March 5, 2003

Pretty Girls Make Graves
As previously tipped by Pitchfork (scooped again, fuck) and the band's own site, the Seattle quintet Pretty Girls Make Graves have signed to Matador in a worldwide deal. Following their brilliant releases for the Lookout and Dim Mak labels, Matador will be releasing the 2nd PGMG full length CD/LP this autumn, produced (once again) by Phil Ek. Currently on tour, Pretty Girls Make Graves will be appearing at South By Southwest as part of the Lookout bill also featuring Ted Leo & The Pharmacists and the Oranges Band at Emo's Jr. on March 13.

Interpol - You can't have a rock show in Indio without Dio (but they'll try anyway).
The band are flying directly back from France on April 26 in order to headline the 2nd stage at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, CA on April 27. This massive weekend event features 67 or so major talents (Fischerspooner and the Libertines, too) and tickets are moving fast.

As mentioned in an earlier report, a UK 7"/CD single of "Say Hello To The Angels" will be available on import next month, right around the time the band are putting the finishing touches on a video for "Obstacle 1".


Yo La Tengo - new MP3, old fund-raising.
As anticipation builds for the April 8 release of 'Summer Sun' (CD/2XLP), we've got another MP3 from this amazing album, "Little Eyes", available now for download.

The next item comes to us from our friends at WFMU who need your money almost as badly as those people who compile the 'Certain Damage' compilations :

Yo La Tengo Play Requested Covers for Pledges!

Saturday, March 15th, 9pm - Midnight
on Are We There Yet? with Tamar

Despite the fact they'll be in Austin, Texas that very morning, Hoboken's Yo La Tengo leap through airports and time zones to be with WFMU once again for our Marathon! Ira, Georgia, James and pal Bruce again take your requests, playing any cover you can hit them with for a pledge to the station. Join hostess Tamar and co-host Gaylord Fields as they take your orders and pass them on to the band.Ý

WFMU can be heard in the tri-state area at 91.1 and 90.1 FM, and all over the godforsaken planet at http://www.wfmu.org

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Done, Dusted and Value Added.
Early copies of 'Pig Lib' come with a limited value-add 5-song EP -- two studio tracks and three live ones, all never heard before on record -- in a special slipcase/digi thing. Get to stores early, or preorder from the Matador Store. And as we prepare for global conflict with duct tape, saran wrap and newly pressed copies of 'Pig Lib', Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks have been in the curating mood, assembling a star-studded line up for London's "Down The Dustpipe" festival, a 2 day event taking place at the South Bank's Royal Festival Hall.

Headlined both evenings by SM & The Jicks, other performers include Super Furry Animals, Graham Coxon, Bert Jansch, the Buff Medways, Alternative TV, the Groundhogs and others.

For more information, click here.

Aereogramme in their own words:
Hello again. Thanks for taking the time to read our nonsense. Aereogramme have been getting ready for the release of our new album and imminent tours so we have been busy little monkeys and so we have a couple of things to let you know about.

First of all, our new website is up and running and looking pretty fine indeed although it aint quite finished yet but you can leave messages/abuse/questions for us on our messageboard and have a look at our new scary photos and such like. It is held together by aereogramme digimatronics. Watch in amazement as microsoft crummbles ! To find it, click on www.aereogramme.com and you shall be there.

There is also a new video to behold if you go to www.chemikal.co.uk . We recorded ourselves acting like tourists on the last U.S. tour and patched it altogether with "indiscrection # 243 " from the new album. So you get to hear a new track and see Martin doing his rare "monkey dance". It is a sight worth seeing, believe me.

So, if you live in the U.S. then you already have our new album released and if you live anywhere else then you have to wait until march 3rd . Weird eh? Still, we will be touring in Britain , the U.S. and Europe in between march and june so keep checking www.matadorrecords.com and www.chemikal.co.uk for any new dates as they are getting confirmed as we speak.

