Foot Village Pack Up Their Tough Actin’ Tanactin and Tour Europe
By Mike McHugh on Sep 5 2008
As moose hunter and squirrelly white guy court doe-eyed Moral Majoritites all across America, a delegation of sovereign citizens from California’s Foot Village will hold a series of diplomatic drum symposiums in a selection of European countries. Foot Village’s public will no doubt enthrall the throngs of assorted counts, marquises, and burghers (perhaps the occasional wretched serf as well) in attendance with their vicious addresses on rhythm, delivered always in incommodious thumps and brazen, regal screams.
Foot Village has left the comfort of their home soil in order to support their latest treaty, Friendship Nation (TMT Review), composed earlier this year in direct violation of several Geneva Convention accords. Nevertheless, the citizens will be absent from local administrative duties for the duration of their sojourn, so please suspend any scheduled dissents or demonstrations until Foot Village is available to properly stomp on your petty grievances. Vox populi, non est vox dei.
[Photo: Dalton]
The Decemberists Announce New Tourdates; This Will Be The Only News Story In Existence This Week That Won’t Mention The Name Of A Certain Alaskan Hockey Mom
By Annapocalypse on Sep 5 2008
No matter what news channel or website you visit this week, I can guarantee you that the name of a certain female vice presidential candidate will be plastered all over the place. That’s why I’m promising you that I will not stoop so low as to smuggle her name into my story in an attempt to fit in with everyone else. Besides, we have more important things to discuss! Like The Decemberists' upcoming fall tour, which begins a day after the U.S. presidential election. Not only that, but The Decemberists will release Volume I of their new singles series, Always The Bridesmaid (TMT News), on October 14, which contains new songs “Valerie Plame” and “O New England.”
And who knows, maybe everyone will have forgotten about her by the time the tour starts anyway.
& Loch Lomond
Folk Rock Back In Style: The Felice Brothers Announce Fall Tour
By J.E. Williams on Sep 5 2008
Folk/country rock fans rejoice! Up-and-coming rockers The Felice Brothers, who released their self-titled album earlier this year on Team Love Records, have set off on a new fall tour that -- oops -- began yesterday. The New York City-based quintet is coming off a ridiculous summer tour that saw 'em playing at music festivals like Bonaroo, Langerado, The Newport Folk Festival, Mountain Jam, and the inaugural All Points West Festival (TMT Review) in New Jersey.
I saw the band in Ithaca, NY this past spring and can attest to the fact that The Felice Brothers have one of the best live shows you can see right now. Don’t miss them. Seriously. Don’t.
Felice Brothers Fall Tour:
Art Brut Singer Writes Comics Column For, Of All Places, St. Louis-Based Site PLAYBACK:stl
By Mike McHugh on Sep 5 2008
I’ve lived in St. Louis, MO for 23 silly years, and if there’s one thing I know about this town, it’s not a lot of famous people come here voluntarily. Sure, we have our meager share of born and bred celebs (Costas and Goodman, shout out from the 314!), but they don’t live in St. Louis as much as they do in Olympics coverage and Roseanne reruns. All of our famous people only got to where they are because they left this city for some place better, whether it was the coasts or somewhere as painfully close as Chicago. St. Louis is basically a big city version of all those small towns in East Asshole Montana or South Central Wyoming or whatever, where people like Gloria Steinem or Peewee Herman pined for the day when they would leave and make their fortune in New York or LA or fucking Portland. For years, the only high internationally acknowledged venture we had in St. Louis was Anheuser-Busch, and now that’s left, too. Heavy sigh.
So why in the hell would Eddie Argos, frontman of British snob-punk band Art Brut, pick up a gig as a comics columnist for PLAYBACK:stl, a little read website from a rarely regarded city? Could it be that Argos understands the true spirit of St. Louis, our defeated but still sort of plucky attitude towards life, our humble but still sort of remarkable music scene, perhaps our marvelous riverside binge-drinking destinations, unrivaled in their filthiness? Did any of these things play a hand in enticing Argos to our fair city’s website?
No, they certainly did not. “I started writing this column because I was promised free comics,” says Argos in his second column. Fair enough, rock star, but I’m still chalking this up as a victory for STL. Updating twice weekly from across the Atlantic, Argos’ comics topics range from reviews of mainstreamers like Captain America (wait, I thought he was dead???) to independents like Too Cool To Be Forgotten. If you enjoy Argos’ ramblings about his little brother and his shitty weekend in Art Brut and really like comics, then you’ll get a kick out of his column. And hey, if you’re into totally free and badass zoos, maybe you should check out St. Louis. We’ve got a hippo hideaway and a warthog wallow and everything!
By David Nadelle on Sep 4 2008
We never saw it coming. It is always the quiet ones. And et cetera. Who would have ever guessed that behind the quiet, enterprising façade there would be a conniving home-wrecker in Suicide Squeeze, a label otherwise known for its purity and sweetness? Word on the street has it that the Seattle-based imprint has tapped two new bands to fill its roster but how they got them may be frowned upon in certain circles. In fact, we’re not even sure Angelina Jolie would stoop to this level of domestic disruption. We know this happens all the time, but we can’t ignore the fact that whenever it does happen, it’s the kids who suffer. Tsk, tsk is all we have to say.
Whatever, it’s 2008, not 1955, and breaking up is just another part of everyday life, like getting dressed or slashing your boss' tires. From two broken homes come two new bands ready to start afresh without any past painful limbs pulling the creative body back. Fresh starts are always welcome in TinyMixTapesLand, so it gives us much pleasure to report that Suicide Squeeze has signed Past Lives (ex-Blood Brothers) and Cotton Jones (ex-Page France) to their growing concern and new releases by both clans are due just around the corner (November) and right around the bend (January), respectively!
Cotton Jones is the nom de plume of Michael Nau, former leader of the admirably wistful Page France. His first album on the label will be Paranoid Cocoon, due at the beginning of 2009. Nau has already released a couple EPs-with-art-books on Quite Scientific as “The Cotton Jones Basket Ride,” but whether or not he and professional partner Whitney McGraw will be using the “Basket Ride” appendage in the future is anyone’s guess. We hope so; we like baskets. And rides.
Live Jones:
09.05.08 - Frostburg, MD - Duncan’s #
09.26.08 - Baltimore, MD - Talking Head $
09.28.08 - New York, NY - Mercury Lounge %
# Ghostfinger
$ Throw Me the Statue
% David Vandervelde and Throw Me the Statue
Meanwhile, Past Lives, comprising former Blood Brothers Jordan Blilie, Morgan Henderson, and Mark Gajadar (the remaining two-fifths of Blood Brothers + J Clark of Pretty Girls Make Graves have begun playing as Jaguar Love). Past Lives’ first release on the hard-hearted label will be a debut five-song EP, entitled Strange Symmetry, which will be available for mass consumption November 4, although you can get the digital version now.
Let there be song titles:
1. Beyond Gone
2. Strange Symmetry
3. Skull Lender
4. Reverse the Curse
5. Chrome Life
Got remaining live dates if you want it:
09.04.08 - San Francisco, CA - The Hemlock Tavern ^
09.06.08 - Portland, OR - Satyricon *
09.07.08 - Seattle, WA - Neumo’s +
^ Clipd Beaks, Leyna Noel, and The Finer Things
* Fucked Up, Crystal Antlers, Sex Vid, and Street Plants
+ Dead Science
