Are you in a band that’s not going anywhere? Is there a particular member of your band that you want to be rid of but he’s your best friend from grade school and you don’t want to hurt his feelings? Did the bassist and your lead singer break up recently and now practice is three hours of awkward? Then I’m your guy.
Here’s how it works. You bring me in. I play guitar. Doesn’t matter if you need one, just bring me in.
Within 6 weeks, major changes will happen with your band. The drummer will accept a job offer out of state. The keyboardist will announce that he’s getting married and the fiancee isn’t into the whole band thing. The singer will be offered a better gig. One way or another, the band will fall apart. For my part, I won’t say much or talk about anyone or complain. I’ll just learn the songs, show up early for practice, and basically do whatever’s required of me.
But we will never play out. The band will dissolve before that ever happens.
In some cases, just firing me will be enough to get your band moving in the right direction, but to be honest that doesn’t happen very often. Usually it’s something innocuous and it causes the band to break up.
Here’s the deal, though. Some of the remnants will re-form a new band and they will thrive.
I’m asking for $300 up front. It’s up front because, face it, we’re not going to make any money gigging.
By truepanthersounds on Thursday, April 29th, 2010
The wonderful folks over at Yours Truly did this sweet session with the Delorean guys in their Spanish home. They talk dubstep, their genesis, work and do an intimate and incredible version of “Grow” off of Subiza. PLUS, the guys announced another round of U.S. Tour dates. Tour dates below the video.
Order Subiza HERE
Order Delorean Subiza T-shirt (w/instant mp3 album download) HERE
The version of “Grow” captured in this video is a studied and intimate version of what the band now plays live. It must be hard to be an ambitious musician in Barcelona. Having to tear yourself away from the lure of the white beaches and narrow cobblestone streets to compose in a windowless practice space almost seems impossible!
But it’s here in this video- the bare moments of composition and rehearsal, dissection of every detail that eventually adds up to an ecstatic experience imbued with emotional and musical heart. Ekhi refers to a “musical competition” that drives them to step beyond themselves, to take the time to draw from their surroundings and community to create something better than what’s come before. It’s amazing that Yours Truly captured the band figuring out how to perform the sounds they composed in isolation live. The video shows us the song in its most essential state- underneath the wash of synths and samplers is care and passion, deliberate and constant change. Summoning transcendence is hard spellcasting work and I’ve seen few people as committed to that craft in my life as Delorean. Good music breathes. YES, thank you!
Friday 06.04 New York, NY – Pianos Saturday 06.05 Brooklyn, NY – Glasslands Gallery Sunday 06.06 Seattle, WA – Chop Suey Monday 06.07 Vancouver, British Columbia – Biltmore Cabaret Tuesday 06.08 Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios Thursday 06.10 San Francisco, CA – Popscene Friday 06.11 Los Angeles, CA – Echo
Saturday 07-10 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
Monday 07-12 Allston, MA – Great Scott Tuesday 07-13 Montreal, Quebec – Le Belmont
Wednesday 07-14 Toronto, Ontario – Wrongbar
Thursday 07-15 Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop Saturday 07-17 Chicago, IL – Pitchfork Music Festival
By Jeremy P. Goldstein on Thursday, April 29th, 2010
Photo courtesy of Holden Richards
Actually, if you’re one of the lucky winners, you’ll be hearing this Shearwater intimate performance live from The Triple Door in Seattle this afternoon, ahead of their gig at the very same venue this evening (still need tickets? Get ‘em here). Fortunately for the rest of us schlubs, the session will be aired back in its entirety at 5PM PDT (for those of you who have trouble with the mathematics, that’s 8PM EDT). KEXP, as you are most likely full aware, airs terrestrially at 90.3 on your FM dial in the greater 206 and online at KEXP.org.
By truepanthersounds on Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
If you haven’t heard Delorean‘s (recently BNM‘d) Subiza yet, hear it now in its full glory on HERE
Pre-order from Matador Store and get instant mp3 download HERE
Also, you can buy a crisp new Delorean T-shirt that comes with an instant mp3 download of the album.
