Matador Records | News June 1998

Like CHAVEZ? Great. Curious about what they're up to? Fabulous. Now you can stop emailing me about it cos Matt, Clay, James, and Scotty are ready to take your call. Sort of. Actually, they're ready to take your questions. So if you've got anything you'd like to know (preferably about Chavez), email me, I'll compile the questions and hand them over to Matt or whoever next time they're in the office. Then we'll post the answers on the website... I will say this: the rockers are indeed working on some new songs and getting their act together for their first show in ages. Prepare youself: August 1, here in New York at the Bowery Ballroom (new venue on Bowery and Delancy) with CAT POWER.

Coming in September: the U.S. debut from BURGER/INK, Las Vegas (licensed from EMI Germany), a collaborative work from electronic wizards Joerg Burger (Bionaut, The Modernist, B. Movement) and Mike Ink (Spex's 1996 Artist of the Year)....you may or may not have heard some of their previous works on the Digitrax International, Profan or Eat-Raw labels, but you really ought to.

On July 21, we'll have a new LIZ PHAIR page up, with the lowdown on the new record, whitechocolatespaceegg... the cover of which was completed days ago and is pictured for your pleasure. Details on a few pre-release happenings will be posted here in the oncoming weeks.

The first single from the upcoming LIZ PHAIR full-length is now officially "Polyester Bride." An as-of-yet unmade video should be making its way to your TV screen late July/early August....A Liz Phair b-side "Freak Of Nature" will appear (non-exclusively) on the Q101 local sampler Local 101, on sale July 21 in the greater Chicago area. Proceeds will benefit a variety of drunk-driving charities (though, if you ask me, drunk drivers should be paying us!)...lastly: "Uncle Alvarez," from whitechocolatespaceegg will also be on a (cough, wheeze) Starbucks sampler of Lilith Fair artists.

Exciting upcoming releases that we'll tell you more about later: new full-lengths from BELLE AND SEBASTIAN and FUCK are on the way in September. The upcoming CAT POWER record, also due in September, now has a name, Moon Pix. And, come later in fall, YO LA TENGO and JAD FAIR will have a collaborative album out. (!)

Matador Europe has licensed MODEST MOUSE recordings from the Up Records label of Seattle, WA. Modest Mouse's critically acclaimed The Lonesome Crowded West will be released in Europe by Matador some time in October (date TBA). The album will be followed by a compilation album of older Modest Mouse recordings. See the nice Modest Mouse fan page.

THE SCHRAMMS' fourth album, Dizzy Spell, will be coming out any day now on Checkered Past Records. Fortunate New Yorkers may attend the record release party this Friday, June 19, at Mercury Lounge (with Paul K and the Prayers).

As long as we're talking about other labels: Chris Brokaw of COME appears on the PULLMAN "Turnstyles & Junkpiles" CD (Thrill Jockey), alongside Chicago luminaries Bundy K. Brown, Curtis Harvey, and Doug McCombs. A great record....in other COME news: Brokaw and the rest of the band star in Radiation, a new movie by Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky (Half-Cocked). Stereolab, Come, Will Oldham, and El Inquilino Communista, are also in the film, which is loosly based on Galinsky's experiences on tour with Sleepyhead and Laptop. Radiation is currently in postproduction and should be finished later this summer. Not sure how easy it'll be to see this film but we'll keep you posted as to the wheres and whens. Here's a web page for the so-inclined. Enjoy.

SF SEALS' "How Did I Know" can be heard in the film A Day at the Beach (Lyle says wait for the video)... also on the sountrack: Lloyd Cole, Great Gaines, and the Chrome Cranks... all Lyle's favorites.

Much thanks to our readers for pointing out a major oversight in last week's update (below).

From: Grabin <grabin@biddeford.com>
To: carrie@matador.recs.com
Subject: Ira did it!

I understand that you people at matador wouldn't want one of your artists to be caught in a politically damaging criminal scandal, but the spin you put on the San Francisco post office-robbery story is slightly off the mark. Isn't it much more probable that the hooded thieves weren't merely Yo La Tengo imitators but in fact YLT themselves? You've listed several clues linking the band to the crimes, but i've got a piece of evidence that, i think, removes all doubt. I point you to a recent interview with Ira Kaplan conducted by the Brown Daily Herald.

Here is the incriminating part:

Herald: What do you think has been the most important/influential technological innovation in music since, say 1900?

IK: The self adhesive stamp.

Herald: Oh yeah, that is a good one.

IK: The only thing I don't like about them is that they only do it for some of them. When the Alfred Hitchcock stamp comes out, that's not self-adhesive but you're going to have to get it anyway. I get tired of that flower and the flag. I don't understand why they're all not self-adhesive. Who with that option says 'nah, I'll lick them, I'd prefer to lick the stamp.' Maybe Luddites.

Case closed, I say. Apparently Ira's stamp fetish has led him to swing across the thin blue line which separates the public from anarchy, and i guess it's up to me to turn him in and restore peace of mind to the good people of San Francisco. Of course, I may be willing to forsake the $25,000 reward in favor of a genuine yo la tengo t-shirt...

Gabe

Thanks, Gabe, now we know why the rotary can opener suddenly "disappeared" from the office.

CONGRATULATIONS go to Dave Phillips, soon to be proud owner of the one remaining Controversial Negro box set sitting under my desk.

Dear Matador,

Here's my entry in the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion "Paint Your Mini-Fridge" Contest. Please let me know if I've won. We're all gearing up for this summer's Liz Phair bus defacement contest once whitechocolatespaceegg is released and were wondering if welding objects onto buses is OK or if we have to stick with spray paint/wall paper/paper mache. Please let me know.

thanks!

Dave Phillips

P.S. As you can see from the pictures, I chose to depict the Blues Explosion apearing Madonna-like (no, not THAT one...) over troubled seas. I hope the religious themes are OK.