Ryan Adams & The Cardinals will be releasing a new record, Cardinology, on October 28 (presumably the 25th here in Australia) and I cannot wait. While he may have pissed some people off in Sydney last year, I always enjoy his live shows…even the trainwrecks. The Cardinals have been out on the road for a little over a month now, opening shows for Oasis in Canada as well as heading out on their own headlining tour this week in New York.

As one would expect, the band are playing a bunch of new songs. Listening to recordings of the shows so far, it sounds like the Cardinals are really hitting their stride. The way they are performing Off Broadway this year is pretty awesome, for instance. Since Ryan is pro-taping there are lots of recordings floating around. If you want to get a preview of what to expect on Cardinology, click the links below. Cobwebs might be my early favourite.

Cardinology tracklist
01 Born Into a Light
02 Go Easy
03 Fix It
04 Magick
05 Cobwebs
06 Let Us Down Easy
07 Crossed Out Name
08 Natural Ghost
09 Sink Ships
10 Evergreen
11 Like Yesterday
12 Stop

The above links were all taken from The Cardinals’ recent show at The Egg in Albany. You can download the whole show here (it’s a soundboard recording so it sounds amazing). Thanks to all the tapers, uploaders, and Ryan for allowing these recordings to be shared with the community.

The album’s first single is Fix It, which you can stream at the Lost Highway album page. I wonder if Ryan will be making a quick return to Australia in support of Cardinology…

All Tomorrow’s Parties has confirmed that there will be ATP Festival events in three Australian locations this January as previously rumoured. From their website:

1. A two day event in Victoria with both on site and off site accommodation, 30+ bands, late night DJ’s, bars, cinema and much much more.

2. A series of one night stands in Brisbane culminating in one large outdoors afternoon/evening show featuring both local and international acts.

3. A single day multi-band programme performing over two days in one of the most picturesque locations Sydney has to offer.

All details relating to the line-up, ticketing and accommodation of all three events will be released live to the atpfestival.com website at midnight September 30th.

Apparently that “picturesque” Sydney location will be Cockatoo Island. But just who will be playing these events? Will it is going to be different for each city given the unique nature of each city’s ATP event but the rumours are pretty amazing.

In addition to the previously rumoured acts of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (Cave is curating this entire thing, apparently), Grinderman, The Dirty Three, Mercury Rev, The Drones, and Public Enemy come fresh rumours that TV on the Radio and Spiritualized might be involved as well. I’d been hearing the TVOTR were set for Big Day Out so it will be interesting to see how this whole thing shakes out. SPZ on the other hand just opened up for Nick Cave in LA so that seems extremely plausible.

Midnight September 30 can’t come quick enough.

Thanks to Polaroids for the heads up.

Mogwai played Vancouver just a couple days after I returned to Sydney. Too bad as I would have loved to have seen them. It’s been ages since I last saw the band live. But you can download the whole show here.

The band played a lot from the new record, The Hawk Is Howling (which for some dang reason has an eagle on the cover) which I have been enjoying the past week or so. More thoughts on that sometime. Right now I’m just hoping for some sort of Australian tour…although that looks slightly less likely right now as the band just cancelled the rest of their North American tour. Here’s to a quick recovery for drummer Martin Bulloch.

Anyway, here’s the Vancouver setlist and a couple mp3s from the show.

Mogwai
September 6, 2008
Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver

01) Intro
02) The Precipice
03) Friend of the Night
04) I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead
05) Ex-Cowboy
06) Thank You Space Expert
07) Tracy
08) Scotland’s Shame
09) Hunted By a Freak
10) Mogwai Fear Satan
11) I Love You, I’m Going to Blow Up Your School
12) Helicon 1
13) Like Herod
14) Batcat
———
15) Ithica 27-9

The band have been keeping a tour log on their site. Here’s what they had to say about the gig in Vancouver:

Ah Vancouver, there’s nothing quite as awe-inspiring and life affirming as stepping off the tour-bus and seeing 2 people emerging from a huge dustbin. We even had a special guard to look after the bus while we were away from it. So, the day consisted of being jealous of Dominic while his brother whisked him away for a lovely day while we wasted precious time by playing Guitar Hero in the dressing room. People loved Fuck Buttons’ set and it made me wonder how brutally strong the LSD must be in this city. I mean, some guy shouting into a children’s toy while another mentally ill person screams monkey noises into a cheap effects pedal really just isn’t enjoyable unless you’ve been fed an heroic dose of hallucinogenic drugs. Our show was really very good, we thought. The crowd were amazing and totally different from Vancouver audiences of the past (who SUCKED). Best show of the tour so far. And now for a great monster of a drive to San Francisco (1000 miles).

Hey Mogwai, tell us what you really think!

(The guard for the van would be to prevent junkies from stealing their equipment (a la Interpol and others) to sell for smack.)

A bit late so this will be quick.

On Thursday night the fine people over at Who The Hell.net put on a great night at the Oxford Art Factory. I didn’t manage to catch all the bands but it was great catching up with a bunch of people and see some bands I’d never seen before.

The first act I caught was Ernest Ellis who just happened to be playing their first gig ever. They were pretty well rehearsed and they seem to have a bunch of influences that they mix up into their work. I can’t say that many of the songs were all that memorable (some seemed like they needed more oomph) but the band were certainly not terrible. Might be an interesting band to keep your eye on. I kind of want them to be huge just so I can say, “I was at their first gig, man…I was there.”

Next up were Philadelphia Grand Jury and I thought they were great fun. Their tunes managed to be melodic, energetic, and wonderfully ramshackle all at once. Plus the band had pre-recorded stage banter between songs. Random. I highly suggest you catch these guys around town if you have the chance. Fun times. Apparently the band were giving away free CDs after the gig…I missed out. Someone hook me up.

I took off after that and missed the rest of the show but a huge thanks to Who The Hell for putting on the show. It was a great night and I’m looking forward to another. And it was great to finally meet you guys.

The true highlight of the night, however, was the LED Belt Guy. Amazing.

Add them to the previously mentioned list of acts coming out this summer.

Frightened Rabbit – who have released one of this year’s better albums – will be playing the Purple Sneakers New Years Eve Party. And it is (allegedly) their only Sydney show. Allegedly.

Polaroids has all the details.

A week ago, Matthew Fluxblog wrapped up (for the time being) Pop Songs 07-08 with a post about R.E.M.’s It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine). Pop Songs has been a favourite blog of mine since its inception so it was with kind of mixed feelings that I greeted Matthew’s final post.

Over the course of the last 18 months or so, Matthew has written about every R.E.M. song in thoughtful, insightful mini-essays. I loved reading each post even if it was about a song I didn’t like. In fact, Matthew’s championing of much of Monster led me to go back to that record earlier this year for the first time in ages. And I’ve totally rediscovered that album. So thanks for that, Matthew.

To top it all off, Matthew has managed to get Michael Stipe on board this week for an ongoing series of posts as Michael has been responding to emails sent in to Pop Songs. It’s fascinating reading as Michael – a man whose lyrics are notoriously surreal/impressionistic/difficult/etc – is getting into specifics when answering questions about certain songs. He’s even straightening out lyrics for people.

A must for any R.E.M. fan.

And I’ve just realized I still haven’t written about Accelerate here. It’s a great record, go buy it.

Man-Sized Wreath

Alright…so following on from my last post about the onslaught of festivals/bands that are going to be hitting Australia in December/January/February is the news that the 2009 Laneway Festival has been moved a few weeks forward from when it has been held in the past. Which means your January/February just got a whole lot crazier. Can’t wait for all the tickets to go on sale on the same day!

Any band of the suitable “indie” persuasion that was/is rumoured for Big Day Out or the Sydney Festival is now automatically rumoured for Laneway. And the great news for the Perth-types is that Laneway continues its expansion into every major Australian market. Next up, Wodonga.

St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival 2009
Saturday, January 31: Brisbane
Sunday, February 1: Melbourne
Friday, February 6: Perth
Saturday, February 7: Adelaide
Sunday, February 8: Sydney

via Polaroids.

It’s that time of year again. So just who the hell is coming out to Australia in December/January/February for festival season? Probably some of the following but most likely not all of them.

Big Day Out
Big Day Out often brings out some great acts surrounded by a bunch of shit. It has already been confirmed that Neil Young will be headlining the festival (odd choice) and My Morning Jacket will be playing as well. Other rumoured acts include: TV on the Radio, Arctic Monkeys, The Ting Tings, The Verve, The Raconteurs, The Prodigy, Klaxons, Pearl Jam (doubtful?), Simian Mobile Disco, The Killers, and the required Australian content including PNAU, The Vines, The Presets, You Am I and The Living End.

Keep an eye on this thread for more rumours/confirmations.

Sydney Festival
I’ve found that January is the best time to be in Sydney if you like leaving your house and the Sydney Festival is a huge part of that. The festival runs all month, has tons of outdoor stuff, and in the past couple years the organizers have really been bringing out some amazing musicians. It will be hard to top last year’s performers (The National, Joanna Newsom, Sufjan Stevens, etc) but let’s hope they try.

Leonard Cohen is a name I keep hearing…

All Tomorrow’s Parties
Now the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival isn’t even (publicly) confirmed yet, but that hasn’t stopped the rumours. Apparently it will be happening in a few spots around the country including Sydney and apparently the following (amazing) acts are possibly appearing: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Grinderman, The Dirty Three, Mercury Rev, The Drones, and Public Enemy (playing A Nation of Millions?).

If that lineup is even kind of true this festival is going to be pretty special. Keep your eye on this thread on Polaroids for further rumour-mongering.

Summadayze
U.N.D.E.R.W.O.R.L.D. (The rest of the redundant lineup is here.)

Now since this festival spares Sydney a further influx of designer fluro douchebags doing designer drugs we have to sacrifice some goats/Meg Ryan to ensure Underworld play Sydney. I’m thinking that a gig at Bondi Beach on New Year’s Eve is in the works. I could care less about where or when…I just want to see Underworld.

UPDATE
The 2009 Laneway Festival has been announced for late Jan./early Feb. Things just got crazier.

All these bands are, of course, in addition to the artists we actually know are making their way down here for the festivals in December. Some of these include:

Falls Festival
Franz Ferdinand, The Hives, Santogold, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, The Grates, Gomez, Tegan and Sara, Fleet Foxes, Jamie Lidell, Augie March, Cut Off Your Hands, The Drones, Architecture in Helsinki + many more.

Meredith Music Festival
Holy Fuck, MGMT, Saul Williams, Man Man, Final Fantasy, The Mountain Goats, The Ruby Suns + more.

WHO ELSE CAN YOU ADD TO THE RUMOURS?

The Drones have released a new video for The Minotaur, the lead single from the (very) soon to be released Havilah. The band will be in Sydney at the Metro on October 24 as part of their Australian tour. Full tour dates here.

Download
The Drones – Cortez the Killer (live Neil Young cover)

Alright, so I’ve been back in Australia for a few days after a lengthy trip home in August…so it’s time to kick the cobwebs out of here. How about a free show next week?

They Sydney music bloggers (most of whom I consider friends now) are always talking about getting together and hanging out. It never happens. Until now. Jerry over at Who The Hell has decided to throw a party, invite every blogger, and everyone else. For free!

So next Thursday come see a bunch of bands at the Oxford Art Factory. If you want to get in free just email rsvp at who the hell dot net and your name goes on the door. Please come out or it will just be a bunch of lonely bloggers chatting in the corner.