Glastonbury Offers Answers of the Holy Grail in the Form of Music Festival; Lineup Finalized, Children’s Crusade to Follow
By Kat Gardiner on 05-27-2009
Glastonbury, a small town in Somerset, England, is shrouded in myth and lore. The church on the hill is rumored to have been built roughly 65 years after Jesus died and house the Holy Grail. It is said that the remains of King Arthur and Guinevere were found there and then moved and subsequently lost during reformation. Recently, ancient papers were found regarding the legendary music festival that happens there once a year, previously thought to be unconnected to the cities more mysterious mysteries. Carbon-data testing shows that the texts were written circa 1267, when people in England sounded a lot more like Americans. The text:
So like, Joseph of Arimathea was hanging out with Jesus at Avalon a long, long, time ago, and shit, drinking mead, playing ping-pong, talking about dinosaurs, ya know. Chillin'. When Joseph was like ‘Let's do this all the time, J’ and then Jesus was like ‘For real! We could have some bands come here and play, and shit, like once a year’ and Joseph was like ‘Dude. That's why you're the prophet. You always gots the best ideas and shit.’
The rest of the document was rendered illegible due to the passage of time and bong-water, but from what scientists were able to piece together, Indiana Jones, after finding the grail years later, decided to start Jesus' festival himself, calling it the Glastonbury Festival, since the town of Avalon had been long ago been renamed in favor of something easier to spell.
This year's already sold-out Glastonbury Festival, running June 24-28, features many stages and many, many performers, including Neil Young, The Specials, Lily Allen, Fleet Foxes, Regina Spektor, Bloc Party, Doves, Fucked Up, Q Tip, The Streets, Ray Davies, Fairport Convention, Animal Collective, Joe Goddard of Hot Chip, Pussy Parlure, British Sea Power, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Kasabian, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Dizzee Rascal, Spinal Tap, Eagles Of Death Metal, Franz Ferdinand, Maximo Park, Peter Doherty, Peter, Bjorn and John, The Broken Family Band, Jarvis Cocker, Passion Pit, Tindersticks, Bon Iver, M Ward, Horace Andy, Bombay Bicycle Club, Noah And The Whale, Rye Rye, Eliza Carthy, Badly Drawn Boy, Stereo MCs, Blur, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, Madness, Tom Jones, Bon Iver, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Art Brut, The Boxer Rebellion, Echo And The Bunnymen, Black Eyed Peas, Roots Manuva, Cold War Kids, Alela Diane, Terry Reid, Micachu and the Shapes, Robyn Hitchcock, The Aliens, Magic Numbers, Peaches, Appleblim.... and many more.
No Talkies Allowed This Saturday: The Books, Mission of Burma’s Roger Miller, and More Collaborate on Original Movin’ Pictures at Massachusetts’ SPLIT / SIGNAL Audio/Visual Evening
By Liz Louche on 05-27-2009
The crashing of the waves in the bay. The chattering of college students from MIT and Harvard. The distant echoes of pilgrims past, repressing someone in their quaint speech of yesteryear. Ahh, Boston. The unofficial “Capital of New England.” “The Cradle of Liberty.” “Beantown.” And now, home to SPLIT / SIGNAL, the movie/film event where original works of film receive live scores from acclaimed musicians. Well, actually it turns out SPLIT / SIGNAL is occurring at The Center for Arts at the Armory in beautiful Somerville, MA, which is just north of Boston, but for those of us living outside the area, the idea of “Boston” gives a pretty decent geographical idea of where this awesome event will be happening, and besides -- when a town has a nickname like “Beantown,” you gotta work it in as much as possible.
SPLIT / SIGNAL is a one-night only event. The people behind the night describe it with the following words, which I am directly quoting in their near-entirety, because I think they are funny:
Film without music. Music without film. Ripped apart at birth and cultivated in non-neighboring states. Only to be Frankensteined together with fishing wire and a searing-hot needle. Oh yes. It. Is. Alive. And now, all the striking incarnations come together in one place. One night. For your eyes and ears only.
Participating musicians include The Books, Mission of Burma’s Roger Miller, Cul de Sac, Caspian, Black Yodel, Arms & Sleepers, Devil Music, and Mike Dunkley & Todd Brozman. They’ll be working with filmmakers Rich Remsberg, Michael Maraden, VJ Dziga, Bryan Deblasio, Jon Cianfrani, Dado Ramadani, Barrett Films, and Handcranked Productions.
Essentials:
Location: The Center for the Arts at the Armory
Time: Show 7:00pm (Doors 6:00pm)
Admission: 21+
Tickets: $25 (http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/67621)
Check out the fest's Facebook page here.
