GBV DAY: Log on to www.joingbv.com where Beggars USA are petitioning for GUIDED BY VOICES DAY in every city on their final tour. It's already been declared Guided By Voices Day in Boston (today!), Philadelphia, and Washington DC, as well as non-tour towns Tuscaloosa AL (August 28), Walla Walla WA (Sep 1), and Normal IL (Sep 4). GBV's remarkable final album "Half Smiles Of The Decomposed" came out Aug 24, and tour dates are available at http://www.matadorrecords.com/tours/index.html
**SEP 28: INTERPOL "ANTICS" is out Sep 28, and besides being one of the best
'sophomore' releases in recent or distant memory, the song "Take You
On A Cruise" is the best thing I've heard in years, to the degree
that it kinda bugs me that people I know created it. Please let Lucy
or I know if you need a copy for review or any other pressing reason
(some of you national types may have missed it since I didn't do a
typical advance mailing); tour dates are at
http://www.matadorrecords.com/tours/index.html
**OCT 12: VARIOUS ARTISTS "MATADOR AT 15"
"Matador At 15" (you be Kate Jackson, I'll be Lance Kerwin) is our
super-budget-priced 15th anniversary compilation (one CD of 'hits',
one CD of unreleased, and a DVD of videos), out Oct 12. Unlike our
10th anniversary "Everything Is Nice" comp, there won't be any shows
or events around this one, but the unreleased CD alone is worth your
attention. Hell, the New Pornographers track alone is worth your
attention. Or Pretty Girls Make Graves's Bow Wow Wow cover. Yo La
Tengo's acoustic "Deeper Into Movies". Rare Dead Meadow! NO
ADVANCES, but I'll have a limited amount of promos for those of you
that cover comps.
**OCT 26: PAVEMENT "CROOKED RAIN, CROOKED RAIN: L.A.'S DESERT
ORIGINS"
Warm on the heels of the insanely successful "Slanted And Enchanted"
re-release, we're reissuing PAVEMENT's second record as well.
"Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: L.A.'s Desert Origins" is out October
26 and features a whopping 39 (yes, 39) extra tracks, making it
probably, objectively speaking, the best reissue of all time (name a
better one and you get an autographed Interpol CD - I'm serious). 11
of these tracks are completely unreleased studio songs that have
never even been bootlegged, and essentially amount to a great lost
Pavement album. As a budget-priced double-CD, this is an early Xmas
gift and then some. Again, NO ADVANCES, though I will have promos a
few weeks before release and will do what I can to help you cover
this.
**OCT 26: CAT POWER "SPEAKING FOR TREES: A FILM BY MARK BORTHWICK"
DVD
Steaming hot on the heels of Andy Warhol's "Empire" comes the CAT
POWER DVD "Speaking For Trees: A Film By Mark Borthwick", out Oct
26, which eschews the typical live & music-video content of most
music DVDs in favor of a gorgeous nature film shot by renowned
photographer Mark Borthwick consisting of Cat Power performing with
her guitar in a field. Throughout the 2-hour-plus DVD, Chan plays
many unreleased songs (or parts of songs) and covers, some of them
repeated (or parts of them repeated). It's one of the truest visual
representations of any artist's musical aesthetic that I've seen.
**NEXT YEAR: PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES, STEPHEN MALKMUS, CAT POWER,
NEW PORNOGRAPHERS, DEAD MEADOW, PROSAICS, YLT HITS/DVD.