Van Dyke Parks and ESG headline Next to Last Festival
By Kid Midnight on Sep 14 2010
This October, during the weekend of the 27 - 31, the third annual Next to Last Festival will take place, which is a “left-of-center” music and arts festival based in the quaint village of Athens, Georgia. The festival heads have also announced that this year’s headliners will be Van Dyke Parks (best known as co-writer and co-composer of SMiLE with Brian Wilson, but should also be known for this awesome album and this awesome Twin Peaks appearance) and New York’s own ESG (who helped usher in hip-hop in the 1980s). Both acts were selected because they “represent the dynamic
and mutated platform of artistic discovery offered by the festival.” The only problem is that neither headliner is actually mutated… but that could change after five days in the Athens sun!
The festival will also include more than 70 other musicians playing at six venues across the city, as well as tons of people (around 10,000) expected to show up and make the rest of Georgia ask, “who are all these strange people?” Other artists already scheduled to play include: Adrian Orange, Avocado Happy Hour, Bird Names, bubbly mommy gun, Bunny Brains, Circle Pit, Creepy, Deaf Judges, Diane Cluck, DJ Dog Dick, Dope Body, The Dream Scene, Future Ape Tapes, How I Quit Crack, Hume, Lord Scrummage, Malaikat Dan Singa, The Missoula Oblongata, Mouser, Noot d’ Noot, Quiet Hooves, Reptar, Skeletons, Summer Hymns, Tunabunny, Weekends, and Witches.
In addition to the music, festival-goers can revel in other fun stuff like film screenings, late-night warehouse parties, haunted spaces, bondage, peach-picking, BBQs, leopard hunting, ice-floe riding, gallivanting, drive-by body piercings, and plenty more! A professional crew is also documenting the entire event on tape and film for an eventual release in the Next to Last Songs compilation series, so make sure to put on your pretty face!
Tickets are available now! Buy them!
• Next to Last: http://www.nexttolastfest.com/2010
Universal makes it rain with $840k lobbying budget this quarter
By Liz Louche on Sep 14 2010
Ahhh, money. Sometimes you just wanna roll around in it and do nose drugs, and sometimes you wanna throw it at the government and lobby them to get things done. During the second quarter, Universal Music Group was all, like, “Heeeey, here’s $840,ooo, lobbyist friends. We gotta get working on this proposal to get artists and labels PAID when traditional radio stations play their songs. Royalties, yo! Also, let’s crack down more on music piracy.” It’s true, that’s exactly how they put it. Because the person in charge of lobbying is a skateboarding lizard with a backwards neon baseball cap who says things like “Zow!” and “Royalties, yo!” Universal spent $700,000 in lobbying scrilla during the same period last year.
• Universal Music Group: http://new.umusic.com
Hoofdriver: wrestling move or Busdriver ‘n’ Deerhoof collaborative 7-inch?
By E. Nagurney on Sep 14 2010
Game over, bands! If you named your 7-inch anything other than Hoofdriver, you officially DO NOT have the best-named 7-inch this year. Sorry, better luck next time. Maybe you can name your next 7-inch something like “Antlersmasher” or “Cometnailer” and win in 2011.
All great names have a genesis, and here’s the one for Hoofdriver: a collaboration of sorts between L.A. MC Busdriver (a.k.a. Regan Farquhar) and San Francisco art-rockers Deerhoof, put out by the esteemed Polyvinyl Record Co. On the single’s A-side is Busdriver singing over a Deerhoof instrumental, while the B-side features a track from Busdriver’s Physical Forms project, a group that features members of The Mae Shi. The record will be available on yellow vinyl (with an MP3 code) and is limited to a supply of 1000 copies, so get with it and jump at this opportunity to own such an exquisitely titled single.
Hoofdriver may not end up the only “Deerhoof + SOMEBODY ELSE” 7-inch out there, though. As it turns out, it may simply be the first in a possible series of Deerhoof 7-inches that feature guest vocalists singing their own lyrics over original Deerhoof instrumentals. I’m excited, but it’s admittedly halfway due to the treasure trove of awesome names this could open. Deer Age! Hoof Parade! Lightning Hoof! Deer, um, Hunter?