Digital music wear? MP3-Tee? Call it what you want. We wish we could just plug headphones into this shirt and go to the beach, but for now this is the best we can do, and frankly it seems pretty good. Order T-shirt (w/album download) HERE
Austin had the original Together Shuttle, Portland made you dance for your tickets, Philly never ran out of free flowing beer, Boston had the most #tweeting participants, Seattle had the highest volume attended, Atlanta and LA were at your favorite local record stores, the list goes on… What’s been so successful about our spring togetherness, has been the individuality of each market’s party. The people, the variety of giveaways, and more! Most all of our #gettogethers have come and gone now in the last two weeks (aside from Cleveland tomorrow, and Phoenix 5/8), and we’ve had a blast with you all! So what could we possibly be posting about…?
Possibly, the Ultimate Get Together. Special guests joining our #togetherness: The New Pornographers! Presented by: Matador Records, Other Music, & The New Pornographers: GET TOGETHER: NEW YORK TUESDAY MAY 4th @ ARROW BAR (85 Ave A) 8-10pm (arrive early for free drinks!) 21+ DJ Set with members of the band + albums available on site. Giveaways: Tickets to New P’s 5/5 Fallon show/performance + autographed TOGETHER vinyl + tickets to 6/19 Terminal 5 + more! …and of course, arrive early to be one of the first 20 to receive Carl Newman’s spring Get Together mix. rsvp: gettogethernyc@gmail.com – must rsvp, but, still based upon capacity, arrive early!!
Winners drawn so far for TWEETING @ #gettogethers (please DM email your mailing address to @matadorrecordsHeather Mac, and we will send you all sorts of New Pornographers vinyl goodies!) + more to come: @markjamesmurphy @emilyhogan @postmodernism @basicdrummer @volatilerecs @thomashartnett @CortJstr @brandonc
Tomorrow (4/28) at NYC’s Le Poisson Rouge, Cold Cave will proffer the cassette ‘New Morale Leadership’ c24 to those in attendance. This release, with three separate covers (see above) features two sides that range in some of the finest noise experimentation the band has made to date, along with found-sound collage and a re-record of one of their classics. Each different colored cassette is limited to 100 copies and there’s good chance that if you blink, they’ll be gone, so check it out. (tickets here)
Next Tuesday May 4 (aka street date for The New Pornographers new CD/LP “Together”) Origami Vinyl in Echo Park will become The Together Shop. For one day only, The Together Shop will feature all things New Pornographers with special sales, ticket giveaways, exclusive album bundles and a one-day-only exclusive poster. Oh and did I mention that there will be free beer and pizza??
What is it they say, one good turn deserves another? On the eve of the debut of Harlem’s second video from Hippies – for album standout “Friendly Ghost” – a second “Friendly Ghost” clip found its way to the inbox of our US licensing-goddess, Brigitte Green. It seems Harlem has a secret admirer – an ad-agency employee with a little too much time on his hands (well done, Mr. Greg Szmurlo).
First, the official clip, directed by Harlem with videography by Blackmagic Rollercoaster (http://www.blackmagicrollercoaster.blogspot.com/):
And Mr. Szmurlo’s version, also made with love:
Harlem is on the road:
April
Tuesday 27 – Montreal, QC – Green Room
Wednesday 28 – Toronto, ON – The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern
Thursday 29 Cleveland, OH Now Thats Class
Friday 30 Detroit, MI Majestic Cafe (with City Center)
May
Saturday 01 – Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle (with Jaill)
Monday 03 – Milwaukee, WI – Mad Planet (with Jaill, Worrier)
Tuesday 04 – Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry (with Teenage Moods)
Wednesday 05 – Des Moines, IA – Vaudeville Mews
Thursday 06 – Omaha, NE – The Waiting Room
Friday 07 - Kansas City, MO – The Riot Room
Saturday 08 – St. Louis, MO – The Firebird
Monday 10 – Columbus, OH – The Summit
Tuesday 11 – Newport, KY – Southgate House Parlour
Wednesday 12 - Lousville, KY - Zanzabar
Thursday 13 – Nashville, TN – The End
Friday 14 - Memphis, TN – Hi-Tone Cafe
Saturday 15 – Dallas, TX – City Tavern
I don’t have much to add except I was at the dentist the other day and she was giving me all sorts of grief about the lack of patriotism on the Matador roster. Satisfied?
