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The MataBlog is edited by Matador Records’ co-moaner Gerard Cosloy and individual entries are the work of whoever’s name is next to them. If you enjoyed something in the MataBlog, thank you very much! If there was something you found particularly troubling, please be advised that a) maybe you should read it again and b) the contents of this blog do not necessarily represent the opinions of Matador Records, Beggars Group, the combined staff of either company, nor the Matador artist roster. Opinions are like friends — hardly anyone has one worth listening to.

It's Summer, Get To Know Your TANLINES



SUMMER IS  HERE!...ok well it officially starts tomorrow but we can't contain our excitement so we're getting started a day early.   Ahhh Summer, the season of extended daylight, backyard BBQs, road trips with friends, summer playlists, and Tanlines + Lemonade of course.

Apologies for that simple and obvious play on words.  But honestly as sure as you're likely to have some tan lines after laying around the pool drinking a glass of lemonade this summer, we're convinced both bands (Tanlines and Lemonade) will be on your iPods/stereos while doing so.  But don't take our word for it, Creator's Project said that Tanlines are "destined to become your summer soundtrack", and New York Magazine, Stereogum, and Refinery 29 couldn't agree more, naming "All Of Me" one of their Songs Of The Summer.

Anyhow since we'll be spending all summer together, it's probably a good time to get to know your Tanlines better.  Courtesy of Creator's Project, click HERE for an intimate look at the band Tanlines, their recording process, how they formed, and much much more.

Also Tanlines will be performing across the US all summer long, starting tomorrow night with an official summer kick off show at the House of Vans in Brooklyn.  A full list of summer tour dates is below.

Mon, June 25 - Los Angeles, CA - School Night @ Bardot (DJ set only)

Tue, June 26 - Santa Barbara, CA - Velvet Jones (presented by 92.9 KJEE)

Wed, June 27 - San Francisco, CA - Brick & Mortar Music Hall (presented by Live 105)

Thu, June 28 - Seattle, WA - Neumo's (presented by 107.7 The End)

Fri, July 13 - Louisville, KY - Forecastle Festival

Sun, July 15 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall (discount for Pitchfork Festival wristband holders)

Thu, July 19 - Miami, FL - Bardot Miami

Fri, Aug 10 - San Francisco, CA - Outside Lands Festival

Sat, Aug 11 - Columbus, OH - Summerfest 2012

Sat, Sept 1 - Los Angeles, CA - FYF Festival

Thu, Sept 6 - Portland, OR - Music Fest NW

Staff photos from Matador at 21

Some photos from the people who make it all happen here... click on the photos for full-size images.

This is the full Matador and Beggars staff (minus a casualty or two):



BACK ROW: Amy Morgan (just the hair), Julia Willinger, Jeremy Kirkland, Sonya Kolowrat, Michaella Solar-March, Hector Montes, Adam Carroll, Dan Gallo, Blake Thomas, Paul Redding, Gerard Cosloy, Jeremy P. Goldstein, Dave Martin, Stuart Davie, Claire Taylor, Chris Lombardi.

MIDDLE ROW: Lisa Gottheil, Gabe Spierer, Natalie Judge, Brigitte Green, Patrick Amory, Miwa Okumura, Rusty Clarke, Catherine Herrick

FRONT ROW: Mike Venutolo-Mantovani, Todd Netter, Matt Harmon, Nils Bernstein, Steve Glauber, Adam Bohl

And here are the Matador label people specifically:



RobbyMorris, Natalie Judge, Chris Lombardi (in background - Silver Fox), Nils Bernstein, Martin Mills, Patrick Amory, Gerard Cosloy, Stuart Davie.

(NOT SHOWN: Dean Bein)

All photos by the great Reuben Cox.

Fucked Up Sign To Matador, Announce New Album For October



back row: 10,000 Marbles, Mustard Gas, Pink Eyes, Mr. Jo
front row: Concentration Camp, Young Governor
(photo by Cat Stevens)

Toronto's Fucked Up have just finished recording their second album. It will come out on Matador worldwide on October 7. Entitled The Chemistry Of Common Life, it contains 11 tracks on the CD and 12 tracks on the double vinyl. This sprawling, multi-instrumental epic is "basically about rebirth and the Sun. And lightning," according to guitarist 10,000 Marbles. The sound is incredibly dense, featuring 10-15 guitar tracks on many songs, along with flutes, organs, and French horn, with an elegant clarity and sense of purpose. The record picks up where 2006's Hidden World left off, in terms of the band's characteristic monumentality, but injects a newfound urgency and unease which the mystical lyrical concerns only amplify.

Guest performers include Katie Stelmanis and the Vivian Girls on vocals, Max McCabe-Locos on organ (formerly of the Deadly Snakes, also featured on Fucked Up's Year Of The Pig), and many others.

