Johnny Marr

Entries tagged with: Johnny Marr

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DOWNLOAD: Orange Juice - Felicity (MP3)

Orange Juice

In what I hope (but don't promise) to be a regular feature, I'm gonna recommend a couple notable new reissues. What with the holiday season it full swing, either of these would make good holiday presents for the serious indie music lover.

Firstly is Domino Records' new Orange Juice box set, Coals to Newcastle, that compiles nearly everything the Glasgow legends ever recorded. (The single mix of "Rip it Up" is mysteriously absent.) This marks the first time 85% of this material has ever been released in America. Polydor reissued their albums on CD in 1997 but they fell out of print almost immediately. You can now chart the band's progression from their shambolic, jangly beginnings on Postcard Records through myriad line-up changes and transformation into what could be called an indie equivalent of Chic. Even the weird stuff -- like the high life-inspired "Million Pleading Faces" on Rip It Up -- is pretty good. And even if, like me, you shelled out the dough in the mid-'90s for the Polydor reissues (which went out of print almost instantly) there's previously unreleased 12" mixes, dub versions, rough mixes, non-LP singles, radio sessions, live tracks, and interviews. There's also a DVD containing rare Orange Juice television special Dada with Juice, and a Derek Jarman-directed video for "What Presence?" that I'd never seen before. (Why is this not on Youtube?) At $70 it ain't cheap, but if you think of it as less than ten bucks a disc it's not so bad. And well worth the money. You can stream 18 tracks from the box set over at Domino's website and download classic OJ single "Felicity" above.

While on the subject, OJ's Edwyn Collins' new album, Losing Sleep, is one of the year's best. His first made since two brain haemorrhages nearly took his life in 2005 and left him at first without the ability to walk or talk, let alone write songs. That it exists at all is a miracle, that it's as great as it is a testament to his spirit. Helping him out on the album are a cavalcade of talent -- Johnny Marr, Roddy Frame, The Drums, The Cribs, Franz Ferdinand, The Magic Numbers -- but always in the service of getting Collins' songs on record. Like his last two albums, Losing Sleep hasn't been released in America but is well worth picking up on import. Hey Domino... how about putting this one out too.

Speaking of Domino, the label just reissued Robert Wyatt's entire back catalog on CD and vinyl. If you don't own Rock Bottom, Nothing Can Stop Us and Shleep... now is the perfect time. Then move on to the rest of his records.

Ominbus

The other notable reissue is the four-disc "Omnibus Edition" of The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall, my personal favorite Fall album. The 1984 record was the first fully made with Mark E. Smith's then-wife Brix, who brought pop smarts to the Mancunian band's somewhat difficult sound, and their first produced by the great John Leckie. Along with guitarist Craig Scanlon, bassist Steven Hanley and drummer Karl Burns this is the classic Fall lineup in my opinion. The Omnibus Edition restore's the album's original running order, putting singles from the same time "Oh Brother!," "C.R.E.E.P." and "No Bulbs" on the second disc with their b-sides and rough mixes of album tracks. The third collects radio sessions, and the fourth is a live recording from their performance at the 1984 Pandora's Music Box Festival in Norway (set time 3:15AM) that shows what a powerhouse live band the Fall were at the time. The box set sold out in the UK, but seems to be easily gettable here in the U.S.

Beggars Banquet also reissued The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall on vinyl (just the album) which lets you hear classics like "2X4," "Slang King" and "Disney's Dream Debased" in their analogue glory. Also out on vinyl: its follow-up, This Nation's Saving Grace which is widely considered by people not me to be their best-ever album. (It is a very close second.) It gets the Omnibus treatment in January. Save up, kids.

An Orange Juice video below...

Continue reading "an Orange Juice box set, new Edwyn Collins, the Fall reissues"

posted at 11:13 AM on November 29, 2010 in music | Comments (7)

Cribs

As you can see in the above picture, The Cribs are bummed out that they're not going to make it to Coachella this year. Read their full statement about it, below...

