That Was The Show That Was: The Hold Steady, Sean Na Na

Monday night at Cambridge, Mass.'s Middle East Rock Club Team Clicky Clicky witnessed the sold-out final date of a month-long Hold Steady/Sean Na Na tour. And it's a good thing it was the last night, because the proverbial wheels were falling off the band. Before the set even began band fronter and indie anti-hero du jour Craig Finn embarked on an irritated diaspora around the stage in search of a replacement battery to try to fix his ailing tuning pedal (someone eventually gave him a different pedal). And then not a minute into opening cut "Stuck Between Stations" the electronics in Galen Palivka's bass just gave out, resulting in several minutes of awkward searching for a replacement bass from suddenly missing openers Sean Na Na and The Big Sleep. During this pause guitarist Tad Kubler admitted that the tour had exacted a hard toll on the band, offering up his own sprained ankle as an example. Finn chimed in about how the band's "human parts" were as beaten down as its mechanical ones. The icing on the cake was when keyboardist Franz Nicolay's instrument gave out many songs later at the crucial breakdown in the transcendent rocker "Stevie Nix," which is perhaps the highest of the high points on the band's 2005 magnum opus Separation Sunday.

But somehow, lubricated by myriad screwtop Budweisers and volleys of liquor shots delivered to the stage via plastic cups by adoring supporters Sean Na Na, The Hold Steady got down to the business of performing an ecstatically sloppy, 90-minute live set. A set that joyfully collapsed under its own weight as the band closed out the night with "Killer Parties," during which the band pulled about a hundred audience members on to the stage in a re-enactment of the cover of the band's recently issued third set Boys And Girls In America.

It was interesting to note that, despite the minor fit Finn pitched about his tuning pedal, the dude doesn't play a lot of guitar. Instead, he more often than not let his hollow-body hang and serially seized the microphone and with each carnival-barked line of lyrics charged into the adoring embrace of the crowd. Curiously, between each line Finn pulled the mic away from his maw and screamed unheard, additional sentiments at the crowd. All night. Who knows what he was screaming. We wondered if he was repeating the next lyric to himself so he wouldn't forget it as he regrouped, turned and rushed the crowd again, and again, and again.

Did we mention that Monday night The Hold Steady were class A, Replacements-reminiscent, weapons-grade drunkards? While the fun and energy of the show were boundless, the execution of the material certainly suffered, to the chagrin of at least one fan. Finn's hands slid around the guitar neck during their surprisingly infrequent visits there, and the singer slurred, truncated or simply forgot words to a greater and greater degree with each successive shot or Bud. The Hold Steady were sweet drunks, though, and gushed about their great friends in Sean Na Na and present family. And about midway through The Hold Steady's set the Sean Na Na guys took up residence onstage, supplying back-up vocals for tunes including "Southtown Girls" and maybe "You Can Make Him Like You," drinking, wrestling, drinking and hugging. And of course drinking.

So what about the music? It is hard to separate the music from the high-energy, low-sobriety performance, but there were plenty of highlights, including a rousing "Your Little Hoodrat Friend" and a smoking take on "Cattle And Creeping Things." While the ebullient crowd sang along all evening, it was particularly vocal during spirited renditions of "Chips Ahoy" and "Massive Nights." And "First Night" and "Party Pit" were also quite memorable. Here's the full set list. Needless to say the band left no hit unplayed.

As we noted supra, The Hold Steady had a number of relatives in the audience, adding to the gravity of the tour-capping night. The parents of relatively new addition Nicolay, the fantastically mustachioed keyboard player from New Hampshire, were in the audience and were among the first brought on stage during the finale. And during which Franz shared a warm moment and hugs with them while the audience consumed the stage in rushing waves of sneakers and sweat as the band solemnly closed the show, and closed the book on the tour, with a stirring, poignant run through "Killer Parties." We'll get the rest of our pictures edited and uploaded to Flickr later in the week. Check out Jay Kumar's take on the show here, and grab some MP3s below.

The Hold Steady -- "Stuck Between Stations" -- Live On The Current
The Hold Steady -- "Your Little Hoodrat Friend" -- Separation Sunday
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[Buy Hold Steady records from Newbury Comics here]

The Hold Steady: InterWeb | MySpace | YouTube | Our Pics

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Review: R.E.M. | When the Light is Mine [DVD]

To celebrate its 25th anniversary, newly minted Rock 'N' Roll Hall Of Fame nominees R.E.M. released this video companion to the recent compilation And I Feel Fine…: The Best of the IRS Years 1982-1987. Regardless of your feelings about the band’s output post-Automatic For The People, there’s no denying the greatness of the EP and five albums R.E.M. issued during the six-year span it spent on IRS Records. During this time, the quartet helped define what came to be known as alternative rock with their jangle-pop sound and anti-rock star persona. After 1987’s Document went Top 10 on the strength of single "The One I Love," the band left then-indie IRS (now owned by Capitol Records) for Warner and went from college favorites to rock royalty.

"When The Light Is Mine" collects the familiar videos that everyone saw on MTV in the '80s -- "So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry)," "Can’t Get There From Here," "Driver 8," "Fall On Me," "The One I Love," "It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" -— along with some lesser known clips and live performances on UK shows "The Tube" and "The Old Grey Whistle Test." Some of the more obscure material was shot in and around the band’s Athens, Ga., hometown, including the 20-minute film "Left of Reckoning" and a performance video for "Swan Swan H" that was part of the film "Athens, GA/Inside-Out."

The obligatory extra features include interviews with the fledgling group done for the IRS show The Cutting Edge in 1983 and 1984, as well as in-studio performances, and some promotional interviews done a few years later with Peter Buck and Mike Mills. It’s fun to see the band as fresh-faced idealists talking about favorite contemporary bands like Husker Du, The Replacements, Black Flag and Love Tractor, quickly recording albums (they used to release an album every year) and noting their distrust of major labels. It’s also interesting to chart the evolution of frontman Michael Stipe’s hairstyles throughout the '80s from long, leonine curls to short and dyed, a far cry from the shaved head-look he’s sported for the last 12 years. As the band releases occasional albums of varying quality, And I Feel Fine…: The Best of the IRS Years 1982-1987 is a welcome reminder of R.E.M.’s true glory years. -- Jay Kumar

[Buy "When The Light Is Mine" from R.E.M.store here]

R.E.M. -- InterWeb | MySpace | YouTube

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Rack And Opinion: Release Date 10.31.06

In our opinion there is really only one record you need to buy this week. It is the same record we played over and over again at our Halloween party Saturday night: Sunn0))) and Boris's ambient doom-metal masterpiece Altar. Since the rise of G'N'R in the late '80s, we've pretty much left metal to be watched over by our eldest brother Tito. So we are only now just getting up to speed on the whole Mastodon thing, and aside from a handful of releases on Hydra Head we've pretty much ignored the genre for almost two decades except for where it has intersected with hardcore and industrial music. Anyhoo, we think it underscores how great the record is that we've really taken a shine to Sunn0))) and Boris's stunning collaboration. From flat-out, bone-sucking dread ("Blood Swamp") to stirring beauty ("The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)"), the record is a very compelling listen.

Also finally seeing release this week are two sets from Guillermo Herren's Eastern Developments label: A Cloud Mireya's Singular [review here] and Icy Demons' Tears Of A Clone [review here]. Those records, a couple notable electronic releases, the soundtrack to the recently Bad Brains live DVD and more are our picks for the best new releases of the week. They are all listed below with links going to relevant commercial opportunities with our former magician's assistants over at Insound.

And something new this week: we are now also linking to Newbury Comics, a regional music chain based here in our current hometown of Boston, for commerce opportunities. :: clicky clicky :: believes in thinking blogally and acting locally (tm), knows folks who actually work in NC stores and wants to support a local institution we respect and we want to see thrive for years to come. We still love you Insound, but despite more than 1,000 referrals to your site, we've never received a cent. For now we will link to either store, but we are considering phasing out Insound unless people get in touch to say Newbury Comic's e-commerce is problematic.

A Cloud Mireya -- Singular -- Eastern Developments
Animal Collective -- Hollinndagain -- Paw Tracks
Bad Brains -- Live at CBGB 1982: The Audio Recordings -- MVD Audio
David & The Citizens -- Until The Sadness Is Gone -- Friendly Fire
Icy Demons -- Tears Of A Clone -- Eastern Developments
Nobody -- Revisions, Revisions -- Plug
Sunn0))) and Boris -- Altar -- Southern Lord
Venetian Snares -- Hospitality -- Planet Mu

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Reader Rewards: Win Voxtrot's Your Biggest Fan EP [UPDATE]

We won't prevaricate and say that we like Voxtrot's forthcoming Your Biggest Fan EP more than we like the Austin, Texas-based indie pop quintet's Raised By Wolves EP released last year. That's just not true. But our affection for the latter EP guarantees we'll begrudgingly come around on the former; we usually do. In our estimation the three songs on Your Biggest Fan, a U.S. only release that will be issued by PlayLouder Nov. 7, are a little less edgy, more mid-tempo and exhibit a stronger affinity for the '60s pop sounds the band adores than the '80s analogs (*cough*Smiths*cough*) referenced on Raised By Wolves that we love so much. The trade-off is some fairly surprising sophistication on the notably orchestrated new track "Sway." Of course there are more modern Brit twee sounds still to be heard on Your Biggest Fan: we already noted the similarity in tone between Voxtrot's new tune "Trouble" (MP3 linked below) and The Wake's "Carbrain" here. You'll note we are excluding an intermediate Voxtrot EP, Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives from this discussion, and the reason is we never bought it -- hey, we're not made of $$$.

Anyway, we were fortunate enough to (mistakenly) receive duplicate promo copies of the forthcoming EP and we're giving the spare away today in a contest of sorts (which comes nowhere near the scope of Frank Chromewaves'). To win a copy of Your Biggest Fan, be the first to send us an email with the phrase "I'm just a love letter away" in the subject line. Our email address is in the sidebar to the right. We'll update this item when the disc is won and ship the disc out to the winner tomorrow.

UPDATE: The contest is over. Congratulations to reader Artie Sheepworth! Watch your mailbox, Artie!

Voxtrot -- "Trouble" -- Your Biggest Fan EP
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[Pre-order Your Biggest Fan from the band here]

Voxtrot: InterWeb | MySpace | YouTube

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Free Range Music: Rhapsody Features And Faves, Tom Waits

>> [Disclaimer: five years ago we did a job for Rhapsody. That said, we don't accept advertising and haven't received anything in return for stating the following. -- ed. ] We thought our life couldn't get any better after we downloaded Firefox 2.0 and the DownThemAll extension, but we were wrong. See, every six months or so we rap via email with our old acquaintance Matt The Rhapsody Guy. Usually, we're talking about Flake or Fudge or The Lavender Faction. And usually shop is talked and Matt inevitably gets me all excited about Rhapsody again. The latest knowledge he dropped on me is this: Rhapsody's naming convention for where its artists and albums are located on the web is static and simple: www.rhapsody.com/bandname and www.rhapsody.com/bandname/albumname. This might not seem like a big deal to nice, normal people with solid earning potential and demonstrated charm who don't think about music all day. But for those of us who often get stumped trying to remember bits of music trivia, or who get struck by the sudden urge to listen to just about any song, this feature is a godsend. Sure, most music addicts have gigs and gigs of music at their fingertips via our laptops and IPods. But what about when you are at work, a friend's pad, a parent's house? Well, Rhapsody doles out 25 free streams a month to anyone, not only subscribers, which is the perfect amount to use for all those nagging, late-night questions, like "What's the name of the unlisted track on Lilys' seminal In The Presence of Nothing? All you need is the InterWeb baby. For particularly rabid fans, Rhapsody has added RSS feeds that will keep you informed when new music from your favorite bands on the service has been added. Anyhoo, here are hyperlinks to some of our all-time-favorite albums:

http://www.rhapsody.com/haywood/mencalledhimmister

http://www.rhapsody.com/lilys/abriefhistoryofamazingletdowns

http://www.rhapsody.com/superchunk/nopockyforkitty

>> We pointed to a stream of The Good, The Bad And The Queen's live debut Thursday. Unfortunately, we just had a look at it and the stream quality blows: the video looks like a moving Matisse and the sound is a bit jumpy. We tried to ratchet up our stream to 80kbps, but the Beeb must be short of cash this month because they bounced our stream back down to 32Kbps and then 26. And for some reason even with all our volume controls pinned we couldn't get the sound loud enough. What we can tell you in that bassist Paul Simonon, he formerly of The Clash, looks very similar to Jandek in our opinion. Must be the hat. Anyhoo, if you'd like to give the stream a shot here is the link, which is said to be live for the next week.

>> AOL has resuscitated the Spinner brand and Spinner.com URL. More importantly, the site is hosting four exclusive live Tom Waits tunes, three streams ("Trampled Rose," "Day After Tomorrow," "You Can Never Hold Back Spring") and one download ("Bottom Of The World"). Have a listen right here.

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Today's Hotness: The Good, The Bad And The Queen, Fields

>> Beginning Friday you can stream video of the live debut of Damon Albarn's new combo The Good, The Bad And The Queen here. The show, whose tickets sold out in record time weeks ago, happened earlier today in the U.K. (well, it was night, U.K. time), so the set list has already been posted at the link above. The video is slated to be up for a week, so make a point to check it out before it goes the way of the DuMont. The Good, The Bad And The Queen also features The Clash's Paul Simonon, Fela Kuti drummmer Tony Allen and Verve guitarist Simon Tong. As we reported last month, the band will release its debut record Jan. 8 and the single "Herculean" will be issued and deleted Oct. 30.

>> Mostly British quintet Fields will release a new single Nov. 20 for the tune "If You Fail We All Fail." The single comes in three formats, and depending on which of these you purchase the additional tracks are either 1) How Are You Now? (CD single); 2) two different remixes of the title track (7"); 3) a radio edit of the titular single and "Weave A Noose" on the b-side (7" gatefold vinyl). Not sure if this single will get issued domestically, but here's hoping. We recently gushed over how great Fields' recently issued 7 From The Village is here.

>> Pfork posted a nice interview with Brooklyn-based nu-gaze faves Asobi Seksu Wednesday and you can read it here. There aren't any huge revelations, but it is interesting to learn the story behind the song "Strawberries," and that the building the band recorded its excellent Citrus in was plagued by bedbugs during the sessions.

>> An interesting tidbit in this B-Vegan interview with The Big Sleep's Danny Barria. Mr. Barria, who we first encountered as a sideman to late lamented/ :: clicky clicky :: all-time-fave indie rockers Haywood, has also played with Mahogany. We promise we'll stop talking about Mahogany now.

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Today's Hotness: Mahogany, Bloc Party, Bob Mould

>> Not much of a surprise, but today futurist design-poppers Mahogany received here big snaps from Philebrity. The glowing write-up is rife with delicious media, foremost among them being this full album stream of the band's new set Connectivity!, which we reviewed here. Additionally, the item links to video at YouTube (including the clip of "1+1=3 Or More" above) and stunning photos from Mahogany's co-CD release party with Relay at Philadelphia's newish Johnny Brenda's. All worth checking out. We are about to update the MP3s on our review of Connectivity!, so make sure to keep checking the link above.

>> In case you slept through yesterday, Brit quartet Bloc Party's sophomore set is titled A Weekend In The City and it will be released Feb. 6 on Vice, which confirms information we first reported here. A single "Prayer" will precede the record on Jan. 29. Click through to this Billboard piece for the full-track listing. We reviewed Bloc Party's July 29 show at Boston's FleetBancBostonMicroDisneyHalliburtonCarlyleGroup Pavilion here.

>> Bob Mould and Brendan Canty Monday went into the studio to begin work up on the follow-up to Mould's 2005 set Bodysong, according to this post at the Boblog.

>> We missed the news the first go 'round, but Pun Canoes here points to Pfork reportage about a planned new record from post-punk gods Gang Of Four. We wrote about Gang Of Four's May 2005 Boston show here.

>> Congrats to :: clicky clicky :: contributor Jay Kumar for not only finishing the Chicago marathon in under four hours, but also making a strong bid to be Stephen Colbert's Indian friend.

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Nodding Out With Oval's "Do While" [MP3]

Sometimes labels lead you places you haven't been and didn't know you wanted to go. In the summer of 1997 we borrowed scores of discs from our college radio station (it was largely off the air for the summer) and went on a serious listening and cassette-recording bender. We basically grabbed stuff we'd never heard on labels that had released other stuff we knew we liked, and this led us to several superb releases on Thrill Jockey. Among them was Thrill Jockey 036, a/k/a Oval's 94Diskont, an ambient glitch tour de force that mesmerized us over the course of many hot, dull and unemployed weeks and still mesmerizes us today. Our favorite track of the trio's set is opener "Do While," a mostly weightless and completely placid composition that sounds like cascade of softened pocket change smoothly piloting a squeaky tricycle. Or maybe a gelatinous spectre walking a puppy with lots of metal tags on its collar. Thrill Jockey describes the song and its context within the record:

"The CD centers around "Do While," a 24-minute track originally composed for their 8 channel, 128 speaker modular sound installation "Wohnton" (translates to "home tone") in a stereo mixdown. "Wohnton" was shown all throughout Europe between 1994 and 1996 on various occasions ranging from art exhibitions to techno raves."

94Diskont is apparently composed of samples of skipping CDs, but if you asked us to guess the source material we'd suggest it sounds like the few times we've heard someone manually shuttle through a DAT tape. The set pre-saged by many years similar-sounding but more widely lauded records by Fennesz and Tim Hecker, records which, frankly, we don't listen to much these days. Oval's set, however, will likely never leave our IPod. We've posted below an edit of "Do While" -- we're not sure whether it is a detail or one of the remixes that came with the vinyl issue of the set, because we scored the MP3 a year or so ago from some guy's music thesis posted online (it was easier than ripping our cassette). But it doesn't matter, because everyone should own 94Diskont, and we trust hearing this tune will convince you of that if you are not already a believer.

Oval -- "Do While (unknown edit)" -- 94Diskont
[removed]
[Stream 94Diskont for free via Rhapsody here]

[Buy 94Diskont from Insound here]

Oval | InterWeb

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Rack And Opinion: Release Date 10.24.06

On paper it is a pretty sleepy new release week, particularly if you take a gander at our list below: half of the records are collections old material from defunct bands, only one of which we've had the pleasure of seeing. In 1997 we were minding our own business trying to get a life in Central Virginia when we decided to take in a Jon Spencer Blues Explosion show, where, if memory serves, Atari Teenage Riot opened with a face-burning set of what was then called electronica. It was very aggressive, and the act seemed pretty out-of-place in Charlottesville. But they were uncompromising and fairly impressive. The band is releasing a career-spanning retrospective on its own label this week, and you might want to check it out.

More known knowns, as Rummy would say, are the odds and sods set from pro moper and vibrato dispenser Conor Oberst's Bright Eyes or one of two import sets featuring legendary British guitar pop bands. The most interesting record of the week may come from Cibo Matto principle and Sean Ono Lennon pal Miho Hatori. All of our best bets for the week are listed below. Links go to relevant commercial opportunities with our former swim coaches over at Insound.

+/- -- Let's Build A Fire -- Absolutely Kosher
Atari Teenage Riot -- Atari Teenage Riot: 1992-2000 -- Digital Hardcore
Bright Eyes -- Noise Floor (Rarities 1998-2005) -- Saddle Creek
Miho Hatori -- Ecdysis -- Rykodisc
House of Love -- The Complete John Peel Sessions -- Universal [UK]
The La's -- BBC in Session -- Universal [UK]

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Free Range Music: Broken Social Scene, Sunn0))) and Boris

>> [photo credit] Bradley's Almanac has posted a recording of last week's completely under-the-radar Broken Social Scene show at Brandeis University. The recording is excellent, maybe a little more talky than some (but the kids are just excited is all), and we highly recommend streaming it here via Hype Machine's handy Flash player or downloading the files direct from The 'Nac. We've never seen the Canadian supergroup ourselves and haven't heard any other live stuff save for the Broken Mascis Scene set from this past summer. So we are surprised at how jammy, in a very good way, the band -- performing here as a "stripped-down" septet -- is live. The versions of "Ibi Dreams Of Pavement" and "KC Accidental" are explosive. And then there's the Dinosaur Jr. cover. They don't quite nail "The Wagon," but it's a fun rendition nonetheless. Read Mr. Searle's take on the literal and proverbial Scene here. And definitely listen to this.

>> A while back B-Vegan (we like to refer to Mr. BrooklynVegan this way and pretend that he is down with Cypress Hill; we don't know why) pointed us to a stream of the new collab between Sunn0))) and Boris titled Altar. We've had this record on-hand for a while and it is heavy and spooky and beautiful. We haven't really checked out Sun0))) heretofore and only know Boris' cataclysmically amazing song "Goodbye," but we whole-heartedly recommend going here and listening to Altar, particularly the bliss-out "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)" and the sinister dreamer "Fried Eagle Mind."

>> For a couple more weeks you can download in its entirety here what is rumored to be the final release from road-worn and Ohio-proud (although somehow currently curiously split between Philly and Berlin) duo Swearing At Motorists. Mr. DoneWaiting himself was the first to point this out to us here. The set is titled Exile On Gipsstraße and it was recorded in a U-bahn station in Berlin at the same time the band was working on its most recent effort Last Night Becomes This Morning. We haven't checked out Gipsstraße yet, but we better soon because it is only available through election day. While we're on the subject, the band's Number Seven Uptown includes our favorite SAM tune "Flying Pizza" and a number of other excellent tunes. We were fortunate to be in a band opening for SAM on one date of the Number Seven Uptown tour about six years ago, which was a real good time. Also look for the cut "Being In Love," which is a real kick in the heart.

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Review: Fields | 7 From The Village [MP3]

How is it that we are just getting hip to Brit quintet Fields' charming release 7 From The Village? The set was issued by Black Lab/Vice Sept. 12 and is probably sitting at your local record shoppe right now just waiting for you because of big-league distro via Atlantic. So go get it. The record metes out potent doses of melodic guitars, dreamy vocals, urgent beats and wistful sentiments in a curious amalgamation of acoustic spacefolk ("Sisters") and fervently dreamy fuzz ("Brittlesticks"). Album highlight "Brittlesticks" [video clip posted below] is comprised of a perfect storm of acoustic and electric guitars and synths and insistence and pleading; we've been singing the line "tell me something..." to ourselves for the better part of a week. The gentle, fuzzy strummer "Isabel" has just about supplanted Unrest's "Isabel" as our favorite song with the name "Isabel." If you can follow that. "Heretic" sounds like it was accidentally left off Broken Social Scene's triumph You Forgot It In People, particularly the jumpy rhythm and furry vocal in the verse. This week Fields begins criss-crossing the UK for a few weeks of shows, with a stop off in Paris thrown in the mix; you can see full tour dates at the MySpace depot linked below. Dear Fields: Please come to America. Please come to Boston. Please come to our place. We'll have coffee.

Fields -- "Brittlesticks" -- 7 From The Village
Fields -- "Song For The Fields" -- 7 From The Village
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[Buy 7 From The Village from Insound here]

Fields | InterWeb
Fields | MySpace
Fields | YouTube



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From The Archive: Meneguar Live At Che Cafe, 2005

We get the feeling that for the most part people don't appreciate enough the great resource that is Archive.org. In addition to hosting streams of our favorite Grateful Dead show, downloads of The Conet Project and documenting the existence of our former employers, there is a world of stuff there simply waiting to be discovered. Case in point is this 274MB download of a complete set in nearly full-screen video from our favorite criminally under-rated noise rockers Meneguar.

This is a big download, fer sure, but here are the selling points: decent sound and video quality (although the lighting is sub-optimal); the one stationary camera has a good angle of all the players (although having a second angle would capture more of singer Jarvis Taveniere's action at the mic); and a tight, energetic setlist featuring a half dozen cuts from the triumphant I Was Born At Night ("House Of Cats," "Kids Get Cut," "Hands Off," "Wounded Knee," our favorite "The Temp" and "A Few Minutes An Hour") and one tune we didn't know. As we lament here seemingly every week, we've yet to see Meneguar live, so this video went a long way to satisfying that jones without having to drive several hours. It's a big download to commit to if you aren't a fan, but if you are or would like to be, it's definitely worth it. Read our review of I Was Born At Night here.

Meneguar -- Live At Che Cafe, May 2005 (274MB .wmv file)
[right click and save as]

Meneguar | InterWeb
Meneguar | MySpace

On a related note, we love this message at the Troubleman Unlimited website [TMU is Meneguar's record label]:

"Everyone is waiting with baited breath for our CMJ plans!!! I keep getting asked, "Hey Mike, are you going to do a killer CMJ show with all the cool DJs and bands? Are you going to DJ your afterparty?? It's gonna be great, I cant wait!!!"

Here's our NYC CMJ schedule:

Fuck the music industry. And fuck you DJs as well."

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Today's Hotness: Mendoza Line, Trolleyvox, Gertie Fox

>> [photo credit] A brief message atop the main page of the Mendoza Line web site continues to promise an EP will be released this winter, but the communique has now been augmented with the promise of a best-of compilation to be released in 2007. Isn't that what If They Knew This Was The End was supposed to be? Well, we just reviewed that disc's track listing and we guess that just compiled brighter spots from the excellent Poems To A Pawnshop and Like Someone In Love. Anyway, we hope the Brooklyn-based consortium's best-of draws liberally from 2000's We're All In This Alone, which is still our very favorite of the band's records. Might we suggest I Hope That You Remember To Forget as a title?

>> Philebrity settles in for a nice chat here with chief Trolleyvox-er Andrew Chalfen. You may recall we reviewed the band's very enjoyable third power-pop platter ...Present The Karaoke Meltdowns here in September, and said among other things that "fans of ... Small Factory and acts like Miracle Legion will find a lot to like." Anyhoo, one interesting piece of information in the interview is that former Moped principal and Bigger Lovers fronter Bret Tobias is now drumming with hotly tipped Philly combo B.C. Camplight, which we first heard on Jon Solomon's excellent radio program on WPRB.

>> If you've seen "American Hardcore," you know erstwhile Black Flag fronter Henry Rollins is perfectly comfortable delivering serial left hooks to bozo punkers accosting him from the front of the stage. Apparently, according to this dispatch, Mr. Rollins is less comfortable with paparazzi.

>> Big props to friend and sometime correspondent The Good Doctor, whose I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Kick Your Ass promo video gets snaps aplenty direct from Matador topper Gerard Cosloy here. We first pointed out Mr. Dube's bit of cinematic excellence here.

>> Gertie Fox, whose latest record we reviewed here earlier this month, will release a single on Yep Roc next month.

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Coming To Your Local Bandstand: Relay [MP3]

Deserved hype is beginning a lazy swirl around :: clicky clicky :: faves Relay, which is Spin.com's featured band of the day today and who were recently profiled here in the digital and paper pages of Philadelphia's Philadelphia Weekly arts and entertainment tabloid. The band plays a record release show Saturday in its hometown. Next month band leader Jeff Zeigler and company undertake a brief and altogether Boston-less tour in support of its new full length Still Point Of Turning. We were quite taken with the preceding Type/Void EP, and look forward to getting our hands on Still Point.

But the most exciting prospect may be seeing the blistering dream pop tunes performed live. In the Philadelphia Weekly piece Zeigler says the band can't recreate some of the studio trickery employed in its songs, meaning you'll hear some new and interesting stuff out there. Anyhoo, full dates are below. Bubble Core Records is hosting an MP3 of the tune "Context" from the new record, which we'll link to here to save you the trip.

Relay -- "Context" -- Still Point Of Turning
[right click and save as]

10/21 -- Johnny Brenda's -- Philadelphia, PA
11/03 -- Rock and Roll Hotel -- Washington, DC
11/05 -- Pianos -- New York, NY
11/07 -- Wetlands -- Chapel Hill, NC
11/08 -- Spazzatorium -- Greenville, NC
11/09 -- Soapbox Laundrolounge -- Wilmington, NC
11/10 -- Savannah College of Art & Design -- Savannah, GA
11/13 -- Empty Bottle -- Chicago, IL
11/17 -- Rex's -- West Chester, PA
11/19 -- Pianos -- New York, NY

Relay | InterWeb
Relay | MySpace
Relay was featured in Show Us Yours #3 here.

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The Upper Crust Rock Harder Than Marie Antoinette [MP3]

In honor of the impending release of Sofia Coppola's latest film "Marie Antoinette," which sets the tale of the fabled French noblewoman to a noteworthy new wave soundtrack, we thought we'd post The Upper Crust's amazing "Let Them Eat Rock." For those of you not familiar with the Boston act, the self-appointed "world's most privileged band" dresses like 18th Century French fops but sound like AC/DC. And the quartet go by ridiculous monikers such as Jackie Kickassis, Duc D'Istortion and so on. For realsies. This version of "Let Them Eat Rock" comes from the band's 1999 double live set Entitled, which you can buy here from Baltimore's Reptilian Records. It is worth buying the record just to hear the introduction to "Let Them Eat Rock." But definitely download this: it is probably the best tune you'll hear all week. Until you see the movie, that is. The Upper Crust plays Boston tonight and then Providence and New York this weekend, and has two shows booked for next month. Check the MySpace chalet linked below for more information.

The Upper Crust -- "Let Them Eat Rock" -- Entitled

The Upper Crust | InterWeb
The Upper Crust | MySpace

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Today's Hotness: The Hold Steady, Will Oldham, [ingenting]

>> Because the struggling new media goliath laid us off almost four years ago and we like to hold grudges sometimes, we try not to link to AOL content unless there is a very good reason. Well, there is a good reason today, as one of AOL's many tentacles has an exclusive on the new video for The Hold Steady's "Chips Ahoy." We are enamored with the clip, moreso than we usually are with music videos. This is primarily because we think band leader Craig Finn does an awesome quasi-Howard Cosell in the clip. And the bit where he's broadcasting and the camera pans out to reveal Finn's waist-deep in the swimming pool? Classic (but pre-dated by a decade by the same gag in Kam Fong's "Roger And Rerun" video). On the whole the clip for "Chips Ahoy" has a very Huey Lewis and the News sort of vibe (for those of you old enough to remember that act's classic mid-'80s vids), but that's not a bad thing. Check it out here. Interesting observation: AOL also had an exclusive on the MP3 for the new Lemonheads tune "No Backbone." Is there a larger AOL/Vagrant marketing deal in place here? Inquiring minds want to know. Confidential to Bald Bull: hit my inbox with the 411.

>> Here's a bit of follow-up to "American Hardcore." H-Dawg From Accounts Receivable tipped us off to this profile of Boston's own Straight Edge Hank, who was featured in the film (read our review here). Hank Peirce, as he is known to most folks, is now a reverend with a church just outside of the city, but he logged thousands of miles back in the day as a roadie for bands including Slapshot (whose record Sudden Death Overtime has one of the toughest covers ever printed). But, as the article concludes, Peirce "is God's roadie now." A nice little profile.

>> If you haven't been to the art house or ordered a record from Insound lately then you may not have seen this trailer or gotten a promo postcard for a forthcoming film starring enigmatic indie rocker Will Oldam, a/k/a Bonnie "Prince" Billy. We usually have a little trepidation about seeing films fearturing rockers we idolize because we've been burned so many times before. But "Old Joy" has been winning awards and earning rave reviews, and we have to say that the trailer sold us. The soundtrack provided by Yo La Tengo certainly helps, and bolstered our high hopes for the film.

>> Because we've enjoyed both pre-release MP3s from the record we think it is worth pointing out that Labrador is now taking orders for Swedish indie pop phenom [ingenting]'s new record Mycket Väsen För Ingenting here. Haven't heard any of their tunes yet? Here are a couple MP3s courtesy of the label [right click and save as].

[ingenting] -- "Släpp in solen" -- Mycket Väsen För Ingenting
[ingenting] -- "Punkdrömmar" -- Mycket Väsen För Ingenting

>> Speaking of buying stuff and MP3s: If you didn't register the press blip caused by Insound.com's Save The Album marketing campaign earlier this week, then perhaps you don't know that this is the week the online storefront intends to begin selling albums in the MP3 format. We previously wrote about the initiative here.

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Spirit Of The Season: Evangelicals' "The Halloween Song" [MP3]

Despite Mrs. Clicky's strong affinity for Halloween in particular, we generally don't go nuts for holiday tunes or novelty cuts. Fortunately -- at least until a little shout out at the end -- the new Evangelicals Halloween tune making the rounds is very good. The song, appropriately titled "Halloween Song," has a lighter touch than the material we've all grown to love on Evangelicals' nifty 2006 release So Gone, which we reviewed here. The acoustic guitar and desktop percussion (literally -- it sounds like the percussion here is primarily a guy tapping on his desk with a pencil and his fingers) is balanced by several scoops of tasteful whimsy, here manifested as vibrato backing vocals and the occasional bleep.

The overall effect is less Flaming Lips, which is the tired comparison music writin' folks like to prop up when speaking of Evangelicals (a move we'll reluctantly perpetuate here), and more British electro-tweesters Psapp. Really. As for the shout out? Well, it is growing on us. It certainly matches the "old time radio" tone of the ghoulish backing vocals, which also, incidentally, sort of reference So Gone's opening tune "A Mouthful Of Skeletons." Check it out for yourself below. And here's the e-card that goes with the tune. Evangelicals are back on the road at the end of this month, and we are looking forward to a show here in the Boston area in mid-November. The full tour dates are at the MySpace wigwam linked below.

Evangelicals -- "The Halloween Song"
[right click and save as]

Evangelicals | MySpace
[Buy So Gone from Insound here]

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Coming To Your Local Bandstand: Dirty On Purpose [MP3]

When we last left our caped crusaders (more like headbanded indie rockers), Dirty On Purpose had just issued their strong and long-awaited proper debut Hallelujah Sirens and were showing us around their primo practice space. Now the Brooklyn nu gazers are kicking the tires, topping off the tank and setting their sites on a fall tour that runs throughout November and into early December. And the quartet has two warm-up dates in Boston and D.C. this week.

We reviewed Hallelujah Sirens in June and thought the "record is a solid set of moody, guitar-geared indie rock numbers, many of them beautiful and affecting and some with engaging compositional touches." Read the whole review here, and revisit the band's cool practice space as described in Show Us Yours #2 here. Full fall tour dates are below. And how about an MP3? Below we link to the band's excellent tune "Practice For Having Sex," which was issued on an eponymous EP sometime last year. Or maybe it was even the year before, since we know from reviewing it that the tune wasn't on the enjoyable 2005 EP Sleep Late For A Better Tomorrow.

Dirty On Purpose -- "Practice For Having Sex" -- Dirty On Purpose EP
[removed]

Dirty On Purpose | InterWeb
Dirty On Purpose | MySpace
[Buy Dirty On Purpose music at Insound here]

10/19 -- Great Scott -- Allston, MA
10/20 -- Rock N' Roll Hotel -- Washington, DC
11/01 -- Sound Fix -- Brooklyn, NY
11/03 -- Sin-e -- New York, NY
11/03 -- The Annex -- New York, NY
11/03 -- Galapagos -- Brooklyn, NY
11/08 -- Main Hall -- Montreal, Canada
11/09 -- Lee's Palace -- Toronto, ON
11/10 -- Big Orbit's Soundlab -- Buffalo, NY
11/11 -- Blind Pig -- Ann Arbor, MI
11/12 -- Lakeshore Threater -- Chicago, IL
11/13 -- 400 Bar -- Minneapolis, MN
11/16 -- Chop Suey -- Seattle, WA
11/18 -- The Doug Fir Lounge -- Portland, OR
11/19 -- W.O.W. Hall -- Eugene, OR
11/21 -- The Independent -- San Francisco, CA
11/24 -- Belly Up Tavern -- Solana Beach, CA
11/26 -- Cafe Dunord -- San Francisco, CA
11/28 -- Kilby Court -- Salt Lake City, UT
11/29 -- Larimer Lounge -- Denver, CO
11/30 -- Jackpot -- Lawrence, KS
12/01 -- The House -- Cafe Dekalb, IL
12/02 -- Subterranean -- Chicago, IL
12/06 -- Case Western University -- Cleveland, OH
12/08 -- Swarthmore College -- Swarthmore, PA

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Film Review: "American Hardcore"

We made it out Saturday night to see "American Hardcore," the documentary film spawned by a book of the same name that examines the extreme North American underground music scene between the years 1980 and 1986. As we've been anticipating the release of the movie here in these electronic pages for most of the year it seems appropriate to follow through and actually tell you what we thought of the movie.

On the whole we were pleased -- we had set realistic expectations. While "American Hardcore" is far from perfect, it succeeds in offering a compelling overview of something that most people don't even know exists. While the book's author is not the most eloquent, the film suffers a bit from lack of the narrative that strung the book's component parts together. The film has none of the interstitial narrative linking the events, locales and people the book considers; as such it lives and dies on the personalities of those interviewed.

Fortunately, for the most part the subjects are intensely amusing and often informative. Even so, as funny as Keith Morris of the Circle Jerks is, they use too much of him at the beginning of the movie. The corresponding clips with Vic Bondi, formerly of Chicago's Articles Of Faith, were equally as impassioned and spot-on and we would have liked to have seen a bit more of him. Incidentally, Bondi recently resumed the hardcore mantle, putting together Report Suspicious Activity with producer extraordinaire and Jawbox/Burning Airlines/Channels principal J. Robbins. We highly recommend RSA's track "Subtle" [MP3 -- right click and save as] which is posted at the band's MySpace casa here.

Due to the typical moviegoer's attention span, the film must distill entire geographic scenes and careers into minutes, but we were pleased that the import bestowed upon hardcore visionaries Bad Brains was conveyed nearly as strongly in the film as it is in the book. Another pleasant surprise are the lucid interviews with legendary Bad Brains fronter H.R.; we posted a link to an interview in one of the earliest iterations of :: clicky clicky :: years ago that made it seem like H.R.'s head had almost permanently checked out. Speaking of H.R., it was fascinating to see guys like Minor Threat's Bryan Baker and Black Flag's Greg Ginn as middle-aged men. They all look like science teachers. Well, except H.R.

The hardcore scenes outside LA, DC, Boston and New York receive only token attention in the film version of "American Hardcore," which is too bad. While it was nice to see Boston get so many props, some of the more interesting stories in the book occurred in "secondary markets," Texas in particular. That said, the film even truncates the careers of its main story vehicles, glossing over the various facets of the careers of such touchstone bands as the aforementioned Minor Threat and Black Flag, and comes to a fairly abrupt ending. Here's hoping the DVD has tons of extras -- we'll definitely be buying it.

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Rack And Opinion: Release Date 10.17.06

It's a relatively tame week for big-deal new releases, but there are certainly several small-deal ones worth your attention. Folks whose lives were soundtracked by Sunny Day Real Estate's Diary in the early '90s may be excited to hear the sophomore solo set from the band's enigmatic lead singer Jeremy Enigk. The record is called World Waits, and sadly it is more akin to Mr. Enigk's dramatic solo debut Return Of The Frog Queen than it is to Sunny Day's potent angst-and-gigantic-guitars frappucino. Other records of note include electronic luminary Tim Hecker's Harmony In Ultraviolet, which PantsFork just voted Best New Music or something today. Mr. Hecker's Haunt Me Haunt Me Haunt Me Do It Again is perhaps our favorite abstract glitch record, so we are eager to hear this latest set. Drill 'n' bass master Squarepusher also returns this week, and we link to a stream of the record below.

Finally, what we are most curious about this week is Benoît Pioulard's Précis, which Kranky will issue. We have no idea what it sounds like, but Mr. Pioulard's [well, Mr. Thomas Meluch's] recent remix of Mobius Band's "You're Wrong," which is posted at the band's MySpace dojo here, is a stunning interpretation that is at least as good as the original tune. These records and the rest of our picks for the week's best new releases are listed below. Links go to music or relevant commercial opportunities with our former wall paper hangers over at Insound.

Jeremy Enigk -- World Waits -- Lewis Hollow/Sony BMG [album stream]
Tim Hecker -- Harmony in Ultraviolet -- Kranky
Goldfrapp -- We Are Glitter -- Mute
Nitzer Ebb -- Body of Work 1984-1997 -- Mute
Benoît Pioulard -- Précis -- Kranky [MP3]
Squarepusher -- Hello Everything -- Warp [album stream]

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YouTube Rodeo: The Beginning Of The End?

>> Our savvy analyst and former-analyst friends are predicting the end of the Wild West days of YouTube, so we wanted to peruse the site today and dig up any gems we've missed heretofore in case YouTube becomes totally co-opted by and beholden to The Man. So above is a link to our favorite song by defunct Philadelphia-based sort-of supergroup The Bigger Lovers. The band features guys who play with The Pernice Brothers and Lefty's Deceiver and several other acts we discuss here with some regularity. Anyway, the tune is called "Bought Your Ghost" and it is from the band's excellent set Honey In The Hive, which came out on Yep Roc several years ago.

>> We've been keeping an eye on YouTube for the last year waiting for decent video of Meneguar to pop up. And while that day has yet to come, there are two recent clips from a show at the Spazz in Greenville, N.C., that are worth looking at if only because the sound and video isn't absolutely abysmal and there is so little else out there to watch. The video is choppy and splices together pieces of a couple different songs from the band's stellar I Was Born At Night record, which was first released in 2005. The main chunk is a song that is new to us. Meneguar is apparently working on finishing a second set that we seem to remember reporting that Troubleman plans to release next year.

>> Here's a live clip of The Jam doing an energetic version of "Down In The Tube Station At Midnight." There's not a lot to say about this clip, except it is sort of amazing to see Paul Weller looking so young -- probably younger in the clip than we are now, which is scary to think about; how did we get older than Paul Weller? There are lots of great hairstyles in the video, not the least of which is the bass player's hair helmet.

>> The are currently at least 1,600 clips of The Cure on YouTube. Which is a lot. Monitoring the number of those clips in the coming weeks and months might give the casual observer an idea of how a licensed, legitimate YouTube will look in the future. Here's the band as a trio in Dec. 1981 performing a haunting version of "The Figurehead" in a cramped room for a promotional clip. We've always preferred the more stripped-down Cure, and wished the same sort of musical economy that characterized the first few records carried over into their more popular ones. We harbor what is likely the rare opinion that Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me suffers under the weight of all the keyboards. Anybody know what kind of guitar Fat Bob is playing here? Can anyone recommend a definitive Cure biography? We know there are many, but we are looking for recommendations on the most thorough and up-to-date book, since we already know a lot about the band.

>> Finally, here's a live clip from July in which New Order performs one of our very favorite songs, "Ceremony," which has been featured prominently in promos for the forthcoming film "Marie Antoinette." This clip is woefully short, but we thought we'd throw it up given that we've seen every one of the other 600 or so clips currently on YouTube. Incidentally, this blog was almost called Avenues All Lined With Trees, and we still consider changing it now and again. OH SNAP -- here's the band performing the song in 1981, less than a year after Joy Division's Ian Curtis hanged himself. Bernard Sumner's vocal is pretty lackluster, but otherwise the sound and picture here is superlative.

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From The Admin Cubicle: General Business

>> We've gotten on board with the whole del.icio.us social bookmarking thing. Which means if you'd like to read articles and blog posts that we've deemed particularly interesting, you can scroll down a bit and hit one of the tags listed in our sidebar. Generally we point to articles reflecting action on the industry side of things, and not the artist side. That's because if we see any artist information that is particularly interesting we note it in our regular Today's Hotness feature. Here is our del.icio.us profile.

>> We're endeavouring to post more MP3s here at :: clicky clicky ::, and we'd like to reiterate that if someone owns or controls the copyright to any work we post here and would like it removed, send us an email and we'll de-activate it lickity-split. Our email is linked in the right sidebar. We won't personally upload any pre-release material (although we will continue to, as always, link to appropriately cleared pre-release files and streams), and we won't personally upload more than one song from a particular record unless we are making a larger editorial point that necessitates it. Anyway, we hope you enjoy the music as much as we do; that's why we're here, after all.

>> As we have mentioned the sidebar already, we'll continue on and point out two more things. Want to know what we are listening to? Did we like a record so much that we actually put it in our ITunes? We have a Last.fm page here. Want to be our MySpace "friend"? Well, we've got a profile, but generally we don't "make" "friends" with anyone unless 1) they are actually our friends IRL or 2) we want to follow the goings-on of a particular band via any MySpace bulletins it might send out.

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Allegra D Lunch: Johnny Greenwood's "Popcorn Superhet Receiver"

NME here points to the Beeb, which is hosting a recent classical composition of Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, BBC's current composer in residence. The eighteen-minute-plus piece "Popcorn Superhet Receiver," which was premiered in April 2005, opens to quiet tufts of strings sliding across harmony and discord. About midway through percussion asserts itself, and the tune takes on the dramatic vibe of an action film score. No surprise, really. Fans of the Radiohead guitarist/instrumentalist will recall Greenwood issued a solo debut, the score to the documentary "Bodysong," in 2003. Stream "Popcorn Superhet Receiver" here [scroll down]. We, in our prescription allergy-medicated state, rather enjoyed it.

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Today's Hotness: Juana Molina, J. Church, Sony BMG Settlement

>> On Tuesday The New York Times ran this compelling profile of Argentinian electroacoustic luminary Juana Molina. The piece gives an informative overview of Ms. Molina's career, which is substantially longer than the several years we've known about her. Her first solo record Rara was issued 10 years ago -- we had no idea it was that old. The section of the article describing Molina's struggle for musical acceptance after a very successful television career is particularly notable. Juana Molina's most recent record Son was released by Domino in June. [photo credit]

“The apathy or even hostility of the crowds was terrible, with people walking out all the time,” recalled Fernando Kabusacki, a guitarist who accompanied Ms. Molina through 2003. “They would tell her to go back to comedy, and backstage afterwards she would be in tears."

>> As we've previously reported on the health problems dogging J. Church's Lance Hahn recently we think it is worth pointing out news of the pop-punk band's forthcoming set. PunkNews reports here that No Idea has posted an MP3 of the song "Vampire Girl" [right click and save as]. The tune is from the forthcoming record The Horror Of Life, which currently has no release date.

>> KoomDogg pointed us toward this page laying out the endgame of the Sony BMG rootkit debacle. We don't imagine many of our readers were affected, since the technology was generally deployed on CDs we wouldn't make our dog listen to, but the economics and mechanics of the settlement offer is interesting (ironically, just clicking on the .pdf link to the page listing the affected CDs froze our browser). One proposed remedy is an offer of MP3 files of the relevant music -- there is no mention of the files being copy protected. It's another rare instance of a major label embracing uprotected MP3s. We guess that when you messed up as bad as they did, you have to give stuff away. Anyhoo, here are the settlement offer basics:

You get a benefit if you have a SONY BMG CD with XCP content protection software, or have already returned such a CD to Sony BMG or to the place of purchase...

[Y]ou may receive a replacement CD, a free download of the music on the CD, and software fixes for known security vulnerabilities. In addition, you may choose to receive either (i) a cash payment of $7.50 and one (1) free album download from CONNECT Music, f.y.e., iTunes, or Wal-Mart; or (ii) three (3) free album downloads from CONNECT Music, f.y.e., iTunes, or Wal-Mart.

You get a benefit if you bought or have a SONY BMG CD with MediaMax content protection software... Your benefit differs depending on the version.

For Version 3.0: you may receive free downloads of the music on the CD and software fixes for known security vulnerabilities. For Version 5.0: you may receive free downloads of the music on the CD and software fixes for known security vulnerabilities, plus one (1) free album download from CONNECT Music, f.y.e., iTunes, or Wal-Mart.

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From The Admin Cubicle: Sick

We've contracted our completely debilitating semi-annual sinus/allergy/cold thing and are taking the night off to stare into space with watery eyes and fuzzy head while listening to some new stuff that has come over the threshold in the last day or so, including the new Sean Lennon joint. We'll be back with new editorial tomorrow or the next day. -- The Management.

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Stream New ...Trail Of Dead: "Wasted State Of Mind"

We have to say we're pretty pleased with this new ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead song, if only because it has completely dodged our expectations. If someone told me that "Wasted State Of Mind" was a track from the new Damon Albarn project The Good, The Bad And The Queen we'd have no trouble beleiving it. This new song is certainly good, very textured in surprising ways, opening with polyrhythmic drumming and ending with a drum roll and accordion. Really. It is about as far as you could get from what we'd expect from the same group of guys we watched toss their gear up into the ceiling tiles of TT The Bear's club here in Cambridge several years ago. Anyway, have a listen and decide for yourself. The song is the third track on So Divided, which streets Nov. 14.

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead -- "Wasted State Of Mind" [RM | WM]

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Coming To Your Local Bandstand: Bloc Party

Energetic post-punkers Bloc Party return to North America supporting emo teenthrobs Panic! At The Disco in less than a month. Bloc Party is hitting some secondary markets this go-round. Ergo, Boston doesn't get a show -- instead the act takes its show to nearby Lowell's Tsongas Arena. That's a little far for us to travel to see a band we just saw this summer (here are video clips from the show -- the lights were really stunning), but we are pondering it... We had some electronic correspondence with a friendly Vice Records rep who says the label expects the band's long awaited sophomore set will hit racks in February or so. Bloc Party played a few new tracks during its summer tour, and we expect you'll hear even more of the new stuff if you get out to see the lads in November and December. The band's live show is electrifying (read our review of the July show here), and we definitely recommend you see the band do their thing live. We just double-checked and some dates are already sold out; full dates below. In other news, the band reports here that it recently recorded something in a solar-powered recording studio -- perhaps a b-side or two? We don't know.

Bloc Party | InterWeb | MySpace | YouTube

11/07 -- FL Bank Atlantic Centre -- Fort Lauderdale, FL
11/08 -- UCF Arena -- Orlando, FL [SOLD OUT]
11/09 -- HiFi Buys Amphitheatre -- Atlanta, GA
11/10 -- Cricket Arena -- Charlotte, NC
11/11 -- Patriot Center -- Fairfax, VA
11/13 -- Theater at Madison Square Garden -- New York, NY [SOLD OUT]
11/14 -- Theater at Madison Square Garden -- New York, NY [SOLD OUT]
11/16 -- Ricoh Colliseum -- Toronto
11/17 -- Gordon Field House -- Rochester, NY
11/18 -- Tsongas Arena -- Lowell, MA [SOLD OUT]
11/19 -- Wachovia Center -- Philadelphia, PA
11/21 -- The Palace of Auburn Hills -- Detroit, MI
11/22 -- UIC Pavillion -- Chicago, IL
11/24 -- US Bank Theatre -- Minneapolis, MN
11/25 -- St. Charles County Family Arena -- St. Louis, MO
11/26 -- Mid America Centre -- Council Bluff, IA
11/28 -- Magness Arena -- Denver, CO
11/29 -- The E Centre -- Salt Lake City, UT
12/01 -- Memorial Coliseum -- Portland, OH
12/02 -- Pacific Coliseum -- Vancouver
12/03 -- Everett Events Centre -- Seattle, WA
12/05 -- HP Pavillion -- San Jose, CA
12/06 -- Long Beach Arena -- Long Beach, CA
12/07 -- Glendale Arena -- Glendale, AZ
12/08 -- Orleans Theatre -- Las Vegas, NV
12/09 -- iPay One Centre -- San Diego, CA

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