May 10, 2001

The Soft Boys
Following the completion of their reunionized US and UK tours, Robyn, Matthew, Morris and Kimberley have reached an artistic pinnacle; "I Wanna Destroy You" was featured on the WB's "Roswell" last Monday.

Yes, it's all downhill from here, but the band will somehow try and top this when they trudge into the studio and attempt to record a new album.

JSBX — Studio Style
Following a successful South American tour, the Blues Explosion are to begin recording new material with producer Steve Jordan. We have no further dates, titles or other bits of top secret information to share with you. Yet.

Couch
Couch have begun their first North American tour. For those with an aversion to late evening entertainment, they will be performing at Chicago's Reckless Records (1532 N. Milwaukee Avenue Chicago, IL 60622, 773.404.9588) on Thursday May 10 at 6pm. For those with an aversion to going out entirely, a Couch video.

Cornelius
As recording continues for the long awaited followup to 'Fantasma,' Cornelius will be contributing digital video art and music to the following event:

JAM: Tokyo-London
Barbican Gallery
10 May - 8 July 2001

"Celebrating the creative communities at the heart of two parallel cities, East and West, JAM: Tokyo-London will offer a unique overview of urban culture at the start of the new millennium. Without prioritising any one art form, Jam will bring together the brightest and most innovative practitioners from both cities in the fields of art, fashion and music, to create an exhibition that is surprising and experiential.

The exhibition is a launch event for the Japan 2001 festival and will be shown at the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery as part of a British festival in Tokyo in early 2002. Joining forces with the Barbican's local creative media and design communities, JAM can also be seen at the Dazed Gallery on Old Street and the Artomatic Gallery on Great Sutton Street."

And yes, they did mean to say "experiential"

PRESS PREVIEW
The Press View is on Wednesday 9 May from 11am-2pm at the Barbican Art
Gallery, Silk Street London EC2

LAUNCH PARTY
Friday 11 May 8.30pm - 2.00am
JAM: Tokyo London Private View Launch Party

Mogwai
We didn't get much in the way of an update this month from Mogwai, their management, their product manager, their families, their tailor or their manicurist 'cause when you're that busy reducing the planet to rubble, who has time to brag about it? 'Rock Action' is currently soaking up worldwide acclaim, and the band in the process of leaving European audiences as thunderstruck as those of you who caught the U.S. dates in April. More shows are coming up this autumn, but if you want real detail in a real way, the newly revamped Mogwai site is a good place to start.

Belle & Sebastian — New single, new live dates
As you probably read in our last update, Matador will be releasing a new Belle & Sebastian single on CD, 7" and 12" on June 19, featuring the following songs: 'Jonathan David', 'Take Your Carriage Clock And Shove It' and 'The Loneliness Of The Middle Distance Runner". The soundtrack to the previously announced Todd Soldonz motion picture, now officially titled "Storytelling," will be available this autumn.

In addition, the band have confirmed a Scottish tour, calling at:

Dunoon Queens Hall (June 9)
Perth City Hall (10)
Dunfermline Carnegie Hall (11)
Aberdeen Music Hall (14)
Glasgow Barrowlands (15-16)

Quickspace
Quickspace are currently finishing off their new London based studio from where they will record their next album for Matador Records. They will be looking to showcase some of this new material at a one off live show next month with Bardo Pond. The gig for those of you lucky enough to live in the sun soaked capital of England is on 19th May at The Toynbee Hall Theatre, 28 Commercial Street, London E1.

Lesser — We'd like to yank the academy
News from J: "I have, as of this post, officially taken up the gauntlet and signed on (shanghai'd really) to the prestigious and academic Bjork / Matmos tour. It is unclear about my specific roles, besides token heterosexual member of Matmos and general lollygagger (ummmmm... o forget it), but I will be hittin' the boots from here to Copenhagen starting in August and continuing indefinitely (which, by the by, means I will be taking every available moment to play live as Lesser in exotic locations). As far as I know, I'll be playing.

