I can’t imagine a better way to spend Valentines Day (barf), than seeing Times New Viking fucking rock it in Minnesota. They will be playing a free in-store at Treehouse Records in Minneapolis on Thursday, Feb. 14th at 7:00 PM. If you aren’t there, we will assume you are doing something totally mushy with your boy/girlfriend, and well, that’s lame.

Thursday, Feb. 14th @ 7:00PM

Treehouse Records – 2557 Lyndale Ave S

The new album from Matmos finds the dynamic duo taking a holiday from conceptual responsibility, skipping the outré sampling antics in favor of a lighthearted “cosmic pop” record made entirely out of synthesizers. Leave it to Matmos to invent a hard and fast rule that they have to follow even when they’re just having fun: the creative restriction this time around is that “Supreme Balloon” is an ALL synthesizer album and no microphones were used at any point. That’s right, no household objects played in a percussive manner, no snails or blood or amplified semen, no acoustic instruments, no voices of famous people for five seconds, not even any half-way cheating with Vocoders, just synthesizers of all shapes, sizes, eras and nationalities being snipped, folded and reshuffled by an arsenal of samplers and computers into colorful sound-origami.

Gear fetishists take note: the exotic and antiquated synths used on the record heavily spotlight the classic 60s/70s/80s consumer electronic rigs of Arp, Korg, Roland, Waldorf and Moog, and feature modular systems from Electro-Comp, Doepfer and Akai (hell, even a stylophone and a Suzuki Omnichord show up); these were recorded at home in San Francisco, California and in the SnowGhost studio at Whitefish, Montana. But there are also completely unique, one-of-a-kind modular curios present, such as the “Coupigny” modular synthesizer housed in the INA/GRM studios at Radio France in Paris and used extensively by some of the titans of musique-concrete. Guest players invited to the party include living treasure of American jazz Marshall Allen of the Sun Ra Arkestra (he plays the E.V.I. or Electronic Voice Instrument, a breath controlled oscillator, on “Mister Mouth”), Bay Area troublemakers Jon Leidecker (aka Wobbly), East Coast electroacoustic sages Jay Lesser and Keith Fullerton Whitman, and classically trained pianist Sarah Cahill. Plus, our roll-call of the good and great would be remiss if we didn’t mention that the gatefold double vinyl and ITunes edition of the album also includes the bonus track “Hashish Master” that features a guest solo synth improvisation from none-other-than minimalist mastermind Terry Riley(!). Though it was recorded all over the world over the last two years, the whole shebang was finished in Baltimore, Maryland (the band’s new home, at least as long as Drew Daniel is a professor in the English Department at Johns Hopkins University), and comes encased in some truly gorgeous watercolor artwork by Robert Syrett.

To break it down: the album drops with a bumpin’ front end of four rhythmic workouts (perky, stomping, toe-tapping, and shuffling, respectively) that coach Perrey & Kingsley and 8-bit video game music and kitsch Latin Moogsploitation into some freaky positions. Then things take a classy European vacation in which the baroque composer Francois Couperin’s “Les Folies Francaises” is given the Wendy Carlos treatment. Then the band turn a corner into unexpected, ambitious new territory and things swell to a truly ridiculous/heroic climax. The jewel in the crown is the album’s title track, a 24 minute monster synth jam that builds from a lone Roland SH-101 wobbling your sub-woofers into a celestial, psychedelic epic whose spiraling arpeggios recall the sidelong LP-era mind-journeys of Cluster, Mother Mallard and Vangelis. Riding an insistent tabla pattern courtesy of a “Taal Mala” drum machine from India, warm, bubbling layers of analogue synthesis, and the chattering and chirping of MAX patches shaking hands with boutique EFX pedals, it’s a long strange trip indeed. Things cool down with an ambient air kiss and it’s over.

We know you’re probably shaking your head and thinking to yourself, “an electronic band makes an all-electronic album? These guys must be CRAZY.” And you’d be right. Consider this revenge for all those Queen records whose liner notes said “And nobody played the synthesizer!”, and a sweet surprise from a truly unpredictable American band.

