April 30, 1999

A few things to note about the new KHAN album, other than the fact that it's called 1-900-GET-KHAN and coming out May 11: the CD cover contains real advertisements for actual phone sex workers. And the title is an "adults only" 1-900 line, which means for $2.99/minute, you can dial and have phone sex. It's a pretty sharp move by Khan, I must say. When you do the math, the CD itself comes out to a little over 22 cents a minute, a real bargain by comparison. You get all the groping and grunting, but with added techno beats! A searing attack on Rudy Giuliani's anti-sex legislation, no doubt.

Speaking of our great city (that's New York), there's going to be a free Khan Record Release Party on Thurs., May 6, at Parkside Lounge. Wherein Khan will perform "Body Dump" live with Julee Cruise (the one from the Twin Peaks soundtrack), and several DJs will do their thing: DJ AZO, DJ Snax, DJ Silver, DJ KhanDome. The fun starts at 10 pm at 317 E. Houston.

PAVEMENT launched their new pleasingly designed website this week, pavementtherockband.com...just in time to prepare for an early May European press junket. While in England, the band is said to have plans to record a Lamacq Live session (I dunno what it is, either) for BBC Radio One. This, I'm told, will be broadcast May 24. After a small promo tour in four Europeon cities -London, Paris, Cologne and Stockholm--the rockers will be return for a full U.S. tour. Terror Twilight, as you may be aware, will be out June 8.

MP3 update: Due to technical difficulties, last week's new JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION track went up Tuesday instead of Monday, so the 6th and final MP3 will go up tomorrow, not today, to make sure everyone gets their 7 days' worth.

A big, sloppy Matador goodbye goes out to GUIDED BY VOICES, who have decided to sign with TVT for their next record, Do the Collapse. We wish them the best of luck. It has been a pleasure.

The members of MOGWAI appear in an ice hockey video game that came out this week. Details are on the NME website. You may wonder "how do they all fit in there?" Simple: they are only LIKENESSES of the band members, not real people. The game has two songs as well, "Like Herod," and "R U Still Into It (DJ Q Remix)."

In closing, some wise words by Xerxes: "I will offer 1,000 golden pieces to any man who can show me a new pleasure."

Think about that.

April 16, 1999

Things are still moving with the mp3 page. A new JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION track will go up Monday, and you can still get "New Year" until then... also new to the mp3: a snippit from a mix tape of ARSONISTS' stuff (warning: 8k). Speaking of, we finally have what looks to be a firm street date for the Arsonists' first full length, As the World Burns: July 13. Meanwhile, those guys will be touring Europe with The Roots, among others. Dates, places, TBA shortly, really. New Yorkers can look forward to a mid-May showcase with both Arsonists and NON PHIXION at Bowery Ballroom.

More new and upcoming Matador releases are available, as always, right here. Also note that the latest full-length from Matador veterans Spoon, A Series of Sneaks, has been rereleased on CD and LP by Vapor Records.

MOGWAI's new full-length, Come On Die Young, came out this week to reams of press, acclaim, etc. Nils says to point out it was the same day Kurt Cobain killed himself. Whatever, I was going to link to the raving NME cover story but forgot they don't put that stuff online so nevermind. When you go buy the record anyway, just so you know, the guy talking at the beginning is Iggy Pop (in better days)....Mogwai will record a new CDEP available through pre-ordered subscriptions only, as part of a new series called "Travels In Constants." See the Temporary Residence Limited for ordering info, etc. Or email jdevine@mica.edu.

Links this time:

Official Solexsite - Some drawings, a tour diary, links and other goodies from Elizabeth. This month there's an MP3 of a tune Solex made for a Dutch talkshow called 'de Plantage'. Solex, btw, are working on a new album that Matador plans to release in the fall of 1999.

Big article/interview with Sleater-Kinney from Addicted To Noise

Interview with Chan Marshal (Cat Power) in Real Audio, courtesy of Tongue-zine.com

April 9, 1999

Lots happening so we'll keep this brief. First off, the entry form for THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION contest mentioned last week is now in effect. Go here to see the "Magical Colors" video and get some stickers. Also continuing from last week, there's a new JSBX track on our mp3 page, "Electricity."

There's a PAVEMENT page now here, complete with four tracks from the upcoming Terror Twilight (due out June 8), all sure to give any skeptics out there a swift kick in the pants. Much as we hate to compare records to their antecedents, album number five is the most solid yet. Those who think Pavement sounds best with crap production are due for a start; recorded on 24 big tracks with Nigel Godrich, Terror is classic Pavement and then some...not that you should take it from the webmaster; we'll be doing a netcast/listening "party" of the entire album with Broadcast.com come May. Date, link, TBA....the band will also be launching their own website in weeks forthcoming. It's not working yet, but www.pavementtherockband.com is where it'll be.

Due on shelves the same day as Terror Twilight is GUITAR WOLF's followup to Planet of the Wolves. Called Jet Generation. The big guys played this one in the conference room for us the other day and the walls shook. Apparently, after the CD was sent to the mastering lab for inclusion on our in-store play sampler, the engineer called, mystified, to say he'd never seen the volume level on a CD reach so high; it literally exceeded the presumed maximum possible. Small wonder, then, that these here net-ified tracks are much louder than anything else in RealAudio:

"Jet Generation"
RealAudio 5 | Real G2

"Fujiyama Attack"
RealAudio 5 | Real G2

The mp3 (for "Jet Generation") is just as damaged. As are the videos (Sony Japan has a barely visible version of "Kaminari One" in RealMedia for the so inclined.)

As for the title, the band actually meant "Jett Generation" but got the English wrong (not a joke).

Have we mentioned that we're reissuing BELLE AND SEBASTIAN's Tigermilk in North America yet? June 8 is when. This is the record Stuart Murdoch et. al recorded as a college class project. Limited to 1,000 originally, and long since bootlegged, ours will be remastered and available for the first time on the popular CD format, as well as vinyl.

All for now.