Atlas Sound To Open For Stereolab; Bradford Cox To Have Major Boner During Entire Tour
By Annapocalypse on 07-24-2008
Imagine if you could tour with one of your favorite bands of all-time; sounds pretty cool, right? If your name is Bradford Cox, then you’re in luck, because you’ll be headed out on the road with Stereolab this September (TMT News)! OMGZ! Eternal birthday wish granted!
To further underscore just how much of a boner Bradford has for Stereolab, I’ve taken to analyzing statements he’s made about the band in his blog, and I’ve reproduced several below for you:
- December 13, 2007: “Also... check out this fucking rad video of Stereolab playing my favorite song "Blue Milk" live. It's the song I wrote the whole worship post about a while back, where I described watching them play it live and getting the chills...”
- December 13, 2007: “Stereolab changed my entire musical life as a kid. They were and continue to be my favorite band of all time.”
- September 2, 2007: “When I was in high-school I idolized [Stereolab] and saw them every time they came to Atlanta. I would show up at the venue three or four hours before doors to make sure I got to be front and center (right in front of Mary Hansen.) I saw them play [“Blue Milk”] three times and each time stimulated and reinforced the part of my brain that wanted to make music - on a stage - live. I could watch a band perform this song for three hours and be ecstatic.”
Note to Stereolab: Do not play “Blue Milk” live! Bradford may just collapse and die from happiness.
Boner dates:
& Monade
# Richard Swift
James Jackson Toth Buries His Wand, Readies New LP, Tours with Indefinite Royalty
By mattborda on 07-23-2008
After collaborating with several backing bands under the Wooden Wand moniker, most notably with The Vanishing Voice, James Jackson Toth is set to release Waiting In Vain, his first album under his own name. The official announcement, posted on Toth’s MySpace page, describes the album as “layered, almost-dreamlike” with “touches of blues, country and soul; the occasional flash of punk swagger; and even some sweet Fleetwood Mac-inspired pop.” You can hear for yourself by visiting the link above.
Waiting In Vain will be released July 29 through Rykodisc, but the day before Toth will play a free record-release show at Grimey’s in Nashville, TN. He then heads west on August 13 to begin a four-week national tour in San Francisco. Interestingly, the tour will pair him with an as-yet unspecified Duchess and Duke. Obvious possibilities include Prince Richard Alexander Walter George, Duke of Gloucester, or Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, Duke of Cornwall (except for when he visits Scotland, where he is referred to as the Duke of Rothesay, technically making him two dukes). Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh seems unlikely, because, let’s be honest, he’s pretty old. I don’t see him fitting in with Toth’s reckless rockstar lifestyle. Prince Edward George Nicholas Patrick Paul, Duke of Kent, also seems like a bad match. I mean, look at this guy. Nobody is taking him on tour anywhere.
It seems Toth will be keeping this shrouded in secrecy until the tour begins. With any luck some San Fran bloggers will let us know August 14.
Waiting In Vain tracklist:
All dates with The Duchess & The Duke except noted*
Q: How Many Guitarists Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb? A: None, They Just Steal Someone Else’s Light. Billy Corgan Gets the Signature Fender Treatment.
By David Nadelle on 07-23-2008
If the ego wasn't big enough already, Fender has helped to expand the size of Billy Corgan's melon by green-lighting the release of his own Stratocaster model. Corgan is the latest guitarist to be immortalized with a signature Fender guitar, joining the ranks of Eric Clapton, J Mascis, and Yngwie Malmsteen, all of whom have worked with the venerable instrument maker to produce axes according to their exacting preferences. The Smashing Pumpkins leader is not often recognized for his guitar prowess, partly because he is not overly flashy, but he is underrated and has a distinctive sound (“buzz-saw tone,” say some folk). Fender claims that Corgan emerged in the grunge period and “stepped forward with lengthy and unconventionally next-level instrumental breaks that could go from shredding, screaming incendiary intensity in one song to delicate, whispering beauty in the next.” They then mentioned something about his time spent as a shepherd, freeing Hebrew slaves, receiving commandments, and parting seas with an apathetic shrug, a few teen angst-fueled words, and oodles of fierce distortion and dramatic shifts in song tempo.