Continue reading "The Cribs (Johnny Marr included) definitely not coming to US"

posted at 9:29 PM on April 15, 2010 in music | tour dates | Comments (6)

photos by Tim Griffin

The Cribs

Marr, best-known for his work with The Smiths, has been collaborating with the group since the end of The Cribs' tour for their 2007 album, Men's Needs Women's Needs. But this will be the first time the guitarist joins the band on a North American run. As the short version of the story goes, Marr met Gary Jarman at a Portland barbecue, and the two - who were mutual fans -struck up a friendship. The rest of the band met him at the 2007 Glastonbury festival some time later. "We ended up just being friends, and then we ended up laying music together - which is naturally what you do when you're musicians, and it just happened from there," Jarman explains.

"It's like a new best friend having Johnny in the band," says Jarman simply. He says he and his brothers "sometimes pick his brain about things he's done in the past, he's got a lot of history, he's been in some bands," but in terms of Marr's role in the group, they're all equals. "He's just one of the guys," he says. "He doesn't come across as a mentor or anything like that." [Dose.Ca]

As you know, The Cribs are back. Tickets are still on sale for their Saturday night (1/16) show at Irving Plaza with Adam Green, and we have one pair of tickets to give away. Details at the end of this post.

A never-published set of pictures from the second of two shows they played at Bowery Ballroom in November (the set we posted already was from the first night), continues (with the setlist) below...

Continue reading "The Cribs play Irving Plaza Saturday (win tix), played Bowery Ballroom in 2008 (here's a new set of pics) "

posted at 3:53 PM on January 15, 2010 in music | pictures | Comments (7)

photos by Vincent Cornelli, words by Bill Pearis

The Cribs @ Bowery Ballroom

The Cribs played two sold out nights at Bowery Ballroom last Thursday (11/12) and Friday (11/13) -- their first NYC shows with new band-member Johnny Marr. The Von Bondies opened both nights. Thursday the Cribs also played The Late Show with David Letterman, performing "We are the Same Skies" from their new album, Ignore the Ignorant. Video of that, along with the brand new official video for the same song with more pictures from the first night at Bowery Ballroom, below.

I was at the first of the two shows, and the Jarman brothers were in fine form. Maybe not as rowdy but there's been no signs of change with their increased popularity. I think Ryan Jarman was wearing the same clothes as the last time I saw them a year and a half ago. They are a down-to-Earth, no bullshit kind of group.

As for for their new addition, the Jarmans and Marr acted like it was no big deal that one of the greatest guitarists of the last 25 years was now in the group, but there was extra oomph on older tracks like "Hey Scenesters" and "Mirror Kissers," and you could definitely feel Marr's influence on the Smith-y current single "We Share the Same Skies" and Ignore the Ignorant's title track. Likewise, the crowd didn't seem to pay Marr's presence any mind -- maybe some of them didn't know who he was? -- as they were too busy going mental, at least near the stage. I'm a Cribs fan, but I do think this was the best I've seen them since they made the leap from smaller-sized clubs.

Meanwhile, The Cribs just announced dates for a North American tour in early 2010, including a January 16 stop at Irving Plaza. Adam Green & The Dead Trees open that show and most of the dates on the tour. Jemima Pearl then replaces him as opener for the last six dates. Tickets for the NYC show go on sale Wednesdday at noon. All announced tour dates, plus those videos and pictures, below...

Continue reading "The Cribs played Bowery Ballroom (pics) & Letterman (video) - announced tour w/ Adam Green (dates) ++ new video "

posted at 2:01 PM on November 17, 2009 in music | pictures | tour dates | Comments (18)

by Bill Pearis

Tonight (11/11) and tomorrow are the last two shows of The Answering Machine's extended NYC visit, playing Bruar Falls tonight (with Dinnosaur Feathers and Zambri) and Cake Shop tomorrow (11/12, with Sholi). As I've said before, this Manchester band make superior Brit Indie and like their debut album, Another City, Another Sorry, quite a bit. You can get the whole thing at their bandcamp.com page.

