Pavement "Quarantine the Past" and Declare the 1990s Off-Limits.
As you should know by now, Pavement have scheduled a handful of live dates for the first time since 1999 and, in preparation, are also releasing a 23-track greatest hits compilation. The double CD/LP (and digital!) collection will span the entirety of the band's career, from their 1989 vinyl-only releases up to and including "all the hits" from classic albums like Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and Brighten the Corners. Quarantine the Past, as the album is called, is set to be released March 9 via Matador (try guessing the tracklist!). The comp will totally be one of the albums that you give your kids when they ask "Daddy, what were the '90s like?" Way to go, Dad! When you give a kid a Pavement CD, they're only a couple steps away from Television and Steve Reich. Before you know it, you'll have a hipster for a child!
Pavement 2010 dates announced so far:
03.01.10 - Auckland, New Zealand - Town Hall
03.04.10 - Sydney, Australia - Enmore Theatre
03.05.10 - Sydney, Australia - Enmore Theatre
03.06.10 - Meredith, Australia - Supernatural Amphitheatre (Golden Plains Festival)
03.07.10 - Adelaide, Australia - Thebarton Theatre
03.08.10 - Perth, Australia - Metro City
03.10.10 - Brisbane, Australia - Tivoli
03.12.10 - Melbourne, Australia - Palace Theatre
03.14.10 - Melbourne, Australia - Palace Theatre
04.07.10 - Tokyo, Japan - Studio Coast
04.08.10 - Tokyo, Japan - Studio Coast
04.10.10 - Osaka, Japan - Zepp Osaka
04.12.10 - Nagoya, Japan - Zepp Nagoya
05.04.10 - Dublin, Ireland - Tripod
05.05.10 - Glasgow, Scotland - Barrowland
05.07.10 - Paris, France - Le Zénith
05.08.10 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
05.10.10 - London, England - Brixton Academy
05.11.10 - London, England - Brixton Academy
05.12.10 - London, England - Brixton Academy
05.13.10 - London, England - Brixton Academy
05.15.10 - Minehead, England - All Tomorrow’s Parties
05.18.10 - Brussels, Belgium - Ancienne Belgique
05.19.10 - Berlin, Germany - Astra
05.20.10 - Prague, Czech Republic - Palac Akropolis
05.21.10 - Vienna, Austria - Arena
05.22.10 - Munich, Germany - Muffathalle
05.24.10 - Rome, Italy - Atlantico Live
05.25.10 - Bologna, Italy - Estragon
05.27.10 - Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Festival
05.29.10 - Quincy, Washington - Sasquatch! Festival
07.01.10 - Roskilde, Denmark - Roskilde Festival
08.12.10 - Oslo, Norway - Oyafestival
08.14.10 - Gothenburg, Sweden - Way Out West Festival
09.21.10 - New York, NY - Central Park Summerstage
09.22.10 - New York, NY - Central Park Summerstage
09.23.10 - New York, NY - Central Park Summerstage
09.24.10 - New York, NY - Central Park Summerstageer
RIP: Teddy Pendergrass
From Rolling Stone:
Teddy Pendergrass, one of the most successful R&B singers of the 1970s and ’80s, passed away yesterday after a battle with colon cancer. He was 59. Pendergrass was diagnosed with cancer last year and had a difficult time recovering from surgery; he died at Bryn Mawr Hospital outside of his native Philadelphia, ABC News reports. The five-time Grammy-nominated singer had chart-topping hits in three different decades with 1978’s “Close the Door,” 1988’s “Joy” and 1991’s “It Should’ve Been You,” plus well-known songs like “Love TKO,” “Two Hearts” with Stephanie Mills and “Hold Me,” a duet with Whitney Houston that featured on Houston’s 1985 debut album.
• Teddy Pendergrass: http://teddypendergrass.com
• Teddy Pendergrass (Wiki): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Pendergrass
U.K. Approves Ticketmaster/Live Nation Merger; U.S. to Decide in Early 2010
Just before Christmas, the U.K.’s Competition Commission announced that they had approved the proposed merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation. At the time, Tiny Mix Tapes was too busy fawning over our 2009 year-end feature to have bothered noticing. The decision by the Competition Commission was a surprise, since back in October they had made a preliminary ruling against the deal. They now say that if the deal was blocked it would harm “German ticketing firm CTS Eventim, which signed a deal with Live Nation to expand into the UK in 2007.”