(if anyone can recommend a dentist that’s not nearly as batshit insane, please reply via e-mail. thanks)
if you haven’t heard, pavement are back from the dead. we’ve been having a blast so far on the reunion tour. thanks so much for coming to see us! we started back in february in new zealand and australia. we played the cities of auckland, sydney, meredith, adelaide, perth, brissy, and melbs . thank you so much, all of us enjoyed your hospitality, generosity, and love. and being my future hemisphere, you did us proud! the great 3D’s opened for us in auckland and it was like stepping back in time. hearing ‘outer space’ again was a special thing. what a sound! and the melbourne legends, gersey opened for us in australia . they were just as good as they were back in the day, actually much better!
backstage in sydney
this guy came up and sang on conduit...
this is a pavlova! my favourite desert in the world...
after the tour ended, the fun was just to begin since i was married in melbourne on march 20. so many of our family and friends stuck around and it was a very special day. if any of you have a chance, get married in melbourne, you’ll never forget it! we honeymooned in thailand for a week, and had some crazy food!
kravit seafood raft restuarant phuket, thailand
the tour resumed in tokyo with sm barely making the first show. he had problems with his visa and made it to the club 20 minutes before the show. i gotta say, after a 10 hour flight, he impressed us all. tokyo was crazy! the fans were amazing! all of us had a few days to see tokyo and had an awesome time. thanks to our friends there for showing us the sights. we then took the shinkansen to osaka. what an experience that was. speeding along at 200 mph is not very good on a weak stomach like mine. the crowd in osaka was very special as well. thanks so much for coming to see us! the next night in nagoya we played one of the smallest shows on the tour at club quattro , where pavement played long ago. 400 people rocked out and had a great time. all of the band and crew had a great time here! we ate too much fried chicken wings though! can’t wait to come back for summersonic in august!
tokyo light show...
tokyo rock city...
shinkansen...
la nast at hanshin tigers baseball...
7th inning stretch at hanshin tigers game...
6 pm set time in osaka...
chicken wings in nagoya!
nagoya club quattro... smallest show on the tour...
after leaving japan, we arrived in la and chilled out for a couple days before our first US show in over 10 years. and we played it in of all places, the beautiful city of pomona! my grandparents live in corona, not far from pomona so i am very familiar with the place. a lot has changed that’s for sure. they still have in and out burger though which was a nice change after so much japanese food. the show was really fun, as we ran thorough 30 songs and two hours of pavement hits. the crowd reaction was much different than japan so it kind of confused us for awhile but after we hit our stride, we knew people were having fun.
pomona hipsters!
a few days later, coachella. yes, that coachella… home of pavement’s worst show ever! those days are in the past folks. the band was pretty nervous leading up to this but ended up playing what we thought was a pretty great show. we were up on the big big stage, but we seemed like a band playing in small club. hope all who saw it enjoyed! we know we did! see you at the hollywood bowl with sonic youth and no age in sept.
the big time...
speaking of september, we have announced some new shows in north america. seattle, portland, and vancouver! seems so far away!
we’re getting ready for our european shows now. and we’re looking forward to getting back to london, the site of pavement’s last ever show. hopefully no handcuffs this time! and can’t wait for the atp festival where we picked all 40 bands. seeing the clean again will be one of my highlights! but i can’t forget broken social scene and the authorities! so many great bands!
i also want to mention that i’m playing a spiral stairs show in london on may 12th after the pavement brixton show. it’s at the windmill pub in brixton, just down the street from the academy! we play at 12:30 am and it’s cheap to get in! see you there!
ok, that’s it for now. i’ll try to keep all of you updated as the tour progresses, but there’s also spiralstairsmusic.com for setlists and news as well as crookedrain.com for all other info.
(from 1976, Thor on “The Merv Griffin Show”. Taken from the unreleased DVD box set, “Thor : The Proto-Piazza”)
Who amongst us hasn’t sat awake at night fantasizing about various rock icons reaching out to state Governors for assistance? For instance, Larry Lifeless would like Deval Patrick to tear up some parking tickets. Bobby Steele having a word with David Paterson about widening lanes on the NY State highways (admittedly, I might be mixing this up with a “Seinfeld” episode). Sometimes, however, reality is far more amazing than anything we might come up with while high, as the following item from that treasure trove of insane press releases, Blabbermouth.net, illustrates.
