The Blow is going on tour, get the hell out of the way!
By E. Nagurney on Jun 2 2011
The Blow is back, so they say. If I sound uncertain, it’s because I feel like we’ve been running stories about The Blow being back for at least a year at this point. The Blow, who many humans know as the recording project of Pacific Northwesterner/Microphones member/visual artist/K Records mainstay/woman of a million talents Khaela Maricich, has seemingly been gone an awfully long time (five years since previous record Paper Television, with little touring since then), so perhaps it’s appropriate. Let the ratio of return time equal the time away divided by 2. Write your answers in your copybook.
But enough math, The Blow is back! To further prove that she’s back, Maricich is going on a tour of fairly significant length this summer. Will this tour feature new material? Almost certainly! Will that new material show up in recorded form any time soon? Well, um, probably, but I really can’t say for sure. Give The Blow some time, it’s still in comeback mode. For now, just enjoy this tour and celebrate The Blow’s triumphant return.
The Blow dates:
06.10.11 - Northampton, MA - Iron Horse Music Hall
06.11.11 - Allston, MA - Brighton Music Hall
06.26.11 - Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
06.27.11 - Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn
07.01.11 - Orlando, FL - The Social
07.02.11 - Miami, FL - Florida Room
07.05.11 - Birmingham, AL - The Bottletree
07.08.11 - Houston, TX - Fitzgerald’s
07.09.11 - Austin, TX - Emo’s
07.10.11 - Dallas, TX - The Prophet Bar
07.14.11 - San Diego, CA - Casbah
07.15.11 - Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour
07.16.11 - Las Vegas, NV - The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
07.19.11 - Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge
07.23.11 - Iowa City, IA - The Mill
07.24.11 - St. Louis, MO - Old Rock House
07.26.11 - Columbus, OH - The Summit
• The Blow: http://khaelamaricich.com
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy preps art book/10-inch with painter Ashley Macomber, because three 10-inches in one year is not enough
By Squeo on Jun 2 2011
As a sort of massively public dress rehearsal for his Florida shows last week, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy & The Cairo Gang played a free show at Millennium Park in Chicago last Monday, and I, [faceless TMT laborer], was there to witness it. Stuffed with sandwich and Guinness after the opening act, I stretched out on the lawn, ready to take in some ‘Prince’ classics live for the very first time. Further down on the lawn, a shirtless man was standing and doing one of those ‘my hands move all around this crystal ball, yet it remains stationary’ tricks that you see advertised on a TV display while waiting in line at Walgreens, but his attempts to dampen my enthusiasm were not going to work. The familiar pluckings of “Troublesome Houses” filled the park, and I knew this show was going to be a treat.
And then I didn’t recognize a single song ‘til the encore! Damn, Billy! I own 10 full-length albums of yours, and that whole setlist stumped me. You could have played a song by your backup singer and I would’ve had a firmer grip on things. Just goes to show that it’s impossible to keep up with even your most-treasured artists and it only makes sense to admit defeat and let pre-programmed radio playlists dictate our tastes.
If you’re still fighting the fight to be familiar with each and every Bonnie Billy song, you’re going to need to bust open your sister’s piggy bank on the sly pretty soon, because on top of the three BPB 10-inch singles that have been/are going to be released this year, a deluxier 10-inch is on the assembly line right now! This one is called Afternoon and comes paired with a book of paintings by Ashley Macomber; the songs are meant to mix with the paintings like wine and cheese, or like outdoor concerts and self-motivated magicians. Limited to 1000 copies and released by Black Tent Press, Afternoon is conceptually based on the Mallarmé poem “L’apres midi d’un faune,” written in 1865 — a year when no one could have dreamed that a crystal ball could be held stationary while hands glided across it. The poem was originally put to music by Claude Debussy, and now the baton is passed to Will Oldham. All you Mallarmé freaks can preorder the record right here and also preview some of Macomber’s art.
Afternoon tracklisting:
A. I Am a Floozy
B. Remember the Terror Time
More Bonnie + Cairo Gang dates:
07.15.11 - Saint Johns, NL - Cochrane Street United Church
07.22.11 - Calgary, AB - Calgary Folk Festival
09.27.11 - Nelsonville, OH - Stuart’s Opera House
09.30.11 - Asbury Park, NJ - ATP
10.02.11 - Alexandria, VA - The Birchmere
10.04.11 - Knoxville, TN - Bijou Theatre
• Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy: http://www.bonnieprincebilly.com
• Ashley Macomber: http://www.ashleymacomber.com
• Black Tent Press: http://blacktentpress.com
Smith Westerns (really hyped band of this year) + Yeasayer (really hyped band of last year) = really hyped tour
By Erika H on Jun 2 2011
The bigger you are, the less you have to tour with bands that sound anything like your own. Not to say that if you’re a garage band, hanging with like-garage-minded folks — such as Shannon & The Clams opening for Hunx & His Punx (which works well, since Shannon Shaw doesn’t have to leave the stage all night) — isn’t a sign of success. When you blow up like Chicago’s Smith Westerns, however, you can leave behind the thrown-together bills, all-too-familiar audiences, and house parties in Logan Square for bands that once upon a time also unexpectedly blew up.
