Sub Pop Wants You to Enjoy Some Male Bonding
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Dalston, London three-piece Male Bonding to the Sub Pop roster. “Who?” you may be asking. Why, the Dalston, London three-piece who, prior to their signing with Sub Pop, released a handful of split 7-inches and who -- oh, what the hell. Let's make this a list!
----
The Top Four Reasons You Should Be Into Male Bonding
(No, there will be no jokes about buddy movies here or 1980s Chicago sitcom Perfect Strangers or that period of time when everyone said “I love you, man” because of that Budweiser commercial. Nothing of that sort. Just good, old-fashioned REASONS.)
1. They’re a garage rock kind of band, but not in that derivative “oh God not another neo-garage rock band” kind of way.
2. They recorded a track for a Flipper tribute 7-inch to which Lovvers, Ponytail, and PPM Allstars also contributed.
3. Their MySpace headline thingy says “Ride the Dreamcatcher.” I will! Just on your suggestion.
4. They toured in the UK alongside Vivian Girls and have played with the likes of HEALTH, Fucked Up, Magik Markers, Mika Miko, and others.
You’re Either In or You’re Out, and Camera Obscura Try to Stay “In” by Touring This Fall
You have to forgive me for that awful headline; my brain has been melted this past week from watching three straight hours of NEW Project Runway episodes. Every time I close my eyes, I hear Heidi Klum say “Auf wiedersehen,” see Tim Gunn dressed in a dapper suit, and cringe at this new contestant’s ridiculous hairstyle.
But before I completely digress, let’s talk about Camera Obscura’s upcoming fall tour: they’re touring. Yup, that’s pretty much all there is to it. Go see them play songs from their latest album, My Maudlin Career (TMT Review), out now on 4AD.
Meanwhile, the next Project Runway episode starts tomorrow. See you on the catwalk.
Dates Obscura:
11.18.09 - New Orleans, LA - Tipitina's
11.19.09 - Birmingham, AL - Bottletree
11.20.09 - Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse
11.21.09 - Norfolk, VA - Attucks Theatre
11.22.09 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
11.24.09 - Northampton, MA - Pearl Street Ballroom
11.25.09 - Rochester, NY - The German House
11.26.09 - Toronto, ON - Phoenix
11.27.09 - Pontiac, MI - Crofoot Ballroom
11.28.09 - Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall
11.30.09 - Bloomington, IN - Bluebird
12.01.09 - St Louis, MO - Off Broadway
12.02.09 - Oxford, MS - The Lyric Oxford
12.03.09 - Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club
Autolux Decide to Take the Whole “Music Thing” Out on the Road
Shoegaze-y Los Angeles trio Autolux haven’t released an album since 2005’s critically acclaimed Future Perfect (TMT Review) and haven’t toured nationally for four years. So you’d think this story would be about them putting out a new album and touring behind it, wouldn’t you? WRONG. It’s something different (kinda), something more special. For, at the moment, you see, the band’s next album, Transit Transit, is only (and somewhat cryptically) labeled as being “forthcoming.” The band is touring largely due to Public Demand.
That’s right! After The Flaming Lips selected Autolux to play this September’s All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival in New York, the band got so many emails and messages from fans around the United States that they decided to wrap up the summer with their very own, first-ever headlining tour!!! But they’ve been up to a lot more in the years between Future Perfect and now than simply building rabid anticipation. Drummer Carla Azar, for example, recorded with PJ Harvey and John Parish for their latest joint effort, A Woman a Man Walked By. The band also opened for PJ Harvey while she was on tour in Russia -- and then they worked with UNKLE on the album War Stories, created music for an exhibit at the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History, collaborated with Australian visual artist Kill Pixie on an installation room, and participated in Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich’s From the Basement series of live performances. And, you know, some other stuff, too, like recording that album that’s eventually gonna come out.
