August 14, 2000

Stop The Vote, Pt. II
You’ll be pleased to know that Captain Caveman has accepted his party’s nomination for Vice-President. However, no one seems to know who or what his party is, and it appears as though the top of the ticket is helmed by a raccoon (or possibly, a small man in a raccoon costume). Much like previous national elections, we at Matador do not feel comfortable asking you to vote and drive, but if you must do so, please run someone over.

Techno Animal — New material this fall and in 2001.
Say what you will about free agency, but from a record label perspective, it’s really great knowing we can reward our loyal season ticket holders with the occasional high-profile signing. And don’t worry, we’ll get to one of those sooner or later. Until then, we are getting ready for a multitude of new releases from Techno Animal, the UK duo of Justin Broadrick (Godflesh) and Kevin Martin (God). On the heels of their recent split LP/CD Symbiotics with Porter Ricks (Mille Plateaux), a plethora of releases for labels such as Digital Hardcore, Grand Royal and Force Inc., and recent remixes for JSBX, 2nd Gen and others, Techno Animal will have a split 12" later this year with Newark, NJ’s Dalek, followed by new singles and a resulting full-length Matador album in 2001. Without wanting to tip anyone’s hand too far in advance, we can tell you that the new Techno Animal material is headed in a more deliberate hip hop infused direction, and collaborations with a varied cast of MC’s are planned. More news to come.

Yo La Tengo — Once they had a home.
Now, they get closer and closer to yours.
Yo La Tengo will continue their relentless U.S. schedule in support of ‘And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out,’ playing with Versus from September 15-24, and Chris Knox from September 27-29 (check out tour dates section). Versus have a new album forthcoming from Merge; Chris Knox has a new album on Flying Nun. You can consider the above a recommendation.

Also, Ira, Georgia and James will be backing an aspiring singer-songwriter named Ray Davies for 3 nights at the Jane St. Theatre (August 23, 24, 25) in New York City. We’ve not been able to find much in the way of biographical information about this Davies guy on the Internet, but we’re open minded enough to want to check the shows out just the same. We encourage you to do so as well.

Bardo Pond — Sneak peek at new stuff.
Bardo Pond are continuing work on their new Matador album, tentatively scheduled for early 2001. If you can’t wait that long (and several hundred, possibly thousands of you, can’t), the wonderful persons at Hummingbird Mountain are releasing a limited edition 3 song 10", including “Blurred,” which is available in mp3 form.

D-Stroy — The hardest working man in show business. This week, anyway.
“I, D-Stroy is working hard on putting the blue print in effect. I’ve spent more of the summer in Europe then in NYC, but I’m here now. I recently went out there and did as much as possible. I hosted and performed at many spots, opened up for D’Angelo, recorded with Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and recorded some solo joints. After the million meetings I’ve been having I’m happy to announce that it’s official. D-Stroy will be hitting everyone that loves music in the noggin with more fire. Let’s get ready to rumble, party people! — D-Stroy formerly known as D-Stroy”

(Management Note: The phrase “Let’s get ready to rumble” is a trademark held by ring announcer Michael Buffer. The above use of that phrase does not in any way constitute an endorsement by Mr. Buffer of D-Stroy or his music. Thank you.)

Russell Puts The Muscle Into Solo Debut
Russell Simins, easily the finest looking drummer in the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, lets loose with all those thoughts and feelings (musical and otherwise) you didn’t know he had in him — or maybe you just suspected, but were too afraid to ask. ‘Public Places’ is the name of Russell’s new CD/LP, and you can find it in all responsible record stores on October 17, courtesy of our friends at Grand Royal.

Competition is Evil
(and besides, the other guys are lame):
Citysearch, the online guide to boring stuff you can find in a regular newspaper, are sponsoring some kind of bogus competition where visitors can vote for their “favorite local label.” Some schmoe at Astralwerks is trying to get our goat by daring us to battle them in this flimsy contest (maybe they thought “local” meant “low-calorie”) and as a favor to Frank Longo, here’s where you can vote for Matador, the greatest local label of all time.

This is right up there with those Time Magazine Man of The Century polls where Ric Flair or Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf out-poll Jesus Christ and Adolf Hitler combined (not that they didn’t deserve it). Seriously, if someone needs validation this badly, why don’t they just have flowers delivered to themselves? There’s no nicer pick-me-up than a bouquet of flowers.

Listening Piles That Were
Too Late For The Last Listening Pile:

Pete Astor, The Wisdom Of Harry
The Marshall Mathers LP - Eminem
The Sound Of The Pirates mixed by Zed Bias
Supa Dupa Fly - Missy Elliott
The Button Down Mind Of Daniel Bell - Tresor 142
Langois - last frequency presets
Abandoned Stations On londons Underground - J.E. Connor
Tragic Epilogue - Anti Pop Consortium
Welcome to the Afterfuture - Mike Ladd
Filmmusik - Felix Kubin
Spanners - The Black Dog

Lesser
(in no particular order)
optiganally yours - optiganally yours presents:
exclusively talentmaker!
misfits - (probably a greatest hits album
d/l’ed from hotline server)
dre - chronic 2001
zoogz rift - island of living puke (back-to-back with...)
sun ra - space is the place
(somehow the same album as zoogz rift)
blectum from blechdom - the messy jesse fiesta
prong - beg to differ
cannonball adderly - live in san francisco
mudhoney - super fuzz big muff
sisqo - !! thongthongthong !

August 4, 2000

Matador announces new album from aspiring singer-songwriter & friends.
Matador announces new album from aspiring singer-songwriter and friends. We’re still not sure of titles, dates or anything else, but we can tell you that sometime in early 2001, Matador will be releasing a new full-length album by Stephen Malkmus, fronting a new trio known as The Jicks. We at Matador have always been supportive of new, unheard artists, and we’re confident that the rock & roll stylings of these youngsters will be like nothing you have ever heard. OK, check that, they will actually be very much like something you have heard (but something very good, indeed).

New MP3’s available now (and later):

Arsonists Recording Continues.
The Arsonists are more than halfway done with their new LP, Q-Unique producing 85-90% of the album, as well as picking up the mic. Jise One and Swel Boogie steppin up to bat from out of the shadows of the last LP. The best is yet to come.

Sad Rockets — Shit you overhear at parties.
Andrew Pekler, aka Sad Rockets: “I just moved to Berlin a week ago and am very excited to finally be living in a real city after having spent the first 25 years of my life in the provinces (Monterey CA, Heidelberg, Germany). But rather than bore you with the details of my move, let me tell you an anecdote I heard recently:

Two guys talking:

John: ‘Hey Bill, an embarrassing thing happened to me recently.’

Bill: ‘What’s that?’

John: ‘Well, when I went to the travel agent’s to get a plane ticket for my trip to Pittsburgh, the woman that helped me had such large breasts that I inadvertently said “I’d like a round trip ticket to Titsburg.” Man, was that embarassing!’

Bill: ‘That reminds me of something similar that happened to me. When I was on vacation last month with my wife, we were sitting at the breakfast table and I wanted to say “Honey, could you pass me the butter?” but what slipped out instead was “You fucking bitch! You’ve ruined my whole goddamn life!”’”

(Note: the management of Matador Records does not necessarily condone the use of the words “vacation” or “butter.” We’d also like to tell you that Sad Rockets’ upcoming Matador debut LP/CD is called ‘Transition,’ not ‘Blue Room,’ as previously noted).

Khan — We wanted to say “pass the butter,” but what slipped out was “when is your fucking record going to be finished?”
Khan reports: “I started mixing my new album here in Berlin with Jammin Unit from Air Liquide. After recording the playbacks in April and May here in Berlin I went back to NY to record several singers now I’m putting this together. First song I did is the song Julee Cruise did which is a very crazy romantic up tempo ballad. Than I did a song with Chicago legend Andre Williams and an NYC harmonica player. It kinda sounds like Canned Heat on acid. Right now I started mixing the track I did with Jon Spencer. I will record Francoise Cactus of Stereo Total next week with 2 tracks and mix afterwards.”

OK, that sounds good. We didn’t have to be so rude.

