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Spiritualized
Trocadero
Philadelphia, PA
6/9/2003

Anyone catch Spiritualized in Philly last night? Or at the field day festival for that matter? Last night Spritualized played for about an hour and 15 minutes at the Trocadero with Phaser as the opening act.

I'm lucky. I live in a city absolutely overflowing with music. I've got my choice of analogue and digital radio stations giving me more music than I can possibly ever listen to in a lifetime. There are so many quality gigs in a week that I often need to make a festival-esque "ooh, should I see X or Y?" decision just on a random Wednesday night. And perhaps best of all, I'm lucky enough to have a job where I listen to new music every day.

Right, let me switch gears here before you start throwing things...

THE PERNICE BROTHERS released their third album Yours, Mine and Ours a few weeks ago to tons of critical acclaim. The followup album to 2001's The World Won't End finds the band in rare form and pushing their dark pop tunes to the limit. To quote Keith Phipps in the Onion A.V. Club, "...the music of a grown-up unruly boy who learned that there was more to the record store than U.K.-only B-sides, but who never shook the haunted melancholy of a teenage obsessive. The new Pernice Brothers album Yours, Mine & Ours strikes the same gorgeous, sad tone as its two predecessors, beginning with a track so immediately striking that the rest of the disc could consist of misguided experiments in dub remixes, and it might not matter." Luckily for us, the record does follow suit. You can listen to the new album on the Pernice Brother's Site or catch the band on their upcoming US Tour.

Indie legend Dean Wareham (ex-Galaxie 500, Luna) has launched himself a new career in the pictures. Or rather will be lauching it when he stars in the upcoming film Piggie (directed by Allison Bagnall who also co-wrote Vincent Gallo's indie classic Buffalo 66). Dean has had nominal roles in a few films before, but Piggie will be his first lead role. The film will be screening June 13 in LA at the Directors' Guild of America. You can also see Dean doing a few live dates around the country with luna bassist Britta Phillips in support of their new album L'Avventura.

Ever considered yourself a little obsessive about The Smiths or Morrissey? We've got just the film for you. MY LIFE WITH MORRISSEY is a "dark comedy that chronicles the adventures of an off-kilter office girl whose life unravels when she meets her idol (British rock icon Morrissey) and sets off on a journey of obsessive self-delusion." I'm sure this could never describe any of us right? Directed by Andrew Overtoom (who has also worked as a director on Nickelodeon's "Spongebob Squarepants"), this has been drawing rave reviews from the few people who have seen it thus far. Is this the story of YOUR life? If so, the creators want to talk to you for their upcoming documentary on the world's Greatest Morrissey fans. Check the website to see if it'll be playing a theatre near you.

Sorry kids, but it's true. The word has come down this morning from the god of Long Island that the Field Day Festival is probably done for. In the words of the Riverhead Town Supervisor, "In the interest of the health, safety and welfare of the residents of the Town of Riverhead and the public, I believe that the event should be cancelled."

Apparently not all hope is lost yet as the fest said they are looking into alternate venues for this weekend and hope to be able to make an announcement by the end of the day. Christopher Kent, lawyer for the Field Day fest stated that the Meadowlands Sports Complex in NJ is a site under consideration and that camping will not be an option if the show does go on. Hmmm... cos there aren't enough things going on west of the Hudson with the NHL and NBA Finals? In a related story on New York Newsday, the festival was thought to be bringing an estimated 2.7 million dollars to Long Island for the weekend. Above and beyond the music fans who are obviously upset at the fiasco this has become, there's a lot of local businesses that will suffer right along with us. :-/

Primal Scream
Irving Plaza
New York City, NY
4/21/2003

Review by Mike Patterson

It may be time to hang it up Bobby.

I hate to be disrespectful, I mean, you are indie rock royalty, you have had some amazing bright spots in your 18 some odd years in pop. I still bow in deference to "Imperial", I have the lyrics to "Higher Than the Sun" on the wall next to me at work. (The boss loves that let me tell ya) and I'll be damned if "Kowalski" still doesn't make me wanna jump up and down and shout, but it seems that these things are best left to memories rather than slugging through high points in the latter half of your brilliant career in the half assed manner that you delivered to Irving Plaza last night.

KINDERCORE RECORDS, once home to many of the groups once associated under the Elephant 6 moniker, has been the target of many flaming e-mail posts over the past 6 months with a controversy encircling their Singles Club. The club, which at one time featured exclusive tracks from bands like Of Montreal, The Ladybug Transistor, and the Olivia Tremor Control, ran dry last year with MANY a disgruntled fan wanting the 45's they'd pre-paid for. Kindercore's mailing list has been flooded over the past year with e-mail complaints about the Singles Club, at the same time that many of the label's prime acts (including Of Montreal) severed ties with the label. Kindercore, meanwhile, has spent the last year merging into the umbrella of the Telegraph Company, as well as replacing their departing bands with a decidedly less-indiepop, more punk-pop roster. However, hope has emerged this week, as the label has announced plans to complete their Singles Club with a brand new compilation disc (that will also be available to the general public.) Titled "The Great Singles Club Swindle," the disc will include not only the remaining unreleased Singles Club tracks but also the previously released singles on CD format. The disc will be released free to all singles club members, and a limited edition will hit retail stores on August 12.

So the boys from BLUR are back at the center of controversy this week, as the band have pulled no-shows at their scheduled US festival appearances all week. Rumours are flying all about the band's message boards, with the most frequent being that Damon Albarn split this week with his girlfriend (Suzy Winstanley if we remember right?) With a June mini-tour of the US on the books, there's been concern of future cancellations -- to our knowledge, those shows are still a go at this time -- we'll try to come up with some kind of official word and keep you guys updated as events progress.

From the label that brings us the now legendary Back To Mine series is coming a new venture called Under The Influence. The first artist to contribute to this new venture is MORRISSEY who will "draw on the inspirations and all time loves of the world's greatest recording artists". According to Moz's sleeve notes, he chose the artists to "conjure an atmosphere and a special standard because they were (or are) true pop artists. The mere sound of their names is as powerful as their work, so that we only need to hear that name in order to glide into a half-dream state".