See, young bands? The Raincoats know what’s up. They know that the secret to rock ‘n’ roll is hanging back and being cool. Never mind whatever bullshit Arcade Fire or whoever is telling you. All you gotta do is put out a nice little run of unassuming records, lay low for a while, wait for your body of work to pass into ye old Canon of Remember-That-One-Time-When? And boom. Don’t stress about the “timelessness” or lame-o stuff like “purity of vision” or “appeal.” Naw. Just… try not to keel over dead or hate one another during the intervening years.
Take the recently reissued Odyshape, released just last fall on The Raincoats’ own label, We ThRee. The thing was originally released on Rough Trade back in 1981, but it wasn’t the biggest deal in the world. But did the band wig out and rethink everything? Nope. Loosey goosey. They released a few more records, played some shows, talked on the phone with Kurt Cobain a few times, saw Kim Gordon at church some Sundays, and basically barbecued a lot until they got tapped for Matt Groening’s ATP in 2010 and freakin’ Jeff Mangum’s ATP in 2012. Speaking of “some shows,” they’re also playing some shows this March. And when I say “some shows,” I don’t mean like 90 shows in 65 cities in 82 days. I mean, like 4 or 5 shows jaunting up the West Coast of the US in the beautiful springtime. Ahhhh. Now that’s the way to win at rock ‘n’ roll, kids.
Tourdates:
03.09-11.12 - Minehead, UK - ATP
03.11.12 - Denton, Texas - 35 Denton
03.13.12 - Los Angeles, CA - Echoplex
03.14.12 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
03.16.12 - Seattle, WA - Chop Suey
03.17.12 - Portland, OR - Star Theater
• The Raincoats: http://www.theraincoats.net
• The Executive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raincoats_%28Seinfeld%29
