Whoa! Swine Flu Infects Jens Lekman, Puts Him Under Quarantine at Sweden Home
By Kat Gardiner on Jul 1 2009
From his Jens Lekman's blog:
I picked home one last souvenir from South America, it's called the H1N1 virus. Wrongfully known as the Swineflue.I was crossing the Atlantic when things started getting really bad, the fever was hallucinogenic and shaking me like a leaf and I grabbed the sleeve of the Air France steward. "I'm not feeling well, I should see a doctor" I said and the reply came as a brilliant mix of death anxiety and french rudeness: "Uh, yes... Terminal D... go there maybe... when we land". After that the stewards and stewardesses took long detours. A ring of empty seats formed around me. Peoples eyes were kind but determined, they read "Poor you, I really wish you all the best but if you come near me or my kid I will have to stab you with this plastic fork". I got up and went to the bathroom where I fainted.
Now I'm in quarantine for ten days. I can see the summer through my window and it's just perfect. Summer is always best through a window.
Aw. That's sweet. Get well soon, Jens. We're with you with in interweb spirit.
Just don't cough on me.
Shake Your Butt, Europe! (Not Too Hard!) Pixies to Do Doolittle on Tour This Fall
By Nobodaddy on Jul 1 2009
Ah, Pixies. For as much as they hate one another, you gotta love how painfully apparent it is that they love money just a little bit more. Already set to drop the half-assed-cash-grab Minotaur box set this fall — which seems to be little more than their discography stuffed in a box (there’s a few pictures, but I mean, come on! Have you seen the band? There’s a reason they never put their faces on a lunch box, kids...) — it has now been confirmed that the Pixies will continue their “no apologies, all nostalgia” vibe when they tour Europe in October, by playing 1989's classic Doolittle in its rocky entirety.
Yes, the band has promised to play every song from this landmark record, along with all the associated B-sides. Why? Well, unofficially, probably because it’s easy and they don’t have to talk to each other as much this way. But, uh, officially speaking, it’s probably because Doolittle turns 20 this year. "We wanted to do something special for Doolittle's 20th anniversary,” Frank Black said in a statement, “and we thought this was a good opportunity to play all of the songs from that album, something we don't normally do at a regular gig." So there you have it. Get ready for all of the “hope everything is alright” chants and “Cookie, I think you’re tame” sing-a-longs you can handle! Aw, who am I kidding? I can’t wait to hear “Dead” live...
Dateslittle:
10.01.09 - Dublin, Ireland - Olympia
10.02.09 - Dublin, Ireland - Olympia
10.04.09 - Glasgow, Scotland - SECC
10.06.09 - London, England - Brixton Academy
10.07.09 - London, England - Brixton Academy
10.08.09 - London, England - Brixton Academy
10.09.09 - London, England - Brixton Academy
10.11.09 - Frankfurt, Germany - Jahrhunderhalle
10.13.09 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Heineken Music Hall
10.14.09 - Brussels, Belgium - Forest National
10.15.09 - Paris, France - Zenith
The Pirate Bay Sold for $7.8 Million (Maybe)
By Jay on Jun 30 2009
Earlier today, Swedish software company Global Gaming Factory X announced in a press release that they are in the process of acquiring The Pirate Bay, the irreverent file-sharing giant whose recent "spectrial" resulted in guilty verdicts for all four co-founders. After several weeks of cat-and-mouse (including accusations from The Pirate Bay that the judge was biased due to an association with copyright lobbyists, a threat from co-founder Peter Sunde to sue Sweden for human rights violations only days ago, and the launch of The Video Bay, TPB's answer to YouTube), the controversial legal feud -- and, indeed, The Pirate Bay as we know it -- seems to be coming to an end.
What this means, exactly, is still very unclear, as ambiguous and somewhat contradictory statements come trickling in from Global Gaming Factory X and The Pirate Bay. Writes TPB in a recent blog post:
If the new owners will screw around with the site, nobody will keep using it. That's the biggest insurance one can have that the site will be run in the way that we all want to. And -- you can now not only share files but shares with people. Everybody can indeed be the owner of The Pirate Bay now. That's awesome and will take the heat of [sic] us.
Meanwhile, CEO Hans Pandeya says that "[GGF] would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get
paid for content that is downloaded via the site."
Completion of the acquisition is expected for August 2009, "subject to GGF obtaining financing for" it.
More details are sure to be made available throughout the week. Stay tuned.
Dandy Warhols Tour Some States, Release 7-Year-Old LP
By Kat Gardiner on Jun 30 2009
Well, he's finally done it. I like their tunes and all, but I think Courtney Taylor-Taylor of The Dandy Warhols has finally pissed off so many people that he is completely avoiding both coasts on his next tour. That's right, he's sticking to places like Oklahoma City, Indianapolis, and Sauget, Illinois -- places where there are still some bridges left to burn.
Their new CD, The Dandy Warhols are Sound, the "Director's Cut" of 2003's Welcome To The Monkey House, comes out July 14 on their own Beat the World Records. As describe on their website:
...late 2001 and into 2002 we recorded an album’s worth of tracks here in Portland and took those tracks to New York’s Electric Lady Studios to mix with famed mixing engineer Russell Elavedo, and the result of those mixing sessions was The Dandy Warhols Are Sound. We absolutely loved this record. However, Capitol, our label a the time, did not. They opted out of using our preferred mixes and remixed the record on their own to create Welcome To The Monkey House, a great album that we, and most of you, also love. [...] We had always intended to release this unheard gem on our own, but life and other records and tours and babies and crepes and red wine got in the way. Now finally, after almost seven years, on July 14, 2009 The Dandy Warhols will be proud to present to you The Dandy Warhols Are Sound.