“Rainbow Flag” – mp3, from ‘Supreme Baloon’ LP/CD (US- May 6, 2008, UK/EU, May 5 2008)

Mission Of Burma: The Definitive Editions I, II and III (of their Ace Of Hearts catalog, recorded between 1979 and 1983) come out on March 18. Fully remastered from the original analog tape by Rick Harte, Ace Of Hearts owner, and the producer of the original records, the results are absolutely stunning.

We hereby present 256K MP3s and uncompressed WAV files of two tracks. The first track is “Max Ernst,” the B-side to the “Academy Fight Song” 7″ (their 1980 debut), in drastically improved sound. This song is included on the ‘Signals, Calls & Marches’ dbl LP + DVD / CD + DVD.

The second track is an unreleased live recording of “Weatherbox,” which will be available live ‘Horrible Truth About Burma’ dbl LP + DVD / CD + DVD.

“Max Ernst” (256K MP3)
“Max Ernst” (WAV)
“Weatherbox (Live)” (256K MP3)
“Weatherbox (Live)” (WAV)

Here is the complete track listing for the reissues:

Mission Of Burma: The Definitive Editions I, II and III
Remastered from the original analog tapes

I. Signals, Calls & Marches dbl LP + DVD / CD + DVD

The “Academy Fight Song” 7″ (1980):

1. Academy Fight Song
2. Max Ernst

Two unreleased studio tracks from the “Academy Fight Song” session (1980):

3. Devotion
4. Execution [not the rehearsal demo included on a Taang LP, but the actual studio version]

The original ‘Signals, Calls & Marches’ 12″ EP (1981):

5. That’s When I Reach For My Revolver
6. Outlaw
7. Fame And Fortune
8. This Is Not A Photograph
9. Red
10. All World Cowboy Romance

Companion DVD to Signals — Live at The Space (October 6, 1979) and The Underground (April 20, 1980):

a. This Is Not A Photograph (The Underground, 1980)
b. Secrets (The Space, 1979)
c. Devotion (The Underground, 1980)
d. Manic Incarnation (The Underground, 1980)
e. Eyes Of Men (The Underground, 1980)
f. Tremelo (The Underground, 1980)
g. Break On Through (The Space, 1979)
h. Head Over Head (The Underground, 1980)
i. Peking Spring (The Space, 1979)
j. OK/No Way (The Underground, 1980)

II. Vs. dbl LP + DVD / CD + DVD

The original Vs. LP (1983):

1. Secrets
2. Train
3. Trem Two
4. New Nails
5. Dead Pool
6. Learn How
7. Mica
8. Weatherbox
9. The Ballad Of Johnny Burma
10. Einstein’s Day
11. Fun World
12. That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate

Four bonus tracks (previously on the Ryko CD); tracks 13-15 were unreleased studio outtakes from the Vs. sessions, and 16 was the B-side of the 1982 “Trem Two” 7″ single:

13. Laugh The World Away
14. Forget
15. Progress
16. OK/No Way

Companion DVD to Vs. — Live at The Bradford Ballroom, March 12, 1983 (final Boston show, afternoon set):

a. The Ballad Of Johnny Burma (Bradford, 1983, afternoon set)
b. Red (Bradford, 1983, afternoon set)
c. Dirt (Bradford, 1983, afternoon set)
d. Forget (Bradford, 1983, afternoon set)
e. Secrets (Bradford, 1983, afternoon set)
f. Academy Fight Song (Bradford, 1983, afternoon set)
g. Trem Two (Bradford, 1983, afternoon set)
h. Sing-A-Long (Bradford, 1983, afternoon set)
i. That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate (Bradford, 1983, afternoon set)
j. Weatherbox (Bradford, 1983, afternoon set)
k. That’s When I Reach For My Revolver (Bradford, 1983, afternoon set)
l. Learn How (Bradford, 1983, afternoon set)
m. OK/No Way (Bradford, 1983, afternoon set)
n. Fun World (Bradford, 1983, afternoon set)
o. All World Cowboy Romance (Bradford, 1983, afternoon set)

III. The Horrible Truth About Burma (live) dbl LP + DVD / CD + DVD

The original Horrible Truth live album, restored to its original sequence (1985, posthumously released):

