Matador Records | News December 1999

At this special time of year, we would like to wish everyone receiving this message our most sincere hopes for a happy holiday and a happier new year. Unless of course, you didn't buy any of our records or sent us loads of annoying e-mail about why we've gone all trendy and pulled the plug on rock. You guys don't deserve a happy holiday.

Y2K Compliancy Update

Unlike Apple Computers, we cannot guarantee that the musicworks and audiorecordings we've been selling you for the past 10 years are Y2K compliant. They might work... and they might not. We really have no way of telling. If you wake up on January 1, 2000 and learn that your collection of Matador Recordings is no longer playable, try not to flip out. These are just material possessions, surely the melodies will stay in your memories, however repressed they might be. And besides, it's a new millenium, time to try new things.

New Year Promotion Cancelled

Our plans to offer free cremation to the first suicide of the year 2000 have been scrapped. First of all, no one bothered to tell the marketing department about it -- if you can't follow procedures, there's no place for you in our new millenium. But the big reason we had to pull the plug on this plug pulling promotion is 'cause we couldn't line up the necessary sponsors to pay for the cremation (college.com wouldn't fall for this one). If you can wait another year, we might try again in 2001.

Grown Man Shares Seed - Exclusive!

It has been very difficult this month to read any of Simon Reynolds' fascinating observations without being reminded that his sperm count is higher than his IQ. On behalf of everyone who has been subjected to his writing, we'd like to congratulate him on Having Done It With A Lady. Miracle of birth, give us a break. Dogs and cats do it everyday and they have better musical taste.

The upcoming YO LA TENGO tour of seated venues (warning: some of these places just drag folding chairs out of the basement, check your local listings for full disclosure) will feature guest players MAC MCCAUGHAN and DAVID KILGOUR. Now that Yo La Tengo are about to tour as a quintent, perhaps all of those comparisons to the Police will stop.

S.O.B.'s stands for "sounds of Brazil." At least that's what my parents told me. ARSONISTS and NON PHIXION will be tearing it up at this legendary Varick St. venue on January 29. Kind of like a hip-hop superbowl, without the Billy Ray Cyrus halftime show (memo to research dept.: please make sure Billy Ray Cyrus isn't first on the bill.)

re: On-line sales and mail order. We've been asked to plug 2 other highly esteemed sources of Matador music. Our friends at Bent Crayon carry many of our titles and lots of other good stuff too.

The other one is Bill Ryan and his company, Don't Be Mean. A lot of mailorder customers (not you though) seem to be maladjusted people looking for some sort of human interaction. What better person to get it from than Bill Ryan. He doesn't have a website but he does have e-mail.

Don't Be Mean
P.O. Box 301
Hoboken, N.J. 07030
IHAVEREC4U@aol.com

And now, year end vs. rear end. Matador artists and staff reveal their favorite things from 1999:

Mark Ohe, Matador Records

Shows:
Little Jimmy Scott at the Jazz Standard, New York
The Snakes (up and coming three-piece)
in a basement in Williamsburg, New York
Bardo Pond at Mercury Lounge, New York
A Nice Weekend In New York,
Matador Records Tenth Anniversary
Kool Keith at Wetlands, New York

New Records:
"14 Zero Zero" Console 12" - Community/Payola/Virgin
"First come, First served"
- Dr. Doom (aka Kool Keith) dbl lp, Funky Ass Records
"Everything Is Nice" - V/A CD, Matador
"For Beginner Piano" - Plone LP, Matador/Warp
"Jet Generation" - Guitar Wolf LP, Matador/Ki/Oon
"That's What I Call Sweet Music"
- Robert Crumb Presents CD, Songbook Series
"Terror Twilight" - Pavement CD, Matador

Reissue Albums:
"Distortions" - The Litter, LP, Get Hip
"Grow Fins" - Captain Beefheart, Revenant
"Tractor" - Tractor, Repertoire/Dandelion
"The Water Wheel" - Hamza El Din, Nonesuch

Books:
"Glacier Travel And Crevasse Rescue"
- Andy Selters, The Mountainners Books
"Street Graphics India"
- Barry Dawson, Thames and Hudson
"Extreme Alpinism"
- Mark Twight and James Martin, the Mountainners Books
"American Alpine Journal 1999"
- the American Alpine Club Press
"All Fourteen Eight-Thousanders"
- Reinhold Messner, the Mountainners Books

Events:
working with Deb Orr this (and the last five years) at Matador — weekly (and sometimes weakly) jams with Endless Boogie — finding a great manager in Frankie Valentino at Lucky Love Management — Clay Tarver and Char Hamer's wedding in Austin, Texas — summitting Mt. Washington in February with Julian Richards — Macintosh's introduction of their G3 — the 1999 New York Mets and their post-season bid — moving forward into a new century

Jesper Eklow, Matador Records

A pretty weak year and one feels like a curmudgeon since it's so easy to compile a list of what wasn't so good this year but alright, mostly goodstuff from the year 1999:

Overall movies, painting, books and music should all be outlawed, it's all so pass already. All these artists around, one would think they could come up with some new form of expressing themselves. Everyone keep saying you gotta get into the new vibes - well, show me something new and I'll dig it..