Dates:
08.28.09 - San Francisco, CA - Outside Lands Festival
08.29.09 - Portland, OR - Berbati’s Pan
08.30.09 - Seattle, WA - Neumo’s
09.02.09 - Fargo, ND - The Aquarium
09.03.09 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
09.04.09 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
09.05.09 - Detroit, MI - The Magic Stick
09.06.09 - Lexington, KY - Al’s Bar
09.08.09 - Washington, DC - Black Cat
09.09.09 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s
09.10.09 - Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club
09.12.09 - Monticello, NY - All Tomorrow’s Parties
09.14.09 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
09.15.09 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
09.16.09 - Pittsburgh, NY - Brillobox
09.17.09 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom
09.18.09 - Urbana, IL - Pygmalion Music Festival
09.19.09 - Lawrence, KS - The Bottleneck
09.20.09 - Omaha, NB - The Waiting Room
09.21.09 - Denver, CO - The Bluebird Theatre
09.22.09 - Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
09.25.09 - Los Angeles, CA - El Rey Theatre
09.26.09 - San Diego, CA - Soma
09.27.09 - Costa Mesa, CA - The Detroit Bar
Velvet Underground 7-Inch Singles Collection Coming Soon; For Those of You Across the Pond, That’s 17.78 Centimeters
Quick! Your old friends from college are coming over any minute. They all majored in either Accounting, Business, or Nursing, and so they all have real jobs now (you majored in Art History and work part-time in a used book store that your Alderman is constantly threatening to shut down), and they spend their time and money on things that sound... well, “awfully foreign” to you, like “yo-ga,” and “sa-shi-mi,” and something called “health in-sur-ance.” You’ve got nothing to show for yourself. Shit, they’re gonna be here any second. Why did you ever agree to this? You need a status symbol. You need some upper-hand... some cool... some cred... something that says “yeah, I’m into stuff too"... something rare and arcane and abstruse and impenetrable that can effortlessly connote your intellectual, artistic, and cultural superiority. Argg! If only you had some kind of, I don’t know, internet-exclusive The Velvet Underground Singles 1966-69 7 x 7” Vinyl “Rare Mono” Box Set! That’d hit the spot nicely.
Well, you’re in luck, friend. Sundazed Music, on-line purveyor of all things sunny and crackly and reverberant and vintage, is set to release just such a rarified box set from The Velvets on September 15, and is currently taking pre-orders! This dreamy, steamy singles box, honoring those druggie, lovable “New York Beatles” will neatly compile their 7-inch vinyl output in, yum, rare mono versions (Score! Your friends probably don’t even know what "mono" is!). The set features exact reproductions of your favorite VU singles, packaged in a distinctively designed box (naturally), along with rare “vintage” photos and some brand-ass-new liner notes by Rolling Stone's David Fricke (who also penned the acclaimed notes for that other, now toooootally obsolete 1995 Velvets CD box set Peel Slowly and See. Eww, “CDs”...).
The seven singles included in The Velvet Underground Singles 1966–69 comprise the four singles originally released in the U.S. on the Verve and MGM labels, plus an additional pair of singles that were prepared for release but got sidetracked on their way to market and ended up buying some magic beans instead. There’s also a special radio-only promotional single. And these alternate mono versions promise to differ in “significant ways” from the songs' stereo album versions. And hey, at a totally reasonable $39.98 for the whole shebang, you can actually afford the thing, even with your... pathetic... bookstore... job... oh shit! A knock at the door! They’re here!