Jon Mikl Thor has sought help from his old friend and fellow bodybuilder, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Jon has asked Arnold to see if it was possible to board a military plane bound for Germany at the Beale Air Force Base in Northern California, 45 miles from Sacramento, to attempt to perform a concert at the Keep It True festival in Lauda-Königshofen, Germany on April 23.
Jon has helped Arnold before by performing with his band THOR at the Beale Air Force Base to entertain the military.
“The volcanic ash from the Icelandic eruption has stopped all travel from North America to Europe for commercial airlines,” Thor explained.
“I don’t always ask Arnold for help but this is a special request. If Arnold ever needed my help, I would be there in an instant.”
There are interesting parallels in both Jon and Arnold’s life. Both Jon Mikl Thor and Arnold Schwarzenegger won the Mr. Universe championship in their careers. Both have also had successful movie careers. Jon is planning on running for office in Washington state and Arnold already is a governor of California.
Shearwater’s grand tour across the states picks back up tonight in Phoenix, AZ at the Rhythm Room.
And what better way to celebrate than to share some live show footage of Shearwater performing “Hidden Lakes” at Mad Planet in Milwaukee in early April.
The gentlemen and lady of Yo La Tengo kick off their three-night stand in San Francisco tonight, but Bay Area listeners can get even more Yo La Tengo by tuning in to KUSF’s Sleeves on Hearts show tomorrow, April 23 at 11:00AM Pacific for a special live appearance by the one and only James McNew. What records has James picked up on tour? How heavy is the Merzdallion? When can we expect Georgia’s next Petite Tweet? Tune in tomorrow at 90.3FM or kusf.org to hear the answer to probably one of these questions at most.
If you’re in SF and haven’t picked up a ticket to one of these shows, what are you waiting for? Tickets are available without a surcharge at the Fillmore box office (1805 Geary Boulevard), with a $1 surcharge at Aquarius Records in SF or Mod Lang in Berkeley, or you can buyticketsonline.
Thank you New P’s fans! My inbox has been experiencing a heavy volume of interest for more GET TOGETHERS. Well let’s bring it. We’ve had a few additions in the last week. And, here you have it, another three slipping out. + NYC, Phoenix, & more to come!
Tweet Together: Don’t forget to hash-tag# your city’s get together to chat about the new album while you’re there. Why? You may just receive a message, announcing you’ve won a New Porno’s surprise catalogue vinyl package, including the new album, TOGETHER.
By truepanthersounds on Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
Magic Kids have spent the last few months putting together their debut True Panther record due late this summer. Now that they’re done you wonder what they’re going to do with their time? Well, going on a national tour with Ariel Pink of course! The guys have made a suite of perfect, impeccably arranged and jubilant pop so we’re excited for the country to get a chance to get familiar with their stuff as soon as possible! Not to be missed.
07-09 Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex #
07-10 San Francisco, CA – Bimbo’s #
07-12 Portland, OR – Doug Fir #
07-13 Seattle, WA – Neumo’s #
07-14 Vancouver, British Columbia – Biltmore #
07-16 Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge #
07-17 Denver, CO – Bluebird #
07-19 Minneapolis, MN – Entry #
07-20 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall #
07-21 Detroit, MI – Pike Room #
07-22 Toronto, Ontario – Mod Club #
07-23 Montreal, Quebec – La Sala Rosa #
07-24 New York, NY – The Fillmore at Irving Plaza #
07-25 Boston, MA – Middle East #
07-27 Philadelphia, PA – JB’s #
07-28 Washington, DC – Rock N Roll Hotel #
07-29 Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506 #
07-30 Atlanta, GA – Earl #
07-31 Birmingham, AL – Bottle Tree #
08-02 Denton, TX – Hailey’s #
08-03 Austin, TX – Mohawk #
Consider it something like a slightly more successful version of Chat Roulette (albeit fully clothed). ‘Together’ is out May 4 and on the 6th, the New Pornographers will be at Bearsville, NY’s Bearsville Theatre performing much of the new album in public for the very first time. Tickets are available here.