Live Aktion: I'm sorry it's all old dusty stuff: Magma, Shaggs, Monks were all religious experiences and Wizz Jones is still a stunning performer too. They say Jimmy Scott kicked out the jams too but my empty wallet (and Gabe) kept me away.

Recent inventions do exist and they drive you to drink: eBay, Bibliofind.

What else was good? Uh, Omplatten finally managed to release Bjorn Olsson's fantastic record so expect people to say that they've owned Bo Hansson records for years now. Reissues should not be allowed unless I put them out, so fuck you Creation, Spriguns of Tolgus, Litter, Captain Beefheart, Trees, Birds, Treniers, Synanthesia, Roy Harper, Shirley Collins, Blorpesette etc etc. And homemade CDR bootlegs of bootlegs of the 'rare', 'obscure' and 'totally out' for $25-$30 in evil NYC record stores - COME ON!!!

Reading is great. Let's pretend that "Memoirs of a Booklegger," "Hawker of Morwenstow" and Strindberg's "Inferno" came out this year.

Movies aren't what they used to be either but the Louis Prima documentary was terrific. Jim Carrey as Andy Kauffman - to quote you know who: "I COULD PUKE"!

Haven't seen a magazine all year that's been worth reading, both NY Review of Books and Saveur are declining steadily. Wait, The Art of Eating is still great, but it was sad to see that Experimental Musical Instruments stopped publishing their magazine just because they have a web site now. Music press quote of the year: "Like a Bergman movie set in a Hoboken record store."

Food is fascinating and just as elitist a hobby as collecting obscure folk records from the British Isles so i'll keep my secrets to myself, it's all about learning from one's mistakes.

It's easy to hate, and it's really easy to hate words: eatery, glaswegian, DJ, joint, millenium, model, whimsical.

Thank you Robert Crumb for saying "Beatiful People, I Hate Them." And thank you Civil Court of the City of New York for sending my summons in SPANISH, and a very special thanks a lot goes to the unknown Matador employee who opened the envelope it came in and put it in my mail box one month after it was mailed to me - sorry but I only had 20 days to show up in court. So I guess I'll see all of you in jail soon since I'll be there for not showing up in court and the rest of you since it is a federal offense to open other people's mail. Be nice. Behave. Watch your back. I will.

Donovan Finn, Matador Records

Top 10 of 99:
- Best Record from 20 years ago I just discovered this year: The Byrds "Sweetheart of the Rodeo"
- Best Restaurant of 99: Canteen in NYC (Already obnoxiously trendy, but oh, so tasty)
- Rock record of the year: Flaming Lips "The Soft Bulletin"
- Best movie: Tie between the Matrix and Election
- 2nd best movie: Rushmore (or is that 3rd best?)
- Best forwarded email attachment of the year: The French(?) TV commercial for Nomad cell-phone service. Let's just say it's true cinema in 20 short seconds.
- Karaoke moment of the year: Robbie Williams singing "Anarchy in the UK" at the Nasty Little Man karaoke Christmas party. (And he was GOOD!)
- Runner-up Karaoke moment of the year: Matt, our mild-mannered webmaster, channeling Axl Rose for his BLAZING rendition of "Paradise City" at the Matador Xmas party.
- Best schlocky novel I finished in one weekend: The Beach by Alex Garland
- Best food discovery of 1999: The beauty that is "All You Can Eat Sushi"

Patrick Amory, Matador Records

Best old-style Italian restaurants in the New York metropolitan area, with key dishes:

1. Tommaso's of Bensonhurst
-- Sunday Special or T-Rex ossabuco
2. Andy's Colonial Tavern -- linguini with white clam sauce
3. Gino's Italian Cuisine -- rigatoni al segreto (secret sauce)
4. Nicola Paone -- pork chops with vinegar peppers
5. Patsy's Restaurant -- chicken scap on the bone

Carrie McLaren, Matador Records

1999:

neil harris _humbug_ (book)
boys don't cry (movie)
permanent food (magazine)
howard gossage (man)
sinusitus (respiratory infection)
self-pity (lifestyle choice)

