Indie rock? Fine music, I guess, but ultimately a peasant’s art. It is music for peasants, by peasants. Which is great, if you can satisfy yourself simply with a common man’s thrill. Some of us desire something with a little more nobility, a little more regality. That’s why I’m so excited about the new record by The Dutchess and The Duke. Finally, there will be an indie rock record for us nobles, and we will no longer have to suffer through the squawking of the unwashed Animal Collective or filthy Dirty Projectors. I say, though, of what land do The Dutchess and The Duke possess governance over? Wait -- they’re not really a duchess and a duke? They’re just an indie-folk duo from Seattle? Aaaaaaaaaarrrrrghhhhh!
Ahem. Well then. I, for one, will return to my Bach and Stravinsky recordings and wipe my hands clean of this deceitful Dutchess and The Duke. But if you’re still interested, as many of you peasants must be, The Dutchess and The Duke have a new record, Sunrise/Sunset, coming out October 6 on Hardly Art. The record was recorded with Greg Ashley (of The Gris Gris) -- surely a frightful low-class man in his own right -- in his Oakland studio. If you’d like to see this collection of uncultured low-lifes in person, they’re likely coming to your small hamlet on a fall tour. As for me, I must return to the society ball, where my presence has surely been missed.
Now, where have I placed my monocle?
The Dutchess and The Duke tourdates: 10.03.09 - Vancouver, BC - The Biltmore Cabaret 10.09.09 - Seattle, WA - The Crocodile 10.10.09 - Olympia, WA - The Northern
The Dutchess and The Duke w/ Greg Ashley: 11.07.09 - Sacramento, CA - Luigi’s Fun Garden 11.08.09 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill 11.10.09 - Santa Cruz, CA - The Crepe Place 11.11.09 - Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland 11.13.09 - Irvine, CA - UC Irvine - Acrobatics Everyday 11.14.09 - San Diego, CA - The Casbah 11.15.09 - Phoenix, AZ - Rhythm Room 11.18.09 - Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge 11.19.09 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court (early show) 11.19.09 - Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge (late show) 11.21.09 - Boise, ID - Neurolux
Hey, indie kid! Remember how you’re basically “into” the cloistered, insular, venerated, self-perpetuating, and self-mythologizing independent rock music scene in the first place because of how instinctively repelled you were by those typical schoolyard playground conceits of, you know, sports, brawn, machismo, and athletic-apparel-denoted alliances and status-symbols?
Well, cut the wussy daydreaming and sissy list-making, word-using, prose-writing bullshit, Poindexter, because NIKE doesn’t remember that shit at all. Yup. Like a perfectly spiraled red-and-black Nerf Turbo foam football headed straight for the homemade Black Flag patch on your back, here comes NIKE’s garish fucking Sub Pop shoe to knock you on your face for $150 a pair.
The new sneaker, which is bright yellow with black suede, a grey stripe, and a star for detailing, is the newest addition to NIKE's “Quickstrike SB Blazer Elite series,” whatever the hell that means. WTF, NIKE? And I guess, perhaps more bafflingly, WTF Sub Pop?!
Hey, remember how Nirvana famously made Bleach (a.k.a. Sub Pop’s first huge success record) for $606.17? Well fuck, man, turns out they coulda just bought a pair of SNEAKERS for everyone in the band with that money instead... with plenty of cash leftover to spend on red-and-black Nerf Turbo foam footballs.
Last we heard from A Hawk And A Hacksaw, they were talking up their new album on The Leaf Label, Délivrance. Now the duo is taking the news one step further and have announced a North American tour in support of the new record, which was released on August 25, and is described by me as “very good and entertaining and if you like Beirut or Eastern Europe you should listen to it.”
The band also recently completed an extensive European tour, as well as supporting slots for Wilco and Andrew Bird and a handful of shows at SXSW. It is being reported that at these shows the audience members were reportedly “entertained” and “pleased.”
Besides the new tour and the new album, AHAAH have also made live videos for tracks “I Am Not A Gambling Man” and “The Man Who Sold His Beard,” directed by John Longmire and shot in the band’s home of New Mexico. Check the videos here.
The tour starts in September, runs through October, often features sets by Damon and Naomi, and can be enjoyed on the following dates at the following establishments: 09.12.09 – Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle 09.14.09 – Cleveland, OH - Beachland Tavern 09.15.09 – Pittsburgh, PA - Your Inner Vagabond 09.16.09 – Toronto, ON - The Drake Hotel 09.17.09 – Montreal, QC - Il Motore * 09.18.09 – Cambridge, MA - YMCA Theatre * 09.19.09 – New York, NY - Le Poisson Rouge * 09.20.09 – Washington, DC - Rock N' Roll Hotel * 09.23.09 – Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle Tavern and Music Hall 09.24.09 – Athens, GA - Melting Point * 09.25.09 – Atlanta, GA - The Earl * 09.26.09 – Knoxville, TN - The Pilot Light * 10.06.09 – Tucson, AZ - Solar Culture 10.07.09 – San Diego, CA - The Casbah 10.08.09 – Los Angeles, CA – Spaceland * 10.09.09 – San Francisco, CA - The Independent * 10.10.09 – Eureka, CA – Nocturnum * 10.12.09 – Portland, OR - Doug Fir * 10.13.09 – Seattle, WA - The Tractor Tavern * 10.15.09 – Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge * 10.16.09 – Denver, CO - Hi-Dive *
Remember when Black Dice used to thrash? Remember when they used to scare the shit out of hipster kids? Well, now hipster kids adore them, right? That's why, according to the TMT Investigation Department, they secretly decided to start a side project and wear masks, switching their name around a bit to form White Mice! They now wear bloody, mutated mouse heads and bloody lab coats while playing sludgy noise rock to scare the shit outta hipster kids once again!
