Author Archives: paul cox

Drowned in Sound is reporting that all four original members of indie godhead band Slint have agreed to reunite and perform for the recently announced All Tomorrow’s Parties installment in December of this year. Despite the speculation that’s almost certain to start right…about…NOW, no news of additional shows or new recordings has been confirmed.

[UPDATE: This was FAULTY information. Slint is not playing ATP, nor are they even reforming. Way to go, Drowned in Sound!]

As reported previously, the new Crooked Fingers album is nearing completion. Yesterday, the band put up sample mp3s of new material here. If I’ve got one complaint, it’s that the samples are too damned short.

Word has come down from the Crooked Fingers front that Eric Bachmann and the other members of the band are almost finished recording their next release. Tenatively titled Dignity and Shame, it will likely boast a whopping eighteen tracks and be issued as a double album. Merge hasn’t scheduled a release date yet, but hint it will be out Winter/Spring 2005.

That’s right. Lollapalooza has pulled the plug on itself before it even began.

Marc Geiger, co-founder of the tour stated, “I am in utter disbelief that a concert of this stature, with the most exciting line-up I’ve seen in years did not galvanize ticket sales. I’m surprised that given the great bands and the reduced ticket prices that we didn’t have enough sales to sustain the tour…”

Keep your eyes on your local concert listings, folks. A tour this huge, now forced to splinter apart, might be sending a lot of bands closer to your town who weren’t going to play there originally.

Yes, it’s every bit as horrible as it sounds. Survivor creator Mark Burnett will be producing the reality show (scheduled to air in 2005) which follows INXS through the audition process of finding a new frontman.

Rock Star will differ from other TV talent shows in that the winner will not be chosen entirely by viewers. Instead, hopefuls will work with the band and music industry professionals, who will assess their performances. (full story)

At least the corpse of Michael Hutchence was given eight years of peaceful sleep before he was forced to start rolling.

Quine is chiefly remembered as a member of Richard Hell’s Voidoids, later working with Matthew Sweet, Lloyd Cole, Lou Reed and others, as well as the man behind bootleg Velvet Underground recordings later released as The Quine Tapes. At the time of this post, details surrounding his death are few. Earliest reports claimed it was suicide, as it appears he’d slipped into a depression over the abrupt loss of his wife last August.

Quine’s official site confirmed the rumor this morning (which had been floating around Sunday evening), and will be forwarding sympathy emails to the surviving family.

Billboard’s official report.

Rob Strong, from the unofficial Mogwai fansite Bright Light!, is compiling and assembling (in conjuntion with the band) video from their first decade for a DVD to be released in 2005. Rob sez:

“mogwai celebrate their tenth anniversary in 2005. to mark the occasion, plans are afoot for a dvd compilation. at this stage, none of the content is fixed but i’m sure you can imagine the sort of thing that will be included. fancy being part of it? stuart has asked brightlight to put the call out for interesting fan-shot footage to be considered for inclusion.

‘it’s very tentatively scheduled for next year (our 10th anniversary!) so now would be a good time to start collecting footage. we won’t be able to pay folks but i’m sure we’ll give them something nice and credit them. spread the word my good man!’

got anything good? brightlight is, at the band’s request, collecting footage over the next few months. mail rob-bl@youngteam.co.uk and i’ll let you know where to send it. a couple of ground rules:

1) anything submitted probably won’t be returned – please don’t send your only copy
2) dvd preferred, mail before sending anything else”

[credz Matador Bulletin Board]

Joy Division’s singer and primary songwriter hanged himself on May 18, 1980. Suicides are, of course, always sad—much more so when they are committed by those so young and full of promise. Curtis may have had a self-destructive and alienating nature about him, but he certainly had a lot of good things to offer as well.

In related news: Moby plans to produce a film about Ian Curtis’s life and death. I expect it to be whitewashed and mainstreamed, though, just like everything else Moby does. Jeers.

After releasing three wonderously sample-heavy, yet uncluttered albums for Matador Records, Solex (known to friends and family as Elisabeth Esselink) will be issuing her fourth long player this fall on the Arena Rock label.

The album’s title? The Laughing Stock of Indie Rock. Self-deprecation makes the world go round, y’know.

MTV.com reports that former GN’R members Slash and Duff McKagan are suing Axl for “rejecting requests to use old Guns N’ Roses songs in major motion pictures even though he lacks controlling interest in the material.”

According to the story, Axl turned down offers to feature songs in the films We Were Soldiers, Death to Smoochy, Old School and Just Married. He entertained an offer to let the producers of Black Hawk Down use “Welcome to the Jungle” for an integral scene in the film, but only if they would accept a re-recorded version with his new, “improved” band. They wisely passed, securing instead the rights to use Faith No More’s “Falling to Pieces.”

I hope there’s never a new Guns N’ Roses album, because the spectacle Axl creates while we’re waiting is waaay more entertaining than anything he could lay down on tape.