May 28, 1999

Let's say you and a friend are watching the NBA playoffs this weekend and during a time out, a commercial comes on for a certain wildly popular brand of shoe. Now in the commercial for this wildly popular brand of shoe, Kevin Garnett and Sharif Abdur-Rahim are teaching kids how to play basketball in a giant pool, and behind the action there's a wildy funky beat. Let's say your friend turns to you and asks, "Nevermind the commercial -- Who's behind that wildly funky beat?" You can turn to your friend and say, "Why, that's the LYNNFIELD PIONEERS with 'Time to Get Dumb.' I've got the record right here." Then the both of you can turn off your TV and rock out to the wildly funky music.

PAVEMENT on-line: SonicNet has put together a Real Audio listening party with six complete tracks off "Terror Twilight" and two from the recently released CD5 "Spit on a Stranger." The party will run Tuesday, June 1 through the following Tuesday, June 8. SonicNet is also broadcasting a "Rock N' Roll Insider Chat" with the band on Monday, June 7 at 8:00 pm EDT (5:00 pm PDT). The show will be hosted by Michael Goldberg (editor of Addicted to Noise) & Gil Kaufman.

CNN Worldbeat will be featuring PIZZICATO FIVE and portions from their "Playboy Playgirl" video during a show about Japanese pop on Saturday, June 12th. The show will air that evening at midnight EDT and then again the following day (Sunday, June 13th at 3:30pm EDT). Check www.cnn.com/worldbeat for specific times in your area.

SOLEX will be releasing a new 7" near the end of June in advance of their forthcoming album "Pick Up." The single is titled "Randy Costanza" after a Pittsburgh, PA scenester. It seems Solex became OBSESSED with this guy after they played Pittsburgh on their first tour. Costanza is a comic artist who has been putting out the self published comics "Everything Sucks" and "So Shut Off" for years now. The comics are quite confessional at times and have largely to do with him and his brother. A Matador insider asked him what his family thought about the comics after the local paper ran a lengthy article on him. "Oh, they don't know about them," says Costanza. "I hid the newspaper that day."

And: KHAN's "Nowhere" can be heard in the upcoming independent film "Free Enterprise." Variety called the picture "fast, funny and inventive; 'Free Enterprise' might be described as 'Swingers' meets 'Trekkies.'" But Lyle saw it and said it was good. It opens in LA on June 4th -- 12 years to the day of the release of "Wrath of Khan." Get it?

May 21, 1999

Attention, British! CORNELIUS, MOGWAI, and PAVEMENT recorded live at the recent Bowlie weekender and will be aired on Steve Lamacq's show on BBC Radio 1 this Monday, May 24th from 8pm - 12am GMT. You can expect to hear Cornelius' set around 9pm. Or if you live in the States, you can expect to hear none of this.

Monday, June 7th at 9:00pm, the LYNNFIELD PIONEERS will be doing an on-line chat at Insound.com (a relatively new, indie-minded retailer). There will be a contest/give-away on the Insound site leading up to this chat: 4 pairs of tickets to the Maxwell's show in Hoboken, NJ with 4 "Free Popcorn" CDs thrown in for good measure.

J. BURGER has a new release by the name of "Mrs. New Deal" out on Popular Music under the moniker "The Modernist." The album includes three brand new tracks, plus a J. Paape mix. It's available on 12" Vinyl and 5" CD/Digipack. The CD includes 2 bonus tracks from the previous Modernist release, "Architainment."

MOGWAI is back with the second installment of their ongoing European tour diaries. Some things were said about Dominic's mother that I trust you will all keep to yourselves.

"You Shine" is the first 7" off Holly Golightly's new record "Serial Girlfriend." We're all very excited to hear the B-side, a cover of PAVEMENT's "Box Elder." Of course, all the turntables here are busy spinning the new RICKY MARTIN, so we'll just have to wait until the grooves wear out. "You Shine" is available from Damaged Good Records for some amount of British money. Or email Surefire for domestic prices.

Plus: A tiny interview with SOLEX. Five tiny questions. Five tiny Answers.

We receive hundreds of thousands of emails every day from our attentive listeners. Their thought provoking questions are what make the frequently asked questions a bounty of useful information. Here's the latest:


Question:

hello! how goes fellows? i'm a college radio dj and was wondering if you could send me some guitar picks from some of the bands on your label! muchos gracias!

Answer:

No. Love, Matador.

May 14, 1999

Friends and Neighbors:

The JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION contest is finished and your submissions have been tallied. You should all be ashamed of yourselves. Only 22 people got it right. Please take a moment to read up on the FCC's standards of television decency so you'll know better next time.

The answers are: A. Pubic hair, B. Telephone numbers, and C. Naked Buttocks. Others who will receive stickers answered correctly B,C A,B and A,C respectively. I would have thought MTV would have been in favor of naked buttocks considering most of its Spring Break programming fare, but I guess that's why I'm not a television programmer.

Also: The eighth and final JSBX B-side mp3 -- "Not Yet" -- has been posted. Sorry about the delay.

FUCK world headquarters! Built by the band for the fans. Fuck has generously taken care of all those pesky tasks reserved for adoring fan sites like deciphering lyrics and listing rare 7" minutiae. Plus, they've got the inside take on what the band does on its days off. Although it's still in its infancy, you can find a good bit of useful information: tour dates, news, bonus tracks. Be sure to peruse the "Fuck seen dancing" section, because if it is any indicator, this site is destined for hilarity.

