(pic from Brad Searles’ Flickr page)

There wasn’t a tour nearly as daring, funny or stimulating in 2007 as The Freewheeling Yo La Tengo. And I should know. I’ve seen EVERY TOURING ACT THIS YEAR. Including the reunited Channel 3 (who really shouldn’t have bothered). Lucky for you, Yo La Tengo’s love for this great nation extends to the following cities as The Freewheeling tour continues into 2008 :

1/9 – Charlottesville VA at the Satellite Ballroom
1/10 – Carrboro NC at Carrboro Arts Center
1/11 – Charlotte NC at the Visulite
1/12 – Atlanta GA at the Variety
1/14 – Athens GA at Melting Point (first show in Athens since early 2003, pre-Summer Sun)
1/15 – Birmingham AL at the Workplay
1/16 – Louisville KY at the 930 Listening Room
1/17 – Nashville TN at the Belcourt
1/18 – Memphis TN at Gibson Lounge
1/19 – Springfield, MO at the Randy Bacon Gallery

Kurt Wagner supports on all dates

The band formerly and well currently known as Dead Meadow may not have a fancy symbol. One that can be disturbingly transformed into a guitar and used with a simple silhouette effect to make people cringe nationwide. Well, we’d listen to arguments that an Orange Amp perfectly symbolizes Dead Meadow. Ahhh, such a robust, and psychedelic sound. What that has to do with the Super Bowl or Prince admittedly isn’t clear to even us. So with all due respect to the man from Minneapolis and football fans far and wide, we’ll get to the point. Think of this as a sort of touchdown + two point conversion, within a rock context of course.

Dead Meadow will be playing a special show at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City on Wed, Jan 16th, 2008 to celebrate the release of their new album ‘Old Growth’ (out 2/5/08). So excited to get it out, the band is willing to give anyone who attends the opportunity to pick it up a whole 3 weeks early. For $25 anyone looking to get their hands on Old Growth can purchase a ticket to Dead Meadow’s Jan 16th show + their new CD. One great price, 2 great Dead Meadow experiences. Sorry, those searching for vinyl you’ll have to wait for the proper street date — this offer applies to CDs only. Now you can purchase this package deal through Matador’s online store, the Bowery Ballroom or in person at Other Music (15 East 4th Street between Broadway and Lafayette, NYC). However, you’ll not receive the album at the time of purchase but instead, the night of the gig (1/16/08). You’ll just need to swing by the merch table at the Bowery, present your receipt to our sales person and they’ll hand over your Dead Meadow goods. Very important, no receipt, no CD, no exceptions.

Here’s a further selection from what we’re pretty confident will be one of 2008′s most exciting releases :

“What Needs Must Be” – from ‘Old Growth’ (mp3)

Producer/musician/songwriter extraordinaire Wyclef Jean was quizzed by New York Magazine’s Sara Cardace this week about his influences (thanks to Ira for the link). Let’s just say he demonstrated greater candor than the majority of the Matador roster would’ve under similar circumstances.

Do you have a favorite movie?
My favorite movie is Black Orpheus. Do me a favor, okay? Please go see that. It’s very cinematic and raw. I think what makes a great movie is when you can feel the culture and the sun and the people and the vibe inside the lens. Another movie I love is Once Upon a Time in America. I fell in love with that movie because of the score. You can imagine—I’m a kid supposed to be watching the movie, and instead I’m listening to the score.

And guilty pleasures?
I’m a great porn collector. The best porn ever is Sweetest Taboo. You ever seen it? That’s a good one. I probably have over 5,000 pornos.

Really?! Where do you keep them all?
In my basement. I collected them through the years. I don’t lie about anything; I think if someone has a porn collection, they have a porn collection. I know people who say they don’t have a porn collection, but when they get up in hotels they run them bills wild! They might want to call me and I could rent them a few.

Whether or not Wyclef can be considered an heir to Ralph Whittington‘s former throne as “King Of Porn” remains to be seen. But the next time a prominent musician is asked about a guilty pleasure and feels compelled to answer “Project Runway”, rest assured, the ante has been raised.