Industry watchers (who are these people?) now wait with bated breath to see how America’s Department of Justice will rule on the deal. Their decision is due early this year. However, “of the 1,726 mergers reported in 2008... the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division challenged only 16.”
Concern has been raised about the merger since Ticketmaster is the world’s largest ticket vendor and Live Nation is the world’s largest concert promoter. Visions of an out-of-control corporate empire abound with Ken Solky, President of the National Association of Ticket Brokers, saying the merger would create a behemoth that “could control every part of a live concert, from artist management and promotion to venue management, merchandise sales, and ticket sales and resales.” The two companies see the deal as “creating a new kind of live entertainment business,” according to Chris Edmonds, managing director of Ticketmaster U.K.
RIP: Jay Reatard
From Goner:
It is with great sadness that we report the passing of our good friend Jay Reatard. Jay died in his sleep last night. We will pass along information about funeral arrangements when they are made public.
Memphis musician Jay Lindsey, better known as Jay Reatard, was found dead in his Midtown home this morning, according to family and friends.
Memphis police have opened a death investigation, spokesman Jennifer Robinson said. Lindsey was found around 3:30 a.m. in his bed, Robinson said.
"Yeah, it’s true," friend Alicia Trout said. "I don’t know much about it yet, because I haven’t been able to get in touch with the police."
Added Eric Friedl of Goner Records: "Yeah. He was found at his house. That’s all I know right now."
• Jay Reatard official website: http://www.jayreatard.com
• Jay Reatard MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/jayreatard
WELCOME TO TMT: 2010! (Updated)
UPDATE: Sorry for the kinks, everyone. We're trying to iron out the problem as quickly as possible!
Welcome to the new Tiny Mix Tapes! New decade, new design, new everything! Well, that's not entirely true. We'll still be posting the same good ol' news, reviews, features, film reviews, and mix tapes. But in addition to our sexy new wardrobe, we're implementing several changes for 2010 that we're really excited about.
First off, we're converting the DeLorean from an old-albums review section to a more dynamic blog, allowing us the freedom to post more frequently and to cover more than just albums. Second, we're expanding the Chocolate Grinder, our multimedia section. In addition to having streamable/downloadable mixes, we've added a sub-section to post audio and video, news-style. Finally, we have Shrimp Scampi. While it used to ambiguously refer to the weirder stories in our news section, it'll now itself be comprised of three sections: (1) TMT Comics, (2) TMT Debates, and (3) Mix Tapes. Comics and Mix Tapes are in full gear already, and we'll soon debut TMT Debates, where we hope to have Important music/film/culture discussions with you, the reader! (Haven't you noticed how some of the most intriguing cultural discussions happen on message boards and comment sections?)
Of course, every major design change also comes with a bittersweet goodbye. But while we loved our giant-sized pulp-y look, we had to blow it up to make room for all the new sections. Plus, you can now flip through our archives easily, the search actually works, and soon artist names (and your favorite irreverent TMTer) will be clickable!
Anyway, we hope you love the new TMT as much as we do. We'll be fine-tuning things over the next several weeks, so email us (feedback@tinymixtapes.com) and let us know what you think.
Thanks for reading!
RIP: Willie Mitchell
From The New York Times:
Willie Mitchell, who shaped the elegant yet gritty sound of Al Green, Ann Peebles and other stars of soul music as the house producer at Hi Records in the 1960s and ’70s, died Tuesday in Memphis, where he lived. He was 81. The cause was cardiac arrest, his son Lawrence said.
RIP: Lhasa de Sela
From Lhasa de Sela's official website:
The singer Lhasa de Sela passed away in her Montreal home on the night of January 1st 2010, just before midnight.
She succumbed to breast cancer after a twenty-one month long struggle, which she faced with courage and determination.
Throughout this difficult period, she continued to touch the lives of those around her with her characteristic grace, beauty and humor. The strength of her will carried her once again into the recording studio, where she completed her latest album, followed by successful record launches in Montreal at the Théatre Corona and in Paris at the Théatre des Bouffes du Nord. Two concerts in Iceland in May were to be her last.
She was forced to cancel a long international tour scheduled for autumn 2009. A projected album of the songs of Victor Jara and Violeta Parra would also remain unrealized.