We hope to see you soon. If we dont make it to your town/city , please forgive us but we leave tours up to the tour agents and they know best. We dont.

Finally ( are you still reading this?), i would like to explain how great it was to travel to Belgium and Holland last week for a press trip. Eighteen interviews and not one of them mentioned Mogwai ! Thank you !

a e r e o g r a m m e

p.s. For what its worth, all musical activities seem less important with an impending war . I hope for peace without violence.

Cat Power - media goes nuts, Chan gets good mileage
As public and press alike continue going ga ga in the wake of 'You Are Free''s release, even label management is having trouble keeping pace. I bought an issue of Newsweek's international edition the other day hoping for some definition of which countries are in Donald Rumsfeld's "Old Europe" and which are in "New Europe", and instead I was greeted with a half page on Chan Marshall. Though the article didn't mention anything about the massive first week sales of 'You Are Free', let's just pause for a moment to let it all sink in.

OK, that's enough. The Brett Vapnek directed video of "He War" will be available soon. And the massive Cat Power tour continues --- check the tour dates section for details.

M. Ward - 'Transfiguration of Vincent' coming on Matador Europe
Matador Europe is licensing the new M. Ward album, 'Transfiguration of Vincent' (ole 578-2) for April 28 release this tremendous cd is coming to us courtesy of our good friends at merge.

this is the 3rd album from M. Ward, a Portland, Oregon based guitarist/vocalist whose 2001 album 'End of Amnesia' attracted considerable praise through its release on Loose (UK) and Future Farmer (US). Ward came to our attention some years back via the patronage of comrade/collaborator Howe Gelb (Giant Sand) who issued the first m. ward album, 'duets for guitars, no. 2' on his ow om label in 1999. The following is the biography provide to us by Merge:

M. Ward is a Portland, Oregon based songwriter whose music seems to occupy a place that is uniquely "out of time". A place that bridges the gaps between the roots of various American musical traditions-folk, country, blues and rock. Armed with a guitar, harmonica, sparse percussion and a tin-pan alley-esque piano, Ward spins timeless classics that seem to flow effortlessly; simple yet eloquent tales alive with metaphor and imagery, told in a raspy, sepia-toned croon. Listening to an M. Ward record is like thumbing through and old family photo album, full of black and white photographs that are fading around the edges; an imperfection that only adds to the clarity of their memories.

Transfiguration of Vincent is the third solo album from M Ward, who cut his musical teeth in the San Luis Obispo based trio Rodriguez. In composition and style his music has been compared to such luminaries as Tom Waits, Granddaddy, Sparklehorse and Howe Gelb (the Giant Sand front man has been one of Ward's strongest champions, releasing the young songwriter's debut CD, Duet For Guitars #2, on his own Ow Om label). Ward's seemingly effortless finger picking guitar conjures the elegance of the late John Fahey. Critics and fans on both sides of the Atlantic were sent swooning over his 2001 collection, End Of Amnesia.

Late in 2002, Ward was asked to accompany indie-rock wunderkind Conor Oberst on his Bright Eyes Orchestra tour across the U.S. Packed houses were held in rapt awe as Ward weaved his spell; they then rushed to gobble up CDs by the box after the show. The seeds have been sown for Transfiguration of Vincent to be the breakout release for one of America's most enigmatic songwriters. We welcome you to come along for the ride.

GBV - revised album & song titles for yet-another life changing masterpiece:
The new Guided By Voices album is called Model Prisoner In The Five Senses Realm [nope, it's called Edison's Memos -- no wait, the title's changed again, it's called Phantasmagoric Upstarts (??! What?), phew he's gone and changed it again, and it's now Earthquake Glue! -- Hold your horses, brand new plan, the album is untitled again and Robert is circulating a list of 50 titles around the Matador offices for comments. We like The Grooms Have Hit Ice. - Ed.] and shall reach your local record shop on or before August 19, 2003. Songs shall include:

1. My Son, My Secretary, My Country
2. I'll Replace You With Machines
3. She Goes Off At Night
4. Beat Your Wings
5. Useless Inventions
6. Dirty Water
7. The Best of Jill Hives
8. Dead Cloud
9. Mix Up The Satellites
10. Main Street Wizards
11. A Trophy Mule in Particular
12. Apology in Advance
13. Secret Star
14. Of Mites and Men

GBV have the following upcoming dates supporting Cheap Trick. If you don't think Bun E. Carlos is the coolest guy on earth, you're just wrong.

