Cat Power - BRIT award nominated
Chan at the 2007 BRIT awards -Cat Power is again nominated for Best International Female at the years BRIT awards this year, following her 2007 nomination for the same award. With UK and European dates still to be rescheduled, click here for the upcoming US and Australian tour dates.
Wayne in Buellton CA knows what the Senator wants
As previously discussed, at last night's Amoeba in-store, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks played an FCC-friendly rendition of their 'Mirror Traffic' jam, "Senator". This morning, we send a hearty congratulations to Wayne J in Buellton, CA whose timely radio-ready replacement was chosen by the band & will be rerecorded on a new version of the song to appear on the backside of what shall be the most limited 7" that'll ever emerge from these four walls.
Spoiler-haters, STOP READING NOW and watch a rerun of the performance
And the rest of you: the winning word lies beyond the jump... what the Senator wants is a ....
CORNDOG!
Help save a venue
A good friend of mine (who I once upon a time put on shows with) runs a venue over here in the UK down in Brighton, but sadly the venue is under threat of closure due to noise complaints (but actually there has only been one in the past 12 months) made to the local council.They are looking to enforce a noise limiter on the venue which would mean any amplified equipment played would trip the limiter and effectively end all live music at the Freebutt.
Over the years they've had a load of Matador bands play, with Fucked Up and Times New viking having played there recently and they've booked the Brighton show of the upcoming Shearwater tour, so it means a lot to us here to not see such a decent place go under. Although many of you reading this might be far away I'd urge you to take 2 minutes out of your day to sign the petition against this happening here and you can read more about the story on the Freebutt's blog. Thanks!
Simply Put... The Internet Needs More Pink Eyes Pics (+ Political T Bonus)
While we don't count Pink Eyes amongst the 15% of Canadians who would give up their right to vote in order to vote in the US election, he did flaunt this little t-shirt for Fucked Up's ADD Pitchfork.tv session.So the only question one might ask at a Palin rally: "Why does Obama pal around with Canadians who can't even spell 'canucks'."
More pics from the session after the jump.
[gallery]
Satan 1, Centerton, Arkansas ZERO
"I don't know of any laws that I've broken."
Bigamy, fraud and and crap grooming come to mind.
Shat In The (Linkin Park's) Van!!
No square inch of scenery left to chew, no square inch of Shatner's ass to kiss, and no clips of the interview on YouTube yet, but one can enjoy Mike Patton exploring everything that happened in music between The Infectious Grooves and Linkin Park!Band in need of drummer. Accident-prone types need not apply.
This is possibly the only reason for wanting to step foot anywhere near James Blunt...
Spinal Tap, the greatest band that never was, are to play at the Live Earth gig at Wembley, London on 7 July. The three actors Michael McKeen (David St Hubbins), Christopher Guest (Nigel Tufnell) and Harry Shearer (Derek Smalls) have been brought together for the appearance by the director of 'This Is Spinal Tap', Rob Reiner. A short ten minute film has also been made, and will be screened at the gig.
Reiner says of the band's appearance: "They're not that environmentally
conscious, but they've heard of global warming. Nigel thought it was just
because he was wearing too much clothing - that if he just took his jacket
off it would be cooler."
Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kinky
From the Associated Press (link swiped from Idolator)
Hours after Texas Gov. Rick Perry kicked off his second full term in office, Ted Nugent (above) helped him celebrate at a black-tie gala, but not all attendees were pleased by the rocker's performance.
Using machine guns as props, Nugent, 58, appeared onstage as the final act of the inaugural ball wearing a cutoff T-shirt emblazoned with the Confederate flag and shouting offensive remarks about non-English speakers, according to people who were in attendance.
Nugent, a hunting and gun-rights advocate, couldn't be reached for comment Thursday because he was hunting, a spokeswoman said.
Though I am a resident of the State Of Texas, I deplore the Nuge's divisive politics, and would hope in the spirit of brotherhood and tolerance, Mission Of Burma allow Peter Prescott to bust out his rendition of the Amboy Dukes' "Journey To The Center Of The Mind" tonight at Irving Plaza.
Failing that, there's always karaoke after the show. Which, by the way, features Oneida and Parts & Labor in support, so show up before you throw up.
