…Chris and I still get chucked out of Dee-Lite listening parties. What’s all this about? According to a post at the endlessly entertaining Metal Sludge.com, former Geffen A&R exec Tom Zutaut was physically removed from a listening party for the new Guns ‘n’ Roses opus, ‘Chinese Democracy’.
“Yeah, sadly it is true that I was escorted out of the Roxy by a beefy security guy just prior to the last three songs of the playback. I did stand on the sidewalk and hear the last three anyway.
“It is sad and disappointing to me that those around Axl would lie to him to fuel his hatred towards me with imaginary events used to drive a wedge between us. I love him deeply, will always love him and wish only the greatest success to one of the world’s last true creative musical sparks with a god-given voice. I am proud of my contributions to his career and am always there for him should he one day become enlightened to the truth of what surrounds him. It is also sad that he doesn’t mention the hard work I put in on my short involvement with ‘Chinese Democracy’ with even a ‘Thank You’ considering lesser players are credited or thanked in the liner notes — even those who ridiculed him, belittled and made fun of him behind his back while I defended his genius ’til those around him poisoned him against me with distortions and lies.
“I wear his hatred as a badge of honor as it would be far worse for him not to care at all.”
Mr. Zutaut has a substantial connection to the Matador Records family tree, having signed Tommy Keene to Geffen, and many years later, starting the now defunct label known as The Enclave, home to the initial US release of Belle & Sebastian’s ‘Are You Feeling SInister?’. As such, we can promise him that if he’d ever like to attend one of our listening parties, we’d love to have him along.
We’re really excited to announce that pre-order for A.C. Newman’s 2nd solo album, Get Guilty, is now available. You can get $3 off of the CD version and download an exclusive, pre-order only B-side immediately. The B-side is A.C’s take on the Go-Betweens’ “Love Goes On”. It rips. The song will show up in the “My Downloads” section of your account right when you complete your order. It’s available in both mp3 and FLAC format for audophiles out there!
Pre-order Get Guilty HERE
Listen to “There are maybe ten or twelve” on the Matador Sampler HERE
(photo taken from Dave Stocks’ Flickr stream)
“Fucked Up are not at all about the blood, the guts, the controversy, the crying mothers, the glass in the forehead, the vomiting, the destruction, the dick-dangling and the encouraged mayhem – despite what everyone wants to tell you. They might be a terminal band with only a few weeks left to live, but they may also be a band that is going to make sure that it is nothing short of being epically monumental, a group that lives on as a valuable and coveted icon of underground madness.” So reads Sean Moller’s introduction to Fucked Up’s 4 song Daytrotter session (dick-dangling!), currently available for download.
This is one heck of a way to seek revenge for a modeling invite that never materialized, but never doubt the ability of Earles & Jensen’s Jeff Jensen to hold a major grudge. Andy penned the following descriptions of calls Jeff make to three American Apparel outlets, as heard on VIva Radio.
Let me give you a little background on Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, perhaps the last musician on the lips of someone between the ages of 18 and 26. Baxter plied his trade (mostly rhythm guitar) in both Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers, while spending much of the 80’s and 90’s peddling instructional (again, mostly rhythm guitar) video tapes to nobody. The Viva Radio Blog posted a helpful image to go along with this call. While hilarious, this one is just a warm-up. Now, I hope you packed a lunch…
No explanation needed. To fully understand this call, buy our CD. There, you’ve now purchased what experts are calling “The Last Comedy Album.” It’s time to experience the undeniable highlight of this prank call trio…..
More from the 12 hour marathon, Ezra Koenig from Vampire Weekend joins Fucked Up for Blitz and Descendents covers, while fans help the band thrash through “Nervous Breakdown” by Black Flag.
A date with a member of Pavement at Ikea…it may be obvious, but lets all agree it’s original. Here’s the deal, if you think your home needs an upgrade, submit a photo at imeem and write a short essay on why you derserve to win a shopping spree at ikea. Winner will be joined by a member of Pavement on their $500 Ikea shopping spree. Swedish meatballs are on us. To enter, just submit your photo and essay here.
Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition is out December 9th and available for pre-order.
Tune in to Radio 1′s Rock Show tonight between midnight and 2am (GMT time, so that’s 7pm-9pm if you’re east coast stateside) and hear Fucked Up playing three tracks live for you, the discerning music fan. Go to either 97-99FM or listen via the website here.