Lhasa de Sela was born on September 27, 1972, in Big Indian, New York.
• Lhasa de Sela: http://lhasadesela.com
RIP: Rowland S. Howard, Birthday Party Guitarist
From Billboard:
Rowland S. Howard, an important figure in Australia’s underground rock scene who played guitar for the Boys Next Door and the Birthday Party, has lost his battle with liver cancer. He passed away this morning (Dec. 30) at the age of 50.
Howard is best remembered for his distinctive distorted guitar sounds and audio feedback, and for the alternative hit “Shivers” which he penned for the Boys Next Door, a Melbourne punk/goth band which he had formed in 1973 with Nick Cave.
RIP: Vic Chesnutt
• Vic Chesnutt: http://vicchesnutt.com/home
• Constellation Records: http://cstrecords.com
• Donations: http://kristinhersh.cashmusic.org/vic
Torrent Provider Mininova Loses Court Battle, Deletes All Copyright Infringing Torrents
The idea of a "legal" torrent website sounds ridiculous. There, I said it. I mean, WHAT would be the point. Forcing a torrent website to go legal is a teeny little stab at the internet and all of its bounty, but let's face it: tackling one downloading service is like a particuarly hellish game of Whack-a-Mole. Or like plucking gray hairs. Or... you get the idea. But yes, you heard it right here: Dutch torrent provider Mininova has removed all of its torrents save for the few that had been uploaded through its content distribution service, making them officially a legal service.
Mininova's drastic decision resulted in their legal battle with Dutch anti-piracy program BREIN, who needless to say, won. Up until this point, Mininova was the web's largest torrent website, but in court BREIN made it more than clear that they wanted Mininova to start filtering their torrents to protect artists' copyrighted material. After the case went to court in June, the judge ruled in BREIN's favor, stating that the owners of Mininova were not themselves guilty of copyright infringement, but that they should remove torrents containing copyrighted material within three months or be fined five million Euros.
But like Wilco's digital strategist Ken Waagner says in Greg Kot's book Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music, "The record industry suing file sharers is like the railroad industry trying to shoot down airplanes." And I think it's time for a resounding chorus of "enough said."
Sic Alps Do Double Time: Tour with Magik Markers and Then Tour with Sonic Youth
Sic Alps have been a pretty busy band these last couple years, releasing a double-LP comp on Drag City, a 7-inch on Slumberland, an LP on Siltbreeze, and 7-inches on Woodsist and Important. The prolificacy doesn't end with the physical releases, as they've been touring the U.S. and Europe constantly. So is it in any way doubtful that they are doing two tours in the next two months? No way!! West Coast only though, so yeah, too bad for us Midwesterners, East Coasters, and Southerners (and the rest of the world). Even worse for all of us non-West Coasters is the fact that they'll be hitting the road with none other than the Magik Markers and Sonic Youth.
Starting on December 9, the Alps and the Markers will destroy San Jose and then work their way north until they get to Olympia, WA on December 19. Then, in the year 2010, a.k.a. next year, they will hit the road with Sonic Youth, starting on January 4 in Tucson, AZ and ending things off in San Francisco on January 10. In fact, San Fran and LA will be getting a double dose of Sic Alps since they will be hitting them up on both tours, adding insult to injury.
Sic Alps and Magik Markers tour:
12.09.09 - San Jose, CA - The Blank Club
12.10.09 - Santa Cruz, CA - The Crepe Place
12.11.09 - Los Angeles, CA - The Smell *
12.12.09 - Oakland, CA - The Continental Club $
12.13.09 - San Francisco, CA - The Hemlock
12.15.09 - Sacramento, CA - The Hub
12.16.09 - Portland, OR - Eagles Lounge ^
12.17.09 - Seattle, WA - Chop Suey
12.18.09 - Vancouver, BC - Rickshaw Theatre ~
12.19.09 - Olympia, WA - Northern
* Foot Village
$ Gowns
^ Eat Skull
~ Shearing Pinx
Sic Alps and Sonic Youth:
01.04.10 - Tucson, AZ - The Rialto Theatre
01.05.10 - Phoenix, AZ - The Marquee Theatre
01.07.10 - San Diego, CA - The House of Blues
01.08.10 - Pomona, CA - The Fox Theatre
01.09.10 - Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern
01.10.10 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
