|
June
21, 2000
 Joke-writers
are a dime a dozen. They had to hire about 70 of them for
that Flinstones movie several years ago, and I didn’t
laugh once! So here’s a chance for all of you smart alecks
to show us how fucking clever you are.
Send us your funniest
Yo La Tengo joke (warning — offensive and/or
insulting comments about the band will be ineligible, but
might be circulated around the office). You know, something
like “did you hear the one about the record company that
misspelled the name of their best band?” The first 200
or so entries will win the oft-discussed Yo La Tengo “value-added”
compilation CD (see old news for this one) plus a snazzy Matador
sticker that you can put on your skateboard, bathroom mirror
or your private parts. Tasteful/non-slanderous entries might
be featured on this site (either that, or we’ll steal
them and not give you credit).
If we ever use the words “value-added” in lieu of
a title again, you are instructed to kill us.
Live Human — Downloadable on the double
Starting today, “Elephants’
Bliss” from the jaw-droppingly brilliant upcoming
Live Human album, ‘Elefish Jellyphant’ is available
from this site in MP3. Enjoy it, learn from it, and most of
all, get ready to buy it.
Yo La Tengo — Webcasted
Yes, we know that some of you are getting sick of seeing Yo
La Tengo in video form. That’s just too bad, the band
have gone so long with their faces only being viewable in
print, on stage and on post offices walls, that the video
performance thing is being embraced in a big way. Starting
June 22, you can watch a webcast
of Yo La Tengo’s recent gig at Chicago’s Metro,
with radio & video in Real or Windows Media.
Non Phixion date change
 Good
things come to those who wait, and even better things come
when we decide to stop waiting. The long-awaited Non Phixion
debut album, ’The Future is Now’ has been moved
forward to a September 26 release date. With production work
from luminaries like Premier, Large Professor, Necro and Pete
Rock, and staples of Non Phixion’s live set like “The
C.I.A. Is Trying To Kill Me,” “If You Got Love”
and the recent single “Black Helicopters,” this
is shaping up to be a devestating album. More news on singles,
tours and documentary videos to follow.
Belle & Sebastian — Cha-ching
When you’ve got lots of people in the band, you need
to sell a ton of records to pay for all the dry cleaning.
Good thing then, that the glorious new Belle & Sebastian
album is off to such a hot start, entering the U.S. charts
at #80, the U.K. at #10, Norway at #17, etc. Without sounding
too smug about it, we’d like to remind everyone that
the United States is a much bigger country than almost anywhere
else, save for places where they haven’t gotten round
to villifying Napster yet, so we think #80 here is pretty
damn good. You might say that sales are not the only thing
and it’s just a popularity contest, and that’s what
we say most of the time as well.
Matador alumni —
Aloha means hello/goodbye and so does “alumni”
Jean Smith, one half of the pioneering Mecca Normal,
has a new solo album on Kill
Rock Stars and she’s about to begin a tour with her
new band. Check our tour dates section for more info.
June
6, 2000
Yo La Tengo to return to the scene of the crime
The world’s greatest band with the initials “Y.L.T.,”
or as we like to call them, Yo La Tengo, will be appearing
on NBC’s Late Night With Conan O’Brien, Tuesday
evening, June 13 at 12:30 (eastern U.S.). We had wanted the
group to discuss some of the recent allegations that have
been made, but their management insisted on pre-approving
the questions. So instead, the band will perform “You
Can Have It All” from every smart person’s pick
for album of the year, ‘And Then Nothing Turned Itself
Inside Out.’ Keep your eyes peeled for special guests
— the first person to correctly identify them on our
bulletin board wins absolutely nothing, other than the respect
of your peers.
Lovers of late-night television will remember this is not
Yo La Tengo’s first appearance on Conan. Or their first
appearance on Conan’s show. The first person to write
to us with the airdate of the last time Yo La Tengo were on
the show, along with the song they performed, as well as the
names of the other guests that night, will win 2 tickets to
an upcoming Matador marketing meeting.*
(* Matador reserves the right to award an alternate prize
if we don’t feel like having a meeting that day)
 Two
new videos are available
for your viewing pleasure in real video formula; “Athens,
OH” from Solex, a rarely seen, but awfully impressive
clip directed by Gina Birch, a formidable recording artist
in her own right (Raincoats, Hangovers). We’ve also got
“This Time” from Bardo Pond, who are to video
what Dwight Eisenhower was to color television — ahead
of their time.
Mark Ohe — Happy birthday. And Merry Christmas.
Our resident art director, musical visionary, man vs. nature
and all-around tall person, Mark Ohe, recently celebrated
his birthday. If you’re thinking of sending him something,
well, we can’t stop you, but you probably should have
thought of that a few weeks ago.
Ex-Matador band in
multiple label switcheroo shocker
In addition to releasing the (old) new Arab Strap record
(‘Elephant Shoe’) in North America on June 6th,
Jetset is also releasing the live record that proceeded it,
‘Mad For Sadness,’ on July 4th. If that wasn’t
thrilling enough, Arab Strap have returned to the label that
brought them to worldwide prominence, Chemikal Underground,
which is very happy news. That’s what they call “dancing
with who brung ya,” though chances are no one was dancing.
Live Human will be performing at Amoeba Records in
San Francisco (Haight Street) on Friday, July 14th, 2000 at
7PM, to celebrate the release of ‘Elefish Jellyphant.’
Some did mention that maybe drinks with friends and a quiet
evening at a nice restaurant is also a good way to celebrate,
but it’s too late now. We’ve booked the advertisements
and rented the P.A.
Couch Tour Diary
“Back from Poland, it was really nice and really mediterranean
(30 degrees), no car theft, no self burned vodka. And we slept
in a training center for prison employees.” We’ve
always heard that Poland had less car theft this time of year,
and now we know for sure.
Belle & Sebastian — Televised Mayhem
The new multi-format smasheroo “Legal Man” entered
the U.S. singles chart at No. 47 (No. 15 in the U.K.), which
is a very triumphant moment for those of us who believe that
quality music is more important than silly charts (which is
why we’re bragging about the chart numbers). To commemorate
these achievments, Belle & Sebastian appeared on the BBC’s
venerable ‘Top Of The Pops’ television program this
past friday evening. For those of you who haven’t seen
the show before, try to imagine ‘American Bandstand’
with a lot less dancing. Tabloid rag The Mirror are reporting
that the band snuck into the set of the top-rated soap opera
‘East Enders’ and were hauled away by the police.
It reminds me of the time GG Allin was booked to appear on
‘The Morten Downey Jr. Show,’ but had to hide on
the set of ‘People Are Talking’ during a cooking
segment, because the police were looking for him. Don’t
these “peace officers” have anything better to do
than harrass musicians?
Father’s Day
Just a reminder that next Sunday, the 18th of June is Father’s
Day. Our inhouse Children’s Rights Advocate, Clyde Kane
Jr. says he will pay tribute to his estranged father, Clyde
Sr. (presumed dead. or just tired) by putting his 12" picture
disc of Shaquile O’Neal’s “Biological Don’t
Bother” up for auction on eBay. Asked for a prediction
on the upcoming Lakers/Pacers series, Kane Jr. hung up the
telephone, cleaned out his desk and moved to New Mexico.
Celebrity Top Tens!
Kid 606
1. blectum from blechdom-the messy jesse fiesta
2. knifehandchop-new cd on irritant
3. dat politics-villiger
4. le tigre!!!!!!
5. skud/isound-mortal clash
6. chicks on speed-will save us all
7. adrien75-new stuff on cdr
8. gaijin-guncourt 7"
9. marilyn monroe-essential recordings
10. remote viewer-wanx for the mamaries
Ronald Reagan, U.S. President
1) Shattered Faith - "Reagan Country" b/w "I Love America"
2) Non Phixon - "I Shot Reagan"
3) A.P.P.L.E. - "Impeach Reagan"
4) D.R.I. - "Reaganomics"
(the Happy Flowers version sucked!)
5) MInutemen - "If Reagan Played Disco"
6) Wasted Youth - "Reagan’s In"
7) The Fartz - "Battle Hymn of Ronald Reagan"
8) D.I. - "Reagan’s Der Fuhrer"
9) Prince - "Ronnie Talk To Russia"
10) Reagan Youth - s/t
|