Fine, maybe not, but damn ya gotta admit their names are pretty similar. Once you've admitted that, here's some info you need to know: White Mice's Ganjohovahdose is their fourth full-length record and is coming out on the 20 Buck Spin label. The label proclaims this one to be the "heaviest, noisiest, ugliest, most beautiful sound they've achieved yet." It "stands as a testament in praise of lord Cheezus for bestowing this deadly ‘conncocktion’ of music, art, visuals, noise, and words onto an unsuspecting and dangerously unprepared public, on its October 20 release."
Sounds pretty cool right? Providence, RISD, Lightning Bolt, Load Records! Alright, now go! Go buy their records!
Ganjohovahdose tracklisting:
1. PasssTheFissst 2. Ganjahovahdose 3. The Hard On of Edam 4. Placenta the Crotchtower 5. Peeeugenicyst 6. The Ape-Caca-Lips 7. The Crapture 8. The Shroud of Urine 9. Onth’ Ragggnorock 10. The Narcomacauleycolicost
FINALLY a festival that promises fun, and lots of it! In its fourth year, the Austin, TX festival that is neither SXSW nor Austin City Limits is packing a serious one-two punch of good times and enjoyment. Fun Fun Fun Fest takes over the dusty utopia of downtown Austin’s Waterloo Park for two action-packed days (November 7-8) full of a rad mix of up-and-coming acts and established performers. Spanning the indie gamut from The Jesus Lizard to GZA/Genius (performing Liquid Swords again to Crystal Castles, Fun Fun Fun Fest also plays host to some promising Austin-area acts like The Strange Boys and Shearwater, as well as some seriouscomedytroupes.
The lineup is intense, so peruse carefully. You wouldn’t want to miss a potential chance to hear Danzig guide you through his personal library, nor the much-buzzed-about 1970s Detroit proto-punks Death.
Lineup in no real logical order:
Ratatat, of Montreal, Crystal Castles, Les Savy Fav, Yeasayer, Mission Of Burma, Lucero, Why?, Broadcast, Atlas Sound, Death (Detroit), No Age, Red Sparowes, Shonen Knife, Fuck Buttons, Times New Viking, This Will Destroy You, Crystal Antlers, Growing, Black and White Years, Royal Bangs, The Laughing, The Jesus Lizard, Danzig, Gorilla Biscuits, Face to Face, Fucked Up, 7 Seconds, D.R.I., Torches, Melt Banana, Flipper, Coalesce, Riverboat Gamblers, Street Dogs, Russian Circles, Night Marchers, Metallagher, Youth Brigade, Mika Miko, All Leather, Young Widows, Coliseum, Underground Railroad to Candyland, Off With Their Heads, Reign Supreme, Rat King, Pack of Wolves, Roller, The Cool Kids, The Pharcyde, GZA/Genius, Kid Sister, Baruka Som Sistema, DJ Numark (Jurassic 5), HEALTH, Neon Indian, MC Chris, Ssion, Alaska in Winter, Vega, Foot Patrol, Astronautalis, Car Stereo (Wars), The DJ Melee, Sugar & Gold, LAX, Peligrosa DJs, Beta Player, Destroyer, The Whitest Kids You Know Sketch Comedy Troupe, Brian Posehn, The King Khan & BBQ Show, Shearwater, Todd Barry, Dead Confederate, Nick Thune, Harlem, Josh Fadem, The Strange Boys, Hannibal Burress, James Husband (of Montreal), Brendan Walsh, Cedric Burnside & Lightning Malcolm, Chelsea Peretti, Bankrupt and the Borrowers, Altercation Comedy Hour, Moonlight Towers, Low Line Caller, New Movement Comedy Group, AND MORE!
Major labels have been going after illegal downloaders for several years now, so it makes sense that they’re growing a bit bored chasing down 15 year olds with premium Rapidshare accounts. To make things more interesting, Peermusic, Warner Music’s Warner/Chappell, and Bug Music have decided to go after something else entirely: the unlicensed use of lyrics.
The three companies have launched lawsuits against two unlicensed lyric websites, LiveUniverse and Motive Force LLC, which share song lyrics for profit. David Israelite, boss for the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), agreed with the lawsuit in an interview with Billboard: “These sites are profiting on the backs of songwriters. It is unfortunate that copyright holders must so frequently divert energies to protect their rights to license and distribute their works. However, the demand for music prompts a seemingly endless stream of illegal business models.”