The Cribs

Speaking of superior Brit Indie, The Cribs fourth album, Ignore the Ignorant, was released this week, just in time for their shows at Bowery Ballroom on Thursday (11/12, still tickets available) and Friday (11/13, sold out). As you may know, The Cribs are now a four-piece, having added Johnny Marr to their otherwise all-Jarman lineup for the writing and recording of the new album which actually does sound like what you might expect it to. You've still got the big choruses and raw energy The Cribs are known for, but now with the flourishes and panache the onetime Smith is known for. I'd even say Ignore the Ignorant finds Johnny Marr sounding like Johhny Marr for the first time since his days in The The. It's a really strong record. But The Cribs are almost always better live than on record. I will be curious to see how Marr will affect the usual antics of Gary, Ryan, Ross. Will brothers still act like brothers when there's a legend nearly twice their age on stage?

Boat

The shows I'm most looking forward to this weekend are from Seattle's BOAT, a truly fun live band whose new album, Setting the Paces, is just terrific, loaded with irresistible indie pop, as much as you can fit on tangerine-colored vinyl. We're talking giant hooks, lyrics that are funny without being novelty (and have just enough of the crying-on-the-inside clown thing going on too), and production that is neither slick nor low fi. This is how it's done, and I've no doubt this will find its way into my Best of 2009 list.

BOAT play Union Hall on Friday (11/13) and Bruar Falls on Saturday (11/14) and you really should do yourself a favor and go see one of these shows. They don't make it East very often. Their live shows are fairly interactive -- they pass out bags of confetti and homemade shakers, and often work with signs and props -- but it never feels forced. They just want you to have a good time. The Union Hall show on Friday is with How I Became the Bomb; Saturday's Bruar Falls show is with Miniboone and Shark?

Pants Yell!

I feel a little bad that BOAT's show on Saturday is competing with the Slumberland 20th Anniversary show at The Bell House for the indie pop consumer's dollar. As someone who spent his college years going on road trips to Washington DC to see shows and go record shopping, Slumberland is intertwined with my musical upbringing, be it thumbing through Velocity Girl, Henry's Dress and Aislers Set 7"s at Arlington's Go Records, or hearing Stereolab's Switched On for the first time at Smash on M Street.

It's kind of amazing that, after a few years of dormancy, Slumberland has come back stronger than ever in the last year with records that have achieved a national level of attention that seemed impossible in the '90s. I'm still stunned at how popular Pains of Being Pure at Heart have gotten. It's a label that continues to be a labor of love for owner Mike Schulman. Maybe the listening public (now with the wide-reaching abilities of the internet) has come around to his way of thinking.

Anyway, Saturday's eight-band spectacular is a hard-t0-pass-up bill for any indie fan, featuring label heavy hitters The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (previously unannounced) and Crystal Stilts. There's also Boston's Pants Yell!, whose new album Received Pronunciation was just released and is what I'd call a textbook "grower," one whose many pleasures don't reveal themselves till maybe the third listen. The band are also swearing it's their last, and plan to break up next year (Check out an MP3 of "Cold Hands" above). Additionally, the show has Philadelphia's baroque-ish Brown Recluse from the label's current roster, and what is likely to be most people's first time seeing Frankie & the Outs, who were really good opening for Grass Widow at the Woodser a week ago.

There's also sets from three bands from Slumberland's dreamy '90s era: Lorelei, who have been back together since 2003, and The Ropers, and Nord Express who I'm pretty sure are playing their first shows since disbanding. While I know some Slumberland fanatics were hoping, wishing, crossing their fingers Schulman and Bell House booker Skippy might pull a rabbit out of their hat with more classic Slumberland bands (The Aislers Set, Black Tambourine, Velocity Girl or Rocketship), it's hard to argue with this lineup. It's gonna be a great night.

