by Bill Pearis

Almost 25 months to the day of their live debut, Obits return to Cake Shop on two consecutive nights: February 12 and 13. Says guitarist Sohrab Habbibion:

We've been wanting to play the Cake Shop again, but haven't since our first show there. This is our quasi two-year anniversary of that show, so we thought it'd be fun to do two shows and play a bunch of the new songs we've been tinkering with. We're working on a new record and have whittled down at least 40 songs ideas to about 20 more fully formed tracks. And of those 20-ish, we have a half dozen or more that should be ready to play.

Also, these shows are the first NY area ones we've played that are ours since our record release show in March. Everything else has been either an event like New Year's Eve or opening for Pinback or Polvo or random CMJ stuff. So we figured it was about time to headline a proper show and just have a good time with it, getting our friends to open and test out some new stuff before we head back to Europe.

Those friends opening the Feb. 12 show are Gray Goods and Rope. The Feb 13 show has Buenos Dias and Wrong Dots. Both shows are $10, no advance tickets. After the Cake Shop shows, Obits head to Europe and then return to play some U.S. dates opening for Ted Leo. All dates are at the bottom of this post.

In other Obits-related news, two members of the band have upcoming art shows. Drummer Scott Gursky (who designed the Cake Shop poster above) is part of "Vision Quest - A Group Show of Neo-Shamanic Art" which is running now through February 21 at the Observatory in Brooklyn. Meanwhile, singer Rick Froberg has a solo show at Fuse Gallery that has its opening reception the same night as the second Cake Shop show.

Sohrab also tells us, "Greg, our bass player, and I are recording a King Crimson-ish prog jam with Alexis from GvsB that I wrote for a project to celebrate the paperback release of our friend Jeff Rotter's really awesome and hilarious novel The Unknown Knowns. There's going to be a totally absurd video involving a complex underwater world and lyrics like, 'The parchment culled from lamprey gills / And with a waterproof kind of quill / The rhymes are writ in a font of yore / Unavailable at any store.'"

There's more. "The Forgery Series show I played [opening for That Petrol Emotion] was satisfying enough that I'm going to record a single. Phil Palazzolo, who's an old school NJ hardcore guy that's also worked with Okkervil River and on A.C. Newman's last record, is hopefully gonna produce it. It should be fun and, with a bit of luck, find a balance between pop melody and Kraut drone."

All Obits 2010 tour dates are below.

Continue reading "Obits working on new songs, playing two shows at Cake Shop ++ other dates, solo & art projects "

"For 4 years now Wham City has been organizing the WHARTSCAPE. What started as a summer warehouse party turned into a much bigger, multi-day outdoor festival with thousands of bands, performers, and folks traveling to Baltimore from all across the US and Europe.
Since, we organize this festival out of pocket and in our spare time, it is important for us to keep it comfortable and enjoyable for us to do. One thing we talked about at the end of last year's festival was shrinking it down slightly and having it feel more community based and familiar.

This year isn't focused around headliners, but mainly performers and friends that make up the community we tour, work and live in.
We are also greatly reducing the number of MEGA-PASSES (the 3 day pass ticket that grants you entry to every show and every day).
ONLY 300 Mega-Passes will be sold; this is the only guarantee that you can see all the shows.

Tickets will be sold to the individual shows, but it is strongly suggested that you buy a Mega-Pass, as it saves you money and assures you take in the entire poo-poo.
Whartscape will take place July 10-11-12 at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland Institute College of Art Studio Center Parking Lot, and Load of Fun.
We will begin selling tickets at 12 Noon, Monday, June 29th.

More info and full, 140 band lineup below...

Continue reading "Whartscape - 2009 Wham City festival dates & lineup "