Blur Fans Rejoice! Noel Gallagher Leaves Oasis (But Oasis Never Leaves Him)
Noel Gallagher, the main songwriter and guitarist from Oasis (a.k.a. "the sane one" or "Charlie from Lost"), stormed the fuck out, after his brother and lead singer Liam smashed his guitar before a show in Paris, Friday night. Noel posted this on the band's website shortly after:
It's with some sadness and great relief to tell you that I quit Oasis tonight. People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer.
Ouch. Thanksgiving's liable to be awkward at the Gallagher's this year, especially since they don't normally celebrate this otherwise North American holiday.
RIP: Ellie Greenwich, 60s girl-pop Brill Building songwriter
From Spinner:
Songwriter Ellie Greenwich, who co-wrote many of the classic hits of the girl group era, has died at age 68. According to her niece, Greenwich died of a heart attack at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in New York, where she had been hospitalized for pneumonia.Greenwich's songs, mostly written with her then-husband, Jeff Barry, include such '60s girl-pop standards as 'Be My Baby' and ‘Baby I Love You,’ by the Ronettes, 'Da Doo Ron Ron' and ‘Then He Kissed Me,’ by the Crystals, and ‘Leader of the Pack,’ by the Shangri-Las. Her songbook also includes penning ‘Chapel of Love’ for the Dixie Cups and ‘River Deep, Mountain High’ for Ike & Tina Turner.
Greenwich and Barry were part of New York's Brill Building songwriting factory alongside the likes of Neil Diamond, Carole King, Neil Sedaka and Burt Bacharach. The songwriting and onetime married couple had their songs recorded by performers including Tommy James and the Shondells (‘Hanky Panky’), Lesley Gore (‘Maybe I Know,’ ‘The Look of Love’) and Manfred Mann (‘Do Wah Diddy Diddy’). Greenwich also had a Top 20 hit of her own with ‘The Kind of Boy You Can't Forget’ under the group name the Raindrops.
- Ellie Greenwich official website
- Ellie Greenwich Wikipedia entry
Swedish Authorities Pull the Plug on The Pirate Bay, Nerds Swiftly Plug It Back In; Swedish Authorities Left with No Other Recourse but to Ogle Beautiful Women and Enjoy Top-Notch State-Sponsored Health Care
The planks have been holstered, the wenches dismissed, and the rum, yes, it is gone. It’s official, folks: after nearly six years of sailing the open cyber seas and plundering every shining doubloon of media in sight, The (Swedish) Man has slashed the masts of The Pirate Bay for good. But don’t you all unsheathe your inhalers at once. For all you content-hungry but empty-pocketed individuals left listless by the absence of your precious TPB, be not so nervous, be not so frail , because the opportunity for unspoiled riches abounds at these two-dozen-plus-one other torrent sites that can get you a fat slice of that torrenty goodness, just like Pirate Bay used to make.
But I get why you’re so upset right now. Sure, The Pirate Bay was just one twinkling star in a constellation of other reliable torrent sites, yet you trusted TPB more than the others. The incessant watch-doggery of the commenters kept you safe from viruses, and the bevy of seeders made for quick and easy downloading. Yep, there’s nothing in this world that can replace The Pirate Bay, except, perhaps, an (almost) exact fucking copy of The Pirate Bay . Sure, it may look different, but all your favorites are there. From the high-quality DVD rips of your favorite TV shows to the super-suspect porn that managed to slip onto the servers, TPB is not only alive and well in the hearts of nerds the world over, but also on your very own Internet. Good lord it’s just so precious I can hardly stand it!
In the days before its demise, one loyal Pirate Bayer went to the trouble of compressing the entire catalog of TPB’s hosted content into one convenient 21.3 gigabyte torrent. The file essentially is a backup copy of the more than 800,000 torrents hosted on TPB website. Since many torrents tracked by TPB were not hosted on its servers, the better part of its 2 million torrents couldn’t make it on the backup, but (conjecture alert) one would assume that the most popular and reliable torrents would be hosted on the site itself. Either way, thousands downloaded the torrent over the weekend, including one helpful soul who loaded all the content (before TPB even shut down) onto a clone site that has every file on the backup available to download. It’s even possible (again with the conjecture!) that there are other TPB clone sites ready to launch should this new haven face flak from the powers that be. For closing remarks on this story, I humbly defer to this t-shirt .
World's Fair Label Group Goes Under
World's Fair has ceased operations starting yesterday. Created in 2004, the NY-based group was a full-service international admin company that did everything from press and radio promotions to online marketing and finance services. The group worked with a vast array of artists, indie labels, and distribution companies over the past several years. Its most recent clients included labels Daptone, Bella Union, PIAS, and Rough Trade; artists Secret Machines, Lyrics Born, and British Sea Power; and distributors ADA, Caroline, and The Orchard.
Whether or not you were aware of the actual group, chances are you were exposed to some of these artists/labels through its legwork.
Sub Pop Wants You to Enjoy Some Male Bonding
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Dalston, London three-piece Male Bonding to the Sub Pop roster. “Who?” you may be asking. Why, the Dalston, London three-piece who, prior to their signing with Sub Pop, released a handful of split 7-inches and who -- oh, what the hell. Let's make this a list!
