We’ve selected the winning entrant in the recent Interpol Turn On The Bright Lights: The Tenth Anniversary Edition Facebook/Spotify “Where Were You In 2002″ playlist competition. Matthew Phillip Ordes took the prize for, among other things, his essential inclusion of Hot Snakes’ “Suicide Invoice” and his brazen selection of Spoon’s “Metal Detektor” from A Series Of Sneaks (an album that which came out in 1998 but, in fairness to Matthew, was reissued by Merge in ’02 – great fucking song in any year).

Matthew, look out for your sure-to-be-weird-in-all-the-right-ways video montage of Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino rocking your playlist, as well as an autographed copy of the new reissue. Everyone, here’s your winner:

Following a week’s manufacturing delay, the immaculate physical editions of Interpol’s Turn On The Bright Lights: The Tenth Anniversary Edition (hardbound book containing double vinyl + DVD, hardbound book containing double CD + DVD) are now available to own.

(above : Daniel Kessler Recalls Interpol’s Infancy At The Site of The Former Baby Jupiter)

Persons attempting research on the late LES venue Baby Jupiter might run across a number of Health Dept. sanctions for the since shuttered Cafe Charbon-Epicerie, so we’re fortunate that Interpol’s Daniel Kessler can recall more historic times on the block. The above clip happens to coincide with today’s digital release of the expanded/remastered reissue of Interpol’s landmark 2002 debut album, ‘Turn On The Bright Lights’, hailed earlier this morning by Pitchfork’s Matt LeMay as an album that captured NYC as “a crushingly real place, rendered in such vivid emotional detail that it rings true even to those who have never set foot in the city.” Just try to make a record like that today without mentioning Duane Reade once.

The physical versions of the TOTBL 10th Anniversary Edition (hardbound book containing double vinyl + DVD, hardbound book containing double CD + DVD) will be in stores Tuesday, December 11, however, we’ve already begun shipping to mail order customers who’ve preordered..  You can still purchase either edition from The Matador Store.

Pitchfork has posted an incredible oral history with Interpol about Turn On The Bright Lights. It features Paul Banks, Carlos Dengler, Sam Fogarino, Daniel Kessler, and Matador co-founder Chris Lombardi talking in detail about the formation of the band, the New York music scene from 1998 to 2002 and the making of the album.

Read it here:

The Tenth Anniversary edition is arriving in the hands of mail order customers on December 4, and will be in stores December 11.

Cast your mind back to 2002. Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopez had just died, Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize and The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers was the highest grossing movie. Meanwhile, Turn On The Bright Lights topped all the major top album lists (not least Pitchfork) and cemented it’s place as one of the albums of the decade.

To create a real sense of that time and why Turn On The Bright Lights was such an important album we’d like to create a seminal list of the best tracks of 2002.

Make a Spotify playlist of your favourite tracks from 2002 and post it as a comment to this message. The best playlist will be chosen via a heated debate in the Matador offices. The creator of the winning playlist will win a signed copy of the Turn On The Bright Lights: The 10th Anniversary Edition Double LP as well as a video of Sam Fogarino listening to their playlist. Really.

To jog your memory, here’s a little playlist showing what Matador was up to in 2002.

To celebrate the release of TURN ON THE BRIGHT LIGHTS: THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION, the IFC in New York are hostng a very special event on Monday 3rd December, the eve of the record’s digital release*. A screening of rare footage from early Interpol performances and music videos will be followed by a roundtable discussion about TOTBL and it’s position in the musical landscape of the early 2000s, featuring Sam Fogarino and Daniel Kessler from the band, Pitchfork founder Ryan Schreiber, Other Music co-owner Josh Madell and moderated by NYU Professor Amanda Petrusich. This promises to be a special evening and will also be your first chance to get your hands on the record itself in all it’s glory.

Get your tickets here.

*Please note: Unfortunately, due to a manufacturing delay, the CD and vinyl street dates have pushed a week from Dec 3(UK)/4(US) to Dec 10/11. Digital street date remains the same, and there will be advance physical stock at the event!

Check out these product shots of the amazing Interpol Turn On The Bright Lights – Tenth Anniversary Edition package, coming out December 4:

Hardbound book containing double vinyl + DVD, hardbound book containing double CD + DVD, or digital album. Full details on the contents here. Preorder it here.

At the same time, we are proud to present an MP3 highlight from the package, the very first demo of the song “Roland.” It was originally released on the band’s first EP, Fukd ID #3 (Chemikal Underground) on December 11, 2000:

Roland (First Demo)

In addition, you can watch the band talk some more about New York locations from back in the day – here it’s Context Studios, where they rehearsed:

Today Interpol launches a series of short vignettes shot around New York City detailing the band’s early days:

Turn On The Bright Lights: The Tenth Anniversary Edition (out December 4) is now available at for pre-order at iTunes.

Many more Interpol nuggets are coming over the next few weeks as we ramp up to #TOTBL10 (Patrick, can that be the official hash tag?). Stay tuned.

TURN ON THE BRIGHT LIGHTS came out on August 20, 2002. Weeks later, Interpol played Los Angeles for the first time, with two legendary sold-out nights at the Troubadour. Fortunately, John Dorsey was on hand with several cameras to document one of the shows (on September 19, 2002), capturing the band just as they were igniting. Five songs from that show are included in the DVD with the Tenth Anniversary Edition of the album, coming out on December 4, 2012. This is a preview, “Obstacle 1″:

Preorder TURN ON THE BRIGHT LIGHTS: TENTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION here.

dbl LP + DVD in hardbound book
dbl CD + DVD in hardbound book
digital album

interpolnyc.com

Photo: Exum

Ten years ago, Interpol’s debut album seized the imagination of a generation. The spare, lean textures, darkly oblique lyrics and suave stage presence were entirely different from the bands who preceded them on the charts and the radio.

Now on November 19, we are commemorating Turn On The Bright Lights with a Tenth Anniversary Edition, fully remastered in a beautiful deluxe hardbound book with unreleased photos (48 pages in the CD, 28 large pages in the vinyl) and a second disc of bonus tracks, many unreleased, plus demos and B-sides and a DVD.

The album will be available as a double CD+DVD, double LP+DVD, and digital album with digital booklet. Preorders will come with a replica of the band’s first piece of merchandise, a button with the original Interpol logo.

THE ORIGINAL ALBUM, REMASTERED:

1. Untitled
2. Obstacle 1
3. NYC
4. PDA
5. Say Hello To The Angels
6. Hands Away
7. Obstacle 2
8. Stella Was A Diver And She Was Always Down
9. Roland
10. The New
11. Leif Erikson

THE BONUS MATERIAL:

1. Interlude (iTunes single) §
2. Specialist (Interpol EP)
3. PDA (First Demo, 1998)
4. Roland (First Demo, 1998)
5. Get The Girls (Song 5) (First Demo, 1998)
6. Precipitate (2nd Demo, 1999) §
7. Song Seven (Original Version) (2nd Demo, 1999) §
8. A Time To Be So Small (Orig Version) (2nd Demo,1999)
9. Untitled (Third Demo, 2001) * =
10. Stella (Third Demo, 2001) * =
11. NYC (Third Demo, 2001) =
12. Leif Erikson (Third Demo, 2001) * =
13. Gavilan (Cubed) (Third Demo, 2001) †
14. Obstacle 2 (Peel Session, 2001) =
15. Hands Away (Peel Session, 2001) =
16. The New (Peel Session, 2001) * =
17. NYC (Peel Session, 2001) * =

§ unreleased on vinyl
* unreleased recording
† unreleased song
= in the vinyl package, this track is only included on the bonus coupon

THE DVD:

- The 3 music videos: PDA, NYC, Obstacle 1
- Mercury Lounge, NYC concert footage, May 2000 (Sam’s first show with the band, multi-camera shoot)
- The Troubadour, Los Angeles concert footage, September 2002 (professional multi-camera shoot)

The band writes:

In 2002, we released our first album, Turn On the Bright Lights. We had waited close to five years for the opportunity to record an album. Needless to say this was a memorable moment for us. We never had any expectations for how the album would be received. We just wanted to present our music as an album to anyone who would be open to hearing it. It was incredible to finally tour and see people react to these songs. We never could have imagined that the album would have reached so many people throughout the world.

We spent a good deal of time this past year digging through our archives and asking others to dig through theirs in the hopes of uncovering some forgotten material. The result of our hunting and gathering has yielded this Tenth Anniversary Edition of Turn On the Bright Lights. We wanted to do something special for the fans who have always supported us. We wanted to do something special for the best fans in the world. We hope you enjoy it.

Sincerely yours,
Daniel Kessler

Preorder the album and get limited bonus Interpol pin
interpolnyc.com