White Williams Video Premiere On Pitchfork.tv!

Like chocolate and peanut butter White Williams and TV Carnage make a great mix. Check out their collaborative effort that premiered on Pitchfork.TV today.

Pitchfork.tv: White Williams: "New Violence" [Video Premiere]

No sex in your violence? The video for White Williams' "New Violence" plays like a porn reel of guns, explosions, and guys being thrown through glass doors-- and weapon-wielding blondes in bikinis, and strippers, and muscular, dancing men-- without all the unnecessary attempts at, like, plot and characters and stuff. There's also a dude in a Ronald Reagan mask. This standout from the hookah-favoring East Coast electro-popper's 2007 Smoke sets Williams' deep, confidently intoned verses and breathy hooks atop chugging, effects-laden guitars and glimmering, attention-deficit electronics that point out his aesthetic connection with former tourmates Girl Talk and Dan Deacon. The clip, directed by juxtaposition-happy TV Carnage, cuts from violent image to violent image at the breakneck pace of those squiggly synths, opening with various people getting dressed and closing with a man and a woman standing up. After a shot of a bed. True neo violence, it doesn't have to make sense.

Derrick Beckles of TV Carnage has this to add: "The following 'Music Video' is a glowing tribute to our men and women in blue who courageously risk their lives each day, handing out tickets to people for riding their bicycles on the sidewalk. The song NEW VIOLENCE is ridiculously excellent as is but when combined with TV CARNAGE the result is nothing short of a Lethal Force." More trash culture mayhem and DVDs are available at the Street Carnage website, along with an interview with White Williams about this video.

Triclops! Video On XLR8R Video Of The Day.

Part entomology gross out part prog-punk freak out, Triclops' "Love Song For The Botfly" video was posted on XLR8R's site today. View for yourself here.

Catch the band live this Spring/Summer:
04/28 Portland, OR @ East End
04/29 Olympia, WA (KAOS on air performance 1:00 PM)
04/29 Bellingham, WA @ Wild Buffalo
04/30 Seattle, WA @ King Cobra
05/01 Olympia, WA @ Levoyeur
05/02 Chico, CA @ Chico at Nick’s
05/03 San Francisco, CA @ Vert Ramp Warehouse (X St. Ingalls in Hunter’s Point)
05/17 Berkeley, CA @ 924 Gilman
07/04 Point Arena, CA @ Local Oddfellows Union hall
07/08 San Francisco, CA @ 12 Galaxies
07/19 Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
07/25 San Francisco, CA @ Hemlock Tavern

Naked On The Vague 7.3 Pitchfork Review.

Naked on the Vague
The Blood Pressure Sessions
[Siltbreeze; 2008]
Rating: 7.3

You could argue that Sydney, Australia's Naked on the Vague are a bit of a 1980s-retro band, but only if you're thinking about the dark side of the decade-- no wave instead of new wave. Their first full length, The Blood Pressure Sessions, is mired in Reagan-era dread. Released last year on the Australian label Dual Plover and now given a U.S. vinyl treatment by Siltbreeze, the record drips with hollow contempt and dull scorn. It's the Southern Hemisphere's dark photo-negative answer to Times New Viking's Paisley Reich.

Comprised of keyboardist Lucy Cliché, bassist Matthew P. Hopkins, and a drum machine, Naked on the Vague churn out stripped-down and monotonous post-punk. The rhythms are primitive; the most animated songs rely on little more than the incessant thud of a bass drum. Likewise, any pretense of harmony is chucked out the window. As a result, it's easy draw a straight line from a Naked on the Vague song like "All Aboard"-- with it's slanted riff and stone-age drum loop-- to the esoteric scuzz of the past. But although Naked on the Vague wear some influences on their sleeves-- whether that's downtown noise, Flying Nun Records, or Huggy Bear LPs-- The Blood Pressure Sessions is more than just skilled homage. The band's take on post-punk is familiar but also tight and contemporary.

Naked on the Vague aren't abrasive in the Dead C sense, out to fully lobotomize their audience with skree and treble. In fact, when compared to the production value of other records released on Siltbreeze-- a label whose reputation was built on shrill hiss and white noise-- The Blood Pressure Sessions is startlingly clear and intensely silent. "All Aboard" is sheared down to the most meager of ingredients-- one circular drumbeat, a bass riff, and a and a malnourished keyboard melody. There's nothing else, not even amp hiss. But all of the negative space enhances the pervading sense of desolation. None of the instruments resonate and each lyric hangs in the air for only a moment before vanishing back into the void, as if the band are performing in a vacuum chamber.

Naked on the Vague also have a penchant for dubby textures that have more in common with the current Fuck It Tapes school of psychedelic music than to no wave. "Brown Sun/Sydney Lane Road" is six-minutes of clanking abstract percussion and flat vocal drones. There are accordion trills and lonesome trumpet farts thrown into the mix, but the sounds are hardly lush. Rather, they're restrained, like something from a claustrophobic horror-movie soundtrack. These moments alone don't divide them from the weirdos of yesteryear. Where no wave had a marked self-important streak, Naked on the Vague are self-aware. Although dark, their lyrics seem to drift around at the edge of black comedy. "Horse, he's sick/ Horse so sick," sings Lucy Cliché during the appropriately titled "The Horse, He's Sick". We're talking some distance from Michael Gira yelling, "All I can do is kill" in straight-faced earnest.

It's stupid to dismiss or embrace Naked on the Vague as merely the product of their influences. The Blood Pressure Sessions is an enhancement of an idea started a long time ago. During the 80s, bands responded to poverty, vacuous culture, and bad government with music that was appropriately nihilistic. It's not surprising that Naked on the Vague have been able to tap into that mindset 20 years later; the more things change, the more they stay the same.

-Aaron Leitko, April 17, 2008

New Triclops! Album, podcast and Amoeba Records In-Store

Triclops! Just released their debut album on Alternative Tentacles Records.

Triclops! stole their pedigree from the likes of the Fleshies, Bottles &
Skulls, Victim's Family and Lower Forty Eight.

Check out the new podcast on the Alternative Tentacles site at :

http://www.alternativetentacles.com/batcast

Or they can grab the enhanced podcast here

The podcast mentions the Amoeba Records in-store THIS FRIDAY, April 25,
in San Francisco-- and links to their new video. (If you already subscribe
to the AT podcast it will automatically download by now). Its only 18mb;
19 minutes long.

Triclops! Out of Africa LP + CD (LP is white vinyl) (Virus 380 LP)
Triclops! Out of Africa CD (Virus 380 CD)

Michael Gira Playing At Shearwater Album Premiere Show.

"I'll be playing a special acoustic set May 5th in celebration of my friends in Shearwater releasing their new album "Rook". My friend Thor is in the band, and they're all nice people and their music is excellent, so I hope to see you there. All the best!"

Michael Gira.



Matador (Shearwater's label) press release: On Monday, May 5th, Shearwater will premiere "Rook" in a special concert at the beautiful Florence Gould Concert Hall at Manhattan’s French Institute. For this event, Shearwater will be joined by a string quartet, woodwinds, trumpets, and a harpist, and will play the new album, "Rook", in its entirety, along with a set of older songs.

We are especially proud to announce that the New York show will begin with a solo performance by the legendary Michael Gira (Swans, Angels of Light), and will also feature projections by Kahn & Selesnick, the team behind Rook’s cover art.

Tickets to this event are limited. For New York (May 5), they are available from Ticketmaster, starting Friday, April 11 at 10am, and from Other Music.

Venue Address: Florence Gould Hall 55 East 59th Street Between Park & Madison avenues New York, NY 10022 Doors at 7pm Show begins promptly at 7:30pm

The Heavy Take On The U.S.

There they come.... The Heavy just announced their first U.S. tour which includes a number of Playboy 'Rock The Rabbit' events and a handful of television performances. The band will make their network television debut on Last Call With Carson Daly plus performances on Fuel and Fearless TV are scheduled. It's going to be a busy May.

Live Dates:
05/03 San Francisco, CA @ Mezzanine (Playboy 'Rock The Rabbit' event)
05/05 San Diego, CA @ The Casbah
05/07 Los Angeles, CA @ Bordello (Playboy 'Rock The Rabbit' event)
05/09 Chicago, IL @ Life During Wartime @ Darkroom (Playboy 'Rock The Rabbit' event)
05/10 Toronto, ON @ Lee's Place
05/11 Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rossa
05/13 New York, NY @ Le Royale (Playboy 'Rock The Rabbit' event)
05/13 New York, NY @ Rehab
05/14 Brooklyn, NY @ Union Pool

Television Performances:
Last Call with Carson Daly
May 6th at 1:35 Am (12:35 AM CST) on NBC

Fuel TV
Mid-May Airdate
Check website for local affiliates that broadcast Fuel here.

Fearless Music TV
Airdate TBD
Check website for local affiliates that broadcast Fearless Music TV here.

Efterklang Are Coming To North America!

2008 marks the fifth year anniversary of Efterklang performing as a live band. There's no better way to celebrate this milestone than to bring their multi-instrument/multi-person live show stateside. May & June dates are as follows:

05/06 Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge
05/07 Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
05/09 Portland, OR @ Doug Fir
05/10 Seattle, WA @ Nectar Lounge
05/11 Eugene, OR @ Wow Hall
05/12 San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
05/14 Los Angeles, CA @ Spaceland
05/15 San Diego, CA @ Casbah
05/16 Tucson, AZ @ Plush
05/19 Phoenix, AZ @ Modified Arts
05/20 Denton, TX @ Hailey's
05/22 Atlanta, GA @ Drunken Unicorn
05/23 Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506
05/24 Washington, DC @ Rock and Roll Hotel
05/26 Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church Sanctuary
05/27 Hamden, CT @ Space
05/28 New York, NY @ Knitting Factory
05/29 Cambridge, MA @ T.T. The Bear's Place
05/31 Toronto, ON @ El Mocambo
06/02 Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
06/04 Kansas City, MO @ Record Bar

Check out this Youtube footage of 'Caravan' from a show in Vienna from earlier this year.

Yoni Wolf of Why? Rattles Off A List Of Favs For Pitchfork.

Guest List: Why?
Guest List by Yoni Wolf

Welcome to the latest edition of Pitchfork's Guest List. Each week, we ask one of our favorite artists to fill us in on what they've been up to lately: which tracks they can't stop spinning, what books they can't put down, and what new bands they've caught on tour. This week it's Yoni Wolf of Why?, who secretly aspires to be an Olympic figure skater, protests having to hear techno on the radio in the morning, and finally explains why "Super Mario Bros. 2" is so different from the series' other titles.

>> Favorite New Songs from the Past Year

That's a tough one. I don't know that many new things, so much. Let's see, there's that song, I really like that song on that Dntel record [Dumb Luck]. I really like the Jenny Lewis song on that. That's an awesome song. It's called "Roll On". And there, we put out a record by these guys called Thee More Shallows. There's a song on there I really like, called, "Night at the Knight School". I don't know if you've heard that, but that's the shit. That's a great song. There was a Fog record that came out this year, some friends of mine. There's a song on there I really like. It's called, "I Have Been Wronged". It's a terrific song. And there's a Xiu Xiu song on the record that just came out, it was the single, I think. You guys had it up on your site for a while, "I Do What I Want When I Want". That's a real nice song.

>> Favorite Older Songs at the Moment

I've been listening to this Leonard Cohen song called "Take This Longing", which is the last song on the The Best of Leonard Cohen, which is fucking awesome. I've been listening to that record the past couple of days. Let's say Liz Phair, "Chopsticks". I've been listening to that a lot. I've been listening to "Grounded" a lot, which is a Pavement song off of Wowee Zowee. Yeah, I suppose those are a few that I've been really over-obsessing about lately.

>> Favorite New Band

There's a band that we're bringing on tour with us that I like a lot. It's called Cryptacize. They're some homies of mine. It's Nedelle [Torrisi], she had a solo act on Kill Rock Stars for a while, and Chris Cohen, who used to be in Deerhoof. And this other guy [Michael Carreira -Ed.]. It's a real nice little project. It's cool. It's really quiet. Sort of understated, but real pretty melodies, and cool arrangements.

>> Favorite Song Ever

Favorite song ever? Uh...how about the theme song to "Curb Your Enthusiasm"? [starts humming "Curb" theme song] I'm just kidding. That's got to be the most annoying thing. I watched 10 episodes in a row, and every time that comes on, I'm like, "nooooooooo! What am I doing with my life?" I don't know. Favorite song, that's a tough one...let's go with the theme song from "Curb Your Enthusiasm" [laughs].

>> Best Recent Concert

I was at this Dirty Projectors show, this was a few months ago, but this would have to go down as the best show I've seen in...maybe ever. It was pretty incredible. They played a show in San Francisco at Bottom of the Hill, and it just blew my fucking mind. Honestly, like, they're so tight; that dude [Dave Longstreth], he must be a slave-driver. I don't know what the fuck kind of hypnotism he's into. Like, he's definitely on some shit, I'll say that. I don't know, they sound so fucking great, the harmonies.... There's this one song where the two girls are like, one's on the on beat, one's on the off beat...I don't know, that just made me want to fucking curl up and die somewhere. That show, Jesus, I couldn't believe it!

>> Last Great Film I Saw

I just saw that There Will Be Blood movie. That was the last movie I saw in theaters. It was good, man. Pretty crazy...Daniel Day-Lewis, man. Gotta give it up to DDL. Killin' it! Very believable. It's disturbing, but it's good.

>> Last Great Book I Read

I just read a book by Flannery O'Connor, called Wise Blood. Have you read that one?

Pitchfork: Actually, it's one of my favorite books of all time.

It's terrific. I really liked that. There's this passage, I had to read it for like 20 people. The book is about this guy who shows up in this small town and decides that he wants to become a preacher for the Church of Christ Without Christ or some nihilist kind of shit. He ends up, well, I won't ruin it.

I like her writing, mostly. It's not even the story that interests me so much, it's just the way that she puts her sentences together. There's this passage in the second chapter, I think, that's just about a paragraph long, and it's just the most perfect writing. It captures the sublime and the very discreet all at one. Little subtleties, while capturing the movement of the universe. She's terrific.

>> Favorite Piece of Musical Equipment

I have this AKG-C414. I don't want to sound like a fucking nerd. It's a microphone! I got it for, as an advance for this old band of mine called cLOUDDEAD. The label guy gave me this mic to use for the record. Since then-- that was maybe five or six years ago-- I've just always used this mic and this mic only, pretty much, to record at my house. It's just tried and true, works pretty much on anything. >> Favorite Record Shop

I just like other people's iTunes collections. That's pretty much how I roll these days. There was a time, maybe, where I'd go to the record store, but now I just sort of trust other people's opinions, and go with what they tell me to take off their iTunes. It's really the best way to learn about new music for me. I have some friends that are very savvy. I don't really know shit, or know how to learn shit about music, so I just trust about five people as my trustworthy advisors.

>> Best Purchase of the Past Year

I went in on this little four-room bed and breakfast place. It's outside of Port Au Prince in Haiti. This realtor friend of mine advised me on this thing, so I went in on it with five other recording artist people. It's this little four-room bed and breakfast, real cute. I've seen pictures, I've never been there, but I'm proud of the little place. It's called Le Chateau de l'Homme Triomphe, which I think is the Chateau of the Triumphant Man. Nice little place, and one day maybe I'll retire down there and run the place or some shit. I don't know. It's not really about the money, it's just cool to have a place like that to be able to go if I want to spend some time or whatever.

>> Best Thing I Did This Year

That's easy, that's very easy for me. This is a little weird for me to say; I don't think I've ever said this to the press. I've been figure skating since I was a little kid. My parents put me in lessons when I was six years old, and I've been doing it every since. It's not like I'm that good at this point, but when I was 16, I actually tried out for the Olympics. I placed 332nd. I can't say that things went so well for me, but that's something... 332nd, that's something [laughs].

Well, I was in Calgary in October 2007 and I met some really important people in a café, actually. Just struck up a conversation, and we were talking about figure skating and shit, and somehow it came up that they knew about Why? They asked me if I wanted to go skate the Stampede Corral. I don't know if you know about figure skating much or not, but that's where the 88 Olympics took place. I fucking skated on the same ice as Brian Boitano, Viktor Petrenko, Debi Thomas. It was a fucking thrill. It was amazing. l just did a fucking salchow of glory there. I think I skated better than I have in 10 years there. The vibe was right, I could just feel the fucking energy, it was just pulsating.

>> Favorite Venue

You know what? I really like the Great American Music Hall right here in San Francisco. We're playing there. We're headlining for the first time on March 6. That's our record-release show for Alopecia. I'm really looking forward to that. We've played there a handful of other times, opening for people and stuff like that. This will be our first headlining show. We're psyched. It's a big place, a beautiful room, chandeliers... Actually, I don't know if they have chandeliers [laughs], but it's a nice room anyway.

>> Favorite TV Show at the Moment

I love ["Curb Your Enthusiasm"], I do love that! That's definitely one of them, and that Season Six is disgustingly funny. But there's another show I've been watching. A show called "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia". It's some funny shit. It's kind of like a cross between "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and...what else is it like? It's got that same uncomfortable feeling as that show does. It's goofier or something like that. It's zanier, a little bit. It's a funny show.

>> Favorite Video Game at the Moment

I don't play video games. I did play video games not so long ago. One night, at my friend Adam's house-- you know the band Subtle?-- he's the guy from that band, and every two weeks he'll start pestering me, like, "let's get together, bring your boys over, we'll drink some beers and play some video games." He wants to have boys' night or whatever. I'm always like, "yeah, yeah, yeah, sure" but it never happens. Well, finally we made it happen. We went over there, and he has all the systems. But if I'm going to play...I don't even understand the 3-D games. I couldn't really do the Magic Eye thing so well, so Xboxes and shit don't make so much sense to me [laughs]. I always make him put on the regular Nintendo, you know, the first Nintendo. That's what I grew up with. So, we played some Nintendo games: "Mike Tyson's Punch Out!!", "Marble Madness", and "Super Mario Bros. 2".

I don't know if you knew this, but that night, Shawn, the guy who runs anticon., our record label, told us that "Super Mario Bros. 2" was not originally designed as a "Mario Bros." game. It was supposed to be designed as a whole separate kind of game, but to market it better, they decided they would make it Mario. You can tell...he said that, and then like, we were playing that and it's so different! It stands out! "Super Mario Bros. 3" and "Super Mario Bros." are pretty similar. I got as far as the Super NES, so "Super Mario World" or whatever-- that's the same, too. But "Super Mario Bros. 2" is completely different, just the way it's set up. Totally different schtick. I'm glad they did make it Mario, because it was a familiar character that I could latch onto, really stand behind, and purchase. It's a beautiful game, a wonderful game. I love it.

>> Favorite Radio Show

I don't know shows so much, but I always listen to KALX, which is the college radio station at Berkeley. That's pretty much the only station I listen to. I'll flip around to other stations if something really sucks on KALX. It's college radio. Anyone can get a show. It'll be like fucking the super-dancey trance show at 7 in the morning, or something like that. This morning, actually, I was driving my female friend around at 7. She had to go to work. We were listening to KALX. You know, if you have the 7 in the morning show, you have a certain responsibility to play chilled-out shit. Don't accept the 7 in the morning spot if you're going to play fucking house music. No one wants to hear it. You're only alienating people [laughs]. It's a good station, though.

>> My Ringtone

Vibrate, baby. Gotta be vibrate. Always vibrate. I don't need to fucking advertise my shit to everybody if I get a call. That's my own business. You know what I'm saying.

Why? is still on tour:
04/03 Chicago, IL @ The Abbey Pub
04/04 Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club
04/05 Madison, WI @ Cafe Montmartre
04/06 Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
04/07 Fargo, ND @ The Aquarium
04/08 Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room
04/09 Columbia, MO @ Mojo's
04/10 Lawrence, KS @ Jackpot
04/11 Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive
04/12 Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
04/14 Missoula, MT @ Badlander
04/15 Spokane, WA @ Big Easy
04/16 Vancouver, BC @ Media Club
04/17 Seattle, WA @ Vera Project
04/18 Portland, OR @ Holocene
04/19 Eugene, OR @ Indigo District

Naked On The Vague Dusted Review & US Tour Dates.

Naked on the Vague
The Blood Pressure Sessions LP
(Siltbreeze)
Original review from Doug Mosurock's Still Single feature.

I think my attentions were elsewhere when I caught this band at their label showcase down in Austin, my mind having just been turned into a paste by Eat Skull, and the virtual threat of some scene big shot who kept glaring at me any chance he got. Next time, dude, make a move, because you missed your shot at the title. Anyway, talked to Lax afterwards and NOTV was the band he had the most to say about; kept on going off on how they make music that fits in with the old Australian label M-Squared, that they were true to the roots of new wave, in that brief window before we were able to classify it. I like to stick to my guns, but I also have an outsized amount of respect for Siltbreeze and almost all of its works, and I knew this wasn’t some barbecue hoax from nowhere. I’m glad I’ve gotten the chance to spend some quiet time with this motherfucker of an album in the meantime. Co-ed duo wanderings of a decidedly dark and altogether chilling nature, either bending in a beautifully ebbing continuous tone meander, or thumping chest with steel-eyed intensity a la the better days of Lydia Lunch, all drum machine and black dye and squealing synthesizer, deathrockin’ and boppin’ along like … well, like a band that hasn’t yet been informed of “the rules” and went off on their own gut instincts. It’s often so hard to separate goth action from a teenage-level sense of propriety, that thing that makes all but the memories of youthful exposure to such stagey bleakness and sexualized danger so hard to stomach as the years go on. Naked on the Vague pull this off pretty effortlessly, and that’s a feat worth checking out. Very highly recommended. 500 copies.

Upcoming US live dates:
04/03 Philadelphia, PA @ DANGER DANGER GALLERY
04/04 Brooklyn, New York @ Secret Project Robot Party @ Monster Island (w/ Pink Reason, Tyvek, Psychedelic Horseshit)
04/05 New York, NY @ CAKE SHOP
04/08 Providence, RI @ AS220
04/09 Florence, MA @ YOD SHOP
04/11 Detroit, MI @ UFO Factory
04/13 Toledo, OH @ MICKEY FINN"S PUB
04/16 Chicago, IL @ AV-AERIE
04/18 Iowa City, IA @ THE CAVE OF SPIRITS
04/19 Minneapolis, MN @ ORGAN HAUS
04/25 Seattle, WA @ FUNHOUSE
05/01 Portland, OR @ THE TWILIGHT (w/ Eat Skull)
05/03 San Francisco, CA @ HEMLOCK TAVERN
05/11 Los Angeles, CA @ FAMILY
05/16 Los Angeles, CA @ THE SMELL
05/20 Los Angeles, CA @ DING-A-LING

Liquorball Resurrected!

Liquorball has once again re-immerged from the murky depths of acidrock purgatory. The latest resurrection will include an in-store and a mini festival performance. All shows will be with the legendary sax man Steve MacKay. And it just so happens that vinyl stock from Liquorball's long out of print Blackjack catalog was unearthed in the Revolver warehouse - 27 copies of "Hauls Ass" and 29 copies of "Live in Hitler's & Bunker". Talk about instant karma.

WHEN: Friday, 4/4, 8-10pm
WHERE: Grady's Record Refuge, 2546 E. Main St., Ventura, 805-648-5565
WHAT: Steve MacKay with Liquorball/Liquorball with Steve MacKay

Yes, it's THAT Steve MacKay. You won't wanna miss the legendary Stooges saxophonists' return to Grady's Record Refuge (he played our grand opening in 2003) as he performs with San Francisco's Liquorball for a night of rarified energy music!

Besides playing with the reformed Stooges, Steve MacKay has also been playing experimental music with the likes of Smegma, Radon All-Stars, and the Blues Prostitutes of late. His resume extends back to the mid-60's and includes stints with the Violent Femmes, Snakefinger, and Commander Cody, among so many others........once described as "San Francisco's answer to nothing", Liquorball's spontaneous juggernauts of sound have been decorating the fringes of the underground for nearly 20 years. They now perform infrequently, but new recordings are rumored...........Liquorball and Steve MacKay first collaborated in 1999.

As always, this is a FREE show........though donations to the traveling artists will be gratefully accepted.
-GRR

Liquorball will be also playing this Saturday (April 5th) at the Dung Mummy 5 year Anniversary/Post-Asiatic Festival @ Zero Point in Los Angeles. Click here for directions and full lineup.