Franz Ferdinand Pack New LP with Backwards Messages

Now then: Break out the 'shrooms, boys and girls! It's time to go on a little trip with Franz Ferdinand! Like the Beatles and Pink Floyd before them, Alex Kapranos & Co. encourage you to play their records backwards (which, incidentally, may result in scratches, which could result in you having to purchase a new copy of the album). Kapranos recently told MTV all about the subliminal messages they're packing into their new record, saying, "There's one on the first record, at the beginning of the second verse in 'Michael'. And we're going to do that on this album, too."

Having already performed some of their new material during a recent tour of Russia (including songs titled "I'm Your Villain", "Evil and a Heathen" and "Robert Anderson Is Christ"), the band have returned to New York to mix'n'master the sophomore album, which is slated for release sometime in the fall. They're currently working on roughly 20 cuts for the album, which is being laid to tape by up-and-coming producer Rich Costey. "We're always writing songs," Kapranos told MTV. "It's a continuous and nebulous process. If we all don't get to sit around and write with each other, we tend to get very upset."

The band plan on completing the mixing process within the next two weeks, with their sights on the end of September as a potential release date. Other songs in the works include "This Boy", "You Can Have It So Much Better", "Your Diary", "Radio", "Wee Andy", and "What You Meant".

As for those subliminal messages, Kapranos insists they aren't satanic: "There was that trend in the 70s and 80s of back-masking, where you'd put the most terrible satanic messages on songs, and we wanted to do the exact opposite, put the most positive thing we could think of as a backwards message." Indeed, the message buried in "Michael" is, "Call your mother, she's worried about you." GONK.

In related news, a post on the band's official site is inviting fans to help the band out with their upcoming DVD project. Yes, Franz Ferdinand want you to send them JPEG and MPEG files of you and your pals at Franz shows, as well as your own personal MP3 and MPEG messages to the band. Hurry, you only have until June 20 to compose your odes. Mine goes like this: "Franzy, oh Franzy/ They never seen a man dance/ Like the Franzy dance/ SEXUAL CHOCOLATE". See, there's a reason why I'm just writing about music and not out making it. Visit their site for more details.

Finally, the lads have announced a late-August series of shows in Edinburgh. On August 30 and 31, they'll play outside Edinburgh Castle, as part of the T on the Fringe event. A band we like very much called the Arcade Fire will open on the final day. Here are their remaining summer dates:

06-25 Herzogenrath, Germany - Sportanlage Schulzentrum
07-17 Aix-les-bains, France - L'Esplanade du Lac
07-20 Nimes, France - Place des Arenes
07-21 Nyon, Switzerland - L'Asse
07-26 Athens, Greece - Lycabettus Theatre
08-08 Vantaa, Finland - Korsossa
08-09 San Sebastian, Spain - Anoeta Stadium
08-10 Madrid, Spain - Aqualung
08-11 Madrid, Spain - Vicente Calderon Stadium
08-13 Oslo, Norway - Middelalderparken
08-19 Biddinghuizen, Holland - Six Flags Holland
08-20 Staffordshire, England - Weston Park
08-21 Chelmsford, England - Hylands Park
08-23 Belfast, Northern Ireland - Botanic Gardens
08-24 Dublin, Ireland - Lansdowne Road
08-26 Saint-Cloud, France - Domaine National de St. Cloud
08-30/31 Edinburgh, Scotland - Princes Street Gardens
09-02 Reykjavik, Iceland - Kaplariki Sports Hall
09-23-25 Austin, Texas - Zilker Park (Austin City Limits)

* Pitchfork Review: Franz Ferdinand: Franz Ferdinand
* Pitchfork News: Franz Ferdinand Continue Work on Second Album

Franz Ferdinand: http://www.franzferdinand.co.uk

Holopaw Discuss Details of New Album

Johnson describes the album as less clean-sounding than their debut. "I think we wanted to hit not quite as sterile of a sound as the first one. That's probably not the best word to use, but the other record was very crisp. The acoustic was so pristine, just so clear. I don't think we edited anything on this [new] record-- it was all, you know, live tapes."

That live sound came with the help of producer Mike Pecchio, of Scandalabra Studios in Brooklyn. Johnson explains, "[Pecchio] had converted a loft into this weird modular studio built up from scratch, with tons of good boards and ridiculous microphones."

Brooklyn wasn't the only recording locale. In addition to some of the album being cut in the band's hometown of Gainesville, Fla., not all of the band members were even in the same place at the same time for much of the recording process. Other engagements and busy schedules led to the group sending music back and forth. "Most of the time," Johnson says, "it revolved around me and John [Orth] being in New York at the same time. We kind of passed around a lot of things and got into a lot of arguments and finally it all settled together."

In addition to Pecchio's production work, Tom Reno and Dave LeBleu from the Mercury Program lended some instrumental help, and IDM-cum-hip-hop producer Daedelus contributed a bit of wind-work. While plans for a single have not been cemented, Johnson told us that Sub Pop is considering "Curious" as the album's lead single.

Oh, and as for that ass-kicking we mentioned? "We just played in Gainesville last weekend. The new songs have the potential to kick a lot more ass live-- it's a lot less acoustic-y and that kind of thing. We actually turned it on and we were throwing hot dogs all over the place and it was kind of a debaucherous 70s nightmare." If that's not a hook, I don't know what it is. Holopaw expect to hit the road later this year and again early in 2006. In the meantime, here's the album tracklist:

01 Losing Light
02 3-shy-cubs
03 Curious
04 Holiday
05 Velveteen (All is bright.)
06 Clearing
07 Little Shaver
08 Needle in the Sway
09 Found (Quit +/or Fight)
10 Ghosties
11 Shiver Me

Holopaw: http://www.holopaw.net/
Sub Pop: http://www.subpop.com/

Kill Rock Stars Signs Hit Songwriter Linda Perry

If the name doesn't sound familiar to you, it's probably because you haven't been bumping any 4 Non Blondes lately. Perry is most widely known as that group's frontwoman and core songwriter, making her responsible for their reprehensible mid-90s summer adult-alterna-smash "What's Up", but has more recently made a name for herself as the songwriting force behind sassy pop starlets Pink and Kelly Osbourne. Perry's biggest success to date, however, came in 2003, with the international chart success and Grammy nomination of Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful", which she wrote and produced.

The Olympia-based indie institution now has plans to reissue Perry's out-of-print solo debut, In Flight, as a joint release with Perry's own Custard label on September 13. Originally released by Interscope Records in 1996, the record briefly hit stores and then quickly and quietly flopped-- for some mysterious reason.

But why Kill Rock Stars? Well, maybe it's the Pacific Northwest-Courtney Love connection-- Perry also had a hand in producing America's Sweetheart! Or maybe KRS founder Slim Moon is out of his skull with $$$'s. Now, granted, the man didn't get to where he is today by being easily persuaded by the mean green, but then, the press release for this thing is pretty nonchalant in lending an explanation for such a wacky endeavor. It states: "There's an old saying that goes something along the lines of 'if you love something, set it free; if it comes back it's yours.' That's the sentiment behind In Flight... It's a deep and endearing recording that with each subsequent listening reveals something you might have missed the first time around. Really... go ahead and give it a couple listens and see for yourself." OKAY I'M SOLD!!!

We pretty much just found out about this, so who knows what's going on in that crazy office of theirs. We'll report back if there turns out to be some answer that isn't just "no, they really have gone mad."

* Kill Rock Stars: <a

The Stone Roses to Reform?

Both former drummer Reni and bassist Mani have made it clear that they're interested in closing the book on the Roses' legacy in style, but a most surprising admission has come from guitarist John Squire, who recently told Time Out that "the plan is to make a ferocious guitar record on my own. And then to put the Roses back together."

This is an even more unanticipated quote given that, earlier this year, Squire referred to ex-frontman Ian Brown as a "tuneless knob" and a "paranoid mess." The singer struck back, claiming, "For me, right, he split up the best band in the country at the time, the Roses, and he went on to do what? Nothing. Nothing to write home about, so he must be a bit bitter because he's got to watch me steaming forward."

Certainly, Brown has found a splinter of post-breakup success, but hasn't been shy about waxing nostalgic for the old days, as he regularly shuffles Roses songs into his solo gig playlists, and even went so far last July as to hire Stone Roses cover band Fool's Gold to back him for a complete hour-long set of old material.

Of course, this is all unsubstantiated gossip, coming mostly from the UK, the bastion of unsolicited scandal and scuttlebutt. But momentum is certainly growing into what would be, well, an unexpected reunion of one of Britain's greatest alternative rock bands, if nothing else. With fervent speculation as to who will fill Kylie's still-vacant Glastonbury headline spot and when you've got to pay the bills, stories of "tuneless knobs" can flip-flop fast...

The Stone Roses: http://www.thestoneroses.co.uk/

Joe Strummer's Walker Soundtrack to Be Reissued

The album was Strummer's first post-Clash full-length work, following on his contribution of a few tracks to Cox's Sid & Nancy. To properly set the mood for the tale of William Walker (a despotic, pro-slavery American mercenary who conquered Nicaragua with a private army in the 1850s), Strummer uses largely rustic Latin motifs, along with the odd big-band mambo or Appalachian country tune. Only three cuts on the original album feature vocals, both by Strummer ("Tropic of No Return", "Tennessee Rain", and "The Unknown Immortal"). Everything is executed with surprising skill and imagination for somebody only two years removed from "We Are the Clash". While a definitive tracklist is not yet available, Astralwerks says the reissue will add three new tracks to the original's 14: "Straight Shooter" (B-side to the "Filibustero" single), and "Filibustero (Freestyle Mix)" and "Brooding Six" (from a limited-edition 12").

So should Walker be considered Strummer's debut solo album, as Astralwerks claims? This writer feels that 1989's Earthquake Weather still holds spiritual claim to that title-- Strummer sings on every song, and it wasn't recorded as an adjunct to another creative work-- but Astralwerks can toot whatever horn they like, as long as they keep the Strummer reissues coming. To the lasting dismay of the Clash army, Strummer's more guitar rock-oriented soundtrack work from Permanent Record remains out of print-- and don't even get us started on mythic lost soundtracks like When Pigs Fly or I Hired A Contract Killer. We're sure it'll all add up to a killer box set someday, but Christ-- couldn't he have recorded for Scorsese or Spielberg, so the rest of us might've had a chance to hear it?

* Astralwerks: <a

Franz Ferdinand, Streets Win Songwriting Awards

In a refreshing display of Europe's heightened pop-culture sophistication, the Streets took home the Best Song Musically and Lyrically award for "Dry Your Eyes". Presumably the British Academy of Composers & Songwriters were seduced, as we were, by the compact genius of the line "I'm not gonna fuckin' just fuckin' leave it all now". Mike Skinner, take a bow.

The full list of winners:

Most Performed Work: Britney Spears - "Toxic"
Best Contemporary Song: Franz Ferdinand - "Take Me Out"
Best Original Film Score: Enduring Love
Best Selling UK single: Band Aid 20 - "Do They Know It's Christmas"
Best Song Musically and Lyrically: The Streets - "Dry Your Eyes"
Best Original Music for Television: Rob Lane for "Blackpool"
International Hit of the Year: U2 - "Vertigo"
International Achievement: Robert Smith, The Cure
Songwriters of the Year: Keane
Album Award: Snow Patrol - Final Straw
PRS Outstanding Contribution to British Music: Duran Duran
Outstanding Song Collection: Queen
Special International Award: Lou Reed
The Ivors' Special Award for Songwriting: Mick Jagger/Keith Richards

* The Ivor Novello Awards: <a

Brian Jonestown Massacre to Tour

06-11 London, England - Queen Elizabeth Hall (Patti Smith's Meltdown) #
06-12 Glasgow, Scotland - Queen Margaret Union #
06-13 Manchester, England - Manchester Academy #
06-14 Birmingham, England - Carling Birmingham Academy #
06-16 London, England - Scala #
06-18 Leeds, England - The Cockpit #
06-19 Brighton, England - Concorde 2 #
07-15 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
07-16 Sacramento, CA - Old Ironsides
07-18 Salt Lake City, UT - Velvet Room
07-19 Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge
07-20 Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge
07-22 Minneapolis, MN - 400 Bar
07-23 Indianapolis, IN - Patio (Midwest Music Summit)
07-24 Chicago, IL - Grant Park (Lollapalooza Festival)
07-25 Toldeo, OH - The Underground
07-26 Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop
07-27 Toronto, Ontario - Lees Place
07-28 Montreal, Quebec - El Salon
07-29 Cambridge, MA - T.T. the Bear's
07-30 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
08-04 Washington, DC - DC9
08-06 Atlanta, GA - The Earl
08-07 Orlando, FL - Will's Pub
08-10 New Orleans, LA - TwiRoPa
08-12 Austin, TX - The Parish
08-13 Dallas, TX - TREES

# with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

And while no new Brian Jonestown Massacre album is currently on the roster, the band have seen themselves suddenly thrust back into the limelight this past year, thanks to the feature length documentary Dig! which won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Once poised as "the next big thing," the film paints a passionate, yet drug-addled portrait of the band's leader, Anton Newcombe, as he walks a fine line of complete career meltdown-- chronicling a 7-year stretch of the band's shenanigans alongside that of famously well-adjusted musical allies the Dandy Warhols.

In a 2004 post on the official Jonestown site, Newcombe aimed to distance himself from the award-winning film, writing: "I was shocked and let down when I saw the end result. Several years of our hard work was reduced at best to a series of punch-ups and mishaps taken out of context, and at worst bold faced lies and misrepresentation of fact. I accept that people will make up their own minds about this film when they see it. I just feel ripped off by the 'lowest common denominator' culture machine (something I don't cater to)."

