Monday, April 17th, 2006
Breaking The Ice
After several delays, it’s been officially announced that Mojave 3 will release their fifth album, Puzzles Of You, on June 20. You can take a look at the album art here. Neil Halstead talked to Billboard about the new record and says that it’s more of a pop record than the relatively drifting and gauzey Spoon And Rafter. Halstead also says the band is planning to tour North America in September (yay) and that he will record a second solo album later this year (double yay).
The album will be preceded by a single on May 29 in the UK for “Breaking The Ice” which will be accompanied by a video that has already been shot. 4AD has posted some photos from the video shoot. Is that a beard, Neil? The video should be posted online for your viewing pleasure any time now. But in the meantime, enjoy the fact that a bunch of M3 shows are now available to download from Archive.org and once again, I direct you to a demo version of a Puzzles Of You track that the band graciously made available on their website a little while back.
MP3: Mojave 3 – “Big Star Baby” (demo)
Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene discusses the importance of community with The Independent. The Olympic Island website has been updated with some details of the BSS-curated festival being held there on June 24. Apparently there is one more act that is waiting to be confirmed for the show.
Sigur Ros keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson discusses the band’s futility at being rock stars with The Japan Times. The band will re-release their “Hoppípolla” single on May 1, thanks to the song’s use in the BBC’s Planet Earth television program. The band will be at Massey Hall with string-wielding compatriots Amina on May 13.
Ireland’s Event Guide discusses the lifespan of Low with Alan Sparhawk. This link and many of the above courtesy of Largehearted Boy.
Dose talks to Calexico’s Joey Burns about shifting sytylistic gears on Garden Ruin.
One of The Big Takeover’s bloggers thinks it’s just a matter of time before MP3 blogs get made an example of for their/our constant copyright infringement. It’s interesting that the tone of the piece seems to be eagerly anticipating the day that sites like Fluxblog gets the smackdown. I find it a little puzzling that someone writing for BTO would have such a conservative view of enforcing copyrights and support for the record industry’s big hammer tactics towards dealing with online media.
np – Decoder Ring / Fractions
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4/17/06 9:22 am
The new Mojave 3 album is frickin’ great, can’t wait to see ’em do the songs live. Neil does indeed have a 70’s mustache going here:
http://www.myspace.com/neil…
4/17/06 9:37 am
It is fantastic. I’ve been huge Mojave 3 fan since their inception – I have to say this is easly their best album.
4/17/06 9:43 am
I doubt we have to worry about the big MP3 blogs getting in trouble with the law. It’s always been my assumption that the majority of songs that get posted there have been sent to the blogs by the labels for the very purpose of getting them "shared."
4/17/06 9:44 am
That Big Takeover article seems very "Reefer Madness" to me. Who’s this John Davidson, anyway? Is he on the RIAA’s dime? The piece seemed very parental and finger-waggy.
4/17/06 10:39 am
I got a listen to the new Mojave 3 on the weekend and wasn’t too impressed first listen. The first song seemed the worst of the bunch, the album improved after that but to my ears it seems sort of a mediocre release by the band. I need a few more listens to really judge it though.
4/17/06 12:44 pm
do you not know how to spell ‘neil’ or something!? sheesh!
4/17/06 12:45 pm
for some reason, I thought Halstead spelled it the other way.
Leave me alone.
4/17/06 2:47 pm
Thanks for the M3 track, Frank, that’s an album I truly am anticipating.
4/17/06 7:08 pm
i always get really excited about Mojave albums and then they have like 2 great tracks, but maybe this one will be different.
4/18/06 12:31 pm
I just wanted to state that as a fellow Big Takeover blogger this isn’t the first time I’ve disagreed with one of John’s columns, though I didn’t post a comment. This is one where I really disagreed with him:
http://www.bigtakeover.com/…
I agree with the poster who says that the labels understand what a great marketing tool it is. With that said, I think you misinterpreted his intent here. I think he’s just presenting it as fact and/or decrying it, not agreeing with the practice in question.
4/18/06 12:38 pm
Matthew – perhaps. I’ve read a few of John’s blog entries before and have never been able to get a handle on where he’s coming from on topics like this – if he’s being sarcastic, it doesn’t come across in his writing at all. And I don’t find his tone to be very matter-of-fact but rather fatalist or overly apocalyptic.
4/18/06 2:46 pm
I also agree with Matthew in that I didn’t interpret John’s intent as agreeing with RIAA’s practices, nor did I feel he was "eagerly awaiting" Fluxblog’s downfall. I think he was merely trying to point out, by using the op-ed piece as an example, that MP3 sites shouldn’t get too complacent in neglecting or ignoring laws regarding copyrights, just because file sharing has become so commonplace or because MP3 sites have to date been left alone.