Liars’ unsettling creepy-crawler of an album, Sisterworld was one of my favorite albums of 2010, so I’m thrilled to hear that their new album, WIXIW (pronounced “wish you”) is coming out next week.

WIXIW seems to be a real departure from Sisterworld, with moody, anxious synthpop replacing the violent sonic onslaught of their last record. After recording WIXIW in Los Angeles, the group relocated to Brooklyn to shake things up creatively, as they told DAZED:

DAZED: As a group you move around a fair bit – Brooklyn, Berlin – would you say you draw a lot from location for your art/music?
Liars: It depends entirely on the type of project we undertake. In some instances our goal is to engage and react to our environment and on other projects we look to alienate and isolate ourselves from what’s going on around us.

DAZED: Why the name ‘Liars’? Would you say that being an artist is to be honest or dishonest?
Liars: I think it’s important for an artist to be honest with themselves in terms of what they are interested in and what types of ideas they wish to pursue, i.e. good artists follow their instincts. But in terms of the work created I see no reason to impose any kind of practical moral guidelines or sense of right or wrong that could potentially inhibit the development of the work. Personally, I think pure honesty lacks imagination.

DAZED: You seem to embrace confusion and ambiguity in the messages and themes of your music – why is that? How does that affect your approach to making music? What are you seeking to achieve through music if not clarity?
Liars: I think clarity is one dimensional and boring. I’m much more interested in the innumerable possibilities of misunderstanding and misinterpretation. Today’s information age is fraught with the overbearing knowledge of detail – so our approach is less about delivering finite answers and more about developing interesting questions.

“No. 1 Against The Rush,” the first single from WIXIW, is out on Mute Records today. The album, with artwork designed by John Weise, will be available on CD, deluxe vinyl (with CD) and limited edition vinyl with silk screened embossed covers hand dipped in black wax by the band on June 4 in the UK and June 5 in the US. You can stream the entire album at DAZED Digital.

The video fro “No. 1 Against The Rush,” directed by Todd Cole in Los Angeles.
 

 
When he moved back to Dundee, Billy Mackenzie didn’t have any recording equipment in his home, and would spend hours in the local ‘phone booth, singing his latest ideas down the line to his record producer. It was typical of the maverick singer and musician whose life ran like a series of connected film scenes, from his early marriage in Las Vegas, to the excesses and glamor of his career as one half (with the prodigiously talented Alan Rankine) of the perfect pop duo The Associates.

Starting out in the mid-1970s, The Associates went on to create a giddy, euphoric soundtrack, around Billy Mackenzie’s incredible voice, which thrilled throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. From the opening chords of “Party Fears Two”, a new world of sensation opened - a world of expectation, excitement, pleasure, hurt and despair - emotions that in time came to reflect Mackenzie’s life.

As their success grew, so did the money (reputedly millions) and drugs (there’s a story of Rankine and Mackenzie being kept on heart monitors for 4 days after ingesting excessive amounts of cocaine), and the fears about performing (a tour of America was canceled days before it was to take place). Rankine eventually quit the band. Mackenzie carried on. Until in the 1990s, the record label were no longer willing to pay for Billy’s unfettered genius. Told of their plans over lunch, Billy only asked for one thing, a taxi home. An account cab was booked, thinking Mackenzie was only returning to his London address, instead he took it all the way back to Dundee, in Scotland.

As Marc Almond points out in this documentary on Mackenzie, The Glamour Chase, Billy must have known genuine heartache to sing with such painful beauty. Tragically, it was such heartache, this time over his mother’s untimely death, that led Billy Mackenzie to commit suicide, at the age of 39, in 1997. Such a terrible loss that revealed the darkness at the heart of The Associates’ music.

With contributions from Alan Rankine, Paul Haig, Siouxsie Sioux, Marc Almond, Martin Fry, Glenn Gregory and Billy’s family, The Glamour Chase is a moving testament to the scale of Billy Mackenzie‘s talent.
 

 
Bonus track, ‘Party Fears Two’, after the jump…
 

 
Tonight, if you are lucky enough to be in Los Angeles (I love saying that) Jonathan Wilson and his band will be playing a very special show for family and friends in Venice, CA at the Del Monte Speakeasy.

This intimate performance will be the band’s last show stateside before beginning their summer-long European tour with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Highly recommended.

No cover, but space is very limited. Doors at 9. Music at 9:30.

The Del Monte Speakeasy, 52 Windward Ave., Venice, CA. 21+

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
If you haven’t heard of Jonathan Wilson yet, you will

Jonathan Wilson live at SXSW, a Dangerous Minds Exclusive

Below, the video for “Desert Raven” from Jonathan Wilson’s critically acclaimed Gentle Spirit album.
 

 
If, like me, you get just a bit tired of The Cult Of Beatles (™) then consider this the perfect antidote.

The Better Beatles were a post-punk outfit from Nebraska who released one 7” single in 1981 and quickly disappeared without trace. The Better Beatles did to the Beatles what The Residents did to Elvis, and what the Flying Lizards did to Barrett Strong (which was quite distinct from what the Beatles did to Barrett Strong.). The original songs were just creaky old foundation blocks that they destroyed, then re-built on top of. Often with wondefully misshapen new forms.