WFMU will be broadcasting a live LYNNFIELD PIONEERS set on Wednesday June 9, from 8-10pm during Brian Turner's slot in advance of the Pioneers' June 11th show at Maxwells. FMU is broadcast live over the web via their site at www.wfmu.org. The Pioneers will play live and spin records they found while on the road. Plus, Mark Moore will be playing bass with the tour beginning May 15 in Rochester. Mark was most recently part of Chan's Cat Power entourage, touring for the past few months in the U.S., Europe and Australia.

Blur is shite, according to MOGWAI in the first installment of their 1999 European tour diary. These Scots report on everything from how a bunch of "dodgy Moroccans" tried to steal their shoes and whether or not their pal Robin will eat a dead rat they found in a local pond. More Mogwai updates to follow as they become available.

Those itching for new PAVEMENT have only eleven more days to wait. The "Spit on a Stranger" CD5 and 7" will be available to stores directly from Matador for a 5/25 street date. For ordering information please call (212) 995-5882. The tracks on the CD are:

spit on a stranger - (ole 384-2)

1. spit on a stranger
2. harness your hopes
3. roll with the wind
4. the porpoise and the hand grenade
5. rooftop gambler

The 7" is "spit on a stranger" b/w "and then" (ole 384-7)

Mail order customers send $6 for the CD ($3.25 for the 7") check or money order directly to Matador. Allow 2 to 3 weeks for delivery. A note for Pavement collectors: the Carrot Rope singles being released in the UK will have the same B-sides as the US Spit on a Stranger singles.

PIZZICATO FIVE has released a new cd5 maxi titled "Darlin' of Discotheque EP", available only in Japan. The songs are:

1. darlin' of discotheque
2. one two three four five six seven eight nine ten barbie dolls
3. tout, tout pour ma cherie
4. jolly bubbly lovely
5. darlin' of discotheque (radio edit)

It's become an instant hit on the Japanese national single chart, shooting straight to No. 38. We've not yet heard it, but these figures indicate it must be discolicious!

Some extras:

PAVEMENT play London on the eve of their biggest hit in England to date. Here's the review.

Interview with Stuart from MOGWAI on NME website.

Another interview with Mogwai

May 7, 1999

Don't let anyone tell you we here at Matador don't know how to celebrate the Battle of Puebla! In fact, we invited THE LYNNFIELD PIONEERS to come on down and kick the shit out of some pinatas. I caught up with them the next day for a quick interview about all things "cinco":

Matador: What's the tastiest Mexican dish you know?

Pioneers: Lucha Reyes.

Matador: Huh? That's not on the menu at Taco Bell.

Pioneers: Of course not! Lucha Reyes was a beautiful and talented Mexican singer from the 1920s. She committed suicide over a failed love affair with a matador.

Matador: How fitting. What'd you guys do for the evening?

Pioneers (JP): I got blitzed at the Blarney Stone.

Pioneers (Mike): I ate five jars of mayonnaise.


Fortunately for the folks who showed up at the Continental last night, that mayo must have worked. An insider at Matador who wishes to remain anonymous says, "it was the best Pioneers show I've ever seen."

BARBARA MANNING is all over the new Virginia Dare album, Baby Got Away. CMJ has gone so far as to suggest this San Fransico trio's debut could be "the rebirth of the Velvet Underground by way of Barbara Manning's perceptive indie folk." We are still trying to confirm this.

FUCK is hitting the road again, with an emphasis on the Great White North. All Canadians are encouraged to attend.

The new Rolling Stone promo compilation, "Editors Picks" (which is sent to new subscribers who subcribe over the web) kicks off with CORNELIUS' "Count 5 or 6". The track was REALLY picked out by the editors of Rolling Stone, who then ACTUALLY put the track to open the record.

Also: Nightmares on Wax review and Pizzicato Five review.

And: THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION contest answers/winners will be announced next week.

Plus! A new mp3 is up on the SOLEX site. It is "Barely Dressed", a track from the hitmeistersessions that didn't make the record, but was released in Japan as an extra track.

That's all for now. I look forward to meeting each and every one of you. Oh, and Carrie says to remind you all that Sunday is Mother's Day.

May 1, 1999

This just in: Matador Records Goes Independent

Not sure what all needs to be said about this business, but, yes, Matador is pleased to report that we have ended our relationship with Capitol Records and are back to being an independent independent. The official press release is right here. It says, basically, that Matador releases will now be sold via independent distributors and our own direct-retail sales network. All our artists and catalog will remain with Matador, with the exception of Liz Phair, who goes to Capitol. If there are any questions, please direct them to Vic.

SOLEX is still recording and has graced us with a new, unreleased song for Matador's MP3 page, one she recorded for the Dutch movie "Abeltje." Elisabeth reports that after the nice artists finished their songs for the soundtrack, two "major shitproducers" (a Dutch term referring to the engineers behind hits such as "Rock Me Amadeus") took over. The producer duo is called Bolland and Bolland, so Solex's song is heretofore known as "Solex vs. Bolland en Bolland."

Last call for THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION stickers. If you care, enter now if you haven't already. Answers to the trivia question will be announced shortly.

People are always asking where to get Matador band t-shirts, well Kung Fu is now on the web, with t-shirts from The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Pavement, Yo La Tengo, Helium, and others.

Major fuckup last week: KHAN's New York "party" is Thursday, May 6th, not whenever I said before. Our clever receptionist has pointed out that it is nevertheless possible to make that show and catch the DEMOLITION DOLLRODS and LYNNFIELD PIONEERS at the Continental:

It has been my pleasure to serve you all. Please stop sending me email now. Matador questions should go to the new guy: matthew@matador.recs.com.

I refuse to say goodbye because you should all start reading my magazine, Stay Free!

take care, people.

over and out.

Carrie McLaren, I