matthew’s alibi

The official lineup for Coachella 2005 was released today…

Saturday, April 20

Bauhaus, Weezer, Cocteau Twins, the Chemical Brothers, Wilco, Keane, Snow Patrol, Rilo Kiley, Cafe Tacuba, Doves, Sage Francis, Armin van Buurin, the Raveonettes, Bloc Party, Mercury Rev, Famtomas, Hernan Cattaneo, Zap Mama, DJ Peretz, the Secret Machines, Jamie Cullum, M83, Ambulance Ltd, Four Tet, MF Doom, Josh Wink, Amp Fiddler, Tiga, the Kills, Donovan Frankenreiter, Spoon, Boom Bip, Katie Melua, DJ Marky, Immortal Technique, Jean Grae, Razorlight, Swayzak, Radio 4, Buck 65, Eisley, the Sexy Magazines, k-os

Sunday, April 21

Nine Inch Nails, New Order, Bright Eyes, Gang of Four, Prodigy, Black Star, the Faint, Roni Size, the Arcade Fire, Roots Manuva, DJ Krush, Thrice, Junkie XL, M.I.A., British Sea Power, the Dresden Dolls, Miss Kittin, the Firey Furnaces, Aesop Rock, the Perceptionists, Jem, Autolux, Sixtoo, Tegan and Sara, Stereophonics, the Bravery, Matthew Dear, Diplo, Subtle, Beans, Shout Out Louds, the Futureheads, Sloan, Kasabian, the Blood Brothers, Matmos, Wolf Eyes, Gram Rabbit, Smokestacks, Zion 1

First reaction? Disappointment. Had I wanted to see most of these bands, I would have seen them by now. And there seems to be a higher-than-average proportion of bands I actively hate (British Sea Power, Firey Furnaces and Aesop Rock on one day? What is this, Matthew-bane?) There’s also a pretty high ratio of bands I’m ambivalent-verging-on-hostile to: Keane, Wilco, Gang of Four, Bright Eyes, Doves, and Razorlight, for starters, but the majority of bands on this list fall somewhere in indifference through antipathy on my scale.

It’s official:  I hate Decemberists fans.  I discovered this in no uncertain terms at last week’s second solo Colin Meloy show at one of LA’s finest venues, the Hotel Cafe.

Colin sounded really good, and as usual, the sound at Hotel Cafe was first rate, but the intimate venue was a little too intimate for several hundred wannabe English grad students (and no doubt more actual English grad students than any other place east of Westwood.) Throngs of twee humanity filled every available inch, but the frustrating part was every last person was so intensely serious.  So focused was the crowd on its own studied, rapturous fandom, no one seemed to be having any fun, and I heard more than one ambulance chasing bedwetter impolitely ask another audience member to get out of the way - no small feat in a venue packed so tightly.

The list set list included two songs from the forthcoming Picaresque: The Infanta and Eli, the Barrow Boy.  Colin closed the encore with a Cheap Trick cover, the song “Sothern Girls,” to which he encouraged the audience to sing along, but it seemed like the wrong bunch to be asking - they either didn’t know the words, or they were just plain no fun, or, most likely, both.

Upon the announcement that a Libertine (Carl Barat) and a Charlatan (Tim Burgess) are joining forces with Primal Scream keyboardist Martin Duffy and the Razorlight drummer Andy Burrows for a new band called the Chavs, the fine music writers at the Belfast Telegraph tell us precisely why this is a bad idea, complete with a stroll down supergroup memory lane.  Very funny.

The Egos Have Banded

Meanwhile, some non-Scottish news for a change - (don’t worry, no doubt we’ll be back to it soon) - an message to the Eels email list announces the arrival of a new record from from one of LA’s most underrated bands.  To be released worldwide on April 26 (take that, Capitol), the new offering is a 33 track double album called Blinking Lights and Other Revelations.  The new album will be released on Interscope/Universal on the Vagrant Records imprint.

It features some impressive guest artists:

One song (”Last Time We Spoke”) features Everett’s hound dog, Bobby, Jr., howling a lonesome solo. A few songs later, eels-fan-turned-collaborator Tom Waits cries a solo—literally—(”Going Fetal”). Later on, R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck (making his second appearance on an eels album) plays dobro, guitar and bass (the Buck co-written “To Lick Your Boots”), and on an album that prominently features the autoharp on several songs, it’s exciting to know that the king of rock & roll autoharp, The Lovin’ Spoonful’s John Sebastian, makes a rare appearance, playing autoharp on one track (”Dusk: A Peach In The Orchard,” co-written by Sebastian).

(Note how the dog gets top billing.  Well done, pooch.)

According to the press release, the Eels last album, Shootenanny!  was written during a 10 day break in the studio away from Mark Oliver Everett’s work on Blinking Lights.

The press release has some other great stories about E:

…we’re talking about an artist who, when asked to give a quote for the dust jacket to Kurt Cobain’s posthumously published diaries submitted this quote: “Please don’t do this to me after I kill myself.” (The publishers opted not to use the quote.)

According to the Big Takeover‘s Jack Rabid (via the BT email list), the new Idlewild LP “Warnings/Promises,” will not yet see a US release.

The March 7 release will be in the UK only, with full UK tour following in April and May.  Jack confirmed this with a Capitol records publicist. No word yet on when the disc may be released stateside.  Idlewild was recently named the third best band in Scotland by The List, following Belle and Sebastian (#1) and Travis (#2).