Thursday, December 16th, 2004

Not The Tremblin' Kind

Some good news from Matador – firstly, they’ve signed New York country/folk chanteuse Laura Cantrell to a worldwide record deal (read the press release here). Cantrell has one of the most lovely, crystalline voices I’ve heard in a long time, and her songwriting and choice of material is top-notch – her albums to date have been a mix of originals and covers, somehow sounding completely traditional and utterly modern at the same time. The late John Peel called her debut record Not The Tremblin’ Kind, “my favorite record from the last ten years, and possibly my life” – high praise, indeed. Her first record for Matador will be out in late Spring, hopefully with touring to follow. In the meantime, the curious should check out her cover of Elvis Costello’s “Indoor Fireworks”, because what is this site about if not providing mp3s of cover songs?

Laura Cantrell – “Indoor Fireworks”

If you like, there’s bucketloads more material available to download here

At the other end of the Matador universe, curmudgeonly Scottish noiseniks Mogwai will finally release their Government Commissions (BBC Sessions 1996-2003), consisting of, well, 10 tracks culled from various BBC Sessions over the course of their career. It’ll be in stores on these shores on February 22.

And finally, longtime Matador flagship band Yo La Tengo will celebrate almost twenty years of wonderous music with Prisoners of Love: A Smattering of Scintilliating Senescent Songs, 1984-2003, a super-sized career retrospective coming out March 22. The ‘best-of’ component will comprise two discs of tracks from all their albums, even the non-Matador ones, and there will be a limited-edition pressing which will include a third disc of rarities, natch. I actually won’t mind shelling out for this – a compact Yo La Tengo would actually be a welcome addition to the collection and there looks to be some good stuff on that bonus disc. Check out the tracklisting here.

New Order’s new album has an official release date of March 28 in the UK, and presumably March 29 in North America though that’s yet to be confirmed. Supposedly their most ‘up’ record since Technique, It is still untitled.

Bettie Serveert’s new album Attagirl will get a North American release (with two bonus tracks!) on February 1 thanks to the good people at Minty Fresh. The band should be touring over here to support soon thereafter, and they even make a point of saying there will be Canadian dates! YAY.

NME gets some info on the new Doves record Some Cities, which drops March 1. There are rumours of a quickie North American tour in late March to coincide with SXSW, but we’ll see about that. From ILB.

Achtung Baby has some audio samples from Texas’ Eisley… I like. Can anyone more familiar with their stuff comment on whether it’s got shelf life? My cynical “band I’ve never heard of debuts on a major label” spider-sense is tingling. It’s unclear to me if their debut long-player, Room Noises, is out or not… their website says it’s out February 8 of next year while Amazon says it was out on Feb 8 of this year (but don’t seem to have much info).

eye and NOW both talk to Stars’ front-fop Torquil Campbell about rock, revolution and Set Yourself On Fire in advance of their 2-night stand at the Mod Club this Saturday and Sunday.

Another member of the Broken Social Scene extended family, Emily Haines of Metric, plays two solo shows – one early, one late – at the Church of the Redeemer at Bloor and Avenue tomorrow night. She’ll be playing songs to accompany projections of films by director Guy MaddinNOW has more details. Those looking for something a little more conventional from Ms Haines should know Metric plays the Mod Club January 21. Tickets for all shows, solo and band, are $17.50, on sale now.

Comic Book Galaxy takes a round-table look back at the year in comics.

np – Yo La Tengo / Painful

By : Frank Yang at 9:21 am
Category: Uncategorized
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  1. mattS says:

    Eisley — originally Mos Eisley until the Star Wars lawyers came calling — have been around a while. Definitely not manufactured insta-pop. When they first hit the radar they were notable for being very, very young and mostly related to each other. Like Hanson, but with girls and a darker sound. I quite like their first release, though though the lyrics do have a bit of a high school poetry class feel to them.

    There’s an MTV "You Hear It First" report about them from a few years ago here: http://…/

  2. Torr says:

    Eisley’s full-length album will not be out until Feb ’05. They’ve previously released two EPs on Record Collection.

  3. Frank says:

    "Definitely not manufactured insta-pop" – right there, you address my largest fear. That’s encouraging. Well, I’m sure that when the album comes out next year, there will be used promo copies a-plenty so I’ll probably pick one of those up.

  4. Juan says:

    More Songs:

    http://…/

  5. joyce says:

    hey frank…

    I’d second the "not manufactured insta pop" statement but i haven’t heard the new tunes yet. the lyrics from the first eps can be a bit trite but the music and sometimes discordant harmonies are pretty sophisticated for their age.

    i’ve seen them on their own live twice but apparently they opened up for snow patrol recently and coldplay on their north american tour (i got their too late to see them open that show but people at the show were raving). again, they are young–which shows in their shy demeanor on stage. they get a great reception around here (austin) since they are from texas.

  6. Jon says:

    Went to an Interpol show in a certain East coast state. Ended up at an after party with the band, Secret Machines and On Air Library. Carlos D took a liking to the girl I was at the show with. They ended up going back to the tour bus by themselves. She never would tell me what exactly they did, but this herpes story makes that night a lot more interesting.

  7. Five One Seven says:

    I was wondering what happened to Ms. Cantrell… thanks for the update. She is so great even when doing an Elvis Costello song!

  8. Frank says:

    take your elvis costello haterade somewhere else! This is a Declan-positive zone!

  9. shaunanananana says:

    i believe the new new order is gonna be called sugarcane…

  10. echo says:

    Thanks so much for the Laura Cantrell tip. Big fan of her version of "Where the Roses Bloom Again"

    viva wilco