(photo courtesy the Mark Ohe archives)

After a decade on the 12th floor (and more than 17 years in the 'hood), today marks Matador's final day at 625 Broadway.  On Monday, we'll be moving to our new fancy digs with our pals from the Beggars Group — and dig is the operative world.  Much of the staff will be wielding shovels all weekend. 

Though we've had our gripes over the years, I cannot claim 625 wasn't good to us.  We had a great view of a Diana Ross photo shoot, once.  And over the years, our glamorous neighbors on the other floors have included video game firms, failed dot coms and the mysteriously dubbed "Juvenille Lingerie".  We never did quite turn Gonzalez y Gonzalez into our local (ie. we're not crazy), but we did manage to stay on the block long enough to bear witness to the closing and reopening of no fewer than 3 Blimpies. 

Anyhow, bye bye to the place and the all the lovely ghosts that stomp through the hallway each day.

UPDATE YOUR ADDRESS BOOK : Matador Records, 304 Hudson Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10013

If you live in the Windy City (or thereabouts), you're in luck! Not only are Love of Diagrams opening for Ted Leo and the Pharmacists at the Metro, but they are also playing another gig that night at the Hideout! Here's the details on the latter:

Love of Diagrams with Life During Wartime DJ's
doors at 9PM, band on at 11 PM
$8 before, $5 after 11 PM

The Hideout is one of the best venues in Chicago, if not the best, if you ask me! So head on out and have fun!

This is possibly the only reason for wanting to step foot anywhere near James Blunt… 

Spinal Tap, the greatest band that never was, are to play at the Live Earth gig at Wembley, London on 7 July. The three actors Michael McKeen (David St Hubbins), Christopher Guest (Nigel Tufnell) and Harry Shearer (Derek Smalls) have been brought together for the appearance by the director of 'This Is Spinal Tap', Rob Reiner. A short ten minute film has also been made, and will be screened at the gig.

Reiner says of the band's appearance: "They're not that environmentally
conscious, but they've heard of global warming. Nigel thought it was just
because he was wearing too much clothing – that if he just took his jacket
off it would be cooler."

(illustration by Mogollon)

Dear Friends,To commemorate Matador's barely legal status (ie. we're celebrating our 18th this year), we're commissioning a series of t-shirts. Though the garments are meant to be vaguely label/logo insipired, but we're hoping for something a bit more inspired that our previous designs (though that said, the Matador "that's italian" shirt still goes for crazy loot on eBay).

The shirts will be printed in a limited run of 200 per design, with each designer receiving $250.00 (USD) plus 20 shirts to be peddled or given away as he or she sees fit.  In turn, Matador will flog the remaining shirts for a sum  to-be-determined, but it'll probably be on the pricey side of things. 

The selected designs will be available for viewing on the Matador site & blog for advance purchase, though they'll also be available from select retailers.  We'll provide links to the individual designers' websites, too.

Knock yourselves out. Thank You. 

For your streaming pleasure, the portions of Lavender Diamond's forthcoming 'Imagine Our Love' (CD/LP, May Eigth), right here.

(link swiped from Boing Boing) 

Jennifer O'Connor's Wednesday night residency series at the Living Room kicks off on May 2, a night that will serve as a record release show for her split 7" with Choo Choo La Rogue. There's also a drawing for a $50 iTunes giftcard, but even you non-materialistic types would be foolish not to turn up. 

(pic by Lori Lee, used without permission)

With all due respect to Angus Young, Rowland S. Howard and Steve Lucas, The Coloured Balls' Lobby Loyde might be the most important Australian rock guitarist of his generation or any other.  Loyde passed away Saturday after a struggle with lung cancer — he's capabaly eulogized at WFMU's Beware Of The Blog by Brian Turner.

Starting off in 1963 with various combos including the Stilletos, Purple Hearts, Wild Cherries, and Thorpe's early Aztecs, Lobby took his amazing guitar playing through many phases from straightforward R&B through acid psych and spacerock soundtracks and schooled countless countrymen for years to come.

Not since Lizzie Grubman turned that valet stand into her personal monster SUV rally have we witnessed such an embarassingly-public-publicist-melt-down as Man Man's publicist's public melt-down over at Philebrity.  We're pretty sure people only go to that blog to remind themselves of which night is free Sparks night at the Khyber, so what's the point?   

(photo by Tom Rippe, used without permission)

Asked if we support college and non-commercial radio here at Matador, we would have to reply "yes". And, of course, if that means plying college MDs with free goods, tickets and expensive gifts to pump up chart positions, we'd emphatically reply "hell yes!!"

Well, The Ponys are about to put a little more rock action in their support. The Free Yr Radio campaign is putting together a series of in-stores to help in the support of the local college radio stations across the US and next Tuesday April 24th the band are going to be rocking Urban Outfitters (where else?) in Lawrence, KS in support of the very fine radio station KJHK.

THE PONYS LIVE IN-STORE

Urban Outfitters

1013 Massachusetts Street Lawrence, KS 66044

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

The show begins at 6pm and your free invite can be printed at www.freeyrradio.com/kjhkguest.

Make sure you show up early and have your invite in-hand as the show is first come, first served and you MUST have an invite.

Other bands participating include Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, Man Man, The Rapture, Tapes n Tapes and more. Additional cities and in-stores can be found here: http://www.freeyrradio.com

Yes folks, with this letter left on our doorstep last week (the second half of which reads half like a missive from NASA on why Lisa Nowak won't be on Atlantis flight STS-117), it's official…no more diaper services in Brooklyn. 

(Gerard:  Apologies in advance if I'm turning Matablog into babycenter) 

Yes, the fine men of Matmos will once again grace these shores (England, that is) on July 1st for a date in the Royal Festival Hall with our old pal Cornelius.

More information can be found here.

And obviously, this will be nothing less than MIND-BLOWING. 

The Fader's got some great on-set pictures from Lavender Diamond's video shoot for "Open Your Heart."  If the picture above is any indication, the liberation of the suburbs will involve a lot of bright colors, floral prints, and waving arms.

From the Guardian's Karen McVeigh,

Bryan Ferry has apologised for remarks he made praising Nazi iconography. The 61-year-old singer sparked condemnation from Jewish leaders after he was quoted in a German newspaper describing the aesthetic behind Nazi Germany as "just amazing".

In an interview with Welt am Sonntag, Ferry also revealed that he calls his studio in west London his "Fuhrerbunker".

He said: "My God, the Nazis knew how to put themselves in the limelight and present themselves. I'm talking about Leni Riefenstahl's movies and Albert Speer's buildings and the mass parades and the flags – just amazing. Really beautiful. "

….and of a strong constitution, I suggest you check out the Mirror's interview with David Gest. Who amongst us hasn't stayed up late at night, curious about the details behind how he lost his virginity?  Or longed for the day we'd learn about his teenage experiments with angel dust?

Lavender Diamond is performing next Thursday at the Redcat theatre in the Disney Concert Hall in LA.  A really special event that will feature Lavender Diamond with an orchestral backing (arrangements written by the band's own Steve Gregoropoulos), this is a one off engagement with Indian Jewelry.  So if you're in the LA area, clear your calender.  There isn't a better way to spend $15 on a Thursday night, not legally anyway. Check out details and buy tickets HERE.

Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Cat’s Cradle” and “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater” caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died last night in Manhattan. He was 84.

–From the NY Times Obituary 

He'd been mostly retired since publishing "Timequake" in the mid-90s, but still, what a bummer.  I'll just say that Mr. Vonnegut probably had a larger effect on my own developing personality in high school than just about anything else, hometown, parents, and Silkworm included.  Plus he looked like a big muppet.

People tend to steer readers toward "Cat's Cradle" and "Slaughterhouse-Five," but for me "Breakfast of Champions," the essay collection "Wampeters Foma & Granfalloons," and the aforementioned "Timequake" were where it's at.

Salut Mr. Vonnegut, I'm sorry you had to die while George W. Bush was president. 

(Chan on the cover of the May issue of ID, photograph by Karl Lagerfield)

JULY
7-  Brooklyn, NY @ McCarren Pool (w/ Built to Spill)
8-  Boston, MA @ Avalon Ballroom
9-  Northampton, MA @  Pearl Street
10- Toronto, ON @ Phoenix
13- Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
14- Chicago, IL- Union Park- Pitchfork Music Festival

There's one additional Canadian date to be confirmed.

Two free in-stores, two cities, same time.  Love Of Diagrams will be performing a free, all ages show at Amoeba Music in San Francisco this Saturday at 4pm.  Meanwhile, Jonathan Meiburg and Thor Harris of Shearwater will performing at End Of An Ear in Austin.

(Shearwater pic swiped fromPitchfork) 

Simultaneous action, Saturday, April 14th at 4pm.

Love of Diagrams at Amoeba Music, 1855 Haight St., San Francisco CA 94117

Shearwater at End Of An Ear, 2209 South First St., Austin TX 78704

from Blabbermouth.net :

Wentworth Gallery will present two art exhibitions by artist, rock icon and legendary KISS frontman Paul Stanley. He will make two special appearances at the Wentworth Galleries on Friday June 22, 2007 and on Saturday June 23, 2007.

For more than thirty years, Paul Stanley has reigned supreme as one of the single-most recognizable front men in the history of rock and roll. He's the principal songwriter, driving force and unwavering voice of KISS. A visionary and trend-setter since the early 1970s, Paul Stanley's passion for both the musical and visual arts has perhaps been the key to the astonishing ongoing world phenomenon known as KISS. His artistic and visual input has been seen in his designs of KISS album covers, stages and apparel. As an art major and graduate of the prestigious high school of Music and Art in NYC, Paul has returned to his passion for painting to share with you the deep emotions his art conveys. Paul Stanley creates portraits and abstracts that are emotionally charged compositions. He aims to maximize the direct physical impact of his paintings through scale, texture, color and simplicity of images.

(above : Love Of Diagrams. below : Times New Viking, the latter pic stolen from Partydope)

To commemorate both Love Of Diagrams and Times New Viking visiting the Texas capitol and playing big ticket / big room gigs this Saturday night (with Ted Leo & The Pharmacists and Yo La Tengo respectively), label management has stepped in (cough) and bullied both bands into playing the follow free concerto.

Saturday, April 8

Times New Viking – 2pm

Love Of Diagrams – 2:45pm

End Of An Ear, 2209 South First St., Austin TX 78704

There will be beer. Don't thank us now, thank us on Saturday.

To commemorate the May 8 release of 'Imagine Our Love' (CD/LP), Lavender Diamond will be performing in the following retail establishments :

Monday, May 7th, 11pm
Sonic Boom Capitol Hill
514 15th Ave. East
Seattle, WA

Tuesday, May 8th, 7pm
Music Millennium
801 N.W. 23RD
Portland, OR

Thursday, May 10th, 7pm
Amoeba Music
1855 Haight St.
San Francisco, CA

Friday, May 11th, 7pm
Amoeba Music
6400 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA

Saturday, May 12th, 3pm
M-Theory Music,
2234 30th St
San Diego, CA 92104

…than by watching that terrific American North American rock'n'roll juggernaut The New Pornographers, live in lower Manhattan's Battery Park.  It's all going down July 4 with support from Midlake. Free tickets will be distributed at select Starbucks locations (and before you give us any grief, a ) we're not the promoter and b) if it's any consolation, Jackie Mason doesn't like Starbucks, either) with details to follow.

(photo of Jonathan Meiburg, taken from hewinsd's Flickr page)

The following day, July 5, Shearwater will be performing a free show at New York City's Castle Clinton. 

(photo by Sheri Hausey.  http://www.sherihausey.com)

Word of warning to our friends in Providence ; Mission Of Burma are no longer playing Brown University on Thursday, April 19. They have, however been added to the Yo La Tengo / Flaming Lips bill on Saturday, April 21.  

Note to recently proud papa Adam Farrell: maybe Ella's nickname should be 'TimesNewViking?' What do you think? From our friends at the Associated Press:

Metallica may be a cool name for a heavy metal band, but a Swedish couple is struggling to convince officials it is also suitable for a baby girl.

Michael and Karolina Tomaro are locked in a court battle with Swedish authorities, which rejected their application to name their six-month-old child after the legendary rock band.

"It suits her," Karolina Tomaro, 27, said Tuesday of the name. "She's decisive and she knows what she wants."

Although little Metallica has already been baptized, the Swedish National Tax Board refused to register the name, saying it was associated with both the rock group and the word "metal."

Tomaro said the official handling the case also called the name "ugly."

The couple was backed by the County Administrative Court in Goteborg, which ruled on March 13 that there was no reason to block the name. It also noted that there already is a woman in Sweden with Metallica as a middle name.

The tax agency appealed to a higher court, frustrating the family's foreign travel plans.

"We've had to cancel trips and can't get anywhere because we can't get her a passport without an approved name," Tomaro said.

Ironically enough, if I recall correctly, original Metallica bassist Cliff Burton met his untimely demise in the home country of Jesper Eklow, so Swedish National Tax Board, if you're listening/reading and asking "For Whom the Bell Tolls," well it tolls for thee.

…you can't sell out when you never stood for anything in the first place. From the New York Times' Robert Levine, April 2, '07.

Fans of Fall Out Boy who downloaded “Thnks Fr Th Mmrs,” the rock band’s new video last weekend most likely enjoyed the spectacle of chimpanzees playing filmmakers and mocking the members of the band. But they may have noticed something else: Tag All Nighter, a deodorant body spray aimed at young men, is featured prominently in the video.

Fall Out Boy was comfortable with Tag because the brand’s ads have a “sarcastic spin,” said Pete Wentz, the band’s bassist and lyricist. “Given how the industry is right now, you have to come up with new kinds of partnerships, and when you’re able to offset the cost of the video, that’s cool. Hiring chimps is not cheap.”