Neneh Cherry & The Thing tour as a bright spot in the shadow of impending European meltdown
By Ryan A. Detwiler on May 22 2012
The odd couple pairing of free jazz maestros The Thing (Mats Gustafsson on saxophone, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten on double bass, Paal Nilssen-Love on drums, percussion, and sampler) and dance pop maven Neneh Cherry is hitting the road to promote their forthcoming LP, The Cherry Thing, out June 18 on Smalltown Supersound! After two initial shows in Stockholm on May 17, the collaborative foursome are set to take a host of club spaces and festivals by storm. Given the band’s limited time spent together rehearsing, let alone playing together at all, they should make for pretty interesting engagements.
So how did these crazy kids hook up? The Thing is named after a track by Neneh’s father, Don Cherry, and Neneh has a pretty robust history of collaboration, so when Neneh found herself frequenting the young jazz scene in Stockholm, her current residence, Things just kind of clicked into place. An interest in a diverse swath of music outside of the genres each is generally associated with laid the groundwork for finding tracks they could tackle anew. After sending songs back and forth, they recorded a set of tracks (including a few originals), eight of which have made it onto their upcoming album, including covers of MF Doom, Suicide, Ornette Colman, and even Don Cherry himself.
If you haven’t heard any of the tracks released thus far, you should do so, because they’re awesome and we should all be happy Neneh is back front and center. If you’re lucky enough to be spending your summer in Europe, do yourself a favor and get thyself to one of these shows!
Tourdates:
06.30.12 - Ljubljana, Slovenia - Ljubjana Jazz Festival
07.01.12 - Stadt, Austria - Porgy & Bess Bezirk Innere
07.02.12 - Prague, Czech Republic - Lucerna Music bar
07.05.12 - Træna, Norway - Traena Festival
07.10.12 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Copenhagen Jazz Festival
07.15.12 - London, UK - Village Underground
07.16.12 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Mlekweg
07.18.12 - Berlin, Germany - Radialsystem
07.20.12 - Molde, Norway - Teatret Vårt
07.23.12 - San Sebastian, Spain - San Sebastian Jazz Festival Donostia
• Neneh Cherry: https://www.facebook.com/nenehcherryofficial
• Smalltown Supersound: http://www.smalltownsupersound.com
Planes Mistaken for Stars announce summer reunion tour, now feel your face and realize you’ve grown a beard
By E. Nagurney on May 22 2012
When post-hardcore outfit Planes Mistaken for Stars broke up in 2008, it marked the moment when a thousand beards receded back inside the heads of their hosts. It was a phenomenon unexplained by science, religion, or basic logic. Such was the primal connection between Planes Mistaken for Stars and certain people’s beards; this horrible event had no choice but to occur.
But behold! Planes Mistaken for Stars have returned and with them, the beards have returned as well. Feel your face. Does it feel fuzzy? Or, if you had a beard before, does it feel fuzzier? You can thank (blame?) Planes Mistaken for Stars for that, specifically their summer reunion dates. Throughout August, the Peoria, Illinois-based group will be reliving the glory days of 1997-2008. All days were glory days for them. If only we could all be so lucky. Well, at least, we’ve got these cool beards.
Planes Mistaken for Stars dates:
08.04.12 - Chicago, IL - The Ultra Lounge *^
08.05.12 - Lansing, MI - Macs Bar *%
08.07.12 - Boston, MA - Great Scott
08.08.12 - Brooklyn, NY - Saint Vitus ~&
08.09.12 - Hoboken, NJ - Maxwells ~
08.10.12 - Blacksburg, VA - We Got Brains! Fest #
08.11.12 - Washington, DC - Red Room #
08.12.12 - Richmond, VA - Strange Matter #
08.14.12 - Cincinnati, OH - TBA
08.15.12 - Peoria, IL - Brass Rail /
* Worn in Red
^ Angry Gods
% FenceMen
~ The Sun, The Moon, The Stars
& Model Home
# Regents
/ The Forecast, Lark’s Tounge, Angry Gods
• Planes Mistaken for Stars: http://www.myspace.com/pmfs
Konx-om-Pax to release an album on Planet Mu, and if you look through a telescope, you might be able to see him ice-skating on the rings of Saturn.
By Caroline Rayner on May 22 2012
Konx-om-Pax knows how to build scenes from different galaxies, where maybe it’s normal and casual for jets of rainbow flames to shoot through tribal festivals and for pinwheels to have heartbeats and for jellyfish to be covered in jewels. Maybe he even hangs out in those galaxies, getting there by way of a rocket made of Silly-Putty or a chrome chariot pulled by anthropomorphic geometric shapes.
You might even know him, or at least know of him,. The Glasgow-based artist, whose real name is Tom Scholefield, has made videos for the likes of Hudson Mowhawke, Mogwai, Martyn, Jamie Lidell, Kudeo, and Lone, and he’s done sleeve art for Oneohtrix Point Never, Rustie, and King Midas Sound. His work has been featured in festivals and publications all over the world, and most recently, the digital arts organization Onedotzero toured his “Advanced Beauty” piece as an HD screening.
When Konx-om-Pax isn’t down to don his astronaut suit and collect treasures from the psychedelic corners of space, he makes music. He’s been making tracks since he was a teenager, and not only has he toured with Mogwai as a DJ, but he also runs an experimental studio/label project called Display Copy. Recently, he recorded the sounds of elephants walking across glass ponds on stilts and of monsters in lo-fi kids’ computer games from the 90s, and he sped up the theme song to Fraggle Rock, then made a record that can produce holographic images in the air when spun at the right time of day.
