, but their new album is about baseball, also not really

By Harold Shueberg on Feb 4 2011

Word around the Bay Area is that raucous trio Nodzzz have signed to the all-too-well-known Woodsist label for Innings, their sophomore LP and follow-up to 2008’s self-titled effort on What’s Your Rupture. It seems that Nodzzz haven’t lost touch with their inner bro on this one, as the album title is an obvious baseball-themed shout-out to the early days when the band formed in Olympia, WA (apparently Anthony Atlas and Sean Paul Presley met while playing the aforementioned sport). No exact date on when this one will be heading “outta the park,” but I would expect possibly a release within the next couple of months.

Nodzzz will be settin out to cruise the West Coast at the end of this month and have a UK tour planned in mid-March with sister group The Mantles. You should probably go see them.

West Coast dates:

02.24.11 - Portland, OR - East End
02.25.11 - Seattle, WA - Sunset Tavern ^
02.26.11 - Olympia, WA - House show *
03.02.11 - San Francisco, CA - Knockout
03.03.11 - San Diego, CA - Tin Can Alehouse &
03.04.11 - Los Angeles, CA - The Smell
03.05.11 - Sacramento, CA - The Hub %

^ Gun Outfit, Milk Music, HPP
* Gun Outfit
& English Singles
% The Finches

[Photo: David Armstrong]

Thurston Moore gets his tribute on in honor of Jack Rose

By Liz Louche on Feb 3 2011

Wikipedia lists several Jack Roses. One is a cocktail. One was an “American gambler and underworld figure in NYC.” One was the “British colonial administrator of Cayman Islands.” (Truly, it is a name full of wonderful connotations.) However, the Jack Rose we are concerned with today was an experimental guitar dude and member of noise/drone outfit Pelt. Sadly, Rose died in December 2009, but Thurston Moore is keeping his memory alive by giving him the tribute album treatment.

12 String Meditations for Jack Rose, due this month, will be part of the Vin du Select Qualitite series of limited-edition, acoustic guitar-only vinyl records curated by Swingset Magazine and Plastic Records’ Steven Lowenthal. The album will join the elite ranks of releases by Emeralds’ Mark McGuire and Codeine/Come/New Year dude Chris Brokaw.

• Thurston Moore: http://www.myspace.com/llikyouridols
• Vin du Select Qualitite: http://www.vdsqrecords.com

Thao and Mirah release an album together, forever

By Annapocalypse on Feb 3 2011

Who needs last names? Especially if your first names are as awesome and unique as Thao and Mirah. After bonding over their uncommon names, the ladies decided it was about time they took the material they played live together on the road last year and collaborate on an album. The end result, which was co-produced by Merrill Garbus of tUnE-YarDs, is entitled Thao and Mirah and is due April 26 via Kill Rock Stars.

Thao and Mirah tracklisting:

01. Eleven
02. Folks
03. Little Cup
04. Rubies and Rocks
05. Teeth
06. Spaced Out Orbit
07. How Dare You
08. Sugar and Plastic
09. Likable Man
10. Hallelujah
11. Squareneck

• Mirah: htt://www.myspace.com/cmonmirah
• Thao: http://www.thaomusic.com
• Kill Rock Stars: http://www.killrockstars.com

About Group (featuring Hot Chip, This Heat, and Spiritualized members) to release Start and Complete on Domino

By Mango Starr on Feb 3 2011

On April 26, the ‘supergroup’ known as About Group will release Start and Complete, their second album, on Domino. But what’s so ‘super’ about them? Well, aside from its members — which boasts Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip), Charles Hayward (This Heat), John Coxon (Spiritualized, Spring Heel Jack), and Pat Thomas (who has played with Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley, etc.) — the group went into the studio and.. aw, fuck it, let me just quote the press release:

The songs were written by Taylor over the last few years and some, but not all of them, were given out as a CD in piano/vocal demo form for the other members of the group to hear a few days before the studio date. The idea was that no one band member would know the songs well enough to have specific parts, or be prevented from playing something like the first ideas that came into their head.

Pretty super if you ask me. Check out a clip of About Group performing “You’re No Good” over at the Chocolate Grinder.

Start and Complete tracklist:

01. Married To The Sea (a)
02. Don’t Worry
03. With Each New Day
04. Repair Man
05. Lay Me Down
06. A Perspective
07. There’s a Way To End This Run of Doubt
08. A Sinking Song
09. Nothing But Words
10. You’re No Good
11. Rough and Smooth
12. Start and Complete
13. Dreamt I Saw You Late Last Night
14. Married To The Sea (b)

• Domino: http://www.dominorecordco.com

The Walkmen tour with The New Pornographers; it’s like some sort of mad dream from 2004

By E. Nagurney on Feb 3 2011

Years ago, the theory that The Walkmen could possibly tour with The New Pornographers existed solely in the realm of madness. Our nation’s severely deranged spoke of the pairing in terms like “Power Bill” and “Worth Every Penny” and “Signals From Jupiter.” While that last one probably referred to a different subject (most likely a Deerhoof/Enon tour), it’s clear that these predictions were only the twisted dreams of one driven mad by living in 2004. Time has passed and cooler heads have prevailed, yet the dreams of those tortured souls have come to fruition! Just as the lunatics predicted, The Walkmen are going on tour with The New Pornographers! The two groups will join together for a string of dates in April, bringing two of the world’s most acclaimed indie rock bands together. Additionally, the deranged’s prediction that The Walkmen would also play some dates by themselves beforehand has also proven true. Whether their other prophecy, the one concerning the return of the mighty Tiamat and the destruction he shall trigger, comes true, frankly, that’s still up in the air.

The Walkmen dates:

03.02.11 - New Orleans, LA - One Eyed Jack’s
03.03.11 - Houston, TX - Fitzgerald’s
03.04.11 - Austin, TX - Stubb’s Bar-B-Que
03.05.11 - Dallas, TX - Granada Theater
04.22.11 - Indianapolis, IN - The Vogue *
04.23.11 - Cleveland, OH - House of Blues *
04.25.11 - Buffalo, NY - Town Ballroom *
04.26.11 - Cincinnati, OH - Bogarts *
04.27.11 - Iowa City, IA - University of Iowa *
04.28.11 - Champagne, IL - Canopy Club *
04.29.11 - Columbia, MO - Blue Note *

* The New Pornographers

• The Walkmen: http://www.myspace.com/thewalkmen
• The New Pornographers: http://www.thenewpornographers.com

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