It’s especially nice that I grabbed this 1985 single on the day before Record Store Day, since Richmond’s Honor Role was helmed by the great Bob Schick, who runs the Plan 9 Records stores in Virginia. Be sure to visit one of them tomorrow.

This 7″ cooks and is a great example of the kind of complexity that hardcore developed into during the mid-’80s. Penn Rollings’ guitar playing is sui generis. Quiz question: what superhip current band’s vocalist sounds quite a bit like Bob?

(Tom Scholz — not bad, but he’s no Lee Mavers)

“Don’t get me wrong, slugger,” scolds The Morning News‘ resident efficiency fetishist Josh Allen.  “I love ‘More Than a Feeling.’ But it’s four minutes and 47 fucking seconds long. I don’t have time for that kind of nonsense.”

My scientists told me that the perfect song length had to be closer to three minutes than two, but definitely shorter than three minutes. Three minutes is where bloat starts to set in. Where the band thinks: Hey, let’s do the chorus seven times. Hey, let’s give the saxophone guy a real moment to shine on this one. Hey, let’s add another bridge.

I’d hit upon the perfect song length. I fist-bumped somebody.

Jennifer O’Connor stopped by our office and gave us a message of love and hope regarding Record Store Day and indie retail. Check out some other Matador artists pitching in for Record Store Day this Saturday the 19th.

The second 7″ in Jay Reatard’s singles series for Matador Records & Filmworks, “Painted Shut” b/w “An Ugly Death” will be in U.S. stores May 20 (May 19 in the UK). The cover art (above) is by Mike Sniper.

We’ll be announcing the preorder date soon —- keep your eyes glued to this blog and/or the Matador Bulletin Board.

May 19 remains the UK release date for “See/Saw” b/w “Screaming Hand”.

I’m not sure how much longer I can keep up this food blogging thing… I’ve fallen off the “cooking wagon” a bit in the past couple of weeks and succumbed to the Manhattan disease of ordering in. Plus in the nature of things, you start repeating yourself.

What follows is just some photos of the Lidia Bastianich pasta with shrimp recipe I posted about three months ago. The thing that intrigued me originally about the recipe was the ladlefuls of boiling pasta water added to the sauce… which means that the sauce impregnates the pasta much more fully when it’s time to combine. No huge changes this time except that I bought peeled shrimp, which took about a half hour off the preparation time, and used my favorite Cento cherry peppers from Camden NJ as the spice agent (the kind that you get at Pat’s King of Steaks in Philadelphia).

Shrimp cooking (20-30 seconds per side):

Add pasta to saucepan, not the other way around, with a knob of butter:

Final result:

Joanna Rules!!!
(filmed with my Canon SD1000 digital camera)

I know for me, every day is Record Store Day, but now there is an official day to celebrate independently owned record stores and it is this Saturday, April 19th! RECORD STORE DAY!

The following bands/members will be participating by:
The New Pornographers – John – DJing at Vintage Vinyl (St. Louis, MO) @ 3:00
Times New Viking – Adam – DJing at Used Kids Records (Columbus, OH) throughout the day between bands
The Cave Singers- In-store performance at CD World (Eugene, OR) @ 3:00
Dead Meadow – Jason – DJing at Other Music (NYC) @ 3:00

Also, this is a list of the very special, very limited edition items we produced specifically for this day:
Matador Turntable Slipmats
Stephen Malkmus – Cold Son 10″
FREE Matador Sampler CD

Thank you, Samizdat Productions

We’re really hoping that the recent earthquake swarm off the coast of Oregon remains exactly what it is, a harmless swarm of 600 earthquakes in the course of 10 days. We wouldn’t want any natural calamities to jeopardize the May 1st Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks show at the Wonder Ballroom in Portland since the Ace Hotel and The Seattle Stranger have helped us put together a pretty nice contest that we don’t want any of our Northwestern friends to miss out on.

If you visit the this page now you can enter to win yourself a fairly deluxe prize pack which includes two tickets to the aforementioned rock show, a one night stay at the Ace Hotel in Portland and stack’o CDs from America’s favorite late night talking head.

Why is Starbucks bringing its vagina dentata out of hiding and into plain sight right now? Maybe they were inspired by the hilarious and brilliant film Teeth. Maybe they hope consumers are more comfortable with exhibitionism than they used to be. Maybe they’re thinking sex sells.

But more likely, they’re frightened and in need of protection.

Images of women exposing their genitals were used by primitive peoples to drive away evil spirits, calm rough seas, and scare away enemies with the threat of castration. In the face of a recession, Starbucks is banking on the power of the vagina dentata to work its ancient magic and keep the wolf from their door. – Jeremiah Moss, Vanishing New York

There’s a Chock Full O’ Nuts joke in here somewhere, but it’s way too early on a Wednesday morning.

Not since the heyday of Crucial Youth has there been such a stirring advocate for clean language. From the AP:

Bill Cosby’s path has taken him from pudding pops to hip hop.

“People started speculating — is he going to rap about Jell-O Pudding Pops or what?” Patterson said. “But he’s always been involved in music and he was there for the first generation of spoken word … He has always understood rap’s potential, but he was appalled by the foul language and the misogyny — the way people used a medium that could be used to elevate people, to open their eyes and provoke thought.”

The Cave Singers are going to play a free in-store performance

at the Apple Store in Chicago on North Michigan Ave!

Sunday, April 27th at 3:00pm!

Be there!!

If, like me, you had the misfortune of missing one of those Super Furry Animals/Times New Viking US shows, here’s a pretty handsome alternative:

Whilst we can’t guarantee the appearance of a plus-sized Power Ranger head behind the decks at Cardiff’s finest music venue, we’re putting money on there being some idiot making faces with their records.

Because Fear covers are not a man’s best friend.

The staff, management and legal representation of Matador Records would like to wish Joanna Bolme a very happy birthday.  OK, we’re 12 days late.  But Miwa took the above picture and I’ve got about 6 dozen birthday cake JPG’s clogging up the folder so it took awhile to narrow this one down (sorry).

I’ve come around to the view that American yellow mustard (iconic brand: French’s) is actually a wonderful thing. For years and years I was a mustard snob and boycotted the yellow mustard of my childhood. It’s not sharp or hot, is sweet, and has a high vinegar content, which makes it good for hot dogs and hamburgers.

Don’t get me wrong, I still keep a variety of classic real mustards in my fridge:

But the sad fact is that New York is the only American city where brown mustard completely displaces yellow mustard. You can’t even get yellow mustard at low-brow diners. And if you want to have a real West-Coast style burger (thin patties, toasted buns, pre-condimentized and everything layered on in exact proportions), then you need yellow mustard. (You know, West Coast burgers, the kind they serve in many parts of the country, such as we’ve posted about at Rally’s, on the Matablog, or even in New York as we’ve posted about at the Shake Shack, on the Bulletin Board, or just go to In-N-Out Burger if you’re lucky enough to live in a part of the US that’s near one.)

I bought some French’s and decided to try it on the James Beard burger, which as you will recall is supposed to take no condiments except salt and pepper, filled as it is with heavy cream and grated onions and basically seared on the outside and raw on the inside. I also added an onion slice and some sweet bread-and-butter pickles to attempt to get close to a West-Coast effect.

The result looks only mildly appetizing:

It tasted like two good things put on top of one another and not really combined into a single experience. I think I need to make a simpler burger, maybe one of those “don’t handle it very much” types of modern patty, and then revisit this topic.

(Beth, Jared and Adam contemplate their carry-on baggage allowance, photograph by the Wexner Center’s Erica Anderson)

Fri 9-May-08 London, Vice Calling at Proud Gallery
Sun 11-May-08 Camber Sands, All Tomorrow’s Parties
Mon 12-May-08 Bristol, Louisiana
Wed 14-May-08 London Café Otto with Jay Reatard
Thu 15-May-08 London, Stag and Dagger with Jay Reatard and Lovvers
Fri 16-May-08  Brighton, Great Escape Drowned in Sound stage
Sat 17-May-08 Brighton, Great Escape Bosh stage
Sun 18-May-08 Cardiff, Clwb Iforbach
Tue 20-May-08 Liverpool Korova Bar
Wed 21-May-08 London, Corsica Studio’s – Plan B Night
Thu 22-May-08 Leeds, The Common Place
Fri 23-May-08  Edinburgh, Studio 24
Sat 24-May-08 Glasgow, Captain’s Rest
Mon 26-May-08 Dublin, Andrew’s Lane Theatre
Wed 28-May-08 Amsterdam ,Paradiso
Sat 31-May-08 Primavera Festival, Barcelona

(pic from Surgery’s Flickr page)

Thu 8-May-08 Old Blue Last, Shoreditch London
Sun 11-May-08 All Tomorrow’s Parties, Camber Sands
Tue 13-May-08 White Heat, Madame JoJo’s, London
Wed 14-May-08 Cafe Otto, London with Times New Viking
Thu 15-May-08  Stag and Dagger, London with Times New Viking and Lovvers
Mon 19-May-08  Pure Groove Records, London

more dates to be announced. Unless they’re top secret, in which case they won’t be.

(it took 26 years, but Burma have finally emerged from Springa’s shadow — nice work!)

In addition to taking part in the forthcoming Pitchfork Festival on July 18, performing Vs. from front to back (prior to Public Enemy — finally, Professor Griff and Peter Prescott can meet in person after years of correspondence), Mission Of Burma have announced the following dates via a blast of unsolicited email :

Mission of Burma will be playing four shows this June in support of the recently released Mission of Burma: The Definitive Editions. The good folks at Matador Records and Rick Harte of Ace of Hearts have given Burma’s original material the deluxe treatment for the reissues, and each of these special performances will feature one of the albums Signals, Calls, and Marches or VS. in its entirety. This pre-sale is for limite! d number of two-day tickets available for each city, which are being sold at a discounted price ($35 for two shows vs. $20 per show), and will also include a beautiful Mission of Burma poster (to be picked up on the night of the show). Individual tickets will go on sale to the general public soon.

