A band changing their name is no new thing. Ever since the The Bitch Ass Pussy Tits changed their name to The Eagles, many other smooth jazz-oriented bands followed suit. For over a decade, couple-band Neil Hagerty and Jenifer Herrema performed as Royal Trux. They did some drugs, probably painted ambiguous art together, and played some songs before splitting off to form The Howling Hex with Hagerty, and RTX with Herrema.
These reincarnations of new bands born from Royal Trux have had many releases on Drag City, and now Herrema is going through a transformation again, from RTX into the newly named (but same lineup) Black Bananas, with a Drag City release of Rad Times Xpress IV coming on January 31. In case any of that information was confusing, I suggest watching this official video that explains everything.
Basically, Jennifer Herrema is going give us some loud rock that we should appreciate. But, let me tell you — I tried and tried to resist making a joke about the band’s name in relation to a certain ethnicity’s penis size. I succeeded! I’m OK!
Gwar guitarist Cory Smoot, a.k.a. Flattus Maximus, was found dead earlier today just a few hours before the legendary costumed metal band was to cross the border into Canada to perform shows in Edmonton (Friday), Calgary (Saturday) and Vancouver (Monday).
The cause of death is still unknown. No announcement has been made regarding if Gwar’s Canadian dates would be postponed or cancelled.
Gwar main man Dave Brockie, a.k.a. Oderus Ungurus, sent the following statement to heavy metal website MetalSucks.net:
“It is with a sense of profound loss and tragedy that the members of GWAR must announce the passing of their long time guitarist and beloved friend Cory Smoot, also known to thousands of metal fans worldwide as Flattus Maximus. Cory was found deceased this morning as the band prepared for a border crossing. There is no word as to the cause of death and the members of GWAR are completely shocked and devastated that this has occurred. At this point there is no word on arrangements and the disposition of the remainder of GWAR’s current North American tour, nor are there any details regarding long term plans. At this point we are just dealing with the loss of our dear friend and brother, one of the most talented guitar players in metal today. We ask that our fans and the media be respectful of our request for privacy for those that have suffered this terrible loss. A full statement will be coming in the next day or so, in the meantime please give your thoughts and your prayers to Cory, his family, and all the people that love him.”
Shoegaze master craftsman and guitar effects wizard Kevin Shields doesn’t pop up in the news pages too often, and I like to assume it’s because he’d completed the final stage of his evolution and found some hyper-advanced way to ditch his corporeal body entirely, converting his base matter to pure energy, and make himself part of the grid for all time. You know, like that Job guy did in that unarguably fantastic 90s movie The Lawnmower Man. But… then he shows up somewhere like in NME to announce that he’s launched a new record label with his buddy or whatever, and the whole fantasy is totally blown. This had better be important, Kevin!
So let’s see here… looks like he’s set up a new imprint, and it’s called Pickpocket. Okay, so far it sounds like he could have done this from beyond the bounds of space and time. Let’s read on: blah, blah, blah, he set it up with his friend Charlotte Manionneau for the initial purpose of putting out a new EP by her band Le Volume Courbe. It was initially planned to be released by another label until, as Shields told NME, “I was like ‘I’ll just get rid of a few pedals that I’ve had lying around for ten years and we’ll start a label.’” Oh well, I guess if he’s still real enough to physically own some solid gold guitar pedals, he’s probably not out on the astral plane surfing the neuralnet yet. Shucks.
As for the prospect of new MBV music, Shields said that there’s no plans to use the label to release anything like that, although apparently he and Manionneau have recently collaborated on a new track that may see the light of day on the label. “It’s ten minutes of noise,” she said. “We thought we could put it out as a 10-inch.” Meanwhile, her band’s EP — entitled Theodaurus Rex — has been given the far-more concrete release date of November 14. Hey, while you wait, here’s the last 10 minutes of Lawnmower Man. Enjoy!
Ever since our crack team of audio researchers were unable to find a single flaw with James Blake’s debut album back in January (one writer thought he found one halfway through “I Mind,” and after being proven wrong he was slashed in the face with a 180 gram vinyl copy of Arthur Russell’s World of Echo), Mr. Blake has let his youthful exuberance run wild — touring the world with the same hoodie every night, collaborating with a squeaking drum, and releasing the follow-up EPEnough Thunder. Well, the exuberance is still glowing ruby red, because Blake is releasing yet another EP on December 11 for R&S. Or maybe it’s just a single since there’s only three tracks? I don’t know, but I opted for “EP” in the headline since that sounds more exciting and might generate enough page views to bump me into the 1%.
So this EP/single. The A-side is “Love What Happened Here,” and the B-side is a twofer — “At Birth” and “Curbside,” inspired by The Tree of Life and American History X, respectively. R&S previously released Blake’s 2010 breakout EPs, CMYK and Klavierwerke, so the pressure’s on to sample the right Kelis snippet this time around. Good luck James, we’re still rooting for ya.
Love What Happened Here tracklisting:
A. Love What Happened Here
B1. At Birth
B2. Curbside
Ugh, I wish it was 1997. Everyone wishes it was 1997. Disregard if you hated 1997, be it through personal tragedy or simply a soggy year. For Built to Spill, though, 1997 was a very crisp year. Riding high on their third (and best maybe?) record Perfect From Now On, Built to Spill spent the year becoming the most critically acclaimed and popular band in the entire world! I have never heard of Radiohead.
We all miss these salad days, but every time Built to Spill puts out a new record, it brings us back to that time. Unless it brings us back to 1993, 1994, 1999, 2001, 2006, or 2009 instead. Regardless, the fine folks at Prefix Mag state that Doug Martsch and crew will be returning us to those days soon… ish. Built to Spill are currently working on a new release, but Martsch has stated that the new album might not make it out until 2013. Granted, every ‘might not’ has a ‘might’ on the other side. Welcome to symmetry. By the way, other info on the new record is as follows: none.