"As far as recordings, I've finished a remix for the prestigious and academic Super Furry Animals, which 'the boys in the band' claim to think 'sounds great,' so the collection, along with symbiont Kid606, should be out later this year on Wichita Recordings. This very moment I am working on a remix
for the wonderful Printed Circuit and new tracks for what may very well become a new EP for Matador Europe (I am looking to finish the thing before I leave on the superstar tour)."

Matmos
Matmos are continuing their important work on the upcoming Bjork full-length, as well as making the occasional unannounced (to us, at least) DJ appeararances at various NY nightspots. A recent Tonic show alongside Cex and Kid 606has been cited by more than one witness as the kind of superstar revue rarely seen in these days of battling egos.

Other associated Matmos projects you ought to be aware of:

5/7: 4 track House 12" by The Soft Pink Truth (aka Matmos) on Soundslike Records
5/15: Remix of Richie Devine on the Schematic House of Distraction compilation
Out now: Remix of Speedy J + Muziq on Planet Mu's "Slag Boom Van Loon So Soon."
Out now: Matmos track "Keine Zahne" on Mille Plateaux's Clicks & Cuts 2
Out now: Remix Twirl EP of Kid 606 track "Twirl" on Mille Plateaux

Arab Strap
The monsters of mope have just completed a sold out U.S. tour and they are releasing the 2nd single from 'The Red Thread' in the U.K., "Turbulence," including a Bis remix that has the synth pop thing going on in a big way. More UK dates start next week, and we're investigating the possibility of Arab Strap coming back to North America later in 2001.

Bardo Pond
The band are about to start a three week UK tour and a 4 week US tour with Mogwai. Due to personal obligations, bassist Clint Takedawill only be joining the band for a couple North American dates. He'll be replaced by a friend, identified to us only as "Tracy". Sounds good. Look out for a limited edition Mogwai/Bardo Pond 10" split available only on the U.S. tour. If you see it on eBay, that's because not everyone makes six figures writing for indie label websites.

Sad Rockets — News from Andrew Pekler
"Well, our first ever 'real' tour ended a couple of weeks ago and I would say much fun was had by all and many valuable lessons learned. For instance, don't play your first gig of a tour at the Social in London on a Friday afternoon, where the crowd is seemingly more interested in pleasant (but very loud) chit-chat about their weekend plans than anything you might be doing. Also no shout outs to the DJ afterwards who pretended to be doing something on the decks while actually only playing all four sides of that horrible fucking Tosca album while wearing an uber-poser Moog t-shirt, prime www.tvgohome.com material. And if at all possible avoid the above mentioned situation if just about eveybody from your label is in attendance and seeing you for the first time. Anyway even if there were some gigs that may as well not have happened as far as audience attention spans go, there were some beautiful evenings as well. Here are a few highlights:

Gettin all crazy with the fantastic DJ Twitch in Glasgow
Gettin all friendly with Kreidler in Brussels
Gettin all fed some fantastic antipasti in Faenza, Italy
Getting stopped at the Swiss-French border by the customs authority version of
Laurel & Hardy
Getting to know evey one of our car tapes by heart
Getting mellow in Berlin in the Scape Lounge

...and speaking of Scape, I should like to mention that there's a compilation coming out on that label in May called Staedizism 2 to which we have contributed a track, the album also includes new stuff by Kit Clayton, Jan Jelinek, Burnt Friedman, Beige, and others who like their ones and zeroes non-linear.

And if space (and Gerard) allows I would also like to point you in the direction of http://www.tokyodawn.org, there you will be looking for Blacktronics, a musical/multimedia collective from the Bay Area who make beautiful modern soul music and allow people like Mike Grant (Moods & Grooves), Domu (2000 Black/ Archive), Prymer (Gutbucket), and myself to remix them. If you like what you hear than check the two 12"s out on the Moving label. Romantic, gritty, urban, blissed-out soul indeed."

