Small Black reveal details of debut album, New Chain
By Annapocalypse on 08-23-2010
In sticking with their ability to handpick the most boring words possible, Small Black have decided to name their debut album something as equally boring. New Chain is due October 26 via Jagjaguwar, but I’m guessing the album will likely be a lot more awesome than its name lets on. According to their publicist: “Small Black succeeded in melting together locked and popped drum-shudder, gauzy spirographic synths, and subtly contagious, half-remembered melody into ebullient bursts of evocative, subliminal, and thoroughly modern pop.”
New Chain was recorded in suburban Delaware, away from Small Black’s home in Brooklyn, NY. Speaking of Brooklyn, the band’s only tour date right now is at the Monster Island Basement in Brooklyn on September 17.
New Chain tracklisting:
01. Camouflage
02. Search Party
03. Hydra
04. Photojournalist
05. Crisp 100s
06. Goons
07. Light Curse
08. New Chain
09. Panthers
10. Invisible Grid
• Small Black: http://myspace.com/smallblacksounds
• Jagjaguwar: http://www.jagjaguwar.com
Caribou promises riot-inducing live shows on fall tour
By Annapocalypse on 08-23-2010
The last time I saw Caribou live was earlier this summer at Millennium Park in Chicago. Dan Snaith and company put on a free show in the park and also incited a near-riot, as hundreds of fans danced their way to the front and proceeded to then jump on-stage, much to the annoyance of security. Not too many other bands can play a show on a Monday evening and get the crowd to pretend it’s a Saturday night. Hopefully Caribou will bring that same amount of energy to their upcoming North American fall tour when they tour in support of their recently released new album on Merge, Swim (TMT Review).
09.14.10 - Guelph, ON - Ebar ^
09.15.10 - Ottawa, ON - Babylon ^
09.16.10 - Montreal, QC - National ^
09.17.10 - Toronto, ON - Phoenix ^
09.18.10 - London, ON - Lolafest @ Victorias Park
09.19.10 - Boston, MA - Paradise*
09.22.10 - New York, NY - Webster Hall *
09.23.10 - Washington, DC - Black Cat *
09.24.10 - Cincinnati, OH - Midpoint Music Festival
09.25.10 - Champaign, IL - Pygmalion Music Festival
09.26.10 - Chicago, IL - Metro*
09.27.10 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue *
09.28.10 - Winnipeg, MB - West End Cultural Center*
09.29.10 - Saskatoon, SK - Amigos *
09.30.10 - Edmonton, AB - Starlite *
10.01.10 - Calgary, AB - Republik *
10.03.10 - Vancouver, BC - Vogue *
10.04.10 - Seattle, WA - Showbox *
10.05.10 - Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom *
10.06.10 - San Francisco, CA - Regency *
10.07.10 - Los Angeles, CA - Dance Right @ La Cita
10.08.10 - Los Angeles, CA - Music Box*
10.09.10 - Tempe, AZ - The Clubhouse
10.11.10 - Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
10.12.10 - Boulder, CO - Fox Theatre *
10.14.10 - Austin, TX - La Zona Rosa
10.15.10 - Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon
10.16.10 - Tallahassee, FL - Engine Room
10.17.10 - Tampa, FL - Crowbar
10.18.10 - Orlando, FL - Backbooth
10.19.10 - Miami, FL - Grand Central
10.21.10 - Guanajuanto, Mexico - Mutek/Cervantino Festival
10.23.10 - Santiago, Chile - Festival Fauna Primavera
10.27.10 - Sao Paulo, BR - Clash Club
10.28.10 - Bogota, Colombia - Downtown
10.30.10 - Asheville, NC - Moog Festival
10.31.10 - Chapel Hill, NC - Cat’s Cradle *
^ Russian Futurists
* Emeralds
• Caribou: http://www.caribou.fm
• Merge: http://www.mergerecords.com
[Photo: Matea Jocic]
Atmosphere announce tour as a long-winded excuse to keep reminding everyone that Minnesota is cool
By Kid Midnight on 08-23-2010
Hello, fellow Americans and other people! Did you know that Minnesota is the best state in the Union? Yep, that’s right! It’s got great lakes, a world-class baseball team, a giant mall, Viking heritage, and the best pizza ever. What a great place to raise a family and/or start a business. The bad thing is, though, Minnesotans are so modest that they just can’t make themselves brag.
