Coming March 15 : Stephen Malkmus - 'Groove Denied'

January 22nd, 2019 at 10:03 am

"Viktor Borgia", directed by Jan Lankisch.




(photo by Robbie Augspurger)

For once, the rumors are true (some of 'em, anyway). The “rejected” electronic album that Stephen Malkmus has been alluding to over the past year  will see the light of day on March 15th. That said, 'Groove Denied' is not a plunge into EDM or glitch-city. In fact, there aren’t any purely instrumental tracks on the album. Every song is precisely that: a song, featuring Malkmus staples like an artfully askew melody and an oblique lyric. 'Groove Denied' is Stephen playing hooky from his customary way of going about things, jolting himself out of a comfy routine. As Malkmus commented recently in a recent video interview, “It’s kind of funny to mess with stuff you’re not supposed to mess with.”

The first taste of Stephen’s new groove can be sampled today, with the release of single “Viktor Borgia,” and its accompanying video. The title playfully merges the name of the comedian-pianist and the ruthless dynasty of Italo-Spanish nobles. . “Yes, I was thinking things like Pete Shelley’s ‘Homosapien’, the Human League, and DIY synth music circa 1982,” says Stephen, adding “and also about how in the New Wave Eighties, these suburban 18-and-over dance clubs were where all the freaks would meet – a sanctuary.”

Stephen will embark on a brief solo tour, sans Jicks, in May. The newly announced run of dates can be found below. A full bio, composed by Simon Reynolds can be found as well.

download / stream "Viktor Borgia"
stream / preorder 'Groove Denied'

When Stephen Malkmus first arrived on the scene in the early Nineties, as frontman and prime creative force in Pavement, the area of music with which he was associated couldn’t really have been further from the techno-rave sounds of the day. Electronic dance music, then as now, was about posthuman precision, inorganic textures, and hyper-digital clarity. Whereas the lo-fi movement in underground rock championed a messthetic of sloppiness, rough edges, and raw warmth - a hundred exquisitely subtle shades of distortion and abrasion. “Imperfect sound forever” was the rallying cry for a micro-generation of slacker-minded dreamers and misfits.

Fast forward to the present and here comes Malkmus with a surprising new project that embraces the very digital tools and procedures he’d have once gone out of his way to avoid. Groove Denied – Stephen’s first solo album without his cohorts the Jicks since 2001 – was made using Ableton’s Live, a software sequencer and “digital audio workstation” that is the preferred tool of discerning techno producers and deejays worldwide. Instead of a human-powered rhythm section of electric bass and drums, Malkmus’s arsenal further includes drum machines, along with a host of plug-in FX and “soft synths” (digital simulations of vintage electronic hardware that inhabit your computer rather than take over your entire living room).

For the first time on record, what you hear here is just Stephen and the Machine(s).

But Groove Denied is not a full-blown plunge into EDM or hiptronica, into the soundworlds of Deadmaus, Villalobos and Skee Mask. In fact, there aren’t any purely instrumental tracks on the album. Every song is precisely that: a song, featuring Malkmus staples like an artfully askew melody and an oblique lyric. But Groove Denied is Stephen playing hooky from his customary way of going about things, jolting himself out of a comfy routine. As Malkmus commented recently in a video interview, “It’s fun to mess with things that you’re not supposed to.”

This departure from the tried-and-tested stems back to earlier in this decade, when Malkmus spent a couple of years living in Berlin and was exposed to the city’s vibrant club scene Back in the Nineties, Stephen had given rave culture a wide berth, in part because of bad personal associations with the drug MDMA (he’d had “a really really bad trip” on Ecstasy in 1987, bizarrely on a visit to New York to see Miles Davis perform). But in Berlin, thanks to a younger deejay friend, Malkmus made forays into the city’s world-famous all-night party scene and became fascinated by techno. “The music can be great… you can zone out, dance, and focus on music - or just get wasted!”

It would not be entirely off-base, or an overly cute rock-historical reference, to describe Groove Denied as Stephen Malkmus’s Low. Although largely recorded in Oregon, the bulk of the album was written while he was living in Berlin. Updating his home studio with Ableton and teaching himself rudimentary Pro Tools, Malkmus “started fucking with effects and loops”. He compares the process of track-construction to the way his kids “used to make these girls on my iPhone - choosing hair colour, dresses, etc. That intuitive swipe and grab thing. Chop and move the waves. Apple computer scroll style of thinking.” It’s a very different way of making music to the feel-oriented way of coming up with chord progressions and rhythm grooves on a guitar alone or jamming with a band. And in fact, electric guitar – while it does feature on Groove Denied – is really “just color for the most part”.

Yet while the methodology behind Groove Denied is absolutely 21st Century, the reference points for the sound-palette hark back to the pre-digital era. “The electronic music side of the album, I wanted it to be sonically pre-Internet,” explains Stephen. “So the EQ-ing is a bit 1970’s, that sloppy DIY sequencing. And the influences are kinda 1981 post punk - actually quite British.” “A Bit Wilder”, one of the stand-out cuts, specifically recalls Cabaret Voltaire, its slack-stringed dank-with-reverb bass a dead ringer for the Stephen Mallinder sound. “Yes, I was thinking the Cabs - and Section 25, whose 1981 album Always Now I think is a serious underdog stoner album. That grey industrial Martin Hannett sound. But also all these cute DIY group that imitated The Cure back then – loners with 4-tracks tape recorders and dreams of “Killing An Arab”.” Malkmus says he was trying to conjure or reinhabit the “fan perspective” on things like Joy Division and the Cure - the sort of “getting it a bit wrong” that unintentionally brings something new into the world.

Groove Denied is frontloaded with this Cold Wave redux sound - a style we’ve never heard from Stephen Malkmus before. Opener “Belziger Faceplant”, for instance, features a most peculiar processed vocal that sounds withered and grotesque, like a deflated wrinkly balloon still lingering on in your house weeks after a party. “I envisioned ‘Belziger Faceplant’ as made by someone off their head after a night out in Friedrichshain,” says Malkmus, referring to a district of the former East Berlin now rife with techno clubs like the legendary Berghain. “Coming back at 5 AM, firing up the laptop in the morning light and trying to make a song, but the instruments are tripping over each other. You can’t even speak because of all the Ketamine or whatever!” Malkmus adds that he’s never tried K but “for some reason I imagine it like that”.

Then there’s “Viktor Borgia,” a title that playfully merges the name of the comedian-pianist and the ruthless dynasty of Italo-Spanish nobles. With its stately melody and the almost-English-accented vocal, the coordinates here are early Human League or even Men Without Hats. “Yes, I was thinking things like Pete Shelley’s ‘Homosapien’, the Human League, and DIY synth music circa 1982. And also about how in the New Wave Eighties, these suburban 18-and-over dance clubs were where all the freaks would meet – a sanctuary.”

“Forget Your Place” features another eerily wobbled vocal a la “Belziger Faceplant” plus dub-style detonations of submarine sonar and nagging bleeps. Frankly, it sounds pretty darn wasted. “Like ‘Belgizer’, this is a pretty solid Ableton-based track – moving waves around, finding a trippy loop and throwing an echo on it,” explains Stephen, adding that “at times it feels almost childish, working with Ableton - like finger painting. But ‘Forget Your Place’ also makes me think about death – don’t ask me why!”

Alongside the early Eighties “minimal synth” and industrial influences, the other main palette of tone-colors audible on Groove Denied is closer both to Stephen’s comfort zone and to what his fans would expect from him: “warped psych,” as he terms it, that avant-garage tradition of dirty guitars and ramshackle grooves, except that in this case, it’s “one person pretending to be a band.” That illusion is pulled off magnificently on loose ‘n’ swinging tunes like “Come Get Me” and “Love the Door,” although the electronic element manifests still with the crisp and prim pitter of drum machine beats and a spume of Moog frothing all over “Door”. Then there’s “Rushing the Acid Frat”, whose title came from Stephen’s memories of a student fraternity at the University of Virginia that, unlike the typical beery bro frathouse, had a “Grateful Dead druggy tie-dye” vibe. Malkmus imagined “Rushing” as a “Louie Louie”-style shindig rumpus to soundtrack a “Star Wars bar scene in such a frat… It’s kinda 12-bar, but gigged with psych lyrics”.

As the album enters the homestretch, it returns to more familiar Malkmusian terrain, with a warmer, grittier sound. “I did frontload Groove Denied with the stuff that signals “80’s/cold,” he says. “That stuff excited me the most - and it sounded braver. If I had another year, it could have been all in that style.” Still, with the second half offering gorgeous tunes like the hazy-lazy ramble “Bossviscerate” and the glittering “Ocean of Revenge” – both graced with his signature style of odd-angled melodic beauty – who’s complaining? Mellow closer “Grown Nothing” feels like Malkmus easing back towards the sound of his recent album with the Jicks, Sparkle Hard. In fact, although it has been released after Sparkle, 70% of Groove Denied was completed before work on the Jicks record. Indeed, Malkmus’s explorations with sound-processing influenced that album, most notably with the unexpected appearance of Auto-Tune on a couple of tracks.

Groove Denied will shake up settled notions of what Malkmus is about and what he’s capable of, repositioning him in the scheme of things. But looking at it from a different angle, his engagement with state-of-art digital tech actually makes perfect sense. After all, Nineties lo-fi – the sound in which he and Pavement were initially vaunted as leaders and pioneers - was nothing if not insistently sonic – it was all about the grain of guitar textures, about gratuitously over-done treatments and ear-grabbing effects. Noise for noise’s sake. It’s just that it was looking to older modes and antiquated technology. From the Big Muff and the Cry Baby Wah pedal through to today’s deliberately distorted deployment of pitch-correction, there’s really an unbroken continuity: the creative misuse of technology, the aestheticization of mistakes and flaws, wrongness-as-rightness.

As Stephen tweeted recently on the subject of Auto-Tune’s omnipresence in contemporary music-making: “We long 4 transformation....and we humans fucking luv tools.”

Simon Reynolds, Jan 2019

(Tour Dates, New Shows sans Jicks In Bold, On Sale Friday Jan 25, 10am Local Time)

Wednesday, January 23 Metro, Chicago IL
Friday, January 25 Brooklyn Steel, Brooklyn NY
Wednesday, May 1 The Great Hall, Toronto ON *
Friday, May 3 Arts At The Armory, Somerville MA *
Saturday, May 4 Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore PA *
Sunday, May 5 Union Stage, Washington DC *
Tuesday, May 7 3TEN ACL Live, Austin TX *
Friday, May 10 Doug Fir Lounge, Portland OR *
Saturday, May 11 Columbia City Theater, Seattle WA *
Tuesday, May 14 Swedish American Hall, San Francisco CA *
Wednesday, May 15 Lodge Room, Los Angeles CA *
Thursday, May 30 Primavera Sound, Barcelona ES
Tuesday, June 4 De Casino St. Niklaas BE
Wednesday, June 5 Knust, Hamburg DE
Friday, June 7 Debaser, Stockholm SE
Tuesday, June 11 Parkteatret, Oslo NO
Wednesday, June 12 Bergenfest, Bergen NO
Friday, June 14 Lille Vega, Copenhagen DK
Saturday, June 15 Traumzeit Festival, Duisberg DE
Tuesday, June 18 De Kreun, Kortrijk BE
Wednesday, June 19 La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris FR

* Indicates Stephen Malkmus only

Stephen Malkmus Online :

Stephen Malkmus.com
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Twitter - Stephen Malkmus
Twitter - Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks

OUT TODAY: Steve Gunn - 'The Unseen In Between'

January 18th, 2019 at 10:14 am

Photo by Annabel Mehran

Steve Gunn's new album The Unseen In Between is available worldwide today. Stream the album, order the LP/CD via the Matador Webstore or find it at your local independent record store via the link HERE.



Gunn begins his extensive full-band tour in the Northeast beginning on January 30th, continuing through North America and Europe into May 2019. Tickets for all dates are on sale now.

Steve Gunn On Tour
Wednesday, January 30 The State House, New Haven CT ^
Thursday, January 31 Great Scott, Boston MA ^
Friday, February 1 Bowery Ballroom, New York NY ^
Saturday, February 2 Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA ^
Thursday, February 7 The Hangout, Long Beach, CA  (Steve solo)
Friday, February 8 The Casbah, San Diego CA ^
Saturday, February 9 Teragram Ballroom, Los Angeles CA ^
Sunday, February 10 Moe’s Alley, Santa Cruz CA $
Tuesday, February 12 Aladdin Theater, Portland OR $
Wednesday, February 13 Tractor Tavern, Seattle WA $
Friday, February 15 Hopmonk Tavern, Novato CA #
Saturday, February 16 The Chapel, San Francisco CA #
Tuesday, March 12 Bitterzoet, Amsterdam NL
Wednesday, March 13 Paard, Den Haag NL
Thursday, March 14 Vera, Groningen NL
Friday, March 15 Nochtspeicher, Hamberg DE
Saturday, March 16 Radar, Aarhus DK
Monday, March 18 Folken, Stavanger NO
Wednesday, March 20 Revolver, Oslo NO
Thursday, March 21 Pustervik, Gothenburg SE
Friday, March 22 Loppen, Copenhagen DK
Saturday, March 23 Frannz Club, Berlin DE
Sunday, March 24 Archa Theatre, Prague CZ
Monday, March 25 UT Connewitz, Leipzig DE
Tuesday, March 26 Manufaktur, Schorndorf DE
Wednesday, March 27 Arena, Vienna AT
Saturday, March 30 Südpol, Luzern CH
Sunday, March 31 Rotefabrik, Zurich CH
Monday, April 1 Sonic, Lyon FR
Tuesday, April 2 Le Petit Bain, Paris FR
Wednesday, April 3 De Kreun, Kortrijk BE
Friday, April 5 Oslo, London UK
Saturday, April 6 Hare & Hounds, Birmingham UK
Sunday, April 7 Brudenell Social Club, Leeds UK
Monday, April 8 Deaf Institute, Manchester UK
Thursday, April 18  Cactus Club, Milwaukee WI*
Friday, April 19 Lincoln Hall, Chicago IL *
Saturday, April 20 Storehouse, Galien MI
Sunday, April 21 Off Broadway, St Louis MO*
Monday, April 22 89th Street, Oklahoma City OK*
Tuesday, April 23 Double Wide, Dallas TX *
Wednesday, April 24 Barracuda, Austin TX*
Friday, April 26 Saturn, Birmingham AL*
Saturday, April 27 40 Watt, Athens GA*
Sunday, April 28 The Earl, Atlanta GA*
Monday, April 29 The Basement, Nashville TN*
Tuesday, April 30 The Mothlight, Asheville NC*
Wednesday, May 1 Cat’s Cradle, Carborro, NC*
Thursday, May 2 Neighborhood Theatre, Charlotte,NC*
Friday, May 3 Richmond Music Hall, Richmond,VA*
Saturday, May 4 Songbyrd, Washington DC*


^ w/ Meg Baird & Mary Lattimore
$ w/ Meg Baird
# w/ Sachiko Kanenobu
* w/ Gun Outfit

Steve Gunn online :
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Steve Gunn.com

Iceage North American Dates 2019

January 8th, 2019 at 12:08 pm by Gerard

Lucy Dacus 2019 Dates

December 10th, 2018 at 12:09 pm by Gerard

(photo by Elizabeth Weinberg)

After a whirwind 2018 that's included no shortage of year-end accolades for 'Historian', Lucy Dacus embarks on yet another US tour this February (new dates in bold below, tickets on sale Friday, 10am local time).

Friday, February 1st Motorco Music Hall, Durham NC *
Saturday, February 2nd Charleston Pour House, Charleston SC *
Monday, February 4th Saturn, Birmingham AL *
Tuesday, February 5th Proud Larry’s, Oxford MS *
Thursday, February 7th Ruins, Dallas TX *
Friday, February 8th White Oak Music Hall, Houston TX *
Saturday, February 9th Barracuda, Austin TX *
Monday, February 11th Opolis, Norman OK *
Tuesday, February 12th The Bottleneck, Lawrence KS *
Wednesday, February 13th Rose Music Hall, Columbia MO *
Thursday, February 14th Cosmic Charlie’s, Lexington KY *
Friday, February 15th Thalia Hall, Chicago IL ^
Thursday, March 7th Savannah Stopover, Savannah GA
Friday, March 8th Barley’s Tap Room, Knoxville TN &
Saturday, March 9th The Basement East, Nashville TN &
Monday, March 11th The Basement, Columbus OH &
Tuesday, March 12th Ninth Ward, Buffalo NY &
Thursday, March 14th The Haunt, Ithaca NY &
Friday, March 15th Colony, Woodstock NY &
Saturday, March 16th Pearl Street Club, Northampton MA &
Sunday, March 17th SPACE Gallery, Portland ME &
Tuesday, March 19th Columbus Theatre, Providence RI &
Wednesday, March 20th White Eagle Hall, Jersey City NJ &
Thursday, March 21st Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA &
Friday, March 22nd The Black Cat, Washington DC &
May 3-5 Shaky Knees Festival, Atlanta GA
Friday, May 31 Primavera Festival, Barcelona ES

* w/ Illuminati Hotties
^ w/ Sharon Van Etten
& w/ Mal Blum, Fenne Lily

Stream or buy 'Historian'

Lucy Dacus online:

Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Official Site

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - New EU dates for June 2019

November 21st, 2018 at 11:42 am

You may have recently heard about some new Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks dates for Europe, next June. Well here we are informing you again. Thanks, Ebbinghaus.

Tuesday, June 4  - De Casino - St. Niklaas BE
Wednesday, June 5  - Knust,  Hamburg, DE
Friday, June 7  - Debaser,  Stockholm, SE
Tuesday, June 11  - Parkteatret, Oslo, NO
Wednesday, June 12  - Bergenfest,  Bergen, NO
Friday, June 14 - Lille Vega,  Copenhagen, DK
Saturday, June 15 - Traumzeit Festival, Duisberg, DE
Tuesday, June 18 -  De Kreun, Kortrijk, BE
Wednesday, June 19 -  La Gaîté Lyrique,  Paris, FR

Stream / buy 'Sparkle Hard'

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks Online
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Perfume Genius "Not For Me" + Pitchfork Midwinter Fest

November 19th, 2018 at 4:13 pm

After releasing "Alan (Rework)" via W Records last week, Perfume Genius premiered "Not For Me" today, a cover of Bobby Darin's track, along with a new music video directed by Perfume Genius's Mike Hadreas himself. As with last week's release, profits from the streaming of this track will be donated in full to Immigration Equality, an LGBTQ immigrant rights organization.



Stream "Not For Me" HERE.

Stream/Purchase No Shape HERE.

Perfume Genius has announced his first date of 2019, joining the bill at Pitchfork's Midwinter Festival on the weekend of February 15th. Tickets are on sale now.

Perfume Genius online
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Perfume Genius.org

 

Interpol "Party's Over" (Lao Remix)

November 19th, 2018 at 11:26 am

Following this summer's release of Marauder, Interpol has debuted a series of track reworks in collaboration with artists Pêtr Aleksänder, DJ Dodger Stadium, and today a new take on "Party's Over" by NAAFI-affiliate Lao. The remix is available on your preferred streaming service, as well as YouTube below.

Stream "Party's Over" (Lao Remix) HERE



Interpol recently announced further touring plans for 2019, including Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado with support from Car Seat Headrest and Shaky Knees Festival in Atlanta alongside Lucy Dacus and Liz Phair.
$ w/ Nilüfer Yanya
! w/ Car Seat Headrest, Snail Mail
# w/ Car Seat Headrest, Sunflower Bean
@ w/ Lucy Dacus, Liz Phair
Official Site
Facebook
Twitter
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YouTube Channel

OUT NOW: Car Seat Headrest 'Twin Fantasy (Mirror to Mirror)' White Vinyl

November 9th, 2018 at 11:22 am

Car Seat Headrest have officially released the white vinyl edition of Twin Fantasy (Mirror to Mirror), the 2011 version that Will Toledo revisited early this year to create Twin Fantasy (Face to Face). Available for the first time on colored vinyl, purchase the 2xLP via the Matador Webstore here. Car Seat Headrest are currently on tour in the UK. The band returns to touring North America early next year surrounding their performance at Madison Square Garden with Interpol and Snail Mail on February 16.

Stream Twin Fantasy (Mirror to Mirror)

Car Seat Headrest On Tour
Saturday, November 10 Rolling Stone Weekender Weissenhauser Strand, DE
Sunday, November 11th Pumpehuset, Copenhagen DK
Tuesday, November 13th Vera, Groningen NL
Wednesday, November 14th Tivoli, Utrecht NL
Thursday, November 15th Autumn Falls at Vooruit, Gent BE
Saturday, November 17 Rolling Stone Park Rust, DE
Thursday, February 14 Royale, Boston MA
Friday, February 15 Mass MoCA, North Adams MA
Saturday, February 16 Madison Square Garden, New York NY !
Sunday, February 17 Rams Head Live, Baltimore MD
Monday, February 18 The National, Richmond VA
Wednesday, February 20 Georgia Theatre, Athens GA
Thursday, February 21 The Moon, Tallahassee FL
Friday, February 22 The Beacham Theater, Orlando FL
Saturday, February 23 The Orpheum, Tampa Bay FL
Tuesday, February 26 Tipitina’s, New Orleans LA
Wednesday, February 27 White Oak Music Hall, Houston TX
Thursday, February 28 Emo’s, Austin TX
Friday, March 1 Canton Hall, Dallas TX
Saturday, March 2 Paper Tiger, San Antonio TX

! w/ Interpol, Snail Mail


Car Seat Headrest Online
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OUT NOW: boygenius s/t EP

November 9th, 2018 at 10:09 am

(Photo credit: Kristy Benjamin)

After surprising fans with the digital release of their EP a week ahead of their highly anticipated North American dates, boygenius' self-titled six-song EP is officially available for purchase online and at your local independent record retailer.

boygenius have now embarked on that tour, this week performing on Late Night with Seth Meyers and selling out both nights at Brooklyn Steel. Purchase/stream the EP here, and see Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus' dates together below.



Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus On Tour Now
Saturday, November 10 Danforth Music Hall, Toronto ON (SOLD OUT)
Sunday, November 11 Majestic Theatre, Detroit MI
Monday, November 12 Thalia Hall, Chicago IL (SOLD OUT)
Tuesday, November 13 Thalia Hall, Chicago IL (SOLD OUT)
Thursday, November 15 The Pageant, St. Louis MO
Friday, November 16 The Sylvee, Madison WI
Saturday, November 17 First Avenue, Minneapolis MN
Monday, November 19 Ogden Theatre, Denver CO
Tuesday, November 20 The Depot, Salt Lake City UT
Friday, November 23 Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver BC
Saturday, November 24 The Moore Theatre, Seattle WA
Sunday, November 25 Crystal Ballroom, Portland OR
Monday, November 26 Fox Theater, Oakland CA
Thursday, November 29 The Observatory North Park, San Diego CA
Friday, November 30 The Wiltern, Los Angeles CA

Julien Baker online :
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Phoebe Bridgers online :
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
phoebefuckingbridgers.com

Lucy Dacus online :
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

Julien Baker announces Australian tour w/ Gordi supporting

November 8th, 2018 at 5:56 am

Photo - Nolan Knight

Julien Baker returns to the Australian live music circuit for a third time, announcing a six date run of shows for February 2019.

Julien will be joined by Australian folk & electronic artist Gordi on this trip, with a special show in Gordi's hometown of Canowindra, New South Wales, planned for February 17th



Tickets go on general sale on November 12th at 09:00 AEDT. Links available below:

Sunday, February 17 Moorbel Hall, Canowindra, NSW
Tuesday, February 19 Oxford Art Factory, Sydney, NSW
Thursday, February 21 Perth International Arts Festvial, Perth, WA
Saturday, Februry 23 The Foundry, Brisbane QLD
Sunday, February 24 The Byron Theatre, Byron Bay, NSW
Tuesday, February 26 The Croxton, Melbourne, VIC

Other tour dates

Thursday, November 8 Orpheum Theatre, Boston MA
Saturday, November 10 Danforth Music Hall, Toronto ON (SOLD OUT)
Sunday, November 11 Majestic Theatre, Detroit MI
Monday, November 12 Thalia Hall, Chicago IL (SOLD OUT)
Tuesday, November 13 Thalia Hall, Chicago IL (SOLD OUT)
Thursday, November 15 The Pageant, St. Louis MO
Friday, November 16 The Sylvee, Madison WI
Saturday, November 17 First Avenue, Minneapolis MN
Monday, November 19 Ogden Theatre, Denver CO
Tuesday, November 20 The Depot, Salt Lake City UT
Friday, November 23 Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver BC
Saturday, November 24 The Moore Theatre, Seattle WA
Sunday, November 25 Crystal Ballroom, Portland OR
Monday, November 26 Fox Theater, Oakland CA
Thursday, November 29 The Observatory North Park, San Diego CA
Friday, November 30 The Wiltern, Los Angeles CA

Julien Baker online :
Facebook
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Instagram

Snail Mail - 2019 Australia/New Zealand Dates

November 7th, 2018 at 5:46 pm by Gerard

Tickets for Snail Mail's March 2019 tour of Australia and New Zealand are on sale today.

Tuesday, March 5 Oxford Arts Factory, Sydney AU
Thursday, March 7 The Foundry, Brisbane AU
Friday, March 8 Brunswick Festival Brunswick AU
Sunday, March 10 A Festival Called Panama Launceston AU
Wednesday, March 13 Galatos Auckland NZ
Thursday, March 14 Caroline, Wellington NZ

stream/purchase 'Lush'

previously announced Snail Mail dates :
Thursday, November 8 Iceland Airwaves, Reykjavik IS
Friday, November 9 Sorte Firkant Musikfestival, Copenhagen DK
Sunday, November 11 Sonic City, Kortrijk BE
Tuesday, November 13 The Dome, London UK (SOLD OUT)
Friday, November 30 White Eagle Music Hall, Jersey City NJ
Saturday, December 1 The Sinclair, Cambridge MA (early show)
Saturday, December 1 The Sinclair, Boston MA (late show)
Sunday, December 2 Gateway City Arts, Holyoke MA
Tuesday, December 4 Dionysus Discotheque at Oberlin College, Oberlin OH
(free show)
Wednesday, December 5 Deluxx Fluxx, Detroit MI
Thursday, December 6 Danforth Music Hall, Toronto ON * (SOLD OUT)
December 7, Danforth Music Hall, Toronto ON * (SOLD OUT)
December 8, Danforth Music Hall, Toronto ON *
Thursday, December 20 The Broadberry, Richmond VA
Thursday, January 17 Metro, Chicago IL
Saturday, January 19 The Mohawk, Austin TX
Friday, December 21 9:30 Club, Washington D.C
Friday, December 29 The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia PA &
Thursday, January 17 Metro, Chicago IL
Saturday, January 19 The Mohawk, Austin TX
Monday, January 21st The Music Box, San Diego CA #
Tuesday, January 22nd Constellation Room, Santa Ana CA #
Wednesday, January 23rd Novo, Los Angeles CA #
Thursday, January 24 The Fillmore, San Francisco CA
Saturday, January 26 Aladdin Theater Portland OR +
Sunday, January 27 The Imperial, Vancouver BC +
Monday, January 28 The Neptune Theater, Seattle WA +
Saturday, February 16 Madison Square Garden, New York NY !

& w/ Kurt Vile & The Violators, The Feelies
# w/ Parquet Courts
+ w/ Choir Boy
! w/ Interpol, Car Seat Headrest

Coming January 18 : Steve Gunn - The Unseen In Between

October 24th, 2018 at 10:00 am

(photo : Clay Benskin)



Steve Gunn’s long awaited new album, 'The Unseen In Between', will be released on January 18. Following the guitarist/vocalist’s 3-night residency at Brooklyn’s Union Pool this month and next, Gunn will tour with a full band throughout the US and Europe in 2019 (full dates below)

preorder / stream 'The Unseen In Between'
download / stream "New Moon"

For over a decade, guitarist/vocalist Steve Gunn has been one of American music’s most pivotal figures - conjuring immersive and psychedelic sonic landscapes both live and on record, releasing revered solo albums ranking high on in-the-know end of year lists, alongside exploratory collaborations with artists as diverse as Mike Cooper, Kurt Vile, and Michael Chapman (whose most recent studio album he produced).  Gunn is known for telling other people's stories, but on his breakthrough fourth album, 'The Unseen In Between', he explores his own emotional landscapes with his most complex, fully realized songs to date. The lyrics evoke voyages, tempests (actual and emotional), and a rich cast of characters met along the way -- the work of an artist finding a place of calm in the midst of a storm. Produced by frequent collaborator James Elkington and engineered by Daniel Schlett, the immaculately recorded 'Unseen' forces a reassessment of Gunn’s standing in the pantheon of the era’s great songwriters.

Getting to 'The Unseen In Between' itself was not easy for Gunn. In the summer of 2016, Gunn released 'Eyes On The Lines', his winning and elliptical debut for Matador. It should have been a triumphant moment, but exactly two weeks later, Gunn’s father and namesake died following a two-year struggle with cancer. During his sickness, he and his son had connected as never before, listening to one another’s experiences and understanding one another’s perspectives; they became not father and son but real friends.

This experience yielded the emotional centerpiece of the album. “Stonehurst Cowboy” is a duet for Gunn’s raw acoustic guitar and spare basslines by Bob Dylan's musical director Tony Garnier, whose featured throughout the album.  The song distills the lessons Gunn learned from his father and it is a solemn but tender remembrance, a tribute to his father’s reputation as a tough, wise, and witty guy from far west Philadelphia.

A sense of musical renewal and emotional complexity fits the new songs perfectly; “Luciano” seems to be about the chemistry between a bodega owner and his cat, an unspoken romance of gentle obedience and quiet gestures. But Gunn peers below the relationship’s surface and wonders about the owner's lonely future once the cat is gone, a devastating meditation wrapped in soft strings. And then there’s “Vagabond,” Gunn’s graceful attempt to humanize a rich cast of characters whose lives have gone astray, wanderers who live outside of society’s modern safety net, who pursue “a crooked dream” in spite of what the world expects. Supported by the perfect harmonies of Meg Baird, Gunn finds something lovely in the unloved.

Inspired by contemporary artist Walter De Maria’s Dia Art Foundation-affiliated installation of 400 stainless steel poles atop the high desert of New Mexico, “Lightning Field” considers what we get out of art when it doesn’t work, when lightning does not light up the night for visitors. Opener “New Moon" may begin in the mode of a deep track from Astral Weeks or Fred Neil, with its upright bass and sparse tremolo guitar. But during the song’s final minutes, strings double the melody, and then the guitar rushes headlong, pulling ahead in a wave of ecstatic deliverance. It is a brief but liberating solo, an instant release of tension from the fraught scene Gunn has built, complemented by one of his most arresting vocal performances.

In a final contrast, “Morning is Mended” is an acoustic beauty so resplendent it ranks alongside Sandy Denny or Jackson C. Frank. Buoyed by a melody that sparkles like sunlight on still water, Gunn acknowledges the hardships around him, the feeling of being a “nothing sky,” and then moves forward into the world, walking tall into the fresh morning.  The song is an apt encapsulation of 'The Unseen In Between', a gorgeously empathetic record that attempts to recognize the worries of the world and offer some timely assurance.  It is a revelatory and redemptive set, offering the balm of understanding at a time when that seems in very short supply.

 



Steve Gunn on tour (new dates in bold)

Thursday, October 25 Union Pool, Brooklyn NY *
Thursday, November 1 Union Pool, Brooklyn NY **
Thursday, November 8 Union Pool, Brooklyn NY ***
Thursday, January 31 Great Scott, Boston MA ^
Friday, February 1 Bowery Ballroom, New York NY ^
Saturday, February 2 Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA ^
Friday, February 8 The Casbah, San Diego CA ^
Saturday, February 9 Teragram Ballroom, Los Angeles CA ^
Sunday, February 10 Moe’s Alley, Santa Cruz CA $
Tuesday, February 12 Aladdin Theater, Portland OR $
Wednesday, February 13 Tractor Tavern, Seattle WA $
Saturday, February 16 The Chapel, San Francisco CA #
Tuesday, March 12 Bitterzoet, Amsterdam NL
Wednesday, March 13 Paard, Den Haag NL
Thursday, March 14 Vera, Groningen NL
Friday, March 15 Nochtspeicher, Hamberg DE
Saturday, March 16 Radar, Aarhus DK
Monday, March 18 Folken, Stavanger NO
Wednesday, March 20 Revolver, Oslo NO
Thursday, March 21 Pustervik, Gothenburg SE
Friday, March 22 Loppen, Copenhagen DK
Saturday, March 23 Frannz Club, Berlin DE
Sunday, March 24 Archa Theatre, Prague CZ
Monday, March 25 UT Connewitz, Leipzig DE
Tuesday, March 26 Manufaktur, Schorndorf DE
Wednesday, March 27 Arena, Vienna AT
Saturday, March 30 Südpol, Luzern CH
Sunday, March 31 Rotefabrik, Zurich CH
Monday, April 1 Sonic, Lyon FR
Tuesday, April 2 Le Petit Bain, Paris FR
Wednesday, April 3 De Kreun, Kortrijk BE
Friday, April 5 Oslo, London UK
Saturday, April 6 Hare & Hounds, Birmingham UK
Sunday, April 7 Brudenell Social Club, Leeds UK
Monday, April 8 Deaf Institute, Manchester UK

* w/ Bridget St John
** w/ Loren Connors & Alan Licht
*** w/ Little Black Egg
^ w/ Meg Baird & Mary Lattimore
$ w/ Meg Baird
# w/ Sachiko Kanenobu

Steve Gunn online :
Facebook
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Steve Gunn.com

Car Seat Headrest - New 2019 US Dates, 'Twin Fantasy - Mirror To Mirror' White Vinyl Edition Repress Coming November 9

October 9th, 2018 at 10:05 am

(photo : Mikeal Beland)

Car Seat Headrest is excited to announce a newly confirmed run of headline tour dates for 2019. Kicking off on Valentine’s Day in Boston, the tour makes its way down the East Coast, making multiple stops in Florida, a first for the band, and winds its way through Texas, culminating in San Antonio on March 2nd. Car Seat Headrest’s electrifying seven-piece live band, including members of Naked Giants, has been on the road for the past month in the States, playing grandiose, sold-out shows in support of the recently released 'Twin Fantasy', the re-recorded and re-imagined return to the band’s 2011 Bandcamp classic. Previously only available physically as a Record Store Day exclusive, the remastered 2011 version of 'Twin Fantasy' (dubbed 'Twin Fantasy - Mirror To Mirror') will be available on all digital services on November 2nd and on vinyl on November 9th.



'Twin Fantasy - Mirror To Mirror' White Vinyl preorder
stream / purchase 'Twin Fantasy'

Car Seat Headrest on tour (new dates in bold)

Friday, October 12 The Showbox, Seattle WA
Saturday, October 13 The Showbox, Seattle WA
Saturday, November 3rd La Lune Des Pirates, Amiens FR
Monday, November 5th Tramshed, Cardiff UK
Tuesday, November 6th Rock City, Nottingham UK
Wednesday, November 7th Albert Hall, Manchester UK
Thursday, November 8th  Kentish Town 02 Forum, London UK
Saturday, November 10 Rolling Stone Weekender Weissenhauser Strand, DE
Sunday, November 11th Pumpehuset, Copenhagen DK
Tuesday, November 13th Vera, Groningen NL
Wednesday, November 14th Tivoli, Utrecht NL
Thursday, November 15th Autumn Falls at Vooruit, Gent BE
Saturday, November 17 Rolling Stone Park Rust, DE
Thursday, February 14 Royale, Boston MA
Friday, February 15 Mass MoCA, North Adams MA
Saturday, February 16 Madison Square Garden, New York NY !
Sunday, February 17 Rams Head Live, Baltimore MD
Monday, February 18 The National, Richmond VA
Wednesday, February 20 Georgia Theatre, Athens GA
Thursday, February 21 The Moon, Tallahassee FL (On Sale Date TBD Due to Inclement Weather)
Friday, February 22 The Beacham Theater, Orlando FL
Saturday, February 23 The Orpheum, Tampa Bay FL
Tuesday, February 26 Tipitina's, New Orleans LA
Wednesday, February 27 White Oak Music Hall, Houston TX
Thursday, February 28 Emo's, Austin TX
Friday, March 1 Canton Hall, Dallas TX
Saturday, March 2 Paper Tiger, San Antonio TX

! - with Interpol, Snail Mail


Car Seat Headrest Online

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Matador Artist Page

Snail Mail : West Coast Dates WIth Parquet Courts, Philly With Kurt Vile

October 1st, 2018 at 1:07 pm by Gerard

(photo : Andy Kissler)

Snail Mail's ridiculous global touring run in support of 'Lush' has been augmented with a December 29 Philadelphia date with Kurt Vile and The Feelies, and 3 West Coast shows in January playing prior to Parquet Courts.  Said dates in San Diego, Santa Ana and Los Angeles go on sale this Friday, October 5 at 10pm pacific time.

(STREAM / PREORDER 'LUSH')

Friday, December 29 The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia PA &
Monday, January 21st The Music Box, San Diego CA #
Tuesday, January 22nd Constellation Room, Santa Ana CA #
Wednesday, January 23rd Novo, Los Angeles CA #

& w/ Kurt Vile & The Violators, The Feelies
# w/ Parquet Courts

previously announced tour dates :
Thursday, October 4 Umeda Shangri-La, Osaka JP
Saturday, October 6 Shibuya WWW X, Tokyo JP
Sunday, October 7 Asagiri Jam, Fujinomiya JP
Tuesday, October 9 The Wall, Taipei TW
Wednesday, October 10 This Town Needs, Hong Kong CN
Thursday, October 11 Rockademy, Bangkok TH
Friday, October 12 EBX Live Space, Singapore
Saturday, October 13 Rossi Musik, Jakarta ID
Sunday, October 21st Hare & Hounds, Birmingham UK
Monday, October 22nd Brudenell Social Club, Leeds UK
Tuesday, October 23rd The Hug & Pint, Glasgow UK
Wednesday, October 24th Now Wave, Manchester UK
Thursday, October 25th The Dome at Tufnell Park, London UK (SOLD OUT)
Monday, October 29th Bodega, Nottingham UK
Tuesday, October 30th Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar, Brighton UK
Wednesday, October 31st Thekla, Bristol UK
Monday, November 5th Blue Shell, Cologne DE
Tuesday, November 6th Molotow’s Sky Bar, Hamburg DE
Wednesday, November 7th Badehaus Szimpla, Berlin DE
Thursday, November 8 Iceland Airwaves, Reykjavik IS
Friday, November 9 Sorte Firkant Musikfestival, Copenhagen DK
Sunday, November 11 Sonic City, Kortrijk BE
Tuesday, November 13 The Dome, London UK
Friday, November 30 White Eagle Music Hall, Jersey City NJ
Saturday, December 1 The Sinclair, Cambridge MA (early show)
Saturday, December 1 The Sinclair, Boston MA (late show)
Sunday, December 2 Gateway City Arts, Holyoke MA
Tuesday, December 4 Dionysus Discotheque at Oberlin College, Oberlin OH
(free show)
Wednesday, December 5 Deluxx Fluxx, Detroit MI
Thursday, December 6 Danforth Music Hall, Toronto ON *
December 7, Danforth Music Hall, Toronto ON *
December 8, Danforth Music Hall, Toronto ON *
Thursday, December 20 The Broadberry, Richmond VA
Thursday, January 17 Metro, Chicago IL
Saturday, January 19 The Mohawk, Austin TX
Friday, December 21 9:30 Club, Washington D.C
Thursday, January 17 Metro, Chicago IL
Saturday, January 19 The Mohawk, Austin TX
Thursday, January 24 The Fillmore, San Francisco CA
Saturday, January 26 Aladdin Theater Portland OR
Sunday, January 27 The Imperial, Vancouver BC
Monday, January 28 The Neptune Theater, Seattle WA
Saturday, February 16 Madison Square Garden, New York NY !

* w/ Alvvays
! w/ Interpol, Car Seat Headrest

Algiers 2019 EU/UK Dates

September 21st, 2018 at 10:22 am by Gerard

Algiers continue their global campaign in the wake of the monumental 'The Underside Of Power', now stretching into a 3rd calendar year with 2019 UK and European dates starting January 11 in Norwich (see Robyn Hitchcock's "Listening To The Higsons" for more specific information on this city, or perhaps just consult wikipedia). Tickets are on sale today.

Friday, January 11 Arts Centre, Norwich UK
Saturday, January 12 Rockaway Beach, Bognor Regis UK
Sunday, January 13 Depot (Foyer), Leuven BE
Monday, January 14 Tower, Bremen DE
Tuesday, January 15 Hotel Cecil, Copenhagen DK
Wednesday, January 16 Atlas, Aarhus DK
Friday, January 18 Østre, Bergen NO
Saturday, January 19 John Dee, Oslo NO
Tuesday, January 22 Debaser Strand, Stockholm SE
Thursday, January 24 On The Rocks, Helsinki FI
Friday, January 25 Sveta Baar, Tallinn EE
Sunday, January 27 XI20, Vilnius LT
Monday, January 28 Brugge Club, Minsk BY
Friday, February 1 Tabacka Kulturfabrik, Kosice SK
Saturday, February 2 Dürer Kurt (middle room), Budapest HU
Sunday, February 3 Form Café, Cluj RO
Monday, February 4 Club Control - Berlin Room, Bucharest RO
Thursday, February 7 Babylon, Istanbul TR
Friday, February 8 Eightball Club, Thessaloniki GR
Saturday, February 9 Temple, Athens GR
Monday, February 11 Elektropionir Club, Belgrade RS
Tuesday, February 12 Mocvara, Zagreb HR
Wednesday, February 13 Azimut, Sibenik HR
Thursday, February 14 Kino Siska Centre for Urban Culture, Ljubljana SI
Saturday, February 16 Lucerna Music Bar, Prague CZ
Sunday, February 17 Diebo, Warsaw PO
Monday, February 18 Bazyl, Poznan PO
Thursday, February 21 Ramsgate Music Hall, Ramsgate UK

previously announced dates :

Friday, September 21 Machines With Magnets, Pawtucket RI
Saturday, September 22 Make Shift Boston, Boston MA
Sunday, September 23 BSP, Kingston NY
Friday, November 9 Fonda Theatre, Los Angeles CA *
Saturday, November 10 The Independent, San Francisco CA * SOLD OUT
Sunday, November 11 The Independent, San Francisco CA *
Wednesday, November 14 Wonder Ballroom, Portland OR *
Friday, November 16 The Showbox, Seattle WA *
Saturday, November 17 Venue, Vancouver BC *
Monday, November 19 Bottom Lounge, Chicago IL *
Tuesday, November 20 Elsewhere, Brooklyn NY * SOLD OUT
Wednesday, November 21 Elsewhere, Brooklyn NY *
* w/ Young Fathers

Yo La Tengo - Hanukkah 2018 + The Boaty Weekender

September 10th, 2018 at 12:09 pm by Gerard

Yo La Tengo's annual series of Hanukkah shows to benefit their chosen charities resumed in 2017 at Lower Manhattan's Bowery Ballroom and continues for another 8-night (duh) run at said venue running this December 2 thru the 9th.  Tickets go on sale this Friday, September 14 at noon eastern time, and no-fee tickets are available in person at the Mercury Lounge box office starting the same day/time (cash only).



In addition, Yo La Tengo have been confirmed to participate in next August's Belle and Sebastian curated Boaty Weekender.  Tickets/info here.

previously announced dates :

Tuesday, September 11 Columbus Theater, Providence RI
Wednesday, September 12 Kingston BSP, Kingston NY
Thursday, September 13 The Asbury, Buffalo NY
Friday, September 14 The Majestic, Detroit MI
Saturday, September 15 Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland OH
Monday, September 17 Delmar Hall, St. Louis MO
Tuesday, September 18 The Lyric, Oxford MI
Thursday, September 20 Granada Theater, Dallas TX
Friday, September 21 Paper Tiger, San Antonio TX
Saturday, September 22 White Oak Music Hall, Houston TX
Sunday, September 23 Mohawk, Austin TX
Monday, October 8th – Umeda Club Quattro – Osaka, Japan
Tuesday, October 9th – Club Quattro – Nagoya, Japan
Wednesday, October 10th – Tsutaya O-East – Tokyo, Japan
Wednesday, February 6th - Teatro Capitolio - Lisbon, PT
Thursday, February 7th - Hard Club - Porto, PT
Friday, February 8th - Sala Capitol - Santiago de Compostela - ES Saturday, February 9th - Teatro Victoria Eugenia - San Sebastian, ES Monday, February 11th - Sala La Riviera - Madrid, ES
Tuesday, February 12th - Oasis Club Teatro - Zaragoza, ES
Wednesday, February 13th - Sala Apolo - Barcelona, ES
Saturday, February 16th- L'Aeronef - Lille, FR
Sunday, February 17th - EartH - Hackney, UK
Monday, February 18th - EartH - Hackney, UK

Yo La Tengo online:

Official Site
Instagram
Twitter
Facebook

Coming October 12 : Kurt Vile - 'Bottle It In'

September 10th, 2018 at 10:16 am

(Video by Marisa Gesualdi
Original Footage directed by Aurora Glassock)



Weeks of speculation come to an end today as details of the new Kurt Vile album can finally be confirmed: One of the most critically and commercially acclaimed artists of the last decade will release 'Bottle It In' on October 12th. Today’s announcement is accompanied by the release of a new song titled “Bassackwards", the album’s beating heart and Vile’s most compelling evocation of how he sees the world: “I was on the ground circa Planet Earth, but out of sorts,” he sings over a gently psychedelic bed of backmasked guitars. “But I snapped back, baby, just in time to jot it down.”

Kurt Vile has also confirmed a lengthy run of worldwide tour dates for 2019 with backing band The Violators, in addition to previously announced tour dates coming up this fall. The 2019 North American shows traverse a multitude of East Coast, Midwest, Southwest, and Southern cities, with support from The Feelies. A special hometown show in Philadelphia has been added for December 29th 2018, which will take place at the newly rehabilitated historic Metropolitan Opera House (aka The Met Philadelphia) as part of their opening week celebration. The full list of tour dates can be found below.

Travel can inspire in surprising ways: Kurt Vile discovered as much making his first record in three years, the eclectic and electrifying Bottle It In, which he recorded at various studios around the country over two very busy years, during sessions that usually punctuated the ends of long tours or family road trips. Every song, whether it’s a concise and catchy pop composition or a sprawling guitar epic, becomes a journey unto itself, taking unexpected detours, circuitous melodic avenues, or open-highway solos. If Vile has become something of a rock guitar god—a mantle he would dismiss out of humility but also out of a desire to keep getting better, to continue absorbing new music, new sounds, new ideas—it’s due to his precise, witty playing style, which turns every riff and rhythm into points on a map and takes the scenic route from one to the next.

Using past albums as points of departure, Bottle It In heads off in new directions, pushing at the edges of the map into unexplored territory: Here be monster jams. These songs show an artist who is still evolving and growing: a songwriter who, like his hero John Prine, can make you laugh and break your heart, often in the same line, as well as a vocalist who essentially rewrites those songs whenever he sings them in his wise, laconic jive-talkin’ drawl. He revels in the minutiae of the music—not simply incorporating new instruments but emphasizing how they interact with his guitar and voice, how the glockenspiel evokes cirrocumulus clouds on “Hysteria,” how Kim Gordon’s “acoustic guitar distortion” (her term) engulfs everything at the end of “Mutinies,” how the banjo curls around his guitar lines and backing vocals from Lucius to lend a high-lonesome aura to “Come Again.”

These journeys took Vile more than two years to navigate, during which time he toured behind his breakout 2015 album b’lieve I’m goin’ down, recorded a duets album with Australian singer-songwriter-guitarist Courtney Barnett, opened for Neil Young in front of 90,000 people in Quebec, famously became a clue on Jeopardy, hung out with friends, took vacations with his wife and daughters.

In April 2017, he trekked out to Indio, California, to catch the Stagecoach Festival and sit in with his friends the Sadies (“my favorite modern band”). Inspired by Willie Nelson’s epic set, Vile spent a few days in Los Angeles working with producer Rob Schnapf at his Mant Sounds studio. The two had previously worked together on “Pretty Pimpin,” the leadoff track on b’lieve that became a number-one AAA radio hit. Their second collaboration was similarly inspired: Featuring backing vocals from Cass McCombs, the eleven-minute title track is full of ominous bass rumbles, hazy-steady drumbeats from Warpaint’s Stella Mozgawa, delicate harp stabs from Mary Lattimore, and what sounds like chewy distortion leaking out of a David Lynch flick.

Months later, when a lengthy Violators tour ended in Salt Lake City, Vile let the momentum carry him further west, where he recorded several more songs with engineer/producer Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, the War on Drugs) at The Beer Hole in Los Angeles. Other songs were put to tape during sojourns to Portland, Oregon, and to Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where fellow Violator Rob Laakso co-produced. The bulk of Bottle It In was bottled up at Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, Connecticut, with Peter Katis (Interpol, the National) engineering and producing. Bottle It In captures the spontaneity of these impromptu sessions, revealing Vile as a diligent and singularly determined musician.

These recordings are the destinations, but the journeys were just as important, whether they gave him time with his wife and kids or an opportunity to get some writing done. “For a while I was terrified of flying, so I would be listening to whatever country songs I was obsessed with. I’d have George Jones blasting in my ears. Or, I would be reading something about country music. Or, I would start writing songs in that flash of being afraid, being swallowed by life. I’m up there on a plane drinking wine because like everybody else I’m afraid to die. And I wrote ‘Hysteria’ up there.” That new song, with its woozy guitar fanfare, captures mid-flight queasiness well, as Vile daydreams about escaping the flight: “Stop this plane ‘cause I wanna get off,” he sings. “Pull over somewhere on the side of a cloud.”

Bottle It In is about place only insofar as it is about the people in those places: friends and family, bandmates and music heroes, colleagues and collaborators. There’s a lot of love in these big-hearted songs, a lot of warmth toward everyone in Vile’s orbit and even toward those whose paths he’s yet to cross. “Loved you all a long, long while,” he sings on “One-Trick Ponies.” “Looked down into a deep dark well, called all of your names.” The jangly country-rock tune serves as a valentine to… he won’t say, but he and Mozgawa and Farmer Dave Scher deliver a beautifully sympathetic sing-along chorus that invites every one of us one-trick ponies to join in.

As Vile prepares for another round of lengthy tours and countless shows, these songs should prove good company, reminders of the love and responsibility he has toward those he leaves at home and those he meets along the way. That makes the sentiments resonate more strongly and lends Bottle It In an emotional weight. “It’s like that moment on the airplane,” Vile says, “when you’re on your way somewhere and you have that burst of panic. When you’re terrified of dying, that’s when you want people to know you love them.” - Stephen Duesner

Tracklisting :
01 Loading Zones
02 Hysteria
03 Yeah Bones
04 Bassackwards
05 One Trick Ponies
06 Rollin With The Flow
07 Check Baby
08 Bottle It In
09 Mutinies
10 Come Again
11 Cold Was The Wind
12 Skinny Mini
13 (bottle back)
Saturday, December 29 The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia PA !
Thursday, February 14 Higher Ground, Burlington VT +
Friday, February 15 Mtelus, Montreal QC +
Saturday, February 16 Danforth Music Hall, Toronto ON +
Tuesday, February 19 Majestic Theatre, Detroit MI +
Wednesday, February 20 Taft Theatre, Cincinnati OH +
Thursday, February 21 The Vogue, Indianapolis IN +
Friday, February 22 Headliners Music Hall, Louisville NY +
Saturday, February 23 Castle Theatre, Bloomington IL +
Sunday, February 24 The Pageant, St. Louis MO +
Tuesday, February 26 The Slowdown, Omaha NE +
Wednesday, February 27 Truman, Kansas City MO +
Thursday, February 28 Ogden Theatre, Denver CO +
Friday, March 1 The Depot, Salt Lake City, UT +
Saturday, March 2 M3F Fest, Phoenix AZ
Sunday, March 3 House of Blues, Las Vegas NV +
Tuesday, March 5 Rialto Theatre, Tucson AZ +
Wednesday, March 6 Meow Wolf, Sante Fe NM +
Friday, March 8 Gruene Hall, New Braunfels TX +
Saturday, March 9 White Oak Music Hall, Houston TX +
Sunday, March 10 Civic Theatre, New Orleans LA +
Tuesday, March 12 The Beacham, Orlando FL +
Wednesday, March 13 Revolution Live, Ft. Lauderdale FL +
Friday, March 15 Saturn, Birmingham AL +
Saturday, March 16 Ryman Auditorium, Nashville TN +
Sunday, March 17 The National, Richmond VA +
Thursday, April 11 Hunter Lounge, Wellington NZ
Saturday, April 13 Powerstation, Auckland NZ
Monday, April 15 Enmore, Sydney AU &
Tuesday, April 16 Unibar, Wollongong AU &
Wednesday, April 17 ANU, Canberra AU &
Thursday, April 18 Bryon Bay Bluesfest, Byron Bay AU &
Saturday, April 20 Bryon Bay Bluesfest, Byron Bay AU &
Monday, April 22 The Forum, Melbourne AU &
Saturday, April 27 The Gov, Adelaide AU &
Sunday, April 28 Rosemount Hotel, Perth AU &


Previously announced tour dates :

Friday, October 12th - Grünspan – Hamburg, DE ^
Saturday, October 13th - Pustervik - Gothenburg, SE ^
Sunday, October 14th - Rockefeller – Oslo, NO #
Monday, October 15th - Bern – Stockholm, SE #
Tuesday, October 16th - Vega – Copenhagen, DK #
Thursday, October 18th - Huxleys – Berlin, DE #
Friday, October 19th - Muffathalle – Munich, DE #
Saturday, October 20th - X-Tra – Zurich, CH #
Sunday, October 21st - Epicerie Moderne – Lyon, FR #
Monday, October 22ns - Apolo – Barcelona, ES #
Tuesday, October 23rd - Teatro Barceló – Madrid, ES #
Thursday, October 25th - Lisboa Ao Vivo – Lisbon, PT #
Friday, October 26th - Hard Club – Porto, PT #
Sunday, October 28th - Rockschool Barbey – Bordeaux, FR #
Monday, October 29th - La Cigale – Paris, FR #
Tuesday, October 30th - Autumn Falls @ AB - Brussels, BE #
Thursday, November 1st - Paradiso – Amsterdam, NL #
Friday, November 2nd - Kantine – Köln, DE #
Monday, November 5th - Concorde 2 – Brighton, UK #
Tuesday, November 6th - Shepherd’s Bush Empire – London, UK #
Wednesday, November 7th - Shepherd’s Bush Empire – London, UK #
Thursday, November 8th - St Philips Gate - Bristol, UK #
Friday, November 9th - The Crossing - Birmingham, UK #
Saturday, November 10th - Albert Hall – Manchester, UK #
Sunday, November 11th - 02 Academy – Leeds, UK #
Tuesday, November 13th - 02 ABC – Glasgow, UK #
Wednesday, November 14th - Vicar Street - Dublin, IR #
Sunday, November 24 House of Blues, Boston MA *
Wednesday, November 28 Brooklyn Steel, Brooklyn NY *
Friday, November 30 9:30 Club, Washington DC *
Monday, December 3 Variety Playhouse, Atlanta GA *
Wednesday, December 5 Jones Assembly, Oklahoma City OK *
Thursday, December 6 ACL Live Moody Theater, Austin TX *
Friday, December 7 Canton Hall, Dallas TX *
Sunday, December 9 The Observatory North Park, San Diego CA *
Tuesday, December 11 The Wiltern, Los Angeles CA *
Wednesday, December 12 Fox Theater, Oakland CA *
Friday, December 14 Crystal Ballroom, Portland OR *
Saturday, December 15 Moore Theatre, Seattle WA *
Sunday, December 16 Vogue, Vancouver BC *
Wednesday, December 19 First Avenue, Minneapolis MN *
Thursday, December 20 Sylvee, Madison WI *
Friday, December 21 Turner Hall Milwaukee WI *
Saturday, December 22 Rivera Theatre, Chicago IL *
Kurt Vile Online
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

The Boaty Weekender : LIneup Reveal, Ticket Presale commences September 14

September 5th, 2018 at 11:24 am

Belle & Sebastian are thrilled to announce the initial lineup for The Boaty Weekender, their curated, four-day music festival at sea and holiday experience, sailing from Barcelona to Cagliari, Sardinia, 8-12 August 2019. Joining the legendary Scottish host band is an eclectic mix of acts including Mogwai, a reunited Camera Obscura, Django Django, Alvvays, The Buzzcocks, Japanese Breakfast, Honeyblood, HINDS, Kelly Lee Owens, Nilüfer Yanya, Whyte Horses , Tracyanne and Danny and more to be announced.

