TRUX TRAX
Having put out their second major LP in less than a year, and fourth major release overall in the last two years, Royal Trux are on a stone-cold roll. They raise the bar with every release and leave a trail of baffled listeners behind them everywhere they go. With everything in the balance (where else would it be?), they are now embarking upon a lengthy series of U.S. dates in support of Pound for Pound, a record which has received heavy, glowing and insightful reviews in The Wire and NME this month - the first of many glowing reviews on both sides of the big pond, of that you can be sure. For this time out, Royal Trux stripped the band back to just one drummer, the ubiquitous Chris Pyle (son of Artemis), in addition to Neil on guitar, Dan Brown on bass, and Jennifer. This week, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston get their taste. Next week, Royal Trux wind their way into the great Midwest. Seek out the details on the TOURS page of this very website. And for more information on Royal Trux, go to your nearest retailer and get whichever RTX records they have that you don’t. It’s the only way you’ll learn!
LATE EDITIONS
Regularly readers of this column must surely have noticed that we’ve been tooting our trumpets religiously over a variety of forthcoming releases. We’re excited, it’s true, but we’re also aware that once we’re finished giving you a so-called ’411’ on these releases, we’ll then have even more to talk about in the way of new releases. Like for instance:
• Kev Hopper! Known lately as a bit of a prodigy player of the singing saw, Kev is now seeing release on the world-famous Duophonic UHF Disks label. And Drag City, too. The LP is called Whispering Foils and we’ll be making it available to North American territories (even Jersey). Oh, and people are gonna love it! It’s an exotically flavored collection of tunes featuring not only the weeping tones of that lovely singing saw, but also accordion, vibes, bells, brass and woodwind instruments, acoustic, electric and bass guitars, percussion and other sampled noises, in addition to Sean O’Hagan’s distinctive vocal style on one of the numbers. Can’t wait to get that one out!
• The Red Krayola! “Blues, Boogies and Hellos” is the title of this EP, which enigmatically won’t be listing its lineup on the sleeve anywhere. One thing we can be sure of is that founding member Mayo Thompson will be leading the way with a set of original (to say the least) new (you can say that again) songs. Oh, and perhaps an occasional appearance from some of the other now-klassic Krayolai – ike, maybe David Grubbs, Tom Watson or John McEntire. Who knows? We’ll all have to buy the record and find out, now won’t we?
• And then of course there’s The High Llamas and The Fucking Champs, both of whom have records in varying states of completion. The Fucking Champs will be putting out an LP called IV, that’s almost for damn sure written in the fucking concrete. The High Llamas have no title yet for what is being described as a mini-LP by their camp. For them, a mini-LP means it’s a little less than an hour long. So High Llamas fans, unite! There will be an abundance of new material for you all to feast upon come the end of the summer on Drag City records and CDs.
O’ROURKE’S UP!
Here some News from O’Rourke: recording of Insignificance has begun, which, by the way, is 100% for sure the name of the Next album. Don't expect Eureka 2 or All the Way to a Threeway this time – you oughta know that’s not our boy’s style. Meanwhile, with what’s left of his own time (don’t forget, he’ll be serving his time in the Sonic Youth all this summer, touring with Stereolab, Pearl Jam and others in the process). Meanwhile, what’s left of the rest of his time has been spent commencing recording a new album with the unknown band, a collaboration between himself, Jeff Tweedy and Glenn Kotche. Meanwhile, way Over There, the Japanese director Shinji Aoyama’s new film Eureka, (named after the original movie, and yes, also after the work of sunny Jim himself) won the international film critic’s award at Cannes 2000. From what we have heard, the film contains the tune ”Eureka,” in one of the climactic scenes. Supposedly the song has something to do with the plot. Weird. But we’ll take it!
LET’S TALK ABOUT SMOG
Smog’s Dongs of Sevotion is now akin to an official household appliance for many of us here in young America. Meanwhile, Adults in this country have reviewed the record with a combination of fear and respect, producing a curious effect in their writing styles. But who are we to criticize the critics? They’ve tried their best, even if the overall style of Bill’s ”music” is a bit beyond their fucking pale. Nobody ever got rich selling records to journalists anyway, you know. It’s the buying public we’re after, anyway. And when it comes to Smog, we’ve got ’em. Our only regret is that Smog isn’t playing more shows this year – he’s got less than ten planned, and each one is in a different country. The one we’re living in is usually called America, so we encourage fans of Bill’s from all over the world to hop aboard planes, trains, boats, and so forth, and come to America. Make it to the fabulous Park West Theater next Tuesday night, the 20th of June, when Smog and Mick Turner will be playing to an audience patient enough to hold their breath until the song is over. Yeah, come for the bands – stick around to marvel at the late 1970s ’space age disco’ décor of the venue. You’ve really got to see this place for yourself to believe it, and you really won’t believe it when you see Smog up on the big stage, looking (as usual) like a brother from another planet.
LET’S ALL GO TO THE MELTDOWN or
(ARE YOU GONNA BE THERE) AT THE MELTDOWN or
THE MELTDOWN (BE SURE TO WEAR SOME FLOWERS IN YOUR HAIR)
Hey, it’s not too late to get another round trip ticket going in your life – so collar that travel agent of yours and get a two-way ticket to London, England! That’s right, the bonnie UK awaits you, where the eight annual Meltdown Festival will just be kicking off in London on June 17th. This year, the legendary Scott Walker is curating, and he’s requested the presence of two of our favorite performers – Smog and Jim O’Rourke! We feel that we are entitled to say that it’s a honor for both of them being invited to this event. If you’re looking to go see, Smog goes first, with a show at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday June 25, then Jim follows up on Tuesday, June 27. It’s gonna be great! So take the A train, catch an express bus, grab a cab out to the airport and make sure you have your tickets to rides. |