March 10, 2004


Matador loves Rock Conventions (and hates Conventional Rock):
As part of South By Southwest, Matador's First Ever "Salute To Homeland Insecurity" will take place at Austin's La Zona Rosa on Thursday, March 18.

Performers will include:

Mission Of Burma
Pretty Girls Make Graves
Preston School Of Industry
Seachange

The first 200 people in attendence get a free Matador sampler CD and a ticket to win one of 3 iPod Minis (winners will be announced, and iPods distributed, at the end of the show).


In addition, on Saturday, March 20, Dizzee Rascal will make his Texas debut, headlining the Murder Dog/Damage Control event at Aussie's (306 Barton Springs Road). Also appearing are MC Fatal, Play-N-Skillz, Gritboys, Sylk Smoov, Chamillionaire & The Color Changin Click, Bavu Blakes, and Bun B & UGK Present MDDL FNGZ. Dizzee will be taking the stage at 1 AM.

 
This year's SXSW is particularly historic for us, and not just because Nils Bernstein will be on a panel. In 2004, no less than 9 artists with former or current ties to the Matador roster will be playing other gigs at SXSW than those mentioned above. Some of those stars include:

Guitar Wolf
Demolition Doll Rods
Liz Phair
Thalia Zedek
Silkworm
Britt Daniel
Malcom Middleton
Unsane
Bettie Serveert
Portastatic

We encourage each and every one of you attending SXSW to be just like us and pretend that you'll actually be attending 3 gigs happening simultaneously (as opposed to watching college basketball, driving 2 hours for highly touted barbeque, or best of all, arguing with customs officials that your suitcase full of CDs has "no resale value").

A.C. Newman:
In June of the year 2004, Matador will be releasing the debut CD/LP from A.C. Newman, 'The Slow Wonder.' Recorded with a Canadian government grant, this might be the most efficient use of public funds since the time NYC paid Survival Reseach Labs to shower the Shea Stadium parking lot with counterfeit money.

A.C. Newman is Carl Newman. Carl writes at least 80% of the material for The New Pornographers, a band you should be very familiar with right about now. If Carl was 20 in 1978 in England he would have been in a band called the Soft Boys. If Carl was 20 in 1984 in Ohio he would have been a founding member of Guided By Voices. If Carl was 20 in 1965 in LA Brian Wilson would not have needed Van Dyke Parks, and a few years later in the same town Richard Harris would not have needed Jimmy Webb. Nancy & Carl? Probably. Music would have taken a turn for the better, it would have been more interesting, more intricate, more exciting ad nauseum. Though we can't change the past, we'll settle for changing the future. This is 34 minutes of the best power pop you have ever heard, an incredible breath of fresh air in a hostile era for genuine hand-crafted music.

There are only two annoying things about this record. 1) you can never decide which is the best track on the album and 2) the record is just too goddam short.

The following is Carl's helpful summation of the mysterious recording process:

"Okay, here's the deal. I'm going to let you all in on a little secret. Here's how New Pornographers records are made: I practice with Kurt for a few weeks to get skeletal arrangements down. We go record the bed tracks at a big studio. I sit with John at his studio for a few months and we brainstorm and experiment, throw shit down, erase a lot of stuff, keep a lot of stuff. Some songs we start with a click track and build the song around it, adding Kurt's drums later. Dan comes in to sing his songs. Blaine, Todd, and Kurt come in periodically to record, and Neko comes in for a few days at the end to do her parts. Kurt, John, and I then spend a couple of weeks mixing it, with our pal Howard Redekopp at the helm.

"Okay, now here's how A.C. Newman records are made: I practice with Shane and Fisher for a few weeks to get skeletal arrangements down. We go record the bed tracks at a studio. I sit with John and Dave at their studio for a few months and I brainstorm and experiment, throw shit down, etc...

"Some songs I start with a click track and build the song around it, adding Pete's drums later. Dan and Fisher come in to play ping pong. Shane, Megan, Sarah, and Shaun come in periodically to record, and Fisher and Dan come in for a few days at the end to play more ping pong. John, Dave, and I then spend a couple of weeks mixing it, with our pal Howard Redekopp at the helm.

"These are all of my secrets. Guard them well."

Mission Of Burma:
If something is worth saying once around here, it is worth saying over and over again.

Coming to you on May 3, 'ONoffON' (CD/hybrid SACD/2XLP) is a work of staggering complexity, showcasing a group just as exciting in 2004 as they were in 1982. Produced by Robert Weston (Shellac), the album brims with all the raw power of their '80s releases 'Signals, Calls, and Marches' and 'Vs.', yet reveals tones, textures and lyrical themes unimaginable the first time around.

One of the most forward-thinking American bands of all time, Mission Of Burma have been covered by some of the biggest artists of the '80s and '90s, and helped to shape the development of underground and alternative rock over the past two decades. You can put them in the same category as the Velvet Underground, MC5 Television, Joy Division - Burma is part of this pantheon, except that they're alive, well, and yet to peak creatively.

