Manch​ester​ on Sept 14th has been moved​ from the Roadh​ouse to Night​ and Day Cafe.​

also just added​ in Calif​ornia​

Long Beach​ Oct 4th at the Prosp​ector​.

Tonight is our last night of our 5 date, west-coast run with Damien Jurado – it has been really, really great. Damien and Eric and Jenna are fantastic musicians and people and its been an honor to share a stage with them all week.

Rocky Mountains:

LA:

DJ Soundcheck:

That’s it, I guess. I meant to take more pictures and do a record store blog but there wasn’t enough time. West coast drives between cities are too long.

Playing in the van: The Shins – Oh, Inverted World, Spiritualized – Songs in A&E, Jay Reatard – Singles 06/07, Lil Wayne – Tha Carter III, Damien Jurado – Caught In The Trees, Magnetic Fields – 69 Love Songs Vol. One

Pre-sale for the 6th installment of our Jay Reatard 7″ singles series begins this Tuesday at 3pm.

Pre-order is going to go like it did for single #5- On Tuesday, at 3pm EST we will reveal a unique email address on preorder.matadorrecords.com. The email address will be different than last time around.

Please send an email to the revealed address with “Jay Reatard” as the subject line. Those that email us in time to get a record will get a confirmation email within the hour. After receiving a confirmation email, you will see a buy-link appear on the store page when logged into your Matador Store account. Make sure to send an email from your Matador Store registered email address. To be clear, sending an email DOES NOT ensure that you’ll get a copy. If you have yet to sign up for a Matador Store account please do so here.

If you happen to miss out on getting one of these singles. Don’t despair! All of the 7″s are collected on the upcoming Matador Singles ‘08 CD/LP now available for PRE-ORDER. The LP comes on 180g vinyl and comes with an mp3 coupon. Plus pre-order and get $1 off of the standard price for the CD/LP and a free poster.

Oh, wait, no, not jumping out of a cake, PLAYING AN INSTORE!!!!

To help celebrate the 30th anniversary of Newbury Comics, Mission Of Burma is going to play at the Newbury St. location tonight at 7:00PM.

(photo taken from h.folkertsma’s flickr)

Mission Of Burma
Friday, Sept. 12th
7:00 PM
Newbury Comics
332 Newbury St – Boston, MA

Happy 30th Newbury!!! Here’s to 30 more!

video swiped from Boing Boing. Had someone done it at 78rpm, at least the clip would be over faster.

TOMORROW!!!

FUCKED UP
Free In-store
Friday, Sept. 12th
8:00 PM
Generation Records
210 Thompson St. – NYC

space is limited, email fuckedup@matadorrecords.com to get in!

(Flyer above for London’s Bush Hall show courtesy of The Local)

Shearwater have finally made it across the Atlantic, more or less in one piece.

The UK and Ireland leg will begin in earnest this weekend with an evening performance at one of the best small festivals around before circumnavigating the good and not-so-good parts of these isles. There’s even time for a free gig at everyone’s favourite London record shop.

Miss them at your peril.

13 Sep : End Of The Road Festival, Dorset
14 Sep : Zodiac, Oxford
15 Sep : Captain’s Rest, Glasgow
16 Sep : The Roadhouse, Manchester
17 Sep : Bush Hall, London
18 Sep : Rough Trade East, London *Free in-store performance @ 7pm*
19 Sep : Whelans, Dublin
20 Sep : Speakeasy, Belfast
21 Sep : Roisin Dubh, Galway

The canonical way to cook veal is with tarragon, but I decided to use rosemary instead because I have it fresh. I pulverized a bunch in my heavy Thai mortar with salt and pepper, mixed it with olive oil to make a paste and marinated the chop in that. Then seared both sides in more olive oil at high heat, deglazed the pan with vermouth, and finished it off in the oven at 375 for another 6 or 7 minutes.

I apologize for the use of the word “free” in these instances. I don’t know when we’ve charged money for an instore previously, and if someone did make you pay $5 (for instance) to see one of our bands perform in a record shop, might I suggest you’ve been a victim of a subway troll moved overground?

After rampant speculation, Matador Records can confirm the label will be releasing a new studio album from Sonic Youth sometime in 2009. Having fulfilled their contractual obligations to the Universal Music Group, Sonic Youth recently reached an agreement with Matador to release the band’s 16th album of new material in all worldwide territories, save for Japan.