Fucked Up will be touring Canada and Europe this summer:

Jun 27 - Calgary AB - Vern's (622 8 Ave SW) - 1 AM - Sled Island Festival
Jun 28 - Calgary AB - Royal Canadian Legion #1 (117 7 Ave SE) - 1 AM - Sled Island Festival
Jun 29 - Calgary AB - Palomino Smokehouse (109 7 Ave SW) - 1 PM - Sled Island Festival
Jul 3 - Chatham, Kent UK - The Tap and Tin
Jul 4 - Kent UK - Z008 Festival, Tap and Tin Stage
Jul 5 - Belfort FR - Eurokennes Festival
Jul 6 - Zurich CH - Dynamo
Jul 8 - Benidorm ES - Abraxas
Jul 9 - Barcelona ES - Nitsa
Jul 10 - Getaria ES - Gaztetxe
Jul 11 - Madrid ES - Sal El Sol
Jul 12 - Balado, Kinross-shire, Scotland - T In The Park
Jul 13 - Birmingham UK - Supersonic Festival
Jul 14 - London UK - Water Rats in Kings Cross
Aug 17 - Lelystad NL - Lowlands Festival, Charlie Stage
Aug 20 - Belfast IE - Limelight
Aug 21 - Dublin IE - Whelans
Aug 22 - Ghent BE - Ieper Fest
Aug 23 - Reading UK - Reading Festival
Aug 24 - Leeds UK - Leeds Festival
Aug 25 - Bradford UK - 1 in 12 Club

This will be followed by a few shows on the West Coast of the US at the end of August and the first week of September. "Plus probably a few more."

Fucked Up blog

Fucked Up Wikipedia article

As a preliminary to the album, Matador and What's Your Rupture? are co-releasing an expanded EP version of Fucked Up's Year Of The Pig single this July. It was originally released as a 12" single on What's Your Rupture? last year. More details here.

DOUBLE ALBUM SHOWDOWN: TFUL 282's Mother of All Saints and Fleetwood Mac's Tusk.


mother.gifFleetwoodMac_Tusk.jpg

Hello. Tusk has a few tracks that predate introspective, 90’s indie rock. That’s Buckingham checking in with “Walk a Thin Line”….the obscenely catchy ballad that sounds like Built To Spill. Mother of All Saints also looked to the future, albeit a future that has yet to occur. Indie rock, or tastemaker rock, or cool shit, or whatever you want to call it, in 2007, SHOULD sound like Mother of All Saints. It doesn’t. Tusk has the ye olde photo of a pesky, perhaps feral dog tearing away at some unlucky chump’s trouser leg. Mother of All Saints has some mouth action, too, but it could pass for a Naked City cover or a later, “mature” offering from Suffocation. It must be noted that Thinking Fellers collectively had a much better sense of humor than John Zorn. Despite being one of the greatest (and weirdest) mainstream pop records of the payola era, the public felt otherwise and Tusk unwittingly helped to destroy the music industry as it was known in 1979. Its “ambitious” recording budget and efficient, non-stop journey from warehouse to cutout bin almost bankrupted Warner Brothers, and led to an industry-wide contract genocide that effectively ended many of the “careers” that resulted from the AOR signing frenzy of ’76 – ’79 (1). When I was nineteen, Mother of All Saints really alienated and disturbed the soon to be vanquished jam band acquaintances (2) that remained lurking in the tiers of my eight-count friend circle. Christ on a crutch, you’d think I was writing a 33 1/3 here, with all of the petty, “aw, me” nostalgia.

  1. Which gave us the Babysitter Rock of 707, New England, Hotel, Sharks, Starz, Stank Business, Horselips, Starcastle, The Tarney-Spencer Band, and Trooper, bless their forgotten hearts.

2. Yes, jam banders existed in 1992. It was their choices that were few: Phish, Widespread Panic, Spin Doctors, and the Dead.

More Burma Tour News: Eugene, Oregon Scene Report

Bringing it back to the days of Maximum Rock n' Roll style DIY, yet keeping it current with today's (Rupert Murdoch-owned) technology, our good friends at Fenway Recordings have just shared the following amazing news regarding Mission of Burma's engagement at Eugene, Oregon's WOW Hall on Sunday, September 17 with 50 Foot Wave:

Mission of Burma recieved a message on Myspace a couple of weeks ago from a high school band called The Tunnel Kings. They stated that they were huge fans and would like to open for them for the 17th of Sept in their home town; Eugene, OR.

Roger Miller checked them out and liked what he heard. As of yesterday- the Tunnel Kings are confirmed. Here is the original email from The Tunnel Kings:




Hey,

My name is River Donaghey and my band, The Tunnel Kings (above), and I are huge fans. We're all sophmores in high school in Eugene, OR and we just noticed that you are heading down here for a show at the WOW Hall on September 17th. If there is any way you guys might consider letting us open for you, it would be a amazing opporitunity for the band. So go listen to our stuff and if you like what you hear throw me a message back.

Thanks!

River
-----

The Tunnel Kings' Myspace site is at the following URL: www.myspace.com/thetunnelkings. Congratulations to River and his crew for taking the initiative!

Greetings

According to New York Magazine (our personal style bible), this blog thing is really taking off. As you know, the management of Matador Records cannot resist any scheme that might either a) make us money or b) result in our selling half of the company again, so voila, it's THE MATABLOG.

In the days and weeks ahead, you'll be graced with intense, personal observations, screeds and propositions from a star-studded cavalcade of innovative artists and music business veterans. Probably more of the latter. But we're not above composing something and putting Ricky Luanda's name on it, especially if things are slow.

We'll do our best to cover a range of cultural issues, but hopefully not sports. No one wants to read about that shit, trust me.



sincerely,

Gerard Cosloy
your editor

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