Matador Records | News September 2000

Yo La Tengo — Remixed, revised, and where did all those people come from?
Clean-up crews are still going through the ticker tape and no-deposit bottles leftover from this past week’s Yo La Tengo Virgin Megastore (NYC) appearance. Approx. 750 persons who may or may not have been shopping at the time enjoyed themselves. They enjoyed Yo La Tengo, too. On November 14, we’re releasing the “Danelectro” 12"/EP, featuring “Danelectro,” “Danelectro II,” “Danelectro III,” and remixes by Q-Unique, Nobazku Takemura and Kit Clayton.

Men’s Basketball Program In Turmoil
We regret to announce that we have terminated the contract of our Men’s Basketball Coach Brad Knox, due to numerous violations of our Zero Tolerance Policy. It has been suggested by some of the local media that this policy is intentionally vague — nothing could be further from the truth. To summarize, we will tolerate absolutely nothing. Nothing at all. If you catch any member of our staff or artist roster tolerating something, please contact us via e-mail and we’ll make sure they are terminated as well.

A few of you have mentioned that you didn’t know that Matador had a Men’s Basketball team. So maybe you’re not as smart as you think?

Mount Florida — In action
Mount Florida are going to partake in BBC Radio 1’s ‘United Nations’ program where 2 bands are broadcast live representing Scotland, Ireland and England. The Scottish part will be coming from The Lemon Tree in Aberdeen and the whole shebang happens on Thursday October 5th from 8pm GMT. There will also be a “secret” Mount Florida live show in Glasgow on Sunday October 22nd to celebrate the UK release of the ‘Arrived Phoenix’ album the next day (North Americans will have to wait ’til January). Depending how well we keep this secret, it might end up being live from Twitch’s bedroom. If not, chances are it will be in a well known Sunday night discotheque in the city.

Solex — Live webcast/broadcast/all-star cast, today
Solex will be debuting new material today, 9/20 between 5pm and 7pm EST as part of a Peel Session performed LIVE in the BBC Studios at Maida Vale. You can hear the session by going to the BBC website. We’ll be announcing dates/times for an upcoming The Wisdom Of Harry Peel Session in our next update.

Come — Everyone keeps asking us what’s up.
Sorry, we’ve got nothing to report as far as Come recording or playing, but that doesn’t mean they are sitting around the house watching TV.

Drummer Daniel Coughlin and his 2-man band, Throttle, have completed the 4th (and “absolutely last”) mastering of their new LP ‘Transporter,’ which will be released by Curve Of The Earth and celebrated with a record release performance on Friday, October 13 at the Middle East in Cambridge, MA.

Guitarist Chris Brokaw has completed new LPs with The New Year and Pullman. The New Year has many people who used to be in Bedhead, and their Steve Albini-recorded debut will be released on Touch & Go in January. Pullman also has many groovy people, including new drummer Tim Barnes. Their new LP is coming in March from Thrill Jockey. Chris also played on a few songs on the new Willard Grant Conspiracy LP, which will be out this fall (at least overseas) on Slow River/Rykodisc. There will also probably be some solo guitar shows this fall in Boston and New York, so stay tuned.

Quickspace — Belgium here they come.
Quickspace have begun to resurface from their summer slumber and are starting work on new material for their next album (provisionally titled ‘Fooled You!’) ... they are now minus drummer Steve d’Enton who found the dieting required each night on the last Quickspace U.S. and European tours too much to handle and who wouldn’t? - that or Nina’s feet, we never worked it out. The band are off to play a couple of shows in Belgium (Brussells Botanique on 21st Sept and Liege La Zone on 22nd Sept for the sheer belgiumbeerness of it) and plan to continue with a series of impulsive a unconventional European dates throughout the next 3 months. We will keep you notified of these as and when and sometimes after the event.