Stefan Betke, POLE

noteworthy story:

The Fat Cat label in London got a track which was sent in under the name of Pole but it actually wasn't Pole. Pole was in North America touring at that time and Fat Cat thought it is a track by Pole. They pressed it and sent it out into the world and when Pole came back from his tour he was suprised and angry that someone did this under his name. But the the worst thing ever is that the tracks are so bad and has definetly nothing to do with Pole, that Stefan is asking himself does this stupid guy or girl whoever did this understand what he (Stefan) is doing? If someone knows who it was please let us now about this.

music:
Farben feat. The Dramatiques (Llang Electronic)
Steve Reich - Drummers Drumming
Meredith Monk - Dolmen Music
Kit Clayton (scape records)
Vladislav Delay - hume
Wunder - karaoke kalk
Thomas Fehlmann

film:
The Matrix

book:
Neue Music Aus Japan by Thorsten Krmer

Gerard Cosloy, Matador Records

music:
Joel Phelps - Blackbird (Pacifico)
Capitol K - Sounds Of Empire (Planet Mu)
The Replikants - Slickaphonics (Kill Rock Stars)
Couch - Fantasy (Kitty-Yo)
Cobra Verde - Nightlife (Motel)
Darryl Ann - Happy Traum (Excelsior)
DJ Signify - Mixed Messages (no label)
Spoon - The Agony of Lafitte (CDR, unreleased album)
Susumu Yokota - Image 1983-1993 (Leaf)
Cube + Sphere - Great Norwegian Explorers (disko b)
The Muffs - Alert Today, Alive Tomorrow (Honest Don's)

film:
Happiness

television:
grateful to live in a country where "Action" is not shown
positively visualizing that Visiting Day sucks.

Men of The Year (tie):
Scott Weiland, Ryan Leaf

seismic cultural events:
Mets/Braves, NLCS, Game 5
G. Bush Jr. doing crack (pretty sure Weiland wasn't involved).

We have 2 new licensing deals to announce, both of 'em exciting enough that our teeth are chattering so hard you'd think someone disconnected the heat. Actually, someone did disconnect the heat and the last time I used one of those portable space-heater contraptions I nearly burned down the building. So we're gonna have to tough it out -- what's a little hypothermia in the name of art? Coming in February 2000 is the first U.S. release from CONSOLE, a German quintet led by Martin Gretschmann, whom some of you might recall (said in Troy McLure voice) as the keyboardist from The Notwist. "14 Zero Zero" (12"/CD) is one of the most insanely catchy singles we've ever heard, electronic or otherwise.

By the time you've heard it 1000 times, it might be even cause serious problems for you... but the first 999 spins are awesome. In March, we'll be tacking "14 Zero Zero" onto a reissue of an older Console album, Rocket In Pocket, a denser, deeper work than the single might hint at -- think of a haunting, kinda crackly variation on the Skam styles you've already absorbed... with melodies that just seep through the wreckage. Tremendous stuff, courtesy of our friends at Payola.

In March, we'll be releasing a new album by a band we've wanted to work with for way too long. QUICKSPACE are a London based quintet who have released a gang of great singles and two excellent albums on their own Kitty Kitty Corp. label. The 2nd of these albums, Precious Falling was reissued in the U.S. last year by Hidden Agenda and some of us still haven't recovered from it. Quickspace, founded by former Th' Faith Healers guitarist Tom Cullinan, have long employed Neu-ish repetition and a sound that's equal parts beauty and violence, but the newer stuff is spinning into directions we're having trouble keeping up with. Said one commentator, "you'll feel yourself being propelled by a primal force called pop ecstasy (hey, remember that?) down an autobahn of hallucino-distorto-joy." Sheesh, I wish we hadn't mentioned that, but what's a little hyperbole in the name of heating? But even for those of you who long ago swore off the happy smokes, Quickspace are amazing. The new album The Death Of Quickspace is coming in March, followed by the band's first North American tour.

The Klublife New Music Show page has a streaming real audio broadcast with RED SNAPPER's Ali Friend talking about their remix of Sabres of Paradise's "Wilmot" on the Warp 10 Remixes compilation. In other Warp news, there's a brand new Two Lone Swordsmen 12" EP called A Virus With Shoes that's available now on import.

Prior to the arrival of KHAN's sprawling Passport compilation, the man of action will be making a short trip to Germany for live dates, then returning to NYC for shows at Collective Unconsious (12/16) and the Mercury Lounge (12/17). We'll have information next week about Khan's "Karoake" project after we figure out what it is.

