July 27, 2000

Sad Rockets — New Matador signing
with new material on the way
Sad Rockets is Andrew Pekler, a 20 something, Uzbekistan-born, Californian- raised and Heidelberg-residing multi-instrumentalist. His first 2 albums of Sad Rockets instrumental music, available on the Morbid and Source labels, are a whirlwind trip through Andrew’s bedroom studio, a place where soundtracky noir styles, sideways R&B, appropriate nods to jazz, soul, punk, beats lost & found, suave romantic moments, high comedy (in low places) and way too much style somehow all fit onto 4 tracks. None of that laptop/desktop shit either, this is all for real, recorded by a real guy with real instruments in a real way. OK, he used electricity. And these words were composed on a computer. Also, I went to a Starbucks about a week ago, but it was just to get change for the parking meters.

In short, with 4 tracks and no moolah, Sad Rockets creates more atmosphere and genuine drama than the new David Holmes album and Larry Holmes’ right hand combined. And don’t get me started on Rupert Holmes. His records are thrilling, funny and they work equally well at lease-wrecking volume or at a level commensurate with other activities (preparing sturgeon, exploratory surgery, purchasing a planetarium, etc.). That’s Sad Rockets, not Rupert Holmes.

In addition to his Sad Rockets career, Andrew is a member of Bergheim 34, a “post-everything” electronic group, millions of miles removed from Sad Rockets. Even further, Andrew is also the vocalist for the very amazing & dangerous Mucus 2, a group who most assuredly put the ampersand in rock & roll.

In late October, we intend to release the 3rd Sad Rockets full-length, ‘Blue Hour.’ A pre-album 12" EP featuring the tracks “Waking (From A Pleasant Dream Into A Nasty Hangover)” and “Soul Recreation,” will be commercially released in Europe.

Mary Timony — A travelling musician,
and a chatting one, too
Mary is currently in the UK supporting Sleater-Kinney on their sold-out tour, but once that trip is done, she’s on her way to Olympia, WA for Ladyfest, the women’s music and art festival featuring Sleater-Kinney, Jean Smith, Cat Power, Gina Birch and many more bands, spoken word performers, film makers, etc. And gURL.com are hosting a chat with Mary on August 2 at 6pm EST.

July 21, 2000

Live Human — ’cause Peter Shapiro said so.
The trio proclaimed by The Wire’s Stone Cold Peter Shapiro as “ass-kicking” will be doing their non-violent thing live this Saturday, July 22 on Betalounge.com, from 4pm-9pm Pacific time. We don’t know exactly what time the Live Human performance will begin and end, but we can’t think of a better excuse to stare at a screen for several hours. And while we’re on that subject, all of these so-called “reality” tv programs are just a pathetic attempt to cripple the actors’ union. What would you rather see, Robert Urich emoting, or some nobody trying to start a campfire? Take your time with this one.

Yo La Tengo / Cat Power webcasts this weekend
What were the great rock festivals of all time? Woodstock (I, II or III)? The HORDE tour? The US Festival? Monsters Of Rock? The Up In Smoke Tour? Roskilde? A Nice Weekend In Upper Volta? All of the above have their good points and bad, but none of ’em can compare to the ongoing Digital Club Festival, an event that allows fast-talking people we’ve never met to cash in on the notoriety of our more popular bands. Since you, the loyal fans of fill-in-the-blank, get to see these webcasts, everyone is a winner (except perhaps, the people at the gig who can’t see around the roving camera crews).

July 24, 10pm EST, Yo La Tengo @ Maxwell’s, Hoboken NJ
Will be archived for broadcast on demand for 3 months.

July 24, 10pm EST, Cat Power @ 40 Watt Club, Atlanta, GA
Will be archived for broadcast on demand for 3 months.

Belle & Sebastian — hell no, they won’t go
On tour, that is. According to the always-right / never-wrong NME, Belle & Sebastian aren’t gonna be touring the U.S. or anywhere else in the year 2000. We’d like to confirm or deny this report, but that would require a series of expensive phone calls.

July 12, 2000

Non Phixion — The Future Is Later than “Now,” and it’s not part of our future anyway.
We regret to announce that Matador will not be releasing Non Phixion’s upcoming debut album ‘The Future is Now.’ After months of preparations for the release of this album, the group have reached the conclusion that Matador is not the right label for them. While we wish they had made this decision prior to signing a contract or recording the album, we see no reason to stand in their way and we look forward to reaching an amicable settlement. We remain fans of Non Phixion’s music and sincerely wish them all the success in their future endeavors.

12" Series and Subsequent
Compilation Revealed:
When scheduling a series of hip hop 12"es, could there possibly be a better title for it than “The Matador Hip Hop 12" Series?” Of course there could, but we’re a little too late for your second guessing. How about some of you geniuses out there give us a hand before it’s too late next time? Here’s how the beginning of this series breaks down:

More titles to be announced at a later date. We’re planning on a compilation CD of all of the above, plus more material sometime in 2001.

Bardo Pond — Updates and new MP3’s.
Over at Hummingbird Mountain, they’ve got MP3’s of new Bardo Pond material, as well as info about new Bardo Pond recordings for Matador and other places. Check it out. Please.

Cornelius — Putting the “power” back into “puff.”
Cornelius has contributed a new track to the Powerpuff Girls soundtracky CD that Rhino are about to release. Other featured artists include Devo, Frank Black, The Apples In Stereo, Shonen Knife and of course Bis. The King of Men, Fred Blassie, could not be reached for comment (because we don’t have his phone number).

Spoon vs. the Crüe
What do Mötley Crüe and Spoon have in common? Besides being former Matador recording artists, that is? Following their less than smooth departure from E-----a Records, Spoon have a new EP coming in October from Merge (North America) and 12XU (Europe), followed by a new full length album in 2001. The folks at Stranded On The Texas Highway have links to MP3’s of new material, video footage and more. Mötley Crüe have a new album as well, and while we haven’t heard it yet, it is probably just as good as ‘Shout At The Devil,’ their 1983 Matador debut.

July 5, 2000

Pizzicato Five
We are pleased and relieved to announce that the new Pizzicato Five album, imaginatively titled ‘The Fifth Release From Matador,’ will be released on November 14.

Live Human — Glad we got to the bottom of this.
“KUSF/Live Human moratorium — an update for the gravely concerned: A trustworthy and (some would argue) handsome, source has confirmed that the reactionary, and (some would argue) severe sentence that was levied against Live Human several months ago by the notable radio station KUSF, has been repealed. For a review of events leading up to the recently lifted ban see News Item: ‘Things Are Getting Sticky’ (April 24, 2000). Due to an overwhelming demand for the offending stickers, please limit one per customer — while supplies last.”

Solex — Covered and videoed and all that.
“Solex In A Slipshod Style” has been covered by the Walkabouts on their new Glitterhouse full-length, which is very good news ’cause we’re always being told that the Walkabouts are bigger than Jesus overseas. Maybe they meant Jesus Alou. You can check out a nifty Solex video interview at Insound (look for the “cinema” section).

GBV — Docudrama.
This is a big toss up; Banks Tarver’s acclaimed Guided By Voices documentary, or Martin Lawrence pretending to be a fat woman. Hmmm. Can we get back to you about this? “Watch Me Jumpstart” will be shown as part of the Anthology Film Archives’ Summer Music Series (32 Second Ave, New York City), August 6th at 4:30pm. The series will also include Jem Cohen’s excellent Fugazi feature “Instrument,” Penelope Spheeris’ “Decline of Western Civilization” (that’s the first one, not the sequel that had the guy from WASP getting drunk in a swimming pool) and that lame Lou Reed fluff piece that PBS showed a while ago.

Arsonists
The group are currently working on the their next album, tentatively scheduled for release in early 2001. Q-Unique has also finished a remix of Yo La Tengo’s “Danelectro” which might surface later this year, but that’s kinda top-secret so forget we mentioned it.

DStroy
Dstroy tells us that he’s been making festival appearances in Denmark, Sweden and other places, debuting some solo stuff and preparing a 12" release on Rawkus. More news when we get it.

Mount Florida — Live debut, album completion.
Mount Florida have finally come up with a title for their completed album. Titled ‘Arrived Phoenix,’ apparently it is an in-joke. The joke is so “in” that half the band doesn’t get it. Anyhow the next phase of the Mount Florida experience is the live debut on Saturday July 29, supporting Lee “Scratch” Perry at the legendary Glasgow Barrowlands. Mount Florida say start big and slowly work down to fifth on the bill at the “Pig and Pitcher” open band night. The live debut should be interesting, as with four weeks to go Apple have still to make available the software to enable i-Books to run audio. Could end up being Mount Florida “unplugged!”

Matmos —
These guys are making everyone else look lazy.
“Our split record with the Rachel’s “Full On Night” is out now on Quarterstick/Touch n Go, and the newest 12" by Disc (called “Transfer,” it’s our collaboration with Kid 606 and Lesser making 100 locked grooves of CDs skipping) is out on Deluxe Records. These are not Matador Records but they’re still pretty good. Our Summer Vacation: We’ve been running around in Europe having all sorts of misadventures — we rented a car in Paris and toured the Languedoc looking for castles related to the Cathar heresy and the mystery of Rennes Le Chateau. Much fun, much duck fat. Then we drove on to Barcelona for SONAR (too many great shows to mention, but here goes: Stockhausen, Coil, Etant Donnes, Panasonic/Einheit, Kit Clayton, Hecker, People Like Us, Phoenecia/Rich Devine, PanAmerican, Herbert, Mark Almond (!?*!), laptop orchestra). Now we are home, eagerly anticipating our Fat Cat 12" (split with Motion) and slaving away on the new album. Oh yes we are. Oh yes. And working on new mixes for Mu-Ziq, People Like Us and Phoenecia, plus some sneaky house music that no one needs to know about.”

The no-longer-on-Matador column:
It wouldn’t be an update without thrilling news about our not-so-old friends. Silkworm have a new CD forthcoming from Touch & Go entitled Lifestyle, and it might the finest thing they’ve ever done. Unless of course, you already like the band, in which case it is another chapter in series of greatest things they’ve ever done. Bettie Serveert have a new album called Private Suite, which is available now on import via the group’s own Palomine label. The album is coming out in the U.S. on September 5 thanks to Hidden Agenda. Inaugural Matador signing Hans Platzgummer informs us that he now has a website to keep you up to date on all of his activities. And finally, Guitar Wolf will be back in the U.S. on August 12 as part of the Vegas Shakedown bash, taking place at the Gold Coast Hotel and featuring such monsters of rock as the Dictators, the Real Kids, the Donnas, the reformed Flesh Eaters and many more.

Listening faves of affiliated:

Twitch, Mount Florida

And They Will Know Us By The Trail Of Our Dead - Madonna
Golden - Summer
Life Without Buildings - first two 7"s
Peaches - Lovertits
Gang of Four - Entertainment
ESG - Erase You
Markus Nikolai - Back
Pink Floyd - Live in Amsterdam 1969
Monolake - Ice
Wookie - The Battle
Andre Williams - The Black Godfather
Harry Smith vol.4

Dave Martin, Matador Records

1) Sonic Youth “nyc ghosts & flowers”
2) AC/DC “Stiff Upper Lip”
3) Easybeats “Gonna Have A Good Time”
4) Major Stars “Space Time”
5) Royal Trux “Pound For Pound”
6) Queens Of The Stoneage “Feel Good Hit Of The Summer”
(I could care less about the rest of the record.)
7) Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments
“No Old Guy Lo-Fi Cry”
8) V/A Ego Trip’s The Big Playback
9) Ike & Tina Turner “The Kent Years”
10) Quicksilver Messenger Service “Lost Gold & Silver”

Stuart Braithwaite, Mogwai

1 Remote Viewer - unreleased album
2 Phillip Glass - solo piano
3 Hermann and Kleine - ep on City Centre offices
4 Eminem - Marshall Mathers album
5 Kraftwerk - Radioactivity

Colin Hardie, Mogwai mgmt.

the rachels live at glasgow school of art
penalty kicks against england with one minute to go.
side 1 of the ‘war of the worlds’ soundtrack
marquee moon - television
wwf insurrection at earls court, london
‘walk this way’ - the aerosmith autobiography
dongs of sevotion - smog

MATMOS TOP TEN and one to grow on:

SONAR Festival
Coil “Musick To Play In the Dark Vol. 2”
Gay Pride sunburn
The Cars first album
clean house
Oval “Ovalprocess”
Tsubo Oilslicks (new shoes)
Tigerbeat6 meow 3
Romullo del Castillo
heresy
Francoise Hardy “La Question”

Doug Nyce, Matador Records

Slum Villiage — Fantastic vol. 2 (Goodvibe)
Unspoken Heard —
Sex, Lies, and videotape (Seven Heads ent.)
Quasimoto — The Unseen (Stones Throw)
People Under The Stairs —
Question in the From of an Answer (Om)
Mas Pyke — Far East Politics (Bukarance)
Jurassic 5 — Quality Control (Interscope)
Bahamadia — Special Forces feat. Cali Agents (Goodvibe)
Cali Agents — How The West was Won (Ground Control)
J-88 — Look of Love (grooveAttack)
J-live — The Best Part (Sevenheads Ent)

Patrick Amory, Matador Records

1. Dr. Dre — “Dr. Dre 2001” (Interscope)
2. AC/DC — “Stiff Upper Lip” (Elektra)
3. Calexico — “Hot Rail” (Quarterstick)
4. Gwendal — both albums (EMI Pathé)
5. Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band —
“No Roses” (Antilles)
6. Flamin Groovies — “Flamingo” (Kama Sutra)

Gerard Cosloy, Matador Records

Mike Ladd - Welcome To The Afterfuture (Ozone)
Hermann Kleine - Kickboard Girl (City Centre Offices)
Kid 606 - Down With The Scene (Ipecac)
Silkworm - Lifestyle (Touch & Go)
Von LMO - Future Language reissue (Flemishmasters.org)
Whit Dickey Quartet - Big Top (Wobbly Rail)
M Ward - Duet For Guitars #2 (Ow Om)