Khan — Can Oral gives you the scoop.
"I was really sick of the typical tourist disease here in Mexico. I had a sandwich in the park and got an infection in my stomach now... Montezumas revenge is what they call this I guess and I thought Turks and Mexicans are from the same tribe.... well.... after x-rays, blood and urine tests and taking something like 10 pills a day, I'm ok. I started producing and recording Kid Congo Powers' first Solo Album, which includes a version of marianne faithfuls "why d'ya do it?" and an electro version of "Goo Goo Muck" sung by myself. I also did some shows here in Mexico City that went well. Diamanda Galas wants to collaborate on more material once we find time. She likes the idea of recording in Mexico. I'm working on a new project, producing a Mexican porn-blonde-siren who can sing like a swan or was it a crow? I called her Dildonna Grace and hopefully she will get used to the name and hit the charts. Otherwise, I don't see much of the tequila shortage here in Mexico that was big news in the United States.... keep the prices up.

"P.S. the vinyl version of 'No Comprendo' will be released through El Turco Loco in collaboration with Playhouse/Klang out of Germany. There will be slight changes in the track list and an exclusive track called "Stiches" which was composed for an US/Austrain short film "Stich." Also, the double vinyl includes remixes by: Isolee, Losoul (or is it Lowsoul) and Jammin' Unit."

News from Mark Eitzel
"There will be a portrait of me at the National Portrait Gallery starting June 20th. Maybe I shouldn't tell anybody as I havern't seen what it looks like yet - though I think I look like an unhappy Humpty Dumpty after eating a bottle of Maalox."

Arsonists
As we prepare for the long awaited 'Date Of Birth' full-length, we receive news that the group will be featured in an upcoming Coca Cola advertising campaign. You'd think someone would hook us up with a Coke machine in the office, but those are the breaks. Hopefully we'll have news & dates for the first single from 'Date Of Birth' along with Arsonists live dates in an upcoming update.

The Bionaut
This June, Matador will be releasing 'Lubricate Your Living Room,' a CD compilation of previously issued material by The Bionaut, aka Jorg Burger (one half of Burger/Ink, aka the Modernist). Jorg will be making his U.S. live debut with Thomas Brinkmann at the Brooklyn Anchorage (Cadman Plaza W., Brooklyn) on June 7th.

J. Burger has alsostarted a collaboration with Dusseldorf Minimalist "Antonelli electr." called POP UP. The first 2 releases are out now on the IPC - The New Partnership label, distributed by his long-time companions from Kompakt. Along with the new project, there is a party-series of the same name, which began last month in Cologne. It will be continued in autumn in Hamburg, Berlin, Barcelona & Paris.

Fuck — Somewhere else.
One of our favorite ex-Matador recordings artists with a four letter last name are making what's said to be their farewell tour of Europe. Funny, we didn't even know Europe was sick.

Fuck dates

PRELIMINARY ROUTING SUBJECT TO CHANGE
check Fuck Headquarters for updates:

sun May 6 Ancona, Italy - thermos
wed May 9 Roma, Italy - brancaleone
thu May 10 Shaffausen, Switzerland - tap tab
fri May 11 Bienne, Switzerland - coupoule
sat May 12 Dresden - starclub
mon May 14 Hamburg - molotow
wed May 16 Copenhagen, Denmark - loppen
thu May 17 Gothenburg, Sweden - gump
fri May 18 Malmoe, Sweden - inkonst
sat May 19 Stockholm, Sweden - fritz corner
sun May 20 Oslo, Norway - so what
tue May 22 Amsterdam, The Netherlands - paradiso
thu May 24 Reykjavik, Iceland - TBA
fri May 25 Reykjavik, Iceland - TBA

Matador Artists & Staff Engage In Severe Grandstanding:

Dave Martin, Matador Records
1. Major Stars - 3I said that people were going to have to go a long way to top the Jeffrey Evans record and the Major Stars did and then some. This could be my favorite Twisted Village record EVER!
2. Monsieur Jeffrey Evans "Live At Shangri-La Records: I've Lived A Rich Life" Now my 2nd favorite record of the year and people are still going to have to go a long way to beat it.
3. The Ex "Dizzy Spells"
4. King Brothers & OOIOO Live
5. The Stars "Today"
6. The Deadly Snakes "I'm Not Your Soldier Anymore"
7. Joy Division "Les Bains Douches 18 December 1979"
8. The Now Time Delegation "Watch For Today"
9. The Fall "The Unutterable" - It's been out a while, but I finally got around to getting it.
10. Edgar Broughton Band "Out Demons Out! - The Best Of..."


