Mission Of Burma’s start-to-finish performance of ‘Vs.’, live from Chicago’s Pitchfork Music Festival, will be webcast today at 7pm EST. Who knows what you’ll see this time? Springa at the side of the stage? Closeups of Bob Weston’s hands? I’m gonna have my view blocked by a combination of trees, tall people and road cases, but you can tell me what it looked like on the computer the next time I see you.
Photography by Miwa Okumura. I’m pretty sure the guy on the far right is checking his voice mail (as opposed to sticking his fingers in his ears). Not shown : Nate Dogg, Chris Martin.
As many of you are aware, the preorder process for Jay Reatard 7″ #4 turned into a nightmare for you and for us. First, on Monday, the preorder accidentally went live at 1:30 PM, 90 minutes earlier than was announced. Early orders poured in, and since this seemed unfair to those who were waiting until 3:00 PM to order, we canceled those orders and started the process again at 3. However, due to a rule at our credit-card processing company that we had never had reason to encounter before, anyone who ordered for a second time on the same card got a duplicate/fraud message, and were not allowed to complete the order. In addition, the rush of orders at 3 was so intense that the server slowed down to a crawl, and many people were not able to complete their orders at all.
In light of all this we decided to redo the order at 3 PM on Tuesday. We canceled all orders for a second time, got with our credit card processing company to shorten the timeout period for duplicate orders, and got with our ISP to prepare for an onslaught of traffic at 3.
However we were not prepared for the amount of traffic we did get yesterday – over 10,000 unique visitors at 3 PM, and the server once again slowed to a crawl or worse, leaving many people out in the cold, disgusted, and fed up with Matador – understandably. (For comparison’s sake, the entire Matador website usually gets 8,000 unique visitors per day.) We’re still not clear whether the publicity resulting from the previous two preorders led to the increase in visitors, or whether this was some kind of denial of service attack from a disgruntled customer.
In any event, we have collated orders from everyone who ordered successfully the first OR second time with those who ordered successfully the third time, and we are filling orders for everyone who got a successful order confirmation from us, whether it was cancelled or not.
We’d lke to offer apologies for all the drama and hassle, but we’ve been apologizing non-stop and that’s not what you guys want – you want an efficient order process, and that’s what we pledge to offer in the future. It’s going to be even harder to buy singles #5 and #6 – that’s the whole point of this exercise after all – but it won’t be due to technical problems. We’ll have security, traffic, credit card processing and everything else sorted out and tested well in advance of the remaining 7″ preorders, and it will work the way it’s supposed to. I think that’s all we can say at this time.
Matmos, currently touring North America in support of their most recent LP/CD, ‘Supreme Balloon’, will be playing at Chicago’s Permanent Records on July 26. We hope you can attend. Not in lieu of the show at the Lakeshore Theatre or anything, but preferably, both.
Fucked Up rounded up their first stint across Europe with Matador in 2008 last night at London’s Water Rats in Kings Cross.
Set list!
Vivian Girls
Black Hats
Baiting The Public
Fate Of Fates
Crooked Head
Crusades
David Comes To Life
Invisible Leader
Police
Circling The Drain
Blaze Of Glory
Color Removal
Jacobs Ladder
Nervous Breakdown
Generation
A bit of a greatest hits session, with an encore to boot. Only one new track in there, but i’ve been assured that when they get back in August tracks from The Chemistry of Common Life will be making an appearance.
Some photos below taken at Supersonic festival on Sunday night… Now that was a whole other experience in itself. The Doom crowd didn’t know what was going on. As Damian rightly pointed out, probably the only band to make a joke on stage that weekend. (Also probably the most naked band of the festival.)
It was 85 degrees at noon yesterday when I rolled up to Homer’s Music and Gifts on O Street in Lincoln, Nebraska. The unsuspecting clerks working were Michael and Ted.
JO’C: How long have you guys worked here?
Michael: About 6 or 7 months.
Ted: 6 years.
JO’C: Have you had breakfast/lunch yet?