Just a friendly Reminder…this is happening tomorrow!

Free Times New Viking Show!
Friday, November 30th at 8:00 pm

Academy Annex
96 N. 6th St. – Williamsburg

(Vince Neil Bret Michaels  Vince Neil Bret Michaels  Vince Neil!)

You can file this one under “good seats still available” :

 Dec. 15 at the Beaumont Civic Center in Beaumont, TX. Bret Michaels Band with special guests Vince Neil.

The only thing stopping this from being the Beaumount event of the season is the fact Michaels and Neil will not be playing simultaneously.

The world needs more comedy recordings like Chuck Scarborough needs another hole in the head. But the world needs more rock’n'roll records like Chuck needs two more holes in the head, so let’s leave the genre prejudice aside for a moment, shall we? I can honestly say the original release of Andrew Earles & Jeffrey Jensen’s ‘Just Farr A Laugh’ is the single most played compact disc in my household, automobile, yacht, etc. over the past 3 years. The rich, fully formed universe they’ve created with their mind-blowing phone calls (ok, billed as “pranks” but oh, so much more) has to this listener’s ears, transcended the mere comedy / spoken schtick bin and puts the duo in much more rarified territory. Rowan & Martin. Martin & Lewis. Oswald & Ruby. Peterson & Kekich. That’s the kind of company I’m talking about.

We’ll be releasing Earles & Jensen Present : Just Farr A Laugh Vol. 1 and 2 on the popular compact disc format February 19, 2008. Since my hands are so very tired, Andrew and Jeff have kindly composed a far more appropriate screed on this subject.

If you are a fan of Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk, Yes’ Tales from Topographic Oceans, the Hampton Grease Band’s Music To Eat, The Mothers of Invention’s Freak Out, Husker Du’s Zen Arcade, the Minutemen’s Double Nickels on the Dime, TFUL 282’s Mother of All Saints, and wish there was a prank call/comedy version of these wonderfully indulgent, macro masterpieces, well, it looks like February 19th is going to be your lucky day. That last sentence is a thinly-veiled way to say that unless you are promotionally serviced by Matador Records or rank amongst the contributors, don’t expect a burn or freebie.

The double CD set constitutes the world’s greatest collection of prank phone calls. Included in the package will be a book (not booklet) of drawings, photographs, and writing, all courtesy of multiple contributors. It’s a virtual who’s who that doesn’t make a lot of sense, but nonetheless creates a wonderful companion to the recorded works.

A short list of artists that contributed drawings: Mike Aho, Archer Prewitt, Devendra Banhart, Mark Henning, Ian Marshall, Gavin McInnes, Jake Oas, Aurel Schmidt, Matt Sweeney, and Megan Whitmarsh.

The entire list of writers that contributed forewords: Gregg Turkington (AKA Neil Hamburger, comedy genius, writer, Warm Voices Rearranged), Matador’s Gerard Cosloy, David Dunlap Jr. (writer, Washington City Paper, Memphis Flyer, funny guy), and master humorist/writer Neil Pollack (books: Alternadad, The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature, Never Mind The Pollacks: A Rock and Roll Novel, editor/contributor: Akashic’s Chicago Noir).

Along with writer Ian Christe and artist Steve Keene, Jeffrey Jensen founded modern day Brooklyn NYC around 1992, during the Dinkins administration. He has written or directed the films The Low Down Dirty D.A.W.G.S. (1999), Street Boogie (2001, shelved), and Graceland Too: The Movie (still in production). An accomplished artist, Jeff is known for his puppet shows, intricate nightlight dioramas, and evenings of vast entertainment, as well as anything else you could possibly think of. With his incredibly magnetic personality, Mr. Jensen has left a lasting mental imprint on anyone lucky enough to have spent over an hour in his presence. Jeffrey has played in many bands, including The Closet Case, The Jewish, The Star Spangles, plus he was the bass player for Homestead Records recording artists Smack Dab. He drives a 1982 Chrysler Lebaron, contributes regularly to Vice Magazine, and was accidentally shot with a .22 rifle when he was 13-years-old.

