New 7″ are now in stock from Damien Jurado, Songs:Ohia, and Scout Niblett. The Jurado 7″ is quite interesting since it has two older unreleased tracks that were recorded by Dave Bazan and feature him on the drums. The songs are lo-fi, much like Damien’s early cassette releases on Casa, but still showcase his brilliant songwriting skills. It’s a definitely interesting choice for a release. The two Songs:Ohia songs were recorded by Steve Albini. Both Jurado and Songs:Ohia will be playing in Philadelphia on Thursday night, 24 October at the Northstar with TW Walsh. I’ll be there, ready for the rock. Denison is #148 on the CMJ top 200 this week. He’s still touring around like a madman. I’ve added a few more dates of shows with Tracy Shedd (Teenbeat) on the East Coast during December. Hopefully there will be Philadelphia and Lancaster shows to add for those in his hometown crowds. Denison was just in Fayetteville, AR last night for a show sponsored by KXUA. James from Ester Drang played with him and the show was apparently packed out on a Monday. Thanks to our good pal Wes for working it there. Unwed Sailor are still wandering around Europe.…
Year: 2002
I just got back from seeing Punch-Drunk Love with a few friends: Jamie, Willis, Scott, Jane, and Colin. People like to see their names listed on websites as important as this one, especially the often experienced, rarely mentioned Dave Spiese, with whom both Tom and I ate lunch on Friday. We typically eat lunch together on Tuesdays and more often than not patronize Dairy Queen for some reason. In any case, Adam Sandler was unexpectedly brilliant in Punch-Drunk Love, playing a terribly off-kilter and unbalanced personally, with the right mix of humor, charm, psychosis, and uncontrollable rage that one likes to have in their leading movie characters. Emily Watson somehow balances him out, and, while her role is brilliant as well, it is not as amazing as Mr. Sandler’s. All in all, P.T. Anderson delivers a quirky, intriguing, dark comedy with enough tension to leave the viewer on the edge of his or her seat waiting for everything to derail. Maybe my opinion will change by morning. I just looked through the autographed copy of Zadie Smith’s The Autograph Man. There is some lush irony in seeing “To Scott, Zadie Smith” written on the title page of a book about…
Denison Witmer was #138 on the CMJ top 200 this week, up 61 spots. Thanks to everyone at college radio for playing Philadelphia Songs. There’s also a great review of Philadelphia Songs in the new issue of the Philadelphia City Paper. The Trouble with Sweeney have decided to cancel their autumn tour. Joey and Reyna just bought a new house that apparently has land deed to another property. In any case, lots of troubles to sort out and an overly hectic month ahead of them. The band will hopefully pick back up on most of the same dates in January and February 2003. Ester Drang’s Goldenwest will be released in Europe by Swiss label Gentlemen Records in November. The band is also going into the studio in November to record their full-length. It looks like things are set for an 11 March release date now. Speaking of release dates, the Early Day Miners one-sided LP will be released on 4 February to stores and the Aspera one-sided LP will be released on 4 March to stores, both through Secretly Canadian distribution. The Six Parts Seven have finished the songs for their one-sided LP and the masters are arriving on my…