That’s where braggadocious MC Slug of Minnesota’s own Atmosphere comes into play. See, he LOOOOVES Minnesota, and he knows that you will too, so he’s totally heading out on tour with best friend and DJ Ant (as well as labelmates Blueprint, Grieves & Budo, and DJ Rare Groove) on a 23-day tour of the entirety of the US. Atmosphere’s last album was 2008’s When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold (TMT Review) on Rhymesayers.
If you’re desperate to find out all 50 items on Slug’s “Fifty Things I Love About Minnesota” list that he’ll be slowly revealing throughout the tour, you’re in luck, because I happened to find out a few of them:
27: The Wienery
32: Great blowjobs
37: The fact that Minnesota is the best
44: Kirby Puckett’s 1991 season
49: Minneapolis is ranked No. 1 on America’s Most Literate Cities list, compiled by the University of Wisconsin in 2003
Atmosphere “To All My Friends” tourdates:
09.08.10 - Madison, WI - Orpheum Theatre
09.09.10 - Milwaukee, WI - Riverside Theater
09.10.10 - Indianapolis, IN - The Vogue Theatre (with Mudkids) *
09.11.10 - Covington, KY - Madison Theater
09.12.10 - Grand Rapids, MI - Intersection
09.15.10 - Bozeman, MT - Gallatin County Fairgrounds
09.16.10 - Missoula, MT - Wilma Theater
09.17.10 - Missoula, MT - Wilma Theater
09.18.10 - Spokane, WA - Knitting Factory
09.20.10 - Boise, ID - Knitting Factory
09.21.10 - Bend, OR - Midtown Ballroom
09.22.10 - Eugene, OR - McDonald Theater
09.24.10 - Chico, CA - Senator Theatre
09.25.10 - Reno, NV - Knitting Factory
09.27.10 - Arcata, CA - Arcata Community Center
09.28.10 - Sacramento, CA - Sacramento State Union Ballroom
09.29.10 - Santa Cruz, CA - Catalyst
10.01.10 - Las Vegas, NV - House of Blues
10.02.10 - Salt Lake City, UT - In The Venue
10.04.10 - Rapid City, SD - Dublin Square
10.05.10 - Sioux Falls, SD - Sioux Empire Expo Building
10.06.10 - Des Moines, IA - People’s Court
10.07.10 - Chicago, IL - Congress Theater
* Grieves & Budo not performing
• Atmosphere: http://www.myspace.com/atmosphere
• Rhymesayers: http://www.rhymesayers.com
Weezer plot Blue Album and Pinkerton tour, “if there’s sufficient interest in the markets”
By Annapocalypse on 08-23-2010
It’s difficult to pinpoint when exactly Weezer starting, uh, going off the deep end. While some harsher critics may pan the entire past decade of their career, I’ll give the Weezer dudes the benefit of the doubt and say once Make Believe came out in 2005, it was pretty much all downhill from there. Luckily, Weezer are aware of this, and in an effort to make you forget about their newly announced eighth album Hurley (and its unfortunate cover art) or their collaboration with Kenny G last year, they have announced plans to do a two-night tour in major cities, with one night dedicated to the self-titled “Blue Album” and the second night dedicated to Pinkerton. Straight from Rivers Cuomo himself (via MTV):
We have this really exciting idea to do a tour where we spend two nights in each city, and the first night, we play the entire Blue album, and the second night, we play the entirety of Pinkerton. We’re just running it by promoters right now to see if there’s sufficient interest in the markets to do something like that, and if they’re on board, it’s gonna happen.
• Weezer: http://www.weezer.com
Man takes own life at a Swell Season show
By Erika H on 08-23-2010
There are worst-case scenarios, and then there are worst-case scenarios. Tragically, this falls in the latter. Thursday night, Michael Edward Pickels, 32, attended a Swell Season concert in Saratoga, CA and jumped to his death from the roof above the stage.
There is little that can be done to temper news like this, and posts from SF Weekly make the story more upsetting by the minute: Pickels went to the outside show at the Mountain Winery with a friend, leaving him shortly before climbing to the roof. He subsequently dropped soundlessly onto a speaker, a mere yard away from singer/guitarist Glen Hansard. Pickels was facing criminal charges, and was out on a hefty bail at the time of his death.
The Swell Season posted this statement on their Facebook page: “The band, crew and all involved with them are shocked and saddened by the death that occurred at last night’s show. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the deceased, his family and friends.”
For more details, read the updates here. As far as we know, The Swell Season will play their remaining August tourdates as planned.
• The Swell Season: http://www.theswellseason.com