Couch — A report from that mysterious place where creative things happen
“we were in the studio, are in the studio, are a studio? anyway, we are working on the follow up release for ‘fantasy.’ two and a half weeks of recording real drums, fake organs, bass, guitars, double-bass, cello, piano, yamaha DX 7... are finished. everything is now stored on a 18 gigabyte harddisk we bought from the matador-millions and naturally everything what happens to this material from now on is more than secret. but at least we can reveal: couch mastermind michael heilrath is still busy making safety copies...”

Arsonists — beyond fabulous, no matter what magazine you read.
Q- Unique writes: “we are almost completed on the new LP, and i must say that we are extremely happy with this one... jise-one, swel boogie and myself have definitely found a good chemistry together and the results are great...so far features are: "kinetic energy," "great scott" and some production from DJ Doom. Also, we came out in the Sept. 18th issue of Newsweek in an article entitled "beyond ghetto fabulous: faces of a hip hop nation".... we also started a softball team called... "the arsonists" for the snow flake leagues that play throughout the fall and winter... unfortunately we lost our first 2 games but I’m quite confident that we’ll pick up the pace.... aside from that everything else is cool... peace and may the force be with you.”

Techno Animal

The first Matador release from Techno Animal will be a split single with Newark, NJ’s dälek, “Megaton” (T.A.) b/w “Classical Homicide” (dälek), coming on November 14. Although this single is part of our ongoing Hip Hop 12" Series, you could say that Techno Animal & dälek are hip hop much the way the neutron bomb was a big firecracker. This is hip hop... and everything else that matters. Both groups will commemorate the release of this single with an October/November 2000 tour of Germany and Switzerland (please check our tour dates section). Techno Animal are currently working on their Matador full- length debut, ‘Brotherhood Of The Bomb.’ For more in-depth info on Techno Animal, have a look at their new site.

From the latest Revolver catalog:
“The latest band to secure a position on the Smells Like Records roster is Fuck, a band of whose fine reputation virtually everyone reading this is aware, thanks to four pristine recordings, the last two released by Matador during the label’s rock era.”

Ha, ha. We can take a joke. Just look at us, chuckling to ourselves at this witty jape. Y’see, our clever friends at Revolver Distribution thought it worthwhile to call attention to the fact that Matador No Longer Deals With The Rock (or The Roll). And we don’t, the facts speak for themselves. Every single rock, rock’n’roll, rock and roll or remotely rockist act on the label roster has either been terminated or forced to curb their rockist ways. We’d probably call it a Zero Tolerance Policy, except those actual words look too much like a good name for a rock band.

Listening favorites of the people you look up to:

Twitch, Mount Florida
sun city girls - torch of the mystics
shimmer kids - bury my heart at makeout point
max romeo - chase the devil
new lp’s from sad rockets and the wisdom of harry
peaches - fuck the pain away
zombie nation - kernkraft 400
holger hiller - l’amour fou
madonna - music
big brother on channel 4 (hook, line and sinker)
stanislaw lem - the cyberiad

Lyle Hysen, Matador Records
Jason Moran - “Facing Left”
Dead Prez - “Hip Hop”
Chicago Underground Trio - “Flamethrower”
Eleventh Dream Day - “Stalled Parade”
Shelby Lynne - “I am Shelby Lynne”
Calexico - “Hot Rail”
Book: “Me Talk Pretty One Day” - David Sedaris
Film: “One Day In September” - ’72 Olympics Documentary

Solex
Top 5 bad career moves for Matador bands:
5) Instead of getting just some sneaker endorsement for the Arsonists, have ’em sponsored by the cool Sackerhets Tandstickor matches.
4) Have Cat Power team up with Holland’s 60’s pride ‘the Cats’ and record a single as ‘Cat Power and the Cats.’
3) Calling your second album ‘Lamprey.’
2) Have Quickspace sell their name to Microsoft or Norton.
1) Have Eminem remix Pavement (the Slim Shady Lane remix??)

Shelby Campbell, Matador Records
So this may mean nothing to you, but it gives me 2 more things to live for:
- Stone Roses are releasing a remix album
- New Madonna on sale Monday (9/18)
Oh, and did I mention how much I love my dog?