1. Tremelo
2. Peking Spring
3. Dumbells
4. New Disco
5. Dirt
6. Go Fun Burn Man
7. 1970
8. Blackboard
9. He Is, She Is
10. Heart of Darkness

Bonus tracks, 3 of which were included on the Ryko CD, the fourth of which (track 12) has never been released:

11. That’s When I Reach For My Revolver
12. Weatherbox
13. Trem Two
14. Learn How

Companion DVD to The Horrible Truth — Live at The Bradford Ballroom, March 12, 1983 (final Boston show, evening set):

a. This Is Not A Photograph (Bradford, 1983, evening set)
b. Mica (Bradford, 1983, evening set)
c. He Is, She Is (Bradford, 1983, evening set)
d. Outlaw (Bradford, 1983, evening set)
e. Peking Spring (Bradford, 1983, evening set)
f. Trem Two (Bradford, 1983, evening set)
g. Go Fun Burn Man (Bradford, 1983, evening set)
h. Fun World (Bradford, 1983, evening set)
j. Blackboard (Bradford, 1983, evening set)
k. See My Friends (Bradford, 1983, evening set)
l. Max Ernst (Bradford, 1983, evening set)
m. That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate (Bradford, 1983, evening set)
n. Einstein’s Day (Bradford, 1983, evening set)
o. Dumbells (Bradford, 1983, evening set)
p. That’s When I Reach For My Revolver (Bradford, 1983, evening set)
q. Secrets (Bradford, 1983, evening set)
r. Academy Fight Song (Bradford, 1983, evening set)

In addition, this DVD contains the original, abbreviated VHS program, with original titles, released by Ace Of Hearts through Atavistic in 1988, consisting of 11 of the above tracks.

All titles come with 32-page booklets with new interviews with the band and Rick Harte about the making of the records, as well as never-before seen photos and ephemera. The vinyl comes with full-size 12″ X 12″ booklets containing the same material plus some extras. The vinyl also comes with the DVDs, and MP3 download coupons.

The vinyl was mastered 100% all-analog in the case of I and II (not III) and pressed in HQ180 at RTI. It is housed in gorgeous heavy-duty Stoughton gatefold sleeves. We’ll have some video of the analog cutting process up shortly. Video of the analog cutting process can be watched here, with more clips to come shortly.

And yes, we will be launching have launched an incredible preorder deal (scroll down after clicking on link) for ordering the 3 CD+DVDs as a bundle very shortly on the Matador Store (please note: discount will not apply to the vinyl, one of the most expensive projects we’ve ever undertaken).

Former NME scribe Steven Wells does some quality blogging for The Guardian, mostly on matters concerning the sporting scene. But with Friday’s entry he turns his attentions to “the greatest threat rock music has ever faced — The Wiggles.”

Today’s kids have no chance. They are being metaphorically drugged, kidnapped and lobotomized by inanely grinning pastel-wearing pantywaists making mock kiddy pop so vacuous it’s terrifying.

But the Wiggles (above) are changing that by destroying the taste of pop’s greatest human resource. By providing kids with a roughage free diet of monodimensional, monocultural, monobraincelled musical rusk-slop, they are turning toddlers from infallible supercritics into brainwashed automatons – future fans of Celine Dion or Phil Collins or Travis or Coldplay or whatever horrors the manufactures of golf-muzak have up their coke’n'snot caked evil wizard sleeves.

This dish is so gorgeous and so simple. Use real saffron threads, Kashmiri if possible. The other ingredients include good basmati rice, a number of aromatic whole spices, sultanas, and ghee. Hopefully your ghee will have a cow on the label:

This recipe is from Julie Sahnee. The rice should fluff up as in the picture below when it is ready to serve. It goes well with lamb korma and other Mughal dishes.

(Stephen & Joanna, visibly annoyed that someone has ignored a venue edict against air horns.  pic taken from touchmyichi’s Flickr page)

People of Texas, New Mexico, Central California and Western Canada — we have heard your cry.  Or Stephen’s booking agent has. Either way, you’re in for some kinda show.

