News

Some bands you can check out for your previewing pleasure. They’re in the category of math, and I thought they deserved some attention that I can’t currently give them by reviewing.

• The Bronzed Chorus (US) – New release on Hello Sir, sounds amazing. – myspace – hello sir
• Argument (FR) – Second album ‘Schweiss’ Out now on Kythibong. Hell yeah. Fits nicely with Fordamage, Komandant Cobra, 31 Knots and Room 204. – MP3 I – MP3 II – myspace
• Tall Ships (UK) – currently recording EP, a promising mathy post-rock mix.. FMTM, Maserati etc. – myspace – Big Scary Monsters Podcast feat. Tall Ships’ new demo
• Three Trapped Tigers (UK) – EP is available for five quid or on Emusic. Fantastic mix of Electro and Math, kinda like Aucan – myspace
• Obstacles (DK) – I know for a fact that these guys play amazing live shows. – last.fm with every song from EP listenable
• Monument (US) – Think Algernon Cadwallader, American Football etc. New 7″ out – myspace +2 tasty free demo releases
• Antarctic (US) – Brilliant new Florida instrumental mathy sound of genius currently recording – myspace
• Zona Mexicana (US) – myspace
• Modrec (GR) – myspace
• Los Webelos (US) – myspace
• Día Dora Vida (US) – myspace
• Pneu (FR) – myspace
Tags: antarctic, argument, monument, obstacles, tall ships, the bronzed chorus, three trapped tigers

• Alright, first of all That Fucking Tank from Leeds released 2 new tracks from upcoming Tanknology. Everything this band did is sold out for good reasons, so it’s about time they manufactured a new product. I’d already post a review of how great this album is, but I haven’t listened to it.
• Pass Montagne is releasing a bunch of savage math-rock tracks on Africantape in April. Two of them already up on the French band’s on myspace page.
• Also Africantape related… Three Second Kiss from Italy, they released some good stuff and are now touring the U.S. with Shellac and Bear Claw (who btw. are writing new songs). That should be about the highest thing achievable in this genre.
• The defunct Silkworm, that has found new life in Bottomless Pit, is not forgotten and never will be forgotten. There even seems to be a consensus that Silkworm is a band with so much musical depth, that they will outlive their contemporaries and find even greater popularity in the future. And that’s why there’s a documentary coming out called “Couldn’t You Wait? The Story of Silkworm”. The movie has been under way for 3 long years now, and is in post-production. It features tons of interviews with band members and all the great people surrounding it: Steve Albini, Jeff Tweedy, Greg Anderson and Stephen Malkmus just to name a few. The director, Seth Pomeroy, writes on his blog that we can expect it within a few months.

• That Fucking Tank myspace
• Tanknology press release
• Two tracks from new Three Second Kiss
• Could You Wait? Official site

• New Alarma Man songs have been posted on myspace. Big cheers – great tracks!! Still no news of the release date, though.
• The Andalusians, founded by former Del Cielo member Basla Andolsun, released single Do The Work on Dischord.
• Antarctic is a jazz inspired math-rock outfit from Florida formed in 2006, releasing a really well-made demo in 2007. It’s full of guitar melody, rhythmic patterns etc., but overall the compositions feel more intuitive than experimental, which is what caught me. So, imagine something like Antlers and Native, but with more traditional power. There’s a really good reason to be excited about their full-length debut coming up on Hello Sir in spring (hey, that’s soon!!). Here’s what they leaked to this hungry, savage blog reporter:
  

  Our music has definitely changed since our last release. We have had a lot of member changes and have found a lot of new inspirations. Our music really changes styles from song to song.. but I don’t think we would have it any other way.

  We’re putting out a new album in the Spring with Hello Sir Records. Full length baby. We’re re-releasing our older stuff because we’ve made a lot of changes. We have some newer songs as well : )

  We’ve definitely put alot more time into the music for this album. We’re all really excited for it to be released.

• antarctic myspace

• French jazz/post-rock outfit Fago.Sepia are following up 2006’s brilliant “L’âme sûre ruse mal” with a new record said to be out soon on label aposiopèse. This February they’re touring with Pennies, unsigned British band sounding much like American Football.
• A new detail has been revealed of the Tortoise album: It’s still untitled, the songs are still untitled, but yet they managed to promise us: April 21.
• Temporary Residence has released the new Maserati/Zombi split, and it’s pretty damn okay. A 7″ split by Bonnie Prince Billy and (you guessed it!) Young Widows is ready for pre-order, and Mono has done their first ever official video.
• And now the big news: The new From Monument To Masses is set to be released on Golden Antenna: 13th March. The title is “On little known frequencies”, and there will be 500 copies on 2xLP. Maybe it’s a good idea to pre-order. And here’s the cover art btw.
• Former members of Black Eyes have formed Mi Ami, who’ve released a remix EP on Touch and Go and will have their full-length out February 17th. Definitely something for fans of Black Eyes.

Update: Golden Antenna posted a new track for FMTM, and we now know that Dim Mak will be releasing the CD world-wide, and Golden Antenna will have the limited 2xLP for Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

• Fago.Sepia myspace
• Pennies live concert video
• From Monument to Masses myspace
• Beautiful unofficial video for FMTM's The Spice Must Flow
• Mi Ami myspace

A while ago we interviewed Daniel of the UK band Father of Boon. We asked about the future of the band, and Daniel, the band’s guitarist replied: “We’ve been going for a long time now, so we’ll see… haha”.  And we have seen,  ’cause they broke up. But hey, we have the interview, we might as well post it. About the band, combining being in a touring band with a normal life, Fugazi, and much more..

(more…)

• Father of Boon myspace

We did a bid of clicking around to see what to look ahead for in 2009:

• Tortoise is releasing a new album! Title and date is still TBA.
• Maserati has a new split coming up in February with Zombi. Track preview on myspace sounds amazing… Holy Fuck meets From Monument To Masses or something. 30 minutes long and available in 1000 copies on Temporary Residence.
• Jesus Lizard reunites and joins ATP vs. The Fans. At approximately the same time as the festival, Touch & Go will re-release Head, Goat, Liar, and Down.
• The Redneck Manifesto should be in the studio around these days, previously saying that they’re very excited about what they’ve written.. so am I… before even hearing it.
• Belgian band Frank Shinobi is working on a self-released album for late 2009. 3 tracks from their previous live set will be included and supposedly 7 new.
• Another Belgian band, Hitch, pretty experienced guys, are releasing Clair Obscur on January 26th and posted 3 new tracks.
• Quatre Tete are releasing Art of The State on Sickroom on January 13th.
• Fordamage are releasing in March and subsequently touring UK, NL, BE and FR.
• Future of the Left – Last Night I Saved Her From Vampires is out on January 26.
• Robotic Empire’s Gods & Queens are touring Europe extensively and will probably be in a town near you. They namedropped some of my personal favorites (Rodan, June of 44, Unwound, Lungfish) so I’m definitely checking them out ASAP.
• The new Mono is coming out on March 24
• Austrian instrumental outfit Valina has been signed by Joyful Noise and will release a-tempo in spring. Btw. pickup their 2009 free sampler.
• Alarma Man is waiting for the mastering of their album to be called “Love Forever”. Guitarist Calle Fredrikson gave us some words on it, being a bit disappointed that masterings seem to take forever these days.
  

  The new album sounds, like the way it was created, loose. Comparing to the previous it’s soft. It is easy to follow along in the songs and you will not get lost in it if you don’t want to. Bass and drums is easy. Guitars is a bit more sofisticated but still not hard to get. Vocals are nice, clean and not irritating at all. The lyrics are deep, I guess. I should probably mention that those comments about how the record sound will only make sense to people familiar with our previous work, others will find them overexaggerated.

  First time I heard the record, all of it, I got a very strong feeling for it. It sounded very dark. I felt proud and a bit sad at the same time. I was very exited about it for weeks. After that, I decided to not listen to it before the master is cut.

  Earlier the long-forgotten year of 2008 they posted a preview of what’s to come.

As you might have heard, Ron Asheton, the guitarist of rock legend Iggy Pop and the Stooges and Destroy All Monsters has died. A few years ago at the lowlands festival me (Ralph), Falco and thousands of others had the privilege to see the stooges live. It still is the greatest show i’ve been too till this day. Incredible how a bunch of dudes in their 50’s and 60’s could rock all the younger bands into oblivion. The ‘now i wanna be your dog’ riff is still one of the best riffs the best, played on a guitar… ever!

His guitar playing turned out to be very influential on almost every genre of guitar music. And it certainly has had it’s influence on me.

There is going to be a well deserved tribute to him in Detroit this saturday. A radio station also had an interview with an emotional Iggy on the phone. Check it out here: http://dd.wcsx.com/?p=256

We need information! And if you happen to come across something newsworthy then please confess to news@pinnaclemagazine.tv.

Here’s some examples of news:

• Sinnbus released the debut album from Ter Haar titled Delta. In 2009 they’re rolling on a tour of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Ireland, UK, Germany and some more Germany. They continue building on their old sound, adding lyrics and changing the compositions consequently.
• Distile Records promises to bring us one of 2009s most inspired records when they’re releasing the third by Untied States. It sounds promising…
• Instrumental math-rock from Copenhagen, Obstacles, out with their debut EP are marked available for touring in February, so far adding Berlin on 8/2.
• Mutiny on the Bounty (fresh youngster math) has posted songs on their myspace for their album scheduled for early 2009.
• Dischord has remastered+released the Fugazi classic 7 Songs (not 13 Songs, but containing the same first 7 tracks). The 12″ comes along with a nice free MP3 download, so yeah… Dischord is not some old dinosaur.
• Last but not least, the debut by Komandant Cobra, “Baboon qu4tre”, is out. Grab this track free, I know I would.

The plan is pretty simple: To spread as much info about our style of music as possible. Videos, reviews, news and specials. Currently we’re shoving in some older contents, but don’t hestitate to subscribe to the RSS feed.

Yours truly