(illustration by Johnnie Cluney, taken from Daytrotter)

Three songs from ‘Rip It Off’ plus “Teenage Lust” from ’07’s ‘Present The Paisley Reich’, all done in spectacular Daytrotter-sound. Believe it or not, we actually got a letter from someone this week complaining about our inclusion of “Drop Out” on ‘Intended Play’. On audiophile grounds, no less. So much for Matt Horseshit’s Grammy nomination.

The Judge has already penned a candid account of the Jay Reatard/Times New Viking UK hostile takeover but for those of you who appreciate the odd band-in-action shot, here’s some to float your boat….

These are all ATP-centric and not very good, mostly due to my inability to juggle a camera and various glasses of vodka and beer. On the upside, I would highly recommend watching both bands as an instant cure for those hangover cobwebs.

Jay Reatard (opening proceedings on Friday)

Times New Viking (first thing on Saturday)

Wednesday marked the 50th anniversary of Mark Ohe’s arrival on this mortal coil. His contributions to modern culture — visual, musical, sartorial — are somewhat staggering. His role in the rise, fall, rise, fall and jog-around-the-block that is Matador’s 19 years in show business, cannot be understated. We wish this quality human being the happiest of birthdays —- a day after the fact.

So we hit the ground running in London with Jay at the Old Blue Last and Times New Viking at Proud Galleries, before heading south at the weekend and back to the homeland of Camber Sands, ATP.

Jay, Billy and Stephen opened the festival with an intense 24 minute set. Billy made a new friend.

Times New Viking’s dedications and shout outs brought a tear to the eye of every grown man in the room. English accents are being perfected this week by experiencing everything quintessentially English.

Full respect to Matt Psychedelic Horseshit (centre) who apart from working the sound magic on TNV, was smoking weed hard-core everyday with the Meat Puppets.

Our fresh faced troopers continue their take-over plan tonight at Bardens Boudoir in North London, and again tomorrow at the Old Blue Last as part of the Stag&Dagger festival. If you see this man on the street over the next few days, please give him a helping hand.

It’s considered the weeks most difficult crossword, but 57 across was a grand slam, at least for you and I. We are proud to be in good company. Here’s my terrible attempt in photographing the paper.

OK, it’s not a Matador presentation.  But the flyer art could hardly be snazzier if it were.

The pop landscape has been littered with nu Dylans, old Janis Ians (eg. Janis Ian) and any number of generational spokesmodels, troubled troubadours and assholes with bad pompadours.  And those are just the good parts of my record collection.

Occasionally, somebody not only sticks out from the pack, but manages for the space of 3 minutes or 45, to make you forget there is a pack. To make you forget that said (wacky) packs even exist.  At the risk of scaring you with my crude, and poorly taped-up hyperbole stick, I submit that not only is Jennifer O’Connor that kind of artist, but that within a matter of months, you’ll be the one hassling your friends about how fantastic her 4th album is rather than me.  I’ll have already done so.

Jennifer recorded her new LP/CD ‘Here With Me’ (OLE 787-1,2earlier this year with John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth) at Brooklyn’s Headgear Studios.  It’s a breezier, more upbeat work than 2006’s fantastic ‘Over The Mountain, Across The Valley and Back To The Stars’, but I’d be lying if I told you the new album packed any less of an emotional wallop.  Jennifer’s songs have never before sounded this crafted, or hit the listener with such immediacy.

Backed by a crack backing trio of Jon Langmead, Michael Broadlieb and Michael Strandberg (and joined, briefly, by Hold Steady keyboardist Franz Nicolay), O’Connor tackles her most evocative pile of relationship-tunes with something approaching surgical precision.  Over the past 6 years, Jennifer’s gotten scary good at this sort of thing, so much so that most other contenders for the hypothetical Nobel prize for Witty Pop Songs W/ Heart are either former members of this label’s roster (we’re thinking Manning/Phair/Daniel but if you wanna nominate someone more contemporary, please go right ahead) or they’ve already been embalmed in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.

Jennifer has a bunch of tour dates planned for this summer (see below) with more to come throughout 2008. In the days and weeks ahead, we’ll be selectively previewing more of ‘Here With Me’, along with some exclusive video content.  Until then, here’s the first MP3 from the forthcoming LP/CD, “Valley Road ‘86″.

june 4            Chicago, IL                   Abbey Pub
june 5             Toronto, ON                  Opera House
june 6             Ottowa, ON                 Babylon
june 7             Boston, MA                 Paradise
june 8             New York, NY             Bowery Ballroom
june 9              New York, NY             Bowery Ballroom
june 11         Philadelphia, PA         World Cafe
june 12          Washington, D.C.     9:30 Club

(above dates supporting Jamie Lidell)

july 13        Kansas City, MO        Record Bar
july 14        Columbia, MO
july 18        Minneapolis, MN        Uptown Bar
july 19        Fargo, ND            Aquarium/Dempseys Upstairs
july 20        Sioux Falls, SD        Nutty’s North

(above dates supporting Son Ambulance)

The second 7″ in Jay Reatard’s singles series for Matador Records & Filmworks, “Painted Shut” b/w “An Ugly Death” will be available for pre-order at 3PM Eastern Time. As with the last record, quantities are extremely limited so we can only honor one copy per order.

This record features features artwork by Mike Sniper.

Order HERE

Sure, sneering at the cops is pretty easy. But some of ‘em are a-ok. Like the kindly NYPD officer who told me in 1992 during eviction proceedings against Matador, “this might hurt your chances of getting into college” (keep in mind, I was 27 at the time). Or, for example, Couch Flambeau’s Jay Tiller.

Awesome news for Memphis residents interested in comedy, music journalism, prank phone calls or trying to purchase records while a “party” is taking place.  Andrew Earles (above), one half of the Earles/Jensen comedy duo responsible for the new ‘Just Farr A Laugh, Vol. I & II’ double CD, will be greeting the public tomorrow (Saturday) at Goner Records at 5:30pm.  The establishment boldly promises “Big Bufords for everyone”,  but you might want to arrive early in case they run out of napkins.

I’d mentioned earlier that we were hoping to get some reports from Patrick and Natalie about how things are progressing for Jay Reatard and Times New Viking on their first dates in the UK.  Of course, I made this comment without remembering just how difficult it was to obtain an internet connection at Pontin’s Holiday Camp, site of this weekend’s All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival.

That said, while we might have to wait another day or two for their field reports, I’m pleased to announce a mole deep within Barry Hogan’s organization has leaked the following video from Day One.

For the record, I personally believe No Age have other songs besides a cover of “I Shot The Sheriff”, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

hello there. for quite awhile, all has been quiet on the psoi front… until now! a new record is in the works, hopefully done by the end of spring, a new website (still working on it), and the most exciting of all… we’re playing shows again!  we’ve been asked to support the posies for their 20th anniversary show in seattle may 17th. we’re excited, since we still like the posies very much (even if the drummer is a rush fan). we’re also playing a bunch of new songs… as well as some old family favorites. if you’re up in the northwest, come on down. i’ve also been asked to be a guest curator for the sled island music fest up in calgary, alberta, canada june 25-28. very excited about this! i’ve picked a few of my favorite bands, old and new, to play. psoi will also be performing, but what is really gonna be special is that we’re doing a collaboration with the lads in broken social scene. most of it will be new material made up just for sled island!  ok, thanks for listening and hopefully see you soon. spiral….

spiralstairsmusic.com

5/17/2008
seattle, wa.
psoi/posies 20th anniversary
nuemo’s
$12

6/25-28/2008
calgary alberta, canada
sled island festival

Lavender Diamond’s Ron Rege writes, “we knew were were going to have a song on a JC Penny commercial, but this looks like some joke on the Matablog!”

Hey, if America’s department stores wanna take further tips from the nation’s foremost source for music-related advertorial bulletins, we’re more than up for it. In this instance, however, Nordstorm should just send the cash directly to Becky, Ron and Steve. Or at the very least, a gift certificate.

The initial lineup for the 2008 edition of the Village Voice’s Siren Festival was announced yesterday, and we’re pleased to note headliners Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks will be joined by Times New Viking and (making their first East Coast appearance-at-an-amusement-park) Jaguar Love.

This free event takes place on Saturday, July 19.  Times New Viking will be hopping on a plane after their set, as they’ll be playing on the 3rd day of the Pitchfork Festival the following afternoon. Mayor Bloomberg, consider this an advance request for a police escort to the airport.

(pic taken from the Wooster Collective. Trust us, the new Burma shirts are a) snazzier and b) will not mess with your head)

In addition to Mission Of Burma’s forthcoming two night stands at the Paradise (Boston) and Bowery Ballroom (New York), the band have just confirmed the following shows :

June 27 - First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, PA (performing ‘Signals, Calls & Marches’) - tickets
June 28 - The Black Cat, Washington DC (performing Vs.) - tickets

We’re expecting field reports from Patrick and Natalie. Until then, I’m just psyched Cheap Time tees are available in purple.

Wow.  Gig-of-the-year-candidate might not be doing this event proper justice.  Shearwater’s triumphant performance Monday at New York’s Florence Gould Hall is going to be hard to top ;  augmented by strings, harp & horns, plus the fantastic projections compiled by Kahn & Selznick, Shearwater reduced a near capacity throng to one big gasping mess last night.  Performing the forthcoming ‘Rook’ LP/CD from start to finish (followed, after a brief intermission, with selections from ‘Palo Santo’) this was like no Shearwater show any of us could recall. Rising-to-the-occasion is one thing, but on this evening,  the grandeur and intensity of ‘Rook’ was fully realized and then some. Color us blown away,

After innumerable delays and despite the best efforts of Peter Giftopolous, ESQ., tomorrow, May 6, Matador will finally unleash the most important comedy recording since Jesus Jones’ ‘Perverse’.