Available on regular CD, hybrid SACD, and true all-analog 180-gram double vinyl pressed at RTI.

Track listing:

The Setup
Hunt Again
The Enthusiast
Falling
What We Really Were
Max Ernst's Dream
Fake Blood
Prepared

Wounded World
Dirt
Into The Fire
Fever Moon
Nicotine Bomb
Playland
Absent Mind
Class War *

* vinyl only

The album is split into two "sets" just like their live shows. And on that note...

...Mission Of Burma will play their first UK dates in nearly 2 years as follows:

April 2 - All Tomorrow's Parties, Camber Sands, Rye
April 3 - Institute Of Contemporary Art, London (support: The Playwrights)

The only North American date announced so far is the Austin show mentioned above, but we'll have more shows in major cities to announce soon, taking us through the end of the year. Remember, these guys have full-time jobs and other bands, so they can't make it everywhere - but rarely has a band been better worth a long road trip. One of the best live bands on this continent right now.

Cat Power: We'll be releasing a Cat Power DVD this summer entitled 'A Film By Mark Borthwick' featuring more than 2 hours of footage shot by Mr. Borthwick, plus a video for "Free" that none of us have seen. The DVD will be accompanied by a 40 page book and a bonus CD featuring a new, unreleased 19 minute track.

Chan has a bunch of solo shows in the UK and France starting in two weeks time; please check the tour dates section.

Dizzee Rascal:
On the heels of this Monday's performance at Miami's Winter Music Conference. Dizzee Rascal has confirmed his first West Coast live shows,Ý

Weds, March 17 - San Francisco - Mezzanine
Thurs, March 18 - Los Angeles - Keyclub

Dizzee will return to US network television on Wednesday, March 24 on NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly show, preceded on Tuesday morning with an appearance on ESPN 2's "Cold Pizza". I don't know if Darryl Dawkins is still on the latter program, but either way, you now have a reason to bother tuning in.

Pretty Girls Makes Graves:
As you might've read at prettygirlsmakegraves.com, guitarist Nathan Thelen has left the band due to family commitments. All of us at Matador will miss Nathan and wish him well. Seth from Les Savy Fav will continue filling in on 2nd guitar for Pretty Girls Make Graves' forthcoming extensive tour dates.

Following on the heels of the Yo La Tengo and Stephen Malkmus contests which may have caused you to pull out your hair or sprout a patch of gray ones, we present the 'Pretty Girls Make Graves You Fill in the Blanks, We Fill Your Packs' contest.

All you have to do is fill in the blanks of various lyrics we've culled from 'The New Romance'. Five lucky winners will receive a Dakine Vector skate pack filled with a copy of 'The New Romance', a Pretty Girls Make Graves t-shirt, stickers and whatever else we can fit in there. The pack features a pocket for a music player (you supply that) with cd sleeves and cord port, deployable padded video camera bag, grip tape abrasion resistant platforms and the ability to carry your board as well.

Skate packs generously provided by Dakine.

The European side of Matador, aka Matador Europe or Matador with the other mailing address, will be reissuing Pretty Girls Makes Graves' first album, 'Good Health', during the summer of 2004.

Preston School Of Industry:
The 2nd album from Spiral Stairs' PSOI, 'Monsoon' is out now and the band are making their way across the country in support of this intelligent pop masterpiece.

There's a couple of small-minded individuals whose names we've already forgotten that insist on viewing Preston School Of Industry solely in the context of Scott's old band (The Tygers of Pan Tang). And that's unfortunate --- I mean, we could give a flying fuck if someone with extremely limited musical range passes on 'Monsoon' because he or she has issues about what sort of person they were in 1995 compared to now. But for the rest of you, the folks capable of appreciating well-crafted, funny and inspiring rock'n'roll with zero artifice, this is a CD that needs to be in your car stereo, iPod, brain, whatever. And speaking of iPods, there's an exclusive batch of PSOI tracks available now from the iTunes Music Store, recorded live at the Rivera Club in Chicago last year.