Or, maybe that’s what his space soundtrack is like. According to Planet Mu, “Tom explains that he makes music to chill out, a form of creative self medication.” So, more accurately, he crafted tracks consisting of “tape-hiss and unsettling spoken word” and “musique concrete space and drops” and “slow-motion nostalgia” and made an album called Regional Surrealism, which will be out on July 23 via Planet Mu.
Regional Surrealism tracklist:
01. Intro
02. Isotonic Pool
03. At Home with Mum and Dad
04. Twin Portal Redux
05. Sura-Tura-Gnosi-Cosi (ft. Steven Retchard)
06. Zang-Tumb (ft. Stuart Braithwaite)
07. Glacier Mountain Descent
08. Pillars of Creation
09. Slootering
10. Lagoon Leisure
11. Hurt Face
12. Chambers
13. Silent Reading
14. Let’s Go Swimming
• Konx-om-Pax Visual Work: http://displaycopy.net
• Konx-om-Pax Video Work: http://vimeo.com/konxompax
• Planet Mu: http://planet.mu
Mark Fell and DJ Sprinkles get their collaborative groove on with Complete Spiral EP
By Mike Reid on May 21 2012
Surprise! Unexpected (though certainly not unwelcome) collaboration alert! Last week, Tokyo-based producer DJ Sprinkles a.k.a. Terre Thaemlitz, and Mark Fell, one-half of the influential glitch/programming duo SND, released Complete Spiral EP, a joint vinyl EP on Thaemlitz’s Comatonse Recordings. The release is said to be “an homage to the sounds of the late ’80s and early ’90s house music that had such a heavy impact on the both of them,” which is a more than satisfying explanation of their decision to work together. In reality, they could be collaborating over a shared appreciation for cheesesteak sandwiches, and this would still be something worth noting. God I’m so hungry right now.
Back in 2009, DJ Sprinkles received due attention for his groundbreaking rhythmic commentary on house music Midtown 120 Blues, inarguably one of the best albums released that year. Until very recently, when he began releasing work under his Sensate Focus moniker, Mark Fell’s practical appreciation for house music has been far more subtle, with the vague danceability of his tracks (both solo and as a member of SND) compromised by the cold machinery explicit in so many Raster-Noton and Editions Mego releases. Still, Fell maintains, the influence is there: “All of the music that I make is without a doubt grounded in house music and techno music from that period, to some extent. Certainly the things I’ve done over the past three or four years, even though they’ve been kind of unusual rhythmically, I think they still kind of have their origins in that period.” With Complete Spiral EP, Fell and Thaemlitz make their loyalties clear, and it would be an irredeemable affront to the club-lingering musical deities if they didn’t explore this collaboration further. Seriously, a full-length album please.
• Mark Fell: http://www.markfell.com
• Terre Thaemlitz: http://www.comatonse.com/thaemlitz
• Comatonse: http://www.comatonse.com
[Photo: Matteo Ruzzon]
Husky announce Sub Pop debut Forever So, tour with Sub Pop bands, catch terminal Sub Pop fever, die
By E. Nagurney on May 21 2012
There’s a band out in Melbourne named Husky. Here’s what they do: play some smooth, rootsy indie-folk. When you do such things, clearly you’re going to have some Sub Pop dreams. But what happens when Sub Pop dreams… become Sub Pop realities!? What happens is that you put out a record called Forever So through Sub Pop and give it a US release on July 10. You also let your buddies in the UK and Europe have that record a little earlier, namely May 28. And you let them have it in digital, CD, and vinyl formats, because you are incredibly nice! You are nice guys, Husky!
In living the Sub Pop dream, Husky are going on tour with some of their like-minded Sub Pop labelmates. So go see them this summer with Wolf Eyes, THEESatisfaction, and Eugene Mirman! I’m just kidding, Wolf Eyes aren’t on Sub Pop anymore. I’m also just kidding with the rest of that information, because that information was primarily constructed out of lies. In reality, they’re going on tour with Shearwater and The Head and the Heart. They’re also playing a show with Felice Brothers, but they’re not on Sub Pop SO WHO CARES.
Sad news to close this story. Due to their massive exposure to Sub Pop, Husky have contracted terminal Sub Pop disease. They have roughly two years to live, in which they will spend most of their time putting out Mudhoney albums.
Husky dates:
05.21.12 - Koln, Germany - Blue Shell
05.23.12 - Munster, German - Gleiss 22
05.31.12 - Reno, NV - Knitting Factory *
06.01.12 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore *
06.02.12 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore *
06.05.12 - Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom *
06.08.12 - Houston, TX - Warehouse Live *
06.09.12 - Austin, TX - Stubb’s Waller Creek *
06.10.12 - Austin, TX - Stubb’s Waller Creek *
06.12.12 - Chicago, IL - Schubas
06.15.12 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Bowl ^
06.17.12 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill &
06.19.12 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios &
06.20.12 - Seattle, WA - The Crocodile &
06.21.12 - Vancouver, BC - Media Club &
* The Head and the Heart
& Shearwater
^ Felice Brothers
• Husky: http://www.huskysongs.com
• Sub Pop: http://www.subpop.com
![Laurel Halo - Behind the Green Door [EP]](http://www.tinymixtapes.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/Album_Review_Content_Page_Art/1305/Behind.jpg)
![ZS - Grain [EP]](http://www.tinymixtapes.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/Thumbnail/1304/zs grain.jpg)