Andrew Earles is a writer and loosely-defined humorist that lives in Memphis, TN. His words regularly appear in The Onion A/V Club, Spin, Harp, Magnet, Vice, Paste, Chunklet, and The Memphis Flyer…among others. He founded The Cimarron Weekend in 1997, co-publishing and co-editing said argument-starter with David Dunlap Jr. until 2001. Four or five people like to claim that it was a great zine. From 2001 until late 2006, Andrew was a regular contributor to Tom Scharpling’s The Best Show on WFMU. As far as books go, his essays have appeared in the now out-of-print Lost In The Grooves (Routledge) and remainder table favorite, The Overrated Book (Last Gasp). He is a core contributor to The Rock Bible, to be published by Quirk in 2008. Most of his attempts at live comedy have failed miserably. Andrew is a proud Southerner and amateur, wanna-be outdoorsman that loves to fish, act like he knows a lot about animals, and walk around in the woods. He sometimes has a smart mouth, yet against all logic, has yet to receive that long-overdue ass-whomping (not an invitation). This is his blog: www.failedpilot.com

Jeffrey Joe Jensen and Andrew Scott Earles are Leo’s, reliably carrying all of the negative and positive baggage of that particular sign. Amazingly, and unknown to the duo until several years ago, they share the exact same birthday of August 15th.

“Bedroom ETA: A Jermaine Stewart Cover Band” (mp3)
“My Friends Call Me Ditchweed. Don’t Ask. OK, Go Ahead and Ask” (mp3)

Filmoculous and New York Magazine both wanna know : if “The Office”‘s writing staff are amongst the strikers, who, pray tell, is updating Creed’s blog?

First person to say Scott Stapp is banned from the Matablog forever.

(Pete and Derek at KEXP’s Summer BBQ, pic swiped from Pema’s Flickr page)

Newly recorded versions of “Cold Eye”, “Helen”, and “Seeds Of Night” from ‘Invitation Songs’, plus a new, as-yet untitled, unreleased recording, all available for your downloading pleasure from the smooth characters at Daytrotter.

upcoming dates :

11/30 Seattle WA — Crocodile Cafe
12/1 Eugene OR — Wow Hall
12/2 Sacramento CA — CoolCat Gallery
12/3 Visalia CA — The Cellar Door
12/4 Los Angeles CA — The Echo
12/5 San Luis Obispo — Tridosha Healing Center
12/6 San Francisco CA — Rickshaw Stop
12/8 Portland OR — Doug Fir Lounge

“I don’t know of any laws that I’ve broken.”

Bigamy, fraud and and crap grooming come to mind.

(Blaine and Todd, shown at Manchester Academy. This isn’t product placement per se, but if there’s any sort of heavy discount coming the band’s way, they might not turn it down, either. Picture taken from Rick and Mindy’s Flickr page)

The New Pornographers
Free In-store Performance
Tuesday, December 11th
8:00 pm
Apple Store SoHo
103 Prince St. – NYC

The Spirit Of Giving Single available exclusively on iTunes Nov 27th
Spirit of Giving Details provided in a previous (and uncopied) post by Gerard titled, “The New Pornographers – Christmas Single Coming Nov. 27 From The iTunes Music Store.”

Free Times New Viking Show!
Friday, November 30th at 8:00 pm

Academy Annex
96 N. 6th St. – Williamsburg

Could there be any better methodology to generate crazed anticipation for Times New Viking’s upcoming 3rd (2nd 1/2?) long-player, ‘Rip It Off” (January 22, ‘08) than by a Free in-store and a chance to get your hands on one of the Ultra Limited Edition Times New Viking 7″ 2 weeks before release date (December 12, ’07)?

Also, I’m not trying to copy Gerard with the whole talking about Times New Viking thing, so don’t think that I am. Look, a few posts down…see, we are talking about different stuff…

It’s the first Matador Xmas record since The Frogs’ “Here Comes Santa’s Pussy”. And it more than lives up to that super high standard!

