Come On Dave, Gimme A Break.

Pop metal legends Van Halen announced its first tour with original fronter David Lee Roth in 22 years today. Please allow us to revert to our ten-year-old selves for one night. Well, and our 33-year-old selves too, apparently. To quote our Feb. 1, 2007 email to fellow participants of Bus Of Rock III: ""'Unchained' Live, with flaming gong action at the end. Holy sh*t this is awesome. The band was never this good again. This is the highlight. FLAMING F*CKING GONG."

Today's Hotness: Joy Division, Johnny Foreigner, Distophia

>> With the American release of the hotly anticipated Ian Curtis biopic "Control" edging closer, plans have been announced to re-issue post-punk legends Joy Division recordings in expanded editions. Read this NME item for track listings and a bit more information. We got in to Joy Division when cassettes were still a viable format, and as such we don't have these records on CD. As such, we're excited to get these, although we are apprehensive that remixing or remastering might alter the records. We'll see what happens. We're curious what effect if any the death of Factory Records impresario Tony Wilson Friday will have on the release of these reissues. "Control" debuted at Cannes in May; it will have its U.S. premiere Oct. 10 at the Film Forum in New York City. The songs comprising the soundtrack to the film are listed here.

>> Here's your weekly Johnny Foreigner update. The stellar Birmingham, UK noise pop trio did not win the Road To V competition we previously mentioned here. The upside? According to a MySpace post this apparently frees the act from a restriction that required it to remain unsigned while they were involved with the competition. Labels would be idiots not to snatch these guys up. Johnny Foreigner has tons of amazing material, they play tons of gigs, and we expect signing has got to be around the corner.

>> Argh. Another great UK band discovered and found to have broken up in the same day (this previously happened when we discovered Eddyfink last month; more about Eddyfink's brilliant "In For Me" later in the week). This month the find, via a post on the Just Gimmie Indie Rock blog that Johnny Foreigner mentioned in a recent post, is the newly erstwhile, two-MySpaces-having Birmingham quartet Distophia. Based on comments on its MySpace hacienda Distophia seems to have recently broken up. Head here to download the compelling track "Evil Baroness."

>> That A-Sides tour in October we've mentioned previously will be with The Velvet Teen and Say Hi (To Your Mom), which we remember being called simply Say Hi To Your Mom (no parens) when we reviewed their record Ferocious Mopes for Junkmedia here two years ago. According to the most recent news item at its web site, Say Hi To Your Mom is officially changing its name to simply Say Hi as of September and will release a fifth record in early 2008. Anyway, prior to the dates with TVT and Say Hi, The A-Sides will tour out to the west coast supporting vegan posterman and indie rock force of nature Ted Leo. You can check out those dates here. Incidentally, this song never gets old:

Say Hi To Your Mom -- "Let's Talk About Spaceships" -- Numbers And Mumbles
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[Buy Say Hi records from the band here]

>> This Is Happening To Me has some pics of Dinosaur Jr. in Japan, performing, being mobbed by fans in the streets. Apparently people are just running up to J. Mascis and hugging him? Anyway, cool pictures are here.

Review: The Mendoza Line | 30 Year Low [MP3s]

It turns out what seemed like it would be the biggest feel-bad record of the year actually feels pretty good in places. Certainly there are down-in-the-mouth tunes on the final album of new material from long-running indie rock concern The Mendoza Line, the shambling project started by Tim Bracy and Peter Hoffman in Athens, Georgia more than a decade ago. With the dissolution of the marriage that has bound the band's remaining principal songwriters together in The Mendoza Line, the flatly glum tone of Shannon McArdle's album opener "Since I Came" is unsurprising. Even so, as we asserted above, there are cuts on 30 Year Low and its companion set Final Reflections Of The Legendary Malcontent that are absolutely jaunty, particularly Mr. Bracy's imperturbable, Replacements-esque title track. "The unraveling of a grand design..."

So there is a balance -- albeit a slightly uneasy one -- that holds aloft these two records across a fulcrum that wavers between tragicomedy ("Go Shopping") and tragedy ("Withered And Died"). And with some of the songs only the context of the startling announcement of the end of Ms. McArdle and Bracy's marriage lets us know that the two discs contain the sounds of the wheels coming off. The over-driven "31 Candles" or the unabashedly carefree interpretation of the standard "Anything Goes" don't feel weighted down by concerns greater than rocking out and the next drink, respectively. "Now you're rolling down the stairs in a barrel..."

Perhaps the most, ahem, bracing aspect to 30 Year Low etc. is the return of a lackadaisical mania, present in the dysphoric, vertiginous guitars slashing across the stereo field in the final minutes of the pulsing piece of perfection that is the Bracy-sung "I Lost My Taste." As The Mendoza Line's profile grew earlier in this decade the band assumed a traditional formalism. This won, or at least coincided with the arrival of, more than a little acclaim, but in our opinion it came at the cost of the exciting sonic experimentalism of catalogue highlights including the massively under-rated set We're All In This Alone from 2000. There's more of that sort of experimentalism in the howling guitar chords that feed back in the bridge of the aforementioned, sublime ballad "Go Shopping," which is situated in the middle of the second disc next to the stunning original demo for the Slow Dazzle track "Now Or Later Or Never." The latter song was a highlight of the Mendoza Line live set we saw in May [review]. "Now everybody's laughing about the size of your IPO..."

The breadth and depth of material on 30 Year Low and Final Remarks Of The Legendary Malcontent provides a questionably tidy but self-contained (like fraternal twin Capra-esque scenes in snowglobes; like jars full of fireflies) summary of a great, and greatly under-appreciated, American rock band. We expect we'll be hearing more from McArdle and Bracy before too long. Incidentally, the Mendoza Line web site (it seems the MySpace page is no longer) was updated recently with the news that "upcoming Mendoza Line shows will be performed by Timothy Bracy with band." So despite the cancellations we noted here, it would seem Mr. Bracy intends to get out to support 30 Year Low with live dates at some point. For now, enjoy these MP3s. "You were blue chip once, you were quite a ride..."

The Mendoza Line -- "Since I Came" -- 30 Year Low
The Mendoza Line -- "Thirty Year Low" -- 30 Year Low
The Mendoza Line -- "Aspect Of An Old Maid (Alt. Take)" -- 30 Year Low
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[pre-order 30 Year Low from Newbury Comics here; check out Glurp's e-card with album stream here]

The Mendoza Line: InterWeb | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

Today's Hotness: The A-Sides, Prefuse 73, The Answering Machine

>> Philadelphia's The A-Sides said here a family emergency precipitated the cancellation of its set Thursday night at Cambridge, Mass.'s Middle East Rock Club. So obviously we won't be covering it as we said we would here. The quintet had been slated to support Calla. The A-Sides promised to make up the date during a planned U.S. tour in October. The band will release its sophomore set Silver Storms on Vagrant next month. In a more recent blog post here A-Sides posted a live clip of themselves performing the new cut "We're The Trees." Check it out.

>> Electronic music phenom Prefuse 73 will release the new set Preparations in late October on Warp. The label reports that the first single "The Class of 73 Bells" will be released Sept. 17. It features Prefuse principal Scott Herren collaborating with New York psych band School Of Seven Bells and Battles drummer John Stanier. Mr. Herren will tour the UK and Europe with a band in October, and U.S. dates are planned.

>> Christian Fennesz's solo debut Hotel Paral.lel will be reissued by Editions Mego Sept. 24. Mego released the initial version of the set ten years earlier. Hotel Paral.lel is apparently "an investigation into the sonic possibilities residing in guitar-based digital music, recorded just before mobile computing devices became the norm." The reissue appends two items to the original twelve: the song "5" was originally released as a 7" in 1996 on Syntactic; a video for the album track "Aus" is the other addition. More information including the details on a a pre-order discount are located here.

>> The release of Okay Paddy's new EP Where You Went?, which we recently reviewed here, has been moved to Sept. 4. As planned, label Prison Jazz today released a pretty solid EP from another act, New Motels, entitled Domestic Life.

>> According to a blog post here, scruffy English pop luminaries The Answering Machine are breaking in a new drummer, which sets our mind slightly at ease, because there is something spooky about a guitar band that has no drummer, yeh? Anyway, the new drummer is not named, so maybe he or she still has to prove him or herself or survive some odd hazing or something. The Answering Machine has scads of tour dates booked between now and early November, so the new drummer will certainly have plenty of chances to settle in with the band between now and then. Check all the tour dates at the band's MySpace yert here.

>> It's been far too long since we've mentioned Birmingham, UK-based noise pop trio Johnny Foreigner. So the latest and greatest is that the band will be recording some tracks in London early next week. Can't wait to hear them. Also, in case we didn't already say so, Johnny Foreigner is now booked to support not one, but two Meneguar UK tour dates: Sept. 26 in Leeds and Oct. 4 in Cambridge. Those will be amazing shows. Someone shoot video.

>> With music bloggers all up in the news nowadays, we were wondering when our next star turn will be, which made us wonder what the deal was with Boston's NEMO fest this year (we sat on a panel last year moderated by DoneWaiting.com's Rob Duffy). Anyway, according to the NEMO Internet Home Page, the conference will not be held this year. Here's part of the message: "We have decided to take a year off from the NEMO Music Festival while we focus on the 20th Anniversary of the Boston Music Awards, the [Popular Coffee Retailer] Music Makers Competition, the Verge College Music Conference and other entertainment related projects. We plan to revamp NEMO and do something bigger and better in 2008." You can read more here.

From The Admin Cubicle: Long Weekend

>> See you Tuesday or Wednesday. Things in the hopper include a review of the forthcoming Mendoza Line record 30 Year Low and a review of next week's A-Sides show in Cambridge.

Today's Hotness: Bad Brains, Meneguar, TGTB&TQ

>> The heaviest thing you are going to see today is this single video for newly rejuvenated hardcore progenitors Bad Brains' two tunes "Give Thanks And Praises" and "Jah Love." The clip was directed by one of the cats in System Of A Down. It's an exciting jumble of quick cuts. The dynamic editing seems like a good idea, because it is apparent from the live footage that comprises the video that HR, Dr. No and the gang don't get around the stage like they used to. Still, there is plenty of enigma there, driven home by the tight shots of H.R. in insect shades murmuring his prayer into the mic. Do check it out. We reviewed Bad Brains' most recent comeback record Build A Nation here last month. [via BrooklynVegan].

>> Yesterday's big Mobius Band news (scroll down) and a couple tech support/music trivia-related phone calls from Clicky Clicky Dad meant that we had to push off until today reportage about the two new Meneguar tracks the Brooklyn quartet posted to its MySpace cabin recently. Through the magic of a certain sort of dubious but very handy web site we were able to snatch the tracks for copious unfettered home listening. What we can tell you is that the cuts "Freshman Thoughts" and "Hurry Up" sound great. Well, actually, the songs are encoded at an unfortunate 96 Kbps, so they sound a little washy and flat -- but we're willing o suffer with lo-fi MP3s until we can get our hands on the real thing. And the songs, man, the songs... A touch more restrained than the bare-knuckled rockers found on I Was Born At Night [review here], the cuts take the Meneguar you know and love and give it a hint -- just a hint -- of a folksy feel. Maybe it's the hollered choruses that sound like they were recorded en masse in a class room. Maybe it is the less distorted guitars. But fear not, there is still plenty of edge, found in places including the derisive-sounding lyric "you single cell, you little know-it-all..." We'll have to hear all of Strangers In Our House to determine whether these tunes are pieces of the masterpiece we feel like Meneguar has in it. Stream the tracks for yourself here. Strangers In Our House will be released domestically in early October on Troubleman Unlimited. We reviewed a recent Meneguar show here.

>> We've told anyone who will listen that the strongest cut on The Good, The Bad & The Queen's self-titled debut is the throbbing, inexorable title track. This places Damon Albarn's quartet in fine company along with acts including Talk Talk and, well, we think there is a thread at ILM about others. Point being, "The Good, The Bad & The Queen" is really phenomenal. And now there is a mesmerizing video to go with it. We must admit the repurposing of footage of Sufis celebrating some aspect of their religion for the purpose of having interesting pictures for your rock video makes us a little uncomfortable. Some sort of odd colonial voyeurism at work or something. That said, the film maker's shtick of timing fits of religious ecstasy to the pounding surf of the song carries a spark of brilliance. Check out the video over at Pitchfork here.

!Mobius Band In Signing To Misra Shocker!

Well, not really much of a shock. We pretty much told you a couple weeks ago here, and someone told us a couple months before that. But today notable independent rock label Misra made it official, announcing here that it will release cyborg pop heroes Mobius Band's sophomore full length Heaven Oct. 2. You can already pre-order the set from Misra here. Perhaps the biggest news to come out of the whole thing is that Misra has posted the first preview MP3, the electropop track "Hallie," which we've linked for you below. The lyric is surprisingly direct for Mobius Band guitarist and singer Ben Sterling. The trio's updated bio notes some of the personal stuff the band has had to collectively weather during the time Heaven was being written and recorded and it is hard not to hear some of that here. The instrumentation is heavy on sampled strings, synth tones and the band's now familiar coterie of electronics, and there is some guitar in the chorus. Mobius Band will support the release of the new set via a tour with old friend Matthew Dear, and we've posted all the dates at the bottom of this item. Sadly, there's no Boston date currently, but we expect we'll be seeing the likes of the Mobius Band around here sometime. In the mean time, check out the new tune and peruse some of our more recent coverage linked below. For a kick, you can read our first Blogspot blog (as opposed to our prior blog, the archives of which are largely lost to the sands of time -- remember when people had blogs that weren't hosted by someone else?) mention of Mobius Band here in Oct. 2003.

Mobius Band -- "Hallie" -- Heaven
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[pre-order Heaven from Misra here]

Previous Mobius Band coverage:

Show Us Yours #4: Mobius Band
That Was The Show That Was: Mobius Band

10/01 -- Mercury Lounge -- New York, NY
10/02 -- Johnny Brenda’s -- Philadelphia, PA
10/03 -- Satellite Ballroom -- Charlottesville, VA
10/04 -- Rock n’ Roll Hotel -- Washington DC
10/05 -- Local 506 -- Chapel Hill, NC
10/06 -- Drunken Unicorn -- Atlanta, GA
10/08 -- Emo’s -- Austin, Tx
10/09 -- Granada -- Dallas, TX
10/12 -- Hi-Dive -- Denver, CO
10/13 -- Blind Pig -- Ann Arbor, MI
10/16 -- Echo -- Los Angeles, CA
10/18 -- Mezzanine -- San Francisco, CA
10/19 -- Holocene -- Portland, OR
10/20 -- Crocodile -- Seattle, WA
10/21 -- Media Club -- Vancouver, BC Canada
10/24 -- Triple Rock -- Minneapolis, MN
10/25 -- Cafe Montemarte -- Madison, WI
10/26 -- Smart Bar -- Chicago, IL
10/27 -- Grog Shop -- Cleveland, OH