If you miss it you can listen again any time for 7 days afterwards on the website.
I hope someone is archiving these…’cause I’m certainly not keeping track. I’ve been told by a local authority that earlier arrival this evening is advised. Is 4pm early enough?
In support of the BBC sessions that came out Tuesday, Stevie and Chris go deep in discussing the Belle and Sebastian’s early years…1996 (the year the band formed) to 2001 (the year Bobby replaced Stuart David as guitarist/bassist). And so much more…
Another film gone, more ridiculous photos taken.
This time : Fucked Up – on the road in the UK doing what they do best:
Wearing Burberry
Pouting
Blogging
Merch-ing
Gallivanting with ladies of the night
From the north to the south – the past couple of days in the UK with Fucked Up and Jay Reatard in photographic form, courtesy of some multi-talented photographer friends.
Fucked Up at Manchester’s Roadhouse
Photos by Danny North
To celebrate new releases of some of our most beloved artists of all time, we’ve set up a couple of CRAZY bundles in the store.
Pavement- Deluxe Editions Bundle
An add-on to our current Buy Early Get Now promotion, you can now purchase all 3 available Pavement deluxe editions AND the to-be-release Deluxe edition of Brighten The Corners. Only $50 and you still get all of the Buy Early Get Now goodies!
Buy HERE
Belle and Sebastian Bundle
If you somehow missed the boat on one of the best bands of all time and have been drawn in by all of the positive vibes around the BBC Sessions you can pick up the first 4 of B&S’s classic albums PLUS the newly released BBC Sessions for only $45.
Buy HERE
(Jennifer posted the following via her MySpace page earlier this week. She’s still on tour with Amy Ray as of this writing and can also be seen at a benefit for the Willie Mae Rock Camp For Girls on December 3 (Zipper Factory, NYC) and Woodstock, NY’s Bearsville Theatre on December 12 (supporting Dar Williams)
Hey everybody-
I recently recorded a version of “Deck The Halls” for a Christmas compilation. Caleb Palma of the awesome Hard To Find a Friend blog asked me to contribute and I did (as did the likes of like Oxford Collapse, Bodies of Water, Jason Colett, American Analog Set and more….). The comp is available for $7.50 as a download right here, and 100% of the proceeds will go to the Children of Uganda Fund.
Lovers of the first or second most popular rocker simulation console game will be thrilled to know 3 Mission Of Burma songs are now available for the XBox 360′s “Rock Band” ; “Mica”, “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver” and “That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate”. The Burma 3 pack is available for download for 440 Microsoft points, or you can order the songs individual for 160 points each. Whether Burma’s video game debut will prove to be as hot a seller as the Century Media Girls Of Metal Pack remains to be seen, but I must admit we’re feeling a little left out in the cold on this one. For the past 25 years, Matador’s team of programmers have been working on “The Deacons : Escape From Johnny D’s”, and it appears there will be little love for our pioneering title with all this Rock Bandmania going on.
OK, we’ll spare you a feature-length dramatic interpretation of the day’s events (but can we please start a thread about who would portray each member of Fucked Up if we did make one? I think Thora Birch could be a dynamite Mustard Gas).
Rhapsody made a little documentary about the event:
Rhapsody filmed and recorded Fucked Up’s already-legendary 12 Hour Show last month at Rogan in New York City (and pulled a “Where’s Waldo” with their logo – see if you can spot it!). Soon, they’ll make much of the show available to the world via streaming video and audio, as well as cuddly MP3 downloads. More on that shortly.
In the meantime, relive the magic of the longest day of our lives with powerful takes on The Chemistry of Common Life standouts “Black Albino Bones”, “Twice Born” and “Crooked Head”:
In announcing their upcoming indie / digital-only EP, the auteurs behind such hits as “Semi-Charmed Life” and uh….whatever their other hit was, have penned the most confusing, self-congratulatory press release this side of my early draft for the Condo Fucks’ ‘Fuckbook’.
Becoming superstars took its toll on the band members’ psyches, and as 3EB ground through the star-making machinery, they eventually found themselves losing creative control of their music and their image, until one day in 2004 they woke up and realized they didn’t recognize themselves anymore. It was then that they decided it was time to take a break — time to take a look inside, re-evaluate who they were as artists, and get back in touch with themselves and their music.
