Times New Viking / US Tour / Fall 2009
Life in Times New Viking-land, a state-of-mind located the slightest bit north (if at all) of Columbus Ohio, is quite busy these days. And by the look of their newly confirmed tour dates it's not slowing down anytime soon. More shows will be added so fear not if you don't see your city listed, it may be added shortly. If your city is listed well then you have no excuse, see you at the show! TNV will be hitting the road with The Axemen, one of their favorite bands from New Zealand, from the San Francisco show (10/29) through the rest of their tour.
Also because everyone around here couldn't be more excited about TNV's new album, Born Again Revisited (out 9/22/09), we've lined up an extremely generous pre-order package. We're talking 7"s, a poster, and a great price. But like Cash For Clunkers, this deal won't last forever. Check out the Matador Store to place your order today!
Wed-Oct-14 Columbus, OH The Summit
Thu-Oct-15 Chicago, IL Empty Bottle
Fri-Oct-16 Urbana, IL The Courtyard Café
Sat-Oct-17 Grinnell, IA Grinnell College
Sun-Oct-18 Minneapolis, MN 7th St Entry
Mon-Oct-19 Fargo, ND The Aquarium
Thu-Oct-22 Seattle, WA Vera Project
Fri-Oct-23 Olympia, WA The Northern
Sat-Oct-24 Portland, OR Berbati’s Pan
Thu-Oct-29 San Francisco, CA Bottom of the Hill
Fri-Oct-30 Santa Cruz, CA Crepe Place
Sun-Nov-01 Los Angeles, CA Echoplex (Part Time Punks)
Tue-Nov-03 Phoenix, AZ Modified Arts
Fri-Nov-06 Dallas, TX The Lounge on Elm St.
Sat-Nov-07 Austin, TX Fun Fun Fun Fest
Mon-Nov-09 Memphis, TN Hi-Tone
Wed-Nov-11 Birmingham, AL Bottletree
Thu-Nov-12 Atlanta, GA Star Bar
Fri-Nov-13 Chapel Hill, NC Local 506
Sat-Nov-14 Baltimore, MD Sonar
Sun-Nov-15 Philadelphia, PA Kung Fu Necktie
Wed-Nov-18 New York, NY Mercury Lounge
Thu-Nov-19 Brooklyn, NY Union Pool
Fri-Nov-20 Hoboken, NJ Maxwell's
Sat-Nov-21 Boston, MA Great Scott
*Ted Nugent is not up next!
It's Like Halloween Never Happened
Thanks to the folks at BuyCostumes.com, for a mere $34.99 your kids can celebrate All Hallows Eve done up like the bastard love kid of Wattie and one of the stars of "District 9". There's no truth to the rumor, btw, the young model above was the subject of a recent bidding war won by Fat Possum. There's even less truth to the rumor Matador made the higher offer, but talks broke down over choice of producer. (costume link courtesy Henry Owings)
Times New Viking Unplagued
Folks, we could not be more excited about the September 22nd release of Born Again Revisited by Times New Viking. The melodies on this record are as catchy as any the band have written (and we defy you name a group writing catchier jams than TNV), but there's also a depth to the album that truly rewards repeated listens.Following last week's star-turn portraying another one of our favorite artists, Times New Viking return with a live performance of "No Time, No Hope" (a song you might have already heard).
Not just any live performance, this is (correct me if I'm wrong B/J/A/Dave Martin) the first ever acoustic performance by Times New Viking. Shot in Chicago in a rogue run at the Pitchfork Music Festival by Babelgum and Dig For Fire, the performance also appears in an episode of Babelgum's Ice Cream Man series.
As Dave would say (has said), Times New Viking are unSTOPPable!!! And people, you can pre-order the record for $12 on CD and $13 on vinyl! And BOTH versions come with TWO 7"s and a special poster. Best deal ever, no jk.
OK, here's the clip:
ABC News' Dan Harris Does For Yo La Tengo...
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8400230....what John Stossel did for "Doctor D" David Schultz. OK, it's friendlier than that. Anytime a national news program uses words like "sanctum sanctorum" and "late to the party" in relation to Yo La Tengo, we could not be more pleased.
(ADDENDUM : not to look positive media coverage in the mouth or anything, but please accept our apologies in advance for the advertisement that plays prior to the YLT/ABC clip. Blackberry Loves U2. U2 Loves The Virgin Prunes. Does Blackberry love the Virgin Prunes? You can't presume anything.)
Yo La Tengo BEGN#8: first bonus mp3 up
It's not too late to preorder Popular Songs via Buy Early Get Now. As of today all BEGN participants can download the first of two bonus mp3s, a demo version of "Nothing To Hide." They also get a full album stream, a poster, a bonus LP, and a copy of Popular Songs on their doorstep on release day, September 8th.Prettay, prettay, prettay good.
Jay Reatard's FREE, All Ages, West Coast, Record Shop Tour
After a day off, Jay Reatard's FREE, all ages, West Coast, Record Shop Tour (try saying that 5 times fast) is back in action tonight. If you're in Portland, OR we highly recommend you swing by Jackpot Record's downtown store at 6pm. Everything we're hearing from fans, record store owners and Jay himself is that these in-stores have been really fun, really loud, and really crowded. And well why shouldn't they be. Jay's got a terrific new album to celebrate and is one of the best performers around these days.
And a reminder for all of you in the Northwest, Jay invades a city/record store near you this week. You've been warned!
Tue, 8/25 - Portland OR - Jackpot Records - 6pm
Wed, 8/26 - Seattle WA - Easy Street - 7pm
Thu, 8/27 - Seattle WA - Sonic Boom - 7pm
Fri, 8/28 - Vancouver BC - Zulu Records - 8pm
Burma Listening Party With Suspicious "Surprise" Item
It's not a surprise if we tell you what you're getting. But if this party is gonna be two and a half hours long, I hope there's plenty
Jay Reatard - "It Ain't Gonna Save Me" in MTVU's "The Freshmen"
Jay's amazing new video is currently embroiled in a Battle Royale with MTVU rotation at stake. I would make a joke about the bands Jay is up against, but I've never heard of any of them.Please visit "The Freshmen" site and vote for Jay. Over and over again. It's quick and easy. With your help Jay can infiltrate the hearts and minds and heads of college students everywhere.
Jay Reatard instore tour update
[caption id="attachment_5656" align="alignnone" width="262" caption="Steven leaves the crowd at M-Theory speechless"]
[/caption]Greetings from the Big White Van (whom the rental company named 'Beth'),
So we're officially halfway into the instore tour. 5 down, 5 to go. SoCal is in the bag and we've made our way north where it feels like it's friggin October. Nobody told us it was going to be 55 degrees in August. We're cold. A shopping day is very much in order. Anything with sleeves is tops on the menu. We've switched from three Mexican meals a day to three Thai meals a day. Sonic Youth, Faust, Adam Franklin, Eric's Trip and Naked Raygun have dominated the stereo. We haven't played the Bass Fishing video game the the rental company gave to us. A fuse blew on Jay's amp. Twice. We got free t shirts. We got lost. The Big White Van's battery died. And that millionaire guy killed his model girlfriend.
Are you sorry you missed one or more of the free, all-ages shows Jay's been destroying? Well you should be. Cause they've been awesome. Amoeba Hollywood, Fingerprints, M-Theory, Streetlight and Amoeba SF were all packed to the gills with fans who certainly walked away satisfied. And Amoeba Berkeley, Jackpot, Easy St., Sonic Boom and Zulu should prove no different.
So if you see the Big White Van flowing through your town, be sure to follow it to the next stop for some ear-bending rock.
See yiz,
Jay, Steven, Billy, Mike and Beth
Seafood chowder
If you grew up in New England, it's very difficult to stomach what passes for chowder in the rest of the country. Thick white concoctions packed with cornstarch and a few unidentifable clams, or worse, tomatoes. True chowder is buttery and only barely thickened by the crumbling of the potatoes. Milk or at most, light cream, are the dairy ingredients, and the flavor is based on salt pork and the freshest seafood you can buy.
Top seafood chowder can be had at the Maine Diner in Wells, ME - a day trip from Boston. This chowder was based on their recipe, with some hints from John Thorne's Down East Chowder (since reprinted in the sublime Serious Pig. Since good salt pork is impossible to find in New York (if anyone has a source, please post), we used nitrate-free bacon from Vermont, blanched to remove as much of the smoke flavor as possible. Potatoes are ideally from northern Maine, Aroostook County, but if you can't find them, use small yellow potatoes such as creamers. They need to be firm, not crumbly like Idaho or russet potatoes. Seafood was the picked meat from a whole lobster (discarding the tomalley), rock shrimp, medium scallops and cherrystone clams. None of this was ideal except for the excellent scallops - you want a lobster right out of the Penobscot, tiny coldwater Maine shrimp, and steamers or soft-shell clams rather than cherrystones.
The lobster bodies were simmered in water to make a stock, and the other seafood was cooked in a strainer in the same water. Meanwhile the blanched bacon was rendered and fried. One diced onion is added to the bacon frypan along with a half stick of butter, and fried until translucent. The potatoes were chopped into half-inch cubes and boiled until cooked but still firm. Lobster shells continued to simmer until close to suppertime, then the broth strained off along with the grit at the bottom, and reduced a bit. 2 cups milk and 2 cups light cream were then added slowly. The translucent onions, butter and blanched bacon are added to the milky broth, and simmered - the seafood goes in at the last minute, along with salt to taste. One eater preferred some fresh ground pepper in his bowl. Common crackers should be sprinkled on top, but since these no longer seem to be made, we used non-salted oyster crackers instead. The result was sublime, as you can see from the photos.
TNV - M o v e t o C a l i f o r n i a
Catalog number OLE-896 is Times New Viking MOVE TO CALIFORNIA 7", slated to come out on September 8. The four song 7" contains two tracks from the upcoming BORN AGAIN REVISITED LP, those being "Move To California" and "City On Drugs," plus two songs from the coveted STAY AWAKE REVISITED cassette, namely "Pentagram" and "Teen Spirit In Hell."
Preorder the new album, in stores September 22, and get this 7", plus a copy of last year's STAY AWAKE 7", and a free poster, all for only $13 - while supplies last.
Download the MP3 of "Move To California" here, and enjoy your weekend:
Move To California (192k mp3)
Oh, and fuck your blog.
Julian Plenti On Julian Plenti Imposters
Doing a little PSA work for that creep that is pretending to be JP on Facebook. From JulianPlenti.com:Hello,
A friend of mine just told me he was a little creeped-out by a Facebook impostor.
Just so you all know, THIS is my ONLY web presence. I don't twit, facebook, or myspace. (yet)
I always thought impostors were funny, but maybe they're not.
If somebody got a domain and wants to do an homage, that's ok. But someone perpetrating like they're Plenti, that's a no-go.
So stay alert to the phony mojo.
And don't go mailing these monkeys any secrets or brownies.
JP
The Cave Singers / FREE Friday in-store performance
We have an old saying around Matador that "if loving Indie Retail is right, well then we don't want to be bothered"...wait I'm not sure that's actually the official company line. It's early, I may have that wrong.
What I do have right though is that The Cave Singers will be in Bellingham, WA today. At one of our favorite indie record shops, Everyday Music, to continue celebrating the release of their new album Welcome Joy. So if you're in Bellingham today swing by for an early evening jam session that is sure to send you into the weekend on the right note.
Anyone looking for their own copy of Welcome Joy should definitely check out the Matador Store to order a CD or LP!
Friday, August 21st (6pm)
@ Everyday Music (Bellingham, WA)
115 E. Magnolia
Matador's New Advertising Design Dept. Hits One Out Of The Park
With apologies to Pen & Pixel, Dean and Robby did a fantastic job with the new Matador label advertisement, currently scheduled to run in trade publications this autumn. Chris Lombardi has hung out with some pretty wild characters in his time, but rumor has it he was nearly mauled to death during the above photo session.
(sorry, I was thinking of the Wild Dogs album on Shrapnel! )
Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs vinyl is in
And it looks and sounds incredible. Heavy-duty gatefold sleeve printed at Stoughton. Two HQ-180 gram LPs pressed at RTI. Four custom Matador labels based on classic record labels of the distant past.
The album artwork is built around sculptures by Dario Robleto. On the front, At War With the Entropy of Nature / Ghosts Don't Always Want to Come Back (2002) depicts a cassette made out of carved bone and bone dust from every bone in the body, trinitite (glass produced during the first atomic test explotion, from the Trinity test site in 1945, when heat from the blast melted surrounding sand), metal screws, rusty and typeset. Two other works appear on the interior gatefold and the back cover.
