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January 30, 2005

Pixies Talk About Their Reunion on ACL

I'm going to post this because last year when the news first broke, there were some questions about the Pixies reunion. The rumors were originally fueled by off-the-cuff comments Frank Black Francis Thompson originally made in an XFM radio interview quoted in the NME:

I do dream about the Pixies reunion I do have to say. It’s like those schoolboy dreams when you don’t do your homework and you don’t study for the test, but I’m at the gig and we’re hanging out, but its an utter failure and I don’t know the songs, and hardly anyone turns up for the gig and people walk out. That’s what I’m afraid of, that it’d be a big, big failure.

We might. We (bassist Kim Deal, drummer David Lovering and guitarist Joey Santiago) do get together and have private jams together, but not for public consumption.

I remember after that, the Internet buzz was high. It was almost like the speculation about the Beatles reuniting in the 70s. I'm kind of thinking that's what Bob Pollard is hoping for in 5-10 years when he reunites Guided by Voices.

Frank Black himself made some comments about it on his fan board:

Finally, as for the latest rumor (#398) that the Pixies are going to reunite for a tour (as mentioned by FB on London's Xfm radio)... here's the lowdown from the inside : The Pixies will get together later this year to record a new double album of Latvian children's lullabies, after which they will tour each and every country whose name begins with the letters Cz.

What's my point? Originally, the rumors weren't true, and there was no reunion in the works. But when Black and the band found out the amount of moola they could earn through a tour, they probably made the decision to get back together in September, as announced on PFork.

Following the band's “Austin City Limits” performance, Black and the other members shared some details of how they reunited:

I started a joke, heh heh! On the radio in London, and the whole world was crying and, uh, so—and then I said, "Oh, what the Hell, all right," So the cat's out of the Bag, so I called Joe, and then Joe called Kim, I think, and then I think Kim called Dave. Or something like that. Some sort of—something like that.

Yep. I made a joke, I made a joke. Joe called me in like the very beginning of September and we didn't know If we were going to do it. We were just talking.

Kim Deal: And then in October, on the MSNBC, the tickertape, the ticker thing down there, it said something about Pixies Reunion. I thought that was something. It was like, what are we doing on there? That's right, it was a CNN ticker. That's crazy. And then I heard that that spacecraft on Mars—I'm not kidding—that they used “Where Is My Mind?”

As a wake-up call. That's right, they did. To wake up the computer when they shut it down to reboot it or something. Right. So that was kind of, whoa. And I started seeing people like in fashion ads and sometimes there would be the rock fashion ad, and they would be having, they would wear a “Death to the Pixies” Shirt.

Terry Lickona, ACL producer: More to come? Are you guys even thinking that far ahead as far as where this might go from here?

Black: I don't know, I guess we don't chart out a lot of stuff. We tend to just be like... So where is the Starbucks? When, what are we doing today? You know, tomorrow's kind of tomorrow, you know? It's kind of hard to —

Lovering: It's one day at a time.

Black: Yeah, one day—baby steps.

Posted by timothompson at 06:00 PM

South Lamar Alamo Drafthouse To Open in March

A new Alamo Drafthouse will be opening in March at the location of the old Fiesta market at 1120 S. Lamar. With six screens and stadium seating, this may be one of the biggest Drafthouse ventures yet. And with 200 new openings planned nationwide in the next five years, we may be looking at the first Drafthouse-cum-Starbucks pilot project with this new theater. They are even going to feature slightly different food from the usual burgers/pizza fare and have hired one of the chefs from Mars restaurant. The new location also “will feature 3-D capability in one theater (and) show drive-in movies in the parking lot.”

The grand opening will take place starting March 7th and continue into SXSW Film, and it looks like they're planning some of the usual Alamo-type programming, including a double feature of “Waking Life” and “Dazed and Confused” with Wiley Wiggins hosting [via], and the Foleyvision Turkish Wizard of Oz, which will probably be almost as good as that fan remake of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” they showed a couple of years ago.

Posted by timothompson at 05:00 PM

Library Items, 1/30/2005–2/20/2005

CD

More Monty: From And Inspired By The Biggest British Film Of All Time

Books

Posted by timothompson at 04:27 PM

January 28, 2005

Real World Austin

The highly anticipated Real World Austin cast moves in today. And they've already been spotted. OMG!

Posted by timothompson at 01:13 PM

January 27, 2005

Jazz + Pavement?

According to the Matador Board, jazz musician Cyrus Chestnut and others have recorded Pavement covers, including “Trigger Cut” (which you can hear here) for a new jazz album called “Gold Sounds.” From the label:

Brown Brothers Recordings is proud to announce the preparation of our first full-length album. "Gold Sounds", featuring James Carter (saxophones and sousaphone the contrabass sarrusophone), Cyrus Chestnut (keyboards), Reginald Veal (bass) and Ali Jackson (percussion) was recorded this past September 14-17 at Electric Lady Studio B in New York City. The album, recorded and engineered by Steven "Val" Mandel (D'Angelo, Roy Hargrove, E. Badu, Rod Hohl, etc.) and mixed at Bear Creek Studios in Washington by Ryan Hadlock (Stephen Malkmus, Elvin Jones, etc.), features these stellar jazz musicians performing their versions of songs by the band Pavement.

Complete song list: 1) My First Mine; 2) Here; 3) Summer Babe; 4) Cut Your Hair; 5) 5-4=Unity; 6) Stereo; 7) Blue Hawaiian; 8) Platform Blues; 9) Folk Jam; and 10) Trigger Cut.

Update:

"Hi, Tim; On your January 27, 2005 post you mention James Carter. James Carter plays saxophones and the contrabass sarrusophone. You have him listed as playing the sousaphone, but a sousaphone is from the tuba family. The sarrusophone is from the woodwind family, and can be played with a single reed like a saxophone, or with a double reed like a contrabassoon.

Best Regards, Steven

Steven Lederman Technical Assistant Fordstar Studios"

Posted by timothompson at 02:18 PM

More SXSW Parties and Showcases

Merge announces their tentative showcase line-up [via]:

here's what we're working on:

Rosebuds
Radar Bros.
Lou Barlow
M. Ward (w/ full band)
Crooked Fingers

more details when we have them -- announcements will be made soon!

thanks,
mac


And Tight Spot Records has started planning its Porchlight Pop Fest day party:
This year's line-up includes but is not limited to Earlimart, The Natural History, Fivehead, The Winter Pageant, and This Microwave World.

Posted by timothompson at 01:02 PM

January 26, 2005

Ex-Pavementer Bob Nastanovich Launches Horse Racing Site

It can be found here at lonelyontherail.com. [via]

Posted by timothompson at 05:31 PM

Matador Announces SXSW Line-Up

From the news page:

There's nothing we love more than a sprawling trade fair disguised as a music festival (except for possibly a sprawling music festival disguised as a trade fair). As such, Matador is chuffed-to-bits to present the following lineup at this year's South By Southwest:

SUPPORT MATADOR RECORDS 2005!

Stephen Malkmus
Pretty Girls Make Graves
Laura Cantrell
Dead Meadow
and special guests

Friday, March 19, The Parish, 214 E. 6th St. Austin, TX.

And they've established a Myspace.com account.

Posted by timothompson at 02:35 PM

January 25, 2005

Guided By Voices ACL Appearance

The Google Video Search result for the GBV “Austin City Limits” features a photo of the guy jumping on Bob Pollard at the end of the show. [via] See also: Yahoo video search results for GBV. Unrelated: There's a lot of shows using the word “testicles” for some reason.

Posted by timothompson at 05:41 PM

Vice Magazine Design Issue

Momus discusses the Vice Magazine design issue in a Design Observer post.

Posted by timothompson at 12:23 PM

January 20, 2005

Trail of Dead Report

Austin American-Statesman writer Joe Gross catches up with And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead.

Posted by timothompson at 01:07 PM

January 18, 2005

Library Items, 1/08/2005-1/29/2005

I'm going to start keeping a record of library media I've checked out.

CDs

The Best of Dick Dale & His Del-Tones, Dick Dale
Entertainment Weekly 1970
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Neil Young

Books

Playback : from the Victrola to MP3, 100 Years of Music, Machines, and Money, Mark Coleman
Vinyl Junkies : Adventures in Record Collecting, Brett Milano
Wouldn't it be nice : Brian Wilson and the Making of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, Charles L. Granata
Midlife Crisis at 30 : How the Stakes Have Changed for a New Generation—and What To Do About It, Lia Macko
Tales To Astonish : Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and the American Comic Book Revolution, Ronin Ro
ITunes 4 for Macintosh and Windows, Judith L. Stern
New Masters of Flash: Volume 3, O. Bergner ...et al.
'Found' : the Best Lost, Tossed, and Forgotten Items from Around the World Compiled by Davy Rothbart

Posted by timothompson at 05:58 PM

New Video for Octopus Project

Austin’s Octopus Project have shot a video for “Music Is Happiness” (photos from the shoot here) to accompany their new album, “One Hundred Ten Thousand Million” (downloads here). [via]

Posted by timothompson at 04:18 PM

Yet Another Music Festival

First, Detroit promoters announced the Motor City Music Conference. This time around, New Jersey enters the music festival business with an event called Music Expo to take place in Asbury Park. With the success of events like SXSW, we may see more promoters try to copy the formula. And just like many major cities now have a movie festival, we may see more cities try to start their own music festivals. It will be interesting to see which ones are still around in the next few years.

Posted by timothompson at 04:00 PM

January 16, 2005

Predictably Unpredictable

With a new Fall documentary premiering this week, Mark E. Smith talks to the Guardian about breaking his hip and why he avoided attending John Peel's funeral. Here's another Guardian feature as well.

Posted by timothompson at 11:08 AM

January 14, 2005

Recommended: A Touch of Greatness

If you get a chance, I recommend watching or recording “A Touch of Greatness” on PBS (TiVo link), a documentary about an New York elementary school teacher named Albert Cullum. Cullum rejected the standard sit-down and read education that still takes place today in favor of an active "play" approach to learning and encouraged his students to act in Shakespeare plays. It's exhilarating and inspiring to watch archival footage of some of his students acting and dancing more skillfully than in shows that we watch on television.

Posted by timothompson at 03:21 PM

January 13, 2005

Advanced Still Advancing

ACME blog, my favorite blog of 2004, revisits Klosterman friend Jason Hartley's Advanced Theory Blog, which I hadn't visited in a while, but is still going strong. To sum up the theory, “advanced” artists do the unexpected and follow their muse to the consternation of their audience, while “overt” artists think of their audience before they do anything.

Posted by timothompson at 03:32 PM

Portland Moosic Noose!

Please don't tell me David Largeheartedboy or Paul "The Rub" has posted this first—I'll just die. Anyway, I just read from donewaiting.com that there's been some musical chairs going on in the Decemberists, with their drummer Rachel leaving, and the new additions of John Moen and Petra Haden. From Mr. Meloy, I assume:

Changes do happen! We here at Decemberists HQ are very sad to announce that Ms. Rachel Blumberg, Decemberist drummer since 2002, has decided to leave the group. While this is sad for us - we will certainly miss her - it makes us happy to know that she'll be able to spend more time with her sweetheart, Adam Selzer, and they both will be able to focus more on their collaborative music project, Norfolk and Western. (In fact, Norfolk and Western will be touring the universe this spring in support of fellow Portlander, M. Ward - which everyone should go see.)

It makes us also very happy to welcome two new members to the family: Mr. John Moen and Ms. Petra Haden. Mr. Moen has been a man about town in Portland for quite a while and has contributed his not-unconsiderable drumming and singing abilities to a panoply of unquestionably seminal NW rock outfits, notably the Minus Five, the Maroons, and Steve Malkmus and the Jicks. Ms. Haden practically needs no introduction; daughter of Charlie, Ms. Haden is an erstwhile member of That Dog and the Rentals and has carried on a very impressive solo career in the meantime. Her talents grace many a track on the upcoming Decemberists record, and we're really pleased as punch to have her singing and violin playin' follow us on the road.

This left me wondering how this would leave the Moen-less Jicks in 2005, with jack of all trades Mr. Moen joining the 'rists and Mr. Malkmus releasing a new album in the near future.

Mr. Malkmus (reporting from Nashville—maybe the Joos album is really happening??) informs us from his site that he will be playing SXSW this year to support the new joint with a hastily assembled back-up team:

we did indeed finninsh the danish record before xmas. its the best yet they say and its going by the title "Hamburger Serenade" right now. it could change. there are very little plans for touring. i plan to play at sxsw in march with some sort of weird unit-john moen has other commitments.

So, let's recap. Blumberg out. Moen and Haden to the Decemberists. Malkmus finishes another badly titled album and looks for cover art. To play SXSW with back-ups. Joos album probably in progress as we speak. This closes this farm report. Until next time, I'll be dezane.

Posted by timothompson at 01:27 PM

January 12, 2005

Neckwear Violation on “Apprentice 3”

With the new season of Apprentice starting next week, I must mention the odd neckwear of upcoming candidate Danny Kastner. After Raj stole the show last season by wearing a bowtie (and has been succeeded this season by Bren), Danny has taken the traditional Windsor knot tie to a new level by placing it under his collar like a noose around his neck, making him look like a 70s gentleman dandy a la Rod Stewart or Keef (though this outfit is quite unlike Danny's normal business attire of a t-shirt saying “Neo-Nerd”). When your sartorial ideal is Daniel Day-Lewis, you are heading for trouble. Trump may have to cut this trend off at the pass, or soon we may be seeing next season's candidates rocking the cape action.

Posted by timothompson at 06:39 AM

January 06, 2005

Austin-Bergstrom Lobby Cam

ABDFTCOW used a Boing Boing technique to find a webcam of the lobby at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. It's fascinating just to watch it refreshing over and over.

Posted by timothompson at 11:22 AM

January 05, 2005

New Silver Jews Album Reportedly in the Works

Here's another report about a new Silver Jews album being made in Nashville: here's the roster:

DCB
Stephen Malkmus, guit
Mike Fellows bass
"The drummer is local Titans booster, Brian Kotzur"
Cassie B on a couple vocals &
maybe Will Oldham and Steve West and maybe even Bobby Nastanovich.

& Look for nastanovich's horse racing analysis website lonelyontherail.com to launch later this year.

Posted by timothompson at 07:33 PM

SXSW Update

Luke Wilson's “The Wendell Baker Story” will debut at the SXSW movie conference on March 11th. And Detroit promoters have announced a SXSW carbon copy music conference called the Motor City Music Conference, because “if Austin can do it, so can we.”

Posted by timothompson at 02:06 PM