Preston School of Industry on tour:

Wed - Mar 10 - Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
Sat - Mar 13 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
Sun - Mar 14 - Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland
Mon - Mar 15 - Phoenix, AZ - Rhythm Room
Wed - Mar 17 - Norman, OK - Opolis
Thu - Mar 18 - Austin, TX - Schuba's Presents, Yard Dog Art Gallery, 5 PM
Thu - Mar 18 - Austin, TX - La Zona Rosa - Matador Showcase, 10 PM
Sat - Mar 20 - Austin, TX - Urban Outfitters, 3 PM
Sat - Mar 20 - Austin TX - Porchlight Pop Fest, Tillery St. Theater, 5 PM
Sun - Mar 21 - Houston, TX - Rudyard's
Tue - Mar 23 - Atlanta, GA - Echo Lounge
Wed - Mar 24 - Athens, GA - Tasty World
Thu - Mar 25 - Carrboro, NC - Room Four
Fri - Mar 26 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
Sat - Mar 27 - Philadelphia, PA - Khyber Pass
Sun - Mar 28 - New York, NY - Mercury Lounge
Tue - Mar 30 - Cambridge, MA - T.T. The Bear's
Thu - Apr 01 - Toronto, ON - Horseshoe Tavern
Fri - Apr 02 - Detroit, MI - Lager House
Sat - Apr 03 - Chicago, IL - Schuba's

Seachange:
The expansive & electric sextet from Nottingham are in the process of wrapping up a short UK tour in support of the newly released (in Europe) 'Lay Of The Land' CD/LP, topped off with a headlining date at London's Borderline on Thursday, March 11. After that, Seachange get ready for their US debut next Monday, March 15, at NYC's Mercury Lounge.

From there, they fly to Austin, TX for where they'll be playing on Wednesday, March 15 at Lounge with the Rosebuds, Pearlene and The Natural History. This show is presented By The Fader (Magazine) & Levi's (the trousers Jeremy Clarkson made infamous), and you can find the venue at 708 East 6th St (between Red River and I-35).

On Thursday night, Seachange will be at La Zona Rosa, taking part in Matador's "Salute To Homeland Insecurity" (don't worry, Seachange's homeland is insecure too, just watch the news), and then it's back to the UK for more live action. The band will return to the US at the end of April for a longer tour, including East Coast dates supporting Guided By Voices.

Describe by Time Out's Chris Parkin thusly, "Taking the emotionally resonant sound of their celebrated live show into the studio, 'Lay Of The Land' retains the band's primordial quality for soaring, spellbinding anthems....with visceral and escalating power, Seachange are a hypnotic proposition...As a debut, 'Lay Of The Land' marks Seachange as a true British talent."

'Lay Of The Land' is released stateside on April 8.

Yo La Tengo:
Currently finishing a well-received tour of the UK, Yo La Tengo have confirmed their participation in June's Bonaroo Festival, taking place June 11-13 in Manchester, Tennessee.

Other participants include Bob Dylan, The Dead, Wilco, and about a million others. It's kind of like Coachella, except our record label isn't having arguments over who gets to go. Which is kind of funny considering the label has its roots in an underground hacky sack tournament (kind of like "Fight Club", except I, uh, just talked about it).

Yo La Tengo will also be taking part (again) in WFMU's fundraising marathon (currently ongoing), when they cover your favorites for cash on Gaylord Fields's show, Saturday, March 20. One of the premiums being offered to big-money contributors is a YLT-issued CD containing highlights from previous WFMU Marathon appearances.

Guided By Voices:
Apparently, GBV are in heavy rotation on Mars:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_spiritAll.html#sol61

That's the good news. The bad news is that NASA's faves also include the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Now might be a good time to petition your legislators to cut the space program's funding.


The Wisdom Of Harry:
Pete Astor will be playing a solo set under The Wisdom Of Harry tag this Thursday night (11 March) at London's Water Rats in support of The Broken Family Band. Continental dates to follow include 13 March in Covo, Bologna, and 23 March at Paris' Nouveau Casino, in support of Laika.

Cherry Red (UK) will be releasing a compilation CD of material from Pete's prior band, The Weather Prophets, 'Blue Skies & Free Rides (1986-19989) in April.

Dead Meadow:
Wed - Mar 10 - Louisville, KY - Uncle Pleasant's
Thu - Mar 11 - Lexington, KY - High On Rose
Fri - Mar 12 - Pittsburgh, PA - Modern Formations
Sun - Mar 28 - Camber Sands, Rye, UK - All Tomorrow's Parties
Mon - Mar 29 - London UK - The Garage

Interpol:
Though we don't have any news for you yet concerning the recording of Interpol's 2nd album, we will do our best to make sure said information is available here within 72 hours of someone else publishing it. In the meantime, you can purchase an exclusive Interpol track, "Interlude", a 59 second instrumental recorded during the 'Turn On The Bright Lights' sessions, at the iTunes Music Store. That's a price of about 1 and two-thirds cents per second, which is far less then you'd pay for a peep show, or for a telephone conversation with Tom Candiotti.

A peep show featuring Tom Candiotti, however, would be even more expensive, so be careful with those credit cards.

Matadoreurope.com is dead, Long Live Europe (The Band):
Due to the lack of recent controversy (or updates), the matadoreurope.com site has been dismantled. Persons employed by Matador in London will now return to their busy jobs, cancelling NME ads, telling people they have nothing to do with Belle & Sebastian and hanging out at the Blag Club with Holly Valence.

Content related to Matador's activities in Europe will henceforth be included on this very website.