LIVE HUMAN are toiling away in a place they like to call "the studio" working on their Matador debut. Prior to this monumental release, Hip Hop Slam will be reissuing last year's Monosterosis on March 12. No less an authority than Damon Albarn has called Live Human his favorite new British band, which is no small achievement seeing as they are from San Francisco.

Following some East Coast dates, the ARSONISTS will be returning to Europe for live activity in February and March. We received a strange letter today from someone who alleges that John "Earthquake" Tenta is a huge Arsonists fan. What are we supposed to do with this information? It wouldn't hurt if some of you people thought twice before writing to us.

As you might've read elsewhere, the new album from THE FOR CARNATION will be released early next year on Touch & Go (U.S.) and Domino (Europe). We'd love to tell you all the inside stuff that led to Brian deciding to release this album with another label, but that would result in all sorts of hostility and bad language. This is a festive time of year and we will not let this disappointment get in the way of spreading the message of love.

YO LA TENGO recently thrilled a capacity crowd at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, previewing some new songs from the upcoming And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out. Sadly, Billy Bragg played as well. Did I just step into a time tunnel of some sort? This past month in London, live attractions have included B. Bragg, Squeeze, Duran Duran, the Angelic Upstarts and Sid Griffin. At least the Angelic Upstarts are still going. Yo La Tengo will have a new limited edition 10" coming out in Europe on January 31; "Saturday" from the new album, plus 2 non-album selections, "Danelectro 2" and "Danelectro 3". Look for news about Yo La Tengo's forthcoming tour of sit-down venues in the fancy cultural sections of your local papers.

Video autuer Brett Vapnek (SPOON, CAT POWER, HELIUM) will be the subject of a online chat session at Insound (http://www.insound.com) on Tuesday, December 21 at 9pm (EST). Supposedly this event is meant to promote the release of Matador's Everything Is Nice DVD and VHS, and lord knows the guys who actually run the label are way too shy to participate in such an event. So they've invited Brett, who better to tell the story of Matador then someone who directed a handful of rarely seen videos for the label? And there's nothing more fun than chatting on Insound, trust us.

The Holiday Season Is Upon Us, which is really just a way of saying "Christmas" without offending most of the entertainment industry. During this special time of year, we would like everyone to ponder some staggering statistics. Each year, more suicides are committed during the Super Bowl than any other day of the year. More spouses are abused on Christmas Day than any other day of the year. We don't have any documentation for these claims, but we've heard them repeated so many times now, we should prefer to accept them as facts. Please please please, before you either kill yourself or raise a hand in anger, remember -- there are so many other days of the year. Peace (out).

Matador Alumni News:

SILKWORM are mastering a new album over the holidays for release on Touch & Go.

TARA KEY (Babylon Dance Band) has a new collaboration album with Rick Rizzo (Eleventh Dream Day) just out on Thrill Jockey. BARBARA MANNING and The Go-Luckys have a tremendous new CD, Homeless Where The Heart Is that just came out on the Naiv label. A well-respected jackass wrote in the latest issue of The Wire (the one with Morticia Adams on the cover) that Barbara was "unceremoniously dumped" by this label. With this observation in mind, the next time we part ways with an artist we love and respect, we will do so CEREMONIOUSLY. Big party hats. Bulk e-mails and press releases explaining the whole thing to aging journalists and personal friends of the artist.

Former BETTIE SERVEERT drummer Berend Dubbe is the mastermind behind one of 1999's finest insane pop records, Bauer 'On The Move.' (Excelsior)

Bob Pollard and Doug Gillard of GUIDED BY VOICES have a new duo/ duet/ just-the-two-of-'em album called Speak Kindly on the Recordhead label. Once again, these gentlemen have taken classic pop songwriting to "the next level."

SPOON have just released a new 2 song CD single, "The Agony Of Laffitte" b/w "Laffitte Don't Fail Me Know" (Saddle Creek) which commemorates their less-than-happy time at Elektra Records by naming names and kicking ass. Or at least naming names. This is what you might call a ceremonious rebuttal. But there's so much more to this brilliant group than rock career voyeurism; just like Oasis, Spoon are shopping a new album these days and whoever puts it out will probably sell a zillion records. The Oasis album, that is. But Spoon are the better band.

