For those in the area, Kurt Vile & the Violators will be playing Brooklyn tonight at Monster Island Basement (128 River St @ Metropolitan Ave) with Girls, Real Estate and Beach Fossils. More details here.
We’ve got a slew of dates to share below including a July 2 show at the Electric Factory in Philly opening for Sonic Youth and an August 25 show at Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana opening for Built To Spill.
Keep it here for updates on Kurt’s full-length Matador release, ‘Childish Prodigy’ (Autumn 2009) and further show information.
TOUR DATES:
Friday June 26 (w/ Violators) @ Monster Island Basement – Brooklyn, NY
w/ Girls
Thursday, July 2 (w/ Violators) @ Electric Factory – Philadelphia, PA
w/ Sonic Youth
Saturday, July 4 (w/ Violators) @ 979 Broadway btwn Myrtle Ave & Ditmars St – Brooklyn, NY
Woodsist/Captured Tracks Fest (Outdoors)
w/ The Oh Sees, Vivian Girls, Woods, Dum Dum Girls and more.
Sunday, July 5 (w/ Violators) @ Kung Fu Necktie – Philadelphia, PA
KRAAK Fest – w/ Jack Rose, Meg Baird and US Girls
Friday, July 17 (w/ Violators) @ Bruars Falls – Brooklyn, NY
w/ Blues Control and Coconuts
Saturday, July 18 (w/ Violators) @ Church – Boston, MA
Homegrown Fest
w/ Blues Control, Bobb Trimble, Gary War and more
Sunday, July 19 (w/ Violators) @ Montague Bookmill – Montague, MA
w/ Blues Control
Thursday, July 23 @ Johnny Brenda’s – Philadelphia, PA
w/ Tyvek and Coconuts
Tuesday, August 11 @ Talking Head Club – Baltimore, MD
w/ Espers
Thursday, August 13 (w/ Violators) @ Transfigurations - Asheville, NC
Harvest Records Fest
Friday, August 14 @ Cakeshop – NYC, NY
Saturday, August 15 @ Silent Barn – Ridgewood, NY
Sunday, August 16 @ Vox Populi – Philadelphia, PA
Wednesday, August 19 (w/ Violators) @ Rittenhouse Square – Philadelphia, PA
Tuesday, August 25 @ Galaxy Theatre – Santa Ana, CA
w/ Built To Spill/Woods
Wednesday, August 26 @ The Troubadour – Los Angeles, CA
w/ Dungen/Woods
Saturday, August 29 @ Kemado/Mexican Summer/Folk Yeah Festival – Big Sur, CA
w/ Dungen/Woods
Sunday, August 30 @ Bottom of the Hill – San Francisco, CA
w/ Dungen/Woods
Tuesday, September 1 @ TBD – Portland, OR
w/ Dungen/Woods
After a pair of albums under the group nom de plume Preston School Of Industry, Pavement co-founder Scott Kannberg, aka Spiral Stairs, makes his bona fide solo debut with an October 20 LP/CD/digital album release of ‘The Real Feel’ (OLE 858). Following an extended sojourn in Melbourne, Spiral returned to Seattle rejuvenated at the end of ’08, and commenced recording with a collection of pals including members of PSOI, the Posies, guitarist Ian Moore, Gersey, and Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew. Mixed by the Posies’ Jon Auer, this album is by far the most crafted and introspective of Spiral’s post-Pavement works.
In the words of associate Parker Gibbs, ‘The Real Feel’, “has a vibe similar to classic 70′s albums by Fleetwood Mac (‘Then Play On’), Captain Beefhart (‘Safe As Milk’), and guitar god Richard Thompson, not to mention Aussie psych rock icons Died Pretty. Comparisons aside, this is 100% Spiral Stairs rock, the same rock that made Pavement the most influential band of the 90″s (take that Hoobastank!) and the same strange, dischordant, playful and melodic Spiral Stairs rock that your parents loved.”
“This is indie rock at its best and brightest,” continues Gibbs, “with Spiral Stairs getting back to the basics that have made him a legend in his own mind and to all of the children willing to enter his home.” And on that somewhat troubling note, we’ll add the vinyl edition of ‘The Real Feel’ features a different running order and a limited edition bonus 7″. Live activity throughout the continent of North America is planned for this Autumn, and we’ll surely be letting you know more about that in the days and weeks ahead.
The first track we’ve seen fit to leak from ‘The Real Feel’ is “Maltese Terrier” (MP3). Please note no raccoons were harmed during the making of the album artwork. Not by us, anyway.
For the second time in 3 weeks, we humbly thank the Audio Perv for his uploading prowess. ”No Way” can be found on Sonic Youth’s new LP/CD/digital album ‘The Eternal’, conveniently available from The Matador Store.