“It’s the start of September, Belle and Sebastian are facing the autumn term, back in the studio, back to the blackboard, sharpening their plectrums, already dreaming of next summer.

If only there was something to look forward to, a party, an adventure, something on the horizon, something to take the chill out of the thought of winter...

The Boaty Weekender: a sail around the Med, a nice little trip with friends, some of the best people, in some of the best places!

We’ve asked around, we collected the first shipmates. They’re going to earn their passage by playing their best for you, digging deep into their musical reservoirs.

We’re really going to try to make this a great holiday. We’d love to have you along for the trip!

“I thought about a new destination
I'm never short of new inspiration
Roll out the map and mark it with a gin!”
- Belle & Sebastian

The Boaty Weekender marks the 20th anniversary of Belle & Sebastian’s legendary 1998 Bowlie Weekender – a landmark in DIY festivals. The four-day floating festival and luxury holiday cruise around the Mediterranean, is a natural continuation of the band’s special and unmediated relationship with their fans for over three decades.

In addition to multiple performance by each band across 5 stages, this fan and band holiday experience will play host to one-of-a-kind artist collaborations, insightful Q&As, storyteller and panel sessions, theme parties, group activities, custom event merchandise and more. Guests who book in the first 350 staterooms will get access to a special performance of Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant – an album never before performed in its entirety. Those who reserve a stateroom at any point during the pre-sale will receive an exclusive Boaty Weekender Vinyl for their collection.

For the best selection of staterooms, fans are encouraged to register for the pre-sale of The Boaty Weekender. For more information and news on line-up announcements, visit online at http://www.theboatyweekender.com/

Snail Mail - New U.S. Dates, KEXP Session

September 4th, 2018 at 1:02 pm by Gerard

In addition to today's premiere of a 4-song session taped for KEXP, Snail Mail have confirmed 14 more U.S. shows starting with a November 30 date at Jersey City's White Eagle Music Hall. Ticket links can be found below.



(poster by Faye Orlove)

new Snail Mail tour dates :

Friday, November 30 White Eagle Music Hall, Jersey City NJ
Saturday, December 1 The Sinclair, Cambridge MA (early show)
Saturday, December 1 The Sinclair, Boston MA (late show)
Sunday, December 2 Gateway City Arts, Holyoke MA
Tuesday, December 4 Dionysus Discotheque at Oberlin College, Oberlin OH
(free show)
Wednesday, December 5 Deluxx Fluxx, Detroit MI
Thursday, December 20 The Broadberry, Richmond VA
Friday, December 21 9:30 Club, Washington D.C.
Thursday, January 17 Metro, Chicago IL
Saturday, January 19 The Mohawk, Austin TX
Thursday, January 24 The Fillmore, San Francisco CA
Saturday, January 26 Aladdin Theater Portland OR
Sunday, January 27 The Imperial, Vancouver BC
Monday, January 28 The Neptune Theater, Seattle WA

stream / purchase 'Lush'

previously announced dates :

Tuesday, September 26 Paradise Rock Club, Boston MA
Wednesday September 26 Warsaw, Brooklyn NY * (SOLD OUT)
Thursday September 27 Warsaw, Brooklyn NY * (SOLD OUT)
Friday September 28 Warsaw, Brooklyn NY * (SOLD OUT)
Saturday, September 29 Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA * (SOLD OUT)
Thursday, October 4 Umeda Shangri-La, Osaka JP
Saturday, October 6 Shibuya WWW X, Tokyo JP
Sunday, October 7 Asagiri Jam, Fujinomiya JP
Tuesday, October 9 The Wall, Taipei TW
Wednesday, October 10 This Town Needs, Hong Kong CN
Thursday, October 11 Rockademy, Bangkok TH
Friday, October 12 EBX Live Space, Singapore
Saturday, October 13 Rossi Musik, Jakarta ID
Sunday, October 21st Hare & Hounds, Birmingham UK
Monday, October 22nd Brudenell Social Club, Leeds UK
Tuesday, October 23rd The Hug & Pint, Glasgow UK
Wednesday, October 24th Now Wave, Manchester UK
Thursday, October 25th The Dome at Tufnell Park, London UK (SOLD OUT)
Monday, October 29th Bodega, Nottingham UK
Tuesday, October 30th Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar, Brighton UK
Wednesday, October 31st Thekla, Bristol UK
Monday, November 5th Blue Shell, Cologne DE
Tuesday, November 6th Molotow’s Sky Bar, Hamburg DE
Wednesday, November 7th Badehaus Szimpla, Berlin DE
Thursday, November 8 Iceland Airwaves, Reykjavik IS
Friday, November 9 Sorte Firkant Musikfestival, Copenhagen DK
Sunday, November 11 Sonic City, Kortrijk BE
Tuesday, November 13 The Dome, London UK
Thursday, December 6 Danforth Music Hall, Toronto ON *
December 7, Danforth Music Hall, Toronto ON *
December 8, Danforth Music Hall, Toronto ON *
Saturday, February 16 Madison Square Garden, New York NY !

OUT NOW: "Marauder," The New Album from Interpol

August 24th, 2018 at 10:01 am

(photo by Jamie-James Medina)

Interpol's new album Marauder is out in the world today, available on your preferred streaming service, and in a limited edition cream-colored vinyl quantity at your local independent record store.

Purchase/Stream Marauder here.



Tickets are on sale this morning for the newly-announced dates leading up to Interpol's performance at Madison Square Garden with Car Seat Headrest and Snail Mail on February 16, 2019. After releasing the new music video for Marauder-opener "If You Really Love Nothing" yesterday, Interpol began their North American headlining dates last night at Philadelphia's Union Transfer, and will play their album release show at Brooklyn's House of Vans tonight. The first part of that show will be live-streamed beginning at 9:45pm EDT via the band's YouTube and Facebook channels.

Upcoming Dates, All Ticks On Sale Now
Friday, August 24th – House Of Vans, Brooklyn  NY
Tuesday, September 11th – Orpheum Theater, Boston MA*
Wednesday, September 12th – Olympic Theater, Montreal QC*
Thursday, September 13th – Rebel, Toronto ONT*
September 14-15 –  Riot Fest, Douglas Park, Chicago IL
Sunday, Septemeber 16 – Royal Oak Theater, Detroit MI*
Monday, September 17 – Express Live, Columbus OH*
Thursday, September 27 – Bomb Factory, Dallas TX*
Friday, September 28 – Bass Concert Hall, Austin TX*
Saturday, September 29 – White Oak Music Hall Lawn, Houston TX*
Monday, October 1 – The Van Buren, Phoenix AZ*
Thursday, October 4th – Hollywood Bowl – Los Angeles, CA ^
Friday, October 5th – SDSU Open Air Theater, San Diego CA ++
Saturday, October 6th – Greek Theatre – Berkeley CA
Tuesday, November 6th – Akasaka Blitz – Tokyo, JP
Wednesday, November 14th – Royal Albert Hall – London, UK $
Friday, November 16th – 02 Apollo, Manchester UK $
Sunday, November 18th – Olympia Theater, Dublin IE $
Friday, November 23rd – Merhr! Theater, Hamburg DE $
Saturday, November 24th – TAP1 – Copenhagen, DK  $
Sunday, November 25th – Tempodrom, Berlin DE $
Tuesday, November 27th – Tivoli Vredenburg, Utrect NL  $
Wednesday, November 28th – Forest National, Brussels BE $
Thursday, November 29th – La Salle Pleyel – Paris, FR
Thursday, January 31 Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver BC
Friday, February 1 Keller Auditorium, Portland OR
Saturday, February 2 The Moore Theatre, Seattle WA
Tuesday, February 5 Palace Theatre, St. Paul MN
Friday, February 8 Pabst Theater, Milwaukee WI
Saturday, February 9 The Pageant, St. Louis MO
Monday, February 11 Marathon Music Works, Nashville TN
Thursday, February 14 The Ritz, Raleigh NC
Friday, February 15 The Anthem, Washington DC
Saturday, February 16th – Madison Square Garden, NYC NY !
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