Pitchfork

Two down, four to go! Jay Reatard has revealed the details for his second 7" single-- of a proposed six-- for Matador Records. "Painted Shut" comes backed with "An Ugly Death" and arrives in the U.S. May 20 and the UK the day before.

"Painted" follows up April's "See/Saw" seven, although the UK won't see "See/Saw" and its B-side "Screaming Hand" until May 19, aka the same day "Painted Shut" lands over there.

And speaking of screaming hands, one of those landed on some dude's face in Toronto late last week, courtesy of Jay Reatard himself. Jay and co. were playing a gig at the city's Silver Dollar on April 17 when the whole band/crowd dynamic just basically went to shit.

First we take you to YouTube, for footage of Jay jacking some stage-invading, visibly substance-addled youngster in the face and tearing his shirt to shreds Björk-stylee:


Yikes dude!

Jay then announces "I'm done!" and starts packing up his gear, prompting a Silver Dollar booker, also visibly addled by one substance or another, to take the mic and dis Jay mightily. Bad vibes all around.

Determined to make amends to fans while also sharing his take on the unfortunate turn of events, Jay posted the following message to his MySpace the day after the incident:

Last night's show in Toronto got completely fucked up. The Silver Dollar holds 190 people but Craig Laskey the promoter let 350 people in there. That's cool if there's some sort of security or crowd control - we don't need people getting so wild they jump on stage and smash our gear - but that's exactly what happened. Right when we started playing someone pushed the monitors right on top of Stephen and on to his pedals - breaking them, people were throwing beer bottles at us, [and] someone jumped onstage and smashed my pedals, another guy took a full pitcher of beer and dumped it all over the rest of my pedals, and then threw it right at my Flying V, breaking the pickup and the input electronics. After three songs all our gear was smashed and unusable. Even when shit gets that crazy at [a] Circle Jerks show there's at least some security but when I asked Craig Laskey about it before the show he told me "I thought you guys were a garage band." When we couldn't play anymore I hung out and talked to people, refunded people's money out of my own pocket, and tried to borrow gear and finish the set a bit later but [booking agent] Dan Burke wouldn't get off the stage, too busy talking trash about me.

I'm getting really sick of shit like this happening. We'll come back in Toronto soon and do a free show to make it up to the real fans in Toronto. And we'll steer away from greedy promoters who don't have any control of their shows and who don't care about doing right by the audience.

So there you go. Please rock out responsibly as Jay Reatard plays both ATP vs. Pitchfork in May and the Pitchfork Music Festival in July, plus a mess of other shows in the U.S. and all over London. And for a live Jay Reatard gig gone right, head over to Pitchfork.tv.

Jay:

04-21 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom *
04-22 Brooklyn, NY - Europa *
04-24 Princeton, NJ - Terrace Club *
04-25 Swarthmore, PA - Swarthmore College *
04-26 Washington, DC - Black Cat *
04-27 Charlotte, NC - The Milestone *
04-28 Atlanta, GA - Lenny's *
04-29 Chattanooga, TN - JJ's Bohemia *
04-30 Nashville, TN - Mercy Lounge *
05-01 Memphis, TN - Hi-Tone *
05-08 London, England - Old Blue Last
05-11 Rye, England - Camber Sands Holiday Centre (ATP vs. Pitchfork) $
05-13 London, England - White Heat @ Madame Jojo's
05-14 London, England - Cafe Otto ^
05-15 London, England - Old Blue Last (Stag and Dagger) ^#
05-16 London, England - Pure Groove Records (in-store)
05-17 London, England - "Secret Warehouse Show"
05-18 London, England - Best Laid Plans @ Proud
05-19 London, England - Astoria %
07-15 Brooklyn, NY - Prospect Park Bandshell ~
07-19 Chicago, IL - Union Park (Pitchfork Music Festival) !
07-25 Seattle, WA - Capitol Hill Block Party

* with Cheap Time
$ with Dirty Projectors, Bon Iver, the Hold Steady, Man Man, Jens Lekman, Caribou, Hot Chip, Les Savy Fav, No Age, Black Lips, Of Montreal, Los Campesinos!, Glass Candy, Vampire Weekend, Times New Viking, Meat Puppets, the Black Angels, Marissa Nadler, Wooden Shjips, Deerhunter, Shit and Shine, Sebadoh, Ween, Girls Against Boys, Redd Kross, Pissed Jeans, Yeasayer, Fuck Buttons, Apse, A Place to Bury Strangers, the Clientele, Black Mountain, Harmonia, Born Ruffians, Howlin Rain, Car Sick Cars, Even, Various Production (DJ set)
^ with Times New Viking
# with Lovvers
% with the Black Keys
~ with Spoon, Constantines
! with Animal Collective, Jarvis Cocker, !!!, Vampire Weekend, Dizzee Rascal, Fleet Foxes, Jay Reatard, No Age, Atlas Sound, Extra Golden, the Ruby Suns, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Occidental Brothers Dance Band International