Earles & Jensen’s ‘Just Farr A Laugh, Vol.’s I & II’ will be available in all it’s lavishly packaged glory.  You’re gonna remember what you were doing tomorrow many years from now and hopefully that memory will involve spending some money on the funniest double CD of the modern age.  The Man Cannot Bust Our Music Spoken Word.

(Jeff Jensen, profiled in the Lawrence News)

We are having some serious party moments in eager anticipation of the release of Earles & Jensen’s “Just Farr A Laugh Vol. 1+2″ on May 6th. We’ve been looping the sampler, rifling through our legal documents, and sending out pre-orders. That said, everyone knows that a party isn’t a party without some bonafide DANCE MUSIC (and pizza). Thanks to Mixmasters AeFlo, DJ Rainstick, and the words of our fave E& J character, Bleachy we’ve filled this vacuum…Glowsticks required!

“Bleachy Tonight- Dance Mix” (mp3)

You can still PRE-ORDER “Just Farr A Laugh Vol. 1+2″ and get a few dollars off of purchase and a free poster!

Pt.’s I & II available at Pitchfork today.  (’Rook’ LP/CD, out June 3)

Charles Ray Fuller: Aspiring Hip-Hop Label Entrepreneur?

Look at his face. This man is HIGH AS SHIT. But then again, you’d have to be (this) high to start a record label. Is there any more ambitious way to fund a label startup? Who else is dying to hear the records he intended to release?

Not since William G. McAdoo handed to Lord Cunliffe, Governor of the Bank of England, a Treasury warrant for $200,000,000, have I heard of anyone attempting to cash out this much scratch.

The Dallas Morning News lays out the mind-fucking facts:

A man has been accused of attempting to pass a $360 billion check, which he claims was given to him by his girlfriend’s mother to start a record business, Fort Worth police said.

Lt. Henderson said he did not know if Mr. Fuller and his girlfriend were still together.

Middle age has taught me that regardless of my current views on the state of print media, nobody wants to hear about the good old days reading Suburban Relapse and Sick Teen ’til 4am whilst surrounded by vomiting kitty-cats. Look, I already know that Rusty Clarke and Mission Of Burma excepted, most everything I used to love has completely gone to shit. Fortunately for the rest of you, however, former NME/current Guardian scribe Steven Wells (above) isn’t quite prepared to take the death of modern rock criticism lying down. “Once music journalism was the playground of punks, pirates, arse bandits, chancers, hardcore lesbian punk bondage freaks, revolutionaries, drug addicts and the borderline insane,” writes Wells in the current Philadelphia Weekly. Man, have you ever heard someone so romantic for the glory days of Alternative Press?

Three leading indie music magazines have bitten the dust since the beginning of the year. The spectacularly dull No Depression, the stunningly uninteresting Resonance and the jaw–droppingly mediocre Harp have all recently gone to that great Belle and Sebastian disco in the sky. All of which is great news for anybody who hates mediocrity.

Harp founder Scott Crawford was actually proud of how timid and unambitious and bland his baby was. He described Harp as ”a nice middle ground between the indie–centric Magnet and the dad–rockin’ Paste,” which is not so much a manifesto as a prenatal death rattle.

Full disclosure: I worked for Harp for a while. Publisher Glenn Sabin recently described the magazine as ”irreverent.” It wasn’t. It licked musician ass until its tongue bled. The line ”Joe Strummer must be laughing his rotting cock off,” was cut from a review I wrote of an embarrassingly necrophiliac Clash re–reissue box set because it was ”disrespectful.” And the editor who hired me—admittedly a rampaging punk rock lunatic—was told to clear his desk and vacate the building immediately.

Eventually the dullards reached a dull critical mass. They formed hundreds of dull, white, sexless and punchably smug suburban bands. And they started magazines with names like No Depression and Harp and Resonance and Corduroy. Yes there really is a magazine called Corduroy. One imagines they passed on Beige as too incendiary and Cardigan as just a shade too fucking exciting.

Hey Chicago!

You get TWO chances to see Dead Meadow this weekend!

Saturday - May 3rd

1. 3:30 FREE in-store at the Apple Store on N. Michigan Ave.

2. Later that night at The Abbey!

Last week, Dump made a rare live appearance at Maxwell’s.  I took a photo as proof.  Regarding the 7″ Gerard so kindly posted about below, you can also get it on the Dump myspace page and in the Matador Store! Love,Jennifer