Girls Aloud get political
Girls Aloud interview for The New Statesman
link via Popjustice
My beloved Girls Aloud get their Noam Chomsky on:
Nadine: "You know that basically Labour is the working class and the Conservatives are the really, kind of, upper class, and then everything else is . . . I have no idea."
Foolhardy Nadine later has an awesome rant about footballer's wives, momentarily forgetting that her bandmate Cheryl is one.
Their Greatest Hits album, out now, is disappointingly low on Billy Bragg covers.
On CSpan's Xmas List :
A Most Incendiary Act Of Civil Disobedience
"I too love God and Country, and feel called upon to serve. I can only hope my sacrifice is worth more than those brave lives thrown away when we attacked an Arab nation under the deception of 'Weapons of Mass Destruction'. Our interference completely destroyed that country, and destabilized the entire region. Everyone who pays taxes has blood on their hands."
"What is one more life thrown away in this sad and useless national tragedy? If one death can atone for anything, in any small way, to say to the world: I apologize for what we have done to you, I am ashamed for the mayhem and turmoil caused by my country. I was alive when John F. Kennedy instilled hope into a generation, and I was a sorry witness to the final crushing of hope by Dick Cheney's puppet, himself a pawn of the real rulers, the financial plunderers and looters who profit from every calamity; following the template of Reagan's idiocracy"
The above is culled from the suicide note of Chicago free jazz archivist Malachi Ritscher, who committed suicide this past Saturday. The Chicago Reader's Peter Margasak has the full scoop.
Boston.com, Pitchforkmedia.com Boost Burma, Billions Burst
Despite our strange attempts at Variety-style alliteration, it has come to our attention that www.boston.com - the online version of the Boston Globe - is running a nice big page about the 2006 Boston Music Awards, 2006:
http://www.boston.com/ae/music/boston_music_awards_2006/
We here at Matador Records are proud to note that Mission of Burma is nominated for awards in the following categories:
Album of the Year (Indie)
Male Vocalist of the Year - Clint Conley
A full list of nominees is here:
http://www.nemoboston.com/index.php?PID=45
We heartily encourage Mission of Burma fans to - in the words of former Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley - "vote early, vote often." Of course, only one vote per email address is allowed, but if you're living in the modern world like the rest of us (or at least me), you've probably got 5 or 6 addresses (and no, we don't think they're cross-checking email addresses with www.mlb.com's All-Star ballots).
The Boston Music Awards are curated by NEMO, which you can learn about here: http://www.nemoboston.com/index.php?PID=38. NEMO is "dedicated to giving back to the musical community of New England," but there's nothing I can find on the site detailing when the Nashua Music Awards will be held. So maybe next time, Granite-Staters. Live Free Or Die, dudes.
Additionally, boston.com is running a photo gallery that asks the burning question: Who is the most influential punk band ever?
http://www.boston.com/ae/music/gallery/influential_punk_bands/
Burma's listed first along a list of pretty heavy hitters, such as the Stooges, the Velvet Underground, and, uh, the Clash.
And last but not least: West Coasters, get ready to rock on the following dates...
Friday, Sept. 15 - Seattle, WA - CROCODILE CAFE
Saturday, Sept. 16 - Portland, OR - DOUG FIR*
Sunday, Sept. 17 - Eugene, OR - WOW HALL*
Tuesday, Sept. 19 - Sacramento, CA - HARLOW'S*
Wednesday, Sept. 20 - San Francisco, CA - GREAT AMERICAN MUSIC HALL*
Friday, Sept. 22 - Los Angeles, CA - TROUBADOUR*
Saturday, Sept. 23 - San Diego, CA - BRICK BY BRICK*
*with 50 FOOT WAVE
As earlier noted, West Coast show attendees can get some cool posters by sending their ticket stubs to Matador. Do it to it, folks.
OH AND BEFORE I FORGET (really, my short-term memory is terrible lately), Burma's own Roger Miller will be sharing his thoughts (and hopefully his haberdashery tips) with the world via tour diary form through those loveable rapscallions at www.pitchforkmedia.com starting this very Friday! Why, by jove, that's the same day the West Coast tour starts! Funny how that works, innit?
Harsh Enough That Senator Joe's Site Was Hacked...
(the long-awaited denial of lip service attack)
...but did they have to redirect traffic here?