04/08/03 Minneapolis, MN State Theatre
04/11/03 Rockford, IL Coronado Theater
04/12/03 Chicago, IL Vic Theater

Dead Meadow - a correction:
Just to make sure, the new album is called 'Shivering King and Others'. The person who got the title wrong last time has donated all of his shares in Matador Records, Inc. to Covenant House and Father Bruce Ritter (who was very funny in "Three's Company" all those years ago). This joke would've made the "We're Sorry" campaign had it be thought of in time. Always good for pt. II, however.

Also, we would like to stress that Dead Meadow are a Washington DC band. Not Virginia, Washington DC. In the rich cultural history of Wes Unseld, White Boy, Troublefunk, No Trend, Black Market Baby, the Urban Verbs and Egoslavia. WASHINGTON DC!!!

Arab Strap - someone needs a hug (though not us or them):ÝÝ
Please check the tour dates section as Arab Strap's spring 2003 tour in support of Bright Eyes is now very much confirmed. Also on the way is the newly launched Arab Strap site going live this weekend with new and exclusive content, including MP3s not available elsewhere (that's what we mean by "exclusive"). 'Mondays At The Hug & Pint' is out on April 22.

Mogwai : agony in the bag [or it happy songs in the bag - Ed.]
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2506191464&category=20050.

A wonderful gesture, though our ebay account was terminated after that unfortunate underwear scam. At least we raised enough money to fix the elevator.

Matmos filling you in:
Drew Daniel has been so tied up lately: working on the new Matmos album, completing various remix duties for Erase Errata and The Melvins and Smyglyssna and My Robot Friend and Kevin Blechdom and Tussle, programming and assisting on the records of close friends and casual acquaintances, blabbing endlessly to the media about his solo project The Soft Pink Truth (out now in the UK, Europe and Japan but not available in the US until April 8th or so). Add all that up with the fact that he's teaching his "literature and evil" seminar at UC Berkeley this semester and it's no suprise that his dissertation has been suffering as a result. In particular, he lost a lot of momentum in his second chapter struggling to adjudicate some conflicts been Deleuze's account of masochism and the Freudian model (itself already a hotbed of tension between primary and secondary masochism); Drew is man enough to agree with his advisors suspicion that perhaps these squabbles aren't particularly illuminating when held up against The Merchant of Venice, the ostensible subject of the chapter. So it's back to the drawing board for Drew, which means that from here on M. C. Schmidt will be the official Matmos communicator. If you wish to write to Matmos, and we hope you do, then write to this address from now on:

matmos-2@sbcglobal.net

M. C. Schmidt, a thoughtful and gracious Leo/Dragon, likes long walks on the beach and ear-nuzzling.

PS: Having completed most of our new album and gearing up to master the darn thing, we were saddened to note the closure of Olde West, our local mastering suite. If anyone knows how to contact former Olde West mastering engineer Rick Wilson please get in touch, we would love to continue working with him.


Mark Eitzel writes:
"After a triumphant tour of South America performing solo with John McIntire (Tortoise, Sea and the Cake) and Sam Prekof (sp!) (Sea and the Cake) - I finally moved to Chicago as I have been threatening and it is very very cold and grey. I am starting to record my next record in April with a band that I have been playing with here. In the second half of April I will be doing a quite extensive tour of Spain, Portugal and of course Moscow - and will be spending some time in London during May hopefully continuing my collaboration with Howie B."

