Late In Breaking News: Robert Pollard New Band Boston Spaceships Set To Release Record, Worry About Being Placed Next To Boston In Record Racks
By C. Schell on Jul 1 2008
Most of Robert Pollard's musical activities over the last five or six years have not garnered much of my time. Having read much about Pollard online and in print -- TMT, Inc. demands that I stay on the internet reading about music for 10 hours a day, much to my girlfriend's chagrin -- I think I have been rightly apathetic. People appear to have a blind soft spot for him, which keeps them from writing totally negative reviews (aside from our most recent review, of course), but I haven't seen so many 3-star (6-star if you prefer) reviews in my life. Plus, who can get excited when something new from the man is released every couple months? These aren't fuckin' Chryslers, for god's sake. There are so many records that being a RP fan is a full-time undertaking.
This time around, ol' Bobby has another new band for us, and it is called Boston Spaceships. This one seems a bit -- if not musically, at least quality-wise -- different. That was the impression I got after listening to an MP3 on the band's site and reading the listed influences of Cheap Trick, Wire, Alice Cooper, The dB's on the upcoming record, Brown Submarine. Admittedly, it did get me a little geeked. The LP was recorded in Portland, OR and Kent, OH and is set for release on RP's own GBV, Inc. label September 9. Along with Uncle Bob, the band is rounded out by Chris Slusarenko (GBV, Takeovers) and John Moen (Decemberists, Perhapst), and will also feature Jason Narducy and Tommy Keene in its live incarnation.
Live, yes, I said it. The band is a live entity, which is rare for Pollard in the last couple years. The band will head out on tour a couple weeks after the LP's release, beginning the trek with The High Strung in Cincinnati at the Midpoint Music Festival and wrapping it all up October 18 in Nashville.
Tourdates:
* The High Strung
Recording Industry Calls Broadcasting Industry “A Form of Piracy”; Royalty Bill On Its Way to full Judiciary Committee
By Mr P on Jun 30 2008
A couple weeks ago, we reported how the Performance Rights Act was under negotiations:
The bill primarily aims to (1) amend the Copyright Act by granting equal rights to musicians when receiving compensation from terrestrial broadcasters, and (2) establish a flat rate for non-commercial and public terrestrial stations that make less than $1.25 million a year. Essentially, the bill wants to place the same enforcement on terrestrial radio that already exists on internet and satellite radio." --[Performance Rights Act Currently Under Negotiations; Local Radio Freedom Act Gaining Steam
->http://www.tinymixtapes.com/Performance-Rights-Act-Sure-to]
Last Monday, the recording industry called AM-FM broadcasting a "form of piracy":
On Monday, the recording industry sent the National Association of Broadcasters -- the trade group representing the $16 billion a year AM-FM broadcasting business -- a can of herring to underscore that it believes its arguments against paying royalties are a red herring. The NAB says its members should not pay royalties because AM-FM radio “promotes” the music industry. ...] "It's a form of piracy, if you will, but not in the classic sense as we think of it," said Martin Machowsky, a musicFirst spokesman. --[Recording Industry Decries AM-FM Broadcasting as "A Form of Piracy" (Thanks James K.)
On Thursday, the Performance Rights Act passed a U.S. House subcommittee and is heading to a full Judiciary Committee:
A U.S. House subcommittee passed a bill Thursday that would require radio stations to pay royalties to artists for playing their music. The Performance Rights Act passed on voice vote in the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property. The next step for the bill is a vote by the full Judiciary Committee. --House Subcommittee Votes Yes On Royalty Bill
Next week?
Recording Industry Calls Broadcasting Industry “A Form of Piracy”; Royalty Bill On Its Way to full Judiciary Committee
By The Friz on Jun 30 2008
A couple weeks ago, we reported how the Performance Rights Act was under negotiations:
The bill primarily aims to (1) amend the Copyright Act by granting equal rights to musicians when receiving compensation from terrestrial broadcasters, and (2) establish a flat rate for non-commercial and public terrestrial stations that make less than $1.25 million a year. Essentially, the bill wants to place the same enforcement on terrestrial radio that already exists on internet and satellite radio." --[Performance Rights Act Currently Under Negotiations; Local Radio Freedom Act Gaining Steam
->http://www.tinymixtapes.com/Performance-Rights-Act-Sure-to]
Last Monday, the recording industry called AM-FM broadcasting a "form of piracy":
On Monday, the recording industry sent the National Association of Broadcasters -- the trade group representing the $16 billion a year AM-FM broadcasting business -- a can of herring to underscore that it believes its arguments against paying royalties are a red herring. The NAB says its members should not pay royalties because AM-FM radio “promotes” the music industry. ...] "It's a form of piracy, if you will, but not in the classic sense as we think of it," said Martin Machowsky, a musicFirst spokesman. --[Recording Industry Decries AM-FM Broadcasting as "A Form of Piracy" (Thanks James K.)
On Thursday, the Performance Rights Act passed a U.S. House subcommittee and is heading to a full Judiciary Committee:
A U.S. House subcommittee passed a bill Thursday that would require radio stations to pay royalties to artists for playing their music. The Performance Rights Act passed on voice vote in the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property. The next step for the bill is a vote by the full Judiciary Committee. --House Subcommittee Votes Yes On Royalty Bill
Next week?
Mercury Rev Return with Two Albums; Rev Run Returns with a New Book and a Whole Mess o’ Homespun Family Life Lessons!
By David Nadelle on Jun 30 2008
Dear Mr P,
I accept the fact that I had to sacrifice a whole morning polishing your Benz for whatever it was I did wrong. But I think you're crazy to also make me write a news story telling you who I think Mercury Rev are, if they are actually going to release two Yep Roc, David Fridmann-produced albums September 30 entitled Snowflake Midnight and Strange Attractor (the latter being a companion album to Snowflake Midnight and a FREE download available to anyone on Yep Roc's Mercury Rev mailing list), and chart their forthcoming tour schedule that will take them to a number of European festivals and club dates. You see them how you want to see them... in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definition. But what I found out is that each one in Mercury Rev is a brain... and an athlete... a Jonathan Donahue... and a basket case... a Grasshopper... a princess... a Jeff Mercel... and a criminal. Does that answer your question?
Sincerely, the Breakfast Burrito.
Snowflake Midnight:
1. Snowflake in a Hot World
2. Butterfly's Wings
3. Senses on Fire
4. People Are So Unpredictable (There's No Bliss Like Home)
5. October Sunshine
6. Runaway Raindrop
7. Dream of a Young Girl as a Flower
8. Faraway for Cars
9. A Squirrel and I (Holding On...and Letting Go)
Strange Attractor:
1. Love Is Pure
2. Taken Up Into Clouds, Changed and Rained Down
3. Pure Joie de la Solitude
4. Persistence and the Apis Mellifera
5. Fable of a Silver Moon
6. Loop Lisse, Loop
7. In My Heart, a Strange Attractor
8. Incident on Abeel Street
9. Af Den Fader Kommer Den Sol
10. Because Because Because
11. Nocturne for Norwood
"Zooming in at any part of SNOWFLAKE MIDNIGHT, at nearly any conceivable magnification, always reveals the forces of symmetry and chaos at play, shimmering, vibrating close-ups and vistas of Life driving itself onward, bursting with patterns and mandala-like forms pushed to the brink of incredible pressures then lost in an instant... blown apart by their own majestic desire to share themselves, spirals of new momentum inter-twingling with the vastness of limitless new creation... The entire album sequence appears to be a resplendent fractal, folding in upon itself, into something continually new, unpredictable and spontaneous, and yet, paradoxically at times so subtly self-aware, never failing to resemble itself in the whole..." says the band's website.
Good. I effin' love "chaos at play!"
08.07.08 - Lausanne-Pully, Switzerland - For Noise Festival
08.09.08 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Beatday 08
08.12.08 - Kilkenny, Ireland - Kilkenny Arts Festival
08.14.08 - Kiewit-Hasselt, Belgium - Pukkelpop 2008
08.29.08 - Inverary Argyll, Scotland - Hydro Connect Festival
09.13.08 - North Dorset, England - End of the Road Festival
09.21.08 - Monticello, NY - ATP New York 2008
10.31.08 - Cork, Ireland - Cyprus Avenue
11.01.08 - Galway, Ireland - Roisin Dubh
11.02.08 - Dublin, Ireland - Vicar St
11.04.08 - Belfast, Northern Ireland - Mandela Hall
11.05.08 - Manchester, England - Academy
11.06.08 - Leeds, England - Academy
11.07.08 - Birmingham, England - Academy
11.09.08 - Newcastle, England - Academy
11.11.08 - Brighton, England - Corn Exchange
11.12.08 - Bristol, England - Academy
11.13.08 - London, England - Shepherd's Bush Empire
11.14.08 - Oxford, England - Academy
11.16.08 - Luxembourg City, Luxembourg - Den Atelier
11.17.08 - Cologne, Germany - Luxor
11.21.08 - Berlin, Germany - Lido
11.22.08 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
11.24.08 - Brussels, Belgium - Ancienne Belgique
11.25.08 - Paris, France - Elysée Montmartre
11.26.08 - Dijon, France - La Vapeur
11.27.08 - Barcelon, Spain - Bikini
11.28.08 - Madrid, Spain - Joy
11.29.08 - Lisbon, Portugal - Aula Magna