And so without further ado, we announce the tour pairing Smith Westerns with Yeasayer, the so-called “most-blogged artist” of last year (according to The Hype Machine). After all, there is something to the similarities tying them together: both got big after releasing intensely catchy pop music on sophomore albums — one more garage-inflected, the other a little synth-heavy. The tour began on May 27 in Portland and continues until mid-June. Smith Westerns then ready themselves for the festival circuit and, as they conquer the world, make sure to distinguish themselves from MGMT.
Tourdates:
06.02.11 - Lawrence, KS - The Granada Theatre ^
06.03.11 - Colombia, MO - The Blue Note ^
06.04.11 - Cincinnati, OH - MOTR Pub
06.06.11 - Detroit, MI - Majestic Theatre ^
06.07.11 - Toronto, ON - Phoenix Concert Theatre ^
06.08.11 - Montreal, QC - Club Soda ^
06.09.11 - Boston, MA - Royale ^
06.10.11 - Pittsburgh, PA - Mr. Smalls Theatre
06.12.11 - Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival
06.16.11 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club ^
06.18.11 - New York, NY - Terminal 5 ^
07.31.11 - Montreal, QC - Osheaga Festival
08.05-07.11 - Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza
09.16.11 - Austin, TX - Austin City Limits
^ Yeasayer
• Smith Westerns: http://www.myspace.com/smithwesterns
• Yeasayer: http://www.yeasayer.net
Bumbershoot announces full 2011 music lineup. A little while later, Tiny Mix Tapes announces it too.
By Nobodaddy on Jun 2 2011
First things first. What the hell is a bumbershoot, anyway? My high-tech, proprietary, TMT-issued, Pulitzer-edition text editing software sure doesn’t know. In lieu of ‘bumbershoot,’ it suggests that I really meant to type ‘troubleshooter,’ ‘undershorts,’ ‘undershot,’ and ‘slumberous.’ But while I’d really much rather be telling you all about this year’s lineup for Undershorts Festival, I guess I’ll just go with this whole Bumbershoot thing. Who knows, maybe I’ll look it up and seamlessly use the term later in the story. Stay tuned, folks!
So yeah, Bumbershoot (regardless of whatever else it is) is Seattle’s annual music & arts festival. This year, it’s taking place September 3-5 at Seattle Center in, you know, Seattle. Today, they announced their completely insane, 121-act lineup that continues their long tradition of purposefully trying to bamboozle people into discovering (god forbid) new artists by slotting them in alongside a few ‘big names.’ This year, those big names include the likes of Daryl Hall & John Oates, Wiz Khalifa, Ray LaMontagne, Broken Social Scene, and The Presidents of The United States of America. You can check out a complete list of the acts here at the Bumbershoot website.
Tickets for this thing are single-price admission, and the main stage is first-come, first-serve. So you’d better come equipped with more than one bumbershoot so that you can still stay dry while you’re stabbing lesser fans than yourself (see? I figured it out!) Oh, and there’s also a bunch of comedy, theater, visual arts, dance, and film offerings at this fest too… but I mean, c’mon. This is a music zine. Besides, who do you think you are? Leonardo da Vinci or some shit? Please.
• Bumbershoot: http://www.bumbershoot.org
Boredoms, Low, The Fall, other gloomy bands added to Jeff Mangum’s ATP to divert attention from Mangum’s god-like physique
By Emceegreg on Jun 1 2011
Jeff Mangum, most recently mentioned on NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation as a famous musician that Aubrey Plaza’s character would want to sleep with, is moving on to bigger and sexier things, such as adding gloomsters The Fall, Boredoms, Low, Colin Stetson, Micachu and The Shapes, and Lost in the Trees to the All Tomorrow’s Party he will be curating for December 2-4 at Butlins Holiday Centre in Minehead, UK.
If I know anything about being a sex symbol (and I do!), then I know that I see exactly what kind of strategy Mangum is trying to pull here. As soon as he’s stepped back into the spotlight he’s been in the running for People’s Sexiest Man Alive, and what better way to distract the public from your outgoing charm and chiseled abs than by surrounding yourself around some sad singers singing sad songs.
But here’s the twist — Boredoms look like they jumped out of the pages of Teen Vogue, Low looks ‘hawt’ enough to make an orgy-scene live appearance on Gossip Girl, and… is that Mark E. Smith from The Fall or has Hollywood sex-nugget Vin Diesel just walked in? Wow, looks like your plan didn’t work, Mangum, and it turns out this is going to be the sexiest ATP yet!
The group of newly announced bands will join an already astounding lineup that includes Fleet Foxes, Superchunk, The Olivia Tremor Control, Yann Tiersen, Jeff ‘Hunk’ Mangum, and more. Tickets can be purchased from the ATP website.
• ATP: http://www.atpfestival.com