Was this a joke? No. It was deadly serious, a reverse hex aimed at tearing down an overbearing edifice. From the Better Beatles Wikipedia page:

Dave Nordin [synthesizer] has stated that he considered the Beatles “an oppressive influence,” and Jean pSmith [vocals] has said their goal was to “[strip] the songs of their sacred status.”[3] After a handful of shows, they recorded an album’s worth of material in late 1981. They broke up shortly before their debut single “Penny Lane”/“I’m Down” was released on Woodgrain Records, leaving the bulk of their music unreleased.

Unreleased until five years ago, that is, when Hook Or Crook Records released the complete works of the Better Beatles as an album called Mercy Beat (available to buy here, where you will also find lots more info on the band.)

Who knows, maybe some Beatles fans can even appreciate the genius of The Better Bealtes? (Probably not, though. Po-faced plonkers!)

The Better Beatles “Penny Lane”
 

 
Happy Birthday Siouxsie Sioux - lead singer and co-founder (along with Steven Severin) of one the most important, brilliant and influential bands of the past 35 years.

Siouxsie was a pioneer in both music and as a role model, breaking down stereotypes and putting women on a par with men, “rather than just objects”. As journalist Jon Savage, once wrote, Siouxsie was “unlike any female singer before or since, commanding yet aloof, entirely modern.”

Siouxsie and The Banshees were, without doubt, the most audacious, artistically creative and musically ambitious band to have arisen out of Punk, who generated their own musical genres from a mix of Pop, Punk and the Avant Garde.

Here are Siouxsie and The Banshees from their classic show at the Royal Albert Hall, in October 1983, with a line-up of Siouxsie (vocals/guitar), Steven Severin (bass), Budgie (drums) and Robert Smith (guitar). This classic was of course released as the album and DVD Nocturne.
 

 
Here’s a little something to liven up your Memorial Day weekend.

This rare footage has been compiled from a full-length show at the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma, CA in 1980. Songs include Its Not Right, Pink Pussycat, Whip It, Girl U Want, (I Cant Get No) Satisfaction, Swelling Itching Brain and many more. This is DEVO at the peak of their game! Bonus material: Dove - The Band of Love from M80 Concert in 1980, Praying Hands & Shrivel Up.

De-evolution: no longer a theory, now a fact!
 

 
Devo as their Christian alter-ego Dove after the jump…

 
The masters meet. What a moment. 

The guy in the background gets it.

 
It must have been brilliant to have been in Supergrass. No, not for the teeth ‘n’ smiles of their classic single “Alright”, but rather for the sheer bloody quality of their music between 1993 and 2010, as heard in performance, and over 26 singles and 6 superb studio albums. There was an energy and infectious joy about guitarist and lead singer, Gaz Coombes (who looked like he might be Jack Black’s handsome, younger brother); Mick Quinn, bass and vocals; and Danny Goffey, drums and vocals; and Rob Coombes, keyboards.

Like everyone else, I first heard Supergrass through John Peel, who played their opener “Caught by the Fuzz” with zealous dedication. He went on to list it at number 5 in his Festive Fifty for 1994. The song told the semi-autobiographical tale of Gaz being nicked for possession of marijuana, when he was 15. It happened when he driving home one night, and was pulled over by the police:

“I stuck the hash down my pants,but I had it in a little metal tin. I was standing on the pavement, and the tin just went all the way down my trousers and landed on the pavement with a ting. The copper went, ‘What’s that, son?’”

It was perfectly pitched, capturing teenage angst and its bravado brilliantly, and was “exactly what being a teenager sounds like.”

With a musical introduction like that, I knew Supergrass would never disappoint - and they never did. Well, until they split up, that is. (Though I still await the release of their Krautrock inspired 7th album…)

In 1999, Supergrass played a short gig on Spanish television’s Radio 3, introducing material from their third album, as well as previous hits.

01. “Mary”
02. “Pumpin on Your Stereo”
03. “Moving”
04. “Alright”
05. “Late in the Day”
06. “Richard III”
07. “Caught by the Fuzz”

Gaz Coombes has just released his first solo album Here Comes the Bombs, which he describes as “11 little sonic explosions.”
 

Art by Dimitri Drjuchin

New video from Father John Misty’s critically acclaimed Fear Fun album on Sub Pop Records.

I have no idea what the fuck is going on here—although the final moments make the intention a little bit clearer… I think—but I like it.

Knowing Josh Tillman, I don’t really wonder what kind of mushrooms are topping his pizza and neither will you when you watch this…

Directed and produced by Grant James. A divine guitar solo courtesy of Jonathan Wilson comes in at the 2:30 mark.

Click here for more Father John Misty on Dangerous Minds
 

 
A brilliant and beautifully executed wood cassette tape coffee table by artist Jeff Skerka.

This coffee table is a 12:1 scaled replica of a cassette tape. It is made of reclaimed maple, walnut and lucite. Dimensions are 47.25” x 30” x 5” with a 3/8” plexi top. This is a first prototype and one of a kind table. Future versions will be CNC machined out of high grade plywood with a variety of ply combinations and a glass top. This table has been an obsession of mine for 5 years! It is amazing to finally have it come to fruition. The table is completely reversible (sides A and B).

I’m not sure if Jeff’s “Mixtape Table” is a one-of-kind prototype or others have been made for purchase? You can contact him here to find out.

 
Via KMFW