The Jesus Lizard Are Coming! The Jesus Lizard Are Coming! And They Have Reissues!

By Liz Louche on

Another day, another reunion story. But this one's sliiightly -- just slightly -- different. Mostly because it's about a band that people can't accuse of cashing in on the 30th anniversary of punk (they weren't around), or because there's not a reality show about finding love with one of the members (it probably wouldn't capture the Paris Hilton's My New BFF demographic), or whatever else people blame these reunion things on. That band is The Jesus Lizard.

They haven't played a show in 10 years, but next spring they will magically reunite in the oh-so-charming coastal town of Minehead, England for the famed All Tomorrow's Parties festival.

- The date: May 9-10, 2009.
- The players: David Yow, Duane Denison, David Wm. Sims, and Mac McNeilly.
- The other band you can see, if you either (a) live within traveling distance or (b) are a Jesus Lizard superfan who will do ANYTHING to see David Yow sing something off of Goat for one possible last time: Sleep, Devo, Spiritualized, Young Marble Giants, The Cave Singers, Antipop Consortium, and Sleepy Sun.
- The mystery: this is the Fans Strike Back version of ATP, in which attendees vote for the bands they want to see play -- since the votes have not yet been tabulated, not every artist has been announced.
- My vote: Al Franken!!!

In addition to the ATP festivities, Touch and Go will also reissue and remaster several Jesus Lizard albums, including Liar, Head, Goat, and Down, with the expanded packaging and fancy liner notes we reissue collectors have come to know and love. Release dates are set for sometime in May 2009, and Drowned in Sound is reporting that Bob Weston of Shellac will be the man behind the remastering with Mr. Steve Albini himself "sitting in."

Fortunately, if you're broke like me and can't envision yourself getting any closer to this totally bitchin' reunion than maybe possibly saving up for a reissued LP, there is good news. The Jesus Lizard are playing a super-limited, super-secret series of shows (well, "secret" in a they-haven't-revealed-them-yet way) in the months after ATP, concluding with a final final show in the infinitely-closer-than-Minehead city of Chicago next November.

Constantines Play North America Again, White Fans Welcome Them With Apple Pie, Baseball, and Parochialism

By Mango Starr on 11-26-2008

After Constantines' first visit to Meh-hee-ko (which we didn't report because we have no confirmed Mexican readers), the band is presumably rushing back to North America to play to whiter audiences.

"I can't wait for their return!" exclaims a pale-skinned TMT reader. "Their music says a lot about my race and the complex history from which I was born into."

The band starts up the tour tomorrow in Waterloo, supporting its latest full-length, Kensington Heights (TMT Review), perhaps one of the "whitest" permutations of rock released since Eric Clapton's The Road to Escondido. Their most recent evidence of whiteness can be heard on the B-side of Constantines' third 7-inch single, "Our Age": a cover of Neil Young's "Fuckin' Up."

^ Obits

HRSTA Are Going on Tour, But Does My Friend Know Who They Are?

By Mango Starr on 11-26-2008

Hey, have you heard of HRSTA?

No, what is that?

Nevermind.

Huh?

I was going to write a news story about HRSTA, and I wanted to see how many people actually know them.

Well, who are they?

They're a band on Constellation. They released an album called Ghosts Will Come And Kiss Our Eyes (TMT Review).

Oh, I know HRSTA!! Mike Moya, Brooke Crouser, Harris Newman, and Eric Craven, right? They released that album last year, and it was recorded and mixed at The Pines in Montreal by David Bryant. If memory serves me, Newman mastered it at Montreal's Greymarket. Right?

Oh shut up.

M83 To Open For The Killers; No, Seriously!

By Annapocalypse on 11-26-2008

Although the touring combination of M83 and The Killers may seem a bit odd to fans of Anthony Gonzalez’s atmospheric soundscapes (maybe not so much to fans of The Killers’ ’80s rip-offs), the two bands actually have more in common than you think. For example:

- Both bands have charted on Billboard, with M83’s latest album, Saturdays =Youth (TMT Review), debuting at #1 on the Top New Artist Heatseekers Chart and The Killers charting on, uh, every Billboard chart in existence basically.

- Saturdays = Youth is also the #1 record of 2008 at Urban Outfitters (since when do they have the authority to rank albums?), and I’d venture to guess that most fans of The Killers have a few overpriced “vintage” tees and cardigans from the clothing chain.

- Rolling Stone said in their review for Saturdays = Youth that it is full of “70mm songs for John Hughes movies yet to be filmed," and (what a coincidence!) most Killers fans weren’t even in the womb yet when Uncle Buck was in theaters.

If you really want to see M83 live but don’t want to deal with the "angst" of a Killers crowd, maybe the common ground between the two bands will make you feel a bit better. Or maybe you should just wait until M83 tour by themselves again.

Lykke Li Set to Tour North America; Swedish Crayfish Industry Hoping to Benefit from Tangential Effects of Upcoming “Swedish Invasion”

By Liz Louche on 11-26-2008

Ah, Sweden. You good Scandinavian people just keep cranking out the classics. Whether your tastes in the arts run more towards the Runestone (it makes a reference to Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great! OMG!) or towards breathy female pop vocalists, Sweden has something for everything. And it has recently been revealed that Lykke Li, one of this beautiful northern nation's finest indie exports, will be embarking on a North American tour this winter in support of her debut full-length Youth Novels (TMT Review). This is great news, not only because "Little Bit" and "I'm Good, I'm Gone" are stone-cold killer jams, but also because this tour is largely above the Mason-Dixon line, and for those of us living in the wintry Midwest, any artist who goes on tours in February is basically considered some sort of entertainment-bringing demigod who must be revered and celebrated for breaking up our frost-bitten, boring, sozzled monotony.

So, cheers to you, Lykke Li, and your cold-enduring, Walpurgis Night-celebrating compatriots for bringing a little joy into the freezing desolation of middle America. And thank you for this wonderful opportunity to look up your homeland on Wikipedia in order to scrape up even the slightest of content for this story. Without your upcoming tour, I never would've learned about the delightful (and gross) summer tradition of kräftskivor or crayfish dinner parties. Tasty!

RIP: MC Breed, Michigan-Based Rapper

By Shane Mack on 11-26-2008

From YouTube:

From Vibe:

Rapper MC Breed, who became famous for his sing-along collaboration with Tupac, “Gotta Get Mine” and "Ain't No Future in Yo' Frontin,’” has died today [November 22]. He was 36.

Born Eric Breed, the Flint, Michigan rapper was found dead at a friend’s house in Ypsilanti Michigan, the Detroit News reports. His manager, Darryl Morris, confirmed his death, but the exact cause is still pending.

In September, Breed collapsed while playing basketball in his stomping ground of Atlanta, and was placed on life support for kidney failure. Friends got together to throw a benefit concert to raise money for his medical bills, but cancelled plans after his health bounced back.

Never fully reaching mainstream status, Breed rhymed proudly about the desolate town of Flint, an urban area usually masked under the wide belly of Detroit. His hit 1991 song, "Ain't No Future in Yo' Frontin'” sampled Zapp's "More Bounce to the Ounce" and the Ohio Players' "Funky Worm.” On “Gotta Get Mine” off his 1993 album The New Breed, he hooked up with a young, thirsty Tupac, and spit the famous line, “They hate to see a young nigga, come up.”

Breed’s career spans 20-years, and 13 albums.

- MC Breed MySpace
- MC Breed Wikipedia entry

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