Complete tracklist:
1. All Tomorrow's Parties b/w I'll Be Your Mirror (Verve VK-10427)
2. Sunday Morning b/w Femme Fatale (Verve VK-10466)
3. White Light/White Heat b/w Here She Comes Now (Verve VK-10560)
4. White Light/White Heat b/w I Heard Her Call My Name (Cancelled single)
5. Temptation Inside Your Heart b/w Stephanie Says (Cancelled single)
6. What Goes On b/w Jesus (MGM K-14057)
7. VU Radio Spot b/w VU Radio Spot 2 (MGM VU-1)
A Court on the Side of Consumers for Once: Internet Radio Services Don't Need to License from Labels
On August 21, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an original ruling in 2007 “that found [Yahoo’s] Launchcast need only pay the standard Webcaster royalty rates to SoundExchange.” This means Launchcast is still not required to seek permission from the labels to air their music, which is a big relief for internet radio services. If the Court had overturned the original ruling, then services like Pandora, Slacker, and Last.fm would have been seriously affected.
Sony Music Entertainment originally sued Launchcast in 2001, arguing that additional licensing deals were needed since users could “build custom stations around music preferences and skip songs,” which constituted “interactivity.” The Court, however, ruled that since the songs were played in a random order, they were not considered “interactive” like imeem and MySpace.
It’s always good to see the labels getting a good kicking now and again from the justice system. It happens so rarely!
AMA Declares That Carnage from Le Loup’s Upcoming Tour CANNOT BE STOPPED, Requires Nurses to Join for Damage Control
So you thought that Le Loup was a large band composed of nice musicians from DC who play otherworldly music that’s good for driving at night? Think again! According to a recent Associated Press report, the band’s true intentions have been revealed, despite the group’s French-translated trickery. Apparently they are all actually wolves and, in a Gwar-like fashion, will be using their upcoming tour to wreak havoc across the North American continent in hopes of raising the Great Wolf Spirit who will then take over the world. Sounds like an episode of Doctor Who to me.
Anyway, the American Medical Association has declared a state of emergency for music fans everywhere. They have decided that the only solution to this impending disaster is to send medical professionals along with the “band” to save audience members from bleeding out. These nurses have been highly trained to detect the early signs of rabies and, for some reason, lupus. Probably an administrative mix-up in there somewhere.
I guess it’s also possible this means that the band Nurses will be touring with Le Loup on a trip through the U.S. and Canada to promote their respective new albums. Le Loup, after all, is releasing Family on September 22 via Hardly Art, and Nurses already put out Apple's Acre on the Dead Oceans label a couple weeks ago. But no, that would be waaaaaaaay less crazy.
Take some self-defense classes first:
10.09.09 - Baltimore, MD - The Ottobar
10.10.09 - Philadelphia, PA - Kungfu Necktie
10.11.09 - New York, NY - Mercury Lounge
10.13.09 - Cambridge, MA - TT the Bear's
10.14.09 - Montreal, QC - Il Motore
10.15.09 - Toronto, ON - The Drake Hotel
10.16.09 - Chicago, IL - Schubas
10.17.09 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
10.18.09 - Omaha, NE - Slowdown Jr
10.19.09 - Denver, CO - Hi Dive
10.20.09 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court
10.22.09 - Vancouver, BC - The Biltmore Cabaret
10.23.09 - Seattle, WA - Chop Suey
10.25.09 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
10.27.09 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
10.28.09 - Los Angeles, CA - The Echo
10.29.09 - Costa Mesa, CA - Detroit Bar
10.30.09 - San Diego, CA - Casbah
10.31.09 - Tucson, AZ - Plush
11.02.09 - Austin, TX - The Mohawk
11.03.09 - Dallas, TX - Cavern Ale House
11.05.09 - Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn
11.06.09 - Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
11.07.09 - Washington, DC - Black Cat
What This Country Needs Right Now Is a Robert Pollard DVD! Good News, There’s One Coming Out
The moments between new releases by Robert Pollard are few and far between, so we must use them wisely. Fill them with wonderful times with your friends and family. Enrich yourself with fine literature and film. Spend time outside appreciating the great outdoors. Discover your true self and how you view the world. Then once your time is occupied by the next Robert Pollard release, you’ll know you didn’t spend the downtime in vain.