Tourdates:
09.01.09 - Indianapolis, IN - The Vogue Theater
09.03.09 - Kansas City, MO - Beaumont Club
09.04.09 - Sauget, IL (St. Louis, MO) - Pop's
09.05.09 - Oklahoma City, OK - Diamond Ballroom
09.07.09 - Houston, TX - Warehouse Live
09.08.09 - Dallas, TX - Granada Theatre
09.09.09 - Austin, TX - Emo's
09.11.09 - Albuquerque, NM - Sunshine Theatre
09.12.09 - Aspen, CO - Belly Up Aspen
09.13.09 - Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheater (Monolith Festival)
Rhino to Release 63-Song Party, People! Factory Records Digital Compilation Is Industrial Strength
By David Nadelle on Jun 30 2009
In 1980, Factory Records released The Durutti Column's The Return of the Durutti Column album in the now infamous Guy Debord-inspired sandpaper record sleeve. Although that is an awesome and inspired situationist packaging notion -- protecting the record from and destroying other records around it -- there will be no problems with sleeve chafing when Rhino Records releases Factory Records: Communications 1978-92 on July 7 because it is a digital compilation. We should clarify; July 7 is the issue date for "other" DSPs, but the collection is already available now, exclusively on the mighty iTunes. While Factory Records: Communications 1978-92 has already seen the light of day as a concrete, handable, audio format (um, a CD box set), this is the first time many of these tracks have been available in digital download form, if that is any sort of consumer lure.
Anyway, with a song list as good as is printed below, we won't begrudge Rhino for taking the opportunity to give the people what they might not think they want, but what they most certainly need. Alongside the big-time names (Joy Division, New Order, James, Happy Mondays) are equally crucial works by a number of acts whose post-rock cachet grows every year (Crispy Ambulance, Section 25, Stockholm Monsters, and the aforementioned Durutti Column). The set comes with a digital booklet with liner notes by former NME journalist Paul Morley and a track-by-track analysis by Factory Records historian James Nice.
Use Hearing Protection:
1. Joy Division - "Digital"
2. Cabaret Voltaire - "Baeder Meinhof"
3. Joy Division - "Glass" (2007 Remastered)*
4. OMD - "Electricity" (Remastered Original 7" version)*
5. Joy Division - "She's Lost Control"
6. The Distractions - "Time Goes By Slowly"*
7. Joy Division - "Transmission"
8. The Durutti Column - "Sketch For Summer"*
9. X-O-Dus - "English Black Boys"*
10. Joy Division - "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
11. Section 25 - "Girls Don't Count"
12. Crawling Chaos - "Sex Machine"
13. Joy Division - "As You Said"*
14. The Names - "Night Shift"
15. New Order - "Ceremony" (Original Version)
16. Minny Pops - "Dolphin's Spurt"
17. John Dowie - "It's Hard To Be An Egg"*
18. Crispy Ambulance - "Deaf"
19. Section 25 - "Dirty Disco"
20. New Order - "Everything's Gone Green"*
21. Tunnelvision - "Watching The Hydroplanes"
22. The Durutti Column - "Messidor"*
23. Royal Family And The Poor - "Art On 45"
24. Swamp Children - "Taste What's Rhythm"
25. New Order - "Temptation"
26. 52nd Street - "Cool As Ice"
27. New Order - "Blue Monday"
28. Cabaret Voltaire - "Yashar" (John Robie Remix)*
29. Quando Quango - "Love Tempo"
30. The Wake - "Talk About The Past"
31. New Order - "Confusion"
32. Marcel King - "Reach For Love"
33. Section 25 - "Looking from A Hilltop (Restructure)"
34. Stockholm Monsters - "All At Once"
35. Life - "Tell Me"*
36. The Durutti Column - "A Little Mercy"*
37. James - "Hymn From A Village"
38. Kalima - "Trickery"
39. Quando Quango - "Genius"*
40. Happy Mondays - "Freaky Dancin"*
41. Miaow - "When It All Comes Down"
42. The Railway Children - "Brighter"
43. New Order - "1963" (12" Version)*
44. The Durutti Column - "Otis"
45. Biting Tongues - "Compressor"
46. New Order - "True Faith"
47. Happy Mondays - "24 Hour Party People"
48. New Order - "Fine Time"
49. Happy Mondays - "W.F.L. (We Think About The Future)"
50. Revenge - "Seven Reasons"
51. Happy Mondays - "Hallelujah" (Club Mix)
52. Electronic - "Getting Away With It"
53. Happy Mondays - "Step On"
54. Northside - "Shall We Take A Trip"
55. New Order - "World In Motion"
56. Happy Mondays - "Kinky Afro"
57. The Durutti Column - "Home"
58. Electronic - "Get The Message"
59. Happy Mondays - "Loose Fit"
60. Northside - "Take 5"
61. Cath Carroll - "Moves Like You" (Remix)
62. The Other Two - "Tasty Fish"*
63. Happy Mondays - "Sunshine and Love" (Lionrock Remix)*
* previously unreleased digitally
