by Bill Pearis

As previously mentioned, Friday (9/16) at the Warsaw is the first date of a short tour for classic postpunk band The Raincoats who just reissued their seminal 1980 album Oddyshape on vinyl. I wrote this a while back:

With odd instrumentation, unconventional songwriting and a generally itchy, discordant vibe, the London group's three original albums (1979's self-titled debut , 1981's Odyshape, 1984's Moving) were mildly successful on the UK indie charts but proved highly influential. (Their records have aged exceptionally well.) Kurt Cobain was a huge fan, and actually got his label DGC to reissue the Raincoats' albums and convinced the band to reform and open for Nirvana on a 1994 UK tour, though he would die a week before it was to start. But the reformation proved creatively successful, and Raincoats recorded a third album, Looking in the Shadows, in 1996. They've stayed sporadically active ever since.

Openers on this tour are San Francisco's Grass Widow who are definitely direct descendants of The Raincoats style and sound. Their new single "Milo Minute" is a little more straightforward than anything we've released in a while, I like it a lot. The video, filmed at Boston's Franklin Park Zoo, is below.

Tobi Vail (Bikini Kill, Frumpies) and Amy Yao (Emily's Sassy Lime) are both also DJing the Brooklyn show. All dates below too...

Continue reading "Grass Widow heading out on tour w/ The Raincoats"