Cornelius - Yuko's solo album
Just a note to let you know that Ochre Records is about to release the new album from Cornelius drummer Yuko Araki, under the name Migu. You can read more about it at http://office-augusta.com/araki/index.html

The no longer on Matador dept:
The new double CD by Console, 'Reset The Preset' (Virgin/Payola) is in the shops and is exactly the sort of thing deserving of your hard earned cashÖmiles deeper than their Matador one-off 'Rocket In The Pocket', 'Preset' would fit nicely alongside Cornelius' 'Point' in the multi-dimensional sweepstakes. You can check out a video of the new look/new sound Console band at http://www.console.li/diverse/Dirt.mov


None of the persons below have good taste, but they all taste good:

Jesper Eklow, Matador Records
Sparks - Lil' Beethoven CD (Artful)
Fleetwood Mac - The Vintage Years Live (Boston Tea Party 1970) - CD (Eagle)
Vivian Stanshall - Sir Henry at Rawlinson End LP (Charisma)
Bengt Hambraeus - Constellations & Interferences LP (Limelight)
Fred McDowell & Johnny Woods LP (Rounder)
Luis Russell - New Call of The Freaks 78 (Okeh)
Goon Show Classics LPs (BBC)
Nate of the Station: How come in all the press ravings about "The American Song-Poem Anthology - Do You Know The Difference Between Big Wood And Brush" (Bar None) there's endless musings on Ira Kaplan, NRBQ et al (and rightfully so) but NO ONE mentions that the very finest cover version of any MSR track was done by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion way back in 1992?

Ben Goldberg, Beggars Group
LET THE METAL LIVE ON LIST:
*Overkill 'Feel The Fire' - First album which carries some metal cliches that now are charmingly nostalgic, but the classics "Rotten to the Core" and the original "Overkill" (which went on to have at least two sequel versions) are on first Metallica record levels.

*Iron Maiden 'Powerslave'- Although their hights of popularity was with Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Powerslave exemplified them with their greatest faculties at their best abilities.

*S.O.D. 'Speak English or Die' - Okay, it kind of sucks now, but the "chug-chug" riff sound has never been surpassed, and singer Billy Milano hung out with all the skinheads at Paramus Park Mall.

*Pretty Maids 'Future World' - Still waiting for this one to reappear on VH1 Classics.

Voivod "Voivod" - Possibly one of the four greatest Voivod records,
right over from Killing Technology and under Dimension H”tross.
Jason Newstead (aka "Jasonic") fits in perfectly by not standing out,
kind of like Billy Corrigan on the New Order album.

Mark Eitzel:
Books: Iris Murdoch and Saul Bellow and Bruce
Sterling.
Listening to :
The Czars -The Ugly People vs The Beautiful People,
Flaming Lips The Soft Bulletin,
Azure Ray Every Kiss Yu Miss Maks A Frekkel,
Scott Walker - Scott 4.

Dave Martin, Matador Records
1. Modey Lemon - Perfecting The Blues Cassette (Thorax the Devestator) New action to hold you over until the 2nd record comes out later in the Spring. 30 minutes of practice space mayhem that just doesn't quit. Also has a perfect example of the "Pittsburgh Accent" on it.

2. Les Rallizes Denudes - Le 12 Mars 1977 a Tachikawa (Over Level) Not sure if this is legit or not, but to have this stuff available is pretty great. This Dbl CD is the same as the first bootleg double LP that came out in 2002 and doesn't sound quite as good as the LP, but good luck finding that. For years fans of Japanese Psychedelic and/or extreme music talked about how amazing this stuff is and now you can find out that they were right. For anyone who has ever bought a record on PSF this is essential.

3. Cobra Verde - Easy Listening (Muscle Tone) Well CV mainman, John Petkovic, finally got it together to send me the rest of his record and it might be even better than I had hoped for. If you know me then you know I love rock music. This more than fits the bill.

