Optical Atlas

Polyvinyl Records has announced the first single from the upcoming of Montreal album Skeletal Lamping: “Id Engager” is a 7″ which will feature a non-album B-side, a digital download of the tracks, and artwork by Nina Barnes.  It will also be pressed on gold, purple, and blue, and you can buy these separately ($5) or in a budget bundle ($10).  Pre-orders will ship on August 29.

Dressy Bessy tour dates are starting to emerge for their fall tour to promote their new album, HOLLERandSTOMP, which is being released September 16th on Transdreamer Records.  These have manifested on their MySpace page:

09.13.08 Morrison/Denver, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheater (Monolith Festival)
09.21.08 Iowa City, IA @ The Picador
09.22.08 Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge
09.23.08 Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
09.26.08 Brooklyn, NY @ Union Hall
09.28.08 Cambridge, MA @ T.T. the Bear’s Place
09.30.08 Washington, DC @ Black Cat
10.03.08 Charlottesville, VA @ Gravity Lounge
10.04.08 Charleston, SC @ Tin Roof
10.18.08 Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater

As reported earlier, this weekend is the annual Team Clermont summer camp in Athens, and among those scheduled to perform: Tiny Sticks and Hi Hi Hi, both cover bands featuring of Montreal’s B.P. Helium.  (The former covers ESG, the latter Paul McCartney & Wings.)  B.P. will be joined by Jason NeSmith of Casper & the Cookies, Peter Erchick (Pipes You See, Pipes You Don’t), Madeline, Aaron Wegelin (formerly of Elf Power), and much of Dark Meat.  F*ck This Band (covering Mclusky) and Nic Fit (covering Sonic Youth) will also be performing.  It’s a campfire singalong that starts at 9pm this Saturday night at the 40 Watt.  If I were there, I’d request “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey.”

And speaking of the 40 Watt, Gnarls Barkley will be playing Tuesday August 12th, with Elf Power opening.  It’s considered a kick-off to the 2008 Athens PopFest, although you will have to buy your tickets separately (at School Kids Records 706.353.1666).

Lou2ser has posted the Poison Control Center set from their recent performance opening for The Apples in Stereo in Dallas last Saturday, and a highlight is when the band is joined onstage by Bill Doss to cover his Olivia Tremor Control single, “Jumping Fences.”  You can download the song here, or the entire set at lou2ser’s blog, Things Chris Recorded.  He’ll be posting the Apples in Stereo and Big Fresh sets soon as well.

And speaking of Bill Doss, you might also want to thank lou2ser for posting the complete The Sunshine Fix: A Spiraling World of Pop cassette–one of the earliest Elephant 6 releases–in this Townhall thread.  I posted this a few years ago on this website, but my copy of the tape was missing the last tracks on each side; his copy is complete, and even has a bonus booklet.  I’ve added the artwork to the Optical Atlas gallery.

Muzzle of Bees is reporting the above Skeletal Lamping listening party will be held in my town of Madison, WI, this coming Thursday at 7pm at Strictly Discs. Strictly Discs is undoubtedly one of the best record stores in Madison, WI, with a really friendly and helpful staff–I’m plugging them because I love them. Plus they’re located right next to one of the best comic book stores in town.

One of the earliest Apples in Stereo recordings, and the first to be officially released, is now available via download in this Townhall thread.  The song is called “Too Much Now.”  In fact, I’ll just post what lou2ser wrote about it:

Apples - Too Much Now
from The Horizon Center compilation, D.U. Records #21 (www.noisetent.com)

Chris Parfitt: Vocals, Guitars
Hilarie Sydney – Drums
Jim McIntyre – Bass
Robert Schneider – Guitar, Vocals

Recorded at Noise Tent 1 by Mike Jourgensen 1992/1993

Jim’s take on the song:

“Another thing you might be interested in is a cassette compilation called “the horizon center”, which came out in 1993. It’s actually listed on the www.noisetent.com/DUCat.html site, so maybe you can still buy it. Anyway, it’s got the first Apples song released. It’s a real crappy production. It was done by the guy who put out the tape, at his studio. But the song is pretty good.”

And what Robert said about this track:

“we are going to include “too much now” on the reissue of science faire, which compiled our recordings of that era– we left the song off the album at the time as the production is awful (we recorded it at someone else’s home studio for a denver local comp, and i hated the drum and guitar sounds so much it used to make me cringe) but it was our first recording, and a good song, and the only apples song with chris parfitt singing lead (he wrote it). ”

For those keeping score, Chris went on to record as Vince Mole and His Calcium Orchestra.

Also, plex has posted a link to the very first Apples in Stereo video, “Tidal Wave.” Here it is:

Pitchfork has posted its own coverage of last weekend’s Pitchfork Festival, and included in the coverage is an interview with Robert Schneider of the Apples in Stereo (and, much to my personal amusement, Robert’s manager Dan gets in there too).   You can read it here (scroll down a bit).

There’s also an interview with Jeremy Barnes of A Hawk and a Hacksaw (again – you’ll need to scroll down), in which he talks about his upcoming plans, including recording an album with Romanian singer Maria Ion.  On that same page (keeeeep scrolling down) is an interview with the lovely Griffin Rodriguez of Icy Demons, who just put on an impressive show here in Madison alongside AHAAH, performing on the lakefront.

There’s also great coverage of Pitchfork Fest at You Ain’t No Picasso, including the sets by A Hawk and a Hacksaw and Elf Power.

By the way, even though I said I’d gone fishing, I did actually update the Optical Atlas streaming jukebox a few days ago with new music by Icy Demons and older stuff from of Montreal, Olivia Tremor Control, etc.