Well, actually – I got this from Metal Sucks, but still – I have my fingers crossed that this is their real rider and that they manage to get “Hand satanizer”, “50,000 live bees for Dave” and a “Whetstone for battle axes” as they’ve supposedly requested…

You might remember a few weeks ago we decided we wanted more fan-mail to offer up Fucked Up goodies in exchange for a bit of participation with UK fans who went to buy David Comes To Life in any independent record store.  All they had to do was find one of the 5 character postcards, create something associated to the story of the album and send it to our London office.

After some careful deliberation (sleepless nights and a game of paper-rock-scissors), we whittled it down to a winner and a runner up. And the winners is…
(pausing for effect, in true awards style)
Bob Alderdice, for this amazing 5-postcard, 3 dimensional creation which blew us away, well done Bob – you truly surpassed our expectations!

Taking the runner up spot is Graham from Brighton, for the following postcard:

Well done to both, we’ll be in touch to arrange your prizes – and for the rest of you?  Better luck next time (though we’ll still appreciate any other cool post).

The winning store was Piccadilly Records in Manchester.  Fucked Up’s European tour starts tomorrow.

UK PEOPLE – FUCKED UP WANT YOUR LOVE LETTERS.

I’m sure you’re all fully aware that this week sees the release of the third studio album by Fucked Up, David Comes To Life. The album is a tale of love and loss, destruction and redemption, following the story of the protagonist David and his love for Veronica. Five main characters appear in the narrative, each with their own part to play.

In keeping with the love affair of David and Veronica, Matador are running a competition in the UK to win some Fucked Up goodies*, compiled with love by the band.  We are asking you to write/draw/create something inspired by love.  Five different ‘character’ designs have been distributed across the UK’s best independent record stores – 1000 of each.  If you find a postcard, make your creation on the left, be it a poem, illustration, story etc (include which store you picked it up from and an email for yourself at the bottom), then post it back to Matador at the address below.  The band will judge the entries and the winner will receive a signed, framed poster from the band, plus a goody bag of swag that we can steal from the band’s Big Cartel.  The store you found your postcard in will also receive a signed, framed David Comes To Life poster, so everyone’s happy.  Including me, as I love getting post. Not enough people write love letters with a pen and paper anymore, right?

Send your entries to Matador at the address below:
DAVID COMES TO LIFE
MATADOR RECORDS
17-19 ALMA ROAD
LONDON
SW18 1AA

Remember to add your email address and your chosen record store, otherwise we can’t get your prizes to you.

The participating stores:

ACTION RECORDS – PRESTON
AMULET – (MAILORDER)
AVALANCHE – EDINBURGH
BANQUET – KINGSTON
BOOMKAT – (MAILORDER)
CRASH – LEEDS
DRIFT – TOTNES
HEAD – BIRMINGHAM
JUMBO – LEEDS
MONORAIL – GLASGOW
NORMAN RECORDS – (MAILORDER)
ONE UP – ABERDEEN
PICCADILLY RECORDS – MANCHESTER
RESIDENT – BRIGHTON
RISE – BRISTOL
ROUGH TRADE EAST – LONDON
ROUGH TRADE WEST – LONDON
ROUNDER – BRIGHTON
SISTER RAY – LONDON
SPILLERS – CARDIFF

Good luck!

*swag TBC, but it’ll be good, trust me.

If the headline above fills you with questions, questions such as ‘why would I write to the FCC?’ or ‘what’s KUSF?’ or ‘isn’t the Belle And Sebastian plug kind of gratuitous?’, well, allow me to answer the first two.

The condensed version: KUSF is the University of San Francisco’s community radio station, and has been since 1977. That means they’ve been around almost as long as The Fall (though I don’t think they’ve had as much staff turnover). Last month, USF secretly sold KUSF’s transmitter, abruptly took them off the air, and kicked everyone out of the station, with plans to transition the place to an Internet-only concern. Not surprisingly, KUSF’s DJs and staff, almost none of whom had any notice of the sale until they were escorted from the premises, think that’s a pretty fucked up thing to do, and we agree with them (as does Ty Segall).

By now you may be wondering what you can do to help KUSF get back on the air and back to being the incredibly valuable community resource it’s been for over three decades. Well, as the title of this post states, today is the LAST DAY that you can write to the FCC urging them to stop the sale. There are succinct directions on how exactly to do so posted HERE.

Additionally, the exiled KUSF volunteers have set up a Paypal account for people to donate toward their legal fees. Generous souls can open up their pocketbooks HERE.

Finally, if you love Twitter as much as I do, you can get breaking news by following KUSF’s Twitter account, which is HERE.

Earlier this week Esben and the Witch released Violet Cries in the UK and Europe, started their UK tour and played their first home-town show in the past 9 months at the Brighton Pavilion Theatre, which was filmed by the guys over at Tactful-Cactus.  As a taster of what to expect on their upcoming UK/EU/US tour dates, have a look at the live video below for ‘Marching Song’.  To pick up a copy of Violet Cries head to either the Matador Store or the band’s Big Cartel page, for some cheaper shipping if you’re outside America.