Whether or not you share our opinion that Yo La Tengo’s ’09 epic ‘Popular Songs’ was one of the year’s most important works is neither here nor there. We’re always right about this stuff and the sooner you accept this fact, the easier we’re gonna get along. But that’s not to say we can imagine each and every musical combination that might emerge. Despite Yo La Tengo’s history of having their works reimagined by artists as diverse as u-Zig, Tortoise, Kevin Shields, Kit Clayton, Sonic Boom and Nobekazu Takemura, the following development managed to catch us — the smartest people in the history of the entertainment business — by surprise.
On June 8, Yo La Tengo will unveil remixes of ‘Popular Songs”s standout, “Here To Fall”, as conceived by De La Soul,RJD2 and Pete Rock.
The 3rd of the above events is what our friends in the United Kingdom like to call “oversubscribed”. Tomorrow night’s Mercury Lounge show is a contender to turn out the same way, so if you’re thinking of stopping home to watch Richard Bey’s straight-t0-web talk show, you might regret the decision. Even if the Harlem show isn’t sold out, you might regret the decision.
(order ‘Hippies’ on LP, CD or digital formats from the Matador Store)
While hanging backstage at Coachella with such luminaries as Pat O’Brien, Mason Reese and John Stamos this weekend, I caught wind of a rock rumor so scintillating, I’m about to turn the entire biz sideways just by repeating it. To wit, the legendary CONDO FUCKS will warm up for an appearance at Primavera Sound with a May 16 show at Chicago’s Hideout in support of Eleventh Dream Day.
Following Pantha Du Prince’s re-work, we’re excited to unleash the lead-off track from Cold Cave‘s forthcoming remix EP, “Life Magazine (The Arthur Baker’s Not Going Back Mix)”. In this rare remix from Arthur Baker, legendary for producing Afrika Bambaattaa and New Order, we find “Life Magazine” transformed into epic, hard-hitting track poised to ignite many a dancefloor.
For those of you in New York City, Cold Cave will be playing two free outdoor shows this weekend. On Saturday (4/24), they play at Solar 1 and at Barnard College on Sunday (4/25) as part of 2010′s WBAR-B-Q, alongside Blues Control, Liturgy and Burning Star Core and others.
For what purpose the popular song? Does the popular song have a purpose? Is it just a sequence of auditory gestures, desperate acts, adrift in the bigger broader silence of an unforgiving cultural landscape? In what follows, we will assume that the purpose of the popular song is to unite warring disputants and to repair the manifold puncture wounds of life, so that life is revealed, again, as less accursed than it appears. And let’s assume that we go on listening to the popular song, which in the vast majority of its iterations is a failure, because we are chronic in our need for this rehabilitation of our puncture-wounded selves. Take any fine example, take “All You Need Is Love,” by the Beatles, or “Walk Away, Renee,” by the Left Banke, or “Tears of a Clown,” by Smokey Robinson. Try listening to these songs. Almost immediately, your suppurations begin to clot.
Into this tryingly difficult history of the popular song stride The New Pornographers, into a period in which it has to be acknowledged that the medium is mostly dead, is passed, is no longer a uniting force, but, more frequently, a medium of division, one entirely controlled by the Ownership Society and made profitable according to shareholders who don’t give a fuck if your puncture wounds are healed over as long as the product ships. The New Pornographers, stunningly, do not seem to understand that the popular song is dead, is passed, and The New Pornographers, despite their complete and nearly monastic understanding of the Secret Knowledge of the popular song, will themselves into being, characterized by a uniform devotion to the great history that precedes them by only a couple of decades, and their coming into being in a somewhat unlikely place, Vancouver, not previously noted for a unvarying profusion of rock genius, is particular not only for uniformity of purpose but because they manage, in this uniformity, to bring a considerable cast of local adepts all as one into the tent. The cast of adepts is now well known, but includes at least two startlingly good songwriters, three spectacularly good singers, one of the very best drummers in all of contemporary music, an in-house filmmaker—and that is merely to scratch the surface on the question of bench strength, the shocking amount of bench strength in a band in which everyone seems to be able to produce quality audio emanations from any instrument and to sing, and in which the studio is an instrument as it is in few bands.
Their first album is great, and is power pop, power pop, and more power pop, their second album (Electric Version) refines the form and tinkers, with more studio brilliance on display, the third, viz., Twin Cinema, is an artier thing and a proggier thing, revealing a breadth of confidence, and a breadth of confidences, both senses, and a command of lyrical nuance and anthemic talents that display themselves in unusual spots, in songs that don’t begin anthemically, but which then reveal urgencies; Challengers, the fourth, has some quieter annunciations on it, seems to come from a place of adulthood, from a recognition that urgency can be in the theme, and the affirmation of the song is not in the lyric necessarily, but in the commitment, in the commitment to the sonnet-like cadences of the popular song, and the title song herein, “Challengers,” a miniature about a romantic entanglement that literally walks past the narrator, takes us far beyond the adolescences of the popular song into the adult spot where really great songwriters begin to ply their craft.
Which brings us to the ineradicable present, which is the moment when The New Pornographers have already done everything they can do, in some senses; they have had songs in films and on television, they have toured the world, they are respected and covered and well reviewed and lionized, and everyone in the band has a justifiably earned reputation for excellence and admirability, chief among them A. C. Newman, first among equals with respect to these musical bulletins, Neko Case, the singer who never met a line of lyrics that she could not in same way make indelible, and Dan Bejar, the stealth member and interpretation-resistant Mandarin troubadour.
There are no more interesting rock and roll bands, you know, there are opiate-addicted white boys who cannot play very well and who are unwilling to turn down the amplifiers so as to be heard, and there are machines and auto-tuned fembots, and there are hip hoppers with public-relations simulated gangster simulations, and there are working-class guys with a lot of tattoos who can play really, really fast. But there are no more interesting rock and roll bands, and there are no longer songs that make you want to get out of bed. Still, The New Pornographers are unable not to behave like underdogs of yearning, like a united front of yearning, and they are also unable, it seems, to resist the challenge to make a perfect album, a form so dead that it is on its seventh wave of maggotry, and so they have an eye on history, and they do love a windmill, they love to charge, and they do not know how to do otherwise now, which means that theirs is a contagious form of yearning, and if in part their longing is postmodern, which is to say that they often writes songs that are about other songs (“Crash Years,” e.g., is about “You” by George Harrison, and “Moves” is, in part, about “25 or 6 to 4,” by the beleaguered Chicago), they are not able to treat the form simply as a kind of commentary (which has caused others fatefully to go awry), but also as a surgical intervention for puncture-wounded civilians everywhere, as a joy delivery-system, and in this joy-delivery system there are new and interesting twists, for those who are curious about what the ineradicable contemporary moment sounds like, sound-wise, and the twists on this new album, have to do with strings, really, and with a sort of chamber pop orientation, lots of cello, that is, of a sort that calls to mind the amazing Sister Lovers LP by Big Star, around whose open wounds A. C. Newman has orbited in the past but more fearfully than now.
Fewer keyboard flourishes, and fewer things that sound like they necessitated a good computer programmer, and more things that sound like A. C. Newman and the rest of the band playing in a room. This is probably an illusion, this playing together, but it is an illusion with a purpose, because there are at least two songs on this album that use togetherness as the assembling cement, the epoxy of their composition. The first of these is a big rock song, “Your Hands (Together),” and as you would expect the putting of hands together also occasions a silver bullet, of the mortally inflicting variety, which is the paradoxical sort of thematic approach that we would expect from songwriters who are no longer young, and who are willing to write a couplet that answers the question “What’s love?” with the response: “What turns up in the dark.” All of this is perforation for the tearing away of the final track, “We [End Up] Together,” in which the hook, the title, is at the very end, buried in the mix, and the whole is about familial dynamics, much in the way that “Oh, Sister,” from Bob Dylan’s Desire is about familial dynamics, which is to say not at all, and more about the injunction to “do damage” than it is about familiar unity, “I’m for damage, sweet damage,” Newman and Case sing, and the cellos come back around, with their genteel bolshevism, with a hint of the early Electric Light Orchestra, and Carl goes in and out of his falsetto as he does when he’s winding up like a violent debater, and they hold back on the drumming, which is what they do, until it’s absolutely necessary, and that is a big advantage when the drummer is this great, and then we come to the out chorus, in which Case seems to be singing “ma ma ma ma,” as if to mislead you into thinking that the song, is about familial dynamics, and Newman sings “we end up together,” and then there is guitar feedback. End credits.