Versus
Versus

While on the subject of '90s indie rock, Versus are playing at Knitting Factory on Friday (11/13). Now augmented with a violinist (at least at their fantastic Seaport set this summer), they're sounding as good as they did in the '90s. Maybe even better. I'm told there's a new Versus album in the can and they're just trying to work out the whens and wheres of its release. The whole line-up at the Knit is TeenBeat related actually, with label head (and former Unrest frontman) Mark Robinson's new band Cotton Candy; Plus Minus which features Versus' James Balyut and ex-member Patrick Ramos and who are equally popular in their own right; The Solitary Cyclist which includes John Lindaman of True Love Always, Plus Minus drummer Chris Deaner, and food blogger (and friend of mine) Ganda Suthivarakom who has also performed with Miho Hatori, as well as in David Byrne's Imelda Marcos opera, Here Lies Love. Which leads us to the other band on the bill: Filipino indiepop band Ciudad. They've been playing shows here for the last month or so but this looks to be the final one before they head back to the Philippines.

GhostDigital

A couple other quick shows of interest. If you ever wondered what became of Einar, the other vocalist in the Sugarcubes (the one who shouted things like "I really don't like lobster!"), his current gig is GhostDigital which matches weird electronics to his particular style of vocals. They play tonight (11/11) at Monkeytown with fellow homemade diode musician Caspar Electronics.

GhostDigital also play on Thursday (11/12) at Town Hall as part of Music For 16 Futurists, which is further described as:

An evening-length concert of original scores and newly commissioned compositions for the intonarumori, or "noise-intoners" As part of its celebration of the 100th anniversary of Italian Futurism, the Performa 09 biennial, in collaboration with the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) and SFMOMA, has invited Luciano Chessa to direct a reconstruction project to produce accurate replicas the legendary instruments (8 noise families of 1-3 instruments each, in various registers) that Russolo built in Milan in the summer of 1913. As the first instruments capable of creating and manipulating noises through entirely mechanical processes, the intonarumori can be considered to be the original analog synthesizer, and the ancestors to the latest electronic synthesizers used today.

The night also features Blixa Bargeld, John Butcher, Luciano Chessa, Joan La Barbara, Nick Hallett, Pauline Oliveros, Mike Patton, Anat Pick, Elliott Sharp, Ulrich Krieger, Jennifer Walshe with Tony Conrad, Ghostigital with Skuli Sverrison, Finboggi Petursson, and Casper Electronics.

Sounds pretty cool. Aside: I used to fantasize that Einar formed a band with Fred Schneider. The most annoying band ever created.

OK that's it for this week. Videos and tour dates follow....

Continue reading "The Cribs, BOAT, Slumberland, Pants Yell!, GhostDigital, Versus, Music For 16 Futurists & more in This Week in Indie"

posted at 1:19 PM on November 11, 2009 in music | To Do | Comments (5)

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: The Cribs - We Were Aborted (MP3)

The Cribs

Wakefield, England's finest all-brother trio, The Cribs, expanded last year to a four-piece with restless Smiths (and Modest Mouse) axeman Johnny Marr joining the Jarman brothers. The fruits of this colaboration, the band's fourth album, Ignore the Ignorant, is out physically in the U.S. on November 10, the same week they'll be playing their first American shows with Marr, including two consecutive nights at Bowery Ballroom: November 12-13, to which tickets go on sale Friday(8/21) at noon.

You can get Ignore the Ignorant digitally September 8, which is the same week as the CD comes out in the UK. Ignore the Ignorant, which was made with veteran producer Nick Launay (The Veils, Maximo Park, XTC, a slew of Midnight Oil albums) is the lead review in the September issue of MOJO and garnered four stars:

There's an ambition at play here that has nothing to do with the more mercenary aspirations of their lesser peers, and while the album presents The Cribs in widescreen and Technicolor where previously they had a more rustic, lo-fi approach, they're no sell-outs, preserving their grit despirte the relative grandeur of the production. Lead single "Cheat on Me" is a spophisticated tangle of hooks that drives its melancholic point home via the sad-eyed melodies of its chorus, Marr's slide-guitar swoon and Ryan's delivery of the song's anguished refrain -- a torn Cobain-esque howl that could provoke goose-pimples from a corpse. A key point of reference here is The Replacements' "Bastards of Young," which The Cribs covered as a b-side last year, and which "Cheat on Me" echoes, another anthem of post-adolescent alienation.