4/20/08 Austin, TX La Zona Rosa ^
4/21/08 Dallas, TX Granada Theatre ^
4/23/08 Albuquerque, NM Launchpad ^
4/28/08 Sacramento, CA Harlow’s ^
5/3/08 Vancouver, BC Richards on Richards ^

^ – support from The Joggers

As announced earlier, Stephen & The Jicks will also hit the following places and faces starting in mid March ;

3/19/08 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue #
3/20/08 Milwaukee, WI Pabst Theater #
3/21/08 Chicago, IL The Vic Theatre #
3/22/08 Indianapolis, IN The Vogue #
3/23/08 Newport, KY Southgate House #
3/25/08 Nashville, TN Mercy Lounge #
3/26/08 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse #
3/28/08 Washington, DC 9:30 Club #
3/29/08 Philadelphia, PA The Fillmore at the TLA #
3/31/08 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom #
4/1/08 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom #
4/2/08 Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg #
4/3/08 Boston, MA Paradise #
4/4/08 North Adams, MA Mass. Museum of Contemporary Art #

# – support by John Vanderslice

Or the last time Meltzer (Richard, not Dave) covered wrestling, take your pick. I read this and wept (over not being in Los Angeles today).

If you’ve not been following the adventures of the recently evicted Mike Conte of Early Man, a quick scan of the amazing videos posted at the new Early Mike.com should sort you out.  However, what might arguably be the site’s highlight are the “Ask Early Mike” clips, the latest of which was posted this Monday.

We’ve edited a few of our favorite moments from the forthcoming Earles & Jensen “Just Farr A Laugh Vol. 1+2” album into free mp3 format ringtones. You can finally satisfy your desire to have Bleachy, Tim Butler, and Christopher FUCKING Cross announce themselves on your cell phone over and over and over. Pick them up here.

The duet between Jools and Chan on Squeeze’s “Hourglass” has sadly, not been uploaded. Mostly because it never happened.

I could care less about the Superbowl. Actually I hate all the drama and the enforced parties and get-togethers. But to be honest I’ve watched the second half of most of the past few Superbowls, and last night’s game was one of the most exciting sporting events I’ve ever seen. But I digress.

I decided to make chili yesterday because a friend is visiting town who appreciates this kind of food. I wasn’t thinking that everybody in the country was making it on the same day, of course… the supermarket was sold out of every ingredient. Fortunately I was well-stocked.

I didn’t veer too far from my recent chilis: chuck cut into 1/4″ dice, some ground beef for thickener, rendered beef fat with a bit of olive oil for the fat, my own mix of dried, ground anchos, pasillas, guajillos, pequins and african birdseye for chiles. Plus one fresh jalapeno and one fresh scotch bonnet. Mexican oregano and some roasted, ground cumin seed. Salt, and boiling water for the liquid. Onions and garlic cooked in the beef fat, plus, juice of one lime, and 6+ hours coooking.

Here you see all the ingredients, browned and sauteed, just before I’ve added the water:

One hour later:

Four hours later, after I spooned off about 2 cups of fat.

The fixings plate (not for toppings, but to have on the side… the stuff they give you at Kreuz was the inspiration. Plus Arnold Brick Oven white bread, since you can’t seem to buy Wonder Bread around here – did they stop making it?)

And the chili as it looked today, after a night in the fridge:

It’s getting another 2-3 hours tonight at very low heat. We’ll see how it fares tomorrow.

Postscript: ooohhhhh shit! Chili cooked DOWN. We’re talking molten. After a second night in the fridge to lock in the flavors, shit is gonna be sick:

Yes yes yes….

at Piano’s Jan. 20th 2008

WNYC’s John Schaefer will have Chan Marshall in the studio, playing live today on “Soundcheck” at 2pm eastern.  For those outside (or inside) New York, WNYC’s programming  is available via Windows Media Player or iTunes, so you’ve got no excuse to tell us you couldn’t hear it (unless you work at a record label on Hudson Street that was having meetings most of the day).

OK, I may have gone crazy with this okra thing, but it’s actually a fantastic vegetable. Wholly underrated, Americans have learned to hate it because when cooked with water it loses all its texture and deflates into mush. Indians never allow water to touch okra.