Thursday June 12 (performing ‘Signals Calls & Marches’)
Friday June 13 (performing ‘Vs.’)
The Paradise Rock Club, Boston , MA
Tickets

Saturday June 14 (performing ‘Signals Calls & Marches’
Sunday June 15 (performing ‘Vs.’)
Bowery Ballroom, NYC, NY
Tickets

And on top of all that, Burma have the following European dates written in bold ink in their personal diaries :

May 31 – Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona
June 2- Moby Dick, Madrid (with Shellac)
June 3 – Theatre, Gijon (with Shellac)
June 4 – Cafe Antzoki, Bilbao (with Shellac)
June 5 – BT59, Bordeaux
June 6 – Olympic, Nantes (with Shellac)
June 7 – Villette Sonique (with Shellac)

On Monday, May 5th and Thursday, May 29th, Shearwater will premiere ‘Rook’ in special concerts at the beautiful Florence Gould Concert Hall at Manhattan’s French Institute and The Parish in Austin, Texas. For both events, Shearwater will be joined by a string quartet, woodwinds, trumpets, and a harpist, and will play the new album, ‘Rook’, in its entirely, along with a set of older songs.

We are especially proud to announce that the New York show will begin with a rare solo performance by the legendary Michael Gira (Swans, Angels of Light), and will also feature projections by Kahn & Selesnick, the team behind Rook’s cover art.

Tickets to these events are limited. For New York (May 5), they are available from Ticketmaster, starting Friday, April 11 at 10am, and from Other Music.

Matador is offering tickets to the May 5 show plus a preorder for ‘Rook’ via this link. For $25, you can purchase the CD version of ‘Rook’, along with a ticket to the Florence Gould Hall Show (face value, $15).

Tickets for the Austin show (May 29) are available now from Front Gate.

In addition, a limited 7″ of “Rooks” b/w “The Rainbow” (a previously unreleased Talk Talk cover — not featured on the upcoming ‘Rook’ LP/CD) will be available for purchase at both shows.

Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th Street
Between Park & Madison avenues
New York, NY 10022

Doors at 7pm. Show begins promptly at 7:30pm

“Rooks” (mp3)

If you found yourself going insane staying caught up with the relentless barrage of comedy we sent your way with last week’s Earles & Jensen MP3s, you are saved. We’ve assembled all five tracks, plus an additional five previously-posted ones in a handsome and elegant little bundle for you to download below.

Earles & Jensen Sampler (zip)

Don’t forget, this is just a SAMPLER. These 10 calls are just a taste of the comedic cornucopia of 58 calls spread across 2 CDs that you will eventually consume upon the release of Just Farr A Laugh Vol. 1+2 April 22nd. Not only that, you get a handsome slipcase with a 64-page saddle-stitched book jammed with drawings, photos and liner notes by famous people including Devendra Banhart, Gregg Turkington (Neil Hamburger), Jennifer Herrema (Royal Trux), Gerard Cosloy, David Dunlap Jr., Gavin McInnes (Vice magazine), and many others.

Pre-order yours for $3 off the regular price (thus only $9 for the whole set!) plus a free poster HERE.

We’re very happy to announce the newest incarnation of the Matador Store is now up and running. We embed ourselves even more comfortably in the digital age by offering digital (MP3 and FLAC) downloads in addition to a nicer, easier to navigate look and loads of other geeked-out features.

* Mp3s (256k) and FLAC (lossless) files. Can we say that they’re encoded at a higher bit rate than iTunes? Because they are.
*Sample files of everything in our digital catalog
*Digital files are fully integrated with Songbird and will put the downloads you’ve purchased directly into your Songbird “Purchased Playlist” as well as allow you to easily browse and listen to sample files.
* A download helper for both MAC and PC to improve the experience of downloading singles and albums

Please note that this is a soft launch of the digital store and we’ll have a more comprehensive version of the digital catalog (along with a mess of draped up and dripped out features) next Wednesday.

Our old pal Alan McGee once famously derided Coldplay as “music for bedwetters”. Thanks to a survey by my personal favorite econo-hut, we now have conclusive proof the band are in fact, “music for people who want to sleep really well”.  From Reuters :

Britons like a dose of music from the rock band Coldplay to help them fall asleep, a survey from hotel chain Travelodge found on Monday.

I’m sure the results of this study will provoke wild debate, so it’s important to keep in mind that not everyone got to hear the last Stills album.

Me = Memphian. Jeff = KS to the bone. I tried to tell Jeff that Memphis has a habit of reaching the doorstep of great success, only to screw it up somehow, and I wasn’t just referring to the college ball. He said that Kansas has a habit of choking in these situations. Will my cock-tease of a city be defeated? This is certainly not my area of expertise (it’s his), but the coincidence is worth mentioning.

Jesus.

from the newly launched Pitchfork.tv