4th – Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh (tickets)

5th – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham (tickets)

7th – The Harley, Sheffield (tickets)

8th – Hare & Hounds, Birmingham (tickets)

9th – XOYO, London (tickets)

11th – Botanique/Rotonde, Brussels, Belgium (tickets)

12th – Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands (tickets)

13th – Gebäude, Cologne, Germany (tickets)

14th – Molotow, Hamburg, Germany (tickets)

16th – Loppen, Copenhagen, Denmark (tickets)

17th – Comet, Berlin, Germany (tickets)

19th – Route Du Rock Festival, Saint Malo, France (details)

21st – Point Ephemere, Paris, France (tickets)

March

Thu, 3/3 Washington, DC Red Palace

Fri, 3/4 Brooklyn, NY The Bell House

Sat, 3/5 New York, NY Mercury Lounge

Sun, 3/6 Boston, MA Brighton Music Hall

Mon, 3/7 Philadelphia, PA Kung Fu Necktie

Tue, 3/8 Pittsburgh, OH Brillobox

Wed, 3/9 Akron, OH Musica

Thu, 3/10 Chicago, IL Empty Bottle

Fri, 3/11 Toronto, ON Wrongbar

Sat, 3/12 Denton, TX 35 Conferette

Sat, 3/19 Austin, TX Mess With Texas

Tue, 3/22 Los Angeles, CA Bootleg Theater

Wed, 3/23 San Francisco, CA Bottom of the Hill

Thu, 3/24 Portland, OR Mississippi Studios

Fri, 3/25 Seattle, WA Sunset Tavern

Sat, 3/26 Vancouver, BC The Waldorf Hotel

As previously reported by our buddies over at ATP you’re in for a treat if you happen to be in London this new years eve as there’s an amazing gig with Sonic Youth headlining a 4-band bill. Make sure to get down there early to see Factory Floor opening the party, followed by The Pop Group and the ‘ATP house band’ Shellac, with Mr Stuart Braithwaite spinning records between sets.

Not a bad start to 2011!

I consider myself a somewhat culturally aware, open-minded person. Heck, I’ve been to Canada a couple of times. And I don’t consider myself to have a knee-jerk, negative reaction when it comes to themes of overt sexualty, demonic imagery or collaborations with Klaus Meine. All of that said, I have NO FUCKING IDEA what is going on with the record cover above.

I am not hear to disparage Ms. Pesch’s impressive musical achievements (even if her website crashed my computer several times while composing this post) but I’m thoroughly baffled by this sleeve. Were the title of the album, ’25 Years In Torn Clothing While Presiding Over A Mass Burial Ground”, I’d have a much easier time with it. In any event, as someone in the music business who recently celebrated an important anniversary, I’m sure I speak on behalf of everyone at Matador in congratulating Doro on hitting the big 2-5.

Well, as far as rumours for the Lost Weekend go that might be a little far fetched, but Savage Pencil took the opportunity to imagine how Thurston Moore might enjoy the Matador birthday celebrations in Vegas a little too much later this year.

You can see the comic strip for yourself in the latest edition of The Wire magazine and you can find more of Edwin Pouncey’s excellent Savage Pencil work here.

Photo grabbed from  Charlotte Zoller’s flickr photostream

Live in a fairly sizable metropolitan area, or Bloomington? If so, there’s a good chance Kurt Vile will be stopping in your town in the next few weeks with Square Shells EP atop the merch tables  (it’s also available in stores). Have a great weekend!

Sat-Jun-05    Seattle, WA    High Dive  w/ The Sadies
Sun-Jun-06    Bellingham, WA    Wild Buffalo w/ The Sadies
Mon-Jun-07    Portland, OR    Doug Fir w/ The Sadies

Fri-Jun-11    San Francisco, CA    Slims  w/ Woods
Sat-Jun-12    Big Sur, CA    Henry Miller Library / Woodsist Festival

Mon-Jun-14    Santa Barbara, CA    Jensen’s w/ Woods
Tue-Jun-15    Los Angeles, CA    Echoplex – Woodsist Festival

Fri-Jun-18    Brooklyn, NY    Union Pool w/ The Mad Scene, Meg Baird

Fri-Jul-09    New York, NY    Le Poisson Rouge w/ Real Estate
Sat-Jul-10    Hoboken, NJ    Maxwell’s w/ Real Estate
Sun-Jul-11    Philadelphia, PA    Johnny Brenda’s w/ Real Estate
Mon-Jul-12    Baltimore, MD    Ottobar w/ Real Estate
Tue-Jul-13    Pittsburgh, PA    Garfield Artworks w/ Real Estate
Wed-Jul-14    Cleveland, OH    Beachland Tavern w/ Real Estate
Thu-Jul-15    Bloomington, IN    The Bishop w/ Real Estate

Sat-Jul-17    Chicago, IL    Pitchfork Music Festival

Mon-Jul-19    Detroit, MI    Magic Stick w/ Real Estate
Tue-Jul-20    Toronto, ON    The Great Hall w/ Real Estate
Wed-Jul-21    Ottawa, ON    Babylon w/ Real Estate
Thu-Jul-22    Montreal, QC    Il Motore w/ Real Estate
Fri-Jul-23    Boston, MA    Harpers Ferry w/ Real Estate
Sat-Jul-24    New Haven, CT    Lilly Pad w/ Real Estate
Tue-Aug-10    Charlottesville, VA    Jefferson Theatre w/ Deerhunter
Fri-Aug-13    Boston, MA    Royale Nightclub w/ Deerhunter
Sat-Aug14    Northampton, MA    Pearl Street w/ Deerhunter