We are very sorry to announce that due to decreased demand and internal disorders (digestive problems, mostly), Matador is discontinuing its direct mail order service. Actually, our indirect mail order service is also cancelled. We will fill all orders that were sent to us as of 12/1/99 and anything sent afterwards will be returned/refunded. We are quite sad about this -- everyone in our company remembers that magical feeling of placing your cash in an envelope and waiting for that wondrous package to arrive -- issues of Feminine Mystique, special-order trusses, rare Beanie Babies, etc. We know exactly how you feel. With our sympathy in mind, we refer you to the following mail order and in-online outlets. (By the way, we can't be held responsible if any of them fuck you over.)

http://www.forcedexposure.com -- If you can browse for 30 minutes without spending any money... good for you! Thriftiness is a virtue!

http://www.othermusic.com -- The terrific NYC shop with a filing system everyone loves.

http://www.insound.com -- These guys put the "n" back in "indie". And how about those chats! Can someone explain why I was asked to plug Insound twice this week? Are they launching an IPO or something?

http://www.amazon.com -- Undercutting the universe. Favorites of the Matador Bulletin Board. Any company that pays Mike McGonigal to write about music must be very good.

http://www.cdnow.com -- These guys offer the personal touch. A small, growing outfit that you'll love to get behind.

http://www.midheaven.com -- OK, they've only got our vinyl. But that's better than nothing.

http://www.parasol.com -- The house that Ric Menck built. OK, that isn't fair, but it was the funniest thing I could think of on deadline.

So give these folks a try. And who knows? After we get tons of letters complaining about the dismantling of mail order, and we find out that Amazon didn't send you free stickers, maybe we'll reconsider. But don't bet on it.

Listening choices of the sleek and satisfied:

Jesper Eklow, Matador

Joakim Skogsberg - Jola Rota (Gump) LP
Bert Jansch & Martin Jenkins - Avocet (Exlibris) LP
George Thorogood and the Destroyers (Rounder) LP
Lou Reed - Street Hassle (Arista) LP
Thomas Vasary
- Chopin Preludes (Deutsche Gramophone) LP
The Treniers - They Rock! They Roll! They Swing! The Best of The Treniers (Legacy) CD

Dave Martin, Matador

Boredoms "Creation, Vision, Newsun" box and single CD. You need them both.
Flesheaters "Ashes Of Time" CD. Upsetter records is back!!!!
Wolfgang Voigt "20 to 2000" November CD
Hank Williams "Live At The Grand OLE Opry" Dbl CD. Lots of comedy skits!? and racism
Soundhack 12"
V/A "Nummer Een" CD

Gerard Cosloy

Hermann & Kleine - Transalpin E.P. (City Centre Offices)
Roads To Space Travel - Ballad/Jazz Waltz (Amish)
Faultline - Closer, Colder (Leaf)
Joel Phelps - Blackbird (Pacifico)
Cobra Verde - Nightlife (Motel)
DJ Paul Nice - Definition of Nice (Bomb Hip Hop)

Stuart Braithwaite, Mogwai

1) Sleep - Jerusalem
2) The Cure - Disintegration
3) Smog - Mantarays of Time
4) Low - Christmas
5) Dr Dre - 2001

Keith McIvor, Mount Florida

1) Nina Simone - Sugar Is Sweeter (RCA)
2) The Birthday Party - Mutiny In Heaven (Mute)
3) Golden - Rhythm Beat Jazz
- Songhai Surprise (Slowdime 26)
4) Isolee - I Owe You (Playhouse)
5) Monolake - Fragile (Monolake)

Patrick Amory, Matador Records

1. Inspectah Deck - Uncontrolled Substance CD (Loud)
2. Pererin - Haul Ar Yr Eira (Face the Dawn)
3. Loudest Whisper
- Children of Lir CD (Si-Wan/Kissing Spell)
4. Replikants - "The Cyberghetto" MP3 (Kill Rock Stars)
5. Eddie Palmieri - The Sun of Latin Music LP (Coco)
6. Console - Tunnelvision CDEP (Payola)
7. The Litter - Distortions LP (Get Hip)
8. Folque - Kjempene P Dovrefjell CD (Pan)
9. Folque - Folque CD (Pan)
10. Pierrot Lunaire - Pierrot Lunaire LP (Si-Wan)

Scott Kannberg, Pavement

Smog - Knock Knock
Delgados - Peloton
Glasgow, the night Scotland beat England.
Golden Retriever - Relationships
Oranger - Lay your burdens down

We polled various artists and staffers to find out what they wanted for Christmas/Haunukah etc. Sadly, only a few responded.

Stuart Braithwaite

1 A playstation
2 Nick Drake Box Set (vinyl)
3 Celtic Slippers
4 swimming goggles
5 Sonic Youth for all tomorrows parties

Gerard Cosloy

1 foreskin reattachment
(I'll take someone else's if you can't find mine)
2 subscription to Spin
3 that's it for me. I hate being greedy. One of my cats is lonely and I think he'd like a python.