• Busdriver: http://www.myspace.com/busdriver
• Deerhoof: http://www.myspace.com/deerhoof
• Polyvinyl: http://www.polyvinylrecords.com
[Photo: Adrigu]
Ghosts and graffiti and mutants, oh my! Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti and Os Mutantes terrorize US cities together this fall
By Nobodaddy on Sep 13 2010
Remember when I ranted this past summer about Ariel Pink and Wayne Coyne duking it out for King of Weird while their goofy-ass bands were on tour together?
Well, apparently the recently resurrected Brazillian tropical psych outfit Os Mutantes caught wind of that story and were having none of it. So offended were they at being left out of the weirdness conversation that they dropped whatever weird stuff they were doing and scheduled a joint tour with Ariel Pink a scant one month after the Lips/Graffiti thing is wrapped up. Expect bearded ladies and sword swallowers and toad-licking galore on this one, kids. Not to mention lots and lots and lots of resort-wear.
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti’s 4AD debut, Before Today (TMT Review), was released back in June. Os Mutantes also have a recent-enough record to promote (last year’s Haih or Amortecedor, on ANTI-), but I’m pretty sure they are just touring in support of McDonald’s Happy Meals instead.
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti complete fall tourdates:
09.14.10 - Lubbock, TX - Foundation Room
09.15.10 - Norman, OK - Opolis
09.16.10 - Lawrence, KS - Jackpot
09.17.10 - St. Louis, MO - Pageant *
09.18.10 - Columbia, MO - Blue Note *
09.19.10 - St. Paul, MN - Roy Wilkins Auditorium *
09.20.10 - Fargo, ND - Aquarium
09.21.10 - Winnipeg, MAN - Burton Coummings *
09.23.10 - Calgary, ALB - University of Calgary *
09.24.10 - Edmonton, ALB - Events Center *
09.25.10 - Victoria, BC - Rifflandia Festival
09.26.10 - Vancouver, BC - Malkin Bowl *
09.27.10 - Seattle, WA - Paramount Theater *
09.29.10 - Eugene, OR - McDonald Theater *
10.01.10 - Oakland, CA - Fox Theater *
11.05.10 - Dallas, TX - Showroom #
11.06.10 - Austin, TX - Fun Fun Fun Fest #
11.07.10 - Houston, TX - Fitzgeralds #
11.08.10 - New Orleans, LA - One Eyed Jack #
11.09.10 - Atlanta, GA - Variety #
11.10.10 - Chapel Hill, NC - Cats’ Cradle #
11.11.10 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club #
11.12.10 - Philadelphia PA - Trocadero #
11.13.10 - New York, NY - Webster Hall #
11.14.10 - Boston, MA - Royale Boston #
11.16.10 - Montreal, PQ - National #
11.17.10 - Toronto, ONT - Opera House #
11.18.10 - Bowling Green, OH - Clazel Theater #
11.19.10 - Chicago, IL - Metro #
11.20.10 - Minneapolis, MN - Cedar Cultural Center #
11.23.10 - Denver, CO - Bluebird #
11.24.10 - Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge #
11.26.10 - Vancouver BC - Vogue #
11.27.10 - Seattle, WA - Neumo’s #
11.28.10 - Portland, OR - Berbati’s #
11.30.10 - San Francisco, CA - Regency #
12.01.10 - Santa Cruz, CA - Rio Theater #
12.02.10 - Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda #
* The Flaming Lips
# Os Mutantes
• Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti: http://myspace.com/arielpink
• 4AD: http://www.4ad.com
• Os Mutantes: http://www.myspace.com/osmutantes
• ANTI-: http://www.anti.com
You turned off the TV, but we know your secret; MTV rated the largest music site in August
By Erika H on Sep 13 2010
There are some complaints that just have to be revived from time to time. One particularly tiresome whine is the one about MTV and how “it doesn’t play music anymore.” Well, get on your angry faces, guys, because guess what? MTV made the cut for most-visited music site this August, at 53 million visitors. Vevo had 49 million, and MySpace Music came in third with 26.4 million. Tiny Mix Tapes, to no one’s surprise, came in fourth, claiming a whopping 22 million (by TMT, I mean AOL Music).
So let the angry rants begin. Since when does streaming Teen Mom qualify as perusing a music site? We all know that Adam Lambert music videos don’t count. But hey. Of all MTV’s problems, it at least provides stupidly entertaining, non-music-related games online (and if you clicked on that link, you just implicated yourself in the problem).
• MTV: http://www.mtv.com
