Aesop Rock Tours With Def Jux Crew
Yo, this joint is all about this motherfuckin' turtle and some wack-ass rabbit that tried to jack his shit

[Posted Thursday, September 18th, 2003 04:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

In support for his upcoming album, interestingly dubbed Bazooka Tooth (Bazooka Joe is already planning tiny, wax-paper litigation), Aesop Rock will join his Def Jux labelmates for a three-month North American tour. The album, which we reported on back in May, is gettin' bizzay in bins September 23rd. Tracklist:

01 Bazooka Tooth
02 NY Electric
03 Easy
04 No Jumper Cables
05 Limelighters [featuring Camp Lo]
06 Super Fluke
07 Cook it Up [featuring PFAC]
08 Freeze
09 We're Famous [featuring El-P]
10 Babies With Guns
11 The Greatest Pac-Man Victory in History
12 Frijoles
13 11:35 [featuring Mr. Lif]
14 Kill the Messenger
15 Mars Attacks

Definitive (not Def; we don't want DMX and Jay-Z suing our po' Pitchfork asses) Jux head honcho El Producto (El-P) and DJ Wiz will accompany Aesop Rock for the first leg of the tour, which kicks off September 23rd at Virgin Records in New York City to mark the release of Bazooka Tooth (they recently did the same thing for C-Rayz' Ravipops). Fans are hoping for El-P's best NYC performances since the Ralph Nader 2000 presidential rally (no, seriously-- remember that?). Then, in mid-October, Aesop Rock departs once again for the road, this time with Mr. Lif, MURS, and DJ Fakts One. The dates:

09-23 New York City, NY - Virgin Records *
09-25 Chicago, IL - Bottom Lounge *
09-26 San Francisco, CA - Slim's *
09-27 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour *
09-29 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue *
10-01 Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club *
10-04 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom *
10-15 Princeton, NJ - Terrace Club #
10-16 Providence, RI - Lupos #
10-17 Burlington, VT - Higher Ground #
10-18 Northampton, MA - Iron Horse #
10-19 Montreal, Quebec - SAT #
10-20 Toronto, Ontario - Zen Lounge #
10-21 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick #
10-22 Lansing, MI - Temmple Club #
10-25 Columbus, OH - Little Brothers #
10-26 Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop #
10-28 Baltimore, MD - Otto Bar #
10-29 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church #
10-31 Purchase, NY - SUNY Purchase #
11-01 Worcester, NY - NY Clark University #
11-02 Boston, MA - Middle East #

* with El-P and DJ Wiz
# with Mr. Lif, MURS, and DJ Fakts One

In other Def (oops) Jux news, the recent Wake Up Show Concert in L.A. with El-P and C-Rayz "went down with more than a few hitches," according to Def Jux's official website. "Thanks to a half-ass show production and professionalism (surprising for a show of that size and profile), our boys weren't able to get off the show they spent mad long preparing for. Instead, after myriad changes in set time, fuckin up our DJ's rig, and general confusion, C-Rayz was anti-climactically thrown on stage to a less than receiving crowd... [It] was obvious that Rayz never had a chance. ...Not having it, [El-P] came out, ripped two joints, and bounced... know that you'll see Jux in full muthaf'in effect... in L.A. on September 27th."

Definitive Jux: http://www.definitivejux.net

Big Star To Release Best-Of Collection
Bandname eerily predicts ascent of Ruben Studdard to American Idol

[Posted Thursday, September 18th, 2003 04:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

Jeremy C. Baron and Will Bryant report:
Big Star-- now there's a name from the past. For all you kids too young to know 'em for anything other than the theme to That '70s Show, here's a history lesson: Big Star was one of the more influential (but least successful) power-pop outfits of the '70s. Alex Chilton fronted the band, with Jody Stephens, Chris Bell and Andy Hummel on drums, guitar and bass, respectively. Big Star's first album, imaginatively titled #1 Record, which was met with critical acclaim, but box office on par with this year's Gigli: basically, no one bought it. The album was released on the Ardent label, a subsidiary of the legendary Memphis label Stax. Call it bad timing, but distribution, budgetary, and promotional lapses conspired to all but bury the album. The band broke up, only to reform sans Bell two years later for Radio City. But, a similar fate befell this record: think Glitter, only with good reviews. They tried their hand at a third, but quit in the midst of recording. This time, the split was for good.