Or you could forgo that and fill your life with even more Robert Pollard. Thanks to the good folks at Rockathon and MVD Visual, your precious eyeballs can feast on the glorious Pollard goodness contained on the new DVD, The Devil Went Home and Puked, out October 20. One need not even settle for one era of Pollard, as the film is a video collage consisting of footage from every era of Guided By Voices and solo Pollard since 1994, along with early GBV studio footage. Sounds like a lot of Uncle Bob, but to ensure that you will never find yourself Pollard-less, the DVD also contains nine hard-to-find music videos. If you’ve been spending all your Pollard downtime scouring GBV message boards looking for the video for “Circle Saw Boys Club” or “I-Razor,” then you may now rest, for your search is over.
As for news concerning what Pollard’s been working on lately, I don’t think he’s planning on putting anything out soon. I think he’s probably going to take it easy for a while. Just playing!
St. Vincent Plots 24-Date Fall Tour, Picks Out 24 Outfits Ahead of Time
Okay, okay. White flag. I’ll be the first male admit it: Annie Clark (a.k.a. St. Vincent is proof-positive of ye olde time-honored axiom that “Girls Rule, Boys Drool.” She’s cool, confident, and funny; she bros down and hangs out with dudes all day for months at a time, she covers The Beatles without fear (or even too much reverence), she releases top-notch records like this year’s Actor (TMT Review); she hangs out with Grizzly Bear; she’s a hell of a lot more lucid than that Marnie Stern; she presumably sweats up a storm at all of her shows while shredding the nickel-wound fuck out of that souped-up Harmony guitar like Thurston Greenwood... And yet, through all of that, her lipstick stays just perfect. If that’s not the model of a 21st-century career woman, I don’t know what is.
Don’t believe me? Well, hear the woman roar yourself this fall when Clark and her band of merry men criss-cross the U.S. on yet another victory lap for rock chicks everywhere. Though... actually, now that I think about it, I’m not so sure that the Annie-Clark-ruling-while-boys-drool thing is really all the Women’s Lib victory thing that it’s cracked up to be, since, in this case, the boys are actually just drooling at her. And hell, from the shows I’ve seen, most of the girls are just drooling at her too.
St. Vincent tour:
09.29.09 - Indianapolis, IN - The Murat Theater
09.30.09 - Columbia, MO - The Blue Note
10.01.09 - St. Louis, MO - Firebird
10.03.09 - New Orleans, LA - Tipitina's
10.05.09 - Birmingham, AL - WorkPlay Soundstage
10.07.09 - Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
10.08.09 - Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
10.09.09 - Asheville, NC - Orange Peel
10.10.09 - Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium
10.12.09 - Charleston, SC - Mic Farm
10.13.09 - Knoxville, TN - Bijou Theatre
10.14.09 - Cincinnati, OH - Bogart's - Front Room
10.16.09 - Madison, WI - High Noon Saloon
10.17.09 - Madison, WI - Pabst Theater
10.18.09 - Birmingham, AL - The State Theatre
10.19.09 - Minneapolis, MN - Southern Theatre
10.20.09 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom
10.21.09 - Buffalo, NY - Asbury Hall @ Babeville
10.22.09 - Ithaca, NY - Castaways
10.24.09 - South Portland, ME - South Portland High School
10.25.09 - Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory
10.26.09 - South Burlington, VT - Higher Ground Ballroom
10.27.09 - Providence, RI - Lupo's
10.28.09 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
More More More: Kurt Vile Announces Big U.S. Fall Tour in Support of Matador Debut
Kurt Vile (not to be confused with Kurt Weill, who is totally dead and who my boss keeps thinking I am talking about when I talk about Kurt Vile) will be heading out on a monster tour this fall in support of his forthcoming Matador debut, Childish Prodigy (TMT News).
Last week, Vile played shows in Jersey City, NJ (for WFMU) and Philadelphia, PA, but starting this week, he will be touring the West Coast non-stop until early September. He'll take a roughly month-long break before embarking on yet another extensive U.S. leg. that'll take him ALL OVER THE PLACE.