1) “The Spirit Of Giving” (from the CD/LP ‘Challengers’)
2) “Arms Of Mary” / “Looking At A Baby” (previously unreleased, the former by Iain Sutherland of The Sutherland Brothers, though the New Pornographers’ version is a tribute to Chilliwack‘s rendition. “Looking At A Baby” is a Collectors cover)
3) “Joseph” (previously unreleased, A.C. Newman original)

Here’s the direct link to the EP on the iTunes Store.

(they wrote this one in the van on the way to the gig)

Mission Of Burma will be playing Brooklyn’s Music Hall Of Williamsburg on January 19.

For an early crack at tickets, here’s the place.

(pic culled from J Van’s flickr page)

Could there be any better methodology to generate crazed anticipation for Times New Viking’s upcoming 3rd (2nd 1/2?) long-player, ‘Rip It Off” (January 22, ’08) than by a pair of East Coast gigs with one of the greatest bands of all (curse word) time?  Perhaps a free gig at a beloved Brooklyn purveyor of sound recordings?

Fri, Nov 30th – Brooklyn – Academy Annex Record Shoppe
Sat, Dec 1st – NYC, NY -  Cake Shop (with The Clean)
Sun, Dec 2nd – Philadelphia, PA -  Johnny Brenda’s (with The Clean)

Thought the eagle-eye of Chris Lombardi notes Floyd’s tuesday evening residency at Colucci’s in Haledon, NJ (take that, Feelies), be advised the great man will be appearing November 25 at Uncle Vinnie’s in Point Pleasant for what is being billed as “AN ADULTS ONLY SHOW”.

“It’s considered inappropriate or even immoral for white musicians to appropriate African-American styles.”

Here’s a headline you might not see on the front of tomorrow’s NY Times Arts & Leisure section :

“Timberlake Dropped :  Appropriation of African-American Styles Said To Be Wildly Unpopular”.

The Danny Bejar-tastic “Myriad Harbour” b/w the previously unreleaed A.C. Newman composition, “Fugue State” on our favorite format, 7″ vinyl. Available now from the Matador Store for a mere $3.

(the youthful SSD, doing their best to clean up Boston’s Combat Zone)

from eBay (link courtesy Patrick) :

Masterdisk Corporation NYC, USA May 1982. The set of two 1-sided 12″ 45rpm acetates for the later XClaim-release of Boston`s first straight-edge hardcore LP: Disc 1 (Side a): Boiling Point, Fight Them, Do You Ever Care?, Not Normal, Wasted Youth, Jock Itch, Fun To You, Violent Attack, How Much Art. Disc 2 (Side b): The Kids Will Have Their Say, Headed Straight, War Threat, Teach Me Violence, Screw, Who`s To Judge, Police Beat, Unity, The End. In white gatefold cardboard cover with sticker on front. The acetates are in finest condition. Photocopy of the original invoice enclosed. Postage costs depend on your location. Payment can be made by bank transfer, Paypal, IMO or something other. I will soon sell more records so stay tuned.

All things considered, a version of “SNL” that isn’t on TV is still likely to have just as many viewers as any edition of “MSG, NY” that is actually broadcast. From the Hollywood Reporter :

Two New York-based shows, “30 Rock” and “Saturday Night Live,” will get one-time-only performances this weekend in Manhattan.

The casts of both shows will perform at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater on West 26th Street, with “Saturday Night Live” performing a show at 11:30 p.m. Saturday and “30 Rock” going on at 8 p.m. Monday. “Superbad” and “Arrested Development” star Michael Cera will be the guest host of “SNL,” and the musical guest is Hoboken, N.J., alternative rockers Yo La Tengo.

“SNL” cast member Amy Poehler (above) said in a statement late Thursday that the theater is a “second home” to many of the performers and writers.

“We are doing this to raise spirits, raise awareness and raise money for our hardworking production crews who will be having a hard holiday season if this strike continues,” Poehler said.

If nothing else, the above film might finally explain why they replaced all the pinball at Max Fish with slot machines.

From the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz :

A Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for The Washington Post has apologized to D.C. Council member Marion Barry for sending an intemperate e-mail to his spokesman.