Or was it? In 1993, Chilton and Stephens joined up with Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer of the Posies for a live show at the University of Missouri; this line-up has reconvened for occasional tours and one-off shows ever since. A 1993 live album, Columbia, documents this incarnation of Big Star, who performed Chilton's would-be hits as though they were beloved generational anthems. Even after that, Big Star's music still lives on, through covers by the likes of Wilco, Elliott Smith and Beck, who did an acoustic version of "Kangaroo" nearly every night of last year's tour, instead of playing "Where It's At."

Yet the Big Star curse has even followed the band into its afterlife. A planned 1998 tribute album, which included input from Wilco, Whiskeytown, Juliana Hatfield, Teenage Fanclub, Matthew Sweet, The Posies and the Afghan Whigs, was also mired in legal troubles and never actually released. The album included a sole new offering from the Chilton-Stephens-Auer-Stringfellow lineup called "Hot Thing" which was only issued officially on an Ignition Records promo CD touting the ill-fated release.

Now, a decade after the '93 performance, Big Star is set to release a greatest hits CD, The Big Star Story, through Rykodisc on September 23rd. Ryko promised the disc "covers the depth and the breadth of the Big Star experience from the soaring power-pop of 'September Gurls' to the experimental melancholy of 'Holocaust.'" "Hot Thing," touted here as a "new and previously unreleased Big Star track," makes its official debut on the CD. And yes, the best-of also contains "In The Street," the song that's the basis for the theme to That 70's Show. Sure, the song isn't quite the same without Donna gripping the dashboard for dear life or Fez singing along in his Balki, Jr. accent, but I'm sure we can all rock out to it anyway. Tracklist:

01 September Gurls
02 Thank You Friends
03 Don't Lie To Me
03 Ballad Of El Goodo
03 Holocaust
03 I Am The Cosmos
07 In The Street
08 You Get What You Deserve
09 Thirteen
10 You and Your Sister
11 Back Of A Car
12 Jesus Christ
13 Mod Lang
14 Baby Strange
15 O Dana
16 Motel Blues
17 Nighttime
18 Hot Thing [previously unreleased]

Rykodisc: http://www.rykodisc.com

Flaming Lips Plan New EP, Tour with Red Hot Chili Peppers (Sigh)
Um, why does this bunny suit smell like Dave Navarro?

[Updated Wednesday, September 17th, 2003 10:25:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

Joshua Sharp and Will Bryant report:
The Flaming Lips recently paid a visit to Dave Fridmann's Tarbox Studios to record b-sides for a forthcoming EP, according to a report on the band's official website. Among the items on the Lips' to-do list were "two songs connected with the Pink Robots theme," some remixes of Yoshimi album tracks (including one by Peaches), and "a Christmas-type song of some description." As previously reported, the Lips' Wayne Coyne and Dave Fridmann also remixed at least one song for Modest Mouse's forthcoming album in the August session as well.

Although the plans are somewhat sketchy at this point, the current plan is to release a single for "Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell" on a double-sided disc, where one side would contain the single and new b-sides, and the other would include DVD content such as live footage. The EP may drop as soon as November.

Eternally striving for musical congruity, the Lips are constructing a creaky wooden bridge connecting the really-mainstream with the kinda-mainstream one plank at a time. New Musical Express, contractually obligated by the prince of freaking darkness to make mind-bogglingly painful puns for every Lips-related headline (rejected titles include "The Lips Mouth Off: 'Multiple Sclerosis Is No Flaming Joke!'" and "The Flaming Lips Flame On And Give Lip Service To Actual, Not Metaphorical, Giant Floating Pair Of Lips Which Have Just Been Set On Fire By A Mysterious Third Party Who Is As Of Yet Unidentified But Is Probably Very Flaming As Well"), has reported that the Oklahoma snack-rockers have signed on to open for the Red Hot Chili Peppers on seven dates scattered across the American West. I'd weep, but, eh, whatever. It's not like they haven't appeared on 90210 before, and Coyne is probably co-writing music with Fred Durst as we speak. Wicky wicky robot starfish, ya'll.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are currently touring in belated support of their contribution to the Power Rangers soundtrack, and as previously reported, the Lips are set to release a DVD-enhanced reissue of that one album where they sing about tentacle demons or something similarly "wacky" and "out there." That release has now been pushed back to October 7th. Their current itinerary, including the inherently inferior non-RHCP shows still to come, reads as follows:

10-02 Portsmouth, VA - Harbor Center (w/ String Cheese Incident)
10-03 Fairfax, VA - Patriot Center (w/ String Cheese Incident)
10-04 Charleston, SC - Family Circle Stadium (w/ Moe.)
10-08 Las Vegas, NV - Mandalay Bay Events Center *
10-09 Phoenix, AZ - Cricket Pavilion *
10-11 Los Angeles, CA - The Forum *
10-17 Oakland, CA - Coliseum *
10-18 Sacramento, CA - Arco Arena *
10-20 Portland, OR - Memorial Coliseum *
10-21 Seattle, WA - Key Arena *
10-23 Plymouth, England - Pavilion
10-24 Bournemouth, England - International Centre
10-26 Cardiff, Wales - International Arena
10-27 Leicester, England - DeMontfort Hall
10-28 Manchester, England - Apollo
10-29 Sheffield, England - City Hall
10-31 Birmingham, England - Academy
11-02 Brighton, England - Centre
11-03 London, England - Hammersmith Apollo
11-04 London, England - Hammersmith Apollo
11-08 Glasgow, Scotland - Academy
11-09 Edinburgh, Scotland - Usher Hall

* with Red Hot Chili Peppers

The Flaming Lips: http://www.flaminglips.com
Warner Bros: http://www.wbr.com
Red Hot Chili Peppers: http://www.redhotchilipeppers.com

GbV's Hardcore UFO's Box, Best-Of Disrobed
VH-1's "Robert Pollard: Under The Wizard Robe" not airing, ever

[Posted Tuesday, September 16th, 2003 17:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

Guided By Voices' official website and Matador Records released the full tracklists for the 6xCD/DVD, 129-track box set Hardcore UFO's: Revelations, Epiphanies and Fast Food in the Western Hemisphere this afternoon. Rather than rehash it all for you here, we have simply updated our archived story from September 5th, accessible with the link(s) below:

Guided By Voices: http://www.gbv.com
Matador: http://www.matadorrecords.com

Weezer's Fifth Album Finally Getting a Move-On
Possible cover colors narrowed to red, orange, and burnt cyan

[Posted Tuesday, September 16th, 2003 04:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

For a while there, it looked like Weezer was going to push it into Zappa gear and start cranking their discs out like they eat breakfast. Maladroit, the band's quickie sequel to their 2001 comeback album, opened to so-so sales and reviews, and was surely their weakest effort yet. But one has to kinda admire the pure speed of its arrival, especially since it contained at least two instant classics ("Dope Nose" and "Keep Fishin'"). The whole scenario looked even more impressive when the group started the rumor mill churning on album five, which was originally slated for earlier this year. But then the band, or possibly just Rivers Cuomo, simply... gave up? So it's a little difficult to report on their next album, now that the wheels are in motion again, simply because no one has any idea what to expect. Will it contain throwaway Maladroit tracks like "Private Message" and "Sandwiches Time?" Is it the same album they started working on last year, or did they start everything all over from scratch? Will all the guitar solos still mimic the vocals?

Only Cuomo knows for sure, but the we can tell ya that Rick Rubin has been signed on as producer for some time now. He told Billboard that Cuomo's latest outpourings are deeply personal, in fact, "deeper than he's ever gone." So, Pinkerton part two it is. The band has been practicing and recording demos with Rubin (a process you can investigate via photos of roundtable singalongs available at the official site) and the final recording will go down some time next summer or fall, for release on Geffen. No tentative release date yet, just some time next year. Unless they scrap it again (which they might).

Meanwhile, an unused 1995 demo track, "You Won't Get With Me Tonight," will be released on Gimme Skelter, a Buddyhead compilation of exclusive rare tracks from popular bands such as Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Le Tigre. That comes out October 21st on Nettwerk Records, wrapping up several odds-and-end releases for Weezer-- including a live version of "Why Bother" (from a Vegas Records seven-inch benefiting ex-That Dog violinstress Petra Haden) and a cover of "Worry Rock" on the recent Green Day tribute album, A Different Shade of Green.

And finally, bringing to a close to this near-novel of somewhat boring Weezer information, there's a DVD in the works, and an upcoming "special edition" of the band's groundbreaking self-titled "Blue Album" debut. The former is almost finished, according to the official site, and waiting for band commentaries to be affixed to the somewhat secret contents. The latter will be a two-disc set collecting all the Blue Album B-sides, along with some other rare and unreleased songs and heavy duty liners, no doubt explaining everything about Weezer that I haven't just told you. So watch out for all that. Maybe one day, if they keep working hard, they'll be your favorite band again and you can fly the winged "W" with pride.

Weezer: http://www.weezer.com
Geffen: http://www.geffen.com

Television Reissues Have Tracklists
Despite coroner's evidence, group still harbors irrational fear of being shot by Elvis

[Posted Tuesday, September 16th, 2003 04:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

As we reported here on these hallowed pages back in August, the mighty Television are back in all kinds of exciting ways. Rhino is reissuing their first two albums, the (dare we say) revolutionary Marquee Moon and the slightly less revolutionary but nevertheless completely remarkable Adventure, both on September 23rd. We're pleased to announce that they now have confirmed tracklists, so you can start to salivate with more particularity. It's gonna be so cool to have a decent version of "Little Johnny Jewel" instead of the pretty crappy version that you've only so far been able to get on the live, slightly expensive and not-very-high-quality Blow Up. Tracklists:

Marquee Moon:

01 See No Evil
02 Venus
03 Friction
04 Marquee Moon
05 Elevation
06 Guiding Light
07 Prove It
08 Torn Curtain
09 Little Johnny Jewel (Parts 1 & 2)
10 See No Evil [alternate version]
11 Friction [alternate version]
12 Marquee Moon [alternate version]
13 Untitled [instrumental]

Adventure:

01 Glory
02 Days
03 Foxhole
04 Careful
05 Carried Away
06 Fire
07 Ain't That Nothin'
08 The Dream's Dream
09 Adventure [previously unreleased]
10 Ain't That Nothin' [single version]
11 Glory [early version]

And we can now confirm that the tracklist we reported for the reissued, or rather long-bootlegged and now officially available Live at the Old Waldorf (previously known amongst the 'leggers as Live Adventures, was indeed correct. That album is released at the same time as the reissues, but will only be available online through specialty imprint Rhino Handmade. Tracklist:

01 The Dream's Dream
02 Venus
03 Foxhole
04 Careful
05 Ain't That Nothin'
06 Friction
07 Marquee Moon
08 Satisfaction
09 Little Johnny Jewel

We also reported a handful of 2003 shows by New York's finest, which has now been augmented by an additional gig at the Henry Fonda Theater in Los Angeles on September 30th. And as if all of that isn't enough (and aside from the reissue of 1987's Flashlight, which we also told you about back in August), Tom Verlaine's 1990 solo effort The Wonder is also getting remastered/ reissued in the UK on September 22nd. As David Byrne once kind of said: "Damn, that Television. Don't get upset."

Television: http://www.marquee.demon.co.uk/news.htm
Rhino: http://www.rhino.com
Rhino Handmade: http://www.rhinohandmade.com

Acid Mothers Temple Split EP with Kinski, Bring Mars Even Closer
"Lost In Translation" soundtrack contribution axed; was longer than entire fucking movie

[Posted Tuesday, September 16th, 2003 04:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

In one of the more misappropriate pairings of recent memory, the eternally prolific and applaudably experimental Acid Mothers Temple are pairing up with Seattle quartet Kinski to release a collaborative split EP on Sub Pop come October 7th. If you're unfamiliar with the flaccid stylings of the latter band, the previously stated summarization of the Acid Mothers is also applicable-- provided that you live in some alternate future where "prolific" is high-tech code for "mediocre," "applaudably experimental" is cyberpunk street slang for "abhorrantly derivitive," and mankind is for whatever reason ruled by a warrior race of super-intelligent cobras. It eases the mind to conjecture that, in this bleak and presumably apocalyptic future, our reptilian overlords have as much of a distaste for mediocrity as we do, and Kinski are most likely stationed in the dreaded Fecal Mines of New Seattle.

According to the Sub Pop website, this collaboration began way back in the erstwhile ending month of 2001. The two bands were touring the Acid Mothers' homeland of Japan at the same time and wound up recording a jam session. "Months and months later," Kinski's Chris Martin explains in the liner notes of the upcoming EP, "I sat down with the tapes and began mixing what seemed to be the most interesting ten minutes of the session, which became 'It's Nice to Hear Your Voice.' Kawabata [Makoto] wanted to overdub onto my mix (along with Tsuyama, Acid Mothers' bassist, who wasn't at the original sessions) and the results are 'Planet Crazy Gold.' 'Fell Asleep on Your Lawn' and 'Virginal Plane 5:23' are new Kinski and Acid Mothers Temple tracks, respectively." Martin, having effectively superceded my duty of reporting the EP's tracklist, then immediately returned to making out with Gwenyth Paltrow.

In other Acid Mothers news, Important Records has compiled the band's long-out-of-print Magical Power from Mars series, formerly three separate EP's, onto one action-packed megadisc. According to the Important website (by nomenclature alone one of the most consequential sites of the 21st century), this new aggregation will not be a limited pressing, contains a bonus fourth track and has deluxe packaging complete with glorious "3-D lenticular covers." I'm not sure what 3-D lenticular covers entail, exactly, but I do know that I'm wild on the Caribbean for them. Magical Power from Mars is available now, go put on those polarized glasses.

Acid Mothers Temple: http://www.acidmothers.com
Strange Attractors: http://www.strange-attractors.com

U.S. Maple. To Release. New Album. In October.
Blame all irrational emotional outbursts on their period

[Posted Tuesday, September 16th, 2003 04:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

The official Drag City website avers that U.S. Maple, Chicago's most deranged purveyors of art-damaged fury, are gearing up to release their fifth album, entitled Purple On Time. -- period included, to the chagrin of typesetters and copyeditors everywhere. On this, their follow-up to 2001's Acre Thrills, U.S. Maple is pulling out all the stops and packaging the vinyl in sleeves actually made from Al Johnson's solidified vomit-- um, ick. No. Actually, according to Drag City's website, the vinyl will be lavishly adorned in a combination of 21st-century graphics, die-cutting, 180-gram vinyl, photographic portraiture, and ruthless self-mutilation. And they will perhaps be lovingly hand-stitched by Black Forest Elves.

The vinyl edition is slated for an October 7th release, and features a bonus track that will be absent from the CD. Purple on Time. will be released on CD on November 4th, around which time the band should begin touring to support the new material, though nothing is firm as of yet. Except me! Tracklist:

01 My Li'l Shocker
02 Sweet & Center
03 Oh Below
04 I'm Just a Bag
05 Dumb in the Wings
06 Favors are Weird [LP only]
07 Whoopee Invader
08 Lay Lady Lay
09 Tan Loves Blue
10 Untitled
11 Touch Me Judge

For the uninitiated, a U.S. Maple album can be a daunting prospect-- a Beefheart vs. Pere Ubu tangle of mauled classic-rock riffs, Al Johnson's stomach-turning moans and mumbles, and vertiginously wobbling rhythms exploding into blood-soaked bursts of sonic confetti. Occasionally the songs phase into a brief and shining coherence, but inevitably someone hits a deliberately bad note and the upward struggle begins anew. The aggression barely sublimated on the records waxes into stark relief during their live set, as they push and pull one another like late-stage alcoholics at happy hour, whispering urgently, and detune each other's instruments mid-song. Johnson's incredibly intense stage presence, pneumatic throat and occasional elbow-length gloves must be experienced to be believed. In the meantime, check out the MP3 of "Dumb In The Wings" posted on Drag City's mainpage.

U.S. Maple: http://www.southern.com/southern/band/USMAP
Drag City: http://www.dragcity.com

Christmas Compilation Promises To Suck, Blow and Bite...But Festively
Little Drummer Boy shitcanned by Neptunes; Matrix demand co-writing credit with Burl Ives

[Posted Tuesday, September 16th, 2003 04:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

Gold. Frankincense. Myrrh. Dross. If the Magi had been truly representin' back in the biblical day, and if they'd had their mad back-to-the-future skillz on, they'd have maybe brought to the J-Man's crib (or manger, if you prefer, 'cause all the cribs was bizzay, yo) a copy of Maybe This Christmas, Too. The imaginatively named follow-up to last year's Maybe This Christmas, the album features a really odd selection of people, from Badly Drawn Boy to the Be Good Tanyas, with a whole lot of other weirdness in-between. You can experience this particular brand of jingle bell rock come November 4th, as soon as the elves at Nettwerk America get off their tiny asses and finish it.

There are some conspicuous absentees from the parade of banality that usually graces your average Christmas compilation: you won't be able to croon along with Shawn Colvin, for example, or Coldplay or Sarah McLachlan, both of whom graced last year's issue. But don't be downhearted, there's always Dave Matthews and the Barenaked Ladies to bore you still further to death as you sit slumped over your eighth or ninth egg nog, and your gross relatives sit in various degrees of overfed disarray all around you (don't you just love Christmas?). And if you want to push the alternative Christmas envelope, look no further than Avril Lavigne and Chantal Kreviazuk (is that an alias for Liz Phair?), Rufus Wainwright, and Rilo Kiley, all of whom bring their very special warm and fuzzy feelings to a mixture of traditional and original festive songs. Perhaps the highlight is the Flaming Lips' rendition of "White Christmas" (Hey, Jesus, do you realize, you have the most beautiful face?), although Sixpence None the Richer's contribution is sure to rock very hard. Aren't they, like, Corrs Light? And what's this? No Sinead? She's retired, you dumbass. Oh, sorry.

Now I don't want to set up our estimable postmistress for some unwelcome mailbag deluge, but wouldn't it be fun to speculate on some of your favorite fantasy Christmas performances. Like, say, what if, oh I don't know, Interpol were to record "Christmas Will Tear Us Apart Again," or Nelly got all "I'm Dreaming of a Hot Christmas in Herre." Are you feeling me, Pitchfork? Are. You. Feeling. Me? Tracklist (do not look directly at it):

01 Rufus Wainwright: "Spotlight on Christmas"
02 Eisley: "The Winter Song"
03 Avril Lavigne and Chantal Kreviazuk: "O Holy Night"
04 Rilo Kiley: "Xmas Cake"
05 Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan: "Silent Night"
06 Guster: "Donde Esta Santa Claus?"
07 Be Good Tanyas: "Rudy"
08 Dave Matthews Band: "The Christmas Song"
09 Oh Susanna: "Go Tell It on the Mountain"
10 Barenaked Ladies: "Green Christmas"
11 Martina Sorbera: "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year"
12 Badly Drawn Boy: "Donna & Blitzen"
13 The Flaming Lips: "White Christmas"
14 Sixpence None The Richer: "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear"

Nettwerk: http://www.nettwerkamerica.com

Papa M's David Pajo Speaks To Pitchfork About Zwan Breakup
We're Zwan, but we're not the same-- we got to carry each other, carry each other

[Posted Wednesday, September 17th, 2003 05:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

Ladies and gentlemen, hoist your lighters in lament: the gangster gorilla baron of the heavily-compressed alt-rock universe has chugged its last brew and rocked its last thunderous riff. That's right, friends (or foes, depending on whether or not you stopped by to see if we've apologetically retracted our review of The Fragile ye-- heylookzwan), I regret to ecstatically announce that the awkwardly-titled supergroup-plus-a-bald-guy known simply as Zwan no longer treads this mortal coil.

On the baneful morning of September 15th, Zwan's second fiddle/ coffee boy extraordinaire Billy Corgan announced to a Chicago news affiliate that the group had called it quits. "I received a fax from the other guys in the band telling me it wasn't working out," Corgan might have said in a world with any justice. "It was really weird, and at first I thought I was on one of those jokey hidden camera ha-ha shows. After yelling 'okay, you got me!' for a good 40 minutes, reality sank in and I hopped in my '87 Camry to go talk to the guys. I was like... Hey fellas, what's going on? Is this why you haven't been returning my calls?" In an introspective moment that is sure to have made more than one fan (or Zwiggalo, as they have christened themselves) break into tearful eruptions, the imaginary ex-Pumpkin acquiesced to the events that had transpired with an audible "glump" of his cumbersome pride. "Well, I suppose it's for the best. I really wouldn't have wanted the guys to go on doing something that they weren't one hundred percent comfortable with. I hope that we all remain the very best of friends, and if anyone out there knows of a rock band looking for a really skitchin' new guitarist, you can reach me on AIM at MasterBlaster79."

In a rare moment broken away from my mournful vigil at the base of my prodigious Shrine de Zwan, I was able to reach former band member David Pajo for a printworthy dictum on the current debacle. "Haha!" the exclamatory post-rock pioneer wrote Pitchfork. "I could speak volumes about the Zwan eggsperience, but I should save it for my boring audio-book when I'm 60... there are lots of other great and terrible things to think about right now." Strong words from an even stronger man. I don't know how many of you watch those shows on ESPN2 where the guys in spandex hurl barrels at tiny Italian men and benchpress John Goodman, but if you're one of the dignified few who do, you're not going to forget the Pajo/ Rasmoosin tractorlift showdown of 'ought three anytime soon.

Pajo tells us to expect some type of "official statement" regarding Zwan on the Papa M site around the break of October, as well as offering to answer any remaining questions I (and presumably you) might have about the split through that venue.

And speaking of Papa M, the live incarnation of which now features former Zwan and Perfect Circle bandmember Paz Lenchantin, it's as good a time as any to print a fresh, jazzy new set of tour dates for your listening enjoyment:

09-30 Minneapolis, MN - First Ave
10-01 Milwaukee, WI - Modjeska Theater
10-03 Newport, KY - Southgate House
10-04 Chicago, IL - The Abbey
10-05 Indianapolis, IN - Radio Radio
10-06 Nashville, TN - The End
10-07 Memphis, TN - Young Avenue Deli
10-08 Jackson, MS - Martin's Lounge
10-09 Austin, TX - Mercury
10-10 Denton, TX - Rubber Gloves
10-13 Tucson, AZ - Solar Culture
10-14 San Diego, CA - Casbah
10-15 Costa Mesa, CA - Detroit Bar
10-17 Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland
10-18 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
10-20 Seattle, WA - Chop Suey
10-21 Portland, OR - Berbati's Pan
10-23 Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court
10-24 Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge
10-25 Lawrence, KS - Replay Lounge
10-26 Columbia, MO - Shattered
10-27 Champaign, IL - Cowboy Monkey

Zwan: http://www.zwan.com
Papa M: http://www.papa-m.com

John Vanderslice Opening Cellar Door In 2004
Schuba's accidentally books monster-truck tour; mud pull, Beulah open select dates

[Posted Wednesday, September 17th, 2003 05:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

Hewing to the time-honored tradition of dispensing information in miniscule doses, John Vanderslice has just announced via his website that his next album is now complete. This is handy, since he's not going to have much free time these next few months. Let's see; there's the tour with Beulah into November, leaving barely enough time for Christmas shopping, then trying to lose those pesky holiday pounds before heading out on another tour-- but I digress. The new album is called Cellar Door, and is currently due on Barsuk Records come January 20th, 2004. A tour in support of the album is already in the works, as previously reported here. To quote Vanderslice himself: "We'll follow that up with a monsterfuck tour starting February 24th in L.A. We'll tour up to Noise Pop, through the wondrous [Northwest], over to SXSW and clear out to the East Coast, and in between we'll be taking our sweet time with the Midwest." Oooh, South Dakota, you're in for some lovin'. The tracklist:

01 Pale Horse
02 Up Above the Sea
03 Wild Strawberries
04 They Won't Let Me Run
05 Heated Pool and Bar
06 My Family Tree
07 White Plains
08 Promising Actress
09 Coming and Going on Easy Terms
10 Lunar Landscapes
11 When It Hits My Blood
12 June July

John Vanderslice: http://www.johnvanderslice.com
Barsuk: http://www.barsuk.com

Black Dice To Tour at September's End
First emo group to use band name "September's End" owes us big time

[Posted Wednesday, September 17th, 2003 18:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

The Fat Cat Records mailing list has announced that Black Dice will be playing a few dates in seemingly far-flung locales at the end of the month, confirming my suspicion that their music is weird enough to bend the laws of space and time and grant them the power of teleportation. The Providence, RI noise coterie has abandoned the no-wave art-punk of their early recordings on their latest, Beaches and Canyons, which layers sheets of processed guitar and percussion in cascading, sibilant waves: more Godspeed You! Black Dice than Black Dice #13. Their shows have the potential to be either brief blasts of abrasively condensed aural catastrophe, or long and spiraling adventures in avant-psychedelia-- and sometimes, impossibly, both at once. Either way, you'll come out of it feeling like someone slipped you a mickey and made sweet, awful love to your tender brain. Black Dice will be sharing several of the dates with Wolf Eyes, scary-ass noise punk maniacs from Michigan, and Blood on the Wall, who'll be spraying their NY City electro-venom all over the front rows. The dates and shit:

09-23 Cincinatti, OH - Southgate House (w/ Wolf Eyes)
09-24 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle (Wire Magazine festival w/ Wolf Eyes and Boom Bip)
09-25 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
09-26 London, Ontario - No Music Festival
09-28 Montreal, Quebec - La Sala Rosa (w/ Wolf Eyes)
09-29 Boston, MA - TT the Bears (w/ Blood on the Wall)
09-30 Northampton, MA - Iron Horse (w/ Blood on the Wall)

Fat Cat: http://www.fat-cat.co.uk
DFA: http://www.dfarecords.com

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