July 30, 1999

Videos are Nice

Let's announce the track listing for Matador's Tenth Anniversary Compilation video to be released on VHS and DVD on September 14, shall we? "Everything Is Nice" is the title. The DVD version will also include "What's Up, Matador?" in its entirety. How's that for value?

Pavement — Range Life
Cat Power — Cross Bones Style
Chavez — Break Up Your Band
Solex — Solex All Licketysplit
Cornelius — Star Fruits Surf Rider
Arsonists — Pyromaniax/Backdraft
Yo La Tengo — Sugarcube
JSBX — Talk About the Blues
Helium — Honeycomb
Guitar Wolf — Jet Generation
Pizzicato 5 — I Hear a Symphony
Cat Power — Nude As The News

From: Terry McCormick #108
To: Beth Lowry #108
Subject: STICKER CHANGE FORM
Date: Tuesday, July 20, 1999 9:00AM

ROUGH GD EUROPEAN FOOTBALL 98 IS LISTED AS A FOOTBALL BOOK WHEN IT IS REALLY A SOCCER BOOK. THAT IS JUST PLAIN NUTS. TERRY.

From: Terry McCormick #108
To: All Staff
Subject: STICKER CHANGE FORM
Date: Tuesday, July 20, 1999 11:00AM

THIS IS TERRY FROM 108 BEGGING FOR FORGIVENESS. BETH AND I DID NOT KNOW WHO TO SEND THE WRONG STICKER FORM TO. BETH IN NO WAY IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ADD ON OF "NUTS" THAT OFFEND YOU ALL. I AM NEW AT THIS E-MAIL STUFF AND THOUGHT ONLY BETH WOULD SEE THAT. I WAS JUST TRYING TO ADD A LITTLE LEVITY HERE. I IN NO WAY INTENDED TO INSULT ANYONE. MY JOB AT xxxxxx HAS BEEN NOTHING SHORT OF GREAT AND THE THOUGHT THAT I HAVE OFFEND SOME OF YOU BOTHERS ME GREATLY. I SINCERELY OFFER MY HUMBLE APOLOGY AND HOPE IN THE FUTURE THAT I WILL NOT BE SO STUPID. I AM TRULY SORRY.

July 23, 1999

Canada is a Dangerous Place

On the morning of July 22nd, THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION tour van was broken into in the loading dock of The Sheraton in Vancouver, Canada. The window was smashed and a mess of gear was stolen, including mics, amps, rack equipment, and Jon's very rare 1962 theremin. Also taken were several tour shirts, one of which was discovered later on a local homeless man.

In related JSBX news, JON SPENCER will be appearing on the fX network's "The X Show" on Tuesday the 27th at 10 PM. ("X as in chromosome - it's an icky guy show," says Deborah.) He is supposed to be demonstrating the theremin, which we've been told he's borrowed from a friend in Seattle.


Stealing is WRONG

If this JSBX trouble and the recent misfourtunes of Sonic Youth weren't enough, JEGA was recently forced to cancel his dates on the Flaming Lips "Music Against Brain Degeneration Revue" Tour when someone at the airline he was flying lost/stole his equipment en route from Grand Rapids to his gig at the Anchorage in NYC with KHAN and DJ Ease from NIGHTMARES ON WAX. If we had the name of said carrier, we'd surely be cursing their name right now, but we don't so, "curses to you, red baron!" We are not making this up.

Regardless, here's an excellent interview with Jega.


Friday Night with your Computer

KHAN & THE LYNNFIELD PIONEERS are playing tonight, Friday the 23rd at 10 PM, as part of the Digital Club Festival in NYC. Unfortunately, both are on stage in different venues at the same time. Good thing they're both being webcast! Friday night, the cool glow of your monitor, a bag of pork rinds. Mmm.


USA Networks Continues its Tradition of Mediocrity

GvsE (Good VS Evil) is the USA Network's latest foray into hipster programming. The show has been described as Pulp Fiction meets Buffy, but I'd probably call it any hyperstylized Saturday afternoon UPN show meets some other overly dramatic teen WB show. Point is, pay attention to the music in the August 1st episode (8:00 PM) if you happen to catch it. Then try to match the songs to the credits. Find NIGHTMARES ON WAX, COME, BOARDS OF CANADA and BURGER/INK. Now listen for something strikingly similar to JSBX's "Calvin." See if you can spot "Magical Colors." Sounds awfully familiar, doesn't it? Now look for a JSBX credit. Let us know if you find one.


The PAVEMENT Poetry Project

The contest is still on, kids! Time to get your pens and your paper. We've still got CD-ROMs and posters to give away. Enter!

July 16, 1999

Announcing The PAVEMENT Poetry Contest! We've got 500 Pavement CD-ROMs to give away and we want them to go to our closest, most talented friends. So. Here's how to enter. Write us a Pavement poem. It can be about Pavement's rock ability; it can be about Steve West's drumming. It can be a miniature Pavement song; it can be a testament to your rare Pavement trivia knowledge. Anything Pavement. Any form. Haiku, ballad, free verse, dirty limerick. Make it good.

The best fifteen poems will in addition to winning a Pavement CD-ROM, win a poster autographed by the band, some stickers, and publication on the Matador Web Site (including, but not limited to praise and/or ridicule from various staff members). The remaining 485 poems will win a CD-ROM (read: it will not be difficult to win, so enter!)

BARDO POND are playing the first night of Terrastock III, a 3 day psychedelic music festival taking place in London (ULU), August 27, 28 and 29, proceeds to benefit the very excellent Ptolemaic Terrascope magazine. Also appearing are Damon & Naomi, Bevis Frond, Brother JT & Vibrolux, The Music Tapes, WIndy & Carl, Tom Rapp, Spaceheads, Hood, Kirk Lake and many others.

This will be the third year that Bardo Pond have taken part in Terrastock (and the first year it has taken place in England).

The film ODE directed by Kelly Reichart will be showing at the Lincoln Center Film Festival Saturday, July 17 at 3:30 and Monday, July 19 at 6:15. Kelly's previous work includes the film "A River Of Grass" as well as videos by Christmas. The film is a modern update to the legend of Billy Joe McAllister show on Super-8 and features a score by Will Oldham, a new song by YO LA TENGO and some fine acting by Johnny Wurster of SUPERCHUNK.

Matador asks: Enough on-line games and toys?

The answer, no. Good thing launch.com has come along with "The MixLab." From the launch.com press release: "the MixLab is a groundbreaking technological effort for which artists like JSBX (whose track is "So Trance"), DJ Spooky, Money Mark, [and others] have contributed unreleased samples for remixers to tweak into their own supersonic collages and then upload for worldwide access and commentary." There are prizes for the best remixers (although none as good as an autographed poster or CD-ROM from Pavement, hint hint!) We haven't yet tested it out, but if it's an exciting new technology we can't live without, it's got to be good. Right? Right?

If we got your interest sparked in pictures of the dead baby last week, we've got something conincidentally this week to keep that interest piqued. Seriously though, Speak Magazine has an excellent interview with Dr. Stanley Burns, author of "Sleeping Beauty: Memorial Photography in America" and "A Morning's Work," among others. Burns has the largest collection of historical images (outside a museum) and has become something of a specialist on memorial photography. There's a great page on 19th century practices of photographing mothers with their deceased children and how those practices have become valuable to the greiving process in modern American hospitals. Do check it out.

July 9, 1999

New Signings

MOUNT FLORIDA are a Glasgow based duo consisting of M.P. Lancaster and Twitch (also known as Mike and Keith, but they can call themselves whatever they want). Twitch is a DJ with all kinds of time served in the club wars at sonora and pure (Edinburgh), and he's also the guy behind the experimental label, pi. M.P. has been involved in a myriad of art / installation projects, most of them pretty undercover compared to his current endeavors.

The collaborative beast that is Mount Florida have recorded some of the coolest stylistic collisions we've heard in a long time, equal parts ambient, cut + paste, dub and dance. Fun stuff, but hardly easy listening. Mount Florida's first release for Matador, a 12" / CD of "Lost in Satie" is coming this autumn.

Led by vocalist / guitarist / all-around-instrumentalist Pete Astor, THE WISDOM OF HARRY have released a series of awe- inspiring singles for the Faux Lux, Motorway, Lissy's and Static Caravan labels. These hard-to-find pop artifacts have been collected for mass consumption on the Stars of Super 8 compilation. The group's own Faux Lux label will be releasing this album in the UK, while Matador will be doing the job throughout the rest of the free world in August of this year.

Their music has been described by one commentator as "scuffed, unsettling soundtracks, full of unexpected jolts of noise and intense atmospherics, backlit by still-life projections." The same guy claimed "they build a sound that's equal parts Sparklehorse, Suicide and Underworld," but that's a bit much, isn't it?

Wisdom of Harry's Caesar Boots MP3

Mogwai to Blur: You're shite

If you were listening back in May when we broke the first installment of the MOGWAI European tour diary, you'd already know Blur is shite. Now Mogwai has taken the logical next step in modern propagandizing: T-Shirts. If you're fortunate enough to attend the T In The Park Festival in Kinross, UK this Saturday, you can pick one up. On the Matador marketing office's short list of what is shite:

Method Man skits.
The Nookie.
Brownouts.

