Lupe, true to his word will be releasing his last album, LupE.N.D., but while little was known about the album, some information has been dropped recently. LupE.N.D. will be a TRIPLE disc release, and is sure to be a bloated affair, much like a chili cook-off at a family reunion. The discs are as follows: Everywhere, Nowhere, and Down Here.

Call me biased but when does releasing one fairly good album and one strange, muddied record let you release a triple disc set? Here's hoping this cynical bastard is proven wrong, but Lupe, better cross those fingers boy.

0 Comments

Let the ear-bleeding assault begin!

March 2009

03 - Brisbane, Tivoli
04 - Sydney, Enmore Theatre
05 - Melbourne, Forum
07 - Meredith, Golden Plains Festival
08 - Perth, International Arts Festival

Tickets for the Perth show are already on sale, and all of the other venues should appear by November 21st. If you miss them you will be sorry.

0 Comments

One of my favorite bands from the late 90s was a band by the name of Cadillac Blindside. Hailing from Minnesota, they were not afraid to wear their snotty aggressive sound on their sleeves. Amazing stuff really. Unfortunately, after two records and an EP the band parted ways.

Singer Zachary Zrust headed towards another punk influenced short lived band (Fuel the Fire) before settling down for a mellow acoustic venture called The Pinstripe Project. Last year, however, ZaQ felt the urge to rock out again so he formed Crash/Burn/Repeat. Gone, for the most part, are the barbaric grungy vocals with a more mature good ol' rock sound in its place.

Thus far the band has recording an EP entitled Fill Your Lungs which, as of right now, can only be purchased through the band while on tour though ZaQ plans to release the tracks to iTunes in the not so distant future. He also hopes to head to the studio soon to record the band's first full length record.

So if you know what's good for you, go check out the Crash/Burn/Repeat page now!

0 Comments

Before you stop bitching about the suckness that is latter day Jimmy Eat World please finish reading this first. The band is giving old school fans a run for their money by performing their fan favorite record Clarity in its entirety during a small tour celebrating the album's 10th anniversary.

Not unlike what Built to Spill did with their recent Perfect From Now On tour, Jimmy Eat World will perform all the tracks from Clarity during a 10 city tour throughout the US in early 2009. Much loved indie rock band No Knife, who originally split in 2003, will join Jimmy Eat World on the last three dates of the tour.

w/ Reuben's Accomplice
Feb 23 Terminal 5 New York NY
Feb 24 930 Club Washington DC
Feb 25 Trocadero Theater Philadelphia PA
Feb 26 House of Blues Boston MA
Feb 28 Metro Chicago IL
Mar 2 Ogden Theatre Denver CO
Mar 4 The Fillmore San Francisco CA
Mar 5 Club Nokia Los Angeles CA

w/ No Knife
Mar 5 Club Nokia Los Angeles CA
Mar 6 House of Blues San Diego CA
Mar 7 Marquee Theatre Tempe AZ

0 Comments

PART ONE: HAZY SECRET HAND-SHAKES

I

Belle & Sebastian is a band my ex(?) worships. She owns every patchwork, whittled EP, and tends to them with the care she would have given her children, if, in fact she did have any children (which she doesn't, besides her dogs).

Last Christmas I gave her a vinyl copy of the 'Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant' LP and that was the precise moment I stole her heart (from her boyfriend, who was trashed inside her sparse apartment). Even with the drunkenness and silliness that preceded that frostbitten exchange and hug (that I would have wished to be a kiss), even before that I knew that something was moving somewhere inside of me.

I was discovering B & S around the same time, working in a corporate bookstore that was one of the best jobs I have ever held, not only because I could slack off as much as I wanted but I also got to control the store stereo system. 'The Boy With The Arab Strap' probably blared over the speakers at least fifty times. While I stood at the register and read Douglas Coupland. While I stood at the register and sipped coffee. (I would turn it up loud enough that when I was having a cigarette I could hear it from the curb I sat at watching planes gliding on their way to land at the Kent State Airport)

Now I am no Hunter S. Thompson (or Kurt Vonnegut, or Stephen King) and I am not trying to write my own foibles and adventures into a record review. But there are some things I believe to be true about professional critics:

01. They are generally bitter, failed ex-musicians who love to argue about different bands influences (no matter how pretentious and extraneous; especially how pretentious and extraneous).
02. Their opinion really changes nothing about the object they are criticizing. Like skipping a flat stone into a cavernous quarry. (you can make ripples but no waves)
03. Never has a critic had half the wit and moxie of the subject they are covering.

II

I once read a statement that said reading a review is like going down to your local butcher's shop and asking what he thought about the weather. If you know the man you already pretty much know what he is going to say.

All of that introduction is to say that when it comes to Belle & Sebastian, they hold a soft, prickly place in my heart, and I may not be the most unbiased listener out there.

Grain of salt, dear reader, grain of salt.

PART TWO: WHAT I THINK I THOUGHT I HEARD


I
When I try to interpret an accent I feel like I'm having a conversation while wearing earplugs. With only a vague idea of what's going on I can see lips move but the sounds don't make it to my ears.

Stuart Murdoch's voice makes me thinks of a hive of drunken bees perched by my ears. Hanging from a decrepit ceiling in a habitual bar they are telling tall-tales about the women they supposedly have known. Biblically.

II
Dylan said a folk singer is someone who has a good memory. And Stuart Murdoch has a great one, although one gets the feeling that a few liberties and embellishments have been made here and there. Which reminds me of Wilco's 'Ashes of American Flags'.
'All my lies are always wishes'.

But the music and vocals on 'The BBC Sessions' are a little more honest, more direct and obviously, live than any other LP of theirs. Which, yes, of course, a live session is going to be done, live, I understand that. But it should be said because 'The BBC Sessions' is no stop-gap, cobblestone EP. It is a wholly faithful documentation of the power that one man can have with just a few mumbled words and electric guitars with fuzzy amps.

Stuart seems to be telling us Nothing is beautiful; nothing is kind', wearing a shit-eating grin. You can't help but smile in recognition

PART THREE: HANGING JUDGE & GALLOWS HUMOR

I
THE VERDICT - 7.2 out of 10

This review is solely based only on the first disc, Matador did not allow access to the second disc, which has four(!) previously unheard and released songs, plus newer flashes of brilliance.

II
Even hours after finishing the album and first draft of this here very review, one line kept squeezing my mind grapes.

'If we all go back to another time I will love you over.'

Not so sure about that one Stuart, assuming the person you love wants you to be loved by their own beating hearts in return.

So I toss regrets and apologies to those women who (I would hope) understand the above statement. I could buy this for you on vinyl. For reparations, friends.

Hope all is well in your little corner of the world.

Matador will release the double CD/double LP collection on November 18th.

0 Comments