Michael: Yes, we had bagels from the bagel place next store. That’s what we do every Sunday.
JO’C: You’ve got your own Sunday routine…I like that. What did you guys do last night? I’m curious what young music-loving people like yourselves do on a Saturday night in Lincoln….
Ted: Everclear watermelon.
JO’C: Wow. Really?
Michael: I watched Welcome to the Dollhouse and drank a couple of cases of beer with some friends.
JO’C: That’s a lot of beer. Ok…down to business…what’s your favorite new release?
Because of a number of unfortunate complications and a few key mess-ups during the Jay Reatard pre-order today, we will be redoing it Tomorrow, Tuesday July 15th, at 3PM EST. We’re very sorry to everyone about how frustrating this way today, and apologize for redoing it but at this point it’s the only fair way to get the records out.
The appropriate answer to the question, “have you ever seen a woman naked?” would’ve been, “yes, but let’s not talk about your mom on television.” But that’s not to say it was handled poorly.
Steak is getting more and more expensive, but Ottomanelli is having a sale on all their aged beef at the moment… and the guy gave me an additional buck off on the scales for two strips (1 1/4″ thick). I had him leave a half-inch of the fat on all the way around.
Adam scattered salt on them and seared them in a cast-iron pan directly under the broiler for about 3 minutes on one side, 1 minute the other side. He cut them into slices and drizzled on the pan fat. They were absolutely delicious – bloody, musty, redolent of grass and corn.
We drank another Arbois red (actually from the sub-appellation of Arbois-Pupillin), a rustic poulsard. It handled the steak splendidly and was not troubled by the tomato salad.
Today is the first day of my 10 date midwest run with Son Ambulance. Right now I’m sitting at The Old Mattress Factory or The Matt Bar and Grill as it says on my pint glass – eating some fish tacos and looking at 13 different large screen TVs showing baseball and golf.
This afternoon I visited Antiquarium Records. I got a used copy of Grizzly Bear’s Yellow House on CD for $4 and I spoke with Chelsea.
JO’C: Yes, I’ve heard of them somewhere. No, I’m kidding – I love their record too. To continue the Matador theme we have going here, what is your favorite Matador band of all time?
Anything else you’d like to add for the Matablog readers?
Chelsea: Keep buying records and going to record stores!
JO’C: Wise words.
I would like to note that this was a charming store with very nice people and lots of vinyl! When I told Chelsea I was on Matador and what I was there to do, she remarked that she wasn’t cool enough for Matador – that I should wait for the owner to come back because he was cooler. I just want Chelsea and everyone else to know…that they ARE cool enough for Matador. Matador loves you. And so do I.
Shearwater will play a Free In-Store on Wednesday, July 16th at 7:00 PM at Fingerprints in Long Beach, CA.
The in-store will be sandwiched between a string of dates opening for Coldplay!
Also, this is a very special day for Fingerprints because July 16th is their 16 year anniversary! Sounds like a Super Sweet 16 Birthday Bash to me! (***Shearwater is not responsible for supplying a pimped out De Lorean with a big red bow)
(Live in Prague 6/18/08 – Photo via Félix Adorno’s Flickr page)
Tomorrow (Friday, July 11) at 11:00 AM (PST), Matmos stop by San Francisco’s KUSF for a live performance on the program “Hearts on Sleeves”. Bay Area residents can catch the program on terrestrial radio at 90.3 FM, while the rest can access a webstream online at www.kusf.org.
EDIT – Direct from Matmos:
“…We will improvise on Irwin’s show for your drive time pleasure. With Wobbly. Your car will shake. Your booty will clap. Your speakers will scratch their heads, wondering, why has no one pleasured me this way before?”
(Shearwater, live in Fort Worth, TX, June 2008,photograph taken from nffcnnr’s Flickr page)
On the heels of their wildly acclaimed ‘Rook’ LP/CD, Shearwater will be following their short jaunt with Coldplay and additional U.S. dates with a headlining tour starting in late August. They’ll be joined by Merge Recordings Artists Wye Oak.
More dates will be confirmed soon.
Wed, Aug 27 Los Angeles Echo
Thu, Aug 28 San Francisco Great American Music Hall
Sat, Aug 30 Salt Lake City Urban Lounge
Sun, Aug 31 Denver Hi Dive
Mon, Sep 1 Albuquerque Launchpad
Wed, Sep 4 Austin Mohawk
Once upon a time before Matador had all sorts of trained specialists doing every little thing, we’d team up on a variety of tasks. After a couple of years in the wilds of the record biz, we finallly broke down and hired a full-time publicity-human.
The hire in question was Spencer Gates, an old pal of ours from the 1980’s boston rock’n'roll scene wars. Though mentally manipulating Spin editors and pursuing TV bookings wasn’t previously Spencer’s forte —- we’d first encountered her via her awesome job co-hosting the Mystery Girls show on Cambridge’s WMBR many years earlier — to say she took to the gig like she’d been doing it all her life was an understatement. The insight, humor and attitude she brought to the office every day not only made her the perfect person for the job, it sometimes felt like we’d all been doing it together forever. And I mean that in a good way.
Spencer played an absolutely pivotal role in the success of Pavement, Liz Phair, JSBX,Bettie Serveert, Pizzicato Five, Guided By Voices, Railroad Jerk and many others you know and love. She was a tremendous friend to the label’s artists and it would not be an exaggeration to say there’s a period in the label’s history that might’ve turned out very differently were it not for her.
Spencer passed away on Sunday, July 6. Our thoughts are with her friends and family.
The first MP3 from Fucked Up’s The Chemistry Of Common Life (Oct 7) is this immense multi-tracked assemblage, entitled “No Epiphany.” The 7″ depicted above will come out this fall and contain two versions of the song entirely different from the album version you’re about to hear. The word “monumental” was invented for music like this. Backing vocals by Cassie Ramone, Frankie Rose and Kickball Katy.
Fucked Up are currently on tour in Europe and will be hitting many festivals. The expanded EP version of their “Year Of The Pig” single comes out on July 22.
to reiterate those European dates:
Jul 8 – Benidorm ES – Abraxas
Jul 9 – Barcelona ES – Nitsa
Jul 10 – Getaria ES – Gaztetxe
Jul 11 – Madrid ES – Sal El Sol
Jul 12 – Balado, Kinross-shire, Scotland – T In The Park
Jul 13 – Birmingham UK – Supersonic Festival
Jul 14 – London UK – Water Rats, Kings Cross
Aug 17 – Lelystad NL – Lowlands Festival, Charlie Stage
Aug 20 – Belfast IE – Limelight
Aug 21 – Dublin IE – Whelans
Aug 22 – Ghent BE – Ieper Fest
Aug 23 – Reading UK – Reading Festival
Aug 24 – Leeds UK – Leeds Festival
Aug 25 – Bradford UK – 1 in 12 Club
The AP is reporting a first class passenger on a JFK-Guyana flight was so intoxicated / pumped up with self-entitlement, he slid down the jet’s emergency chute upon landing rather than wait for all the economy passengers to disembark.
I would like to state for the record that I have never been to Guyana. Also, this item gives me a cheap excuse to include the Matablog’s 3rd ever reference to the thespian dynamo known as Powers Booth (ref. #1, #2).
This ’70s group from the African country of Benin (or in its earlier incarnation Dahomey) has been kicking my ass lately. Poly-Rythmo recorded every imaginable type of African popular music – rhumba, funk, calypso, blues, Beninois folklore – but manage to imprint their elegantly loping, loose style onto every one. They released over 50 LPs and 100 7″es, mostly on the Albarika Store label, before guitarist Papillon died in the early ’80s.
T.P. stands for “Tout Puissant,” a moniker used by other African groups such as Franco’s OK Jazz.
Thanks to Analog Africa for posting this video from a videocassette. If this piques your interest, search out the Kings Of Benin compilation on the excellent Soundway label.
There were really too many highlights to list. But I’ll try, anyway.
