Tuesday, August 16th, 2005

Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over

Pop (All Love) takes the prize for out-of-left-field topic for the week and declares The Charlatans “the most inconsequential band of any consequence”. I don’t know exactly why Aaron was in such deep contemplation about the Charlatans that he was able to reach that epiphany, but perhaps that’s exactly the point.

I like the Charlatans okay, but I don’t think I’d feel compelled to play devil’s advocate in this case. I started off with a copy of Melting Pot, their best-of comp (current through Tellin’ Stories) and enjoyed it enough to go out and get their entire back catalog. Which I didn’t enjoy enough to keep. I’m down to a handful of middle-period albums that almost never get played. Odds are I’ll eventually be right back to Melting Pot, if I can even be bothered to pick that up. It’s sort of like my Charlatans universe expanded and expanded till it hit its maximum size, and has now collapsed upon itself. I’m just glad it stopped before it turned into a black hole and wiped out my Chameleons and Chapterhouse discs along with it. I stopped paying attention around 2001’s remarkably boring Wonderland (the same album that set off Mr Wherry’s train of thought) and I think they’ve put out one or two more since then, as well as a solo album from Tim Burgess. Full marks for longevity, at least.

Behold – the video for the title track of Longwave’s new album, There’s A Fire. Longwave will be opening up a leg of the Doves’ Fall North American tour, including their Montreal show but not Toronto (we get VHS Or Beta). In an odd booking decision, the tour will hit Toronto’s Docks on September 30, two and a half weeks after the September 13 Montreal show. I guess those crazy Brits really enjoy the gentle ministrations of border guards…

Fluxblog offers his two cents on the new Belle & Sebastian biography, Just A Modern Rock Story. Verdict? Not enough dirt.

Leonard Cohen is broke. Poor Lenny. It’s a good thing he’s so zen about it.

The LA Times talks to Matador head honcho Chris Lombardi about the uncomfortable but necessary circumstance of indie labels getting into bed with the majors. Via Coolfler.

…And this is what we call a very slow day. If this were a sitcom, it would be a clips episode. But it’s not, so it’s not. I was working on some stuff that’s just not ready, so maybe tomorrow.

np – My Morning Jacket / At Dawn

By : Frank Yang at 8:33 am
Category: Uncategorized
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  1. 8/16/05 9:02 am

     Torr says:

    Are there any other links/versions of that Longwave video out there? I can’t seem to get it to play right, it buffers then plays, but I don’t see or hear anything.

  2. 8/16/05 9:03 am

     Frank says:

    I have about a dozen different links at home. I’ll add them in tonight.

  3. 8/16/05 11:42 am

     The15-Minute Hipster says:

    Consider yourself lucky as to the Longwaves tour — VHS or Beta is terrific live.

  4. 8/16/05 11:46 am

     lucaswiththelidoff says:

    A broke Leonard Cohen might not be so bad for his fans.. It might provide him some inspiration to record & tour.

  5. 8/16/05 11:58 am

     JC says:

    Are tickets for the Doves show only going to be available through the "rip-off" Musictoday service?

  6. 8/16/05 12:00 pm

     Frank says:

    no, maybe presales but I fully expect Ticketmaster, Rotate This and probably Sonic Temple and Soundscapes to have tickets available eventually. The Docks are big – real big. This one won’t sell out too quickly, especially since they were just here in May.

  7. 8/16/05 3:29 pm

     tyrone says:

    its like B.B. King working for Burger King. real sad.

  8. 8/16/05 5:28 pm

     bozairzere says:

    when the charlatans 1st came out, i thought they were "stone roses lite". but ended up into most records up to tellin stories. their shows were always fun. i’ll

    echo ya here frank and say couldn’t care much these days…i love my chameleons too much too.

    although, throw on "sproston green" right now and i dare you not to groove.

  9. 8/16/05 5:35 pm

     Frank says:

    Longave video links:

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  10. 8/16/05 10:33 pm

     lou says:

    vhs or beta are horrible.

  11. 8/18/05 10:57 pm

     sean says:

    I coulda sworn I’d heard you up and then down interest in the Charlatans before and I guess I had when I found a similar account in a comment you made to a posting a month ago. I think middle period is what is worth hanging on to (no shame in paring it down to the best of disc if you must). Though the track You’re So Pretty from a few years ago gained some new life to me when it was used in adverts for the British sitcom Mike Bassett which was about a football manager. or something. Taken in that context I really dug that track.

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