Brian Jonestown Massacre: http://www.brianjonestownmassacre.com/

Vashti Bunyan Signs to FatCat Records

Vashti who? Well her story is a pretty sweet one. In the 60s, after getting expelled from art school for spending too much time concentrating on non-curricular music rather than painting, she met up with Rolling Stones impresario Andrew Loog Oldham, who signed the young singer to Decca and released her singing the Jagger-Richards throwaway, "Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind". When she didn't materialize as "the next Marianne Faithfull", she took a respite from the music biz, choosing to travel to the Isle of Skye in the Outer Hebrides off Scotland at the behest of Donovan. But she continued to pen songs along the way and in 1969 she recorded her only album, Just Another Diamond Day, a graceful piece of English folk boosted on record by members of Fairport Convention and the Incredible String Band, with arrangements by Nick Drake helper Robert Kirby, and produced by the preeminent British folk-rock prime mover Joe Boyd, who at the time was producing the likes of the Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, and Nick Drake as well as the aforementioned Fairport Convention and Incredible String Band (Boyd would eventually go on to record more todayish artists like R.E.M., Billy Bragg, and 10,000 Maniacs). Bunyan's album vanished into obscurity and so did she, living in Scotland and Ireland for decades. When an internet search revealed the extensive level of admiration afforded to her album after all these years by so many people, she decided to make inroads towards a comeback of sorts.

Bunyan's recorded output consists of a couple of singles on Decca and Columbia, some unreleased Immediate Records tracks, her sole album Just Another Diamond Day, and, more recently, a few guest appearances. Piano Magic's Glen Johnson was the first to tempt her into the studio for the first time in 33 years to sing on his Writers Without Homes song "Crown of the Lost". She has since added vocals to another Johnson composition, "Dark Ages" (found on Piano Magic's EP), the title song of Devendra Banhart's Rejoicing in the Hands and the just-released Animal Collective EP Prospect Hummer on new label FatCat. As far as recent performances go, they've been rare-- the last one of significance being Stephen Malkmus' invitation to play at the two-day "Down the Dustpipe" mini-fest at Edinburgh's Royal Festival Hall in April 2003. FatCat promises a new album by the end of this year which will co-produced by classical/electronic composer Max Richter, and the singer herself has mentioned some album support will come from spiritual sister Joanna Newsom, and others planned but yet to be determined.

Vashti Bunyan: http://www.anotherday.co.uk/
FatCat Records: http://fat-cat.co.uk/

Tussle on Tour, Remixes Coming

Tussle, for their part, state on their website that they'll be striking out on tour with a new lineup and new songs. We'd assume Vetiver main man and Tussle guitarist Andy Cabic might be missing out on this one, what with all his folksy activity this year, but the only thing for sure is that Tigerbeat6 electro-producers Eats Tapes will be opening up for the second part of the tour.

Eats Tapes will also be among the many artists remixing Tussle's 2004 album Kling Klang. Other notable remixers for this forthcoming Troubleman Unlimited release include the Soft Pink Truth, Les Georges Leningrad, and White Rainbow of Jackie-O Motherfucker. Munk, Coppa, Eamon Ore-Giron, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Christoper Willits, Strategy, Man Against Mountain, and Deadbeat round out the list. There's been no confirmed release date yet announced, but these tour dates are good to go, so get out on the dancefloor:

06-02 Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland %
06-03 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill %
06-04 Oakland, CA - Lobot Gallery %
06-05 Sacramento, CA - The Press Club %
06-06 Portland, OR - Holocene %
06-07 Vancouver, British Columbia - Media Club %
06-08 Seattle, WA - Chop Suey %
06-13 Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court #
06-14 Denver, CO - Hi Dive #
06-15 Lawrence, KS - Replay Lounge #
06-16 Des Moines, IA - Vaudeville Mews #
06-17 Chicago, IL - Hideout #
06-18 Chicago, IL - Subt #
06-19 Detroit, MI - Lager House #
06-20 Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop #
06-21 Pittsburgh, PA - Modern Formations #
06-23 Boston, MA - TBA #
06-24 Toronto, Ontario - X Space #
06-25 Montreal, Quebec - Zoobizarre #
06-26 New Haven, CT - BAR Nightclub #
06-27 Washington, DC - TBA #
06-28 Greensboro, NC - Gate City Noise #
06-29 Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn #
06-30 Houston, TX - Mary Jane's #
07-01 Houston, TX - Mary Jane's #
07-02 Austin, TX - Emo's #
07-05 Phoenix, AZ - Modified Arts #
07-06 San Diego, CA - Che Cafe #
07-07 Los Angeles, CA - The Echo #
07-08 Los Angeles, CA - The Smell #

% with Out Hud
# with Eats Tapes

Tussle: http://www.tussle.org/
Out Hud: http://www.brainwashed.com/outhud/
Troubleman Unlimited: http://www.troublemanunlimited.com/

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