Have you been sitting around all summer wishing you had some cool things to watch and listen to? Well, your summer is saved because Fantômas (everyone’s favorite Mike Patton side-project) have announced that they will be releasing a DVD/live album, set for release on September 6 via Ipecac Recordings.
The Director’s Cut: A New Year’s Revolution is a brand-new DVD recording of a December 31, 2008 concert that Fantômas played at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall wherein they played their popular (and awesome) album The Director’s Cut in its entirety. For the uninitiated, The Director’s Cut was a covers album where Fantômas put their own spin on theme music from classic sci-fi, horror, and crime movies, including The Godfather, The Omen, Cape Fear, and plenty of others. The DVD also features two songs (covers of Al Green’s “Simply Beautiful” and T-Rex’s Chariot Choogle”) not originally on the Director’s Cut album along with commentary from America’s $1 Comedian, Neil Hamburger. An audio-only version of the recording will also be released for download from Ipecac’s website.
The Director’s Cut Live: A New Year’s Revolution tracklisting:
01. The Godfather
02. Night of the Hunter
03. Cape Fear
04. Experiment in Terror
05. One Step Beyond
06. Rosemary’s Baby
07. The Devil Rides Out
08. Spider Baby
09. The Omen (Ave Satani)
10. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
11. Vendetta
12. Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
13. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
14. Der Golem
15. Charade
16. Intermission
17. Simply Beautiful
18. Chariot Choogle
Dear readers: do you feel a chill running down your very spinal column? Why, I certainly do! Moreover, I know why! Come close, gentle friends, so I can whisper this dark secret into the shadowy caverns of your ears: Zola Jesus, that gothic queen, is going on tour this fall. Furthermore, she shall be touring North America, the very land you live in, unless you live in another land! Some should fear, others should continue going about their day!
Now then, the occasion for this tour is none other than Ms. Jesus’s new album Conatus, out October 4 on Sacred Bones. Reasonably, I think we can all expect this new record to sound like a shadow making out with a Dracula. Or, perhaps, the dance party of a ghoul and a warlock. Only those in the future will know! Only those who attend this fall tour will doubly-know! All this was written in prophecy!…?
Zola Jesus dates:
10.06.11 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios
10.07.11 - Vancouver, BC - Biltmore Cabaret
10.08.11 - Seattle, WA - Crocodile
10.11.11 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
10.12.11 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall
10.13.11 - Ann Arbor, MN - Blind Pig
10.14.11 - Toronto, ON - The Mod Club
10.15.11 - Montreal, QC - Il Motore
10.17.11 - Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall
10.18.11 - Brooklyn, NY - Knitting Factory
10.19.11 - New York, NY - Le Poisson Rouge
10.20.11 - Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
10.21.11 - Washington, DC - Black Cat
10.22.11 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
10.24.11 - Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
10.25.11 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl
10.28.11 - Denton, TX - Dan’s Silverleaf
10.29.11 - Austin, TX - The Mohawk
10.31.11 - Los Angeles, CA - The Echoplex
11.01.11 - San Francisco, CA - The Independent
Like most people, I spend most of my days lamenting the demise of beloved garage rock act Hot Snakes. Everything reminds me of them! My coffee tastes bitter, not because it’s coffee, but because it tastes like the sadness of living in a world without Hot Snakes. I’ve been living this way for six years now. Hot Snakes, please return. Be the sneeze guard on my buffet of sadness!
Fortunately for my mental well-being (sneeze guard? buffet of sadness?), Hot Snakes are returning to play ATP UK in December. They will be playing the Les Savy Fav-curated day of ATP UK — December 9, if you’re into dates. The other two dates (December 10 and 11) are curated by Battles and Caribou, respectively, but they didn’t book Hot Snakes, so who cares? Many people do, but for the purposes of this story, they do not.
As exciting as this news is, many people (like me!) don’t live in the UK, so they cannot fully enjoy this Hot Snakes reunion. Good news for those people: the band is also planning some other shows, albeit ones without exact dates or locations. But the following, excerpted from a note written by guitarist John Reis, holds clues: “we are talking about maybe doin a couple more shows before hand. not sure where but not west coast. we will be hangin on the east coast so most likely out there or in europe.i will letchu know.” So, maybe on the East Coast, maybe in Europe, definitely not on the West Coast. Please do letchus know, John.
Reis also expresses uncertainty as to who will be playing drums for these shows. Original drummer Mario Rubalcaba is presumably busy playing with OFF! and hanging out with that young punk rock hotshot Keith Morris. For a replacement, I suggest the giant soccer ball from the Audit in Progress cover. That dude looks like he could destroy the skins.
Oh hey, Lessie… I mean, Ms. Feist, how’s it going? Good? How are your cats? Come to think, where have you been? I know you’ve been busy and all that with Beck and Jamie (and sorry for wearing my “JIM” shirt today, it’s all I had that was clean), and you had your attempt at “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” called Look At What the Light Did Now. And you said “hello” to your old friends at Broken Social Scene last year (by the way, could you please tell Kevin to just let Lisa Lobsinger sing your part in “Almost Crimes” live? The lady he put in your place is an utter travesty on the ears).
But seriously, where have you been? Four years is a long time between albums, especially when said album (and accompanying iTunes ad) propelled you from suave Toronto scenester and BSS FWB with a voice far more alluring than Cat Power (sorry, Chan) to a folk-pop superstar that kicked KT Tunstall to the curb. No offense, but you lose momentum and interest to a lot of people after a while if you stop providing, you know, actual output. And people’s tastes change. I mean, look at me: you know I’ve been swooning over you since I first saw you play in support of BSS at the Avalon Ballroom back in 2005, but even that had to change, and now I’m fawning over Raphaelle Standell-Preston of BRAIDS. Sorry… hey, don’t mock me, I don’t just have a thing for Canadian chanteuses! Neko Case is an American!
…Anyway, any new developments, Ms. Feist? A new album, you say? Called Metals? Huh. Did you collaborate with Boris, per chance, seeing how they’re everywhere lately? No? That’s a shame. That is the most ridiculous collaboration idea ever, I will admit, but I’m sure the result will not only be incredibly super-awesome, but would likely top every damn critics’ list in the echo chamber at the end of the year. Maybe even the decade. Imagine that: the greatest album of the 2010s by a Canadian chanteuse and a Japanese metal band. What a strange thing.
This is not to say your new album will suck. I’m sure it will be great. You still working with Chilly and Mocky? Cool, that’s very promising. Wait, you brought in Valgeir Sigurðsson? Didn’t he do Medúlla and Vespertine? Bold may be an understated word for calling in one of the main producers for Björk after she went off the artsy-fartsy deep end (hey now, it’s just I loved her when she was in The Sugarcubes, she was cheeky then). Suddenly, the Boris collaboration idea makes even more sense. That should be your next project. I swear, you’ll be a darling of the critics and hipsters of both sexes will come in their pants (and deny it like they did with the Roots-Dirty Projectors and Flaming Lips-Neon Indian collabs).
Anyway, where’d you record? …Big Sur? I’ve been out here for how long and you didn’t tell me? Man, I would have given back your guitar instead of sold it for a synth pad six months ago if I’d known you were around. Ah well, when can I hear this? October 4 on Arts & Crafts? Good. And you’re teasing it at your website? Good, though I’m sure I’ll get a promo copy somehow from you beforehand.
Dan Peek, co-founder of the folk rock band America, has died at the age of 60. According to his wife, Peek died in his sleep at their home in Farmington, Missouri. The specific cause of death is not yet known.
Peek, a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, formed America in the late Sixties with along with Dewey Bunnell and Gerry Beckley, who he had met at a high school in London, where their fathers were stationed with the United States Air Force. The band’s first album, America, yielded the Number One hit “A Horse with No Name,” which led to a Grammy for best new act later that year.
Take heart, fans of Canadian indie rockers Metric! You may not have a new full-length from Emily Haines and her gang of not-so-merry men this year, but with the forthcoming release of Fantasies Flashbacks on October 11, you’ll get some new, remixed versions of your faves, plus the chance to contribute to a good cause. Because, while you’re enjoying disco/industrial salsa/what-have-you remixes of tracks from 2009’s Fantasies album, the proceeds from your purchase will be donated ENTIRELY to Toronto’s Center for Addiction and Mental Health.
So that’s pretty cool, right? Not only do you get a chance to hear some fresh, new-ish tunes, you’re also helping out a top-notch health organization. But WAIT, there’s more. These remixes weren’t created by just anybody; they were dreamed up and remade exclusively by fans. See, last year, Metric took their tracks to the people involved with the Indaba online musician community, and a wildly successful crowd-sourced remix contest was born. These are the crème de la crème of the thousands of submissions. And not only is this album more utilitarian than a Slap Chop™, it also comes in more formats.
The package will include 10 7-inch singles, each of which contains an original song from Fantasies, plus the corresponding remix track from Fantasies Flashbacks. There’s also a PlayButton digital music player with the remixed tracks, a digital download code with the Flashbacks remixes, originals, and even MORE remixes, color inserts featuring fan-generated artwork and info about the remix album, a fancy limited edition poster, and a BOX to put your VINYL BOX SET in. If fans order from Metric’s official website, they’ll also get a 15% discount. Metric: the band that keeps giving.
