Assemblog: January 18, 2013

Bates Motel

New this week on Popshifter:
J Howell likes the new Atoms For Peace single “Judge, Jury, and Executioner”; Cait raves about The Definitive Shoes Collection; JG Thirlwell gives us his Best Of 2012; Emily says John Cale will always be cool; Chelsea suggests Erin McKeown newbies check out her latest album Manifestra; I interview Resolution directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead; give my Top Ten Picks for 2013 movies and the Sundance Film Festival; and discuss new music from Adam Ant, Iceage, and Suede.

Remember when I said I wasn’t going to talk about the Oscars? I didn’t lie, but I do want to talk about something Oscars-related (though technically, it’s just about awards in general).

Over the last few months, we’ve seen a lot of “Best Of” lists for movies. Some of these are even compiled and counted and used to determine the “Best Movie” announcement for a particular group or publication. In that way, they’re sort of like mini-awards ceremonies, except no one goes home with a gold statue.

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Music Review: Erin McKeown, Manifestra

By Chelsea Spear

In 2012, musician/activist Erin McKeown made headlines for crowdfunding the production of her latest album, Manifestra. Unlike many artists whose crowd-sourced work becomes a three-ring circus, McKeown has strong musical bona fides. For almost two decades, the singer/songwriter has released a compelling body of work and dabbled in jazz, electronica, and folk. The spine of her work has always been her great skill at songwriting, which blends the tunefulness of Tin Pan Alley songwriters with her own irreverent charm, and her confident, minimalist guitar playing.

Manifestra extends the democratizing concerns of crowdfunding to some of her most explicitly political material to date. While I find many protest songs challenging—mostly because of the need to simplify complex issues into a three-minute time range and force them into a difficult format—McKeown escapes this trap by finding the human scale within the societal problems she describes.

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Suede Releases Free Song From Upcoming Album: “Barriers”

By Less Lee Moore

Suede fans who haven’t had the fortune of seeing the band’s recent live shows—including those of us who live in North American and didn’t see them at Coachella—have something to be excited about. The band has put out a free MP3 for a song called “Barriers.” The track is one from their upcoming album of all-new material called Bloodsports.

This isn’t even the official single. That song, “It Starts And Ends With You,” will be released in February, in anticipation of Bloodsports‘ March 18 release. Something else to get excited about!

As Suede hasn’t released any new albums since 2002’s best-left-unmentioned A New Morning (and no, Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler’s 2005 Here Come The Tears album doesn’t count), it’s totally natural to be hesitant.

But hey, the song’s actually good! It’s all soaring guitars, pounding drums, and Anderson’s elfin yelping, or as Drowned In Sound put it, “Springsteen-on-holiday-in-Cornwall.” No, Butler isn’t back in the band, but that’s okay. Bloodsports was produced by Ed Buller who produced the band’s first three albums, so that’s another promising sign.

You can pre-order Bloodsports from Amazon.co.uk in CD and vinyl formats.

The band will be playing at Alexandra Palace in London on March 30. For more information, check out the band’s website and Facebook page.

New Single, Upcoming Album: Iceage, “Coalition”

By Less Lee Moore

Photo © Griffin Shot

Iceage, who blew a lot of people away with their 2011 debut album New Brigade, have a new single. There’s not a proper video for “Coalition” per se, but you can listen to it on YouTube.

If you haven’t yet heard Iceage, this is a great intro. They’ve clearly kept the same aesthetic that made New Brigade so exciting, but “Coalition” sounds ever so slightly more mature (and not in a stodgy, old fart way).

The band’s second album, You’re Nothing, will be out February 19 on Matador. You can pre-order it on the Matador website. The band is also embarking on a massive tour beginning January 24 in Connecticut. For more, check out the band’s blog.

Tour Dates:

Thu. Jan. 24 — Middletown, CT @ Wesleyan University (Eclectic House) – FREE SHOW
Fri. Jan. 25 — Brooklyn, NY @ 285 Kent
Sat. Jan. 26 — New York, NY @ Home Sweet Home
Thu. Jan. 31 – Berlin, DE @ CTM Festival
Fri. Feb. 1 – Amsterdam, NL @ Grauzone Festival
Mon. Feb. 25 – Glasgow, UK @ Broadcast
Tue. Feb. 26 – Liverpool, UK @ Shipping Forecast
Wed. Feb. 27 – Sheffield, UK @ Shakespeare’s
Thu. Feb. 28 – London, UK @ Electrowerkz
Fri. March 1 – Brighton, UK @ The Albert
Sat. March 2 – Nottingham, UK @ Chameleon Arts Café
Mon. March 4 – Paris, FR @ Espace B
Tue. March 5 – Brussels, BE @ Les Ateliers Claus
Wed. March 6 – Eindhoven, NL @ Area 51
Fri. March 8 – Munster, DE @ Gleiss 22
Sat. March 9 – Gronigen, NL @ Vera
Sun. March 10 – Hamburg, DE @ Hafenklang
Wed. March 20 – Vancouver, BC @ the Biltmore w/ Spectres
Thu. March 21 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza
Fri. March 22 – Olympia, WA @ Capital Theater (backstage)
Sat. March 23 – Portland, OR @ Star Theater
Mon. March 25 – San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop w/ Merchandise, Wet Hair
Tue. March 26 – Oakland, CA @ New Parish w/ Merchandise, Wet Hair
Thu. March 28 – Bakersfield, CA @ Munoz Gym w/ Milk Music
Fri. March 29 – Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex w/ Milk Music
Sun. March 31 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah w/ Milk Music
Mon. April 1 – Tempe, AZ @ Deadhorse Warehouse w/ Milk Music, Destruction Unit
Thu. April 4 – Denver, CO @ Marquis Theater w/ Merchandise, Wet Hair
Sat. April 6 – Grinnell, IA @ Grinnell College w/ Wet Hair – FREE SHOW
Sun. April 7 – Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock Club
Tue. April 9 – Madison, WI @ University of Wisconsin – FREE SHOW
Wed. April 10 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle w/ Final Grin
Thu. April 11 – Columbus, OH @ Ace of Cups
Fri. April 12 – Pittsburgh, PA @ 6119
Tue. April 16 – Burlington, VT @ Monkey House w/ White Lung
Wed. April 17 – Boston, MA @ TT the Bear’s w/ White Lung
Thu. April 18 – New Haven, CT @ Lilly’s Pad (Toad’s Place Upstairs)
Fri. April 19 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church w/ White Lung
Sat. April 20 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom w/ White Lung
Thu. May 30 – Sun. June 2 – Austin, TX @ Chaos in Tejas

New Single/Video, Upcoming Album: Adam Ant, “Cool Zombie”

By Less Lee Moore

In case you hadn’t heard, Adam Ant has been touring the UK and the US throughout the last couple of years. He’s also got a new album ready to drop on January 21 in the UK. The first single, “Cool Zombie,” was released November 21 along with the accompanying video.

If you’re an Adam Ant fan, you probably know this already. Inevitably, though, there has been and will be a lot of chatter along the lines of, “Adam Ant is still around? I thought he was crazy and/or dead.”

It would be impossible to try and sum up all that’s transpired over the past decade or so regarding Adam’s musical career—not to mention his mental, emotional, and legal struggles&mdsh;in a few paragraphs. The man has been to hell and back and to brush it off as merely a rough patch would be incredibly disrespectful.

If you’ve not seen or heard Adam in a while, you might cringe at this song and video. But get over it (and yourself) because it’s actually a good song. I didn’t think it was that catchy when I first heard it, but when I found it stuck in my head for a few days, I changed my mind.

No, he doesn’t look the same as he did 20 years ago. Yes, he’s gone bald and gained some weight. Check out some of the YouTube clips of his recent live performances, though, and you’ll quickly figure out that he’s the same fantastic performer he’s always been, albeit a little older and wiser.

The new, long-anticipated and much-delayed album, Adam Ant is The BlueBlack Hussar In Marrying The Gunners Daughter, will be out next Monday. You can pre-order it on Amazon.co.uk. You can also order the single on iTunes. Check out Adam’s Facebook page for links to articles, videos, and other goodies.

Will John Cale Always Be Cool? Why, Yes.

By Emily Carney

Last week on Thursday, January 10, John Cale played “I Wanna Talk 2 U” (from his new album, Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood, which is a must-own) and The Velvet Underground’s casual BDSM classic, “Venus in Furs,” on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. (I find it somewhat hilarious that “Venus in Furs” was requested by a popular late night US TV host who is loved by moms everywhere and all that, since it was spicy as hell for the late 1960s, but whatever.)

JOHN CALE IS FREAKIN’ 70 YEARS OLD—he will turn 71 in March—and still is a total badass. He was resplendent in a three-piece suit with a skinny tie, grey hair splattered with pink highlights, and looked at least 20 years younger (I guess being John Cale does that to you; it makes you age backwards). The live version of “I Wanna Talk 2 U” actually sounds better than the album version; I always liked the grittier, rawer textures of Cale’s live performances and this certainly doesn’t disappoint.

Of course, “Venus in Furs” sounded as terrifying monolithic and droning as ever. Cale played viola for this performance and it sounded as gothic (not Goth, but gothic—like church music) as it always did.

I’m pretty sure The Velvet Underground never got their moment on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson back in the day, so this will have to do . . . and it certainly was good to watch.

Best of 2012: JG Thirlwell

Einstein On The Beach, Photo © Lesley Spinks

Music
Here is some popular music I have been absorbing this year. Some on this list came out this year and some didn’t.

Swans, The Seer
Anthony Pateras, Collected Works 2002-2012
Scott Walker, Bish Bosch
Francisco López, Nowhere: Short Pieces from 1983-2003 (ten-CD box set)
Motorpsycho and Ståle Storløkken, The Death Defying Unicorn
Jason Kao Hwang, Symphony of Souls
Dominique Leone, Dominique Leone and Abstract Expression albums and Summer EP
Normal Love, Survival Tricks
Loka, Passing Place
Yamantaka // Sonic Titan, YT//ST
Anna Von Hausswolff, Ceremony
Dan Deacon, America
Jóhann Johannssón, The Miners’ Hymns
Chemical Brothers, Hanna OST
David Bedford, Star Clusters
Carlo Savina, Malenka OST
Various Artists, Touch. 30 years and counting

With honorable mentions to Anna Calvi, Forma, Paavoharju, Mariel Roberts, Battles, Chelsea Wolfe, and The Can Tapes.

As I said last year on this very website, my main musical diet is C20 classical, contemporary composition, soundtracks, and the darker end of prog rock, and I spend much of my time writing new music—I completed the fifth season of The Venture Bros. as well as writing various commissions, arrangements, and installation pieces in 2012. As a listener, generally I found this to be another disappointing year for new music.

Concerts
I went to a bunch of concerts and event in 2012. Here are some of the most notable . . . (all shows in NYC)

Jan 13: David Linton at the Clocktower gallery (installation)
Jan 31: Jóhann Johannssón and Bill Morrison, Miners’ Hymns at the Winter Garden
Feb 03: Michael Gordon and Bill Morrison, Decasia at The Winter Garden
Feb 25: Bjork at Roseland
Mar 23: William Basinski at The Kitchen
Mar 25: Francisco López at Issue Project Room
Apr 15: The Sinking of the Titanic, Gavin Bryars Ensemble and Philip Jeck at the Barbican, London
Apr 28: Yarn/Wire with Tristan Perich at Issue Project Room
Apr 29: Ruins Alone, Child Abuse, Behold The Arctopus at Death By Audio
May 12: Musical Box perform Lamb Lies Down On Broadway at Tribeca Performing Arts Center
Jun 13: Yamantaka // Sonic Titan at Mercury Lounge
Jun 20: Philip Glass Ensemble at Rockefeller Park
Jun 29: New York Philharmonic play Stockhausen and Boulez in 360 degrees at Park Ave Armory
Jul 07: Morton Subotnick, The Music of Richard Lainhart at Pace University
Aug 25: Darcy James Argue + Escort at World Finacial Center
Sep 11: Arnold Dreyblatt at Our Lady Of Lebanon
Sep 14: Eleh, Lary 7 at Our Lady Of Lebanon
Sep 17: Deerhoof, Buke And Gase at Music Hall Of Williamsburg
Sep 18: Gamelatron at the Clocktower gallery (installation)
Sep 23: Einstein On The Beach at BAM
Sep 25: Lesley Flanigan Salon at 16 Beaver
Oct 05: Demdike Stare at the Bunker
Oct 23: Tony Conrad at NYU Gallery
Nov 15: Lydia Lunch RetroVirus at Knitting Factory
Nov 16: Holly Herndon at 285 Kent
Dec 08: Bassoon/Sarcaustic at Jack
Dec 11: John Zorn, new works for strings at Miller Theater
Dec 15: Michael Gordon’s Timber at BAM

I also keep a Tumblr blog where I talk about events that I check out, and other cultural obsessions, etc.

Film
Films I dug included:

The Snowtown Murders
Hanna
Headhunters
Holy Motors
Dark Horse

Some of my own performance highlights included Manorexia at the Roadburn Festival, plus collaborations with Zola Jesus with Mivos Quartet at The Guggenheim, Vinyl Terror & Horror at the Swedish Energies Festival, Philip Jeck with the Touch crew at Experimental Intermedia, and Marc Almond at Antony’s Meltdown.

Find out more about JG Thirlwell on the Foetus.org website and his Facebook page.

Sundance 2013: Top Ten Picks

By Less Lee Moore

Il Futuro

It was nearly impossible to narrow down the films at this year’s Sundance into a Top 20, much less a Top Ten. I tried to pick my top choice from each category to give the best indication of the diversity of films screening at this year’s festival.

1. Shorts Competition: The Capsule
Information on this film is scarce, but Sundance’s website description, taken directly from the film’s website, is captivating: “Seven young women. A mansion perched on a Cycladic rock. A series of lessons on discipline, desire, discovery, and disappearance. A melancholy, inescapable cycle on the brink of womanhood—infinitely.” The Capsule is a French production with a Greek cast from director Athina Rachel Tsangari, who produced both Alps (2010) and Dogtooth (2009). Read more …

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Resolution: Interview with Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead

By Less Lee Moore

Resolution

Resolution was the most unexpectedly intriguing movie of 2012 for me (review). The trailer was fascinating, but I had no idea what I was in for. I could say much the same about writer/director Justin Benson and co-director/cinematographer Aaron Moorhead. Their abilities at keeping an audience transfixed extended beyond the movie and into the intro and Q&A for Resolution at its Toronto After Dark screening.

Luckily, I was able to catch up with the pair a few days ago, in anticipation of Resolution‘s upcoming release on VOD and in theaters. Here’s what they had to say.

On the new poster for Resolution:
Justin: In general, when you make a movie and you make your own key art and you’re really happy with it, you then show it to the distributor who probably has their own ideas, which are very well placed: this is to sell it on VOD. And then you wait for months to get kicked in the balls, thinking it’s gonna be terrible. But we were so happy . . . nothing against horror movie posters, but it doesn’t look like a horror movie poster. There’s something very odd about the poster but it doesn’t look like a horror movie poster.

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Music Review: Shoes, 35 Years—The Definitive Shoes Collection 1977-2012

By Cait Brennan

By any measure, 2012 was a banner year for the pioneering power pop rockers Shoes. For decades, the band has hewed its own indie path through pop music, with a strong DIY ethic that helped kick start the home-recording movement decades before Garageband made it easy. Back together in the studio for the first time in 17 years, brothers John and Jeff Murphy and their high school pal Gary Klebe joined with drummer John Richardson for Ignition, a spectacular new album of originals that reestablished Shoes as power-pop masters and made its way onto a number of critics’ year-end best-of lists (review). They were the subject of a new biography, Boys Don’t Lie: A History of Shoes, and their first four pre-Elektra albums—One In Versailles, Bazooka, Black Vinyl Shoes, and Pre-Tense (the Present Tense demos)—were issued on vinyl in gorgeous deluxe editions by the Numero Group.

Truly, it’s never been a better time to be a Shoes fan. But for those who haven’t yet joined the cult of Shoes, it might seem a little daunting to find a way in to a band whose widely acclaimed output stretches to at least 180 songs on 17 albums recorded over a 38-year period.

Real Gone Music has this problem sorted with its excellent new disc 35 Years—The Definitive Shoes Collection 1977-2012. From their ’77 breakthrough Black Vinyl Shoes all the way through Ignition, it’s a great survey of some of the finest moments of their career, and the perfect place to start a Shoes safari.

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