While Sonic Youth’s status as one of the more innovative and influential bands of the past 30 years needs little explanation, the group’s most recent recordings for Geffen — 2006’s ‘Rather Ripped’ being their final for the label — rank amongst the current decade’s best.

For Matador, the opportunity to work in partnership with a group who’ve made such an profound impact on our roster/hometown/collective consciousness was one to jump at.   Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley will commence recording the new Sonic Youth LP/CD this autumn and we look forward to sharing further details in the very near future.

Please check out sonicyouth.com for details about their many recent and upcoming pursuits, including the travelling museum exhibition “Sonic Youth Etc.: Sensational Fix”, which focusses on the multidisciplinary activities of the band since 1981, and the recently self-released CD “Andre Side Af Sonic Youth”.

http://www.sonicyouth.com
http://www.matadorrecords.com

Kevin and Jonathan performed on 101X’s “Chillville” program earlier today, and while I was exploring the wonderful realm of unconsciousness at that hour, here’s a YouTube excerpt from their performance.

Summer cooking is less interesting to write about… no complicated sauces and multiple ingredients or long roasting. The emphasis is purely on the freshest seasonal ingredients. Last night I made pasta by throwing together some very tasty mixed heirloom tomatoes from Grand Central Market (usually unreliable for produce) with some Italian tuna and chopped fennel, braised in olive oil and a tiny bit of garlic. That was it, with some fresh basil and mint torn and thrown on top.

Matmos will present new improvised material tomorrow night (Sept. 6) at The Stone (2nd and Ave. C, New York City) at 8pm and 10pm, joined by special guests Lisle Ellis and Zeena Parkins.  Y’know, I used to live on Ave. C and 4th Street and that was a very different neighborhood before Applebee’s, Old Navy and the Cheesecake Factory all set up shop. 

On the other hand, there’s hardly any chance of walking into a False Prophets gig by accident anymore, so who am I to say progress is a bad thing?

(Fucked Up shot swiped from Joe Wilks’ Flickr without permission)

Those of a fragile constitution and/or prone to fainting at the sight of blood or nudity would probably be better served at a Celine Dion concert. However if enjoy a bit of terror in your life and want to experience one of the best things to come out of Canada for a long time, try this lot.

07 Nov : 93 Feet East, London (w/ Don Cabellero)
08 Nov : Freebutt, Brighton
09 Nov : Barfly, Birmingham
10 Nov : The Zodiac, Oxford
11 Nov : Cavern, Exeter
12 Nov : Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
13 Nov : Sugarmill, Stoke
14 Nov : Bodega, Nottingham
15 Nov : Kasbah, Coventry
16 Nov : King Tuts, Glasgow
17 Nov : Corporation, Sheffield
18 Nov : Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
19 Nov : Roadhouse, Manchester

Times New Viking’s ‘Stay Awake’ 5 song 7″ EP hits stores and digital outposts on October 7, but you can preorder said artifact TODAY from the the Matador Shop and received a limited edition poster silkscreened poster from TNV’s Summer ‘08 performance at the Whitney Museum.  It’s like a PBS telethon around here — when we launch the Fucked Up umbrellas, you’ll know we’ve really lost it. 

“Call & Respond” (from ‘Stay Awake’) – mp3

For instance, if you spend enough time on eBay, you might come across an authenticated, autographed shiv directly taken from the set of “American Me”.

Flyer above for the London show. Thanks to Howard Monk for this.

12 Sep : End Of The Road Festival, Dorset
13 Sep : Civic Hall Bar, Wolverhampton
14 Sep : Roadhouse, Manchester
15 Sep : The Faversham, Leeds
16 Sep : Speakeasy, Belfast
17 Sep : Whelans, Dublin
18 Sep : Roisin Dubh, Galway
20 Sep : 229, London

(pic of Johnny taken from Colin Athens‘ Flickr page)

Jaguar Love continue their diligent road work on behalf of the newly released ‘Take Me To The Sea’ with the following American dates, all of ‘em co-headlining with Polysics.  Additional dates, sans Polysics will be confirmed shortly. 