3EB have been inspired by the possibilities and potential that new media provide, and are discovering their own paradigm on how they create and reach people with music. They have toured consistently over the past two years, and sold out every show, playing in front of crowds of up to 11,000 fans, in response to an entirely new fan-base who have discovered this music on the web.
These new fans have proved that, despite a 5-year hiatus between albums, 3EB has in fact deepened its connection with its community.
It’s a pretty amazing piece of work, and aside from their publicist deserving a raise (if not combat pay), we’re now left to ponder the following : just what sort of groundbreaking stuff would these schmoes have come up with had they not “lost creative control of their music”?
Residents of the north, why go to one Matador-related show on Wednesday 19th November when you can go to two?
For one night only, you can see both Fucked Up and Jay Reatard playing in completely separate venues in the beautiful city of Manchester. But never fear dear Northerners, you don’t have to choose one show over the other (which would be as cruel as making you choose between Man City and Man United, I’m sure).
Fucked Up play the Roadhouse at 8pm (there’s a 9pm curfew; it’s an all-ages show) whilst Jay Reatard and company head up the Deaf Institute (oh, the irony) at midnight. There’s even enough time to fit in a Reggae Reggae Chicken Subway between shows. Anyone would have thought we’d planned it.
So in a nutshell, your Wednesday night should look something like this:
8pm-9pm – watch Fucked Up @ The Roadhouse
9.05pm – High-five/back-slap/shake hands with Fucked Up
10pm (approximately) – eat Reggae Reggae Chicken Subway
10.30pm – watch Lovvers @ Deaf Institute
12 midnight – watch Jay Reatard @ Deaf Institute
If you missed out getting your hands on these little 7″ beauties in their entirety, here is a rare opportunity to win all six PLUS a signed copy of the Beck’s Gamma Ray 7″ (featuring Jay on the flipside covering the aforementioned title track) via NME.
Go here to enter the draw. The competition closes on December 1st, so hurry!
Toyota’s recent “Saved By Zero” spots have inspired everything from Facebook hate groups to actual killing sprees (ok, not yet, BUT JUST YOU WAIT) and is it any wonder that an individual most likely to profit from this aesthetic atrocity agrees that it sucks? From the Las Vegas Journal’s Jerry Fink :
“I would prefer to have been the one singing it,” Cy Curnin says during a recent phone interview from his farm in France. You can hear the real version when the Fixx performs free concerts Friday and Saturday at Green Valley Ranch.
He’s amused at the irony of using the song to tout 0 percent car financing.
“It’s a bit cheesy,” he says. “It was about looking at your own life, not so much about amassing material things but about experiences that lend you to be blissful. It’s peeling away illusions we pick up along the way. Our identity isn’t the suit we wear or the latest gadget. Our identity is the freedom to pick and choose from all aspects of humanity and to make a stand.
“The song was written from the point of view of the release you get when you have nothing left to lose. It’s sort of a meditation. It clears your head of all fears and panics and illusions and you get back to the basics, which is a Buddhist mantra, which I practiced back then, and which I still do. The idea of the song is how great it is to get back to zero.”
The theme drives Curnin’s life.
Several years ago he moved to France with his new wife and started living off the land and off royalties.
“We are 100 percent self-sufficient,” says Curnin, a native of Wimbledon, England. “We’re getting back to the roots of it. My wife runs a guesthouse. We run all of the stuff we grow and produce through the guesthouse, feeding people. Tonight there are six people who will be eating some of our pigs.”
This is the one-sheet for Superchunk‘s second album, OLE-035, No Pocky For Kitty, now available on Merge. A one-sheet is industryspeak for a retail sell-sheet. They are to be distinguished from bios, which are directed at press and tend to be more serious (and more frequently vetted by bands, if not actually written by them). A one-sheet is supposed to grab a frazzled buyer’s attention and say “order this record in quantity” with quick and catchy reasons why. It is not a place to meditate on music or art, which is not to say we haven’t done that on occasion.
This one-sheet was probably written by Johan Kugelberg, Matador’s first sales director.
Watch out UK (and Ireland), Jay Reatard is finally heading back to our shores for a string of dates stretching across this area of the world starting on Sunday.