Hey, laugh at this guy all you want, but at least he was out there plugging vinyl at the height of the CD revolution. Video link swiped from Boing Boing.
It’s Dutch nieuwe haring season, raw fillets of herring from the first catches of the season. I guess you’re supposed to drag it through the raw onions and then dip it into your mouth holding it by the tail, but I preferred it the way I got it at various shacks around Amsterdam: on bread and butter with the raw onions on top. It’s meltingly delicious, and does not shy away from being raw fish. This is not sushi. It’s very robust. Fantastic with beer, probably even better with vodka or champagne. For those of you in New York, Russ & Daughters still has it, flown in fresh from Holland. Get it now – it won’t last long.
Sonic Youth will be performing “No Way” from ‘The Eternal’ tonight on NBC’s “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” (12:30 EST). Jimmy’s other guests are John Legiuzamo and Nick Cannon. Nils, please remember you’re supposed to get my Criterion Collection copy
We are proud to announce the September 22 release of the debut full-length from Girls, entitledAlbum. The record will be released by True Panther Sounds, the label that released Girls’ debut 7″, “Lust For Life,” last year, in conjunction with Matador.
Built on the powerful songwriting of Christopher Owens and the ethereal production of Chet “JR” White, Girls recordedAlbum in a variety of bedrooms and rehearsal studios in their adopted hometown, San Francisco. The resulting 12 tracks are the perfect San Francisco summer record, evoking a narcotic, sunny afternoon in Dolores Park, yet promising the eventual hangover of summer’s departure.Album is a redemptive song-cycle about the various characters and desires that color Christopher Owens’s life. Described by the band as “honest, loose, ethereal, obnoxious and perfect,” it is a sincere tribute to the majesty of great pop music and the healing power of rock and roll.
Album’s seven-minute opus, “Hellhole Ratrace,” rated by Pitchfork as “one of the 100 best songs of the year,” will be available prior to the album‘s release date on a limited-edition 10″ vinyl single.
Through the auspices of iMeem, you can stream the entire God Help The Girl full-length. The Stuart Murdoch-helmed project is available on LP/CD and digital album now at the Matador Store.
(l-r, Coomers, Curtis, Jose. In the background – not sure, but hopefully he won’t sue)
It’s a poorly kept secret around the office and the band’s hometown but one we can finally confirm — Matador has signed the Austin, TX trio HARLEM to a multi-record, worldwide deal.
Led by dual vocalists Michael Coomers and Curtis O’Mara (the duo switch between guitar and drums, both onstage and off), Harlem started in Tucson, AZ before relocating to Austin where they’ve generated a mountain of attention, both with their fantastic live shows and their self-issued 2008 LP/CD ‘Free Drugs’ (Female Fantasy — currently available via Matador Direct)
Pitchfork’s Roque Strew has hailed Harlem as “a marvel of cartoonishly masculine, crudely analog brevity”, while Gorilla Vs. Bear considers ‘Free Drugs’ to be “super infectious, instantly endearing”, and kindly supplying a quote that we’ll gladly take out of context, the Austin Chronicle’s Audra Schroeder has fallen preil to the album’s “anxious, stuttering charm”. I know, that all sounds highly suspicious, but anyone who’s heard ‘Free Drugs’ or witnessed Harlem laying waste to any number of shoebox sized venues (some of which, were in fact, shoeboxes) can attest, the band’s casual virtuosity is only eclipsed by their otherworldly songwriting skills.
Recently joined by bassist Jose Boyer, Harlem will be recording their 2nd album this summer for release on Matador in 2010.
The Freewheeling Yo La Tengo show rolls into London town tonight, for Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown. A first for us Brits, in the band’s own words, The Freewheeling Show is something of an interactive experience :
“No set list; instead the audience is encouraged (if not required) to interact with the band, leading we’re never quite sure where.” So get your questions at the ready.
And the band will be back in the UK in November, no Freewheeling this time, it’s back to the good old fashioned rock n roll show. Dates below :
Sonic Youth is the top story on Newsweek’s site today and this feature will be in the magazine next week. (direct link)
I usually don’t blog about press, but this is a great piece about how culture suffers when art is marginalized, and (if you’ll allow me to stretch) the discouraging (and uniquely American?) absorption by purportedly open-minded indie/slacker types of Conservative disdain toward intellectualism and forward-thinking art.
“The retrenchment behind indie lines is more the mainstream’s loss than it is Sonic Youth’s. So while industry watchers prefer to fret over the declining sales power of Britney Spears’s comeback records, the rest of us should be more concerned about what happens when art music sends fewer and fewer ambassadors to the straight world.”
It’s only a couple weeks into Newsweek’s relaunch (in which it concedes weekly news recapping to the Internet, opting instead for “reported narratives” and “argued essays”) and hey, looks like a decent strategy so far.
Sonic Youth is the top story on 