Month: April 2009

In The News: Moby, Patterson Hood, Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan, The Kills And Free MP3s

Post author By Magnet
Post date April 19, 2009

kills2350b Hey, guess what? Yesterday was Record Store Day! While we hope you found plenty of bargains and rare gems in support of indie record shops, we’re glad the day is over so we don’t have to write about it anymore. Now, on to the news … Famous liberal Moby is releasing his new album, Wait For Me, (Mute) on June 30. An animated video for the record’s first track, “Shot In The Back Of The Head,” was directed by David Lynch. Download “Shot In The Back Of The Head” … Yes, Pet Shop Boys’ 10th LP, is out on Astralwerks April 21. Ex-Smiths and current Cribs guitarist Johnny Marr deals the hot licks, if a Pet Shop Boys album can, in theory, contain such things … Drive-By Truckers frontman Patterson Hood’s second solo outing, Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs), is scheduled for June 23 on Ruth St. Records. Produced by Hood and David Barbe (Sugar), the record finds most of his DBT mates joining the fun while also featuring his father, David Hood, the famed Muscle Shoals bass player … Isobel Campbell and noted funnyman Mark Lanegan are performing together for the first time in May. The duo, whose last record, Sunday At Devil Dirt, was released in November, is playing New York on May 27, San Francisco on May 30 and Los Angeles on May 31 … Keep On Your Mean Side, the 2003 debut by the Kills (pictured), is being re-released on Domino May 5. Among the five bonus tracks is a cover of Captain Beefheart’s “Dropout Boogie.” Download “Love Is A Deserter (Do Da Mix)” … The only filmed performance of John Lennon And The Plastic Ono Band, Live In Toronto ’69, is out on DVD June 23. Directed by the legendary D.A. Pennebaker, the film documents a show just before the release of Abbey Road, one that many believe to be the beginning of the end of the Beatles … In other Beatles news, Capitol/EMI is releasing George Harrison’s first-ever career-spanning solo greatest-hits collection, Let It Roll: Songs By George Harrison, on June 16. As per these days, the record will feature digitally remastered tracks in deluxe packaging … Looking to check out some has-beens this summer? Well, we have two pairings just for you! Starting June 10, Aerosmith hits the road to flog Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and will be joined on the AARP-sponsored tour by ZZ Top on June 16. And in possibly 2009’s least-anticipated trek, Yes and Asia join forces June 26 through August 2. See all good people in the heat of the moment.

GUEST EDITOR

From The Desk Of Peter Bjorn And John: “Plötsligt I Vinslöv”

Post author By MAGNET Staff
Post date April 19, 2009

pbjlogo113ee1 Living Thing, the fifth album from Peter Bjorn And John, is a strong indication that the acute pop minds behind 2006 breakthrough record Writer’s Block have much more to give. Despite its spare arrangements and instrumentation, Living Thing incorporates fuller melodies and more intricate sounds, ranging from dub to a sort of Merseybeat gone electro. Peter Bjorn And John are guest editing magnetmagazine.com this week. Read our Q&A with them.

John: Plötsligt I Vinslöv is a fabulous documentary about some people in a small Swedish town. There are more than 100 classic scenes, and one of the best is when one of the miniature-golf players burns a steak in his apartment.

LOST CLASSICS

Lost Classics: Butterglory “Are You Building A Temple In Heaven?”

Post author By MAGNET Staff
Post date April 19, 2009

They’re nobody’s buzz bands anymore. But since 1993, MAGNET has discovered and documented more great music than memory will allow. The groups may have broken up or the albums may be out of print, but this time, history is written by the losers. Here are some of the finest albums that time forgot but we remembered in issue #75, plus all-new additions to our list of Lost Classics.

:: BUTTERGLORY Are You Building A Temple In Heaven? // Merge, 1996
It was a short run, but one worth remembering. From 1994 to 1997, Butterglory released three albums of laconic guitar pop that acted like passing seasons in the Lawrence, Kan., band’s brief career. Transformed from a precocious duo into a seasoned threesome with the addition of bassist Stephen Naron, drummer/singer Debby Vander Wall and singer/guitarist Matt Suggs made the autumnal Are You Building A Temple In Heaven? sound like the swan song from a fictional supergroup led by Georgia Hubley and Stephen Malkmus. Of course, making droll, flat-voiced slacker rock in the mid-’90s was a bit like dabbling in Cubism in turn-of-the-century Montmartre, which helps to explain why Butterglory was typecast as a Braque to Pavement’s Picasso.

Catching Up: After Suggs and Vander Wall split romantically and Butterglory folded, Suggs recorded two less-slanted-yet-still-enchanted solo albums, 2000’s Golden Days Before They End and 2003’s Amigo Row. He now fronts prog/pop outfit White Whale.

“She’s Got The Akshun!”:

GUEST EDITOR

From The Desk Of Peter Bjorn And John: The Swedish King

Post author By MAGNET Staff
Post date April 18, 2009

Bjorn: I heard Carl XVI Gustaf is gonna resign in order to make Sweden a modern country without fake powers like the King and Queen. And he is also gonna apologize to all the animals he killed for fun. I heard so anyway.

FREE MP3s

MP3 At 3PM: Deer Tick

Post author By MAGNET Staff
Post date April 18, 2009

dt409 After two years of touring for 2007 debut War Elephant, Providence, R.I.’s Deer Tick raises follow-up Born On Flag Day on June 23 via Partisan Records. Opening track “Easy” establishes an authoritative bass-and-drum stomp before the pissy vocals of John J. McCauley III cut through the track like vintage Jagger (or Kenickie from Grease). Rumbling upright bass and a dirty classic-rock guitar assault somehow transform into a catchy and unsuspected bright chorus. Catch Deer Tick on tour with Jenny Lewis in June.

“Easy” (download):