What does he mean about ending up together? What would it mean for a popular song, while clearly supporting an aesthetic palette devoted to “sweet damage,” nonetheless to support the idea of ending up together? Is it, paradoxically, about the kind of romantic failure that makes for all the best popular songs? Is it a recognition that the only unifying that can come from the contemporary popular song is the kind of togetherness that recognizes the truth of human life, namely that all is apartness, and all is lonesomeness, and this even if the principle songwriter in the band is recently married, and, by all evidence, reasonably content? Yes, it’s all about the ship going down, and the rats leaping from the sinking vessel, the vessel of the popular song, and there is nothing to do but to celebrate a recognition of this rats-going-down business, and, nonetheless, to view the articulation of same as a joy and a responsibility, such that the best joy-delivery system is the song itself, so that the medium is dead and yet is being used to celebrate its death, and it’s in our mutual recognition of apartness that we are most together. (The band setting is no different, in this way, from quotidian human life. It is a triumph over the entropic energy that would drive it, the band, apart.)
This is an eschatological approach, and, indeed, some of what you are hearing on Together, by the New Pornographers, is a band of ghosts who are mining their fin de siècle imagery for all its worth, even though we are at the beginning of a century. They are from Vancouver (mostly), they still believe that they have something to say, they are adults, they don’t use drum machines, they are not emcees. What could they possibly have going for them? Everything they stand for is over, they are the last iteration, they are the bitter end, the sweet aftertaste of something intoxicating. And yet they believe in doing it, still, together. We are so much the better for it
(preorder ‘Together’ from The Matador Store on LP or CD before May 4 and you’ll receive a free poster plus a 7″, “The New Pornographers Play Outrageous Cherry”, featuring 3 Outrageous Cherry covers)
photo of Carl and Dan via ilamya‘s flickr
photo of Neko via jacephotos‘ flickr
Good news Atlantans and Los Angelinos, The New Porongraphers GET TOGETHER listening parties stop in your towns next week. Stop in to Criminal Records in Atlanta and Origami Vinyl in Los Angeles to be one of the first to hear The New Pornographers‘ new record, Together.
For all attendees of the GET TOGETHERS: we are announcing a contest via twitter wherein you’ll have an opportunity to win free copies of all the New Pornographers vinyl we can scrounge up!
When you are at the party, tweet about the record with a hashtag that includes #gettogether and your city. (if you’re in Atlanta, you’d tweet #gettogetheratlanta, if in Los Angeles, tweet #gettogetherlosangeles — it’s that simple!). We will select winners at random.
These are just two of the many GET TOGETHERS taking place around the country. Stay tuned for more updates!
Hey guys, can’t hurt to remind you again that tomorrow is INTERNATIONAL RECORD STORE DAY, and if heaps of RSD-exclusive vinyl and that fulfilling feeling of buying great music from great retailers isn’t enough to get you out of the house, here are two more events members of the Matador-family are involved with:
article via Record Collector Magazine
Damian Abraham of Fucked Up @ Sonic Boom Records
512 Bloor Street St. West Toronto, ON M5S 1Y3
416-532-0334 | info@sonicboommusic.com
Fucked Up‘s Pink Eyes will be hosting an all day event at Toronto’s Sonic Boom Records that features in-store performances from Sloan, Adam Green, Meligrove Band, Metz, Buck 65, Valery Gore and more. Damian’s also hinted at a special guest appearance for those who show up before 3PM!
When he’s not performing in Cold Cave and as Prurient, Dominick Fernow spends his time overseeing the Hospital Productions record label and shop, which primarily focuses in noise and black metal music. For Record Store Day, the store will debut 13 new cassette releases on the label. In addition, the first 100 people to visit the store are invited to come to the store to record their very own noise cassette. The recording gear will be set up and supplied by the store and you can record your own
1 minute noise tape. The store will personalize your cover for you and you will be the only person to have a copy. You get to keep your recording free of charge.