“It’s the stupidest thing I’ve done in 30 years in journalism,” music critic Tim Page (above) said yesterday. “I hope people won’t judge me on this one explosion.”

Page wrote Barry’s aide, Andre Johnson, last week after receiving an unsolicited press release about the former mayor’s views on Greater Southeast Community Hospital:

“Must we hear about it every time this crack addict attempts to rehabilitate himself with some new — and typically half-witted — political grandstanding? I’d be grateful if you would take me off your mailing list. I cannot think of anything the useless Marion Barry could do that would interest me in the slightest, up to and including overdose.”

Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. called Page’s e-mail “a terrible mistake” and said he has taken “appropriate internal action,” but neither he nor Page would disclose it. Page plans to take a previously scheduled four-month leave starting Jan. 1.

Downie said Page “has nothing to do with our local political coverage, as a music critic. On the other hand, it was sent on Washington Post e-mail, and he represents The Washington Post in everything he does.”

Barry said in an interview that he was “outraged” and “incredulous” at the “despicable” e-mail, “particularly coming from a reporter at a reputable newspaper like The Washington Post, not a rag.” He said the note amounted to “character assassination” at a time when “around the nation, it’s almost open season on black people.”

With all due respect to the former Mayor, if there was a racial component to Page’s message, the Post made no such thing clear to this reader. If Page’s great error was calling an elected official a “crack addict”, perhaps an amended letter would’ve sufficed rather than a formal apology? To wit, Barry’s mere conviction on a cocaine possession charge in 1990 (and prior appearance smoking crack on an FBI surveillance tape) is no way proper justification for calling this respected public servant a crack addict.

However, had Page’s offending passage read “must we hear about it every time this recreational user of crack attempts to rehabilitate himself with some new — and typically half-witted — political grandstanding?”, I’m sure there’d have been far less outcry.

Though ‘Jukebox’ won’t be available until January 22 (a day earlier in the UK and Europe), the original Chan Marshall composition “Song To Bobby” is available starting today from the iTunes Music Store.

Always wear a clean pair of undies, folks, ’cause you never know when yours might up in the Daily Mail. Said tabloid’s Tom Rawstrorne is genuinely bummed at Facebook’s “30 Reasons Girls Should Call It A Night”

Part of the Facebook phenomenon (6.5million active users in the UK alone and growing by the day), it was set up by an American student and as its name suggests has as its basis a 30-strong list of telltale signs that the “sisterhood” should recognise as being indicative of home-time.

“Although there is now a fairly deeply entrenched drinking culture amongst young people where basically people drink for its own sake, it is also being used as a way to show people what a daring, risk-taking, funky young person they are,” he says.

Sheesh. Good thing only women get up to this kind of thing.

Sorry, we should’ve shared this with you sooner, but between taking down all of the Prince photos on the Matablog and mulling over offers to take a stranger on a holiday, we’ve been pretty busy.

hey kids, here are two tracks off our double A side single off our new record, ‘rip it off.’ these were recorded at the state-of-the-art, multi-million dollar ‘self-esteem studio’ recording facility in columbus, ohio. send us a post if you are interested in working there. very cheap rates and very fine chaps. we can put in a good word for you… because, as the big-wigs at the office tell us, cheaper recordings mean more money for drugs.

(my head)
R.I.P. allegory

(mgmt notation : said 7″ will also include two b-sides that will not appear on ‘Rip It Off’, The Petticoats’ “Allergy” and the Times New Viking original “Western Civ”. 550 copies max, sleeves hand stamped by the band, gentlemen and gentleladies, start your hoarding engines now).

(Alan Rankine – fondly remembered — late at night — by at least one journalist)

“Can a red-blooded hetero with a troglodyte’s penchant for curvy Page 3 ‘stunnas’ also be in love, albeit platonically, with geezers in bands?” asks the Guardian’s Paul Lester. Hey, why the heck not? But where’s the love for King Diamond?