Above is actually a leftovers plate from a dinner I made a couple weeks ago before the Mission Of Burma show in Williamsburg (which was great, if deafening). Both dishes are, again, from Kerala, and feature the ubiquitous kari leaves (or curry leaves – not that there is anything curry-ish about them as we understand that word). The prawns in coconut milk use a substance called kadampoli to add a sour tincture. I was unable to find it; you can substitute lemon juice, but I used tamarind instead. (Kadampoli is also known as fish tamarind, but in fact is unrelated to tamarind, all incredibly confusing.) The other dish is okra that is stir-fried in spices in oil and then folded into yogurt; meanwhile you fry some more spices in the okra-flavored oil and then fold that into the okra-yogurt mixture. It’s more-ish.

A couple of Madhur Jaffrey classics last night. The green chili chicken is a southern Indian dish from Kerala state, specifically from the Jewish community in Cochin. It was the dish served at Friday night supper, for the Sabbath. Despite the name it is not particularly spicy – the chiles lend it some bitterness. The other key ingredients are the typically Keralan kari leaves and, for sourness, tamarind that has been soaked and strained to form a paste. The chicken is braised, bone-in.

Okra with two mustards is a Bengalese dish, wonderfully piquant and tart. The two mustards are ground brown and yellow mustard seeds, which are used to form a sauce with turmeric, red chili powder, water and a couple of whole green chiles. The okra is stir-fried first in oil infused with nigella seed (kalonji), and then simmered in the sauce for ten minutes – it is crisp and intact this way. Here is the spice mixture for the okra:

I served these dishes with basmati rice, and for cooling purposes and textural contrast, cold onion and cucumber relishes.

(pic taken from Jimmybuttons’ Flickr page)

We’ll be releasing details about Jay Reatard‘s first 7″ for Matador very soon. Until then, here’s a bunch of forthcoming shows.

Feb 22 – Reggie’s Rock Club Chicago, Illinois
Mar 7 – E Brunswick Club Melbourne
Mar 8 – Club Phoenix Brisbane
Mar 9 – Meredith Golden Plains Festival Meredith
Mar 10 – The Tote Melbourne
Mar 27 – Rialto Theater ** Tucson, Arizona
Mar 28 – Marquee Theater ** Tempe, Arizona
Mar 29 – House of Blues ** San Diego, California
Mar 30 – The Glasshouse ** Pomona, California
Apr 1 – Wiltern Theater ** Los Angeles, California
Apr 2 – Warfield Theater ** San Francisco, California
Apr 4 – Crystal Ballroom ** Portland, Oregon
Apr 5 – The Showbox ** Seattle, Washington
Apr 6 – Commadore Ballroom ** Vancouver, British Columbia
Apr 9 – Ogden Theater ** Denver, Colorado
Apr 11 – First Avenue ** Minneapolis, Minnesota
Apr 12 – Riviera Theater ** Chicago, Illinois
Apr 13 – The Vogue ** Indianapolis, Indiana
Apr 15 – Royal Oak Theater ** Royal Oak, Michigan
Apr 22 – Europa, Brooklyn, NYC

(** – with The Black Keys)

Jay will be playing multiple times during SXSW and as soon as we know the times/dates (ie. we read them on Brooklyn Vegan), we’ll certainly share the news.

Tickets for the April 22 show at Europa are available here.

were one of us not a blessed MySpace pal of The New Pornographers, there’s no telling how late we’d be forwarding the following :

The New Pornographers are pleased to announce their upcoming Spring US tour with special guests Okkervil River!

A limited number of tickets have been held for New Pornographer fans and will be available through an exclusive presale that begins Saturday, February 2nd at 12 PM Local Time! By buying tickets through our presale, you’ll be able to get your tickets before anyone else AND save some money on service charges.

CLICK HERE to buy presale tickets!

Tour Dates:

Apr 9: Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
Apr 10: Pontiac, MI @ The Crofoot Ballroom
Apr 11: Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
Apr 12: Munhall, PA @ Carnegie Music Hall in Homestead
Apr 13: Ithaca, NY @ The State Theater of Ithaca
Apr 14: Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
Apr 16: Richmond, VA @ Toad’s Place
Apr 17: Athens, GA @ Georgia Theatre
Apr 18: Nashville, TN @ The Cannery
Apr 19: St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
Apr 20: Chicago, IL @ Riviera
Apr 21: Madison, WI @ Orpheum
Apr 22: Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom