Thursday, October 14th, 2004
Spoon have finished recording their next record – finally – and have posted a mostly final tracklisting:
The Infinite Pet
The Two Sides Of Monsieur Valentine
The Delicate Place
Was It You?
My Mathematical Mind
I Turn My Camera On
Sister Jack
I Summon You
Merchants Of Soul
The Beast And Dragon Adored
They Never Got You
This isn’t a final running order, there’s no finalized title (The Beast And Dragon Are Adored was the last nominee) and no release date (I’ve got February written down but who knows). So really, there isn’t anything especially useful in THIS news blurb either. I’m sensing a trend here. There are some nice studio photos on the band’s website, however, and a gallery courtesy of Britt’s watchcam. Tip-off from Catbirdseat, who also has some artwork suggestions for the new record.
Billboard gets not a lot of useful information from Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips about another of 2005’s big releases, their next record At War With The Mystics, and their eternally ongoing movie project Christmas On Mars.
PopMatters grills Emily Haines of Metric about the creative process, cultural identity and being a sex symbol (in an interesting junction of the two topics, Haines was recently voted sexiest female Canadian musician by Chart). From Largehearted Boy.
In what’s becoming an annual tradition, The Sadies will be rocking in the New Year December 31 at the Horseshoe. Oh God, did I just say, “Rocking in the New Year”? That’s it. I quit.
I would like to say that this week has been a STRUGGLE for finding content. Like fighting off rabid hamsters with a whiffle bat. Some weeks these things write themselves. This is not one of those weeks. That is all.
np – Doves / The Last Broadcast
Wednesday, October 13th, 2004
Six months after her carpet-bombing of Toronto during NXNE (three shows in three nights), Feist returns to play the Phoenix on December 2. I’m not sure if I’ll go to this one, I’m damn near concert-ed out for the year, but I recommend the show to anyone else. I wonder what sort of band configuration she’ll be playing with? I can’t find any other details yet – when I did a Google search for “Feist Phoenix Toronto”, I got my own site. Sigh. Thanks to More Cowbell for the tip.
You can download “Ageless Beauty”, the first single from Stars’ new album Set Yourself On Fire, here. Word is this record is much more ‘rock’ than Heart or Night Songs – the single is nice, but I like hearing Amy sing pretty much anything. The album is already out in Canada but the rest of the world will have to wait until early ’05. Or you can order it from Amazon.ca for $16.99. Borders be damned!
Mercury Rev’s new album is finally complete. According to their new official bio, “If Deserter’s Songs was Autumn, and All Is Dream winter, then The Secret Migration feels like spring: fresh-cheeked, maybe a little mischievous, infused with hopeful spirits”. Aww, sounds darling. The Secret Migration (if you didn’t catch the album title) will be out January 25.
Steve Earle tells Billboard why it’s so crucial that Americans vote in the upcoming election and mentions that touring to support The Revolution Starts… Now will continue in North America early next year.
The big news around indie-world is that Slint have reformed and will be curating the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in the UK next February. While I own Spiderland, that was a mandatory hipster purchase more than anything else – it’s definitely interesting if disquieting listening, but I don’t spin it very often.
I don’t usually post anything from the plethora of unsolicited mp3s I’m sent as I fear that will just lead to more unsolicited mp3s, but this one is too bizarre not to let loose onto the world. It’s by a guy named David Boyle who… hell, I can’t even begin to try and explain it cause I don’t actually understand it. but check out his website, check out the mp3 he sent me and… well, you tell me. Fluxblog also got sent a copy of the song (and I thought I was special!) and he’s also posted an excerpt from the email that came with the file. There’s also a big discussion going on at ILX and the lyrics have been posted as well. Words fail. I’m a little ashamed of myself for biting and helping out the guy’s obvious ploy at becoming some sort of flash-in-the-pan internet phenomenon, but it’s a slow news day, okay?
np – Mercury Rev / All Is Dream
Tuesday, October 12th, 2004
Mint Records’ new official Neko Case bio details the rationale for and making of her new live album The Tigers Have Spoken, out November 9. She says that she deliberately wanted to make a more vibrant, positive-sounding record to contrast her darker, torchier stuff. “When we play,” says Neko, “people always come up and say, ‘Are you going to do some upbeat stuff? Are you ever going to bring a drummer?’ This record’s sort of for them.” Having attended one of the seven shows that was recorded to produce this album, I’m very excited to hear the finished product. If the streaming sample track provided on the website is any indication, it’s going to be an amazing record. Her new studio record should be out next Spring.
Gothamist finds out about Ted Leo’s New York City. Thanks to The Real Janelle for sending me the link.
The new Ivy record is complete and has a release date scheduled for February 1. No title or tracklisting yet, but they hope to have some samples up on their website sooner rather than later. The band has also contributed a cover of “A Peanuts Christmas” to this year’s Nettwerk Christmas album.
The Constantines are playing a double-header at Lee’s Palace on November 27 – one all-ages matinee and a licensed evening show. Because, obviously, they are fun for the whole family. Pick Grandma up at the rest home and bring a picnic lunch.
Sam Raimi tells Superhero Hype that the Spider-Man franchise will likely wrap after the third film (for the best, I say – quit while you’re ahead) and discusses the extra 30-40 seconds of action footage he wants to add to the Spider-Man 2.5 DVD that’ll come out early next year. The non-special, integer edition DVD is out end of next month.
Just noticed that Ryan Adams’ “My Hand Ain’t Broke No More So I Can Give Jim DeRogatis The Finger” tour will also be coming through Chicago the same weekend I will be there, as will the Pixies cash-grab roadshow. I’ve already got my Luna and American Music Club tickets and those were my absolute first choices for both nights anyways, but wow that’s a lot of good shows to pick from for one weekend.
np – Old 97’s / Wreck Your Life
Monday, October 11th, 2004
RIP, Christopher Reeve. You fought one hell of a good fight.
So everyone has been telling me to go see Shaun Of The Dead. And I had my reservations, I thought from the trailers that it looked like a thin-concept low-budget flick but its boosters insisted it was really clever, funny, scary and original. Turns out we were both right. It’s absolutely a novel concept – protagonist and his overweight slothful buddy fight through a city of zombies to rescue his mom and ex-girlfrined – with decent production values and some genuinely clever bits, but it was also a pretty thin film. After playing up the comedy angle for the first two-thirds of the film, it finally runs out of clever and tries to play up the horror side after realizing that there’s simply not much humour left in the characters’ situation.
I was personally annoyed about a) how stupid all the characters got during the final act, seemingly forgetting EVERYTHING they’d learned to survive that far and b) how the zombies were so inconsistent in following the basic rules of zombie-ness. I realize that criticizing something as deliberately slight as this film is rather silly, but my basic criteria for good movie vs bad movie tend to be pretty firm no matter what I’m watching. But overall, it was alright and enjoyable, but not all that. And as for all this talk of it springing a new genre of “rom zom com” (romantic zombie comedy) – I certainly hope not. They barely got enough mileage out of the concept for one movie, there sure as hell isn’t enough in the tank for any more.
Pitchfork agrees with me that the new American Music Club album is excellent, as well they should. Because it is.
Interpol’s Daniel Kessler insists to The Boston Herald that “there is no sound as far as Interpol goes”, thereby confirming the guy has never actually listened to any of his own records. Remarkable. From Largehearted Boy.
Hey, are Americans not on holiday today? I thought is was Columbus Day or something, but everyone seems to be at work like normal. Aww. Happy Thanksgiving to all the hosers out there.
np – American Music Club / 1984-1995
Sunday, October 10th, 2004
So you think I’d be excited for last night’s Wilco concert at Massey Hall, right? And I was, very much so, but I was also apprehensive. After all – this show was coming barely two months after their Mod Club show, which I declared “the best show I have ever seen”… what could they do for an encore?
It’s probably a good thing that Massey Hall is a dramatically different venue from The Mod Club – by virtue of the environment, a different sort of vibe was almost guaranteed. Besides having almost five times the capacity, it’s also a proper seated theatre with the best sound in the city. However, that much-vaunted sound system seemed woefully absent when the band took the stage at nine sharp. Howling feedback punctuated the first three songs of the set, prompting Jeff Tweedy to fess up that the band had, in fact, skipped soundcheck that day and was now paying the price for their laziness. Sheepishly apologizing and promising an extra-long set to compensate, they let the sound crew sort things out and carried on with no more sonic gremlinery.
That did, however, set the tone for a most peculiar evening. After Mikael Jorgenson accidentally triggered the sample opening for “Shot In The Arm” one song too early, Jeff jokingly apologized for “the least professional show of this tour”. He also had to deal with an audience member who chose to run right to the front of the stage and try to engage Jeff in… something. Jeff was clearly perplexed by the incident and the mook stood there for all of “Hell Is Chrome” only to be shooed back to his seat by security after some of his buddies joined him up front. Otherwise they just seemed to be having a good time on this, the second-last stop on this leg of their North American tour. I was mildly disappointed that the setlist was very similar to the August show (last night’s setlist vs August’s setlist), but I suppose that it was only fair since more than 2000 of the people in attendance hadn’t been at that show and hadn’t seen the Ghost material performed live yet.
Things got more interesting in the first encore, which consisted of the two most contentious songs from A Ghost Is Born. “Less Than You Think” was a revelation, performed as a beautiful country-ish lament worlds removed from the static-y sonic experiment of its album form. The still managed to tack several minutes of noise onto the end, however, before launching into “Spiders” – ably performed but not as incendiary as the Mod Club show. The second encore consisted mainly of Mermaid Avenue material (in addition to “The Late Greats”) but the main highlight was the guest appearance on keys by Garth Hudson of The Band. The final encore, kept short by a firm curfew from the venue, paired up the rocktacular “I’m A Wheel” with the gorgeously pensive Bill Fay number “Be Not So Fearful”, which was an election-year dedication to any Americans in the audience.
So all in all – better than the August show? No. A disappointment? God no. It was still a superbly entertaining concert and if anything, it made me appreciate the opportunity I had to see them really tear it up in a club setting. I can’t imagine they’ll be playing anything smaller than theatres in the forseeable future. I will say this about a seated theatre, though – it’s much easier to get good low light photographs (less moving around), though it does limit the number of vantage points you have for getting shots. Being front row certainly helps, of course… Check em out.
np – The Fiery Furnaces / Blueberry Boat
No Comments
facebook
![[Valid RSS]](http://www.chromewaves.net/images/interface/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed"){kind=small}