Posts Tagged ‘Mew’

11/24/09 News briefs: Spiritualized, LCD Soundsystem, Panda Bear, The Yummy Fur and Coldplay side-project

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

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Jason Pierce has hinted there will be a new Spiritualized album in 2010. Speaking with The Quietus, Mr. Spaceman said, “I am making a record… It’s early days. We’ve put down some great, great songs.” Well, great!

Speaking of highly anticipated new albums, LCD Soundsystem have not only one possible album, but also a score coming up… possibly. James Murphy told Drowned In Sound, “i guess it sounds like LCD, really. i mean, it’s different in some ways, maybe the same amount that SOS was different than the first record–maybe more different.” Meanwhile, the score will be for the forthcoming film by Noah Baumbach starring Ben Stiller. Murphy says “it has been really fun,” but not much else. The Playlist, however, says Murphy will be making a cameo in Greenberg.

Wait, another highly anticipated album? You don’t say. But yes, Panda Bear has revealed to Pedestrian.TV that he’s working on his next record. In a nutshell: “The rhythms are really basic and kind of raw and simple and are electronic. It’s not live instrumentation, I’ve been playing guitar but I feed it through the same thing that the sequences are on. It’s a very electronic sound and very voice heavy. A simple arrangement of drums, the guitar and singing. Really there are only two or three elements to every song. It’s pretty raw sounding for better for worse.”

Late great Scottish indie act The Yummy Fur are reuniting. Somewhat famous for once featuring Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos and Paul Thompson as members, the awkward cult band will play gigs in the UK and U.S. next January.

Coldplay’s Guy Berryman has formed a side-project with members of Mew and er, A-ha? Apparatjik will release their first track, “Electric Eye” on November 30th through their website, Apparatjik.com.

10/19/09 News briefs: Bloc Party, Mika Miko, Portishead, Pixies and Chad VanGaalen

Monday, October 19th, 2009

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Bloc Party drummer Matt Tong has raised a question mark about his band’s future. Speaking to the BBC, he said the band “definitely need to have a break and gain a bit of perspective on life outside of the band.” And that he “wouldn’t mind trying something else for a while.”

Lovable L.A. lo-fi punks Mika Miko have announced that they will break up after playing Austin’s Fun Fun Fun fest in the first week of November. Apparently there is “no bad blood at all” so if you’re in the area, you’ll likely still catch them hanging out together at The Smell, where they’re expected to play a final farewell show.

Portishead’s Geoff Barrow has revealed that the trio have begun working on a follow-up to last year’s brilliant Third that could end up as a “a multi-layered synthesizer record.” He also expects the band to begin playing shows in December.

If you’re in either L.A., Oakland, Seattle, Eugene, Denver, Chicago, NYC, Boston or DC in November you’ll be able to check out the Pixies perform Doolittle in its entirety. And depending on where you’ll be when they roll into town, you’ll also be able to see Jay Reatard, Bad Lieutenant (Bernard Sumner of New Order’s new band), No Age, Rain Machine or Mew open for them.

Chad VanGaalen is hoping to “have a feature-length sci-fi animated film finished in the next five years.” The two-time Polaris nominee says he’s also busy making both “a psychedelic folk record and a psychedelic rock record.”