Guitarists are a serious species, so for spec lovers (I am specifically thinking of a high school acquaintance who had his walls covered with guitar layouts and configurations... he also got his hair permed to play in a Ratt tribute band), the Corgan strat features: alder body, satin lacquer finish, maple neck, 9.5' radius maple fingerboard, 22 jumbo frets, 25.5' scale length, chrome hardware, Fender standard cast/sealed tuning machines, modern hard tail bridge, 3-ply pickguard, special design Dimarzio 'Billy Corgan' single spaced humbucking bridge pickup, Dimarzio ‘Chopper’ Middle Pickup, special design Dimarzio ‘Billy Corgan’ single-spaced humbucking bridge pickup, 5-position pickup switching blade (full humbucking bridge, inside coil of bridge and full humbucking middle, full humbucking middle, full humbucking middle and outside coil of neck, full humbucking neck), 2-tone master control (neck and bridge), choice of Fat Black or Olympic White satin nitrocellulose lacquer finishes, and an exhaust, because it's so smoking hot! Hisssss.... rock... on...
Madvillain to Release Box Set, Madlib Release a Couple Albums
By Mango Starr on 07-23-2008
This news should be about a new Madvillain LP. It also should be about an entirely new LP from Madlib on Stones Throw. And whatever happened to that fucking MF DOOM/Ghostface collaboration? Okay, so maybe these little nuggets ain't quite ready yet, but there is quite a bit of related material rolling out. Ready? Let's go:
- Madvillainy 2: The Box: This is a beast. Not only does it feature Madvillainy “2” The Madlib Remix, a 25-track remix CD that Madlib made on a 10-hour plane ride to Tokyo, but it also contains the "One Beer (Drunk Version)" 7-inch, a 12-track demo tape on cassette, a Madvillain t-shirt, and a comic book called Meanwhile... (the sequel to the All Caps video on the CD). All of this is housed in a 12x13x13 inch box, "wrapped in a silver like a mask," according to Stones Throw. You can pre-order the box until August 15 for $124.99 (plus shipping) here. Too expensive for you? Luckily, you can also purchase the remix album as MP3s for $9.99.
- Madlib's Remixes 2: Saturday Morning Edition and WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip: The first release is Madlib Remixes 2: Saturday Morning Edition, a collection of remixes "made entirely of samples from early 80s funk and disco," released by France's Le Smoke Disque. The second is WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip, Madlib's contribution to BBE's Beat Generation series, which has in the past included works from Pete Rock, DJ Spinna, will.i.am, J Dilla, and DJ Jazzy Jeff. It's set for release on September 9 via Rapster/BBE.
- Dilla Ghost Doom's "Sniperlite" 12-inch: Okay, enough typing. Here's what Stones Throw had to say about this one: "In late 2005 Ghostface Killa and MF DOOM were both recording over tracks from J Dilla's instrumental opus, Donuts, which saw release the following February. Some of these were released on Ghostface's Fishscale in 2006, while others, including a Dilla-Doom project, were postponed indefinitely after J Dilla's passing. Two of these tracks, ‘Sniper Elite’ and ‘Murder Goons,’ are presented here for the first time. The two are taken from two sequential songs off Donuts, meant to mix together. We are presenting the two songs unmixed, plus the two mixed together as a bonus track."
...Soooooooo... what about a new Madvillain album? According to Stones Throw, "Every once in a while we hear from DOOM, and he tells us he’s getting closer. Madlib still sends him beat CDs." Ugh. C'mon DOOM! What do you want? Some private cheerleading??? Actually, that'd be pretty cool. Give me a ring.
WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip tracklist:
