Sooner or later we had to tackle the elephant in the room that is: THE REUNION TOUR...how do you feel when your beloved gets it back together and hits the road...sometimes breathtaking, sometimes not so much. Are you just so overjoyed to get the chance you thought you missed, so you hold your nose while the band dashes towards it suitcases full of cash, or is it something else. Especially now that the college rock into 90's alt explosion crews are looking at their options...
So the one i've been waiting, hoping, and praying for is finally coming to pass. Ladies and gentlemen, the return of Pavement...First announced show was Summerstage in Central Park for September '10, which quickly turned into multiple shows when the first one sold out in 2 (two) minutes...(AKA, while i was debating pulling the trigger...)
Anyway, this was followed up pretty quickly by the announcement for them curating ATP (All Tomorrow's Parties, Minehead, England) next May. Woot!
Interesting part about this has been the concerted groundswell built up by Matador's impeccable trawling through the catalog, album by album...raising the bar for the deluxe reissue thing by throwing out great packages bursting at the seams with bonus tracks, (full discs worth) while maintaining that value for dollar thang...
Isn't it a weentzy bit early to start speculating about Coachella 2010? Hee hee...that was the ultimate decider for me, given the on/off again rumor mongering...Apparently, Offers have been tendered...we will see, we will see...
PS...as a bonus, Pitchfork TV is currently running the Pavement doc 'Slow Century' in all its glory...
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
what is hip?
Once one gets over the sheer proliferation of music available on the internet, (developing avalanche instincts, as it were)...the logical response, aside from flight, is to set up a gatekeeper, or series thereof, where one can turn on a trusted tap when one feels the need to dabble in the new, or get an opinion on new from the old.
Along with the innate excitement of watching social media progress is the flip side...an abundantly exuberant blogosphere that seems intent of burn & churn, the building up and tearing down of new acts to quickly fill all that cyberspace. Almost to the point of resembling the tawdry English music weeklies...
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Vampire Weekend were two great examples of this...So far it seems only the Arctic Monkeys, and some would say Animal Collective, have had the musical goods to transcend this...making it to a third album relatively unscathed.
Today's object lesson is Grizzly Bear. 2007 saw the release of the much praised 'Yellow House', and with news that they were back in the studio working on a followup, the stage was set for the hype machine to reach full throttle...
Last year saw them secure a high profile opening gig for the east coast first leg of Radiohead's US run. They acquitted themselves well, and the buzz built, leading up to the leaking of tracks from the by now, highly awaited 'Veckatimest'. It was immediately acclaimed as on the best albums of 2009, even though it was: a) still 2008, and b) horrifying to the band, given the less than ideal sound quality of some of the leaked work.
Still, the machine rolled on. When the album was finally released it somehow cracked the US Top Ten, the tumult growing to dizzying heights, and having swallowed the giant lump of salt needed at this point, one actually listened to the finished product. And was quite pleased. It's a really good album, heavily layered in a baroque indie.pop style that reflects the sixties masters, but seems firmly of the moment. Beach Boys comparisons abounded given the ornate vocal layerings, but to me it seems most redolent of Love's 'Forever Changes', perfectly capturing that elusive melancholy...maybe not the year's finest, but surely a lock for the top 5 at this rate.
Rolling right along, the next stages of the process being Celebrity Interest, (Jay Z?!), in the band that generated more headlines, and then of course, Backlash...in a sweetly subversive move, news broke of the newest single, which featured a guest artist lending his pipes to a remix of 'While You Wait For The Others'...
(wait for it...)
Michael McDonald (Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, solo, et al) was the voice of choice, and early fingers pointed the obvious crossover sellout potential inherent in the move, but once again, the proof is in the listening...what is dreadfully and absolutely Wrong on paper, once heard, is like chocolate and peanut butter...it just flows...
and that's where we'll leave our Grizzly Bear, ambling through that particular Hundred Acre Wood of the music blogosphere, living to ramble another day...
Along with the innate excitement of watching social media progress is the flip side...an abundantly exuberant blogosphere that seems intent of burn & churn, the building up and tearing down of new acts to quickly fill all that cyberspace. Almost to the point of resembling the tawdry English music weeklies...
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Vampire Weekend were two great examples of this...So far it seems only the Arctic Monkeys, and some would say Animal Collective, have had the musical goods to transcend this...making it to a third album relatively unscathed.
Today's object lesson is Grizzly Bear. 2007 saw the release of the much praised 'Yellow House', and with news that they were back in the studio working on a followup, the stage was set for the hype machine to reach full throttle...Last year saw them secure a high profile opening gig for the east coast first leg of Radiohead's US run. They acquitted themselves well, and the buzz built, leading up to the leaking of tracks from the by now, highly awaited 'Veckatimest'. It was immediately acclaimed as on the best albums of 2009, even though it was: a) still 2008, and b) horrifying to the band, given the less than ideal sound quality of some of the leaked work.
Still, the machine rolled on. When the album was finally released it somehow cracked the US Top Ten, the tumult growing to dizzying heights, and having swallowed the giant lump of salt needed at this point, one actually listened to the finished product. And was quite pleased. It's a really good album, heavily layered in a baroque indie.pop style that reflects the sixties masters, but seems firmly of the moment. Beach Boys comparisons abounded given the ornate vocal layerings, but to me it seems most redolent of Love's 'Forever Changes', perfectly capturing that elusive melancholy...maybe not the year's finest, but surely a lock for the top 5 at this rate.
Rolling right along, the next stages of the process being Celebrity Interest, (Jay Z?!), in the band that generated more headlines, and then of course, Backlash...in a sweetly subversive move, news broke of the newest single, which featured a guest artist lending his pipes to a remix of 'While You Wait For The Others'...(wait for it...)
Michael McDonald (Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, solo, et al) was the voice of choice, and early fingers pointed the obvious crossover sellout potential inherent in the move, but once again, the proof is in the listening...what is dreadfully and absolutely Wrong on paper, once heard, is like chocolate and peanut butter...it just flows...
and that's where we'll leave our Grizzly Bear, ambling through that particular Hundred Acre Wood of the music blogosphere, living to ramble another day...
Monday, October 5, 2009
new paradigms...
Or, further dancing on the ashes of a dying industry...
Here's something different...Mr. Withers, who provided us with the link to the Surrealist Compliment Generator, is using an interesting model to bring his newest project to fruition...Hopefully it works, but, regardless, someone will take this concept and run with it. For more on this, and more eloquently than moi, try here... It's fascinating to see folks twist the new social media to their ends, from building and inflaming fanbases to skewed concepts of touring to actually funding projects.
Amanda F. Palmer is using her Twitter presence to galvanize a fanbase across different medias, culminating in a handy dandy IPhone app that consolidates music, her blog(s), videos, etc into a nifty little (free!) package that raises the bar on artist apps. Palmer is also fighting a pitched battle to get out of her contract with Roadrunner Records, using her media base to promote direct purchase of her DVD as the only means of her actually seeing money, rather than through traditional retail.
Both Palmer and Zoe Keating have used Twitter to promote what Palmer charmingly refers to as 'ninja gigs', fun little gigs in unexpected places with a minimum of overhead and publicity, banking hard on the word of mouth and innate weirdness of the gigs, from Palmer's formal dress at the beach ukelele gigs to Keating's performances at terminals in the San Francisco Airport.
On twitter, they are respectively: @trisloth, @zoecello, @amandapalmer
endnote: this just in, here's another approach from Chuck D, Flavor Flav, and the good folks at Public Enemy...
Here's something different...Mr. Withers, who provided us with the link to the Surrealist Compliment Generator, is using an interesting model to bring his newest project to fruition...Hopefully it works, but, regardless, someone will take this concept and run with it. For more on this, and more eloquently than moi, try here... It's fascinating to see folks twist the new social media to their ends, from building and inflaming fanbases to skewed concepts of touring to actually funding projects.
Amanda F. Palmer is using her Twitter presence to galvanize a fanbase across different medias, culminating in a handy dandy IPhone app that consolidates music, her blog(s), videos, etc into a nifty little (free!) package that raises the bar on artist apps. Palmer is also fighting a pitched battle to get out of her contract with Roadrunner Records, using her media base to promote direct purchase of her DVD as the only means of her actually seeing money, rather than through traditional retail.
Both Palmer and Zoe Keating have used Twitter to promote what Palmer charmingly refers to as 'ninja gigs', fun little gigs in unexpected places with a minimum of overhead and publicity, banking hard on the word of mouth and innate weirdness of the gigs, from Palmer's formal dress at the beach ukelele gigs to Keating's performances at terminals in the San Francisco Airport.On twitter, they are respectively: @trisloth, @zoecello, @amandapalmer
endnote: this just in, here's another approach from Chuck D, Flavor Flav, and the good folks at Public Enemy...
Sunday, October 4, 2009
it's alive...really...
Time, the avenger...as Chrissie Hynde said. Work has been overwhelming, but we'll get back to business very soon. Pissed off some very good shows lately, managed to miss the Fuck Yeah Festival...(all that the name entailed and more), missed the mighty Meat Puppets in LA...
File under Wahhh!
Interesting shows to come, though...Finally get to check both Yo La Tengo and Mission Of Burma off the list. Absolutely can't wait.
Stay tuned...
waj
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