October
21-Tempe @ The Clubhouse
22-Tucson @ Club Congress
24-Dallas @ The Prophet Bar
25-Austin @ Emo’s Lounge
26-Houston@ Meridian
28-Atlanta @ The Earl
29-Charlotte @ Tremont Music Hall
30-Washington DC @ Black Cat
31-New York @ Mercury Lounge

November
1-Danbury, CT @ Heirloom Arts Center
2-Cambridge @ Middle East (Upstairs)
4-Montreal @ Club Lambi
5-Toronto @ Horseshoe Tavern
7-London @ Call The Office
8-Detroit @ Magic Stick
9-Chicago @ Abbey Pub
13-SF @ Bottom of the Hill
14-Pomona @ Glasshouse

The second MP3 from ‘The Chemistry Of Common Life’ (in stores October 7) is “Twice Born” — we defy you not to bang your head to this track. Guesses accepted as to who the guest musicians are.

“Twice Born” Twice Born (192k MP3)

The band is currently touring up the West Coast with the Fuck Yeah festival (also featuring Crystal Antlers and Strange Boys); the remaining shows are:

Thu – Sep 4 – Olympia WA – Midnight Sun – all ages 8 PM $8 (also with Sex Vid)
Fri – Sep 5 – Seattle WA – The Vera Project – all ages 7:30 PM $10
Sat – Sep 6 – Portland OR – Satyricon – all ages 7 PM $10 (also with Sex Vid, Past Lives and others)
Sun – Sep 7 – Vancouver BC – 19+ 8 PM $13

The band will back on the road down the East Coast starting in Montreal on Oct 11.

Don’t miss the always entertaining FU blog, Looking For Gold, currently featuring song lyrics, secret show info, lengthy interviews in Japanese, chair tipping, Crystal Antlers videos and more.

I got the recipe from a book review in the Atlantic Monthly, of all places… unfortunately I didn’t make a note of the cookbook from which it came, so if anyone knows, please put it in a comment. This is a lovely fresh summer recipe. The key is only to use the freshest herbs. The recipe called for mint, fennel fronds and dill, but the latter two ingredients looked limp and tired at my supermarket, so I used only fresh spearmint from my garden. I’m certain the dish was better for it.

Heat 7-8 cups broth (I used goose broth, but good chicken broth or water is fine). Heat 1/2 cup of olive oil in a large skillet along with 4-5 finely sliced garlic cloves and 4 cups of 1/4″ diced yellow squash. Stir frequently – the squash will give out a lot of liquid. Add 1/2 cup white wine (for 9000: I used 2005 pinot d’alsace from Zind-Humbrecht, which was also the wine served with dinner), 1 lb. orzo, salt and pepper to taste. Stir to coat the pasta with oil. Pour in 3 cups of the warmed broth and continue to cook for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently and adding more liquid as needed. You can choose to have it more soup-like or more stiff and dry like risotto…. the pasta al dente (my choice) or completely cooked through.

Remove the orzo from the heat and add 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, 3 tablespoons of freshly grated lemon zest (yes, that’s a lot, and it’s important), and 1 1/2 cups of feta cheese (make sure you buy an excellent feta, and the least salty that you can find) that has been mashed with a fork. This will create a sauce as in the photo above.

Add roughly torn mint leaves (and fennel fronds and dill – most importantly, whatever’s fresh, preferably freshly picked from the garden or a pot on the sill). Corby Kummer, the Atlantic writer, concludes, “That is, let the garden tell you how to season an irresistibly Greek, and simple, dish.”

Note: the Atlantic claims this is enough to feed 6 as a main course. I made exactly half and it was just enough for 2. We didn’t serve much else with it though aside from the above-referenced Zind-Humbrecht, which I heartily recommend for it.

(Beth, Adam, Jared vs. Williamsburg, August 30, photo swiped from Emily Geoff’s Flickr stream)

Just 48 hours after supporting Sonic Youth at Brooklyn’s McCarren Pool, Times New Viking have confirmed another high profile NYC event, this time supporting Wire at the Fillmore (formerly Irving Plaza on October 9. The show is part of WFMU’s 50th Anniversary Concert Series and free tickets are available starting Wednesday morning at Other Music.

For those of you lamenting on having missed the festival (like me), here’s a clip of a knockout performance and thoughts on beards from Fucked Up at this years Fuck Yeah Fest.