These are some of our favorite things:

Jurgen Soder, Couch
v/a - putting the morr back in morrissey (morr music)
workshop - workshop (ladomat)

Stuart Braithwaite, Mogwai
1 Britney Spears - Ooops i did it again
2 Belted Child - Vintage Reality (lp)
3 Phillip Glass - Solo Piano
4 Stockhausen - Kontakte
5 Lord Of The Rings (radio play)

M.P. Lancaster, Mount Florida
yes - tales from topographic oceans
groundhogs - bbc live thing
grateful dead - morris county gig 70s-ish
black sabbath - paranoid
gong - gazus
nordheim - electric
amon duul II - woof city
something modern - cant remember what it’s called
fall - carrier bag man

Khan
Treibhaus Schoenhauser Allee
Captain Comatose ‘Comatose Captain’ on Playhouse 42
Fred Bigot ‘binary & ternary’ ? french release ?
Guillaume Berroyer ‘UnknowMysterioso’ Karat 03
T.G. ‘20 Jazz Funk Greats’
Langnese ‘Vinetta’ Ice cream
Native Instruments ‘Reaktor’

Ben Goldberg, Matador Records
* Fela Kuti - Original Suffer Head/I.T.T. (MCA) This is one of many reissues of Kuti, who founded the Afro Beat sound with brilliant 20 minute funk compositions. In his spare time, he founded his own society and was repeatedly beaten by government lackeys.
* David Grubbs - The Spectrum Between (Drag City) The sound of one Gastr clapping for himself, but in good rhythm.
* Lovely Midget (Corpus Hermeticum) - Rachel Shearer’s drone thing and a beautiful addition to any background noise.
* China Crisis - Collection (Caroline) - Eighties band I never heard of and just borrowed from Gary. I never was an OMD fan, but I like to think I was at some point.

Che Ryback, Matador Records
The White Stripes ‘s/t’ lp.
Various artists ‘All tore up’ lp.
The new printer in the sales dept.
EA sports triple play 2001 for Sony playstation.
Bjorn Olsson ‘Instrumental Music...’ cd.
Mike Ink “Respect” remixes Dbl 12".
Dr. Browns Black cherry soda.
New friend.

Matt Ransford, Matador Records
Mark Bowden - ‘Black Hawk Down’
Kate Walbert - ‘Where She Went’
Don DeLillo - ‘White Noise’

Doug Nyce’s (Matador Records) current Hot Sh*t
Bahamadia - BB Queen (Goodvibe recordings)
MOP - Ante Up (Loud)
Phil da Agony - Blunted (Goodvibe)
MF Doom - Operation Doomsday (Fondle ’Em)
De La Soul - Mosiac Thump LP (Tommy Boy)

Donovan’s (Matador Records) favorites pile:
Air conditioning
New DVD player
Dave and Katie’s new puppy
Silkworm ‘Lifestyle’
Badly Drawn Boy ‘The Hour of Bewilderbeast’
Peter Bruntnell ‘Normal For Bridgewater’
Tommy Guerrero ‘A Little Bit Of Somethin’
Mojave 3 ‘Excuses For Travellers’
Appliance ‘Six Modular Pieces’
The Ivory Coast ‘The Rush of Oncoming Traffic’
Anything by Kid 606

Jesper Eklow, Matador Records
1. Dag Vag & Svinstia - Dimma 7"
1. Mud Hutters - The Declaration 7"
1. The Marc Thor Band - Love Sucks 7"
1. Bizarros - Laser Boys 7"
1. The Rutto - Mä Vihaan 7"
1. Tomrerclaus - Punk Them Into Shit 7"
1. Nicodemus, Matchez & Grozde - Hellbound Train 7"
1. Teddy & The Frat Girls - Alophen Baby 7"

Patrick Amory, Matador Records
1. Shirley Collins ‘The Power of the True Love Knot’
2. James Gang ‘Rides Again’
3. Nirvana ‘The Story of Simon Simopath’
4. V/A ‘Tresor Vol. 8’
5. Billy Gilman “Oklahoma” from ‘One Voice’
6. The Orb ‘The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Underworld’
7. Der Dritte Raum latest single
8. Infected Mushroom “Classical Mushroom”

Gerard Cosloy, Matador
Matmos/Motion - split 12" (Fat Cat)
J-Zone Presents: A Bottle Of Whupass EP (Old Maid)
Susumu Yokota - Sakura (Leaf)
Leila - Courtesy Of Choice (XL)
Team Doyobi - 12" (Skam)
Kaffe Matthews/Haley Newman - Pointy Stunt (Audioview)
The Champs - NWOBHM2 (mp3)