4. Simply Saucer - Cyborgs Revisited (Sonic Unyon) This isn't quite out yet, but when I heard that it was being reissed I pulled out the old Fist Puppet CD. It really could be the "Best Canadian LP ever."

5. Arcane Candy #2 magazine Geektastic new magazine w/a read at your own risk, extensive, Don Bowles (Germs, Vox Pop, Three Day Stubble etc.) interview where two grown (?) men get their Haino/Heinos confused. Also has a pretty informative PSF records overview/interview.

4. The Scene Creamers - I Suck On That Emotion (Drag City) New record from Ian Svenonius & Michelle Mae where they are joined by Alex Minoff (Golden) on quitar! Blew my mind!

5. Weird War S/T (Drag City)Ý I was so damaged by The Scene Creamers that I went back to this and put it in rotation. Except for that "Burgers and Fries" song (never has such a promising title yeilded so little) this thing is top notch.

6. The Speaking Canaries - Last Type CDR - Damon Che's new record, most of which I've had in various forms (LP only releases, cassettes that he's given me etc.) in one form or another for over a year, but here it's edited down to 8 songs in just under 40 minutes. Damon's take on things is so unique, an amazing testament to the American experience and unlike anything else out there that I am continually in awe. Another Speaking Canaries classic.

7. T”d Gr”s & Stenar - Djungelns Lag CD (1/2 Special)

8. Tr”d Gr”s & Stenar - Mors Mors CD (1/2 Special) The 3rd & 4th LPs by these Swedish Psych heavyweights finally get reissued. And what a job they (1/2 Special) have done. Great liner notes, tons of photos and both CDs tack on super heavy duty bonus track action (both in the 25 to 30 minute range.) If you have ever bought a record by Can, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Am–n Dull (I or II), Mu...You get the idea. You need these records.
9. Ruth Copeland - I Am What I Am & Self Portrait (Sequel) I had no idea about these records until Dan Allen sent me this CD. Ruth is backed up by Funkadelic on these records and they are about as essential as the first four Funkadelic records. Esp. I Am What I Am. Just reissued on Sequel, replacing the extremely ugly Deep Beats CD version.
10. The Hentchmen - LaSabre Radar video & Three Times Infinity (Norton) These Michigan veterans and Norton recording artists decided to make a video?!?!?! It turns out to blow away just about every other video made by labels big and small worldwide. The record is still top notch too. You should really check it out

Patrick Amory, Matador Records
Bergen White - For Women Only (SSS International LP)
Pete Townshend - Who Came First (Track LP)
Leo Kottke - Greenhouse (Capitol LP)
Fred Neil - Fred Neil (Capitol LP)
Tim Rose - Love, A Kind of Hate Story (Capitol LP)
Les Irresistibles - The Story of Baxter Williams (CBS France LP)
Lee Dorsey - Yes We Can (Polydor LP)
Sheridan/Price - This is to certify that... (Gemini LP)
Dolly Parton - Dolly, Dolly, Dolly (RCA LP)
Canned Heat - Boogie With Canned Heat (Liberty LP)
The Peelers - Banished Misfortune (Polydor Folk Mill UK LP)
5 Hand Reel - For A' That (RCA UK LP)
Alun Ashworth Jones - Al Jones (Parlophone UK LP)
NME - Unholy Death (Diseased Music LP)

Gerard Cosloy, Matador Records
The Clean - Compilation (Merge)
Console - Reset The Preset (Virgin/Payola)
Various - Broklyn Beats 7" Series (Broklyn Beats)
Cass McCombs - Not The Way (Monitor)
The Loud Family - From Ritual To Romance (125)
Jon Rauhouse - Steel Guitar Air Show (Bloodshot)
The Speaking Canaries - Last Type (CDR)
Blue Orchids - From Severe To Serene (LTM)
DJ/rupture - Gold Teeth Thief (Violent Turd)