For more information, check out his MySpace.
Kurt Vile tourdates:
08.25.09 - Santa Ana, CA - Galaxy Theature #%
08.26.09 - Los Angeles, CA - Troubador % !
08.27.09 - Los Angeles, CA - Echoplex
08.28.09 - Santa Barbara, CA - Muddy Waters %
08.29.09 - Big Sur, CA - Big Sur (Mexican Summer/Folk Yeah fest)
08.30.09 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill % !
09.01.09 - Portland, OR - Berbati’s Pan %!
09.02.09 - Eugene, OR - Basement 1287 ^
09.03.09 - San Francisco, CA - House Party ^
09.04.09 - Sacramento, CA - TBA ^
09.05.09 - Los Angeles, CA - FYF Fest ^
10.02.09 - Philadelphia, PA - AKA Music
10.03.09 - Philadelphia, PA - Kungfu Necktie
10.07.09 - New York, NY - Mercury Lounge
10.08.09 - Poughkeepsie, NY - Vassar College
10.11.09 - Lexington, KY - Al’s Bar (WFRL’s Boomslang After Show)
10.12.09 - Bloomington, IN - Video Saloon
10.13.09 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
10.14.09 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
10.17.09 - Seattle, WA - High Dive &
10.18.09 - Portland, OR - Holocene ^ &
10.21.09 - San Francisco, CA - Hemlock Tavern
10.22.09 - Santa Cruz, CA - Crepe Place
10.23.09 - Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland
10.25.09 - San Diego, CA - Casbah
10.27.09 - Tempe, AZ - Modified Arts
10.29.09 - Lubbock, TX - Bash Riprocks
10.30.09 - Austin, TX - Mohawk
10.31.09 - Dallas, TX -Lounge on Elm Street
11.02.09 - Memphis, TN - Hi-Tone *
11.03.09 - Atlanta, GA - 529 *
11.05.09 - Washington DC - Black Cat
# Built to Spill
% Woods
^ Eat Skull
& Crystal Stilts
* Lovvers
! Dungen
[Photo: Justin Clowes]
Senator Al Franken to Attend the Future of Music Coalition’s Policy Summit
From October 4-6 in Washington D.C., various music industry nerds will come together to discuss riveting topics like "Ten Years after Napster," "Future of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act," and "Intellectual Property, Privacy & Network Rights." Making an appearance at this year's Future of Music Coalition’s Policy Summit will be everyone’s favorite liberal comedian/Senator: Al Franken. Whilst America rages in battles over health care reform, climate change, and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Senator Franken has shown admirable courage in getting the country’s priorities straight. Sure, there may be 46 million Americans without health insurance and the country accounts for a quarter of the world’s carbon emissions, but are we really going to be concerned about that when online pirates are out of control, musicians aren’t fairly compensated for their labor, and copyright becomes a laughing stock?
The question on everyone’s lips should be: Does one of America’s most famous senators support the war on illegal file-sharing? The political debate in this country drastically needs to turn to these important issues, now.
(I'm just joking around, kids. Find more info about the Future of Music Coalition's Policy Summit here.)
RIP: Dean Turner of Magic Dirt
From The Australian:
Hundreds of fan tributes have appeared on Australian band Magic Dirt's website following the news of bass player Dean Turner's death from cancer.The 37-year-old founding member of the Geelong had been suffering from the disease for more than a year and died on Friday.
Magic Dirt began their career in the early 1990s and went on to become a staple of the Australian touring and festival circuit with their guitar-driven punk pop.
The band, fronted by Adalita Srsen, had success with albums such as Friends in Danger and What Are Rockstars Doing Today. They had just begun an Australian tour at the time of Turner's death.
- Magic Dirt official website
- Magic Dirt MySpace
- Magic Dirt Wikipedia entry