Jesper Eklow, Matador Records
From the old foggy fogey corner
Dave Bartholomew - The Monkey LP (Imperial)
Bob Seger System - Ramblin' Gamblin' Man LP (Capitol)
The Cramps - Ohio Demos 1979 3x7"
The Golden Age of British Dance Bands DBL LP (WRC)
Betty Hutton - Best of the RCA Years CD
Randy Newman - Randy Newman CD (Reprise)


Helen Rush, Matador Records
Music:
Fresh Maggots -- Fresh Maggots (Si-Wan Records)
Morgen -- S/T(Probe)
PG Six -- Parlour tricks and Porch favorites (Amish)
Led Zeppelin -- Early Days (Atlantic)
Shows:
Cex, Kid 606, Matmos and Timeblind @ Tonic NYC
Books:
The Long Goodbye -- Raymond Chandler.
It's great. On the first page is a great line, 'The girl gave him a
look which ought to have stuck at least four inches out of his back'
Film/TV:
(more serious) Dancer in the Dark -- Lars von Trier
(ha ha funny/ serious) Stardust Memories -- Woody Allen
(Classic watching) Star Trek (original series Vol 2-9) on DVD.
Web sites:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
has has a new astronomy picture everyday. (The photo of a 'Sonic Boom' is pretty amazing.)
http://www.catsinternational.org
Lots of info about Cats. More helpful facts than fluffy pictures.

J Lesser Listening party
Ornette Coleman "The Complete Science Fiction Sessions"
Ludacris "Back For The First Time"
Wobbly "Playlist"
Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam "Spanish Fly"
Bill Cosby "to russell, my brother, whom i slept with"
Jandek "Blue Corpse"
Steely Dan "The Royal Scam"
Any MP3 available featuring Nate Dogg (how much does that guy charge?)
Wendy Carlos & "Weird" Al Yankovic "Peter and the Wolf"
Dio "Last in Line"
(fine, you go to your party, I'll go to mine)

Stephen Malkmus
books read: william roughhead "classic crimes," alan lightman "the diagnosis," giovanni verga "mastro don gesualdo,"
records: bardo pond, us maple, boredoms, parsson sound, dando shaft (unfortunate name for this early seventies folk band)
happenings: a week in scandinavia, a night in vienna... no these are not titles for waltzes... evil old toronto maple leafs crush idealistic ottawa...

Gerard Cosloy, Matador Records
John Phillips - Pay Pack & Follow (Eagle)
Paul Newman - Re-issue! Re-Package! Re-package! Re-evaluate The Songs (My Pal God)
The Pop Group - We Are All Prostitutes (Radar reissue)
Thomas Lehn / Markus Schmickler - Bart (Erstwhile)
PG Six - Parlour Tricks & Porch Favorites (Amish)
Martin Newell - This Little Ziggy (House Of Stratus)
Frank Bretschneider - Curve (Mille Plateux)

And finally, here is a piece of correspondence addressed to Dave Martin.

> Dave -
> What happens when you are done with CDs in your
> listening pile? Do you sell them/ give them away. I am
> always interested in new music if you ever want to send
> some my way. Thanks.

Generally, the CDs that are listed in each individual staffer member's "listening pile" are their own property, and remain a cherished portion of that person's music collection long after such lists are forgotten. That said, if Senator Lieberman is too shy to sign his name to these letters, it is highly unlikely that we will send him any free stuff.