100 people. 1 minute tapes. Limited to 1.
By truepanthersounds on Thursday, April 15th, 2010
Happy (almost) record store day! You can now get Delorean’s Subiza a few precious days early over at Thinkindie.com
Click HERE to pick it up.
You can also still order it from the Matador store HERE.
If you’re in L.A. Saturday there are still a few tickets left for a special show w/Delorean, J.J. and Bachelorette at the Echoplex. You can get a ticket HERE.
What we mean is… we’ve got some limited edition vinyl items at many participating independent record shops for one day, and one day only — the third annual Record Store Day (henceforth, RSD ’10) this Saturday, April 17!
Ted Leo And The Pharmacists – The Oldest House b/w North Coast 7″
OLE-932 (lim. 2375)
Two brand new, never-released, rockers from TL/RX, not included on ‘The Brutalist Bricks’. Packaged in a classic dubplate style.
Fucked Up – Daytrotter 7″
OLE-931 (lim. 2000 standard edition, lim. 100/store edition)
The two songs from the ‘Couple Tracks’ comp plus a third song from the session (an equally screwed-with version of Crooked Head) – this comes in a regular sleeve PLUS 10 limited-edition sleeves each with a photo of, and named after, a different great US record store: CD Alley (Chapel Hill), Disc Exchange (Knoxville), Fingerprints (Long Beach), Generation (New York), Grimey’s (Nashville), Lunchbox (Charlotte), Speakertree (Lynchburg), Spiral Scratch (Buffalo), Waterloo (Austin), Wax Trax (Denver). Bear in mind, that each single might be found in any record store.
Pavement - Quarantine The Past: The Best Of Pavement RSD ’10 VERSION2xLP OLE-933 (lim. 2000)
An alternative version of our double-disc Pavement best-of collection, ‘Quarantine The Past’… with a completely different track listing (chosen by contest), cover art fucked with by Stephen Malkmus.
Keep in mind, all these records are available for one day only, so get in line early and pick up some other great records while you’re at it!!!
ace, Vancouver, not previously noted for a unvarying profusion of rock genius, is particular not only for uniformity of purpose but because they manage, in this uniformity, to bring a considerable cast of local adepts all as one into the tent. The cast of adepts is now well known, but includes at least two startlingly good songwriters, three spectacularly good singers, one of the very best drummers in all of contemporary music, an in-house filmmaker—and that is merely to scratch the surface on the question of bench strength, the shocking amount of bench strength in a band in which everyone seems to be able to produce quality audio emanations from any instrument and to sing, and in which the studio is an instrument as it is in few bands.
are working-class guys with a lot of tattoos who can play really, really fast. But there are no more interesting rock and roll bands, and there are no longer songs that make you want to get out of bed. Still, The New Pornographers are unable not to behave like underdogs of yearning, like a united front of yearning, and they are also unable, it seems, to resist the challenge to make a perfect album, a form so dead that it is on its seventh wave of maggotry, and so they have an eye on history, and they do love a windmill, they love to charge, and they do not know how to do otherwise now, which means that theirs is a contagious form of yearning, and if in part their longing is postmodern, which is to say that they often writes songs that are about other songs (“Crash Years,” e.g., is about “You” by George Harrison, and “Moves” is, in part, about “25 or 6 to 4,” by the beleaguered Chicago), they are not able to treat the form simply as a kind of commentary (which has caused others fatefully to go awry), but also as a surgical intervention for puncture-wounded civilians everywhere, as a joy delivery-system, and in this joy-delivery system there are new and interesting twists, for those who are curious about what the ineradicable contemporary moment sounds like, sound-wise, and the twists on this new album, have to do with strings, really, and with a sort of chamber pop orientation, lots of cello, that is, of a sort that calls to mind the amazing Sister Lovers LP by Big Star, around whose open wounds A. C. Newman has orbited in the past but more fearfully than now.
Good news Atlantans and Los Angelinos, 