The album comes with an MP3 download coupon for all 12 songs - 74 minutes of music.
Click on the images for full-size shots.
If you preorder the album as part of Buy Early Get Now, you'll get an additional vinyl LP of gorgeous, wonderful instrumental score composed and performed by Yo La Tengo for the motion picture Adventureland. This LP is exclusive to this promotion and has not been released in any form before. You'll also get two bonus MP3s, a free poster, and other surprise extras.
You can also choose to preorder the record separately, without participating in Buy Early Get Now.
Preorder from Other Music (Buy Early Get Now version)
Preorder from Insound (either version)
Preorder from the Matador Store (either version)
Preorder from Amazon (regular version)
Preorder from iTunes (digital version only)
Or visit buyearlygetnow.com and use the map to find a physical store near you.
UK and Europe customers: please visit Buy Early Get Now UK.
The Cave Singers "Welcome Joy" / FREE in-store performance
In celebration of their new album, Welcome Joy, the Cave Singers are bringing their music to the people. Anyone in Portland, OR today should swing by one of our favorite indie record shops, Music Millenium on E. Burnside, at 6pm to catch a FREE, all ages performance by the Cave Singers. If last night's Easy Street in-store in Seattle is any sort of preview, tonight's performance should be a pretty rockin' and fun time.
Interested in landing a copy of Welcome Joy for yourself? Just visit the Matador Store and order your very own CD or LP.
The Cave Singers
@ Music Millenium
Wed, Aug 19th - 6pm
3158 E. Burnside - Portland, OR
Sonic Youth - 2nd Boston Show Added
(Ayal Senior's YouToob shots of SY at Toronto's Massey Hall, June 30, '09)
No sooner than we announced Sonic Youth were playing Boston's Wilbur Theatre on November 23 than an internal message was circulated stating said date was not supposed to be revealed to the public for another week. Good luck getting the genie back the bottle --- it's a slippery slope from a Matablog post to a mention on The View or an angry editorial from Tass.
Anyhow, even if the incidents are completely unrelated, we've learned today that Sonic Youth have added another Boston show (again, at the historic Wilbur Theatre) on November 22. If you wanna give me all the credit, I'm happy to take it. There's nothing more important to us than THE PUBLIC'S RIGHT TO KNOW.
Kurt Vile live on WFMU right now!
Kurt Vile is performing live on Brian Turner's show on WFMU right now and killing it.
Tune in to wfmu.org to stream the show via your iTunes, or adjust your radio to 91.1 FM in New York and 90.1 FM in the Hudson Valley.
ICA Boston: 2 Listening Parties (YLT + MOB)
The Institute of Contemporary Art and Harborwalk Shuffle are hosting two events the next two Thursdays for new Matador releases from 6-830pm.
This week: Yo La Tengo Popular Songs on August 20 - come celebrate & check out the new album + enter to win a pair of tickets to the Wibur Theatre YLT show on 9/16/09 !
http://www.icaboston.org/programs/performance/music/hw-shuffle/
Next Week: Hosted by NEWBURY COMICS on August 27 - Listen & celebrate Mission of Burma's new album The Sound The Speed The Light - First 50 people to arrive receive a FREE 7" with a VERY SPECIAL surprise inside you don't want to miss!!
http://www.icaboston.org/programs/performance/music/hw-shuffle/mission-burma/
Times New Viking take on Yo La Tengo and "Nothing To Hide"
It's all love at Matador, all the time, and today is no exception. Two of our finest purveyors of rock and roll have teamed up (Times New Viking - along with directors Pelham Johnston and Brandon Reichard - took the driver's seat on this one, with Yo La Tengo supplying the tunage and the inspiration) for a video that immediately takes its rightful place in the pantheon of Matador and Yo La Tengo classics.Our friends at AOL Spinner bring us the "Nothing to Hide" collabo, a celebration of the upcoming full-length releases from both bands: "Nothing to Hide" can be found on Yo La Tengo's Popular Songs, out September 8th (pre-order action), and Times New Viking unveil Born Again Revisited September 22nd (you will need to OWN THIS ALBUM, it's a stone-cold sucker-punch, best-of-their-career stylez). Pre-order Born Again Revisited from the Matastore and receive TWO free TNV 7"s and a free poster. Yeah, I hyper-linked it twice. Born Again Revisited is that essential.
OK check this out, it RULES: