FN News Roundup: April 6, 2012

Patti Smith @ Webster Hall, 9/8/11

Happy Friday, kids! I'm typing this while watching the Yankees' opening game and streaming Screaming Females' new album Ugly in preparation for tonight's Bell House show (Tickets still available! Go!), so pleaze porden ani typus.

• The world-renowned Metropolitan Museum has announced its 2012-13 "Met Museum Presents" concert series with a hell of an opener: Patti Smith celebrating Andy Warhol! That's happening on September 28 (ticket info here) with Dean & Britta a little over a week later, so the Met is bringing the heat. No official word on their cheesesteak policy as of press time (New York Times)


• Few artists have the power to make the Internet collectively flip when they kinda-sorta-announce something, and one such artist is Kevin Shields - who kinda-sorta-announced that a NEW MY BLOODY VALENTINE ALBUM might be out later on this year! He's technically been saying that over and over again in the 21 years since Loveless came out... but hey, get cautiously psyched! (Pitchfork)


• Hope you were ready to hear a new Timbaland & Missy Elliott track today, because that's exactly what's happening right now (Beats Per Minute)


• Still bummed you didn't get into the Kraftwerk retrospective shows at the Museum of Modern Art? Well here's some good news - starting tomorrow (4/7), the MoMA will be exclusively selling a new limited-edition version of the band's The Catalogue 8-album box set! (Rolling Stone)


• And as a little parting gift for the weekend, stream Deerhunter guitarist Lockett Pundt's sophomore solo album as Lotus Plaza, Spooky Action At A Distance after the jump. No sophomore slump here - easily going to wind up high on my Top Albums of 2012 list, and a must-listen for any Deerhunter fan (A.V. Club)

Fucking Nostalgic News Roundup: March 6, 2012

It's News Roundup O'Clock! So far it's been a pretty weird day overall - check out updates from MELVINS, Atlas Sound, Ceremony, and more below:

• Guess what? You can now bid on a piece of MELVINS / Nirvana history: the MELVAN (pictured above), featuring a KISS mural drawn by Kurt Cobain and a registration signed by MELVINS bassist Matt Lukin (EBay)


• Deerhunter / Atlas Sound mastermind Bradford Cox apparently went pretty nuts at Minneapolis's Cedar Cultural Center and played an hour-long version of "My Sharona" over the weekend (Pitchfork)


• Ceremony are playing a late show at Mercury Lounge on April 23 following their opening set for Refused at T5 - tickets are on sale tomorrow. (BrooklynVegan)


• Three-Day Passes for the Crossing Brooklyn Ferry Festival tickets are on sale right now!

Jay Reatard Documentary Coming To Brooklyn, Other Places

Incendiary, divisive, but beyond impressive: Memphis punk icon Jay Reatard was an incredible talent who set fire to the indie world throughout the past decade before his tragic death in 2010. A fascinating documentary chronicling his life and career, Better Than Something, had been circulating around film festivals last year, and as Pitchfork reports it's now set for a short theatrical run that will bring it to Brooklyn's Nitehawk Cinema in early March.

Check out the trailer and the documentary tour dates after the jump, along with a video of Reatard's contemporaries Deerhunter performing "He Would Have Laughed" from Halcyon Digest, a tribute to their late friend and fallen punk rocker. Chris noted the artists' shared live aesthetic in his review of Deerhunter's Webster Hall show, and this documentary will demonstrate just how monstrously talented Reatard was as a performer throughout his career.

Watch Bradford Cox Cover Leonard Cohen ( + Winter 2012 Atlas Sound Tour Dates)

We've pointed out before that Deerhunter frontman, Atlas Sound mastermind, and Future Nostalgia poster-guy Bradford Cox has a very innate love & respect for some of the music world's greatest vets. He's been known to weave the lyrics to Patti Smith's "Land Part 1 (Horses)" into live performances of Microcastle burner "Nothing Ever Happened," and as Pitchfork reports, he recently tipped his hat to Leonard Cohen with a solo acoustic performance of "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy."

The performance comprised the latest episode of Columbia Record's "Old Ideas With New Friends" Vimeo series, in which a variety of artists like Cults, Greg Dulli, and Cold War Kids have covered their favorite Cohen tracks in honor of the maestro's new album. Give it a look and listen over here, and go see Bradford as he continues to tour around his excellent new Atlas Sound release Parallax - new tour dates below.

Deerhunter Releases New Single

Deerhunter @ Webster Hall (more here)

Our faces and ears are still kind of melty, rocked-out messes after seeing Deerhunter at Webster Hall last August, so it is with melty, rocked-out excitement that we heard about Deerhunter’s latest released single, “Curve.”

The instrumental song appears on the compilation We are The Works in Progress, carefully pieced together by Blonde Redhead to benefit Japan following the 2011 tsunami. Stream it in all its hazy goodness below the jump.

The 14-song compilation will also feature tracks from Interpol, Liars and Four Tet, and is set for a February 7th release as a double LP. You can pre-order that shizz right here. As an added bonus, all proceeds from these sales will go to the Japan Earthquake Relief Fund and Architecture for Humanity. Your ears will thank you, and you can get that good deed in for today. BOOYA. (Hat tip: Pitchfork)

Blonde Redhead To Release Japan Benefit Album (Feat. Deerhunter, Interpol, & More)

Check out more photos of Blonde Redhead and Interpol at Terminal 5 back in May!

Hometown indie rock mainstays Blonde Redhead are no stranger to good causes - earlier this year, they co-hosted a benefit for Sickday Safety Net with NYC contemporaries Interpol over at Terminal 5. And now the trio are set to release a project that goes far beyond the five boroughs to bring aid to Japan.

The island nation is still struggling to right itself following the massive March earthquake and subsequent tsunami that ravaged its coastline, and in solidarity with Japan's ongoing efforts to rebuild, Blonde Redhead will release the benefit album We Are The Works In Progress on January 10.

The band has assembled what amounts to a Justice League of their awesome peers to contribute tracks to the project, like the aforementioned Interpol, Broadcast, Liars, Four Tet, and Future Nostalgia postermen Deerhunter. Per the album's title, all of the songs are exclusives, B-sides, and alternate cuts that are largely works in progress. So in addition to helping provide funds for such agencies as the Japan Earthquake Relief Fund and Architecture For Humanity, it provides a cool opportunity to see what some of our favorite acts are working on right now.

Check out the tracklist below via PFork, and we'll keep you posted on any more news about the project.

Future Nostalgia: Atlas Sound Playing Annual Winter Shows At The Bell House & Bowery Ballroom

Future Nostalgia shines a spotlight on newer bands who, in our eyes, are on the cusp of achieving legendary status. These are acts we normally wouldn't feature, but feel so strongly about we just couldn't resist.

As we've hopefully made crystal clear by now, we're huge fans of Deerhunter frontman and Atlas Sound mastermind Bradford Cox. Which is why we're psyched to share that, even though Deerhunter as a whole won't be back in NYC anytime soon, Cox will be back on December 17 and 18 for his annual winter shows in NYC to play songs from his new (and excellent) Atlas Sound album Parallax.

The shows will take place at The Bell House and Bowery Ballroom, and tickets are on sale for the Bell House show right now; you'll have to wait until Friday (11/25) for Bowery tickets. Definitely make it happen, folks - and in case you haven't heard Parallax yet, Spotify has you covered. (Cheers to BV for the tip.)

Fucking Nostalgic Presents... Magic Sundae: "Plasms"

Fucking Nostalgic Presents... Magic Sundae: Episode #1 - "Plasms"
Featuring: Argon Fritz, Silver Supremacist, Damien, Chris, Red Jen, Zach, Lexi and Marissa

Just to make things clear: The hosts of Magic Sundae have been broadcasting their podcast for nearly a year, but this week's episode marks the first time the show has been recorded as the official podcast of Fucking Nostalgic. What exactly is the difference? Nothing really, apart from now we're going to start posting the episodes here every Sunday, and that we'll be referencing each other in our respective mediums a lot more. The good news is that this week's episode is just as weird and hilarious as ever, and including some great tracks by Death, Deerhunter, Mission of Burma, Real Estate, a shit load of reggae and Beck. Oh, and we also discussed how much Phil Collins sucks (hence the weird artwork for this episode below).

Take a listen below, and be sure to download it as well. We'll be posting the tracklisting for this episode next week, so hold onto your shorts until then. Enjoy, and spread the word!

Future Nostalgia: Stream Atlas Sound's "Parallax" In Full

Future Nostalgia shines a spotlight on newer bands who, in our eyes, are on the cusp of achieving legendary status. These are acts we normally wouldn't feature, but feel so strongly about we just couldn't resist.

In our minds, no one epitomizes Future Nostalgia more than Bradford Cox. The frontman of the increasingly amazing Deerhunter and the mind behind the Atlas Sound solo project, Cox has been a mysterious and always exciting standout in the indie rock scene for the past decade, and we're confident that his best is still yet to come. We were most recently blown away by Deerhunter's performance at Webster Hall in August, and waited impatiently following the announcement that his third proper LP as Atlas Sound, Parallax, would be dropping November 8 via 4AD.

The New York Times apparently shares our love, and have thankfully posted a full exclusive stream of Parallax, along with behind-the-scenes insights on four of the tracks from the man himself. I'm about 1 1/2 spins through the whole thing and I absolutely love it - check it out over here.    

Review: Deerhunter @ Webster Hall

Deerhunter @ Webster Hall - August 22, 2011

"I just want it to be like an assault live, and softer on records,"

-Jay Reatard

As you probably know, we generally don’t cover acts here that are a bit newer to the scene. There is no concrete rule as to who we cover on the blog, such as their tenure in the music industry, how many records they’ve released, etc. But you’re not going to visit this site one day and see coverage of last night’s tUnE-yArDs show (no offense, we love tUnE-yArDs… as aggravating as it is to type the name). A lot of this has to due with the fact that many of the contributors to Fucking Nostalgic (myself included) are in bands trying to make it themselves, and would it really make sense for us to be promoting bands that aren’t us? It’s a question I had to ask myself when I had the idea to start a music blog and I ultimately decided that if you want to read about the latest music going on these days, there’s no shortage of websites you can visit for that.

That being said, there is one thing we do consider when deciding on what artists we’re going to cover: their ability to stand the test of time. There marks a turning point in a band’s career where it has become obvious they are on the cusp of creating a legacy. And not just a legacy, but a distinct sound that is bound to be influential 10, 15--20 years down the line. Last night I saw Atlanta’s Deerhunter for the third time and it became clear to me that not only have they reached that point (the release of last year’s Halcyon Digest easily cemented their place in indie music history), but they’ve become this sort of unstoppable presence in music, mostly attributed to the fact that Bradford Cox is seemingly incapable of writing a bad song. It’s been said of Guided By Voices’ Robert Pollard that he could write five songs on the toilet and three of them would be good. Cox could write twenty, call it an Atlas Sound album and get a 9.4 on Pitchfork.