Look, I can’t take this anymore readers. I’m all for pitching in and cluing you in on new tours and albums and whatnot — especially if those things are Radiohead-related — but you have to start doing things for yourself a little more in 2012, okay? I mean, how do you think we find out about this news stuff in the first place??? Exactly. We go through an A-Z listing of every band that has a Myspace Music page and report whatever their latest blog says.
Here’s a bit I found just today about that band The Twilight Sad. Turns out they’ll be hitting the road for a North American tour in early 2012 to support their forthcoming full-length… what do you mean, “what full-length”?!? Good lord. The one we already told you about! It’s called No One Can Ever Know? Remember, it’s supposed to be all dark-synth-goth like The Cure and Nine Inch Nails and shit? Ugh, did you not download the track they were offering on their website yet like we told you to like three months ago? Bands keep their Myspace pages freshly updated for a REASON, man. Don’t you bookmark these things??
Sorry, sorry. I should calm down. Well, either way, the only new info I could find on Myspace was that the album was produced by Andrew Weatherall and is coming out February 7, 2012 on FatCat. So logically, they’re hitting the road like two weeks after that. I’m sure there’ll be some more UK dates coming sooner or later. Why not practice your internetting by keeping an eye out for them yourself? Seriously, what we do isn’t hard. The only real pain in the ass is formatting the tourdates and putting those stupid bulleted hyperlinks at the bottom.
Dates:
02.23.12 - Washington, DC - Rock and Roll Hotel
02.24.12 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s
02.25.12 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
02.26.12 - Allston, MA - Brighton Music Hall
02.28.12 - Montreal, QC - Il Motore
02.29.12 - Toronto, ON - Lee’s Palace
03.01.12 - Grand Rapids, MI - Pyramid Scheme
03.02.12 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
03.03.12 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
03.05.12 - San Diego, CA - Casbah
03.06.12 - Los Angeles, CA - The Echo
03.07.12 - San Jose, CA - The Blank Club
03.08.12 - San Francisco, CA - The Independent
03.10.12 - Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern
03.11.12 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
03.14-18.12 - Austin, TX - SXSW
When I wake up, I walk into the kitchen and prepare breakfast. Eggs. Toast. Hash browns. And a big pot of coffee. It’s the coffee that fuels my day. I raise the cup to my lips and I taste it. It does not taste like Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and I am disappointed. Now it tastes only like my tears. Salty and bitter, that is how I begin my day.
My tears are in the past. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy now has his own coffee, so says Prefix. You can purchase it with money at Drag City’s website and it will cost you $20. Give them the money and you will receive half a pound of coffee beans. Grind them yourself or find a companion to grind for you. The coffee is a limited-edition item, so once it is gone, it is gone. The person who wrote the description for Drag City says that the coffee contains “overtones of chocolate, leather, and non-wacky tobacco,” just as I suspected. Furthermore, they say it pairs well with the recent Wolfroy Goes to Town or fresh muskmelons. Where can I find a muskmelon? I must know.
It’s never too early to start thinking about next winter! Wait, no, that’s an awful thing to think about. Unless you’re a The National superfan, or a zealous devotee of All Tomorrow’s Parties in Somerset, England, that is! The good people at ATP recently announced that the Cincinnati rockers would be curating the festival’s annual winter shindig, and the first few bands have already been announced. So, friends, perhaps it’s time to start thinking about how to get a job at the old frozen banana stand this summer. Unless, of course, there’s somewhere you’d rather be than scenic Butlin’s Minehead on December 7-9!
Just kidding! Where else would you want to be? When the National takes the stage that magical wintry eve, it’ll be the band’s only UK show in all of 2012. How can ATP be so sure? Easy! They’ve all got the sixth sense over there in merry olde England. Fairies whisper mystical secrets into their ears. (Plus ATP has paid off British customs officials to “teach a lesson” to any members of the National who try to sneak in ahead of schedule.) In total, forty acts will be confirmed, and ATP has just released the first round of performers, so if you’re a fan of Kronos Quartet, Boris, Owen Pallett, The Antlers, Sharon Van Etten, My Brightest Diamond, Wye Oak, Megafaun, Lower Dens, Tim Hecker, Suuns, Dark Dark Dark or Buke and Gase, maybe it’s time you considered making that mystical, secret-sharing fairy go out and earn her keep. Those ATP chalets ain’t gonna pay for themselves. Tickets are on sale now.
Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Tomahawk) needs no introduction (he’s probably just decided on another new project as this appears) and just can’t seem to stop writing new music. The wildly productive maestro’s passing fancy is that of music for films, both the musty indie theater and/or the mighty multiplex. Patton has recently written and scored such recent flicks as The Solitude of Prime Numbers, Crank 2: High Voltage, and the short film A Perfect Place.
Patton’s latest venture is the upcoming The Place Beyond the Pines co-written and directed by Derek Cianfrance, who helmed 2010’s devastating Blue Valentine that helped secure Ryan Gosling’s future hunk credentials and proved he can play a mean ukelele. Cianfrance’s latest regards a motorcycle stunt rider who runs afoul of a former cop turned newly-minted politician and co-stars Gosling, Eva Mendes, Bradley Cooper, Bruce Greenwood, Rose Byrne, and Ray Liotta. The always-reliable Internet Movie Database notes that the film is currently in post-production.
Cianfrance reportedly hand-picked Patton to score the film, and while little is known regarding the music, it’s sure to be as ear-opening as his past work and hopefully will add a bit more notoriety to his belt, as both Cianfrance and Gosling made significant cultural waves with Blue Valentine two years ago. Patton is also reportedly knee-deep in a fourth Tomahawk LP, which is set for release later this summer.
Perhaps you remember the South African dance compilation Shangaan Electro put out by the Honest Jon’s label a few years ago; let’s assume that you do, and that you’ve made up different dance moves to each jacked-up track on it, putting to shame any other South African dance fans in your voting district. You probably even got super pumped when you heard ZS mention wanting to collaborate with that scene! Boy do I have something for you, especially if you’re into other dudes who take wacked approaches to dance music and resulting atmospheres/emanations. The very same Honest Jon’s label is in the midst of releasing limited 12-inches featuring major playas on the 21st-century scene “remixing” material from Shangaan Electro, if the word “remix” didn’t instantly mean something middling and disposable. You understand the difference between a Tiësto remix and a Hype Williams one, right? One’s for people on molly, the other’s for people on antidepressants.
Past and future tagged remixers include Demdike Stare, DJ Rashad & DJ Spinn, RP Boo, Hype Williams, Actress, Ricardo Villalobos, Theo Parrish, Mark Ernestus, Burnt Friedman, Oni Ayhun, MMM, Old Apparatus, Anthony Shake Shakir, and Max Loderbauer. Since that amounts to an uneconomical number of 12-inches to collect, the label is also offering a 2-CD set of all the remixes (or song-reworkings, whatever) as the Shangaan Shake compilation, set for release on March 13. The songs vary from a “carnivalesque head scrambler” by Theo Parrish to a “deep, minimal funk” piece by Ricardo Villalobos to the aesthetically aligned reworks by footwork producers DJ Rashad, DJ Spinn, and RP Boo that stay “true to the hyper-energy and raw, unhinged power of the source material.” Plus all those other respectable joes! Gosh, I can’t stand around here talking about this fantastic compilation, why I need to go right out to my record store and preorder my copy today! And I’m going to say Tiny Mix Tapes sent me! How fun!
If you’re like me, then you usually like your summers like you like your orange juice — Pulp free. Typically the only type of Cocker I’m all about is “spaniel,” but this year (2012, I believe) I think we should embrace Jarvis Cocker and his Pulp-mates, as they will perform live four times this spring. Why? Because I said so, and I have extraneous power over you as a TMT writer.
It’s been nearly a decade since playing in the US, but all of the original members are back to run through all the solid Britpop songs they wrote when they actually existed. Shows include Coachella appearances, Radio City Music Hall in New York City, The Warfield in San Francisco, and my cousin Jango Fet’s (that’s really his name!) Sweet 16 birthday party extravaganza in Trenton, New Jersey. People attending Coachella will be pleasantly surprised this year to learn that those who have never listened to Pulp have formally promised to not even pretend that they’re fans while they’re standing in front of you.
Tourdates:
04.11.12 - New York, NY - Radio City Music Hall
04.13.12 - Indio, CA - Coachella
04.17.12 - San Francisco, CA - The Warfield
04.20.12 - Indio, CA - Coachella