Injecting Ethical Debate Into Discussion Of Bands Who Aren't Very Good
example a, from Greg Kot's Lollapalooza coverage in the Chicago Tribune :
1:12 p.m.: Subways singer Billy Lunn leads his U.K. trio in a set that is high on energy, low on innovation with three-chord anthems that make Oasis sound like progressive-rock. Lunn complains about the state of U.S. commercial radio and blames it all on payola. He should know. His Warner Brothers record label just paid $10 million in fines as a result of a payola investigation by New York State Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer.
example b, Her Jazz' Maria on Phoenix, French Kicks and the A-Sides performing at a Camel cigarettes sponsored event.
I’m not going to mention the health issues surrounding smoking at all. Nope, not one peep from me. However, I will politely point out that Camel’s parent company, Reynolds American Inc., has donated 87% of its political contributions to the Republican party. Conservativecocainesexjams all night long! Enlist with the party train soldiers! Get rad in Iraq! And with all the smoking going down tomorrow night, no one will notice how truly crappy Phoenix or the French Kicks are. As Philabuster pointed out, the French Kicks couldn’t even fill the North Star last time around. What sort of dumbass in Camel’s marketing thinks they can pack a 1,000-person venue? And how many years has it been since they’ve written anything remotely worthwhile?
Hell's Getting Hotter: Manatee Sighted on the Hudson
(the members of Overkill, visibly excited that Joel remembers them)
Our good friends at the Poughkeepsie Journal hipped us to the following far out news from the world of nature:
A manatee has been seen in the Hudson River near Manhattan.
The gentle behemeth [sic., clearly Vassar needs to step up its literature program!], estimated at 10 feet long and close to 1,000 pounds, is far from home. Most manatees live in Florida and sightings even in Virginia are considered rare.
Watchers tracked this one last month as it swam north — first near Delaware, then Maryland, then New Jersey. Saturday, it was seen at 23rd Street in Manhattan, then later at 125th Street in Harlem.
A manatee was seen near Montauk, on the eastern tip of Long Island, in 1998, but this may be a first for the Hudson.
"As far as I know, the first for the river. We did have one migrate up along Long Island last summer but it never moved inshore," said Tom Lake, the editor of the Hudson River Almanac. "Pretty exciting stuff."
Durham called it a "bona fide" manatee sighting, but there isn't photographic proof. Descriptions by a kayaker and others in the Hudson match grainy video showing a barnacled manatee passing Barnegat, N.J., she said.
Needless to say, even after this the Bush administration will continue to deny the effects of global warming.
Arthur Layeth The Smack Down
The new issue of Arthur is pluggity plug plugged once already in the latest edition of the Matador news update. And at the risk of being an outta control shill for these people (a condition I'll no doubt snap out of if they ever do another Polyphonic Spree cover - wtf!), for the second time in 24 hours, I encourage you to grab their latest edition. If the exhaustive cover story on Brightblack Morning Light wasn't enticement, enough, Jay Babcock's interview with Godsmack vocalist/head doofus Sully Erna is an all-time classic.
I'll not give much more away (especially since it's been online for two months, sheesh) but suffice to say Babcock finds something or other questionable about Godsmack allowing their ferociously awful music to be used in military recruitment campaigns. Though there's nothing surprising about these lunkheads taking money to lead their hapless fans off to slaughter (or conversely, getting paid while their fans are doing the killing), Babcock tries to give Erna the opportunity to explain himself. I just wish they had the whole thing on video.
We Used To Have An Accountant That Loved The Dead, Too
This is old news for many of you, I'm sure. Especially those who aren't afraid to be seen reading Relix on the subway. Ann Coulter, as grilled by Jambands.com.TH: Are there any other jambands you like?
AC: All the usual – String Cheese Incident, Phish, Dave Matthews Band, Blues Traveler, New Potato Caboose. I can't really tell you all the groups I like because have an iPod so have a lot of songs my friends send me and I never really know who I'm listening to. But I try to keep up with what the young people are listening to these days (I love saying that). There’s Jet, Cake, Outkast, 50 Cent, Black-Eyed Peas, Lord Alge, Beck, Kanye West (I like his Jesus song), Missy Elliot, and Eagles of Death Metal. I'm five years behind, aren't I? I'm very busy!