The Curious Mystery Release Album on K Records, Pack Up Noah’s Ark Full of Wacky Instruments for West Coast Tourdates

By Liz Louche on

Some bands -- in fact, in this post-The Strokes/The Libertines/The Hives world, most bands -- just don’t need a “The” in front of their name. I am going to go out on a limb here and add The Curious Mystery to this list. I first heard the name today, and I was just, like, not feelin’ it. (Unless you are The The, the article just seems superfluous.) But then I heard the actual band and -- OH SNAP -- I was toooootally feeling it.

The Curious Mystery are a Seattle-based psychedelic garage band with roots in country/western and experimental music. Formed in 2005 by guitarist/vocalist/homemade instrumentalist Nicolas Gonzalez and vocalist/banjoist/guitarist/autoharpist/monkey trainer Shana Cleveland, the band has since expanded to include -- y’all ready for this? -- Bradford Button on bass guitar and Faustine B. Hudson on drums, gong, dinner bell, and (yes, you guessed it) plastic tube. (That Bradford -- what an underachiever. Isn’t there an accordion sitting around somewhere he could pick up?)

The multi-instrumentalists are hitting the road for a West Coast tour this spring in support of their debut, Rotting Slowly, which came out today on K Records!
05.21.09 - Portland, OR - The Dunes
05.22.09 - Salem, OR - The Space
05.23.09 - Arcata, CA - Arcata Theatre Lounge
05.26.09 - Redding, CA - The Downtown Eatery
05.27.09 - San Francisco, CA - Hemlock Tavern
05.30.09 - San Jose, CA - Streetlight Records (early show)
05.30.09 - San Jose, CA - The Blank Club
05.31.09 - Los Angeles, CA - The Smell
06.01.09 - Phoenix, AZ - Trunk Space
06.03.09 - Tucson, AZ - Red Room
06.05.09 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Woodshed
06.06.09 - Boise, ID - Neurolux

* Old Time Relijun

You Can’t Beat the Internet: The Pirate Bay Plans to Avoid Fines by Inventing the “DDo$ Attack”

By Nat Towsen on 05-19-2009

You have to love the guys who run The Pirate Bay (or hate them a lot, depending on what you have at stake). Whether they're bold-facedly advertising The Simpsons Movie available for download on its first day in theatres or trying to start their own country where file-sharing is legal, they tend to grab the bull by the prairie oysters. Well, those smug assholes have done it again. Or at least they're about to have done it again.

Let's back up. About three weeks ago, the well-publicized Pirate Bay trial reached a verdict requiring the management of The Pirate Bay to pay a fine of 30-million SEK. The money was to be paid to Danowsky & Partners Advokatbyrå, the small law firm representing the IFPI in the recent trial. Of course, Pirate Bay founder Gottfrid Svartholm and his three co-pirates, relaxed comfortably atop their beanbag chair-sized testicles, had no intentions of paying the fine.

Their current plan is to enact what is now being called a "Distributed Denial of Dollars" (or DDo$) attack. It is basically an adaptation of the DDoS attack, a technique by which a number of internet users intentionally overload a server in order to make it inaccessible to its intended users. In this case, The Pirate Bay is asking users to make tiny donations of 1 SEK (approx. 0.13 USD) to the bank account in which the 30 million SEK is meant to be deposited.

Here's how it works: The first 1000 transfers made to the account cost nothing to Danowsky. Any further transfers, however, will cause the bank to charge Danowsky with a fee of 2 SEK. This means that any donations (beyond the first 1000) of 1 SEK will end up costing Danowsky 1 SEK. Bear in mind that The Pirate Bay has about 3.6 million users.

As Danowsky is a small firm that handles all transactions by hand, this attack will probably end up wasting a lot of their time. And time is money. So it will end up wasting some of their money, and then a lot of their money. Now, unless Danowsky is so overwhelmed that they have to close their doors, this still does not explain how Svartholm and his mates will avoid paying their fine. But as the old pirate saying goes, "If ye be drownin, 'tis best that the last bit of ya ter be seen be yer sinkin' middle finger."

Fever Ray Actually Coming to the Continent of North America

By Kasia Galaxy on 05-19-2009

Hounding her MySpace page has finally paid off: Fever Ray is coming to the States and Canada. From the looks of the videos already posted on YouTube, the tour's gonna have some spooky shit with a high chance of lasers and subsequent nightmares. Sign me up!

Fever Ray will be supporting her self-titled solo album (TMT Review), which was released via Mute back in March.

Here are the tourdates:
05.20.09 - Graz, Austria - Electronic Beats Festival
05.21.09 - Berlin, Germany - Berghain (two shows)
05.23.09 - Cologne, Germany - Electronic Beats Festival
06.13.09 - Stockholm, Sweden - Where the Action Is
06.20.09 - Barcelona, Spain - Sonar By Night
07.03.09 - Arvika, Sweden - Arvika Festival
07.04.09 - Roskilde, Denmark - Roskilde Festival
07.11.09 - Brighton, England - Loop Festival
07.12.09 - Naas, Ireland - Oxegen Festival
07.14.09 - Manchester, UK - Academy 2
07.16.09 - London, UK - Shepherds Bush Empire
07.17.09 - Southwold, UK - Latitude Festival
07.18.09 - Leipzig, Germany - Melt! Festival
08.13.09 - Oslo, Norway - Oya Festival
08.14.09 - Göteborg, Sweden - Way Out West Festival
08.16.09 - Helsinki, Finland - Flow Festival
09.28.09 - New York, NY - Webster Hall
09.29.09 - New York, NY - Webster Hall
10.01.09 - Montreal, QC - Metropolis
10.02.09 - Toronto, ON - Kool Haus
10.03.09 - Chicago, IL - Metro
10.05.09 - San Francisco, CA - The Grand Ballroom
10.07.09 - Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theater

RIP: MC Dolla

By Shane Mack on 05-19-2009

From Rolling Stone:

Up-and-coming Atlanta rapper Dolla was shot and killed in an altercation outside a shopping mall in Los Angeles on Monday, May 18th. He was 21 years old. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dolla was gunned down while he waited at the Beverly Center’s mall valet with rappers DJ Shabbazz and Scrapp DeLeon. Dolla’s publicist said that before the shooting, a man and woman were trailing the rapper. Police have “two persons of interest” in custody; cops picked up one man at the ticketing area of the Los Angeles International Airport with a gun in his possession. As of this morning, the man in custody, Aubrey Berry, has been charged with murder, TMZ reports.

- Dolla MySpace page
- Dolla Twitter

The Psychedelic Furs Reunite… Again, Tour America… Again

By Liz Louche on 05-19-2009

Late-1970s post-punk/new wave/John Hughes movie soundtrack hitmakers The Psychedelic Furs are preparing to rock America during a brief summer tour. Word on the street (internet) is that brothers/founding members vocalist Richard Butler and bassist Tim Butler, along with guitarist John Ashton, were all living in upstate New York prior to their 2000 reunion, which means touring the northeastern states is perfectly logical and seems like the obvious choice, but now it totally ruins the whole "They were formed in London in 1977! They're, like, such a seminal English band and now they're totally COMING TO AMERICA for a no-holds-barred spectacular reunion tour!!" angle that I was going to take. Oh well. They've got a date at the Benicassim Festival in Spain, and more U.S./European dates on the way. That's exciting enough on its own, right? Right??

Anyway, The Psychedelic Furs are on the move. The lineup this time features the aforementioned Butlers, John Ashton, drummer Frank Ferrer of Love Spit Love (Richard Butler's post-Furs band) and Guns N' Roses, former Information Society and World Party keyboardist Amanda Kramer, and previous Furs collaborator saxophonist Mars Williams. That's like, four bands for the price of one -- maybe even five.

Dates:
06.06.09 - Foxborough, MA - Showcase Live
06.07.09 - Farmingdale, NY - Crazy Donkey
06.08.09 - Londonderry, NH - Tupelo Music Hall
06.09.09 - Fairfield, CT - StageOne
06.11.09 - Baltimore, MD - Rams Head on Stage
06.12.09 - Atlantic City, NJ - House of Blues
06.13.09 - Montclair, NJ - Wellmont Theatre
07.19.09 - Benicassim, SPAIN - Benicassim Festival

Chicago Instrumental Groovers CAVE Announce Summer Tour

By Couscous on 05-18-2009

This summer the stalactites will be falling from club ceilings across the country as Chicago neo-hippie/punk instrumentalists CAVE announce a tour in support of their new album Psychic Psummer. Former members of now-defunct Missouri-based Warhammer 48K and other Chicago musicians comprise CAVE, whose album should be expected to receive better visibility on Important Records than the band's previous self-releases. If the record's merging of Can-like grooves, winding guitars, and howling dub echoes presupposes the band's live set, it should make for a pretty killer show. The band will be making stops in some off-the-beaten-path cities such as El Paso, TX, Ventura, CA, Mobile, AL, and East Moline, IL

05.18.09 - Denver, CO - BarBar
05.20.09 - Sacramento, CA - the HUB
05.21.09 - Petaluma, CA - the Phoenix Theater
05.22.09 - San Francisco, CA - Hemlock Tavern w/ Mammatus
05.23.09 - Oakland, CA - LOBOT w/ Nothing People + Lemmon Pretend
05.24.09 - Santa Cruz, CA - Blue Lagoon w/ Mammatus + Jealousy
05.26.09 - Los Angeles, CA - Club Ding-A-Ling w/ Jealousy
05.27.09 - Ventura, CA - Gradys Record Refuge
05.28.09 - Los Angeles, CA - SMELL w/ Nite Jewel + Jealousy
05.29.09 - LA area, CA - space w/ Skarekrau Radio (excerpt)
05.30.09 - Tucson, AZ - Dry River
05.31.09 - El Paso, TX - House w/ Dozal Brothers
05.03.09 - Austin, TX - Beerland
05.04.09 - Houston, TX - the MINK w/ Balaclavas
05.05.09 - New Orleans, LA - Nowe Miasto w/ Quintron + Fishercat
05.06.09 - Pensacola, FL - House w/ JUICEBOXXX
05.07.09 - Mobile, AL - Alabama Music Box w/ JUICEBOXXX
05.08.09 - Nashville, TN - House
05.09.09 - St. Louis, MO - Lemmons w/ Skarekrau Radio + Ghost Ice
05.10.09 - East Moline, IL - Racers Edge w/ Mondo Drag + Eyes
05.12.09 - Chicago, IL - Automatic Space w/ Chandeliers + Prince Rama

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