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The Top Four Reasons You Should Be Into Male Bonding
(No, there will be no jokes about buddy movies here or 1980s Chicago sitcom Perfect Strangers or that period of time when everyone said “I love you, man” because of that Budweiser commercial. Nothing of that sort. Just good, old-fashioned REASONS.)
1. They’re a garage rock kind of band, but not in that derivative “oh God not another neo-garage rock band” kind of way.
2. They recorded a track for a Flipper tribute 7-inch to which Lovvers, Ponytail, and PPM Allstars also contributed.
3. Their MySpace headline thingy says “Ride the Dreamcatcher.” I will! Just on your suggestion.
4. They toured in the UK alongside Vivian Girls and have played with the likes of HEALTH, Fucked Up, Magik Markers, Mika Miko, and others.
You’re Either In or You’re Out, and Camera Obscura Try to Stay “In” by Touring This Fall
You have to forgive me for that awful headline; my brain has been melted this past week from watching three straight hours of NEW Project Runway episodes. Every time I close my eyes, I hear Heidi Klum say “Auf wiedersehen,” see Tim Gunn dressed in a dapper suit, and cringe at this new contestant’s ridiculous hairstyle.
But before I completely digress, let’s talk about Camera Obscura’s upcoming fall tour: they’re touring. Yup, that’s pretty much all there is to it. Go see them play songs from their latest album, My Maudlin Career (TMT Review), out now on 4AD.
Meanwhile, the next Project Runway episode starts tomorrow. See you on the catwalk.
Dates Obscura:
11.18.09 - New Orleans, LA - Tipitina's
11.19.09 - Birmingham, AL - Bottletree
11.20.09 - Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse
11.21.09 - Norfolk, VA - Attucks Theatre
11.22.09 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
11.24.09 - Northampton, MA - Pearl Street Ballroom
11.25.09 - Rochester, NY - The German House
11.26.09 - Toronto, ON - Phoenix
11.27.09 - Pontiac, MI - Crofoot Ballroom
11.28.09 - Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall
11.30.09 - Bloomington, IN - Bluebird
12.01.09 - St Louis, MO - Off Broadway
12.02.09 - Oxford, MS - The Lyric Oxford
12.03.09 - Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club
Autolux Decide to Take the Whole “Music Thing” Out on the Road
Shoegaze-y Los Angeles trio Autolux haven’t released an album since 2005’s critically acclaimed Future Perfect (TMT Review) and haven’t toured nationally for four years. So you’d think this story would be about them putting out a new album and touring behind it, wouldn’t you? WRONG. It’s something different (kinda), something more special. For, at the moment, you see, the band’s next album, Transit Transit, is only (and somewhat cryptically) labeled as being “forthcoming.” The band is touring largely due to Public Demand.
That’s right! After The Flaming Lips selected Autolux to play this September’s All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival in New York, the band got so many emails and messages from fans around the United States that they decided to wrap up the summer with their very own, first-ever headlining tour!!! But they’ve been up to a lot more in the years between Future Perfect and now than simply building rabid anticipation. Drummer Carla Azar, for example, recorded with PJ Harvey and John Parish for their latest joint effort, A Woman a Man Walked By. The band also opened for PJ Harvey while she was on tour in Russia -- and then they worked with UNKLE on the album War Stories, created music for an exhibit at the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History, collaborated with Australian visual artist Kill Pixie on an installation room, and participated in Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich’s From the Basement series of live performances. And, you know, some other stuff, too, like recording that album that’s eventually gonna come out.
Dates:
08.28.09 - San Francisco, CA - Outside Lands Festival
08.29.09 - Portland, OR - Berbati’s Pan
08.30.09 - Seattle, WA - Neumo’s
09.02.09 - Fargo, ND - The Aquarium
09.03.09 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
09.04.09 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
09.05.09 - Detroit, MI - The Magic Stick
09.06.09 - Lexington, KY - Al’s Bar
09.08.09 - Washington, DC - Black Cat
09.09.09 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s
09.10.09 - Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club
09.12.09 - Monticello, NY - All Tomorrow’s Parties
09.14.09 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
09.15.09 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
09.16.09 - Pittsburgh, NY - Brillobox
09.17.09 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom
09.18.09 - Urbana, IL - Pygmalion Music Festival
09.19.09 - Lawrence, KS - The Bottleneck
09.20.09 - Omaha, NB - The Waiting Room
09.21.09 - Denver, CO - The Bluebird Theatre
09.22.09 - Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
09.25.09 - Los Angeles, CA - El Rey Theatre
09.26.09 - San Diego, CA - Soma
09.27.09 - Costa Mesa, CA - The Detroit Bar
Velvet Underground 7-Inch Singles Collection Coming Soon; For Those of You Across the Pond, That’s 17.78 Centimeters
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
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
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
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!
![<p>Zola Jesus</p> - <p>Stridulum [EP]</p>](http://www.tinymixtapes.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/Album_Review_Content_Page_Art/zola_jesus-stridulum.jpg)