16 Nov : Green Synergy Festival, Dublin
18 Nov : Barrowlands 2, Glasgow
19 Nov : Deaf Institute, Manchester
20 Nov : The Faversham, Leeds
21 Nov : Korova, Liverpool
22 Nov : Bodega, Nottingham
23 Nov : The Cooler, Bristol
24 Nov : Old Blue Last, London
26 Nov : The Lexington, London
27 Nov : Banquet Records, Kingston (in-store performance)
27 Nov : New Slang, Kingston
28 Nov : Engine Rooms, Brighton
Keep note of that in-store appearance as it’s at 6pm – and an under 18′s show in advance of the evening show that night.
Here is part one of an occasional series on Matador artifacts from our history. The Matador Profiles ad series (recently resurrected) ripped off the Creem Profiles ads from the 1970s, which in turn ripped off the Dewars Profiles ads from that period and earlier. Click on the image for a legible version.
Here you can see the ultra-suave Michael Cudahy, singer and main songwriter in Boston’s Christmas, whose album Vortex we released in 1993 (by which time the band had relocated to Las Vegas). Later he was in Combustible Edison, over whom we will politely draw a curtain. He also nearly beat Jeopardy contestant Ken Jennings, the 17-show champ, on June 25, 2004. In the early 1980s he helped start the legendary artist-owned label Propeller Records, which released important records by the Dangerous Birds, V;, the Neats, Art Yard, CCCP-TV and many others. (Sadly the Propeller masters were all destroyed in a disastrous fire at Cudahy’s house in Allston many years ago, so HA HA there will be no digital reissues.)
Matmos’s Drew Daniel will read from his book on Throbbing Gristle (Throbbing Gristle: Twenty Jazz Funk Greats, 33 1/3 Books), answer questions, and do a Soft Pink Truth performance (aka dance party).
Annals of Ruth Rogers pasta recipes, part 8. I was looking for something to make with just stuff in the house or easily available… it turned out that all I needed for this one was heavy cream. This dish is extraordinarily delicious and piquant with intense depth of flavor, and I’m not sure why. It may have been the white wine I used, a 1999 Zind-Humbrecht riesling Clos Häuserer, but it was frankly past its prime for drinking and I worried that it would add a cloying note. It may be the cooking process… rather than fry the pancetta aggressively as in her excellent carbonara, you cook it at very low heat in an equal amount (!) of butter, so that the fat of the pancetta combines with the butter.
Long cooking time and patience is of the essence, I suspect. Melt 150g butter in a thick-bottomed pan, and add 150g pancetta cut into 2cm pieces and cook over very low heat until the pancetta becomes crisp – at least 20 minutes says the recipe, more like a half hour for me. Add 2 dried crumbled red chiles (I used Indian ones), 1/2 tbs freshly ground black pepper, and 120ml white wine. Cook for 5 minutes to reduce the wine, then add 6 real San Marzano canned plum tomatoes, roughly chopped in their juice, and some sea salt, and simmer for 15 minutes. Add 120ml heavy cream and cook for a further 15 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Cook the tagliatelle in boiling salted water until al dente. Drain and put it into the pot with the sauce (still warm but off the heat) and toss. Stir in 50g freshly grated reggiano parmegiano. Serve with the remaining reggiano on top, in heated bowls.
I added a decidedly non-Italian touch as you can see above: chopped curly parsley. Like most cooks reared in the ’80s and ’90s I learned always to use flat-leaf Italian parsley for everything and treated curly parsley as a relic from ’60s and ’70s cuisine, only useful as a visual garnish. In fact it has a bright, fresh flavor of its own, quite different from the humid grassiness of flat-leaf. It took Fergus Henderson and Jesper Eklow to bring me to my senses. This led me to my favorite new dish, so simple it’s almost not worth mentioning… white rice with chopped curly parsley. Make steamed white rice by your favorite method. Chop about 3 tablespoons of curley parsley medium (no stems, not coarse, not fine). As soon as the rice is ready, fluff the parsley well into the rice with a wooden fork or wooden spoon. Serve. I have no idea why this is so delicious. I could eat cups and cups of it. Freshly ground pepper and some lemon juice may be added if you like.
Fucked Up are currently shacked up in North West London, in the legendary Maida Vale studios – recording a session to go out on BBC Radio 1′s Rock Show in the near future. Then they’re flying over to east London to play 93ft East TONIGHT for the Hokaben Festival.
But wait, there’s more! Secret show alert…. Tomorrow night, after the Brighton show, the band are coming back to London to play PUSH club at about 2am. So keep the caffeine rolling.