* – The Feelies covering “Outdoor Miner”…and absolutely slaying with material from throughout their illustrious career.
* – watching WFMU’s Brian Turner forced to give props to American Express. File under “Things You Will Probably Never See Again”
* – Sonic Youth - turning old chestnuts “The World Looks Red” and “Making The Nature Scene” inside out. 90+ minutes of selections from across a 27 year span. If you’re one of the folks that paid scalper dough for a ticket, you actually got your money’s worth.
* – some guy wearing a Drazen Petrovic throwback. Had I worn mine, the hair-pulling would’ve been outta control.
* – fantastic blast from the past sightings : See/Hear’s Ted Gottfried, Richard Kern, Ken Katkin, acting/journalism double threat Brad Holbrook.
* – The Staten Island Ferry. Every day, it brings people to at least one location that doesn’t suck.
(OK, Brad Holbrook wasn’t there. But I was just wondering how he chose to celebrate our Nation’s birthday, and if he picked an event other than Sonic Youth and the Feelies, he’s a BAD AMERICAN)
I got a 14-cup Cuisinart for my birthday and decided to inagurate it with gazpacho. This rather angry article argues that gazpacho’s basis is an emulsion of bread and oil, the tomato being a late New World addition to the recipe. I have no problem with this but fail to see why a blender would be superior to a food processor for producing an emulsion.
In any event I crumbled up some stale bread, set it a-whirring with the chop blade, and slowly drizzled in half a cup of Carli FOP olive oil. Then added a clove of garlic, half a cucumber, two and half pounds of tomatoes, salt, and sherry vinegar. Chilled for 2 hours (not long enough) and ate it (followed by black pig pork chops baked in milk and onions).
The result strangely resembles tomato soup rather than gazpacho, as you can see from the picture below, but was quite good. I wish I’d used better tomatoes: next time I’ll get some from the farmer’s market. There’s still some in the fridge – I bet it will be even tastier today.
We drank a Jura red from Arbois with it: Jacques Puffeney’s 2005 trousseau. Delicate, almost dark-rose color, with rose petals and a crisp, dry finish, like a lighter Loire red.
(live at Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, 6/17/08 – photo taken from countfeed’s flickr stream)
If you missed Shearwater on KCMP or WNYC back in June, you can now listen to these sessions online.
Shearwater returned for a second appearance on WNYC’s Soundcheck on June 16. To listen, follow this link. The band played “Rooks” and “Leviathan, Bound” in a special stripped-down form.
On June 25 they performed live on The Current on Minnesota Public Radio in Minneapolis. Hear more live versions, as well as discussions on the history of the Falklands and the stigma against “twitchers”, here.
(Mogwai in Mexico City last month, photo taken from remusmx’s Flickr stream)
We’re pleased to unveil the first MP3 from the upcoming Mogwai LP/CD, ‘The Hawk Is Howling’ (out September 23) – “The Sun Smells Too Loud” is a fairly substantial hint that said album is gonna be a scalp-scorcher.
As mentioned previously, the following North American dates are very much confirmed and tickets are on sale :
September 2008
3-Portland, OR @ Music Fest NW (Mogwai headlining ; also appearing Del The Funkee Homosapien, Steel Pole Bathtub, Polvo, Jaguar Love and many more)
4-Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo
5-Victoria, BC @ Element
6-Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
8-San Francisco, CA @ The Grand Ballroom
9-Los Angeles, CA @ Wiltern Theatre
10-Tucson, AZ @ The Rialto
12-Austin, TX @ Stubb’s
13-Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater
15-Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
16-Richmond, VA @ The National
17-Washington DC @ 9:30 Club
18-New York, NY @ Terminal 5
19-Philadelphia, PA @ Starlight Ballroom
21-Monticello, NY @ ATP Festival
22-Boston, MA @ Wilbur Theatre
23-Montreal, QC @ Metropolis
24-Toronto, ON @ Kool Haus
25-Pontiac, MI @ The Crofoot
26-Chicago, IL @ Congress Theater
27-Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
Fuck Buttons provide support on all of the above shows.