Grab a free MP3 of "We Were Aborted" from that album above.

There's also a "deluxe edition" of Ignore the Ignorant that is available exclusively through iTunes that comes with live tracks recorded at The Ritz in Manchester in February of this year. In a move that seems clearly designed to keep fans from downloading the album illegally, if you pre-order this digital version (which you can do starting August 25) you get the full 20-song set. If you don't pre-order, you only get 14 bonus tracks.

All Cribs 2009 tour dates, the video for "Cheat on Me", and the new album cover art, below...

Continue reading "The Cribs - new album, MP3, video & shows w/ Johnny Marr"

posted at 11:41 AM on August 19, 2009 in MP3 | music | tour dates | Comments (9)

Paul Weller & Johnny Marr @ Coachella 2009 (ivankay)
Johnny Marr and Paul Weller

"I could go on endlessly about the excellent yet heartbreaking Paul Weller set no one watched. I just might blather more about it once I get home and have time to properly assess and convey why it was such a meaningful (albeit needlessly stopped) performance, both for artist and audience. (It also might make my annual Kill List, a rundown, in ranked order, of the weekend's greatest performance. Look for that sometime Tuesday.)

After roughly a half-hour of top-notch rock 'n' soul, culminating in some extra-fine space-jamming on "Porcelain Gods," Weller was informed that he had a measly 15 minutes left. "Just not long enough in the desert," he sniffed in between expletives....

...to cap his Sunday show, the now silver-haired Weller, looking Armani casual cool in a black outfit, was left to kick against the pricks in a chugging rendition of his minor MTV hit with help from ... well, how nice, former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, who strummed a bit and shared in on the bop-bop-bop-bop harmonies." [OCRegister]

The above is an account of Paul Weller's shortened set at Coachella on Sunday. From there, the ex-Jam frontman was supposed to make his way to NYC for a show at the Nokia Theatre this Friday night (4/24), but I just realized that show is no longer happening "Due to Personal Reasons Ticket Refunds Available at Point of Purchase." UPDATE with some sad news:

23rd Apr 2009

Its with immense sadness that we can confirm that John Weller passed away yesterday.

John who managed Pauls career from the start of the Jam onwards will be missed by everyone. He was a larger than life character who was respected across the music industry and a much loved husband, dad, grandad and friend.

Our thoughts and love go out to the Wellers at this sad and difficult time. Ann, Nicky and Paul also really appreciate all the lovely cards, emails and messages from everyone.

R.I.P.

Johnny Marr's old bandmate Morrissey also played Coachella.

posted at 4:42 PM on April 23, 2009 in music | tour dates | Comments (7)

Spiderman Obama
Jaydiohead

today in NYC
* DANCE
* Terror @ Europa
* NY Times Arts & Leisure
* The Lisps @ Zipper Theater
* Mos Def @ Highline Ballroom
* Forro in the Dark @ Joe's Pub
* World/Inferno Friendship Society @ Webster Hall
* Afterworlds, Gates of Heaven & Apple Deaf @ Cake Shop
* Endless Boogie, Psychic Ills & Mike Fellows @ Glasslands
* Camper Van Beethoven & Victor Krummenacher @ Bowery Ballroom
* Tyvik, Psychedelic Horseshit & Kurt Vile @ Less Artists More Condos
* Bear Hands, Holy Hail, Atarah Valentine & Statehood @ The Studio at Webster Hall
* Great Lake Swimmers, Haley Bonar & Daniel Martin Moore @ The Bell House
* My Teenage Stride, The Jaguar Club & Bridges and Powerlines @ Union Hall
* Carcinogenic Static (members of Talibam! & USAISAMONSTER) @ Market Hotel
* John Brown's Body, Globesonic, Jenny Scheinman, Haale & Sulha Sound System @ (le) poisson rouge

Jimmy Page was born today in 1944.

Laundromatinee has in-studio audio and video from a session with the Vivian Girls.

