"Rolling Stone asked me to speak about Lana Del Rey. I wanted to know how big my participation in the piece would be-was it substantial or just a quote? Just a quote, they said, to which I replied that I wasn't super interested. Which was a lie. I have a lot to say about her, but no sound bites. You see, Lana Del Rey is exactly what I was hoping to inspire when I took on the male rock establishment almost twenty years ago with my debut record, "Exile In Guyville.""... [Liz Phair]

Read the rest of Liz Phair's piece at the Wall Street Journal.

And speaking of LDR, who recently performed on Letterman, Bon Iver wasn't the only musical guest on Saturday Night Live last night. Lana Del Rey, who was on two weeks earlier, came back to discuss her famous performance on Weekend Update with Seth Meyers. Check out the video below...

Continue reading "Lana Del Rey returned to SNL! What does Liz Phair think?"

The WFUV Holiday show happens tonight, 12/6, at the Concert Hall in NYC. Citizen Cope and Amos Lee share a bill with the Secret Sisters and Punch Brothers who will again share a bill on 1/15 at Bowery Ballroom. The Secret Sisters also have upcoming shows scheduled with Willie Nelson and Loretta Lynn.

Liz Phair has sold out her Bowery Ballroom and Maxwell's shows, and added a Brooklyn one. The new one is on January 26th at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Tickets go on sale Friday at noon.

DOWNLOAD: LIZ PHAIR - WINTER WONDERLAND (MP3)

Liz Phair, who recently showed up at Matador's 21st Anniversary party, has announced some December tour dates including December 12th at Maxwell's and December 13th at Bowery Ballroom. All dates below...

Continue reading "Liz Phair announces dates (NYC & NJ shows on sale) "

by BBG

Guided By Voices at Matador 21 (via)

"Anyone who walked into the popular casino during the three-day venture witnessed a culture shock like no other as hundreds of well-established, middle-aged rockers filled the building to see label legends Sonic Youth, Pavement, Belle and Sebastian, Guided by Voices and more. Performing inside the small and intimate Pearl, most of the bands were playing in Vegas for the first time.

"It has run smoothly but with a lot of help from the staff and all the people that are working for us," said founder of Matador Records, Chris Lombardi. "It's come together. We were very conscious of all the potential snafus that could arise and so far it's been fun."

Potential snafus were rife but any real problems were kept to a minimum during the first two days, besides Pavement's performance on Friday. Having paved the way for some of the most well-known artists of our generation, (think Weezer and Ben Kweller), the '90s rockers had continuous difficulties with their sound that caused problems both onstage and offstage for the band.

But that didn't seem to faze the crowd, which was made up of fans from all over the world, all who were more than ecstatic to see their favorite Matador artists. The festival went so well, actually, that it's kind of surprising." [The Rebel Yell]

While NYers were fast asleep and trying to stay warm at 5AM, Matador 21 was officially coming to a close in the Las Vegas desert early Monday morning (10/4) with a two hour set from Guided By Voices. Over the course of a full-set and two encores, both Hamish Kilgour (The Clean) and Matt Sweeney (Chavez) made unscheduled appearances with GBV (as a stage-diver/crowdsurfers) as the band tore through classics like "A Salty Salute", "Tractor Rape Chain", "I Am A Scientist", and around 30+ (!) others.

The label's 21st anniversary party kicked off on Friday with sets from Pavement and Sonic Youth (who played the Hollywood Bowl in LA) along with Chavez, Fucked Up, Guitar Wolf (whose flights were delayed, forcing a late Friday night performance), and Harlem. Saturday featured a headlining set from Belle & Sebastian (who recently played Williamsburg Waterfront), in addition to Spoon, Superchunk, Cat Power, Perfume Genius, Come, Esben & the Witch, Cold Cave, and Girls. Collaborations seemed to be the order of the day: Yo La Tengo hopped on stage with The Clean, Hamish returned the favor, Ted Leo joined Liz Phair...

A selection of videos and setlists from the festival, below....

Continue reading "Matador celebrated 21 years in Vegas"

"Not to be dramatic but Chavez is kind of blowing me away. Also, brodeo up in Parkside." - gillianmae

"look, if you were not at the chavez show at parkside lounge last night, you were somewhere not good enough. and that's final. #chavez" - coolingpie

"Holy Cobra is Chavez really playing at Parkside Lounge right now?
Anybody there?" - Oksana Baiul

"Chavez show ruled. So glad I paid hundreds to fly to Vegas instead of $7 at Parkside Lounge #oppositeofthat" -uhhAnnie

Chavez @ Parkside Lounge, 9/29/2010 (photo by Jen Barzyk)

Thank you to the helpful people who pointed out that Chavez were playing a secret show at Parkside Lounge in NYC last night (9/29). It was a warm up for the (much more expensive) Matador 21 Festival happening in Las Vegas this weekend.

If you missed it, and you can't make it to Vegas, don't fret. The Vegas sets by Chavez, along with Pavement, Sonic Youth, Belle & Sebastian, Guided By Voices, Liz Phair and others will be streamed live (and on repeat) courtesy of MySpace Music at myspace.com/matador21.

The full stream schedule, Chavez's NYC setlist, and a few more pictures (thanks Jen and Quilty) including one of the setlist (which replaces parts of song names with "Marsh"), below...

Continue reading "Chavez played a warm-up gig in NYC (pics, video & setlist), Matador 21 streaming online this weekend (schedule)"

Las Vegas Weekly: As far as additions to the lineup ...

Matador's Gerard Cosloy: We will be announcing, I would say at a minimum, three more bands. I would say they are not necessarily going to be the biggest bands in label history. They're gonna be bands tied more to the label's old days. Actually, in one case, someone very, very new as well. They're not gonna be headliners, let's put it that way

So no Boards of Canada, I assume?

That's correct, yes.

A lot of people are asking about Mogwai.

No, they have other stuff they're doing overseas at that time, which is unfortunate. We would have loved to have had them be part of this.

And Interpol has dates in Europe.

Yeah, that's correct.

Mission of Burma is also a no-go, correct?

Yeah, we did ask Burma and Roger [Miller] unfortunately has Alloy Orchestra commitments that weekend.

Rolling Stone reported Liz Phair as confirmed ...

Yeah, that I will neither confirm nor deny (laughs).

How tough was it getting Guided By Voices to reunite, especially with that lineup?

We just kept asking. We just kept asking. And I think ultimately Bob decided it would be fun.

Tickets go on sale at noon for the Guided By Voices show happening at Terminal 5 (with Blitzen Trapper).

Doug Gillard plays Bruar Falls tonight.

DOWNLOAD: THE POLYPHONIC SPREE - HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Death Cab For Cutie - Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: OVER THE RHINE - ALL I EVER GET FOR CHRISTMAS IS BLUE (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: RYAN ADAMS - HEY PARKER, IT'S CHRISTMAS (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: SMASHING PUMPKINS - RUDOLPH THE RED NOSE REINDEER (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: SUFJAN STEVENS - JOY TO THE WORLD (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: LIZ PHAIR - WINTER WONDERLAND (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: EELS - CHRISTMAS IS GOING TO THE DOGS (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: THE WHITE STRIPES - SILENT NIGHT (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: BRIGHT EYES - BLUE CHRISTMAS (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: RILO KILEY - XMAS CAKE (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: ROGUE WAVE - CHRISTMAS (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: MY MORNING JACKET - SANTA CLAUS IS BACK IN TOWN (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: WEEZER - THE CHRISTMAS SONG (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: THE KINKS - FATHER CHRISTMAS (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: MORPHINE - SEXY CHRISTMAS BABY MINE (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: DEERHOOF - THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: PEARL JAM - SOMEDAY AT CHRISTMAS (MP3)

Just some songs Nick and I quicky put together for our Christmas Eve show on Sirius XMU. Enjoy, and happy holidays. More HERE.

Liz Phair @ Hiro Ballroom, NYC - June 25, 2008 (rideon)

Liz Phair acoustically performed her 15-year old album "Exile in Guyville" at Hiro Ballroom in NYC last night. The show was in support of the reissue of that album, and she'll do it again tonight.

Pitchfork.TV interviewed Liz Phair in the back of Cake Shop. You can watch it below....

Continue reading "Liz Phair performed Exile in Guyville in NYC & again tonight "

The June 25th Liz Phair "Exile in Guyville" show sold out almost instantly, so they added one on June 26th.Tickets are on sale.

Tickets are on sale (@ noon) for the Liz Phair show @ Hiro Ballroom. Liz will acoustically perform Exile in Guyville in its entirety.

In celebration of the 15th year anniversary of the groundbreaking album, Exile in Guyville and its long awaited reissue a day earlier, Liz Phair will acoustically perform the entire album on June 25th at the Hiro Ballroom in New York. Tickets for this special event will go on sale this Wednesday and details on further events in Chicago and San Francisco will be announced shortly.

Exile in Guyville, which was out of print, will be available on CD, vinyl and - for the first time ever - in digital format. The special reissue package will include three never-before-released songs from the original recording sessions: "Ant in Alaska," with Phair simply accompanying herself on guitar, "Say You," which features Phair and a full band, and an untitled instrumental with Liz on guitar. Phair has also just completed a new, 80-minute DVD, "Guyville Redux," for the reissue....

...Phair is currently working on new studio album for the fall....

....which probably very few people are excited about (the new album I mean).