They Might Be Giants Play New Dates, Tour Manager Seems to Have Just Given Up
By Kasia Galaxy on 05-27-2009
A few years ago, I was somehow under the impression that John Popper, that guy from Blues Traveler, had died. Turned out, he had just lost a lot of weight. So, if I don't hear from you musicians in a while, assume that I've found an old CD of yours, wondered what you were doing, paid my respects in the event of death or weight loss, and moved on.
On that note, They Might Be Giants, who are not dead, are touring. And they're hitting quite the hodgepodge of places: assorted music fests, museums, a university, a casino. I know they won a Grammy for their children's album Here Come the 123s and all, but these are some rather odd venue choices nonetheless.
Anyway, now it's your turn to have "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" in your head.
The tourdates:
05.30.09 - New York, NY - Le Poisson Rouge
06.12.09 - Portland, ME - Port City Music Hall
06.13.09 - Boston, MA - Berklee Performance Center (two shows)
06.14.09 - New Haven, CT - New Haven Town Green
07.04.09 - Aspen, CO - Aspen Institute
07.11.09 - Brooklyn, NY - Prospect Park Bandshell
07.25.09 - Camden, NJ - XPoNential Music Festival
09.19.09 - Raleigh, NC - North Carolina Museum of Art (two shows)
10.04.09 - New York, NY - American Museum of Natural History (two shows)
10.14.09 - Indianapolis, IN - Egyptian Room
10.17.09 - Kutztown, PA - Kutztown University
10.18.09 - New York, NY - Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
11.27.09 - Uncasville, CT - Wolf Den at Casino Mohegan
Oneida Drop Triple-Disc LP Rated O As Part Two of Thank Your Parents Triptych, Tour, Podcast, Come Up With More Badass Nicknames
By Kenny Bloggins on 05-27-2009
Haven't heard from Fat Bobby, Baby Hanoi Jane, and Kid Millions -- collectively known as the kraut-punk camp Oneida -- since last August's Preteen Weaponry (TMT Review), but the band was evidently serious about the three-part album series known as Thank Your Parents, as the second, three-disc installment, Rated O now has a definitive July 7 release date, courtesy of Jagjaguwar.
If you've got a jonesin' to grip new songs off the forthcoming album, you can hear a podcast (zomg intarwebz!!1) previewing the album (including "commentary, insight, and explanations into the album's] inner-workings") through iTunes. Click [this to check it out, and, through the magic of modern technology, it will automatically launch your iTunes app.
Rated O tracklisting:
1.1. Brownout In Lagos
1.2. What’s Up, Jackal?
1.3. 10:30 at the Oasis
1.4. Story of O
1.5. The Human Factor
2.1. The River
2.2. I Will Haunt You
2.3. The Life You Preferred
2.4. Ghost in the Room
2.5. Saturday
2.6. It Was a Wall
2.7. Luxury Travel
3.1. O
3.2. End of Time
3.3. Folk Wisdom
Finally, Oneida will celebrate Rated O's droppage this July with a handful of stateside dates and some European ones, too. The domestic shows will feature some big ballaz -- Amps For Christ, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Wooden Shjips, and more:
07.10.09 - Hoboken, NJ - Maxwell's
07.11.09 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill #
07.12.09 - Los Angeles, CA - The Echoplex &
07.24.09 - Brooklyn, NY - Todd P Event - TBA %
07.25.09 - Medford, MA - Outside the Lines Studio %
07.26.09 - New Haven, CT - BAR
08.07.09 - Kutna Hora, CZ- Art Festival
08.08.09 - Berlin, GER - Berlin Festival
08.09.09 - Scheer, GER - Klangbad Festival
08.14.09 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso
08.15.09 - Tilburg, NL - TBC
# Wooden Shjips, Jonas Reinhardt
& Amps for Christ, Clipd Beaks
% Sunburned Hand of the Man
11 Die in Stampede at Moroccan Music Festival Promoting Tolerance… Ugh
By Kat Gardiner on 05-27-2009
Although probably very few of us out here in the culture vacuum known as ’merica know who Moroccan pop star Abdelaziz Stati is (I know I didn't), this last Sunday in a stadium show in Rabat, the capitol city of Morocco, 11 of the 70,000 attendees were killed in a stampede while they were leaving the show at the end of the 8th annual Mawazine festival. Forty others were injured.
The Mawazine festival is backed by King Mohammad and is aimed at promoting tolerance and publicizing Rabat as a worldly and open city, though some extremists in the country feel that pop music "encourages immoral behavior." This year, the festival drew a million people and featured an amazing 1,700 performers, including Kylie Minogue, Cheb Khaled, Warda Al-Jazairia, Ali Campbell (formerly of UB40), Johnny Clegg of White Zulu, and Stevie Wonder.