Tom Cruise emotional over Travolta death
DRM-free iTunes Store to haunt Apple?
The Golden Globes are Sunday.
Obama gets his own Spiderman comic book.
Dolly Parton picked for Gospel Hall of Fame.
Stevie Wonder Helps Promote Technology For Visually Impaired.
Linksys offers full wireless alternative to Sonos.
Beatles music pulled from Norweigian podcasts.

Move over Animal Collective, Sanjaya's long awaited album is here.

Above is an alternate cover for Jaydiohead.

Below is a video from 7 Worlds Collide. In it, Ed O'Brien (guitar), Liam Finn (guitar), Jeff Tweedy (vocals/guitar), John Stirratt (bass), Phil Selway (drums), and Johnny Marr (guitar), are performing Radiohead's Fake Plastic Trees...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Friday?"

posted at 10:23 AM on January 9, 2009 in music | To Do | Comments (17)

When Worlds Collide

Over Christmas 2008 and New Year 2009, [Crowded House's] Neil Finn has invited the core band from his 2001 Seven Worlds Collide project, plus some other special guests, to create a new album at Roundhead studios in Auckland, New Zealand.

Guests confirmed so far are Radiohead's Phil Selway and Ed O'Brien, legendary guitarist Johnny Marr, founder member of The Smiths and current member of US alternate rock innovators Modest Mouse, Soul Coughing's Sebastian Steinberg, multi-instrumentalist Lisa Germano, Wilco members Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Glenn Kotche and Pat Sansone, Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall, along with NZ musicians Liam Finn, Don McGlashan and Bic Runga. All proceeds from this very special recording will go to support the continuing great work of Oxfam International.

There will also be a short series of intimate and informal live performances in New Zealand at Auckland's Powerstation on 5, 6 and 7 January 2009.

Wilco kick off their tour-ending two night run with Neil Young at Madison Square Garden tonight (Monday, December 15th).

Everest opens both shows. Everest frontman Russell Pollard's wife's band The Watson Twins (like Everest's album and) play Town Hall in NYC in February.

posted at 1:52 PM on December 15, 2008 in music | To Do | Comments (5)

Johnny Marr as a Modest Mouse member (more by Ryan Muir)

The Cribs - complete with Johnny Marr as part of their line-up - have revealed that they plan to release a new single this year during an exclusive video interview with NME.COM. The band had already revealed that they will record a full album in early 2009, but made the single revelation while speaking to NME.COM at the Leeds Festival on Friday (August 22).

"We don't know when it's going to happen, but we'll try and do that [release a single before the year ends]," said Marr.

The Cribs were scheduled to kick off a U.S. tour at Irving Plaza in NYC tonight (Sept 5), but it looks like all those shows were cancelled (again).

posted at 3:57 PM on September 5, 2008 in music | tour dates | Comments (3)

(most) photos by Eric M. Townsend

REM @ MSG

Stipe, Buck, Mills, and their two amigos came out whaling and they never let up. Playing only a couple of ballads, and everything being short and sweet, R.E.M. made the case for arena rock to live on just a little bit longer. The hypnotic goings on behind the band - a series of screens that relayed the scene on stage as if it was an already edited and produced performance video - were not only beyond impressive, they were actually distracting. At one point, it was even safe to wonder if the show would have been half as interesting without it. But the ferocity of "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" and "Bad Day" easily silenced that. Other highlights included the Mike Mills-led "Don't Go Back to Rockville", the Johnny Marr-joined "Fall on Me", "Losing My Religion", "Supernatural Superserious", "The One I Love", and "Man on the Moon". Michael Stipe did something I never thought he did...ever: He smiled and laughed a lot. In his dapper striped suit, the ever chatty, chrome domed Stipe had his usual political things to say but had even more to say in the field of being friendly, open, and inviting. Like the band's music.
[Sonic Parthenon]

More pictures from last night's show at MSG (June 19, 2008), below....

Continue reading "R.E.M. @ Madison Square Garden, NYC - pics & setlist"

posted at 9:01 AM on June 20, 2008 in music | pictures | Comments (95)