Ben Goldberg, Matador Records
Shunatao - Calme Blanc (Amanita) French. They think they’re funny, but they play well, so it’s almost okay. Good soundtrack for the Jerry Lewis Telethon.

Jukeboxer - Learns The Alphabet (self-released) Brooklyn home-taper makes bizarre songs and more bizarre soundscapes. Most bizarre of all is how amiable it is.

The Fucking Champs - IV (Drag City) Pure, unalternativeated thrash metal with lots of solo duets and without all that annoying singing.

Circle - Pori (Feldspar) Finnish rock where you take a great riff and play it over and over and over.

Fuehler - s/t (Amanita) Furious instrumental rock, kind of like a more enthusiastic Kriedler or a Don Caballero making music someone would want to hear.

Beans - Tired Snow (Zum Media) Beautiful and elegant compositions that anyone who likes Godspeed or Sigor Ros should give a listen to.

Mac MacCaughn, Supechunk
Bobby Knight news marathon
Sea and Cake “Oui”
Kool Keith “Matthew”
Slum Village
Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul “Men Without Women”
“The West Wing” (the tv show)
the Go-Betweens - The Friends Of Rachel Worth
Steve Earle “Transcendental Blues”
International Airport
Vandermark 5 “Burn the Incline”

Patrick Amory’s Listening Pile:
1. Small Faces — Small Faces (Castle 180 gram vinyl)
2. Lee Morgan — Indeed! (Blue Note Japanese vinyl)
3. Circus 2000 — Circus 2000 (Vinyl Magic CD)
4. Incredible String Band — The Chelsea Sessions 1967 (Pig’s Whisker CD)
5. Fresh Maggots — Fresh Maggots (Si-Wan CD)
6. Dr. Dre — 2001 (Aftermath CD)
7. Brahms — Piano Concerto No. 1 (Rubinstein/Reiner/CSO) (RCA CD)
8. Elliott Smith — XO (Dreamworks CD)
9. Loud Family — live tracks (MP3s)
10. The Fucking Champs — IV (Drag City CD)

Sad Rockets
1. Blectum From Blechdom - Snauses & Mallards e.p.
2. Beige - I Don’t Either LP
3. The 45 King - April e.p.
4. Move D/ Thomas Meinecke - Freud’s Baby CD
5. Mathew Herbert - live in Maria am Ostbahnhof
6. Sluta Leta - Space Is The Place e.p.
7. Nine Yards Orchestra - Our Backyard LP
8. Absynth - the virtual synth, not the drink (although the drink is nice too)
9. Them - the hip hop group, not the 60s beat combo (although Van Morrison is okay too)
10. Slipper - Invisible Movies LP

MP. Lancaster, Mount Florida
- Monolake - interstate
- The Wisdom Of Harry - house of binary
- King Crimson - Red
(I’d forgotten how powerful this album is)
- Man live in london 1975
- the mp3s from the reaktor site vairious bands from a Reaktor Native instruments gig in berlin
- Frank zappa - hot rats
- soft machine 6 (so many jazzy drum loops.... oops the secret’s out)
- yet another fall collection cd
- pink floyd live 1966/69 downloads (birth of punk??)

Gerard Cosloy, Matador Records
Cex - Role Model (Tiger Beat6)
V/A - Putting The Morr Back In Morrisey (Morr Music)
Sole - Bottle Of Humans (Anticon)
Dettinger - Oasis (Kompact)
7 Hurts - Audiophilliac (Output)
Eleventh Dream Day - Stalled Parade (Thrill Jockey)
Not-See TV: death to all “reality” based television programs (“Survivor,” “Big Brother,” “Castaway,” “Jailbreak,” etc.). Valuable prime-time hours that could be devoted to real culture (a chat show hosted by King Kong Bundy, opera in the nude, an Eric Roberts film festival) are being pissed away.