Pavement reformation ist rad

I should have posted this last week (well, i did but on Twitter, not here). It seems that my favourite band ever - PAVEMENT - is reforming for a world-wide tour in 2010. Their tour begins on September 21st, the first of four shows at Rumsey Playfield in New York's Central Park. On how the reunion came about Spiral Stairs (aka Scott Kannberg) told Prefix Mag:

"Steve and I just had a conversation on the phone, and we'd never talked about it before at all,” he said. “We've talked over the years, but the subject never came up. Then our agent asked us about these New York shows, so we went around to everybody in the band, and they said, 'Yeah, the time is right. If everybody's ready to do it, then we'll do it and see what happens'. There was no real impetus – it just kind of happened naturally."

More awesome details at matador.com and crookedrain.com

Fingers crossed for Australian dates, although it is tempting to buy tickets and a plane fare for NYC! VERY tempting...



Stephen Malkmus is in Australia this week anyway. I'll be seeing him on Wednesday at the Prince of Wales... AND Spiral Stairs is also in town too... coincidence? Hmm.

Kinky Afro and Handsome Furs

I'm presenting Kinky Afro on Triple R this week, playing a range of new music - new Wilco, Black Cab, Lightening Dust, Crocodiles, Yo La Tengo, Dick Diver, Cass McCombs, Mount Eerie and more... plus an interview with Handsome Furs from Montreal. They're a duo, a husband and wife combo - Alexei Perry and Dan Boeckner (pictured above). Here's an online interview in The Vine with Dan, a great review of their live show in Berlin and a live performance below:



Handsome Furs play Australia this week"

Thursday 27th - The Corner Hotel, MELBOURNE VIC
Saturday 28th - Oxford Art Factory SYDNEY NSW
Sunday 30th - Amplifier, PERTH WA

Tune in to hear them on Kinky Afro, 102.7FM... Thursday afternoon, August 27th from 4pm. Oh, and you can still subscribe for radiothon to be in the running for all the prizes too.

Phoenix in Melbourne

Tonight-ah! SO EXCITED. The last time the great French band PHOENIX were in town they played with Jarvis Cocker at the Forum on the night before our early morning flight to the UK so we missed them (we being me and the squeeze). Boo! Now, at last, and with a great new album in tow they arrive in town for two sold out shows at The Palace... the first in less than 2 hours time. Did i mention i'm excited?

3RRR Queen's Birthday breakfast on Monday

I'm filling in for the usual Breakfasters with Jacinta Parsons on Triple R 102.7FM this coming Monday June 8th from 0600-0900 Melbourne time. That's from 9pm Sunday night in London or 4pm Sunday afternoon in NYC streaming at http://www.rrr.org.au

Major Lazer

In start contrast to my week's obsession with David Crosby (see previous post) is the weird buzzy hot-flush I'm getting from Major Lazer. Its the latest project for Diplo and features a cast of famous and soon-to-be-famous ringins. Major Lazer's new album "Gunz Don't Kill People Lazers Do" is released on June 16 and you can hear the tunes on myspace or check the 'off the tap' video below.

Major Lazer - "Hold The Line" ft. Mr. Lexx and Santigold
Uploaded by DowntownMusic. - Explore more music videos.

And this little gem...

David Crosby

I think i'm getting a little obsessed by David Crosby. Yep, that's him above. He was in CSNY and The Byrds. He was also on the TV show Roseanne. You knew that. Anyway, I've spent the week listening to his debut solo album from '71 which is called "If I Could Only Remember My Name". Its smooth, and hippy, and groovy, and spiritual and 'far out'. A bunch of famous people play on it and its worth owning. iTunes have it for under ten bucks. Its left me back to one of the best concert albums of all time, Crosby Stills Nash and Young's "4 Way Street". Two of the key highlights of the acoustic set is Crosby's tunes Triad (my favourite never-released Byrds song) and the haunting Lee Shore. So amazing. I have no idea what David Crosby is up to now, although i vaguely remember hearing about a recent CSNY concert film... anyone seen it?

Check out this performance of Lee Shore with Graham Nash for the BBC:



And with CSNY doing Neil Young's Down By The River:

Wilco

Former Wilco member Jay Bennett (above, second from right) died in his sleep overnight at the age of 45. Details are trickling in slowly but Pitchfork have more. Jay was with the band from 1994 to 2001 as a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, and was fired after a falling out during the making of their Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album. According to reports earlier this month Bennett had been suing Wilco for money owed from his work with the band. He also released several of his own albums after leaving Wilco. His Jay Bennett myspace page mentions his recent hip replacement and has links to his recently released album, but of course no mention yet of his death. RIP Jay.

In Jay's honour I've been listening to Summerteeth as I write this, which I reckon is the high-water mark of Wilco's Jay-era records. But I started the day listening to the new Wilco album. Yes I know, its not out until late June or early July, but I know people, OK!? I have contacts in the right places... ahem... Anyway, its called, somewhat cheekily Wilco (The Album) and the opening cut is "Wilco (The Song)". Jeff even sings the word "Wilco" in the chorus... weird. The rest of the tracks, on first listen, don't quite stack up against the set on Sky Blue Sky which has quickly become one of my favourite Wilco records. A lot of people just didn't dig it, but songs like "Impossible Germany" and "On and On and On" are as good as anything else they've ever done. So anyway, the new album doesn't quite soar as high, but is still a well crafted collection of intelligent adult-pop tunes.

I've also got my winter mittens on Ashes of American Flags, their new tour/live movie. Check the trailer:



And guess what!? You can also get a Wilco iPhone app! I'm going to download it now...

Mum Smokes

I'm spending my Sunday with the incredible new double album from Melbourne indie quartet Mum Smokes. Easy/House Music is as close to perfect as anything else released this year, overflowing with brainy-pop and smooth jazzy-indie. Artist Mark Rodda also created the cover art and the band is Jonathan Michell from The Ancients, Karl Scullin of KES, Julian Patterson of Minimum Chips and Justin Fuller of ZOND are Mum Smokes and they launch their double CD in Melbourne on June 26 at The John Curtin Bandroom in Carlton with supports Fabulous Diamonds & White Woods. More dates and tunes on their myspace page and they release through Sensory Projects. Check out their video below which was also created by Mark Rodda.

Dark Night of the Soul

NPR are streaming tracks from the awesome"Dark Night of the Soul" collaboration between Sparklehorse and Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley and creator of the Grey Album). You can listen to the collaborations with Iggy Pop, Jason Lytle, James Mercer and DAVID LYNCH!!!! from NPR 'Exclusive First Listen'. The Guardian, among others, reports that the album was leaked to file sharing websites and has since been held up by Danger Mouse's label EMI so he plans to sell an accompanying book with a blank CD-R (so you can download illegally and burn to a physical format i presume)...

Unable to purchase the music, fans are encouraged to buy the project's accompanying book, with photographs by filmmaker David Lynch, which comes with a blank recordable CD-R. "All [CD-Rs] will be clearly labelled: 'For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Link

Link to official site for Dark Night of the Soul.

The Wooden Birds

Fans of classic mellow Texan band American Analog Set can rejoice with a new project from lead chap Andrew Kenny. The Wooden Birds picks up where the sadly departed 'amanset' left off - familiar understated, slow-moving indie-pop for the lost in love - but with fresh new-folk muscle under AK's gentle boyish croon. I'm loving their album Magnolia and its really worth owning. Like really worth it. Listen on myspace or buy it straight from their label Barsuk.

Oh, and thanks to Leigh Tran for the tipoff. She knows I'm an American Analog Set tragic. And her radio program Tape Relay on 2SER in Sydney is amazing.