Matador VS. Spin, Raygun

SPIN Magazine, August 1999:
Will Hermes reviews "Dr. Samuel J. Hoffman and the Theremin" (Basta/Allegro). "...[Dr. Hoffman], the podiatrist and theremin master here shows tone control that hacks like Jon Spencer can only dream of."

Jesper Eklow responds:
That's really fucking funny, because if it wasn't for Jon's use of the Theremin we wouldn't have had a revival AT ALL. After Electricity and Good Vibrations NO ONE used this thing until Jon came along with it, and all of a sudden every hip taste maker were Theremin experts already and had been for "years". I had never seen one in real life until I stepped into CBGB's one sunday night in 1992... ALSO, Jon always claimed he had absolutely NO IDEA how to "play" the damn thing anyway. Jon Spencer is very much responsible for our Theremin Awareness the past 7 years, SPIN Magazine is not.

We're also curious about RAYGUN's advertising logic. After an ad submission from the "Nice? or not Nice?" series featuring a photo circa 1895 of a deceased baby in a coffin reading "Death is nice," we were told the piece came too close on the heels of the Littleton Colorado shooting and the ad was rejected. Maybe it should have read "Death is unacceptable."

Nightmares Chat

They have been called the best DJs of the world. They are easy & playful with their horns, bass lines & beats. Chat with NIGHTMARES ON WAX live from Montreux, Switzerland. Saturday, July 10, 2:00 PM (ET) on SonicNet.

Interviews & Reviews

Those with short attention spans: read Yahtzeen. Five questions. Five answers.

Fuck & Lynnfield Pioneers

Plus, a thoughtful review of 2 Lone Swordsmen on Salon.

July 2, 1999

Announcing MATADOREUROPE.COM! Look here for European Matador information. Ease of navigation, elegant design, sound clips, tour dates, biographies — the whole lot of quality you've come to expect from Matador here and abroad. Or one of the two. Although the site is improving by the minute, there's already a lot to gaze at. On a continent where sex is still legal (ferrets, too), it's good to know that Matador is still Matador.

We regret to announce that THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION will not be performing at the New York 10 Year Nice Weekend shows due to complications with Judah Bauer's pregnancy. Instead, Mogwai will play Thursday night. Tickets for both the New York and London shows go on sale TODAY!

PAVEMENT are playing the Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle on September 4. Bumbershoot is a big arts festival over Labor Day weekend where one low admission price gets you in to see everything. Other acts this year include RFTC, Sonic Youth, REM, and "in-your-face acoustic rockers Violent Femmes." (Quote from the website.) The Festival is not just music — the Literary Arts Program features over 50 writers and poets and the 1 Reel Film Festival will show over 100 short films.

Thanks to everyone who saw THE GREEN MONSTER this past Tuesday. We unfortunately have no plans to make video copies for sale, but if this situation changes in the future, we'd like to let you know. Please send us a postcard with your name, address and phone number to: The Green Monster c/o Matador Films, 625 Broadway 12th Fl, NY, NY 10012.

Major Havoc in Brooklyn, NY - Saturday July 17
A DJ/Live Music/Multi-Room Party in conjunction with Smackmellon Studios, a not-for-profit experimental artist complex in Brooklyn.

Featuring: Prince Paul - THE ARSONISTS - DJ Franco - DJ Soulslinger - Polaris - Tower Recordings - Mr. Finewine - Eszter Balint - Rai from Vampyros Lesbos - Delmar from Liquid Sky - Duane from Other Music - Smallchange - Clay Caplice - Whit Dickey Trio

Food, Booze, Video Artists. What better way to spend a Saturday for $10? At Smackmellon Warehouse Space: 56 Water Street, D.U.M.B.O, 6p-2a (underneath the Brooklyn Bridge)

In disribution news: We have signed a label deal with Mushroom Distribution Services (MDS) for Australia and New Zealand. Besides MDS being a great label and our contact Simon Killen being Mike Holdsworth's "mate from the old days," we will continue to work with our longtime friends at Flying Nun (who represent MDS in NZ).

What does this mean to you, the listener? Many new Matador releases will be available domestically in Aust/NZ and the deal will enable more bands to tour down under.

In addition to signing a deal for Australia and New Zealand, we are pleased to annouce that we have done the same for Brazil. The company is called Trama Music and yes, just like MDS, they will release most of our records domestically in Brazil. Matador=Global Player.