Personally, when it comes to blokes, I like ‘em alien and androgynous, weird, skinny and fucked-up. I’ve got one picture of Todd Rundgren sitting cross-legged on a bed at the height of his post-psychedelic whiz-kiddery in 1974 in which he looks so transfixingly translucent and transgenderly divine it makes me die a little inside. He’s my number one heartthrob pin-up, always was, always will be. The fact that he’s a genius is neither here nor there. He takes a good photo. But I’m not the faithful type. I also go ga-ga for Sly Stone circa There’s a Riot Going On, the intelligent but degenerate (good combo, that) Alex Chilton, white Hendrix Randy California, David Cassidy at his pretty peak, the Cheap Trick sex gods, Alan Rankine of Associates when he looked like Rudolph Valentino and Liam Gallagher’s lovechild, the surreally cute Nick Heyward, Michael Jackson just when he went all mutant-extraterrestrial on our ass circa 1984, and Wayne Coyne before he morphed from clean-cut cosmic boy to mature grey-beard.

See, a lot of male musicians have a Beauty Moment, while others sustain it over the distance. Bernard Sumner kept up his adorable lad-naif thing for over a decade. Keef looked better the more drugged-out he got, although there was a turning point when iconic debauchery gave way to dishevelled chic then simply to decrepit. There are categories of shaggability, from northern bit of rough (hi, Ian and Liam) to studio brainiac (Eno, say – come on, Eno in the mid-70s was a fox!). Certain styles give me the horn: the baggy shorts and shaved barnets ensemble of the postpunk/white funk brigade always did it for me.

Today we announce the final sequence for Cat Power’s upcoming ‘Jukebox’ album, to be released on January 22. The names below indicate the best known performer of the original songs, who are not necessarily the songwriters:

1. New York (Frank Sinatra)
2. Ramblin’ (Wo)man (Hank Williams)
3. Metal Heart (Cat Power *)
4. Silver Stallion (The Highwaymen)
5. Aretha, Sing One For Me (George Jackson)
6. Lost Someone (James Brown)
7. Lord, Help The Poor And Needy (Jessie Mae Hemphill)
8. I Believe In You (Bob Dylan)
9. Song To Bobby (written by Chan Marshall and Matt Sweeney)
10. Don’t Explain (Billie Holiday)
11. Woman Left Lonely (Janis Joplin)
12. Blue (Joni Mitchell)

* original version on the ‘Moon Pix’ album
** first appearance of this song

In addition, there will be a limited-edition silver foil deluxe package with a bonus disc containing the following 5 songs:

1. I Feel (Hot Boys)
2. Naked, If I Want To (Moby Grape)
3. Breathless (Nick Cave)
4. Angelitos Negros (Roberta Flack)
5. She’s Got You (Patsy Cline)

Photo by Stefano Giovannini.

The album cover image, along with full songwriting and publishing information for the original sequence of songs can be found at the original announcement. Here is the information for the songs not on that sequence:

7. Lord, Help The Poor and Needy
Traditional, from Jessie Mae Hemphill, arranged by Chan Marshall, Public Domain

12. Blue
Written by Joni Mitchell, published by Joni Mitchell Publishing Corp./Sony ATV Tunes, LLC (ASCAP)

bonus 1. I Feel
Written by Carter, Dorsey, Gray, Thomas, Virgil, published by Chopper City Music Publishing/Money Mack Music (BMI)

bonus 2. Naked, If I Want To
Written by Jerry Miller, published by Ervenson Publishing Co. (BMI)

bonus 3. Breathless
Written by Nick Cave, published by Songs of Windswept Pacific (BMI)

bonus 4. Angelitos Negros
Written by Andres Eloy Blanco/ Manuel Alvarez Maciste, published by APRS (BMI)

bonus 5. She’s Got You
Written by Hank Cochran, published by Sony/ATV Tree Publishing (BMI)

Go on, sue us.  We used to love you to bits, but in retrospect, the Mary Jane Girls were so much cooler than Vanity 6. 

No square inch of scenery left to chew, no square inch of Shatner’s ass to kiss, and no clips of the interview on YouTube yet, but one can enjoy Mike Patton exploring everything that happened in music between The Infectious Grooves and Linkin Park!